this is bbc news, i'm reeta chakrabarti. the headlines: people in the uk showing symptoms or testing poistive for coronavirus must now isolate for 10 days rather than seven. the new rule starts immediately. it comes as ministers grapple with preventing a resurgence of the disease it is absolutely vital as a country that we continue to keep our focus and our discipline, and that we don't delude ourselves that somehow we are out of the woods or that this is all over, because it isn't all over. and, in another sign of the impact of coronavirus, latest figures show that england had the highest excess deaths in europe over the past few months. in others news, the travel firm tui announces the closure of 166 high street stores in the uk and ireland.

it's back to school for scotland's pupils, as the first minister announces everyone will be back in the classroom by mid—august. the number of rape convictions in england and wales falls to a record low. and lift—off! and looking for life on mars — nasa launches a rover to bring back rock samples from the red planet. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. people in the uk with coronavirus symptoms will now have to self—isolate for ten days — rather than just a week —

as ministers attempt to prevent a new spike in infections. the extension comes into force immediately and brings us into line with world health organisation guidance. it comes as new figures show that england had the highest level of excess deaths in europe between the end of february and mid—june. excess deaths are the number of all people who die above the average recorded in previous years, and are seen by many experts as the most reliable measure of the impact of the pandemic. health secretary matt hancock has warned that new countries could be added to the quarantine list in the coming days, after people arriving in the uk from spain were ordered at the weekend to isolate for two weeks. anna collinson reports. for many it had started to feel safe to do the things we'd missed. it wasn't the same as before, but this is our new normal. but with fears of coronavirus spikes appearing across europe, this morning a reminder the virus is still a danger.

the uk's chief medical officers have increased the time people with coronavirus symptoms will need to self—isolate, from a week to ten days. scientists say people are most infectious during the first few days of the illness, but there is a possibility some may transmit the virus for up to five days after they become unwell. ten days provide a reasonable balance whereby we should hopefully, within that period, capture the vast majority of people, so that by the time they are released from isolation, they are no longer infectious. the change is said to help those who are shielding and to help the nhs prepare for winter, where community transmission may increase. the government has also announced future gp appointments should be done via the phone, unless there is a compelling clinical reason not to. so from now on, if a person tests positive for covid or develops a cough, temperature, or loss of taste or smell, they must now isolate for ten days. if they still feel unwell after

that, they must keep on isolating. other members of their household must isolate for m days. there have been concerns about several local outbreaks across the uk, including in staffordshire, where ten cases were confirmed at this pub. in recent days the government has repeatedly warned about signs of a second wave of the pandemic in parts of europe. anybody who attends from spain now has to quarantine for 14 days. this can be extended to other countries if cases increase. testing and tracing must become a new way of life. a key element to monitor the coronavirus in england is the test and tracing system. the latest figures show nearly one in four close contacts of those who have tested positive are still not been reached. it is absolutely vital as a country that we continue to keep our focus and our discipline, and that we don't delude ourselves that somehow we are out of the woods or that this is all over, because it isn't all over. while government is focusing

on the present, their past performance during the covid crisis is also coming into question. new figures from the office of national statistics found that england had the highest level of excess deaths in europe across the first half of 2020. earlier this month the uk united thanked nhs staff for their work during the pandemic. now the group together, which helped organised the club, claim the community spirit formed during lockdown is starting to fray. it is hoped today's tightening of the rules will be seen as an important signal, warning against complacency. anna collinson, bbc news. our political correspondent jonathan blake is at westminster. jonathan, we're looking today at the government extending the isolation period from seven to ten days, and also talking about possibly more countries on the quarantine list. also talking about possibly more countries on the quarantine listm

sounds as if they are tightening up? it does. that seems to be the message from government with further countries possibly being added to the list of those which are involved in quarantine measures, where people need to stay in isolation on their return to the uk. and that increasing the number of days that people need to isolate for, if they have coronavirus symptoms, from seven to ten. taken together, these measures do reflect the nervousness in government that what is being seenin in government that what is being seen in parts of europe, with a spike, an increase in cases in certain areas, could well happen here if the government does not act. and just as at the start of this pandemic when the virus spread across parts of europe and the government here was criticised for not acting quickly enough, it was able to say, we can look at what happens in other countries and see what works there. they can also do that now with other countries in europe having eased their lockdowns sooner than here in the uk. the

effects in some cases are becoming clear. that perhaps gives the government something of an advantage but it does lead to a certain amount of confusion around the messaging, with people being told different things perhaps from week to week and depending on their circumstances, but the government clearly isn't going to let the risk of confusion of mixed messages get in the way of taking action where it believes it needs to. jonathan, another big development today is the emergence of this fact that england is the worst in europe for excess deaths over these last few months. do you think the government feels under any sort of pressure, because it has been accused of not having been quick off the mark enough at the beginning of the outbreak, and so is that partly why it is keen to be seen to be tough now? well, it is certainly alive to that criticism. the prime minister and those around him, and cabinet ministers, will be well aware of the criticism they have received from labour and others

beyond westminster, but of the actions they've taken and the timetable they have used. —— about the action they have taken. some will criticise them for going too far in order to put right some of the rungs from earlier in the process. but certainly the prime minister and the government would reject that. at every turn when they ta ke reject that. at every turn when they take a new measure they always say they are not doing it lightly and doing the right thing at the right time. so that perhaps is reflected in the measures we have seen taken in the measures we have seen taken in the last few days and weeks, and if anything can be learned from earlier on in the process, i am sure the government will be keen to do that too. thank you very much. jonathan blake at westminster. let's speak to rowland kao, professor of epidemiology and data science at the university of edinburgh. good afternoon. can we just start first of all with this extension are now of the self isolation period from seven days to ten days? this is

what people have to do if they test positive or display symptoms of coronavirus. do you approve of that? well, the guidance from the who for quite some time has been that you could still pick up a virus from infected individuals up to nine days post developing symptoms. so that ten day period reflects those nine days when you could get the virus. this is obviously more cautious than seven days but it is in line with other advice. as we know, as cases arise, we are allowing more people to get back to work, being cautious with the cases we do have is definitely much more important. you say this has been world health organization advice for some time, could have the government have done this earlier, should it have done it earlier? it is certainly possible. other countries have done that. the important thing to remember is when we we re important thing to remember is when we were in a period of lockdown,

when restrictions were quite severe, the overall transmission rate was very low. at that time excess caution is not as necessary as it is i'iow. caution is not as necessary as it is now. they would definitely be some argument about it but the evidence is 100% that they should have done it earlier. that they should have done it earlier? yeah. there is a debate to be had. can youjust done it earlier? yeah. there is a debate to be had. can you just talk us debate to be had. can you just talk us through the science behind extending in from seven to ten days? you alluded to it in the first answer. can you elaborate on that? yes, so what has happened is it's very difficult to identify exactly how long a person could identify another person for. —— infect. we can to isolate the virus. hospitalised cases where you know you have a good group of people with infection. and what they find is that until nine days you can find

the virus by looking for it. that implies if there is virus there you can infect somebody else. it is a very different matter to know you can infect somebody them but the risk is there. given that we are getting back to normal, and crowds are beginning to form, do you think that this making people isolate for ten days, do you think that this is advice that will stay in place for some time to come? certainly as long as we see the current events, evidence of increasing numbers of outbreaks around the world, in some countries where it had been under control and currently appear to not have that, evidence that the r number is going above one here, also we are not quite sure yet how good our test and traces going to be. that is absolutely important. it is 0k to have outbreaks but we need to control them again before they get too big. test and traces the only

way we have of doing that at the moment. one question on the potential for extending the quarantine regime to other countries where cases are going up. we hear that countries like luxembourg, belgium, croatia could all be on the quarantine list. does that make sense to you? as long as the risk of getting imported cases is substantially increasing the risks of outbreaks in this country, then those things do have to be considered. what we see is evidence in all of those countries that have the cases are rising. what we have to consider as well, of course, is that we may be in the position where quarantine will be put up against us in other countries if our cases increase as well. ok. we will leave it there. thank you so much for joining us. thank you. our head of statistics robert cuffe gave us the background on new figures, which show that england had the highest level of excess deaths in europe between the end of february and mid—june.

we can see here a list of countries that have seen increases in death rates up to the middle of this year compared to last year. england ha rd est compared to last year. england hardest hit. the uk as a whole followed by spain. then scotland, and wales and northern ireland are also on that grim table of the ha rd est also on that grim table of the hardest hit countries. they have also looked at individual cities. while it is the case that certain cities like milan or madrid have been harder hit than anywhere in the uk, of the 15 hardest hit cities in europe are seven of them are in the uk. it underlines just how effective the virus has been in the uk. during the virus has been in the uk. during the course of this pandemic we have had lots of dates and lots of analysis. how significant is this? it's a pretty serious analysis. for two reasons. first of all, they are looking at excess deaths, overall mortality. i can show what that means to the audience now. the big increase we have seen any number of

deaths during academic is not entirely counted by the red area, the official covid—i9 deaths. by looking at all deaths they captured the whole figure. countries have different age populations and because covid—i9 hit the oldest ha rd est, because covid—i9 hit the oldest hardest, you need to take account of that. it enables us to understand a little bit of y as well. we saw that peak in the uk. it is not the highest in europe. the highest peak was in spain but it took the uk longer to get back to normal compared to other countries. that, combined with the wide spread of deaths across the uk, that is why the uk has been hit so hard. robert cuffe. ministers are closely monitoring infection rates across europe, as britons consider whether to travel to the continent on holiday. cases of the virus in luxembourg and belgium are among those causing concern. our correspondent in brussels, nick beake, explains. we know this is a virus that does not respect borders. and what we have got now is lots of different

countries in europe anxiously looking at their own coronavirus rates, but also that of their neighbours, both close and further afield, and in many cases they do not like what they see. if we just look at the maps. here in belgium the number of people going to hospital with a covid—i9 has doubled over the past week. in neighbouring luxembourg the infection rate has gone up. that has led to speculation that both of those countries could be put on the uk quarantine list. spain is already on it. also today, crucially in france, they have said the number of new cases has been the highest for a month. if we move further to the east, towards eastern europe, romania is a country that is experiencing a cluster of new cases, but it remains the case that the worst affected pa rt but it remains the case that the worst affected part of europe is the southeast balkan region. we are talking about serbia and kosovo. health officials in kosovo are warning hospitals are already overwhelmed. it is a bleak situation. we know about

north—eastern spain already and the impact that is having on british tourists. i guess the thing we take from all of these is that it is clearly a very difficult time in all of the countries we are talking about, but if you are trying to take about, but if you are trying to take a holiday this year, if your plans we re a holiday this year, if your plans were already postponed, it's looking like 2020 is the year were nothing can be planned with any certainty. nick beake reporting. the uk's biggest tour operator, tui, is closing more than 160 high st stores. it is responding to changes in customer behaviour. ben thompson explained how the move followed a changing consumer behaviour. further evidence today, if we needed it, that as we change the way we shop, business has to change the way that it operates. therefore, in the case of chile, 70% of all the bookings they take are now done online. therefore that makes it more difficult to justify the cost of high street stores with rent, right

and maintenance. what they have told us is that they will close around a third of those stores. 166 will close across the uk and ireland. justin made the firm had announced more thanjob justin made the firm had announced more than job cuts crossed its entire business surveillance. —— just in may. this affects their travel agency business. 900 staff are affected. the firm hopes it can redeploy some of those staff into other high street shops. but 70% of them, it expects to be able to work from home. selling holidays, offering advice to travellers from home, for example. this further underlines the changing way that we work. many more now asked to work from home. ben thompson. the bbc has learnt that holiday firm jet2 is contacting hundreds of customers on the balearic and canary islands, to ask them to end their holidays early. the tour operator is informing some holidaymakers.. that that their original flight has been cancelled, and requesting that they leave

on earlierflights. it's understood that people flying tomorrow and saturday that that their original flight has been cancelled, several families on holiday on the island of mallorca, who were due to return next week, have told the bbc they've had emails and text messages telling them have to return early. the headlines on bbc news: officials extend the isolation period for people showing symptoms of covid in the uk — from seven to ten days — over fears of rising cases numbers in parts of europe. england has recorded the highest levels of excess deaths in europe across the first half of the year, according to new figures showing the impact of the coronavirus. the tour operator, tui, is to close nearly a third of its high street stores in the uk and the republic of ireland. australia has recorded its worst day since the start of the pandemic. a wave of infections sweeping the state of victoria saw new cases up by a third since monday.

more than a dozen people have died. other australian states have closed their borders with victoria, but this hasn't prevented some infection spikes elsewhere. shaimaa khalil reports. another record high in victoria and another setback for australia, as health workers race to contain the spread of covid—19. there were hopes that the outbreak may have peaked on monday, with more than 500 infections recorded. but the latest spike in coronavirus numbers has surpassed the previous record by nearly 200 cases. there are 9,998 cumulative cases of coronavirus in the victorian community. 723 new since we last updated you. authorities have said that many people who've shown symptoms of the virus or are still waiting for test results have been turning up at workplaces, including some who've tested positive for covid—19.

if you're a positive case then you need to be at home and you need to be isolating. that is a very important message. the state is also racing to contain more than 80 outbreaks at aged care facilities, which have claimed dozens of lives in the past few weeks. ten of the 13 deaths today were in aged care homes. the virus is hitting the most vulnerable in big numbers. this is epping gardens, one of the worst affected aged care facilities in victoria. family members are desperately pleading for more help. they're getting neglected. it is so sad that they're being locked up for three weeks in one room. get them out of the room, get them to another safe place. get them to a hospital. please, help. from midnight sunday local time, every person in the state will be required to wear a mask or face covering when leaving their house, as concerns grow with more cases appearing in regional victoria. shaimaa khalil, bbc news, sydney.

coronavirus has now claimed more than 150,000 lives in the united states, as the country battles raging infections in many states. florida has suffered a record number of fatalities for the second day in a row. the speaker of the house of representatives, nancy pelosi, has told lawmakers they must wear face masks on the floor of the chamber. ijust want i just want to bring ijust want to bring in a tweet by the president. donald trump is calling for the november presidential election to be postponed, seeing increased postal voting could lead to fraud and inaccurate results. it is worth remembering while looking at that, that of the date of the election is actually written

into the united states constitution and the president will need bipartisan support in order to change it and he doesn't have that sort of support. the number of suspects convicted in rape cases in england and wales has fallen to a new low. the national police chiefs' council said it was getting harder to achieve the standard of evidence needed to take cases to court. the crown prosecution service has rejected suggestions it has been telling police not to bring so many cases. zoe conway reports. in my two and a half years of dealing with the detectives on my case... courtney — not her real name — alleges she was the victim of a violent sexual assault. she reported it to the police in 2016. in my case...there were witnesses on the night of the assault, there was a potential second victim, and none of that mattered. she was asked to provide access to all of her social media over several years — she refused. she says the crown prosecution service was being unreasonable,

deliberately so, and the police on her case agreed. they felt that the crown was trying to make it as dehumanising as possible for victims to continue their case, so they'd drop out, so that they can look good in statistics, and that is verbatim what the officer told me. she says she had no choice but to drop her case. the latest figures show that, in the last year, 11139 rape suspects were convicted of rape or another crime. that's half the number of three years ago. they also show that, in the same year, police referred 2747 cases to the cps for a charging decision. that's 40% fewer cases over the same time period. the crown prosecution service says it's working hard to reverse the trend. what we need to do, and our five—year strategy that we've published this morning is going to make good on this, is to work with our

partners in the police — area by area, force by force — to make sure that we build a strong relationship at the start of these very serious criminal investigations, build strong cases together, and together drive the numbers up. police chiefs say the figures are very concerning. the officers tell me that, actually, the amount of information that they need to gather to inform a proper charging decision is much more than it has been in the past and it takes longer. now, a range of reasons for that, and often when it takes longer, victims withdraw from the process. courtney says that the message being sent to her and other victims is that they have no chance of getting justice. zoe conway, bbc news. police forces in england and wales have taken on more than 4,000 additional officers, following a government recruitment drive. last year, borisjohnson pledged to boost their number

to 140,000 within three years. it had fallen by more than 20,000 over the previous decade. the former conservative mp, charlie elphicke, has been found guilty of three counts of sexual assault at southwark crown court. jurors returned unanimous verdicts on the charges, which involved two women. mr elphicke will be sentenced in september and has been warned he could face jail. the dover mp admitted lying to the conservative party whips when they asked about the allegations. speaking exclusively to bbc south—east, one of those whips, anne milton, told us the young parliamentary worker he is came to her ina parliamentary worker he is came to her in a state of deep distress in the absence of any independent complaints process for house of commons staff at the time. it was autumn 2017, parliament seized with rumour as its dark secrets were dragged into the open.

disturbing allegations about the culture of sexual harassment at westminster. in the wake of the meat to movement a blacklist of mps accused of inappropriate behaviour was leaked and a flood of stories emerged. a young girl came to me, very distressed. there was nowhere else for her to go. in early november, accusations against charlie elphicke were passed to the police. in the last hour what the conservative party is calling serious allegations about one of its mps have been referred to the police. charlie elphicke has been suspended from the party. he has denied any wrongdoing. for months charlie elphicke complained of the party hadn't told him what he was accused of, but less than a year before hand conservative whips had questioned him about the same sexual assault claims. anne milton was one of them. a young girl came to me, very distressed. it was obviously going on for quite a while. which is

often the case when people come forward. they don't always come forward. they don't always come forward immediately. she was very distressed, very sad. whatever the truth of the situation this she felt under threat. when anne milton and the chief whip interview charlie elphicke, he denied kissing the young woman or groping her breasts, and was shocked at the suggestion he had any interest in her. but in court he admitted lying to them and the police and said he was besotted with her and wanted to have an affair but denied sexual assault.- that time there was no other staff to go if they had concerns about the way they had been treated. i was very concerned. it was terrible to me that there was no independent process. anne milton, no longer an mp, advised the victim to seek counselling, go to the police if she felt there had been a criminal offence. fearing for her career, the young woman decided not to, but later, when the other allegations emerged the police contacted her. charlie elphicke was suspended from the conservative party in november

2017. that is when the police began investigations. he had the party whip restored a couple of months later just hours before whip restored a couple of months laterjust hours before a crucial vote of no confidence in theresa may. last summer when he was charged at the whip was withdrawn again. we continue to sit as an independent before standing down at the last election in december. his wife, natalie elphick, took over as the local conservative candidate. natalie elphick, took over as the local conservative candidatelj think local conservative candidate.” think she will be a fantastic member of parliament and i also think it's really great that dover will have a female mp for the first time. some campaigners argue parliament's male dominated history combined with its power dynamics make sexual harassment all too common. it has been incredibly important that people were brave and courageous enough to go on the record, to demonstrate this was a cultural problem. that culture of deference and silence had allowed bullying, harassment and sexual harassment to thrive. last month mps finally voted

to establish an independent panel of experts that decide on bullying and harassment claims made by parliamentary workers. i've had people come to see me who have been treated in a way that makes my skin crawl. fran milton, who began calling for an independent process in 2016, progress has been far too slow. i thought it should have changed 20, 30 years slow. i thought it should have changed 20,30 years ago. slow. i thought it should have changed 20, 30 years ago. that i think it's what distresses me what than anything. i would have thought in this day and age it surely doesn't still go on? but i think the truth of the matter is it still does. parliament is one institution but there are probably many other. it's hoped the verdict today will empower other victims in the future. nasa has just launched a new mission to mars to try to answer that perennial question — has there ever been life on the planet? its rover, called perserverance, took off from cape canaveral

in the last few hours, but it won't land on mars until february. the mission will also collect rock samples for analysis by scientists in laboratories back on earth, as rebecca morelle reports. heading to the red planet, the start ofa heading to the red planet, the start of a seven—month journey for nasa's most advanced ever a mission to mars. the rover, called perseverance, will collect samples of martian rocks from an area that was once a riverbed command and the hope is it will answer the key question, was there ever life on mars? we now know mars had an enormous amount of water in its past. if ancient life was on mars, and we have a good bet that we might be able to find it in these sediments. so this is really a life detection mission. the rock samples

will be stored and brought back to earth on a future mission. but this mission is also taking something back to mars. a piece of martian meteorite. it is from the natural history museum's collection. it blasted off the surface of the red planet more than half a million yea rs planet more than half a million years ago. now it's heading home. we really know what that meteorite is made from. we can use it to compare that meteorite with the new rocks, the unknown rocks that we are looking at for the first time on mars, and see how similar or different they are. also on board is a miniature mars helicopter that, for the first time, will attempt to fly in the extremely thin martian atmosphere. nasa wants to test this technology for future missions. america's spacecraft is the last of a trio heading to the planet. china and the united arab emirates are already on their way. if they will succeed, it will mean a giant leap in our understanding of mars. now it's time for a look at the weather with louise lear.

hello. today so far has been a tale of two halves, with cloud and rain across scotland, northern ireland and northern england. further south, you can see where the best of the sunshine is, and so temperatures are responding, highest value through this afternoon likely to peak at 28 degrees, 82 fahrenheit, a little bit cooler under the cloud and rain. that rain will continue to move steadily north. another weak weather front bring showery outbreaks into western fringes overnight but elsewhere stays clear with overnight lows of 11 to 60 degrees was that we start off on a relatively warm note in the south—east, and the winds from the southerly direction driving on this one from the near continent, it will be a sunny and hot afternoon for many. showers continue to western scotland and northern ireland, here with highs of 21 degrees but central and eastern england widely seeing temperatures into the low 30s pinking perhaps at 34 degrees. if that is too hot for you it is looking likely it will be

a slightly more comfortable weekend ahead, with a few showers. hello, this is bbc news. officials extend the isolation period for people showing symptoms of covid in the uk — from seven to ten days — over fears of rising cases numbers in parts of europe. england has recorded the highest levels of excess deaths in europe — across the first half of the year — according to new figures showing the impact of the coronavirus. the tour operator — tui — is to close nearly a third of its high street stores in the uk and the republic of ireland. it's back to school for scotland's pupils as the first minister announces everyone will be back in the classroom by mid—august. the number of rape convictions in england and wales has fallen to a record low. and a multi—billion—dollar, decade—long mission to bring rock samples from mars to earth — to search for signs of ancient life — blasts off.

sport now, and for a full round—up from the bbc sport centre. here's holly hamilton. good afternoon. we start with cricket. after the test series victory over the west indies earlier in the week, england's one day team have kicked off their international summer, with the first odi against ireland under way in southampton. and england's bowlers made the perfect start, taking a wicket in the first over — david willey removed paul stirling, captain eoin morgan taking the catch. and willey struck again soon afterwards. ireland captain andrew balbirnie the man out this time, ireland were seven for two at this point. and third wicket has just gone down — harry tector the man out. a short while ago,

ireland were 28—4. world number one ash barty has pulled out of the us open because of concerns over the coronavirus pandemic. it's the first grand slam since tennis resumed, and it's due to begin on 31st of august in new york. barty said there were still significant risks involved, and she didn't feel comfortable putting herself and her team in that position. she's yet to make a decision on whether she'll defend the french open — that tournament is now taking place in september. meanwhile, there's live tennis going on right now. this is heather watson taking on emma raducanu in the battle of the brits event at the national tennis centre in roehampton. also playing at the moment are jay choinski and liam broady. earlier today, jodie burrage beat harriet dart, while later on this afternoon, andy murray will be in doubles action. you can watch it live via the bbc sport website and app, and on the bbc iplayer.

world snooker tour chairman barry hearn says anthony hamilton has withdrawn from the world championship, which begins tomorrow, citing fears over coronavirus. hamilton, who was scheduled to begin his first—round match against kyren wilson tomorrow afternoon, suffers from severe asthma, and has called the move of allowing a small number of fans into the crucible theatre "ridiculous". a swiss special prosecutor has commenced criminal proceedings against fifa president gianni infantino. swiss attorney general michael lauber last week offered to resign, after a court concluded he covered up a meeting with infantino and lied to supervisors, while his office investigated corruption surrounding football's governing body. lauber and infantino have both previously denied any wrongdoing. manchester city have agreed a fee of £40 million for the bournemouth defender nathan ake. he's been on manager pep guardiola's wish list for quite some time,

and it's understood he would have left bournemouth this summer, even if they hadn't been relegated. dutch international ake joined the club in 2017, and made 121 appearances. liverpool defender andy robertson and managerjurgen klopp have been talking to each other about their mental health, as part of the heads up campaign, led by the football association and the duke of cambridge. it's the latest in a series of videos aimed at encouraging open conversations on the issue. how do you feel, bass, about talking about mental health? we are all concerned about physical health and mental health, we are just more used to getting help for physical health, obviously when we have pain or are bleeding then it is obvious and we don't have to explain to everybody and everybody knows when you are bleeding you need help, so that's easy. when i started making it as a professional, that's when i struggled the most. when i was may be down in hull on my own and

eve ryo ne be down in hull on my own and everyone thought ok, he is a premier league footballer, playing for hull, getting a good wage, so there may be would perhaps stop asking, how are you, and we start getting tickets? soi you, and we start getting tickets? so i think only probably since the last year or two, since we have had kids and things like that, then i started to open up more, even on small things. i used to be one that blocked everything up and dealt with, i thought my problems are my problems, and then i took everyone else's problems on board, so. now i feel so much better. that's all the sport for now. ireland are now 28—5 against england in the one day international in southampton. four wickets for david willey. there's live text coverage on the bbc sport website. all scottish schools are expected to start the new autumn term on the 11th of august, with all of them to be

fully open by the 18th. in her daily update, the scotland first minister nicola sturgeon said social distancing, strict hygiene and other measures would be necessary. it isa it is a moral and educational imperative that we get children back to school as soon as is safely possible. in fact, a key reason to lockdown easing over the last two months and indeed over the next few months and indeed over the next few months is that —— next few weeks is to drive the virus down as low as possible and keep prevalent slow so that schools can reopen safely in august. i'm therefore very pleased to confirm today that schools will return from 11th august. given how long children have been out of school, some local authorities may t school, some local authorities may opt for a phased return over the first few days, but we expect all pupils to be at school, full—time, from 18th of august at the latest. i realise the earlier confirmation of this would have provided more certainty for schools and for pa rents to get certainty for schools and for parents to get ready for the new term, but we had to be sure, very

sure, that the latest evidence in support of this decision. well, one of those involved in managing the response to covid—19 in scotland is jason leitch, the scottish government's clinical director — and hejoins us now. good afternoon to you. thank you so much for taking time. can i ask you first of all about the extension of the self isolation period if people test period or are displaying symptoms of covid—19? extending it to ten days from seven days. is this the right time? why do it now? we think it is. the clinicians across the four nations have discussed this and many other issues, we need —— meet at least once of the evening, sometimes twice a week, our lives are effectively ruined by the pandemic along with everybody else's. one of the things we have looked at very carefully is the science behind transmission, how long you are infectious, and there is now some evidence that day seven,

eight and nine you can still shed some virus, not everybody, but it feels like because we are at quite a low rate, it is now worth extending that to ten days, because we really wa nt to that to ten days, because we really want to get as close to elimination of this virus across all four countries as we possibly can, so yes, today is the right do that. but why do it now? countries have to make choices about risk. opening schools is not risk free. you make a choice about how to do that, when to do it. in scotland we have a four phase route map, we are in phase three, and we have had very few cases in the last 14 days. we have had no deaths of people confirmed to have coronavirus from a test. so we feel it is the right time now to ta ke feel it is the right time now to take the more risk averse version of

ten days to make people isolate and we know how difficult that is. we have enormous sympathy for that, to just try and get rid of those last few cases try and get the transmission down even more. few cases try and get the transmission down even morem few cases try and get the transmission down even more. itjust so happens that the movie is being handled on the same day that figures for excess deaths have come out, showing scotland to be the third worst in europe. might there have been an argument, there must surely now be an argument that scotland should have taken some of these tougher measures earlier? there is a lot of argument and history to be written about what happened when, how these decisions were made and what bits of intervention we all did across the whole of europe. today's data is quite interesting. i haven't managed to read it all, i havejust read the top summary, and it does show differences from city to city across europe, and from country to country. it is a good measure,

excess deaths is a good measure of how we will have managed this pandemic across the whole world. it is not done though. you can see bigger outbreaks happening in parts of the world that we thought were through this, so it is important that a moment in time is not the whole story. we need to stick with it, and then we will of course look and analyse and look back and learn future pandemics. we will have to leave it there, jason leitch, national clinical director of the scottish government, thank you so much. the health secretary matt hancock has warned travellers that new countries could be added to the quarantine list in the coming days. it's after passengers arriving in the uk from spain were ordered to isolate for two weeks as cases of covid—19 in spain increased. the pm has defended his decision, saying there are worries of a second wave in europe. well, let's get reaction from europe.

joining me now from lisbon is ricardo mexia from the european public health association. good afternoon to you. we have seen this increase in the infection rate in recent days in some countries, belgium, luxembourg, croatia, what is happening? why do you think this is? good afternoon. yes, indeed there seems to be a surge in cases in several countries, and it might be the fact we are getting back to some activities. so gradually increasing the number of activities taking place. therefore it might be, and also the fact we are facing a lengthy period of restriction might also lead people to being not as prone as fulfilling the recommendations issued by the government so it is very important everyone, regardless of the setting they are, to keep strong to the

recommendation is to contain the situation with the slow numbers as possible. what do you think about reimposing quarantine in the uk on countries where the infection rate is high? we know the situation rate is high? we know the situation rate is evolving, in some countries quite fast, the need to adjust to the situation is unfolding in different countries would require an update or a regular update, and that of course is something that might happen to different countries, different regions, and we have seen that happen. if you look at the map of europe right now, you can find some settings, some regions where the incidences are in fact increasing. i might talk about the situation here in lisbon, where in fact we do have some higher numbers, but it is not increasing, it is just above the threshold that has been set, but the

situation is slowly declining, so we are getting fewer numbers by the day. it is interesting talking about regions, would quara ntines day. it is interesting talking about regions, would quarantines make sense on a regional basis rather than a national one? countries tend to have different behaviours in different regions, so if we do have the data on a higher resolution, meaning i can have better information on specific areas or regions, eventually it might make more sense to advise, based on the regions than actually whole countries. smaller countries of course would tend to be, let's say, harmed by that position, but in bigger countries sometimes when you only have the focus of disease somewhere of an outbreak occurring ina certain somewhere of an outbreak occurring in a certain region, then you are almost enhancing the surveillance for the whole country, but without that being the case. so eventually being able to use a regional approach might be fought on, both of

the countries people are travelling to but also where they are travelling from. you have an overview of what is going on in europe, there is a lot of fear here that what we are seeing in the spikes of infection rates as the start of a second wave. do you think it is? indeed there is that concern. we have had a long period where now in europe things have been stable over a couple of weeks and now frankly there is that increase. it might infact frankly there is that increase. it might in fact be a second wave. but nowadays, considering the opening of the borders and the travel restrictions are being removed, we will probably be affected by different regions where the situation is still in the first wave so to speak. the fact it is already beginning a second wave eventually which would probably be more likely to forecast in the autumn or the winter might be the case. so all

countries should be doing significant efforts to contain the situation now in order for us to reach the autumn or the winter where the usual respiratory illnesses that every year countries are faced with might not pose an additional challenge. good to talk to you, thank you so much. the headlines on bbc news... officials extend the isolation period for people showing symptoms of covid in the uk — from 7 to ten days — over fears of rising cases numbers in parts of europe. england has recorded the highest levels of excess deaths in europe — across the first half of the year — according to new figures showing the impact of the coronavirus. the tour operator — tui — is to close nearly a third of its high street stores in the uk and the republic of ireland. there's a warning that a quarter of britain's native mammals

are at risk of extinction. species under threat include wildcats, red squirrels, and water voles. conservationists say the ongoing loss of habitat is making it harder for animals to survive — and they're calling for urgent action to prevent their loss. victoria gill reports. familiar characters that are becoming increasingly rare sights. while the uk is a natural home for dozens of mammals, including red squirrels, dormice and hedgehogs, many of those species are now in danger of disappearing. this first red list of threatened species, put together by the conservation charity the mammal society, has shown that a quarter of all of the uk's native mammals are under threat of extinction. so what we've done is a really comprehensive review of all the evidence we have available on things like how big the populations are or how isolated those populations are. we've drawn all that together. and it's come up with this list of 11 of our 47 native species being classified as threatened imminently. and what this is clearly saying is we need to be acting right now, we can't carry

on with the current trajectory. different animals face different threats. the now critically endangered scottish wildcat population has not recovered from decades of persecution. for the red squirrel, disease and competition from the introduced grey squirrels has driven its decline. but something conservation scientists agree on is that we need to leave more wild space for these species to recover. there are pockets of good habitat, like this red squirrel reserve in formby, but that's exactly what this is — this is an isolated pocket of good natural habitat for red squirrels. and what conservationists say we need is for that to be a connected network of wild space across the landscape. here's my little foxy loxy. during lockdown, many people shared

pictures and video on social media of animal encounters in quite urban settings. now, scientists say, we need to find sustainable ways to share our environment with nature. victoria gill, bbc news. now, we may be five months away from christmas but ordinarily plans leading up to the british pantomime season would be well under way by now. although theatres in england will be able to open again from saturday, there are fears that new restrictions mean many productions will be able to go ahead. colin paterson has been investigating. # we were victims of the night... all around the uk, pantomimes are on pause, and time is running out. we do a show and it's a quiet audience, we hate it, don't we? yeah. rita simons was roxy mitchell in eastenders.

she should be taking part in her sixth panto and loves playing baddies. however, she believes the only booing this time will be when it's cancelled. panto can often be the thing that, not just for theatres, but for actors, for crew, for everyone, that builds up the little nest egg for the year and then they go on and do the other gigs or auditions or whatever. bob golding has been stalwart of panto in st albans for a decade but says planning for this year's mother goose has been impossible due to confusion over what restrictions might be enforced. there's talk of possibly a gauze being flown in, a gauze meaning a see—through piece of scenery. i've seen some stuff written down about nobody allowed to shout, to say, "no, sorry, you can't do that." it's taking away a massive chunk of the genre. and many theatres that usually hold pantomimes are still shut, including

the radlett centre in hertfordshire. it's where the very man they're waiting to hear directives from, the secretary of state for the dcms, oliver dowden, also holds his constituency surgeries. but there's no date for when it reopens. let me make it clear, our position at the moment is we don't know if we're going ahead or not. last year, we had our bestselling pantomime ever. we played to about 97% capacity. and some local schools have been coming here for 20 years, and this is the first year that they can't come. steve bowden's company produces 15 pantomimes a year and provides the costumes for dozens more. literally, you're witnessing a building that was abounded in march when we went into lockdown and all of our staff were furloughed. as an industry, collectively realise that the start of august takes us to out absolute limit

where we could possibly react. beyond that pantomimes, as we know it cannot happen this year. we're then looking at what our alternatives are. cinderella knew all about the dangers of the clock striking 12. for britain's 2020 pantomime season, the deadline is about to be reached. colin paterson, bbc news, coventry. joining me now is actress elaine c smith, who is set to star as the fairy godmother in the upcoming panto, cinderella.

she is indeed behind me. sorry, i couldn't resist it. oh, no i'm not! is the show going to go ahead as planned? is the show going to go ahead as planned ? as is the show going to go ahead as planned? as far as you know? not at this stage, as far as we know, as was said in the package there, people are waiting until the next few days really. i think the announcement by the government the other day saying they would underwrite insurance for productions was very underwrite insurance for productions was very helpful, but may be too late for pantomime, in that, as you heard again the planning of that, the making of costumes, and also, i mean, ido the making of costumes, and also, i mean, i do the kings glasgow, really, really big commercial panto, may be employs 50 or more people for a great chunk of the year and plays to almost 2000 people a show. so it

isa to almost 2000 people a show. so it is a huge event, and people love the glitz and glamour in it. and whether you can actually present that or not give that out on a stage, we have things like in cinderella for instance, we have a coach that flies out over the audience. now, given the restrictions that are around just now, i doubt things like that would be able to go ahead. so if it does go ahead i think it will be in a very different from. such a pity, isn't it? theatres can consider that to metre rule, can't they, in trying to metre rule, can't they, in trying to have half of the audience they are, a third of the audience they are, a third of the audience they are, what with that do to your performance, even if that were realistic? it would be really difficult, because like unlike other theatre, you know, i do theatre all theatre, you know, i do theatre all the time, and television as well, unlike small theatres, if you are doing an obscure german drama, you don't need the audience to join in.

you know they are there, but they are not part of it. they will react and things like that. pantomime, and ironically i love the fact that it is what people are honing in on, because a lot of the time, pantomime is seen as the poor relation to proper theatre if you like, and now we are seeing pantomime actually is what underpins proper theatre for most of the year, and also employs the most amount of actors as well. and also in pantomime, the audience are another actor. you know, a rehearsal room for a pantomime is one of the most terrible places, because you are doing gags, nothing is happening, and also you have none of the magic you will have when you finally do the big production at the end, and the audience see all the magic, the flying, things like that. so not to have the audience they are... interestingly, an experiment was done the other night with the wonderful beverley knight in the

london palladium. now that normally is 2500, i have seen the pantomime is 2500, i have seen the pantomime is there, the audience are such a pa rt is there, the audience are such a part of the whole thing and that was one of the comments there was that the atmosphere, it wasn't till at one point she sang and the audience stood up and she got very tearful because she realised the audience we re because she realised the audience were there. elaine, we have to cut you off there, i'm so sorry. we wish you off there, i'm so sorry. we wish you very good luck and keep helping us cross for thank you so much. now it's time for a look at the weather with louise lear. today so far has been a tale of two halves, with cloud and rain across scotland, northern ireland and northern england. further south, you can see where the best of the sunshine is, and so temperatures are responding, highest value through this afternoon likely to peak at 28 degrees, 82 fahrenheit, a little bit cooler under the cloud and rain. that rain will continue to move steadily north. another weak weather front brings

showery outbreaks into western fringes overnight but elsewhere stays clear with overnight lows of 11 to 16 degrees. so we start off on a relatively warm note in the south—east, and the winds from the southerly direction driving on this one from the near continent, it will be a sunny and hot afternoon for many. showers continue into western scotland and northern ireland, here with highs of 21 degrees but central and eastern england widely seeing temperatures into the low 30s, peaking perhaps at 34 degrees. if that is too hot for you, it is looking likely it will be a slightly more comfortable weekend ahead, with a few showers.

this is bbc news, i'm reeta chakrabarti. the headlines: officials extend the isolation period for people showing symptoms of covid in the uk from seven to ten days, over fears of rising numbers of cases in parts of europe. it is absolutely vital as a country that we continue to keep our focus and our discipline, and that we don't delude ourselves that somehow we are out of the woods or that this is all over, because it isn't all over. and, in another sign of the impact of coronavirus, latest figures show that england had the highest excess deaths in europe over the past few months. in others news, the travel firm tui announces the closure of 166 high street stores in the uk and ireland.

it's back to school for scotland's pupils, as the first minister announces everyone will be back in the classroom by mid—august. the number of rape convictions in england and wales falls to a record low. five, four, three, two, one, zero... ..and lift—off! also coming up this hour, looking for life on mars — nasa launches a rover to bring back rock samples from the red planet. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. people in the uk with coronavirus symptoms will now have to self—isolate for ten days, rather than just a week, as ministers attempt to prevent

a new spike in infections. the extension comes into force immediately and brings us into line with world health organisation guidance. it comes as new figures show that england had the highest level of excess deaths in europe between the end of february and mid—june. excess deaths are the number of all people who die above the average recorded in previous years, and are seen by many experts as the most reliable measure of the impact of the pandemic. the health secretary matt hancock has warned that new countries could be added to the quarantine list in the coming days, after people arriving in the uk from spain were ordered at the weekend to isolate for two weeks. anna collinson reports. for many it had started to feel safe to do the things we'd missed. it wasn't the same as before, but this is our new normal. but with fears of coronavirus spikes appearing across europe, this morning a reminder the virus is still a danger. the uk's chief medical officers have increased the time people with coronavirus symptoms will need to self—isolate, from

a week to ten days. scientists say people are most infectious during the first few days of the illness, but there is a possibility some may transmit the virus for up to five days after they become unwell. ten days provide a reasonable balance whereby we should hopefully, within that period, capture the vast majority of people, so that by the time they are released from isolation, they are no longer infectious. the change is said to help those who are shielding and to help the nhs prepare for winter, where community transmission may increase. the government has also announced future gp appointments should be done via the phone, unless there is a compelling clinical reason not to. so from now on, if a person tests positive for covid or develops a cough, temperature, or loss of taste or smell, they must now isolate for ten days. if they still feel unwell after that, they must keep on isolating. other members of their household

must isolate for 14 days. there have been concerns about several local outbreaks across the uk, including in staffordshire, where ten cases were confirmed at this pub. in recent days the government has repeatedly warned about signs of a second wave of the pandemic in parts of europe. anybody who attends from spain now has to quarantine for 14 days. this can be extended to other countries if cases increase. testing and tracing must become a new way of life. a key element to monitor the coronavirus in england is the test and tracing system. the latest figures show nearly one in four close contacts of those who have tested positive are still not being reached. it is absolutely vital as a country that we continue to keep our focus and our discipline, and that we don't delude ourselves that somehow we are out of the woods or that this is all over, because it isn't all over. while government is focusing on the present, their past

performance during the covid crisis is also coming into question. new figures from the office of national statistics found that england had the highest level of excess deaths in europe across the first half of 2020. earlier this month the uk united thanked nhs staff for their work during the pandemic. now the group together, which helped organised the clap, claim the community spirit formed during lockdown is starting to fray. it is hoped today's tightening of the rules will be seen as an important signal, warning against complacency. anna collinson, bbc news. our head of statistics robert cuffe gave us the background on new figures, which show that england had the highest level of excess deaths in europe between the end of february and mid—june. we can see here a list of countries that have seen increases in death rates up to the middle of this year compared to last year. england is hardest hit, the uk as a whole, followed by spain.

then scotland, and wales and northern ireland are also on that grim table of the hardest hit countries. they have also looked at individual cities. while it is the case that certain cities like milan or madrid have been harder hit than anywhere in the uk, of the 15 hardest hit cities in europe, seven of them are in the uk. it underlines just how effective the virus has been in the uk. during the course of this pandemic we have had lots of data and lots of analysis. how significant is this? it's pretty serious analysis, for two reasons. first of all, they are looking at excess deaths, overall mortality. i can show what that means to the audience now. the big increase we have seen in the number of deaths during the epidemic is not entirely counted by the red area, the official covid—19 deaths. by looking at all deaths they captured the whole figure. they have adjusted for age. many

a nalyses they have adjusted for age. many analyses do not do that. countries have different age populations and because covid—19 hit the oldest hardest, you need to take account of that. so it's more reliable. it enables us to understand a little bit of why as well. we saw that peak in the uk. it is not the highest in europe. the highest peak was in spain, but it took the uk longer to get back to normal compared to other countries. that, combined with the wide spread of deaths across the uk, that is why the uk has been hit so hard. paul hunter is a professor of medicine at the university of east anglia. he also advises the world health organization of the use of facemasks. hejoins me now. good afternoon. i just wonder if you could comment on what you heard are just there about the fact that england has the worst, the fact that england has the worst, the highest number of excess deaths in europe at this time? yes, certainly that's not unexpected. i think all of us watching the data we re think all of us watching the data were certainly expecting that. we

would be either the worst or close to being the worst country in europe. yes, it is a very sad finding and probably as well, even that probably underestimates the deaths because certainly early on in the outbreak there were quite a few extra excess deaths over and above call deaths. and if you look at before the outbreak came, deaths this year were generally below average. so if that was to continue that would suggest the figures that we are seeing there may well be an underestimate of the total number of fatalities due to the epidemic. gosh, well that's quite an analysis. i'd like to ask you about the other main story that we are talking about today in relation to the academic, pandemic, which is this extension from seven to ten days, the self

isolation period for people who test positive or are showing symptoms. do you think it's a good idea and it is this the right time to bring it in? what this does is bring us into line with world health organization advice. and indeed what most other countries have already decided. and in fact some countries are even suggesting 14 days. i think listening to one of the previous talkers, speakers, on the programme, most infections that people are most infectious with this virus probably for the first week, but that doesn't mean that people are no longer necessarily infectious after that. there was one review recently published that looked and reported on people shedding viable virus up to 20 days. but you have to have a

cut off at some point, otherwise people will be in limbo for days and weeks. and i think a ten days is as good a cut off point as we can get that protects and stops most transmission, but nothing will ever stop all possible transmission events. almost everybody that we've interviewed during the course of the day have welcomed this ten day extension. should it have been done earlier? well, i think so. the world health organization has been suggesting ten days for several weeks now. and most other countries have been following that. the evidence has got stronger that in recent weeks. but the evidence is

actually, has always suggested that eight days is, the first eight days is the most risky period. the most recent evidence is suggesting, showing that infighting could be transmitted even beyond that and evenin transmitted even beyond that and even in excess of two weeks. we have to leave it there. professor hunter, thank you very much. professor paul hunterfrom the thank you very much. professor paul hunter from the university of east anglia. president donald trump has raised the possibility of delaying the nation's november presidential election despite its date being enshrined in the us constitution. although he failed to produce any evidence, president trump, repeated his claims of fraud in postal votes. in a tweet he wrote: joining me from washington is anthony zurcher. anthony, just give us the background to this discussion about postal votes, where has it come from? well,

donald trump has been talking about postal voting could be fraudulent, four months. there has been a renewed push across the united states to make it easier for people to vote by mail because of the coronavirus pandemic and the risks of gathering in places for the november election. inaudible. even in the case of california ballot being sent to a registered voter without prompting. donald trump feels this could increase fraud, although there is not much evidence of that in states that have been doing mailing balloting for some time. he also said it could hurt him politically. democrats tend to vote more by mail than republicans. there is also little evidence of that. anthony, the line is very bad but i wonder if i could just ask you very briefly, this is not something that president

trump can affect by himself, changing the date of the election? no, it's not. it would require an act of congress for him to change the date of the election. that date was set in the 19th century by congress and it would take democrats as well as republicans to pass a change of date. even if they did that, donald trump bus presidential term is set in the constitution. if there were not an election before there were not an election before the end of january there were not an election before the end ofjanuary 2021, donald trump would cease being president. there are a lot of factors you would have to overcome if you wanted to try to do this. it really looks like as if the election will happen in november. the question is whether donald trump will go peacefully and acce pt donald trump will go peacefully and accept the result of that election if he were to lose. ok, we have to leave it there. anthony zurcher. thank you. ministers are closely monitoring infection rates across europe, as britons consider whether to travel to the continent on holiday. cases of the virus in luxembourg and belgium are among those causing concern. our correspondent in brussels,

nick beake, explains. we know this is a virus that does not respect borders. and what we have got now is lots of different countries in europe anxiously looking at their own coronavirus rates, but also that of their neighbours, both close and further afield, and in many cases they do not like what they see. if we just look at the maps, here in belgium the number of people going to hospital with covid—19 has doubled over the past week. in neighbouring luxembourg the infection rate has gone up. that has led to speculation that both of those countries could be put on the uk quarantine list. spain is already on it. also today, crucially in france, they have said the number of new cases has been the highest for a month. if we move further to the east, towards eastern europe, romania is a country that is experiencing a cluster of new cases, but it remains the case that the worst affected part of europe is the southeast balkan region. we are talking about serbia and kosovo.

health officials in kosovo are warning hospitals are already overwhelmed. it is a bleak situation. we know about north—eastern spain already and the impact that is having on british tourists. i guess the thing we take from all of these is that it is clearly a very difficult time in all of the countries we are talking about, but if you are trying to take a holiday this year, if your plans were already postponed, it's looking like 2020 is the year where nothing can be planned with any certainty. nick beake. the headlines on bbc news: officials extend the isolation period for people showing symptoms of covid in the uk from seven to ten days, over fears of rising numbers of cases in parts of europe. england has recorded the highest levels of excess deaths in europe across the first half of the year, according to new figures showing the impact of the coronavirus. the tour operator tui is to close nearly a third of its high street stores in the uk and the republic of ireland.

and more on that story now. the uk's biggest tour operator, tui, is closing more than 160 high st stores. it is responding to changes in customer behaviour. when thompson explained how the move worked. —— ben thompson. further evidence today, if we needed it, that as we change the way we shop, business has to change the way that it operates. therefore, in the case of tui, 70% of all the bookings they take are now done online. therefore that makes it more difficult to justify the cost of high street stores with rent, rates and maintenance. what they have told us is that they will close around a third of those stores. 166 will close across the uk and ireland. just in may, the firm had announced more than job cuts crossed

its entire business surveillance. —— more than 8000 job cuts. this affects their travel agency business. 900 staff are affected. the firm hopes it can redeploy some of those staff into other high street shops. but 70% of them, it expects to be able to work from home. selling holidays, offering advice to travellers from home, for example. this further underlines the changing way that we work. many more now asked to work from home. ben thompson reporting. the bbc has learnt that holiday firm jet2 is contacting hundreds of customers on the balearic and canary islands, to ask them to end their holidays early. the tour operator is informing some holidaymakers that that their original flight has been cancelled, and requesting that they leave on earlierflights. it s understood that people flying tomorrow and saturday will return as normal. several families on holiday on the island of mallorca, who were due to return next week, have told the bbc they ve had emails and text messages telling them

have to return early. all scottish schools are expected to start the new autumn term on the eleventh of august, with all of them to be fully open by the eighteenth. the scotland first minister nicola sturgeon said social distancing, strict hygiene and other measures would be necessary. it isa it is a moral and educational imperative that we get children back to school as soon as it is safely possible. in fact, a key reason for our cautious approach to lockdown easing over the past two months and indeed over the next few weeks, is that determination to drive the virus down as low as possible and keep prevalence low so that schools can reopen safely in august. therefore, i'm very pleased to confirm today that schools will return from the 11th of august. given how long children have been out of school, some local authorities may opt for a phased return over the first few days, but

we expect all pupils to be at school, full—time, from the 18th of august at the latest. now i realise the earlier confirmation of this would have provided more certainty for schools and parents to get ready for schools and parents to get ready for the new term, but we had to be sure, very for the new term, but we had to be sure, very sure, that the latest evidence in support decision. australia has recorded its worst day since the start of the pandemic. a wave of infections sweeping the state of victoria saw new cases up by a third since monday. more than a dozen people have died. other australian states have closed their borders with victoria — but this hasn t prevented some infection spikes elsewhere. shaimaa khalil reports. another record high in victoria and another setback for australia, as health workers race to contain the spread of covid—19. there were hopes that the outbreak may have peaked on monday, with more than 500 infections recorded. but the latest spike in coronavirus numbers has surpassed the previous record by nearly 200 cases.

there are 9,998 cumulative cases of coronavirus in the victorian community. 723 new since we last updated you. authorities have said that many people who've shown symptoms of the virus or are still waiting for test results have been turning up at workplaces, including some who've tested positive for covid—19. if you're a positive case then you need to be at home and you need to be isolating. that is a very important message. the state is also racing to contain more than 80 outbreaks at aged care facilities, which have claimed dozens of lives in the past few weeks. ten of the 13 deaths today were in aged care homes. the virus is hitting the most vulnerable in big numbers. this is epping gardens, one of the worst affected aged care facilities in victoria. family members are desperately pleading for more help. they're getting neglected. it is so sad that they're

being locked up for three weeks in one room. get them out of the room, get them to another safe place. get them to a hospital. please, help. from midnight sunday local time, every person in the state will be required to wear a mask or face covering when leaving their house, as concerns grow with more cases appearing in regional victoria. shaimaa khalil, bbc news, sydney. the former conservative mp charlie elphicke has been found guilty of three counts of sexual assault at southwark crown court. jurors returned unanimous verdicts on the charges, which involved two women. in court the dover mp admitted lying to the conservative party whips when they interviewed him about the accusations. the deaths of young people involved in horse racing has prompted a renewed focus on the wellbeing of those working in the sport. a bbc investigation has found that in the last three years, there's been a large rise in the number asking for help with their mental health. charlotte gallagher reports.

liam treadwell winning the grand national atjust 23 years old. but last month he died suddenly at the age of 34. in recent years, he'd spoken frankly about his struggles with depression after suffering a severe head injury. the coping mechanism got knocked out of me that day. james banks, another talented jockey, died in february. an inquest found the 36—year—old had taken his own life. michael curran, a dedicated stable lad, died suddenly in may. well, it doesn't appear to me that we seem to have the same prevalence in other sports. it is young people, rural communities. it's loneliness, isolation, pressure, not great money. simon's son tim was an up and coming rider. last year, he took his own life atjust 17. he was a very kind lad. every child gets a bit of an obsession about a hobby or interest. well, horses and horse racing

was tim's, and he threw himself, he threw himself into it. it was, a, such a shock that it had happened, you know, that kind of death. but it was a massive shock that it was him. in 2017, the industry charity racing welfare helped 620 people with their mental health. that rose to 685 in 2018, and 887 in 2019, a rise of 43% in three years. the charity has a 24—hour helpline and provides counselling. one person who knows about the pressure of the sport is formerjockey kevin tobin. he quit after coming close to taking his own life. it was a slow burn when it began, so i would have, you know, an owner or a trainer or even a fellowjockey that might pass on a slight criticism of how i rode on a given day. i began to acquaint myself with and my value as a person with how i was performing on a horse.

shannon james is someone in the industry who asked for help. i 100% rely on my horses, it's my happy place. do you think there's a lot of people that just feel too shy, almost like they don't want to make a fuss? definitely, because i was one of those people, and it was suggested that i be put in contact with racing welfare, which really did make a difference. after his son's death, simon jones began raising—money to train mental health first—aiders — a legacy for tim. we wanted to put a first—aid trainer in every yard. and the response, you know, we raised almost £20,000. if i can help, you know, one person, one dad, one mum, one brother, you know, to not go through what we've gone through, then for me that's success. charlotte gallagher, bbc news. if you've been affected by any of the issues in that report, information and support are available at bbc

action line, that's at bbc.co. uk/actionline. nasa has launched a new mission to mars to try to answer that perennial question — has there ever been life on the planet? its rover, called perserverance, took off from cape canaveral earlier, but it won't land on mars until february. the mission will also collect rock samples for analysis by scientists in laboratories back on earth, as rebecca morelle reports. one, zero. . .and liftoff. heading to the red planet, the start of a seven—month journey for nasa's most advanced of a mission to mars. the rover, called perseverance, will be collecting samples of martian rocks from an area that was once a river bed, and the hope is it will answer the key question — was the ever life on mars? we now know mars had an enormous amount of water in its past. if ancient life was on mars,

you know, we have a good bet that we might be able to find it in these sediments. so this is really a life—detection mission. the rock samples will be stored and brought back to earth on a future mission. but this mission is also taking something back to mars — a piece of martian meteorite. it's from the natural history museum's collection. it blasted off the surface of the red planet more than half a million years ago. now it's heading home. we really know what that meteorite is made from. we can use it to compare that meteorite with the new rocks, the unknown rocks that we're looking at for the first time on mars, and see how similar or different they are. also on board is a miniature mars helicopter that, for the first time, will attempt to fly in the extremely thin martian atmosphere. nasa wants to test this technology forfuture missions. america's spacecraft is the last of a trio heading to the red planet.

china and the united arab emirates are already on their way. if they all succeed, it will mean a giant leap in our understanding of mars. rebecca morelle, bbc news. now it's time for a look at the weather with louise lear. good afternoon. a little bit of a north south divide today. in fact, in the south we have some lovely summer sunshine. further north, leaden skies, some rain. it is going to bea leaden skies, some rain. it is going to be a different atmosphere for taking a lengthy walk along the beach this afternoon. that is because of this area of low pressure that will influence the weather story for the next couple of days to the far north and west, the same time dragging warmth across the south. that is producing this line of sunshine, and he were really across south yorkshire. south of that we will see some sunshine continuing. the heaviest of the rain likely across northern ireland

coming to western fringes of scotland. maximum temperature of 18 degrees. in the sunshine we can see hows 28 degrees this afternoon. the cloud and rain to the north will drift away. more cloud into western fringes. generally speaking it will bea fringes. generally speaking it will be a quiet night. overnight lows in the south—east not falling very far at all. perhaps around 15 or 16 degrees. a warm start to friday morning. and the warmth will continue to build. coming all the way up from iberia across western france. we will see those temperatures climb for a day at least. still this area of low pressure influencing the story further north and west. it will continue to bring a change to the feel of our weather for the start of the weekend. this heatwave a short, sharp shock for some. it looks as if it will stay for one day with a southerly wind this drive settled in sunny weather for many. western fringes staying overcast with a few

more showers. perhaps not as warm. temperatures in southern and eastern england in excess of 30 degrees plus. perhaps peaking at 34. into the evening there is the risk of a few sharp showers affecting eastern england. a few isolated thundery downpours. not everybody will see them. when they ease through the low pressure in the north—west is influencing the story and of the wind direction changes to more of a westerly feel. that means it will drive in fresher conditions. if temperatures in the 30s is too much, it would be more pleasant into the weekend with a scattering of showers the further north and west you are.

hello, this is bbc news. the headlines — officials extend the isolation period for people showing symptoms of covid in the uk — from seven to ten days — over fears of rising numbers of cases in parts of europe. england has recorded the highest levels of excess deaths in europe — across the first half of the year — according to new figures showing

the impact of the coronavirus. the tour operator — tui — is to close nearly a third of its high street stores in the uk and the republic of ireland. it's back to school for scotland's pupils as the first minister announces everyone will be back in the classroom by mid—august. the number of rape convictions in england and wales has fallen to a record low. and a multi—billion—dollar, decade—long mission to bring rock samples from mars to earth — to search for signs of ancient life — blasts off. in pakistan, officials are warning of the dangers of a spike in coronavirus cases following the eid festival later this week. hospitals in the country were overwhelmed after a rise

i have ihave a... i i have a... i can't find the strength to go, i don't know why. on the front line against coronavirus. resources are stretched. for the past two months, dr mri has -- dr for the past two months, dr mri has —— dramara for the past two months, dr mri has —— dr amara has filmed herfight against the disease. this is her story. so i am ready for my morning

shift. things are definitely not getting better. in fact, they are getting better. in fact, they are getting worse every day. she works at mayo hospital in lahore, it is one of the largest in the country but there are barely any free beds. the hospital looks like a scary movie right now and things are actually getting out of control.

by by midjune, by mid june, new admissions had started to fall but it is still a struggle to care for existing patients. my my husband dr bilal contracted covid—19. i know he will be fine very covid—19. i know he will be fine very soon, covid—19. i know he will be fine very soon, but we live with our in—laws. it's scary, it's really scary. dr amara's test later comes back negative, and she continues to work.

0h, oh, god. dr amara is cautious, conspiracy theories that medics are killing patients have seen hospitals attacked by angry relatives, and made others reluctant to seek treatment. the number of suspects convicted in rape cases in england and wales has fallen to a new low. the national police chiefs council said it was getting harder to achieve the standard of evidence needed to take cases to court.

the crown prosecution service has rejected suggestions it has been telling police not to bring so many cases. earlier, the bbc radio 4 programme world at one spoke to someone who has been through the process, untiljust before her court case was stopped by prosecutors. the caller, known as kat, to protect her identity, says she was raped at knife point, but her case was later dropped before reaching court. she was asked how she now feels about the outcome of the case, three years on. three years of intense trauma therapy has helped me i guess come to terms with what's happen. i can honestly say that the treatment by the cps was actually really traumatising, so how they dealt with me, the words they used, how they treated me in the subsequent meetings. i've accepted that i'm not going to getjustice and that this man has got away with it, but what i can't accept is that the cps has

actually got worse and not better. with me now is rebecca hitchen, from the end violence against women coalition, which is a coalition of individuals and organisations campaigning to end all forms of violence against women. good afternoon, i don't know if you manage to hear that little extract we had there. how typical would you say that sort of experience is of women who have had this very traumatic experience? disappointingly, it is incredibly typical. we've seen, as you just stated, these stats have revealed it is the lowest number of convictions for rape on record in england and wales, and we have steadily been seeing that drop—off point in the last few years, both of convictions but also of completed prosecutions too, and it is our position that thatis too, and it is our position that that is due to a change in policy

within the cps, so exactly like you referenced earlier, making it more difficult for rape cases to get to court, and to go to trial. so we actually, due to what we understand to bea actually, due to what we understand to be a change in policy in the cps and a change in that guidance, we have brought a judicial review case against the cps, and actually, just now, literally within the hour, we have heard from the court of appeal that they have overturned an original high court decision and given us position for that —— permission to thatjudicial review to go ahead. thank you for telling us that, we can now expect that. are the police referring as many cases to the crown prosecution service as they used to, and if they are not, why not? so that figure has reduced as well, absolutely, that the number of cases going through to the cps has reduced, but i think we can understand why that would happen, because once the police recognise that there has been a change in the

bar, and that it is much harderfor cases to get to court, then, understandably, they will be less likely to refer those cases onwards, so we talk about the feedback loop, that they understand the cps practice, they understand that that practice, they understand that that practice has changed, and as a result their practice changes. in what way has the crown prosecution's barbie and raised in orderfor these cases to be brought to court?m barbie and raised in orderfor these cases to be brought to court? it is our understanding that in order to improve their conviction rate and their conviction figures they wanted to weed out so—called weaker cases, so they just wanted to weed out so—called weaker cases, so theyjust wanted those very certain strong cases that to be the ones to reach trial, because that would mean it would more likely result in conviction, so by weeding out and removing what is called the merits —based approach, that is where that change of policy has

happened, and it is our position that that was done secretly and covertly in 2016. we are going to have to leave it there, rebecca hitchen from end violence against women coalition thank you very much indeed.

if you've been affected by any of the issues we've just discussed, information and support are available at bbc action line, that's at bbc.co.uk/actionline. twelve prominent opposition candidates in hong kong have been barred from standing in elections due to be held in september. officials claim they failed to adequately pledge allegiance to hong kong under the leadership of mainland china. the decision is being criticised as another significant erosion in hong kong's freedoms. the pro—democracy activist, joshua wong, confirmed in this tweet that he is one of them — as well as incumbent lawmakers. the civic party has seen four of its candidates disqualified. from beijing, our correspondent steven mcdonell reports. the hong kong government has welcomed the decision, but according to the pro—democracy camp, it is another significant blow to freedom in the city. 12 would—be candidates

have been blocked from running in upcoming elections for the local mini parliament, the legislative council. officials say they have failed to adequately allege —— pledge allegiance to hong kong under the leadership of mainland china. when the national security law was passed, i said that one country, two systems is finished, make no mistake about it, and i think today we are seeing the results of the relentless oppression. stop the crackdown on won