a british tour operator tells hundreds of holidaymakers on spanish islands to cut short their holidays and come home. jet2 is contacting customers on the balearic and canary islands to cancel their original flights home, saying they should leave earlier. it's the uncertainty — do we need to pack our cases today to fly home tomorrow and what length of notice will we be given? also tonight, borisjohnson says "we're not out of the woods" as he warns of a resurgence in the coronavirus pandemic. it comes as new figures show england has had the worst rate of excess deaths in europe so far this year. donald trump suggests delaying november's us presidential election, claiming more postal voting could lead to fraud and inaccurate results.

the uk's largest travel operator, tui, is to close a third of its high street stores as coronavirus drives more and more people online. and another mission blasts off for mars — can nasa's aptly—named robot perseverance land on the red planet early next year? and coming up on bbc news... another newcastle united takeover bid falls through as the saudi—led consortium pulls out of the deal to buy the club. good evening and welcome to the bbc news at six. hundreds of british holidaymakers

who've travelled with the tour operatorjet2 to spain's balearic and ca nary islands are being asked to cut short their holidays and come home. it follows the uk's decision to impose a two week quarantine on british travellers returning from spain. jet2 — the uk's second largerst tour operator — says it's not sustainable to send empty planes to the islands to pick up passengers who are due to return from next week. they're asking them to come home on earlier flights instead. gavin lee reports from majorca. the holiday over, quarantine awaits that these british tourists leaving majorca this afternoon, but for hundreds of holiday—makers across the spanish islands, the journey has become even more complicated. unfortunately, following the latest government advice, your planned return flight is no longer going ahead. a message to come back early for the fordy family from carlisle, who've just started an 11—day £3000 holiday in magaluf. they're angry with jet2. it's been a bit stressfuljust worrying like how...

well, when they're going to get in touch with us because the rep‘s not been in the hotel either. so, i guess you're just waiting for a phone call to find out when you're going home. so it's put a bit of a dampener on the holiday because you're in the middle of your holiday enjoying it. it's the uncertainty. do we need to pack our cases today need to fly home tomorrow and what length of notice will we be given? have you tried to contact the company, jet2? they said not to. we would've — it said don't, that they were receiving a high volume of calls and not to. we understand that hundreds of customers across the balearic and canary islands are in the same position. they've received texts and e—mails telling them their flight is cancelled, they'll have to take an earlier one. now, jet2 say it's a fast moving situation, that they cannot sustain sending empty flights here, since they cancelled them at the weekend, and then bringing people back and if people choose not to get an earlier one, they say they'll have to book with another airline. britain's second biggest tour operator says it's

working around the clock, but at the moment, it will only guarantee original flight bookings up until saturday. chanting: we want to work! there was anger on the streets of magaluf too this afternoon, hotel and bar workers out of a job in the height of tourist season. it's really sad to see my colleagues leave. trying to getjobs like in a supermarket or something like that when they're artists, they're starving artists. it's really sad. people have no money, clubs are closed. i'm going to the construction, no construction. i go to work to the field, no work. i go even to take this prison job, you know breaking rocks, not possible. you understand ? we live from tourism. coronavirus cases across spain are still increasing, with more than 1200 cases in the past 2a hours. but there have been no new cases on the whole of the balearic islands and for those heading back from these shores withjet2, the advice is to check for updates. it'll be an uncertain

few days ahead. the bbc has been inundated with texts a nd the bbc has been inundated with texts and e—mails in the past hour with people in a similar situation in here, majorca, the balearic islands and on the canary islands as well with the anxiety it causes. we have had a statement from jet2 saying they can guarantee flights now up to and including monday. they say they apologise to all customers who had a longer holiday for the inconvenience caused and they can reassure them that they will be in touch to tell them what their situation is. gavin lee, thank you. the scottish government has announced its imposing quarantine measures on people travelling from luxembourg, due to a recent rise there in cases of coronavirus. the requirement to go into quarantine for 14 days after arrival in scotland from luxembourg will come into effect at midnight tonight. new figures show that england suffered the highest rate of excess deaths in europe between the end

of february and the middle ofjune. the office for national statistics compared the number of deaths with the five—year average. the death rate in england was 7.5% higher than in recent years, followed by spain and scotland. it comes as people who test positive for covid—i9, or show symptoms of the virus, are being told they must now self—isolate at home for ten days, rather than seven. the change was agreed by all four of the uk's chief medical officers. here's our science editor, david shukman. it isa it is a time of growing concern about a resurgence of the coronavirus and of all the ways to fight it, keeping away from others is one of the most effective. so if you think you have got the disease, you think you have got the disease, you should now isolate notjust for seven days, but for ten. you should now isolate notjust for seven days, but forten. government advisers say the extra time could make a difference. we were seeing a very nice decline and now it's looking like it might be taking off again and we need to look at every measure we can which will mitigate

that effect. this is a contributor, we think, to limiting the spread of the disease. there is still a lot we don't know about the virus, so extending the period of self isolation is really about trying to stay on the safe side. from the moment you might catch the virus, you could become infectious three or four days later and then develop symptoms a couple of days after that. it is at that point you need to begin your self isolation. scientists think you could be infectious in that time for up to nine days, so having a ten day period of isolation is about trying to minimise the risk. this comes amid a series of outbreaks across europe. testing for the virus is now offered at the german border. masks are now mandatory in public places in spain, an effort to avoid another disaster like earlier this year. the 0ffice disaster like earlier this year. the office for national statistics looked at the average number is dying over the past five years to

work out what are called excess deaths, how many more people than normal died at the height of the pandemic? france had a slight increase in deaths above average but all the uk nations saw many more die. england by this reckoning lost most of anywhere in europe. paul green off was among them, a fitness instructor, who died from covid—i9 at the age of 55. her identical twin sister karen says the government was too slow to act. we should have gone into lockdown immediately. as soon as our government and borisjohnson was aware of the situation, we should have been in lockdown immediately. thousands of people, including my sister, are dead. these people would still be alive today if the government and boris had acted on this immediately. the prime minister was asked if he was ashamed of the losses. now the uk had seen

so many people dying. we really owe it to them to continue our work in driving the virus down, and clearly this country has had a massive success now this country has had a massive success now in reducing the numbers of those tragic deaths. it is absolutely vital as a country that we continue to keep our focus and our discipline, we continue to keep our focus and ourdiscipline, and we we continue to keep our focus and our discipline, and we don't delude ourselves that somehow we are out of the woods or that this is all over, because it isn't. on a day meant to highlight thousands of new police recruits, numbers of a more tragic kind are dominating instead and the virus still has the potential to claim more lives. david shukman, bbc news. the government has launched a new campaign to encourage people to take a test for coronavirus if they're suffering from symptoms. the health secretary matt hancock said a second wave is emerging in europe and he wants to prevent that happening here. with more here's our health

correspondent sophie hutchinson. 0ld ham in greater manchester, where cases of coronavirus have more than tripled in the past week. people here are no longer allowed to visit each other at home — part of new restrictions to curb this sudden surge in cases. bbc analysis of public health figures for the uk suggests 0ldham has seen the sharpestjump in the past week, to 56 cases per 100,000 people, up by 41 on last week. next is wrexham, with 51 cases per 100,000 people, an increase of 29. and a spike in trafford, in greater manchester, is also causing concern, to 36 cases per 100,000 people, up by 27 this week. initially, the virus seemed to hit teenagers there, according to public health officials. now, it's adults, some with young families. and it's in the better off areas. it's a leafy suburb, so we've got lots of professional families, lots of teachers,

socialworkers, doctors, nurses. you know, it's a very, very desirable area to live. and the areas that we're seeing these positive cases in are in these households. testing is free, quick and vital... the government's new ad campaign — a push to get more people tested. figures suggest two thirds of infected people are still being missed, a worry with the threat growing from abroad. we can see a second wave emerging in europe and we will do everything in our power to stop it reaching our shores. 0ther coronavirus hotspots in the uk are blackburn with darwen, bradford, sandwell, calderdale and manchester. but rochdale and leicester have both seen significant falls in infections. and after a month of local lockdown in leicester,

many will be hoping this may mean restrictions are eased but despite falls in cases, there were still 200 new infections this week, raising questions about the safety of the city. sophie hutchinson, bbc news. here in the uk, there were 8116 new confirmed cases of covid—19 in the latest 24—hour period. the 7—day rolling average is 737 — you can see from the chart that cases have been rising slightly in the past week — but scientists don't yet know whether that's because of more and better testing or the beginnings of the resurgence seen elsewhere in europe. today's death figures haven't yet been published. 0ur political correspondent chris mason is in westminster, and we're getting a real sense now from polticians about the nervousness over a new surge of the virus this summer. yes, you really do. less than a fortnight ago boris johnson yes, you really do. less than a fortnight ago borisjohnson was talking about his hope we might head

back to normality by christmas, and yet today and in the last few days his language has been peppered by caution, talking about the use of words like focus and discipline, this from a man normally itching to sound as optimistic as possible. there is a worry about the spike of cases there has been in europe and america and the bubbling up of cases as you were reporting in various hotspots around the uk. it's not just the prime minister here. the scottish first minister nicola sturgeon also sounded very cautious, talking about complacency being deadly and she has justified the slower reopening of the economy in scotla nd slower reopening of the economy in scotland compared to england by saying it is better than a halting reopening that then has to be slowed down. interestingly though, following the announcement at lunchtime, the decision from scotla nd lunchtime, the decision from scotland to impose this idea of quarantine for a fortnight for visitors returning from luxembourg andi visitors returning from luxembourg and i understand the uk government will follow suit tonight. taking a

step back as to where we are right now, the reality is we are where the government and scientists predicted where we would be. that the nature of the slow reopening of the economy and society would be halting and faltering, baby steps back toward normality with the virus continuing to rob us of any sense of certainty. how is coronavirus affecting the area where you live? you can find the latest information on the bbc news website. there you can see how many cases and deaths there have been by searching for your postcode or location. visit bbc.co.uk/news or the bbc news app. president trump has suggested november's presidential election should be postponed, saying increased postal voting could lead to fraud and inaccurate results. writing on twitter, he suggested a delay until people can vote "properly, securely and safely", despite little evidence to support his claim. 0ur north america editorjon sopel is in washington. does he have the power

to change the date? no, it's not really down to him. it's up to congress and the lawmakers there, who would have to pass a law changing the date of the election, which they are not going to do. even if they did, it is written in the constitution that his term is only for four years, written in the constitution that his term is only forfour years, so on january 20 next year his term in office is at an end. nevertheless, it is unprecedented and incendiary for the president to call for the election to be delayed. even in 1864, when the civil war was at its height in america, elections went ahead. donald trump seems to think that because people are going to have postal votes, something he votes by, it will lead to massive fraud, even though there is very little evidence of it. two other things to consider, yesterday america passed 150,000 coronavirus deaths. today america has published the worst gdp figures because of the

coronavirus on record, and that was going to be his winning card in november. it's just possible the president wanted to change the subject. jon sopel, thank you. prosecutions and convictions for rape in england and wales have fallen to a record low. and new figures show its taking far longer to decide whether or not suspects should be charged. the victims commissioner, dame vera baird, says the statistics are "utterly shameful". the crown prosecution service says it's working hard to reverse the trend. our home editor, mark easton, has the details. in the year before lockdown, police in england and wales recorded 55,000 allegations of rape — one of the highest figures ever. in the same year, fewer than 1500 people were convicted following a rape case — the fewest ever recorded. the message it's sending to rapists is that you can basically rape with impunity, because your chance of seeing a day in court, let alone jail, is almost zero. courtney — not her real name — made an allegation of a serious

sexual assault in 2016, but she says the detectives investigating the incident told her of their frustration at how crown prosecutors were setting the bar on evidence so high she felt forced to abandon the case. they felt that the crown was trying to make it as dehumanising as possible for victims to continue their case, so they would drop out, so that they can look good in statistics, and that is verbatim what the officer told me. they basically have so underfunded the criminaljustice system that they just can't afford to prosecute the crime any more, so they can only cherry pick the ones that they are sure that they are going to win. police chiefs also pointed the finger at the crown prosecution service today, suggesting the cps were putting new demands on detectives. the officers tell me that 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. the process clearly isn't working. police in england and wales recorded 55,130 rape allegations last year. but in the same period, 2747 rape cases were referred on to prosecutors — the fewest on record. that year, the cps charged just 1867 people, and 1439 were convicted in the courts — again, the fewest on record. the data suggests around 97% of rape allegations never result in a conviction. the cps says it's working more closely with police, such as here in kent, as increasing amounts of evidence from social media and phone records complicates the preparation of rape cases. what we need to do is work with our partners in the police, area by area, force by force, to make sure we build a strong relationship at the start of these very serious criminal investigations, build strong cases together, and together drive the numbers up.

today, here at the high court, campaigners have been arguing for a judicial review into whether prosecutors have quietly raised the evidential bar in rape cases. but what is really at play is the collision of the dispassionate processes of the criminaljustice system with the intimate agony that results from the most emotionally devastating of crimes. mark easton, bbc news. the time is 6:19. our top story this evening: a major british tour operator, jet2, tells hundreds of holiday—makers on spanish islands to cut short their holidays and come home. nasa's mission to mars, lasting 7 months and 300 million miles take off from florida on its seven monthjourney. coming up on sportsday on bbc news: david willey takes five wickets

as england dominate in southampton, and ireland are bowled out for 172 in theirfirst one day international. the uk's largest tour operator tui is set to close a third of its high street shops in the uk and ireland. 166 of its 350 stores are to close, which will leave up to 900 jobs at risk. the company said the decision was made after changes in customer behaviour, including a shift to online — where 70% of bookings are now made. 0ur consumer affairs correspondent sarah corker is in halifax for us. yes, most tui branches have been closed to customers since march and lockdown has shown just how efficient home—working can be. tui says it hopes to keep on more than 600 staff in a mix of sales and remote working roles that these closures are another sign of the

huge pressure our travel businesses are underand huge pressure our travel businesses are under and this is more bad news for our struggling high streets. advert: it's time to look forward to getting back to what really matters. holiday companies are trying hard to boost consumer confidence but coronavirus disruption has accelerated the changes and challenges facing the industry. those of us who are venturing on foreign holidays this year are increasingly booking them online. 166 tui stores will soon disappear from our high streets. in halifax today, there was a generational divide in holiday habits. i book online, book everything online! yeah. because i think you can look around more, find the cheapest option. just so much easier as well. yeah, easier. it's very difficult. you know, because i think the older you are, the more likely you are to use a travel agent rather than online because it's not everybody who has a computer

or is savvy with the internet. global travel restrictions mean travel firms have had little money coming in at a time when they've been paying out refunds for covid cancellations for months. i think we're looking at six months to a year of huge disruption in the travel industry and the outbound tourism industry is worth £37 billion to the uk economy, 2% of gdp. these closures are another blow for our high streets, already struggling before the pandemic hit and on this block here in halifax, there were four travel agents. two are standing empty, only one is operating as normal and staff at tui have been working at home for months. this sector is adapting to what's been described as the greatest challenge it's ever faced and tui won't be the last travel company rethinking its business model. sarah corker, bbc news, in halifax.

a hospital worker has been left scarred and frightened for his safety after being seriously injured in a racially aggravated hit—and—run. the 21—year—old was walking to the bus stop after finishing work at southmead hospital in bristol. witnesses say a car was driven at him deliberately, before two men shouted racial abuse. sangita myska's report contains distressing images of his injuries from the start. ijust remember, like, bleeding and people came to help me off. yeah, people came to help me off the wall i was on. this is the car that police say was deliberately driven at 21—year—old k, who's asked us not to use his surname. he'd finished work at a local hospital and was heading to the bus stop when he was hit. i just knew then straight away that i was proper damaged because i couldn't walk straight away and i was bleeding from my head. after k was hit, witnesses say they saw two men ran from the scene,

shouting racial abuse as they went. the force of the attack has left k with serious injuries to his face and leg. his mother says it took a surgeon four hours to pick glass out of his face. the scars on my face are going to be there for life, so... so, i'm not really going to be recovered from this because obviously, like mentally as well, i'm traumatised by it now as well. i don't even know if it might happen again. avon and somerset police are treating the attack, which happened on the 22nd ofjuly, as a racially aggravated assault. this kind of attack, they say, is rare and ethnic minority communities in bristol need not fear for their safety. k feels differently. it's not pleasant at all. you shouldn't really in your life, you shouldn't be like having to look over your shoulder all the time and just not feel safe. it shouldn't like that, so, yeah, it's definitely affected me and my family and people around me

in different ways. k says he will regain his confidence but that it will take time. sangita myska, bbc news. the government's bringing in new laws so people who lose theirjobs while on furlough receive redundancy pay based on their normal wages — instead of the reduced rate. just under 700,000 construction workers are among more than 9 million people who were furloughed. the government said a minority of firms had taken advantage of the current crisis to pay the lower rate of redundancy pay. the changes will take effect from tomorrow. a former conservative mp has been found guilty of sexually assaulting two women. charlie elphicke, who represented dover until december, denied groping the women in similar situations nine years apart. thejudge said there was a very real possibility mr elphicke would go to prison. sentencing will take place on 15th september. black children from caribbean backgrounds in england continue to be almost twice as

likely to be excluded from school than their peers, according to figures from the department of education. exclusions have remained high, despite long standing calls for the issue to be tackled. schools have a statutory duty not to discriminate against pupils over race, but discipline policies banning for example black hairstyles and fist—bumping are being blamed in part, as our education correspondent, elaine dunkley, reports. excluded from school more than 50 times. renee is now a successful graphic designer, but her school years were difficult. my mum suffers from borderline personality disorder, so i really didn't get much support during school. they knew that my behaviour was possibly a reflection of what was going on at home. renee also feels she was punished because of the colour of her skin. we had policies that seemed like they had racist undertones. so, for instance, our hairstyles were banned. so, like these slicks on my hair, we weren't allowed

to have that in school. we weren't allowed to fist—bump each other, that was classed as gang culture. we weren't allowed in groups of more than three, that was classed as gang culture too. and i think that... ..that had a detrimental effect on us, because we're just trying to live our lives and enjoy it as children. across england, statistics paint a bleak picture. in two thirds of local authority areas, black pupils have the highest rate of exclusion and in some areas, they are three times more likely to be excluded from school temporarily compared to white pupils. ayanda ncube is 18, he spent most of his life excluded from school. i started getting kicked out from preschool, so like i was a little kid, a toddler, round about then. he grew up in middleton in leeds and admits he had problems controlling his anger but says he was always seen as the aggressor, despite constant racist abuse.

people were racist and just fighting, defending myself and then they'd just make it sound like it was only me but they wouldn't really take care of the actual bigger picture and see what was going on and listen to what i was trying to say. the reasons for fixed term exclusions vary but it's often a warning sign that things are going wrong in a child's life. the challenges for schools is ensuring punishment isn't influenced by racial bias and prejudice. we certainly don't, as leaders of our schools and colleges, want to do anything which discriminates. therefore, if there is information which is going to help to illuminate how we could do that process more fairly, then so much the better. being excluded can have a profound and lasting impact on a young person's future. ranae says children need more support and less stereotyping you know what, i thought i need to be somebody and prove to these people that i'm not this horrible,

bad person and i can be successful. elaine dunkley, bbc news. conservationists are warning that the hedgehog is now among a quarter of the native mammal species at risk of extinction in britain. the first official "red list" has been drawn up by leading wildlife charities. it also includes the red squirrel, the water vole and the scottish wildcat, which is classed as critically endangered. the report recommends habitat protection and reintroductions as ways to help reverse the declines. nasa's new robotic spacecraft is on its way to mars in a mission to search for evidence of ancient life. it will take almost seven months to travel more than 300 million miles to the red planet. the robot is called perseverance — named because of the difficulties of landing on its surface. it's one of three missions currently trying to make it to mars as rebecca morelle reports. engine ignition, two, one, zero. . .and liftoff. the start of a mission...

launching the next generation of robotic explorers to the red planet. ..that could finally answer the big question — was there ever life on mars? and that was to you. close—loop control. the rover is called perseverance, and it's going to a region that was once covered by a lake. 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. this is the most advanced mars rover that nasa's ever built. it's about the same size and weight as a small car and it is jam—packed with instruments. this is its robotic arm, equipped with a drill and it will take samples of rock that could contain signs of life. there's also an instrument that will try to make oxygen

from the carbon dioxide rich atmosphere — a vital technology