a ninth night of protests against the president alexander lu kashenko, saying his re—election was fraudulent. thousands of demonstrators took over independence square in central minsk. the opposition candidate svetlana tikhanovskaya has suggested she could act as an interim leader. in the united states, the democratic party convention will start later in wisconsin. delegates will confirm joe biden as the man to challenge donald trump in november's election. but coronavirus restrictions mean the four—day event will take place almost entirely online, with joe biden giving his acceptance speech from his home—state of delaware. in a major reversal, students across the united kingdom will now get the grade given them by their school or college. there was an uproar after 40% of a—level results were downgraded

hello, and welcome to our look ahead to what the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. with me are madeline grant, deputy comment editor at the daily telegraph, and the political commentator and former director of communications for the labour party, lance price. welcome back to you both. let's have a look at what's already in. according to the metro, pupil power in the uk has forced the government into a u—turn on a—level and gcse grading, after education secretary gavin williamson declared there would be "no change and no u—turn". the daily express says the prime minister told the education secretary to scrap the algorithm for this summer's exams results, following the outcry. the daily mirror describes it

as another government "screeching" u—turn, but note that education secretary reamins in his job. according to the daily telegraph, gavin williamson is blaming the exam regulator quual for the exam results chaos. we will look at that in a bit more detail. the i describes how some students, parents and teachers are breathing a sigh of relief after days of confusion, while the times reports that tens of thousands of pupils are still facing doubt over their futures as universities rush to find them places. they are bringing in lawyers for that as well. and the daily mail suggests the story is worthy of the old comedians, laurel and hardy — calling it "another fine mess". welcome back to you both. madeline, let's start with the guardian,

government forced into humiliating exams you turn. not good news for the government or quual, and quite a few photographers have been to the same school, i think. we will look at that in a minute. just talk us through what the guardian's position is, because there's quite a lot of interesting detail. the guardian has mentioned the fact that gavin williamson has tried to blame quual for the exams fiasco, but i think what they're really trying to bring up what they're really trying to bring up here is the number of u—turns there have been from gavin williamson in a short space of time, climbing down from one position and saying one thing, then changing three days later. the word humiliating has been overused in relation to this fiasco because although u—turns are very common and you government, this is particularly

damaging because events in scotland gave a poor taste of what was to come. yet in the final hour where gavin williamson announced he would introduce this triple—lock to mitigate some of the impact, he maintained he would stick to this modeljust maintained he would stick to this model just days maintained he would stick to this modeljust days ago, than even when that fell under scrutiny, it led to a climb—down today. but the reason that's damaging is it very much adds to the sense that this government is moving from crisis to crisis. it's not really in control of the situation, it's responding to events rather than commanding them. politically that is toxic because it can be so difficult to rebuild confidence once it's been lost. this one line in the guardian that struck me was that williamson claimed he'd only become aware over the saturday and sunday of the scale of the problems with quual. and that is quite extraordinary because, given the fact that there had been warnings both from the education

select committee, and we had seen what happened north of the border in scotland sometime earlier, it was clear that this would be a problem. and from my experience inside government, you would've thought that mr williamson himself, his special advisers, his civil servants would have been all over the detail of this to make sure the same kind of this to make sure the same kind of embarrassment wouldn't hit them. yet it did hit them. it is like driving down a long stretch of motorway and seeing a car crash in the distance and putting your foot on the accelerator. when you were looking after labour communications, the prime minister was away on holiday in scotland, but he would've been presumably briefed about something like this, wouldn't he? because it just something like this, wouldn't he? because itjust seems obvious, it just seems like a huge potential bomb. of course it would've been. don't forget, when i was in government working for tony blair, we we re government working for tony blair, we were accused of being control

freaks and wanting to centralise power in numberio freaks and wanting to centralise power in number 10 downing street. but we were nothing like this lot. poorjohnson and dominic cummings, his notorious chief adviser, have been centralising enormous amount of power in downing street around the prime minister. they've had their fingers in every single pie across whitehall. so it is no good for the prime minister, hanging gavin williamson out to dry, and mr williamson out to dry, and mr williamson trying to shake the blame onto the regulator when you have a command and control downing street like we have at the moment, the prime minister ultimately must take responsibility. and it is significant that he's kept a very, very low profile. he is supposed to be on holiday, but prime ministers are never really on holiday. be on holiday, but prime ministers are never really on holidaylj realise are never really on holiday.” realise that the picture was outside the department for education after

the department for education after the news was announced. interesting also, the guardian picking up that the government is now lifting the cap on english university admissions. so despite all the inconvenience and the trauma of this and the pandemic, i suppose the good thing is they can lift the cap because a lot of other foreign stu d e nts because a lot of other foreign students won't be coming to study this year in the uk, so the capacity might well be there. that's true, but there's also a big logistical problems for universities because they are also being expected to enforce social distancing measures and keep people in bubbles in which they socialise together, and probably with social distancing, that means you can have fewer bums on seats in lectures and classes, and so on. so there's this double difficulty... my youngest child is going to university, a lot of it

will be online for the first term or so. will be online for the first term or so. that's very true. makes you wonder why you would go physically at all. it does, because university is far more than just what you learn. it is partly a social experience. but i think that in the same way that i don't think zoom calls are a good substitute for interacting with people at an office, particularly when you are trying to learn as a young colleague, having that organic exchange with academics is so useful for students. if everything is relegated to online, then it puts forth the question of, why bother? especially when so many great universities do some fantastic online courses that everyone can access online courses that everyone can a ccess 0 n online courses that everyone can access on youtube for free. so it begs the question of why bother, as you said. going to the times, and guess what? there was always going to be room for lawyers in this, but pupils are instructing lawyers to

challenge the grades, now universities are calling on lawyers to assess their obligations to 55,000 pupils who missed out because asi 55,000 pupils who missed out because as i understand it, when university offers a place and the grades are met, that is a contract. indeed, and the times has got the figures for that, 55,000, as you say, people have accepted the second choice university because they weren't allocated the grades needed for their first choice. but another 80,000 on top of that who were planning to appeal against their results that they were handed down, all these people somehow have to be accommodated. going back to the discussion we had with madeleine, one way around that which is discussed in the times to defer another year and not actually go to university. not everyone can afford to do that in the present climate or

find work or a casualjob to fill that time lot, can they? that's absolutely right. for those that can, it might be an attractive choice for the reasons we were just discussing, it may not be a very comfortable experience going to school this autumn. some students might think they will take advantage of this and take a year out and, perhaps hopefully in a year's time, going to university will be a more traditional experience. on that story, quual were accusing teachers of submitting implausibly high predicted grades. i'm not sure that every pupil's experience? of course it varies very much, and i think that neither of these systems were perfect. the algorithm was unfair and judged people indiscriminately not by their individual efforts, but there were going to be losers with there were going to be losers with the predicted grades because some teachers would have been more generous than others. i think this isa generous than others. i think this is a superior outcome but not

perfect. we are only now beginning to realise, or we've got the evidence right in front of us just how much there is ultimately no substitute for doing things in person, whether that's teaching or exams. and i do wonder why more effort was not made to allow stu d e nts to effort was not made to allow students to sit exams in person because you would think exam halls and exam settings in a big sports hall or school hall would be an environment in which it would be possible to do social distancing. i guess it would've been wonderful if months ago, a bit more of the ingenuity that was being thrown at building the nightingale hospitals had been devoted to figuring out how stu d e nts had been devoted to figuring out how students could sit exams safely, thus avoiding this whole mess. at the former education secretary was telling me he would not of shut the schools down, he thought this was the best way forward now despite great inflation, which is why gavin williamson didn't want to use this

system. but just on williamson didn't want to use this system. butjust on a triple—lock — presumably now, students can't even sit those exams if they wanted to in the autumn to prove what they could get. or do we know if that is still the case? because that was part of the case? because that was part of the triple—lock before he became a dual lock, and is nowjust a lock.” don't think that question has been addressed yet. at the moment, pupils have the choice between the results they were given by the algorithm, or they were given by the algorithm, or the results predicted by their teachers, whichever is higher. sol suppose you'd have to be dissatisfied with both those results to want them to go it take the exam again. and maybe take a year or two off? possibly. i think again. and maybe take a year or two off? possibly. ithink the again. and maybe take a year or two off? possibly. i think the point about why more planning didn't go into the education system is one of the challenges that the government will have to face when people look back on this — this will be

considered a very serious feeling because there were lots of public buildings standing empty, like theatres and cinemas, there were big open spaces where it would've been perfectly possible to expand the space of a school at exam time to accommodate the social distancing necessary to bring people in. or infect say, look at the evidence of how children don't appear to be so if -- is how children don't appear to be so if —— is such effective transmitters of the virus itself, and many other countries in europe opened the schools earlier than we did and channelled that ingenuity stop i'm not sure you would even half to have gone that far with a bit more effort encourage, and also a bit more cooperation from teaching unions and more get up and go generally because the stakes were so cruelly high. it has been obvious for some time,

particularly the most disadvantaged pupils how little work was being done under these circumstances. it was in april that the social mobility foundation were releasing shocking data about the minimal amounts of work being done. you would think with all the information, i don't think it is just the government's fault, but failure of adults everywhere. and the most disadvantaged children not doing anything at all since lock down in terms of personal study. to your paper now, madeleine, a piece by william hague saying this could become another poll tax moment for the conservative party. are you giving 1—2 barrels inside for this? i think the telegraph has been very hot on school re—openings and the failure of this government in sensing the scale of the problem and the looming problem, notjust people

sitting exams, but also the massive problems of social mobility which will be exacerbated by the big discrepancy and how much work the privilege kids are doing compared to less privileged ones. i wasn't actually on duty today, so i didn't have a hand on it. but you've got that picture of gavin williamson with his cup of tea, or the empty cup which perhaps should have t or something stronger. that extraordinary picture, which is on social media of him with his whip, even though he's a former whip, on his desk in front of him, which is an odd thing perhaps, but no criminals or tarantula. this is the childish, megalomaniacal theatrics he was known for. the whip in front of the desk photo, he is not lost that since he moved to education. of the desk photo, he is not lost that since he moved to educationm ita that since he moved to educationm it a good thing to blame a watchdog

when you are in a hole like this? no, the temptation to find someone else to blame is always there for ministers. but the smart thing to do, if you're a senior minister or any minister, is to take it on the chin. and when it is absolutely blindingly obvious to everybody in the country that you have performed a screeching handbrake u—turn, there is no point trying to peten that you haven't, and there is no point in trying to blame somebody else for it. desperate tend to. for williamson to say he didn't know the detail of it or that he was asking for reassurances from the system to be robust and fair, and they we re be robust and fair, and they were putting together this algorithm to meet the government's objectives. ministers must take her sensibility, andl ministers must take her sensibility, and i think itjust does him no credit whatsoever to be seen

squirming the way he has been and trying to deflect the blame. and the fa ct trying to deflect the blame. and the fact that he says he only learned of those inequalities last weekend suggests a government that is on the back foot and not being proactive in these matters. but i would say that, although i have been quite outspoken on the matter of how the government has handled schooling education itself, it seems to be that the exam regulation is just itself, it seems to be that the exam regulation isjust one itself, it seems to be that the exam regulation is just one of the bodies in the uk that has been stress tested as it were by the pandemic... a lot of people might say that, how come you only knew about that over the weekend when you had the whole scottish hires fiasco based on the same algorithm? it's still a last—minutejob, same algorithm? it's still a last—minute job, and that the algorithm was designed by quual, not trying to exonerate the government, but we have systemic problems that we need to have a long, hard think about at the other side of this virus. let's just look

at the daily mail quickly, another fine mess. interesting cartoon, doesn't look particularly like laurel and hardy, but we get the gist. should we go onto the next one, which is at the bottom of the telegraph, because the last time we we re telegraph, because the last time we were looking at the papers, i couldn't get your views about what's happening in belarus with lukashenko and those extraordinary scenes which some papers have covered in more detail of him visiting a tractor factory today and really being shouted down. in terms of pr backfiring, it couldn't be much worse, could it? no, they were extraordinary scenes, and i think a lot of viewers, even those who take a keen interest in international news probably know less about belarus than they do about many other countries and what used to be the soviet field. partly because i

think the russians and vladimir putin himself have considered belarus to be notjust in his backyard, but virtually within his territory. and the rest of europe and the rest of the west have kind of gotten along with that, so people haven't really interrogated what's going on in belarus in the way that they were doing in the other countries in eastern europe as they we re countries in eastern europe as they were moving towards democracy. so belarus really is a bit of an unknown to most of us, and i will definitely count myself amongst that which makes it very hard tojudge whether or not the opposition really does have the impetus and the power to unseat lukashenko, who has been in power for 26 years with the support of first the soviet union, then russia. but it is interesting to say that i think there have been a few signs of people within the police and the armed forces, they

are beginning to shift their loyalty, and that's the sort of thing that will make a big difference rather than demonstrations. i think the issue for russia and putin is the geopolitical position of belarus, rather than anything else, because the two men have fallen out quite a lot recently, like lukashenko has been selling russian oil, which is imported cheaply, refined it then sold it at a profit. so it is really the geopolitical position that is country occupies that is probably so important for pruden at the moment. it is very much so —— hooton. the other option for belarus's potential allies, there's been a big deal about it, i read a piece about the situation in belarus and the extent to which they have a well educated middle—class citizenry who could manage things. there's been a real apathy from europeans towards

eastern europe, perhaps there's an element of snobbery, but that's carried over into the eu and, given their own struggles right now, i think there are quite a few of the top table there who where it would be in their best interest to diminish belarus to stay where it roughly is, and it will hinge very much on whether he continues to maintain the support of the security services and the elites of belarus, if they can remain united. it reminds me of those heavy days a people power in the ukraine and elsewhere. i'm afraid once again we are out of time, lance, i can see you nodding. thank you both are much indeed for having a second look at the first editions of the papers. thank you both very much indeed. that's it for the papers.

hello, i'm tulsen tollett, and this is your sports news. and we start with inter milan, who are through to the europa league final after a convincing 5—0 win over shakhtar donetsk in dusseldorf. latauro martinez got them going with a goal on 19 minutes, which he added to with this in the final 20 minutes to seal the result. but romelu lukaku grabbed a double for himself, giving him 33 for the season — this his second — and it also means he's scored in ten consecutive europa league matches. there's something of a crisis brewing at barcelona. they've sacked manager quique setien three days after his side's humiliating 8—2 defeat by bayern munich in the champions league. there are also reports of unrest among senior players, with rumours captain lionel messi wants out after becoming frustrated with the club's lack of success. here's spanish football journalist guilliam balague. he's not the one at fault.

it is a big problem that we find at barcelona, and he isjust, in a way, a victim of the whole thing. he should have never been put his manager. he was the fourth choice, and the other said no at the time injanuary. but there was nobody else, and they wanted to get rid of him. and as you say, it was a bit of a disaster. joe hart is expected to join tottenham on a two—year deal. hart fell from favour with manchester city after pep guardiola arrived in 2016, with loans to torino and west ham before a 2018 move to burnley. he's a free agent after leaving burnley at the end ofjune, and will compete with paulo gazzaniga to be hugo lloris' deputy at spurs. hart's won 75 caps for england over his career. and hart's former teammate, vincent kompa ny, has retired from playing. he's 3a and spent last season as player—coach of the belgian side anderlecht, but he'll now focus full

time on management. while david silva hasjoined spainsh side real sociedad after winning 11 trophies over ten years with manchester city, the club have announced plans for a statue at the etihad stadium after his ten—year spell. simona halep is the latest big name in tennis to pull out of this month's us open because of the coronavirus pandemic. halep is the current world number two, and says she's decided not to play in new york because of what she calls the "exceptional circumstances" we're living in at the moment, adding that her health is at the heart of the decision. the current wimbledon champion is the sixth top ten player to opt out of the grand slam, which is being played behind closed doors from 31 august. england and pakistan played out a draw in the second test at the ageas bowl in southampton. the result was all but confirmed with bad weather decimating the test. more rain prevented play starting until 3.20pm in the afternoon, after which england reached 110 for four in reply to pakistan's 236 before

the captains agreed to a draw. only 135.3 overs, a day—and—a—half‘s play, were possible in the match, the shortest test in england since 1987. the hosts will take a 1—0 lead into the third and final test at the same venue, which begins on friday. ronnie o'sullivan says a seventh world snooker title would be "fantastic" after his latest triumph at the crucible. he dominated kyren wilson to win his sixth world championship title. o'sullivan is nowjust one world title away from matching stephen hendry‘s record. whilst he's still firmly focussed on his own career, the 44—year—old hasn't ruled out helping other players to develop in the future — and that could include yesterday's beaten finallist. kyren doesn't need any help, but i'm sure he would be someone that, if i stopped playing, i would love to sort of maybe try and help him in some sort of way. i know he's up for learning stuff, and maybe i could be a ray reardon for kyren one day.

he has tremendous ability and it would be great at some point to do that. but i have got to be a little bit selfish first and put myself first. there's only so many hours and time in the day, so i'm more focused on what i can do rather than what i can do for others at the moment, in that respect. quite some player there. for everything else, you can go to the website. but that is all your support for now. hello there. monday was another day of impressive cloudscapes across the uk but big lumpy clouds like these tend to produce intense downpours and thunderstorms, and that is exactly what we saw. this is the radar picture. it shows that those showers and storms look quite extensive across england and wales. some of them were heavy enough to give some localised flooding but equally a few spots fell between the showers and stayed completely dry. and tuesday is going to be

a similar sort of day. some slightly more persistent rain though across north wales and northern england for a time and generally quite a cloudy start across the north of the uk. for scotland, the skies should brighten. we'll see some sunshine but a scattering of heavy showers into the afternoon, these could give some localised flooding. not quite as many showers further south at this stage through the midlands, wales, east anglia, towards the south of england. but again where they do show up, they are likely to be heavy and thundery. top temperatures between 18—23 celsius. now, most of the showers will fade during tuesday evening but into the early hours of wednesday, rain will swing its way in from the south west and this signals the start of a very unsettled spell of weather. in fact, this is more of an autumnal weather chart than one you'd expect to see during the summer. low pressure firmly in charge. that's going to bring some outbreaks of rain at times through the middle part of the week. but also, some very, very strong winds — unusually strong winds for this time of year and that could cause some disruption.

now on wednesday, it's likely we'll see outbreaks of rain drifting northwards across much of england and wales, into northern ireland and perhaps southern scotland by the end of the afternoon but the winds will be picking up all the while from the south west. gusts of a0 mph or more for exposed coasts here. temperatures on wednesday, well, no great shakes for the time of year. 18—22 celsius. now, it stays unsettled and very windy as you move out of wednesday into thursday. low pressure still firmly in charge, various frontal systems swinging around the low and quite a few white lines, isobars, on the chart. that shows that it will be windy. these are the wind gusts we can expect. it will be windy for all parts of the uk but particularly for western coasts where wind gusts are likely to get to 40—50 mph. pretty unusual for this time of year.

this is bbc news. i'm tim willcox with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. none unconventional virtual convention for the us democratic party. joe biden is just hours from being formally nominated as the party pots a presidential candidate. a major u—turn across the uk on dealing with the impact of coronavirus on school exams. pupils will no longer have results decided by an algorithm. opposition protesters in belarus have held a ninth night of protests against president alexander lu kashenko, whose re—election has been widely condemned as fraudulent. and brazil's vice president has defended its handling of the coronavirus pandemic despite being the worst hit country outside of the us.