this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. a lack of coronavirus tests for england's health service workers is causing staff absences — according to hospital bosses. a senior minister insists the tests are out there. the majority of tests are available within a ten mile radius. it seems to me that

there will be extreme cases where people cannot get to test locations within that radius but that doesn't mean that, you know, public health england are not working night and day to boost capacity. us president donald trump visits california and denies the role of climate change in the wildfires devastating the region the number of young people in the uk without a job arises. if that is you, get in touch. people living in birmingham and other parts of the west midlands are banned from visiting other people's homes from the day after an upsurge in coronavirus cases. commemorating the battle of britain — it's 80 years today since the raf fought off two massive attacks by germany's luftwaffe.

britain's home secretary priti patel says it's "unacceptable" that people can't get coronavirus tests — after hospital bosses in england warned that a lack of testing was leading to staff shortages. health officials say the situation is putting services at risk and hampering efforts to prepare for winter. but ms patel insisted the government is growing its screening capacity every day. greg mackenzie reports. testing has come under intense scrutiny, after people across the uk reported that they were unable to book tests or were being offered tests more than 100 miles away, like these people in plymouth. there is problems getting a test. i was told by the nhs that there was none, there was none in the uk whatsoever. we did it last week for my son and we were able tojust come in. back injuly, walk—in centres like this one in east

london, were being promoted but now, walk—in slots are limited each day and, and when they run out, people are simply turned away, including key workers. i need to go back to work and i need to get tested. i have been trying since friday evening. laboratories analysing swab tests in the uk are said to be overstretched, dealing with staff shortages and backlogs. it is having a real impact on the nhs overall, so it means that trusts up and down the country are unable to restart the restoration of services that we so desperately need to see after covid. the department of health has denied there were staffing problems, and says labs are processing more than one million tests a week. meanwhile, the rate of infection has more than doubled in birmingham in a week, to 88 cases per 100,000 people.

from today, households across birmingham, solihull and sandwell are banned from visiting other households or private gardens. the west midlands mayor, andy street, has said they may impose even stricter restrictions if the numbers of new infections do not improve. the restrictions will apply alongside england—wide rules that make it illegal to meet up in social groups larger than a six. similar restrictions are in place in wales and scotland, but do not include children under 11 and i2, respectively. greg mackenzie, bbc news. let's speak to our political correspondent chris mason. chris, what is going on? there is a colossal challenge for the government. around testing. they've made these incredibly bold and ambitious, operation moonshot,

testing up banking capacity and turning around tests quickly, by around decemberand here turning around tests quickly, by around december and here we are, what was always likely to be a pinch point as schools and universities returned and more and more people returned and more and more people returned to work places, the evidence suggests and the overwhelming kind of response we've had from viewers in terms of people setting out their own experience, lots and lots are encountering the point when they go online to try and get a test, it says there aren't any available, or send them heather and feather all over the country or keep them waiting a huge amount of time. and the government acknowledges there is a problem, they've acknowledged it for a while, in terms of being able to turn around tests quickly and particularly around issues where there are hotspots, take bolton in the north we st of hotspots, take bolton in the north west of england for example, and lots of people they are not able to get tests and an acknowledgement this morning from the home secretary that that is not good enough. we are surging capacity in areas

where we've had local lockdowns, and what i would say is, clearly, the examples you've given are unacceptable, and clearly there is much more work that needs to be undertaken with public health england and the actual public health bodies in those particular local areas and, you know, as a government obviously we work with public health england to surge where there is demand in local hotspot areas, and we continue to do that. there is a need, obviously, to grow capacity and increase capacity, that is something that has taken place every single day. you've also mentioned about people not getting access to appointments, booking slots. more and more booking slots are coming on stream every single day, more home testing kits are being issued every single day by public health england and it's right that that happens at a local level, it has to happen within the community, and also in terms of getting access to testing, driving to locations, the majority of tests are available within a ten mile radius. now, it seems to me that there'll be extreme cases where people can't get to test locations within that

radius, but that doesn't mean that public health england are not working night and day to boost capacity and bolster capacity, they are absolutely doing that and that is clearly work that is ongoing. the tour, i have been doing some soi'is the tour, i have been doing some sons and the government 's ambition by december is roughly a 50 fold increase in the amount of testing they have been doing. victoria, i have been doing some mathematics. those in government say you have to set targets to aim the machine towards them and why not be ambitious because clearly, the demand is going to increase. i think the big challenge now and this is an obvious point but it is worth making, if demand is outstripping supply protests, then there is a problem and the government acknowledge there is a problem and it's been rumbling on now for well over a week, it's been rumbling on now for well overa week, i it's been rumbling on now for well over a week, i think. so, it's been rumbling on now for well overa week, ithink. so, seeing that capacity increase and decrease quickly so that people aren't encountering no tests available on

their smartphone or laptop or whatever, is the big challenge. chris, thank you. linda says i don't know where priti patel gets information, she is wrong about the ten mile radius, my 32 son developed symptoms two days ago with a persistent cough, malaise, slight temperature, he is self isolating, the nhs website offered him a test 76 miles away and work, he's too u nwell to 76 miles away and work, he's too unwell to drive, no other tests available in the cambridgeshire area where we live. thank you for highlighting this issue, our whole family is in limbo until we know whether my son is positive. another one from leslie, a key worker, trying to get a test since saturday. there is a test centre in whitstable, i went yesterday but it's closed. leslie does not tell us whereabouts in the country she or he is. dr layla mccay is a director at nhs confederation — a body for organisations that commission and provide national health service services.

good morning to you. what are your members telling you 7 good morning to you. what are your members telling you? what are your members telling you? what are your members telling you? what are your members telling you ? members telling you? what are your members telling you? our members are really quite concerned, both at the challenges in getting access to testing for staff and also the challenges of anyone who is experiencing symptoms, having barriers to getting those tests and accessing the contacts so they can be isolated and contain this potential second surge that we increasingly see coming. how is all that affecting the nhs? at the moment, we are hearing from members across the nhs, quite significant concerns. we recently surveyed members who are leaders right across the system from acute hospitals, gps, mental health, about one third of them are telling us access to staff tests is a significant

issue in them restoring services and keeping services going. this is not just a little blip that we should just a little blip that we should just hope gets resolved by itself, this is an incredibly important challenge that the government, all the systems working on the test and trace the systems working on the test and tra ce syste m the systems working on the test and trace system needs to focus on and get right. what do you think the ci’ux get right. what do you think the crux of the problem is? it continues to be unclear. we are told that laboratory capacity is the barrier to getting these tests done but at the same time we are told there is capacity to deliver the number of tests that are required so we are getting mixed messages but what we are very clear in singing on the that there is a staff in the nhs who are not able to get access to test ina timely are not able to get access to test in a timely way and there are staff whose families are having symptoms and not able to get access to tests

which is leading to people having to stay home unnecessarily which is obviously not very helpful when eve ryo ne obviously not very helpful when everyone is working so incredibly ha rd to everyone is working so incredibly hard to bring back services. at the start of the pandemic key workers we re start of the pandemic key workers were a priority for tests but do you think they should be made a priority again now? i think it is going to be very important to make a key workers a priority if there are limits to how many tests are available. certainly, in some parts of the country, there are systems in place for key workers to access tests more efficiently, in other places that is not the case but what we have seen here is the need to have health care workers at work in order to deliver services for covid i9 and non—covid i9 matters and if you cannot get access to the tests that is putting that at risk so this needs to be a priority. thank you. we are going to talk in the next 30 minutes to anders in preston, one

of the hotspots, her son has been sent home from school. —— to a nurse. she is still going to work, technically she does not have to be tested, i know, sounds bizarre, we will talk to pamela very shortly. president trump has refused to acknowledge the role of climate change in the fires that have ravaged states on the us west coast. on a visit to california, mr trump again blamed poorforest management for the blazes, which have killed at least 35 people. meeting with mr trump, california's governor gavin newsom admitted state forest management could be better, but pointed out that more than half of california s land was under federal control. as they were briefed by state officials, president trump disputed some of what he was being told. we want to work with you to really recognise the changing climate and what it means to our forests and actually work together with that science. that science is going to be key because if we ignore that science and put our head in the sand and think it's all about vegetation management we're not going to succeed together protecting californians. 0k. it'll start getting cooler.

you just watch. i wish science agreed with you! well, i don't think science knows, actually. the uk unemployment rate has risen to its highest level for almost two years. young people were particularly badly—hit, with 16 to 2a—year—olds suffering the biggest drop in employment compared with other age groups. the number of people in that age group without a job rose by 156,000 in the three months tojuly, according to data from the office for national statistics. all let's take a closer look at the figures — the red line on this graph shows how the rate of unemployment for 16—24 years old has increased. 13.4% of them are out of work. the blue line shows the overall unemployment rate for the uk — which has grown to 4.1%. and since the coronavirus lockdown began in march some 695,000 uk workers have disappeared from the payrolls of british companies.

our business presenter ben thompson has been analysing the figures. these young people who seem to be in these young people who seem to be in these figures bearing the brunt of job losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic. they have lost more jobs in the latest figures than any other age group. and there are many reasons for that. one, age group. and there are many reasons forthat. 0ne, primarily, because younger people may be more likely to work in hospitality, retail, leisure, those are the jobs we know have been hardest hit by the pandemic. those are the jobs that are struggling to get back to any sort of normality. but also, there is an argument that young people may be the last into organisations and therefore employers may think they are the first that should leave and so, pretty damaging jobs market for them right now, as far as finding a job, if they are laid off. it's also worth pointing out that women are disproportionately affected for the same sorts of reasons, they may tend to work on things like tourism, travel, retail and therefore are

badly hit. the headline rate of unemployment as you said, rising to 4.196, unemployment as you said, rising to 4.1%, upfrom unemployment as you said, rising to 4.1%, up from 3.9% from the figures we had previously. actually a two year high and suggests all of those forecasts we had at the height of this pandemic are starting to come to fruition. some forecasts suggesting the unemployment rate could hit 10% by the end of the year. it was worth pointing out that these figures are all the more remarkable because they come at the same time that 5 million staff are still on the government for a low scheme. this, remember, looks back tojuly, they scheme. this, remember, looks back to july, they are scheme. this, remember, looks back tojuly, they are backward —looking figures on what we are expecting is that as that furlough, job retention scheme is wound down, more and more employers have to make some pretty tough decisions about how many staff they have on their books and what that means for them next. i'm hoping at this point we can bring in darren morgan from the office for national statistics. good morning to you. looking at some of these figures. there is a real number of pictures

painted here but let's start firstly with the young demographic. those most likely to be had by this. explain what these figures tell us about thejob explain what these figures tell us about the job prospects explain what these figures tell us about thejob prospects right explain what these figures tell us about the job prospects right now for young people, aged between 16 and 24. good morning. you've summed it up very well in terms of a key feature of the dataset be published this morning on the labour market. as you suggested, those hardest hit are those in the 16—24 bracket and actually if we look at 18—24 it was actually if we look at 18—24 it was a record increase in unemployment that we've ever seen. and you quite rightly said, part of the reason for thatis rightly said, part of the reason for that is when you look at the industries most hit by the pandemic, it's the hospitality industry, the a rts it's the hospitality industry, the arts and entertainment industries, perhaps this is where those young people are most likely to work and you mentioned furlough, that is a really important point. we have seen around 4 million people returning from furlough but as you suggest, a large number still being supported by that scheme.

and that scheme we know will be wound down towards the end of the year. employers are now being asked to contribute more to those payments and so, all the estimates are that this is going to get a lot worse before it starts to get a lot worse before it starts to get better. is that how you see it as well? if we look at another key indicator we published, redundancies, we've seen the highest number since the financial crisis in 2009. that's a sign that actually the labour market is weakening. and there is another indicator out, that people, businesses are obliged to tell the insolvency service ifjobs are at risk of redundancy so this is where people have not been made redundant yet but are at risk. the numbers being reported their up to july are incredibly high, much higher than the financial downturn. so it's really interesting three or four months in of when these people that have been supported by furlough, the scheme ends, where do they go? do they return

to employment or do they become unemployed ? i employment or do they become unemployed? i think it is a really key couple of months coming up in the labour market. a proposed law giving the british government the power to override parts of the brexit withdrawal agreement has passed its first test in the house of commons, despite the fact that it would breach international law. ministers say the internal market bill contains vital safeguards to protect northern ireland and the rest of the uk, if negotiations on a future trade deal break down. only two conservative mps voted against the move, but around 20 others abstained, with some warning they could rebel at a later parliamentary stage. soaring rates of alcohol abuse in england are placing too much pressure on addiction services, according to the royal college of psychiatrists. the number of people drinking high—risk levels of alcohol has almost doubled since the start of the pandemic — and the college says deep cuts made to addiction services mean patients could miss out on treatment. the government says it has increased public health spending by £3.2 billion this year.

it means people are banned from meeting others who are part of their household or support bubble in their homes gardens. the mayor of the west midlands andy street warned people they must comply or face even tougher measures. we have been to see how people are preparing for the changes. for many in the west midlands, life is changing again. after a rapid rise in coronavirus cases, different councils including families, must note longer mix at home. liz is looking after grandson seth saw her daughter can work but thatis seth saw her daughter can work but that is no longer an option. seth saw her daughter can work but that is no longer an optionm seth saw her daughter can work but that is no longer an option. if she wa nts to that is no longer an option. if she wants to work we've got to break the law because we cannot think of any other way. yesterday was their last game in the garden for what could be some time. yes! we've

been very careful, we are very careful. we've still got to get through this and live and i cannot bear the stress on not only my daughter and her husband, but the children as well. birmingham has been on a knife edge four weeks in terms of greater restrictions, now authorities say residents must stick to the new rules or risk fines and may be a future at lockdown. what are they? from today, the entire city as well as neighbouring areas of sandwell and solihull, that is 1.6 million people in total, must not spend time in each of the ‘s homes or gardens. the only exception is if you are in a support bubble, it doesn't affect schools, workplaces or group settings like pubs, parks and restau ra nts. settings like pubs, parks and restaurants. i think it's necessary. even though it is quite sad but i understand why the decision has been made. anything that keeps this pandemic at bay is a good thing. you can go into a pub and mix but you

cannot do it in your own house. i don't know. they don't know what they're talking about be honest. not many muslim people would go to a pub to meet their family. it is confusing, you can go to a shop, eat out, but you cannot go in your garden. there has been confusion here about why it's ok to meet people in social settings like pubs and open spaces like this but not at home. public health officials say the data clearly shows the main culprit when it comes to transmission as domestic settings. what we are seeing in the majority of cases where we are able to identify transmission is that this is because people have gathered behind closed doors, often for a celebration, most recently i have seen three children in different families and the actual weight they coded from each other was a birthday party. that is where the transmission is happening at the moment. but not everyone thinks it is entirely fair. at the conservative mps in birmingham have suggested a blanket approach does not make sense. i think people understand what is happening because we have spikes in birmingham but if

you look at a map of birmingham you see they are in very specific areas soi see they are in very specific areas so i think we should take intervention but we should be doing it in localised areas and as local as possible, not clumping in 1.8 million people into the same restriction so i think a lot of people share that frustration. the council insists there is a broad spread of cases in terms of age and location that must be brought under control or there could be dire consequences. there already questions about how it will be policed, for some, it is a case of more tough times when they were just getting back on their feet. bill gates has told the bbc he's optimistic that a vaccine for coronavirus will be available by spring next year. he said the united states had made a lot of mistakes in dealing with the pandemic at home, and had been slower to respond internationally than he would have expected but he was confident it would now step up to contribute financially to a global solution. mr gates told the bbc‘s larry madowo

that covid—19 had exposed tens of millions of people to the threat of more poverty, inequality, and disease: the pandemic has reduced food distribution, raised prices of food, you cannot move around and seek out economic opportunities in the same way and so it is a gigantic setback that represents over five years of progress. first time that that number has gone up since it's been seriously measured. let's talk about vaccines. already, some of the richest countries like the united states, the uk, a lot of other western and european nations are already putting in money so they are first in line when a vaccine becomes available. is this the best way to handle this? well, the vaccine works, the expensive trials, the rich countries, especially the united states have funded that work

for a lot of these companies and so, evenif for a lot of these companies and so, even if the companies who do it, they can afford to do it because of that us and other money so from the research side, that is good news. getting the money to buy the vaccine for the poorer countries, that has not yet come together. the us has not yet come together. the us has notjoined not yet come together. the us has not joined those not yet come together. the us has notjoined those meetings, even though it is normally with hiv and polio and so many things, a leader in global health and so, as yet, we still have to pull that together and here, there is this huge benefit, even to the rich countries, that the epidemic will not keep coming back so the plan to have lots of factories and the plans of how we allocate it including money for procurement for poor countries, that is still, despite some good work by europe and others, we still don't have enough to support that basic need. is this surprising to

you? president donald trump has always been about america first and he has pulled out of the world health organization and he has been recently talking about how well the us has handled as compared to any other nation. would you agree? well, the us has made a lot of mistakes, you would expect it to have the least d e bts you would expect it to have the least debts and we are among the worst because of what happened with the diagnostics and the way we let it come in without having lots of testing and quarantine. so, you know, whatever we have done wrong today, you can still see the country with the longest wait time for the tests, that really should not be the case. but the us congress allocates the money. and they maintain the money for all the global health activities, malaria, polio, hiv and so as! activities, malaria, polio, hiv and so as i talk to congress, i think there is a lot of people in both parties who think that having

1% of a supplemental bill take care of this international response which is humanitarian, strategic, but also from a pure selfish point of view, thatis from a pure selfish point of view, that is the way that you bring this toa that is the way that you bring this to a close. so i don't think at some point here in the next six months, the us will step up, it has such a great, proud tradition in global health, the distraction of the domestic challenge of the epidemic have made it slower to do that than i would have expected but the congress, you know, they care and they like the organisations that would make sure the money is well spent. finally, there has been a lot of misinformation around coronavirus, including you, lots of conspiracy theories being shared around so what do you make of that? i don't know, i am worried about those rumours. i am surprised to find myself as a big supporter of vaccines, saving lives, to sort of be attacked for being almost the

opposite of that. our foundation, our proudest work is the number of children who are alive today, tens of millions because of the vaccine coverage that we have been a partner in increasing in every country of the world. that was bill gates. it isa the world. that was bill gates. it is a big day in the white house today. donald trump marks a foreign policy victory. he'll be hosting israel's prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, who will sign peace agreements between his country and the united arab emirates and bahrain. the gulf states, which will be represented by their foreign ministers, are just the third and fourth arab countries to normalise ties with israel. but the ceremony comes amid a crisis at home for the israeli leader — as tom bateman reports from jerusalem. this deal is delivering its rewards under the desert sun. an ad's being filmed near dubai for israeli pyjamas. until now, it would have been impossible. in the uae, that boycotted formal ties with israel. it's a very historical moment

and i'm very excited to be the first israeli model to shoot for an israeli brand here. and hopefully soon we can come here, of the israelis, with israeli passports, and it's very exciting. fanfare. but these israelis have other noise to make. for weeks they've been coming, a nti — neta nya hu protesters at his jerusalem home, calling on him to quit. what do you think of your prime minister? who is it? yeah. we don't know who is it, because it's looking like the — the country is not managed, by no—one. it looks like someone is busy with other things. we have a peace with dubai, and it is going very well. we want peace with the arabs, but we want also peace among our arabs. israel is deep in an economic

and health crisis with a second lockdown imminent. this is a picture that the pm's probably happy to leave at home. dissent, division, there is real anger at his leadership. in washington, he can be the peacemaker, not the problem. this is a big change and a diplomatic achievement for israel, for the emirates and bahrain, trade and new links with the region's security and cyber superpower. "a historic brea kthrough", says mr neta nyahu. he puts it on par with last century's landmark us—brokered peace deals between israel and its arab neighbours. for palestinians, the gulf countries' deal with israel is a betrayal. they think it breaks years of arab solidarity, over their hopes for an end to occupation, their dreams of statehood. they go to pray, like hassan.

could emiratis and bahrainis soon be joining him? translation: the emirati people are a muslim nation. anybody from around the muslim world has the right to come and pray in al—aqsa. it is these regimes that have abandoned their responsibility. and given up on the cause of al—aqsa. president trump will applaud his strategy for the region at today's deal—signing ceremony in washington. as mr netanyahu puts pen to paper, his troubles at home are also being written into his legacy. tom bateman, bbc news, jerusalem. bbc news, i'm victoria derbyshire. the headline —— the

headlines... a lack of coronavirus tests for england's health workers is putting services at risk — according to hospital bosses. a senior minister insists the tests are out there. the majority of tests are available within a ten mile radius. it seems there will be extreme cases where people cannot get a centre within that radius but this does not mean that radius but this does not mean that public health england are not working night and day to boost capacity. the number of young people in the uk without a job rises by more than 150,000, new data shows. us president donald trump visits california and denies the role of climate change in the wildfires devastating the region. here in the uk, people living in birmingham and other parts of the west midlands are banned from visiting other people's homes from today, after an upsurge in cases. comemorating the battle of britain — it's 80 years today since the raf fought off two massive attacks by germany's luftwaffe. almost four months ago borisjohnson

promised to deliver a "world beating" system to test, track and trace covid—19 cases. but an increase in demand for coronavirus tests has led to local shortages — with some people being directed to test sites hundreds of miles from their homes. areas in local lockdown are in greater need of tests — 0ldham is one of those towns with local restrictions in place. covid rates are rising once again in 0ldham, with locals facing a new raft of restrictions. i'm doing mejob! at this walk—in test centre, tempers are rising too. i've got a child who's coughing, he's had a high temperature. he supposed to be at school, what do you want me to do? just leave him out of school for indefinite? muhamed is a father and a carer furious at being turned away because they do not have capacity. have you tried other means of getting a test? yeah, i have tried online, i've been trying since the last two days. so i've got a message here, it says "the system is currently unavailable " — that has been the last two days, yeah?

so what do you want me to do? time and time again we have filmed people walk—up to the walk—in centre and walk away again. ijust catch a word used to explain the situation to peter and his grand—daughter. the service has been, he says, "annihilated" today. that was his choice of word. that was his choice of word, yes. that's how busy they've been. she was sent home from school because somebody in her class had the virus. i have copd and a lung problem and she lives with us, and we are both 75. how worried are you? i am really concerned, honestly, really concerned. so you just wake up tomorrow morning and try again? we just keep trying. so many we see turned away are school kids like roma. "we are extremely busy, call back later," which i have been doing since eight o'clock this morning. were you been offered any drive—through testing sites? there was one in doncaster, which is about an hour away which i was prepared to

do but it wasn't till mid—october. head teachers from 75 local authorities, including 0ldham, have written to the government saying schools have been severely hampered by delays in testing. have you seen anthing available anywhere else in the country? no. amina is a teaching assistant. there's not even any home testing kits, which is what i initially wanted. there is a groupjust here who have arrived trying to get a test for people they look after with learning disabilities. and they've been told they can't get a test. they are really worried because there has been an outbreak in the home where they work. they too are told, just keep checking online for an appointment. they said because of the labs could not turn them around so they can't give anyone and you have to make an appointment. they can't turn the tests around. what does that mean for you and the people you look after? it is not on because, obviously, you need to go and get tested when you need to. i speak to mark adams,

who runs one of the biggest care home groups in the north of england. the testing is turning out to be a bit of a fiasco. how? at the moment we are waiting for up to ten days for every test to come back and, frankly, that could mean you've got somebody that's got covid spending seven days in a care home, wandering around and nobody is aware of it. i found out 15 minutes ago and i've came straight here. lisa and nadine are support staff without symptoms but they have just heard that a colleague has tested positive. everywhere it's appointment only. red line — appointment only. i am looking at a website when the earliest time is i can get an appointment. without a test are you going to be able to get back to work? no. i am not going to be able to work tomorrow. all my night job all my nightjob today. while the council describes this as a shambles, a government spokesperson told us that the system is working. the capacity is the highest it has

ever been but they admit they are seeing higher demand. here the council is trying to tackle the increase in covid with door—to—door testing but again capacity is stretched. we need more people to get tested and more tests available. there are very many people who have had a test and results within days. just walk through and the all clear. excellent. but around the country, there are pressure points and the covid curve is rising. jayne mccubbin, bbc news. let talk to pamela, a nurse based in preston in the north west of england. she is trying to get a —— a test for her and her son,

because at the school has tested positive. she cannot get a test, but despite being an nhs worker in a hotspot area, according to guidelines she does not need to get tested. why? because you are not showing symptoms? yesterday i got are not showing symptoms? yesterday igota are not showing symptoms? yesterday i got a phone, from my son's school, saying he self—isolate because somebody in his school bubble had tested positive for coronavirus. i felt it was the responsible thing to book a test, i have to book a test both online and request a home testing kits as well and i have tried to go to our walk—in centre which actually closed two hours early yesterday because they had reached capacity and renovated tests. if my son contacts me to say he has developed symptoms, which is when i would have to isolate, i would not be able to work. but that he have symptoms? no,

here is isolated because someone in his bubble has developed symptoms. the current public health england guidance is that he himself must isolate but the family do not need to. it leads me on the edge because if he developed symptoms, it means i can't come to work until i have had a negative test, it is a shame when chests are working so hard to put measures in place for coronavirus, dedicated helplines, it is a shame because mike cannot support the local trust in keeping the staff at work. but right now you can go to work? yes, but i am teetering on the edge, because if my son develops symptoms due to being in contact with somebody with coronavirus, i cannot comment to work, so i am waiting for that phone call, really. —— i cannot come into work. waiting for that phone call, really. -- i cannot come into work. you understand the rising demand

for testing, and despite increased capacity, which has been a reasonable size, demand is outstripping supply, it is the way it is at the moment. absolutely, but approaching winter with a possible second spike on the horizon, it will leave nhs trusts in crisis if it does not improve, it is a shame because mike cannot get this right. -- it is because mike cannot get this right. —— it isa because mike cannot get this right. —— it is a shame the government cannot get this right. thank you for talking to us, i hope your son is 0k. the uk unemployment rate has risen to its highest level for two yea rs. risen to its highest level for two years. the ministerfor risen to its highest level for two years. the minister for employment says the figures presented mixed picture but also some recovery in vacancies. she was asked whether as the furlough scheme comes to an end, the furlough scheme comes to an end, the government was considering more targeted approach? we have had the broad brush approach and now we have a plan for creating and

securing new jobs, helping the growing sectors so morejobs are jobs, helping the growing sectors so more jobs are available in digital and green technologies and we are working with the construction industry if you look at hs2, new jobs coming along, so there are sectors growing and thriving, there will be sectors that will take longer to come back but we have helped with the alp to help health scheme. i do not think the government is afraid of supporting where we can, we have physical events where the chancellor can look at that going forward and we are hearing from the opposition about needing a plan forjobs, we are already interceding at helping people feel confident about bringing people feel confident about bringing people back into the workplace, we have the job retention people back into the workplace, we have thejob retention bonus people back into the workplace, we have the job retention bonus and people back into the workplace, we have thejob retention bonus and rcn people using that i'm bringing people using that i'm bringing people in to the kick—start scheme, we will use every tool to support people back into jobs and we will use every tool to support people back intojobs and get we will use every tool to support people back into jobs and get back to where we were injanuary, which was record employment, so we should be positive we can build back green

and stronger. it's exactly 80 years today since the raf managed to repel two massive attacks by germany's luftwaffe — winning what became known as the battle of britain. john maguire has been to hear one former raf engineer's extraordinary story. due to covid, 90—year—old old jeff brereton hasn't left home since january, but this was a reunion 80 years in the making thatjeff was determined not to miss. it was wonderful to see it, absolutely wonderful. it's unbelievable, it's unbelievable. as a young man, he served at raf croydon and remembers working on this hurricane fighter. as groundcrew, their job was to keep the planes flying, whatever it took. the main problem that we had was the fabrics, really, on the bodywork, where they would get all covered in bullet holes very often, and very often, the pilot didn't even know

that they were hit. they were on the way up to flying again, and the paint was still wet. jeff is being treated to his own personal display here at the imperial war museum in duxford. still a teenager in 1940, he witnessed how the battle of britain took its toll. some of them told us that they had only flown four hours in training, and they come out for the first time in action and never come back again. young 19—year—olds, you know? it's absolutely shocking, it was. we admire them. we couldn't do anything else, really, but really admire them. if you put yourself in jeff's shoes, and imagine what it would have been like to have seen those aircraft off for their next sortie into the skies, and wondering how many of those men would have returned.

to try and gain some insight to what life was like for the men who flew against the might of the german luftwaffe, i am taking to the northamptonshire skies above the sywell aerodrome in a spitfire. this aircraft was built in 1944, and registered the first kill of d—day. radio: you're clear to take off. you can feel every ounce of the rolls—royce engine, just ripping me from the ground and up into the sky. what a fantastic experience. the extra seat was added in 1950 when it became a training aircraft of the irish air force. the instructor sits in the front, the learner in the back. i say the magical words, you have control. you have control. dol? at the back of it? yes.

it doesn't feel as if i'm doing anything. you definitely are. one of us is. i am flying a spitfire, i can't quite believe it. it has a top speed of 425mph. pilots describe feeling part of the machine. it surrounds you in every sense. the cockpit of the spitfire, it's hot, it's incredibly cramped. you're surrounded by instruments, by buttons. sometimes it could be smoky too. you can just imagine what it was like, not just flying one of these but fighting in one of these, taking it into a dogfight in the battle of britain. you have a renewed respect for those men, who notjust flew but fought to save not only their own lives but their way of life. richard's father bought the plane in 1979. his mother went on flying it after his death and richard, of ultimate warbird flights, has been the pilot for 13 years. i've done six trips in this aeroplane in a day, half—hour trips, just serene. just enjoying the scenery,

a quick loop and a roll. but you can only imagine what it would have been like doing relentless, long sorties from so early in the morning until so late in the evening, minimum turnaround times, and you'd hope a nice glass of brandy in between just to keep them going, but luckily, they were young brave men. churchill described them famously as the few. their courage, their selflessness and their sacrifice should never be forgotten by the many. two women affected by controversial changes to the state pension age have lost their court of appeal challenge against the government. they have lost their case, they say it affects 2.8 million women in the

uk and that they have lost out on thousands of pounds after the government raised the state pension age to 66 at a fast rate than expected, they have lost a court of appeal challenge against the government, they argued it was discriminatory, we will get reaction before 11am. i like it coronavirus tests for england's health services is putting services at risk. but senior ministers insist tests are right. donald trump visits california and denied the role of climate change and welfare is devastating the region. the number of young people in the uk without a job right as by more than 150,000, new data shows. —— writers by. the bbc will publish details of the pay of its most highly—paid presenters today. its annual report is expected to show the gap between male and female salaries is closing. here's our media correspondent, david sillito.

the gap in star salaries has in recent years been dropping, especially with the more even—gender balance in some of the bbc‘s highest profile presenting roles. today's report is expected to show the male—female split in the top salaries is now around 55—45, down from around 3—1, three years ago, but the corporation's mounting concern in a drop of income. commercial revenues have dropped during the coronavirus outbreak. licence fees income is also an issue, especially as the bbc has had to take the cast of free licenses for over 75s receiving pension credit. other topics on the corporation's agenda include presenters' corporate work, social media usage and the endless meetings. but it will also reveal how much our habits are changing. lockdown has led to an increase in people streaming content — the last few months have seen an growth in the use of the bbc iplayer. david sillito, bbc news.

two women affected by the changes to the state pension age have lost a case against the government, the age was raised from 60 to 66 under successive governments to achieve pension age equality. i cano now speak to yvette greenway—mansfield, who's the co—chief executive of the charity sos silence of suicide — she's also married to michael mansfield qc, who's representing the women involved, and joanne welch, who's the founder and director of backto60.com. joanne, we are broadcasting to an audience around the world right now, so it would be helpful if you could sum up what the campaign has been about. can you hear me, joanne? yes. ican hearyou. about. can you hear me, joanne? yes. i can hear you. excellent, thank you for talking to us. you will have

heard the news that you have lost this case, what is your initial reaction? boris johnson said at the time of the last election that he would look at this issue with fresh eyes and news a and sort it out, which is an acknowledgement of the injustice. that was reported in the press, that is notjust anecdotal. keir starmer said that this is an injustice against 50s women and he has reported. the house of commons and house of lords select committees had said that british women grotesquely disadvantaged and professor alston, the special reporter, said that the surgeon a stick culture in parliament was one of the reasons that we are being treated in this way. but you have lost this argument, which is that it was discriminatory towards women. how do you

react? it is 10096 how do you react? it is 100% discrimination, no doubt, we are actively considering an appeal. this was the appeal. to the supreme court. 0k. was the appeal. to the supreme court. ok. we have committed grave and systemic evidence to the committee in geneva and they are looking at making an inquiry into the uk government in the way they have treated us, and they have only done four inquiries in 20 years, so it isa done four inquiries in 20 years, so it is a great achievement to get to the last stage of that committee in october. we have launched a people's tribunal which will be looking at discrimination against all women and girls and what we will deal there is right up the legislation, draft legislation, to bring a women's bill of rights into uk

domestic law. legislation, to bring a women's bill of rights into uk domestic lawm is not over, definitely, i can hear your determination. evert, iwonder if you could sum up this campaign for the audience around the world? absolutely. it should be no surprise to anyone that women are continuing to anyone that women are continuing to fight. through history, women have had to fight and it is no different, different subject but the principle remains the same, for women to get the equality they deserve. we have always been in favour of gender equality but the way to ensure equality amongst genders has to be realised in a fair and equal manner, which was clearly not pick a. mental health impacts on this particular group of women has been horrendous. we run a couple of surveys for backt060.com to determine the full impact on women's emotional well—being, determine the full impact on women's emotional well— being, we have determine the full impact on women's emotional well—being, we have had over 20,000 responses

and people are having thoughts of suicide, self harming, it has not affected than themselves, they are aware of people who have thoughts of suicide or attempted to end their lives, who are self harming, this is the unseen impact, this is not discussed anywhere near enough and i am hugely concerned for women given what has been announced this morning. although their mental health might be impacted, their resilience, strength and courage is not and we are going forward. go ahead, joanne? the dwp, having remembered what i said to you about what boris and keir starmer said, said to you about what boris and keir starmersaid, leading politicians in this country, the dwp then sulphate to

use taxpayers money to ta ke then sulphate to use taxpayers money to take 50s women to court and defend the indefensible. how can you have the prime minister and the leader of the opposition say it is an injustice which needs to be sorted out, and then the dwp defends its position in court and made us great crowd funded from women who could barely afford it, but they we re could barely afford it, but they were so angry that we were able to raise the money. thejuxtaposition between what number ten and the leader of the opposition is saying and the dwp and what the court is saying, it is incongruous. you will have heard this point many times, there was enough warning to 50s women. sorry, before you answer, let me put the facts for people who are trying to learn more about the history and background, there was a 1995 pensions act which legislated to increase the female state

pension age from 60 to 65, which was meant to be phased in between 2010 and 2020. the coalition government of 2010 decided to accelerate the timetable, they brought in the 2011 pension act which brought the new qualifying age of 65 for words to 2018, so there were seven years notice, how do you answer that, joanne? notice respecting you, victoria, but we were not advised and we have evidence that our legal tea m and we have evidence that our legal team uncovered that peter lilley head secret whitehall memos —— hid certain whitehall memos. head secret whitehall memos —— hid certain whitehall memoslj head secret whitehall memos —— hid certain whitehall memos. i am sure if peter lilley were here, he would push back on that. i wish he was here, i would like a conversation

with him. does anyone honestly think that women would have waited until now to write up and say, where earned jesus? they would not, had they known they would have risen up at the date you mentioned. —— answered, where are my earned dues? testimonials will come out from geneva. thank you both very much. plans to take that decision today from the court of appeal which will pat the women today lost on the argument of discrimination, but plans to take that to the supreme court, thank you tojoanne welsh, founder and director of backto60.com, and yvettejo yvette greenway—mansfield, co—chief executive of sls. —— and yvette greenway—mansfield, co—chief

executive of sos. the russian dissident leader alexei navalny has posted this update from hospital. he said this is nirvana, i have been missing you, i can do almost nothing on my own but yesterday i breathed com pletely on my own but yesterday i breathed completely on my own, i needed no outside help whatsoever, i didn't even use the simplest of valves in my throat. a wonderful process, underestimated by many, recommended. so he appears to be in good spirits after being poisoned. now it's time for a look at the weather with matt taylor. another hot afternoon on the way for many, it was hottest yesterday in jersey, 31 degrees, started sending here this morning the temperature is

cooler thanks to the wind shifting more westerly. winds to the south and south—east about this area of high pressure means we will push more warmth to the eastern half of england, our scotland and northern ireland although we started with outbreaks of rain here. they are decaying now and will continue to do so. rain into the afternoon, lingering across the far north of scotla nd lingering across the far north of scotland to the end of the day, isolated showers pushing towards the south—west wellow clouds will help some of the coasts. most places dry with 1000 sunshine, haysie and places, temperatures up in scotland and northern ireland compared to yesterday, highs of may be 29 to 31 degrees around london and departed east anglia. there will be some nests around some coasts, a weather front pushing southwards as northerly winds develop across scotland. there will be some showers

southwards through the night and into tomorrow. perhaps more significant, there will be a chef then wind direction. as high pressure m oves then wind direction. as high pressure moves eastward three spring winds into a more not a north—easterly direction, so for the rest of the week it will gradually turn cooler, most parts of the country will be staying dry. a few isolated showers on wednesday, in the thick cloud across parts of scotland, northern ireland, northern and north—eastern england i will be light rain and result. cogent north—easterly winds take into the wa ke north—easterly winds take into the wake of that, 13 to 18 at best, clueless to the afternoon, semester and low cloud events and of the coasts, motson china mainland, one with temperatures into the mid 20s. into thursday we lose some of the north—easterly winds, low cloud around eastern coasts fading, showers to scotland and temperatures back to where they should be for the time of year, 17

to 20 degrees. we have those values around the weekend. some rain in the english channel at the weekend.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. a lack of coronavirus tests for england's health workers is putting services at risk — according to hospital bosses. the government insists the tests are out there.

the majority of tests are available within a ten mile radius. now it seems to me that there will be extreme cases where people cannot get to test locations within that radius but that does not mean that public health england are not working night and day to boost capacity. the number of young people in the uk without a job rises by more than 150,000, new data shows. if that's you — do get in touch electing a bell may post a picture of himself sitting up in his hospital bed a month after he was poisoned by novichok agent. -- alexi noveul us president donald trump visits california and denies the role of climate change in the wildfires devastating the region comemorating the battle of britain — it's 80 years today since the raf fought off two massive attacks by germany's luftwaffe.

hello and welcome if you re watching in the uk or around the world ? and stay with us for the latest news and analysis from here and across the globe. britain's home secretary priti patel says it's "unacceptable" that people can't get coronavirus tests — after hospital bosses in england warned that a lack of testing was leading to staff shortages. health officials say the situation is putting services at risk and hampering efforts to prepare for winter. but ms patel insisted the government is growing its screening capacity every day. greg mackenzie reports. testing has come under intense scrutiny, after people across the uk reported that they were unable to book tests or were being offered tests more than 100 miles away, like these people in

plymouth. there is problems getting a test. i was told by the nhs that there was none, there was none in the uk whatsoever. we did it last week for my son and we were able tojust come in. back injuly, walk—in centres like this one in east london, were being promoted but now, walk—in slots are limited each day and, and when they run out, people are simply turned away, including key workers. i need to go back to work and i need to get tested. i have been trying since friday evening. laboratories analysing swab tests in the uk are said to be overstretched, dealing with staff shortages and backlogs. it is having a real impact on the nhs overall, so it means that trusts up and down the country are unable to restart the restoration of services that we so desperately need to see after covid. the department of health has denied

there were staffing problems, and says labs are processing more than one million tests a week. meanwhile, the rate of infection has more than doubled in birmingham in a week, to 88 cases per 100,000 people. from today, households across birmingham, solihull and sandwell are banned from visiting other households or private gardens. the west midlands mayor, andy street, has said they may impose even stricter rsetrictions if the numbers of new infections do not improve. the restrictions will apply alongside england—wide rules that make it illegal to meet up in social groups larger than a six. similar restrictions are in place in wales and scotland, but do not include children under 11 and 12, respectively. greg mackenzie, bbc news. let's speak to our political

correspondent chris mason. good morning. correspondent chris mason. i have got a quote for you good morning. i have got a quote for you from professor alan mcnally which helps one of the mega labs for testing and he said i think our stated capacity is different from how many test can be run in a given day. it is worrying that we seem to be in day. it is worrying that we seem to beina day. it is worrying that we seem to be in a situation before really weak have entered autumn or winter where we have maxed out the test we can do. with key workers in health and education say they cannot get test, what is the government going to do beyond saying that capacity is increasing all the time? that is the challenge. that has been set out by the professor, how do you ensure that supply is greater than demand and that wherever you are in the uk you can get a test to get one quickly? we know that is the aspiration of the government and we know that the huge volumes of e—mails and texts and tweets that we have had to be the see news that four people that is just not their experience. the government says that it is trying to prioritise tests in

areas where they are most needed, but particularly as we head into the autumn and at schools and universities are returning and more people are being encouraged back into the workplace, seasonal sniffles around the corner inevitably, then the pressure is going to mount on the system. we know the government has got big ambitions around cranking up testing capacity very quickly within a couple of months, this idea of operation moonshot and we know that there are problems right now and we know that from the home secretary sitting in this chair a couple of hours ago there was an acknowledgement at the top of government that the experience of some people at the moment is not good enough. we are surging capacity in areas where we've had local lockdowns, and what i would say is, clearly, the examples you've given are unacceptable, and clearly there is much more work that needs to be undertaken with public health england and the actual public health bodies in those particular local areas and, you know, as a government obviously we work with public health england to surge where there is demand in local hotspot areas,

and we continue to do that. there is a need, obviously, to grow capacity and increase capacity, that is something that has taken place every single day. you've also mentioned about people not getting access to appointments, booking slots. more and more booking slots are coming on stream every single day, more home testing kits are being issued every single day by public health england and it's right that that happens at a local level, it has to happen within the community, and also in terms of getting access to testing, driving to locations, the majority of tests are available within a ten mile radius. now, it seems to me that there'll be extreme cases where people can't get to test locations within that radius, but that doesn't mean that public health england are not working night and day to boost capacity and bolster capacity, they are absolutely doing that and that is clearly work that is ongoing. expect plenty more questions today around this whole issue of testing

and capacity and getting tess out to people or people to test centres and then the efficiency or otherwise with how tests are turned around because matt hancock is facing questions in the commons on this topic and others this lunchtime. 0k, chris mason, in westminster, thank you. mike adams is director for england at the royal college of nursing. good morning to you and thank you for joining good morning to you and thank you forjoining us today. what are your nurses telling you right now about availability of tests? is it reflecting what nhs providers have been saying about their concerns around capacity? yes, i think we can be confident that there is a growing concern again around testing capacity. we have seen within our call centres that the numbers of enquiries coming into us over the last week around testing specifically has gone up by around

10% and there is clearly growing concern and just personally i know ofa concern and just personally i know of a couple of cases where collea g u es of a couple of cases where colleagues have had to travel a decent amount of mileage to get a test when it really that is not idealfor anyone. it test when it really that is not ideal for anyone. it is certainly a growing concern at the bottom line here is our focus has to go into patient safety. we know we are short of staff going into this pandemic and if we do not have staff available because they are awaiting available because they are awaiting a test, we are putting people at risk. we can alljoin the a test, we are putting people at risk. we can all join the dots a test, we are putting people at risk. we can alljoin the dots on that, if staff shortages occur because people cannot get test, clearly that has a knock—on effect on services that can be offered as we head into winter. we heard from a nurse in preston here on the news channel a little while ago and her son, someone in his bubble at school, has been displaying coronavirus symptoms and she is trying to get a test for her son and

for herself. according to nhs guidelines she does not need to get tested but she feels she should, that it would be sensible to do so because they live in an area of sustained transmission of the virus. should someone like that nurse be able to easily get a test in your opinion? i think anyone who is going to be in front—line contact with vulnerable people, whether that is within the nhs or a care home, any health setting, we need to be able to reassure those people that they are safe to do that. if there is a risk that people had been in contact with covid, surely it makes sense that these are people who get quick reassurance and quick access to testing. we take out this kind of indecision and uncertainty that people have so that we can get a workforce that is confident in what they are doing and keeping people safe. the health secretary was talking last week about too many

people, people who did not need to in his words were asking for a test, are you saying that there needs to be greater clarity then around the messaging about who should be getting tests? i think that is something that needs to happen and we do need clearer messages on when people do need a test and do not need one and we may need to have more messaging on prioritising which people are prioritise, because they are people are prioritise, because they a re key people are prioritise, because they are key workers. i think also the issue of care homes, i would take the opportunity to raise that point as well, we are getting members from ca re as well, we are getting members from care homes who are feeling particularly isolated and particularly isolated and particularly vulnerable again. these are small groups of staff who, if they lose a couple of members of staff three isolation, has a massive impact on the care they can deliver and this is an area that felt isolated in the first place and we talk about the nhs a lot, but this is far reaching impact on

the care of people. absolutely, care homes continue to be an area of huge concern understandably because of what happened earlier in the year. cani what happened earlier in the year. can i be clear with you, are you saying then, in terms of messaging from the government and availability of test, irrespective of what the circumstances are, like this nurse in preston and there may be a couple of degrees of separation and no one in that circumstance has actually been confirmed to have coronavirus yet, but there are symptoms of coronavirus, when it comes to key workers like health workers, should they be able to have priority for testing, no matter the circumstances? the approach to this pandemic, all the way through has been protecting the nhs, protecting services that we can deliver. we have had extreme responses, really, by asking people who have retired to return, asking students to join

the workforce, these have all been fantastic actions, but this needs to carry on as a mentality that we need to protect how we deliver care and keep safe care and if that means prioritising people that we need in the workplace to deliver that care, then that does make sense. thank you very much, mike adams, directorfor england at the royal college of nursing. it is not only. it's not only nhs staff who have reported problems getting tested. jim blakely is head teacher at garstang st thomas, church of england primary school, in preston. we were just talking about a nurse in preston trying to get a test and you are also in preston, an area where cases are on the rise, what is the situation in your school? good morning, we have a problem in that we have 13 children isolating and to members of staff also isolating and staff and children are missing so much time, so my year four teacher

was sent home last wednesday due to covid symptoms, there are no tests available the next day and he kept trying to book and he was given the same place as my parents have been suggested, like aberdeen and llandudno. he had managed to get a fairly local test on the thursday after trying and trying again, but the result came through on saturday morning and it came back and clear, which meant that he had to get a retest. no tests available again that day apart from carlisle airport, a four hour round trip and i don't think anyone should be travelling that distance if they are unwell. he was told there were no home testing kits available. can i be clear, as anyone in the school community, have they tested positive for coronavirus, people have displayed symptoms, have they tested positive? none of the

children or staff have confirmed cases yet. nonetheless, there are people with symptoms, what sort of knock on effect is that having in the school in terms of the teaching, trying to rejig teachers to cover classes? this is difficult and rejigging teachers is not possible because we are trying to keep bubbles apart. with this teacher who is off, we had a chat at the weekend and i asked him to teach live from home, so he spent a lot of sunday preparing to do that best. yesterday and today he has been on the screen at the front of the class and a teaching assistant has been supporting the children in class and he has been doing it that way. that is not ideal and that is not a long—term solution, but it is the best option that we have got at the moment. it is nearly a week and we have not got a result of the test. you probably heard some of my conversation with mike adams and we have been told by the government that if sectors had to close again, schools absolutely be the last do

so. the same question i put to mike adams from the rcn for you, do you think that teachers and children should be prioritised for testing? absolutely. there has been a change in the system this week that if you are an essential worker there is now a check button to check when you are ordering a test but i have another member of staff who checked that button, checked, so did ino checked that button, checked, so did i no tests available. and how are you feeling about the situation. you're trying to manage a difficult situation, very uncertain situation. i feel let down by the test system, i feel let down by the test system, i feel like getting school open with a national priority and everyone was behind us, but with the systems in place in school, with their bubble systems, our risk assessment, the only way we know someone has the disease or not and that we have

enough staff to keep as running, those things are in jeopardy with the current testing system. those things are in jeopardy with the current testing systemlj those things are in jeopardy with the current testing system. i do hope all the school community get their test back soon and that those tests are negative. there's been fewer than 100 covid—19 deaths in a week in the uk for the first time since march. 8,996 deaths were registered in the uk in the week of 4th september. that s below the five year average and also down on the previous week. 83 of these deaths mentioned covid—19, the lowest figure since the 13th march. let's take a look at these figures in more depth — with me the bbc head of statistics. glad to have you with us. let us look at that headline. thing is

heading in the right direction? absolutely, but it has taken a long time. it has taken four high weeks to get to that spike that we saw in april and march, it has taken for five months to come back down again and if we can show the weekly figures to the viewers on diets, because if you look at the charts that we have that show you the total number of deaths that we see every week, you see that red area there, that are the covid death and you can see it, five deaths in the wake of the 13th of march, and 110 the week after and it has doubled every couple of days and reach nine and a half thousand within about four or five weeks. we are back down to those levels now, but it has taken almost five months to get there. it is great news, but it is also maybe a point to think about. no consolation of course for those poor families and loved ones of those who have died more recently. i wonder how the bank holiday might affect

things. these are the deaths recorded up until the 4th of september and that is where you see the bank holiday at the start of the week and moving the figures around a little bit, if the eagle eyed viewers of they were looking at the last chart, they would see that the number of deaths we so this week is substantially below our expectations based on the last five years. that is just because of a misalignment around bank holidays, that means fewer death registrations, it depresses the numbers and that means you have the spike and bounces and it looks like we are doing a lot better, we have negative excess deaths, fewer than we would expect in the last week, but i would hold onto that one for a little bit before taking it to the bank, we will wait and see next week. perhaps an unfair question to ask, but where does that leave us overall, cases are on the rise again and we are very well aware of that, but is it possible to take a step back and assess we re possible to take a step back and assess were the our overall, because obviously right through this pandemic we have been looking very

closely at how the uk is doing compared to other countries. the death figures have been moving in the right direction, moving down steadily, but slowly. i am not sure that those figures we have just been talking about are the best ones to tell us about the trends in what is happening with case numbers. the figures i have just happening with case numbers. the figures i havejust been happening with case numbers. the figures i have just been talking about are figures i have just been talking aboutare in figures i have just been talking about are in the middle of the chart and the total number of covid death that we have seen that mention covid and then the excess deaths, the difference between the total number of deaths and what we would expect to see and both of these, it takes awhile for debts to be registered, you get the bank affect and it is reflections that happened a while ago and maybe they are not the best at telling you the short term trends, the figure at the top is a figure we hear about every day and thatis figure we hear about every day and that is the daily number, the people who have died within 28 days of testing positive for covid and it misses a lot of the tragedy of coronavirus, it misses the vast number of deaths but it is also tightly defined and that is the number we will be looking out most

closely when we try to understand what is happening with cases, because cases in the last two weeks, they have started to rise, there is a hint that hospitalisations, one of the measures that were used to validate the case numbers may be starting to turn up as well and it is that daily death number figure evenif is that daily death number figure even if it misses some of it, it gives us the best indication of what is happening in the next stage of the epidemic. we are not seen a big rise there yet, but we will be watching it closely. thank you very much for taking us through all of those details. our head of statistics. russian opposition politician alexei navalny has shared a picture of himself sitting up in bed in hospital — where he's recovering following his suspected poisoning last month. the picture shows him surrounded by family — he said he is now able to breathe independently. in the post he says. that

is a lot. his supporters believe his tea was spiked at an airport in august and he became ill during the subsequent flight he became ill during the subsequent flight and the plane he was on it made an emergency landing. in early september the german government said he had been poisoned with a novichok nerve agent in an attempt to murder him and yesterday the german government said that laboratories in france and sweden have now reconfirmed german test showing that the poison used on alexei navalny was another shock. let us go to berlin for the very latest. 0ur correspondent damian mcguiness is in berlin. last time i spoke to you, he was in a coma at that stage, this is a huge step forward, isn't it? he has been ina step forward, isn't it? he has been in a clinically induced coma for

weeks and then he was on mechanical ventilation and was not able to breathe on his own, now this is the first time today that he has communicated directly with the public since he fell ill on that internal flight from russia public since he fell ill on that internalflight from russia in august. it is a big step because experts here say that the poison he was given and that has been proven by german officials and swedish and french officials now, three independent laboratories have proven this, was a severe poison. officials and medical doctors here say that he is doing much better, but they cannot rule out any long—term damage, but certainly this picture of him, surrounded by his family, his wife on the right—hand side and two younger people who look like his children, they are wearing masks and we cannot confirm that for definite, but we think they are his children, and they all are incredibly cheerful and they all are incredibly cheerful and this is good news for his family, his supporters and

himself obviously, because having suffered an attack like this, it was not clear whether he would survive the first of all, and whether he would come out of this,. the broader political implications, though, are huge, because this has created a huge, because this has created a huge row, a big drift, politically between berlin and moscow and indeed the european union and moscow because european officials here are saying that the kremlin really has to come up with an explanation for what happened and kremlin officials have accused european governments of meddling and saying they should not interfere in russian internal affairs and they have told russia how to carry out investigations. there is a growing political row over this but certainly this initial post is good news for the supporters of mr navalny because it shows he is on the road to recovery. thank you very much. damien mcguinness in berlin. president trump has refused to acknowledge the role of climate

change in the fires that have ravaged states on the us west coast. on a visit to california, mr trump again blamed poorforest management for the blazes, which have killed at least 35 people. meeting with mr trump, california's governor gavin newsom admitted state forest management could be better, but pointed out that more than half of california s could be better, but pointed out as they were briefed by state officials, president trump disputed some of what he was being told. we want to work with you to really recognise the changing climate and what it means to our forests, and work together with that science, that science is going to be key, because if we ignore that science, if we put our head in the sand and think it's all about vegetation management, we're not going to succeed together protecting californians. it'll start getting cooler. i wish... you just watch. i wish science agreed with you. well, i don't think science knows, actually. the uk unemployment rate has risen to its highest level

for almost two years. young people were particularly badly—hit, with 16 to 24 year olds suffering the biggest drop in employment compared with other age groups. the number of people in that age group without a job rose by 156,000 in the three months tojuly, according to data from the office for national statistics. let's take a closer look at the figures — the red line on this graph shows how the rate of unemployment for 16—24 years old has increased. 13.4% of them are out of work — the blue line shows the overall unemployment rate for the uk — which has grown to 4.1%. and since the coronavirus lockdown began in march some 695,000 uk workers have disappeared from the payrolls of british companies.

bill gates has told the bbc he's optimistic that a vaccine for coronavirus will be available by spring next year. he said the united states had made a lot of mistakes in dealing with the pandemic at home, and had been slower to respond internationally than he would have expected but he was confident it would now step up to contribute financially to a global solution. mr gates told the bbc‘s larry madowo that covid—19 had exposed tens of millions of people to the threat of more poverty, inequality, and disease: so, the pandemic has reduced food distribution, raised prices of food, it has meant that you cannot move around and seek out economic opportunities in the same way and so it is a gigantic setback. that represents over five years of progress, it is the first time that that number has gone up since it has been seriously measured. let's talk about vaccines. already, some of the richest countries like the us and the uk and lots of other western european nations are already putting in money

so that they are first in line when a vaccine becomes available. is this the best way to handle this? well, the vaccine work, the r&d fees, including the expense of trials, the rich countries, particularly the us have funded that work for a lot of these companies and so, if the companies who are doing it just on a braking basis, just on a breaking basis, they can afford to do it because of that us and other money, so for the research side, that is good news, for getting the money to buy the vaccine for the poor countries, that has not yet come together. the us has notjoined those meetings, even though it is normally with hiv and polio and so many things a leader in global health and as yet, we still have to pull that together and here, of course, there is this huge benefit, even to the rich countries, that the epidemic won't keep coming back. so the plan to have lots

of factories and the plan of how we allocate it, including money for procurement for the poorer countries, that is still, despite some good work by europe and others, we still don't have enough to support that basic need. is this surprising to you, though, because president donald trump has always been about america first and he has pulled out of the world health organization in the middle of a pandemic and he has been more recently talking about how well the us has handled this, compared to any other nation. would you agree? well the us has made a lot of mistakes, you would expect it to have the least deaths and we are among the worst because of what happened with the diagnostics and the way that we let it come in without having lots of testing and quarantine. whatever we have done wrong to date, you can still see we are a country with the longest wait time for the tests, that really should not be the case. but the us congress allocates

the money and they have maintained the money for all the global health activities, malaria, polio, hiv and as i talk to the congress, i think there are a lot of people there, on both parties who think that having 1% of this supplemental bill, taking care of the national of this supplemental bill, taking care of the international response, which is humanitarian, it is strategic, but also, from a purely selfish point of view, that is the way that you bring this to a close. so, i do think, at some point here in the next six months, the us will step up. it has such a great proud tradition on health, tradition on helping on global health, leading global health, the distractions of the domestic challenge of the epidemic have made it slower to do that than i would have expected, but the congress, they care and the like the two organisations that would make sure this money

would be well spent. all right, and finally, there has been a lot misinformation around this covid, there has been a lot of conspiracy theories around, what you make of all that? i don't know, i am worried about those rumours. i am surprised to find myself, is a big supporter of vaccines, saving lives, to be attacked for almost the opposite of that. 0ur foundation, our proudest work is the number of children who are alive today, 20 million, because of the vaccine coverage that we have been a partner in increasing in every country in the world. hello, this is bbc news with anita mcveigh. the headlines: asa as a lack of coronavirus test for england because ‘s health workers is putting services at risk, according to hospital bosses. the uk government insists the tester out there. the majority of tests are available

within a ten mile radius. it seems to me there will be extreme cases where people can get the test locations within that radius, but that doesn't mean that public health england over —— not working night and day to boost capacity. the number of young people in the uk without a job rises by more than 150,000. russian opposition figure abound in the valley post a picture of himself sitting up in his hospital bed a month after he was poisoned by another chuck. donald trump visits california and denies the role of climate change in the wildfires devastated the region. in the uk, tougher restrictions have come into force in birmingham, solihull and sandwell, to try to stop the spread of coronavirus. it means people are banned from meeting others who aren't part of their household or support bubble in their homes or gardens. the mayor for the west midlands andy street warned people they must comply with new

restrictions or face even tougher measures. for many in the west midlands, life is changing again. different households, including families, must no longer mix at home. liz martin is looking after her grandson so her daughter can work, but that is no longer an option. if she wants to work, we have got to break the law because we can't think of any other way. yesterday was the last game in the garden for what could be some time. we have been very careful. we are very time. we have been very careful. we are very careful. we have still got to get through this and live and i can't bear the stress. not only my daughter and her husband, but the children, as well. birmingham has been on a knife edge for weeks in

terms of greater restrictions, now authorities say residents must stick to the new rules or risk fines and may be a future lockdown. so what are they? well, from today the entire city, as well as neighbouring boroughs of sandwell and solihull, 1.6 million people in total, mustn't spend time on each peoples homes and garden. the only exception is if you are loan adult and a support bubble. it doesn't affect schools, workplaces are a group settings like pubs, parks or restaurants. workplaces are a group settings like pubs, parks or restaurantslj workplaces are a group settings like pubs, parks or restaurants. i think it is necessary, even though it is quite sad, but i understand why. anything that keeps this pandemic a day is a good thing. you can go to a plate and meet people, but you can't do it in your own house. i don't think they know they are talking about. not many muslim people will go to about. not many muslim people will gotoa about. not many muslim people will go to a pub to meet people. there has been confusion here in the uk.

second biggest city about why it is 0k to meet people in social settings like pubs and in places like this, but not at home. public health officials say the main culprit when it comes to transmission is domestic settings. what we see and the majority of cases where we are able to identify transmission is that this is because people have gathered behind closed doors, often for a celebration. recently i've seen three children in different families and the actual place where they caught it from each other was the child was my birthday party. that is where the transmission is happening at the moment. both the conservative mps in birmingham have suggested a blanket approach doesn't make sense. people understand why it is happening, there have been spikes. you can see this picture in very specific areas. i think it is right that we should be taking intervention, but we should be doing it in localised areas, not clumping in1.8 million it in localised areas, not clumping in 1.8 million people into the same restrictions. i think a lot

of people share the frustration. the council insist that a broad spread of cases in terms of age and location that must be brought under control, or there could be dire consequences. there are already questions about how it would be policed. for some it is a case of more tough times when there were just getting back on their feet. it's the 80th anniversary of victory in the battle of britain today. earlier today, we saw breakfast‘s john maguire flying a spitfire to mark the occasion. now we can hearfrom one of the pilots who flew that plane for real, in the heat of the two—month battle against the luftwaffe, and one of the so—called "spotters and plotters" who helped from the ground. robert hall has this report. they'd been expecting it for days, the final mass attack by hitler's luftwaffe ahead of an invasion. the plan was straightforward. hundreds of bombers would target london and the southern counties while fighters were waiting to trap

the raf and wipe it out. exhausted young men who had fought and watched friends die for two months scrambled back into their cockpits. it would be about there. you would love to turn it over and do all sorts of things. and there you were, if you are fighting, you are pressing this button, as well. john hemingway is the last of winston churchill's few. now 101, he already been shot down twice by september 1940. we were all in our early 20s, i was 20. we just didn't care. there was no right or wrong. the war was on, we were pilots. we were going to fight them all the time. not that we were brave or anything, but there was nothing else. the world was at war,

and you couldn't go somewhere else and say, "i am at peace, i don't fight wars." as the planes weaved in a web of smoke trails over kent, the few relied on the many. the fitters who endured the bombing of airfields and got them back into the air, spotters, plotters and radar operators who steered them towards the next mission. cath mcleod was a veteran of the plotting rooms. she and her colleagues watched the blips on their screens and fed the information back to their raf command centres. we managed to get it so far ahead that it gave them at least six minutes' time to get the height, which is essential to get the incoming germans. they had to get above them and that was the only way they could do it. i certainly wondered

how they knew they were there. by the end of september 15th, the tide had turned. german losses had been twice that of the raf. the invasion would be cancelled. but dozens of airfields, the spitfires and the hurricanes came home. the main skill was luck, you had to be lucky. no matter how good you were, my boss, dickie lee was the best pilot i've ever seen. but he was shot down and killed. so he had no luck. i had bags of luck. i couldn't do that. but here i am. like so many events this year, battle of britain day will be a quiet affair, but a slight show at the uk's first—ever radar station in norfolk is a reminder that we celebrate and remember a true team effort. robert hall, bbc news.

we heard there from some of the british pilots who took part in the battle and we can talk now about the role of airmen from other allied countries. polish fighter pilots constituted the second largest contingent of pilots from allied countries after the british in the battle. let's learn more about their contribution and speak to the polish ambassador to the uk. ambassador, it is very good to have you with us on bbc news on this anniversary. thank you forjoining us. please do begin by telling us more about the role of those polish pilots, the part they played in the battle. thank you for the invitation. it is a very important day to commemorate all the heroes fighting in the battle of britain. the second largest contingent were polish pilots, but also polish ground crew. we are

very proud that this contribution was so big. 0ne ground crew. we are very proud that this contribution was so big. one in five pilots in the air defending britain were polish and we are very proud of these people, who destroyed 126 enemy aircraft in 1's quadrant, which made them the highest scoring squadron in the battle. how large was the contribution? it was crucial. poland, as you know did not surrender, and it fought against nazi germany, they fought in france and in britain. the contribution of the pilots is so well known in britain because it is a good sign of cooperation, but we have to remember

about the 18th signed polish airmen and arab women who were fighting in the raf during the second world war in britain. the commander-in-chief of fighter command, air chief marshal sir hugh dryden, who had been initially reluctant for the polish battles to be in the battle, summarised saying had it not been for the polar squadrons and their unsurpassed gallantry, i hesitate to say that the outcome of the battle would have been the same. it is fitting on this anniversary, and some would argue a bit belated, that the status of the polish air force memorial here in the uk has been upgraded. you must be very pleased that it now is recognised as having particular national importance. yes, i agree with that, and i am so proud that we can visit this beautiful and important memorial

next to northolt, where the polish free squadrons operated. it is a good opportunity to remember how important this common effort, the cooperation fighting for the freedom of britain, poland, and all of europe. the chief of the air staff now set in an interview today, talking about the raf, the role of the raf in protecting britain, was as important in protecting britain as it has ever been. we sat in this increasingly u nsta ble world been. we sat in this increasingly unstable world we need to look forward as radically as our predecessors did in the run—up to 1940. is that the sentiment that you agree with when you think about the capabilities of the polish air force ? capabilities of the polish air force? i fully agree with that. i am very proud of the polish air force and the cooperation with the raf, but also we think

that this fight for polish freedom was not finished in 1945. we had the solidarity movement, which was the beginning of the end of the totalitarian regime in poland, but also in all of central europe. we are now trying to support with solidarity belarus and what happened in their election. thank you very much, the polish ambassador to the uk. thank you for your time. thank you. let's return now to one of our main stories. the uk unemployment rate has risen to its highest level for two years at 4.1% in the three months tojuly, compared with 3.9% previously. people aged between 16 and 24 have been particularly hard hit. sir keir starmer called on boris johnson to work with labour on a national plan to protectjobs. johnson to work with labour on a national plan to protect jobs. at this moment of national crisis, we

should take inspiration from our past. be willing to put party differences aside and work together in the interests of the country. imagine how powerful it would be if we could form a genuine national plan to protectjobs, create new ones and invest in skills and trades. i am ones and invest in skills and trades. iam making ones and invest in skills and trades. i am making an open offer to the prime minister. work with us to keep millions of people in work. work with the trade unions. work with businesses. do everything possible to protect jobs with businesses. do everything possible to protectjobs and to deliver for working people. possible to protectjobs and to deliverfor working people. my door is open. lets speak now to tej parikh, chief economist at the institute of directors. good to have you with us. given the figures we have seen today, is a national plan what is needed to deal with unemployment to try to stop the figure is getting worse, given the

continued uncertainty over this virus and how long it will be until things can properly get back to normal? yes, i think unfortunately today? figures are not onlyjust the beginning. there is a chance that redundancies will increase in the coming months, particularly as the following schemes weinstein. many businesses are looking for work the next iteration of government support will be. certainly, there needs to be some new plan to help job retention and rebuild skills in the uk. what concerns do you have in particular about that age group so badly affected, the 16 to 24—year—olds, and what needs to be done specifically to help people in that age group who ordinarily might be getting started off in their careers, would be learning from a tea m careers, would be learning from a team of people around them, but those skills right now for many of them aren't being learned? yes, i think the concern for many in this area would be that the sectors they have been working on

before, such as retail, hospitality, leisure, will continue to be under pressure for the coming months. the onus now is in supporting that age group to find ways in which they can either find newjobs and redeploy their skills, orfind newjobs and redeploy their skills, or find ways that they can get new skills in a new way. putting more money into your skills system words bea money into your skills system words be a way of doing that. without an extension to the furlough or are targeted and specific support which the treasury committee has been looking forfor certain the treasury committee has been looking for for certain sectors, really the only way is up for these figures. the unemployment figures are going to rise. any idea by how much? most economists were expecting for us to reach at least the 7%, 8% mark, increasing up from 4% at the moment. but it really depends

on how the pandemic plays out and one further impacts there are businesses. we know that a number of organisations are already facing challenges dealing with localised lockdowns. there is a big question about how high redundancies might rise, particularly without any further support. tej parikh, thank you very much for your thoughts on that story. a signing ceremony takes place at the white house today at which israel will agree to normalise relations with the uae and bahrain. the move, brokered by president trump, marks a historic shift in relations between israel and the two gulf arab countries. but it comes amid a crisis at home for the israeli leader, as our middle east correspondent tom bateman reports from jerusalem. this deal is delivering its rewards under the desert sun.

and ad's being filmed near dubai for israeli pyjamas. until now, it would have been impossible. in the uae, that boycotted formal ties with israel. it's a very historical moment and i'm very excited to be the first israeli model to shoot for an israeli brand here. and hopefully soon we can come here, of the israelis, with israeli passports, and it's very exciting. fanfare. but these israelis have other noise to make. for weeks they've been coming, a nti — neta nya hu protesters at his jerusalem home, calling on him to quit. what do you think of your prime minister? who is it? yeah. we don't know who is it, because it's looking like the — the country is not managed, by no—one. it looks like someone is busy with other things.

we have a peace with dubai, and it is going very well. we want peace with the arabs, but we want also peace among our arabs. israel is deep in an economic and health crisis with a second lockdown imminent. this is a picture that the pm's probably happy to leave at home. dissent, division, there is real anger at his leadership. in washington, he can be the peacemaker, not the problem. this is a big change and a diplomatic achievement for israel, for the emirates and bahrain, trade and new links with the region's security and cyber superpower. "a historic brea kthrough", says mr neta nyahu. he puts it on par with last century's landmark us—brokered peace deals between israel and its arab neighbours.

for palestinians, the gulf countries' deal with israel is a betrayal. they think it breaks years of arab solidarity, over their hopes for an end to occupation, their dreams of statehood. they go to pray, like hussan. could emiratis and bahrainis soon be joining him? translation: the emirati people are a muslim nation. anybody from around the muslim world has the right to come and pray in al—aqsa. it is these regimes that have abandoned their responsibility. and given up on the cause of al—aqsa. president trump will applaud his strategy for the region at today's deal—signing ceremony in washington. as mr netanyahu puts pen to paper, his troubles at home are also being written into his legacy. tom bateman, bbc news, jerusalem. almost four months ago borisjohnson promised to deliver a "world

beating" system to test, track and trace covid—19 cases. but an increase in demand for coronavirus tests has led to local shortages — with some people being directed to test sites hundreds of miles from their homes. 0ur correspondent jayne mccubbin has been to a test centre in the town. covid rates are rising once again in 0ldham, with locals facing a new raft of restrictions. i'm doing mejob! at this walk—in test centre, tempers are rising too. i've got a child who's coughing, he's had a high temperature. he supposed to be at school, what do you want me to do? just leave him out of school for indefinite? muhamed is a father and a carer furious at being turned away because they do not have capacity. have you tried other means of getting a test? yeah, i have tried online, i've been trying since the last two days. so i've got a message here, it says "the system is currently unavailable " — that has been the last two days, yeah? so what do you want me to do? time and time again we have filmed people walk—up to the walk—in centre and walk away again. ijust catch a word used to explain

the situation to peter and his grand—daughter. the service has been, he says, "annihilated" today. that was his choice of word. that was his choice of word, yes. that's how busy they've been. she was sent home from school because somebody in her class had that virus. i have copd and a lung problem and she lives with us, and we are both 75. how worried are you? i am really concerned, honestly, really concerned. so you just wake up tomorrow morning and try again? we just keep trying. so many we see turned away are school kids like roma. "we are extremely busy, call back later," which i have been doing since eight o'clock this morning. were you been offered any drive—through testing sites? there was one in doncaster, which is about an hour away which i was prepared to do but it wasn't till mid—october. head teachers from 75 local authorities, including 0ldham, have written to the government

saying schools have been severely hampered by delays in testing. have you seen anthing available anywhere else in the country? no. amina is a teaching assistant. there's not even any home testing kits, which is what i initially wanted. there is a groupjust here who have arrived trying to get a test for people they look after with learning disabilities. and they've been told they can't get a test. they are really worried because there has been an outbreak in the home where they work. they too are told, just keep checking online for an appointment. they said because of the labs could not turn them around so they can't give anyone and you have to make an appointment. they can't turn the tests around. what does that mean for you and the people you look after? it is not on because, obviously, you need to go and get tested when you need to. i speak to mark adams, who runs one of the biggest care home groups in the north of england. the testing is turning out to be a bit of a fiasco. how?

at the moment we are waiting for up to ten days for every test to come back and, frankly, that could mean you've got somebody that's got covid spending seven days in a care home, wandering around and nobody is aware of it. i found out 15 minutes ago and i've came straight here. lisa and nadine are support staff without symptoms but they have just heard that a colleague has tested positive. everywhere it's appointment only. red line — appointment only. i am looking at a website when the earliest time is i can get an appointment. without a test are you going to be able to get back to work? no. i am not going to be able to work tomorrow. while the council describes this as a shambles, a government spokesperson told us that the system is working. that capacity is the highest it has ever been but they admit they are seeing higher demand. here the council is trying to tackle the increase in covid with door—to—door testing but

again capacity is stretched. we need more people to get tested and more tests available. there are very many people who have had a test and results within days. just walk through and the all clear. but around the country, there are pressure points and the covid curve is rising. jayne mccubbin, bbc news. some dues to bring you now on alexei navalny. he has posted a picture of himself sitting up in a loose hospital bed a month after he was poisoned by robert rock, saying he can barely do anything for

himself, but he cannot breathe unaided, no longer on a ventilator. we have had our statement from his spokesman, saying he plans to return to russia, saying he plans to return to russia, saying there is no other option. so a month after being poisoned by not a month after being poisoned by not a joke, alexei navalny saying he plans to return to russia, there is no other option, according to a spokesperson. now, the weather with matt taylor hello. another hot afternoon on the way for many of you. the hottest yesterday wasjersey, 31 degrees. it started on a sunny note here injersey this morning, but temperatures a little bit cooler, thanks to the wind shifting round to a westerly direction. winds though into the south and south—east, though, around this area of high pressure, means we are going to push some air up into the northern half of england and probably a warmer day across scotland and northern ireland, although we did start here with cloud and outbreaks of rain from these weather fronts just tied in with light winds. they are decaying now and they will continue to do so.

still some outbreaks of rain to take us through the first part of the afternoon, lingering across the far north of scotland into the end of the day and one or two isolated showers pushing on towards the south west where low cloud will hug some of the coasts. away from all of those areas, though, most places will be dry, long spells of sunshine, hazy in places, and as i said, temperatures up in scotland and northern ireland compared to yesterday. the highest of all maybe 29—31 in the north—east of london and across parts of east anglia. through this evening and overnight, a few isolated showers drifting across central and southern england. mist around some coasts and a weather front is pushing its way southwards as northerly winds develop across scotland. that is actually the same weather front that brings the rain this morning and it willjust bring a few showers south through the night and into tomorrow. what is perhaps most significant is it will bring a shift in wind directions. high pressure moves eastwards, swinging winds into a more north and more north—easterly direction, particularly for the eastern half of the country and so through the rest of this week it is going to gradually turn cooler. most parts of the country, though, will be staying dry.

one or two exceptions to that rule on wednesday, a few isolated showers, east anglia and through this figure cloud across parts of scotland, northern ireland, northern and northeastern england, there will be a little bit of light rain or drizzle. cold north—easterly winds dig into that and temperatures probably best around 13—18 , probably feeling cooler in the afternoon. to the south, though, why we have some mist or low cloud around the coast, and more in the way of sunshine and still warm with temperatures into the mid 20s. into thursday, we start to lose some of that north—easterly wind, some cloud around eastern coast fadings, a few showers into the north—west of scotland and temperatures back to where they should be for this time of year, between 17 and 20 degrees. we have around those values into friday and into the weekend. friday, a little bit of rain in scotland, for the weekend some rain in the english channel.

this is bbc news. the headlines... a lack of coronavirus test for england's health workers is putting services at risk according to hospital bosses. the uk government insist that sr out there. the majority of tests are available within a ten mile radius. it seems to me that there will be extreme

cases where people cannot get to test location within that radius but it does not mean that public health england are not working night and day to boost capacity. the number of young people in the uk without a job rises by more than 150,000 new data shows. russian opposition figure alexei navalny post a photo of himself sitting up in his hospital bed one month after he was poisoned with a novichok nerve agent. us president donald trump visits california and denies the role of climate change in the wildfire is devastating the region. and the bbc has just published its annual report with details on how it is tackling the gender pay gap.

hello, a very good afternoon to you and welcome to bbc news. britain's home secretary priti patel says it's "unacceptable" that people can't get coronavirus tests — after hospital bosses in england warned that a lack of testing was leading to staff shortages. health officials say the situation is putting services at risk and hampering efforts to prepare for winter. but ms patel insisted the government is growing its screening capacity every day. greg mackenzie reports. testing has come under intense scrutiny, after people across the uk reported that they were unable to book tests or were being offered tests more than 100 miles away, like these people in plymouth. there is problems getting a test. i was told by the nhs that there was none, there was none in the uk whatsoever. we did it last week for my son and we were able tojust come in. back injuly, walk—in centres like this one in east london, were being promoted but now, walk—in slots

are limited each day and, and when they run out, people are simply turned away, including key workers. i need to go back to work and i need to get tested. i have been trying since friday evening. laboratories analysing swab tests in the uk are said to be overstretched, dealing with staff shortages and backlogs. it is having a real impact on the nhs overall, so it means that trusts up and down the country are unable to restart the restoration of services that we so desperately need to see after covid. the department of health has denied there were staffing problems, and says labs are processing more than one million tests a week. meanwhile, the rate of infection has more than doubled in birmingham in a week, to 88 cases per 100,000 people. from today, households across birmingham, solihull and sandwell are banned

from visiting other households or private gardens. the west midlands mayor, andy street, has said they may impose even stricter rsetrictions if the numbers of new infections do not improve. the restrictions will apply alongside england—wide rules that make it illegal to meet up in social groups larger than a six. similar restrictions are in place in wales and scotland, but do not include children under 11 and 12, respectively. greg mackenzie, bbc news. let's speak to our political correspondent chris mason. hello again. we have heard it straight from the horse's mouth in this programme today from teachers, from health care workers, about not been able to access tests in a timely way, so what more is the government going to do about this beyond saying capacity is going up

all the time? hopefully we'll find out in the next half an hour because the health secretary for england will be responding to an urgent question in the house of commons tabled by labour and i think you can expect plenty of mps to ask precisely that question, given the volume of concern that we have been hearing about here on bbc news and there has been evidence in the inboxes of mps as well about plenty of people going around trying to get a test and encountering computer says no moment because it says no tests are available or test hundreds of miles away or they can eventually get a test by the postal system but then there were delays actually getting a result. the government is acknowledging that there are problems, particularly in areas where there has been a spike in cases and you might hope that tests would be more readily available and yet we are hearing from viewers that thatis yet we are hearing from viewers that that is not always the case. the home secretary priti patel was on bbc breakfast earlier and was asked about that and acknowledge that in

some cases it is not acceptable. we are surging capacity in areas where we've had local lockdowns, and what i would say is, clearly, the examples you've given are unacceptable, and clearly there is much more work and the actual public health bodies in those particular local areas and, you know, as a government obviously we work with public health england to surge where there is demand in local hotspot areas, and we continue to do that. there is a need, obviously, to grow capacity and increase capacity, that is something that has taken place every single day. you've also mentioned about people not getting access to appointments, booking slots. more and more booking slots are coming on stream every single day, more home testing kits are being issued every single day by public health england and it's right that that happens at a local level, it has to happen within the community, and also in terms of getting access to testing, driving to locations, the majority of tests are available within a ten mile radius. now, it seems to me that there'll be extreme cases where people can't get to test locations within that

radius, but that doesn't mean that public health england are not working night and day to boost capacity and bolster capacity, they are absolutely doing that and that is clearly work that is ongoing. and more from matt hancock in the commons in the next half an hour. and more from matt hancock in the commons in the next half an hourlj will bring you some new information coming to us via laura kuenssberg our political editor, the department for education is expected to announce that 99. 9% for education is expected to announce that 99.9% of state funded schools in england where open on september the 10th, 92% of them fully opened for all pupils and attendance was 88%. only fully opened for all pupils and attendance was 88%. 0nly1% of schools fully opened last week because of suspected or confirmed cases of covid—19. they expect ministers to say that that proves that their long—standing mission over the summer, to get schools back and get them packed

properly, the early evidence suggests they have succeeded in doing that. 0k, chris thank you. chris mason. gary lineker has agreed to take a 23% salary cut. that would reduce his salary by more than £400,000. the announcement of his new five year contract comes as the bbc reveals its star salaries as part of its annual report for the year to the end of march 2020. with me now is our media editor, amol rajan. what other main revelations? there isa what other main revelations? there is a lot of complexity in this data that we have, and i think it is likely to lead to some negative headlines. 0n the salaries, the list of salaries which includes me includes reforms trying to address the outcry over the difference between what men and women were

getting paid and those reforms include many broadcasters, particularly men taking pay cuts, the likes of jeremy particularly men taking pay cuts, the likes ofjeremy vine and huw edwards and then some women, but not exclusively, people like lauren laverne and fiona bruce getting pay rises, crucially for extra work and that has adjusted the balance of that has adjusted the balance of that topless so that for the top ten highest earners are now women but fundamentally these are big salaries ata time fundamentally these are big salaries at a time of tremendous economic hardship with lots of people being made redundant or being on furlough and a lot of people will be shocked that some people have got pay rises. hence the difficult questions. the overall gender pay gap which the bbc aims to eliminate is still 6.3%, thatis aims to eliminate is still 6.3%, that is better than the rest of the industry but it will not be eliminated. 0n gary lineker, he is the top paid in terms of the figures we have got but he has taken this pay cut which means that in the figures next year, the top pay is likely to go to zoe ball but despite all of this complexity and progress

on bame staff, a number in the less, it is 18% up from three years ago, fundamentally these are big salaries and some pay rises for bbc broadcasters at a time of tremendous economic hardship across the country. thank you for that. the uk unemployment rate has risen to its highest level for almost two years. young people were particularly badly—hit, with 16 to 24 year olds suffering the biggest drop in employment compared with other age groups. the number of people in that age group without a job rose by 156,000 in the three months tojuly, according to data from the office for national statistics. let's take a closer look at the figures. the red line on this graph shows how the rate of unemployment for 16 to 24—year—olds has increased. 13.4% of them are out of work. the blue line shows the overall unemployment rate for the uk, which has grown to 4.1%. and since the coronavirus lockdown began in march some 695,000 uk workers have disappeared

from the payrolls of british companies. the russian opposition leader alexei navalny has posted a picture on his instagram from a german hospital —— where he is recovering from a suspected novichok poisoning. here it is — he is surrouded by his family — he said: i can still hardly do anything myself — but yesterday i was able to breathe on my own.'. mr navalny‘s supporters believe his tea was spiked at tomsk airport on 20 august. he became ill during the flight, and the plane made an emergency landing. in early september — the german government said navalny had been poisoned with a soviet—style novichok nerve agent in an attempt to murder him. and yesterday — germany's government said that laboratories in france and sweden have now reconfirmed german tests showing that the poison used on mr navalny was novichok. also this morning —

a spokesperson for alexei navalny said he plans to return to russia when he's better. earlier i spoke to our berlin correspondent damian mcguinness. he has been in a clinically induced coma for weeks and then he was on mechanical ventilation, was not able to breathe on his own and this is the first time today that he has communicated directly with the public since he fell ill on that internal flight from russia at the end of august and it is a big step because experts here say that the poison that he was given and that has been proven by german officials and swedish and french officials now, independent laboratories, three of them, have proven this, was a severe poison. now, officials and medical doctors here say that he is doing much better but they cannot rule out any long—term damage, but certainly this picture of him, surrounded by his family as you say,

his wife on the right—hand side and two younger people who look like his children, they are wearing masks and we cannot confirm it for definite, but i think it is his children, they are all incredibly cheerful and you can tell that from the picture and this is good news for his family, his supporters and for himself obviously, because having suffered an attack like this, it was not clear whether he would survive, first of all, and whether he would come out of this,. the broader political implications are huge because this has created a huge row, a big risk politically, between berlin and moscow and indeed the european union and moscow because european union and moscow because european officials here have said that the kremlin needs to come up foran that the kremlin needs to come up for an expedition for what has happened and kremlin officials have accused european governments of meddling and say they should not interfere in russian internal affairs and the nation tells russia had to carry out investigations, there is a growing political row but

this initial post is good news for the supporters of navalny because it shows he is on the road to recovery. that was damien mcguinness in berlin. two women have lost their court of appeal challenge against the government over controversial changes to the state pension age. nearly four million women born in the 1950s have been affected by reforms that raised their state pension age from 60 to 66. the women argued this was unlawful discrimination on the grounds of age and sex, and that they were not given adequate notice of the changes. the court of appeal unanimously dismissed the claim. you're watching bbc news. the high court has ruled that some small firms should be paid by insurers for losses they incurred as a result of the lockdown. the case was brought by the financial conduct authority, and could affect more than a third of a million businesses. 0ur consumer affairs correspondent

kevin peachyjoins me now. hello to you. we are talking here about business interruption insurance policies. yes, and they caused a debate after lockdown because many thousands of businesses thought they were going to be covered by this insurance policy for their losses because they had to close their doors. 0n the other side of the debate was the insurance who said this was never meant for an extraordinary circumstance like a pandemic, a sort of blanket lockdown, if you like, it should be for much more local issues. the case, because of these disputes it ended up as a test case in the high court but today the judges have ruled not entirely but to some degree towards the policyholders. they have said that many of these people, they should have been covered because of various clauses in their contracts. this could be a lifeline for some businesses if they are able to claim this money, i

presume. certainly a lifeline for many of these businesses which are small, these are very small businesses who had this cover and they did pay quite a lot of money for it. many of them thought they just were not going to see this cover and had to make big changes, but it could also cause the insurers many millions of pounds as a result. it is not an entirely clear—cut judgment and some will feel as though there is a need for appeal here and we are expecting an appeal from the insurers and so that might mean that for policyholders, they have to wait a little bit longer. they will be contacted within the next seven days by their insurer if this affects them. in terms of what happens next, you have outlined some of that but presumably these small business owners are desperate to get their hands on the money, but if there is an appeal, it could be some time? they are under intense pressure many of them because of the financial pressures they are under, the ongoing problem is that they face and some are having

to lay off staff and so on and if there is an appeal, which could happen, then that will happen quickly, both sides of said this will be dealt with quickly because they both understand the need for clarity and the need for speed. thank you very much. our consumer affairs correspondent. let's cross to edinburgh, where nicola sturgeon is giving a breifing from the scottish government. she has been saying that she has serious concerns about a backlog in processing coronavirus test. we need to make these figures more accurate and transparent going into the next phase of tackling the pandemic. i can report today that the total number of positive cases reported yesterday was 267, which represents 3.6% of people newly tested. 101 of these cases were in greater glasgow and clyde, 59 in lanarkshire, 53 in lothian and 13 in ayrshire and

iron. the remaining cases were spread amongst the other seven mainland health board areas. to be clear and i want to stress this point today, these and our daily figures always are our test results that were reported yesterday. because of the backlog in the uk wide system that i referred to yesterday, this figure will include a bit more than it normally would, results from swabs taken over the normally would, results from swabs ta ken over the past normally would, results from swabs taken over the past few days. we hope that the backlog of the past few days will have worked its way through the system shortly and, just to be clear, to reassure you, for the purposes of our trend analysis, tests are looked at by day of the sample, not just by tests are looked at by day of the sample, notjust by date of reporting, to ensure that we are tracking the increase in cases accurately and from that analysis, right now, unfortunately we know that cases are rising. as i said yesterday, i do have a

concern about the capacity constraints right now within the uk wide system and for scotla nd within the uk wide system and for scotland in recent days, just to be clear, this has not been an issue of access to testing slots, a regional testing centres or mobile testing units, but instead it has been one about access to sufficient lighthouse laboratory processing and this has led to a backlog in the system and longer turnaround times for tests we want to be the case. as this is a uk wide system, we are not able to resolve this on our own and theissues able to resolve this on our own and the issues are impacted by demand elsewhere in the uk. to that end, i had a constructive conference call last night with matt hancock, the uk health secretary and dido harding who is head of the uk testing system, to seek first the assurances that scotland is and will continue to getfair

that scotland is and will continue to get fair access to the uk wide laboratory capacity and also discuss how we can resolve these issues. i hope to see improvement over the next few days but of course i will continue to provide updates. i also, and this takes me into the techno —— micro technical bit of everything, i wa nt to micro technical bit of everything, i want to provide some context before providing the update for the number of people in hospital with covid. if you cast your mind back a couple of weeks if you're one of the regular viewers of this briefing, i indicated then that we were looking at how we report on the numbers of people in hospital. under that measure, the one that we have been using up until now, lots of people are classified as being covid patients even if they have recovered from covid and are now being treated for a condition that is unrelated to it. that old measure provided accurate information at the peak of the epidemic of this first phase back earlier in the year

when there we re back earlier in the year when there were around 1500 covid patients in hospital but as the pandemic has progressed, we have been reporting a higher number of hospital cases than is probably justified and higher number of hospital cases than is probablyjustified and that is theissue is probablyjustified and that is the issue i alluded to a couple of weeks ago. for example, in late august, scotland officially accounted for almost one third of the hospital patients with covid in the hospital patients with covid in the uk despite having won 12 of the uk population and a relatively low incidence of the virus at that stage. to try and ensure we are no longer counting patients who no longer counting patients who no longer really have covid we are from now and i will report under the new measurement today but then regularly from tomorrow, we are moving to a new definition and from now on we will count patients who first tested positive for covid during the current stay in hospital or in the two weeks before their admission. in addition, we will stop classifying them as covid patients for statistical purposes after 28

days in hospital or 28 days after the date of the positive test, whichever is the later. now, this new measurement will be an improvement on the old one, but it is important for me to point out it will not be absolutely perfect. the effects of covid as we know sometimes require states of longer than 28 days so a small number of patients may not be ca ptu red small number of patients may not be captured by the measure i havejust outlined there. i have asked public health scotland to develop analysis about patients who unfortunately end up about patients who unfortunately end up spending longer in hospital, but overall this new measure will give usa overall this new measure will give us a better picture, both of the current situation in hospitals and crucially, given the phase of the pandemic that we are going into, it will be more sensitive to the changes in hospital admissions caused by new cases. it will enable us to more accurately reflect and report any increase in hospital admissions over the next period. under the old measure, i would be

telling you and i am going to tell you, that 262 patients are in hospital and that is to fewer than yesterday, but that is the last time iam going yesterday, but that is the last time i am going to give you that old measure and instead i'm going to move to the new and more accurate measure and i will use that solely from tomorrow onwards and under that measure, as of today, there are 48 patients in hospital under that more narrow but more accurate measurement. we will be able to track better now the increase in hospital admissions from here on n. and also, using the new definition i can report that there are six people in intensive care and under the old definition i would have been reporting seven in intensive care and clearly the change in measurement does not have the same impact on numbers in intensive care as it does on broader hospital numbers. finally, in terms of my daily statistics update, i regret to have to report that in the past 24—hour is, one additional death has

been registered of a patient who first tested positive over the period of 28 days and that means that the total number of deaths under this daily measurement is now 2500. that total serves again to remind us of the impact of this virus and why we can never ever be complacent about the risk it poses andi complacent about the risk it poses and i want again to pass on my condolences to everybody who has lost a loved one including, of course, everyone who is grieving as a result of the deaths —— death that was registered yesterday. there are issues i want to address before jason leitch and i will take measures from the media as normal. the first is just to report here, we make this public last night but i thought it was worth reporting, that we had a meeting yesterday, as i indicated earlier yesterday that we would, to discuss the current position in greater glasgow and clyde and the good news is that the

early indications suggest that the restrictions in place in glasgow city, east and west dunbartonshire, west and east renfrewshire might be helping to slow down the increase in new cases and that at this stage is positive. but the number of new cases in these parts of greater glasgow and clyde still remains high and is still increasing, albeit we think at a slower rate than would have been the case without these restrictions been in place. taking all of that into account and the local authorities for these areas we re local authorities for these areas were present at the meeting yesterday, we agreed that the existing restriction should remain in place for a further week and then they will be reviewed again at that stage. that means people in these areas, glasgow city, dumbartonshire and east and west renfrewshire should not be visiting any hassles at all right now and the same restrictions now also apply as of last friday in north and south

lanarkshire. in all of these seven local authority areas you should not host someone in your home unless it is for essential care purposes and you should not visit someone else in their home, again unless it is for ca re their home, again unless it is for care purposes their home, again unless it is for ca re purposes or their home, again unless it is for care purposes or delivering shopping toa care purposes or delivering shopping to a vulnerable elderly person and thatis to a vulnerable elderly person and that is regardless of where they live, i live in glasgow city, i cannot have people in my home but equally i cannot go and visit my pa rents for equally i cannot go and visit my parents for example who live in ayrshire which is not one of the affected areas. the second issue i wa nt to affected areas. the second issue i want to cover today relates to the test and protect service. we have become aware that some fake callers are pretending to work for test and protect and are trying to con people by claiming that payment is needed for a test. sadly, this reminds us that there is always a small number of people, a tiny minority but nevertheless they are there who will try to exploit any

situation they can to defraud people and it is truly and utterly despicable, particularly at this time of crisis that we are living through. in light of it, i wanted to take the opportunity today to remind you and ask you to remind others that you know that covid tests are free and will always be free for those who need them. nobody from test and protect will ever ask you for financial information, they will never ask you for your bank or credit card details and they will never try to sell you anything. the only thing test and protect staff will ask you about is where you have been and details of the people you have been in contact with. genuine contact tracers will often also first send you a text to let you know that you will shortly receive a call from nhs scotland and callers will also introduce themselves and state the reason for their call, they will know your name and asking for details of people you have come into co nta ct

for details of people you have come into contact with in a relative time period and will tell you you will receive further information by e—mail or post and they will always call you from the same number 0800 038 8002. there is information on this on the website and the information on the direct column website and you can report concerns about the call you have received two advice to advise direct scotla nd received two advice to advise direct scotland and if you are unfortunate enough to have been the victim of a scam or an attempted scam you should contacted the police on 101. fundamentally, if a person claiming to bea fundamentally, if a person claiming to be a contact tracer is asking about things that are not necessary, in particular your bank details or computer passwords, then you should just put the phone down on them straightaway, because they are not a legitimate worker. as i mentioned

earlier, if you get found by legitimate contact tracer, you have the option of phoning them back if you want to verify the call. genuine contact tracers will only ask about your movements and the details of people you have been in contact with. this is a small minority of people and hopefully it will not happen to any of you watching but i thought it was important to take the opportunity to stress what will be asked of you if you do get one of these calls, so that together we can make sure that these people who attempt these scams, these despicable people do not get anywhere in scotland. the final point i want to make, just to round off is to remind you of the new rules that come into force yesterday and all of our other important public health guidance. as you all know, unless you live in one of the areas i have already spoken about we re areas i have already spoken about were stricter restrictions are in place, no more than six people can

now meet up together and know six people can come from no more than two hassles. children under the age of 12 do not count as part of the total but they do count towards the total but they do count towards the total for households and as i said on friday, i was looking for some further advice on whether we could give greater flexibility for children and i hope to give the outcome of that later this week. that rule, six people and two household supplies indoors and outdoors, in homes pubs and restau ra nts a nd outdoors, in homes pubs and restaurants and an outdoor spaces such as parks and private gardens. please make sure that you are not breaching those limits. this step, limiting the number of people in households that you interact with is a tough one, it is really not an easy one or a welcome one at all, but it is a really vital step in helping us to keep the virus under control by limiting the interactions that we know are most likely to cause it to spread. please also if you have not already done so

download the protect scotland app if you can. i know that the last time i looked at this morning around 950,000 of you have done that but we wa nt 950,000 of you have done that but we want as many people as possible to do so. it is very quick and easy to do, it is a simple but very powerful way of all of us as individuals helping the country collectively. and as always, and this will be my final comment, remember all of the other things that we all need to do to try to minimise the risk of covid spreading and all of that is encapsulated in the five golden rules to try to minimise the spread. remember to wearface rules to try to minimise the spread. remember to wear face coverings in enclosed spaces, avoid crowded places, remember to clean your hands and heart services regularly and remember to keep two metres distance from people in other households and remember to self—isolate and book a test if you have symptoms. thank you for bearing with me through what i know was a bit of

a technical briefing today. occasionally they will be like this because we are trying as we go through the pandemic to make sure that we are reporting information in as clear and accurate and transparent way as possible and as we go through different phases, sometimes that means changing definitions that we have used previously. explaining that takes time but hopefully over the next period, these things will become much clearerfor all of period, these things will become much clearer for all of us. thank you for listing and we will now go straight to questions and jason is here to help me with the answer and first up today is lisa summers from the bbc. do you know what proportion of people in scotland are missing the 48—hour target to get their tasks back? could nhs step in to help critical care workers get their results more quickly? could i ask to professor leach, are you worried

about the number of the top players testing positive for coronavirus, especially after three hamilton players tested positive today?” will take the first part of the question. 0n the figures, the turnaround times, i don't have the up—to—date figures in front of me. we are looking at yesterday? figures, the ones that we process to date, to try to get the most up—to—date sense of that. we will continue to give more information as we can get it. we hope that this is an improving situation, but the turnaround time is right now are not asi turnaround time is right now are not as i would want them to be for everybody. that is not to say that a lot of tests are not being processed within 24 or 48 hours, but there are too many that have not been processed quickly. that is the issue, working with the uk government, that we are trying to resolve. in terms of any accumulated backlog over the last few days, but

also to try to make sure that as we go forward, we are not accumulating any further backlog. i will keep people updated on that with his accurate information as i can going forward. it is important, i stress that this bit of testing is uk wide, it is not as simple as diverting tests from a lighthouse lab to nhs labs, but the possibility of that in future is something we are exploring. this uk wide part, we have to work with the uk government to try to resolve issues, but of course we are also looking at how we can expand the capacity over and above that, and where necessary to ta ke above that, and where necessary to take the pressure off. 0ur above that, and where necessary to take the pressure off. our regular ca re take the pressure off. our regular care home testing goes through the uk lighthouse lab part of the system. we are looking and some

health boards are starting to do this, to take that into nhs labs to try to free up some capacity in the lighthouse. when i talk about this being a uk wide challenge it is because it is it is not me trying to pass the buck. this part of our system where you are a member of the public to book through the portal and go to a drive through your mobile testing unit, that is a uk network, so we have to work with uk government colleagues. it is impacted by demand elsewhere, just as if demand is higher in scotland, that will have impacts on other parts of the uk. 0ne that will have impacts on other parts of the uk. one of my real preoccupations, one parts of the uk. one of my real preoccu pations, one of parts of the uk. one of my real preoccupations, one of the things i was seeking assurances about on the car last night, is that scotland will get a fair share of this. i am confident that will be the case, but we will obviously closely monitor that as we look to see whether there is more we can do within our nhs network to relieve the pressure and build overall capacity. it is a

complex system, but one that we here in scotland are very focused on making sure works in the way that we needed to. i will now happily on football hand over to professor leach. i would addjust football hand over to professor leach. i would add just a very brief comment on the labs, just to say this is a very complex logistical exercise of demand and supply and swa b exercise of demand and supply and swab taking and then the analysis of those swabs. all of that system is working together as best it can, both to kelp help without backlog and, you are right, and some of those priority groups, it may be that in the fullness of time we need move those groups around. we have very good people both in the lighthouse lab is working on us, senior academics run english labs, under health protection teams, our laboratory leaders inside the health boards working on that every day. you can be certain that we have very good people working on getting that down as fast as we can. football, i

think, lisa, to suggest the opposite of what you suggest. that football has worked really hard to get a testing regime in place. st mirren, unfortunately, lost two of its goalkeepers last weekend. we had gps data of where they had been, we had test results confirmed in the nhs testing processes. there were isolated, the game went ahead, everything worked exactly as it should, other than, as everything worked exactly as it should, otherthan, as faras everything worked exactly as it should, other than, as far as we know, to rubrics, two individuals to get the infection from the community somewhere. i do want anybody said, footballers or otherwise. st mirren have announced three positive tests in the private testing regime that we use across the whole of that football league. we will not isolate those individuals with their families and we will look at the gps data of the training, work out what they wear, worthy of the changing rooms, the coffee shop, where were they? we will also read to the test

in our nhs labs because we have added technology there that will allow us to confirm or remove those positive tests. it is difficult for hamilton... let's cross now to the house of commons, where the labour shadow health secretary jonathan ashworth, is asking an urgent question on coronavirus. yesterday, the world health organization announced the world number of cases globally. france and spain are both reported daily figures of over 10,000 positive cases and increase in hospitalisations. here in the uk, we saw yesterday around 2600 new cases and last week medical advisers advised that the r number is about one. the epidemic is growing. there are signs that the number of cases in care homes and hospitalisations is writing again. last week we acted quickly, putting in place new measures, the rule of six, which came in place yesterday. the cost of

this is high, but the cost of doing nothing is much greater. testing has a vital part to play. everyone in this house knows that we are doing more testing per head of population than nearly any other nation. we have now carried out more than 20 million test for coronavirus in this country. as we expand capacity further, we are working around the clock to make sure everyone who needs a test can get one. the vast majority of people who use our testing service kattar test that is close to home. the average distance travelled to a test site is nowjust 5.8 miles, down from 6.4 miles last week. the whole house knows that there are operational challenges and we are working hard to fix them. we have seen a sharp rise in people coming forward for a test, including those who are not eligible. throughout this pandemic, we have prioritised testing according to need. 0ver prioritised testing according to need. over the summer, when demand was low, we were able to

meet all requirements for testing, whether priorities are not. as demand has risen, we are having to prioritise once again. i do not shirk from decisions about priorities asian. they are not always comfortable, but they are important. the top priority is and always will be acute clinical care. the next priority is social care, where we are now sending over 100,000 tasks a day, because we have all seen the risks this virus poses in care homes. we will set out in full and updated prioritisation, and ido full and updated prioritisation, and i do not rule out further steps to make sure our tests are used according to those priorities. it is according to those priorities. it is a choice that we must make. finally, to defeat this virus in the long term needs effective vaccines and treatments. i am delighted to say that over the weekend the trial of the oxford vaccine restarted and i can tell the host that we will not be trialling a promising new

antibody treatment on coronavirus patients in the uk. the challenges are serious. we must work to ove rco m e are serious. we must work to overcome them, optimistic in the face of these huge challenges, to keep this deadly virus under control. shadow secretary of state. iam control. shadow secretary of state. i am grateful for advance sight of his answer, that was decent of the secretary of state. yesterday, lpc revealed were no tests revealed available in rochdale, kendal and bradford. embleton, mobile testing centre failed to turn up. meanwhile, in barry, hundreds queued forfive hours for a test. in walsall, a father with a sick child travel 76 miles to an appointment in wales, only to find, on arrival, that tests had run out. increasing numbers of teachers and pupils are not in school. in hospitals, operations are cancelled, while nhs staff are stuck

in limbo waiting for tests. and he blames increased demand. when tracing consistently fails to reach 50% of contacts. in less than 20% of those self—isolate properly and there is a lack of financial security, infection dries. when schools reopen and people return to work places and social distancing becomes harder, infection tries. extra demand on the system was inevitable. so why didn't he use this summer to significantly expand nhs load capacity and fix contact tracing? just because demand is increasing, the ability to process tests is diminishing. postgrad stu d e nts tests is diminishing. postgrad students working in the lighthouse la bs students working in the lighthouse labs are returning to university, so why did he not plan for these inevitable staff shortages in the lighthouse labs? these commercial pillar to labs have a huge backlog

of 185,000 tests. there is the's data revealed that 65,709 test results were not returned by the end of the week. care home residents now get on average 83 hours for their results. the prime minister promised usa results. the prime minister promised us a 24—hour turnaround for results, so what is going on? what is the current backlog in what is the timeframe for clearing it? we were promised a world beating system, so why are we sending test to germany and italy for processing? most importantly, people want to know when they will get a test and when this mass will be fixed. today, there will be thousands of ill people trying to book a test only to be told none are available. when will people be able to book a test online again, or has the online booking system being deliberately disabled? booking system being deliberately disabled ? when will booking system being deliberately disabled? when will ill people no longer have to travel hundreds of miles for a test that should be

available on their doorstep? when will pupils and teachers out of school get access to testing so they can get back to school? when will nhs staff access regular testing so they can focus on their patients, not be sat at home? mr speaker, we are ata not be sat at home? mr speaker, we are at a perilous moment. imperial couege are at a perilous moment. imperial college estimates that the virus is doubling every seven or eight days. we all want to avoid further restrictions or another national lockdown. but when testing breaks down, contact tracing breaks down and the growth of the virus cannot be tracked. the prime minister promised us why campbell, but instead his mallet is broken. the secretary of state is losing control of this virus, he needs to fix testing now. the good news in responding to that, is that capacity for testing is that a record high, and he raised the issue about testing in the top

ten local authorities. i have the figures here. we processed yesterday 9200 and 78 tests just in the pillar too, so outside of the nhs testing capacity in just those top ten local authority areas. just yesterday we processed 1428 tests in his own local authority area. the good news is that the capacity is at record levels and that record numbers of people are able to get tests. i don't deny that it is an enormous challenge and when you have our free service, it is inevitable that demand rises. the challenge is to make sure that we prioritise the tests we have as a nation to those who most need it. that is what i set out my answer stop he asked about the backlog. the backlog is falling and is less than one day pass my

test processing capacity, and he also asked about being able to have testing capacity so that we can re—enable the economy and get things going. as he well knows, there is a huge effort to expand using the next generation of technologies that we need to develop —— need to deliver to reopen the parts of the economy, and we will deliver on that. we will deliver on the challenges of today. i don't deny those challenges, but what i do is face the facts deliver on those challenges, rather than simply complaining. what he should do is welcomed the record capacity and the contact tracing that is playing its part in responding to this virus. jeremy hunt. thank you. a week ago today the secretary of state told the health select committee he expected to have this problem solved in two weeks.

since then in my constituency i have had two residents into bristol further tests, a counsellor sent to the isle of wight for her test and a teacher who tested positive had to wait a week for her results. is the secretary of state still confident that in a week's time we will have this problem solved ? that in a week's time we will have this problem solved?” that in a week's time we will have this problem solved? i think that we will be able to solve this problem ina will be able to solve this problem in a matter of weeks. in his own constituency yesterday, 194 people got their tests, so we are managing to deliver a record capacity, but has he well knows, demand is also high, so we need to have prioritisation so the people who most need it can get the test they need.

doctor whitford. thank you. with covid cases doubling every week, it is clear that laboratory capacity for diagnostic testing is not keeping pace with demand. this is leading to testing slots being capped. for example, only 70 covid cases were reported for scotland, yet 267 were reported today, many from tests carried out over the weekend. little reported backlog of 185,000 tests, is he not concerned that results will not be received quickly enough to allow a contact tracing, and that the delay in data means new outbreaks will be identified until they are out of control? last week the secretary of state appeared to accept that additional nhs funding could allow hospital laboratories across the uk to rapidly increase their testing capacity. can he confirm if he has planned such an approach, and in what timescale? yes, i think that it is important that we

expand the nhs la bs is important that we expand the nhs labs and that we work across the whole of the uk to get the testing capacity that is needed, for instance, in scotland when there was a surge in demand for tests last month, we diverted more of the uk capacity to support people in scotland, and we currently deliver more tests per head of population in scotla nd more tests per head of population in scotland than in the uk as a whole. the tone of the honourable lady because my question, absolutely it is necessary to work together across party lines, between the scottish devolved government at the uk government, to make sure we get the support to people of scotland, is to every other part of this country. cani every other part of this country. can i ask the secretary of state about the rule of six? my residents are failing to understand why they can play five aside football, but two families can meet? will

he look a flexibility when local rates permit? and excluding under twelves. christmas is just around the corner, andi christmas is just around the corner, and i would urge some flexibility on the part of the government. of course, i do worry first and foremost course, i do worry first and fore m ost of course, i do worry first and foremost of the health of the nation, and we need a rule that is super simple. children do transmit this virus and we have made the decision to keep the rule very simple, and a simple as possible. considering all of those risks. i understand where my honourable friend is coming from. what i would say to him is with me to take an approach that is different in different areas according to the extent of cases locally, that is a very important part of one of the tools in our armoury. like many others, i have been inundated with

e—mails from doctors, teachers, pa rents e—mails from doctors, teachers, parents unable to access the test that they desperately need however, a number of them have also been advised that if they put an aberdeen postcode into the system, they can get a test in twickenham. and they have succeeded. could the secretary of state please tell me how on earth a world beating test and trace system is functioning in this way? what is he doing to fix it, and also recommend that i tell those constituency desperately needed test to game the system in this way? no, in fact it is incumbent on all of us to ta ke in fact it is incumbent on all of us to take a responsible approach and tell our constituents that tests are available in large numbers, that the average distance travelled is 5.8 miles, and that people should take this seriously and not game the system. i am very grateful to the government for all that is doing to fight covid—19 and keep the population safe. could i ask

my right honourable friend if there is a triggerfor easing the right honourable friend if there is a trigger for easing the rule of six on measures like it? my honourable friend makes an important point and it comes to the previous point made about christmas we will keep the rule of six in place only as long as it is absolutely necessary for health reasons. there vaccines and treatments that i spoke about, the mass testing regime, all of these are important to try to find a way through this virus with the minimal impact on the economy and education, of course, and people personal and social lives. there isn't a formal rate of which we will make that review. we keep everything under control and we constantly we'll face in this house in order to come to the right decisions. the secretary of state is danger of believing the globalfigures of state is danger of believing the global figures without looking up the reality on the ground. 0ver

global figures without looking up the reality on the ground. over the weekend and made borough, which has been working hard with the government on an outbreak we are trying to keep down, we had to walk in test centres. they have been advertised as such. 0ver in test centres. they have been advertised as such. over the weekend, staff from deloittes, a private company running this public service, told people they could no longer walk in. this was not communicated to the local authority, and over 90 people were turned away from one test centre alone. this is a fiasco that is of the government was not making and he could intervene now to make sure at the very least there is communication. i hope he will release the communication between deloittes and the government to find what has happened. i will happily look at that individual case. many hundreds of tests are being done in her constituency, as well as across london. i can look at the individual point and make sure that the

communications occur as necessary. sarah 0wen. we have heard case after case of failure when it comes to testing. i have heard from parents, teachers, our vicar in luton north, all saying there are no walk in tests, new drive through tests, no home kits available when they need it. the secretary of state talks about capacity, but what we need to see is access to testing. capacity is nothing without access to testing. when will people with symptoms! to get tests when they needed, where they need it? the vast majority of people do. in luton yesterday 480 people got tests. we should follow the data.” congratulate the government on their effo rts congratulate the government on their efforts to increase the testing capacity. soaring covid cases in

greater manchester means there are many people still unable to get the testing they need. we know that children are back in school now and that schools are natural incubators of calls, which do mimic some of the covid symptoms. as the flue system sta rts covid symptoms. as the flue system starts —— flu season starts running, can he provide guidance to schools and people about how we can access those tests? of course i will do that. we have put significantly more testing into stockport. 720 test just yesterday. 0ne testing into stockport. 720 test just yesterday. one of the reasons for that is because of the higher rates and greater manchester. the point he makes about schools is very important. not just to point he makes about schools is very important. notjust to get the capacity so that tests can be there for when there is a positive, somebody has the positive symptoms of coronavirus, but it is

incumbent on schools to send pupils for testing only when they have the symptoms of coronavirus. you can continue to watch that on bbc parliament. here on the bbc news channel, let me bring some breaking news. the former conservative mp charlie elphick has beenjailed news. the former conservative mp charlie elphick has been jailed for two years for sexually assaulting two years for sexually assaulting two women. he was convicted of groping the women. he had denied the charges but was found guilty of one count of sexual assault, and at another point, two further points after a trial at southwark crown court, so charlie elphick has been jailed for two years for sexually assaulting two women. simon will be with you in a few moments, but first, the weather it isa it is a

warm, sunny september story out there. picture perfect. the high pressure will stay with us for one more day. this warm air is coming out of africa, particularly central and eastern england will have a very warm afternoon. there are some weather fronts on the chart under has been some rain around. that is starting to weaken, but the rain has been pushing its way through scotla nd been pushing its way through scotland for much of the morning and early afternoon and we will see an improving picture into southern scotla nd improving picture into southern scotland and northern ireland later on. a bitter farewell to scotland and northern ireland later on. a bitterfarewell to cloud scotland and northern ireland later on. a bitter farewell to cloud the south—west, may be some isolated showers here. the east of england will be what the best of the warm days, we could see 30 degrees plus and one or two isolated spots. through this evening and overnight, we are going to see a little more cloud and a northerly when started

kicking to scotland. some cloud, mr mark forming. i'll start a wednesday morning with 17 degrees on the site, and 11 up to 13 further north. moving on to wednesday, we will see a sign of change. high pressure pushes in, but it will be to the north, allowing to north—easterly flu to develop across the country, tracking in cooler air, particularly on the exposed north sea coast. more cloud into scotland, northern england and northern ireland through the day. the best of the sunshine and warmth on wednesday will be across england and wales. factor in the strength and direction of the wind, it will feel cooler. we will see highs of 2526 in the south, 15 in the north. the wind direction will continue to push its way south, and you will notice in the field right across the country on thursday. largely dry, some sunshine coming through, but 15 up to 21 is where we should be for this time of

year. the dry theme is set to continue into the weekend, and the temperatures will be a little bit fresher than they have been of late. if you haven't already got the message, as we head into the weekend, we keep the dry story going, but turning a little bit cooler.

a warning that nhs staff are having to stay off work — because they can't get coronavirus tests. as nhs bosses in england say health workers with symptoms are being forced to remain at home — the government says it's dealing with the issues we have now carried out over 20 million tests were coronavirus in this country. as we expand capacity

further, we are working around the clock to make sure everyone who needs a test can get a test. we'll be getting the latest from our health editor. also this lunchtime... unemployment hits a two year high — with young people particularly badly hit by the pandemic‘s economic fallout a lifeline for some small businesses — as the high court rules some insurers should have paid out over lockdown the former mp charlie elphicke is jailed for two years for sexually assaulting two women 0n the road to recovery — the first picture of poisoned russian opposition leader alexei navalny in his hospital bed surrounded by family and 80 years on... remembering ‘the few‘ — the raf pilots who took to the skies in the battle of britain and saved this country from invasion and coming up on bbc news, the return of crowds to rugby union. 1,000 fans were allowed to watch gloucester against harlequins, in line with the government's latest rules.