the players and staff with covid—19 denying the club the chance to challenge for the premiership title at the final hurdle." well, in a statement, premiership rugby said they shared sale sharks‘s disappointment at the way their season had ended, but they couldn't jeopardise the health of any players or staff. as the rugby authorities investigate what has happened here, for the whole sport, these are challenging times. worcester, who had expressed concerns about playing sale tonight, welcomed the cancellation, while the boss of another premiership club says the covid—19 rules now need to be clarified. what you have seen is that probably the regulations were based around an ability to fulfil a team. put a team on the field, rather than the wider health implications. covid is also affecting the england squad. piers francis has had to withdraw after he tested positive. francis played for northampton against sale last week and the england head coach

knows his team have to take care. we are not going to be any more perfect than any other team but we are going to strive to set a good example, be good role models for people around england. and as well as english rugby, scottish football has been affected. kilmarnock had to forfeit their cup game last night after a number of positive tests. as sport battles to avoid more covid cancellations. andy swiss, bbc news. time for a look at the weather, here's helen willetts. it isa it is a little warmer than it should be for the time of year and fewer shells so if you are enjoying a speu shells so if you are enjoying a spell and taking in the autumn colours as you can see from leeds here earlier, there is also some good some time to be found as well in west sussex. we have had a few showers, one or two through south wales, here we are in porthcawl in bridgend. the showers are fewer than they have been in recent days and a

lot of merck continuing where we have to get north and north—west. hazy sunshine elsewhere but already, the cloud is building up towards the south—west and rain is approaching the south—west approaches. a huge swathes of cloud is the next area of low pressure, set to return with some wind and rain. for the rest of the afternoon, feeling pleasant enoughin the afternoon, feeling pleasant enough in the gentle breeze further north, 15—17 but the wind strengthening, pushing the rain into the south—west approaches, across devon and cornwall, into wales, approaching northern ireland as well so approaching northern ireland as well so fairly soggy for the evening rush—hour, whilst east, it continues fine and dry, away from the north and west of scotland where we have got showers that continue. as they fade away overnight and under the clear skies, it will be chilly across northern scotland while for most of the uk, it is increasing cloud, wind and rain so relatively mild and quite a lot of heavy rain expected. perhaps as much as 25 millimetres over the hills and a strong wind to boot as well. not particularly pleasant conditions to wa ke particularly pleasant conditions to wake up to tomorrow morning but

hopefully the rain will be starting to pull away. suddenly from northern ireland and some sunshine through the morning. but the sunshine fades with showers into the afternoon, and further south, after the wet start in the morning, rather grey, we should see improving conditions. more dry and bright weather. like today, temperatures getting towards the low to mid teens which is above where they should be for the time of year. friday brings another fly in the ointment. we could well have another area of low pressure, this time we think a bit further north, bringing rain but as i say, there is some uncertainty on that. further south and east, starting dry and finishing dry but in showers in the north and west. behind this, a su btle north and west. behind this, a subtle change in the wind direction. you can see the temperatures in scotla nd you can see the temperatures in scotland by that stage are a bit lower which is because we are introducing cooler northerly breeze. pushing the weather front out of the way but with low pressure close to the east over the weekend, and high pressure to the west, you can guess where we are expecting to see the dry weather and fewer showers, yes, across western areas we should see lengthy spells of sunshine. but for

all of us, given the wind direction, it will feel cooler, temperatures dipping back a it will feel cooler, temperatures dipping backa bit it will feel cooler, temperatures dipping back a bit below average potentially with the east at greater risk of a few showers. as ever, we will keep you posted. keep watching. that's all from the bbc news at one, so it's goodbye from me, and on bbc one, we nowjoin the bbc‘s news teams where you are. good afternoon. i'm chetan pathak with your latest sports news. we'll start with more on the cancellation of sale‘s premiership game against worcester. it was supposed to be held tonight, having been rearranged from saturday because of 19 positive coronavirus tests in the sale camp. six more sharks players have since tested positive, meaning the game is off, worcester get the points and sale miss out on the play—offs. our sports news correspondent is laura scott. shejoins me now. laura, there's been an interesting statement from the rfu?

yes, there has. the rfu have responded to the news of the cancelled fixture and they have said that they are carrying out their own investigation and continuing that but also that they have raised concerns about the handling of the situation. they say they will be making recommendations about the premiership rugby and the professional game board because these are 27 positive tests in the last week and public health england, we know, are taking a close look at the situation. the rfu clearly keen to avoid a repeat of this in future and will make sure that the protocols are as stringent as they need to be to avoid what they say is future uncertainty and to protect the reputation of the game. clearly this has been incredibly disruptive and concerning and is not how anyone would like the play—off places to have been decided. what about the impact on the premiership play—off games scheduled for this weekend and, looking further ahead, next season? well, we know the four teams that will contest the play—offs come

exeter chiefs against bath and wasps against bristol bears. but we haven't had the latest test results, they will come through tomorrow. it won't just be they will come through tomorrow. it won'tjust be the club is looking to the test results, they will be public health england as well. about next season, it is interesting because rob baxter, the director of by because rob baxter, the director of rugby at exeter chiefs, he said that in the last few weeks, perhaps they could consider phasing out the test because of the low number of positives they were getting but speaking today ahead of the play—offs this weekend, he said it would clearly be foolish to do so now that we have had the situation with sale. he has suggested, actually, the regulations could be changed for next season to actually mean that the threshold for a cancelled fixture would be based on the number of tests, positive cases, not whether a club could fulfil 823 man squad because that clearly raises welfare issues in and of itself. laura scott, thank you, we appreciate that. i will sports news correspondent, laura scott.

next o the french open, where the former wimbledon champion petra kvitova's through to the semifinals. she saw off germany's laura siegemund in straight sets at roland garros. it's just the second time that kvitova's reached the last four at the french open. kvitova's chasing her first title there, rafa nadal‘s after his 13th and he's also through to the semifinals. he had a really late finish against the italianjannik sinner. the match finally finishing at almost 1:30 in the morning. nadal wasn't happy with the timings or the cool temperatures at roland garros. but he can still equal roger federer‘s record of 20 grand slams if he goes on to be crowned champion. the organisers of the giro d'italia have cast doubt over the cause of a crash yesterday, in which italian rider luca wackermann was injured. the italian‘s team, vini zabu—ktm, said a tv helicopter flying too low caused the roadside barriers near the end of stage four to move and that's why riders crashed into them.

but a source has told bbc sport that an external factor could have moved them. wackermann will have further scans on a suspected fracture to his back today. his team—mate etienne van empel who also fell is ok. manchester united fans are going to have to wait a little longer to see edinson cavani, their new striker‘s debut is likely to be delayed by coronavirus regulations. the uruguayan, whojoined united on monday, left paris st—germain injune and hasn't been part of an elite athlete bubble. that means he should enter a period of self—isolation that lasts 14 days, and would miss united's next game away to newcastle on the 17th of october. there is more on that story on the bbc sport website. i will have more few in the next hour but that is your spot for now. thank you for that. we will see you in the next hour. good afternoon to you. you are watching bbc news. we

are expecting to have scotland's first minister nicola sturgeon to see what changes may be brought in. highly likely there will be changes so we will bring you that life, of course, and we will talk more about prime minister's questions in the next few minutes as well because there was a lot of talk about the various regulations and how they differ around the uk. we will get more on that in the next four minutes as well. before that, we will start with a different story here this lunchtime. exclusive new figures suggest almost half of all sexual abuse content online is "self—generated", meaning children are coerced into creating it themselves. that's according to research by the internet watch foundation, which says it's a 15% increase on the previous year. in our report, we have changed the voice of the mum we spoke to in order to protect her son's identitity. and you may find some of rachel stonehouse's report distressing. it was terrifying, i mean,

i have to say i didn't eat or sleep for about three months. mandy's son was groomed online through a game called roblox. to protect her and her son, we aren't identifying her and mandy's not her real name. we were just taking photographs of our beloved dog, you know. my partner's phone and my phone weren't to hand and my son's phone was available, so we just took some pictures of the dog and my partner looked back through them and... ..found that there were two naked photographs. so, obviously, the phone was confiscated and ijust went through the phone and i found requests from an unknown to say — naked pictures. disturbingly, the person who groomed mandy's son then went on to access his facebook account and used it to groom other children. when he was grooming other children through our son's facebook, and we were getting all these images through facebook, naked images of nine and ten—year—olds, bending

over and all this sort of thing, i was just in absolute... a torrent of tears. and that was just the first one. and then we probably got another 60 images through our son's facebook account, which we couldn't close, because facebook wouldn't let us close it. the family reported it to the police, but no further action has been taken. this type of grooming is becoming increasingly common. it's called self generated, meaning the content is created by the children themselves, often under the direction of the groomer. the internet watch foundation is a charity which removes child sexual abuse from the web. how much of a concern is self—generated content and the rate at which it's increasing? it's extremely concerning because, you know, children have this technology at their fingertips but it's also spiralling out of control in terms of self—generated content. our figures so far for the year, for the half year, suggest

we're now at 44% of our actioned content is actually self—generated. so, this is increasing very, very quickly. isabel's job involves searching for child abuse online, to get it taken down. again, we're protecting her identity because of the work she does. i'm not going to lie, it's not always an easyjob, because every single day i come to work, i am seeing thousands and thousands of images of children being raped, sexually abused, kind of the worst images i've ever seen in my entire life. most of what we see in terms of self—generated content is usually a single child kind of alone in their bedroom or bathroom and they're being coerced by someone on the other side of the screen to perform sexual acts. but what we're seeing now is kind of more sibling self—generated content, so that's where there's what appears to be kind of a pair of siblings together in the same home and they're both talking to somebody on the other side of the screen.

and the people the other side are coaxing them into sexual abuse and to sexually abuse each other. for me, it's the fact that i'm able to remove them, to stop people from accidentally stumbling across these images in the first place, and also mainly for the victims. in a statement, facebook say grooming is not tolerated on its platform and they've now disabled the account. roblox told us they are committed to protecting the safety of children and have stringent chat filters to block inappropriate content. but, for mandy, these companies are not taking enough responsibility. they arejust grooming grounds, you know. and the fact that roblox didn't even have the courtesy to get back in contact with us, it's just horrific. rachel stonehouse, bbc news. now as promised we will return to oui’ now as promised we will return to our main story here today,

coronavirus, because the prime minister has been pressed by the later leader about the government's handling of the pandemic at prime minister's questions. sir keir starmer asked the prime minister to give more information on the scientific justification for the iopm pub closing time. next week mps will debate that curfew in the commons. let's assess everything that went on at pmqs. let's go to vicki young. no surprise really that there is rising coronavirus cases, rising hospital admissions too have really dominated prime minister's questions with lots of people raising the issues of local restrictions, whether they are working, and the backdrop to this too that nicola sturgeon, first minister of scotland, is about to announce tighter restrictions there. let's discuss all of that. i'm joined from labour and the snp and the conservatives. let's start first

with keir starmer who has this question to put the prime minister. today... today is 100 days, mr speaker, since the first local restrictions were introduced. 20 local areas in england have been under restrictions for two months. prime minister, in 19 of those 20 areas, the infection rates have gone up. in rossendale, in hyndburn, they have gone up tenfold. yet, all the prime minister has to say is, "it's too early to say if restrictions are working." but it's obvious that something has gone wrong here. so what's the prime minister going to do about it? well, mr speaker, as he knows, we are continuing to provide support, £5 billion of support for the north west and the north east for the lockdowns and extra restrictions that they are experiencing

and we will continue to support all areas across the country that have to go into local measures. now, two weeks ago, i set out that strategy, i said that we were going forward both with national measures and, such as intensifying the rule of six, making sure that we enforce the rule of six. two weeks ago, mr speaker, he supported it. in fact, i think he went on the nick ferrari show saying, "i support the rule of six. yes, i do." yet, last night, mr speaker, the labour party abstained on the rule of six. he asks what we are doing to enforce... doing to enforce local measures, he can't even be bothered to get his own side to support them himself. so, let's discuss all of that. if i can so, let's discuss all of that. if i ca n start so, let's discuss all of that. if i can start with you. sir keir starmer has complaints about what it has been going on. it is unclear,

though, are labour not in favour of the rule of six or not in favour of the rule of six or not in favour of the ten o'clock curfew in england? it is unclear whether your party is rowing back on your support for these measures. first thing to mention is that almost 50,000 people we re mention is that almost 50,000 people were not traced so they were going about their business blissfully unaware that they had all they could potentially have the virus and i think that is part of the problem that there has been with the system. the government has been slow from the get go and in terms of the test entry the get go and in terms of the test e ntry syste m the get go and in terms of the test entry system we were promised a world beating system, instead we have an utter shambles. as was pointed out, as was quoted, it is intergalactic level of incompetence. in terms of the government measures, we have said from the get go that we are in favour of supporting the government. we do not want to be

running a parallel system. we want that support to be there so that we get behind the government guidance oi’ get behind the government guidance or the national interest. u nfortu nately, or the national interest. unfortunately, what we also have is a lack of evidence. we have continually been asking that in terms of the 10pm curfew, where is the scientific evidence behind that, and in terms of the rule of six, we have been in support of that, so i don't think that the government can accuse us don't think that the government can accuse us of not being supportive. but we are there to hold the government to account and we will continue to do that despite the likes of the health secretary not even answering basic questions. i asked him a basic question last week about the testing centre in slough and instead he went about trying to wag his finger around and accuse the likes of me of using divisive language and not answering questions. miriam, it is right, isn't it that if mps from any party think that the system is not working what they see problems, that they should be able to raise those? do

you think the government is providing an of scientific backing, evidence, for the measures being brought in? well, it is right for mps brought in? well, it is right for mp5 from all parties to raise issues where they see problems or perhaps errors with what the government is doing. sir keirstarmer errors with what the government is doing. sir keir starmer is the leader of the opposition, it is his job to provide opposition and challenge but i think it is not the job of sir keir starmer or the labour party to try and destroy confidence in a system that is largely working. it is true, 16,000 positive test cases didn't have their contacts traced over the course of the week. that is in error, it is being looked at, and it is being fixed but we need to put that in the context of a testing capacity that is now 300,000 a day, 15,000 a day around about positive tests, this is an error that needs fixing but the context is it is a very small percentage of the testing that we are doing and so the prime minister is absolutely right to say that while that data can't be ignored, it wasn't enough to change our strategy. if you look at other

countries around the world in europe, we are doing as much as and in many cases much more testing than those countries so it is right that we have confidence in the system. we can't say it is perfect, no scientific endeavour happens without bumps in the road and it is the role of the opposition to point out those bumps but it is not their role to destroy confidence in something that is by and large working and people should have confidence in. in a few minutes we are expecting to hear from the first minister of scotland and is likely to be further restrictions for you. how was it working in scotland? they have been some tighter restrictions brought in but actually in many cases coronavirus cases are still going up. i think that it is a complex picture everywhere across the world and certainly scotland is not any different in that regard. i think some things are certainly different. i think it is helpful and welcome to the population in scotland that the first minister every day appears in

front of them and let them know what is happening on the way it is happening, which i think it is absolutely critical because it is a very challenging time for all of us, it isa very challenging time for all of us, it is a challenging time for people in all of our communities, and they do absolutely need to and deserved to understand why restrictions are being put in place and to understand more about the progress of this disease. i can't speak for the more about the progress of this disease. i can't speakfor the first minister because i don't know exactly what she's going to say when she speaks to the parliament later but i do know it will be based upon evidence and that is the absolutely critical thing to make sure that all of our actions are focused on the evidence that is there and to make sure that we then communicate clearly to people what it is that we are doing, why it is that we are doing it. iwould are doing, why it is that we are doing it. i would alsojust are doing, why it is that we are doing it. i would also just reflect back on said at the beginning. i think it is important that there are robust measures in place, the test and trace we have in scotland is

working well, that system is contacting 96% of those who we would wa nt contacting 96% of those who we would want it to as opposed to 61% for the english system. these things are important. we all need to endeavour to try and maximise these systems because that is one of the key ways that we will be able to make progress against this disease. miriam, isn't that the issue here? some of your colleagues, particularly when it comes to the tempe curfew for pubs and restau ra nts, tempe curfew for pubs and restaurants, who do want to see more evidence. have you seen any evidence that it works? some are suggesting it makes it worse because everybody leaves at the same time and in some cases get onto public transport. leaves at the same time and in some cases get onto public transportlj think cases get onto public transport.” think the science behind the spread of coronavirus is well established. it thrives in public contact and i think we all know from a behavioural point of view that it is much harder to obey those rules and to be diligent in following those rules if you have had a lot to drink and the later the night goes on, the more you are likely to have drunk and

therefore the less likely you are social distancing. it is notjust about a pure scientific point of view of how does this virus spread, we have to take into account people's behaviour, different cultures in different parts of the world, different parts of europe which is different in this country. asa which is different in this country. as a scientist myself, this is not an experiment that is going on in a lab where there is one variable. it isa lab where there is one variable. it is a machine, a society, with literally billions of moving parts and we have to take into account culture, behaviour, the economy, as well as a science when making those decisions. tan dhesi, that is the point here, it is keir starmer‘sjob to oppose and point out where things are going wrong but it is a difficult balancing act, isn't it? the government trying to save lives but also very worried about the economic impact. what would labour do? what are you concerned about in terms of the economy. we have been saying that it is very important that we have a road map. months ago we all agreed that test entries, that was the best weapon that we

have got until we find a vaccine. in the future we need to see the road map toa the future we need to see the road map to a vaccine as well. along the way, it is definitely ourjob to be holding the government to account, especially when there is a colossal waste of taxpayers money. £130 million contract was given to a conservative party donor and u nfortu nately conservative party donor and unfortunately those testing kits we re unfortunately those testing kits were not compatible. we had £150 million plus contract for face masks which were not suitable for nhs front line staff. we had a £190 million plus outsource to a company for the test, trace and isolate system which, as explained earlier, is utterly shambolic for so we cannot have such a huge waste of taxpayer money and for the government not to be held to account. at the same time, they need to be produced in the science. we used to have daily briefings in terms of the scientific, the chief medical officer, coming out and explain to the nation this is why it

is important that we have this. now all we have is bluff and bluster from the prime minister. we would much rather have the scientific evidence that we can make informed decisions. very quickly, has nicola sturgeon ruled out a return to a broader lockdown like the one we saw in the spring? there are some things that we know we are not going to do but the detail of what is going to be required is still to come. that will, as we heard from both of your other panellists, best done based upon the evidence that nicola sturgeon and the cabinet have in front of them. i think it is critical to also reflect on the fact that we do have medical and scientific advisers performing that public facing role here in scotland so none of these are easy decisions they are all very difficult, no government in the world will want to be dealing with these kinds of new challenging situations but if we can try and do that by making sure

people are given as much of that information as is absolutely possible, then we will at least be able to make sure that people are clear on why we are asking them to make the sacrifices that we absolutely are. ok, we must leave it there for now. thank you. this is a subject which will be debated a lot more in the coming days. goodness, won't it? thank you very much for now. vicki young at westminster. much more coming up after 2pm. let's pause and catch up with the weather with helen. good afternoon. we have seen fewer showers on the whole through this afternoon, a beautiful shot here of whitby taken in the sunshine. not too far away, the autumnal colours coming through in leeds. we have had showers, particularly in the north, but also across the south of wales.

porthcawl here in bridgend seeing that beautiful rainbow. most of the showers now confined to the north because further south the cloud is starting to fill in. this length of cloud sticking out in the atlantic is a developing area of low pressure set to bring us our next spell of wet and windy weather. so where we have the sunshine, it will tend to diminish as this cloud rolls in, continues its progress in off the atlantic through the rest of the afternoon. by the evening, it will be looking quite wet through some areas. still pleasantly warm if you are in the sunshine. as well as the wetter weather, the winds will strengthen again, pushing this wetter weather in across the south—west of england, wales and northern ireland for the beginning of the evening rush hour, whilst we continue with the sunshine further north but those showers, particular for the north and north—west of scotland, but many other parts of scotland seeing the dry weather. it looks, as i say, really quite wet through the evening across notjust northern ireland and the south of england but much of england and wales as well. that will hold temperatures up, the cloud, rain and that stronger wind.

further north with light winds across scotland, we could see temperatures dipping towards freezing in the glens. by morning, the rain starting to move out of the way. it drags its heels in the south and it still could be quite heavy here with some lively downpours, but as it pulls away, the afternoon looks drier and brighter, more sunshine. by that stage, the sunshine in the north replaced by more showers for scotland, northern ireland and the north—west of england. again, between those, temperatures will get up into the mid—teens which is above where they should be for the beginning of october. some uncertainty regarding friday. it looks like we will see another area of low pressure move in, another area of rain, this time potentially further north, but it gradually works its way southwards through the day, showers following on behind. quite a chilly wind starts to set in. temperatures won't be quite as high across scotland and even further south because of the rain, they will be down a degree or two by the end of friday. as for the weekend, we are getting a brisk wind from the north, feeling cooler for all of us, but a lot of dry weather to be found. goodbye.

this is bbc news. i'm jane hill. the headlines: scotland is to face tighter restrictions to try to control the growing number of covid cases. the hospitality industry says businesses affected need help. we're not businesses that can just be turned on and turned off. we're dealing with fresh food, we're dealing with, you know, long—term bookings, people that are planning special occasions in advance. the confidence issue across the board, that is what is going to be the hardest thing. a major supplier of coronavirus swabs and cancer tests to the nhs warns it's experiencing significant distribution problems. how dangerous are coronavirus droplets in the air? — the ground—breaking technology being used by a british team