tests and results after a sharp rise in demand. it's been very stressful, very frustrating. we are still waiting on the results, still self—isolating, not able to go to school, not able to go to work. the pinch point is the laboratories under huge pressure — now the government's looking to prioritise those most in need. over the summer, when demand was low, we were able to meet all requirements for testing, whether priorities or not. but, as demand has risen, so we are having to prioritise once again. members of the irish cabinet have been told to limit their movement after the country's health minister reported feeling unwell. the uk's unemployment rate has risen for the first time since lockdown in march — with young people particularly hard hit. and a dire warning from the united nations — humanity is at a crossroads and action is needed now

for nature to recover. let's return to one of our main stories. the health secretary, matt hancock has said the goverment is working hard to fix operational challenges in the coronavirus testing system, which have left people with symptoms unable to access tests. overwhelming demand for appointments has meant many workers, including healthcare staff, have had to self—isolate, preventing them from returning to work. paul sutherland is a secondary school teacher. he's been trying to get coronavirus tests for his three children after they started showing symptoms. he joins us from thame. thank you very much forjoining us. tell us little bit more about your situation. what been happening. we started noticing symptoms and one of oui’ started noticing symptoms and one of our children on saturday and we weren't sure if it was on the to be concerned about but one of them at a

high temperature, a cough and then slowly but surely, the other two have developed it as well. we have been trying since sunday to book a test and we have tried the standard we have had no luck at all and we are told that on the surface, the service was too busy and not getting into two personal details, we were told that there are no test sites at all, not even any a distance away. we also had a report that the school is part of, that should give priority to key workers. there is a code that i have been working and had been putting that in every sunday afternoon and still no joy, still cannot get the test. i have symptoms myself now and my wife are both teachers and if we have the virus, we have to let the schools know. how tempted are you to just try to turn up and walk in it by the test centres? everett the media stories about people being turned away and he doesn't seem like

something that is going to actually get us any something that is going to actually get us any success because something that is going to actually get us any success because a something that is going to actually get us any success because a lot of people have tried to do that and i heard a story about a teacher who did that and turned up at the test centre and they admitted that there was no one currently being tested, but they would not test a person without an appointment.” but they would not test a person without an appointment. i have read those reports too. matt hancock says it's an enormous challenge after a sharp rise in the number of cases of people seeking tests. how much sympathy do you have for him? limited. understand the challenge of the country is facing and there is huge pressure and if that is going to happen, teachers need to be given priority to have testing either to rule out the virus or let us know that we have it so the contact traits and can be done. to open schools and not have testing available for teachers and members of the family are showing symptoms,

it's short—sighted. of the family are showing symptoms, it's short-sighted. i have spoken to teachers from the union that have set a small number, may be ten tests we re set a small number, may be ten tests were sent to some schools and how well provided for his or her school been? that is correct. i spoke to her head teacher before i came in today and they said the fed ten tests a nd today and they said the fed ten tests and we are a school of over three different sites in numerous staff. that number is not sufficient. thank you very much you're talking to us. so, what is going wrong with the testing system? and where do the main problems lie? here's our health editor, hugh pym. testing centres like this one today can sometimes look quiet, so people are asking what is the big problem? why is it some time so difficult to book a test? there seem to be enough testing sites, but there are bottlenecks in the laboratories for processing the swabs taken.

that is why they are limiting the amount of slots for the public just when more people want to get tested. testing capacity, which is how much the labs can handle, was rising untiljune, but then it flattened out a bit before increasing recently. it now stands at more than 243,000 tests a day. the number of tests actually processed, reflecting demand, has been increasing steadily, and the gap, whilst closing, now stands at around 206,000 a day. you always need a bit of spare capacity but that is fast being eaten up. demand for testing has risen partly because children are back at school and there is a strong focus on safety and reducing risk. if you have an individual case...

scotland's clinical director says that with lockdown easing and society opening up a greater need for testing was inevitable. as you open, more people are out and about so you would expect more symptoms but you have to let schools back so we prioritise schools at the expense of some other elements of society, so i am not surprised we are seeing increased testing demand, we have just got to try and balance the supply and demand. so where is the uk laboratory testing capacity? first of all there are nhs and public health labs analysing tests for staff and patients, about 72,400 processed in one recent day. then there are new government run lighthouse labs and privately run centres, handling tests for social care staff and residents and the public, about 133,300, in a day. the big lighthouse labs carry out work for all of the uk nations. there have been reports that they are overstretched, with staff shortages. there have been calls for explanations. we must recognise it has been a massive expansion in capacity in recent weeks. but nonetheless, there is a crisis at the moment in many schools, and hospitals, who cannot function

in the way that they need to without these test results, so it is vital that the health secretary does solve this problem. ministers say that the nhs and social care will be prioritised for tests, with the problems across the system unlikely to be fully resolved for a few weeks. let's discuss this further with professor donna hall, chair of bolton nhs foundation trust, who this evening have asked patients to not turn up at the royal bolton hospital asking for a coronavirus test. and alice wiseman, director of public health in gateshead — one of 12 councils who have written to the health secretary, asking for increased lockdown restrictions to put in place across north east england. first of all, tell us how many people are turning up, probably not knowing where else to go? today, we

had around a hundred people attending and many of them were wanting a coronavirus test, unable to access the national system and they were worried about their families. you can understand their desperate to get their appointments oi’ desperate to get their appointments or use their local nhs facilities and unfortunately, because it is a centralised, natural light system, they cannot. the ethical and the national system which is been com pletely national system which is been completely underwhelmed —— they have to utilise. and increase testing capacity at this time of year with schools coming back. how representative is that of what you are seeing? people often turn up at hospitals when other parts of the nhs let them down orjust overwhelmed. yes, it is very complicated, the system that is been set up and people in the community

believe it is a being provided by the nhs and we are presenting it in the nhs and we are presenting it in the hospital in a similar picture of what we have seen in gateshead where people have been telling us that they're people have been telling us that they‘ re unable to people have been telling us that they're unable to get tests when they're unable to get tests when they do get tests, they're waiting so they do get tests, they're waiting so long for the test results that actually it is causing immense disruption in schools and in health and social care settings where we are not able to allow staff back to work until they've had a negative test result. how much extra pressure is this putting on the royal bolton? it is not the same as the beginning of the pandemic, what we had lots more staff available and people were helping out and were starting to do a complete lockdown in fulton. things have changed are also trying to get back to 90% capacity in the nhs trust is saying that he needs to be 90% back to performing elective

operations and obviously, we stopped all of that in the early days the pandemic and we are trying to run to really important elements of our service, plant operations which are critically important and encouraging people to go for appointments particularly if the got any concerns that he could be cancer or any signs of any illnesses or missing lots of people coming in for this appointments by the same time, lots of panicked people wanting to get tested and unable to send their children to school, unable to go to work, unable to work and care homes, it is having a huge impact. alice, i've lost count of how many scientists and public health experts have said to me, what we need is a localised system of testing. the centralised system doesn't work because it cannot be responsive to what is happening in different parts of the country, both of you are nodding sagely there, why is this happening than? i am not sure why it

is not happening because we have been asking for this for weeks now and it got in northeast nhs liberatory network and we already provide testing between hospital trusts and so for example, hospital trusts and so for example, hospital trusts in my area provide testing across the whole of the northeast, so we across the whole of the northeast, so we have the logistics, we have the infrastructure and what we need are the resources locally and there are the resources locally and there are business cases that is sitting, asi are business cases that is sitting, as i understand it, that are being considered. but we are really pushing for a swift decision on this because of the skill of local testing capacity is much more responsive. it makes no sense to send a swap all way down to milton keynes, which makes no sense we can do senator look liberatory. you cannot nod more. nod my head off. similarly, we have one of the best the board tori in bolton. —— the

board tori as our local community services and gp facilities, instead of trying to build it up and build that local intelligence and we have fantastic people who can help with this. public health teams all desperate to help but they're all being sidelined by this deal that people are reluctant to break and i do not understand that. it is working, let us go back to basics. and the laboratory capacity at the moment, how realistic is it to prioritise tests for key workers and health care workers and people working in care homes who, obviously, are likely to be in the way of covid—i9 a lot more so than

the rest of us. health and social ca re the rest of us. health and social care at the edge and primary heads and express real concerns and availability for testing and actually the pressure that that is putting her school budgets when they have to supply this, the teachers we re have to supply this, the teachers were not able to teach the kids in the amount that they're spending when they should be helping children with teaching and learning, they actually spending managing covid—i9. so, it is a real problem across both health and social care and education at the moment. we need to get this right otherwise as we head into winter, it can only get worse. as the cases is rising potentially as we start to see other respiratory infections that we would normally see at this time of year. rarely have we seen two guest agree with each other so much. something that

needs to be addressed rather quickly and the director of public health and the director of public health and professor at the nhs foundation trust, thank you very much for your time this evening. the uk has recorded its lowest weekly death toll since march with under 100 covid—i9 deaths in the past seven days. meanwhile the latest daily government figures out this afternoon show there were 3,105 new coronavirus infections recorded in the latest 2a period. that means the average number of new cases reported per day in the last week, is 3,096. 27 deaths were reported, of people who died, within 28 days of a positive covid—19 test, and that means on average in the last week, 11 deaths were announced every day, taking the total number, across the uk, to 1115611. all members of the irish cabinet have to self—isolate after the healthminister felt unwell this afternoon. the irish prime minister,

michael martin said all members of the government had been asked to restrict their movements. mr martin said the dail would resume business later on tuesday after earlier speculation parliament would be suspended indefinitely. the headlines on bbc news... thousands of people across the uk are struggling to get tests and results after a sharp rise in demand. members of the irish cabinet have been told to limit their movement after the country's health minister reported feeling unwell. the uk's unemployment rate has risen for the first time since lockdown in march — with young people particularly hard hit. unemployment in the uk has risen to its highest level for almost two years. official figures show almost 700,000 people dropped off the payrolls since march — and economists expect more jobs to be lost as the government's furlough scheme is wound down by the end of october. the chancellor rishi sunak told

cabinet ministers this morning that helping people get back to work, orfind newjobs, is his "number one priority". but the labour leader sir keir starmer warned the country could face a "scarring effect of mass unemployment" unless new measures to protectjobs are brought forward. 0ur economics editor faisal islam reports. unemployment is on its way back up, putting some pressure on the government to extend its support schemes. it's a bit scary. after nine years of continuous work at a car factory, 0rian was let go in the last few days, having returned from furlough. they reassured us that ourjobs would be fine. they put us on the furlough scheme, so we felt quite secure because we were still getting paid. i came into work at six o'clock in the morning, sat down, drank a cup of tea, ready to start my position. got called up to the office and got let go. the monday after his job was lost, he's on a free retraining scheme to provide skills in short supply

for building the hs2 rail line. today's numbers show the official unemployment rate up at 4.1% between may and july. still low by historic and international standards, but individual monthly data show there is a more significant rise to 4.4% injuly, just as the wind—down of the government furlough scheme began. employment remained at a record, but within that, there was a record fall in the employment of 18 to 24—year—olds, down 146,000 on the previous quarter. i couldn't possibly afford it myself. ben, a personal trainer, says he too has to retrain in construction. i lost about 90% of my clients due to covid, so it's been quite quiet recently. i had to give it up. so that's it? so you've chosen to leave that behind and start fresh? yeah, try something new. the pandemic isn't just a one—off economic shock. it's changing the structure of how the economy works, the jobs and skills required, and here, they're trying to help

people with that transition. but as the government winds down its support for workers, there's going to be an inevitable, sharp, painful rise injoblessness. in stoke, the chancellor, on a visit to a pottery factory where furloughed workers have returned, says more than half of those furloughed returned to work by the middle of last month, which raises an obvious question. is it not the case as your predecessor mr brown, as your colleagues mr stride says, to extend the scheme, at least in a targeted way? i don't think the right thing to do is to endlessly extend furlough. but protecting people's jobs, creating newjobs, remains top of my mind, and i'm always looking for interesting, creative, innovative and effective new ways to support jobs and employment. the opposition leader, sir keir starmer, addressing a virtual trade union congress, called for new forms ofjob support. target those sectors most in need, for example, retail,

hospitality, aviation. all those hit by local lockdown, and provide certainty for workers and for businesses. the government is waiting to see if british workers can defy predictions of massive rises in joblessness by retraining for new jobs, like here with construction. humanity is at a crossroads and we have to take action now to make space for nature to recover and slow its "accelerating decline". that's according to a report by the un convention on biological diversity. it sets out what it calls urgent transitions that could slow the ongoing decline in nature. these transitions also provide the basis for an agreement that 196 nations are expected to sign up to at the un biodiversity conference in china next year. joining me now is mike barrett, the executive director of science and conservation at the world wildlife fund.

thank you very much forjoining us. this is a global report, so how bleak is the situation you're in the uk? i think we should not be too surprised that the current set of political targets have failed to be met. the report we saw earlier showed the population across the world, including the uk, ft is in freefall. across the west coast of the usa, we've got fires and the frustration in the amazons for the second year in a row that this has happened. so what is clear is that we essentially of a failed model. we had a set of targets beneath which they haven't actually had any severe progress from government to change the way that we behave to take the pressure off nature and so far this relates to our food and agriculture system which the primary driver of the laws of nature across the world

serious commitment, to change the way that we produce food, i fear that we will miss any sort of target over first the laws of nature, but does not have to be like that, it is possible to reverse these trends. by farmers will feel rather offended because certainly in this country, they regard themselves as the custodians of the landscape and they are compelled and encouraged to do a lot for biodiversity. as the uk, we an overseas support and five times the size of greater london where the agricultural commodities, that we importand agricultural commodities, that we import and that includes soy, which goes to feed livestock in the uk, and i've met many farmers in the uk that are really progressive and absolutely are trying to do the right thing, but the problem that we all face is that we do not have a level playing field. they can be undercut by those who are unscrupulous. we need a level

playing field and we need regulations and we need regulation urgently regulations and we need regulation urge ntly to regulations and we need regulation urgently to take before staying out of supply chains into the uk. —— ta ke of supply chains into the uk. —— take deforestation. this is underpinned by the the research to be published, we demonstrate that in fa ct, be published, we demonstrate that in fact, it is still possible to reverse the loss of nature within this decade with the early ambitious action, particularly the agricultural sector, that means number of things. and it's reducing food waste, a third of agricultural waste, lance across the plant. more equitable distribution or foods across the planet. it also does mean some changes in our diet, in some parts of the world, including the uk, we consume more meat and dairy products and we consume less, does not mean going vegan, dispense a bit of moderation. are talking about

getting all those countries to climate change targets and then stick to them, how optimistic are you that biodiversity targets can be met? i am optimistic that the solutions are not absolutely clear, the report published by the report today shows with the food and agricultural systems got to be changed. and whether is the political system to act. we cannot afford to fail again. this time around, targets that are set in the un meetings have to be backed up by government commitments to action in the uk can legislate right now to get divorced in commodities out of oui’ get divorced in commodities out of our supply change. how can we as consumers and also voters, send a message that we want action to be taken? i think at the moment, one is

oui’ taken? i think at the moment, one is our own taken? i think at the moment, one is oui’ own personal taken? i think at the moment, one is our own personal choices, we buy food products in supermarkets, we need to try to choose those that are not driving deforestation. they can be really hard, the information is no is available and that is what we cannot, we need government to legislate, they are consulting right now at the proposition to take before staying and make it illegal, but it's just a minute of consultation. people in care, obviously care about this and recognise the jeopardy that the planet is in and needs to make its voice heard, we need to let our politicians know that they have to follow through and they have to act on this and the need for legislation and we need quickly. thank you very much. the match of the day presenter, gary lineker, has once again been named as the bbc‘s highest—paid star. but the radio two presenter zoe ball has shot up the list and is now earning more than £1 million after taking over the breakfast show last year. the latest figures were published

in the bbc‘s annual report. it came as lineker announced he would be taking a £a00,000 pay cut. here's our media editor, amol rajan. whatever the complexities and caveats within this annual report, in a time of brutal recession across the country, these salaries are a bad look. 0n £1.75 million, gary lineker tops the list, but the 23% reduction in his new five—year deal means zoe ball on £1.36 million for her radio 2 breakfast show now earns slightly more. some of the published salaries don't include earnings from shows made by the bbc‘s commercial arm. the bbc has given some individuals, mostly women, big pay rises for taking on additional work. that's in an attempt to address the imbalance in gender pay. can we just say thank you so much, everyone, for listening... at 1%, the overall increase in stars' pay is below inflation. in other words, a real terms cut. lineker and others could,

and do, earn much more for their work outside the bbc. this points to a tension within the corporation. it's a public sector institution engaged in a commercial war for talent. audiences flocked to the bbc‘s news and education services during the pandemic. iplayer viewing is sharply up, and the bbc sounds app has surpassed ambitious targets. but a fifth of those under 16 in this country see no bbc content each week and, among those aged 16—34, youtube will soon overtake the bbc. given all this, the optics of these salaries, which include my own, make it that bit harder to persuade a generation raised on youtube and whatsapp and tiktok to part with their cash. i don't really watch a lot. i don't feel like it is for my generation. it is one of several that are available and, increasingly i'm sort of using on demand services as well. i happily pay it to make sure that

i can keep watching those dramas, if we get another lockdown. for them to take a pay cut, i think is really good. so as long as they took the pay cut and wasn't like, oh, a bad thing came out of their mouth, happy days. shows such as top gear are getting ready to launch their new series. lockdown hit productions globally. and it cost the bbc £125 million at least. a new commercially minded director general insists bbc programmes need to create value for licence fee payers. the big unanswered question is how much the licence fee payers of tomorrow are willing to pay forfamous faces. now it's time for a look at the weather with louise lear. good afternoon. it's been another day of beautiful september sunshine right across the country.

wa nted wanted to scattered showers drifting eastwards in the livermore cloud across scotland, northern ireland in northern england, relatively mild start to wednesday morning in the southeast, and a little bit cooler into the north because it would never have high pressure that is drifting across the north of scotla nd drifting across the north of scotland and it's going to introduce more of a northeasterly airflow over the next couple of days and so the temperatures will start to receive. and that means the best sunshine will be across central and southern england and wales and it is always going to be the risk of more cloud through northern england, scotland and northern ireland intercooler field here. temperatures into the mid teens, but will see higher values of 26 in the southeast corner. a good deal of dry weather to close of the working week but noticeably cooler.

this is bbc news. "peace for peace" — prime minister bibi netanyahu hails a new middle east deal. the normalisation of relations between israel and the uae and bahrain is a win for the white house. it is certainly historic — though it's not the deal with the palestinians that donald trump initially sought. the family of breonna taylor, a black woman shot dead by police, have accepted a multi—million dollar settlement from the city of louisville. also in the programme... the politics of a vaccine: donald trump once again says it'll be ready within weeks. but scientists remain sceptical. the latest unemployment figures in the uk show that young people are being worst hit. we hearfrom a young mum who applied for 280 jobs.