a by a phishing correspondence by sms or e—mail where they get your personal information, purporting to be from your bank and then they ask you to update your account details and that is how they get your information but once they get the information, they will access your account and then unfortunately steal money from your account so people need to be aware of the scams. your concern is that with covid and people in lockdown, people facing job insecurity, they are perhaps more at risk than they have been before? yes, most definitely, it is so before? yes, most definitely, it is so unfortunate, unfortunately, a lot of people have seen a loss in their usual income during these months, or worse, a loss of theirjobs because businesses are struggling. so these individuals seem to be more susceptible to those too good to be true offers and they should just really watch out. it is quite interesting, we have seen scammers trying to take advantage of financial support grants that the government has been offering, so they sent e—mails to individuals

saying that they are eligible to gra nts saying that they are eligible to grants —— forgrants saying that they are eligible to grants —— for grants of up to £7,500 but they have to give up their personal details in order to receive the funds but this is a scam, u nfortu nately the funds but this is a scam, unfortunately and a lot of people have been burned by it. maybe even more da steadily is scammers taking advantage of the nhs track and trace initiative, —— even more dastardly. they will contact people claiming they have been in contact with somebody infected with coronavirus, and to give up the details in order to help the initiative to track the virus. again, you know, this might bea scam. virus. again, you know, this might be a scam. it is important for people to do their own research and ask questions. thank you forjoining us. secondary school pupils in scotland have to wear face coverings in corridors, communal spaces and on school buses from this morning. they won't have to wear them in classrooms though, as connor gillies reports. masks in hand and ready for school. it's probably going to help us

all in the long run. it probably should have been introduced from the start, like from day one. a there's quite a few pregnant teachers so it is helping out. and people with underlying health conditions so in the long run it does help everyone else. this new guidance for scotland comes into force today — secondary pupils and staff will be required to wear face coverings in corridors where it's hard to stay apart. but there can be exceptions on medical grounds and there will be still no need for coverings in classrooms. the other big change is on school buses. children over five years old will have to wear a mask just as they would on a regular bus or train. young people returned to schools here in scotland earlier this month with no requirement for physical distancing among pupils and no requirement forface masks. however, during this evolving crisis, the world health organization has updated its guidance to suggest that children over the age of 12 should now wear a mask and that has played a huge part in scotland making the changes it has done today.

schools in northern ireland will mirror scotland. in england, secondary pupils in areas under local lockdown will need to cover their faces in communal areas on return this week, but head teachers in any school can introduce the measure if they wish. in wales, it's up to local councils and schools to decide. the goal across the country is to prevent this, the very images officials are trying to avoid. we would like to see smaller class sizes and more physical distancing rather than face coverings in the classroom. but ultimately, if the level of infection increases outside of schools, then face coverings in the classroom will have to be looked at potentially somewhere down the line. and that is the unpredictable reality when dealing with such a volatile virus. connor gillies, bbc news. the charge on single use carrier bags in england is to double from 5p

to 10p from next april, and all shops will have to charge for them. the government says it's part of a renewed drive to be greener, and cut unnecessary waste. 0ur chief environment correspondent justin rowlatt has the details. at the moment, the 5p levy only applies to single use carrier bags in large stores, those employing more than 250 people. but, from next april, the charge will double and will apply in all shops. the government says the initiative aims to protect sea creatures by reducing plastic pollution in the ocean. it claims that since the charge was introduced in 2015, there has been a 95% reduction in plastic bag sales in major supermarkets. you know, not long ago the supermarkets were issuing around 7 billion carrier bags a year. that has now been reduced by 95%. now we want to extend this approach to other retailers as well,

who between them probably issue at the moment over 3 billion bags a year. we think we can have a similar impact to reduce further the issuing of plastic bags and extend what has actually been a very successful policy, supported by the public. but environmental campaigners dispute that. they say we're just buying billions of thicker so—called "bags for life" instead. the environmental campaign group greenpeace says the government should go further and set targets for reducing all single—use plastics by supermarkets. this is just a small step when we should be taking big strides. we know the scale of our plastic pollution crisis. the government is well aware of the kind of action they need to take, including on things like bags for life, which contain more plastic. but ultimately, if we're going to make people, customers, you or i, pay more, surely producers, the people who make the plastic in the first place, should be paying more as well, and that's what we want to see from the government as soon as possible.

but the move has been welcomed by the association of convenience stores, which represents small retailers. it says the charge is an effective way of reducing plastic waste. justin rowlatt, bbc news. the eat out to help 0ut scheme ends today in the uk. it's been enormously popular, with 64—million half price meals dished up in 84,000 restaurants and cafes across the uk. the idea was to help the hospitality industry get going again after the lockdown. the discount applied monday to wednesday throughout august, and there have been calls for it to continue — as our business correspondent katy austin reports. trade has been sizzling this august at the olive cafe in bournemouth. its owner and chef credits the eat out to help 0ut scheme for being fully booked monday to wednesday. trade is well up onjuly. people are more comfortable coming out, eating and enjoy themselves. we do our best to make them happy.

happy with their half—price breakfast on wednesday were this family, visiting bournemouth for a few days, and it is not the first time they have used the discount. we have done breakfast, dinner, breakfast, dinner. so, yeah, four times now. we had to book all the restaurants before we left home to be able to get the availability, because it is so popular, yeah. they are not the only ones who have taken advantage more than once. over the course of august, yeah, probably ten times. by lunchtime, this pubjust out of town was filling up. it has been much busier than expected. the challenge has been getting the ordering right, obviously, and getting the team levels right, 0k? but it feels good to have our pubs packed. especially after lockdown, you know, i did not feel that confident of actually going out, but this has encouraged us, you know? industry body uk hospitality says a third of bars and restaurants have

yet to reopen. this is our outdoor terrace and it has been busy like this pretty much constantly. but back in central bournemouth, the boss of this south african restaurant says the scheme has worked. he has recouped some of his lockdown losses. trade is record—breaking at the moment. it's a false bubble so we're not getting too excited about that, but monday, tuesday, wednesday are up probably 100%. the week is up probably 50%. thursday has pivoted, so thursday is the new monday. slower weekend trade is not a problem for andy. social distancing means he could not cope with bumper saturdays. he says a vat cut has provided a further lifeline, but wants eat out to help 0ut to return to avoid an autumn slump. give september that breathing space, let the schools open and bring it back in october and november where predominately, it is going to be the quietest part of the year — and that is where the biggest worry is. the boom in visitors and people on staycations that bournemouth have seen this summer helps to explain why restaurants and pubs in the town have seen such a big boost

from the government discount scheme. that's not the case everywhere, though. location is key in determining how successful the past month has been for businesses. pub giant green king has 3000 pubs and restaurants. it says while it has seen a benefit overall, city centre venues lacking their usual office workers and tourists are struggling. well, a lot of our businesses were 50, 70, 90% up year on year. london, or central london, was about 30% down year on year. so it is pretty stark. i have called for government to think about maybe doing a similar scheme for city centres and for london. you know, we need to get people back into our city centres, and particularly into central london. the government does not plan to extend the scheme, but said it's helping the hospitality sector in other ways, too. this london cafe is one of a number carrying on a discount. trade has been tough since reopening

so a half—price offer in september, funded by the landlord, is designed to lure more people back. now we're telling everybody that we continue, so you can see people are extremely happy and i think it will help us a lot for the trade. and as well, we can are going to have a lot of people who are back to work in the offices. with the furlough scheme coming to an end in october, businesses like these hope people's interest in eating out will still be on the menu come the autumn. katy austin, bbc news. more than 20 people are in hospital with carbon monoxide poisoning after attending a rave in an underground bunker in the norwegian capital, 0slo. police say the party was discovered by chance when a patrol came across a group of young people who appeared confused. officials believe the poisoning was caused by portable generators. we're about to show you some astonising pictures of a little girl being pulled into the air by a giant kite.

before we do, i can tell you that she only suffered minor cuts and bruises. it happened at a festival in taiwan. the three—year—old got tangled in the tail of the kite, and was then thrown into the air. she was eventually caught, and i will reiterate that she only suffered minor cuts and bruises. the incident is being investigated by the authorities in taiwan. now on bbc news, another chance to see your questions answered on coronavirus. earlier, i wasjoined by professor chris smith — who's a consultant medical virologist at the university of cambridge — but started by asking linda bauld who's a professor of public health at the university of edinburgh whether the virus was changing over time. we know there are tests which are looking at how viruses mutate. that is not uncommon. there is not any strong evidence this virus is getting weaker at the moment. the reasons why we might see, for example, fewer deaths or not as many negative outcomes, are a few things.

firstly, the testing capacity has increased a lot. and also, the point at which we test people is probably earlier. earlier in the pandemic, people might have had worse symptoms, they might have been tested later and that is why now, when people are getting their testing a little bit sooner, the outcomes are not as negative. that is the first thing. the second thing probably, and we do see this from some studies, is in terms of viral load, what people are receiving or coming into contact with is less. that is because of physical distancing or other measures. the virus is not becoming less potent. we will have to monitor that through time. the changes we have seen in deaths in hospital admissions are not due to the virus changing itself. chris, let me bring you in. i gather it is quite controversial, the suggestion that somehow the virus has mutated to become less severe. but viruses do do that, sometimes, do they? all viruses mutate. as they grow and produce

more viruses, they make genetic spelling mistakes in their genetic information. and they can, over time, translate into a difference in the way the virus behaves. we know this very well with the flu, for example. the reason you need a flu jab almost every year is because the flu continuously evolves as it goes through the population. these genetic changes do subtly change the appearance of the virus, so your immune system is less likely to recognise it the next time you encounter it. but the issue here with this coronavirus is, coronaviruses do not mutate and change that fast on the whole, certainly not on the scale of the flu. this new one is adding a couple of genetic changes a month on average, which means it is barely changed since the first viruses we detected in wuhan in china when all this began at the beginning of the year. so we are pretty comfortable the virus has not changed. what has changed is who is getting it, how we are picking it up and how we are managing the cases that do get it. that is probably accounting for the lower rate. probably because we are seeing

a very big number of cases in younger people and relatively fewer cases now in older people. and, of course, the risk is greater as you increase in age. ok, so the short answer to the question is no, but the long answer is particularly interesting because lots of things are at play. chris, let me stay with you and put in a question here about the figures. pauline arnold has been in touch and says, why are covid deaths only recorded within 28 days of testing positive? does this mean that people who die of it 30 days after testing positive are not included? and if so, could that explain why death rates are going down? this has been a real headache. as the belgian health minister put this, no one across the eu counts covid the same way. this means if we start looking across the world, we see markedly different death rates and case rates. for instance, the soviet union...

russia, rather, have had a very high number of cases declared but relatively low deaths in comparison. if you look into it, it is a very specific definition of what constitutes a death from coronavirus. so initially in england, we didn't want to miss any cases, so we had quite a broad definition. if you'd caught coronavirus, had a positive test, but then you died in a car crash, for example, months later, you would still be counted as a coronavirus mortality. that has been revised down now to 28 days, but the problem is that if you end up in hospital for five weeks being ventilated, you would still be missed. it is very important we standardise this and that will take time because people have got to go through the data, go through what happened, when, and then extract the clear message that is in there. that is going to take time and we don't have that fine detail for everywhere yet. linda, do you want to comment on that? that's absolutely correct,

everything chris has said. in terms of the uk, the devolved nations have had a 28—day definition for some time. as chris says, england has now shifted. but you are also still able to get the 60 day data. you can find that, it is available. the big challenge is that there is no global harmonisation. the world health organization has not set a standard. it clearly is confusing for people. the reason we have seen an adjustment in england recently is because of the switch to 28 days as a key measure. you can still see the data where people die over a longer period, it is still available. let's stay with statistics. richard harlow has been in touch. chris, are there any statistics to show how many people have actually died from covid—i9, and notjust where the person who has died happens to have the virus as well? this is what we have been hinting at here, which is that at the moment we are logging deaths with a past

diagnosis of coronavirus. that does not mean coronavirus caused that person to pass away. they may have had something else going on as well. and because we need more time to extract the message and the signal that is in there, that kind of information will be known but it is going to take time to extract it. there will of course be times when it is not known, when we just have to say, this person had coronavirus, they died. we will assume that is what killed them. but it's very difficult getting this right, which is why i think a lot of the time politicians have urged people, we have to have time before we put too much emphasis on these numbers right now, to get the numbers right. let's move away from statistics and turn to the issue of the number of deaths from covid—i9 compared to other things, trying to put this in context. all i was reading, for example, that that we keep talking about daily death rates, they are so low one might say now, they are lower than things like people dying daily

from prostate or breast cancer. let's look at this. nick from salisbury asks, how do the daily deaths linked to covid compare to other deaths? yes, there are a number of data sources for doing that comparison. it's a really good question. yesterday, there was only one death, for example, and i think that's important to emphasise. we have seen that in relation to reductions in recent weeks, which is very positive. but if you look at what we call excess deaths, deaths above the trend we would expect based on previous years, those data are available. in scotland, for example, they are measured by the national records of scotland. what you can see is that we rose above the threshold for normal excess deaths really substantially from about mid—march until probably, i think, i have the figures here, well into may. then we started to see it drop. so in recent weeks we have seen fewer excess deaths, than in fact we normally would have

this time of the year. that means that covid is not having the impact it had earlier in the pandemic. butjust to provide some comparisons, now in the uk people are sadly dying from the things that people do die of in the uk, including, as you mentioned, 50 cases of prostate cancer in men each day, 50 cases of breast cancer. to use smoking as an example, 200 people die every day from smoking in the uk. this year to date, it is over 51,000. we have had over 40,000 official deaths from covid from those recorded by what the government uses and from the 0ns and national records of scotland, we have a slightly higher figure. it is important to keep these comparisons and realise that the good news now is far fewer people are dying from covid or with covid. thank you. chris, moving on to where those deaths, albeit the fact they are smaller, are happening, peter black says, do we have any breakdown on the figures? for example, people's age

or where in the country people have died in particular? yeah, we absolutely do. and on lots of outlets, you can find an easy way of looking up what your region is doing both in terms of active cases right now, and also how many people are dying or have died in that particular area overtime. that data is quite well— known, quite well understood, and it's well presented. it is easily accessible. look up "covid deaths by region in the uk" on the internet, you can easily find it and it is well presented. chris, let's stay with you. we have talked a lot about figures in the uk and how the picture here looks. a lot of us travelling, it is summer holidays, and we have seen that infections in places like france and spain do seem to be rising and causing some alarm. this is not reflected in the hospital rate. what is going on there? yes, we think a number of factors are contributing to the increase in case burden. the world health organization in the couple of weeks have put out a press statement saying

that this is a combination of a reduction in public health measures, in other words, easing lockdown, so more people are moving around more of the time, more social contact, more opportunities to spread the virus. they also say this is down to people dropping their guard. what they are getting at is that in certain sectors of society, more people are choosing to disregard or interpret the guidelines more loosely, and this is leading to more cases. for instance, most of the case activity we have got at the moment is in younger people. and that's not just this country, this is in many countries. if you look at the data for sweden, for example, in the 20—29 year age group, there are more cases in that group than all other ages together. in ireland recently they were showing that about two thirds of their cases are in the under 455. now covid is not an equal opportunities virus. it discriminates against older people in terms of the mortality rate. if you shift the number of cases

down into the younger end of the age demographic, which is what we are doing at the moment, then where the risk is proportionately a lot smaller, you will therefore see for each case a much lower risk of mortality. the average mortality rate for a person overall is about 0.64%. if you deal with someone who is under the age of 50, it is fractions of a percent much smaller than that. therefore, more cases but they are not necessarily translating into more mortalities. while we are on the issue of travel, one of the stories today is around this flight from zante. people on board have been told to self—isolate because there have been some instances of people testing positive. for those people travelling and worried about this, how easy is it to contract coronavirus on a plane? do you have any sense of that? there have been a number of studies. the first thing i would say is that a plane is not a high—risk environment compared to, for example, an enclosed

indoor place like a pub, where the ventilation is poor and you might be in close contact with others. there are risks on a plane. there have been studies which show variable infection rates. one study from china showed a family that went on a plane managed to pass the virus to several dozen others. but in contrast, another study on a plane that showed people wearing face coverings on the plane, one infectious couple didn't pass on the virus to anybody else on the plane. it does vary. the other thing i would say is that the ventilation on planes, the air circulates and every three to five minutes, it is changed. the ventilation is not necessarily a concern on a plane. i guess the other two points i would make, travel has changed. people are required or recommended to wear face coverings which provide some protection. the foreign office obviously recommends that we don't travel

to many countries at the moment. but for people who are travelling there are simple things they can do to reduce their risk. hand hygiene, obviously, trying to move around the plane as little as possible, face coverings and crucially, following the guidance at the airport and on the plane. helpful advice. a final brief question, chris. we have talked about the fact the death rate is staying lower because of things like testing, treatment, lower viral loads. people saying that winter is coming and that that may make an impact. tell us more. there are a number of factors to consider. all viruses, with a few rare exceptions, spread better in winter. the reason they do that is partly a weather phenomenon. if the weather is cooler, viruses live longer in the air. but the most important factor is in the winter, what do we do? we go indoors, keep the doors closed, keep the windows closed. we are more likely to spend our time cooped up inside, sharing air with other people and that facilitates the spread of viruses.

the reason people are concerned about the winter coming isn't just that there might be more cases of coronavirus, it is that there will be more cases of all viruses, and crucial to being able to control coronavirus outbreaks is discriminating one type of infection from another. has this person got flu, or have they got coronavirus? if you are muddying the waters with more viruses, more often, it means we are going to do more testing to find the positives. thatjust makes more work and it makes it more likely that we will overlook important cases of coronavirus. it puts more pressure on an already pressurised system. that is why people are trying to prepare as much as they can ahead of winter to have a plan in place so that when the cold weather comes, we are not caught out. hello again.

it is going to be quite a cool day today for this stage in august. in fact, it was a cool start with temperatures only slowly picking up but they are not going to reach any great heights through the day. high pressure is going to remain in charge of our weather so it is fairly quiet but we have a weather front coming in from the atlantic and that is also going to be introducing later some thicker cloud and spots of rain. where we saw a lot of sunshine through the course of the morning, what you will find in the afternoon is more cloud will develop and it will become a bit more widespread. it will flatten out, with temperatures 13 in lerwick, 15 in newcastle and 17 in plymouth. as we head through the evening and overnight, still areas of cloud with some clear spells but the front starts to make more inroads across northern ireland and also the outer hebrides, introducing some patchy rain. it will also be breezy here as well. these are the temperatures you can expect in towns and cities. in rural areas, it will be lower

that that and in newcastle it may falter 6 degrees tonight. as we start tomorrow, high pressure clinging on. this weather front bumping into it and weakening all the time. once again, ahead of that weather front, there will be a lot of dry weather and some sunny skies but there will be areas of cloud once again. this is the weather front, producing thicker cloud and some patchy rain. temperatures tomorrow up a little bit on today, looking at highs in the south of 19 degrees, 17 in aberdeen. wednesday sees a more potent area of low pressure coming our way, and a look at the isobars squeezed together tells you it is going to be a windy day. in fact, it is the remnants of what was hurricane laura embedded in this, so we will see more cloud and moisture and it will be a bit warmer. you can see the rain advancing towards the south—east but not getting there. these white circles represent sustained wind speeds. there will be gusts across the north west of 40—45 mph and inland, 30—35 mph across the north—west and temperatures up to 20 degrees.

by the time we get to thursday, the weather front pushes away but we have got the remnants of it in southern areas. that looks like it is going to leave us with a bit more cloud and the odd spot of rain and it could move a bit further north but for most of us, drier with a few showers and also warmer.

this is bbc news withjoanna gosling with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. as schools prepare to restart in england, labour call forfor next year's a—level and gcse exams to be pushed back, to help pupils cope with the impact of covid—19 — the government says it's too soon to decide what will happen. it is far to early to be saying we're going to postpone things or cancel things, as the labour party seem to be saying. i think that is the wrong approach. what we should actually be doing at this moment is focusing on getting our schools back in the saddle, running again, so young people can resume their education. it isa it is a complete aberration of the responsibilities of it