this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. growing political pressure on the uk government over a—level grades in england — after almost 40% were downgraded from teacher estimates. here we are on the monday after a—level results worrying there isn't a proper appeals process in place and now worrying there is not enough confidence in the system about gcses. frankly, this is simply unacceptable. in northern ireland the education minister says gcse results there will be based solely on grades provided by teachers — scrapping original plans to take into account schools‘ past performances. more protests are expected in belarus following sunday's huge gathering, to try to force president alexander lukashenko to step down.

the foreign secretary says the uk does not accept the result of the election. new zealand's general election is postponed because of a fresh outbreak of covid—19. millions of self—employed workers in the uk can apply for a second round of grants from today to help support their businesses against the effects of coronavirus. hello, and welcome. if you're watching in the uk or around the world, stay with us for the latest news and analysis from here and across the globe. pressure is growing on the government over exam grades as new analysis suggests a—level

results awarded to students in sixth form colleges in england fell below the average of the past the three years. the sixth form colleges association says its students in england are being treated unfairly. 2completely unfit for purpose" is the verdict on the standardisation model used by the regulator quual, according to the grammar school heads association. it says it's led to utterly baffling results for some students. this morning, northern ireland has decided to award gcse grades on the basis of teacher—assessed grades in order to ease the anxiety of pupils when they're published on thursday. the current situation is simply unacceptable, according to conservative mp stephen hammond who's joined calls to delay publication of gcse results in england. education secretary gavin williamson's position is quickly becoming untenable and the state of play is farcical,

according to the former chief inspector of schools in england, sir michael wilshaw. pupils protested over the weekend after almost 40% of grades in england awarded last week were lower than teachers‘ predictions. this report from charlotte gallagher. the fury over a—level results is not going away. feeling let down, angry and upset, students protest outside westminster. others contacted the bbc directly. i hoped to to come out with three as on results day to study medicine at lancaster university. unfortunately, i only came out with three cs which means i was rejected from both my firm and insurance offers. the grades that my teachers submitted this year for me were a‘, a, a. and had i gotten these, i would have met my offer and gotten into cambridge. however, after standardisation, i received a, a, b, which meant i was rejected. 40% of a—level grades were marked

down from teachers' predictions and, over the weekend, the appeals system plunged into even more uncertainty when guidance for pupils in england was withdrawn within hours by the exams regulator quual. the education secretary gavin williamson has borne the brunt of the anger, but there are now calls for borisjohnson to take charge of a situation widely described as chaotic. we are going into week three of this debacle. we knew about the problem in scotland two weeks ago and last week with a—levels. here we are two or three days away from gcse results day, and the government still has not got a grip on the problem. to penalise students with further delays because of government failure is really hard, and we want action today. grammar school heads and sixth form colleges have joined the growing criticism. the grammar school heads association said the model used by quual

is completely unfit for purpose giving utterly baffling results. sixth form colleges also believe their pupils are being treated unfairly. we looked at 65,000 entries which is almost half of all the a—level entries in sixth form colleges across 41 a—level subjects, every single a—level subject, and in every single one of those 65,000 entries in 41 a—level subjects, they came out lower than the previous three—year average. so the algorithm has failed. gcse results are due out this thursday. the man who introduced the exams says they should be delayed. there will be a massive number of downgrades this thursday, a really great massive number. half—a—million people take maths gcse so you are into numbers of hundreds of thousands complaining that they have been hit. the department for education says it

has been clear it wants to build as much fairness into the appeals process as possible and is working with quual to achieve that. charlotte gallagher, bbc news. with me now is our political correspondent helen catt. how are politicians reacting to the suggestion that the government has been clear and the regulator and apartment are working to get this sorted out. the criticism has certainly been increasing over recent days. we saw this morning outside of the political reaction people like the grammar school heads association weighing in, the former head of ofsted, criticising the way this has been done. we have increasingly seen conservative mps speaking out about the way this has been handled. not a huge number yet but suddenly there is concern behind—the—scenes. some

have been making their concerns public like stephen hammond, conservative backbencher, who suggested perhaps the government could have seen this coming. to find ourselves now on the monday after a—level results wearing there isa after a—level results wearing there is a proper appeals process in place and worrying there is not enough confidence in the system about gcses, frankly, it is simply not acceptable. there is a concern about what this does to the perception of the government's central mission of levelling up, making sure wherever you are in the country, your life chances are equalised. here you have a—level grades been calculated by an algorithm that specifically takes into account where you go to school and how people have previously performed in your area to come up with your grade. there is concern

how that looks in terms of affecting this government mission of levelling up. those not speaking publicly seem to be looking towards the appeals process and checking that will work efficiently. on friday night we heard the government would set up this gold command task force to make sure the appeals system ran smoothly but at the weekend we have had issues with the guidance being put out and withdrawn over what to do with mock exams. that, we are expecting to hear more about that today. there is some distance before confidence in that appeals process will be established. tina isaacs has said more needs to be done. right now what is happening is the public is losing confidence in the system. and it is up to quual which i know is working very hard, it is

up i know is working very hard, it is up to quual and especially the government to try to put in place something that will claw back some of that public confidence. i am afraid it will not be able to claw back all of it. they do seem to be holding firm on the a—level results which have been handed out but later this week we have gcses. i think there will be a lot of lobbying behind the scenes to find out what they do there, particularly now northern ireland has switched to using this system of teacher—assessed grades for gcses. let's speak to our ireland correspondent chris page.

the education minister in northern ireland peter ware has made an important announcement at the effects all of those waiting for gcse results in northern ireland. what proposal is he making? gcse results in northern ireland will in the mainjust be based on the predicted grades given by teachers. there will be no algorithms, no standardisation as mr weir put it. they will just be standardisation as mr weir put it. they willjust be awarded on the basis of what teachers believe each pupil would have got in their gcses should the exams have gone ahead as normal. a very significant announcement from the northern ireland executive and education minister peter weir of the democratic unionist party. he said exceptional time require truly difficult decisions to be made and he said he is conscious for gcses

and like a—levels, there is no system level prior to performance data for that group of young people. in other words, there is no past exa m in other words, there is no past exam performance which can be added in to the process. that is the official reason he is given, is giving for this decision gcse grades will be just be based on predictions. it is clearly controversy predictions. it is clearly c0 ntrove i’sy over predictions. it is clearly controversy over a—levels and a.s. levels must have been uppermost in his mind. this decision will affect all the gcses that are under the sphere of the northern ireland exam body, a very small number of pupils in northern ireland sit exams by other exam boards. that is only about 3%. so 97% of gcses that will be awarded to 16—year—olds in northern ireland this week will be

based on those predicted grades and that alone. chris, thank you very much. interesting to see how other parts of the uk respond to that. i'm joined now by bill watkin, ceo of the sixth form colleges association — a national network of sixth form providers. is it still true as one further education chief executive told me in the west midlands a few years ago that more youngsters study a—levels at sixth form colleges than at schools in england? not overall. sixth form colleges are larger than schools. just over 100 of them. each of them has about 2006th forms. —— sixth formers. you might get several hundred students doing maths a—level, even 1000. they

tend to be high performing, long established traditions of high results with specialist experts in a—levels. the reason we are particularly concerned is it cannot bea particularly concerned is it cannot be a coincidence that all of these hundred colleges have suddenly had a dreadful year. something has gone very wrong clearly. there are two separate but connected issues. one of them is a chasm between the teacher grades and the algorithm grades which the students received on thursday. and the second is the failure of the algorithm to make sure results remain the same year on year which was instruction the designers of the algorithm were given because we wanted to make sure there wasn't grade inflation. we published a study this morning looking at 65,000 entries, a—level exams, over 41 subjects, all of the a—levels that there are, and in

every single one of the 41 subjects, the results this year were lower than the previous three year average. that means that the algorithm has not worked, and the algorithm has not worked, and the algorithm has not worked, and the algorithm has been applied to 97% of all the entries in sixth form is. in other words, 97% of the grade two stu d e nts other words, 97% of the grade two students in sixth form colleges were determined by a computer rather than bya determined by a computer rather than by a teacher which is partly a function of their size. in a small centre, perhaps an independent school, your grades will be determined by the teacher and predictions. because the algorithm could not work with that small number of cases, too little data for it to analyse effectively. that is right. it was deemed not to be statistically reliable enough to work with an algorithm on small numbers. the impact of that is if the

algorithm works, it is no problem. if the algorithm does not work it creates a massive disparity between small and large centres which is what we are experiencing this year. we have got two a point where many people who are not familiar with the details of this have understood something very simple, may be deceptively simple, that the grades awarded to students last thursday we re awarded to students last thursday were wrong broadly, they did not reflect the ability of these students, and they did not properly reflect all the other circumstances that would normally be taken into account in assessing them, and that therefore they will not have the public confidence that is needed for employers and for others to count them. what is the solution to that in your view? the simplest way of resolving this?

the simple way, now we have understood the impact of the problem, now we know how many young people's lives are being damaged by what has happened and their chances of getting to come into employment are lessening by the day, the simplest thing to do is to change the algorithm. we have understood which element of the algorithm was incorrect so we need to recalibrate it and rerun it again immediately, as part of a national institution level automated appeal. colleges do not have the capacity to take on tens or hundreds of thousands of appeals this week. they are busy getting ready to reopen in a pandemic. presumably quual would be overrun any way not enough staff. the exam boards, colleges, the scale of appeals will be unmanageable. but if we can correct the algorithm and

rerun it as part of one appeal, there is only one appeal that needs to be handled. the challenge there is how do you correct an algorithm with very little time. people have been working flat out to correct it. ido been working flat out to correct it. i do understand the error has been identified and they are working on the solution. so it may be that we can pursue this route. if we cannot, then i think we have to go to the teacher predicted grades, centre assessment grades, but that will bring problems of its own because there will be some inequalities because some teachers were more optimistic than others, some were more rigorous. that is human nature. sometimes in english they will have handled it differently. for example a teacher might have taken great ca re a teacher might have taken great care to identify what the grades should be, taken them to the principle of the college or school,

who would have said unfortunately your predictions are not in line with the previous three years, you have to go away and downgrade before we submit them. in other environments, you might find the head teacher or principal would say, great, we will submit grades as you have submitted them and if quual downgrade them so be it. it isa downgrade them so be it. it is a different environment in different institutions. the other thing is if we go with teacher predicted grades, the chances are a lot more young people will meet the requirements for university and won't be able to get in because the university will not have the capacity with student accommodation and number of lecturers to accommodate. a very worrying time for a lot of people involved who want the system to survive even if these particular results do not.

the president of belarus, alexander lu kashenko, says there will be no new presidential election in spite of calls from the opposition and nationwide anti—government protests. a new wave of strikes is under way in belarus to try to force mr lukashenko to step down, including across some of the the country's mainindustries, such as this tractor plant. protesters have booed and jeered as a helicopter left a minsk plant where president lukashenko had been due to visit, presuming he was on board. from her exile in neighbouring lithuania,

let's speak to this presidential candidate. iam i am prepared to take responsibility said the country can get back to normality, release political prisoners, and hold a new round of presidential elections quickly. genuine, fairand presidential elections quickly. genuine, fair and transparent elections that will be accepted without question by the international community. and this morning — the british foreign secretary dominic raab has the called the violence against protesters appalling — and says the uk does not accept the result of last week's election calling it fraudulent. the bbc‘s abdujalil abdurasulov has sent this report. many factories across the country are now going on strike. the workers are demanding president lukashenko leave. they want a rerun of the vote because they believe the elections were rigged and they want

all political prisoners to be released, all detainees who were arrested during the mass protest in belarus, they want them released. what is interesting, state tv employees are also on strike. among their demands, to end censorship and have an objective coverage of the events in belarus. this could be a major blow to what many regard as the propaganda machine of mr lukashenko. let's speak now to natalia denisova, a lawyer from minsk who was arrested and imprisoned after complaining of election fraud. thank you for being with us on bbc news. i am going to ask you about that process in a moment but the first thing i want to ask about is when you saw those pictures of the protests in minsk over the weekend, what did you think of that? i think, very inspired and proud of our people, because they are not afraid any more. everybody is risking their freedom, afraid any more. everybody is risking theirfreedom, their afraid any more. everybody is risking their freedom, their lives.

they can be tortured, imprisoned, but they still come out to demonstrate peacefully what they think they need. and all they need is democracy. we don't need any violence, any blood on the streets. all we need is honest elections. you say we don't need any more blood, can i put to you what president lukashenko has said, is said to have told workers at a tractor plant, there is some debate whether he actually was able to speak to them or left without speaking, that will become clearer later perhaps. the quote from reuters is, we had elections already. until you kill me, there will be no other elections. we don't want to kill each other, we just want him to leave, and we want democracy and honest elections. we do not want blood and violence. is it in your view down to the president to avoid that outcome? i hope we will be able to avoid this

because we are normal people. we don't want anybody to be killed any more. you had the very frightening expense of being detained and detained for questioning, intimidated. what was the worst moment for you? for me, the worst moment was when i was made to stand twice naked in front of the lady who made a search of me. she made me stay naked several times as a kind of pressure. this is my personal experience. i know i was lucky. i wasn't beaten. i wasn't tortured. because one of the girls who was sitting with me in the same prison cell was sent again to

the biggest prison in minsk, and she told me she was released yesterday that at night she heard men screaming horribly, they were tortured, and the whole corridor, the floor on the corridor was covered with blood and you're in. so, for me, everything was fine. i was humiliated, of course, but it was humiliated, of course, but it was a bad thing as happened to other people. there are a lot of people who are inside prisons right now who are being tortured right now. one of my colleagues was arrested a couple of days ago. he was just a monitor at the polling station. and he was accused of organising civil disorder. and this is a crime. and he faces now up to 15 years of

imprisonment. that is awful. personally, i am scared. i am hiding now, iam not personally, i am scared. i am hiding now, i am not at home, i am personally, i am scared. i am hiding now, iam not at home, iam not personally, i am scared. i am hiding now, i am not at home, i am not with my little boy. so i am scared. yesterday, i was out, i participated in this demonstration, and i really hope the situation will improve. iam sure hope the situation will improve. i am sure we all do as well, i hope for you and your country. thank you very much for being with us on bbc news. i very much hope you get to see your little boy again very soon. thank you. let's return to our main story this hour — pressure is mounting on the government to change the way a—level grades have been calculated in england — after exams were cancelled due to coronavirus. we can speak to the conservative mp robert halfon — who is also chair of

the education select committee. good morning, welcome to bbc news. you were interviewed at the weekend and talked about the importance of clarity and speed. monday morning has arrived. we have had guidance on the process of appeals issued and then withdrawn. we haven't seen or heard from the education secretary in the last few days, in terms of interviews. he has done articles in newspapers on schools reopening. what would you like to hear from the government today? i would like to hear from government today? i would like to hearfrom both government today? i would like to hear from both the government and quual, the independent regulator, what will happen, how the appeals system should work. we need a very fair and wide appeals system. it is simple, it gets young people back on the ladder of opportunity. every young person who feels there grades are unfair should be able to appeal providing it is signed off by the

head teacher. and the government and quual have to guarantee a fast turnaround. quual also should be going around to schools and colleges explaining their algorithm. they are behaving like cardinals at the vatican shrouded in secrecy. we know from a leak to the daily telegraph the quual board themselves are considering scrapping the algorithm. ijust think this considering scrapping the algorithm. i just think this is a shambles. what on earth has gone on? we urged in our select committee report in earlyjuly quual in our select committee report in early july quual published in our select committee report in earlyjuly quual published its standardisation model, the algorithms, so they could be subject to scrutiny. we urged for a wider appeal system. none of that has happened. we need a decision in the next 2a hours to help thousands of stu d e nts next 2a hours to help thousands of students across the country. we have heard from our interviewee there is a straightforward thing, they think they have found the

problem with the algorithm, if that algorithm is fixed, you could have what he described as one national appeal, one single national appeal, you rerun the results again and see what comes out come and give those results, assuming the algorithm has been fixed, to students, to replace their results. if you have an appeal system there is every chance it will be overwhelmed by numbers. it is very sad that sixth form couege it is very sad that sixth form college is and further education colleges have been penalised by the system. they have been massively improving in recent years. we should remember this isn'tjust improving in recent years. we should remember this isn't just about a—levels but btec qualifications as well. i am not an expert in algorithms. i do not know whether it will help situation or not. it will

lead to continued delay. but it might be the right solution. this is why the government needs to set out with quual what on earth is going to happen. we have had very little over the last couple of days. quual by putting stuff on their website, then taking it down hours later, by having board minutes it they want to scrap the algorithm, it sews confusion for thousands of pupils and schools across the country. we need to know for sure whether the algorithm will work properly for gcses on thursday. a number of people have talked this morning about the danger of a com plete morning about the danger of a complete loss of public confidence in the education system, exam system. in the end the leadership you are talking about really has to come from government because regulators may be the people who do

the immediate work, but it is like civil servants, we don't expect them to give us leadership and speak publicly, that is what we elect politicians to do and prime ministers and ministers to do. those people seem to have been invisible in the last 48—hour is. what i would like to see happen in this case, the government and the independent regulator, is to get it together urgently and set out what is going to happen. i think that the prime minister needs to set out a long—term plan for education. i welcome the extra funding that has been announced but this has been a national disaster, notjust the exam situation, but the way millions of children have not learned hardly anything during lockdown. we need a long—term plan for education. the

government has been focused understandably on priorities of the health of the nation and the economy but education is as important. it is the engine of social mobility and addresses social injustice and gives young people a chance to climb that ladder. it must be a priority. we need to make sure nothing like this happens again and the government have to be clear with quual what their plans are. briefly, we have learned one thing, and students have learned one thing, you can't trust exam results. well, i think you should trust exam results but the issue has been that there has been some kafka—esque algorithm and unless you have the brain ofa algorithm and unless you have the brain of a planet it's difficult to figure out exactly how it works. quual have published some data but they are secretive, their communication has been appalling and

they should have been reassuring schools across the country and we shouldn't see board minutes suggesting that they want to scrap the whole algorithm they created in the whole algorithm they created in the first place. this is really unacceptable from the regulator. robert halfon mp, chairman of the all—party commons select committee on education, thank you for being with us on bbc news. here in the uk — millions of self—employed people whose trade has been hit by coronavirus can now apply for a second support grant from the government. more than three million people may be eligible for the payment of up to £6,570 each, which chancellor rishi sunak said would be the final hand—out. the first grant, launched in may, saw £7.8 billion claimed by 2.7 million people. i can now speak to derek cribb who's the chief executive of the association of independent professionals and the self—employed.

thank you for being with us today on bbc news. are you pleased that there is going to be a potential second payment depending on people's individual cases? yes, we were very pleased in the first instance when the chancellor and government listen to us about providing self—employed income support was not getting the figures, it was well taken up in the first round. but we are also very concerned, there was a huge gap in people who are self—employed but we re people who are self—employed but were not supported so of the 5 million self—employed there's about a third that the were not eligible for support. whether that's through the fact they only recently became self—employed, they were working at home through a limited company. so one in three south point people haven't been helped through the coronavirus and that's one of the biggest crises we have seen in terms of self—employed numbers are. biggest crises we have seen in terms

of self-employed numbers are. in the second quarter of 2020, from your own organisation's numbers can be found in average income drop of 25%. that's the average, so there will be people who presumably saw their income fall considerably more than 25%. absolutely. we have a large number of stories of people who have been good, ha rd—working, self—employed taxpayers for ten or 20 years, paying into the coffers of the chancellor, and here comes the crisis and something like 50% of limited companies, of self—employed limited companies, of self—employed limited companies, of self—employed limited companies, are looking at closing down and are expecting to close down because of the coronavirus crisis and because the government, for reasons when they say they can't identify dividend payments individually against investment, they say it's impossible to support them. it's been quite awhile that this has been going on, this coronavirus. it's surprising they haven't found a way around it to support these people. in terms of

the practicalities of this, in claiming this payment, what do people have to do? people will be contacted people have to do? people will be co nta cted by people have to do? people will be contacted by the regulators and at that point it's important to have the right details available to you, make sure you have your taxpayer reference number, and bank account details. it should be pretty simple to claim and we were quite impressed less time with the speed at which the revenue service got payments out to people. i was struck talking to taxi drivers in london, black cab drivers, who were taking me to work late at night or early in the morning saying they had also been surprised with how quickly they had got the money, pleasantly surprised, and how much of a life—saver it had been. people obviously have a bit of a better chance to sort themselves, but it won't come as the same shock as it came to them. what do we need to do to ensure, in your view, that this whole experience doesn't put

people off becoming self—employed because the government has been keen to encourage people to become self—employed and the numbers have been significant but this could presumably have a really quite chilling effect. absolutely. a quarter of a million people fell out of self—employment in the second quarter of this year and that's a vast number. a lot of that is down to the lack of support. you mentioned that the chancellor has been clear that this is the last tranche of support the self—employed will get but many are forecasting a peak or second wave over christmas and into the new year. this second tranche of support only goes into october so it is grim times was that even those eligible for support, that's only two thirds of the self—employed, will potentially see a devastating run—up to christmas and the new year. there was only recently self—employed, working with limited companies, they have no at all. chief executive of the association of independents,

professionals and the southern point, thank you. —— and the self—employed. for people living in abusive relationships, lockdown made it not just harder for them to leave, but for many it also meant the violence got worse. that's according to the first in—depth research about the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the scale and nature of domestic abuse. it was carried out by the charity women's aid for panorama. victoria derbyshire reports. this isjess. for years her husband had been abusive to her, but when lockdown was announced, things got worse. and that stay—at—home message, what did that mean to you? seriously? yeah.

the charity women's aid have been working on the first in—depth research about the impact of lockdown on domestic abuse for panorama. of the people they spoke to, almost two thirds of those living with an abuser said the violence had got worse. more than three quarters of women said lockdown had made it harderfor them to escape. jess got out, and to a place of safety, but finding a room in refuge was harder than ever during lockdown. there were 1100 fewer available beds, a drop of 42% compared to the same time last year. is it likely she is going to be accepted, or...? marie williamson manages this refuge in london. marie's desperately trying to find the woman and her children a bed in an alternative refuge after their whereabouts were mistakenly revealed

by a third party. i have had five refuges out of the seven refuges that were available, and they have all declined. i am going to ring up one other and after that i've got no other options. 19 days after lockdown began, the government announced it would give an additional £2 million to domestic abuse helplines. the timing was dreadful. it should not have taken 19 days to mobilise any sort of action. what it highlights is that it wasn't a priority for the government. it's a poor effort. were you too slow to act? i don't think we were because when we were talking to charities in the very, very earliest days, we were very much responding. we said to them, what do you need for us to help. can i tell you how many people were killed in an alleged domestic abuse cases in the three weeks between lockdown and when that announcement was made for 2 million for the helplines? it was 11 women and two

children and one man. in those three weeks. the charities, the police, we all work incredibly hard to keep victims and survivors, but we must never take attention away from the fact that it is abusive people who committed those murders. victoria derbyshire, bbc news. and you can watch panorama, escaping my abuser, with victoria derbyshire, tonight at 7:30pm on bbc one. the uk's population is ageing — and in the future there will be more older people, and a higher proportion of those will be childless. according to the new report from the office for national statistics, because adult children are the most common providers of informal social care to their elderly parents, there's likely to be an increase in demand for paid—for care.

we can discuss the wider implications of this with ruthe isden, head of health influencing at the charity age uk. thank you for being with us on bbc news. it won't come as a great surprise to anybody that there are going to be more older people in this country in coming years and we know about a decline in the number of people having big families. but it's one of the things a lot of people haven't thought about, the consequences for the next generation, as it were, of older people, people of our age now, who might have thought, of course there will be lots of young people around to help with care and all the rest of it but it might not be the case. i think it certainly has extremely profound implications, particularly for the social care system, as you highlighted. the system we have got already is profoundly unfit for purpose. it is extremely threadbare and it relies very, very heavily on

informal carers, often, as you say, aduu informal carers, often, as you say, adult children, but equally often, partners, often older people themselves, to deliver both hands on ca re themselves, to deliver both hands on care and also a hidden part of this which we often don't see or talk about, is just how much bureaucracy is associated with the system, how much is managing paperwork, filling in forms, chasing up referrals and appointments and that usually falls to informal carers. for a growing number of older people who don't have that kind of support, we have to think very carefully about how we will not just provide to think very carefully about how we will notjust provide practical hands—on care but how we will safeguard them and ensure all of thatis safeguard them and ensure all of that is managed in a much less complex way than we currently ask people to do. it is difficult because we are trying, as always with these things, predicts the future. it will never be exactly as the statistical model suggested for all kinds of reasons. nobody would have factored in a pandemic for

example this year which will have implications for the size of the population and distribution of population, never mind all those people who might have been planning families and put it off this year, all those effects which might be small but might grow over time. what do you think is the biggest policy challenge for government?” do you think is the biggest policy challenge for government? i think probably the biggest policy challenges around social care because it relies incredibly heavily on families and informal carers to pick up the slack of a system that is unfit for purpose and in crisis. we need a system that is much more holistic, simpler to navigate, much easierfor people to holistic, simpler to navigate, much easier for people to get the help they need and doesn't rely on people fighting battles and assessments and all those sorts of things who people who know the system are engaged with. but it will have wider implications for our society as well, around employment, housing and all sorts of things, if we have a growing number of older people then we will have to adapt to make sure they can continue to live their lives as they want to stop what it

might mean building more ground floor flats and bungalows and that sort of thing which has invocations for the planning process as well, presumably in terms of providing services close to people. when you start to unpick it, it's a big change to the way society operates and often those changes over the centuries have happened gradually but because of technology and all the other things, all of this has to happen that much quicker. the other things, all of this has to happen that much quickenm the other things, all of this has to happen that much quicker. it does, and it has implications for the health system as well. we have to very rapidly move from a service that was set up and designed around chronic and urgent care to one that is much more around managing long term conditions and frailties with people coming to the end of their life. and housing, as we say. an ageing society, on one level it's not a surprise, we have known it has been happening for decades but in the overall context of human change it is happening quite quickly to a lot of societies in europe and asia and it's across the whole world,

really. we will have to adapt a lot of the way we live and think and have to abandon some of those traditional ideas that perhaps have underpinned the way we perceive some public services, about what the family responsibility might be, and that's often what people fall back on in the context of social care. we hearagain and again on in the context of social care. we hear again and again in conversations that families must do more but they are already doing everything they can and in the future we will have to get to grips with the fact that there will be fewerfamilies with the fact that there will be fewer families around to do it. those are the facts of the matter and we have to engage with that. head of health influencing at age uk, thank you for being with us. i hope we will speak about this story a lot in the coming years. to the us now, where house speaker nancy pelosi is arranging for a vote in congress later this week on legislation to protect the postal service. ms pelosi has accused president trump of a "campaign to sabotage the election" and her democratic party is looking to unwind recent changes which they say could hamper postal voting in november's presidential election. alanna petroff has the story.

banjo playing and singing. # to not deliver us mail should be against the law #. cheering. it's come to this. a musical protest about the post office. demonstrators gathered outside the home of the new postmaster general, louis de joy, for another day of dissent. de joy, recently appointed to the role, is a big trump donor. his costcutting moves at the cash—strapped postal service have slowed down mail delivery. i was overseas and i cast my vote by mail—in ballot! protesters worried dejoy‘s changes will hinder mail—in voting during the 2020 presidential election. voting by mail is especially important this year. many americans will want to avoid busy polling stations to cut down on the risk of catching the coronavirus.

president trump isn't a fan of voting by mail. he's warned of potential voter fraud — without proof — and he says he's blocking billions of additionalfunding for the postal service which democrats want to deliver a fair election. you are going to have a catastrophic situation with universal mail—in votes. members of the democratic party accused the president of trying to suppress votes. he says he wants to slow down the mail to hurt the elections and make people doubt the results of the election. maybe he's worried he's going to lose, it doesn't matter. our elections are sacred. men and women have died for them and the right to vote, and to do this is disgraceful. democratic presidential contender joe biden recently tweeted this...

democrats believe the leaders of the us postal service have some explaining to do. the us house of representatives is calling on top figures in the postal service to testify at an emergency hearing on august 24th. they specifically want to hearfrom this man, the postmaster general himself. the us postal service has a long—time motto about making swift deliveries, despite snow and rain. voters will be hoping that even with financial difficulties and polarising politics, the postal service will stick to its motto and make sure every vote gets through and gets counted. alanna petroff, bbc news. a rare fire tornado — or "firenado" — warning has been issued in california due to wildfires burning

near the nevada border. record high temperatures in the western united states have fuelled dozens of dangerous wildfires. a surge in household electricity consumption, owing to the heat has led to localised power outages. hundreds of residents have been forced from their homes north of los angeles. one of the biggest fires, recorded in the state of colorado, has burnt up an area of more than 100 square kilometres. and they will prove quite difficult to extinguish if they are erupting in this way. traditionally the united states, a lot of criticism of the electric system in the united states particularly in states with long power lines running from communities. some breaking news from

the european union, from the president of the european council, the organisation that represents the member countries, the former belgian prime minister. john michelle says the eu will hold an emergency video summit wednesday of this week, to discuss latest of elements in belarus. belarus is one country where the eu has tried to partner with and there is real anxiety about the stability of belarus so the eu will discuss that with a video conference involving different leaders of the 27 member organisations on wednesday. new zealand has announced it will delay its general election by four weeks because of a fresh coronavirus outbreak. the prime ministerjacinda ardern says the poll will be moved from mid—september to october 17th. the main opposition party supports the move. jacinda ardern says parliament

will reconvene on tuesday to set out a new timetable for the campaign. australia has seen its deadliest day of the coronavirus pandemic after the state of victoria recorded 25 deaths in 2a hours. victoria's previous daily record was 21, recorded last wednesday. there were 282 confirmed cases in the state in the past 2a hours. losing a child is the most difficult thing a parent can face. but for two mothers who have had to endure this tragedy, it has brought them together in a unique friendship. harry dunn and pc andrew harper were killed just 12 days apart. now, their mums charlotte and deborah have turned to one another for support, and even discovered that their boys shared a birthday. graham satchell has been to talk to them. the pain is too much, i know. and some days i think i'm coping. then it's like a bullet in my chest and it burns

and the reality is just so bad. i'm sorry you too probably feel exactly that. our precious boys — weird to say but i feel so sad for us both. thank you for such a heartfelt message. we're both suffering the loss of a precious son that nothing can replace. i feel i'm never going to be the person i was. but aim to build the person i am becoming through such horrific loss and heartbreak. the first messages of two mothers bound together by the loss of a son. pc andrew harper's mother, debbie, and harry dunn's mum, charlotte, have formed a remarkable bond. you're very careful... with how much you let others see. but when you know that you've got somebody... that's equally broken inside, it's easier. it's priceless. charlotte's son harry died

when the motorbike he was riding was hit head—on by anne sacoolas, who was allegedly driving on the wrong side of the road. ms sacoolas, the wife of an american intelligence officer, claimed diplomatic immunity and left the country. debbie's son andrew harper was killed in the line of duty. after attempting to make an arrest he was dragged behind a carfor almost a mile. you wake up and it's on your mind. before you've woken up it's already there. there's no waking up in the morning thinking, "ah..." and then, "oh. you know, there's nothing that breaks it. it's 24/7. you know, 2a hours a day it's in your mind. the burning chest feeling for me isjust really, you know, something that you've understood, isn't it? you know, to try and explain it to somebody else... you know, i can be in a shop and all of a sudden i've got to leave that shop because the feeling comes, itjust takes you, takes you down and you need to just leave. it's just the physical pain that you feel all day, every day.

and it doesn't... it just doesn't go away. both women have turned the pain of losing a son into campaigning. debbie is fighting for andrew's law — it would mean an automatic 20—year sentence for anyone convicted of killing a police officer. charlotte wants anne sacoolas, who's been charged with causing death by dangerous driving, to go through the british justice system. to take on your government and the american government, you know, it's larger than enormous — it's a monster. and she's just kept going. but as i know, you keep going for your boy and that drives you. if you weren't doing it for that reason, you wouldn't do it. it's one thing managing to cope and get through your day. but i think what we're both hoping is our campaigns will be able to help us to learn to actually live again. campaigning has kept both women going — they say they'll never give up. but debbie and charlotte

are still haunted by the horrific ways they lost their sons. obviously with andrew, he was 99% unconscious at the very first when he went down. but that 1% becomes enormous in the middle of the night when you're feeling so sad. you feel their pain and you feel guilty that you weren't with them. and you'd do anything you could... as horrific as it may have been, to have just been there and held their hand and let them know that... even though they would have still died, that you were there to comfort them. and we both had that taken from us. that was robbed. debbie and charlotte will continue to support each other, continue to fight for their boys.

graham satchell, bbc news. you are watching bbc news. now it's time for a look at the weather with carol kirkwood. yesterday we had issues with flash flooding across parts of east anglia, the midlands and lincolnshire, to name three places. there was also a report of a water spout in the bristol channel. today, further thundery downpours in the forecast that could lead to flash flooding. there will be sunshine in between. this area of cloud in the satellite picture has produced that rain and is still doing so. as we go through the day, the rain moves out of northern england and turns more showery across scotland and northern ireland but here too we will see heavy bursts at times with thunder and lightning and it will curl in through wales. for the rest of england and the rest of wales, sunny spells but also some heavy, thundery downpours with large hail

and gusty wind that could lead to some localised flooding. another humid day, perhaps warmer across the north—east of england. heading through the evening and overnight, starting with showers, many of them fading but we'll hang on to them in western areas. mist and murk and low cloud across eastern scotland in particular. temperatures falling to 12—15. tomorrow we could hang onto low cloud, mist and murk across parts of eastern scotland across for much of the day. more sunshine around tomorrow than today. it will not feel as humid but we will see further showers develop and some of those will be heavy on thundery with the potential that they could lead to some issues. temperatures of 16—23. moving into wednesday, you can see the remnants of the weather front across the north but another one coming in across the south—west. look at the isobars, it will turn windier. the weather front producing a lot of rain and ahead of it it will be a dry and even bright start

with some sunshine but then the rain will pile in from the southwest and drift north—east through the course of the day. gusty wind, quite strong with temperatures between 16 in the north and 22 in the south. feeling humid again. into thursday, with a weather front pushing into the north of scotland before eventually clearing. dry weather with some showers but something else coming in from the west and the wind picking up as well with top temperatures getting up to 25.

this is bbc news withjoanna gosling with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. there's growing pressure on the uk government over a—level exam grades in england — after almost 40% were downgraded from teacher‘ estimates. this has been a disaster, notjust from the exams but also that children have hardly learned anything during the lockdown. in northern ireland the education minister says gcse exam results there will be based solely on grades provided by teachers — scrapping original

plans to take into account schools‘ past performances. the eu will hold an emergency summit, after a new wave of strikes in belarus to try to force president alexander lukashenko to step down. new zealand‘s general election is postponed because of a fresh outbreak of covid—19. millions of self—employed workers in the uk can apply for a second round of grants from today, to help support their businesses against the effects of coronavirus. and coming up... thousands of people have bought puppies to help cope during lockdown — but the kennel club is urging people to do their research before becoming a dog owner. hello and welcome if you re watching in the uk or around the world ? and stay with us for the latest news and analysis from here and across the globe.

the head of an influential house of commons select committee has called on the uk‘s prime minister to set out a plan to sort out what he called the "shambles" surrounding a—level grades. it comes as new analysis suggests a—level results awarded to students in sixth form colleges in england fell below the average of the past the three years. the sixth form colleges association says its students in england are being treated unfairly. grammar school heads have denounced as "completely unfit for purpose" the standardisation model used by the regulator, quual. it says it‘s led to utterly baffling results for some students. this morning, northern ireland has decided to award gcse grades on the basis of teacher—assessed grades, in order to ease the anxiety of pupils when they‘re published on thursday. the chair of the education select committ, robert halfon, described the overall situation as "a national disaster" and called on borisjohnson to set out a long term plan and be clear about what is going to happen. the uk education

secretary gavin williamson‘s position is quickly becoming untenable and the state of play is "farcical", sir michael wilshaw. pupils protested over the weekend after almost 40% of grades in england awarded last week were lower than teachers‘ predictions. this report from charlotte gallagher. the fury over a—level results is not going away. feeling let down, angry and upset, students protest outside westminster. others contacted the bbc directly. i hoped to come out with three as on results day to study medicine at lancaster university. unfortunately, i only came out with three cs which means i was rejected from both my firm and insurance offers. the grades that my teachers submitted this year for me were a‘, a, a. and had i gotten these, i would have met my offer and gotten into cambridge. however, after standardisation, i received a, a, b, which meant i was rejected.

40% of a—level grades were marked down from teachers‘ predictions and, over the weekend, the appeals system plunged into even more uncertainty when guidance for pupils in england was withdrawn within hours by the exams regulator quual. the education secretary gavin williamson has borne the brunt of the anger, but there are now calls for borisjohnson to take charge of a situation widely described as chaotic. we are going into week three of this debacle. we knew about the problem in scotland two weeks ago and last week with a—levels. here we are two or three days away from gcse results day, and the government still has not got a grip on the problem. to penalise students with further delays because of government failure is really hard, and we want action today. grammar school heads and sixth form colleges have joined the growing criticism. the grammar school heads association said the model used by quual

is completely unfit for purpose giving utterly baffling results. sixth form colleges also believe their pupils are being treated unfairly. we looked at 65,000 entries which is almost half of all the a—level entries in sixth form colleges across 41 a—level subjects, every single a—level subject, and in every single one of those 65,000 entries in 41 a—level subjects, they came out lower than the previous three—year average. so the algorithm has failed. gcse results are due out this thursday. the man who introduced the exams it says they should be delayed. there will be a massive number of downgrades this thursday, a really great massive number. half—a—million people take maths gcse so you are into numbers of hundreds of thousands complaining that they have been hit. the department for education says it has been clear it wants to build

as much fairness into the appeals process as possible and is working with quual to achieve that. charlotte gallagher, bbc news. and in the last few minutes — cabinet office minister penny mordaunt has tweeted, this group of young people have lost out on so much already, we must ensure that bright, capable students can progress on their next step. delaying a year won t be an option, and it shouldn t be an option. for many it will mean falling out of education. i have also made my views on gcse results known to dfe. will be posting updates later today. with me now is our political correspondent helen catt. this is an extraordinary level of pressure on the government notjust on political opponents but on those

pressure has been growing over the weekend and this morning we‘ve seen those comments from the sixth form couege those comments from the sixth form college education and the grammar school association and the former head of ofsted saying it was time to return to teacher assessments that pressure has been growing. we have also seen an increasing number of conservative mps growing who are willing to come out and publicly criticise this system. earlier robert halfon who is the chair of the education select committee described it as a national disaster and he also took aim at the regulator, quual at the moment they are behaving like cardinals at the vatican, shrouded in secrecy. we now know from a leak to the daily telegraph that the quual board themselves are considering scrapping themselves are considering scrapping the algorithm. this is a shambles. we advised in a report in earlyjuly

that quual published the standardisation model, the algorithms so they could be subject to scrutiny. some none of these things happened and we need a decision in the next 2a hours. the same for thousands of students across the country. what might he also said we needed to be sure whether the algorithm would work for gcse students on thursday because thatis gcse students on thursday because that is the big worry. more children ta ke that is the big worry. more children take gcse than a level so what is coming on thursday could be much bigger. the government is sticking by the system under department for education spokesman said students have received a calculated grade which will allow them to progress to the next stage of their education and they wanted to build in as much fairness into the appeals process as possible. over the weekend we heard nick gibb the schools minister will head up the task force to make sure appeals ahead swiftly. we also saw publication of the guidance which

was then unpublished. we are waiting for the new version of that by quual. professor tina isaacs said there was more to do to build confidence. right now what is happening is the public is losing confidence in the system. and it is up to quual which i know has worked very hard, it is up to quual and especially the government to try to put in place something that will claw back some of that public confidence. i am afraid it will not be able to claw back all of it. when the government talks about fairness and equality effectively across the system, scotland has already said it is going to teacher assess grades and northern ireland has said it will do that for gcses. we do not know what wales will do but when there is already disparity, how could that be equal? that is one of the question that has been asked and while there has been a lot of criticism of quual and the algorithm they designed there will

be questions asked of ministers why they did not spot the politics of they did not spot the politics of the situation. by using an algorithm that specifically ties somebody‘s grace of the previous historic treatment of the school and therefore where they live by that could be problematic particularly for a government that has made a really big thing about this idea of what the call levelling up, increasing life chances across the conservative backbenches that the question will be asked of ministers why they did not pick that up. northern ireland has said it would use teacher—assessed estimates for gcse results this week. our correspondent robbie meredith is in belfast. tell us more about what has been said because the grades for the a—levels are not affected. said because the grades for the a-levels are not affected. that's right. this morning the education minister made quite an intervention when it came to gcses. he said we are going to go back to what are called the centre assess grades, effectively the grades that were

predicted by schools for the gcse results that are going to be given to northern irish pupils this thursday. at least there is certainty there. we know that will lead to a massive spike in results that will go up but a lot of teachers feel that given the circumstances that is fair. they also say they have put a lot of time and effort into that process so they are confident the grades that children get this thursday in northern ireland at gcse will be robust. the problem is we are sticking by the system that is because so much controversy over sticking by the system that is because so much controversy over a and a.s. level. the education minister here, peter weir, says that is because there is much more concentration on previous performance in school and exams when it comes to awarding grades so for now we are still sticking with that system where schools provide results to our exam board and they standardise a moderated those results using the system that has become so controversial and that is what the a—level and as results will

be based on but it is all change for gcse and i expect that will have ramifications in england and wales as well. we will have more reaction to the exam situation a little later. the president of belarus, alexander lu kashenko, says there will be no new presidential election in spite of calls from the opposition and nationwide anti—government protests. a new wave of strikes is underway in belarus to try to force mr lukashenko to step down. workers at this car factory in minsk

shouted at him. earlier he had said he would not postpone elections despite process they had been read. protesters have booed and jeered as a helicopter left a minsk plant where president lukashenko had been due to visit, presuming he was on board. from her exile in neighbouring lithuania, presidential candidate svetla na tsikhanouskaya has released this appeal to her supporters. and this morning genuine and fearand genuine and fear and transparent elections that will be accepted without question by the international community.

and this morning the british foreign secretary, dominc rabb, has the called the violence against protestors appalling and says the uk does not accept the result of last week‘s election calling it ‘fraudulent. the bbc‘s abdujalil abdurasulov reports from the capital minsk. many factories across the country are now going on strike. the workers are demanding president lukashenko leave. they want a rerun of the vote because they believe the elections were rigged and they want all political prisoners to be released and detainees who were arrested during the mass protest in belarus, they want them released. this includes a factory which makes potassium and the belarus tractor plant. today he went to one of the factories to meet the workers there and convince them to end their strike. what is interesting, state tv employees are also on strike.

among their demands, to end censorship on tv and have an objective coverage of the events in belarus. it is hard to imagine how we can continue ruling the country because his image is shattered after seeing hundreds of thousands people on the streets protesting about the headlines on bbc news... there‘s growing pressure on the uk government over a—level exam grades in england — after almost 40% were downgraded from teacher‘s estimates. in northern ireland the education minister says gcse exam results there will be based solely on grades provided

by teachers — scrapping original plans to take into account schools‘ past performances. the eu will hold an emergency summit after a new wave of strikes in belarus to try to force president alexander lukashenko to step down. let‘s return now to the exam crisis in the uk, and pressure is growing on the government to take action after complaints of unfair a—level results, with just days to go before gcse results are published on thursday. it comes as northern ireland said it would use teacher—assessed estimates for gcse results this week. jon andrews is the deputy head of research first scotland, no northern ireland. we have yet to hear from wales but teacher assess grades are being brought in there and the algorithm ditched. what you think about the system and how effective it we would say it is absolute essential the gcs e results on thursday not published until quual and the government are confident of

their reliability. that might mean at this late stage it might mean moving back to centre assess grades which might mean an overall increase in pass rates. what we need to ensure is we are fear to students and ensure they can move onto the next stage of education and employment. you said it is important they are not published until quual and the government are happy with the grades which implied you might be open to the id of a delay of which some are saying that then you said it means teacher assess grades need to be put, so which do you think is the absolute answer here? there have been calls for the delay to the gcse results but it is difficult to say what is going to happen within a reasonable time frame to get the reliability people need. quual have had several months with this data note to resolve this

issue. we cannot have a repeat at gcse with what we had to levels so that means we probably no need to trust teachers and trust schools the grades that the assessed that stu d e nts grades that the assessed that students are out and use that as the basis of the results that are out on thursday. what do you make of the fa ct thursday. what do you make of the fact that it has come to this stage that this is now being unpicked? because these grades have been in the system, albeit not released, for some time so surely this could have been spotted internally sooner?|j been spotted internally sooner?” think it is matter of what the priorities have been far quual and the quual government. have been clear one of their main priorities to remain standards over time so you could compare results from this yea rs could compare results from this years cohort to last year in the years cohort to last year in the year before. so that national results did not change that much. that has come at the expense of

individual students and individual schools and really that is not has been seen until that date has been released to schools. with a—levels last week and gcses this week. there may have been an opportunity a month or so ago for quual to look at some of that data and say these are the students that we have missed, these are students that have shifted considerably a couple of grades are below important thresholds and go to schools and asked for further information to justify the grades in school. that opportunity has now passed. who do you think should take responsibility for this? i don't think we as an organisation where it might would particularly wa nt organisation where it might would particularly want to pin blame on any individuals. what we want to ensure as that grades the students

end up with either through last week‘s a—levels or through gcses this week are fear and i think both quual and the government need to know what towards a solution and ensure that fairness and ensure that stu d e nts ensure that fairness and ensure that students can progress through education and into employment. students can progress through education and into employmentm students can progress through education and into employment. in a situation where scotland has already said they will go with teacher assess grades and northern ireland has said it would do the same for gcses, is it going to be fairfor others to have their grades help to the algorithm situation? the announcement from northern ireland this morning to site the pressure on government no. and to have broadly comparable outcomes across the uk would be very difficult if the government are if the exams regulator in england maintain the position that they are currently out. so i think overall unbalance no

solution here is perfect but moving to the centre assess grades in england seems to be the fairest way overall. it was a difficult task, obviously that they had to try to get a obviously that they had to try to getafair obviously that they had to try to get a fair system of awarding grades when exams were not being taken. can you see a different way that it should have been done? as i said, no solution to this is going to be perfect. you cannot exactly recreate what would happen with exams. you also have to remember exams themselves are not perfect. students can underperform on the day or how the test is mark can affect them too. that might hide the test is marked. it is about trying to ensure the system is fair. quual consultation that they had al in the year and consultation that they had al in the yearandi consultation that they had al in the year and i believe a lot of other organisations would have done but

quual have had a really tough balancing act here in between ensuring fairness to individual stu d e nts ensuring fairness to individual students and ensuring the ongoing credibility of gcses and i think u nfortu nately credibility of gcses and i think unfortunately they have placed too much emphasis on maintaining standards over time. japan‘s economy has suffered its most severe contraction in mordern history because of the pandemic. in the second quarter of this year, japan‘s gdp shrank by nearly 8%. that‘s more than 27% on an annualised basis. a severe decrease in domestic consumption made things worse for the world‘s third—biggest economy, which was already struggling before the pandemic. most analysts expect the japanese economy to show subdued signs of recovery later this year. new zealand has announced it will delay its general election by four weeks because of a fresh coronavirus outbreak. the prime minister, jacinda ardern, says the poll will be moved from mid—september to october 17th.

the main opposition party supports the move. jacinda ardern says parliament will reconvene on tuesday to set out a new timetable for the campaign. ultimately the 17th of october in approximately nine weeks‘ time provides sufficient time for parties to plan around the range of circumstances we could be campaigning under. for the electoral commission to prepare and for voters to feel assured of a safe, accessible and credible election. total coronavirus deaths in india have passed 50,000 following a surge of fatalities over the past week. india has the third—highest number of infections in the world, with more than 2.6 million confirmed cases. indian authorities say they believe the rate of infection — which increased by a million injust 20 days — is starting to slow down. here in the uk, millions of self—employed people whose trade has been hit by coronavirus, can now apply for a second support grant from the government. more than three million people may be eligible for the payment of up to £6,570 each,

which chancellor rishi sunak said would be the final hand—out. the first grant, launched in may, saw £7.8 billion claimed by 2.7 million people. paul fleming is the general secretary—elect of equity, hejoins me now. how helpful will this payment be? for those who receive it it will be phenomenally helpful but as with the first round so many of our members, performers, stage management, designers, variety artists, clones, circus performers, will not receive it and those who do may receive very small amounts and people who do not have tax records over a three—year period those amounts will be very small and that particularly includes pa rents small and that particularly includes parents and carers and people who perhaps have pa rt—time parents and carers and people who perhaps have part—time pay as you are injobs which means perhaps have part—time pay as you are in jobs which means that income has fallen below the threshold in

terms of self—employed earnings and the biggest worry is for even those able to claim that this is the last payment. our industry will not be going back to any sort of level of normality until next year and the government is not going to the clear when indoor performances return to normal until november when the announcement is coming, not the start. so we‘re heading towards a bit of a cliff with a very inadequate parachute. how many people in the performing industry who you represent have actually find themselves with absolutely no support, what sort of percentage would you say? it's hard to say but to put it into context the vast majority of our members and less than £10,000 per year on average from the profession. that would put them very often below the threshold to get a meaningful amount from the scheme. in particular, if you think about underrepresented groups in our industry, parents and carers and people come from outside the uk, perhaps they don‘t have three years

worth of tax records, they are all disproportionately likely to be receiving a small amount or none at all. and nobody receiving anything beyond the second payment. how are they coping financially and mentally with what they have to deal with?” think we can all imagine that level of trauma. for a profession, think we can all imagine that level of trauma. fora profession, no matter whether you be a performer stage manager or director of variety artist, you spend your whole life putting together your skills, demonstrating your talent and know thatis demonstrating your talent and know that is the prospect you cannot survive in that industry until it reopens and that is incredibly traumatic. people are not able to pay their bills and considering transitioning out. when you talk about the government and of support, you‘re talking about everybody watching at home, when you see your child in the nativity play, do you believe they have the right to become a professional performer of is that right caveat it by your

ability to support them? the government is seeing only a certain sort of person who is independently wealthy has the right to go from a nativity play to professional training and go off and make a living in the profession. what do you think the legacy of covid—19 will be for the industry, notjust for those in it at the moment but those looking at it, seeing how vulnerable performers are? those looking at it, seeing how vulnerable performers are ?” those looking at it, seeing how vulnerable performers are? i think eve ryo ne vulnerable performers are? i think everyone knows that entering the industry as a precarious industry and covid—19 does not change that. equity will keep fighting for a new norm of the looks more stable for people and that is the option the government has in front of them to really change how this key sector of the economy treats its workforce to ensure it is genuinely accessible to anybody and continues to be a

genuine success story. so i‘m hopeful as long as we‘re listening to we can end up in a world that is much, much better than when lockdown started. we have a very precarious economy of art and entertainment in this country and we can change that. if the government does not act around the four pillars of the union sent out of save opening and workforce subsidy support and protecting infrastructure and buildings and viewers can look on the house of commons petitions website to see the petition we put together around those four demands, if they do not meet those four demands we are looking at a very, very uncertain future. notjust for something that is really important for our society but something that is really important for our economy as well. the us democratic national convention begins today with four days of party events leading up to them officially nominating their presidential candidate. for the first time, virtual broadcasts will feature heavily because of the pandemic, before the party will formally

declarejoe biden as their nominee alongside his running mate, californian senator, kamala harris. from new york, nada tawfik reports. tens of thousands of people should have been marching on milwaukee for the start of the presidential campaign. this is what it should look like the normally jam packed arenas normallyjam packed arenas will be replaced by two hours of virtual programming each night. speakers will include democrat heavyweights and potential stars such as bernie sanders and cassio cortez. this poster says the biden harris ticket will be in a

strong position. what we are seeing is him staying in place, staying in the shadows and seeing resident pump foal over his own handling of the economy. that is what well forjoe biden over the months and we see it reflected in the pores. fork there is nothing ordinary about this election season. the typical issues that preoccupy campaigns have been overshadowed by the unprecedented challenges facing economic and social well—being of americans and that means inevitably the incumbent president trump will ultimately face more scrutiny than hisjoe biden. nada tawfik, bbc news. hello, this is bbc news with me, joanna gosling. the headlines: there‘s growing pressure on the uk government over a—level exam grades in england —

after almost 40% were downgraded from teachers‘ estimates. this has been a national disaster, not just at the exam situation this has been a national disaster, notjust at the exam situation but the way that millions of children have not learned hardly any thing during the lockdown. so we need a long—term plan for education. in northern ireland, the education minister says gcse exam results there will be based solely on grades provided by teachers, scrapping original plans to take into account schools‘ past performances. the eu will hold an emergency summit after a new wave of strikes in belarus to try to force president alexander lukashenko to step down. new zealand‘s general election is postponed because of a fresh outbreak of covid—19. millions of self—employed workers in the uk can apply for a second round of grants from today, to help support their businesses against the effects of coronavirus. are and coming up, thousands of people have bought puppies to help cope during lockdown — but the kennel club is urging people to do their research before

becoming a dog owner. australia has seen its deadliest day of the coronavirus pandemic, after the state of victoria recorded 25 deaths in 2a hours. victoria‘s previous daily record was 21, recorded last wednesday. there were 282 confirmed cases in the state in the past 2a hours. our correspondent, shaimaa khalil, is in sydney, commenting on australia‘s deadliest day. it does seem that every other day you get a depressing and troubling record from victoria. you are right, todayis record from victoria. you are right, today is the deadliest day. 25 people dead. that compares to 21 last week. the 22 of those cases are linked to aged care outbreaks. a large chunk of the deaths and of the cases in victoria have been linked

to aged care facilities, that are actually now seen as the crisis of the state of victoria, in melbourne to be specific. calls to get if there is under control. another thing troubling health officials and people in melbourne is the number of unknown, some mystery cases, that is also growing. it is at 150 will stop the trouble with that is that as the number rises of the cases where you don‘t know where the sources, that means more community transmission cases are likely to pup up. they are harder to control. a depressing number in terms of the deaths. but in terms of the new cases recorded in the last 2a hours, that is now more than one day when you get the number below 300. so in no way there isa number below 300. so in no way there is a cautious optimism that the number of new cases recorded in 2a hours is now looking down, so they‘re hoping that means that the state and the city is past the peak time where we are getting really

high numbers, with records of 700 and more in one day. the authorities in south korea have accused a christian church leader of fuelling the country‘s worst coronavirus outbreak in several months. around 300 new cases have been linked to the sarang jeil church in seoul. on saturday, the church‘s leader, reverend jun kwang—hoon, addressed a right—wing rally of opponents to the government, defying a ban on large gatherings. the first large coronavirus outbreak in south korea was centred on another religious movement, the controversial shincheonji church ofjesus in daegu. hundreds of people have gathered in the spanish capital madrid to protest against the mandatory use of facemasks in public spaces, and other new government measures aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus. there were similar scenes in warsaw, as people there called for an end to the restrictions. the bbc‘s tim allman reports. no social distancing at this demonstration. packed in together, close as can be.

the unmasked of madrid. chanting: libertad! libertad! with their angry cries of "freedom", they seem to believe the government is now a bigger threat than the virus itself. "i am here because there are too many repressive measures," said this demonstrator. "they are taking all our rights away from us." "the solution is that everybody takes to the streets to raise their voices," insisted this man. "we need to prove we know what this is about and we are claiming our rights." spain was one of the earliest and ha rdest—hit countries in the pandemic, and has had more cases than any other nation in western europe. infections have spiked in recent weeks, but for these protesters, the battle to combat covid has gone too far.

it was a similar story in warsaw, where there was another anti—mask march. here, they argue any restrictions aimed at fighting the virus are illegal and unconstitutional. in paris, face masks are now compulsory in much of the city, which has been named a high—risk zone. the attitude here seems a little more accepting. translation: i think it is best to wear it everywhere. at least we know we are protected. are we going to get to a second wave? we don‘t know, so the best thing we can do is to protect ourselves everywhere. face masks have become symbolic, part of a political debate, but scientists insist they are still vital in the fight against coronavirus. tim allman, bbc news. in thailand, an estimated 20,000 people havejoined a protest in bangkok calling for sweeping political reform. the thai government has successfully contained the coronavirus,

but the tourism—dependent economy was badly hit and a series of other blunders have eroded its popularity. however, it is the student movement‘s unprecedented call for reform of thailand 5 monarchy, which has stunned the country, where harsh laws criminalise any negative comment about the royal family. jonathan head reports. they haven‘t seen a protest this big in thailand since the military seized power six years ago. and for these youthful demonstrators, the military‘s influence is still too great. its performance in government, on freedom, on human rights and in managing an ailing economy is now a burning grievance. this large gathering at the monument which has always symbolised the hopes for a real democracy in thailand is the culmination of weeks of student led protests demanding wholesale reform of the political system. but that is not all they are demanding. they are also asking for significant

changes to the monarchy, an institution that‘s officially viewed sacred and untouchable, and in a country where few have even dared to broach the subject before, that is revolutionary. it is almost unimaginable. only a couple of years ago, saying what the youths are now demanding on stage as part of their manifesto for reforms. the youths seem to be unafraid, i would say, they haven‘t been held back by the concerns that previous generations had before, not even to talk about, not even to discuss about the monarchy. complaints about the monarchy have been heard at the protests in recent weeks, but it was the manifesto, read out by this young woman at a university rally last monday, that sent shock waves through the country.

for the first time it demanded an accountable monarchy, one that limited its power and its spending. king vajiralongkorn, making a rare visit back to thailand this week from germany, where he stayed during the covid—19 crisis, has said nothing. the prime minister, by acknowledging the students‘ right to protest, said he would investigate who was behind them and punish any who had broken laws. the students, though, seem undaunted by threats of prosecution or worse. we have to try to start talking about it, making it a new norm for the society. that it‘s ok to talk about the monarchy. do you think many thai people agree with your programme? i think the silent majority want to talk about it, want to talk about the monarchy anyway, because if you don‘t touch something, if you don‘t reform something, that thing

is going to get rotten and it‘s going to collapse on itself. this is a historic moment for thailand. a taboo has been broken by a younger generation who have lost faith in the old royalist establishment and want to change. it is, though, hard to imagine that they will be allowed to go on saying what has always been unsayable here. jonathan head, bbc news, bangkok. for people living in abusive relationships, lockdown made it notjust harder for them to leave, but for many it also meant the violence got worse. that 5 according to the first in—depth research about the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the scale and nature of domestic abuse. it was carried out by the charity women s aid for panorama. victoria derbyshire reports.

this isjess. for years her husband had been abusive to her, but when lockdown was announced, things got worse. and that stay—at—home message, what did that mean to you? seriously? yeah. the charity women‘s aid have been working on the first in—depth research about the impact of lockdown on domestic abuse for panorama. of the people they spoke to, almost two thirds of those living with an abuser said the violence had got worse. more than three quarters of women said lockdown had made it harderfor them to escape. jess got out, and to a place of safety, but finding a room

in a refuge was harder than ever during lockdown. there were 1100 fewer available beds, a drop of 42% compared to the same time last year. is it likely she is going to be accepted, or...? marie williamson manages this refuge in london. marie‘s desperately trying to find the woman and her children a bed in an alternative refuge after their whereabouts were mistakenly revealed by a third party. i have had five refuges out of the seven refuges that were available, and they have all declined. i am going to ring up one other and after that i've got no other options. 19 days after lockdown began, the government announced it would give an additional £2 million to domestic abuse helplines. the timing was dreadful. it should not have taken 19 days to mobilise any sort of action. what it highlights is that it wasn't a priority for the government. it's a poor effort. were you too slow to act? i don't think we were

because when we were talking to charities in the very, very earliest days, we were very much responding. we said to them, what do you need for us to help. can i tell you how many people were killed in an alleged domestic abuse cases in the three weeks between lockdown and when that announcement was made for 2 million for the helplines? it was 11 women and two children and one man. in those three weeks. the charities, the police, we all work incredibly hard to keep victims and survivors, but we must never take attention away from the fact that it is abusive people who committed those murders. victoria derbyshire, bbc news. and you can watch panorama, escaping my abuser, with victoria derbyshire, tonight at 7:30pm on bbc one. in colombia, eight people have died in the south—western state of narino. it‘s not yet known who carried out the massacre, but the region

is a popular drug trafficking route fought over by illegal armed groups, who have been blamed for a recent spate of violence in the area. phoebe hopson has more. it‘s a bitter reminder that colombia must tackle more than the coronavirus pandemic. rural areas are faced with the violence of illegal armed groups. over the weekend, eight people were killed in a shooting in narino state in the south—west of the country. local media reports say the victims were all aged between 17 and 26. the local governor says 20 people have been gunned down in the last two months. translation: our town has been hit by violence, so we are requesting the presence of the state to prevent possible outbreaks of violence. although the exact motives of the killing are unknown, narino is one of colombia‘s main coca growing regions — the raw material for making cocaine. it borders ecuador, which makes it a favoured drug smuggling route into central america and the us.

it is being fought over by a complex mix of illegal armed actors — the leftist guerrilla group the national liberation army and rebel members of the revolutionary armed forces of colombia, who rejected the 2016 peace deal, in addition to criminal gangs comprised of pa ramilitaries and drug gangs. they all want a slice of the cake. president ivan duque‘s government condemned the slaughter and vowed to catch the killer, or killers. translation: these are criminal organisations that act with cruelty and without any respect. they are only interested in profiting from their criminal and destructive businesses, such as drug trafficking. it‘s nearly four years since former presidentjuan manuel santos signed a peace deal in 2016 with farc, one actor in colombia‘s conflict, that promised a road to peace. this weekend‘s attack shows that in some regions, it‘s far away. phoebe hopson, bbc news. the headlines on bbc news:

there‘s growing pressure on the uk government over a—level exam grades in england, after almost 40% were downgraded from teacher‘s estimates. in northern ireland the education minister says gcse exam results there will be based solely on grades provided by teachers, scrapping original plans to take into account schools‘ past performances. the eu will hold an emergency summit after a new wave of strikes in belarus to try to force president alexander lukashenko to step down. to the us now, where house speaker nancy pelosi is arranging for a vote in congress later this week on legislation to protect the postal service. ms pelosi has accused president trump of a campaign to sabotage the election, and her democratic party is looking to unwind recent changes which they say could hamper postal voting in november‘s presidential election. alanna petroff has the story. banjo playing and singing. # to not deliver us mail should

be against the law #. cheering. it‘s come to this. a musical protest about the post office. demonstrators gathered outside the home of the new postmaster general, louis de joy, for another day of dissent. de joy, recently appointed to the role, is a big trump donor. his costcutting moves at the cash—strapped postal service have slowed down mail delivery. i was overseas and i cast my vote by mail—in ballot! protesters worried dejoy‘s changes will hinder mail—in voting during the 2020 presidential election. voting by mail is especially important this year. many americans will want to avoid busy polling stations to cut down on the risk of catching the coronavirus. president trump isn‘t a fan of voting by mail. he‘s warned of potential voter fraud — without proof —

and he says he‘s blocking billions of additionalfunding for the postal service which democrats want to deliver a fair election. you are going to have a catastrophic situation with universal mail—in votes. members of the democratic party accused the president of trying to suppress votes. he says he wants to slow down the mail to hurt the elections and make people doubt the results of the election. maybe he's worried he's going to lose, it doesn't matter. our elections are sacred. men and women have died for them and the right to vote, and to do this is disgraceful. democratic presidential contender joe biden recently tweeted this...

democrats believe the leaders of the us postal service have some explaining to do. the us house of representatives is calling on top figures in the postal service to testify at an emergency hearing on august 24th. they specifically want to hearfrom this man, the postmaster general himself. the us postal service has a long—time motto about making swift deliveries, despite snow and rain. voters will be hoping that even with financial difficulties and polarising politics, the postal service will stick to its motto and make sure every vote gets through and gets counted. alanna petroff, bbc news. thousands of people have bought a puppy to help cope with isolation and anxiety caused by the coronavirus pandemic, according to new research. but while 63% of those surveyed said lockdown was the perfect time to buy a puppy, the kennel club, which is the uk‘s largest organisation dedicated

to the welfare of dogs, are urging new owners to do proper research before getting a pet. we can now speak to sophie tall, who bought a puppy during lockdown, and ten—week—old clover, who‘s a mini smooth—haired dachshund. he is absolutely adorable. hello. and your son also, i presume? yes. why did you decide to get the puppy? well, we wanted one for two years. the kennel club report this morning said a lot of people took two hours to do their research. we had wanted one for a while. lockdown seemed a good time to get it because i am working from home. the children are around. so the holidays are cancelled, so we are forming a wonderful bond with her. the kids have got the time to spend with her. it was the right time to get one. she is upset gorgeous. what a difference has it she made to your

lives in lockdown? well, i mean, a lot of people say they have got a pandemic puppies, to be companions. we have wanted one for a while. she has been wonderful. we got her at the end of the main bit of lockdown. we arejust at the end of the main bit of lockdown. we are just at home so much to sort of be with her and train her. it is wonderful. we would have probably got one anyway. this was the right time asa got one anyway. this was the right time as a family to get one. we are just around all the time because we can‘t go anywhere. just around all the time because we can't go anywhere. what about when life goes back to normal, whatever the new normal is, and you are not perhaps around so much? well, i think a lot of people are changing their lifestyle after the pandemic. they are making lifestyle changes. i am working from home at any moment. i hope that may continue a bit. i don‘t know whether i will be back in the office. the kids will be going back to school in september, thank god. it is about lifetime —— lifestyle changes. i have built up a

relationship with lots of neighbours. there has been reciprocal dog walking. we have been doing it for a while during lockdown. we have a dog walking rotor. there is a lot of support locally. maybe we start bringing them into the office one day a week. feel the benefit of having a dog in the office. we are all saying yes to that, for sure! bring her in,, back! hi, what is your son cold? he is called oscar. how is it having clover, oscar? she has been lovely to have around the house, giving me loads of kisses and cuddles, and i love her in general. and i bet when you are out with her, everybody talks to you, don‘t they? you cannot stroke anybody else‘s puppies at the moment, even though you are tempted to. do you get a lot of attention? she has not had all of herjabs yet.

she has not had all of herjabs yet. she is too little to go out. we have had a lot of love on instagram and some nice pictures. she will attract quite a lot of attention when she is allowed out. we can‘t wait to go out. one of the things that the kennel club is concerned about is people rushing into this. as you said, you have been thinking about it for a long time. i assume you had plenty of time to research. do you have any advice for people who are looking to get a puppy because there has been so much in demand? it has been difficult, i presume, to get one. did you find it difficult to get her? it was difficult. we started research during lockdown. they were going like hot cakes and the prices were massively inflated. but if you can afford it, this was the perfect time to get one. we got herfrom a the perfect time to get one. we got her from a reputable online website, not from the kennel club, but she is a pedigree pub. a fifth generation pedigree. we have got herfamily

tree. oh! she is getting wiggly. you do have to do your research. but it was quite difficult. we lost out on a few. we had to travel to and a half hours to get her. she was not local. yes, but it‘s totally worth it. plug away, keep going, if you wa nt it. plug away, keep going, if you want a puppy, you can buy one. just keep going and maybe it is supply and demand, they are more expensive at the moment but they are worth it. obviously you say you have got the pedigree and the family history. but again, with people desperate to get their hands on a puppy, they might go down other routes and not necessarily know what the background is and the risks associated with that? exactly. you need to do your research. we did a face time with clover during lockdown. becky, the wonderful lady we got from in warwickshire, give us loads of

information, we could see her and face time. we were offered a visit of the week before we picked her up but we did not bother because she was so far away. you do have to do research. i am on this face group —— facebook group. there are horror stories. you do have to be really careful. you have to do your research. if you are an facetime or visiting a puppy and, you know, you have not seen the mum or the dad, pictures of both, you have got to see the picture of the puppy with a mother. you have to do your research. if you don‘t, walk away and don‘t get it. get the paperwork that has been promised to you, maybe a kennel club registration or any other associated of work. you want your little puppy to be perfect and last a long time. get it from someone “— last a long time. get it from someone —— don‘t get it from someone just braiding it for the money. get it from a reputable source. very briefly, obviously there are rescue dogs that people can go to if they want. i love that you choose to get

a want. i love that you choose to get 3 puppy- want. i love that you choose to get a puppy. that is always an option as well. yes, of course, of course. at the moment, a lot of people are doing this. the cliche of the puppy not being just for christmas, pandemic props are notjust for lockdown. hopefully they will be with us for years and years. you are in this for the long haul. i think there are a lot of puppies people have bought and they bit off more than they can chew. they are being rehoused. absolutely, try to go there first before you sort of pay over the odds from a breeder.‘ selfie, we are out of time, thank you all very much. —— selfie. bye— bye. you‘re watching bbc news. now it‘s time for a look at the weather with carol. hello again. yesterday we had issues with flash flooding across parts of east anglia, the midlands and lincolnshire, to name three places. there was also a report of a water

spout in the bristol channel. today, further thundery downpours in the forecast that could lead to flash flooding. there will be sunshine in between. this area of cloud in the satellite picture has produced that rain and is still doing so. as we go through the day, the rain moves out of northern england and turns more showery across scotland and northern ireland but here too we will see heavy bursts at times with thunder and lightning and it will curl in through wales. for the rest of england and the rest of wales, sunny spells but also some heavy, thundery downpours with large hail and gusty wind that could lead to some localised flooding. another humid day, perhaps warmer across the north—east of england. heading through the evening and overnight, starting with showers, many of them fading but we‘ll hang on to them in western areas. mist and murk and low cloud across eastern scotland in particular. temperatures falling to 12—15.

tomorrow we could hang onto low cloud, mist and murk across parts of eastern scotland across for much of the day. more sunshine around tomorrow than today. it will not feel as humid but we will see further showers develop and some of those will be heavy on thundery with the potential that they could lead to some issues. temperatures of 16—23. moving into wednesday, you can see the remnants of the weather front across the north but another one coming in across the south—west. look at the isobars, it will turn windier. the weather front producing a lot of rain and ahead of it it will be a dry and even bright start with some sunshine but then the rain will pile in from the southwest and drift north—east through the course of the day. gusty wind, quite strong with temperatures between 16 in the north and 22 in the south. feeling humid again. into thursday, with a weather front pushing into the north of scotland before eventually clearing. dry weather with some showers

but something else coming in from the west and the wind picking up as well with top temperatures getting up to 25.

this is bbc news. the headlines: there‘s growing pressure on the government over a—level exam grades in england — after almost 40% were downgraded from teacher‘s estimates. this is been a national disaster. notjust this is been a national disaster. not just long—term this is been a national disaster. notjust long—term situation this is been a national disaster. not just long—term situation but this is been a national disaster. notjust long—term situation but the fa ct notjust long—term situation but the fact children have learned hardly anything during the lockdown. in northern ireland the education minister says gcse exam results there will be based solely on grades provided by teachers — scrapping original plans to take into account schools‘ past performances. the eu will hold an emergency summit after a new wave of strikes in belarus to try to force president alexander lukashenko

to step down. a woman has been charged with the murder of a ten—year—old boy in west london. and millions of self—employed workers can apply for a second round of grants from today, to help support their businesses against the effects of coronavirus. the head of an influential biritish parliamentary select committee has called on the uk‘s prime minister to set out a plan to sort out what he called the "shambles" surrounding a—level exam grades. it comes as new analysis suggests results awarded to students in sixth form colleges in england fell below the average of the past the three years. the sixth form colleges association says its students in england are being treated unfairly.

grammar school heads denounced as "completely unfit for purpose" the standardisation model used by the regulator, quual. it says it‘s led to utterly baffling results for some students. this morning, northern ireland has decided to award gcse grades on the basis of teacher assessed grades, in order to ease the anxiety of pupils when they‘re published on thursday. the chair of the education select committ, robert halfon, described the overall situation as "a national disaster" and called on borisjohnson to set out a long term plan and be clear about what is going to happen. the uk education secretary gavin williamson‘s position is quickly becoming untenable and the state of play is "farcical", sir michael wilshaw. this report from charlotte gallagher. the fury over a—level results is not going away. feeling let down, angry and upset, students protest outside westminster.

others contacted the bbc directly. i hoped to to come out with three as on results day to study medicine at lancaster university. unfortunately, i only came out with three cs which means i was rejected from both my firm and insurance offers. the grades that my teachers submitted this year for me were a‘, a, a. and had i gotten these, i would have met my offer and gotten into cambridge. however, after standardisation, i received a, a, b, which meant i was rejected. 40% of a—level grades were marked down from teachers‘ predictions and, over the weekend, the appeals system plunged into even more uncertainty when guidance for pupils in england was withdrawn within hours by the exams regulator quual. the education secretary gavin williamson has borne the brunt of the anger, but there are now calls for borisjohnson to take charge of a situation widely described as chaotic. we are going into week three of this debacle. we knew about the problem in scotland two weeks ago

and last week with a—levels. here we are two or three days away from gcse results day, and the government still has not got a grip on the problem. to penalise students with further delays because of government failure is really hard, and we want action today. grammar school heads and sixth form colleges have joined the growing criticism. the grammar school heads association said the model used by quual is completely unfit for purpose giving utterly baffling results. sixth form colleges also believed their pupils are being treated unfairly. we looked at 65,000 entries which is almost half of all the a—level entries in sixth form colleges across 41 a—level subjects, every single a—level subject, and in every single one of those 65,000 entries

in 41 a—level subjects, they came out lower than the previous three—year average. so the algorithm has failed. gcse results are due out this thursday. the man who introduced the exams says they should be delayed. there will be a massive number of downgrades this thursday, a really great massive number. half—a—million people take maths gcse so you are into numbers of hundreds of thousands complaining that they have been hit. the department for education says it has been clear it wants to build as much fairness into the appeals process as possible and is working with quual to achieve that. charlotte gallagher, bbc news. several political correspondence on twitter indicating there will be a change of policy from the government. the bbc education correspondent has said sounds like an announcement on a—levels imminent. nothing confirmed but

could be switching to teachers grades, those centre assessed to grades. will be relieved for stu d e nts grades. will be relieved for students and political fallout but also practical knockers like ditching university number controls for university places with me now is our political correspondent helen catt. the momentum for change really gathered pace this morning with the announcement from northern ireland they would be going with teacher predicted grades and gcses. what can you tell us your it feels the sands are shifting. last week we saw very small number of conservative mps voicing concerns in public. a lot more seem to be prepared to do that this morning on top of the criticism from the grammar school association who said

results were utterly baffling and from the sixth form college association. more and more conservative mps feeling they can go out and publicly say this is not working. robert halfon, had some critical words for the regulator. at the moment they are like cardinals in the vatican. in early quualjuly published cardinals in the vatican. in early quual july published the standardisation model, the algorithm so they could be subject to scrutiny. we also urge for a wider appeal system. none of those things

have happened. we need a decision in the next 24 hours, the same for thousands of students across the country. he also said of the algorithm account the need to ensure work properly for gcse results on thursday because a lot more pupils are involved and gcses and those results are due on thursday. the government have been sticking by the system seeing hundreds of thousands of stu d e nts system seeing hundreds of thousands of students received the calculated grade that enable them to progress to the next stage of their education or work and they wanted to build as much fairness into the appeal system as possible. over the weekend we still confusion over the appeal system as guidance was published quual by our unpublished are unpublished if you like around mock exams. professor tina isaacs said work needed to be done to build confidence. right now what is happening is the public is losing confidence in the system.

and it is up to quual which i know has worked very hard, it is up to quual and especially the government to try to put in place something that will claw back some of that public confidence. i am afraid it will not be able to claw back all of it. i think while there has been citizens of quual —— criticism of quual that generated that algorithm i think will be criticism of ministers and why they did not pick up ministers and why they did not pick up on the issues on the algorithm which uses your school. particularly since the government has promoted the levelling up agenda which promotes the levelling up agenda which pro m otes low the levelling up agenda which promotes low chances no matter where you are in the country but it does seem you are in the country but it does seem to increase you are in the country but it does seem to increase pressure so you are in the country but it does seem to increase pressure so we‘ll have to see if the system a day. lots coming through know on twitter with other political correspondence.

one of them saying he has been told a backbencher has been assured there will be a change in policy by the end of the day. if there is, how much pressure is there on gavin williamson? can he survive? they have really been pushed, haven‘t they? they have an gavin williamson coming inforan they? they have an gavin williamson coming in for an off a lot of criticism fathers. for not in a sense picking up the political issues that were implied and how this algorithm worked. having said that, cabinet ministers do seem to have a knack of surviving under this government. we have seen it several times over this year, so i think we will just have times over this year, so i think we willjust have to wait and see whether gavin williamson is one of those who will manage to hang in there. certainly the focus of a lot of criticism. the ranger started. you better get out of the rain. i‘m joined now by shadow treasury secretary wes streeting. what do you think the government

should do? i think the government and the prime minister needs to get and the prime minister needs to get a grip and provide certainty to thousands and thousands of young people run the country about making key decisions about how their lives are made. the government should have done a hell of a lot better in terms of preparation but no we are where we are the most sensible and effective way forward would be for the government to simply rely on the centre assessed grades for people so they have certainty about the grades they have certainty about the grades they have certainty about the grades they have achieved and can start making decisions know as universities are already making decisions know about the future. because where we have ended up as we had in the introduction to this interview, we have ended up in a situation for the government is actively levelling down on young people and their achievements and aspirations and contrary to the direction of education policy and effo rts direction of education policy and efforts of schools and colleges and universities for the last 20 years, what the government is effectively sent to young people as it is not too you are and what you can achieve

that matters, it‘s where you are from and which school you went to. and that is an appalling situation to put so many young people in. and that is an appalling situation to put so many young people inm there a downside to going to the teacher assessed grades? all of the government said when they were defending them including nicola sturgeon defending it initially and then changed it saying it was right to go with teacher assessed grades, the defence has been it is not about having high levels of grade inflation which would mean that the grades would not be taken seriously, they would not be seen as an accurate representation of where stu d e nts accurate representation of where students should be? inevitably there would be and perfections. nobody is pretending it would be easy in the middle of this crisis given what skills and these young people have been through but it is a darn sight better than where we are no where you have pupils being given grades that bear no resemblance whatsoever to what they can achieve. they are literally being judged on the basis of where they grew up, and which

school they went to. and i have seen cases in my own constituency and others who have written to me we are pupils, high achieving pupils who needed a stars and ease to get into top universities were literally unable to top universities were literally u na ble to access top universities were literally unable to access those grades for no other reason than that prior school performance and that they come from an area were not many kids achieve the top grades. i would say to conservative mps thinking about their futures and whether it is right to speak out, think about the features of young people in your constituencies and places like stoke—on—trent and redcar and bishop auckland and those seats the conservatives won at the last election promising a levelling up agenda. they are no levelling down on young people, their achievements and ambitions and the futures of those young people are more important than anyone‘s political career and it is the responsibility of every member of parliament not to speak up because i do not think the payments really understands what it‘s like when you are from a

background for the difference between getting out of poverty and getting a good life for yourself is the difference between one grade or another. i am one of those people who made it from a council estate in the east end of london. i would not be doing this interview with you know what it not for the fact of having a good state education. i can‘t imagine what those young people are going through and i wish ministers at the top of government would have a bit more empathy and understanding and actually try and give these kids a chance to level up to achieve their dreams and ambitions and to aim for the top. because where we have ended up as a situation where the government effectively says we do not believe in you, we don‘t believe in your teachers and because you come from an area under skill that does not tend to get good grades we do not believe you could achieve them and i think that is appalling. there is an expectation that will be a government announcement before the end of the day and a change of policy. if there is a u—turn, can gavin williamson survive that? as we had an introduction if there is one

thing we know about borisjohnson and his government there are no consequences for failure and incompetence. this is a government the right across the board from the education results on thursday right through to the absolute abysmal failure on track and trace, nobody is held accountable and nobody is held responsible and i am blessed interested on the future of gavin williamson and he would just be replaced by another tory minister from central casting. i mixed it in the future of young people across the future of young people across the country and it is no use the tories telling journalist they will doa u—turn tories telling journalist they will do a u—turn by the end of the day. universities will be making decisions right now and have been making decisions all weekend on young people left in limbo and a state of absolute despair so action cannot come soon state of absolute despair so action cannot come soon enough. where is the prime minister? why has he not out the getting a grip and providing certainty and leadership? it appalling state of affairs and i think actually by far and away the biggest fiasco we have had from the conservatives in the last ten years.

sammy wright is the lead for schools and higher education at the social mobility commission —— and also vice principle of southmoore academy in sunderland. what is your reaction to what has happened and the disparity between the regions? the commission has offered advice to quual and ucas over the whole of this process. up until this weekend i was still engaging with quual in good faith in the belief we could establish a fair appeal system that will allow schools to simply say our data says differently from the grades you provide, look at them and give these kids a provide, look at them and give these kidsafair provide, look at them and give these kids a fair chance. over the weekend that statement that was published by quual, and i phoned them up to double check to make absolutely

certain of this, it provided no proper redress for schools that had been unfairly downgraded, although there was a chance of using marks, there was a chance of using marks, the fact that it was only four marks meant there was a potential for even more unfairness coming out of it. frankly i was relieved the removed and but it onlyjust underlined that only at the start of this process, when we were told we were being engaged with, if that had actually been the case, we could have invited all of this. —— mike avoided all of this. what makes you think the time is confident to be teacher assessed grades? it is already happened in scotla nd grades? it is already happened in scotland and northern ireland for gcses. about the concerns were that have been around grade inflation. grade inflation is not an issue we can deal with now. that ship has sailed. the thing i am really concerned with, the advice we give to ucas was very clear. we said this week would be immensely difficult.

we said please can you suggest universities that it is a week grace between a—levels and which courses are accepted. if we had that we would have avoided all of the heartache of the weekend. u nfortu nately heartache of the weekend. unfortunately no centre assessed grades does not solve the problem. when you said that should have been a week‘s grace between a—level results and university places being allocated, that sounds like a sensible solution because whatever changes no, places have been allocated and kids have mistake and presumably will not be able to change that. what we are told, why did that not happen? that sounds like a good idea. who said that? that was in conversation with claire marchand. and i haven‘t heard anything since. have you had a

conversation with her? who is she? the chief executive of ucas. and she said it sounds like a good idea but thenit said it sounds like a good idea but then it didn‘t happen? said it sounds like a good idea but then it didn't happen? yeah. we appreciate your time. thank you very much. nicola sturgeon is giving her daily briefing hello and thanks forjoining us again today. let me start with the usual update on the covid—19 statistics. i can confirm an additional 26 positive cases were reported yesterday which is 0.26% of people tested and brings a total cases in scotland to 19,328. the provisional information i have is 13 of the 26 new cases are in the

grampian health board area. a total of 214 patients are covid—19 currently in hospital with confirmed which is five more than yesterday and three people are in intensive ca re and three people are in intensive care which is the same number as yesterday. i am also very pleased to see that yet again in the past 24 hours no deaths were registered of patients who had tested positive over the preservice 28 days —— my previous 20 days. that number remains at 2000 491. that total is still a reminder of the dreadful impact the virus is tired and my condolences go to everybody who has suffered loss and i thank everyone still working hard on a variety of different capacities across the country to help us through this pandemic. i have three issues i want to briefly update on today. firstly let me provide further details about ongoing clusters and outbreaks across the country. i mentioned a moment ago that 13 of the 26 new

cases reported yesterday what in the grampian area. in the latest figures we have available, a total of 380 cases have been identified in the grampian health board area since the 26th ofjuly. grampian health board area since the 26th of july. 2007 grampian health board area since the 26th ofjuly. 2007 of these we think are associated with the cluster linked to aberdeen pubs and 1050 contacts have now been identified from those 207 cases. in addition, teams are still investigating community clusters and coatbridge in lanarkshire and the north—east glasgow. these clusters include some young people who go to local schools and more detail and information about those clusters that will be provided as it becomes available. i can also advise today of a cluster and cupar angus which is linked to two sisters food processing output. this is the to four cases and

testing interesting is still going and the owners of close the facilities and part of their work with us to control any outbreak. these clusters sure the virus is still out there and continues to pose a very real and serious risk. it is highly infectious and once it ta kes all it is highly infectious and once it takes all that can spread very rapidly. so all of us have responsibility and everything we do to try to stop that from happening, which is why we continue to stress the importance of the fight of the advice which i will come to again at the end of my remarks. these clusters also show the importance of the work being done by our health themes and test and protect teams in different parts of the country as the work to identify contacts and traces contacts and help to contain the outbreaks that have been identified. i want to take the opportunity again today to thank them for the work they are doing. the second thing i want to highlight todayis the second thing i want to highlight today is the publication of our

updated testing strategy for this phase of the pandemic. that sets out our current priorities for testing based on the work we have already done to increase capacity and improve availability. as you would expect our top priority continues to be to test anyone who has symptoms of covid—19, temperature, a new cough lost change since test our sense of smell. anybody with those symptoms should book a test image only through the nhs and farm website. our second proteus testing contacts website. our second proteus testing co nta cts of website. our second proteus testing contacts of people with covid—19. i thought proteus testing people in high—risk environments such as care homes. also to assist the resumption and retention of neh services and assess the prevalence of the virus of scotland. also it sets out to

further increase testing capacity in scotla nd further increase testing capacity in scotland and that will be increasingly important as we move into the autumn and winter because in those months more people was have symptoms such as a new cord which might be similar covid—19 to 19 symptoms. current weekday capacity in scotland is forjust over 40,000 tests every day but we want to and are working to increase that to 65,000 tests per day and we are also continuing to work to improve the accessibility of test. overall the strategy seeks to give a concise and clear explanation of who we are seeking to test and why we are doing so seeking to test and why we are doing so and what our plans in the future art. the health secretary will see a bit more about that in a moment but it will be available to read on the scottish government website this afternoon for anyone who is interested. the final point i want to convert relates to media coverage yesterday and today about care home discharges, particularly the suggestion that in some cases who we re suggestion that in some cases who were thought to have covid were

discharged from hospitals into care homes. let me be very clear as i have been many times before stop the proper scrutiny of all and every aspect of our response to covid including of course in care homes is really essential and that scrutiny well and must include consideration of whether western what we knew at each stage the guidance and place was both appropriate and properly implemented and that of course is why we have committed to a public inquiry in due course. however i wa nt to inquiry in due course. however i want to again be clear also that while there will undoubtedly be lessons to land when a new virus is encountered and we take that very seriously care was taken to put guidance in place that would consider to be appropriate at every stage. for example from mid march that included guidance requiring clinical screening of patients being transferred from hospitals to care homes to guard against an appropriate transfer and also advise

social isolation within care homes. however it is right that all of this is properly scrutinised in the enquiry that will be instructed in due course. no, i am about to hand over to the health secretary and the national clinical director but what ido national clinical director but what i do that i want to end as always by stressing the importance of facts. the clusters we are seeing in different parts of the country really do show how quickly and easily the virus can be transmitted from one person to another and demonstrate all of us need to do everything we can to ensure we do not give it the chance to spread. we all have a responsibility to each other to continue to suppress it and all of us can do that by sticking to fa cts . all of us can do that by sticking to facts. the five golden rules that we should remember as we go out and about our everyday business. these five rules are as follows. face coverings in enclosed spaces, avoid crowded places, indoors or outdoors. clea n crowded places, indoors or outdoors. clean your hands regularly and remember to clean hard surfaces

after you have touched them. to meet outdistancing remains the overall rule and is really important that everybody remembers that and abides by it. self—isolate and book a test if you have covid any of the symptoms of. covid. if we all stick to those rules as rigidly as we can we will help deny the bridges to travel across one person to another and one hosel to another and in that way we will all do our bit to suppress the virus and help to protect ourselves and each other. so i want to thank everybody who is taking care to do all of this. and encourage all of you to pass that message to everybody else that you know and encourage everybody to stick to facts so we can continue to keep this virus under control. let me hunt no to the health secretary to say a few words and then i will hand over lastly before questions to the national clinical director. so

much thank you, first minister. i wa nt to much thank you, first minister. i want to see a few more words about the updated testing strategy we are publishing today. our testing strategy must be adaptable to the conditions facing us to the prevalence of the virus in our communities and places we know are of higher risk. using our testing capability no and the most effective way is also part of our planning for winter. the strategy we have published focuses on five key areas of testing. whole population testing of testing. whole population testing of anyone with symptoms through test and protect. proactive case finding by testing contacts and testing in outbreaks. protecting the vulnerable and preventing outbreaks in high—risk settings by routine testing. and testing for direct patient care to diagnose and treat and to support safe patient care as nhs services restart. testing is

also an important part of surveillance to understand the disease, track its prevalence and understand its transmission and monitor key sectors. so testing is a key tool that gives this vital information about the what, the who and the wear of disease transmission. given where we are now in the pandemic in scotland, our clear priority is to use testing to actively hunt down the virus and protect those most vulnerable to the greatest time. hunting down the virus means using testing to identify those most likely to be infected. at this stage an epidemic that includes contacts of confirmed positive cases. protecting those most vulnerable means routine testing in high—risk settings including a weekly testing of care home workers to prevent outbreaks before they are, by detecting positive cases including from those who may not be displaying symptoms.

are overall strategy is to drive the numberof are overall strategy is to drive the number of cases to the lowest possible and this requires a comprehensive set of local measures, including real—time intelligence or information, anticipation, prevention, mitigation and effective response. no one intervention on its own will suffice. and testing is pa rt of own will suffice. and testing is part of that overall response. testing doesn't directly limit of the opportunities of the virus to find bridges to other people in close contact. it doesn't reduce the risk of becoming infected by the virus by touching a contaminated surface. and it doesn't mitigate the risk of being infected from an infectious person. that's why, alongside a testings, we constantly emphasise the importance of face coverings, of avoiding crowded places, of cleaning hands and surfaces, physical distancing and of self isolation when symptomatic, all of that remains absolutely key as

pa rt of of that remains absolutely key as part of all our public health measures, including testing. thank you, first minister. this morning the chief medical officer, the chief nursing officer and i have written to the scotland‘s directors of educational and children‘s services, and the heads of independent and grant aided schools, with a reminder of one particular aspect of the return to scudding across scotland. the scottish government has been informed by the our directors of public health about a number of cases of children and young people being in school after recently returning from countries not exempt from quarantine rules. i must remind you that the law requires everyone returning to scotla nd requires everyone returning to scotland from non—exempt countries to self—isolate at home for 14 days, including children as well as adults, people self isolating should not go out to work or to school, or visit public areas. this applies to people who normally live in scotland, returning from outside scotland, returning from outside scotland, as well as to people

visiting. these measures apply irrespective of where you enter the united kingdom. as you will know, the list of exempt countries has been changed in recent days and can change at short notice. with the removal of some countries, including france and the netherlands. these regulations have been put in place to support our continued efforts to suppress the spread of the virus. scotland‘s directors of education will speak to head teachers and heads of early learning and child ca re heads of early learning and child care settings today to ensure this is made clear to parents, children and young people. in addition, as a result of recent test activity, we are also concerned about the people meeting up outside school settings in larger groups. this includes pa rents in larger groups. this includes parents gathering at school gates, young people meeting friends without following the guidance on physical distancing. to remind you, the maximum permitted is eight people from three households, including your own indoors, and 15 people from five holes —— were my co—souls eve ryo ne five holes —— were my co—souls everyone 12 and over most physically distant from everyone outside of

their household. they are running their household. they are running the risk of spreading the virus to each other, their families and the risk of spreading the virus to each other, theirfamilies and loved ones. the substantial progress made by all of you in recent months has been as a result of everyone because ‘s artwork. test and protect is working well. but it cannot suppress the virus on its own. that requires all of our behaviour to keep this pandemic under control. thank you. we will move now to questions, as usual. that is the daily briefing from scotland‘s first minister, nicola sturgeon, and covid—19. we will be backin sturgeon, and covid—19. we will be back ina sturgeon, and covid—19. we will be back in a few moments with all the latest on the exams and covid—19. first, a weather update. hello again. yesterday some of us had flash flooding and today there isa had flash flooding and today there is a potential for more of that as we see heavy thundery downpours develop. rain pulling out of northern england through scotland and northern ireland, turning more showery in nature, but still the potential for heavy thundery

downpours. further showers in south—west england and wales. for the rest of anger wales, heavy thundery downpours, feeling humid and a little warmer across yorkshire today than in the past few days. overnight many of these showers will fade but we will hang on to a lot in the west. a lot of low cloud missed my grandma kept hanging on in eastern scotland and another humid night in prospect. that mist and low cloud could hang around for much of tuesday. once again we will see further showers or develop, perhaps more sunshine, but those showers could be heavy and thundery and we could be heavy and thundery and we could have issues with them, with top temperatures getting up to 23 hello, this is bbc news withjoanna gosling. let‘s exist go straight back to the fallout from the a—levels and gcse exa m

fallout from the a—levels and gcse exam results. last week scotland announced they would be using the teacher assessed grades. this morning northern ireland has said it would be doing that for gcse grades. we are yet to hear from wales and it is understood there is likely to be an announcement before the end of the day from westminster. students took to the streets over the weekend took to the streets over the weekend to protest about the way a—level results were decided. there is still confusion over the appeals process for those who did not get their predicted grades. let‘s hearfrom a few of the students affected. i am a first—generation oxford offer holder from a state school, and getting my offerfrom oxford was the biggest achievement i could have hoped for. i am currently in the process of appealing my grades but that process and the criteria it seems to be changing every day which is really confusing and makes me very angry when they have had all this time to prepare. prior to my mock exams i had appendicitis and needed an operation. this put me at a disadvantage compared to my fellow students. the government has not considered

this aspect which means i have no grounds for which to appeal. thankfully i got into my insurance but did not get into my firm choice. applicants who apply to medicine or dentistry sat entrance exams like the ucat and bmat and attended rigorous interviews before receiving their offers. these demonstrated our capabilities and genuine passion for the career, and i believe that these are more accurate than any grade we have been given. i feel really let down and have no confidence in this government who even after three days of results coming out can't decide what the appeals process is. and with gcses coming out this week, we need it sorted as soon as possible. some students would what they were predicted to get, what they actually got. let‘s speak now to kay mountfield, headteacher at sir william borlase‘s grammar school in buckinghamshire. thank you very much forjoining us. what was the situation with your school? we are one of the schools that has been most badly affected by the algorithm. and it was absolutely

clear to us when we received our result is that the algorithm had not worked for us. we entered the process in good faith like all schools. we spent a particular time and energy putting together our data. when we received our results we got absolutely shocked. the set of results we received bore no resemblance to any results we have ever received. i have had my collea g u es ever received. i have had my colleagues working through the night looking out of the 300 page document that we got from off oualcomm to try to put together a case that each of our individual subject cohorts. what is clear to us is that any cohort with over 15, the assessed grades we submitted have not been used at all. so the model that is being applied has been applied at a great

distribution model, which has distorted our results. we have put together several cases which absolutely prove that we have lost all our grades. if you take a subject like maths, where we might normally get 30 capital a stars but they awarded us ten, we might get 40 as but they moved them into the capital a grade, the whole thing moves down so we have had students who have been awarded grade us, which we have never had in this school. that is for someone who is just not engaged with their work. it is morally indefensible to put stu d e nts is morally indefensible to put students in that position. what we are most frustrated about is there is absolutely no mechanism to appeal directly to quual. they should have been at the outside a single mechanism when schools received their data. they should have been one avenue to quickly go to quual and say, look at this, it seems to

be wrong, and for it to be sorted. i would have preferred that to happen before those results were put in front of our young people, because they were absolutely devastated. listening to those students who spoke before, they are living evidence of the fact that you have medics there who have not been able to access places where they have already proved their worth and through medical entrance exams. we have lots and lots of students in that position. 70 students woke up to not being able to access their first choice of university. and i‘ve still got a students scrabbling around trying to organise places at university. i find it around trying to organise places at university. ifind it absolutely baffling that quual didn‘t spot that they were schools like ours, and many sixth form colleges who have been given a set of results that are somewhat lower, but they have tried to fit their own national aim of having a set of results which didn‘t show year—on—year inflation,

they wanted a national state of statistics, and therefore they have distributed the right grades but to the wrong people. so i have been trying to work out where our grades have gone, where have they gone from those children at sixth form colleges? the young man who just spoke about his medical place, having lost it, where are the capital a starts gone? you only have to look at some of the websites of independent schools. one of them this morning was celebrating how it‘s grades were up by 40%. they quote a staggering 40% increase themselves. and they‘re a star grades have tripled. we talk about social mobility, we talk about making sure children have the opportunity unmarried to make progress on to their next pathways, but what you can see is that in schools where they are able to have small cohorts and therefore the model was not applied to them, or only partially applied, they have got grades which should have been

given to people like that young man who spoke before. and many of my students, and students across large sixth forms and sixth form colleges. you said 70 of your students didn‘t get theirfirst choice you said 70 of your students didn‘t get their first choice of university, and still difficult conversations are going on. what was the response when the universities we re the response when the universities were being called up and he was explaining, presumably command your teachers explaining exactly as you have just explained to us, that stu d e nts have just explained to us, that students were being given news where it was not reflective at all of what they could get? obviously you are speaking to a human at the other end of the line. how were they reacting to that? you are not always speaking to that? you are not always speaking toa human. to that? you are not always speaking to a human. most of these processes are set up with e—mail numbers that you can use and it is very difficult to speak to a human at the other end of the line. where we have spoken to the universities, some have been brilliant because they have been plunged into a position too where

they absolutely don‘t know how to respond to this. some of them have had a summer flexibility, others have said they can‘t possibly do anything other than wait for an appeal to come through. so they have just given all their places. some people who have grades, who might not have had grades, have filled those places. time has run out and is running out for a students who have been cheated of their grades to be able to compete for those places. some universities were not able to be flexible. some were flexible. and we still have an awful lot of stu d e nts we still have an awful lot of students waiting to find out whether or not they have got a place. the appeals process is so incredibly protracted. each of these individual cohort appeals is taking about five to six hours to put together. we are doing quual‘s work. i have got staff poring over data to put a case together to try and understand how

the algorithm hasn‘t worked for our students, and i have got graphs here which will very clearly illustrate, in each of these subjects, how our data has not been used appropriately or prior attainment data has been applied which is not appropriate. our results do not in any way resemble any previous set of results. there is no way of also speeding up this process. when people talk about delay, we chose that in the system. i didn‘t want assessed grades because we hadn‘t received our grades and we still believed the results we would get and that other schools would get and other colleges, would be fair. when we received our results the impact on young people has been devastating. you know, we talk about mental health and been concerned about young people‘s mental health. these young people have been in lockdown for months. they ended their school career very rapidly.

and now they are agonising over the delay in the appeals process. it cannot be further protracted. we have to have someone with the gumption to take action now and say we are going to make a decision, we have to move to assessed grades, we have to move to assessed grades, we have to move to assessed grades, we have to open up additional places in those universities, so that students are like mine and like students across the country who didn‘t get their proper results, will still have the opportunity to go to the universities they qualified for this year. that needs to be addressed straightaway. we cannot wait for quual to come up with another model, or another quual to come up with another model, oranotheralgorithm, quual to come up with another model, or another algorithm, and quual to come up with another model, oranotheralgorithm, and run that through. how much more agony do we wa nt that through. how much more agony do we want our students to be put through? it's anticipated there is going to be some sort of announcement from the government later today. what would you say if you are talking directly to a member of the government right now? what do

you want to hear? i would challenge quual to look at our results and actually explain why they have gone wrong. but above all i would like to say to them, you‘ve made a mistake, have the courage now to stand up and say, let‘s move forward, let‘s think about young people rather than statistics. it will mean the overall grades this year will be inflated and we don‘t get the planned model they wanted. but these are young people, they are individuals, they have lost their opportunities. admit a mistake has been made, moved to central assessed grades like scotland, wales, and make sure that our students get their grades and please open up the university places for these children to get the places they qualified for. with gcses, just forget it. there is not a timefor quual to come up with a better model. they had a chance, didn‘t work, they didn‘t put any suitable appeals process. i do not want to,

in 24 hours they would need to be in a position to have a new set of grades ready, that is not going to happen. i do not want children opening grades on thursday morning which are not a reflection of their ability and going through the same agony. ability and going through the same by ability and going through the same agony. by the same token we do not have the time or capacity as schools to deal with the same fiasco, the same protracted process, we have to set up our schools for covid—19, we have to prepare our students to make sure they catch up the time they might have missed. across the country schools are desperately trying to do this. and now their time has been hijacked to work with this absolutely ridiculous, sloppy process that was designed by quual. kay mountfield, head teacher at a grammar school, thank you. thank you. when we hear more about the timing ofan you. when we hear more about the timing of an announcement from the government we will bring you the latest news. a wave of strikes are taking

place in belarus as protesters try to force the president of belarus, alexander lukashenko, to step down. workers at this car factory in minsk shouted at mr lukashenko to resign after he spoke to them. earlier he‘d said he would not call new elections, despite widespread protests that his re—election had been rigged. protesters outside a factory booed and jeered as a helicopter flew over, presuming president lukashenko was on board. back from her exile in neighbouring lithuania, presidential candidate svetla na tisha noffs kyya h has released this appeal to her supporters. translation: i'm prepared to take response ability and act as the nation‘s leader during this period so we can go nation‘s leader during this period so we can go back to normality, so we can release all political prisoners and prepare a legal framework in conditions to hold a

new round of presidential elections quickly. genuine, fair and transparent elections that will be accepted without question by the international community. and this morning foreign secretary dominic raab has called the violence against protesters appalling and says the uk does not accept the result of last week‘s election, calling it fraudulent. eu leaders will hold an emergency video summit on wednesday. this is the building of state tv. many of its employees are on strike. one of their demands is to end censorship and have an objective coverage of the events in belarus. hundreds of people came here to support them. also across the country a number of factories, including like the potassium plant that makes a fertilisers and the tractor plant, are on strike. these

are tractor plant, are on strike. these a re key tractor plant, are on strike. these are key factories and plants that are key factories and plants that are very are key factories and plants that are very important for the economy of belarus and the workers are demanding mr lukashenko to leave, they want a rerun of the vote because they believe the elections we re because they believe the elections were rigged. they say all political prisoners, including detailed knees arrested during the crackdown on protesters, they must be released as well. —— detainees. it is hard to imagine how president lukashenko will be able to continue running this country, because the image of his legitimacy has been shattered. yesterday, hundreds of thousands of people came out onto the street across belarus to voice their protest, to voice their opposition to president lukashenko. a woman has been charged with the murder of a ten—year—old boy in acton in west london. olga freeman, who is forty, is expected to appear in court later today.

police believe they know who the boy is, but are awaiting formal identification. millions of self—employed people whose trade has been hit by coronavirus can now apply for a second support grant from the government. more than three million people may be eligible for the payment of up to £6,570 each, which chancellor rishi sunak said would be the final hand—out. paul fleming is the general secretary—elect of equity, a trade union for creative practitioners, and says not everyone is eligible for the grant. as with the first round, so many... whether they be stage managers, variety artists, clowns, circus performers, they will not receive it. those who do, they receive are very often small amounts. people who don‘t have complete tax records over a three—year period, those amounts will be very small command that particularly includes parents, carers, people who perhaps have part—time payejobs, which means their income has fallen below the threshold. the biggest worry, of

course, is that even for those who are able to claim eight, this is the last payment. now our industry is not going to be able to go back to any not going to be able to go back to a ny level of not going to be able to go back to any level of normality until next year. the government is not even going to declare when indoor performances return to normal until november. that is when the announcement is going to be. we are heading towards a bit of a cliff with a very inadequate parachute. how many people in the performing industry who you represent have actually found themselves with absolutely no support? what sort of percentage would you say? it's hard to say, but to put it into context, the vast majority of our members earn less than £10,000 a year on average. that would put them very often below the threshold to get a meaningful amount from the scheme. in particular if you think about underrepresented groups, parents, carers, people who come from outside the uk, perhaps they don‘t have three years of tax records, they are

disproportionately likely to receive a small amount or none at all. and indeed nobody getting anything, as i say, beyond the second payment. how are they coping, notjust financially, but mentally as well with what they are having to deal with? i think we can all imagine that level of trauma for a profession, no matter whether you be a performer, stage manager, director, variety artist, you spend your whole life putting together your whole life putting together your skills, , your whole life putting together your skills,, demonstrating your talent, and that is a prospect —— now there is a prospect you can‘t survive in our industry until it opens. that is incredibly traumatic. people are not able to pay their bills and they are considering transitioning out. when we talk about the inadequacy of support by the government, everybody who is watching at home, when you see your child in a nativity play, do you believe the right they —— do you believe the right they —— do you believe they have the right to become an international performer, or do you believe that right... when

the government is sending a clear message that they believe only a certain person who is independently wealthy has the right to go from a nativity play to professional training and make a living in the profession. that is incredibly unfair. for people living in abusive relationships, lockdown made it notjust harder for them to leave, but for many it also meant the violence got worse. that 5 according to the first in—depth research about the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the scale and nature of domestic abuse. it was carried out by the charity women s aid for panorama. victoria derbyshire reports. this isjess. for years her husband had been abusive to her, but when lockdown was announced, things got worse. and that stay—at—home message, what did that mean to you?

seriously? yeah. the charity women‘s aid have been working on the first in—depth research about the impact of lockdown on domestic abuse for panorama. of the people they spoke to, almost two thirds of those living with an abuser said the violence had got worse. more than three quarters of women said lockdown had made it harderfor them to escape. jess got out, and to a place of safety, but finding a room in refuge was harder than ever during lockdown. there were 1100 fewer available beds, a drop of 42% compared a to the same time last year. is it likely she is going to be accepted, or...? marie williamson manages this refuge in london. marie‘s desperately trying to find the woman and her children a bed in an alternative refuge

after their whereabouts were mistakenly revealed by a third party. i have had five refuges out of the seven refuges that were available, and they have all declined. i am going to ring up one other and after that i've got no other options. 19 days after lockdown began, the government announced it would give an additional £2 million to domestic abuse helplines. the timing was dreadful. it should not have taken 19 days to mobilise any sort of action. what it highlights is that it wasn't a priority for the government. it's a poor effort. were you too slow to act? i don't think we were because when we were talking to charities in the very, very earliest days, we were very much responding. we said to them, what do you need for us to help? can i tell you how many people were killed in an alleged domestic abuse cases in the three weeks between lockdown and when that announcement was made for two million for the helplines?

it was 11 women and two children and one man. in those three weeks. the charities, the police, we all work incredibly hard to keep victims and survivors, but we must never take attention away from the fact that it is abusive people who committed those murders. victoria derbyshire, bbc news. and you can watch panorama, ‘escaping my abuser‘ with victoria derbyshire, tonight at 7:30pm on bbc one. bbc news that one coming up shortly. now the weather. hello. we continue with the threat of intense but localised thunderstorms across england and wales for the next 24 errors. producing beautiful scenes like these, ominous clouds on the horizon, but sunshine breaking through. the thundery showers will

migrate north this afternoon and into the evening before petering out. a more persistent rain pulling away from northern ireland, swirling across the irish sea into wales and the north west of england to end the night. pretty muggy once again. 14 to 15 degrees. on into tuesday a swirl of rain will pull across north wales into northern england through the morning before pushing northwards into scotland during the course of the day. looking at the map it looks like it is petering out but we could see intense rainfall working its way northwards across scotla nd working its way northwards across scotland and for england and wales, yes, decent sunshine, but still locally the risk of intense thunderstorms. for the remainder of the week we turn to the atlantic and areas of low pressure. two centres in this circulation. they would bring strong winds to all parts of the uk. wednesday, particularly i think for western areas, as we see this band of rain coming in, this could be heavy enough to cause localised flooding. pretty soggy

ground after the thunderstorms in some areas. winds gusting 45 to 50 mph, bringing down the order tree on wednesday. scotland looking driest and brightest through the middle of the week. thursday, if we look closely at the weather chart, there isa gap closely at the weather chart, there is a gap between the bands of rain. the isobars open up a touch. first thing on thursday not too bad for much of the uk but we will see showery rain approaching from the west as the day pans out and the winds will pan —— pick up through the day, particularly gusty in the west. showers are crowding in. in the east with some sunshine and a little warmer again. up to 25 degrees. friday is the greatest cause for concern. that looks like it will be the day bringing the peak winds. some were rain pushing its way across the uk. the winds could gust up to 50 mph in exposure. strong enough to cause some damage and disruption. unseasonably windy and disruption. unseasonably windy and in—store to the week ahead.

mrs.

as anger grows among pupils and teachers — pressure mounts on the government over england‘s exam results fiasco. calls on the prime minister to take control — with fears similar chaos could surround gcse results in just a few days‘ time. here we are the monday after a—level results, worrying that there is no proper appeals process in place, and now worrying that there is not enough confidence in the system about gcses and that, frankly, is simply unacceptable. we‘ll be getting the latest from westminster — where from westminster — mps are expecting some kind change where mps are expecting some kind of change announced as early as today. also this lunchtime: millions of self—employed workers in the uk can apply for a second coronavirus support grant — but for many it‘s too late. when i found out i wasn‘t entitled i felt shocked, very, very anxious and worried. heartbroken, really.