this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. as students across england, wales and northern ireland receive their a—level and vocational results — figures show it could be a record year for top grades with me having this i'm now closer than i've ever been to getting what my dream was, to go in the royal air force, so, yeah, i'm one step closer and i'm over the moon that i got the grades i need. but headteachers criticise a process that sees more than a third of a—levels downgraded for some pupils. it seems like there's been some unfairgrading, some downgrading and, yeah, so i'm disappointed. i'm not used to failing.

if you've just got or are about to get your results we'd love to hear from you. are you happy or not with your grades? are you going to appeal based on your mocks results or do you think you might need to take the exams in the autumn? do get in touch at annita—mcveigh on twitter or use #bbcyourquestions. elsewhere: more bad news for the travel industry as tui — the world's biggest travel company — says it's lost over a billion dollars from march tojune. coronavirus cases surge across much of europe — with germany, france and spain all registering a record number of infections. a major study suggests that almost 3.5 million people in england may have already had covid—19 — far more than the 270,000 confirmed cases. investigators are working to identify what caused a train derailment in aberdeenshire in scotland — in which three people died. and coming up this hour — warnings of severe thunderstorms

are in place across much of the uk — after record—setting high temperatures. hello and welcome if you're watching in the uk or around the world 7 and stay with us for the latest news and analysis from here and across the globe. a—level and vocational results in england, wales and northern ireland are being released, amid continuing controversy about how they are being calculated. almost 300,000 teenagers will get their a—level results. grades have been estimated then standardised, after the coronavirus outbreak forced the cancellation of exams. 9% of a—level entries were a* — that's up from 7.8% in 2019 in england.

27.9% were a* and a — that's up from 25.5% last year. about 40% of results will be different, mostly lower, than predicted grades submitted by teachers because of the moderation process. 0n downgrades in the moderation process, 36% of entries in england were downgraded by one grade, compared with grades predicted by teachers. education secretary gavin williamson has said that the "overwhelming majority" of students would know by the end of today if they'd be going to university. and we've just heared that 42% of a—level grades in wales have been downgraded from the scores predicted by schools and colleges. 0ur correspondent dan johnson spoke to the headteacher of a sixth form college in hull, where some students have been upset at their grades.

you can look at the overall data and think on average everyone is passing but the anomalies are not right. abby is a good student and she is inconsistent. that is not looking at the date of the teachers have put forward. it is ok applying on average. i know it is difficult to do this for the government but if you look you surely look at the ability of the students, not last year. it is the time that has had there amount they have had. you can apply on average to a large number of stu d e nts apply on average to a large number of students to a certain extent but you have smaller courses and they don't seem to have done anything with that but i am also seeing anomalies of grades thatjust don't make sense. that is lasting for the rest of their life and that's not right, and abbie is a prime example of many students we have seen this morning who have cried and left here

upset and i have never seen such a negative feeling so that can't be right. what should happen? ithink you are going to see lots of appeals but that leads to a bigger rethink. if you are seeing this across the board it is about the government looking at this properly and seeing what has gone wrong and let's be honest about their son get it right and look at the data again and look at scotland. what has got to happen here? itjust doesn't seem right to me. thank you for your time. it is proving to be a difficult day for some students. there is always that stress and anxiety around getting exa m stress and anxiety around getting exam results but the baby is grades have been calculated we know there would be winners and losers. it is really in the distribution of where that follows that determines whether the system is fair or not and the feeling here seems to be for quite a few stu d e nts feeling here seems to be for quite a few students it has not produced

fair results. with me now is kathy crewe—read — head teacher at wolverhampton grammar school. thank you forjoining us. i am really interested to find out if the results of your students are reflecting what we have been talking about so far today. talking about those top e and a* grades, have more of your pupils got those? no, we have gotte n of your pupils got those? no, we have gotten disappointing results. a significant number of free places the given away to clever children from wolverhampton to celebrate the schools 500th anniversary so they are the cleverest year group we have had for many years through the school and they got brilliant gcse grades and we expected them to go on to get brilliant a—level grades and we predicted 50% of the cohort would

get a* and as we predicted 50% of the cohort would get a*and as and we predicted 50% of the cohort would get a* and as and only 41% got them under the government standardisation so under the government standardisation so really disappointing for us. what the government has sought to do is standardise a—level results nationally to stop grade inflation year on year nationally to stop grade inflation yearon yearand nationally to stop grade inflation year on year and while i understand that a—levels are not about a national level of intelligence, they are about individual success and measure individual students' application of knowledge and skills and today should be about individual stu d e nts and today should be about individual students receiving the results their effo rts students receiving the results their efforts deserve and regrettably that is not the case so there is great confusion i think probably nationally but certainly in my school. this is interesting to hear especially as you are saying you had such a clever cohort of pupils.

looking at what this means for them, in the first instance i'll be looking at lots of appeals, given that you were expecting 56% of your a—level students to get a* or v and 4196 a—level students to get a* or v and 41% dead, are you looking to appeal? regrettably the appeals procedure remains opaque. we knew there were limited grounds on which schools could appeal on behalf of the children and that obviously changed yesterday possibly with the introduction of mark appeals and the government will say they will publish the details next week and next week is too late for young people who today are trying to find out whether or not they have got into the universities of their choice. what are your students being told this morning? presumably they are in touch with ucas. what has the experience been? if there grades are

down one or two, i do not know the exact detail, i'll be seeing that flexibility that we have been told university should be offering? we measure the universities' offers to oui’ measure the universities' offers to our students every year and their generosity has been increasing year on year so generosity has been increasing year on year so historically last year we found that universities accepted stu d e nts found that universities accepted students who had missed by an average of 1.8 grades. we are not seeing any greater generosity than that this year i am afraid and certainly for example our medical and dental students, a couple of them have missed their offers by one great and they have not been accepted, so we are not seeing any greater generosity. that leads me to my next question which is is that to do with the sorts of courses your stu d e nts do with the sorts of courses your students were aiming for? do you think that is the reason for this lack of generosity are not any greater generosity than previous yea rs ? greater generosity than previous years? i don't think that's the

case. i think it is across the board. it's just i was able to exemplify the dental and medical students. what does a student like that to do now? they go through the ucas cleaning process to look for a place or they take a year out and appeal their grades so they have those options. i understand that universities have been asked to hold places for a little bit longer. and i bet that in the times this morning. we are not experiencing that on the ground. students can reset, sorry i mean set for the first time, they are a—levels. reset, sorry i mean set for the first time, they are a—levelslj have made that same slip of the tongue. yes, i understand, do them for the first time. to them for the first time in an autumn session, or appeal and if there grades go up they can reapply next year. but that

isa they can reapply next year. but that is a delay that many people would have been hoping to avoid potentially. it is a shame. i go back to my main point which as it is a disappointing for many children who have not been awarded the grades they deserve by virtue of the hard work and effort they have the turn over the years. on a human level, how disappointed are you today because you've worked so hard with all of these students? i expect they are have been tears and you must be feeling pretty awful about the situation. we want the best for our children. that is why we are in the job. we are not always seeing that. when it doesn't feel fair that is very difficult to rationalise so we are very disappointed. really good to talk to go. thank you for your time. we can speak now to larissa kennedy from the national union of students.

great to have you with us. you must be looking at what is happening and be looking at what is happening and be thankful that when you are applying for university you are not going through all of this because it is really stressful in addition to the regular stresses of waiting for results. thankfully is the last thing i feel today because results. thankfully is the last thing ifeel today because i results. thankfully is the last thing i feel today because i am hearing from countless students, particularly those marginalised, who are seeing their grades downgraded ata are seeing their grades downgraded at a higher rate than their most affluent peers and thinking how is this fairand affluent peers and thinking how is this fair and just add whatever government done? it was interesting listening to the last head teacher. she was talking about how it is a fee—paying school, seven years ago to celebrate the schools 500th anniversary they had given lots of free places to really clever local children who might not otherwise have afforded to go to that school yet their a—level results are way

down on the productions. she says it is deeply unfair. i wonder what the impact is going to be for people trying to make that leap, where they are predicted to get an a* or an egg orabrecitisgoingtobe are predicted to get an a* or an egg or a b r e c it is going to be very difficult. it is difficult but incredibly unfair that the onus is on students to try to fix the situation because several educators have warned the government that while the overall picture of today might be rosy when using then i bet you can see how this is reproducing educational inequality because it is classist and racist. if you are basing it on private school performance you are seeing individuals who what i do not matter and we are seeing a poorer postcode it is ok to downgrade you even if you have put in the work and you

deserve a great have attributed to you. i spoke to the chair of the commons educational committee and he said the appeals process is going to favour the well—heeled and a sharp elbowed. do you think that is the case or a well schools who are teaching children from more deprived communities be able to fight for them to get them where they out to be? i hope they are able to fight for them but i think the onus is on the government to create a fair and free appeals process that is simple and easy to navigate and that is why we launched a petition calling not only for that but also for the government to be redressing the situation by allowing students to use their teacher assessed grades without racist moderation system. do you think there is more universities can do? universities have said they have not been consulted on all of

these changes especially those last—minute ones, but is there more they can do in terms of facilitating pupils know if they have missed their grades by one or two grades and also the practicalities of getting to university? also residents, courses starting later than planned. what can you tell us about that? we are calling on universities to be as flexible as possible but going back to what you have said, universities were not consulted, the government made changes at the 11th hour. educators have been promoted by the late stage of change that is happening and with little to no consultation. it has left us in a situation where the government is throwing all of this up government is throwing all of this up in the air and making it so difficult for those concessions to be made and we regard universities

to recognise how difficult they're says and it is disproportionately impacting students from marginalised communities and we cannot allow first postcode lottery to further entrench educational inequality so we hope that universities recognise that in their processes and systems. thank you. someone says the appeals process is shocking. wording not great is ridiculous. they are out of touch with reality. someone says this is a joke, there are so many people who have been downgraded. i have never had a

have been downgraded. i have never hadab have been downgraded. i have never hada bin have been downgraded. i have never had a b in maths ever. the appeals board will be dealing with lots of appeals. i got considerably lower grades and now i cannot go to my third choice uni or clearing. i am extremely disappointed. lydia says i have received naive level results and was shocked because all of them we re and was shocked because all of them were lower than i have achieved. i will definitely be appealing or even resitting are taking for the first time in the autumn. 0ne grade is four grades lower than what i was predicted. this is very unfair. thank you for getting in touch. that gives us a picture of what is happening. the world's biggest travel company — tui — has said it lost over $1 billion in the third quarter of this year. the tour operator said the losses came after it had to suspend its operations for most of the quarter amid lockdowns to control the spread of coronavirus.

it also said it had been hit by extra costs from the crisis. the travel expert simon calder says the industry is struggling, as people are just not travelling abroad on holiday. a lot of people are seeing we are going to stay at home, no passport required, no quarantine, and we will see what happens next year, and the figures seem to bear that out. there isa figures seem to bear that out. there is a continuing sense of shock among airlines, hotel groups, any organisation dependent on international tourism, about the way so international tourism, about the way so many different bands are being imposed. nobody from europe can travel to the united states on vacation. they might not want to because of the high levels of infection you have been reporting on but they do not even get the opportunity ever since mid—march. we

have been regarded as presenting too much of a threat to the americans. those sorts of bands are multiplied across the world and every time you think things are about to restart in the summer maybe after all quite rewarding for the rehab travel companies and indeed for travellers when the infection rate goes up on the barriers come down and we are back to square one. british holidaymakers in france are waiting to hear if there will be any changes to the uk's quarantine rules. it comes ahead of a weekly review looking at the number of coronavirus infections in different countries. germany, france and spain have all registered a record number of daily coronavirus infections, as paul hawkins reports. germans flying off to spain on holiday. their government says they are part of the reason the country is seeing a rise in coronavirus cases. more than 1200 were reported in germany in the past 2a hours.

so, the government has warned against non—essential trips to parts of spain, but that has not put these tourists off. translation: i said to myself that i could getjust as easily infected in germany! when i get back i plan to get a test done at the airport and then another test, a week later. i think that that will be a safe bet. translation: we are using all the options available to disinfect ourselves. we are going to a finka instead of a hotel. i would have cancelled if we were staying in a hotel but i am relaxed about going toa finka. the only stressful thing is the airport. france is also seeing a rise — 2524 cases in 2a hours — the highest daily rise since lockdown was lifted in may, and that is why the paris marathon, rescheduled for november, has now been cancelled.

like other french cities, it has made face masks compulsory in busy, outdoor areas. spain, meanwhile, is facing the worse coronavirus infection rate in western europe, with 1690 new infections on wednesday. there was also a daily record rise for greece. every increasing number making it more and more difficult to fully reopen society. paul hawkins, bbc news. there've been 1a new cases of coronavirus reported in new zealand — the day after the country's biggest city auckland went back into lockdown. it follows the discovery of four new infected people in auckland earlier this week — the first locally transmitted cases in new zealand for more than three months. the four all belonged to the same family, and thirteen of the new infections have been have been linked back to that family. the fourteenth case was an arrival from overseas. news zealand's prime minister, jacinda ardern, has said she expects her country's outbreak to grow further before slowing down. the findings of the world's largest

home antibody testing programme for coronavirus have been released this morning. the research, by imperial college london, involved 100,000 volunteers across england, using a finger prick test in their own home. let's take a look at what those findings show us. across england, the research suggests that 6% of the population — around 3.4 million people — have been infected with coronavirus. the study also found that 13% of people in london had antibodies against the virus. while in the south west of england, that figure dropped to less than 3%. staying in the uk, a revamped coronavirus contact tracing app begins public trials on the isle of wight today. the app is meant to log when two people's phones are close together for a period of time. if one person is later diagnosed with the virus, the other can be alerted before they show symptoms. it's not yet clear when the app might be rolled out across england. we can get more now on those results that are out this morning

across the uk. for 18—year—olds who've been doing a—level courses or btec qualifications, of course there were no exams this year, so these results and how they've been arrived at is causing some controversy. joining me now is our political correpsondent jonathan blake. we have been getting lots of feedback from teachers and it is not necessarily scientific but there are a lot of unhappy people saying they did not get what they expected to get and it is going to affect their futures. i wonder what the government is seeing and whether their plans to deal with the might unravel. it has been a risk throughout this process leading up to results day that there would be a large number of students who feel

that they have been hard done by, that they have been hard done by, that they have been hard done by, that the great they have received is not a true reflection of their hard work and their ability, and this morning the education secretary for england admitted that there would be some students who do not get a grade which is an accurate reflection of their ability and the work they have put in. the government is saying there is a robust appeals process in place through the school to appeal against the results but there are quite big questions about how that is going to work, how mock exam results will be considered, given the announcement they would be grounds for appeal in some cases, questions about whether appeals can be done in time for students to have their grades revised and potentially get onto the university or courses elsewhere that they wanted to do in the coming academic year. we are going to have to wait and expect to find out how that appeal situation is going to work. in england the

education secretary defended at this morning seeing the standardisation model was necessary to provide checks and balances and if it wasn't there we would have seen what he described as rampant grade inflation. that may be little consolation to those students who have had their grades revised down from the protection given by their teachers and the protection for that is around 40% of students getting their results today. as the results come out it is either celebrated by stu d e nts come out it is either celebrated by students or disappointment followed bya students or disappointment followed by a scramble to see what happens next. this year there is the added uncertainty and for many an added sense of injustice that they are not getting the right results. pressure on the government, gavin williamson this morning said he would not consider doing what happened in scotla nd consider doing what happened in scotland and reverting to the grades predicted by teachers, he said that would be too unfair on students, and

labour are seeing they are not calling for that but they want to see a situation where individual stu d e nts see a situation where individual students can appeal against their results rather than the process as it stands at the moment where schools have to do it on their behalf. the devil will be in the detail and when we hear more about the model used to arrive at students' grades then we may see more criticism of exactly how those grades are worked out. india has overtaken britain to become the country with the fourth— highest number of deaths linked with covid—19, behind the us, brazil and mexico. and experts say it's difficult to know when the country will reach its peak. so, what are the numbers involved? more than 117,000 fatalities linked to infection have now been recorded across the densely—populated nation. that happened after fatalities jumped by 9112 on thursday, according to data collated

byjohns hopkins university. india has also recorded its biggest single—day spike in cases, with almost 70,000 new infections on thursday. that pushed the total number of infections to nearly 2.4 million. as our south asia correspondent rajini vaidyanathan has more. at one of the world's wealthiest temple complexes in south india, they're paying a heavy price. it's been two months since the shrines at tirumala tirupati reopened after lockdown. but, even with strict measures in place, at least 740 staff have tested positive with coronavirus. three have died, including a priest. this temple remains open, despite the outbreak, as places of worship across india welcome visitors again. as the country continues to relax restrictions, markets are packed and streets are busy. so, too, are the country's graveyards. coronavirus deaths continue to rise.

in the world for fatalities. in a country of 1.3 billion, it's still a relatively low death rate. but for every family losing a loved one, there's fresh pain. more than 200 doctors have now died of the virus — 27—year—old joginder chaudhary one of the youngest. seen here at the great wall of china, joginder‘s father, a farmer, borrowed money so his son could study medicine overseas. translation: my son was fearless while on covid duty. he was dedicated to his job. we never imagined he wouldn't survive. he was a covid warrior. and in the fight against covid in india, these are the foot soldiers. an all—female army of health workers, who visit slums and villages. thousands recently went on strike,

calling for proper protective equipment and better wages. their work to track and trace cases is key, as is increased detection. compared with other countries, india's testing rates are low. the country's prime minister, narendra modi, has called on states to ramp up tests, as india works to flatten its upward curve. it's very difficult to say what the trajectory of the epidemic will look like here in india. there are some studies that have shown that substantial proportions of the population in some areas may have already been exposed to the virus, and therefore could have some level of immunity, meaning that the peak could come sooner, rather than later. containing the spread of covid—19 in this densely—populated country continues to be challenging. it's still unclear when india will be past the worst. rajini vaidyanathan, bbc news.

live now to delhi, where we can talk to epidemiologist dr ramanan laximinarayan, who is director for the centre of disease dynamics, economies and policy in delhi. thank forjoining thank for joining us today. thank forjoining us today. how then, i suppose one of the big questions, raised in that report, to get the rate of testing up in india, because presumably that's going to need to happen to actually tackle the disease there? india has ramped up the disease there? india has ramped up testing considerably over the last month from something like 150,000 to 200,000 a day to over 700,000. but the new tests are not as reliable as the gold standard. there is more testing, but not necessarily of the right kind. and there's probably a cap on how many india can do at this point. it is a

large country and it now stands 126th globally in terms of testing. so it is very low on the testing scale. what is the size of the country, how is the size of the country, how is the size of the country, the geography adding to the difficulties? absolutely. most of the spread that is detected comes from urban areas where the testing is available. 0utside from urban areas where the testing is available. outside of the urban areas, testing is not easily accessible and we are under the illusion there is not much transmission there. the studies which show the antibodies. it shows india is undercounting by 50 to a

hundred. so there is only one actual infection being picked up by the testing. does the answer lie in not a centralised response and messaging, but in lots of localised centres to try to control the disease? you know that is beginning to happen. for the first two or three months of the epidemic it was very centrally driven and many questioned whether the federal structure was being risked by having everything coming from new delhi. that is true for some things. but to a large extents the control of epidemic has been handed over to the control of state as ofjune and many of the rules about lockdowns and you know how much to invest in testing, all of these are being made by the states and there is varying capacity of the states to be able to bring together the public health resources together the public health resources to deal with it. that is why you see

variability across the states. how long do you think, it is a difficult question, before india can say that you know it's getting a grip on this virus? i think it's going to be a while yet, because india is a large country and when people look for a peak, they refer to a situation where the case load starts coming down. given india's population and the fact that the disease is protoey much out of —— pretty much of control, as was always expected, because it is a hard country in which to control a disease, it is going to be, i would say, we are still another couple of months from seeing any still another couple of months from seeing any sense still another couple of months from seeing any sense of there being a decrease in numbers at a national level. but that's just how it is right now. thank you.

let's get more now on the a — level and btec results and statistics that have been coming in from around the uk. in england, 36% of entries had a lower grade than teachers predicted and 3% were down two grades — there are concerns the moderation process will mean that disadvantaged pupils will have lost out. helen barnard is acting director of thejoseph rowntree foundation. thank you forjoining us today, this was something that the national union of students was talking about a short while ago, concerns that disadvantaged pupils will suffer in all of this. there has been a lot of public reassurances about this, but do you think that some disadvantaged pupils will have the resources to appeal if they feel the grades aren't justified? appeal if they feel the grades aren'tjustified? we are coming into

this with a massive attainment gap between children from poorer backgrounds and richer backgrounds. they're already half as likely to come out with two a—levels as though from richer backgrounds and this expand that gap. we have already seen younger expand that gap. we have already seen younger people from poorer back grounds less likely to have digital access, grounds less likely to have digital access , a grounds less likely to have digital access, a quiet space to work, and theirfamilies, access, a quiet space to work, and their families, many have access, a quiet space to work, and theirfamilies, many have had to cutback on essentials like food and education supplies. we are entering this with young people being pulled deeper into disadvantage. if you add a system where the schools past results play a big part, young people from poorer back grounds tend to go to schools that don't have good results in the past. there is a concern that if it really hinges on an appeals process that means that children, families and schools have to be putting in a lot of assertive

challenges, navigating a system no one quite understands, if you're in afamily in one quite understands, if you're in a family in a school caught up in deepening poverty, you're going to be less well equipped to navigate that process, as compared to somebody in an area where the essentials are taken care of. a head teacher said the details of this appeals process are opaque, to quote her, at the moment, and time is short, otherwise you're looking at potentially sitting the exams in the autumn, potentially a further delay to go into university, or maybe in the case of some disadvantages stu d e nts the case of some disadvantages students being put off going to university all together. is that a real danger here do you think? i'm sure it will happen for some sadly. we need to remember that all this is compounded by the way our labour market works. if you leave full—time education without good qualifications, you can end up in a

low paid job that doesn't have opportunity for training and progression. there are not that many second chances and opportunities to move up. if you don't come out of this stage of your life with what you need. part of the response should be to really focus in on aduu should be to really focus in on adult skills and fe and better qualityjobs adult skills and fe and better quality jobs that give adult skills and fe and better qualityjobs that give people the chance who didn't get a—levels or university to get back on track to a job that will let them have a decent life and freedom from poverty. talk about your concerns about vocational qualifications, with the job about your concerns about vocational qualifications, with thejob market being difficult to enter at the moment, if students - not getting moment, if students are not getting the btech qualifications, how difficult is it £4 to be for them 5595-5 5; f 535? 53555 55.5 ,, c . c ,, and is the 5595-5 5415 5555 55555 55.5 ,, c . c ,, doing