this is bbc news. the headlines at 6: thejustice secretary defends the government potentially breaking international law over changes to the brexit withdrawal agreement. this is a collective will on the part of the government not just to prepare for the worst, but also to protect the internal workings of our united kingdom. that is responsible government. concern from care home providers over access to the government's coronavirus testing programme as infections rise. a stretch of the ms has been closed in gloucestershire after a serious collision involving several vehicles. sue barker is leaving the bbc‘s a question of sport after 23 years as part of a major shake—up

at the programme. and it's victory for lewis hamilton in the tuscan grand prix after a race that was stopped twice after a spate of crashes. more on that at 6:30pm in sportsday. the justice secretary, robert buckland, has defended government plans to potentially override elements of the brexit withdrawal agreement signed with the european union. the proposal, which would break international law, would give number 10 the power to change or ignore rules relating to the movement of goods between britain and northern ireland.

mr buckland said it was an emergency brexit insurance policy if brussels acted in an unreasonable way by insisting on excessive checks on goods. here's our chief political correspondent, vicki young. a lot‘s changed since brexit day. crowds can no longer gather, but once again the arguments are raging about our relationship with the eu. four years ago, these two former prime ministers campaigned against brexit. today, they criticised the government for making plans to override parts of the legally binding treaty which laid out the terms of our departure. writing in the sunday times, sirjohn major and tony blair said that was irresponsible, wrong in principle and dangerous in practice. "it raises questions that go far beyond the impact on ireland, the peace process and negotiations for a trade deal, crucial though they are. it questions the very integrity of our nation". government ministers say it's just an insurance policy in case negotiations with the eu

don't work out. we hope very much never to have to use this. it's a "break the glass in emergency" provision if we need it. but they're not denying that giving uk ministers the power to change the withdrawal agreement breaks international law. how could anyjustice secretary stand by and let that happen? is that the moment that robert buckland resigns from the government, if we break international law itself? if i see the rule of law being broken in a way that i find unacceptable, then of course i will go. we are not at that stage. eu and uk negotiators are working on two things — a future trade deal and the trade details of unique arrangements for northern ireland, which will continue to follow some eu rules. and here's a sign of how tense things have become. taking to twitter, michel barnier pointed out that borisjohnson had himself agreed to what he called the delicate compromise. david frost complained that the eu's position meant northern ireland might not be allowed to import food

from the rest of the uk. ireland's foreign minister angrily dismissed that as spin and said borisjohnson‘s actions were undermining trust. the british government, in my view, is behaving in an extraordinary way, and british people need to know that because, outside of britain, where this issue is being discussed now, 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. tomorrow, the action returns to parliament. several conservative mps have said they can't support a bill that breaks the law. this all echoes the arguments of a year ago. criticism from lawyers, the eu and former prime ministers is unlikely to change downing street's mind. vicki young, bbc news, westminster. a charity that represents care providers in england says

the government's coronavirus testing regime has had serious problems. it comes just days after the department of health and social care wrote to care home providers, warning of a rise in new coronavirus infections within homes. the letter acknowledged it was mainly staff being affected, but also said some residents are testing positive too. our social affairs correspondent, alison holt, has more details. in care homes like this one in manchester, they have already had a long and exhausting fight against coronavirus. in april, they lost nine residents. but with careful infection control like this and increased testing, they have managed to keep it out of the home of the summer. if there is a second wave, quick testing will be vital in identifying people without symptoms and keeping residents safe. but mark adams, who heads a charity that runs 18 uk care homes including this one, says in recent weeks they have had problems getting results in about 40% of their tests. at the moment, we are getting the kits for weekly testing, but the results are coming five, six or seven days after

the test was taken. so, if someone does catch covid, they could perhaps be in the building for three or four days without even being aware. as the infection rate rises out here in the wider community, inevitably, care homes are going to feel the impact. on friday, the department of health and social care sent a letter to care bosses warning that they were beginning to see a rise in cases in care homes. the majority were staff who had become infected, but some residents had also contracted the virus. it is also reported in the sunday times today that infections in care homes have quadrupled since the start of the month. as demand for tests rises in the general population, care providers say it's vital that the care sector is made a priority. i think the testing regime has had serious problems and i want the government to prioritise care services. we saw at the start of this pandemic that people living in care homes

were the most susceptible to the virus, so i hope that they will realise that and start prioritising the testing in care homes. the department for health and social care says it has done everything it can to ensure the safety of residents and staff since the start of the pandemic and that it will publish its winter plan for social care shortly. alison holt, bbc news. well, the latest government figures show there were 3,330 new coronavirus infections recorded in the latest 24—hour period. that means the average number of new cases reported per day in the last week is 3,050. five deaths were reported of people who died within 28 days of a positive covid—i9 test, and that means, on average in the last week, 11 deaths were announced every day, taking the total number across the uk to 41,628.

a stretch of the ms has been closed in gloucestershire after a serious collision which involved two lorries and a car. the highways agency says the stretch will probably stay closed until tomorrow morning. there's no news yet on whether anyone was hurt in the accident. alice bouverie reports from gloucetershire. in the predawn hour of a quiet sunday morning, a horrible accident on the m5. ray knight was working on his farm and heard it all unfold. it was about 5:40am, got up this morning, put the kettle on to make a cup of tea, opened the back door and then there was a great big bang followed a few minutes later by a second bang. and then my son came down and he just said, there's something strange going on. i said, what do you mean? he said, in the distance, there is black smoke billowing up. i went outside and, about ten minutes later, we heard a third one and, by that point, you could see

the black smoke and there was a glow in the sky which i presume was the fire. the police were called to reports a ford fiesta had come off the motorway. they say a lorry parked behind the car to offer help and protect it, but then it appears a supermarket delivery lorry came up and crashed into the back of the first one which was then destroyed by fire. we don't know the full details of what happened to start this incident so early this morning although there are some marks on the road which suggest that, at some point, a vehicle has veered quite sharply from the middle lane. but what we do know is that the resulting explosions were heard in villages several miles away. the motorway was closed in both directions for over six hours. the southbound carriageway finally opened at midday, the cars led through by traffic officers. because of the damage caused by the fire, highways england says the northbound carriageway will be close until tomorrow morning for resurfacing work, sending traffic on a 23—mile diversion.

alice bouverie, bbc points west, tredington. major restaurant groups have written to the government, asking for an extension of the ban on evicting tenants, which expires at the end of this month. the bosses of deliveroo, burger king and itsu, sayi in 3 landlords are preparing evictions. 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 years. 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—time judge 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 criminaljustice 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. 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.

the foreign office said it welcomed the deferral of the hearing and said they call on iran to make nazanin's release permanent so that she can return to herfamily in the uk. nazanin's husband richard it was "too early to say what the postponement means except that this remains a game of cat and mouse between governments with us living life as a piece of bait." nazanin told her husband this morning, "i really can't take it any more. they have all these games, and i have no power in them. ifind myself hating everything in this life, including myself. there is no escape." tulip siddiq is the local mp for the zaghari—ratcliffe family and says the uncertainty continues to hang over her constituent‘s head. she went through all the charges against her with her lawyer from what i understand yesterday. they prepared a strong defence. her lawyer reassured her there was not much in what they were plotting against her if you like and they would be able to give a strong defence in herfavour. she waited all morning and was told she was not going to court,

she was meant to be escorted because she has got an ankle tag which prevents herfrom moving away from her parents‘ house where she is based but all of a sudden she was told the trial has been cancelled, she would not be in court today, there would be no hearing, so once again it's hanging over her head. her husband has maintained from day one that his wife is a pawn and a bargaining chip who is caught between two countries. as you say and you are absolutely right, we as a country owe iran £400 million and nazanin has been told over and over again that, unless that debt is paid, she will not be coming home. she was told herself by one of the guards in prison that she is in prison because of our failure to pay that debt. and it is promising that the government, our government, is talking about paying the debt back but, in all honesty, they should have paid back the debt along time ago.

because perhaps, if they had paid the debt back, my constituent would be home right now. the one thing i would say that is promising is that the embassy in tehran, our embassy in tehran, is now saying they will stand beside nazanin, attend court hearings, go to her trial and be there with her, perhaps that's one of the reasons why the trial did not go ahead today, it's hard to know. no one really knows the reason. it may be because the embassy is finally coming out and supporting nazanin that we are in the situation. she was granted diplomatic protection, a special status as a prisoner by the former foreign secretary and it looks like the government is finally taking that status seriously and doing something with it which gives us hope about her returning home. the headlines on bbc news... thejustice secretary defends the government potentially international law over changes to the brexit withdrawal agreement.

concern from care home providers over access to the government's coronavirus testing programme as infections rise. a stretch of the ms has been closed in gloucestershire after a serious collision involving several vehicles. at least 30 people have now died in wildfires that are engulfing the west coast of america — — across three states, destroying millions of acres of land. more than 20,000 firefighters, are trying to beat back the flames. 0ur north america correspondent, nomia iqbal, has more details. the fires have been unrelenting. more than 1 million acres of land have been burned here. around 40,000 people have left their homes and half a million are under evacuation orders. poor visibility has made it harder to get out, but many have fled to trailer parks where volunteers have

been distributing food. but with the fires comes the challenge of covid—19. want to make sure everybody maintain social distance as much as possible. it is admittedly difficult in this environment, but we are going to try and organise feeding lines and things like that to maintain a six foot distance. in san francisco, the grey sky has turned hazy orange is the wildfires engulfed parts of california. i am trying to keep a positive attitude, but it's scary. one of those things like, you just have to take into consideration that you have to be careful when you're breathing because you could be inhaling the smoke. california has never seen fires on this scale before. dozens have destroyed more than 3 million acres of land. even fire trucks are being shipped in to help, with the world's largest plane arriving into san francisco, carrying at least three fire engines.

the smoke is so thick, it can be seen all the way from space. up close, the devastation is staggering. thousands of homes have been incinerated. some who have returned home here in oregon has been going through the rubble to find their belongings. 0thers guide theirs from potential looters. it's been a rough couple of days, but ijust didn't feel right leaving home. president trump will be arriving in california tomorrow. he will be meeting firefighters as they battle to put an end to fires like these, which have been burning for weeks. nomia iqbal, bbc news, washington. the effect of these fires is affected even in those places that are not actually on fire themselves. there is a bit of traffic there,

it's mid—morning, probably about 10:15am in san francisco, but a blanket of smog is effectively what it is blowing in from the countryside outside san francisco. it is clearly enormous. and you can imagine the effect on people who struggle with conditions like asthma 01’ struggle with conditions like asthma or poor lungs in trying to deal with that. everybody will be affected by that. everybody will be affected by that and that is another reason for wearing face masks over their as well as covid. there are 28 wildfires in the state of california alone which the californian department of forestry and fire protection says it is trying to deal with. improving weather conditions should give them some...

there is concern in california about those wildfires because 0regon there is concern in california about those wildfires because oregon is close to... over the borderfrom canada. donald trump is also visiting california on monday when he will meet federal officials who work there with state officials as well to discuss what help federal government can give to california and oregon and washington state as they fight with these fires. the authorities in belarus say they've detained around 250 people, as tens of thousands gathered on a fifth consecutive sunday for anti—government protests. the capital, minsk, has once again seen violent clashes, as demonstrators defied a heavy police crackdown, calling for the resignation, of president alexander lukashenka. 0ur europe correspondent, jonah fisher, hasjust sent this report from minsk. with each passing week, belarus' protesters add

something new to their long list of grievances. what began as a response to a disputed election turned into marches against ever present police brutality. now after almost all the country's opposition leaders were either detained orforced into exile, this is for them too. in particular, maria kolesnikova, who tore her passport up to prevent herself being deported. she is a hero. we need to build a monument after we end this. do you think this will end with president lukashenko leaving? i think yes. it is not a sprint, it's a marathon. president lukashenko is no doubt hoping that by detaining key opposition leaders that these protests would run out of steam. if that was the case, he was wrong. this is the fifth sunday in a row that the centre of minsk has seen a huge display of people power.

away from the large crowds, president lukashenko's security forces continue violently arresting people. this weekend, for the first time, the police targeted large groups of demonstrating women. yevgeniy was detained before being released several hours later. all the men were frightened, that women were not treated like this until yesterday. now we are trying to, i don't know, to regain our power. i don't know what to do. having up to the violence but failed to stop the protests, president lukashenko heads to russia tomorrow. the key question — what will moscow demand in return for backing belarus's unpopular leader? jonah fisher, bbc news, minsk.

almost a third a all new covid—19 infections across the uk in the last 24 hours have been in the north west. government figures say there were 3,330 cases recorded with the region accounting for 906. two of the five deaths were also in the north west. it comes amid warnings tonight that liverpool is facing tighter coronavirus restrictions after a rapid rise in cases in the past 24 hours. yunus mulla reports. for a city on the watch list the site so many people will need to ask questions over social distancing and mixing, but what concerns health officials in liverpool is 100 more cases in the past 24 hours. that is a rate of around 80 per 100,000. 0ther a rate of around 80 per 100,000. other areas have faced tighter restrictions with this kind of

infection level. we will put the city in lockdown if we cannot reduce those figures and everybody has to do the right thing but it may well be too late. from tomorrow new rules will ban gatherings of more than six from different households. this weekend everyone is going wild which makes sense but everyone is going wild because they want to have the la st wild because they want to have the last party. i have two children so it's preventing two families coming together. coronavirus will not stop this weekend, it will still be here so this weekend, it will still be here so why wait until monday? police forces across the region have been busy responding to calls here in greater manchester. they were called to more than 3000 incidents although not all were covid related and a number of fines were issued for breaches of coronavirus regulations. in blackpool, the victoria hospital has reintroduced the restrictions

because of a rise in covid—19 cases locally. with infection rates continuing to rise expect more restrictions to follow. parts of west yorkshire have some of the lowest test and trace rates in the country. in bradford, a team of local tracers have been hired. people who have had close contact with someone found to have covid—19 are being traced and asked to isolate. aisha iqbal has been speaking to a leeds woman who lost her father to the disease. catherine knows all about the importance of the proper functioning test and tray system. she lost her father to the virus and is now campaigning alongside hundreds of bereaved families for a full covid—19 inquiry. bereaved families for a full covid-19 inquiry. we need that really robust test and trace in place to save more people from the same tragedy that has happened to my family. i would death rate is the highest in europe in our case numbers are rising. if we had a world beating test and trace system allocates system —— cases would not

be on the rise. testing trace is a simple idea and is one which has a crucial role in defeating the virus. bradford has had a specialist team of local tracers who will also work door—to—door. of local tracers who will also work door-to-door. we are finding that quite a lot of our population are not necessarily engaging as well as we thought with a national test and tray system so that the minute we have about 27% of people who test positive and are not contacted, and thatis positive and are not contacted, and that is what we call lost to follow—up and it can go up to more than 50% of people of contacts of positive cases who were not able to be contacted to the national system. how many times have i asked the government to pay for testing trace? they find money to fund a national testing trace but when it comes to local authorities the money is still not there. we should be able to pay for that as a local authority which is already stretched. the department of health told us that since the testing trace service relaunched three months ago almost 360,000

people have been reached and were contact details were shared by those testing positive 87% of their contacts were reached and told to self—isolate. hundreds of thousands of students are due to arrive at university over the coming weeks, but what will the experience be like for freshers at what should be one of the most exciting times of their lives? earlier, quintin mckellar, vice chancellor of the university of hertfordshire, explained what will await students at his university. the safety of our staff and our students is of paramount importance to us. but when they come onto the campus, they will see many of the things that they will see in many other public places. there will be lots of signage, signage which makes them follow one—way systems and so on. when they go into classrooms, the seats are much further apart than they would normally be. people will be wearing masks. when people go into libraries, they will be sitting significantly further apart than normal. but apart from that,

they will continue as you would expect on a campus. i've been talking to the president of the university of york students' union, patrick 0 donnell, and university of kent student kai mcleod, who described the end of his last term when covid first struck. it was very frantic, you know? the last week, it was very normal. the week after that, everyone was leaving, everyone was upping and leaving. no—one knew what to do. and then, you know, ijust had to come straight back home. and it was just very, very sudden. i was just very nervous and very anxious at that point. so how do you feel about going back this term? normally, going back

to university, i am very excited. going back now, i am very anxious. ijust feel like going to university is always a happy thing. it is always something i look forward to. i still look forward to it but, with these restrictions at this time, i'm a bit worried. i'm not surprised. i should imagine your family are as well. kai, i'll come back to you in a second. let's just hear from patrick. patrick, kai's experience is different because he is an old lag, as it were, for university. he has done his couple of years. he is entering his final year. you are trying to help fellow students in that situation, presumably as you have been as well, but also those who are coming for the first time. let's talk about freshers, first of all. what can they expect? here at york, we are lucky to have lots of green space, so one thing we are doing is encouraging all of our students to socialise on campus, and one thing we are doing is erecting loads of marquees and teepees around our green campus. and essentially encouraging students

to come and socialise in really safe ways where we can control it. so we're going over and beyond the government guidelines and we are doing things like temperature checks and obviously track and trace. and i completely recognise, you know, there are some students who are really eager to go back and go clubbing tomorrow, and of course there are lots of students who are really anxious to come back. what we're trying to do is strike a balance between the two and ensure a really safe return to campus. what about the all—important student union bar? we have looked at all of our venues. we have got six venues here at york and we have managed to reopen them all in september — just in a few weeks' time. we've also actually managed to create 120 or so jobs for students, which is really important at a time when a lot of students are obviously... there's less opportunities around our city, york, and elsewhere. but we are absolutely encouraging students to return safely to campus