this is bbc news, with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. more confusion for a—level students and teachers in england, as the exam regulator withdraws its guidance on appealing against grades — hours after publishing it. this isjust unacceptable, in my view. people are, students and teachers are incredibly anxious, particularly the students who are worried about their futures. this has got to be sorted out. this is the scene live in the capital minsk — where thousands of opposition protesters are expected to gather. u nrest unrest growing over the disputed election result of a week ago. thousands of opposition demonstrators are preparing for a

march. president trump pays tribute to his younger brother, robert, who has died in new york aged 71. the wrecked tanker off the coast of mauritius, which has already leaked more than 1000 tonnes of oil, has 110w more than 1000 tonnes of oil, has now split in two. ronnie 0'sullivan ta kes a now split in two. ronnie 0'sullivan takes a three frame lead into the last day of the finals of the world snooker championship, the first indoor sporting event to be allowed a crowd since lockdown was eased in england. hello and welcome. to england first. there's further confusion for school leavers in england as the exams regulator, 0fqual, withdraws its guidance on appealing against a—level grades — just hours after publishing it. the government is facing mounting criticism over its handling of

a—level results, with thousands of students left devastated. neither a—level nor gcse students were able to sit public exams this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. grades were decided using an algorithm that looked at not only how individual students were ranked in ability, but also how well their school or college performed in exams in recent years. it means almost 40% of a—level grades were marked down from teachers‘ predictions. the government has now said it will cover the cost of schools in england appealing against exam grades. but the appeals process has been left confused, following 0fqual‘s decision to withdraw its guidance. jonathan blake reports. students who feel they have been failed by the system. anger at the government's handling of a—level results in england. we want a u—turn like has been done in scotland, where they admitted they were wrong and were sorry and that is what we need as well. we organised this protest today because it is simply not fair. students across the country have

been let down by the system. there is no idea what is going on about the appeal process, and that is my future hanging in the balance. students hoping to appeal against their allocated grades had been given some guidance yesterday on how their mock exam results could be used. but hours after the exams regulator published details on how an appeals based on mock results would work, it was pulled, and late last night a statement from 0fqual said: no reason was given for the decision and the department for education, which had welcomed the guidance, appeared to be unaware of what had happened and why. students getting results without taking exams this year have faced added uncertainty.

now, those who feel they have been unfairly marked down will face further confusion about how to appeal and there will be added pressure on the government over its handling of the whole exams process. jonathan blake, bbc news. let's speak now to james kibble who is the headteacher of salesian school, a comprehensive secondary school in chertsey. thank you very much for being with us, james. this is yet another complication in this already very, very complicated story. as you understand it, what is the effect of the options that the 0fqual presented, as compared to what the government had said to head teachers about the appeal process? yeah, it's the latest chapter in a series of shambolic changes. so the guidance as we understood it, as we very briefly saw it last night, was that

about a third of the grades at our school, for instance, would have been able to be contested, which is about how many had been brought down, because these students would have had mock results which would have had mock results which would have been higher than the grade that had been calculated. so schools will have started working on that last night and this morning, we found out that that had been withdrawn because in the guidance that was produced last night it said it would only ta ke last night it said it would only take effect if it was in line with the ss grade, which was not what was said by the secretary of state on tuesday night. they were in clear contradiction of one another. presumably someone must have spotted that had it drawn to their attention but it had already been published by then. i suppose, but it had already been published by then. isuppose, in but it had already been published by then. i suppose, in a sense, some of this now has become, forgive the phrase, almost academic. we now have

a consensus that people think this process has been unfair, that no one wa nts process has been unfair, that no one wants students to be penalised and therefore a lot of grades will be raised but i suppose it's a consequence from your point of view, the knock—on effect notjust in terms of confidence of young people, which must have been hit, but the scramble to get them to the next stage of either their academic life oi’ stage of either their academic life orjobs or apprenticeships, stage of either their academic life or jobs or apprenticeships, all the options they might be considering, all of them on hold whilst they wait for this process to work its way through? whatever happens now, it is going to lead to further chaos. we either have a situation where we do what's been done in scotland and the centre assessed grades are altered across the board, which would be problematic because they have been over egged in some places. butjust thinking about what that would do to the whole ucas process, we saw towards the end of this week, some universities being very

understanding and flexible and accommodating students and others just cut them off very quickly are not being willing to listen to any stories or show any understanding at all. but students have accepted places at universities that might not be their first choice. i think this is just another unforeseen consequence about what is going to happen. quite frankly, all of this should have been thought through a long time ago. they set up the model, they did some modelling of what that would look like, certain situations and how they could see that it wasn't going to lead to such broad unfairness, i can't possibly imagine. but it is really unacceptable that we have been left in this situation. there are clear groups of students who it hasn't worked for well, particularly high achievers in schools with a comprehensive intake. these are the ones who we have seen first hand really suffering. and that i suppose is really galling from your point of

view as a head teacher, if you feel you have kind of improved children in‘s life chances by working them very ha rd to in‘s life chances by working them very hard to get better grades than perhaps schools have achieved in the past and then those better grades are taken away from you by a computer algorithm, which is compensating for things to do with other pupils not even in this year, may be in previous years because your performance has been assessed over several years. yeah, it's pretty difficult to see exactly how the algorithm works but there is clearly a n the algorithm works but there is clearly an issue with how the prior attainment aspect of it is applied and you can just see by the amount that top grades have gone up in private schools compared to comprehensive maintained schools, state schools, that that clearly doesn't work. having a narrow band of high ability student in smaller cohorts clearly favours some schools. they should have been thought through beforehand. we are

110w thought through beforehand. we are now in this situation, we have the added concern of what happens next week, because, again, it will be just as important and there is even less time to sort it out, students who will be looking to go on to their sixth form or further education courses and a lot of that will be based on offer is based on grades. those children are expecting to start in september. and their english and maths gcse results are really important to them for the rest of their lives. so we are obviously highly concerned about what will happen for children, i'm sure year 11 students watching this u nfold sure year 11 students watching this unfold this week were also worried, apart from the mess of year 13 students. you are right to draw our attention to forthcoming gcse results. james kibble, thank you and good luck for another busy week. thank you very much. the president of belarus is facing another day of protests over last

weekend's disputed election. he was said to have won 80% of the vote but is accused of rigging it and unleashing violent crackdowns against demonstrators. there were noisy scenes outside state television buildings in minsk on saturday with crowds angry that the protests and anti—government viewpoints have been censored. pro—government protesters are gathering for a rally in support of president lukashenko. 0pposition demonstrators in belarus are preparing for their own protest to push for his resignation. mr lukashenko says he's worried about nato military exercises being carried out in poland and lithuania, and has reached a security agreement with russia. many in belarus see this as a threat to shut down the protests by force with help from president putin. the bbc‘s abdujalil abdurasulov is in minsk. this is a rally in support of president lukashenko. the atmosphere here is what we have witnessed in opposition rallies earlier this week. it is quite subdued. we don't hear people chanting and clapping that much and also what is interesting, we have been hearing

reports that set in place where people to come to this meeting. we tried to speak to participants but most refuse to talk to us and turned away for stop at the same time, another rally is taking place in the city, the opposition‘s march for freedom. they call this the most important day for the movement. they are protesting against the violence authorities have used to disperse a crowd. they want a rerun of the vote because they believe the elections we re because they believe the elections were rigged and they say they will not stop coming onto the streets until their demands are met. let's bring in some related bits of information. a line that came out during the course of the last couple of hours, the belarus ambassador to slovakia has declared solidarity with protesters back home. so the first diplomat really to break ranks with the government. whether he is still the ambassador in slovakia as a result of that is not yet clear.

we can also bring you some pictures from minsk of a rally taking place right now. this is a rally of supporters of president alexander lukashenko, the pro—government demonstrators. trying to work out, thatis demonstrators. trying to work out, that is the man himself speaking to them, isn't it? i think i know that moustache. that looks like the president himself. it may not be, i may be completely wrong about that but it looks very strikingly like mr lukashenko. either way, this is a rally of those who back him. the government in previous years has been very successful in getting people onto the streets in support of them. it is something that a lot of them. it is something that a lot of centralised regimes are able to organise when they require them. what is striking, though, in minsk this afternoon and in the course of today and the last seven days, is

the number of protests against the government that have appeared, like this one earlier. i say earlier, it's also now live. this is likely to bea it's also now live. this is likely to be a significant public protest, not least coming on a sunday. more people in a position to be able to go to it. the balloons are part of the mood music, if you like. they are trying to make it a celebratory event because they believe they won the elections with the opposition candidate and for them is a question of carrying through what they people voted for. the government obviously defends the official result. what was interesting is to see the three countries most immediately affected by this, big neighbours, important neighbours, the baltic states, estonia, lithuania, saying this result can't stand and the politics has to change. i was struck on

friday night interviewing the lithuania foreign minister that he used the phrase dictatorship in an interview with me. effectively saying this government has no electoral legitimacy, as good as accusing the government as having lost the election. donald trump's younger brother robert has died in hospital in new york at the age of 71. the president said he mourned roberts death with a heavy heart, calling him his best friend. robert trump, who once said he backed his older sibling 1000%, died in hospital in new york. president trump visited him on friday. on twitter, tributes have been paid. president trump's daughter ivanka said... the former mayor of new york, rudi giulani, says... president trump has warned the united states is not ready for a postal ballot in the november elections, even though many americans are calling for postal

voting in the midst of the pandemic. speaking at a press briefing in newjersey, mr trump said that universal mail—in voting would be catastrophic, without offering an explanation. his critics say he s trying to suppress voters. alanna petroff has the story. the us postal service has a motto. "neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." but, apparently, they may not be so swift for the us election. president trump reiterated this weekend his claims that universal mail—in voting just won't work, after saying on thursday he was blocking additional funding for the service to help with the election. you are going to have a catastrophic situation with universal mail—in votes. he is predicting catastrophe, yet he just appointed a new postmaster general,

who is a big trump donor. he is a fantastic man. he wants to make the post 0ffice great again. did you ever hear the expression? he wants to make the post 0ffice great again. critics have blamed trump's new postmaster general louis dejoy for a slowdown in deliveries. and as the election approaches, protesters took to the street outside dejoy‘s home. there's no safer way for people to vote than to vote by mail. and this administration is actively trying to dismantle that system so that people cannot vote. and that flies in the face of democracy. in addition to these protesters out on the street, people inside the postal service say they are concerned. he wants to suppress the vote, so that people he doesn't think are going to vote for him, he doesn't want them to have the ability to vote. former president barack 0bama echoed this sentiment in a tweet this week,

saying the trump administration is more concerned with suppressing the vote than suppressing the virus. who would have that the underfunded, politically unloved mail service could become so controversial in the year 2020? travellers who are unable to book onto scheduled commercial flights, are turning to private jets to get them home, following the changes to the uk s quarantine list. many charter companies are reported to have had a huge increase in demand, after the government imposed new quarantine restrictions on people entering the uk from france — with one operator, privatefly, saying bookings had trebled. earlier, i spoke to adam twidell — the chief executive of privatefly. i started by asking him if friday was a busy day. yes, it was but this is not that uncommon for private aviation. we tend to always have a surge

in enquiries and bookings when there is disruption to the travel industry. what was it like on friday? presumably these were people who had not expected to need your services, so a lot of them were people approaching you for the first time, presumably? we're talking about quite big sums of money for people, if they wanted to be able to get home? yeah, that has been the general trend since the start of the crisis. private aviation, as ijust mentioned, has been there before to step up when airlines have pilot strikes or the annual air traffic control strikes that we see in france, or when snow and ice closes airports, private aviation steps up and there's often new customers, new passengers using oui’ services for the very first time. but since covid—19 had struck, this has really increased. so normally in the industry, we would see 25% new customers. that's turned on its head and now 75% or more of people

using private aviation are doing so for the very first time. a japanese tanker which ran ajapanese tanker which ran aground ona ajapanese tanker which ran aground on a coral reef in mauritius has split apart. it was carrying nearly 4000 tonnes of fuel when it ran aground in july causing 4000 tonnes of fuel when it ran aground injuly causing a huge oil spill. as the ship breaks up, the remaining fuel is spreading into the waters. gail maclellan reports. already the oil has poisoned fish, birds and coral reef in the pristine water. since the end ofjuly, thousands of tonnes of thick, black, toxic liquid have spilled from the japanese—owned tanker, mv wakashio, into the sea and onto the beaches of mauritius. now a new leak threatens more damage to the environment and to the livelihoods that depend on it, as the ship breaks in half.

there is much anger. the government has been criticised for doing too little in the week after the ship ran aground. environment agencies have demanded to know from the ship's owners why the vessel was allowed to come so close to the shore. the condition of the tanker is expected to deteriorate as the weather worsens, with waves of up to 4.5 metres expected. in recent months, the coronavirus has devastated the tourism on which mauritius relies. the oil spill is a further bitter blow which it's believed will affect the island's economy for decades. gail maclellan, bbc news. let's go back and take a look again at what is happening in minsk. this is asi at what is happening in minsk. this is as i guessed and thankfully as i'm told is correct, that that really is president alexander lukashenko. i was slightly thrown by the fact he had taken off his tie and jacket and looks informal but it isa and jacket and looks informal but it is a very hot day in minsk. as you can say, very passionate words from

him. these i think are pictures of... those look like... again, we have gone back to alexander lukashenko. let me give you some of the lines he has been saying in the course of the speech. the interesting thing about how this is shot, it's hard tojudge how big or otherwise the crowd is. whereas some of the other shots have been much wider. he says that he will not follow foreign orders to hold a new election. he also says tanks and planes have been deployed 15 minutes from the belarus and border from nato. he says nato build—up is taking place on the country does not border. they nato system says this is just border. they nato system says this isjust an border. they nato system says this is just an exercise but there is no doubt that concerns about the stability of belarus and fears that russia might take perceptive action ina russia might take perceptive action in a country that is very much in its orbit might well have encouraged

people at nato headquarters in brussels to just engage in a bit of a display of sabre rattling, if you like. no suggestion they would take direct military intervention but they would hope to rush avoid intervening. to afghanistan now — a high—profile member of the afghan team that's due to hold peace talks with the taliban, has been wounded in a gun—attack near kabul. fawzia koofi is a leading women's rights campaigner and a former member of parliament. the taliban denied they were involved in the incident. jamshayda young has the latest. fawzia koofi has now survived two assasination attempts. the trailblazer rose to prominence as a politician after the us led invasion of afghanistan in 2001. the year the taliban was ousted from power. she served as deputy speaker of afg hanistan‘s parliament. she campaigns for women's rights in a nation considered to be one

of the hardest places in the world to be female. she is part of the negotiation team for afg hanistan‘s peace talks with the taliban, aimed at ending 19 years of conflict. her attackers shot at her outside kabul. her official facebook account said her right arm was injured but it is not life—threatening. her friends spoke out on her behalf, the chief of afghanistan's independent human rights commission called for an investigation. she noted a worrying pattern of targeted attacks that can negatively impact confidence in the peace process with the taliban. the shooting comes as afghanistan's government has been releasing taliban prisoners. some have been accused in connection with horrific attacks. their release was a precondition to peace talks with the taliban. as the negotiation approaches, many have concerns about the protection of women's rights. during taliban rule from 1996—2001,

women were banned from education and leaving the house without a male relative. koofi does not want peace with the taliban to hurt women's standing in society. if they want to be part of the political structures of afghanistan, they have to adapt to the current situation. the upcoming talks have been a long time in the making, women are understandably wary and this latest attack shows how high the stakes are. jamsheda young, bbc news. a search is continuing for two teenagers last seen in the sea near in lancashire in england. the coastguard, rnli and police were called after reports of three youths in difficulty just before 7pm last night. a 15—year—old boy managed to swim to safety, but a 16—year—old and 18—year—old, both believed to be from dewsbury in west yorkshire, are still missing.

a murder investigation is under way following the death of a ten—year—old boy in acton, west london. a woman in her 40s has been arrested on suspicion of murder, police said. scotland yard said police believe they know the identity of the child, who was known to the woman. no one else is being sought in connection with the death. detectives from specialist crime are investigating and a postmortem examination will be arranged in due course. firefighters are still tackling a huge fire in the lake hughes area of california, as record high temperatures continue to fuel wildfires. hundreds of people have been forced from their homes. a surge in household electricity consumption, as people try to keep cool, has also led to localised power cuts. in australia, a man has taken on a great white shark, apparently punching it to save his wife during an attack. chantelle doyle was attacked by a shark, thought to be up to three metres long, while surfing at shelly beach in

port mcquarrie in new south wales. beaches in the area were closed after the incident. staff are monitoring the coastline. you are watching bbc news. and our time for the weather. hello, very cloudy across the uk right now. there are some scattered downpours and we will continue to see the stones over the next few days, really very little change on the weather front. the air has become stagnant and humid ever since the heatwave ended days ago in the south and central areas. we are seeing the same pattern, cloud forming in the south, moved northwards and bringing a threat of showers, downpours and thunderstorms. this is what the picture looks like this evening you

can see where the showers are. some of them are quite small, only a few miles across. 0ne of them are quite small, only a few miles across. one minute it is dry, the next minute the heavens opened, some thunder and lightning thrown in as well. i think there will be a tendency that these downpours to drift northwards as we go through the evening and overnight period. the temperatures overnight once again will be pretty high, 16 in norwich and london, 14 in belfast. that's an indication of how much moisture there is in the atmosphere, when you have a lot of moisture in the atmosphere, the temperatures don't tend to fall away much in the night. the weak low pressure still with us on monday, with the showers oi’ with us on monday, with the showers or threat of showers circle around very ge ntly or threat of showers circle around very gently around the area of low pressure. the winds are so light, not a lot to push things out of the way. we will have to wait before winds ramped up in the atlantic to waft away all of this humid weather, thick clouds and storms. and the weather will change in the coming days but not just weather will change in the coming days but notjust yet. in fact, the

same weapon “— days but notjust yet. in fact, the same weapon —— weather pattern continues on tuesday. you will notice the storms become a little bit more widespread across the north. when i say storms, i mean downpours, rainstorms and thunderstorms now and then as well. wednesday, we see a change. this area of low pressure actually within it mixed in has the remnants of the tropical storm, by then no longer, but it means the weather will be very unpredictable towards the end of the week. just a chance things might briefly warm up in the south—east but overall, unsettled weather at the end of the week.

this is bbc world news,

the headlines. 0pposition protesters in belarus are preparing for another big demonstration as they press for president alexander lukashenko to relinquish power. mr lukashenko says he is going nowhere and says russia has offered security assistance in the case of external military threats. ajapanese tanker that ran aground off the coast of mauritius has split into two. 0ver1000 tonnes of oil has already been spilled. salvage crews are racing to pump the remaining oil off the ship. president trump has defended the head of the us postal service, louis dejoy, who's been accused of slowing down deliveries in order to disrupt postal voting in the november election. robert trump, the younger brother of president trump, has died in hospital in new york at the age of 71. he had suffered a fall.

now on bbc news, click.