this is bbc news. the headlines at seven. university lecturers warn that plans to reopen universities in september will be too dangerous without a coronavirus testing programme. we are really worried that we can see universities becoming the care home of any second wave of covid—19 in the uk. thousands of anti—government demonstrators take to the streets of minsk again to protest at what they believe is the rigged re—election of the belarus president. the crowd here shouting, disgrace. disgrace, they are shouting. and they're shouting the message to the people over there. look at all those riot police that have come out. that is why these protests are different. police have criticised "irresponsible" actions after thousands of people attended unlicensed raves in norfolk and south wales. lewis hamilton wins

in belgium — he's now just two victories away from michael schumacher‘s all—time record. and the man who ran the bbc — tony hall — looks back on his seven years in charge — here on bbc news in half an hour. good evening. universities are being urged not to undertake face—to—face teaching before christmas because of the risk of spreading coronavirus. the university and college union says that the return to campuses of more than a million students could turn them into the "care homes" of a second wave. but university leaders say they've worked hard for months on creating safe environments for learning. our education editor,

branwen jeffreys, has the story. for the momentjust a few students on campus. many more planning for their first year. on campus. many more planning for theirfirst year. in me is leaving home in york to begin theatre studies in surrey, anxious about coronavirus but not deterred. studies in surrey, anxious about coronavirus but not deterredm doesn't put me off because i think eve ryo ne doesn't put me off because i think everyone has been slowly getting used to it when they've been re—immersed in society coming out of lockdown so it's just a case of how the university are tackling it and eve ryo ne the university are tackling it and everyone will have to accommodate what they want but i'm not put off, i'm willing to do what it takes to do the course i want to do. it's been strange having graduations online but, still, at york today, photos with proud parents. within weeks, across the uk more thani million students will start term.

the academics union is warning of a public health crisis. we are really worried that we could see universities becoming the care home of any second wave of covid—i9 in the uk. the sheer amount of people that we are asking to move across the country and congregate together in large numbers when we don't think there is sufficient safety measures in place. everywhere you look on york's campus, remind us to keep a social distance. they are offering a mix of learning online and in small groups. inside buildings, face coverings are required. the vice chancellor confident they are prepared. well, we started thinking about how to make our campus safe in the condition of a pandemic pretty much as soon as the condition of a pandemic pretty much as sooi'i as we the condition of a pandemic pretty much as soon as we locked down. what would you say to students and their pa rents would you say to students and their parents about how ready you are? our campuses save? we owe it to our

students to do all we can to ensure they have as much as they can of the university experience. we have been using the motto on campus what we can come online what we need to in order to keep people safe. the government says campuses should open, allowing students to get on with their education. no one knows how many international students will get to the uk this autumn but there is little sign of home students deciding to delay. brandman jeffries, bbc news, york. louise ward is a mature student, hoping to start university in canterbury in the next few weeks. welcome to bbc news and thanks for talking to us, tell us what you'll be studying and how important it is for you to be able to get into university buildings to do it. i'm going to be studying adult nursing. so, for me, not only is it important iam so, for me, not only is it important i am getting a degree but it is

important i help my country. when i'm qualified i'll be a nurse and they are very much needed right now. they certainly are but in terms of the teaching experience, what you'll be getting from university, what couldn't you get by studying online that you expect to get by actually being on campus? we have practicals within the campus, we have a sweet, so within the campus, we have a sweet, so it is an actual ward with dummies in them that can have various accidents and scenarios so we practice on those. i know the university has made the class is a lot smaller to accommodate the coronavirus, to make sure we are safe while we are practising. when you say smaller, mean fewer students at any one time in the practice suite? instead of having one class, in the simulation suite, that one class will be split

obviously in the back of my mind there is a worry but if we don't do it now. it willjust be as bad. it will still be dangerous. universities have been working so ha rd to universities have been working so hard to get this going for us. how have they communicated with you about what they're doing and planning to potential risks? i get an e—mail, since two months ago, once a week to tell meal the things they are doing to make us safe. it is also up to us to make sure we are

social distancing, winning masks etc but they have been in contact with me, they have kept us in the loop the whole time. it is not the most dangerous environment you will be going into, given the qualification you are seeking, you will have to spend sometime in university. exactly. 50% of my course is placement. they are not stopping that so i will be in a hospital, in a doctor's surgery. i will come face—to—face with coronavirus so i do not see the problem with going to university. what about the other aspects of university life? i appreciate you are a mature student so appreciate you are a mature student so could be different but for a lot of first—time students, it could be the first time to make independent decisions and socialise, do other

things they want to do, some of that you will want to do with your fellow students, that will be a diminished experience wanted ?|j students, that will be a diminished experience wanted? i am sad it will not be the way should be 40 students but we are bound to get there, we will get through it. students who live away from home will be in holes of residents, they are not on their own. there are support networks so we have our own lecturer or person university who will answer problems for us. that is all students, young or old, not that i am calling myself old. certainly not. thank you very much. when you start? another week. i think it is canterbury christ church university you are going to, the very best of luck, good luck

with the nursing studies and we look forward to seeing you on award some time. thank you very much, goodbye. we will find out how the threat from some university lecturers warning that universities should not be considering face—to—face teaching until christmas is handled in the newspapers tomorrow. our guests joining me tonight are broadcaster daisy mcandrew and the financial times' white hall correspondent, sebastian payne. millions of pupils in england and wales are due to return to school this week, most of them after months away from the classroom. the government is stepping up its efforts to reassure parents that it is safe to send their children back. our political correspondent helen catt is here. what are they saying? and she said, schools have made huge

effo rts and she said, schools have made huge efforts to make sure their buildings are coronavirus safe if you like. we are coronavirus safe if you like. we are seeing a push from government to make sure parents are reassured enough to centre children back to school so we have had borisjohnson appealing directly to send their children back today, just a few days before school starts back. we have had gavin williamson writing an open letter to the papers. on the one hand he points out the specific measures that have been taken by schools. he talks about lockdown areas where older children will have to wear face covering. primary stu d e nts to wear face covering. primary students will have to same groups to avoid spreading the virus. he also points to scientific advice, he quotes the british medicaljournal and chris witty to say the health whisk to children is extremely slow —— mike lowe. he is also flagging up what he sees as the risk of not

sending children back. he said this risks putting a huge dent in their future life chances. so that is what we have heard from government last few weeks to reassure parents. some pa rents few weeks to reassure parents. some parents might say it is fine for you to say that but the government promised the opportunity to go back to school before the summer and was unable to deliver so its record has been patchy. we had the government firing the top civil servant for education, it is a very unsettled time politically and educationally. yes, it has not been a great time for the department for education. originally, the aim is to get primary children back before the summer break and it did not happen. it does feel different now, things are more in place for children to return but there is huge pressure on the government to get this right.

they have put so much political capital in this, borisjohnson talked about tomorrow duty to get children back to school. there is huge pressure on them to get it right. there is a paradox because on the one hand, over the last 20 yea rs, the one hand, over the last 20 yea rs , we the one hand, over the last 20 yea rs, we have the one hand, over the last 20 years, we have had schools in england being put at arm's—length from the government, we have local education authorities becoming less important so all believers are central government had has been diminished but on the other hand, we have government trying to impose a common approach to schools and presumably parents expect government to do stuff to get this sorted? there is a real paradox for them to resolve. it is and of course we should be saying that gavin williamson is only speaking for schools in england, it is a separate responsibility for scotland who have already gone back. so you have that extra layer of complexity. we cannot

underestimate the challenge of having got to this point but there is an expectation that the government should take the lead in trying convince parents this is under control and has a grip on the system, especially after the summer when we saw huge u—turn on exams. that dented confidence so there is a real pressure on the government to show that it has a grip on this and everything is fine. i am sure teachers will be watching this and stu d e nts teachers will be watching this and students as well. tens of thousands of anti—government protesters in belarus have taken to the streets of the capital minsk for a third sunday protesting against the re—election of president alexander lukashenko. there have been clashes with riot police seeking to stop them entering the capital's main independence square — as our correpondent steve rosenberg reports. in minsk, they headed to independence square. protesters keeping up the pressure on alexander lukashenko. but this time, the police were

waiting for them and they moved in. there were chaotic scenes. some protesters were detained, others tried to free their comrades. we saw sasha wandering alone, completely confused. where is my husband, she says? the police took him and where is he? was he in here? no reply. further down the avenue there were more scuffles and more riot police taking up positions. today's protests were very different from protests of previous sunday. you can see a lot more police, much tighter security. the police determined to stop this protest. it was not only the police putting on a show of strength. a column of armoured military vehicles was seen driving

towards the centre of minsk. mr lukashenko had previously placed the army on high alert. as for the president, on his 66th birthday, this defiant image of a leader who has no intention of stepping down. but the protesters have other ideas. they managed to regroup and then they flooded through the capital. on their way to mr lukashenko's official residence. while they marched, they accused the leader of belarus are rigging an election, stealing the presidency and brutalising the people. they are insisting he resign. i do not know what will be the result but i am sure people will not stop. they will not stop. but mr lukashenko retains the support of his security forces

and of a powerful neighbour — russia. that for now is helping to keep him in power. the headlines on bbc news. university lecturers warn that plans to reopen universities in september will be too dangerous without a coronavirus testing programme. thousands of anti—government demonstrators take to the streets of minsk again to protest at what they believe is the rigged re—election of the belarus president. police have criticised "irresponsible" actions after thousands of people attended unlicensed raves in norfolk and south wales. police are dealing with a number of illegal raves in breach of lockdown rules across britain this evening. one of the biggest is thought to be near neath in south wales. our correspondent tomos lewis sent this update from our cardiff newsroom

police were made aware in the early hours of this morning of an illegal rave near a small village, some 15 miles from neath. it seems there were some 3000 people at this rave which went on through the night and continued into today. at the village this afternoon, residents told me the situation was horrendous. many were kept up through the night by the loud music and by partygoers drinking and engaging in anti—social behaviour in the streets. residents also told me that they were disappointed to find that many had travelled from across the uk to the village for this event. it's worth noting the welsh government's coronavirus restriction only allow for up to 30 people to meet outdoors. south wales police chief cancer to said they hadn't seen this scale of event to date. the force say they are now looking at legislation as to the next steps they will be taking. and we've also had the latest government figures which show there were 1,715 new confirmed

coronavirus cases across the uk, in the latest 24 hour period. that means the average number of new cases per day in the last week, was 1,244. one death was also reported, that's someone who died within 28 days of a positive covid—19 test, which means on average in the past week, 10 deaths were announced every day. that takes the total number, across the uk, to 41,499 and tomorrow on the bbc news channel, we'll be answering your questions on why coronavirus cases are continuing to rise, but deaths remain relatively low in comparison to earlier in the pandemic. we'll be speaking to professor chris smith, consultant medical virologist, and professor of public health linda bauld at 0930 tomorrow morning. you can email your questions to yourquestions@bbc.co.uk or tweet them to the hashtag bbc your questions.

all passengers who were on a flight to cardiff from the greek island of zante have been told to self—isolate, after some on board tested positive for coronavirus. health officials say seven people from three different parties on tui flight 6215 on tuesday have tested positive for covid—19. public health wales is now contacting the rest of the passengers. and staying with coronavirus — new research suggests care homes in england experienced the highest increase in excess deaths at the height of the covid19 pandemic, compared with those in the rest of the uk. the stirling university study shows overall that care home residents accounted for 40% of all britain's coronavirus deaths. our social affairs correspondent michael buchanan reports. at least 26 residents at melbury court in durham are believed to have died from covid—19. it is understood to be the highest death toll in a

single care home in the uk. but today's research underlines how death has become too common at too many care homes. academics analysed excess death rates, the number of people who died in care homes this year over and above the five year average. they found that, at the height of the pandemic, deaths in england were 79% above average, and in wales they were 66% higher. 62% in scotland, with the northern ireland performing best, though deaths were still 46 percent higher than usual. have you been able to do any analysis of why these figures are where they are at? that will be part due directly to measured covid, but partly due to unmeasured covid, and partly due to deaths caused by the pandemic but which weren't due to covid itself.

care homes in scotland, england and wales were described as having performed poorly by researchers. homeowners say it won't happen again. so, we've learnt quite a lot about not taking people out of hospitals without tests. you know, testing is the key to all of this. and people are being very careful about making sure they've got enough ppe, including masks etc. comprehensive testing of residents and staff will be key to avoiding further deaths in care homes, and pressure groups are aghast that it's still not happening. michael buchanan, bbc news. in the western us city of portland, a white man is reported to have died after a shooting on saturday night — it followed skirmishes between pro—trump and black lives matter protesters. pro—trump and black lives matter it isn't clear if the shooting arose pro—trump and black lives matter from the clashes in the city centre. pro—trump and black lives matter local media said the dead man was wearing a hat bearing

the insignia of a right—wing group. the united states has accused russian fighterjets of making what they describe as an "unsafe and unprofessional" intercept as the us airforce was flying over the black sea on friday. the us military has released footage which it says shows russian jets crossing "multiple times", within 100 feet — that's about 30 metres — of the nose of a us b52 bomber. the us says it was conducting routine operations over international waters when the incident ooccured. the un refugee agency says hundreds of migrants who've been rescued in the mediterranean must be granted a place of safety. they're still at sea having been rescued by three boats — including one which has been paid for by the british street artist banksy. simonjones reports. brought to shore and to safety. 49 migrants who had initially been rescued by a ship belonging to banksy, the louise michel. they were taken to lampedusa by the italian coast guard.

these are the lucky ones. the fate of hundreds more people still on the water remains unclear. the louise michel had picked up more than 200 people at sea. it became dangerously overcrowded and stranded off the coast of malta. some of the migrants had to stay on life rafts, floating alongside the boat. the crew said nobody in the international community was willing to help. everyone that has been rescued is deeply traumatised. we'll keep trying to contact the european authorities to be assigned a port of safety. one ship did come to help — another rescue vessel, the sea—watch four. it was already carrying around 200 migrants. it has now taken on board those from the louise michel. they are being given medical assessments, with treatment for dehydration, hypothermia and fuel burns. the sea—watch crew tweeted, we now have around 350 people on board who need to disembark in a safe port as soon as possible. the louise michel added, it is not over, we demand a place

of safety for all survivors now. the louise michel had only recently gone into service as a rescue ship complete with its own banksy artwork. the artist has accused the eu authorities of ignoring distress calls from non—europeans. the un refugee agency says a solution must be found and saving lives is a humanitarian imperative. simon jones, bbc news. now, what's the best thing you achieved during lockdown? learning how to bake? dusting off your running shoes? well 14—year—old hamish brodie has just achieved the highest grade possible on the piano after only taking up the instrument two years ago when his mother died. he did it, in part, with a piece of music he composed in memory of his mum. here's his story. it was 2018 when i lost my mum.

that was at sort of the same time i was discovering music and just really flourishing in that, so i think i put a lot of emotion and my feelings into that. it was not as sad, almost, because i had something to focus on, a drive which i could almost think, every day, after i came home from school, right, this is what i am going to do and i'm going to do it really good. she was really, really great, really great cook and really great music taste as well, like eva cassidy and all that. i've got a lot of different styles of music and inspirations from my dad and my mum, and i'm reallyjust trying to soak in as much different genres as possible. i think, once you get something so ingrained in your muscle memory, no matter what it is,

if it is music production or piano, once everything is there and you can just go for it. playing by ear, as well, i find that a bit easier than playing by music. playing just with feeling, almost. music is just an instinct to me, rather than the reading or the theory. it is more just a feeling that it evokes in people, like, when someone plays tennis or when someone rides a bike, i think we all have that thing and we've just got to find it almost. how proud would his mum have been, many congratulations to him. now it's time for a look at the weather with ben rich. hello.

first thing this morning there was a real chill, parts of northern ireland dipped below freezing. a cold start to the new week but largely dry. wet and windy but a bit warmer, at the middle of the week the temperatures drop by the weekend. at the moment high—pressure is in charge, keeping things largely dry, you can see the isobars opening out, the winds light tonight. when we see clear skies, it will be another chilly one but quite a lot of cloud around so not as cold as it was last night. many spots in the countryside will reach single figures and some sheltered glens in scotla nd figures and some sheltered glens in scotland could be looking at two or three degrees. a bank holiday for most of us tomorrow, largely dry with a fine amount of cloud, some sunny spells in the afternoon, a small chance of a shower. this frontal system could bring rain to

the far western northern ireland later in the day. wind strengthening in western areas, 15—18 . this frontal system is trying to push on from the west, running into high—pressure which will weaken the weather front. some high—pressure which will weaken the weatherfront. some patchy rain, not making much progress, perhaps wet weather in northern ireland and why scotla nd weather in northern ireland and why scotland but further east it will stay dry with spells of sunshine and a demented cloud. temperatures might creep up to 18 degrees in the south. tuesday into wednesday, this frontal system will have more life about it so will bring heavy rain across western scotland and northern ireland but that will push further south—east as the day wears on. east anglia and the south—east remaining dry. it will be windy, average wind speeds but gas of 50 miles an hour in the west and in northern scotland. slightly warmer weather,

20 degrees as possible down towards the south—east. thursday could be warmer still, a bit of rain around at times. into the weekend, largely dry and it will turn cooler again.

hello this is bbc news. the headlines. university lecturers warn that plans to reopen universities in september will be too dangerous without a coronavirus testing programme. we are really worried that we can see universities becoming the care home of any second wave of covid—19 in the uk. hgppy happy birthday, mr president! thousands of anti—government demonstrators take to the streets of minsk again — to protest at what they believe is the rigged re—election of the belarus president. the crowd here shouting, disgrace. disgrace, they are shouting. and they're shouting the message to the people over there. look at all those riot police that have come out.