for viewers in the uk and around the world. the head of the world health organization has said that covid—19 is easily the most severe global health emergency the organisation has ever declared. the head said he would reconvene at the who's emergency committee this week to review its assessment of the pandemic. spain's prime minister strongly criticises the uk's decision to impose a quarantine on everyone arriving from his country. he said reddish tourists were safer from the virus in most regions of spain than they are at home. there is particular anger at the decision to include the canary islands. health workers in brazil, one of the worst affected countries, accused the government of crimes against humanity, calling for an international investigation. almost 2.5 million cases have been recorded in rozelle. —— brazil.

the black lives matter protest has shone a light on racial inequality in britain, prompting calls for schools in written to teach black history. also highlighting some of the issues black teachers face in the uk, such as discrimination and barriers to getting promotion. currentlyjust over 196 promotion. currentlyjust over 1% of senior leaders and schools are black. good morning class... woah this assistant principal has helped thousands of pupils in bristol helped reach their full potential. but for some black teachers, reaching there's is fraught with barriers. this is a teaching before the pandemic. she believes racism causes many teachers to leave the profession. i have had experience of someone saying i don't want to work with you because you are black. i have had a parent is not wanting to engage with me or listen to me because of the colour of my skin. i have had that overt racism but what i've also had

is what people would say the unconscious or the not so direct we have had to deal with micro— aggressions. you are the assistant principal, i assumed you were the teaching assistant. i have to do have that all the time. research suggests dissemination and being overlooked for promotion points to some of the reasons why black teachers are under a resented at senior levels. disciplinary is also a b issue. black teaches a three times more likely than their collea g u es more likely than their colleagues to face formal action. this one has set up a network to mental and support teachers to reach senior positions and she says black teachers often pushed into certain roles. being pigeonholed as to someone who canjust deal with pigeonholed as to someone who can just deal with behaviour is, it is essentially ending my opportunity to look at curriculum, looking at teaching and learning, looking at the holistic educational experience. for all children, representation and visibility in multicultural britain is

crucial. those who teach us and what we are taught has the power to transform lives. it can alsojust power to transform lives. it can also just help inspire you. if you see someone who comes from the same place as you are who looks like you achieving so much, ifeel like who looks like you achieving so much, i feel like that can really inspire you and help you to do well. it is important because it can enhance the learning environment. in having more diverse teachers in school can also prepare us for more diverse workplaces. if there is someone diverse workplaces. if there is someone that is relatable and looks like them that is doing great things. the recent focus on the black lives matter movement has galvanised conversations around racism. lot of the education system is dominated by white males, particularly at the senior level. we need to be able to dismantle some of that and the only way i can do that is not just being in the room but being at the table and having a voice because then i can put that ladder down and bring more people up into the system.

there have been some positive changes but less than still need to be learnt in order to bring true equality in education. time now for our worlds. antarctica, the world's most remote and inhospitable continent. this is the story of a team of scientists who are trying to get to weights, the so—called doomsday glacier. no—one has ever really been under thwaites and what we're going to do is get up close to the sea floor and allow us to see what is happening a real way. what happens to thwaites affects us all because as it melts, it will drive up sea level around the world. this ratio is part of a system, if all that goes, you could end up with upwards of three metres of sea level rise. first, the

scientists need to get there. so difficult to operate here all the planes are grounded. they are saying they won't fly anywhere. one only does anything in antarctica with the cooperation of the weather. antarctica is a place of extremes. it is the coldest, highest, driest and windiest continent on earth. capped by an ice sheet of up to five kilometres thick, this continent contains 90% of the world's ice. i begin myjourney in new zealand. they say travelling to antarctica is like travelling to another planet, so here goes.

the us air force provides the planes. the safety briefing may be familiar, but nothing else about this flight is. i'm travelling with professor david vaughan, the director of science at the british antarctic survey. after flying due south for five hours, i get my first glimpse of antarctica, snow and ice stretching as far as the eye can see. finally, our destination — mcmurdo. we are heading to mcmurdo, which is pretty much straight off over there. it is the last fingerhold of civilisation, the most southerly town on earth,

and the largest centre for scientific research on the continent. and, out across the sea ice, the first peaks of the mighty tra nsa ntarctic mountains. keep it staying in place... it is here in mcmurdo that our expedition to the thwaites glacier begins. so thwaites glacier is vulnerable, and there is nothing stopping a collapse once it really takes hold. thwaites glacier is the size of britain and already accounts for 4% of global sea level rise. the fear is, if the melt rate increases, much of the west antarctic ice sheet could go, too. that could raise world sea level worldwide by more than three metres. why is the glacier changing? why is it being eaten away? it's being eaten away because there are winds up here, on the ocean's surface, that are actually driving currents away

from this ice sheet. when that happens, this water comes in underneath, like this. this deep ocean water is really warm. and that eats away at the glacier. this normally doesn't happen. these winds have been increasing, and so more of this water has been coming up onto the continental shelf and interacting with this glacier. the scientists say global warming has changed the wind patterns and sea currents, bringing warm ocean water to the front of the glacier. we have loaded the atmosphere with carbon dioxide, we've set the temperature going up, and... doctor britney schmidt is in charge of a nasa—funded robot submarine called icefin. the plan is to lower it almost half a mile through the ice to map conditions in the seawater below. so, britney, give me a tour of icefin. so, up at the front, we have sensors that

are going to make measurements of the oceanography, telling us what the temperature is, and the salinity of the water, and how much oxygen is there. in addition to that, we have a forward—looking sonar here that allows us to map the three—dimensional cavities, so it allows us to see the shape of the ice and its texture. no—one's really been under thwaites, and what icefin's going to do is get up and close to the physics, get really close to the ice, really close to the sea floor, and allow us to see what's happening in a real way. how much of a challenge do you think this is going to be? well, it's always an impressive challenge to do anything here in antarctica, and much more so when you're, you know, 1,200 miles from mcmurdo. when you think about drilling through 600 metres of ice, drilled by the best people in the world, just to make an observation, it's quite a challenge. and then to operate a moving platform through there is pretty special, actually. icefin may have a big task ahead, but not the one as big that faced the men

who stayed in this hut. so this is a truly unique historical site, literally frozen in time. it is the base camp of captain scott's ill—fated 1911 attempt to reach the south pole. whispering: look at this. this is amazing. god, it's incredible. i'll tell you what strikes you first. it's — it's the smell. it really smells of kind of smoked fish. so there are all sorts of objects. the tin cans and the food they ate on the expedition. so we've got some — what's that, tinned salmon? that looks like a can of sardines. and here we've got cocoa, which was a huge drink for them. that was the drink of the polar explorers. they'd make cocoa. and dry, hard biscuits — ship's biscuits, baking powder.

this is seal blubber. what they would do is kill the seals on the ice, bring them back here. they'd eat the meat and use the blubber to burn their stoves to keep them warm. which is why it smells like smoked fish in here, because it is covered, you can see it is just covered, with soot from the blubberfire. it's actually really ghostly, ‘cause you get a sense of the people being here. scott himself, leaving from here with that great ambition to get to the pole, and then of course dying on the way back. and, like captain scott before us, our plans are frustrated by the antarctic weather. i'm beginning to understand why doing science here is so difficult. then i hear a crisis meeting has been called. the delays have got so bad, they're going to have to scale back some of the science. i want to find out what's going on.

i managed to track down david vaughan. well, i think there's a lot of ambitions at stake here. people have been working on these projects for several years already. so, when the bad news comes, i don't think it's quite yet but the delays are continuing. things are going to change, and that's going to mean a lot for some people. so can i come to the meeting? i'd rather you did not on this one, justin. i'm not allowed in? no. so you're not expecting — a difficult meeting, but? no, no, i think — but we just to people — let people get that news and process it, and think about what they're going they're actually going to when they actually get — finally get in the field. thanks very much. good luck. thank you. when the meetings over, i learned the weather is hampering efforts to supply spare parts to the plane we need to get to the thwaites glacier. there's parts coming down from new zealand to get those planes functional again.

so we have to sit and wait. how many days behind schedule are we now? uh, i don't really even... i don't know, actually. why count? i think we can still imagine that we can still do 100% of the tasks, but... you can still imagine? i can still imagine that we could do — with the following wind — 100% of the tasks. but time is getting very, very tight. people are getting a little itchy, and a little bit concerned. one only does anything in antarctica with the cooperation of the weather. suddenly the weather clears, and miraculously, it seems the project is back on track. it's all hands on deck to get the kit boxed up and transported to the airfield, ready to go. and the team are there, itching to get cracking. so we're super excited. we're out at lilyfield

and we're finally about to get to the plane out to wais divide. i can't wait to get out and start the next phase of the melt project. you can't fly straight to thwaites. there's no ice runway that can take these big planes. so the 1,300 milejourney is done in stages. wais divide is the project's staging post in the middle of the west antarctic ice sheet. this is where passengers, fuel and cargo are dropped off before being ferried on to the field sites on the glacier itself. the plan is only to stay here for a couple of days, but this being antarctica, it's not long before the weather changes again. so we've been out here for like, i don't know, an hour and a half, and this is the result. i think it gives you an idea

of why it is so difficult to operate here. all the planes are grounded, they're saying we won't fly anywhere for at least three days. keeping the camp from being overwhelmed by snow is a full—timejob for the snowploughs. the wind is gusting up to 50 miles an hour and the temperature is —20. check the snotcicles on this! oh, my god, that's absolutely horrible. oh, god. ergh. i can't get it off. i do manage to warm up but i realise something isn't quite right. my finger has gone all kind of white and it looks a bit burnt. i think you should go and see the doctor to see if it needs a dressing on it because it doesn't look right to me. david is worried it could be the early stages of frostbite, commonly known as frostnip. can you feel that?

i can feel it but it doesn't feel the same as... it doesn't feel the same as the other fingers. it feels a bit numb. frostnip is a freezing of the tissue but not a permanent freezing of the tissue. no ice crystals in the deep tissue like you would with full frostbite. so i haven't actually killed the top of my thumb just yet? not just yet. for the next couple of days, it's going to be more likely to get frostbite. the cold and the wind and the vast distances here make the logistics of a project like this very challenging. two ice—hardened ships brought hundreds of tons of fuel and cargo to a remote ice shelf. then, specialists snow vehicles hauled it 1,000 miles over land. everything was previously done by aircraft and then as science projects grew, and equipment grew, there became a need to do it more efficiently and cost effectively. each machine will pull up to 70 tons. these vehicles have transformed the science we can do in antarctica, increasing the scale, the number of people, the number of scientists we can bring to bear on these problems.

six people can deliver all the cargo for maybe 30 scientists, and then we can deliver the fuel that can operate five or six airplanes. wejust truck along, day from day, nobody really knows where we are and then we just suddenly turn up. delivering bounty — bladders of fuel instead of sacks of presents. presents would be very welcome because even in these extreme conditions, there are some traditions that have to be kept up. so what are you doing? i'm preparing us for christmas at the south pole. and christmas is not christmas without a few carols. they tried to get us to sing, but we didn't practice. we don't have a song so we told somebody else. who are we competing against? lower thwaites. how many people at lower thwaites? less than here. how many? five people. 3,2,1... # jingle bells, jingle bells,

jingle all the way. # oh what fun it is to ride on one—horse open sleigh. cheering and it doesn't stop there, i knew i was spending christmas on the ice and was all set to have to forgo my turkey dinner — how wrong i was. and i made some salmon, turkey, ham. that is quite a christmas spread. oreo cheesecake. it looks amazing, hey. it's great. all in western antarctica. all in the middle of nowhere! christmas is over and the storm has blown itself out. time to load up for the final 400 miles to the glacier. not in one of the big planes this time, in something much smaller.

this is a twin otter — rugged, reliable and great on short runways, perfect for working out here on the ice. we're headed to the place where the base of the glacier goes afloat. it's called the grounding line, and is where this glacier is melting. an advance party are already on thwaites glacier. theirjob — to map the area where the scientists are going to be deployed to make sure it's safe. the glacier is littered with deep crevasses, which could be lethal. this is actually the first open crevasse we've driven into. you can see the layers here don't connect with these layers over here. this is a void, the actual crevasse itself, which is the one right here. another team survey the site to pinpoint exactly where the grounding line is. it has taken almost five weeks but we're finally at the front

of the glacier. until this year, only four people had ever been here before. we made it! oh my god! hello, friend. this is where icefin going to be deployed but first, they need to drill a hole, or rather melt one, using hot water to bore down almost half a mile into the ice. so task one — create a vast reservoir of water using this huge rubber bath which the scientists call a flubber. we need ten tons of water again. 10 tons? so 10,000 litres of water? when we want to do the drilling, we'll pump that water using these large borehole pumps and those heaters over there. they're essentially boilers. they're like an oversized domestic boiler. heat the water, get it hot enough to melt the ice, put it down the hole. it's taken us what, five, six weeks to get here.

huge amounts of resources have gone into bringing the fuel and all the stuff you need. how does it feel to be, kind of, the top of the... the cutting bit. there's a serious sense of responsibility. there's a huge amount of money, time and effort gone into this by a lot of people to get us here. so many things can go wrong and if you lose the borehole, then you've lose all the fuel you need to make the borehole. you're ultimately fuel—limited. you've got a certain number of drums that we can use and once that's gone, its game over. with the snow melted, it is time to start drilling and this involves unwinding the longest hosepipe you've ever seen. threading the hose through the wench, goes around this capstan and then that drives the hose up and down the hole. they fire up the boilers and it is melting time. this is an historic moment — the first time anyone has tried to drill down through the front of what is the most important glacier in the world in terms of future sea level rise.

slowly, slowly, the drill melts a 30cm hole down through tens of thousands of years of ice deposits. you can see it's looking ok. it's not looking bad. a bit glazed. probably better than we both expected. after 36 hours, they finally break through to the sea below — mission accomplished. now it is time for icefin to take centre stage. as it's lowered through the glacier, brittany and the team ready themselves to pilots the robot submarine. it's more than a mile to where the warm ocean water meets the ice, and along the way icefin gathers crucial

data. we're driving forward slowly. it's a real moonscape. it almost looks like it has craters on it. that is weird. it is weird. we rolled up on this maybe half a metre of this very clear ice, and you could see the sediment—rich ice right above it through the ice layer, which was something i'd never seen before. this is incredible. it's seriously like another planet. what is going on? we should let other people know, because this is really cool. are you ready for weird? dude, i'm so excited. get ready to have your brain blown. so this is a clear layer of ice. this part has a bunch of sediment particles in it. but let me introduce you to your new friend. there is a whole bunch of anenome things burrowing out of the ice.

wow! see the little tentacles? piloting your own vehicle underneath the ice is a pretty cool experience. to get to the grounding zone, you can kind of see the water column narrowing, the ice coming down at you, the sea floor coming down to you and there is a huge rush of energy. look at that! we do see warm water making it all the way back to the grounding zone, which is changing the base of the glacier right to the boundary zone. we are coming right up to the grounding zone now. no—one else is above us. that's ok, we're the only people in the world right now. we're seeing a whole new crazy thing. that place is really important because it controls how much ice is coming off the continent and at what rate. so taking a vehicle like this right there to map it out in detail means that we can really start to figure out exactly what is going on. we've been talking about this for seven years, and to finally actually make it there isjust incredible. oh, yes!

that's so cool! because of all the delays, the time spent at the grounding zone is shorter than planned, but icefin managed to complete five missions — one more than expected — and collected a huge amount of data. the thwaites team is delighted. this season has been tremendously successful. we've seen the warm water coming up from the continental shelf and making contact with the ice, and we've measured the rate of that melt. and to know that we are in a position to begin to understand those changes in a way that actually can shape the future of policy, and of people's lives, that's a humbling thing. as we leave, we fly over

the main front of the glacier. the epic forces that are tearing the ice apart are all too obvious here. in some places, the ice has broken up completely, collapsing into a jumble of icebergs. i'm surprised, myself, sitting here thinking about it, how emotional i am. i think it is, yeah, it's shocking and we should all be upset by what's happening here. do you come away feeling upset that what you've seen is a process of destruction, of destroying a huge body of ice? no, ifeel like i understand the planet, hopefully better. it's better to know how things are happening than to guess at it, or to hope it goes away. we know there's been change that we'll have to accommodate, and this story is about how do we get together and try to fix things to make the world sustainable for ourselves and future generations?

hello. after such a wet and windy start to the week, you'd be forgiven for thinking that autumn had arrived early. so here's a sight for sore eyes. at the end of the week, summer fighting back. temperature widely in the mid to upper 20s, some into the low 30s, if you like that sort of thing. but one day doesn't make a heatwave. the heat will be outjust as soon as it arrives, but it will arrive, as high pressures builds in, turning the wind from

a north—westerly now to a south—easterly at the end of the week. a flow of the air, some heat from the south, but very briefly indeed. and we're not there yet. tuesday will be another rather cool day for the time of year. it'll be a blustery one, as well. there'll be some sunshine occasionally. that's an improvement on what many of us had on monday. but there'll be some showers, too, a few from the word go and a few bringing temperatures into the single figures. and with low pressure close to north—east scotland, it's here until the far north—east, more into the northern isles, it will be wet at times with some strong northwesterly winds. a few showers and scotland running through north—west england — may affect the cricket at times. into parts of wales and the midlands, but many parts of england and wales and northern ireland with the odd shower. some sunny spells with this gusty wind. it does mean, though, if you get a shower, it will move through quite quickly on the wind.

it's a cool direction, as well. but most of us will fall several degrees short of that. the wind eases a touch on tuesday night. we will continue with at least showers into the north—east of scotland. some rain still into the northern isles. and as for temperatures, well, a little bit lower as we start the day on wednesday. a day that sees high pressure building in. the low pressure moving off towards scandinavia. still quite windy, though, in the northern isles. these weather fronts go toward western areas later in the day, with at least a bit more cloud around. so a mixture of cloud and sunshine on wednesday. some showers towards the northern isles, northern scotland. the odd one elsewhere is possible. increasing cloud to the west will bring a bit of patchy rain to parts of wales, maybe northern ireland later in the day. and temperatures, though, are a little bit higher on wednesday. and of course, that is a sign of things to come. a bit of rain still for parts of northern ireland and scotland on thursday. abundant sunshine on friday, with the heat. but again, as i mentioned earlier, it's very short—lived as temperatures come down for all at the weekend. this is bbc news with the latest headlines

for viewers in the uk and around the world. my name is mike embley. as the number of confirmed covid—19 cases passes 16 million, the world health organization calls it the most severe emergency they have ever faced. and the pandemic continues to accelerate. in the past six weeks, the total number of cases has roughly doubled. spain's prime minister strongly criticises the uk's decision to impose a quarantine on everyone arriving from his country. health workers in brazil, one of the worst affected countries, accuse the government of crimes against humanity, calling for an international investigation. remembering a civil rights icon.