into what happened to the outspoken kremlin critic, alexei navalny. the german government is saying it has unequivocal proof he was poisoned with a novichok nerve agent — the same substance used in the attack on the skripals in salisbury in 2018. 1a people have gone on trial in paris charged with helping the gunmen who attacked the french satirical magazine, charlie hebdo, and ajewish supermarket five years ago. over a three day period, three men killed 17 people before being shot dead by police. an international team of scientists has detected a huge gravitational shockwave caused, they believe, by the merging of two black holes. the discovery challenges current theories of physics, raising the possibility that black holes merge often across the vastness of space.

it is about 2:30am. time now for wednesday in parliament. hello, and welcome to wednesday in parliament, as labour tells the prime minister to get a grip. this has been a wasted summer. the government should spend preparing for the autumn and winter, instead they lurched from crisis to crisis, you turn to u—turn. borisjohnson says his government has turned the tide. despite the negativity and the constant sniping from the opposition, we are seeing a country that is not only going back to school, but going back to work. and on the education committee, a conservative mp is left holding the baby. sorry, thank you. i would like to understand what did quual do once they had seen what happened in scotland 7 but first, prime minister's

questions, the first commons clash between borisjohnson and sir keir starmer since july. the labour leader focused his early questions on the chaos over the grades for students unable to take exams due to the coronavirus pandemic. the prime minister sidestepped a challenge to reveal when he knew there was a problem with the algorithm used to allocate grades. he either knew and did nothing about the algorithm, or he did not know when he should have. so, i'll ask again, when did the prime minister first know there would be a problem with the algorithm? mr speaker, as you know perfectly well, quual made it absolutely clear time and again that in their view, the system that was in place was robust, an independent organisation and credit had to be given to their due.

he accused keir starmer of undermining confidence in the return to school. i think you'll be a fine thing today, after three months of refusing to do so, as pupils go back to school, if it be finally said that school was safe to go back to. come on. prime minister is just making it up as he goes along. the education sector, secretary, stated at that dispatch box yesterday and said that he acknowledged that labour‘s first priority is to be getting kids back to school, that has been our first priority and he knows it very well, he isjust playing games. and keir starmer said his own children had been at school throughout the crisis. it is the same every time. pretend the problem doesn't exist, brush away scrutiny, make the wrong decision and then blame somebody else. this is got to change. because the next major decision from the prime minister is on the furlough scheme, the jobs of many people, millions of people are risk,

the longer he delays, the more we are at risk. finally get this decision right and permitted to extend the furlough for the sectors and those workers who desperately need it. mr speaker, what we are doing in this government is getting people back to school, getting our pupils back to school despite of all the doubts that he is trying to so we are getting people back to work. what he wants to do is extend the furlough scheme, which is country as early spend £40 billion, what we would rather do is get people into work through our kick—start scheme which we are launching today, £2 billion to spend to support young people in particular, to get the jobs that they need. he wants to keep people out of work and in suspended animation. we want to move this country forward, that is the difference between him and us. this is been a wasted summer. the government should spend

preparing for the autumn and winter, instead they lurched from crisis to crisis, you turn to u—turn, correct one error, even to might make sense. but when they have 12 u—turns and rising, the only conclusion is serial incompetence. that's the real incompetence is holding britain back. will the minister take responsibility finally geta grip? mr speaker, i take full responsibility for everything that is happened under this government throughout my period in office and actually, what is happening so far is that we have succeeded in turning the tide of this pandemic and in spite of the negativity in the constant sniping from the opposition, we are seeing a country that is not only going back to school, but going back to work. the labour leader then raised the prime minister's refusal to meet the families of victims of coronavirus. last week, mrjohnson said he would "of course" meet anyone bereaved by the virus, but days later he wrote to the covid—19 bereaved

families forjustice group to say he was unable to meet them. the prime minister will understand the frustration and the hurt of those families that he said one thing to the camera and another to them. can i urge the prime minister to consider to do the right thing and find time to meet these grieving families? mr speaker, if i may say to the right honourable gentleman that he is typical of the friend in that way. of course, i would happily meet the families of the bereaved may sympathise deeply with all of those who have lost loved ones throughout this pandemic and we all feel their pain and their grief, but if it turns of these particular groups that he refers to are currently in litigation against the government and i will certainly meet them once that litigation is concluded.

afterwards, the campaign group denied that it was in litigation against the government. back at prime minister's questions, boris johnson came under more pressure to extend the furlough orjob retention scheme. we all know the jobs are under threat if the furlough scheme ends in october. the power to end this threat less of the prime minister. will he do his duty and extend the furlough scheme? or are we going to return to levels of unemployment last seen under margaret thatcher which will result in human misery? mr speaker, what we are doing is not only continuing with the furlough scheme into the end of this month, which is by far more generous than anything provided in france or germany or ireland we will continue with it. but we will also, after the schema lapses, we will get on with other measures to support people in work and starting today, there is the kick starter scheme to help young people get the jobs that they need.

that is in addition to a £160 billion package that we have spent to support the economy throughout this crisis. this government has put its arms around all of the people of this country, to support them throughout the crisis and that's what we're doing and that is what we're doing now to get them back and work. the prime minister, who said his government was doing everything it could to restore confidence. according to boris johnson, an ounce of confidence is "worth a tonne of taxpayers‘ money". the chair of the exam regulator quual has called it a "fundamental mista ke" to think that the public would accept a system of calculated grades to determine a—level results in england. there was an outcry when many students received lower than predicted grades and some private schools pupils did better than expected. in the end, the government decided to abandon the system and opt for grades based on teacher predictions. quual told the education committee that ministers had been aware of the risks.

we received your statement last night, just to let you know that the committee will publish that statement in the next 15 minutes or so, thank you for sending that. i've got to look at the statement very carefully but my first reading of it suggests that quual is saying that they did everything that the ministers asked you to do and that the algorithm that you think was fair, despite the anomalies and actually what went wrong was because, pupils and families and teachers would not accept the grades because in essence, they had not done an exam into so, what you're really saying three words and then describe that he make describing it in a fair assessment. we fully accept our share of responsibility for what has gone wrong this year. i personally apologise to students and parents for what has been but we recognise as an extremely

anxiety making incident and it has been disruptive to this year's candidates, it is been disruptive to the higher education, it has been disruptive to next year's candidate. specifically, my summary of the statement, is it accurate in your view? what we would point towards is that the mistakes, the fundamental mistakes are to believe that this would ever be acceptable to the public. roger taylor said the department for education had stipulated that grade inflation should be avoided and was fully involved in developing the method for calculating grades, known as the algorithm. and regarding the standard, that was a continuous collaboration that we felt was not like other years. it is not like we were regulating the independent awarding of grades by exam, we were constructing together,

with the department and the exam boards, national system to determine this. it would not have been appropriate to do anything except involved in very closely in our decision—making style below you started off by saying that you have already apologised and he apologised again, but given the huge amount of information and really dreadful stories that we have had directly from students, i am afraid that in this context, and and the problem apology would not be enough. and he thought grade inflation shouldn't have been the premise for the grading system. outstanding schools of the most professional teaching profession that we have ever had, so, given that process, that improvement in that continuing improvement, should there not be some

increased levels of achievement by youngsters on a year on year basis, which cannot be put down as grade inflation? we were very aware that we are being very strict about grade inflation and it would only make the situation worse. that is why the design of the model, we, at every point that we can reasonably do this, we urged in the direction making decisions that allowed grades to rise. the prime minister has put the problems down to a "mutant algorithm". quual said there'd been a public consultation on the principles of the algorithm. we set up a working group with technical representatives from the exam boards,

decisions taken were hours, but we worked with around 20 different technical experts across the exam boards and choose then, the algorithm that seem to produce the most accurate results. and at what point did the algorithm mutate? i do not believe the algorithm ever mutated. one committee member, a former secondary school teacher, was multi—tasking! going forward is that you have an education party of teachers and students that do not have confidence in our court right now. exams will likely be sacked, what happens we have students local lockdown were schools have to shut down. roger taylor replied that it was "absolutely essential" for students to be able to take tests to demonstrate their skills and knowledge. you're watching wednesday in parliament with me, david cornock. a home office minister says the government is working to return around 1000 people

who've illegally entered the uk after already having claimed asylum in another country. he was answering an urgent question about the number of people crossing the english channel in small boats. it's estimated more than 11150 migrants reached the south coast by this route in august. these crossings are highly dangerous. tragically, last month, a 28—year—old sudanese man died in the water near calais attempting this crossing. and this morning, the rnli has been out in the english channel and has had to rescue at least 3a people and possibly more who were attempting this dangerous journey. genuine refugees seeking only safety can and should claim asylum in the first safe country they reach. there is no excuse to refuse to do so and instead travel illegally and

dangerously to the uk. those fleeing persecution have had many opportunities to claim this asylum in the european countries they've passed through long before attempting this crossing. he said the uk was working closely with france, and so far more than 3,000 crossing attempts had been stopped by the french so far this year. it is also essential to return people who make crossings where we can. and we are currently working to return nearly 1,000 cases where migrants had previously claimed asylum in european countries and under the regulations legally should be returned there. we all agree, mr speaker, on the need to tackle criminal gangs, but does the minister also accept the importance of safe routes for those seeking asylum? the government was warned,

including by the foreign affairs select committee, that the collapse of safe routes would lead to growing numbers of people taking to the sea. what we need now, mr speaker, are solutions, not empty headlines trying to sound tough. and i have deep concerns that the government in recent weeks, through talking of deploying the navy and the raf, have tried to militarise a solution where lives are at risk. the government's approach to this whole issue has frankly been defined by a lack of compassion and a lack of competence. since 2010, 114,000 children have been offered protection by the united kingdom of one form or another. so, when he says our approach lacks compassion, i would point him to those figures. i would also remind him that in last year, 2019, this country received more applications from asylum—seeking children than any other european country, all of whom have been generously looked after while their claims are processed. many conservatives wanted the government to take tougher action. does he agree that what;s

happening at the moment is essentially a form of asylum—shopping, where people claim asylum in the first country they reach and they move to another and claim asylum again, they keep claiming asylum instead of securing the first safe country, they keep coming to the uk where they believe we have a more favourable asylum system ? asylum shopping needs to end. we can put an end to this morbid crossing route, and that has three parts. stopping the boats before they leave the french shores, returning and turning around boats when they're in the english channel and sending them back to france, and if people do break into britain through these illegal routes, making sure they are returned swiftly to france and other countries. but opposition mps saw things differently. perhaps the minister could just agree that the response to the channel crossings should be performed by empathy and evidence and not driven by farage and fiction. a report last year by the foreign affairs select committee, of which the home secretary was a member at the time, said in the absence of robust and accessible legal routes for seeking asylum in the uk, those with a claim are left with little choice but to make

dangerous journeys by land and sea. how many more people have to die before the home secretary creates both safe and legal routes? can the minister confirm that the uk is not in fact being invaded and would he recognise that the government's quasi—military response, rather than a humanitarian response, with terms such as the clandestine channel threat commander contributes to fuelling tensions, the scapegoating of asylum—seekers and indeed racism. but chris philip told him there was nothing improper about seeking to police the uk's borders and the government wouldn't apologise for doing so. it is 22 years since the good friday agreement brought a measure of peace to northern ireland, but the legacy of the decades of the troubles remains with thousands of deaths being investigated. the commons northern ireland committee has been looking at the continuing investigations into thousands of deaths. the 2015 stormont house

agreement created a historical investigations unit to look at unsolved murders and police misconduct. it has 3,000 murders on its books and is sifting through 90 tonnes of paperwork. and we are engaged in a moment in around 1,000 separate civil litigations. there are currently 42 related legacy reviews ongoing and all of this investment of time, finance and physical resource, whilst important in its own right, undermines the full potential of our ambitions to grow and embrace neighbourhood policing, something which in itself has widespread community support. some of the most contentious issues are being investigated independently by operation kenova, including the case of an alleged british agent accused of complicity in murder and torture while working inside a paramilitary group.

firstly, the investigations into the actions of an alleged offender, known as steakknife, we agreed to do this in june of 2016. next the investigations into the 1972 murder of june smith campbell, we began in june last year. then the investigation into the killings in 1982 of three officers, that began in september of last year. the most recent is the review of a series of murders in the 19705, which is estimated to involve 120 murders and which began in january of this year. in total, some 236 murders are being examined by my team. could you explain briefly how you build relationships with families and why that is important? so, that is a long answer, but i will try and keep it very short. but it is investing time with them. it is listening to them. it is simple things like meeting them where they feel safe to meet you and being discreet in your interactions because there are residual

concerns about working with the police with some families and groups. it is about making sure that they feel valued and that what happened to them does matter because it did. and reassuring them that this is a meaningful process, that what we are going to do is search in every way possible for the information with regards to what happened to their loved ones. the formal merger of the foreign office and the department for international development has taken place. dominic raab, who heads the new department, said that combining diplomacy with expertise in foreign aid would protect british interests. he came to the commons to answer an urgent question from labour. with this innovation, we are drawing on the example of many of our allies, like australia and canada, and indeed the vast majority of oecd countries by putting our world—class aid programme at the beating heart of our wider foreign policy decision—making and doing it in a way that works best

for the united kingdom. we are integrating and aligning the uk's expertise as a development superpower with the reach and clout of our diplomatic network in order to ensure their impact internationally is bigger than the sum of their parts. the new foreign, commonwealth and development office will deliver on this government's mission to forge a truly global britain, to defend all aspects of the british national interest and to project this country as an even stronger force for good in the world. can i thank him for that? but the truth is that this is a complete mess. it's made a nonsense of his own review. the integrated department has come before the integrated strategy. thousands of staff with world—renowned expertise have been treated disgracefully, holding meetings in recent weeks with senior civil servants who can't even answer basic questions about how this department is going to operate. and why? because the government was shamed by a footballer into supporting some

of the poorest children in this world. it does not bode very well for a commitment to the poorest people across the planet. the snp raised reports the government might ditch its commitment to spent 0.7% of national economic output on overseas development. and on the 0.7%, i'm grateful for his assurances, and the prime minister has been very clear, but can i give him an opportunity to strengthen his own hand in these discussions? that presumably the betrayal of a manifesto commitment were that were to come to pass, it would be a resignation matter for the foreign secretary because i don't see how anyone would possibly be able to solve that given the situation. an offer dominic raab felt he was able to refuse. a minister has defended a scheme to pay workers on low incomes in parts of england where there are high rates of coronavirus £13 a day if they have to self—isolate. those who claim universal credit or working tax credit and cannot work from home can claim the money.

the benefit is being trialled in north west england, where the government has reversed its decision to ease lockdown restrictions in parts of greater manchester. the scheme prompted a question in the lords. could the minister tell us what was the evidence base for the decision that £13 a day would be sufficient to persuade low—paid workers to forgo their earnings and therefore self—isolate? he didn't answer it the first time round. perhaps he could answer it now. what was the criteria? my lords, the evidence base and the criteria were our discussions with local authorities, with community leaders on what would be an effective amount that would tip the balance on a personal decision to isolate. those personal decisions are, as i said earlier, extremely tough. and it was agreed with local infection teams and authorities that this was the kind of sum

that would make a difference. lord bethel. now, who was to blame for revealing details of boris johnson's summer holiday in scotland? the prime minister had to cut short his break after pictures of the cottage he was staying in were published in a newspaper. a downing street source was quoted as pointing the finger at the local mp, the snp's westminster leader ian blackford, who protested his innocence. this matter has not only been the worst kind of political smear, the false allegation has equally resulted in security implications for myself and my family given its serious and personal nature. you know, i can see the prime minister pulling the face, but all you have to do is to go to social media and see the threats that i was then forced to witness. i draw his attention to a tweet by a chap on the 17th of august saying, "ferocious ross,

i hear that must be bad if you're fair—skinned and camping." to which an account that purports to be the right honourable gentleman's, but i'm sure it isn't because of what he'sjust said, says, "i wonder if an education at eton stands you in good stead for these blighters. " anyway, mr speaker, i'm sure that he had... i'm happy to accept his assurance and his protestations, and i think we should leave it at that! but the prime minister said he'd had a fantastic staycation in the highlands and he'd commend it to everyone. and boris johnson's commercial for the scottish tourist board brings us to the end of wednesday in parliament. thank you for watching. i'll be back at the same time tomorrow with a round—up of the week in parliament. until then, bye for now.

hello. it will be a much milder end to the night, that is because we've picked up atlantic weather fronts as more cloud around. and although that is clearing away for many, we will still have quite a cool and brisk breeze with showers coming in on that atlantic wind. these are the weather fronts i've talked about, some heavy, thundery rain for a time through the night. this cold weather front is bringing some more persistent rain southwards and to the south of that it is very misty. low cloud is shrouding the hills and headlands in fog, but it was three or four degrees on wednesday morning in some areas in suffolk. so it will be a milder start, but a grey one for some. already, though, the brighter skies are with us for scotland, northern ireland, northern england, filtering through wales in the morning, into the midlands in the afternoon, but the more appreciable rain could linger into the second part of the afternoon further south and the cloud towards evening as well.

but we will still see temperatures into the high teens in the low 20s, and obviously with some sunshine in north—eastern areas of both scotland and north—east england, feeling pleasant enough, but there will be a near—gale force wind in the far north—west of scotland, most will have a breezier day than wednesday. that breeze will blow the cloud in the rain away from the south on friday, continue to push showers into the north and west but actually, through into friday morning it will be chillier to start, so much milder this morning but a chilly one again on friday morning. there is some uncertainty on the details for friday regarding the rain. still sunny spells and showers, possibly more of them in the north on friday, but this area of rain may push in across southern parts of england and wales, through the second half or during through the day and it's just uncertain as to how much we are going to get. so we'll firm up on details with time. as that then clears away the weekend is set up with low pressure to the north and a brisk north—westerly wind. high—pressure starting to build into the south—west. but again, it's a chilly direction so if anything, temperatures will be suppressed a little bit more this weekend, just the mid to high teens for most, and showers

continuing, possibly something a little wetter later in the day in northern ireland but at this stage, the devil is in the details but if that does develop that could push further southwards during saturday night and into sunday, bringing more showers across england and wales potentially, by that stage. either side of that, some drier brighter weather, still quite cool in that brisk north—westerly wind, high still into the high teens. as ever, there's more online including the warnings.

welcome to bbc news. i'm mike embley. our top stories: demands for moscow to explain what happened to alexei navalny, as german doctors say he was poisoned with a nerve agent. this is directly leading to the russians. they are the only ones who have ever made this stuff, they are the only ones who have been known to use it before. fourteen go on trial in france over the deadly attack on the satirical magazine charlie hebdo five years ago. what happens when two black holes collide? scientists may have found the answer and it's challenging the laws of physics. and mishal husain tells the story of her grandfather and the indian army's contribution to ending