the eu begins legal action against the uk government because of its plans to override parts of the brexit withdrawal deal. the marine rescue team trying to herd a pod of whales in gare loch out of harm's way. another 2 million people in northern england will face tougher covid restrictions after a spike in coronavirus cases. the health secretary for england, matt hancock, said the disease was "spreading fast" and "highly localised". the new rules to prevent social mixing will come into force on saturday, and will apply to the liverpool city region, warrington, hartlepool and middlesbrough. it's the rate at which cases are rising that's causing concern. take knowsley — there are 262 cases per 100,000 people there.

the average for an area in england is 28. so let's look at the new measures. first, what will be against the law? mixing with other households — and that applies whether you're at home, in your garden or in a pub or a cafe. then there's guidance — that means you're advised not to mix in pub gardens and parks, and sporting events. these measures mean that a quarter of the uk population — and 66% of the north of england — are living under local lockdowns. we'll have more on the extra measures across other parts of the uk in a moment, but first our special correspondent ed thomas is in liverpool for us tonight. ed. there is a picture emerging now across the uk, and especially across the north of england, as areas here face tighter and tighter coronavirus restrictions. today, it was people here in liverpool who were told they were next. but no surprise, though, because for the past 48 hours this has been a city waiting to hear

what would happen next. looking for action to stop this rise of coronavirus cases. the mood music has changed. new coronavirus laws are coming to merseyside. households will be banned from mixing inside pubs and restaurants. i lost my husband last year, i am now faced with the possibility of losing my home and my business. it's that close for you? it could get that close. anna runs an independent pub. she has invested hundreds of thousands of pounds in this business. say, we get a group of four, five, six people in, we have now got to ask them to show proof of where they all live as well. but do you understand cases are rising and people are worried? absolutely, and we all have to take a great deal of responsibility, but i think if you look at the hospitality sector in general, we are not responsible for the rises in cases. and this is an industry worth billions of pounds to the liverpool city region. the leisure, creative and cultural sectors support 50,000 jobs here. we are looking at a scale ofjob

losses in liverpool not seen since the 80s... these new rules will have a devastating effect. so we have taken 20 years to build our city and regenerate our city and we are just throwing that away. why? nobody has told me what the endgame is here. local mps, council leaders here all call these new rules are a step in the right direction but fear coronavirus will keep on spreading. did you call for all pubs and bars to be shut? it depends on what the science tells us. if the science says that we have to go further then we will go further and we will support further measures but we want to see the evidence. it is no good us guessing on what might be the right restrictions. we need to understand better what the packages in our area and what that will do, which is what we all want, to see rates start to decrease. there is also a call for compensation here to avoid this, to keep restaurants open to savejobs. i used to work in the

hospitality industry. that has been decimated by this. rob lost his job during lockdown. he is now 55 and out of work. are you worried for the future? where it's all going to end? i think the future is bleak. as regards tojobs, industries, and i think... i don't think we've seen the worst of it yet. jobs are at risk, but so too are lives. as coronavirus cases keep rising across merseyside. you need to be able to create an environment that is warm, welcoming, makes people feel safe, makes people have fun. chelsea only opened this restaurant two weeks ago. she supports these new rules. the restrictions are in place, but it is not to be restricted by them, as such, it is to move with them, to go hand in hand and build it into the great work that people are doing anyway. and there is a warning here. even tougher restrictions could be on the way if coronavirus cases don't come down. ed thomas, bbc news, liverpool.

there have also been stricter lockdown restrictions placed on areas in wales and northern ireland and in a moment, we'll hear from emma vardy in stormont and hywel griffith, who's in north wales, but first, our north of england correspondant fiona trott reports from middlesbrough. the councils here wanted tougher measures, but they didn't want this. after midnight on friday, some 235,000 people here on teesside will have new restrictions for the first time. they follow seven other areas of the north—east of england, but middlesbrough and hartlepool council say they are furious. they only wanted a household ban, based on local data, which suggested that in september around 80% of cases came from infections within the home. they say here, in some of the uk's most deprived areas, these tougher measures will have a real effect on people's mental health and the local economy. the government is saying today that a support package of £7 million has been made available to local councils affected by this,

but the middlesbrough mayor andy preston today has said, "we defy the government and we will not accept the measures." in northern ireland, new restrictions have just been announced for derry and strabane. areas of northern ireland which some have some of the highest cases of coronavirus in the uk, highest rates of the virus in the uk. so the decision has been made that in these areas, pubs, restaurants and cafes will have to revert to a takeaway only service or order out or outdoor dining. also, the advice now is for people to avoid any unnecessary travel into and out of these areas. now, derry is in fact very famous worldwide for its huge halloween celebrations and in the last few hours some scaled—back celebrations, which had still been planned this year, they have now been cancelled as well. but the health minister here at stormont said, look, with such high cases of coronavirus being recorded it was inevitable that new

restrictions would have to come into place. meanwhile, across northern ireland some new rules coming into force tonight for pubs and restaurants and bars. they are going to have limits on their opening times, they will have to serve everything by 10:30pm, they will have to close their doors by 11.00. well, here in walesjust in the last few minutes, four more council areas under lockdown, conwy, flintshire, wrexham and here in denbighshire, in all 500,000 more people living in north wales coming under the same restrictions we already have in south wales. what do they mean? well, no one can meet with people indoors that they don't already live with and there are limits on people's movements, no travelling and out of individual council areas. now, it is that second restriction which is causing real headaches and potentially hardship in places like this in llangollen. places that depend on tourism, particularly the travel of people coming in from the north—west of england. i have spoken to several

hoteliers across north wales. they have all given me the same picture today. two weeks of cancellations in an instant, concerns about the rest of october. for many they think winter has come already, and some are questioning whether these restrictions really will have an impact when we're told time after time that the virus is spreading primarily within people's private homes. spreading primarily within people's thinks spreading primarily within people's there to those ' reporters, thinks there to those three reporters, emma, fiona and howell. the snp mp margaret ferrier has been suspended by her party after she admitted travelling to westminster, despite experiencing covid symptoms. the mp for rutherglen and hamilton west later tested positive for the virus and then travelled back to scotland — both journeys were on public transport. ms ferrier apologised for her actions and said she had notified the police. 0ur political correspondent helen catt is at westminster. quite extraordinary, helen, given

that margaret ferrier really was quite... very much not impressed with dominic cummings when he made his trip, but nicola sturgeon really coming down quite hard on her as well now. yes, as you said margaret ferrier was quite critical of dominic cummings‘s actions earlier in the yearand dominic cummings‘s actions earlier in the year and at the time she said that the public advice was crystal clear when it came to following the coronavirus rules. of course, what we have got here is to breaches of them, sojust we have got here is to breaches of them, so just run through what happened margaret ferrier said that on saturday she had mild symptoms, she ordered a coronavirus test. she said she then felt better, so she got on a train and came to westminster to parliament on monday. of course, the rules are that if you have symptoms you should stay at home and wait to get that test back. she then spoke in parliament on monday and got that test result back on monday evening and told her that it was positive. she then got on a train the following morning and went back to scotland. in england since monday it has been a legal duty that

if you get a positive coronavirus test result that you have to stay at home to self—isolate. now, she said she has notified the police of her actions, that she apologises unreservedly. the snp have now suspended her as an mp from the party, after having initially indicated that they might not do that. but this evening, the first minister nicola sturgeon saying that this is, utterly indefensible. she is tweeting there about that. there has also been considerable pressure this evening coming from political opponents. labour saying this is astonishingly reckless and the scottish conservative leader, douglas ross, saying she must go within immediate effect. indeed, and helen, when it comes to the situation across the country we have got different patches, different lockdown restrictions in different places. the government is considering a three tier system. tell us a bit more. yes, this would apply to england, so this has been

worked up in whitehall and we are expecting it to be announced next week. the idea is where you have got all these different local authority lockdown areas and they have also got slightly different rules, there are now so many of got slightly different rules, there are now so many of them are discovering a quarter of the population that they need to be more rationalised, so this three tier system would looks something like this. tier one would be for everywhere where there isn't a very high level of coronavirus but at the moment, so that is what most of us in england are currently under, so that was where just national restrictions would apply, like the will of six. then in areas where there were more cases, 100 cases per 100,000 people, they would be put into tier two and they would see the sort of restrictions we had just been hearing about there in the north—east and to be extended to the north—west, things like stopping mixing households indoors. that would be the second tier of that. and then on the very highest risk places they would be in tier three. at the moment nowhere is in that and it looks likely no one would be in

that, and that would be the strictest form of local lockdown, where everything apart from schools and essential shops would be closed. that is the three tier system and as i say the idea of that is to try to rationalise all these different rules across the country. allan, thanks very much for that, well explained, nice and clear and hopefully we will be getting a bit more about that later on with a specialist who will be able to talk us specialist who will be able to talk us through that. the latest government figures shows that the number of people testing positive for coronavirus remains high. there were 6,914 new coronavirus infections recorded in the latest 24—hour period. that means the average number of new cases reported per day in the last week is 6,260. and as new cases have climbed, so have daily hospital admissions, with 373 people being admitted on average each day over the past week. this number doesn't include scotland. 59 deaths were reported — that's people who died within 28 days of a positive covid—19 test.

that means on average in the past week 43 deaths were announced every day, which takes the total number of deaths so far across the uk to 42,202. from saturday, people travelling to england or scotland, from turkey and poland will have to self—isolate for 1a days on arrival. the caribbean islands of bonaire, st eustatius and saba have been added to the quarantine list as well. the transport secretary grant schapps also announced that people who repeatedly fail to comply with quarantine regulations could now be fined up to a maximum of £10,000. jakub krupa is a journalist and a board member of the polish social & cultural association. i know from my experience of being polish heritage, i knowjust how

many of my friends and relatives travel a lot. polls in the uk are extremely mobile, this is going to bea extremely mobile, this is going to be a huge hit to them. that is correct and obviously with so many of them coming back to the uk after the somewhat late holiday period when they went to poland with kids to see parents as well, so obviously we estimated about 100,000 polls in the uk, people from poland to the uk and people from the uk to poland moving in the average week before the pandemic. that is busily a huge number. that restriction coming in on saturday will have a significant impact on that and the number of polls in the uk it sells, 900,000 of them permanently living in the uk. 0bviously so many of them will be thinking about going to see parents and other family members thinking about going to see parents and otherfamily members and thinking about going to see parents and other family members and that will be a huge hit for them and make it difficult. that doesn't come is a surprise, as poland has seen an increased number of cases in the past few weeks. from the start of september the number of daily cases have tripled, which robustly tells you how serious the situation is.

the health minister of poland today said he expects that number to stay high, about 2000 cases a day or more over the next few weeks, which robustly is a cause for concern. so what about those families? with so many parents, one parent works in the uk and the rest of the families backin the uk and the rest of the families back in poland. how's that going to workvery much so. there is a saying in poland, the generation connect on skype... in poland, the generation connect on skype. .. myself, with in poland, the generation connect on skype... myself, with my parents being in poland and me being in the uk permanently, said there will be a lot of pressure and a lot of stress around that and i know already from talking to members of the polish community that they are planning to go to poland in the coming weeks or they are in poland in the at the moment and they fear what is coming next and they fear what will happen at christmas and whether they will be able to travel back to their loved ones. it is not a surprise, as poland has lifted some of its restrictions over the summer, but you worry about the football fans,

let's face it pulsed you love the football and all the best that goes with it, but all the things you mentioned as well with christmas, it is going to be a lot of concern. absolutely, there are going to be scrutiny about the polish government's plans over the last few months and whether these decisions we re months and whether these decisions were correct. they had is back a few months as well and offers day that was part of it and the pamina said there was obviously saying now the restrictions have gone you can go and vote. 0bviously people will be asking was that right? was that the right message to send? if you look at images from warsaw and other cities, people were using the liberties that people in the uk could not have in the last few months, so i think there will be questions over that strategy. our coverage was affected as well, we couldn't go to warsaw for the presidential election. how much interest there is there, considering the large amount of polls in the uk? how much interest is there in what is happening over here? i know you

have a daily blog when you update people as to what is happening here. are they watching the figures here and are worried? absolutely, yes, and are worried? absolutely, yes, and there are a lot of comparisons as well between poland and uk because of the number of polish people here. at the start of the pandemic, poland looked down very early and very hard —— matt lockdown. while england were still waiting. there are another questions about who got it right. back then in march, poland probably took the better choice, but now there are questions about the way they are going forward. every evening, i broadcast online and say three things that people should know if they have family members living in they have family members living in the uk that are of polish origin. every thursday there is the same question about quarantine, will poland be on the list? and tonight when i messaged first everyone there saying, actually poland will be on the grantee list on saturday and there will be restrictions, a lot of people actually were stressed about that, but a lot of people actually expect that to happen. yes, exactly what i've been hearing as well for my family members. jakub krupa,

thank you so much for bringing us up to date with the situation. the latest nhs test and trace figures for england show more than 31,000 people tested positive for covid—19 in the week to the 23rd of september. that's an increase of 61% on the previous week, and the highest weekly total since test and trace was launched at the end of may. but three in ten people testing positive for covid—19 and identified by nhs test and trace could not be contacted. lots more on our website. the european union has started legal proceedings against the uk, saying the government's controversial plan to override parts of last year's brexit divorce agreement breaks international law. the european commission president, ursula von der leyen, said it was a "breach of the obligation of good faith". 0ur europe editor katya adler has more. i think it is very important to have a look at what the european commission did today and what it didn't do. yes, it started legal proceedings — these are quite long and drawn—out proceedings — but what it hasn't

done and what it says it won't do is walk out of those trade negotiations. and why is that? when you think that it is angry enough about the internal market bill to start legal proceedings? well, that is really for three reasons. first of all, the eu really want a trade deal with the uk. the second reason is the blame game. the eu doesn't want to be the first one to walk out of these trade talks and say, we can't do it. the third reason is because brussels thinks if a trade deal is reached between the eu and the uk, then that will go a long way to allaying concerns of the governments about post—brexit uk that are reflected in its internal market bill. so we have had trade negotiations going on here in brussels all week, with some positive noises coming out of the uk that there could be some solutions being found to the tricky sticking point. not confirmed here. brussels still hopes a deal will be done, but at this late stage it is all about compromises difficult for both sides.

i thanks to catcher adler, the newscast tea m i thanks to catcher adler, the newscast team are going to be busy tonight. let's revisit our main story, another 2 million people in northern england will face tighter rules from saturday. it comes as the latest nhs test and trace figures for england show more than 31,000 thousand people tested positive for covid—19 in the week to the 23rd of september. dr bharat pankhania is a senior clinical lecturer at university of exeter medical school. can we start with this idea of the figures going up? as this officially a second wave? you hear so many people say it is a resurgence, a search, is it a second wave?|j people say it is a resurgence, a search, is it a second wave? i like to call it a continuation of the first wave. you see, a second wave, third wave, etc, gives the impression that it is a new occurrence, whereas to be truthful what we are doing is riding a roller—coaster wave in that our

cases went up when it was first introduced, it went down when we went into lockdown and now it is going up as we have come out of the restricted movements. so, given that we are going up, should we be alarmed? 0r we are going up, should we be alarmed? or is itjust the natural, you kind of would have expected this? in a way, you would have expected it because this is a human—to—human transmission of infection and as soon as human activities restart, case numbers will go up. unfortunately for the uk, this is so unfortunate, we went into lockdown late, therefore our lockdown was prolonged and then u nfortu nately we lockdown was prolonged and then unfortunately we came out of lockdown early when we had so many background level of cases still in circulation and therefore it was only a matter of time before those cases in circulation met people who are coming out of lockdown and made more ceding of infectious agents and then we get that huge rise in the

number of cases. so the local lockdown is that we are seeing in specifically targeted areas, do you think they are going to do the job? 0r think they are going to do the job? or will we ultimately see a national lockdown? i don't think we have the stamina fora lockdown? i don't think we have the stamina for a national lockdown. the local lockdown is will only achieve one thing. allow us to slightly regain control. but what we really must be saying is, we are going to go into lockdown to reduce the number of cases and when we come out of lockdown, you will do the following. and the following is, you will not interact with so many humans, you will keep yourselves to yourselves. you will not make new connections with other people. because if you don't do that, which is stay away from other groups of people, case numbers will go up again. and can i get to your opinion on this idea of this three tier system ? on this idea of this three tier system? is that going to be clear enough? because of course a lot of confusion as to which area has...

what kind of lockdown and what the restrictions are specific to that area, but the three tier system sill still means we will have a patchwork of what applies to whom. it is getting complex by the hour. what we really need to do is have a one system approach, which is we need to keep case numbers down and for case numbers to come down we restrict our interactions. then we have to do that penalty time, which is at least two weeks of restricted movements, case numbers go down. and to keep the case numbers down we say, do not interact with other groups of humans. this is going to be difficult because we have got schools, colleges, universities and businesses also open. i have started to rethink my thinking and i am beginning to say perhaps we should start distant teaching and learning, both at schools and universities. 0h, both at schools and universities. oh, i both at schools and universities. 0h, ithink both at schools and universities. oh, i think on that bombshell a lot of people will be very concerned to

hear that, but it is fascinating to hear that, but it is fascinating to hear you describe this as a penalty time, dr bharat pankhania, as always really good to talk to you, thank you. thank you. a fleet of small boats and a group of marine experts have spent the day trying to rescue a pod of northern bottlenose whales that have been stuck in gare loch, in argyll, for a few weeks. this weekend the region is hosting europe's largestjoint military exercise and there are concerns that the sonar communications used by the boats and submarines could harm the whales. 0ur scotland correspondent james shaw has been following the rescue mission today. waiting for the whales. people started to gather on the banks of the gare loch this morning, keen to catch a glimpse of them. these northern bottlenose whales should not be in the relatively shallow waters of the loch — they are deep diving species, at home in the open ocean. and there is an urgent need to get them out of the loch before this weekend's big military exercise. but the job of rescuing them has to be done slowly and carefully.

a flotilla of small boats moving down the loch towards the sea. so you mightjust be able to see in the background there a flotilla of seven boats and they are trying to herd these whales on to the far side of the loch, away from the shallows on the side. but at a crucial moment, the rescuers lose contact with the pod. they were in front of the boat but at the minute one of them is back up at the head of the loch so the boats may reset and they may try again. at the minute, we are trying to find confirmation of the two of them. because they can dive for more than an hour, these sea creatures are an elusive species for whale watchers. it is lovely that they are here and we are able to see them. unfortunately, we haven't seen them today but for the health of the whales, we need to get them back into the open sea. but as the rescue boats raced back to the top of the loch, it became clear that it is no easy

task. jim shaw, bbc news, at the gare loch. a new head of the m16 has marked his first day in office with a tweet. richard moore took over as chief and set out a new direction for the slightly less secret service. he tweeted to mark the occasion by saying... he continued... i won't even try to sign off as

bond, but now our own james bond, with matt taylor. good evening. contrasting weather north and south of the country as we go through tonight into tomorrow. northern areas where we see skies clear, the rain becoming confined to the far north of scotland, could be a cold night. some mist and fog around and we will see frost, particularly in northern ireland, southern scotland and into northern england. southern half of the country will stay milder, but it's here where storm alex starts to push its way in, bringing some wet, windy conditions and potential for travel disruption in the morning. here's the bigger picture showing storm alex, named by meteo france because of the impact it expects to have there. red warnings enforced across parts of brittany, but even for us, there will be some disruptions. let's look across the southern half of the country tomorrow, because we could see damaging winds in and around english channel areas, may be up to around 60—70 miles an hour, particularly for the channel islands. torrential rain in places of southernmost counties to begin with, that could cause some flooding. moving its way northwards and across east anglia, the midlands and wales through the day before brightening up later, contrasting fortunes.

let's take a look at the northern half of the country tomorrow because here, that frost, bright start, the cloud in north and west scotland, western and northern ireland with a few showers will gradually break up. lots of sunshine through the day, cloud increasing in northern england later. we could see some rain from storm alex arrive around liverpool, into parts of manchester, sheffield area as we end the afternoon. but where there's this contrasting weather north and south, temperatures 12—15 , on the cool side. now as storm alex fizzles out, pushing its way southwards through the weekend, another bigger area of low pressure takes over, and this‘ll have a wider impact across the country. a thoroughly wet start to saturday across england and wales, bright towards the north and west, but rain spread across scotland. wind strengthens here, strongest of the winds on saturday across wales, southwest england and the channel islands again with a potential for damage and disruption. some parts of northern ireland may stay dry until night—time, but the rain will spread in here as we go through saturday night into sunday. that broad area of low pressure becomes centred around the uk, so it's around the edges where we see the wetness

the edges where we see the wettest and windiest conditions as we go through sunday. but that said, in the middle of it, we could see some slow—moving, torrential downpours, and they themselves could cause flooding. greatest risk of flooding will be across areas where you see on this chart turned green and yellow. shows where all areas will see rain, how the rainfall totals will mount up, but to the southwest, eastern parts of scotland, channel islands, over 100 mm of rain is possible.

this is bbc news. the total cost of the 2020 election cycle, one of the most contentious in us history, will be record—breaking. spending is projected to reach $11 billion. does it feel like money well spent? the two campaigns are out fund raising today, ready for that final push in the crucial swing states. but donald trump is still facing questions about white supremacy , questions that the white house say have already been answered. his record on this is unmistakable and it's shameful the media refuses to cover it. not—so—welcome in wisconsin. president trump plans to campaign in the key battle ground state this weekend, but coronavirus cases there are rising. we'll speak with one city mayor who'd rather he stay away. also in the programme...