good afternoon. two former prime ministers have condemned a plan by the government to override elements of the brexit withdrawal agreement signed with the eu. in a joint column for the sunday times, sirjohn major and tony blair called the proposal — which would break international law — shocking and irresponsible. thejustice secretary robert buckland this morning dismissed the criticism, saying the country is facing an unprecedented situation. our political correspondent, helen catt, reports.

two former prime ministers, one conservative, one labour, both angry. they have joined forces before to speak against brexit, but now they have strong words for a government planning to alter parts of the treaty which paved the way for leaving the eu less than a year ago. writing in the sunday times, sirjohn and mr blair said the government's actions were irresponsible, wrong in principle and dangerous in practice. they said it raises questions that go far beyond the impact on ireland, the peace process and negotiations for a trade deal, crucial that they are. it questioned the very integrity of oui’ it questioned the very integrity of our nation. the government has defended the plan, saying it is an unprecedented situation and the powers it will give itself will probably never be used. powers it will give itself will probably never be usedlj powers it will give itself will probably never be used. i believe that with our determination to seek an agreement, both on the joint committee and in the fta, we will get to a position where we won't need to invoke these provisions, and this is all about insurance planning. is it sabre rattling and

bluster? no, it's a break the glass in emergency provision if we need it. if the uk were to break international law, where would that leave individual lawmakers? international law, where would that leave individual lawmaker57m international law, where would that leave individual lawmakers? is that the moment that robert buckland resigns from the government, if we break international law itself?“ resigns from the government, if we break international law itself? if i see the rule of law being broken in a way see the rule of law being broken in awayi see the rule of law being broken in a way i find unacceptable, of course, i will go. we are not at that stage. on the eu side, the anger is visible. the irish foreign minister says these actions make getting deals on anything harder. the british government, in my view, is behaving in an extraordinary way on british people need to know that because outside of britain, where this issue is being discussed now, the reputation of the uk and britain asa the reputation of the uk and britain as a trusted negotiating partner on important issues like this, is being damaged in a very serious way. labour agrees. it says the government is to stop reigniting old i’ows government is to stop reigniting old

rows and just get on with it. there isa rows and just get on with it. there is a deal there to be done, and it is a deal there to be done, and it is the responsibility of the british government to do that deal. the differences that remain on state aid and fisheries, deals can be done on those things. good negotiators would be getting round the table rather than posturing, and that is what i'm urging the government to do. with the legislation due before parliament tomorrow, the chorus of concern is growing. at the moment, it looks unlikely that these will be the voices that persuade downing street it needs to change course. the government has written to care home providers in england to warn them of a rise in new coronavirus infections within the sector. the letter acknowledges that infections are "mainly affecting the workforce, but clearly there is a risk the virus will spread to care home residents". our social affairs correspondent, alison holt, is here with me. alison, of course, the great fear is that there could be a second wave of cases in care homes. absolutely, and

there are reports in the sunday times newspaper today that an official report marked official insensitive was circulated at the department of health and social care last friday, saying the rate of coronavirus infections had quadrupled since the start of the month. it also says that the health and care secretary, matt hancock, was told last wednesday that outbreaks had been detected in 43 homes in england. i need to give you some context to that. at the height of the pandemic, the worst week for ca re of the pandemic, the worst week for care homes, back in april, there we re care homes, back in april, there were more than 1000 outbreaks in homes during one week. nevertheless, this is reflecting that wider worry about what is going on. the letter from the department also circulated on friday, which we force reported on friday, which we force reported on friday, which we force reported on friday —— first reported, said infections were mainly among the workforce, but nevertheless they had been transmitted to residents in

some cases. the department is due to publish its winter plans for social ca re publish its winter plans for social care in the next week or two, and says it is doing all it can for care homes, but already, care homes are worried about their ability to get testing and testing results as they see that as the key to protecting homes. alison, thank you. more than 30 people have been killed by wildfires that are sweeping through the west coast of the united states. blazes have been burning in oregon, california and washington for three weeks, affecting millions of acres. dozens of people are missing and tens of thousands have been forced to flee their homes, as helena wilkinson reports. 0h, oh, my god. in oregon and california, this is what some have had to escape from, more than one delete like a dozen fires are still raging across the state. from up high, the devastation is starc. thousands of homes in oregon now reduced to a charred ruins. on the

ground, search and rescue crews luke for dozens —— look for dozens who are missing. for the tens of thousands who have been forced to flee their homes, they have no idea of when they'll be able to return, 01’ of when they'll be able to return, or what they will find. if we have to rebuild, we have to rebuild. if we don't have to rebuild, we still have so much clean—up to do because of the ash, because when we left, like i said, the last time we pulled out, there was almost two inches. satellite images from this week show thick plumes of smoke over the west coast of america. nasser said the view had been unusual and grim. the smoke pollution from the wildfires has left portland barely visible. meteorologists say oregon's largest city has been left with the worst air quality in the world. on monday, president trump is due to visit california to see for himself the trail of devastation the wildfires have left behind. helena wilkinson,

bbc news. nazanin zaghari—ratcliffe, the british—iranian woman jailed for spying in iran, has not been taken to court to face new charges, as she'd been expecting. her husband says she was instead told that she d be brought into the prosecutors office in tehran for a discussion. mrs zaghari—ratcliffe was told last week that she was facing a new charge. the foreign office said it welcomed the deferral of the hearing and has urged iran to make her release permanent. whiteman economists say lockdown could lead tojob whiteman economists say lockdown could lead to job losses and economic consequences. in bolton, bars and economic consequences. in bolton, bars a nd restau ra nts economic consequences. in bolton, bars and restaurants have had a close except for takeaways. our business correspondent, katie prescott, has this report. a sign of the times in bolton town centre.

pubs and bars closed for the second time for the local lockdown. this publican in bolton has re—furloughed all of his staff except for the chef and is turning to takeaways, to keep the business ticking over. the future of the business, uncertain. we have had good support. the pub we are in at the moment, the thomas egerton, i think will survive. i think we will be all right here. we have got a smaller pub down the road called the brewhouse, which may not be as easy to start up again. and that may be the difference between the company staying afloat or otherwise. businesses like this in england, forced to close by local lockdowns are getting extra funding from government, but any restrictions can upend the economy. we have seen in leicester, for example, when the restrictions have been lifted, the footfall is still around up to 20% lower than what we would have expected it otherwise, so there is a lingering effect of these local lockdowns on consumer confidence. and it is these sorts of closures that we are seeing

here in bolton that businesses say they really fear. but there is a catch—22 going on between trying to open up the economy and get people back to work and indeed going to work counts as essential travel in lockdown areas. all the while, trying to prevent a spike in infections that could lead to the sorts of stringent measures being seen in other areas of the uk. it is not game over for bars in halifax, which can still open, but in this local lockdown, different households are not allowed to socialise inside, which means more empty seats. now, obviously with the restrictions that we have got in place, it is less of a utopia for you to come and enjoy yourself. you are enjoying yourself in a controlled environment, which is not what the hospitality industry is about. by sticking to the new rules, all are hoping that these types of closures are short—lived. katie prescott, bbc news.

you can see more on all of today's stories on the bbc news channel. the next news on bbc one is at 5:35. bye for now. good afternoon, i'm sarah mulkerrins on the news channel with the latest from bbc sport. england's cricketers are under way in their must—win one day international against australia at old trafford, following the aussies' win in the first match on friday. it's the second of three matches. england won the toss and decided to bat. they've brought in the curran brothers and left out mark wood and moeen ali. australia have left out steve smith despite the batsman having passed concussion tests after a knock on the head in training.

very early days there. there are two more games in the premier league today, starting with newly promoted west bromwich albion at home against leicester city. that kicks off at 2. west brom have been relegated in 4 of their previous 12 premier league campaigns. we wa nt we want to compete as a team, not as a championship side. we are going to try to do something in the premier league, but as a very confident team thatis league, but as a very confident team that is going to expect to stay in the league for a long time. that is our objective. it is the first task, of course, like for any promoted team, to stay up and to secure that status for the next season. spurs managerjose mourinho says he'll get depressed if he thinks too much about about their

congested fixture list. they could play as many as nine matches in 22 days, due to europa league qualifying commitments. their new season starts at 4 this afternoon against an everton side who could hand debuts to new signings allan, abdoulaye doucoure and james rodriguez. i think the players that arrived understood that we have a project with ambition. the club is a big project with ambition for the future, so this is also the reason that they are happy to come here now. they are going to work to put their quality for the team and for this club. when carlo goes to everton, it's easy to understand what everton wants, what colour wants, which are

their ambitions. and then you look to the markets and what they did. they brought players of high quality, players who know carlo very well. they have worked with him in previous clubs, and of course, a good squad becomes a much stronger squad. defending champions chelsea are taking on bristol city in the women's super league and fran kirby, who is back fit and healthy, opened her account for the season — her first league goal for 16 months. chelsea were then given a penalty afterji so yun was brought down in the area — was drilled home by maren mjelde. and melanie leupolz made it 3 shortly before the break. and in the last few moment, chelsea have added a fourth. you can watch that live now online via the website, app and red button. four other matches in the league today. everton versus tottenham got under way at 1.

in the other matches, birmingham city take on manchester united, manchester city host brighton & hove albion and reading are at home to aston villa. there's a key game under way way in the race for the top four in rugby union's premiership. fourth placed wasps are hosting bristol in third. the visitors made 12 changes to their winning team mid—week as they have one eye on their european challenge cup quarterfinal next friday. wasps are taking full advantage, 4 tries so far, 26—0 up approaching half—time. so, a really busy day of sport. as well as the cricket, football and rugby, the tuscan grand prix gets under way in mugello in the next hour, plus it's stage 15 of the tour de france. you can follow all the action as it unfolds on the bbc sport website and follow the cricket with video clips, plus listen to commentary on 5live sports extra.

the welsh government says nearly a third of people should still be working from home, even when coronavirus restrictions have eased. ministers say their ambition is to see about 30% of the workforce in wales staying at or near home in the long term. they argue the move could reduce congestion and pollution, and improve work—life balance. tomos morgan reports. a sign of coronavirus times, workspaces across the uk near—empty. but as prime minister borisjohnson aims to get the public back into the office, the welsh government says it is aiming for 30% of workers to keep working from home, even as the threat of covid—19 decreases. it is a decision based on stopping the virus and reducing congestion into town centres and improving air quality. ministers are adamant that this is a proposal that can rejuvenate and not hinder town centre economy.

we can breathe life back into town centres, plus give people the option of continuing the flexibility they have had through the coronavirus. we don't want people to return to their offices, we think covid has shown us a better way of doing things. it does not work for everyone, but for those it does work for, there could be multiple benefits for the whole of society. but some unions suggest local small businesses could suffer if this becomes a long—term reality. the people who are going to be potentially losing out in all of this are going to be the lowest paid workers, more often than not, people who cannot work from home, theirjobs are somewhere else, they physically have to go to work so you're talking about cleaning, you're talking about people who work in maintenance and so forth, people who may work in the hospitality sector, and the retail sectors as well. this is a bold announcement from a devolved government that has been cautious in its approach in easing lockdown but a decisive one in implementing what it feels is best for wales. tomos morgan, bbc news, cardiff.

a group of mps has written to nhs trusts asking them to allow pregnant women to have a partner with them during labour and scans. the government has given guidance saying this should be permitted, but mps are concerned that some nhs trusts are still making women go through labour alone. earlier, conservative mp alicia kearns told us why she was organising the campaign. so when national lockdown ended, medical guidance to the government said it could now change so that all women across the country could have a partner with them for all their scans and for every stage of labour. but unfortunately, even this week there's been a woman in the country who had to deliver a stillborn on their own. there are women going for scans and finding out they've had miscarriages on their own, and there are partners who are locked out of rooms when theyjust want to be there, protecting their loved ones.

so i'm calling for all nhs trusts to immediately put in place government guidance and make sure no woman goes through this alone. i'm five months pregnant at the moment. the reason i'm fighting for this is that my trust immediately let me have a partner, so i haven't had any scans on my own. but women go into these scans excited, terrified. it's a real time of unknown, and you could walk in and walk away with the best news possible, i only had the scan yesterday, or you could walk away with the most devastating news when you could have when you could have been working to get pregnant for years. women are going into rooms where they have previously had a miscarriage, not knowing what they're going to be told this time, as i say, been divorced and having to deliver a stillborn on their own. birth is traumatic. i remember when i was in labour, all seemed fine and one minute later i was being blue—lit into the emergency room. birth changes at speed and women have to be given the support, and partners deserve to be part of that and not cut out of the process. teenagers convicted of terrorism in england and wales could receive whole—life terms under sentencing reforms described

by the government as the most radical in almost 20 yea rs. currently, a life tariff can only be given to those over the age of 21, but ministers plan to reduce this to 18 for exceptional cases, such as terrorism as thejustice secretary, robert buckland, explains. i'm going to be reforming the law further to end the situation where just because you might be under 21, the law bars the possibility of a whole life order, that is somebody serving all their term in prison. i think it's right to give judges that discretion, and later in the week i will be announcing more measures in a sentencing white paper that will finally give the country a sense of what i have worked on for the last 30 years as a professional barrister and as a part—timejudge, that i think sentencing can be better, can be smarter and can be more balanced, genuinely in the interests of public protection and also

rehabilitation wherever appropriate. labour say increasing sentences for younger terrorist offenders is "quite low down the list" of issues in a criminal justice system that is in "complete disarray" due to cuts. and earlier i spoke to lord carlile who served as the uk's independent reviewer of terrorism legislation from 2001 to 2011. he said he doesn't support this review from the government. it's completely unnecessary. judges have the full range of discretion available for 18 to 21—year—olds, as mrjustice jeremy baker demonstrated a few days ago when he gave a minimum term of 55 years to hashem abedi, one of the brothers responsible for the manchester bombing. there are very good reasons for having different

rules for those under 21, as i would have thought would be recognised by every experienced prosecutor, defender, criminologist, teacher, parent who has had teenagers and so on. this is window dressing, i'm afraid, and it will not be acceptable, particularly to many people in the house of lords who i believe willjoin me in voting against it. you say there are good reasons for differentiating on the basis of age. let me read to you what borisjohnson has said in today's sunday express, talking about hashem abedi's case and the case of the manchester arena bombing. he says if somebody plots to deliberately kill dozens of people, it doesn't matter if you are only 18, 19 or 20 when you do so, we are going to remove a loophole that lets some truly despicable criminals avoid such a sentence. well, as the father of many grown—up children, i'm surprised to hear that from boris johnson, frankly, because he's wrong. hashem abedi will not be

considered for parole until he is at least 70 plus years old. thejudge said to him that he may well never be released. but it is a fact that younger people tend to be more impressionable and there is a possibility, only a possibility, and there's not much sign of it with hashem abedi, that he may think very differently by the time he is much older. the parole board is there to deal with this case. it does so on the basis of evidence and on the merits. it is led by skilled people, and i think this isjust a political act, and politics really ought to be kept out of sentencing as far as possible. representatives of the afghan government and the taliban begin their first formal day of peace talks in qatar later, following saturday's opening ceremony. the head of the government delegation, abdullah abdullah, said that one of the first issues to be discussed would be government calls for a reduction in violence

and an eventual ceasefire. the taliban say afghanistan should be governed under stricter islamic law. the bbc‘s chief international correspondent lyse doucet is in doha. she explained to me the potential sticking points in the talks. these are peace talks. that means silencing the guns. this is the first agenda on the government's side. they want to have a ceasefire. the taliban have been reluctant. they don't want to demobilise their fighters. they're worried that they will go away from the battlefield and not come back. and of course, they're a military organisation. it's part of their sense of who they are, which is why during the agreement they reached with the united states, they didn't talk about a ceasefire, they said "reduction in violence". today we've been talking with negotiators on both sides to say, can you come up with a form of words? the government is proposing humanitarian ceasefire, in other words, to ease

the suffering of the people, not about politics, but about everyday lives. this will be the first stumbling block. then, of course, what kind of a political system? on the one side, the taliban say it is the islamic emirate of afghanistan. on the other side, it's the islamic republic of afghanistan, with a constitution. both sides want to say that "it's our political structure" and that islamic law should prevail, so that has to be worked out too. and what are the extent of political freedoms? what about women's rights that have been achieved in the last 19 years? so as we know in every process worldwide, it's in the details, and in afghanistan too. lyse doucet in doha. in greece, thousands of people from the moria migrant camp on the island of lesbos have spent a fourth night sleeping rough after it was burnt to the ground. the authorities are working to set up tents to rehouse them, but they face strong opposition from some greek islanders who want the migrants to be sent elsewhere. more than 10,000

people were left without shelter when fires devastated the camp last week. greek authorities say the most vulnerable asylum seekers, including families, will be given priority housing. on saturday police on lesbos fired tear gas during a protest by migrants. it was the second such demonstration since friday, sparked by anger over their conditions. shirin tinnesand works for the greek charity stand by me lesbos, which has been helping those affected by the burning down of moria camp. i asked her to describe the situation on the island. for the past four days, a lot of these people have been living outside the road block, literally on the road or by the road. in addition to not having been provided with shelter, these people haven't been provided with food either. it was only yesterday afternoon that this camp for families was opened. they were previously getting

unaccompanied minors off the island. they came with buses to pick up single african women, who were also brought into shelter, and yesterday they opened a facility for families. but actually, they haven't been receiving food. only a few ngos have been able to provide any emergency relief. as we speak, there is another demonstration happening in this area by women and children. let's turn to south korea now, where officials are working hard to prevent the spread of coronavirus infections. one of the key tools in the fight has been the team of dedicated contact tracers — who plot the movements of suspected carriers of covid—19. they're known as the virus detectives — and this is their story. translation: when there is oil spilt at sea, barriers are used to stop it spreading.

we try to work as fast as we can. a stitch in time saves nine. translation: our work is like that of a detective. the time now is past one o'clock in the morning. i arrived at work around 700. apart from meal breaks, we've been working around the clock. when gps phone coordinates are inserted, their previous locations get marked on a map.

but we don't believe everything people tell us. we also check security cameras and look at credit card usage. some think we are being dishonest, of lying about the test results. it's an attempt to communise south korea and wipe out the conservatives. some people just cry. we do our best to console them.

i'm worried that if things get worse, contact tracers will become obsolete. despite our best efforts, we may not be able to stop it spreading. that's my worst fear. now it's time for a look at the weather. tomasz schafernaker has the latest. hi. no fears. forsome tomasz schafernaker has the latest. hi. no fears. for some of us, it might bea hi. no fears. for some of us, it might be a little too hot over the next couple of days, but we are talking about a small part of the uk, just the south—east, where temperatures are expected to soar. in fact, we could end up having one of the hottest days in a few years for september. but for most of us, it would just be very warm and sunny. across scotland, farfrom it

at the moment, particularly western scotla nd at the moment, particularly western scotland and the western isles. here we had continuous rains, a conveyor belt of moisture coming off the north atlantic. we have skipped up nearly 100 millimetres of rain in parts of the western isles. gale force winds in some places, so it's a very different picture here compared to the rest of the country, where we have had plenty of sunshine and temperatures around the low to mid 20s in the south—east and east anglia. this evening, it's pretty quiet on the weatherfront across most of england and wales, northern ireland too. the last of the heavy rain should clear to the north, away from the western isles of scotland, and then we are left with a quiet end to the night and they start to monday. quite a mild morning, and here is the weather map for monday. high pressure across central europe. we are in between, and we have this current of warm air coming out of

spain and france, so that