this is bbc news. the headlines a violent sex offender is jailed for a minimum of 38 years — for murdering two women — and hiding their bodies in a freezer at his east london flat. the family involved in one of the sentence. we are happy that he can no longer do it anyone else, because if he was given the shorter sentence, he would just do it again like he has all of these years. coronavirus testing is working well, says the health secretary — despite some people with symptoms travelling more than 100 miles to get a test. if people need a test, the vast majority get it quickly and close to home, but when those testing centres are full, then obviously people are offered a test at the nearest place at which one is available.

the prime minister said we would have a world—beating system, we haven't got an effective system, and what we are now seeing is a postcode lottery. britons in portugal await a decision by the uk government on whether to reintroduce quarantine for arrivals. scotland's first minister says the coronavirus reproductive — or r — number is probably now above one, and could be as high as 1.4. russia rejects calls for an investigation, after germany says the opposition leader alexei navalny was poisoned with a nerve agent. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. a convicted sex offender has been found guilty of murdering two vulnerable women whose remains were found in a locked freezer at his flat

in east london last year. zahid younis has been given a life sentence with a minimum prison term of 38 years. one body had been stored in younis' flat in east london for almost two and a half years — the other for almost 12 months. the judge at southwark crown court told the 36—year—old that he was an arch deceiver who had shown no remorse. our home affairs correspondent danny shaw has the background the case. hello. police. police officer, make yourself known. this is the moment police make a grim discovery. hello, police. they are searching for zahid younis at his flat in canning town. he had been reported missing. there is a freezer i want to get into. it is locked. officers are suspicious about a locked freezer with flies around it, but when they force it open with a crowbar it isn't younis they find. inside the freezer were the remains of two women zahid younis had murdered.

one body had been stored there for almost 2.5 years, the other for nearly 12 months. both victims had suffered terrible injuries, including fractures to their ribs. one of the women was henriett szucs, originally from hungary. she wrote about her relationship with younis, who was controlling and abusive. the second victim was mother—of—three mihrican mustafa, also known as m] orjan. both women were in their 30s when they died. zahid younis had an appalling record of violence and sexual abuse. during an islamic ceremony he illegally married a 14—year—old girl. she then became pregnant. younis was sent to prison and had to register as a sex offender. within months of release he brutally beat a 17—year—old girl, breaking her arm in three places, and was jailed again. zahid younis is an incredibly dangerous person. he is somebody that lives

a lifestyle of abusing women, manipulating anybody to get money, and he will stop at nothing to get what he wants. but domestic violence campaigners say police should have been more alert to the dangers younis posed and helped safeguard the women. on one occasion officers visited him, unaware one of the victims lay dead in his flat. it sends a very important and strong message to the authorities that they should understand these cases of domestic abuse much more fully and recognise the risks that individuals pose and the chances of ongoing perpetrating of violence and be sure to monitor and check those individuals more frequently. there are now calls for a review of the case to find out if the murders of mihrican and henriett could have been prevented. relatives of jan mustafa, who attended every day

let's get more on this with our political correspondent nick eardley who's in westminster. we know they were discussing the possibility of putting portugal back on that quarantine list because there's been a rising number of cases there. that number is been published by the transport secretary and it is not happening, despite lots of suggestions that it might be about to happen, he has said that there is no changes to the quarantine list today from the uk government and that covers england and the scottish, welsh and northern irish ministrations will make definite decisions. but it seems that some of the warnings earlier this week from the aviation industry, from holiday companies, that adding portugal back onto the list of countries to quarantine from just a couple of weeks after is

taken off would cause chaos. a lot of people booked last—minute trips to portugal after was taken off the list and those are real concern in the industry that is how devastating the industry that is how devastating the impact was. for england, that this not happening. and for the rest of the uk, sure it does seem like parts of the uk were increasingly prepared to take a different month in the uk government. at increased risk quarantine list —— adding greece. and the greek islands, to some people, a surprising decision because the movement suggested that portugal was in a bad place, it was above the threshold which means you are normally added back to the quarantine list but not happened yet. if you picked a holiday to portugal at the moment, that is ok,

but it could change in a minute. portugal at the moment, that is ok, but it could change in a minutem sounds like the uk government is taking this decision on economic and commercial grounds rather than necessarily health ones. we do not know for sure because we have not heard the rationale. they said it was highly likely that portugal would end up back on that list and some of those warnings that were coming out about the way the industry would be impacted by portugal being added again, they had to listen. in one of the arguments had to be made that in defence of portugal said some of the cases and some of the areas where there seeing spikes again are necessarily the ones where british holiday—makers are going and so, i think clearly that case has had some impact on the decision—making process and by we

have not had an explanation of the uk government about exactly why that decision had been reached, but we sit here every thursday and talk about potential changes to quarantine that may be coming off of that. but trying to book a holiday just i was kind of a difficult process , just i was kind of a difficult process, it is pretty uncertain process, it is pretty uncertain process and certainly for the last few weeks, every time that these lists have been discussed, the government will only do it if you're prepared for the situation to potentially change on short notice too. political correspondent in westminster. it's emerged that some people have been asked to travel more than 100 miles to get a swab test for coronavirus. the health secretary matt hancock insists that most people who need a test will be able to get one close to home — and 500 million pounds is to be spent on trials, including of a rapid saliva—based test. naomi grimley reports.

until a vaccine comes along, testing is vital to get treatment to those who need it and to spot outbreaks before they take off. but in recent days, several members of the public have been told by the government website to travel more than 100 miles to drive—through testing sites. i went through the process and it came back with availability for testing in a place on the outskirts of blackburn, which is over 250 miles away. so i was convinced i had got it wrong, cancelled, reprocessed, and i got exactly the same answer. testing rates in the uk are now much higher than in many other countries in europe, but as winter draws closer, the system is coming under more pressure, particularly as schools resume and sniffles circulate. currently 17% of tests for the public are done

via home—testing kits, though people don't always send them back. the rest is done via drive—through or walk—in centres, and, in high—risk areas, mobile testing units. officials admit the testing website may need adjusting to avoid long carjourneys. ministers say the public may need to keep trying when booking a test but overall they argue the surveillance system is working. if people need a test, the vast majority get it quickly and close to home, but when those testing centres are full, then obviously people are offered a test at the nearest place at which one is available. latest figures show more than 6,700 people tested positive in england last week, that is an increase of 6% on the previous one, and the highest weekly number since earlyjune. the opposition says testing needs to be much better as the season turns.

the prime minister said we would have a world—beating system, we haven't got an effective system, and what we are now seeing is a postcode lottery. this has got to improve, we want it to improve, but the government is way too slow on it. part of the government's strategy is to pour intensive testing into the areas seeing spikes, as we've seen in leicester over the last few weeks. but then there is less capacity in other places and that is worrying some health experts who fear the next surge could be missed. we are firefighting rather than proactively looking for where case numbers are going up, then doing something about it — i.e, identify, find the contacts, remove them out of circulation. we are unable to do it if we are not extensively testing. today, the government has announced it is giving £500 million to boost trials of a 20—minute saliva test. many believe mass, quick—turnaround testing is the best way to resume our daily lives.

(pres)the scottish first minister, nicola sturgeon, has said there's the scottish first minister, nicola sturgeon, has said there's more evidence that coronavirus is spreading again in scotland. she told her daily briefing that the r figure — the average number of people estimated to be infected by someone with the disease — was believed to have risen above one last week, to as high as one point four. we think that the r number in scotland increased last week and it i said recently that the r number is up slightly less concern when overall prevalence of the virus is low. overall prevalence is still low in scotland right now. nevertheless, it is a further reminder that the virus is spreading again here. just as it is elsewhere in the uk, across europe and indeed in the wider world. so it is a reminder of the need for us to take this seriously and do

all of the right things. russia has rejected accusations that it's responsible for poisoning one of president putin's leading critics, alexei navalny. there are international demands for a full and transparent investigation, after germany said it had proof that mr navalny had been poisoned with a novichok nerve agent. the opposition activist is still in a coma in a hospital in berlin. steve rosenberg reports. moscow is under growing international pressure to answer one question — who ordered an attack on the kremlin's most vocal critic with a chemical nerve agent? alexei navalny has been a thorn in president putin's side for years. an anti—corruption campaigner who claims that russia's leaders are thieves. last month, he fell ill on a flight from siberia to moscow. in a coma, he was eventually

airlifted to a hospital in berlin. the german government now believes mr navalny had been poisoned with novichok, the same type of nerve agent used against former russian spy sergei skripal and his daughter — suggesting the russian state may be involved. and how does russia respond to that? "there are no facts. there's no evidence," says the foreign ministry spokesperson on russian tv. "it's an information campaign against moscow." and today, the kremlin had this message for its critics. "don't rush to blame us, or put new sanctions on russia. we're not to blame." the trouble is, under vladimir putin, the kremlin always says it's not to blame, even when the evidence suggests it is. and the international community is losing patience. the russians really don't care. they're not too bothered about collateral damage. sanctions, again, don't seem to mean an awful lot to the russians, but i think what we must do is carry

on with sanctions, particularly financial ones. if russians, key oligarchs and supporters, start losing their money, i expect that probably will mean more to putin than anything else. some kremlin critics are calling on germany to halt this gas pipeline project with russia. that would send a strong message to moscow, but the problem is much of europe relies on russian energy. meanwhile, alexei navalny remains in a serious condition in hospital. expect moscow to continue to deny everything. but if mr navalny was attacked with a chemical weapon, the questions to the kremlin won't be going away. the headlines on bbc news. people travelling from portugal

to england will not have to quarantine on arrival, the transport secretary has confirmed a violent sex offender has been jailed for a minimum of 38 years — for murdering two women — and hiding their bodies in a freezer at his east london flat. coronavirus testing is working well, says the health secretary — despite some people with symptoms travelling more than 100 miles to get a test. let's return to the news that a convicted sex offender has been found guilty of murdering two vulnerable women whose remains were found in a locked freezer at his flat in east london last year. zahid younis has been given a life sentence with a minimum prison term of 38 years. one body had been stored in younis' flat in east london for almost two and a half years — the other for almost 12 months. relatives of jan mustafa, who attended every day of the three—week trial, said they were pleased with the verdict and accused zahid younis of cowardice.

i can't believe you didn't come up, but this shows that he was guilty all along and he proved it by not coming upstairs today. after his verdict. cowardice on his part. it feels not guilty, he would've come up feels not guilty, he would've come up and so they're not guilty and i'm on the puma and everything. at the high downstairs like the monsters yea rs, high downstairs like the monsters years, shows true character. what is this been like for you as a family? we were not expecting it today, were expecting the sentencing next week and the family were going to get together but yeah, what is it been like in terms of the impact on you and the family? are you able to say? devastating. you just can't brief, everything is changed. our whole

family has fallen apart. it is unimaginable, really. how important that this man being found guilty in thejury confirming his that this man being found guilty in the jury confirming his guilt that this man being found guilty in thejury confirming his guilt in him being imprisoned. the best thing about this. today, we are happy that he is finally locked up and he cannot do it to anyone else. because vis cannot do it to anyone else. because v is given a shorter sentence, he would just come out do it again like he has these whole years. he does what he needs to do, goes to prison, does it again, goes back in and that doesn't begin. he our home affairs correspondent danny shaw explained more to me earlier about how well known zahid younis was to the authorities.

he was not a stranger to the criminal justice system. he was not a stranger to the criminaljustice system. he was not someone that they didn't know about. they knew about him very well. he was a registered sex offender which means police at the monitor his whereabouts, pam regular visits and i'm one of those visits, he actually stored the body of one of the women in his flat while officers were on the doorstep talking to him, and credible as that may sound. there are real questions as to the monitoring of what the police did. and what efforts they made to trace the two women. one went missing in may 2018, the family made a complaint about the missing persons inquiry that the metropolitan police conducted in that investigation is still ongoing into the complaint and there are also questions about a very vulnerable woman who had made allegations against another man that

went into another trial that was abandoned and then she vanished. what did the police due to tracer, she kind of disappeared? there also questions about the prosecution service because to previous trials involving him and a young girl and an older teenager, he was convicted of offences and giving general terms, because they have been longer had more allegations actually been pursued at the trial and dealt with by the jury. there pursued at the trial and dealt with by thejury. there is pursued at the trial and dealt with by the jury. there is a pursued at the trial and dealt with by thejury. there is a lot pursued at the trial and dealt with by the jury. there is a lot of focus about this case. police are treating the deaths of five children in western germany as a crime. their bodies were found in a family appartment in the city of solingen near dusseldorf. unconfirmed reports from german media say officers suspect a 27—year—old mother of killing the children, who may all have been younger than 10 years old.

the mother then reportedly threw herself in front of a train — but survived and is being treated in hospital. the online retailer, amazon, says it's going to create another 7,000 permanentjobs in the uk this year, to meet growing demand. the figure is on top of 3,000 positions already announced this year. it will take the company's total uk workforce to more than 40,000. despite a recent rise in house prices, mortgage providers are cutting the number of low deposit deals — because of the economic fall—out from coronavirus. lenders are setting stricter conditions fearing defaults. some have already said they would not currently consider applications from people on furlough and who did not have a return to work date. scientists believe that an increase in wildfires, in the arctic circle, may be partly due to fires smouldering underground from one year to the next. carbon emissions were a third higher this summer than last yea r‘s record level. the researchers say lightning

strikes and human activity may be responsible for some of the blazes, but that "zombie fires", which smoulder through the winter under the frozen topsoil, could also be to blame. earlier i spoke to our energy & environment analyst, roger harrabin, who explained what was new about the findings. what is new as of the quantified all of these assessments of how much higher the emission levels were this year than last year. and they conclude that emissions this year or a third higher rate in the last year and that she was already but some way, the highest on record. the record only stretches back 17 years, so it is not a historic record, if you look at the graph, the precious clearly these years are way ahead of the rest and with this year being the rest and with this year being the third as much again as last year. speaking to the scientists, who had not expected this at all,

they're surprised and even more surprised this years figure and there may be cause for concern. and these are fires that essentially roll on from one year to the next. yes and they've identified that before. there is such an enormous amount of heat generated by the these fires, that such light to the ground itself, to the pit that lies deep underground and it is a big store of carbon dioxide, when it sta rts store of carbon dioxide, when it starts to burn it also beliefs carbon dioxide so, the winter comes along in the snow sets and it becomes frozen, but underneath the ground, continues to smoulder and it enables them to set fire to more vegetation next spring and that is with us because the problem and what they can say is that in many places, they can say is that in many places,

the early fires in spring have started in places where there were many fires last summer and so, they we re many fires last summer and so, they were try to link them. how far is man—made climate change responsible for this? what we can say is the conditions created by climate change or augmented by man—made climate change has made wildfires more likely in creator. there are factors behind wildfires and they have been in interesting source. human activity kills to be to blame, but the scientists is also saying that man—made climate changes are definitely implemented in our courses and the feel that as her emissions rise as the ark globally, year on year, they will get hotter, the entire planet and they fear

these conditions will continue or perhaps even accelerate further. seeking to impose a quarantine on all of those coming back from portugal and this comes straight off the back of the uk government talking about travellers coming back to england who say they're not going to england who say they're not going to impose a quarantine on portuguese rifles and a statement from the health minister, the welsh health minister saying that he has considered the clear advice from the joint bio—security centre and has decided that travel from the following countries and territories constitutes a public health risk and has decided to remove mainland portugal, so men then portugal, gibraltar, the greek islands, and

that means anybody coming back from any of those countries or islands will now have to isolate for two weeks in quarantine. all this week, we've been showing a series of reports, the people s war, with stories from some of our presenters. one of the defining campaigns of the second world war in asia was in burma, now known as myanmar, which was then part of the british empire. but the achievements of servicemen who fought there was overshadowed by events in europe, where the war had already ended. tonight, it's my turn to discover more)about my father—in—law patrick hamilton — just one of the men who belonged to the 14th army, the multi—national force comprising units from commonwealth, that became known as the forgotten army. jubilation across the uk when the war in europe was finally over. but thousands away in burma allied troops are still fighting a

formidable enemy in japan. troops are still fighting a formidable enemy injapan. my father—in—law was one of them. she was 23 when world war ii started, he grew up in scotland pulls the sent tojoin the indian grew up in scotland pulls the sent to join the indian army before being deployed in burma. layer, second row, :—). deployed in burma. layer, second row, :-). recalling his enthusiasm for india. he was thrilled to be there any way and obviously, the circumstances were unpleasant. he was delighted that he had the opportunity to go to india he targeted members how to play the pipes and that is quite remarkable. how pleased he was thousand from an indianfamily. how pleased he was thousand from an indian family. patrick started with his regiment. the instrument year, is just his regiment. the instrument year, isjust ordinary folk, ordinary

folks doing extraordinary things. as you can see from this list, the service number and fact that he joined in august, 1940. he probably did his officer training in india before joining did his officer training in india beforejoining the army. did his officer training in india before joining the army. by the patrick was not long in india, the japanese had ta ken patrick was not long in india, the japanese had taken neighbouring burma in 1942 japanese had taken neighbouring burma in1942 in japanese had taken neighbouring burma in 1942 in his regiment became pa rt burma in 1942 in his regiment became part of the huge 14th army that fought to win back. but, it became the forgotten army as your a possible focus was on self, the focus. those back home can only imagine the horrors, still not married, my

iam full of i am full of sympathy for you, they're putting more and more in the paper spots 14th on the campaign and i feel nothing can paper spots 14th on the campaign and ifeel nothing can be paper spots 14th on the campaign and i feel nothing can be too good to make upfor i feel nothing can be too good to make up for such a help. one of those men in burma living that hail. we lost a number of people would've night attacks and bombing attacks and what we lost 15 and an error rate, terrible. we will be known as the forgotten army. history books tell us a difficult was, but because it's not like being there. it was the final push for still the biggest present the. weakening japan before its final surrender a few months later. as if war were not old

enough, they also had to contend more personal there is with more personal matters. there is a telegram here were she received a few days after his father died which was send a horrific way of receiving that news and he did not receive three or four months later. with us to make you feel looking at this and thinking about him? definitely. everyone is proud of patrick and we feel we got to know him better now as a result of making this film and out of the horse out of the work he endured, came this token of love, given to them by japanese officer. that's his initials engraved on it and he wore

this is his wedding ring when he finally married. now it's time for a look at the weather with stav. very windy across the uk tonight, gus 50 mph into the northern aisles thanks to this area of low pressure the risk was the isobars, and submit to the northwest of scotland, to this evening and overnight, for the south, we lose the clough southeast in many places will be tried with lengthy clear spells. certainly fresher than it was the previous night. friday morning, most of his sunshine will be smooth, ill return to the southern areas to the patcher in the time space is windy scotland and northern ireland in northern england, 15 or 18 degrees inside.

head against the weekend, the sort of the high beacon stability ill squeeze of the consent area of low pressure it will see a run of wind which will feel cool with sunshine and showers. hello this is bbc news the headlines. the welsh government says people travelling from mainland portugal will need to quarantine on arrival from 4am tomorrow — but britons returning to england from the country will not face restrictions. a violent sex offender has been jailed for a minimum of 38 years — for murdering two women and hiding their bodies in a freezer at his east london flat. coronavirus testing is working well, says the health secretary — despite some people with symptoms travelling more than 100 miles to get a test. nicola sturgeon has said latest official data suggests that coronavirus is spreading

again in scotland. the bodies of five children have been found in an apartment in germany — the mother is believed to have tried to take her own life. russia rejects calls for an investigation, after germany says the opposition leader alexei navalny was poisoned with a nerve agent. sport and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre, here'sjohn watson. good evening.... he inherited the leaders yellow jersey in unliekly fashion — britain's adam yates has retained it in more customary style after stage six of the tour de france. kazakhstan's alexey lutsenko riding for astana produced a remarkable ride to cross the finish line fifty five seconds clear of his nearest rival. it was though who finished tenth, among the main contenders to maintain his three second lead over slovenia's primoz roglic. he earned the jersey yesterday after rivaljulian allaphillipe took an illegal drinks stop and was handed a penalty toward the end of the stage.

there's been an alarming rise in reports of discrimation over the past year, up by 42% according to a new report from the equality and inclusion charity kick it out. they've found racial and homophobic abuse has also increased as has abuse across social platforms. there were a total of 446 reports of discrimination in the professional game — compared to 313 last year. racial abuse is up by 53 per cent from 184 incidents to 282. and there's been a 95 per cent rise in reports of abuse based on sexual orientation. at grassroots level while overall figures fell from 113 to 94. however, there were no matches from march due to the pandemic, so comparing the season until then saw an 11 percent rise. two cambridge united home games will host a reduced number of fans next week as part of the government's test events

to allow supporters back in to sporting venues. the efl trophy match at the abbey stadium with fulham under—21s on tuesday and the league two game with carlisle next saturday will both have spectators present, with 1,000 fans allowed in for the trophy tie and 2,500 for the league game. it's a big night in the nations league as the republic of ireland take on bulgaria in new boss stephen kenny's first match in charge. while wales play their first game since november last year as they take on finland. it'll be a chance for gareth bale to take to the field — something he's not done sincejune the 24th at real madrid. the forward says he's been denied moves away from the spanish club — and seems to be happy to be on international duty. always feel_ hers feel i always feel comfortable here, i feel love, i feel wanted. yet i always feel comfortable here, i feel love, ifeel wanted. yet it's great to be back. we haven't had too much training obviously, in the off—season and stuff. or every little bit, probably not match fit

but we prepared as much as we can over the last few days. lionel messi's father has met with barcelona officials after declaring it would be ‘difficult‘ for his son to remain with the club. jorge who acts as his son's agent, landed from argentina ahead of talks with presidentjosep bartomeu in a bid to resolve the stalemate between player and club, with barcelona demanding his £623 million pound relase clause is met. messi's team believe theres a contract loophole allowing him to leave for free. yorkshire say they're in contact with the former england youth captain azeem rafiq — who claimed "institutional racism" at the club left him "close to committing suicide" the spin bowler said that as a muslim he felt he was made to feel like an "outsider" and that he dreaded going to work. rafiq alleges the problem of racism at the club is as bad as ever. yorkshire say they have launched a "formal investigation." ahead of the start of their t20 series against australia tomorrow, england captain eoin morgan says it's something they've had to address withjofra archer subjected to racial abuse

while on international duty with england in new zealand last year. it is surprising to see stories like that come out. certainly within our camp. we've displayed it throughout the summer, where are quite outspoken when it comes to things like that. and we have had victims of abuse. we are at the headline act when it comes to cricket at home. and we need to be better at talking people through our particular journey. in that it is ok to speak up journey. in that it is ok to speak up and report things when things happen. and it is not ok to be a victim. we'll have more for you in sportsday at half past six. in the past half hour people will need to quarantine from 4am tomorrow

for some holiday—makers returning to england from the country will not face restrictions. let's speak to our europe correspondent gavin lee, who's in faro in portugal(os) a scramble to return if you are returning to wales but not to england? know, what is really interesting about this is all week there have been suggestions, there's been hints even by the british ambassador to portugal who suggested that people should start to think about whether to be here. given that the changing scenario because that is the line the english have been using if it rises about 20,000 suddenly you're in a zone to be added eight no go country effectively. and quarantine applies on the way home. what happened in the last week or so, portugal went from about 14 cases you about hundred thousand suddenly 21 cases per hundred thousand for subs or you have a scenario, we've met lots of british families today who have booked a flight back tomorrow even

though they are not due to come back next week because they didn't want to risk 14. that money is on the drawing people spends five to £700 on tickets. the scenario now being that the last couple has gone ahead and said eight portugal is a no go zone along with six greek islands along with your ball chart along with high rates in the whole of europe. in the world exact. up quite different there. it means those who have travelled from cardiff and go back to wales they have until for o'clock tomorrow morning to do so. not much time, not many flights today. gavin, you spent the day talking to british holiday—makers, how are they likely to cope with this level of uncertainty and difference? lee portuguese authorities have been talking about there being up 30,000 british tourists come out in the 12 day window sends the travel corridor open. from the 22nd of august about. they called it silver season because the older british tours come out,

golf is big here, they call it the worlds best golfing facilities because the weather is, as you can see behind me. many people on the golf course we met who are trying to make contingency plan, i think they are to say a lot people will be relieved. especially when it comes to the economy because bar none, british tourist matter to the portuguese in terms of the sheer numbers. 6 million bookings per year on average for hotel rooms. six times your average other european torahs. that times your average other european tora hs. that means times your average other european torahs. that means we've got 13% of the portuguese economy for tourism. it's from british tourist from september alone. it is a huge amount. a sigh of relief from them at least. bbc news understands that changes will be made to the coronavirus testing regime after it emerged that some people were having to travel 100 miles to be swamped. earlier my colleague jane hill took a 100 miles to be swamped. earlier my colleaguejane hill took a look at this in more depth in your questions

answered. let's discuss all of that without health correspondent and without health correspondent and with the professor paul hunter at the university of east anglia. let's start with this question from lorraine. which is coming through e—mail lorraine speaking for quite a lot of people that we've been hearing from in the last little while. she says, i have symptoms and have been offered a test nearly 50 miles away, a two hour drive from me. why can't they just send a testing kit to me? nick, i'll come to you first. there are home testing kits available, but the problem here is that tests that are done in the community, in local walk in centres or sent to peoples homes are sent to one of a network of large laboratories. and they have reached capacity. mid—june, they were processing around 100,000 tests per day,

now it's around 180,000 tests per day. but the government say they have simply maxed out, so they are restricting access in areas where there is low levels of infection so they can prioritise areas like care homes in towns with lots of infection. what the government are saying is new slots become available all the time. if someone can't get a slot nearby to where they live in the morning, try again a few hours later and you might be able to find somewhere there. and they are putting plans in place. a new lab is opening later in september to increase the amount of test they can do. they're saying it will hopefully be solved in the coming weeks. professor hunter, your thoughts on that. i think a lot of people are trying to keep up with the news and will think, why cant ijust get a testing kit through the post? i mean, that's a big question and i really don't understand why that isn't doable.

i think there are still anxieties about how reliable some of these home testing kits are. if they are reliable, then they should be made readily available. if you're getting people to travel that distance then automatically you are sort of excluding that perhaps the most vulnerable people, the poorer sections of society, who are actually most at risk of contracting covid—19. so it is severely undermining the quality of the information that you are able to collect in order to control the epidemic. that's an interesting point. stay with you paul hunter because zoe has asked, how would an elderly person who doesn't have internet access and perhaps doesn't have a car, how would someone in that position a test? they probably wouldn't, unfortunately.

unless they had helpful neighbours. 0r relatives who could take them. but actually, you know, they shouldn't need to have to do that. they should be locally available testing, there should be local authority supporting the ability to deliver local testing and, you know, we should be able to do that by now. and it's really sad that we can't. what are your thoughts on that? it's interesting. there is a phone line you can ring. it is 119 for england, wales and northern ireland. the number is different in scotland. they can provide information of how to get tested if you don't have internet access.

the government is trying to roll out local testing, so giving people the ability to walk to a local centre. obviously, they will be in towns and cities so if you're in a more rural location it is more difficult. another viewer asks, i have done a home testing kit but i'm worried i have not done it correctly. could i get a false negative? i've never had to take one, but we've all seen the pictures. i thought, i don't think i would be able to do that myself. it's quite an uncomfortable procedure to do. you have to stick the swab quite far down your throat to collect a sample. when you go to a testing centre, the staff can help and advise you to do it. doing it at home, there is a concern you might not do it properly. if you get a negative result back, you could be positive but have got a negative test,

what the government advises is if you still have symptoms, you should still continue isolating. you could order another test or go to a centre and test if you're not sure about the confidence you have with that result, but the bottom line is if you have symptoms then continue isolating. paul hunter, do you have thoughts on false negatives? we've known that ordinary pcr tests do give false negatives, sometimes because the person actually is just incubating the infection and hasn't yet become positive, but even when people are symptomatic proportion of tests are negative. sometimes you can tell because they haven't got as much sample on the swab and you can detect that the system, but sometimes they are just negative. and sadly that's part of the nature of the testing and its part

of the nature of medical test generally that you do get false negatives and false positives. another e—mail, i live in kent but i was told to go to newport in wales for a test. surely travelling so far when unwell means you could infect other people? absolutely. the advice is that if you have symptoms of covid, then you need to stay at home and you don't want people travelling. you cannot make that sort of distance in a single hop, you have to stop somewhere at least once, maybe twice in that distance, go and have a coffee, sit in a public area. where you are actually posing the risk to other people who are travelling on that day, so that is really something that we should not be asking people to do when they are symptomatic. again, this is one of the reasons this

is absolutely in the news today. that's one of the risks? indeed, it is. the government have said that they will be introducing a fix to the website so people will no longer be sent 200 miles. they said it will be limited to a 75 mile radius, that's still a long distance which i think is why we are seeing keep going back to the website, keep trying if you can get a local test because no one wants to travel even that distance for a test. 75 miles. we've had a thought about the new rapid test, people wanting to know how they will work. is this the saliva —based test we have been hearing about? there are a few different technologies. saliva —based tests give rapid results in 20 minutes, some in 60 minutes. some places have machines that will process that on the spot.

other places, a swab is sent away to a lab. usually takes 24 hours, perhaps more to get your result back. so the ultimate goal is a rapid easy to take tests that you can literally get the results back ideally on the spot. they are trying these new technologies. in salford, members of the public will be offered repeat testing. in southampton, it's been rolled out to schools, hospitals and students. the ultimate goal would be to introduce a mass regular testing for the entire population, an alternative to a vaccine if we are all testing ourselves regularly and we know we don't have the virus then it allows us to relax social distancing restrictions, but we are a long way from that. they're just trying out these new technologies now. professor paul hunter, i'll come to you now. is track and trace working properly in the uk? other countries seem to have a better system in place.

what are your thoughts? well, it's working. i think there's still some way to go for it to be working as effectively as we would want, i think to a certain extent, any enterprise like this can get it up and running quickly, it's a huge undertaking. and i think some of the problems that we have had were only to be expected with any new major organisation. to me, the biggest improvement that has been seen in the last few weeks has been the acceptance that local authorities do have a really, really important role to play in this. and hopefully, as more and more of the responsibility towards this move to local authorities, we should see better outputs and better achievement of targets

than we have in the past. i think it's inevitable that we've always look to other countries throughout the pandemic just to see by example what other countries are doing right and wrong. people are inevitably going to compare systems, i suppose? yes, they are. it's interesting. other countries have also struggled with this. the uk is not unique. spain brought in the army to help with contact tracing. the service is expected to engage with 80% of the people who test positive and to find their close contact, and then contact 80% of their close contact to ask them to isolate. on both measures, it's been consistently below that, although not far below that. if you look at the overall infection rate, perhaps the bestjudge of how we are doing, the uk is actually seeing relatively low numbers of infections compared to some european countries. in france and spain,

infection rates are much higher. we are currently on par with germany, one of the countries usually held up as getting this right. italy has quite low rates as well. we talked about this lots right at the start of the pandemic, can you explain herd immunity? could it help reduce the number of coronavirus cases? right at the beginning i remember we discussed herd immunity and then it disappeared as a topic. where are we with that? it's still one of the big unknown is, how many people have been exposed to the virus. if you are exposed to the virus and you develop our —— an immune response, your body learns how to fight off the virus and afterwards its left with some virus of that. if you are exposed again, your body can protect you. what we still don't know is how strong that immunity is and how long it may last.

the development of vaccine immunity plays a key part in the development of that, and the trials there are suggesting people respond and bodies develop a good level of immunity, but we still don't know for sure how that's going to help us get out of this pandemic. paul hunter, i'm interested to hear your thoughts on herd immunity. the first thing to say is that we don't really know how long people are immune for after the initial infection. there have been well confirmed, not many, but well confirmed reinfection is in people after their first infection. and one recent one was they became reinfected after about four and a half months. if you have an infection as very short lived immunity then actually you are never

going to achieve herd immunity. and i think that is going to be the case with covid—19. that we will never achieve herd immunity in that we will always, the infection will be with us for decades to come. however, looking at the other coronaviruses and the initial evidence from the reinfection is we've seen so far is that generally in people who are otherwise healthy the second infections are much less severe than the first. and that's because, although the protective immunity goes, there are still some residual immunity that might not stop you getting the infection and may not stop you being infectious, but will reduce the chance that you will develop more severe illness. and so, as a control strategy,

i think herd immunity is not going to work, but there will be some impact of longer term immunity on reducing the severity of the infection. we won't know for certain for probably two or three years, but looking at other infections of the same type, i think that's likely to be the case. hello there. we've got a fairly vigorous area of low pressure heading through the uk as we head into tonight tomorrow. bringing cooler, fresher air is to assure but also strong winds and pretty heavy showers. especially so across the northern half of the country. you can see this area of low pressure is sweeping into the north of the uk. quite a squeeze and the isobars which will affect the

northern half of scotland's. quite a lot of isobars going to be breezy for all. lose that weather front across the south e which is 28 which is rather grey damp day here. skies will be clear for many. for scotland and northern ireland there will be lots of showers around postoperatively for norse and western scotland. on the heavy side. tonight it's going to be cooler certainly than it was the nightjust gone. with temperatures out of town and saco figures for the friday morning we start on a cool night but bright was sunshine. plenty of showers across scotland, northern ireland, northern england again for the northern england and scotland will see the heaviest and most frequent showers. further south we will see a weather frontjust returning to bring thick cloud to southern counties. sunshine in between but a cooler day to come. temperatures 14 to 19 degrees. the weekend we've got azores high starting to push up from the southwest squeezing up against that area of low pressure over the north sea. it means we will see a run of north northwest winds quite fresh

over the weekend. it will feel cooler from all the mixture of sunshine and showers. sent accelerates bright start for many critically southern and eastern areas was up showers critically southern and eastern areas was up showers packing into northern and western areas may be quite heavy and it will still be windy in the northeast. slightly lighter winds further south. it will feel cooler 14 to 18 celsius with a set night we see another weather front pushing into the northwest of the country for that that will bring shari burst of rain to northern ireland. that was slide southeastern into sunday into parts of england and wales could be the odd heavy may be thundery mixed as well they are across the southeast wasn't good smells of sunshine in between particularly in the northeast again quite cool 14, 17 or 18 c. next week certainly for the start of next week, it looks like we will start to see warm air moving in from the south. could turn very warm for time across the south.

today at six — new evidence that the uk's coronavirus testing capacity is falling short of demand. the government labs are under strain. people with worrying symptoms face long journeys for their tests. when i logged into the website and tried to book it, initially it tried to send me to belfast, which is over 100 miles from where i am. the government says it's putting half a billion pounds into finding better and quicker ways to test people. also tonight... the empty check—in desks that are crippling the aviation industry — fears that new quarantine measures in wales and scotland will make matters worse. henrietta szucs and mihrican mustafa's bodies were found in a freezer — their killer gets a minimum