this is bbc news — with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. i'm tim willcox... as fears of another global spike in covid cases rise — the uk announces it will ban gatherings of more than six people. as one of belarus‘ leading opposition activists rips up her passport to avoid being expelled from the country — the president insists he's not stepping down. a senior british politician admits plans to change the brexit agreement would ‘break international law'. and — the trump blockbusters — a seemingly unstoppable run of books about the president. how are they changing the publishing business?

amid a surge in coronavirus infections in europe and asia, governments are grappling to gain control of the virus. in the last couple of hours the british government has announced it is to impose new rules on social gathering in england — from monday. only six people will be allowed to meet either indoors or outside. south korea has just extended its lockdown in the capital seoul with the toughest measures the city has seen since the start of the pandemic. in a moment — we'll hear from seoul but first here's nick eardley on what the new restrictions mean for england. i think it reflects a real concern in government and amongst the scientific experts who advise ministers at the number of cases we have seen in recent days, that rise in the number of positive test for coronavirus that we have been talking

so much about. clearly part of the concern is that we are meeting too many people were too many social interactions, some of which are leading to transmission of the virus. it is not designed to stop people going to work. kids going to school orfor universities. it is designed to stop us meeting indoors or meeting outdoors. so there is a big headline figure will be that the indoors or outdoors, the limit will be six. that changes the rules onto households meetings for example. at the moment, two households can meet no matter what the size. the guidelines of the moment say that if you are meeting up outdoors, it can be six people from as many households if you want but that limit is six. that is now been brought in to lock and that is partly because police were concerned and they relayed these concerns at downing street that the rules were not simple enough

and that it was an easy enough to intervene where large groups under 30 which had been the legal limit to intervene when those groups are meeting up in various places. but as i said, itjust shows that ministers are increasingly worried about transmission of the virus. so to reiterate those new rules come into effect in england from next monday. let's look in more detail at south korea where health officials have set a curfew for businesses. schools are closed. and nearly 25 million people are being urged to stay at home. for many months, south korea was seen as the poster child for how to handle this crisis. they had an early, impressive testing and tracing programme that kept the virus — for the most part — under control. cases in the country first surged in february. after an initial peak, the country brought cases down for most of the spring and summer. but in recent weeks, infections have gone back up again — with nearly 300 a day. the bbc‘s laura bicker has the latest details on the lockdown from seoul.

it is about 9pm curfew, so all restau ra nts, it is about 9pm curfew, so all restaurants, bakeries, anywhere that young people would hang out have been told to close strictly at nine o'clock. the streets here are usually pretty vibrant and night. you can wander around, light up noises and conversations. we get now you wonder around it is eerily silent. and this is notjust taking place in the soul. what are the wrong greater soul fourth of surrounding the capital, covering around 25 million people. —— seoul. 0ther things like schools have also been forced to go back online and that is something certainly the south korean government did not want to do. one of the reasons why they said they wa nted reasons why they said they wanted people to stay at home right at the beginning of this was to try to keep schools open. and of course not thousands of them are close. i love this is linked to an outbreak within a right—wing

church, they held this massive rally in the centre of the mix into a seoul and hundreds are being affected but i have to put this into some kind of context. when we say there has been operate, we are getting about 300 cases a day. you heard from lucy in paris, where they've had 6000 cases in the last 2a hours. and there may be discussing in the future a lot down. here, 300 cases that he is alive. it is not back down and he seems to be decreasing. but they will review the current near lockdown this weekend. —— 300 cases is a lie. -- is --isa —— is a good amount. meanwhile france has registered another six and a half new thousand new cases of the coronavirus, in the past 2a hours. so far, there have been relatively few serious cases of the disease, but as our paris correspondent lucy williamson reports, there are signs in the south of the country that hospital beds are starting to fill up again. testing here has become a weapon against the spread of anxiety, as rapid and silent as the virus itself. 0ne paris mayor is offering free coronavirus tests

for anyone who wants one. without appointment, symptoms or any contact with a confirmed case. the deputy mayor says they're running at full capacity. if we would have to test only people with symptoms or contact people, it would be simpler, for sure. simpler, but maybe more dangerous? maybe more dangerous, because we identify positive cases that don't have any symptom, and just don't know how it happened. today, the prime minister announced that he would need to test and isolate, hours after being filmed bumping fists with local officials in south—west france. translation: i was at the tour de france on saturday, and i've just learned that the director of the event has tested positive. i will therefore immediately take a test myself and observe the rules. new infections have risen steadily here in the past few weeks. the number of red zones

where the virus is actively circulating has grown from two to 28. the government says the situation is worrying. young people were seen as driving the rise in infections here over the summer. because they are more resistant to the virus, there was no corresponding spike in hospital admissions, but as infections have spread, there are signs that may be starting to change. hospitals in marseilles have begun raising the alarm. 0ne doctor told me there had been an explosion of severe cases of coronavirus at his hospital, with 70 patients admitted since mid august. 15 of them are now in intensive care, with more arriving every day. the curve is exponential at this time. so, there is no doubt that the number of patients in the hospital and in the icu will increase in the next 15 days or three weeks. this will be a difficult period. france is now carrying out

a million tests a week to try and avoid another lockdown. mask wearing is already compulsory throughout several cities, including marseilles, but with people now back in offices and schools this is a high risk moment, and the next few weeks will be key. lucy williamson, bbc news, paris. one of the leading opposition figures in belorussia, maria kolesnikova, is reported to have ripped up her passport to prevent officials deporting her into exile. 0pposition colleagues say they saw her tear the document into tiny pieces as she was being escorted across the border into neighbouring ukraine. there've been protests against the belorussian government for the past month, following disputed elections at the begining of august. jonah fisher has more from kyiv: so this all began on monday morning when maria kolesnikova,

the opposition leader, was picked up on the streets of minsk by masked men in an unmarked van. two other opposition figures were also picked up that day. now, what we know now is that they were taken to the border where belarus borders ukraine and the authorities were trying to make them cross the border, effectively forcing them into exile in ukraine. they were all brought together, these three people, in no man's land, and it was there that maria made it very clear that she did not want to cross into ukraine. ivan kratzov was one of the two men who did cross into ukraine. he was in no man's land at the time and i spoke to him here in kyiv about exactly what happened. at that moment, maria

was forcefully put in the car, she literally tore her passport into small pieces. as they were giving her back her passport? exactly. it was lying in the car. she took it immediately and tore it up. then she climbed out the car through the rear windows because the doors were blocked and she walked proudly to the russian territory. this was in no man's land? yes, in no man's land. i think it is heroic. it is fantastic what she did. she was very clear with them she didn't want to be forced? absolutely. she tore her passport out. she wanted to see absolutely clear about that. we understand she was taken back into custody by the belarussian authorities and is now being held inside belarus at a camp not that far from the ukrainian border. will this have any impact on the very large demonstrations that we have seen in belarus over the last four and a half weeks since the election? i very much doubt that and the reason for that is because these are very decentralised protests, they are being coordinated

through social messaging apps, through the telegram channel and if anything, i think it is likely that this sort of thing further evidence if you like of the brutality of the violence of the president lukashenko government will only serve to motivate more people to come out onto the streets and more people to call for him to go. borisjohnson‘s new bill, to change the uk's brexit deal with the eu , will ‘break international law‘ , according to one cabinet minister. the northern ireland secretary brandon lewis admitted the new legislation would go against the treaty ‘in a specific and limited way‘. the former prime minister theresa may has warned the changes could damage trust in the uk, over future trade deals. the latest round of trade negotiations between britain and the eu started today, as our chief political correspondent vicki young reports. mrjohnson, are we going to get a deal today? are you confident? he promised to get brexit done,

and the uk has left the eu, but now borisjohnson‘s team is in a familiar place — trying to negotiate another deal. this time, it's about how we will trade with the eu from january. progress is slow, but round eight of the talks started today. i am confident that our negotiating teams and the eu negotiating teams are all focused on getting a good outcome, both for our friends and partners in the eu, and for us in the united kingdom. but there's another row brewing over the withdrawal agreement. yes, the one which has already been signed, sealed and delivered. it agreed that northern ireland would continue to follow some eu customs rules. that would mean extra paperwork, checks and tariffs for some goods moving between great britain and northern ireland. now the government is introducing its own law, so that uk ministers can decide how to apply the rules without the eu's agreement. the disapproval from this former prime

minister was obvious. the government is now changing the operation of that agreement. given that, how can the government reassure future international partners that the uk can be trusted to abide by the legal obligations of the agreements it signs? another conservative mp got this remarkable admission from the minister. yes, this does break international law in a very specific and limited way. that's not the kind of thing you hear very often in the house of commons. and he's not the only one who is surprised. the labour leader told me that the government should not be acting in this way. at the moment, what the government is doing, which in my view is wrong, is reopening old arguments that have been settled. a deal is there to be had. let's negotiate, get that deal. that's what the public want, and move on. ministers insist the new law they want to introduce simply clarifies what was agreed with the eu last year, it

doesn't rip it up completely. but even the government's top lawyer doesn't see it like that. he's resigned today because he thinks the plans are in breach of the government's obligations under international law. eu and uk officials will continue their talks tomorrow, with the british government accused of going back on old deals while they try to work on a new one. vicki young, bbc news, westminster. to california now, where the devastating wildfires continue to blaze. authorities say more than two million acres has been burnt, an area larger than the state of delaware, if that goes any way to put the mind boggling numbers into context. firefighters say the one of the fires , el dorado, that's the one that was reportedly started by a gender—reveal party, is less than 5% contained. all this when california is experiencing a record—breaking heatwave. here's chris martinez from cbs

new in san bernardino county. we're in an area called monrovia, this is a foothill community and there is certainly a bit of anxiety here and the reason is because of what you see right on top there, a lot of smoke. the bobcat fire, the large fire in this area, is burning just on the other side of that mountain. that fire, nearly 9000 acres, 0% contained, it has mostly burned in a forest area. but the concern right now is we are expecting some very strong, powerful winds here, the santa ana winds. they'll blow to this area tonight. so neighbourhoods like where i'm standing, they have been told to be ready to get up in case the wind pushes the fire here. this is just one as you mentioned burning fires throughout the state of california. stay with us on bbc news — still to come... a world on the move — new reasearch suggests a changing environment could lead to more than a billion people leaving their homes.

freedom itself was attacked this morning and freedom will be defended. the united states will hunt down and punish those responsible. bishop tutu now becomes spiritual leader of 100,000 anglicans here, of the blacks in soweto township, as well as the whites in their rich suburbs. we say to you today, in a loud and clear voice, enough of blood and tears. enough. the difficult decision we reach together was one that required great and exceptional courage. it's an exodus of up to 60,000 people caused by the uneven pace of political change in eastern europe. iam free!

this is bbc news — the latest headlines... a huge crackdown on social gatherings in england — as covid cases rise. from monday — social gatherings of more than six people will be illegal. as one of belarus' leading opposition activists rips up her passport to avoid being expelled from the country — the president insists he is not stepping down. more than one billion people are at risk of being displaced by 2050. that's accoridng to a new report from the institute for economics and peace. the think—tank has launched an ecological threat register which looks at the long term impact of conflict, water shortages and a lack of food. let's go to melbourne to speak with the executive chairman of the institute for economics

and peace, steve killelea. thank you forjoining us. a billion is a large number. but not all linked to climate change. it is the ecological threat but not climate change in particular. yes. what we have done is lick that eight different ecological threats and see and extrapolate them to 2050 to see which ones most likely arc to cause an impact on migration and conflict in different parts of the world. the two areas which we can see which are most troubling with water. 5.3 billion people by 2050 will live in countries which are going to have a higher extreme water shortage and then we are estimating that food will increase the demand for that by about 50% over the next 30 years. this will then put further strain on another

3.5 billion people. we didn't look at the resilience of the various countries which are infected, we find that the population in these countries, while about 1.2 billion people, likely to end up with a portion of them being forced to migrate. that is to do with population growth. and if that in food production is well, limited by water reduction, but that's that come back to climate change or are there other myriads of reasons why water will be scarce? climate change certainly plays into it with these ecological threats are there over and above climate change. for example, there is 60% of the available water on the planet is being used more than what it was 50 yea rs used more than what it was 50 years ago. we also come if we come down to look at the demand forfood come down to look at the demand for food and particularly with the improving economies in asia, lsa china, north asia, we

are expecting an extra 50% more food to be consumed. combined this with population growth, it isn't even in different parts of the world. but there are 17 countries which will more than double their population in the next 30 years. most of them are in africa, when it enlarges increases will be niger, which will go up 175%. the figures are devastating. in terms of the human consequences of that in the migration routes, what do you predict air, we have seen from iraq and syria, and elsewhere there migrate every routes to europe come is that still going to be the focus do you think? what we expect is for some of these countries as the ecologists he collapsed, the ecologists he collapsed, the people migrate first to other parts of the country and then further on into the region, they will certainly be a flow into your article and there are two core doors will

receive this glow coming from europe. the first is from mauritania come over to somalia after the sidehill, northern africa. the second is from a corridor in the middle east starting with syria, moving over to pakistan in south asia, now if we go back and look at the 2015 and 16 crisis immigration in europe, relatively small numbers of people, half of the european population, because a lot of political instability. we even saw the riot of new political parties. we would expect that these immigration players in these immigration players in the future, unless we can actually address these problems, will be far greater. a big debate in the uk about overseas aid and as there is another different developed countries as well. what impact does that have and is this really the case, this is eve ryo ne really the case, this is everyone two problem in all

countries need to resolve this because we are all in some way going to be affected. yes. definitely so. if we are looking at the budget and the developed countries, other than china, they've all been decreasing over the last four yea rs. decreasing over the last four years. the biggest decrease has come from the us, the budget is 40% lower. also big decreases in other countries like france, the uk, italy, even australia. the only one of the major aid donors to actually increase is aided the last four years in china, which went up 4%. the certainly there is a need is a big part of this, but there are other things which can be done as well, and so a lot of these countries, the water is not actually captured adequately. if you can think of a lot of the african countries which the ones which will be most address, it will get the wet

season, huge runoff and water, soa season, huge runoff and water, so a question about how can you better ca ptu re so a question about how can you better capture the water then use that for agriculture, and so what i propose is that we need governments, businesses and science to come together to better understand a solutions to create... i have to stop you there. we are at a time. but thank you forjoining us. a new book by president trump's former lawyer claims he behaves like a mobster and has ‘a low opinion of all black people'. the white house says michael cohen's memoir, out today, is full of lies. whoever you choose to believe, what's undeniable is what a gold mine the trump presidency has been for book publishers. in fact, michael cohen's is one of three books about donald trump out today. earlier i spoke tojim milliot, the editorial director of trade news magazine publishers weekly, and i asked him if it was usual for there to be so many books about a sitting president. it is highly unusual.

especially with the election coming up, and this whole surge began around 2018 when a number of books, about the first half of the presidency, they had the letters, they hit the list, we made trump book publishers the person of the year because of the number of titles and volumes they sold. i remember like wolff's fire and fury but, they seem to be the catalyst for the second wave of books about donald trump. did they all do well? not all do well. not all books ever do well but the batting average is pretty high. we had the fire and fury,

we had bob woodward's fear, in next week woodward is coming out with part two called rage, i can guarantee you that will be a bestseller. i wouldn't be surprised if it was one of the top selling books of the year. that is coming this month. and that is because of everybody trying to get in with their publication before the elections? for sure. november three is the big day. there is a rush of books trying to get out ahead of that because it is almost certain that the narrative will change after november three. it will all be all about who won, who lost, and take it from there. the polls are so tight, it is anybody‘s guess at the moment. interesting also that you would think a lot of these books will be critical like cohen's but not all of them are. definitely there is a steady drumbeat of books in support of either president trump or republican taking the conservative agenda,

that sort of thing. while mary trump's book and thejohn bolton book have been high on the bestseller, here, sean hannity, the fox personality, he has a book live free or die that has been among the best sellers as well. "keeping up with the kardashians" , one of america's biggest reality shows , is set to end in 2021, after running for 1h years. the show focused on kim kardashian west and her sisters, kourtney, khloe, kendall and kylie. it turned them all into major stars, with worldwide followings and millions in the bank. critics often targeted the show for being bland, but fans said it was "a guilty pleasure". a reminder of our top story.... social gatherings of more than six people are to be banned in england, amid a surge in coronavirus infections.

this starts from this we can. goodbye. hello. a fairly mild start to wednesday across most parts of the british isles but some of you will have to wait before we get skies like that, particularly in england and wales where you are closed by this weather front, not a lot of rain on it but there will be a fair amount of cloud. that takes the time to pull its way a little bit further towards the south and from the word go, scotland and northern ireland in the far north of england are drier and brighter, some showers is coming through on a breeze. elsewhere, we're in for a pretty dry day. eventually, we break up the cloud in the south and the rain really dies away. humid across the southeast and elsewhere, temperatures mid—teens to about 20 degrees. through the evening, we drag the last of that cloud away

towards the near continent, it's that time of the year where the nights are longer and the skies are clear. somewhere on the eastern side of scotland and england will get down to three or 4 degrees. a cool start to thursday, but it's shaping up to be a decent day for many parts of the british isles, certainly to start with a ridge of high—pressure nosing in from the atlantic. but no disguising the fact that a little bit further to the north and west, and closing on the northwest of the british isles, eventually there will be enough cloud to rob you of your sunshine and in northern ireland may be a passing shower, and more on the way of wet weather into the northern parts of scotland. and the temperatures are not just as high after that chilly start as they will have been in the first part of the week. that weather front gradually works its way across part of the british isles in the first part of friday, and then staggers its way a wee bit further south, weakening all the while but before it does that, it will deliver a good bit

of rain into scotland and northern ireland and eventually it gets across the border. so in the south, dry enough, a top temperature of about 20, 21, things turning more showery and breezy across northwest of scotland to finish out the day. that is the way you start the weekend in that neck of the woods. notice the number of isobars. quite windy to the north and west and isles and north of scotland. high—pressure trying to dominate many areas but it does not keep the front from the north and west of scotland, hence the forecast, but elsewhere a little dry and fine weather with some sunshine.