and they are using her government, and they are using her as leverage to get the money, and that has been true for a long time. that was certainly true this past week. sue barker is leaving the bbc‘s a question of sport after 23 years — as part of a major shake—up at the programme. around 17,000 people have taken part in the biggest half—marathon in the uk, the great north run. but today wasn't the same as usual , with runners choosing their own routes and tracking their progress through an app. stuart whincup reports. it was supposed to be the biggest and the best, celebrating a0 years of the world's most famous half marathon, but today, the old course looked very different, though the familiar characters were still out pounding the streets. it's not the same as normal years, but it was absolutely brilliant. do you know what it is,

i've got a headache from the horns of people's cars, but everybody has come out, there's a steel band up there, amazing! i couldn't believe they were out, but it has just not been the same, but good in a different way. mark knopfler recorded new arrangement of local hero as thousands took to the streets. louise was running her 13th half marathon in 13 weeks. louise was supported by her friends, family and a familiar face. when i saw the great north run had been cancelled 13 weeks ago, louise was supported by her friends, family and a familiar face. when i saw the great north run had been cancelled 13 weeks ago, and st 0swalds are asking for help, i thought i had to help the. so 13 runs every weekend across the north—east, it has been fantastic.

a handful of local runners are still wanting to experience the famous finishing straight. a little old lady came out and gave us refreshment and i was really hot at halfway and got a bottle of water in a garage and the person at the till said that it is on me, you're doing the run, take that. there were still the countless inspiring stories, treasured memories and thousands raised for good causes. now on bbc news... deforestation has skyrocketed in colombia since the peace deal of 2016. our world joins a team of scientists from the royal botanic gardens. in the forests of colombia, nature is under attack. since the civil war ended in 2016, deforestation has skyrocketed.

i'm frank gardnerand i am heading into what remains of the virgin tropical rainforest. i traded in my wheelchair for a packhorse and am tested to my limits. i think this is too dangerous. i don't think i can do this. i am joining a crack team of scientists from the royal botanic gardens, kew. they are on a mission to discover and save unique plant species before they vanish forever. i am going to bear witness on the frontline of rainforest conservation.

this is where the journey begins — not in colombia, but in the royal botanic gardens, kew, london. kew is the world leader in developing plant science. the botanists are preparing for their mission to discover new species. and it is from here that this expedition will be launched. i have come here to see the expedition leader, doctor mauricio de bernardos. he works in a library for lab specimens. this is where we identify new plants. we believe we have more than 200,000 different species here. you are a botanist and a biologist.

and a scientist and an explorer in some sense. what are you expecting to get from this mission? the most remote areas are the best preserved and this is going to be our most important expedition. we're going to try to get into the heart of this area. we do not know what we expect to find. what is at stake with this whole trip that we're doing? why is this so important? we are in a race against time to protect this biodiversity from disappearing. we have rapid deforestation. we see how we are losing this forest very quickly and ourjob is to get an understanding about the diversity of these resources as well as their importance. in 2016, the colombian government signed a peace deal with the farc rebels.

for more than half a century, civil war actually slowed the pace of deforestation. but now remote tracts of land have opened up. farmers, loggers, and miners are scrambling for resources. colombia is now reportedly losing 3,000 square kilometres of forest every year. we are travelling to an area famous for its emerald mines, western boyaca. this is a bittersweet journey for me. this could be the last time that i could see this forest. if i come back in ten years, this forest could be gone. colombia is still an eden. it's the second most biodiverse country in the world, after brazil.

i may be the bbc‘s security correspondent, but my passion is for nature. you know, just look around you. there's incredible scenery. it is such a privilege to be here. i love being surrounded by the sounds and smells of nature. nature has always been something of an antidote to myjob as a security correspondent. in 2004, i was shot and partly paralysed while on the job. i won't deny, i have a certain trepidation about the trip itself because everybody else is walking. i will need to do this on horseback or i will not make it. the team assemble at the edge of the rainforest in las quinchas. it's going to be a beautiful day. yes, it is going to be a beautiful day.

this is the first time this area will be explored by scientists. for so many years, conflict and criminality made this area inaccessible to outsiders. if you see a snake, everybody please freeze, don't move. we are going to carry radios at all times. you, actually, frank, you'll have a radio. so this is going to be your radio. i'm going to be quite busy trying to control the horse. well, yes, maybe we can put this on the horse so you can have something that you can... the horse can do the radio. there is a bit of a risk here. my legs are like honeycomb, the bones.

i cannot afford to fall off and break things. at the beginning of the track is a steep descent. the botanists hope to find new species deep inside the forest. but i am unable to hold on with my legs. guys, i don't think i can do this. i'm going to fall off. i think this is just too dangerous. i mean, it breaks my heart, ijust... i think you will have to carry on without me. but the local guides come up with an idea. well done. 0k. i am so thrilled that despite my injuries, thanks to the endurance and kindness

of these guys, i am able to see this amazing scenery. primary forests are the most bio—diverse terrestrial ecosystems anywhere on the planet. forests are not only vital in mitigating climate change, the botanists hope to find plants with untold potential. they get to work collecting specimens. we don't know what it is. it could be a philodendron. beautiful. one of the local guides believes that he has chanced on something extraordinary.

this, we actually don't know exactly what it is. it could be something new. we are the first botanists collecting in this area. so basically every single collection is a new report for science in this area. the scientists will take the cuttings to the laboratory for further examination, in kew. beyond the fact that it is scientifically interesting, what does it mean to find new species like this in a remote forest? in a country like this, hugely biodiverse, we still do not know how many species are out there.

we are estimating in colombia we have about 30,000 species, but still probably 6,000 new species to be discovered. so you think that there are new species out here in these forests that could actually vanish before they are even discovered? yes, absolutely. and we still don't know the uses of many species. some of the species could have the properties to cure important diseases for humans. and so as biologists, as botanists, we need to understand as much as possible as quick as possible of this amazing biodiversity. this is like a supermarket, or a pharmacy, and we don't know it, we don't appreciate the forest. 0ur quality of life relies on the preservation of these environments. in the fight to save the forests, the colombian government has extended its protection to millions of acres of land.

the army launched 0peracion artemisa in 2019 to combat illegal logging. colonel hermida has a thousand troops deployed in the area. what effect has this had on deforestation here?

but this can't really apply to the whole of colombia, because deforestation is continuing throughout the country — i mean, even here, they are still doing it. this region, colonel, seems very secure, very peaceful but of course in the past, it wasn't like that. do you worry that if they don't find proper alternatives for people to make a living, that this region will go back to conflict?

under colombian law, illegal deforestation carries a sentence of up to 12 years in prison. but in remote places, the law is hard to enforce. illegal loggers are still at work in these forests.

the loggers say they have bills to pay. they've chosen their target — an 80—year—old rosewood tree. chainsaw whirs.

this fallen giant will make the loggers $300. these valleys are populated by miners and loggers. in the town of 0tanche, members of the community have been invited to a workshop organised by the authorities.

they hope ecotourism will be the silver bullet, providing an income for the community while saving the forest. the botanists from kew have been invited to make their case. the fact that there is such a good turnout here — better than expected — shows there is a lot of interest in alternatives to cutting down the forest. but the question is,

is it going to give people enough of a livelihood? and that's a big question. the colonel has turned up. sitting next to him is edemildo, who's been a logger all his life. now, though, he is looking for new opportunities.

lidia is one of the pioneers of ecotourism. she set up a butterfly sanctuary to try and entice tourists into the region. it is a natural destination for ecotourism but there is no infrastructure for it at all. it's going to take years, isn't it? and by then, the forest will be almost gone. are you optimistic or pessimistic? are you going to win this fight to save colombia's natural heritage? for future generations and the environment,

time is running out. the need for a solution is urgent. i'm back on the horse, on another field trip with the botanists — this time on rather more even ground. wow! oh, my god! it's like... this is incredible! of all the wild, remote places i've been to in the world, i think this is got to be right up there near the top and as a disabled person, as somebody who can't walk, who has to use a wheelchair, it's amazingly liberating that here, amongst all this rare flora and fauna, these beautiful butterflies and rare plants, there's this amazing biodiversity. the scientists from kew remain hopeful of finding hidden treasures, before it's too late.

it is a very unusual plant. i have never seen it before. i have no idea what genus it belongs to. the thing about plants, they can be rare and special. they all look the same but it's just when you go back and start comparing them with others, you find out how important they are. mauricio, do you think you can persuade people to stop cutting down the forest soon enough before the forest is gone? that's very hard to say. that's our hope and that's our mission — that's why we are here. i believe that we can make a change, we just have to do our best to protect the best of this biodiversity.

jennifer is a local botanist. she's exploring new areas of her country for the first time. how optimistic or pessimistic are you that you, and others like you, who care about nature, who care about biodiversity, that you can save this forest? it's great that you're optimistic, but the reality is the area of forest is getting smaller every year.

colombia today is a post—conflict nation, but it faces a new battle to protect its natural resources. the biodiversity contained in these forests could prove to be its most precious commodity of all. hello there.

thanks forjoining me. before autumn well and truly arrives which may not be for a little while, we are in for a spell of summer weather, in fact, i have spell on the way for the southeast of the country particularly where temperatures could hit 30 degrees, and if they do on monday or tuesday, that could be the first time we've had 30 degrees in septemberforfour the first time we've had 30 degrees in september for four years. for most of us, it won't be quite as hot. recently, we have had heavy rain and strong winds across the western eyes of scotland and into 1-2 western eyes of scotland and into 1—2 spots approaching 100 mm, but once that wears away, we are going to see a current of warm air coming out of spain and france and engulfing much of the country. so here is the forecast then for monday morning. lots of sunshine developing across england and wales, drying out across england and wales, drying out across scotland's, here, temperatures will only reach around 20 degrees in glasgow burrow into belfast, 30 degrees in the southeast end well into the 20s across many

other parts of england and also wales. it looks as though tuesday is going to be every bit as warm across the southeast up to around 30 degrees or so i'm a lots of sunshine across much of scotland, very co mforta ble across much of scotland, very comfortable temperatures around the lower mid 20s, once again around 30 01’ so lower mid 20s, once again around 30 orso in the lower mid 20s, once again around 30 or so in the southeast. now, on wednesday, completely different story. we are going to see rather warm southerly winds, much fresher northerly wind rising around this area of high—pressure, so the temperature is going drop quite dramatically towards the second half of the week. of the north sea coast, temperatures may be around 12 degrees or so, whereas in the south, we are still managing to reach around the low 20s, for example in london, bristol and cardiff. that high—pressure is still with us on thursday. the winds all fall a little bit later i think of the north, but it is going to stay breezy, and you can see from the arrows here in the south, it will feel nearly cool, in fact towards thursday, the temperature in london

can be around 19 degrees or so, 1a in edinburgh. so quite a big drop in those temperatures for monday towards the second half of the weekend especially the end. so that's this week, how about next weekend. well, it all depends on the jet stream and also the tropical storms and hurricanes that are brewing out in the tropical atlantic many thousands of miles away from us. many thousands of miles away from us. so let's have a look at the tropics there. you can see these blobs of cloud you're coming one here, that's tropical storm paulette by this stage come in the blue track is how it moves northwards over the next few days. here it is, that swirl cloud, and when these tropical storms move in it influences ourjet strea m storms move in it influences ourjet stream and that's what we have been looking at the last couple of days. it looks as though the storm is doing —— going to shunt and it's going to be across iceland and away from the uk, so the further we are away from the jet stream, the more settled the weather conditions will

be as high pressure tends to build in the south of the jet stream. so the jet stream is that rain and wind superhighway with weather system south of it having a high. however, could be a low developing to the south of it which means things could turn breezy across some southern areas this coming weekend. so here is the summary for the next seven days. a brief hot spell, then cooler, then next weekend, we've got bright and breezy weather on the way. that's the latest from me.

defends the government potentially breaking international law over changes to the brexit withdrawal agreement. ministers say it's an insurance policy, if brussels acts in an "unreasonable" way, over checks on goods, across the irish sea. 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's responsible government. tomorrow, mps will have their first chance to debate the government's plans. also tonight... concern from care home providers over access to the government's coronavirus testing programme, as infections rise. a heavy police response fails to deter anti—government