good morning. welcome to breakfast with dan walker and louise minchin. our headlines today... universities call for urgent government support following the u—turn over a—level grades, as they prepare for a sharp increase in calls from anxious students. i have just not been sleeping well for the past few nights, really stressed about my future. hoping things turn out all right and ijust want some kind of certainty. the race for the white house gets under way in earnest, with the democratic party's virtual convention, and an impassioned plea from michelle obama.

if we have any hope of ending this chaos, we have got to vote forjoe biden, like our lives depend on it. a housing boom in the midst of an economic crisis. the uk market has its busiest month in a decade. but, as prices surge, who's left out and how long can it last? a growing headache for the organisers of the us open. wimbledon champion simona halep is the latest player to pull out of the tournament because of the pandemic. most of the women's top ten now won't play in new york. the cavern club — the legendary venue that launched the beatles — is facing closure due to the coronavirus lockdown. good morning. today, more thus will see some sunshine. it will be less humid and there will be happy and fun downpours which could lead to some issues with flash flooding. more details later in the programme.

it's tuesday 18th august. our top story. universities say they face a major challenge accommodating thousands of students who have been awarded higher grades because of the u—turn over a—levels. they're calling for urgent help from the government, as tens of thousands of students face a scramble for places. ministers in england, wales and northern ireland have confirmed a—level and gcse students will now be awarded grades set by teachers‘ assessments, rather than by a computer algorithm. dan johnson reports. when i heard the news, a huge wave of relief came over me, and it's just fantastic. i'm so happy. i feel like the government should've taken the grades that my expert teachers gave me from the start, based on my performance. i'm frustrated that this completely unnecessary mess has set me back a year. the government has heard our voices and accepted that they were wrong and changed the decision because it's literally going to mean so much for so many students across the country. after a painful u—turn in every corner of the united kingdom the question is, what difference

does this make for the future? i was in a state on thursday, atrocious. here's one family who felt disappointed by son riley's results last week, and worried about his sister's gcse on thursday. a lot of stress off my shoulders, especially... especially where the university's concerned because... because of the decision now, i don't have to go through the appeal process. it's been such a surreal year and i feel like the past few days have just been all over the place, and it's just great to know that everything — providing they stick to what they said — is just going to work out the best it can with the situation we're in. the computer models used to standardize grades agreed by teachers produced inconsistent results. there have been apologies from ministers and officials who got their maths badly wrong. but reverting to teachers‘ estimated

grades isn't a simple solution. universities had been busy matching students with available courses through clearing. now some unis will have more students with the right grades than they have places remaining. there's certainly a lot of work for us to do, going ahead. so i think obviously our concern is that the best outcome is available for all students. but at the moment, it's not quite clear to us how we will get the new results, how we have to process them. but we‘ve got our students‘ interests at heart. i've just not been sleeping well for the past few nights, just been really stressed about my future. i'm hoping things turn out all right and ijust want some kind of certainty. clearing now feels more like clearing up — after a mess that put the futures of many young people in jeopardy and leaves question marks over the futures of those in charge. dan johnson, bbc news. let‘s speak now to our political correspondent iain watson, who joins us from westminster.

we are going to speak to the education secretary this morning. there is a lot of pressure on him, isn‘t there? there is a lot of pressure on him, isn't there? there is. you would expect opposition mps to be calling for his resignation. privately, many conservatives as well are very unhappy about the way it has been handled. also the u—turn. why didn‘t gavin williamson do this earlier when he saw what the situation was like in scotland? one senior conservative said, he now has to go. another suggested he will be reshuffled in the autumn. this is not a government that does resignations. there is a huge clamour among conservative mps for dominic cummings to go when he had that controversial trip to durham during lockdown. he is still in place, for example. there are real

challenges gavin williamson has yet to face, including primarily getting children safely back to school in a few weeks‘ time. let‘s see how he copes with these challenges ahead but for now, he thinks both an apology and also frankly blaming the exams regulator for the mess apology and also frankly blaming the exams regulatorfor the mess will keep him in the department for education. thank you. i did mention we we re education. thank you. i did mention we were going to be joined education. thank you. i did mention we were going to bejoined by education. thank you. i did mention we were going to be joined by gavin williamson at 7:30am. i am sure lots of you still have questions he would like answered. why don‘t you send them in. we will collect as many as we can and ask him. the home office says it is "working incredibly closely" with kent county council, after the local authority warned it would no longer be able to care safely for migrant children who cross the channel. more than 400 under—18s have arrived unaccompanied in kent this year, including 13 in the past few days. keith doyle reports.

a borderforce boat escorts migrants ashore in dover yesterday. amongst the hundreds who‘ve arrived on the kent coast after making the dangerous journey in recent days were 13 unaccompanied children. more than 400 under—18s have entered kent county council‘s care so far this year — most of whom crossed the channel in small boats. the council‘s leaders said the latest arrivals had tipped the balance and the authority could not safely accommodate any more. the home office said this was an unprecedented situation, but a scheme to move some children to other local authorities had helped to ease the pressure. kent wants a voluntary system to be made mandatory. it says the continued high number of arrivals means the scheme has not been enough to make a real difference. it‘s unclear what will happen to any new unaccompanied children who arrive in kent from across the channel

in the coming days. keith doyle, bbc news. the health secretary matt hancock will outline plans for the future of public health in england later. he‘s expected to announce a new agency, which will take over many functions of public health england — one of the organisations at the heart of the response to coronavirus. the body has faced criticism over its handling of the crisis, but some argue it‘s been made a scapegoat for failings elsewhere. a boy who suffered life—changing injuries when he was thrown from the balcony of the tate modern last year, has been able to go home for the first time. the six—year—old was visiting london from france with his family when he fell 100—feet. he now needs round—the—clock medical care. 18—year—old jonty bravery was convicted of attempted murder and was jailed in june. what may be the highest temperature ever reliably recorded on earth, 54.1; celsius — that‘s 130 in fahrenheit — has been registered in death valley national park in california.

the recording is being verified by the us national weather service. it comes amid a heatwave on america‘s west coast, where temperatures are forecast to rise even further this week. michelle obama has launched a scathing attack on donald trump, accusing the president of not being up to the job. the former first lady was addressing the democratic party convention, which will see former vice—presidentjoe biden formally accept the nomination for november‘s presidential election. we live in a nation that is deeply divided, and i am a black woman speaking at the democratic convention. but enough of you know me by now. you know that i tell you exactly what i‘m feeling. you know i hate politics. but you also know that i care about this nation.

you know how much i care about all of our children. so if you take one thing from my words tonight, it is this. if you think things can not possibly get worse, trust me — they can and they will if we don‘t make a change in this election. if we have any hope of ending this chaos, we have got to vote forjoe biden like our lives depend on it. michelle obama was the headliner in the first day of the democratic convention. julia manchester is the political correspondent for the hill and joins us now from washington. thank you for speaking to us on bbc brea kfast thank you for speaking to us on bbc breakfast this morning. we will get to some of the things michelle obama said ina to some of the things michelle obama said in a moment. this is a very different convention to what we said in the past. it is vastly different. this is the first time we have seen

a virtual political convention in the united states. just to give you insight as to what political conventions do here stateside, it is a chance for members of the party and its members to vote on the party platform and to officially bestow the nomination onto the party‘s nominee. this year it isjoe biden. often you see rock star —like speeches in these large sports stadiums, if you well. then you have balloons and fireworks and all of that normally in these conventions. this year it is all in line with lots of pre—recorded speeches. this year it is all in line with lots of pre-recorded speeches. lots of people in the past have suggested michelle obama should be a future president of the united states. obviously a former first lady alongside her husband, barack obama. she does carry weight, doesn‘t she? what points was she making? michelle

obama gave a very scathing speech about president trump and only mentioned him once by name. she was calling on people to get out and vote, calling on people who may be did not vote in 2016. calling on people who voted for president trump in 2016 that are upset with the job his administration has done. she was also rallying minority voters. she was sending out a rallying cry to americans, essentially trying to share her feelings about what the past four years have been like, invoking the coronavirus, the economy and the number of other issues under the trump administration. overall i would say this is at a historically important speech because of the fact we have never seen a former speech because of the fact we have never seen a former first lady go after the president of the united states and brings such a stinging

rebuke of him. we are three months away from the election in november, normally it is quite celebrity heavy at this stage. will things be slightly adjusted because of the field for the polls at the moment? things have definitely been adjusted virtually, i would say. we do have a lot of celebrities making appearances. that is what the gmp is trying to do right now, trying to recruit these famous faces and make the event is interesting. eventually she will not have balloons, fireworks and rock star —like performances. they are trying to get creative and engage viewers. bringing in famous faces and celebrities is one way to do that. we have a number of women who will be hosting the convention. tonight it was american latina actress, eva longoria. i am definitely getting

creative in order to keep voters engaged and really to rally them up ahead of november. thank you for talking to us. president donald trump has also been out on the campaign trail himself. he has been in milwaukee. it is all building up slowly four months of political campaigning before the election ta kes pla ce campaigning before the election takes place in november. we are talking about a—level results again. let‘s take a look at today‘s papers as the a—level results fiasco continues to dominate the front pages. the daily mail has called it "another fine mess" and says the government has made what it calls another "humiliating u—turn. " "this is no way to run a country" declares the daily mirror. the paper describes borisjohnson as "blundering" and describes the last few hours as "another screeching u—turn." gavin williamson will be here live at 7:30am this morning. "williamson shifts blame on to exam watchdog" is the daily telegraph‘s take on the story. it says he faces calls to resign

after apologising to students. but it says he has blamed quual, and quotes him saying he had been "constantly reassured" by senior officials at the regulator that the system was fair. and online, the washington post is following events at the democratic national convention. with the race to the white house now well and truly under way, former first lady michelle obama has delivered a speech in which she described donald trump as "the wrong president for our country." she spoke for quite a while and only mentioned him by name on one occasion. sniffer dogs, what is the step up from sniffer dogs? i don‘t know, cats. locusts. dogs may be traditionally be sniffing animal explosives but when it comes to reaching hard to reach spaces, the military is looking for a different

option. the us navy has invested money into developing a sideboard locust and turning the pest into a sophisticated weapon. that and ten i are so sophisticated weapon. that and ten i are so delicate and so sensitive they can trace new odours within a few hundred milliseconds of changing. the signals from their brains change as they get closer to the source stop you monitor their brains. bear with me. that means the handlers would be able to identify from which direction the odour is coming. locust news. imagine that as a job. this is a lovely idea. some people buy autographs from celebrities. this is thought to be the first example of its kind. it is marked on a 5000 year old clay

tablet. it is being sold for £175,000. it was made in an ancient city in modern day iraq. it appears to show how beer was produced in a temple. i will tell you what, it is a really lovely signature, isn‘t it? have you asked anyone for their signature? iam not have you asked anyone for their signature? i am not really a collector. it might have been george clooney. he was on here ages ago. did you lose your sense of professionalism? i did you lose your sense of professionalism ? i still did you lose your sense of professionalism? i still have it. i have pele‘s. i got turned down by glenn hoddle once. that is embarrassing. we found out tottenham are flying on a pre—season trip from gatwick airport. i went to the apple and asked glenn hoddle for an autograph and he said no because he

was ina autograph and he said no because he was in a rash. —— i went to the airport. while many parts of the economy are struggling to adjust as lockdown eases, the uk housing market appears to be booming. nina‘s here to help explain more. what‘s going on here, nina? good morning. it is one of these strange anomalies at the moment. the housing market is booming and restaurants are full. so today we‘re talking about housing and the somewhat surprising news that for the moment at least, the market is strong. in the first month where restrictions were eased and the stamp duty holiday kicked in — there were £36 billion worth of sales. now that is the busiest month in a decade. what‘s also interesting is that compared to last year sales were up across the market. with 29% more first time buyers agreeing sales compared to last year. the average asking price has also risen and is now hovering around £32,000.

-- 320,000. prices from mid—july to mid—august prices are 5% higher than the same period last year. that‘s breaking records in some areas including scotland, north west england and the midlands. but how long can this last and what is it doing to people trying to get on the property ladder? property expert kate faulkner to help us make sense of what‘s going on. very good morning to you. on the face and it, good news. how long can it last? not for ever. we know it will come down. what does appear to happen, we were expecting the market to be hit this year by 5%,10% happen, we were expecting the market to be hit this year by 5%, 10% full. we did not think people would come out of looked on as enthusiastic, which is the only way i can describe it to buy homes and get settled as much as they have. what we are seeing at the moment, and the reason for this boom, it is more a spread

of activity. what we have done is we are bringing a lot of sales forward from there next year or so and of course we had the pent—up demand pre—dan from brexit and then we had pent—up demand that was circled by lockdown. we are seeing this real condensed market at this moment in time. it is likely to last till at least the end of october. the stamp duty holiday may mean it lasts right up duty holiday may mean it lasts right up until march next year but we have moved the recession on, if you like, from a property perspective until next year. we are not expecting, we might be completely wrong, even though we are heading into recession we are in now, we are not expecting prices to fall as much as they did before, so we have not gone into this with property prices on a huge high. we are expecting rises of 2%, 396, high. we are expecting rises of 2%, 3%, which would be fairly normal for

the time of year. we are only expecting. around 15% volume —wise and we were expecting a lot more than that. that is good news for economy. it should average out over the next couple of years to what it should be anyway. there was only anecdotal evidence of people needing to the coast, getting out of the cities and perhaps deciding to downsize sooner because a coronavirus, has that sustained? there is a bigger thing. we have had these conversations many times. people try to time their entry into the market, trying to buy when prices are low and sell when prices are high. what is happening now is people are realising it is all about a roof over my head and it is less about the price you pay and more about the price you pay and more about the price you pay and more about the cost of owning a home, which is at an all—time low at this moment in time. our behaviour is

changing. it is notjust about wanting gardens and houses, it is happening in the private and rental sector but people are also getting smarter and understanding that prices are prices and they will go up prices are prices and they will go up and down over time and it is more about getting a roof over your head and understanding the cost of that and understanding the cost of that and make sure you minimise any risks of losing yourjob and getting sick or whatever. this bodes well for the future. people are becoming more savvy. there will be people who are struggling financially and going nowhere near a position to buy a property. will there be a scramble to increase overheads for them?” property. will there be a scramble to increase overheads for them? i do not think so over time. affordability will get better over the next year or so in the rental market and the buying market. i say

that on average because some properties are so short in supply they will always go to the highest bidder and always do well. i think you have got time now, i know times are you have got time now, i know times a re really ha rd you have got time now, i know times are really hard and everyone is in different circumstances because it is complicated but save as much as you absolutely can because we still have the help to buy scheme which is going through, which has been extended. you can still buy at 95% now if he wanted on a new build property. you still have shared ownership as an option if you are struggling affordability wise. i got on the ladder by buying with a friend. that is another thing you can do. at this moment in time, if you do not have to rush into buying, worry more about the saving and where the best place is for you because you may be able to move somewhere cheaper in the future and commute to work a couple of times a week. some evidence that the stamp

duty holiday as inflated prices so much that people aren‘t even making a saving based on that. the other thing to know is conveyance is and solicitors are in short supply at the moment, so there might be a bit ofa the moment, so there might be a bit of a backlog waiting for that service as well. many youth clubs and services had to close when the uk went into lockdown in march. now there are fears lots of them will never reopen. the education charity, the national youth agency, has told bbc breakfast that permanent closures will mean hundreds of thousands of young people will go without vital services. tim muffett reports. since it first opened in the ‘60s, honor oak youth club in south london has had a huge impact. it reaches out to young people who need to be reached out to, people who need our help and engagement. so i think this place is really important, cos it‘s like a second home to a lot of the young people. i love it because it's a mix of different boys from multiple different age groups and it gets

to us socialize with people, not from just our school. i can express my feelings and meet new friends and i can do what i love, which is dancing, drawing. when it was closed, like, you didn‘t... you really didn‘t know what to do. we were probably all stuck on our phones. having been shut for months because of lockdown, the centre‘s just reopened with new restrictions. we would normally see in the summer about 150 young people coming through the doors on each site. but the restrictions mean that we can only see 15 in bubbles. we are turning children away at the door, which is very difficult because you have to explain to them why adults can go to pubs but we have to turn away at the door at youth clubs. for most indoor activities, those aged over 11 also need to wear face coverings. but of the 10,000 or so youth projects in england, at least this one has reopened. the national youth agency, an educational charity, fears one in five will remain permanently closed.

we‘re seeing around a million people are missing from youth services this year who would have been engaged in activities this time last year. youth centres and youth projects, i hear so often from young people, are the one place that they feel safe. so the loss of that one point in your life can be absolutely devastating. what do you fear will happen unless something changes pretty quickly? we‘re going to have a lost generation of young people who do don‘t feel they‘ve got a stake in society. who don‘t feel that our politicians, that our public services are for them and take them seriously. during a typical year, more than 80% of a young person‘s waking hours are spent outside of school — weekends, holidays, they all add up. so whilst understandably there‘s been a lot of attention on reopening schools in september, many fear places like this are being overlooked. we‘ve lost a lot of income because we rely on... we have money from the council until march. we‘re not sure what‘s going to happen after that. but we also rely on income

that we raise from rentals. so our sites, we rent out for weddings and functions and community events. all that has gone. the government have bailed out of industries. —— other industries. they haven‘t got a plan for youth services that we‘ve heard — i hear there is one coming down the line, but as yet, we don‘t know what‘s coming down the line. and that was before covid. we needed to adapt to covid. a government spokesperson told the bbc that it is committed to supporting young people in these challenging times. it said that grants are being provided to youth organisations by the national lottery community fund, sport england, and the arts council, and that a £500 million youth investment fund will provide long—term investment to youth services. there are huge challenges across the uk. in scotland, voluntary youth work organisations say they‘re facing an immediate income loss of more than £20 million. in wales, although most youth projects say they have been able to provide some form of support — often online — there have been big financial losses of more

than £9 million in some cases. the youth work alliance in northern ireland say that, although new online services have helped, the legacy of covid risk to young people‘s wellbeing and required urgent action. you only get one youth. that‘s the thing. you only get to live your youth once and once that‘s gone you‘re in the world of an adult. and let‘s be under no illusions — this pandemic is going to run on for another year, plus, and young people are going to be the hardest hit, but most of the focus is on older generations because that‘s where the death rate tends to be. but actually, young people down here are being completely forgotten. for many, it is a bleak picture. tim muffett, bbc news. you are watching bbc breakfast. still to come... we‘ll be finding out what the u—turn on a—level exam grades means for you. we‘ll be speaking to the education secretary gavin williamson at 7:30am. i know lots of you have been talking

about this already, sending in your questions. we will try to get to as many as we possibly can and find out what it means, many of whom will have had a different grade from what they have been given. and what it means for gcse students as well? we will be speaking to him at 7:30am. we will also be looking at the university side of things and speaking to ucas at 8:30am. now let‘s get the weather with carol. it was miserable this morning. a lot of murk around. low cloud, mist, drizzle. particularly across parts of eastern scotland and some getting into north—east england. for some of us we are waking up to some beautiful sunshine, as well. today‘s forecast has a in it. more sunshine

than there was yesterday. less humid, but we still will see some scattered thunderstorms. they will be hit and miss. if you catch one, it could be torrential, thundery, gusty winds around it with some hail. we have this end of the weather front here and that is moving northwards through the course of the day but at the moment it is producing a fair bit of cloud and rain across parts of northern ireland, north wales and north—west england. that will drift northwards. all this low cloud, mist and murk looking the east coast of scotland and north—east england. summer break, some will linger, and we have a few showers. if anything the showers will become more widespread through the day. heavy and thundery. the met office has a weather warning out, yellow, for scotland through the central suede as we push towards inverness and it could lead to some localised flooding. temperatures ranging from 15 to 23, possibly a bit more as we push towards the south—east. through this evening and

overnight, many of the showers will die away, some clear skies around. still some low cloud hugging the east coast and then you can see the next system coming in from the south—west. where you see green and yellow in the chart, we are looking at heavy bursts of rain and the wind will also strengthen. the overnight temperature in plymouth, 17 degrees. what is happening is a low pressure coming in from the atlantic will dominate our weather. this is the front bringing the rain into the south—west overnight. the isobars tell you it will be a windy day. for the rest of the week, it will be windy. the windiest day being on friday when we could have dales in western areas. for tomorrow, we start off on a largely dry note. still this cloud in scotland, one showers, some sunshine coming through. then the rain moves northwards. it is falling on saturated ground so it may lead to some disruption but we also have gusty winds, particularly so in western areas. the trees are in full leaf so you might find some branches strewn on the roads. these are the

temperatures, 15 in the north to 22 in the south. remaining largely dry the further north you travel until later. overnight into thursday it will be windy, especially so in western areas. you can see on thursday we have this array of affro nts thursday we have this array of affronts moving northwards. rain continues to push across scotland. behind that rain on thursday there will be dry conditions. it will be noticeably breezy and we have this rain coming in from the west. these are the gusts of wind you can expect, and temperatures, looking at the top temperatures of 25. i‘ll have more weather in half an hour. hello, this is breakfast with dan walker and louise minchin. 6:32am. we‘ll bring you all the latest news and sport in a moment, but also on breakfast this morning... are you confused about your options after the u—turn on a—level exam grades? the boss of ucas will be

here to explain what happens next. do you trust your dog walker? we‘ll hear from a couple calling for better regulation of dog walkers, trainers and groomers after finding their pet had suffered abuse. and it helped launch the career of the beatles, but the owners of the famous cavern club say they‘re facing financial ruin because of the pandemic. we‘ll find out more a little later. good morning, here‘s a summary of today‘s main stories from bbc news. the health secretary matt hancock will outline plans later for a new health protection agency, which will take over many functions of public health england — one of the organisations at the heart of the response to the coronavirus pandemic. let‘s speak more about this with gp richard bircher, whojoins us now from stockport.

good morning. sorry, i couldn‘t see where you were. can we ask about a—levels? i know there are so many concerns from so many a—levels? i know there are so many concerns from so many people. how has that impacted on you, for example? i'm a gp so i'm probably not the first person people come to with concerns about a—level grades, but i can imagine that there is going to be a lot of very upset families, teenagers, their friends, who may have an impact on their mental health. i would imagine they‘d not come out to see me yet but i imagine in the next couple of weeks they could be doing and expressing a lot of anxiety or a low mood or upset about the whole process is not quite what is the best way parents can help them? can you help parents with that? oh, that‘s really difficult because fundamentally these teenagers are going to feel that the system has let them down badly and what they need is for the system to treat them well. there are plenty of things pa rents well. there are plenty of things pa re nts ca n well. there are plenty of things parents can do to help young adults

feel good about themselves. it‘s showing respect, talking to them, listening, giving them space, allowing them to grow up. and of course it‘s all these things which are extremely difficult with lockdown. you imagine what a healthy, happy child looks like, it‘s not locked in their own house, not seeing their friends are. healthy, happy children are out, having fun, exploring things, growing up and having new experiences. quite a lot of those have stopped recently because of coronavirus. really tough times were so coronavirus. really tough times were so many people. let‘s talk about public health england. we understand the government will have these plans to create a new health protection agency which may take over some of the functions of public health england. in practical terms what difference does that make? well, at the moment, i think it is anyone‘s guess on what matt hancock will outline. what i know is our public health agency in thamesside are

amazing people. there are is a to do, they are always busy. public health england has an extremely wide remit. they do everything from helping people stop smoking, obese children, air quality, clean water, immunisations, you name it. anything that keeps us healthy. they have an enormous wide remit. of course public health is always up against some really big monsters like social media, human nature, advertising big business. they are always on the back foot and you‘ll never have perfect public health. but if matt hancock today is announcing a bigger and beefed up public health agency then i‘m all for that. and beefed up public health agency then i'm all for that. i also want to mention to you a story in the telegraph this morning about children being diagnosed with type one diabetes and possibly a link with coronavirus. what can you tell us? well, this is breaking news and

it‘s a very small study so i won‘t jump it‘s a very small study so i won‘t jump to any conclusions right now. it was based on an observation in four north west london hospitals. they‘ve seen an increase in children with type one diabetes. type one diabetes is devastating, it is where your body stops producing insulin and it can be life—threatening. frankly, it‘s quite rare, but they‘ve seen a doubling to dribbling of the rate of increase. i think they saw 30 cases, which gives you an idea of how rare it is. if there isa link an idea of how rare it is. if there is a link we need to be very careful. briefly, what sort of thing should people be looking out for to spot diabetes, for example? type one diabetes, your child becomes extremely unwell. a couple of things to look out for. they become very dehydrated, so they drink a lot, and therefore they pass a lot of water. pa rents therefore they pass a lot of water. parents will tell you their children are constantly on the toilet. the other thing that happens is they tend to lose weight. in the later

stages then they start to become confused and very unwell. interestingly in the article in the telegraph they are saying a lot of these children are presenting to the hospital in the late stages, very unwell. if you have a child that is very unwell, definitely make contact with a medical service. go see somebody like you. dr richard bircher, thank you very much for your time. thank you. 6:38am. you are watching brea kfast thank you. 6:38am. you are watching breakfast from the bbc and sally has the sport. we are talking about the us open. another one of the big names will not be there. the names really are tumbling. the us open starts a week on monday. it‘s the first grand slam to be held since the start of the pandemic, but it‘s going to look very different, not least because of the players who won‘t be there. the world number two simona halep is the latest to pull out. she‘s the reigning wimbledon champion, and says she‘s put her health at the heart of her decision not to play in new york. halep is the sixth player from the world‘s top ten to pull out. former player pam schriver says it‘ll still be a competitive

former player pam shriver says it‘ll still be a competitive tournament, even though so many players will be missing. i don‘t think it devalues it that much because we‘re living through an extraordinary time where, no matter what yourjob is, it‘s different than what it was six months ago, or a year ago. so i feel that anybody who comes through this us open and wins seven rounds under the circumstances of living in a quarantine bubble — i think this is going to be an incredible performance by the two singles winners, the doubles winners. it‘s going to show a lot of resilience. england remain 1—0 up in their series with pakistan after the second test finished in a rain soaked draw. when they did play zak crawley regularly sent the ball to the boundary and made his third 50 in seven tests. but with england 110—4 the captains agreed on a draw. bad light and rain meant there was only a day—and—a—half‘s play out of a possible five in southampton, and england captain joe root says something needs

to change and get more play in bad weather. you could always start earlier in this part of world. maybe a minimum standard of floodlights. maybe look at a slightly lighter red ball. but i think we‘ve got to look after the game and the sort of traditional elements of the game as much as we can — we don‘t want to change our product too much. i think it‘s a fantastic game. you‘ve seen throughout this summer, some great games of cricket, and i do think this week‘s been very unique. after being humiliated 8—2 by bayern munich in the champions league on friday, barcelona have sacked their manager quique setien. he‘s expected to be replaced by ronald koeman — who‘s the current boss of the netherlands — but spent time in the premier league as manager of everton and southampton. he also played for barcelona in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. loads of goals from inter milan in the europa league last night. they thrashed shakhtar donetsk 5—0 to book themselves a place in friday‘s final. the former manchester united

striker romelu lu ka ku with the pick of the goals. how about a world record to finish? don‘t try this at home. this is british stunt rider jonny davies setting a new record for doing a wheelie on a motorbike. he did it by travelling almost 110 miles an hour over 200 metres with his legs over the handlebars. he says that he can go even faster. don‘t get any ideas! that‘s all i‘m saying. that is some serious speed with no feet on the pedals. thank you very much. great skill, thank you very much. great skill, thank you for that. not to be tried at home, as sally says. 6:a1am. labour has written to the education secretary, gavin williamson, asking him to urgently clarify how the changes to a—level results will work. universities are preparing to deal with an increase in calls from students after yesterday‘s

u—turn, but have warned there‘s a limit to what they can do. let‘s speak to the shadow universities minister, emma hardy. good morning. thank you for talking to us today. let‘s start with this government u—turn if we can. do you agree that accepting these centre assessed grades is the right approach now? absolutely. this is something the labour party were calling for on friday. the really frustrating thing about this is, had the secretary of state listened and followed a labour‘s leader earlier, we wouldn‘t have quite the mess we have right now with university admissions. his delay in making this decision has meant that more and more places at university have been filled up, many students have gone ahead and! filled up, many students have gone ahead and i accepted their second—place office or other offers, or got offers that may be in the past they wouldn‘t have been entitled to and this has created a massive headache for our entire university system. it is so

frustrating because it‘s something that could have been avoided. can you confidently say labour would have dealt with the situation differently, given that many people will remember that for a long time the labour party have campaigned against teacher assessed grades? before the last election, angela rayner, the shadow education secretary then, said it was part of a deeply unfair system. nobody is saying that scent is as are perfect but they are the least imperfect way we have at the moment. that is because of the mess that has been created. originally this algorithm, we have to remember that quual are working to the government‘s instructions. they set the grades on what the government told them. it feels they have been thrown under a bus during this chaos and confusion. but they were acting on instructions from the government. i know the labour party would have asked and given them different instructions and a way to go forward. i don‘t think anybody should be saying a

centre assessed grades are perfect. they are not but they are the only possible solution. that is simply because in all honesty, there is no realistic way quual could process a number of appeals needed as quickly as they needed to be protest in time for those students to then —— processed in orderfor for those students to then —— processed in order for the student to go on their educationaljourney and go to university. when you sit on the number of students that will be at university in this coming academic year? there is a fear that stu d e nts academic year? there is a fear that students will be over march, universities talking about the numbers of students that are going to be there. it is a case that you have to say it has been a unique year, a one off and this is the way we will have to deal with it at the moment? it is a complete chaos and asi moment? it is a complete chaos and as i say the frustrating thing is it didn‘t have to be like this. the government didn‘t need to make the mess that they have made. i am worried about universities because if the government push ahead and say every student is allowed their first place, what will happen in terms of

capacity, social distancing, keeping campuses safe, ensuring every student that goes back to university can do so in unsafe manager democrat manager? accommodation, overcrowding, enough places for all these additional students. it also has an impact on other institutions who i the studenta second place if a suddenly find they haven‘t got the stu d e nts suddenly find they haven‘t got the students they thought they would have, what will happen to them and their financial stability and security? this has not happen in isolation, this complete chaos and mess for university is happening at a time when many universities are facing a really precarious financial future. 13 universities are at risk of going bankrupt because of the crisis caused by covid—19. this couldn‘t have happened at a worse possible time and i‘m very, very worried that the government are going to leave this mess to universities to sort out instead of showing the leadership that our country desperately needs. on that issue of the effect of the pandemic

on universities. i was seeing this morning that bath university is a saying there will only be 10% of stu d e nts saying there will only be 10% of students allowed on campus next year at any one time in a bid to try to make them covid secure. i‘m not sure whether other universities are following the same system. from your perspective, what help do universities need and what will they require going forward for the next academic year? there are so many still unanswered questions. the government have talked about lifting the cap but they haven‘t said whether that applies to every university orjust whether that applies to every university or just universities whether that applies to every university orjust universities that have more students who put them as their first place. they have not talked enough about how we make campuses and secure for students going back. each universities doing their own work on this and i have heard from a number of universities who have put excellent measures in place to ensure students are safe going back there. what happens if there is an additional 1500 students attending that university this year because of the mess that gavin

williamson has made over the grading system ? williamson has made over the grading system? there williamson has made over the grading system ? there is williamson has made over the grading system? there is so much confusion still in the system and as i keep saying it, it didn‘t need to be this way. i‘m not quite sure how the secretary of state was unable to see this algorithm before it was produced on thursday. i‘m not sure how that worked because from what i‘ve been reading, secretaries of state in the past have always had advanced sight of this and known the problems before they have actually been announced. this is a game where this government showed that lack of leadership. they have no foresight. they don‘t seem to be aware of the problem is coming down the track towards them. it is like it is their blind spot. we will give gavin williamson the opportunity to answer some of those questions you have raised when we speak to him at 7:30am alive on this programme. do you think he should resign? well, i know if i was in charge of the government he wouldn‘t be in my team. that is a massive white boris johnson. gavin williamson needs to focus on how we ensure students have

the best possible experience when they go to university in september and maybe not be focusing so much on saving his ownjob. and maybe not be focusing so much on saving his own job. good to talk to you, thank you so much. the shadow universities minister talking to us from hull this morning. so many questions still needing answering about a—levels and universities. we will try to get to the bottom as many as we can today. it helped the beatles on their way to international stardom, but the famous cavern club in liverpool is now facing financial ruin because of the coronavirus lockdown. the venue‘s owners have warned they‘re losing £30,000 a week and have already had to make 20 staff redundant, as breakfast‘s jayne mccubbin has been finding out. the cavern club is the most famous club in the world. the place is packed, people listen to the music. it‘s hot, it‘s sweaty. when this all happened, i mean, you know, you‘re thinking, how are we going to continue?

the thought of the cavern club not being here, that is inconceivable. but it‘s a real threat. so this is it. welcome to the cavern. # i like it, i like it #. it is an institution. today, empty — and at risk of staying that way. how scary was it when all of this hit and you knew you just couldn‘t carry on? er. . . it was very scary. it‘s costing us — to not open — £30,000 a week. we can keep that going a bit longer without reopening. but then our reserves will be gone. this is where legends were born. famously the beatles — but notjust the beatles. countless bands over 63 years. outside today, john lennon looks on to a matthew street

still covid—quiet. roberta is here from rome. i like beatles very much. have you ever been in the cavern, robert? never. was this going to be yourfirst time? yes. 0h! give us a twirl, riley, in your beatles t—shirt. riley is here from essex. proof the legacy of this place touches even the youngest generations. how much of a fan are you, riley? see that? yeah. probably bigger than that. bigger than that? bigger than that! get out of town! do you want to start a rendition of heyjude? # na, na, na, na—na—na—nah #. he had hoped today would be his very first visit to the world—famous cavern club. # hey, jude #. can you imagine a world without the cavern club? i cannot, no. it‘s like the earth is built around it. not the cavern club is built around the earth. jayne laughs. # na, na, na, na, hey, jude #. round of applause for riley! woo—woo!

woop—woop! since this place opened in 1957, it‘s closed and reopened five times, but no—one could have foreseen a global pandemic threatening its very existence. 20 staff have been laid off, 20 more jobs are at risk, and of course, live music venues across the uk are struggling right now, but few have the cultural collateral of this place. # gonna find her. # i‘m gonna find her #. people will be writing about the cavern in a hundred years' time — what shakespeare is to stratford, the cavern is to liverpool and they will be talking about it. and this unfortunately will go down as a major closure. but not the end. absolutely. you don‘t think? no, absolutely not the end. you know, we've got to be positive. we've got to be positive. we've been taking small steps and we'll continue. and with support we can take bigger steps and we are

keeping very positive. you‘ve got to. yeah. he gulps. you gulped then. did i gulp? he laughs. this is a perilous time for all live music venues... take care. bye. ..but there are people around the world rooting for this one. jayne mccubbin, bbc news, i‘ve never been. i've never been. i've been. is it as tiny as it what looks? you have a vision of what it might be and it‘s nothing like that. it‘s changed a lot over the years but it is definitely dark atmosphere. there is a real vibe definitely dark atmosphere. there is a realvibe in definitely dark atmosphere. there is a real vibe in there. we will talk about it later. what may be the highest temperature ever reliably recorded on earth, 54.1; celsius — that‘s 130 in fahrenheit — has been registered in death valley national

park in california. it comes amid a heatwave on america‘s west coast, where temperatures are forecast to rise further this week. paul hawkins has more. it‘s already one of the hottest places on earth. the lowest point in the united states, surrounded by mountains, it acts like an oven, trapping the heat in the valley, sending temperatures soaring, with little rainfall for respite. add this summer‘s heatwave into the mix, which has caused problems like wildfires and blackouts across california, and they think they may have recorded the highest ever temperature on earth — 130 degrees fahrenheit, 54.1; degrees celsius. but it needs to be verified. they look at such things as corroborating evidence from other sources, whether there are any discrepancies in the equipment or the procedures that were used, or if there‘s any other reason to doubt its veracity. in fact, the greatest warming is occurring in the high latitudes, such as the arctic, particularly. and in the northern hemisphere,

the temperatures in the arctic on average are three, four, five, even eight degrees above pre—industrial levels already, so we are seeing uneven warming and very high warming in some places, including places like the arctic, where it is especially significant because of the effect that it has on the ice. before this, the highest temperature reliably recorded on earth was 129.2 degrees fahrenheit. that‘s 5a degrees celsius, also here in death valley in 2013. we're going to try and cook an egg. it's 109 degrees fahrenheit on the tarmac. here we go... sometimes the ground here is so hot, you can fry and egg on it... it's not working. ..if you do it right. it works in films. paul hawkins, bbc news.

bit ofan bit of an egg fail. maybe you need to do it ona bit of an egg fail. maybe you need to do it on a car bonnet to make it work. always looks good when people do it in work. always looks good when people do itina work. always looks good when people do it in a youtube video but as paul has shown, it doesn‘t quite work when you try to do it. we will speak to carol in a second about the weather. thank you if you‘ve been in touch so far about a—levels and what has been a u—turn particularly in england. yesterday, how grades will be given. do get in touch. you can e—mail us, tweet us. one from emma. when will the government put their trust in teachers to do the job they are trained to do? another teacher, tracy, thank you so much. many teachers watch. we are supposed to enrol for college on friday based on official results. i think she‘s referring to gcse results. we will not happen by then. mrs reeves, head of biology, you get a sense teachers are of biology, you get a sense teachers a re really of biology, you get a sense teachers are really concerned. we‘ve known about this for five months, why did it take so long? keep those questions coming in. we will try to put as many as we can to gavin williamson, education secretary. lots of people asking about when he

knew about the algorithm which he was talking about yesterday. he will be here at 7:30am and we will have plenty of time to go through lots of different subject matters. we will talk to carol now about those ludicrous temperatures in death valley because we mentioned it to you yesterday and you said exactly what the story is today, that they needed to be verified, which seems it is a process which is important, to make sure we know if it is a world record. absolutely right and how long it will take to be verified, we don‘t actually know. but if it is that will be quite a record. i‘ve been to death valley myself in winter, in february, and it was still very hot. the ironic thing was i had left las vegas where it was snowing and they had close the skills because the children have never seen snow skills because the children have never seen snow before. back in the uk, our weather is completely different. thankfully. i would hate that kind of heat. we can see what it‘s like in parts of north—east england, harrogate, one of our weather watchers pictures shows that we have a lot of low cloud, mist,

murk, drizzle. it‘s notjust parts of northern england, north—east england and eastern scotland that have got this, but some of us will see it left and others will hang onto it for much of the day. this other weather watch your picture taken in wiltshire shows blue sky and the forecast is a right old mishmash. there will be more sunshine, not as humid, but still looking at some heavy downpours which will be fairly hit and miss. you might catch one but you —— your neighbour may miss it altogether. some rain across north wales, north—west england. that will move northward through the course of the day. we hang on to the low cloud, mist and day. we hang on to the low cloud, mistand murk day. we hang on to the low cloud, mist and murk in the north—east of the country but really from the word go we have a lot of showers. becoming more widespread through the afternoon. these showers will be slow—moving, heavy and thundery. could lead to some issues with localised flooding. as we move northwards the met office has a weather warning across the central swathe of scotland for heavy thunder downpours, but we can see a lot of

them in the north—west. again they could prove be problematic. in between them there will be some sunshine and as mentioned some will miss them altogether. together. temperatures 15 in the north to 23, possibly a bit higher as we push down towards the south—east. through this evening and overnight, we will lose many of those thundery downpours. they will be some clear skies developing but watch what is happening in the south—west. we have our next system arriving, introducing for quick cloud and also heavy rain. greens and yellows and our charts tell you you can expect some heavy bursts. we start off on a largely dry notes tomorrow, fair bitter cloud clinging to the east coast but then in comes the rain. heavy as pushes in and weakening as it moves north—west. not getting into the very far north of england and scotland until later in the day. even overnight. behind that, some showers, also gusty winds, particularly so in the west. bearing in mind that our trees are in full leaf we might see some branches, so

watch out if you are travelling. by the time we get to thursday that maine will have pushed northwards, a windy night in the west. breezy during the day but a lot of dry weather for a during the day but a lot of dry weatherfor a time during the day but a lot of dry weather for a time before the next system wings its way in from the west, bringing more rain and gusty winds. if you are camping bear this combination in mind. 19 degrees in belfast, 25 in norwich. it is on friday that we see the really strong winds. rain, as well. not a particularly pretty combination, an area of low pressure. winds can be gusting to a0 miles an hour almost anywhere but with exposure out towards the west we are looking at costs of about 50. gale force winds with highs of up to 25. the headlines are next.

it was miserable this morning. good morning and welcome to breakfast with dan walker and louise minchin. our headlines today... universities call for urgent government support following the u—turn over a—level grades, as they prepare for a sharp increase in calls from anxious students. i have just not been sleeping well for the past few nights, really stressed about my future. hoping things turn out all right and ijust want some kind of certainty. this is leighton college in east london, one of the places disproportionately hit by the great la st disproportionately hit by the great last week. the students had new choices to make about what to do

next. at 7:30am, we‘ll be joined by the education secretary, gavin williamson. also this morning... kent county council warns it can no longer care for the numbers of unaccompanied child migrants crossing the channel. calls to license commercial dog walkers. the rspca says it wants to see higher welfare standards. it‘s tuesday, 18th august. our top story... universities say they face a major challenge accommodating thousands of students who have been awarded higher grades because of the u—turn over a—levels. they‘re calling for urgent help from the government in the scramble for places. ministers in england, wales and northern ireland have confirmed a—level and gcse students will now be awarded grades set by teachers‘ assessments, rather than by a computer algorithm. dan johnson reports. when i heard the news, a huge wave of relief came over me, and it‘s just fantastic. i‘m so happy. i feel like the government should've

taken the grades that my expert teachers gave me from the start based on my performance. i'm frustrated that this completely unnecessary mess has set me back a year. the government has heard our voices and accepted that they were wrong and changed the decision because it's literally going to mean so much for so many students across the country. after a painful u—turn in every corner of the united kingdom the question is, what difference does this make for the future? i was in a state on thursday, atrocious. here‘s one family who felt disappointed by son riley‘s results last week, and worried about his sister‘s gcses on thursday. it's a lot of stress off my shoulders, especially... especially where the university's concerned because... because of the decision now, i don't have to go through the appeal process. it's been such a surreal year and i feel like the past few days have just been all over the place, and it's just great

to know that everything — providing they stick to what they've said — isjust going to work out the best it can with the situation we're in. the computer models used to standardise grades agreed by teachers produced inconsistent results. there have been apologies from ministers and officials who got their maths badly wrong. but reverting to teachers‘ estimated grades isn‘t a simple solution. universities had been busy matching students with available courses through clearing. now some unis will have more students with the right grades than they have places remaining. there‘s certainly a lot of work for us to do, going ahead. so i think obviously our concern is that the best outcome is available for all students. but at the moment, it‘s not quite clear to us how we will get the new results, how we have to process them. but we‘ve got our students‘ interests at heart. i haven't really had any communication from first—choice university or indeed my insurance choice.

i'm hoping the university of bath get back to me soon because i've just not been sleeping well for the past few nights. clearing now feels more like clearing up — after a mess that put the futures of many young people in jeopardy and leaves question marks over the futures of those in charge. dan johnson, bbc news. let‘s speak now to our political correspondent iain watson, who joins us from westminster. we are going to speak to the education secretary in half an hour. there is a lot of pressure on him, isn‘t there? there is a lot of pressure on him, isn't there? that is. the liberal democrats are calling for him to go. many individual labour mps and the labour leader had called for him to go as well. for conservative mps, they are not worried about the fact he has done a u—turn more about when

it was done and how it was done. they have said, why wasn‘t it done earlier? was he really asking the right questions of the exam regulator early enough in the process ? regulator early enough in the process? could this have been avoided? one said to me, any minister who makes children cry is not ina minister who makes children cry is not in a good place. just remember, this is not an administration that does resignations. remember the adviser to borisjohnson, does resignations. remember the adviser to boris johnson, dominic cummings and his trip during lockdown. he is still there despite the fact many conservative mps are calling for him to go. many in downing street are expressing full confidence in the education secretary. there is a big challenge in getting children into university this year. in a couple of weeks‘ time, can he get children safely back to school? there are some major

tests for gavin williamson. he may well have had a reprieve in his political career but whether he remains at the department for education depends not so much on the exams crisis but on how he handles education overall. we‘ll bejoined by the education secretary gavin williamson at 7:30am. the former us first lady michelle obama has launched a scathing attack on donald trump, accusing him of not being up to thejob. she was appearing in a pre—recorded speech to support the nomination of former vice—presidentjoe biden in the upcoming november election. our north america correspondent, peter bowes reports. remote, virtual, and very unconventional. a political gathering in the era of coronavirus. with no fanfare, it was a scaled—down, made—for—tv event introduced from a studio in los angeles by a hollywood actress. good evening. i‘m eva longoria baston and welcome to the 2020 democratic national convention. on its first night, the convention

showcased the stories of ordinary americans. it also highlighted the issue of racial injustice after weeks of protests around the country. the grim death toll from covid—19 was a running theme with speaker after speaker condemning the trump administration‘s record on dealing with the virus. the main task of the week is to anointjoe biden as the democrats‘ choice to take on donald trump. the former first lady michelle obama said the former vice president had the experience needed to tackle the coronavirus crisis, and when it came to the president, she didn‘t hold back. so let me be as honest and clear as i possibly can. donald trump is the wrong president for our country. he has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head. he cannot meet this moment. he simply cannot be

who we need him to be for us. it is what it is. the opening salvo of a convention season like no other. steve bowes, bbc news, los angeles. the home office says it is "working incredibly closely" with kent county council, after the local authority warned it would no longer be able to care safely for migrant children who cross the channel. more than a00 under—18s have arrived unaccompanied in kent this year — including thirteen in the past few days. keith doyle reports. a border force boat escorts migrants ashore in dover yesterday. amongst the hundreds who‘ve arrived on the kent coast after making the dangerous journey in recent days were 13 unaccompanied children. more than a00 under—18s have entered kent county council‘s care so far this year — most of whom crossed the channel in small boats. the channel in small boats. the council‘s leaders said

the latest arrivals had tipped the balance and the authority could not safely accommodate any more. the home office said this was an unprecedented situation, but a scheme to move some children to other local authorities had helped to ease the pressure. kent wants a voluntary system to be made mandatory. it says the continued high number of arrivals means the scheme has not been enough to make a real difference. it‘s unclear what will happen to any new unaccompanied children who arrive in kent from across the channel in the coming days. keith doyle, bbc news. the health secretary matt hancock will outline plans for the future of public health in england later. he‘s expected to announce a new agency, which will take over many functions of public health england — one of the organisations at the heart of the response to coronavirus. the body has faced criticism over its handling of the crisis, but some argue it‘s been made a scapegoat for failings elsewhere.

a boy who suffered life—changing injuries when he was thrown from the balcony of the tate modern last year, has been able to go home for the first time. the six—year—old was visiting london from france with his family when he fell 100 feet. he now needs round—the—clock medical care. 18—year—old jonty bravery was convicted of attempted murder and was jailed in june. there‘s been a ninth night of protests in belarus against the continued leadership of president alexander lukashenko, whose re—election has been widely condemned as fraudulent. several thousand people gathered in the capital, minsk, calling on the leader to resign. the protestors accuse mr lukashenko of rigging the presidential election on the 9th of august. in the last few moments, we‘ve heard about some job losses at m&s. nina is here with the details. good morning. good morning. not good

news, i‘m afraid. marks & spencer has been looking at the impact of trading over covid. online sales had done well but 7000 wells will go over the next few months. —— roles. there will be departures in the central support centre, regional management in uk stores. reflecting the fact change has been felt throughout the business. they say they hope a significant proportion will be through voluntary redundancies and people taking early retirement. they say they want to treat their staff well, they always have and they will be given an extensive programme. saying to staff, would you like to take redundancy or retirement early? that is despite an increasing online sales. not good news. thank you.

it‘s been a year like no other for students receiving their a—level results — with the government reversing its decision to use grades calculated by an algorithm. grades decided by teacher assessments will now be awarded to students in england instead. it‘s welcome news to many, but some pupils are now facing more uncertainty than before. our reporter dan johnson is at leyton sixth form college in london for us this morning. good morning. good morning. a welcome u—turn, i think, good morning. good morning. a welcome u—turn, ithink, but good morning. good morning. a welcome u—turn, i think, but it does not solve everything. students now face an even more complicated set of options and universities face the job of trying to sort all of this out. this was one of the colleges disproportionately affected by results last week. how badly where your students affected? really

badly. a7% of the grades were lower. do you understand how that happened? were you shocked? shocked. we did not have all the information about the algorithm that was used initially. we did assume the grades we submitted would form an important pa rt of we submitted would form an important part of the process, if not be the sole determinant of the grades that we re sole determinant of the grades that were given. when it became clear that was not the case, i became very apprehensive, knowing they were likely not to be the result we were expecting. do you think this is the right move? in the circumstances, it is but it is not the right solution. the grades we gave were not the grades we necessarily hoped students forget we but we knew we would be constrained by historical data and had to make their grades fit. i imagine there are still a lot of students disappointed by grades and

ina sense students disappointed by grades and in a sense they are the grades we have given them and they're full of feeling let down as much by their school or college as by the government. it is a complicated situation. what do you think about the way it has been handled?m situation. what do you think about the way it has been handled? it has been hugely stressful. i believe there was a contingency plan about what would happen if exams get cancelled. we had the example about what happened in scotland. the government said there would be no u—turn, this is the situation and this is here we are. it has taken this is here we are. it has taken this long to make that decision. it should have happened much earlier. students should not be scrambling around for university places which, if they had the right results, which had been theirs. we are talking to stu d e nts had been theirs. we are talking to students this morning who are weighing up their options. thank you for coming in early for us. laying out the sort of situation you are in

after last week and the reversal yesterday make much of a difference? ina sense, yesterday make much of a difference? in a sense, dies. originally, they gave me a c, b, c, which meant i did not get into my first or second choices. now after the u—turn, not get into my first or second choices. now afterthe u—turn, i have got a, a, b but it is not at my first choice you need. you still cannot get into your first choice. what will you do now?|j cannot get into your first choice. what will you do now? i will go home and try and get into michael's because that is the best thing i can do really. what about you? i still got into my foundation i did but i feel had we been able to finish the exam and finish my sketch book i

would have got an a or a‘. i know i am capable of. if i have to reset the year and be set back a year, thatis the year and be set back a year, that is fine. i would rather get the grades i truly deserve. how do you feel that you are left in that situation? it is very unfair that now i had to deal with the situation and figure out a way on my own to sort this out and that the government is not supporting students to sort it out properly for everyone. what about you? i 10096 agree with what victoria was saying. lam in agree with what victoria was saying. lamina agree with what victoria was saying. i am in a similar situation as her. i wanted to go to king's college london to do digital culture. i received a, b, d, which is nowhere near the entry requirement. now, received a, b, d, which is nowhere nearthe entry requirement. now, i have found out i can get a‘, a‘ and

d.i have found out i can get a‘, a‘ and d. i still feel like grades and exams are not necessaryjust to get into university, they are something personal. i really do value my grades on my academics. i will be re—sitting maths, that i got a d in, because i know i am capable of doing more. it has not sympathised things, it seems. let‘s look ahead to thursday and the gcse results. paul i’u ns thursday and the gcse results. paul runs the transition. is. you are at the school down the road students may be coming here after their results on thursday. things are looking a lot better than it was a week ago. hopefully, the girls at out week ago. hopefully, the girls at our school will be able to take subjects they were predicted and

that makes a massive difference. obviously, if you look a couple of weeks ago, students were prepared to protest and take to the streets. in scotland, it was really serious, there are concerns about their futures. what i am worried about as well is notjust futures. what i am worried about as well is not just after thursday but also for next year. we have the year tends coming into year 11 is and as someone tends coming into year 11 is and as someone who has to think about careers, i need confidence in the government to be sure they know what they are doing. we are all very serious about the future for young people and we want clarity about what is taking place. give us a quick review of the way the government has handled this. what do you think of the future of the education secretary? on a personal level, it is shambolic really poor. there has been a long period of time to get this one right. i don't think

it has been good enough. we really wa nt it has been good enough. we really want to have a level of confidence. that is what students want as well. that is what students want as well. that is what students want as well. that is why they are so desperate about their future. they want to have faith in what we do. we appreciate your time this morning. not a lot of faith in the system after this fiasco. we will see what happens with gcse results on thursday. there were really serious questions for these a—level students regarding universities and whether they will be able to take everybody and if they do on their offers, whether they put everybody at a time when social distancing is due to ta ke when social distancing is due to take place because of the virus?l really clear picture of some of the concern students are feeling this morning. much of the anger had been directed at the use of an algorithm to decide which grades to award to students.

it led to around a0% of a—level results being downgraded from grades set by teachers‘ assessments. the regulator, quual, has now apologised to the students affected. i‘d like to say sorry. we have recognised the difficulty that young people have faced coping with the receipt of grades that they were unable to understand the basis on which they had been awarded. and i would like to say sorry for that and we are now taking steps to put that right. we‘re joined now by the general secretary of the association of school and college leaders, geoff barton. good morning to you. good to see on the programme again. we will be speaking to the education secretary in about ten minutes‘ time. from your perspective, where does the finger of blame need to be pointed? desert land with quual or is it

with gavin williamson and his team? —— does it land? with gavin williamson and his team? -- does it land? on behalf of young people, at least a decision has been made. we have heard from the young people you had been talking to that head teachers are not hanging out the bunting because there are more problems ahead. there is a technical issue, quual is a regulator. it is supposed to ensure standards between schools and between years. to its credit it acknowledged yesterday it had failed to do that. there is a political dimension as well. exam results in this country are used partly tojudge results in this country are used partly to judge children, partly to judge teachers, partly to judge the performance of schools. how well is the country doing? you would want the country doing? you would want the department for education to ask probing questions about, can they be reassured this process will work? it is looking to all of us, i would

suspect, probably including the secretary of state. sorry about that. i thought you had finished. there was a slight technicaljump on your line. i know you listened to those students at the sixth form couegein those students at the sixth form college in london. you can see with their reaction, it is a microcosm of what is happening right across the united kingdom. there are a full sun but for many that decision has come too late and they find themselves in a difficult decision to know what to do next. —— for some. a difficult decision to know what to do next. -- for some. questions will come up today, five days from the results and when questions are asked, there will be things they do not know about. maybe students did not know about. maybe students did not get into the first place university and got into a second place and now think they have results to get into the first place.

there are some courses, it may be medicine for example, because of social distancing, the idea you can start to fill up with more young people is probably going to be impossible. there will be young people who will continue to be unhappy and disappointed. we will do everything we can to help them. the whole university system will be doing the same. interesting to hear the thoughts of the education secretary in a few moments‘ time. what about reaction from college leaders? we mentioned the fact the algorithm has been used and we have had from teachers about the fact their assessments are taken out and replaced by a computer. now we are going back to essentially assessed grades for a—levels and gcses. what is the feeling? the majority of e—mails i have had have actually

been quite gloomy. you used the right terminology, centre assessed grades. it is not about your individual teacher sticking a finger in the airand individual teacher sticking a finger in the air and saying, she probably seems like a c and a good day. it is about making sure my responsibility with the students title worse to decide grades —— students i taught was to decide grades. i think leaders will be thinking today, we did our bit and we handed it over to this statistical model which had a lot of secrecy around it. if you have a great a from the first teacher in your school and you got it from their second, this is where

quual has not been able to do this. do you think there is a sense of anger about the way it has been played out? there is a sense of weariness that here we are again, people who are control freaks who hate the fact they are on the back foot. people think about what is the appeals process for the mock results ? appeals process for the mock results? they say, i don‘t know. you have a sense of weariness and frustration. also a sense of, at least we have some clarity. and we have that clarity into next year? it would be really helpful if the secretary of state were to agree with us that the most important thing when we bring people back into schools and colleges fully in september is that teachers are allowed to get on to teach young people are not think that at the end of next year we are going to have performance tables ranking schools

in extraordinary times and some of my members commit leaders, on the front of the local paper being branded their worst school in britain. we can clear that stuff away. it would be a sign by the education secretary that we had to put all of this fiasco behind us and teaching young people in the classroom where they belong. —— we have tippett. lots of talk about gcse results coming out. do you think this has taken away some of the stress and anxiety surrounding results this week? there are btec stu d e nts results this week? there are btec students as well who are left in limbo because they need the same requirements to apply for a course. it will bring more clarity to that. what it will mean is more young people will be eligible to go into a sixth form they did not think they we re sixth form they did not think they were going to a different college from there. that will raise

questions about capacity for them and our leaders have a short amount of time to respond to that. at least we know before results are going to young people what it might look like and we can do some modelling. always good to have you on the programme. that is a really good point about btec. we will ask gavin william about —— gavin williamson about that. you are watching bbc breakfast. still to come... do you trust your dog walker? we‘ll hear from a couple calling for better regulation of dog walkers, trainers and groomers after finding their pet had suffered abuse. we‘ll be discussing that shortly and bringing you the latest news. we will bejoined we will be joined by the education secretary in a few minutes‘ time. now let‘s get the weather with carol. if you like it murky you will be in ecstasy. murky this morning across

parts of scotland and the north—east of england. this is a picture from west livingston. low cloud, mist, drizzle and fog as well. this one is from topsham, also ploughed around. showers are not too far away. today we are looking at sunny spells and scattered showers, which will also be thundery and they are likely to be thundery and they are likely to be gusty with hail. there could be localised flooding. this weather front producing main across north wales and northern england which will move northwards and turn more showery. here it is at the moment. you can see its progress moving northwards. in northern england and scotla nd northwards. in northern england and scotland it will turn more showery. showers are becoming more widespread across england and wales. having said that, there will be more sunshine around today and it will not feel as humid as yesterday. the met office has a yellow weather

warning for thunderstorms and heavy downpours. it could lead to localised flash flooding. thunderstorms are very much hit and miss. some of us will hang on to a lot of low cloud down the east coast of scotla nd lot of low cloud down the east coast of scotland and the north—east of england during the day. many showers will fade. still clad across parts of scotla nd will fade. still clad across parts of scotland and the north—east of england. —— still cloud. wherever you see green and yellow on the chance, it is telling you you can expect heavy rain and the wind will also be strengthening. this is the temperature in plymouth, 17 degrees. low pressure still in charge. isobars are close together. it tells you it will be quite windy. not as windy tomorrow as it will on friday when some of us will have gales and widely gusts of wind up to a0 miles an hour. back to wednesday and many

of us start off with a dry and bright note. in south england and south wales, the weather front will move northwards. these are the wind gusts. it will be daddy gusty. for scotla nd gusts. it will be daddy gusty. for scotland and the far north of england largely dry until later. the system england largely dry until later. the syste m d oes england largely dry until later. the system does neither north overnight. it would be windy overnight in the west and also wendy on thursday. —— does move further north overnight. do not forget, very gusty winds could do some damage and temperatures up to about 25 in and london. hello, this is breakfast with dan walker and louise minchin. let‘s get you up—to—date with

everything. universities are calling for urgent support from the government as they prepare for a surge in calls from students hoping to secure their place. it follows a u—turn by ministers in england, wales and northern ireland to accept teacher—assessed grades rather than those set by a computer algorithm. the education secretary gavin williamson joins us now from westminster. good morning. thank you forjoining us. good morning. thank you forjoining us. so much to talk about. let‘s start with what you said on saturday. you said, "that‘s it, no change, no u—turn." what happened? we were in a position where as we approached results day there were concerns as a result of what has happened in scotland. working with quual, and this is what happened both in england as well as labour and lib dems administrations in wales, and dup and sinn fein administrations in northern ireland, where we had confidence in the belief in the system is that we put in place and the robustness of the

standardisation model that was going to be run in all three countries, it would have a robustness that the scottish system didn‘t have. we did ta ke scottish system didn‘t have. we did take the action and it was absolutely vital we took the action, that we strengthened the appeals process. those changes in scotland had raised concerns. that‘s why we put in the triple lock appeals process to make sure there was extra fairness for students who didn‘t feel they had got the grade they truly deserved. it was clear and apparent as the results increasingly wear shared and came out that there was mounting evidence that there we re was mounting evidence that there were flaws within that algorithm. that was from both of krall, who came to us about the concerns that they had as a result of totally unexpected results of how this had impacted on some young people, as well as external experts. —— that came from quual. that is why we

took the decision we did because at every stage the whole focus has got to be unfairness for the students and making sure they get the fair and making sure they get the fair and right grade. right. you were told before those results came out that there were problems. onjuly ten the education select committee published a report warning of problems with the exam systems and appeals. what did you respond to that? did you listen to that? as the education select committee, there is broad political consensus across all parties about the importance of having a standardisation model for teacher assessment. this was not something that was just, you know, felt by the government, but by all parties, cross—party... felt by the government, but by all parties, cross-party. .. you were warned there were problems with a system warned there were problems with a syste m o n warned there were problems with a system on the 10th ofjuly and you only change things yesterday. and the action we consistently have taken, working the action we consistently have ta ken, working with the action we consistently have taken, working with quual, is to highlight the fact and the need that theissues highlight the fact and the need that the issues that were highlighted by

the issues that were highlighted by the education select committee, as well as by many of the different organisations, have actually, you know, the issue to make sure that children from disadvantaged backgrounds would not be disadvantaged as a result of standardisation. but that is what happened. sorry, if i can standardisation. but that is what happened. sorry, if! canjust complete, keep complete my sentence. in making sure the standardisation system ensured there was no discrimination against children, whether from a disadvantaged background, or whether from an ethnic minority background. we had confidence and belief and reassurance that that is what was going to happen and that was what was in place. and actually, the real issue as in terms of where we saw mounting evidence that was presented to us as a result of a standardisation process, that they we re standardisation process, that they were too many children, whether from a disadvantaged background or a privileged background, that‘s quite simply had not got the grade they truly deserved and had been working

towards. and when that was a situation there was no appeals process , situation there was no appeals process, no matter how robust or how extensive, that is going to be sufficient in order to deal with that. and that is why i believe it was the right decision to move to centre assessed grades if that is higher or using the standardised model if that provided the highest grade for the student. and that is what we will be providing on thursday and what we will also retrospectively be providing for people who took a—levels and as—level is. people who took a—levels and as-level is. there were repeated warnings and it was very obvious from students who opened their results on thursday morning that something had gone wrong. what i don‘t understand is why it took so long for you to do what has been called a u—turn. long for you to do what has been called a u-turn. soap... so all the way through the process, and if you look at the issues that have been raised about children from disadvantaged backgrounds, these we re disadvantaged backgrounds, these were all issues we took up immediately and worked with,

together with quual, to ensure that these were addressed. but what did become apparent and what the mounting evidence was aware that they were too many students who were not getting the right grade that they should have been getting. as i touched upon, and appeals process, no matter how robust, and we‘ve taken action to strengthen the appeals process, make sure it was incredibly open, incredibly white and incredibly generous, it was still not going to be robust enough for those youngsters who had potentially been awarded the wrong parade. that‘s why we took the action together. as someone who went to compressive skill, a 61 college, who... i‘m not going to be sat there... when the evidence is there that there are problems, action has to be taken and that‘s what we did yesterday. and as you can absolutely imagine, iam yesterday. and as you can absolutely imagine, i am incredibly sorry for the distress that this has caused for those youngsters and incredibly sort of... you know, this is not

something anybody wanted whether it was from our perspective or the exam board‘s or it quual‘s perspective, but that‘s why we had to take action when we did. so you had warnings, you agreed the distress... it‘s not just distress, people had missed out on universities which, under the system you now have, they should have got. it‘s notjust distress, it is changing people‘s lives and this has happened on your watch. you are education secretary. will you resign over this? so, at every stage, where there have been concerns about the system, and there was total consensus that a moderated system of teacher assessment was the right system to go around all parties, and this was something that was done in scotla nd this was something that was done in scotland by the snp, something that was done by the labour and the lib dems in wales, something done by the dup and sinn fein in northern ireland and of course what we did here in england, as well. but, you

know... everybody... there was absolutely consensus that this was the right approach in order to ensure there is fairness and robustness in the system and wherever there has been concerns, wherever there has been concerns, where there has been concerns about, actually, there might be unfairness within the system, we have actually emphasised and all the way through this process where there have been concerns, working with quual, emphasising to quual, making sure disadvantaged children were not disadvantaged children were not disadvantaged by the system and we had reassurance that would not be the case. myjob is making sure youngsters get the grades they deserve. but it is too late for many of them. i‘m sorry to interrupt you but it is too late for many of them to get the places that they wanted to get the places that they wanted to go to university. 30,000 missing out on theirfirst to go to university. 30,000 missing out on their first choice of university. let‘s hear from out on their first choice of university. let‘s hearfrom one of them. this is steph. i'm the first generation in my family to go to uni, let alone cambridge, and then after months ofjust waiting i found out my results meant that i'd missed the offer

by two grades. even though, you know, they were exams that we didn't even take. when we have to work extra hard for where we are and we still haven't got anything out of it... and i know, obviously, my grades are still very good, but i've still missed out on brilliant opportunities. that is steph. she like many others you have seen, very upset, in anguish about what has happened. this has happened on your watch. so... so what we are seeing this year, we have seen a so... so what we are seeing this year, we have seen a record number of youngsters get the first choice of youngsters get the first choice of their university. you have a record number of youngsters going to university, a greater number than we‘ve ever seen before. we have also got more children, an increase of 7.3%, the number of children from the most disadvantaged background going to university, often for the first time in their family‘s history. but steph is an example of many others who are not in that

position and now clearing at some universities has closed, the courses are full. they are left with no options because of the time that you have taken to change the system. so we are working with at the university system. the first action we took is lift the student number caps, so universities have the ability to be able to expand their capacity, welcome in what young people into those universities. the next thing we have been doing is set up next thing we have been doing is set upa task next thing we have been doing is set up a task force with the university sector. how can we boost their capacity? not just boosting sector. how can we boost their capacity? notjust boosting capacity for this year but also looking at how we can boost capacity for next year. we recognise some of the real challenges that universities face. we know... we know that there is a clear expectation, you know, sort of... this eye is on universities for them to welcome in so many youngsters who have achieved those grades. we are working with those

universities to ensure they can welcome as many youngsters to them as possible. we are going to have a record year of number of people who are going to university and will work with the sector.|j are going to university and will work with the sector. i need to ask you... a couple of other things. btecs, many don‘t have their results. they still don‘t. when will they get them and is it acceptable? so we are working with them and 2% of those results were moderated down from teacher assessments. we are working with pearson‘s who moderates the btec system and they will be reviewing all of those grades and will expect there to be a consistency across the board. is it a cce pta ble consistency across the board. is it acceptable they have have this delay? we are working with pearson's to make sure there isn‘t any further delay. there was not the same issue, as he will be aware, with btecs as you saw with a—levels... as he will be aware, with btecs as you saw with a-levels. .. at the delay is acceptable, is it? but we will be working with pearson‘s to

ensure no child is disadvantaged. what happens on thursday with gcses? what happens on thursday with gcses? what our parents, children going to receive? we hear the official results will be a week later. so what happens on thursday? youngsters will be told which ever is their highest, whether it is that centre assessed grade, or whether it is the moderated standardised grade that has been provided by quual, and acidification will follow a week later. given the stress, the anguish, etc, which has been caused to so many thousands of students, pa rents, to so many thousands of students, parents, teachers, have you spoken to boris johnson? of course, yes. and when it became... did you offer your resignation? when it became apparent that, no, despite the actions we had already taken in terms of working with quual, in terms of working with quual, in terms of working with quual, in terms of getting the reassurance, the absolute reassurance from, you know, those involved in the system, in developing it, that this was a

fairand the in developing it, that this was a fair and the most robust system we could have, and despite the fact that we had put in an appeals process , that we had put in an appeals process, one of the most robust. that we had put in an appeals process, one of the most robustlj need to ask that question because you haven‘t answered it. did you offer your resignation, and will you offer your resignation, and will you offer it or not? we, of course, i spoke with the prime minister, explained the situation. the fact we needed to move to a centre assessed grades because it was the fairest system and the right system to do. but my focus is making sure that every student gets the grades they deserve, making sure that we deliver the return of all children back to school in september and ensuring we continue on our agenda that we are given a mandate for making sure we level up to standards right across the country, driving standards in education, that is my focus and what i will be doing. one last time, you haven‘t answered that question yet. will you resign? what we are doing

is we‘re focusing on delivering the grades for those children, making sure we are going to make sure that all schools return and i am absolutely determined over the coming year as absolutely determined over the coming yearasi absolutely determined over the coming year as i will be delivering the worlds best education system, the worlds best education system, the improvements and reforms we have made over the last ten years, they need to be built on. that is my focus, what my focus is on and what the prime minister‘s focus is on. so thatis the prime minister‘s focus is on. so that is what i will be doing. gavin williamson, education secretary, thank you. thank you. it's 7:44am. that was the education secretary at gavin williamson and something else we are looking at this morning... marks and spencer is to cut 7,000 jobs over the next three months. nina‘s got more on this breaking news for us. watmore details have you got this morning? disappointing news white marks spencer employees.

it‘s a high—street brand everyone will know. they were already planning radical restructuring before the pandemic hit. in may we learned that would be accelerated because of the impact of covid. today we learned just how much. 7,000 jobs to go from central support centre, regional management and shop floors. kate hardcastle is a retail analyst and joins us now. we saw this coming. we didn‘t see the speed. every single number of the speed. every single number of the 7000, there is a human story behind it and we have to understand with the marketplace as it is at the moment, this is devastating full stop when we look at the business and the brand, this is an organisation that has gone through significant change over the last ten years. what i will say is it is a brand that mainly deals with areas that we are still buying indecent quantities. food and homewares mainly. those are all areas that have seen competition come in, swell the marketplace, brands like zara,

even primark biting at the bottom and that has been too difficult for marks & spencer to combat and be able to wake work out a strategic plan to see them to be able to have the successes without making huge change like this. they were already missing the mark in those areas you spoke up at the impact of covid they couldn‘t have seen it coming. we are not buying smart clothes for work, not buying smart clothes for work, not going to weddings. they cannot help that, can they? cannot help the impact which is why they have said this is three years' change within one. they have to make a change, they have this line in a statement which is "never the same again". they know it is radical, it is big. they know it is radical, it is big. the positive out of it is when organisations make change like this it is because they know they have to make radical change to survive and they have had successes of the year. believe it or not they released a reward scheme which has had a great reception. they have had good engagement on product launches. they have said that in this statement but

it is true to say this is one of our biggest high street brands. it is one of the most challenging times retail has ever seen. we have seen even the success stories have those dipping numbers, as we saw the stores, the nonessential stores, close down completely and start to reopen with huge precarious reaction from customers. and they are making their plans, as i say, three years of planning in one year, to try to remedy the fall from the past and the hit of coronavirus combined in one. working out how they can have a future there. this is a brand that has weathered storms before. so perhaps the amount of change highlights how much this brand wasn't in a great position before this crisis hit. interestingly, in the last eight weeks in a story is reopening, a7% reduction in football ina reopening, a7% reduction in football in a store but online an increase in 39%, 1.9 in a store but online an increase in 39%,1.9 million new online customers. is this something we will see across the high street, notjust with m and s? in that case, is this

the savvy thing to do, close shop floors and get online? the high street has really suffered with footfall. it was on the decline anyway. the change we have seen is probably five years' growth online in the past few weeks. completely helped by the fact we have been in the lockdown situation. people using online shopping are far more and those are traditional bricks and mortar in the high street are expensive to run. they have huge running rates and costs and it is not the case that online is without its flaws or online doesn't have huge operating costs like warehousing and returns to deal with, but if that is the way the consumer is moving, all of these brands have to remedy that and work to that and we have to realise the more we buy online the more impact that will be on our high street. we have to help the local authorities, the planners, have good plans for what those high street can be moved towards. there is huge affection for it m&s, 136 years. but it is now

promoting its food arm. they are not even ready to get up and running with ocado until september. its clothing arm is in dire straits, is at the end of m&s? i don't think so. this has a different type of brand loyalty a nd this has a different type of brand loyalty and love from customers. we are not seeing a retailer that deserves charity. this has to be operable in its own right, that is good enough to operate in its own right and that means they have to appeal enough to customers on the value, the quality, the service and the price. it is no easy combination but there are definitely brands that are doing it so we have to hope this "never the same again" is that by putting the customer at their height and listening, they will make changes that will give them the gravitas to be here for years to come. kate hardcastle, thank you very much. 7000 jobs to go over the next few was. sales are down, it‘s things you don‘t think about. people are not buying clothes for weddings,

office wear, work wear. it‘s having a huge impact on m&s and other retailers are. thank you, nina. now for something completely different. with around nine million dogs living in the uk, services such as walking, training and grooming have become big business. now the rspca is calling for better regulation of the industry, after reports some pets have been put at danger, as clairejones has been finding out. i was horrified, i was in shock. i just couldn‘t believe what i‘d seen. she‘s hit her. we are a nation of animal lovers and care deeply about our dogs. but we‘ve been investigating the repercussions of people with little experience or any qualifications who are looking after our animals. they‘re dog walkers, dog trainers and dog groomers, and they could be putting our animals in danger. sam gaines is the head of companion animals at the rspca, which is calling for these professions to be regulated through a licence from the local authority.

if you‘re a commercial dog walker, you don‘t currently have to be licensed in england. there will be some that do actually have a licence — some local authorities require that — but it‘s a complete postcode lottery. and the rspca really wants to see dog walkers regulated, as well. are your work commitments getting on the way of you walking your best friend? a dog walker from leeds put together this promotional video for her dog walking business. but jacqueline wilkins, who ran wilkins walkies, was caught on cctv hitting a boxer she was paid to look after. you‘ve been a naughty girl! gary hatch contacted wilkins after his partner, louise, suffered an injury which meant she couldn‘t walk their boxer bella, or their sprocker spaniel cocoa. she came and started taking bella and cocoa out in the morning and evening for me. after a couple of weeks, bella‘s behaviour started to change and this one fateful night we were coming back from work and we saw the dog walker on the camera that we‘ve got hitting bella. wilkins pleaded guilty to a charge

of failing in her duty to ensure the animal‘s welfare, and was handed a 12—month community order, 100 hours of unpaid work, and to pay £385. she‘s also been disqualified from owning or keeping dogs for two years under the animal welfare act. solicitor tina wagon is a specialist legal advisor to the dogs trust. she has represented numerous dog owners when their animals have been injured from inexperienced walkers and trainers. anybody can set themselves up as a trainer, a groomer or a walker tomorrow with no qualifications — not even any experience, really! no insurance, there‘s no regulatory body. without some standardisation of qualifications it‘s very hard for people to understand how qualified, if at all, their dog trainer is. the government told us...

until such regulation and licensing exists, dog owners will have to trust in the people calling themselves the professionals. claire jones, bbc news. i‘m sure lots of people worry about that way their dogs go and if they‘re happy. let‘s speak to hannah molloy, who is a canine behavioural therapist, and professional dog walker leah iommi. thank you forjoining us. morning. hannah, how do you tell whether your dog has been happy when it‘s gone out with a dog walker, for example? it's out with a dog walker, for example? it‘s a really good question. it‘s a really difficult thing to answer, to be honest, because your dog will a lwa ys be honest, because your dog will always be really happy to see you when you come home from work. they will be wiggly and chuffed. it‘s

easy to find out whether your dog hasn‘t had a good time. for a lot of dogs that might look like they are overtired. some people will walk dogs to the point where they are just tired for the rest of the evening and that is too much exercise. dogs need mental stimulation but they don‘t need to have had a marathon run. equally, their behaviour change. just like in that vt, she said she noticed the behaviour started to change. you might see that your dog pulls more when they see other dogs or they might become a bit more erratic. they may have a change in behaviour if they haven‘t had a good time. leah, do you think it is an industry that requires regulation?” leah, do you think it is an industry that requires regulation? i would absolutely say it would be a welcome step and! absolutely say it would be a welcome step and i think that any of the professional dog walkers that put welfare is paramount would be keen

to welcome regulation steps. leah, give a bit of an idea. you have various dogs you walk. how do you make sure they are ok, having a good time and they do what they want to do? sell for us as dog walkers i think it's really useful to have a good understanding of canine behaviour and body language. so you can determine whether the group dynamics are right for those dogs, whether their play styles match up, whether their play styles match up, whether they are able to listen to each other, and to work with the owners to understand what that particular dog enjoys. hannah, i know you touched on it, but i think it will be really helpful... we have lots of dog owners who watch this programme, they do love a dog on the programme. in terms of what sort of things owners should be looking out forfrom their dogs if things owners should be looking out for from their dogs if they are worried? that's a really good question. you kind of want to see that your dog looks forward to

meeting that professional. i think your dog will tell you, as leah said, reading the body language is top. we are not great at that as a nation, considering how much we love dogs. it‘s not ourfirst nation, considering how much we love dogs. it‘s not our first point of call, to look at their posture. we tend to think that a dog that is just wiggling or jumping tend to think that a dog that is just wiggling orjumping up is really ha p py just wiggling orjumping up is really happy but that could be a sign of anxiety just really happy but that could be a sign of anxietyjust as much as it can bejoy. sign of anxietyjust as much as it can be joy. what sign of anxietyjust as much as it can bejoy. what i sign of anxietyjust as much as it can be joy. what i would want to see is that when my dog is interacting with that professional, after they have had one interaction with them, is that professional able to give them a biscuit? sometimesjust seeing what they are like when... i might stay at home and let that professional come and pick my dog up andi professional come and pick my dog up and i will pick up on a lot from how my dog greets them as to whether or not they had a good time last time. the other things, i would show any professional how to drive my dog. my dog has a certain level of obedience and he understands certain queues. i‘m always going to want my

professional to maintain that standard and talk to myjob the way ido—— standard and talk to myjob the way i do —— talk to my dog the way i do. i take them for a drive with my dog and shows them what cues he knows and shows them what cues he knows and what cues he understands. the important thing to understand is that people have different childcare standards. our understanding of how to look after a pet is so varied across the board. you know, this is where this... this is horrendous. nobody should ever have to see that. but i think a lot of the time it comes from a lack of communication. we are running out of time, sorry. where is your dog? let say hello to your dog? come and say hello. his desk? he isjust like yours! he is live on telly, not doing it! laughter we will leave hannah molloy. there he is! thank goodness for that. thank you so much. thanks, leah, as well. thank you very much indeed. i‘m glad that even the dog behaviour

expert has problems with the duck. come here. no, not today, not when you‘re on tv! laughter let‘s catch up with carol looking at the weather. it is grey. it certainly is. what a gorgeous dog. this is york this morning from one of our weather watchers. you can see quite a bit of clout. northern and eastern parts of the uk seeing a fair bit of cloud. some of us have some murk, some drizzle, and that will lift from thenit drizzle, and that will lift from then it got stick for a few. we are still seeing sunny spells and heavy thundery downpours. some rain this morning across ireland, north wales, pa rt morning across ireland, north wales, part of the north midlands, north—west england and showers in northern ireland southern counties. low pressure is driving our weather today was that weatherford is moving northward taking rain with it, showering nature through the afternoon. the spacing in the isobars tell you there is not much wind. if you catch a shower it could be torrential. there goes the rain moving out of north wales, northern england into skadden mike russell in

scotland. further showers developed across scotland as you go through the course of the day. the met office has a yellow weather warning out for these. they could lead to some localised flooding. still some east coast... sorry, some low cloud heard in the east coast of scotland and north—east england. showers in northern ireland, england and wales. hitand miss northern ireland, england and wales. hit and miss but they could be heavy, thundery, gusty winds around and some large hail. temperatures 15 in lowick to highs of 22 to 25 as we push down towards the south—east. through this evening and overnight, many showers will fade. a lot of dry weather, clear skies. still this low cloud hugging the coastlines of eastern scotland and north—east england. by the end of the night, more rain coming in from the south—west. when you see yellow and green in the chart, that tells you we‘re looking at heavy bursts. the wind will also strengthen. these are overnight lows. 17 or in plymouth. tomorrow we start off with a lot of dry weather. even some sunshine. bit

of clout. down the east coast once again. the rain heaviest as it moves across south—west england and south wales, migrating north west. easing a little bit through the day was behind it there will be showers. tomorrow we will have gusty winds. bearing in mind that the trees are in full leaf, you might find some branches, for example, and coupled with saturated ground already. not a pleasa nt with saturated ground already. not a pleasant combination was up further north you travel, dry it will be at this time of day. the rain moved northwards and friday particularly is looking windy. the headlines are coming next.

good morning, welcome to breakfast with dan walker and louise minchin. our headlines today: universities call for urgent government support following the u—turn over a—level grades, as they prepare for a sharp increase in calls from anxious students. i have just not been sleeping well for the past few nights, really stressed about my future. hoping things turn out all right and ijust want some kind of certainty. the education secretary, gavin williamson has resisted calls to resign and defended his actions, but told breakfast he was sorry for the distressed caused. this for the distressed caused. is not something that ar wa nted this is not something that anyone wanted to, whether it was from our perspective or from the exam board‘s or quual‘s perspective, but that‘s why we had to take action when we

did. good morning. 7000 jobs to go at emma des. management, customer support and shop floors will feel the cuts. the retailer says the future is still uncertain. the cavern club, the legendary venue that lunged the beatles, is facing closure due to the coronavirus lockdown. good morning. the education secretary gavin williamson has said he has every confidence in the exam system, after a major u—turn over this year‘s a—level results. students will now be awarded grades set by teachers‘ assessments, rather than by a computer algorithm. mr williamson told bbc breakfast like he was setting up a task force to respond to calls for urgent help to respond to calls for urgent help to deal with an expected surge in calls from students hoping to secure a place at university.

we‘ve set up a task force with the university sector. how can we boost capacity? we are also looking at how we can boost the capacity for next year. we recognise that some of the real challenges universities face. we know that there is a clear expectation that is on universities, for them to welcome in so many youngsters who have achieved those grades. let‘s speak now to our political correspondent iain watson who joins us from westminster. like many other people, reacting to what you heard from the education secretary today. i was trying to count them as we went along. louise asked him four times about his resignation, whether he had considered that. he ignored that on all four occasions but it is a major talking point? it is a major talking point, of course, given the individual stress caused too many stu d e nts individual stress caused too many students over the past few days. the question has been asked by

conservative mps. it is not so much about the u—turn. but how long it took the education secretary to get there. one of them said to me that a minister who makes school children cry is not in a good place. another said that because last week he was insisting there would be no u—turn, really his position should be untenable. he might be reshuffled by the prime minister in the autumn, says another. he was asked on this programme if he would resign. he didn‘t say yes or no. he didn‘t say if he had offered to resign. he a nswered if he had offered to resign. he answered in his own way. he said over the next year he would be concentrating on building a world beating education system. so i took that to be a no. he was asked if he had spoken to the prime minister about this apparent mess. this is what he said. i spoke with the prime minister. explained the situation. the fact we needed to move to centre assessed grades because it was the fairest syste m grades because it was the fairest system and the right system to do.

but my focus is making sure that every student gets the grades they deserve. making sure that we deliver the return of all children back to school in september. interestingly, from gavin williamson‘s point of view, he can use quual as something of a human shield when it comes to his political career, because his allies are insisting that he asked them the right questions at the right time. and they were given reassurances that the most disadvantaged students would not be affected. for example, there is an education select committee that raised concerns on july ten. on the 16th ofjuly gavin williamson raised many of those concerns directly with quual at a meeting with civil servants present, and he was told the system they were deciding upon, the controversial algorithm, would not produce results that would disadvantage those pupils. one of the reasons he is still in hisjob is that he can pupils. one of the reasons he is still in his job is that he can say he was trying to deal with this

system. but the questions still remain about why there was such a delay between the u—turn in scotland last week and the u—turn in england this week. ok, ian watson thank you for that assessment of what the education secretary was saying. marks and spencer has announced that it plans to cut 7,000 jobs by the end of the year. the company said it had learnt to work more flexibly during lockdown, using the same staff for both the food aisles and the clothing section of stores. new technology would also allow it to reduce layers of management. the home office says it is "working incredibly closely" with kent county council, after the local authority warned it would no longer be able to care safely for migrant children who cross the channel. more than a00 under—18s have arrived unaccompanied in kent this year — including 13 in the past few days. the government says it is providing extra support and increased funding to the council to help tackle what it called an "unprecedented situation". the health secretary matt hancock will outline plans for the future of public health

in england later. he‘s expected to announce a new agency, which will take over many functions of public health england — one of the organisations at the heart of the response to coronavirus. the body has faced criticism over its handling of the crisis, but some argue it‘s been made a scapegoat for failings elsewhere. michelle obama has launched a scathing attack on donald trump, accusing the president of not being up to the job. the former first lady was addressing the democrat convention, which will see former vice—presidentjoe biden formally accept the nomination for november‘s presidential election. it‘s been a year like no other for students receiving their a—level results, with the government reversing its decision to use grades calculated by an algorithm. when the results were released on thursday, we heard from many students that felt the system had let them down. so, has the decision to use teacher—assessed grades instead made their situation better?

we caught up with a few of them to find out. i haven‘t really had any communication from my first choice university or, indeed, my insurance choice. i‘m hoping the university of bath get back to me soon because i‘ve just not been sleeping well for the past few nights. i‘ve been really stressed about my future and hoping things turn out all right. i just want some kind of certainty so i know that hopefully i‘ll be going to bath in september. quual's algorithm predicted me at a d—d—b, but with the announcement saying that we are allowed our predicted grades, i am now predicted at an a—b—c which has made me so relieved because now my first choice university is considering me again by holding a place for me. my course is very popular at my firm choice, which means i won't be able

to get on it anyway now. if the government had decided to act sooner and done it before they'd given the results to students, then it would be a different story and i might have been at my firm choice. universities are preparing to deal with an increase in calls from students. in england, a temporary limit imposed for this year on student places has been lifted, but universities have warned there is a limit to what they can do. we‘re joined now by ian dunn, who is the chief academic officer at coventry university. good morning. thank you forjoining us. good morning. thank you forjoining us. have you got places at the university, is the first question? yes, we have. most universities will have some places on many courses, actually. there are always going to be some courses which following professional body requirements. nursing, for example. that will be a bit of a challenge. but, yes. how

has it affected the students applying for your university, the fa ct applying for your university, the fact they had of these grades decided by an algorithm? did some of them lose out? we are checking right now to make sure that we haven‘t got anyone that has lost out. we made the decision very early on, before the decision very early on, before the results were published. we felt there was going to be unfairness in there was going to be unfairness in the system and we decided to look at predicted grades alongside the calculated grades because we actually trust the teachers to make actually trust the teachers to make a reassessment. there weren‘t examinations. so we thought the best results you could possibly consider we re results you could possibly consider were by the teachers. they really know the pupils. lots of people making that point of this morning. what you make of the government decision to make this decision, but a kind of so late after so many stu d e nts a kind of so late after so many students had opened their results and had to already apply for universities? it's tragic, isn't it,

really? it‘s very sad. i‘m delighted the government have made the decision. it is the right decision. it's decision. it is the right decision. it‘s extraordinary. to try to achieve compatibility with previous yea rs achieve compatibility with previous years is faintly ridiculous in light of the situation in which we are living. these are young people who have been out of formal education for six months. to impose this extra pressure has just been cruel. i‘m sorry, it‘s just cruel. pressure has just been cruel. i‘m sorry, it‘sjust cruel. we have known all along that an algorithm is a statistical model that is going to try to maintain a national picture, but it has not taken into account individual schools in particular circumstances, and more importantly, individuals. and individual students. i chair the board at an academy in coventry, an inner—city outstanding secondary school. 60% of our young people were downgraded on

the calculus did grades. 28 out of 29 maths entrance were downgraded. that can‘t be right in an inner—city comprehensive school with outstanding characteristics.” comprehensive school with outstanding characteristics. i want to ask one more question if i could about universities in england. there was a cap of 5% more students than their targets. they have now lifted that. will you be able to accommodate that, do you think? well, everyone is now trying to figure out how to make that assessment. some subjects are perhaps easier to make those accommodations than others. it depends on facilities. particularly this year when we have all of the social distancing measures that we have to put in place. it‘s really complicated and it will take a few days. what i would advice to young people is to get in touch, to call those universities and to talk to us. those universities and to talk to us. at coventry we are completely ready to talk to individuals, to schools, and to give advice to people to help them make those decisions. i expect he will be

getting lots of calls today. thank you very much. we‘re joined now by dave maccormick, who‘s the head teacher at holyrood academy in somerset. good morning. thank you for being with us. give us an idea... i‘m not sure how much of the programme you have been across today. we heard from the education secretary, who communicated to the good mid u—turn yesterday. how has that affected your students? good morning. an overwhelming feeling is one of... the effects on the vast majority of our students has been really positive. dave, let me see if we can try to establish a line with you. i will ask you another question and we will ask you another question and we will see how that goes. if not, we will see how that goes. if not, we will come back to you later. you are telling us a little bit about the impact on your students. we didn‘t get much of your answer because you kept cutting out. what were you trying to say? i wasjust trying to

say that the effect... lots of relieved young people. but it‘s not without a set of issues... dave, i‘m afraid we are going to have to leave it there. that is dave mccormick, who looks after students in somerset. we can‘t speak to him at the moment. he was telling us about how that decision from the education secretary, gavin williamson, has made an impact on the students. we have been hearing from quite a few this morning, those who went through their a—levels last week and those expecting their gcses later this week. many have accepted places at university, not necessarily their first choice. what do they do? we will be speaking to ucas at 8:30am, trying to get some clarity and some information for the many of you watching today who might be in that situation. stay with us until 8:30am at least. lots of people waiting for the gcse results on thursday. still ongoing, results on thursday. still ongoing, results coming in for people. thank

you so much for being in touch. rob says, and this is looking ahead, because there are questions about what happens next year, he has a daughter taking gcses in 2021. she has already missed months of schooling. there is potentialfor more to be most depending on a second wave or local lockdown. he wa nts to second wave or local lockdown. he wants to know, and we will maybe put this question to branwenjeffreys, what plans have they got for 2021? mr williamson did not answer all your questions this morning. one thing he did say was that they are setting up a task force to respond to the call universities for help to deal with the rise in calls. thank you for all your comments this morning. we are hoping to speak to our education editor shortly. many youth clubs and services had to close when the uk went into lockdown in march. now there are fears

lots of them will never reopen. the education charity, the national youth agency, has told bbc breakfast that permanent closures will mean hundreds of thousands of young people will go without vital services. tim muffett reports. since it first opened in the 60s, this youth club has had a huge impact. it reaches out to young people need to be reached out to do. people who need our help and engagement. i think this place is really important. it is like a second home to a lot of the young people. i love it because i get to meet different voice from different age groups and it gets us to socialise with people notjust age groups and it gets us to socialise with people not just from our school. i can expose my feelings and meet new friends and do what i love, which is dancing and drawing. when it was closed, like, you really didn‘t know what to do. we were probably all stock and iphones. having been shut for months, the centre has just reopened with new restrictions. we would normally see

in the summer about 150 young people coming through the doors on each site. but the restrictions mean we can only see 15 in bubbles. we are turning children away out of the door. that is very difficult because you have to explain to them why adults can go to pubs but we have to turn them away at the door of youth clu bs. for most indoor activities, those aged over 11 need to wear face coverings. of the 10,000 or so youth projects in england, this one has reopened. the national youth theatre agency, an educational charity, fear one in five will remain permanently closed. we are seeing around 1 million young people missing from youth services this year who would have been engaged in activities this time last year. youth centres and youth projects, i hear so often from young people, are the one place they feel safer. so the loss of that one point in your life can be absolutely devastating. what do you fear will happen unless something changes pretty quickly? we will have a lost generation of young people who don‘t

feel they have a stake in society, who don‘t feel that our politicians, our public services are for them and ta ke our public services are for them and take them seriously. during a typical year more than 80% of a young person‘s waking hours are spent outside of school. weekends, holidays are they all add up. while understandably there has been a lot of attention and reopening schools in september, many fewer places like this are being overlooked. we have lost a lot of income because we rely on money from the council until march. we are not sure what is going to happen after that. we also rely on income from rental two. all that has gone. the government have bailed out other industries. they have not got a plan for youth services that we have heard. i hear there is one coming down the line but as yet we don‘t know what is coming down the line. that was before covid—19. we needed to adapt to covid. a government spokesperson said it is committed to supporting young people

in these challenging times. it said that grands are being provided youth organisations by the national lottery a nd organisations by the national lottery and the arts council. and that a £500 million youth and investment fund will provide long—term investment to youth services. there are huge challenges across the uk. in scotland, volu nta ry across the uk. in scotland, voluntary youth worker organisations say they are facing an immediate income loss of more than £20 million. in wales, although most youth projects say they have been able to provide some form of support, often online, there have been big financial losses of more than £9 million in some cases. the youth work alliance in northern ireland say that although new online services have helped, the legacy of covid, the risks to young people‘s future, requires urgent action. you only live your youth once. when that's gone you are in the world of an adult. this pandemic will be —— will run on for another year plus.

young people will be hardest hit. most of the focus is on older generations because that is where the death rate tends to be. young people are completely forgotten. for many, it is a bleak picture. tim muffett, bbc news. 20 minutes passed out. do you know what we are doing next? i‘m not entirely sure. i know now. we are going to talk to branwen i know now. we are going to talk to bra nwen jeffreys about i know now. we are going to talk to branwen jeffreys about a levels. good morning. thank you forjoining us. good morning. thank you forjoining us. we spoke to yesterday, pretty much this time, before the government did this u—turn about a—level results, particularly in england. it has had a huge impact. what kind of changes will it mean for those thousands of students who, for those thousands of students who, for example, missed out on university places? it is not straightforward, louise. they might now be looking at the grades that a teacher estimated for them, which are good enough perhaps to get them on to are good enough perhaps to get them ontoa are good enough perhaps to get them on to a degree course they really

wanted. but they may have accepted another place in the meantime. there are difficult choices for students. also some very difficult decisions for universities. they got a—level results a week before the students and allocated many of their places. when i looked at last night, some leading universities were saying that essentially they were all full. they weren‘t accepting any more stu d e nts they weren‘t accepting any more students from clearing. so it‘s not clear there is a guarantee that people will be able to undo what happened and go back to their first choice if they didn‘t get it last thursday. we know the government has lifted the cap, at least in england, and how many university places they can offer. will that have an impact? will that change things for students? in theory, it gives universities leeway. they have been told they could only recruit 5% more stu d e nts told they could only recruit 5% more students this year. that was to stop an unseemly scramble for students, to compensate for the fall in

international students, mainly from china, that universities are expecting this year. so it does create in theory more wiggle room. the problem for universities is they have to look at things like how much accommodation they have available. also, how much space they have for certain subjects. so if you are studying for a law degree, you might find that your lecturers have largely moved online. they might have a little bit more leeway. but if you‘re studying for a pure science degree, where they are thinking about how to socially distance students within a lavatory environment, for example, they may have reached the limits. -- lab environment. what is the advice to stu d e nts environment. what is the advice to students at this point? the have difficult decisions but they should speak to various people, shouldn‘t they? ucas is saying to them, think carefully about your options. if you have accepted another place, talk to that university, talk to your first choice university, and also think it over with your parents and perhaps

your teachers, your sixth form as well. every year some students don‘t get theirfirst choice well. every year some students don‘t get their first choice place. they often end up having a very good experience wherever they go. there are still university places on offer. and the advice certainly that many sixth forms that i have been talking to have been giving students is to go to university this year. don‘t wait and differ. it is an unusual year. it will be a hard year for anybody deferring to get work or to travel. you might be better off getting yourself onto a decent degree programme and just getting on with your studies. we spoke to gavin williamson about btec. some of them still don‘t have their results. what is happening with them? well, we know it is a patchy picture with btecs. it appears that in terms of the kind of grades turbulence we have seen with a—levels, there has been much less of that. but there has been a significant delay for some students who still, many days

later, haven‘t got their a—level results, don‘t have their btecs. btecs are not just results, don‘t have their btecs. btecs are notjust a route to things like higher apprenticeships. many people rely on them for their university places. they are left in limbo. we will be chasing that up today with pearson‘s, who run btecs. sixth form colleges are scratching their heads as to why this has happened. not forgetting, of course, gcses on thursday. is it clear what are parents, children will actually see on a thursday and what they will get on that day? on thursday they won‘t get the formal certificate of their qualifications. they will be getting a piece of paper printed out by their school with a teacher assessed grade at the school has submitted to the exam board, because those now take precedence, or those are an option the student can choose. it is not clear what happens

if it becomes apparent your calculated grade, the one given by the algorithm, was higher than your teacher estimates. we simply don‘t know. but the assumption at the moment has been that the student would be able to bank those. there isa would be able to bank those. there is a difficulty for a sixth form colleges. some sixth form colleges have a colleges. some sixth form colleges havea minimum colleges. some sixth form colleges have a minimum threshold of gcses, which allow them then to guide young people as to which courses they might do. so if you are going on to do a—level, you would normally expect to have a good grade or a decent grade in your gcse before embarking on that, so that it‘s not an impossible task to take it on. if they now have lots and of 16—year—olds with quite similar looking results, they could have a trickyjob in deciding how many of those students they can take it the courses they want to do. branwen, it has been such a worrying time, hasn‘t it, for there a—level students, gcses as well, btecs, all of them? i suppose they are looking

forward , of them? i suppose they are looking forward, schools have gone back in scotland, but looking ahead, this is a tough time for the whole of the education system, isn‘t it? a tough time for the whole of the education system, isn't it? this is a generation that feels that it has been unfairly, randomly caught up in events beyond their control. when you think about the results that have been such a source of controversy, usually young people feel as though they have some control over that. they work hard, they do their best in the exams. they know the grades are theirs. they know the grades are theirs. they own them. this year, even after this compromise, there is still a feeling of uncertainty. many of the people i have been speaking to, the stu d e nts people i have been speaking to, the students i have been speaking to, say they fear they will be labelled the covid generation that did not sit exams, that god given their grades. and they‘re also worried, those of them leaving school and not going to university, but what kind of world of work they are going into, because we are seeing again this morning morejob losses being

announced. branwen jeffreys, on announced. branwenjeffreys, on that note, we will leave it. thank you. you are watching bbc breakfast. still to come: it helped launch the career of the beatles, but the owners of the famous cavern club say they‘re facing financial ruin because of the pandemic. we ll be discussing that shortly and bringing you the latest news. 8:27am. now let‘s get the weather with carol. a miserable picture. a lot of wind on the way? that's right, done. good morning. it is quite miserable across parts of scotland and north—east england this morning. low