this is bbc news — the headlines... the world health organisation has announced that more than 380,000 people around the world have been infected with coronavirus in the past day. that is is the highest daily number since the pandemic began. infections have reached record highs in the netherlands, the czech republic, ukraine and poland. the democratic governor of the us state of michigan has accused president trump of encouraging right—wing militia groups — after 13 men were charged with an alleged plot to kidnap her. in a statement — gretchen whitmer said that when leaders fraternize with domestic terrorists they legitimise their actions. president trump has rejected a plan to hold next thursday's election debate in virtual format — saying it will be a waste of time and the moderator would be able to cut him off.

now it's time for newscast. newscast. newscast, from the bbc. hello, it is adam in the studio. laura, in the same studio, two metres apart. james, in broadcasting house. it is one of these moments where it feels like there is a big thing floating around the government, around the cabinet table, between government departments. versions of it being leaked, consulting with public health experts, but not quite there yet. it's about a new system for local restrictions in england to deal with coronavirus. absolutely right. the reason for that is the view in government is that we are at a genuine crunch point. another big rise in cases today. more than 17,000. the thing they are really worried about is rising hospital admissions. i am sure we will talk about that later. over the last 72 hours, there has been, shall we say, plans that have been on again, on—again, off—again,

on—again, off—again. someone senior in government said the polite way of describing it is fluid. and there is, however, beyond doubt, going to be a big announcement from the government probably on monday, that could come in on wednesday, of a tiered system, where different parts of the country would be put into different categories according to the extent of coronavirus. but what has not been settled yet is exactly how tough the restrictions are. i heard they are still working out how granular they get on the map as well. are we talking about whole regions, like you say, like the north—west? or a small bit of the north west and the bit next door could be different? and of course, for our listeners and viewers, nothing drives people more crazy than treating enormous bits of the country as if they are the same. you talk about "the north". that is meaningless to lots of people. there is a question about

the geography, the severity of the restrictions and a possibility that pubs in the north of england might be closed. that is on the table as a proposal. it is all very finely balanced at the moment. we are recording at 6.20 on thursday night and there are no final decisions that have been made at this stage. but if it is announced on monday, the decisions have to be made pretty soon? and the guidelines have to be written, the ways that you communicate and the rest. because of the speculation, we have been reporting on this for 2h hours now. two weeks, actually. two weeks when it comes to the tiered plan in terms of pub closures in england and scotland, we were reporting that yesterday lunchtime, there is a feeling from government that may be they can't hang on until monday. the plan, as things stand, as far as i know, is an announcement on monday. james, what have you got? you said it was coming for a couple of weeks, i was talking to you guys in the middle of summer, when some scientists

were saying, you know, if you want to reopen schools, we have to look at the pubs and hospitality sector again. this is a question that has been overhanging government policy for a long time. it looks like it is starting to come to fruition. something i have been looking at today is really early, still highlighted as not quite published, early analysis from public health england. it has been looking at where people have been mixing. i will read it to you. early analysis from public health england suggests that hospitality accounts for 30% of common exposure settings, going up to 41% in the under 30s. a clear sense that these are areas that can be targeted to reduce the numbers of times we come into contact with other people and reduce the ability to spread the virus. it is worth remembering if you want to keep schools open and business open, the number of levers that

government has to pull is rapidly diminishing. you mentioned the p word, pubs, somebody who knows all about it is the managing director of jw lees and co, the brewery that runs 150 of them in the north west. i imagine listening to that, you might be feeling trepidations? i feel quite angry, because i think people when they go out, they tend to go into hospitality, and hospitality has spent millions on test and trace. i don't think that the test and trace is working very well, so it has decided to throw pubs under the proverbial bus. is it being thrown under the bus or is it that the government has to do this, because you guys happen to be the next option?

i think when i go into our pubs and i see how safe people are, i see the low level of coronavirus amongst our teams, if our teams are not getting coronavirus then i don't think other people coming into the pubs are getting it, either. if you look at the statistics in manchester, as of today, 1000 students on the fallowfield campus have coronavirus, but they are all 18 or 19, so they are all pretty healthy. i don't think they are going to die. and people can make a decision as to whether they want to go out of their homes, into pubs or not. we live in a free society will stop at least when nicola we live in a free society. at least when nicola sturgeon made the announcement yesterday, she has given people a little bit of time to plan, saying that they are going to close pubs for 16 days. in some ways, it seems kind of crazy that westminster can't make an announcement that is as straightforward

as that. william, there is obviously also huge concern for you and the industry, and here at westminster, about what this is doing to the economy. we will come onto that in a second. as things stand right now, we are in a moment where people are holding their breath. are you worried about what might happen this weekend? do you think people are going to pile into the pub and go on a bender, because they think it is the last opportunity? no, i think most people are sensible. the people who are going to go on a bender are the loonies coming out of the pubs at ten at night and going into the off—licences, having house parties, going to raves and ignoring the rules. i think most of us in britain, i think we are the best country at queueing and following rules. what has the impact on your business been so far? you have more than 100 pubs? we have 152 pubs. i'm right there with andy burnham, at the moment we are living in a country that is very london centric. when they announced the restrictions in conway, in wales, we have a lovely

hotel there. literally on that day, takings fell by 95%. we saw lots of cancellations for half term. it is a huge confidence problem, where hospitality was helpful to politicians, everybody wanted their picture with a pint of beer in august, then politicians were good friends of the industry. now nobody wants to be seen anywhere near us and we feel let down. is there a danger if these restrictions come in the north west and the next few days and you have to shut down, some of those 150 will never open again? there is a huge risk. and i think that if the government is going to announce this enormous restriction, it can't announce it without some form of compensation. without some form of support. what does that look like, in an ideal world? in an ideal world, rather than civil servants making

something up quickly, i would extend the furlough scheme and make it specific to hospitality. job done. make it so it works, so when we reopen we can keep people in jobs. good luck. we will let you go. we can go to another part of the country now, and i'm going to introduce tom hunt, a tory backbencher who has been very open, and told me concerns from ipswich in suffolk about how the restrictions are affecting your constituents. just on this point of pubs, before we get into that, james, how dangerous do people think pubs are? you gave us a flavour of the numbers of how much pubs are spreading, but from the medics you talk to, do they say, pubs, stay away? yes, the word you used, chris whitty did a presentation with mps and they used the word exposure. is that people catching covid in pubs, or people just

in a pub in the day before they got coronavirus from somewhere? it is the last bit of what you said, adam. that's the important bit, where they have been before they tested positive. the difficult thing about this is that it's difficult to say it isjust pubs. people will spread the virus wherever people meet. if we had far more people going into offices to work, they would be spreading more in offices than it is at the moment. so it really is a function of where people are. that is what you have to understand in terms of the coronavirus. it is something that spreads between people, where people meet. if lots of people are gathering in one place, that is where it's going to be. if you take that away and they go somewhere else, it will spread more in other locations. it is one of those things that is really difficult. it's really simple to say that pubs are the one and only problem, but they are not. the choice comes down to, well, what do you want to do about this? if you want to keep some parts of the economy open, if you want to keep education open, it is about, well,

what is left, what is still on the plate to choose to change those numbers of social interactions we have, the numbers of people we come into contact with in our daily lives. and that is one of the reasons why the focus is becoming on the hospitality sector, not because it is exceptionally bad, so much worse than anything else you could conceive of, but because it is one of the few things that is left on the table when you're going, well, what options have we got? so often that happens in government is the lever that they can pull is what they reach for. it has been a tricky week for every mp right now, people are getting very busy with constituents concerns, but there is a lot of unhappiness on the tory backbenches about what is going on. what are people worried about? i think it is the fact that, i mean, covid is a very cruel virus, in many different ways. the virus itself, the way it

threatens peoples lives, of the most vulnerable, but also the way in which measures being introduced to try to tackle the virus are threatening people's livelihoods. there is this desire that we do need to clearly have the abilities to protect the lives of the most vulnerable, but also people's livelihoods and liberties as well. and i think that most of what has preoccupied me over the last few days has been the 10pm curfew, and whether it should be rolled out on a national level. my personal view is that i don't think it should. i represent a large town, which has a very large hospitality sector, employing thousands of my constituents, many of whom are young people, dependent on those jobs. we also at the moment have very low levels of covid in the towns. for areas such as ipswich, i think right now the case for the 10pm curfew is not that strong. that is where i am coming at it from. lets talk about

parliament for a bit. let's talk about parliament for a bit. matt hancock, the health secretary, to head off a bit of a rebellion in parliament the other day said any new national measures would be put to a debate and vote in parliament if possible. all of the stuff laura was talking about, the tiers or whatever they work out, do you think that is one of the things that should be put to parliament for a debate and vote before it comes in? i think ideally. but i would say that i think a traffic light, or a tiered system, when it comes to policies restricting the operation of the hospitality sector, i think it would be a better way of doing it, than the 10pm curfew. your town will be the one with all of the pubs open, easy for you to say! i would also say, as we discussed before we came on air, i have been on self isolation, so i have not picked up the gossip that there may have been in the tea rooms of parliament.

but i come from this perspective that we have seen significant levels of increase in covid. we are comparatively low compared to the national average, but we have seen it here as well. it is concerning that we have seen the number of cases increase. do you reckon the tiered system would have been brought in and the 10pm curfew will have gone by the end of next week? i've been following parliament very closely on tv. i've caught up on the action myself. i watched pmqs yesterday and i saw the leader of the opposition hint he might not support a 10pm curfew but i've seen tweets today indicating in fact he does support a curfew. i think if the opposition parties support the curfew, when it comes to a straight vote, i think that it'll be confirmed. there is another possibility that i heard today, it could be called rather than a circuit breaker, it could be called a firewall, that is one

of the things doing the round, so this time next week if the government introduces a firewall, you heard it here first but it is pretty fluid but the government was met political priorities are keeping schools open and also very much trying to protect the idea of people being able to have a family christmas. be in no doubt the mood in government is definitely of further restrictions on part of the country very soon and i'm afraid we are in for a long haul through the winter. very quickly, laura talks about a firewall, that to me sounds like a game of thrones style war between north and south. not game of thrones again! would you advise them to use the game of thrones terminology? it could be construed in many different ways. firewall. it isn't myjob to come up with, you know, those sorts of phrases, myjob is to represent the people

of ipswich which has been on my conscience this week. it is about policies in place to protect the most vulnerable people in my constituency as well as being acutely aware of the livelihoods of the people in my constituency, especially young people who we must be thinking about here, we must think about everyone, this is a cruel virus and we need to get through it. tom, thank you so much and you have been in self isolation but you've had a negative covid test but thank you for making time to speak to us from your self isolation. and get well soon! it is interesting, is still so much up in the air with quite a few of these moments through this crisis where there is a sort of... something big is about to happen but we can't quite be sure what and a lot of tensions in government between the different departments trying to put a jigsaw together, so we should know before too long but it might not be until the beginning of next week.

james, you're going to leave us but would you like to leave us with a parting thought? it is so early in the year, as my parting thought and winter is a very long way to go. if we are looking towards march time for the end of all of this, how do we get through all of that and what is the trajectory we are currently on? a rising number of people in hospitals, rising number of cases day by day, so what does the government want to do about that? will we go for an active strategy, like was achieved at the beginning of march, the first lockdown, where we were trying to actively drive down cases hard or will it be about softening the curve so we don't get such a severe spite? i don't know, laura, you probably know more than me what is going on through the mind of the prime minister. it is one of these things that is hard to tell because there are so many things swirling around but it was suggested to me today that the idea is trying to put the brakes on now with considerable concern about the number of hospital admissions and on one of the current trajectories

you could be looking at a reasonable worst—case scenario where the nhs is unbearable pressure. there's definitely a sense they have to find a way to slow this, then they want to protect christmas, but then there could be, as from some of the conversations i've had come on the other side of christmas, another period of tight restrictions. so... one thing worth remembering, we are talking constantly about coronavirus which is one aspect of what the nhs is having to deal with at this time of year. we have to balance coronavirus and what it is doing to cancer care and mental health services. it is everything that is in play at the moment, it is a really difficult thing to try to chart the right course through. thanks, james, see you later! bye— bye. talking of difficult things... the subject formerly known as brexit? this time of year we talk about nothing else but what do you say?

my ears picked up because david frost, hello, good evening and welcome, the uk chief negotiator, was with michael gove at house of commons select committee. it wasn't that interesting but he was in a house of lords committee a few hours before and there were some interesting clues. remember that awful clue about state aid, the eu is trying to tie the uk up to state aid rules forever? that has gone from you know what, if there was a state aid thing in this deal may be the uk would use it against the more than the eu would use against the uk and in brussels they heard that and they say that as a positive clue! it is a positive clue not backed up with any positive action yet. the clues are there to be spotted and speculated about. someone said to me the other day now the politics are there to make it happen but the details are not there necessary. sometimes the details are there, whether negotiators say we can do this if the politicians give it a shove, but the political

environment seems to be stepping closer. michael gove said 60—110 for a deal? i wasn't quite excited by that because he said it before. i wasn't excited! people thought that was a big signal but i don't think it was. some speculation about wouldn't it do everyone to do a bit of good to have a period of no deal next year, no trade deal then resurrect things? one of the officials i used to speak to in brussels had that idea, they found it so horrendous, don't go there, they said. but a very interesting thing in terms of brexit impacting on other trade deals and on what ends up on supermarket shelves and plates and whether or not the uk will ever have the dreaded chlorinated chicken, which has been a real political icon, in a kind of way... someone who has been investigating it as our political correspondent alex forsyth, who is in the back of the van because she is out filming, hello, alex!

all the glamour in thisjob, adam! yes but were are hanging out with jamie oliver earlier, what was that all about? that isjust how i roll. i love the idea of a chlorinated chicken being a political symbol, i'm not sure which party would adopt it but i can imagine the logo might be tricky. nice thought. let me fill you in. i've been hanging out with jamie oliver today but this is part of a bigger thing. there has been a campaign rumbling on for a while now which has largely been led by farmers and people concerned about environmental standards and animal welfare, and their worry is if the uk does trade deals with other after brexit which is what the uk wants to do that as part of those trade deals we might get food imported into the uk which isn't produced to the same standards that the uk producers, particularly farmers, have to adhere to and the concern among those communities, farming and the like, is that might undermine british farming in particular,

make it difficult for some farmers to be sustainable but also it could impact on food and what jamie oliver was talking about is that bit. so, public health implications of this. it is important to say the government has consistently and repeatedly said there will be no undermining of food standards in any trade deal but the battle here is they haven't put that into law. they say they don't need to because parliament will sign off a trade deal with reassurances at the despatch box. it was in the tory manifesto and they repeated it time and again but it hasn't stopped the people concerned which is what jamie oliver was talking about today. a bad trade deal is bad for public health, that is my main concern, child health. then of course it's public health. their parents, they are pretty important, too. then farming. we have a farming community that holds some of the best standards in the world and if they have to fight against an influx of low standard products, they are not geared up for that. igenuinely am worried about it. i don't want to be personal, i do want to say do we trust you?

it isn't even personal. it's not about people. it's human nature. we must not trust any one person or group of people to do what democracy and parliament does. we can't. they'll let you down and they will be long gone when this kicks off. they will be long gone. god bless you, govey! alex, make it clearfor us, what are the parliamentary moments and tactics and things going on here, because there is a parliamentary moment here soon. monday, in fact, and this is where the tussle is right now so the big picture arguments we've spoken about, the tussle is over the parliamentary process which we know everybody loves. they do on this programme! that is true! i am talking to a converted audience! there is something called the agriculture bill making its way through parliament and when that went to the house of lords, what the lords did was put down some amendments to it on two fronts. the first one is they said it

should be written into the bill that standards shouldn't fall below british standards when it comes to food imports from other countries in any other trade deal. the second one was about beefing up essentially what the government has set up, the trade and agriculture commission, designed to oversee trade deals particular when it comes to farming and food. but the lord said that needs more teeth, be a little bit more strengthened. those amendments to the bill will come before mps in the house of commons on monday. and there are mps, conservative mps including the chairman of the environmental and rural affairs committee, who want those amendments to be adopted so there will be a vote on them, we think, if they get selected by the speaker, and there is some conservative mps who will vote for them against the government but the government's position on this is as we mentioned they have given adequate reassurance. there's also an argument that says if you put this kind of stuff into law it makes negotiating trade deals difficult for lots of reasons.

some people say there are adequate regulations under world trade organisation rules at the moment, there is an argument on the other side which says this would bind the government to excessively high standards. and make it difficult for them to forge trade deals they want to post—brexit so there are two arguments and we expect this to come to a head on monday, a tussle over those amendments although i think, frankly, there is a sense the government is not looking at a major defeat, just a rebellion. here is liz truss making the government's side of the argument. we are absolutely clear we will stand up for our high standards in any deal we strike, including with the united states, and making sure that the high standards our farmers operate to will not be undermined. when you speak to people in whitehall about this, if the uk tries to stick to super high standards, it'll make including trade deals much, much,

much, much, much harder, itjust will so it's interesting from a political point of view because it is about the identity of how the government really wants the government to be after brexit. and people love jamie oliver so he's a hard person to pick a fight with. people love jamie oliver, people like seeing nice farmers campaigning and they can cause a lot of disruption quickly if they want to put their mind to it. people also love going to the supermarket and it being really cheap which is why it is such an interesting tussle. with or without a celebrity chef. last time jamie oliver was on the podcast he said a very eye—catching statistic about children's fruit and vegetable consumption that turned out to be wrong and was proved to be false by more or less on radio 4, so jamie got us more 0r lessed. great to chat to you and james and everyone else. we will be back with another newscast very, very soon. bye— bye!

hello there. when the sun came out yesterday, we saw 19 celsius, temperatures above where they should be. and they have been for much of the week. but we will swing now to feeling colder for the next few days, probably with temperatures dipping a little bit below where they should be. we will still see some sunshine like we saw on thursday between the showers, this was the rain that moved away, the showers came in, but this next little area of low pressure comes in, giving some quite heavy rain actually through the night as it crosses scotland, northern ireland into the northern half of england and wales. you can see the wraparound

here, the area of low pressure, a brisk north—westerly bringing heavy showers, frequent showers following that rain. so, as we go through the day, there will be early brightness in the south and east, but the rain will eventually reach here by lunchtime. still some heavy rain upon that weather front and we still have that wraparound left around the area of low pressure and rain in the north east of scotland, northern isles and elsewhere, sunny spells and showers. quite a brisk breeze, gusty near those showers, and temperatures will be down, it is colder air, so we will do well to reach about 30 to a0 in the south, more like eight to 10 degrees in the north. some of these showers could be heavy with hail and thunder. they will continue through the night into saturday morning as well with further bands of showers going southwards, but the air is colder, so where we see the clear spells, it will turn quite chilly as temperatures fall fairly close to freezing in the glens of scotland. it is because we have this cold air mass coming down on that north—westerly breeze. but again, we have high pressure to the west and that will tend to start to see the showers easing away to the second half of the weekend, but we're going to keep a close eye on this area of low pressure, as always it's going to include the risk of showers or even into next

week some longer spells of rain, but for saturday, bands will make their way southwards on the north—westerly airstream, probably more showers in northern and western areas, but they could at times fall further east and again, temperatures as on friday, well down, except in shelter. 13 or 1a if you shelter from that northerly breeze. and that wind is still with us on sunday, but probably lighter, the high pressure starting to build in from the west, probably fewershowers, but again, always going to be more of a chance near the low pressure in the north sea, so closer to the eastern parts of england and wales. so, into next week, some uncertainty on where that area of low pressure is going to go. as ever, we will keep you updated.

this is bbc news — i'm lewis vaughan jones with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world: back to work — donald trump's doctor says he's completed his course of treatment and could return to public engagements from saturday. the debate over the debate. it won't be virtual, but will the next us presidential match—up still go ahead? in michigan, the fbi arrests six men in an alleged plot to kidnap the state's governor, gretchen whitmer. when i put my hand on the bible and took the oath of office 22 months ago, i knew this job would be hard. but i'll be honest, i never could have imagined anything like this. a record rise — 338,000 people have been infected