this is bbc news with victoria derbyshire with the latest headlines from the uk and around the world. scientists say the number of people with coronavirus antibodies has dropped by a quarter in three months — raising the risk of being infected again. more than 50 conservative mps representing the north of england write to the prime minister, calling for a "clear road map" out of tough restrictions. we are in people to get a peerage fiddle the, businesses to close, people to live on two thirds of the normal wagers —— we are asking people to give up huge civil. i do not think the other side of that coin should be to have a clear way out. if you live in the north of england — what does

"levelling up" mean to you? let me know at victoria@bbc.co.uk or message me on twitter and instagram. a week before the us presidential elections, donald trump succeeds in appointing amy coney barrett to the supreme court. seven people are killed in a bomb attack on a religious school in the pakistani city of peshawar. new concerns about the way family court hearings in england have been taking place since march. parents say dialling in by phone means they cannot follow what is going on. # she's got it. # yeah, baby she's got it...# mall from bananarama, mall from ba na narama, who mall from bananarama, who are back and he formed their own band bubble when lockdown began. —— you are back, and you formed. immunity to the coronavirus

could only last a few months, according to new research. antibodies are a key part of our immune defences and stop the virus from getting inside the body's cells. the imperial college london team found the number of people testing positive for antibodies has fallen by 26% betweenjune and september. in the first round of testing, at the end ofjune and the beginning ofjuly, about 60 in 1,000 people had detectable antibodies — that's according to results for the 350,000 people in england who took tests as part of the react—2 study. but in the latest set of tests, in september, only 44 per 1,000 people were positive. professor helen ward is one of the researchers from the school of public health at imperial college london. the study is one when we write to a random sample of people in england aged 18 and over and ask if they are willing to do an antibody test, and if they agree, which is about one in three, they sign up and we send them a test

and they do a finger prick test on themselves, read the result and upload that and let us know what the result is, so we are enormously grateful to those hundreds of thousands of people who have helped with this research. so what is the significance in the drop of the number of people testing positive for antibodies? there is a couple of points that we've found. we know antibodies tend to slowly wane over time after somebody has had an infection, but we are not exactly sure at what point that leaves them vulnerable to reinfection, if that is the problem, so that is one issue. this suggests that in this particular infection it is relatively quick. the second thing is that we have learnt a lot about who was exposed to the virus in the first round and we know it is quite even across the country, a lot more in london than elsewhere, but we know it particularly

affected people of black and minority ethnic groups, younger rather than older people had a higher prevalence of these antibodies in their blood and also people in more deprived areas and living in larger households, so we have learnt a lot from this study about who gets the virus, whether they have severe symptoms or not, and this finding now that the antibodies start to drop over time. 0ur health correspondent, michelle roberts, is here. if antibodies start to drop, what does that mean for those who have had covid? after you have been infected with coronavirus your body naturally starts to fight off the infection, you see this writing antibodies and you can test for it to know if somebody is responding in that way. —— you see this right in antibodies. we do not know is if the levels go down again whether somebody is vulnerable to catching

it again. so far we have had very few cases of people getting covid a second time, but it has happened so it isa second time, but it has happened so it is a possibility. coronavirus is similar in structure to the common cold, which we know we can all that time and time again, so that is a concern, that this is a more severe virus, that we could all be exposed to eight and catch a time and time again, with severe consequences. the findings today do not necessarily mean the help of a vaccine is scuppered, vaccines can give you an even stronger immune response so scuppered, vaccines can give you an even stronger immune response so the hope is that a vaccine will still give good protection, it might be that you need a jab everyday, appetite with the flu, and they are only testing for antibodies in the study. —— a bit like with the flu. -- it study. —— a bit like with the flu. —— it might be that you need a jab

every year. the immune system does not just have every year. the immune system does notjust have antibodies, it also has t cells, so if you test for more think you might find there is more immunity we have not fully appreciated. this study is not necessarily saying that we're all vulnerable but it is something we need to think about. thank you much, michelle. more than 50 conservative mps have written a letter to boris johnson, demanding a "clear road—map" out of the tough coronavirus restrictions in the north of england. the newly—formed northern research group says "restrictions are affecting people across the north far greater than they are in the south". the letter comes as warrington in cheshire joins other areas in the north in the highest tier 3 category of restrictions. the tier 3 or ‘very high‘ alert level restrictions means no mixing of households indoors or outdoors. pubs and bars will close unless they provide what's called ‘a substantial meal‘. this report from helen catt.

the north of england has been particularly hard hit by coronavirus — warrington, the latest northern city to be put into the highest tier of restrictions. nottingham will follow later this week. more than 50 conservative mps have now written to the prime minister calling for a clear road map for how to get out again. in their letter, they warn that coronavirus threatens to continue to increase the disparity between north and south. they say that their constituents have been some of the worst—affected by covid, with many losing jobs and businesses. and they ask borisjohnson to reflect carefully on the conservatives‘ promise to people living in the north during the last election, with the levelling up agenda and to make the region central to the country‘s economic recovery. they suggest one way of doing that would be to prioritise and speed up big projects like a major rail upgrade to connect northern cities. many of the mps who signed the letter represent constituencies that were traditionally held by labour until last year‘s election. a downing street spokesman said the government had stood then on a solemn promise that it would improve people‘s lives and that, although the pandemic had

meant 2020 was not the year we all hoped it would be, the government‘s ambitions for the country were unchanged. one of the mps who signed the letter said it wasn‘t about giving the government a tough time, but a row with leaders in greater manchester over restrictions did put government strategy for the north of england back in the spotlight. this letter is likely to put more scrutiny on how it plans to deliver on those ambitions in such changed circumstances. helen catt, bbc news. i have been asking you if you live in the north of england is what levelling up means. richards rhodes has said political devolution as a way forward in cumbria. the county‘s interests are regularly ignored and there is a desperate need for an elected mayor to shout the interests of the county at westminster. the tory mps‘ support for the northern research group is a good start. cynical steven bouncy says one way

of levelling up with the team starts building hs2 from the north to the south, the surge in employment says it would be a much bigger benefit. 0ur political correspondent nick ea rdley 0ur political correspondent nick eardley is at westminster. potentially some concern that the north will net out, and that would be bad from all the seats are turned from labour to conservative in last december‘s election? from labour to conservative in last december's election? the conservatives basically demolish the so—called redwall in december, winning a bunch of seats they had not won for regeneration, but in the last few weeks we have seen a lot of questions about the government‘s approach to the north of england. this is not the same as andy burnham saying the government does not care about northern cities but it is tory mps reflecting those concerns, cross party lines, they are worried that covid won the extra restrictions on the north of england to have a detrimental impact on idea of trying

to bring the northern economy to something similar to the south of england. 0ne something similar to the south of england. one of the main thing is they are worried about is they frankly do not know how some of the big northern cities will get out of the top tier of restrictions, how they will start reopening purpose, get restaurants busy again. listen to one of the signatories, for the ministerjake berry. to one of the signatories, for the ministerjake berrylj to one of the signatories, for the ministerjake berry. i am asking on a personal level, not on behalf of the energy, to provide it in a easy and digestible way. i understand there is a blend of indicators used by the does not, share that data. we are asking people to give up huge civil, businesses to close, people to live on two thirds of the normal wage, i do not think it is unreasonable to side of the coin should be to show us the way out. —— to say that the other side of the coin should be. i think the government is under a lot of pressure to explain what is going

on, we‘re having conversations about about places that were legit going up about places that were legit going up the tiers because they are seeing an increase in infections, many people want to know how to move back down a tier to get back to something closer to normal in the next three weeks and months. listen to business minister nadhim zahawi trying to explain government approach. every area entering tier3, explain government approach. every area entering tier 3, the highest tier level, there is a provision within that is safe after 28 days it will be reviewed to see where we have got to, if we work together both nationally and locally and do the right thing, follow the rules in that tier, make sure we work with local leaders, they are the best place people to deliver that message and additional help, then i think we can get through that and come out the other end. of course, the

pandemic has meant many of the government‘s plans are on ice at the moment, but boris johnson government‘s plans are on ice at the moment, but borisjohnson has made speeches during the pandemic about how he still wants to keep going with the government plans to rebuild infrastructure and get the northern economy moving again. i suppose the dangerfor the economy moving again. i suppose the danger for the government is all that criticism from local labour leaders in the north of england plus tory mps with concerns that this is all affecting the agenda of levelling up could undermine some of that argument, so it will be really important for ministers to think carefully about how they will address this. nick eardley, reported from westminster, thank you. nottingham and parts of the surrounding county is another area heading towards tier 3 restrictions. earlier i spoke to our correspondent geeta pendse, from the city centre. this was widely anticipated comedy announcements about individual tier 3 for nothing and, it was an entity

yesterday and shall take effect from thursday, it will also be full support of nottinghamshire —— this was widely anticipated announcement about moving into tier 3 for nothing. there are questions about why it took so long to place these areas into tier 3, because nottingham had the highest level of interaction in england for nine consecutive days. that rate has fallen and it is now the 24th highest in england but despite that job they are concerned, officials here, about writing infection in older age groups, especially the over 65s, and they‘ll worried about pressures on the nhs, with a significant rise in hospital admissions which they say is why they are taking action now and these restrictions will come into place from thursday. just like another pa rt from thursday. just like another part of england where we ask in tier 3 restrictions, it will mean hotels cannot mix indoors or outdoors that

hospitality venues or in private venues, it means there is a rule of fixing outdoor spaces so people can beat as long as i have social distancing, it also means pubs and bars that you not serve meals will have to close in tier 3 areas, which will be a huge impact for a place like nottingham, often seen as really thriving for nightlife in particular, but one of the things everybody is looking for now is details around a support package. five councils have been involved in negotiation with the government and say they had secured a package similarto say they had secured a package similar to other parts of england in tier 3, but the city council leader says he does not believe it is enough. we are awaiting specific details to emerge later today. 0ur reporter mairead smyth is in warrington where a further 200,000 people were placed into tier 3 overnight, and explains how the council has responded to this. the council leader russ bowden responded when they knew warrington was headed to this tier 3 level.

he said it was necessary and appropriate and that‘s because there is a rising number, rising infection rate, here in warrington. i think it‘s around 399 people per 100,000 of the population. slightly less than neighbouring areas of liverpool city region and greater manchester just up the road but high nonetheless. the main concern is in the working population over the age of 60 where they‘re seeing a growing number of cases and really, across the whole population here as well, so it is something that has been welcomed, there is a package of support here, just under £6 million, that will be split for public health needs and to support businesses but of course those tier 3 rules come into effect here, it reduces the interaction you can have with people. you can‘t meet anyone outside your support bubble or family indoors, and restrictions on how you can meet outdoors, of course, sticking to that number of six.

the world health organization has called for europe to "seriously accelerate" its fight against coronavirus. a string of countries have reported record increases in cases, led by france, which registered more than 50,000 daily infections for the first time. tough restrictions have been reintroduced in some countries and that‘s led to anger. mark lobel reports. an initially peaceful protest at anti—coronavirus measures in italy again spills over into violence. here in turin, the closure of dining in restaurants at 6pm is too much to stomach for those complaining the economic repercussions are simply indigestible. but according to the world health organization, even europe‘s most recent measures may not quell the virus enough. sometimes in a race, you can use certain tactics at a certain time. right now, we are well behind this virus in europe, so getting ahead of it is going to take some serious

acceleration in what we do. for the czech government, with 7300 new cases just recorded, that means implementing a night—time curfew from wednesday for at least a week. and incredibly, in the belgian city of liege, doctors there have been asked to keep working even if they have coronavirus to prevent the health system collapsing. there are similarfears in spain with around 17,000 new covid cases reported a day. according to the emergency health chief, if cases continue to rise over the next two weeks, it is possible by the middle or third week of november that intensive care units may be close to collapse and certainly in a critical condition. and now in norway, new measures are being introduced after 1200

cases were reported last week. limits are being introduced to keep private gatherings and business meetings to under 50 people and a new ten day quarantine role for foreign workers entering from some of the worst hit countries, including france where hospitals registered over 1300 new coronavirus patients on monday in the highest one—day increase since april. in this hospital in newcastle in the uk, a sobering reminder from one covid patient why european governments feel the need to act. i remember getting up at about three o‘clock in the morning to use the bathroom. the next thing i remember, i was on my hands and knees, on all fours on the landing, gasping for breath. i didn‘t think i was going to come out of it. i was very frightened.

deaths from covid—19 have risen by 60% in a week — bringing the number to 8% of the amount per day during the virus peak earlier this year. that‘s according to the latest figures from the office for national statistics. four head of statistics robert cuffe is here. it is for england and wales orjust is here. it is for england and wales or just england? is here. it is for england and wales orjust england? the whole uk. and there has been a big right? across there has been a big right? across the whole uk the figures have been roughly doubling every fortnight. we had seen as september and october, this week it is up by about 60%, from just under 500 to 761, a 60% rise, a bit sharper but the statistician will always be a bit square and say one swallow does not

make a summer, you get help to transport the general direction of travel is clear and expectations for the number of deaths are set by what has happened in preceding weeks, they have been telling up, we should probably expect the number of covid jets to rise over the coming weeks. and what you these numbers due to the overall number of people who had died from covid? we seem to be tracking a bit above what we would expect at this time of year, you can see the total number of deaths every week, the red strip other covid jets, you had to put your head up against a swing to see them on the right—hand side because the number i gave you was 760 odd out of a total of almost 12,000 deaths in a single week, they are not driving all of the deaths, and compared to the five year average, the lining dashes across the middle, we are running above that. nowhere near in april

march when we were running at double the expected level that we are steadily moving above the level. as we move into winter we would expect to see the total number of deaths in the uk go up by about 200 every week, but they have gone a pile almost 600 every week, so we are starting to see more and more deaths, even if we have not quite burst to that level, more than we would expect at this time of year. and we have data on people testing positive? roughly one quarter of people, sorry, a surge of people, have symptoms at around the time they test positive and we are hearing about young adults are driving infections. this comes from the office for national liberal infection thursday when they go out and swab people at random, when they

ask those people if they experience symptoms, only about a surge of them say they have experienced any of the loss of taste or smell, a fever or a continuous path around the time they test positive, and it is a reminder of the very high proportion, about two thirds, of people who do not have symptoms but have the virus. it is the 17 to 2a—year—olds showing the highest number of people testing positive, and because the survey goes to homes and hassles it misses what is going on in halls of residence, so we know this high number of young people testing positive is not just number of young people testing positive is notjust all the freshers‘ week rights we were reporting on in early october, there isa reporting on in early october, there is a pattern of younger people more likely to test positive, but the numbers have been rising and pretty much every age group over the last couple of weeks. provide thank you very much, robert. the newest member of the us supreme court, justice amy coney barrett,

has been sworn into office in a ceremony at the white house. she is president trump‘s third appointment to the nation‘s top court, cementing a conservative majority on the bench. the republican—majority senate voted largely along party lines, as expected, to confirm her to the lifetime post. 0ur north america correspondent david willis reports. question occurs on the nomination of amy coney barrett. the vote was along party lines in a deeply divided senate. the ayes are 52. the nays are 48. the nomination of amy coney barrett of indiana to be an associate justice of the supreme court of the united states is confirmed. confirming that conservative christian amy coney barrett to a lifetime appointment on the highest court in the land. the process then moved swiftly to a prime—time event at the white house. described by president trump as a "towering intellect", amy coney barrett was sworn in by the longest—serving supreme courtjustice, clarence thomas.

and i will well and faithfully discharge. herfirstjob could be to decide the outcome of the presidential election, should the matter end up in the supreme court. and, with the president alongside her, the former appeals courtjudge pledged her independence from the political process. the oath that i have solemnly taken tonight means, at its core, that i will do myjob without any fear or favour, and that i will do so independently of both the political branches and of my own preferences. ruth bader ginsburg. but in taking the place of the liberaljustice ruth bader ginsburg, who died last month, she will change the political complexion of the nine—member court — possibly for decades to come. amy coney barrett refused to be drawn on issues such as abortion, climate change, and gun control during her confirmation hearing,

but few doubt her appointment could herald a new era of rulings on some of the key issues of american life. with just a week to go before election day, both candidates have been targeting swing seats like pennsylvania. eight days from now we will win the commonwealth of pennsylvania and four more years in the great white house. and despite trailing joe biden in the polls, donald trump says he expects to expand on his victory the last time around. his democratic rival continues to sell the president over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. the bottom line is donald trump is the worst possible president, the worst possible person, to try to lead us through this pandemic. but the confirmation ofa this pandemic. but the confirmation of a christian conservative to the

us supreme court is undoubtedly a huge victory for donald trump. and regardless of its impact on the election, experts agree it could change the shape of american life long after he has left office. david willis, bbc news, los angeles. with just one week to go until the us presidential election, both donald trump and joe biden will be hoping to win over voters in key swing states, including in michigan and wisconsin, two places president trump will be visiting today. with me is seth weathers, who worked on the trump election campaign in 2016. thank you very much for talking to us. thank you very much for talking to us. i want to ask users double what you read into the fact that 16 million americans have already taken advantage of early voting? —— i want to ask you first of all. we have a higher early vote turnout, these are people that would typically vote regardless but have just chosen a

different time to vote this election cycle. does it benefit either candidate? early voting typically benefits the democrat candidate but we‘re expecting a high republican turnout on election day, that were evenit turnout on election day, that were even it out. you think people should ignore the polls? they were wrong four years ago. i would ignore the polls and vote your conscience, regardless of what the polls say you should cast your ballot and i think we will see something very similar to 2016 this time around again, and honestly this may be the death of the polling industry in the us after this election cycle. that is interesting. how important is this final week for both candidates, particularly the swing states donald trump is visiting ? particularly the swing states donald trump is visiting? it is important to ensure election day turnout, make sure every person from each respective party‘s base casts that

balance, i think the president is making an extremely aggressive run across the country, he hit three locations in pennsylvania yesterday alone, joe biden isjust not giving it, it is bizarre, a week away and a presidential election i have never seen a presidential election i have never seen a candidate that literally does not have a stop during an entire day, it is incredible. this is the covid election, i wonder if you think the faithful supporters of donald trump from four years ago are still with him? i do. ithink donald trump from four years ago are still with him? i do. i think the coalition has grown, in many ways, said 2016, i think the president will have a much higher percent of the black american votes, close to 1596 the black american votes, close to 15% this cycle, i think it has grown in multiple areas. why do you think thatis, in multiple areas. why do you think that is, when coronavirus has dominated and i have been so many deaths in the state in the last few months? americans are not a one

issue polarised voter, they are looking at the economy, how things we re looking at the economy, how things were before covid, the president was given a job. when it comes to the black vote, you criminaljustice reform he enacted which democrats have talked about for decades with nothing on the president got a turn in his first term. i think something 15 millionjobs have been lost in his first term. i think something 15 million jobs have been lost since the pandemic began, that is a lot of people. absolutely, but president trump did not release coronavirus on american citizens and i think people are smart enough to realise this is are smart enough to realise this is a worldwide pandemic, not exclusive to the us, i think people will understand it was not on the president and i do not think... will he win again? i believe so, yes. thank you for talking to us, seth weathers, who worked on the trump

campaign in 2016. seven people have been killed in a bomb attack on a religious school in the northern pakistani city of peshawar. the cleric was delivering a lesson on life after death when the explosion happened. footage of the aftermath of the explosion shows extensive damage inside the mosque close to the school. more than 80 people are reported to be injured, some of them critically. police say they believe the bomb was hidden in a bag. 0ur pakistan correspondent, secunder kermani, has more detail. well, this blast took place at around 8:30 in the morning local time in the main prayer hall of the mosque where classes for students of this religious school were taking place. and, according to some of the survivors, there were hundreds of students there at the time. now, hospital officials have children is in the last few moments that the death toll has now risen to eight people who have lost their lives in this blast, but they say that all those people who were killed were aged between 20 and 30, taking back earlier claims that some children were also

amongst the dead. now, as you say, police officials believe that this bomb had been planted in a bag and had been left inside the mosque. it is not quite clear yet what the target was, what the motive behind this attack was. in recent years the number of attacks in pakistan‘s major cities by militants has really decreased significantly. prime minister imran khan has condemned this attack, expressed his condolences, his sympathy with the victims and said that he will... an investigation will hold those responsible, will bring those responsible to justice. here in the uk, parents involved in family court hearings say they‘re struggling to follow proceedings, because they have to participate by phone, that‘s according to a new survey. these hearings can determine the future of their children, whether they are taken into care and which parent they will live with. our correspondent, sanchia berg has

been looking at this story for us. it's it‘s such a sensitive issue what goes on in family courts, isn‘t it? really sensitive and incredibly hard at the best times to know what‘s going on. currently, with a lot of hearings taking place, some people in the court, some dialling in, it‘s even more difficult to find out what‘s going on. the survey is really important. it‘s done by the nuffield family 0bservatory, involving professionals, they also spoke to 132 families caught up in these cases. the families painted a different picture. i spoke to one woman, we are calling her elizabeth, she said she had to phone in for a hearing, to decide what happened with her two boys, she couldn‘t hear the barrister at all. i put that to sir andrew mcfarland, the most seniorjudge in the family courts.

i am very concerned about that, and you can picture the scene that the lady you described will have experienced. it is a problem shared by the judges, the court staff and the lawyers who will has been representing that lady to support her, both before, during and after the hearing. and to join these hearings down the phone is particularly difficult, particularly if the parent is on their own in their home, and this report provides a renewed wake—up call for courts to be particularly keen to ensure that parents understand and feel connected and engaged. a major part of being a familyjudge is to empathise with the human beings at the centre of the case and it is very difficult to do that across even a video link, but very hard telephone link. and we are trying our hardest to achieve that,

but we can always do better. in terms of those officials who work for the children and family court advisory service, their workload they have seen go up considerably, haven‘t they? they have seen go up considerably, haven't they? that's right. we've seen haven't they? that's right. we've seen what they call a record number of cases in september, nearly 6000 cases, the majority of those are private cases like those of elizabeth who i spoke to, you‘ve got a parentarguing. it‘s elizabeth who i spoke to, you‘ve got a parent arguing. it‘s a really striking rise and i asked sir andrew why he thought that was and he thought it could be partly because of the backlog in the courts but really worryingly he said he thought it was down to an increase in domestic abuse and more of those cases are now coming into the court. thank you very much.

doctors in north west syria have told the bbc that they are expecting a ‘covid catastrophe‘. the number of positive cases across aleppo and idlib were said to have risen tenfold last month — putting a strain on the already fragile health system. the bbc‘s darren conway was granted rare access inside idlib and sent this report. hopefully... the road to idlib has been a journey of misery for so many. this is one of the last remaining parts of syria that hasn‘t been retaken by the regime. millions of civilians have funnelled into this little corner of north—west syria in an attempt to escape the fighting. but the people that live here are about to face yet another battle — covid—19. dr kaddour is head of the two largest hospitals in idlib. he‘s one of only 600 doctors for a population ofjust over 4 million people.

very few covid tests are being done. while we were here, an average of 400 were carried out a day. up to 40% of those tested positive. aeroplanes, rockets, corona, angry, poor, security, it‘s the same. all of them, all of these terms mean for us death. life is already tough enough here. it‘s a daily fight for survival. a free food hand—out quickly turns into a mob. but there are no masks to be seen. at times like this, prayer is about the only support the people here can rely on. but at this mosque, there is no social distancing. and if you thought that it was tough living in idlib city, just take a look at the refugee camps —

up to 1.5 million people living in filthy, ground conditions. —— cramped conditions. this is atma camp. it‘s one of the largest. people live on top of each other, sharing everything from tents to bathrooms, food and water. this seems like the perfect breeding ground for the virus, yet the official statistics show that only a handful of people have tested positive here. one of the reasons for this is that only people who are showing symptoms and are willing to come forward are being tested. but there‘s a stigma that comes along with being a covid carrier here. little zane has the virus. he caught it from his father. translation: people have treated me as if i‘m disgraced. if they see me in the streets, they walk away from me. a couple of days ago, i went to get some groceries from the store and people moved away from me as if i am the virus, as if i will kill them.

so, unlike zane and his father, most people would prefer to suffer through the illness in silence which, in camps like this, means that they are super spreaders. would you say that the virus is out of control in the camps? it's out of control, yes, absolutely. this winter will be very bad, very dark, very hard. we do not have many places for people in the camp, we do not have many medi kits for these, we do not have many fuel to make children and babies and women more warm in the camp. we do not have food enough for them. no one really knows just how bad the outbreak is in the camps. this is a population who have already endured the worst of humanity. it‘s hard to imagine, but if the outbreak in the camps is as bad as predicted, life here

is about to become even harder. whitbread — which owns premier inn and beefeater — has posted a loss of £724 million for the first six months of the year. the firm did say it was seeing occupancy rates rise slightly but only last month warned that 6000 jobs or 18 per cent of its workforce could be let go. our business presenter ramzan karmali is with me good morning. good morning. pretty dire set of results but they are not the only ones suffering, revolution bars announcing it will close six bars announcing it will close six bars completely, managing to reduce the rent on seven others. occupancy rates slightly higher in september, 58%, way off what they would have in their hotels. i looked at the last ten years, the lowest they‘ve ever had 75%, way off what they ought to

be but it‘s a sign the hospitality sector is really suffering. joining me now is emma—lou montgomery from fidelity international what do you make of these results? £724 million sounds like a huge loss in six months, considering they made over £200 million in the same period last year, it‘s pretty dire, isn‘t it? totally, absolutely horrible year for this company and the entire sector. things started to look like in the summerthey sector. things started to look like in the summer they were picking up and the chief executive saying we had occupants in the hotels, business picking up in the re sta u ra nt business picking up in the restaurant sector part of the business but since then we've had an uptick in infection rates and all these sort of local lockdown s and closures impacting on the business ata time closures impacting on the business at a time it needs to be upping its game and seeing more customers coming in during the crucial run—up to christmas and new year. it's not having any signs of showing that

will happen any time soon. they have over 800 hotels in the uk, one of the big players in this sector. for the big players in this sector. for the others, smaller run trains, they must be, they must be suffering even more? whitbread is showing that classic case of what you don't have all your eggs in one basket, it divested things like costa coffee to coca—cola, said it was focusing primarily on its hotel business. of course, it could not have foreseen what 2020 would bring but it has been absolutely dire and proving really, whatever size of company you are looking at, at the moment premier in, basically located in city centres, relying on terrorists on weekend breaks and city travellers and business travellers and they aren't there at the moment. it's and they aren't there at the moment. it‘s interesting they are going ahead with plans to open 15 new hotels in germany, what do they seek there but they do not see in the uk? good question. looking ahead, we are

all hopeful one day this pandemic will be over so they want to make sure, they have more hotels now than at the beginning of the crisis in germany which is good. it means they are perfectly placed, things will, fingers crossed, pick up sooner rather than later and when they do i think whitbread will want to make sure they had the hotel locations there so when travellers start coming back they pick them. emma lou, thank you for your time. that is the business for you. thank you. baroness doreen lawrence has set out 20 recommendations for the government to protect those most at risk from coronavirus and tackle inequality in the longer term, in a new report which was comissioned by labour leader sir keir starmer in april. the report, said bame workers were more likely than white people to work in "frontline" jobs and come into contact with coronavirus. amongst her recommendations is: an urgent plan urges the government to implement a national strategy to tackle health inequalities. to suspend the "no recourse to public funds" rule

during the pandemic, and review its impact on public health and health inequalities. and to ensure covid—19 cases from the workplace are properly recorded by confirming that employers must report occupational infections of covid—19 in line with health and safety law. she spoke to our correspondent greg mckenzie earlier about why it is important to hear from voices from all backgrounds the report is aiming to achieve to hear how individual voices, to talk about their experiences of covid in their working environment as well as within the community. i think, for me, it was very important to make sure we had our voice within the report so that helps to sort of structure how we see how the recommendations should go. some of the findings you found, one nurse had said that she didn‘t want to go to work to die. i think for our injuries, we did interviews right across the country so we heard from teachers, the professions, people

within the community, unions, we had a broad perspective of people who informed our report and i think, for me, it was interesting to hear the voices which i think is so important because without the voices it cannot inform you where things are within the community. so that‘s one of the things i wanted to make sure. because, you know, we‘ve had so many different views and reports that‘s coming out, unless you hear the voices you don‘t really know what‘s happening up and down the country. china has released new figures today confirming that there have been 137 new coronavirus cases. this is the first local infection in china since the 14th of october. the cases are in kashgar in the north—western region of xinjiang and have all been linked to a garment factory. we can get more on this from dr alan mendoza from from the asia pacific program at the henry jackson society — a think tank that advocates the spread of liberal democracy.

hello. what do you think of these figures? i find them a little hard to believe, a country of over a billion people has such a small total. as you noted, nothing since october at the 14th. we know full well that china falsifies figures on all sorts of things, gdp, other matters as well. i suspect there is something similar going on here. matters as well. i suspect there is something similar going on harem makes you wonder why they put out any infection rates at all? that's down to domestic propaganda, what the chinese government very much wa nts to the chinese government very much wants to do is show the chinese people it is essentially looking after the rest of the world, basically. or leading the world in terms of its approach to coronavirus, that‘s what‘s happening. 0k. what do you think we have learned about china from the way they have handled this pandemic, if anything? well, the first thing is to note this is the way authoritarian countries handle pandemics. they lie at the beginning, they suppress information, keep the truth from

coming out and that is of course, what causes the pandemic to spread from a local outbreak to a national outbreak in china and then an international ad break and then the pandemic we have today. second time, you have to give them credit in terms of the way they have locked down, we‘ve visibly seen lockdown s in cities in a very draconian way, you will stay on for this amount of time, this is what will happen, we will attempt to drive it out of the cities in that way. but at the same time there is this niggling doubt going on the whole time that an authoritarian country can hide the reality of what is happening, is it really the case all of the country there is no coronavirus? that seems very unusual, given the spread of people from wuhan back injanuary, where it is likely to have gone since then. you‘ve got the good, the bad, the ugly all rolled into one. would you acknowledge they seem to have a very efficient and effective track and trace system? again this

is what comes from an authoritarian state, the centre controls what‘s happening, certainly in the cities. i think it‘s interesting these outbreaks look like they are coming from more rural areas right now, that may be a weakness in the chinese approach but yes, in the cities, an authoritarian state with mass surveillance, with the ability to snoop on whatever you‘re doing, of course has the ability to track and trace in a very effective manner. thank you very much for talking to us. earlier this year we covered the story of single dad samuel and his two sons. they spent lockdown in their small one bedroomed flat in bristol with nowhere to play outside. two bbc breakfast viewers were so moved by samuel‘s story, they offered the family a free stay at their holiday park in devon.

it's it‘s like rabbits in a hatch. when we first met samuel. when we go in the lifts, what do we do? it was six months ago the country was in full lockdown. if you could pan around and see the walls. they‘ve turned into graffiti artists! some good, some bad. samuel and into graffiti artists! some good, some bad. samueland his into graffiti artists! some good, some bad. samuel and his two boys, aged six and three, share this one bedroom flat on the 15th floor.|j tell you some of the things in the blocks. neighbours having a go at each other, when they are close together. we‘ve had arguments. heated arguments, heated arguments in the laundry! our big bust up in there the other day. all due to lockdown, people being together so much. with nearby parks closed and the lifts often broken, this family would spend 23 hours in here. but

after months of being inside, today, they are out. holiday! come on. 100 miles away to north devon. at last. bbc breakfast viewers wanted to give samuel and the boys a break so they offered them their home in devon. we saw the piece you did on samuel about him living on the 15th floor ofa about him living on the 15th floor of a block of flats and trying to get the children not to touch the inside of the lifts in case they picked up the virus. and it was that that really made us think. thinking back to when you work. i lived in east london in a block of flats and i thought if we could get them down here to north devon, they've got the best beaches, we have the countryside, lots of places so you can't run round here, there's room. for the next week, it will be all there is to explore. it's lovely!

the boys are enjoying themselves. i know we‘ve only been here an hour or so know we‘ve only been here an hour or so that they are really enjoying themselves! i can‘t find the words. it's themselves! i can‘t find the words. it‘s overwhelming. just to see them doing what they are doing. 12 steps from one side of the room to the other. and probably eight or ten with wise but here, they can just run wild! it‘s beautiful. look at them! loving it. as we head towards a winterfull of them! loving it. as we head towards a winter full of unknown s for this family, this space and this freedom feels all the more precious. they were childhood friends and the ultimate 80s girl group, but since lockdown sarah dallin and keren woodward have formed their very own "bananarama bubble." instead of the planned tour, the pop superstars behind hits like "venus"

and "really saying something" used the time to write their autobiography. they‘ve taken our entertainment correspondent colin paterson back to one of their old stomping grounds. ta—dah! here we are. it‘s been a while. bananarama. oh, it‘s still got the squeaky floor. back at london‘s pineapple dance studios. all the classics were rehearsed here. i heard a rumour, love in the first degree... did we do venus here? i think we may. i forgot. i've got a bad arm. # i am your venus # i‘m yourfire, your desire...# this trip down memory lane is because bananarama used lockdown to write their autobiography. you have actually been bubbling during lockdown? we‘ve been bubbling since lockdown, yeah. how has it been for you? great! great, actually, yeah. really good. yeah, i mean, it made sense because of the book and the fact we‘re best mates anyway. so while everyone else was doing

box sets and jigsaws, bananarama were writing away? feverishly writing away. yes, absolutely. # it ain‘t what you do, it‘s the way that you do it # it ain‘t what you do it‘s the way that you do it # and that‘s what gets results.# it was 1981 when bananarama first shuffled onto top of the pops. keren and sarah have been the two constants in the band ever since. writing the book has allowed them to think about their contribution to pop history. there were moments where i got quite emotional. like, i think writing the book for me brought a real sense of achievement. that maybe i wasn't as proud of myself as i should have been. # he was really saying something...# there were so few girl groups around at the time, that i think that‘s probably why we sort of stuck out as something different. yeah, we worked hard and i think we deserve our place in pop history. you don't want to go

on and on about how hard it is for women, but it is harder for women. it's harder to get respect. looking back you realise what a battle it actually was. # it‘s a cruel, cruel summer # leaving me here on my own # it‘s a cruel...# new york‘s metropolitan museum of art is marking its 150th anniversary. as part of the celebrations it‘s putting on an exhibition about the changing nature of fashion. ‘about time: fashion and duration‘ explores the idea that design can be both linear and cyclical. the bbc‘s tim allman explains. in the world of fashion, everything is new and everything stays the same. look at these dresses. some of them are more than 100 years old. some are much more recent.

this giant pendulum represents the passage of time and the evolution of design. instead of staging a masterworks show, we wanted to, in a way, i suppose have a show that is a meditation of temporality and fashion, in a way. archive: what could be smarter than this dress with diamante effect on collar and cuffs and a pleated skirt? artistically designed, it costs only £3, 17/6. fashion is and always has been a hugely important and lucrative business. it has fascinated men and women throughout the decades. almost all the dresses here are in black to emphasise the change in silhouette, paying tribute to the famous and not—so—famous. part of the show is also looking at designers, well—known designers like galliano and issey miyake, but less designers who have been sort of written out of history, fashion history

because they‘re not so well—known and they didn‘t maintain their business. who else do you invite to a show like this than anna wintour, editor in chief at vogue? the exhibition runs until early next year, showcasing the spectacular, the unusual and the timeless. tim allman, bbc news. thank you for your e—mails. chris has contacted us about the free school meals campaign being run by marcus rashford in the uk and he says the primary responsibility of any government is to provide for its people, it‘s unacceptable here in the uk we have children and families going hungry. this was the case even before covid—19. how can the government sanctioned spending over £13 billion annually on overseas aid with the situation here so dark for so with the situation here so dark for so many people? overseas aid is a worthy cause and is to be supported but not when we don‘t have our own

house in order. on levelling up across the north of england, one viewer says levelling up deprivation suffered in northern wolt tory areas. thank you. you‘re watching bbc news joanna is here in a moment. now it‘s time for a look at the weather with darren bett. the week started with sunshine and showers. through the week it will remain very unsettled, longer spells of rain. temperatures higher by the end of the week but throughout the week we are in for some quite strong winds. the windier weather around this area of low pressure that contains remnants of ex—hurricane epsilon. this weather front bringing with it cloud and rain, moving north and east, followed by sunshine and heavy, blustery showers, especially to northern ireland, wales, the south—west, perhaps some coming into the midlands later. the wind is quite blustery,

temperatures similar to yesterday, 11 or 12 degrees, may be cooler in the north of scotland, sunshine in the northern isles, temperatures are higher in the south of england, where we have blustery showers. the showers continue to run into the south and west overnight, the rain band moving northwards away from mainland scotland, dawdling in the northern isles. clear skies away from the showers, temperatures at five or 6 degrees, not too cold, still a keen wind overnight. the low pressure remains to the north—west of the uk, the wind travelling a long way, big waves piling up across the atlantic. we are going to find those big waves crashing on to some of the western coasts of the uk. with some showers which will continue around western areas, along the south coast, through the english channel, the driest of the weather in eastern england and north—eastern scotland. a gusty old wind, things cold for many parts of the country, especially in the south, temperatures no better than 12 degrees.

as we look further ahead, another weather system to come our way, racing from the atlantic on a strong jet stream and that means more cloud and rain on thursday. the wetter weather moving north and east steadily, drying off across southern parts of england during the afternoon. again, the far north of scotland seeing rain late in the day but over some western hills, western scotland, north—west england and wales, the rain quite heavy, we are drawing in milder air on south—westerly winds, mild overnight. get some sunshine in the south—east, temperatures 18 degrees, western hills are still wet.

this is bbc news, i‘m joanna gosling. the headlines at 11... scientists say the number of people with coronavirus antibodies has dropped by a quarter in three months — raising the risk of being infected again. more than 50 conservative mps representing the north of england write to the prime minister, calling for a "clear road map" out of tough restrictions. we are asking people to give up civil liberties, businesses to close, people to live on two thirds of the normal wages. i do not think the other side of that coin should be to have a clear way out. seven people are killed in a bomb attack on a religious school in the pakistani

city of peshawar. a week before the us presidential elections — donald trump succeeds in appointing amy coney barrett to the supreme court. it is the duty of a judge to resist policy preferences. and coming up this hour. we‘ll hear from ba narama about why they‘ve been in a band—bubble since lockdown. immunity to covid—19 may only last a few months, according to new research. antibodies are a key part of our immune defences and stop the virus from getting inside the body‘s cells. a team from imperial college london found the number of people testing

positive for antibodies fell by 26% betweenjune and september. in the first round of testing, at the end ofjune and the beginning ofjuly, about 60 in 1,000 people had detectable antibodies — that‘s based on results for 350,000 people in england who took tests as part of the react—2 study. but in the latest set of tests, in september, only 44 per 1,000 people were positive. professor helen ward is one of the researchers from the school of public health at imperial college london — she explained the significance of these findings. we know antibodies tend to slowly wane over time after somebody has had an infection, but we are not exactly sure at what point that leaves them vulnerable to reinfection, if that is the problem, so that is one issue. this suggests that in this particular infection it is relatively quick. the second thing is that we have learnt a lot about who was exposed

to the virus in the first round and we know it is quite uneven across the country, a lot more in london than elsewhere, but we know it particularly affected people of black and minority ethnic groups, younger rather than older people had a higher prevalence of these antibodies in their blood and also people in more deprived areas and living in larger households. so we have learnt a lot from this study about who gets the virus, whether they have severe symptoms or not, and this finding now that the antibodies start to drop over time. we are nowjoined by university of cambridge virologist, dr chris smith... always great at explaining what is going on. we are talking about antibodies but explain how the body responds to covid—19, it is also t

sales ? responds to covid—19, it is also t sales? when we get an infection or challenge to the body the immune system mounts a response, there are molecules shaped like a y. if you look at the y, where the fingers are, they are the sticky bits, specific, programmed to stick onto whatever it is your body is responding to. antibodies are made by cells, you make them and hold onto them for the rest of your life in some cases, immune memory. if you really encounter that threat you can go back to the cells that go back to the genetic message of how i made the genetic message of how i made the antibody, you give them some stimulus and they make enormous numbers of the antibodies to defend you again against the thing you have seen you again against the thing you have seenin you again against the thing you have seen in the past. that is how a vaccine works. alongside that, you

have the t cells. white blood cells. they inspect every cell in the body and they can see sales that have viruses growing —— cells cells that have the virus going. they are like missiles. you have a cell —based response that can kill off infected cells and antibodies that can mop up the virus itself, stick onto infected cells and destroy them. both parts are important for a good quality immune response. when we hear today about the fact that the antibodies, the number of people testing positive for antibodies fell quite considerably over a period of several months and it obviously raises the prospect of people getting infected twice, in reality we have heard of people getting infected twice but not very many. would you expect if it was all about the antibodies diminishing that we would see more people getting

infected twice? we have not to be fair been working very hard for people becoming infected more than once. there are a number of case reports now documenting this, they have been confirmed, people have courted more than once. the people who got it had their genetic information sequenced. when you line the two viruses up from the two occasions they do not match despite having antibody. this is not unsurprising because we know a number of viruses have various ways of slipping past our immune response and antibodies are not everything. the other thing to be cautious about is we do not make high levels of antibodies throughout life all the time. when you have had an infection, just after you do have very high levels of antibody. with time, the amount of antibody in the blood falls but it does not mean your memory of how to make the antibody has completely gone. it is not like starting from a blank slate

each time if you really encounter the infection. we would expect that with time the amount of antibody would fall. that is also important to bear in mind. with a vaccine, many people are questioning and said ifi many people are questioning and said if i cannot become long term immune and cannot make strong antibody response having caught the infection, what response will air vaccine have? it is more nuanced. viruses have various built—in strategy to sidestep our immune response. when we catch a virus, although we do make an immune response it is like dragging a boulder uphill. when you use a vaccine, vaccines are not held back by those sorts of things, give your immune system a kick up the backside and makea immune system a kick up the backside and make a high level of antibody. it is not a givenjust and make a high level of antibody. it is not a given just because we are seeing antibody levels declining that if we make a vaccine it is not going to work. can people be insured if they have had it based on what

you are saying on the way the body, evenif you are saying on the way the body, even if the antibodies don‘t register long term, the body has the memory of fighting it that they would likely have a similar reaction ain? would likely have a similar reaction again? that would be reassuring to anyone who had a very minor reaction to it but obviously if someone has had a serious reaction, equally that would be concerning the other way. it would be nice to think, thank goodness, i have had that, i am not going to get it again but u nfortu nately going to get it again but unfortunately it does not seem to work like this. i have had a look at case of people who got it again, in about half the cases people have a much more trivial illness the next time. on the other hand, the other half, people have had more severe illness the next time. published in the lancet medical journal illness the next time. published in the lancet medicaljournal is, a man in his 20s, the first time he had cut it, very mild flu—like symptoms. result of their own accord, no

medical advice, looks after himself. 14 days later, in front of a doctor with low levels of oxygen and in hospital, thankfully he has recovered now. that was definitely another dose of coronavirus the second time around, he was much worse. it is not a given that if you had it once and it was mild, the next time will be equally mild. equally it is not a given that if it was by the first time it will be by the next time. the virus is very confusing, the unknown, and we do not understand why. is it mutating orare not understand why. is it mutating or are people getting the same strain again? all viruses mutate, they make geodetic spelling mistakes when they copy themselves. —— genetic spelling mistake. the virus has various mechanisms built in that mean it keeps its genetic code very much intact and changing only very slowly. people are tracking this very carefully, for ten months they have been sequencing, reading the genetic code of the virus recovered from people who have got the virus

and it is only changing at the rate of around two genetic spelling m ista kes of around two genetic spelling mistakes every month. out of a 30,000 genetic g known it has only made around 30 or so changes so far. in virus terms that is a very slow rate of change so we do not think although there have been some changes to the way the virus behaves that they are translating into a way of sidestepping a vaccine or our own immunity much more thanjanuary. or it is beginning to become abruptly weaponised and it will become a whole different ball game. deaths from covid—19 have risen by 60% in a week — bringing the number to 8% of the amount per day during the virus peak earlier this year. that‘s according to the latest figures from the office for national statistics. they came out in the last hour and they do need some interpreting.

so i‘m joined by the bbc‘s head of statistics, robert cuffe who can explain the data. in the week to the 16th of october, a rise of 60% to the previous week. that is faster than previous weeks, it has been going up by about 40% per week. and little faster than we would expect considering hospitalisation is doubling every fortnight. i would hospitalisation is doubling every fortnight. iwould notjump hospitalisation is doubling every fortnight. i would notjump too hard on the 60% versus 40%, we will see ebbing and flowing, characteristic ofan ebbing and flowing, characteristic of an epidemic. but the broad trajectory is pretty clear, regular doubling in the number of deaths we see every week albeit at a lower level than march and april.m see every week albeit at a lower level than march and april. it has been said before, comparing what

happened then by now it is like comparing apples with oranges, nonetheless it is obviously tempting to do it every time the new statistics come out. is it possible to see how the impact of the virus is comparing now but then?” to see how the impact of the virus is comparing now but then? i think the office for national statistics figures are one of the best ways we have of doing this. all figures are a problem. they would give some cause for comfort. back in the peak weeks in april, may be nine and a half thousand deaths per week that involve covid compared to just under 750. you can see that clearly. the red area is the covid deaths. so much higher back in march, april and may than now. you can barely see them at the moment. also the rise was much faster, doubling every couple of days. compared to doubling

every couple of weeks nowadays. the pace of change is very different, the absolute level is very different as well. but i think the issue that will concern people like the professor, he said some of the deaths we see this week are baked in by what happened a couple of weeks ago, rise in infections, people going into hospital two orfour weeks ago we will see that coming through in figures, death figures, in the next couple of weeks. we will see a rise but the question will be will they rise faster than the average deaths in winter? we expect them to go up by 200 per week as we move into winter and it looks as if the covid deaths are starting to push us higher and faster. also data out on how many people have no symptoms when they test positive. more data from the office for

national statistics, they pick houses at random, they swab people in there. they are seeing a third of people around the time they test positive report no symptoms. two thirds of people are asymptomatic. it isa thirds of people are asymptomatic. it is a reminder of something we have seen a lot, lots of people who have seen a lot, lots of people who have the virus do not necessarily have the virus do not necessarily have symptoms. a reminder as well that for many people covid is a mild infection that does not leave to the terrible outcome of death we have been discussing. they have also seen as well, probably a familiar story, the age group with the most infections 17—24, young adults, because this is a household survey it is missing people say in student residences and reminds us of the rate of infection we have been seen in young people, it is notjust those people in those freshers‘ week, rapid increase that we saw in early october. the highest rate is in younger adults but we know from

elsewhere it has been rising in every age group. more than 50 conservative mps have written a letter to borisjohnson, demanding a "clear road—map" out of the tough coronavirus restrictions in the north of england. the newly—formed northern research group says "restrictions are affecting people across the north far greater than they are in the south". the letter comes as warrington in cheshire joins other areas in the north in the highest tier 3 category of restrictions. the tier 3 or ‘very high‘ alert level restrictions means no mixing of households indoors or outdoors. pubs and bars will close unless they provide what‘s called ‘a substantial meal‘. our political correspondent helen catt reports. let‘s talk to our political correspondent, nick eardley, at westminster. i think it adds pressure to the argument that the government is not fulfilling its promises that it made to the north of england during the general election campaign. remember many of the tory mps in parliament

just now won seats that the party had not won for a generation, took them from labour partly because of brexit, partly because of some of the big promises borisjohnson was making to level up. the last few weeks have been pretty bruising. we have seen northern labour mayors that the government does not care about the north, not providing economic support. these are overtly criticising the government but they are suggesting that the agenda could fall down the priority list, the levelling up, because of the virus. they are trying to get it back to the top of the agenda. they are worried about the restrictions we have seen in places like manchester and liverpool, the tier 3 restrictions, causing many pubs and restau ra nts, restrictions, causing many pubs and restaurants, have had a significant impact. —— closing many pubs in

russian. if there is no definite exit strategy it could lead to the north falling further behind. a former conservative mp.” north falling further behind. a former conservative mp. i am asking ona former conservative mp. i am asking on a personal level to provide that in an easily digestible way. i understand there is a blend of indicator is the government used, share that data with us, we are asking people to give up huge civil liberties, business is to close, people to live on two thirds of the normal wages. i do not think it is unreasonable to say the other side of the coin should be show us the way out. i think that is one of the areas the government is coming under increasing pressure over because people want to know if they are in tier 3, facing those pretty serious restrictions, how they can potentially get back down to tier 2

or even tier 1. more broadly the government is saying that it is still committed to that levelling up agenda. talked about during the general election, it does still have big ideas for infrastructure in the north of england. here is the business minister talking about how you managed to get out of restrictions once you go in. every area entering tier 3, the highest tier level, there is a provision within that to say after 28 days it will be reviewed to see where we have got to, if we work together both nationally and locally and do the right thing, follow the rules in that tier, make sure we work with local leaders, they are the best placed people to deliver that message and additional help, then i think we can get through that and come out the other end.

the mps who wrote this letter to the premise are adamant it is not supposed to be a challenge to the government, it is supposed to remind them of some of the priorities they talked about during the general election. i think it will cause some nerves in downing street for the simple reason the last few weeks have been tough for the government when it comes to its relationship with the north of england. and the fa ct with the north of england. and the fact that some of its own mps have concerns that that agenda is falling down the list of priorities. will mean that the government really has to get this back on the agenda and talk about it a bit more, i think. the headlines on bbc news... scientists say the number of people with coronavirus antibodies has dropped by a quarter in 3 months — raising the risk of being infected again. more than 50 conservative mps representing the north of england write to the prime minister, calling for a "clear roadmap" out of tough restrictions. a week before the us presidential elections —

donald trump succeeds in appointing amy coney barrett to the supreme court. nottingham — and parts of the surrounding county is another area heading towards tier 3 restrictions. our correspondent geeta pendse has the latest. nottingham and parts of the surrounding county is another area heading towards tier 3 restrictions. this was widely anticipated comedy announcements about individual tier 3 for nothing and, it was an entity yesterday and shall take effect from thursday, it will also be full support of nottinghamshire —— this was widely anticipated announcement about moving into tier 3. there are questions about why it took so long to place these areas into tier 3, because nottingham had the highest level of interaction in england

for nine consecutive days. that rate has fallen and it is now the 24th highest in england but despite that drop they are concerned, officials here, about rising infection in older age groups, especially the over 65s, and they‘re worried about pressures on the nhs, with a significant rise in hospital admissions which they say is why they are taking action now and these restrictions will come into place from thursday. just like another parts of england where we see tier 3 restrictions, it will mean households cannot mix indoors or outdoors at hospitality venues or in private venues, it means there is a rule of fixing outdoor spaces so people can beat as long as they have social distancing, it also means pubs and bars that do not serve meals will have to close in tier 3 areas, which will be a huge impact for a place like nottingham, often seen as really thriving for nightlife in particular. but one of the things everybody is looking for now is details

around a support package. five councils have been involved in negotiation with the government and say they had secured a package similar to other parts of england in tier 3, but the city council leader says he does not believe it is enough. we are awaiting specific details to emerge later today. warrington was placed into tier 3 restrictions overnight. our reporter mairead smyth has the latest. the council leader russ bowden responded when they knew warrington was headed to this tier 3 level. he said it was necessary and appropriate and that‘s because there is a rising number, a rising infection rate, here in warrington. i think it‘s around 399 people per 100,000 of the population. slightly less than neighbouring areas of liverpool city region and greater manchester just up the road but high nonetheless. the main concern is in the working population over the age of 60 where they‘re seeing a growing number of cases and really, across the whole population

here as well, so it is something that has been welcomed, there is a package of support here, just under £6 million, that will be split for public health needs and to support businesses but of course those tier 3 rules come into effect here, it reduces the interaction you can have with people. you can‘t meet anyone outside your support bubble or family indoors, and restrictions on who you can meet outdoors, of course, sticking to that number of six. covid—19 has "thrived" among black, asian and ethnic minority communities, because of race discrimination, according to a report. the review, comissioned by the labour party in april, was led by baroness doreen lawrence. it found that minority ethnic groups were over—exposed to the virus, stigmatised and faced barriers to health care. last week, a government adviser said that structural racism was not a reasonable explanation for rates of the virus differing between ethnic groups. the scottish parliament will vote

on nicola sturgeon‘s five—tier system of coronavirus restrictions this afternoon. last week the scottish first minister announced the new system, which comes in next monday. our scotland correpsondent lorna gordon explains what curbs apply to each tier. the lowest tier of the new restrictions would be closer to normal and allow for meetings indoors with a maximum of eight people from three households. in tier 1, the rule of six from two households kicks in indoors and outdoors. people living in tier 2 areas would be banned from socialising in each other‘s homes, public houses and reference could only serve drink outdoors with a main meal. restaurants may be able to stay open under strict conditions in tier 2. to stay open under strict conditions in tier2. in to stay open under strict conditions in tier 2. in the highest tier, nonessential shops are shut, travel severely limited and tourism would close down. schools would remain open. with just one week to go until the us presidential election, judge amy coney barrett has been

sworn into the supreme court, after being nominated for the role by president trump. democrats have criticised the timing of the vote and argued that it should have been postponed until after the election. our north america correspondent, david willis reports. question occurs on the nomination of amy coney barrett. the vote was along party lines in a deeply divided senate. the yeas are 52. the nays are 48. the nomination of amy coney barrett of indiana to be an associate justice of the supreme court of the united states is confirmed. confirming that conservative christian amy coney barrett to a lifetime appointment on the highest court in the land. the process then moved swiftly to a prime—time event at the white house. described by president trump as a "towering intellect", amy coney barrett was sworn in by the longest—serving supreme courtjustice, clarence thomas.

that i will well and faithfully discharge. herfirstjob could be to decide the outcome of the presidential election, should the matter end up in the supreme court. and, with the president alongside her, the former appeals courtjudge pledged her independence from the political process. the oath that i have solemnly taken tonight means, at its core, that i will do myjob without any fear or favour, and that i will do so independently of both the political branches and of my own preferences. ruth bader ginsburg. but in taking the place of the liberaljustice ruth bader ginsburg, who died last month, she will change the political complexion of the nine—member court — possibly for decades to come. amy coney barrett refused to be drawn on issues such as abortion, climate change, and gun control during her confirmation hearing, but few doubt her appointment

could herald a new era of rulings on some of the key issues of american life. but the confirmation of a christian conservative to the us supreme court is undoubtedly a huge victory for donald trump. and regardless of its impact on the election, experts agree it could change the shape of american life long after he has left office. david willis, bbc news, los angeles. now it‘s time for a look at the weather with darren bett. hello. it‘s going to be wet and windy at times. band of cloud pushing northwards and eastwards bringing with it rain. blustery showers mainly for northern ireland, wales and the south—west, some later on for the midlands. north—east of scotland, largely dry, centring for the northern isles.

higher temperatures possibly across southern parts of england and wales, blustery showers continuing overnight. the rain band moves northwards across: to be northern isles. clear skies in eastern areas away from the showers. a keen wind blowing, not get too cold, 5—6. big waves crashing on to the coast on wednesday in the west. heavy and frequent showers running through the english channel. some heading inland, drierand english channel. some heading inland, drier and sunnier probably for much of the day in the north—east of england. 10—12 c.

hello this is bbc news with joanna gosling. the headlines: scientists say the number of people with coronavirus antibodies has dropped by a quarter in three months, raising the risk of being infected again. more than 50 conservative mps representing the north of england write to the prime minister, calling for a "clear road map" out of tough restrictions. we are asking people to give up huge civil liberties, businesses to close, people to live on two—thirds of their normal wages. i don‘t think it‘s unreasonable to say that the other side of that coin should be "show us the way out". seven people are killed in a bomb attack on a religious school in the pakistani city of peshawar. a week before the us presidential elections, donald trump succeeds in appointing amy coney barrett to the supreme court.

# she‘s got it. # yeah, baby, she‘s got it. # i‘m sure venus. # i‘m yourfire. # yourdesire #. coming up this hour, one of the best bands from the 80s — we‘ll hear from banarama about why they‘ve been in a band—bubble since lockdown. sport and, for a full round—up from the bbc sport centre, here‘s olly. good morning. the tottenham manager, jose mourinho, says he will never consider themselves title contenders, but a gritty 1—0 win at burnley means that they are now just two points off the top of the table. predictably, it was harry kane and son heung—min who combined for the goal. but mourinho praised kane for his defensive work, as well. he cleared james tarkowski‘s header off the line to stop spurs falling behind in the second half, before flicking the ball into the path of son heung—min who scored the winner in the last 15 minutes. he is now the league‘s top scorer with eight. kane has set up seven of them.

we need everyone to be scoring and assisting on our end of the pitch to win games and, yeah, obviously, if the last few weeks me and son have had a nice little partnership going and hopefully it continues. when you‘re playing well you just want the next game to come. today it wasn‘t an amazing assessed, but it fell to the right place and son was there to put it away. i think he has had better nights to be fair, but he is a top player at the top players do the right things, make those decisions. i thought we we re make those decisions. i thought we were defensively very strong against players like him tonight. a lot of credit to my players but we have got to tidy up the details because at the minute they are hurting us. west bromwich albion are still waiting for their first win of the season, but they have their third draw. after falling behind through a jake livermore own goal, karlan grant scored a late equaliser at brighton. it finished 1—1.

that brighton game was one of the matches that are being shown on a on pay—per—view basis. the newcastle owner, mike ashley, says that the price of £14.95 is unacceptable and that the premier league should look at getting the price cut to £4.95 per game instead. a fan boycott of the matches has already raised over £300,000 for charity. lots more european football this week. manchester city are at marseille in the champions league this evening and liverpool host danish champions fc midtjylland for the first time when they meet in group d. joel matip, thiago alcantara and naby keita are unliklely to be involved. liverpool beat ajax last week and came behind at the weekend to beat sheffield united. they have achieved both those victories without virgil van dijk, who is probably out for the rest of the season. we all expect pretty much, not perfection, but not too far from perfection from us.

and that means there is space for improvement, that‘s ok. but we need everybody needs time to replace a massive player or person or whatever. but so far we did ok. manchester city have got no out—and—out striker for their game at marseille. sergio aguero picked up an injury at the weekend and will be out for a month. gabrieljesus was already out. the manager blames a packed fixture list yesterday, everyone got is that in the premier league have 40% —— 47% more muscular injuries than in the last period last year. i guess november, december, january will be the same. it increases a lot because it is normal. now we just have to protect the players as much as possible. the strongest ones will

survive, the other ones will fall down. sean maitland has been dropped by scotland for their six nations match against wales on saturday. he was one of the barbarians players who broke covid protocols, forcing the cancellation of their game against england on saturday. head coach gregor townsend says they have to ensure that their training camp remains secure, but will review the situation in the coming weeks. england will be without their captain, sarah hunter, for the match against italy on sunday in the women‘s six nations. she has a hamstring injury. the red roses have already won the title, but will complete back—to—back grand slams if they beat the italians. emily scarratt has been given the captaincy there was an upset in the superleague as salford beat the leaders st helens12—10. saints rested key players ahead of their match against second—placed wigan on friday, and they almost got away with it, but krisnan inu scored late on for the win. that‘s all the sport for now. i‘ll have more for you in the next hour.

schools have begun making preparations to ensure disadvantaged children do not go hungry over the christmas holidays, after the government refused to extend free school meals during october half—term. we are nowjoined by caroline walker, a headteacher at parkside academy in barrow in furness, where more than 60% of pupils are eligible for free school meals. thank you very much forjoining us. first of all, tell us have needs changed over the period since the lockdown? yeah, i think we are looking at a very different circumstance in schools to this time last year. lockdown has been hard for everybody, but more importantly the families who have inadequate benefits, have found themselves without a job during lockdown and tear on glued income. lockdown has cost families a lot more money. when children are at school we provide brea kfast, children are at school we provide breakfast, snacks, fruits and a warm

mealforfamilies that breakfast, snacks, fruits and a warm meal for families that they have then had to provide for a number of months at home. 6096 of your pupils are eligible for free school meals. has that figure changed? that figure has increased because what has happened during lockdown is another whole families who went into locked and having worked with and put into furlough and subsequently lost their jobs, so have hit the threshold for free school meals. we also have a number of vulnerable families who arejust number of vulnerable families who are just above the threshold who are struggling to feed their families because of the impact of lockdown and losing their jobs because of the impact of lockdown and losing theirjobs or having their hours reduced. just on the figure then, how much is it increased? it changes yearly. we are a lwa ys increased? it changes yearly. we are always between 45% and 60% each year. we were around 50% before lockdown. right now, a lot of pupils at your school or obviously indeed. what is happening during this

holiday? so what we did as a school is we provided some vouchers for families last week. we couldn‘t provide for every family because we just don‘t have that kind of resource within the school as we are trying to catch up and support families across our trust. we have provided food bank vouchers and some food parcels and our community is pulling together really well and local businesses are providing meals forfamilies. the local businesses are providing meals for families. the lack of resources mean that these families have lack of choice in choosing what their children eat and what the family estate, so we are trying to provide the best we can for them, but we are using orange school budget. that is a big local impact. on the school budget, how much are you spending out of the school budget and what with that money had been used for otherwise? so, we are using our school budget to pay for clothing forfamilies, for vouchers school budget to pay for clothing for families, for vouchers for

families to access supermarkets and thatis families to access supermarkets and that is a percentage of a budget that is a percentage of a budget that would have gone into to maybe support staff and other resources within the school, so we‘re just having to re—budget and look at the priorities. schools are working day today at the moment because we have never had to deal with this before, but what is really important to us having seen the impact the pandemic is having families is that we support them because there is nothing worth in life than having to choose between feeding yourself and feeding your children. as a parent, if you are hungry and tired yourself, your ability to parent is reduced, as well. it is that that lots of families are having to make, how feed themselves or have their children go without things like shoes, the vital thing is that they need. the government said previously, and it has been questioned a lot about why not extend school meals during the holidays now, they did it in the summer.

holidays now, they did it in the summer. one of the argument says it is not for schools to provide food long terms in the holiday. you are not just providing long terms in the holiday. you are notjust providing food or clothing as well. what do you say to the governments? i say to the government that they need to come and spend the day in the shoes of head teachers that stand in the playground every morning and said the impact this pandemic is hard mentally on families and the impact it has on families and the impact it has on families that are find themselves with relationships broken down because they have lost theirjob and they are finding themselves as a single parent dealing with three or four children. nobody needs to tell them that they should want to look after their own children, they remind themselves of that everyday. you can read the impact that it has on social media every day. they don‘t wake up wanting to not feed their children. it is the situation they have found themselves in with they have found themselves in with the lack of resource and lack of ability to lead a healthy lifestyle and the pandemic is ongoing, it hasn‘t changed, but lives have changed dramatically in 12 months forfamilies.

changed dramatically in 12 months for families. if you want stepping up for families. if you want stepping up and doing what you were doing, if the community wasn‘t stepping up and doing what it is doing, what do you think would be happening for these families right now? i think that more relationships will break down, it would have a huge impact on mental health and healthy lifestyles with be reduced. we would have children with the poor quality of life and then coming to school unable to function, and families who are desperately in need. thank you very much forjoining us. caroline walker, head teacher. earlier this month, liverpool became the first major city in england to be put into tier three restrictions as the number of cases of coronavirus rocketed. for the mayor, joe anderson, the crisis became very personal when his brother bill died with the virus. in his first television interview since that devastating loss — louise minchin went to meet him.

i‘m delighted to say i‘m joined byjoe anderson, the mayor of liverpool. thank you very much for inviting us here during what are really tough times. and i know yourfamily has been directly affected — i‘m so sorry about your brother, bill. last week, we had 61 deaths in liverpool. bill was one of the 61. this week, it‘s up to 74. so we know the serious issues facing many, many families in the city. and, of course, bill was taken so suddenly that we never got the chance to say goodbye or to be with him. and both bill and his wife had covid. jenny, i‘m glad to say, is fine now — but, of course, the loss of bill is a great blow to us all, because six weeks prior to that, we‘d lost my brother through cancer. so it‘s been a traumatic time, to say the least. and tell us about bill, because he was notjust your brother, but he provided for you, as well. we had a reasonably tough upbringing. my father was in the merchant navy, but very seldom worked.

he was an alcoholic. bill went away to sea when he was 16, but provided for the family, sending money allotments, as they were called, to my mum. that kept us going. so i always looked up to him. he was somebody that inspired me, somebody that was, you know... somebody that gave, as i said, more to this world than he ever took out. he‘ll be sadly missed. been overwhelmed by the messages of support. had he had covid for a while? had he been ill for a little while? he was taken into hospital on the friday afternoon, around about two o‘clock, immediately put into the icu and within eight hours he‘d died. his heart had give up because he couldn‘t cope with the covid pressure. and you were very busy at the time, weren‘t you? dealing with things. yeah, the sad thing was is that bill often spoke to me a couple of times a week over different things. and sometimes i‘d just press the button saying, "call you later — sorry, busy."

and i did that. and, um, because i was so busy — we were dealing with funding issues on the phone to the government, different things as liverpool was entering tier 3 — so i was hugely busy that afternoon. and about two hours later, jenny rang on bill‘s phone and i knew something was wrong immediately because when i heard her voice answer the phone... that‘s his wife. yeah, that‘s bill‘s wife, jen, and and she told me that he was in hospital, yeah. so that was also sad. however, of course, with covid, there‘s very little you can do. you can‘t go and visit, you can‘t sit, you can‘t be with somebody that‘s got covid. and it‘s happened to thousands and thousands of people — notjust here in liverpool, in the city region, but across the country. it‘s a disease that, you know, takes no prisoners. it‘s heartless in how it deals with people. this makes things

so hard, doesn‘t it? that you can‘t go and say goodbye. i think the good thing for me is that, you know, we‘ve already been contacted by people that were on duty, and a friend of the family — one of the icu doctors — his father sailed with bill. that‘s incredible. and so he looked after him and made sure that he was ok. he actually did an extra shift to stay there with billy. so that was good to know that there were people talking to him, people, you know, having a conversation with him, people actually taking the time out to make sure that he was all right. you want a point at this time to be able to celebrate and remember his life, as well. will you get a chance to do that? we‘ll get the opportunity to laugh at the things that he did — and, as a brother, i‘ve got many tales and stories to tell about him — but also remember what he did for people, you know — why he was, you know, such a remarkable man

because of what he did for people and the fights that he fought on behalf of people and the things that he gave and he never took back. people have "rediscovered the pleasure of reading" in lockdown, publisher bloomsbury has said, after reporting its best half—year profits since 2008. our business presenter ramzan karmali is with me. bloomsbury have said that we have rediscovered the pleasure of reading. their profits are about £4 million this year. their best result since 2008. i have been buying loads of book super lockdown. since 2008. i have been buying loads of book super lockdownlj since 2008. i have been buying loads of book super lockdown. i have small children so i have a bank a lot of books, as well. it is notjust fiction, it is things like cookbooks, as well. we can speak to james dons, the managing director of

waterstones. is this something you are seeing at waterstones as well? it is. unfortunately, a lot of educational books, which children may not appreciate quite so much! bloomsbury are a big publisher, you area bloomsbury are a big publisher, you are a book shop, it is hard for people during these restrictions to come out and actually buy books. as i had come out and actually buy books. as ihad an come out and actually buy books. as i had an impact on you? it has been at the very performance for us as a physical book—seller. obviously, we we re physical book—seller. obviously, we were closed and relied on online business. then we reopened and people flocked back into this jobs. now we have quite a few that are closed again. the online acts as the swing as each of those things happened. we will be hugely comforted —— happened. we will be hugely comforted — — have happened. we will be hugely comforted —— have been hugely comforted —— have been hugely comforted at our visitor shops where when we were open. there has been lots of home—schooling. apart from that, what other books have been

doing very well at waterstones? what titles have been flying off the shelves? fiction has done incredibly well, memoirs, and during the lockdown itself, people were buying the classics, the big fat, cookbooks we re the classics, the big fat, cookbooks were doing dramatically better than they normally do and i think a lot of people read those books that they always felt they should have read and we enjoyed enormous sales, as well as the great contemporary fiction, as well, so popular authors we re fiction, as well, so popular authors were hugely popular. once the shops reopened, they started to buy new books again. you discover a much better within a book shop than you do online. you have christmas coming up. what are you expecting will do well this christmas? we have very strong publishing, not least because

so strong publishing, not least because so little was published during the lockdown itself and now it has been compressed into an autumn. we have barack obama headlining at a slew of really great books. that will be positive. we just hope that people will be out in the shops and that we as shopkeepers can run them sensibly, professionally and above all, safely. thank you very much for your time. thank you. who wins the election will in part be decided by who can persuade america‘s growing latino population in crucial swing states like florida and arizona to turn out and vote for them. since donald trump was elected in 2016, nearly four million latinos have come of voting age. many have watched as their communities were ripped apart by tough immigration laws and devastated by the pandemic. butjoe biden has so far failed to connect with latino voters in the way democratic candidates before him have.

our west coast correspondent sophie long reports from arizona. this is the level of some latinos dedication to their president. latinos love trump. aww, that's great. restaurateurs jorge and betty rivas certainly do. he is the right person to keep leading this country. we need someone tough, we need someone with the right ideas. we think that donald trump is the perfect person for another four years. but the threats to their business that followed their endorsement shows that not all latinos feel the same way. latinos have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic that shut down this state, and while the president‘s macho image may have impressed latino man, here in the heart of phoenix‘s latinx community, it has caused deep offence among those who lost loved

ones to the virus. i think that his brazen disregard was really clear. but i think that for latino voters in particular, especially folks who know somebody that has been impacted, they felt the way that i felt — this man does not care about us. he doesn‘t care about us. we will be protected by the great men and women of our military and law enforcement. with the election now just days away, campaign ads fill the airwaves, but so too does misinformation that feeds people‘s fear. and fear is a very real thing in neighbourhoods like this one, where some will have fled countries where people die because there is no law and order, yet they become increasingly fearful of law enforcement here too. just as the past four years have deepened divisions across this vast country, they have exposed divisions in latino communities too. i saw 902, but i haven‘t seen 833...

around four million latinos have come of age in the last four years. they‘re determined to use their new political power and spend their evenings encouraging others to do the same. we all remember 2016. we remember the feeling. i remember that feeling. i literally have goosebumps thinking about that day. i wasn‘t able to vote, so people were, like, "well, you didn‘t show up to vote". i couldn‘t. i couldn‘t then. now, in 2020, they can, and if enough latinos across arizona do the same, this time their voice could really count. they were childhood friends and the ultimate ‘80s girl group, but since lockdown, sarah dallin and keren woodward have formed their very own "bananarama bubble". instead of the planned tour, the pop superstars behind hits like ‘venus‘ and ‘really saying something‘ used the time to write their autobiography. they have taken our entertainment correspondent colin paterson back to one of their old stomping grounds.

ta—da! here we are. it‘s been a while. bananarama. oh, it‘s still got the squeaky floor. back at london‘s pineapple dance studios. all the classics were rehearsed here. i heard a rumour, love in the first degree... did we do venus here? i think we may. i forgot. i‘ve got a bad arm. # i‘m your venus. # i‘m yourfire. # your desire. ..# this trip down memory lane is because bananarama used lockdown to write their autobiography. you have actually been bubbling during lockdown? we‘ve been bubbling since lockdown, yeah. how‘s it been for you? great! great, actually, yeah. really good. yeah, i mean, it made sense because of the book and the fact we‘re best mates anyway. so while everyone else was doing box sets and jigsaws, bananarama were writing away? yes, absolutely. # it ain‘t what you do, it‘s the way that you do it.

# it ain‘t what you do it‘s the way that you do it. # that‘s what gets results #. it was 1981 when bananarama first shuffled onto top of the pops. keren and sarah have been the two constants in the band ever since. writing the book has allowed them to think about their contribution to pop history. there were moments where i got quite emotional. like, i think writing the book for me brought a real sense of achievement. that maybe i wasn‘t as proud of myself as i should have been. # he was really saying something...# there were so few girl groups around at the time, that i think that‘s probably why we sort of stuck out as something different. yeah, we've worked hard and i think we deserve our place in pop history. you don‘t want to go on and on about how hard it is for women, but it is harderfor women. it‘s harder to get respect. but looking back, you realise what a battle it actually was. # it‘s a cruel, cruel summer.

# leaving me here on my own. # it‘s a cruel...# now it‘s time for a look at the weather with darren bett. hello, they are. the week started with sunshine and showers and through the rest of the week it will remain very unsettled. we will have further showers are longer spells of rain which could be happier times. temperatures should be higher by the end of the week, but by the end of the week we should be in for some quite strong winds as well. this area of low pressure contains the re m na nts of area of low pressure contains the remnants of an ex hurricane. it is pushing ahead of bit this weather front that is bringing with it cloud and rain. that is slowly moving northwards and eastwards and it will be followed by sunshine and heavy and blustery showers for northern ireland, wales and the south—west. the winds will be quite blustery, temperature similar to yesterday at 11 or 12 degrees, maybe a little bit cooler in the north of scotland

where it is still largely dry. perhaps temperatures a little bit higher in the south of england where we will have those blustery showers. the showers will continue to run into southern and western areas overnight. we will have some clear skies away from those showers were temperatures at five or 6 degrees. there are still quite a keen wind blowing overnight. our area of low pressure remains to the north—west of the uk, but the winds have travelled a long way, some big waves have been piling up across the atla ntic have been piling up across the atlantic and we will find those big waves crashing on to some of these western coasts of the uk. also, there will be showers, which will continue around western areas, along the south coast and into the english channel. the driest of the weather in eastern england and north—eastern parts of scotland. a dusty old wind and probably things are a bit colder for many parts of the country, certainly across southern areas, where temperatures will be no better than 12 celsius. looking further

ahead, we have another weather system coming our way racing in from the atlantic on a strong jet stream. that means more cloud and rain on thursday. probably drying up across southern parts of england during the afternoon, and again the far north of scotla nd afternoon, and again the far north of scotland seen rain very late in the day. over some of these weston hills, the rain will be quite heavy, but we are drawing in milder air so it will be very mild overnight. we will get some sunshine in the south—east and the temperature to be 18 degrees. some weston hills will still be wet. —— weston.

this is bbc news, i‘mjoanna gosling — the headlines... scientists say the number of people with coronavirus antibodies has dropped by a quarter in three months — raising the risk of being infected again. more than 50 conservative mps representing the north of england write to the prime minister, calling for a "clear road map" out of tough restrictions. we are asking people to give up huge civil liberties, businesses to close, people to live on two thirds of their normal wages. i do not think it unreasonable the other side of that coin should be to have a clear way out.

a week before the us presidential elections — donald trump succeeds in appointing amy coney barrett to the supreme court. it is the duty of a judge to resist policy preferences. it would be a dereliction of duty to give in to them. mobile phone companies have been ordered to stop selling phones locked to one network from december 2021. #she's got it. . . # and coming up this hour. we‘ll hear from ba narama about why they‘ve been in a band—bubble since lockdown. immunity to covid—19 may only last a few months, according to new research. antibodies are a key part of our immune defences and stop the virus from getting inside the body‘s cells. a team from imperial college london found the number of people testing

positive for antibodies fell by 26% betweenjune and september. in the first round of testing, at the end ofjune and the beginning ofjuly, about 60 in 1,000 people had detectable antibodies — that‘s based on results for 350,000 people in england who took tests as part of the react—2 study. but in the latest set of tests, in september, only 44 per 1,000 people were positive. professor helen ward is one of the researchers from the school of public health at imperial college london — she explained the significance of these findings. we know antibodies tend to slowly wane over time after somebody has had an infection, but we are not exactly sure at what point that leaves them vulnerable to reinfection, if that is the problem, so that is one issue. this suggests that in this particular infection it is relatively quick. the second thing is that we have learnt a lot about who was exposed to the virus in the first round and we know it is quite

uneven across the country, a lot more in london than elsewhere, but we know it particularly affected people of black and minority ethnic groups, younger rather than older people had a higher prevalence of these antibodies in their blood and also people in more deprived areas and living in larger households. so we have learnt a lot from this study about who gets the virus, whether they have severe symptoms or not, and this finding now that the antibodies start to drop over time. earlier i spoke to dr chris smith — virologist at the university of cambridge. i started by asking him what happens when the body gets an infection. the immune system mounts a response, there are molecules shaped like a y. if you look at the y, where the fingers are,

they are the sticky bits, specific, programmed to stick onto whatever it is your body is responding to. antibodies are made by cells, longlived, you make them and hold onto them for the rest of your life in some cases, meaning immune memory. if you re—encounter that threat you can go back to the cells that go back to the genetic message of how i made the antibody, you give them some stimulus and they make enormous numbers of the antibodies to defend you again against the thing you have seen in the past. that is how a vaccine works basically. alongside that, you have the t cells. white blood cells. they inspect every cell in the body and they can see cells that have viruses growing in them. they are like missiles.

two arms to immune response. you have a cell—based response that can kill off infected cells and antibodies that can mop up the virus itself, stick onto infected cells and destroy them. both parts are important for a good—quality immune response. when we hear today about the fact that the antibodies, the number of people testing positive for antibodies fell quite considerably over a period of several months and it obviously raises the prospect of people getting infected twice, in reality we have heard of people getting infected twice but not very many. would you expect if it was all about the antibodies diminishing that we would see more people getting infected twice? we have not to be fair been looking very hard for people becoming infected more than once. there are a number of case reports now documenting this, they have been confirmed, people have caught it more than once. the people who got it had their genetic information sequenced. when you line the two viruses up

from the two occasions they do not match showing they have caught it more than once despite having antibody. this is not unsurprising because we know a number of viruses have various ways of slipping past our immune response and antibodies are not everything. the other thing to be cautious about is we do not make high levels of antibodies throughout life all the time. when you have had an infection, just after you do have very high levels of antibody. with time, the amount of antibody in the blood falls but it does not mean your memory of how to make the antibody has completely gone. it is not like starting from a blank slate each time if you re—encounter the infection. we would expect that with time the amount of antibody would fall. that is also important to bear in mind. with a vaccine, many people are questioning and said if i cannot become long term immune and do not make strong antibody response having

caught the infection, what response will a vaccine have? it is more nuanced. viruses have various built—in strategies to sidestep our immune response. when we catch a virus, although we do make an immune response it is like dragging a boulder uphill. when you use a vaccine, vaccines are not held back by those sorts of things, they give your immune system a kick up the backside and make a high level of antibody. it is not a givenjust because we are seeing antibody levels declining that if we make a vaccine it is not going to work. can people be assured if they have had it based on what you are saying on the way the body, even if the antibodies don‘t register long term, the body has the memory of fighting it that they would likely have a similar reaction again? that would be reassuring to anyone who had a very minor reaction to it but obviously if someone has had a serious reaction, equally that would be concerning the other way. it would be nice to think, thank goodness, i have had that,

i am not going to get it again but unfortunately it does not seem to work like this. i have had a look at case reports of people who got it again, around the world, in about half the cases people have a much more trivial illness the next time. on the other hand, the other half, people have had more severe illness the next time. published in the lancet medical journal last week, a man in his 20s, the first time he caught it, very mild flu—like symptoms. resolved of their own accord, no medical advice, looks after himself. 14 days later, in front of a doctor with low levels of oxyg e n and then in hospital, thankfully he has recovered now. that was definitely another dose

of coronavirus the second time around, he was much worse. it is not a given that if you had it once and it was mild, the next time will be equally mild. equally it is not a given that if it was bad the first time it will be bad the next time. the virus is very confusing, the unknown, and we do not understand why. is it mutating or are people getting the same strain again? all viruses mutate, they make geodetic spelling mistakes genetic spelling mistakes when they copy themselves. the virus has various mechanisms built in that mean it keeps its genetic code very much intact and changing only very slowly. people are tracking this very carefully, for ten months they have been sequencing, reading the genetic code of the viruses recovered from people who have got the virus and it is only changing at the rate of around two genetic spelling mistakes every month. out of a 30,000 genetic genome it has only made around 30 or so changes so far. in virus terms that is a very slow rate of change so we do not think although there have been some changes to the way the virus behaves

that they are translating into a way of sidestepping a vaccine or our own immunity much more than in january. or it going to weaponise and it will become a whole different ball game. deaths from covid—19 have risen by 60% in a week — bringing the number to 8% of the amount per day during the virus peak earlier this year. that‘s according to the latest figures from the office for national statistics. earlier i was joined by the bbc‘s head of statistics, robert cuffe, who‘s been taking a look at the data. in the week to the 16th of october, a rise of 60% to the previous week. 750 from 500. that is faster than previous weeks, it has been going up by about 40% per week. and little faster than we would

expect considering hospitalisation cases doubling every fortnight. i would notjump too hard on the 60% versus 40%, we will see ebbing and flowing, a characteristic of the epidemic. but the broad trajectory is pretty clear, regular doubling in the number of deaths we see every week albeit at a lower level and pace than march and april. it has been said before, comparing what happened then with now it is like comparing apples with oranges, nonetheless it is obviously tempting to do it every time the new statistics come out. is it possible to see how the impact of the virus is comparing now with then? i think the office for national statistics figures are one of the best ways we have of doing this. all figures have problems. they would give some cause for comfort.

back in the peak weeks in april, naybe nine and a half thousand deaths per week that involved covid—19 compared to around 750. you can see that clearly. the red area is the covid deaths. so much higher back in march, april and may than now. you can barely see them at the moment. also the rise was much faster, doubling every couple of days. compared to doubling every couple of weeks nowadays. the pace of change is very different, the absolute level is very different as well. but i think the issue that will concern people like the professor, he said some of the deaths we see this week are baked in by what happened a couple of weeks ago, rise in infections, people going into hospital two to four weeks ago we will see that coming through in figures,

death figures, in the next weeks. we will see a rise but the question will be will they rise faster than the average deaths in winter? we expect them to go up by 200 per week as we move into winter and it looks as if the covid deaths are starting to push us higher and faster. than the rate of growth and overall deaths. also data out on how many people have no symptoms when they test positive. more data from the office for national statistics, they pick houses at random, they swab people in there. they are seeing a third of people around the time they test positive report no symptoms. two thirds of people are asymptomatic. it is a reminder of something we have seen a lot, lots of people who have the virus do not necessarily have symptoms. a reminder as well that for many people covid is a mild infection that does not lead to the terrible

outcome of death we have been discussing. they have also seen as well, probably a familiar story, the age group with the most infections 17—24, young adults, because this is a household survey it is missing people say in student residences and reminds us that the rate of infection we have been seen in young people, it is notjust those people in those freshers‘ week, rapid increase that we saw in early october. the highest rate is in younger adults but we know from elsewhere it has been rising in every age group. more than 50 conservative mps have written to borisjohnson, demanding a "clear road—map" out of the tough coronavirus restrictions in the north of england. the letter from the newly—formed northern research group states that "restrictions are affecting people across the north far greater than they are in the south". the mps warn the prime minister not to allow the north to get left behind. the letter comes as warrington in cheshire joins other areas in the north in the highest tier 3 category of restrictions. the tier 3 or ‘very high‘ alert level restrictions means no mixing

of households indoors or outdoors. pubs and bars will close unless they provide what‘s called ‘a substantial meal‘. our political correspondent helen catt reports. the north of england has been particularly hard hit by coronavirus — warrington, the latest northern city to be put into the highest tier of restrictions. nottingham will follow later this week. more than 50 conservative mps have now written to the prime minister calling for a clear road map for how to get out again. in their letter, they warn that coronavirus threatens to continue to increase the disparity between north and south. they say that their constituents have been some of the worst—affected by covid, with many losing jobs and businesses. and they ask borisjohnson to reflect carefully on the conservatives‘ promise to people living in the north during the last election, with the levelling up agenda

and to make the region central to the country‘s economic recovery. they suggest one way of doing that would be to prioritise and speed up big projects like a major rail upgrade to connect northern cities. many of the mps who signed the letter represent constituencies that were traditionally held by labour until last year‘s election. a downing street spokesman said the government had stood then on a solemn promise that it would improve people‘s lives and that, although the pandemic had meant 2020 was not the year we all hoped it would be, the government‘s ambitions for the country were unchanged. one of the mps who signed the letter said it wasn‘t about giving the government a tough time, but a row with leaders in greater manchester over restrictions did put government strategy for the north of england back in the spotlight. this letter is likely to put more scrutiny on how it plans to deliver on those ambitions in such changed circumstances. helen catt, bbc news. let‘s talk to our political correspondent, nick eardley, at westminster. how much pressure does this put on

the government? the levelling up agenda was one of the big things borisjohnson agenda was one of the big things boris johnson talked agenda was one of the big things borisjohnson talked about in the election, it helped the tories win those seats they had not won for a generation, dismantling the red wall in the north of england that labour had held traditionally. it is important to point out these mps are saying today they are not trying to cause a hard time for the government, not pit themselves against ministers but there is clearly a nervousness amongst wings of the conservative party that the cost of covid and the fact the government is so concentrated on trying to get a virus under control is threatening that agenda, quite frankly, and they feel the need to remind ministers quite publicly that they made these promises and they need to keep them. one of the things they are most worried about is the tier 3 restrictions we are seeing now in large parts of the north of england. the economic impact they are going to have and asking big questions about how exactly do you

get out of them. jake berry is a conservative mp and used to be the northern powerhouse minister. i am asking on a personal level to provide that in an easily digestible way. i understand there is a blend of indicator is the government used, share that data with us, we are asking people to give up huge civil liberties, businesses to close, people to live on two thirds of their normal wages. i do not think it is unreasonable to say the other side of the coin should be show us the way out. the chancellor in the last hour of also has spoken to news beat. the government he says are still committed to building infrastructure and investing cash in various parts of the northern economy but that question about how exactly you get out of the top band of restrictions that the government has brought in

is one of other people are being asked. labour have made that criticism over the last few weeks that nobody knows how they are going to get out of them. the business minister talking about exactly that. every area entering tier 3, the highest tier level, there is a provision within that to say after 28 days it will be reviewed to see where we have got to, if we work together both nationally and locally and do the right thing, follow the rules in that tier, make sure we work with local leaders, they are the best placed people to deliver that message and additional help, then i think we can get through that and come out the other end. that is the government on how you get out of restrictions. a pretty bruising week for ministers when it comes, a few weeks, to the relationship with the north of

england. we have seen labour mayors hammering the government over economic support saying it shows they do not care. that is clearly not what these mps are saying but as i say not what these mps are saying but as isayi not what these mps are saying but as i say i think there is a nervousness, that levelling up agenda, some of the promises made during the election could fall by the wayside. clearly some tory mps prepared to keep reminding the prime minister and his ministers of the promises they made. sport and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre, here‘s olly foster. the tottenham manager, jose mourinho, says he will never consider themselves title contenders, but a gritty 1—0 win at burnley means that they are now just two points off the top of the table. predictably, it was harry kane and son heung—min who combined for the goal. but mourinho praised kane for his defensive work, as well. he cleared james tarkowski‘s header off the line to stop spurs falling behind in the second half, before flicking the ball into the path of son who scored the winner in the last 15 minutes.

he is now the league‘s top scorer with eight. kane has set up seven of them. there is no for individuals or prima donnas. even a player like harry has the spirit. fantastic, ijust have to say fantastic. west bromwich albion are still waiting for their first win of the season, but they have their third draw. after falling behind through a jake livermore own goal, karlan grant scored a late equaliser at brighton. it finished 1—1. england will be without captain sarah hunter against italy on sunday. the red roses have already won the title but they can get the

grandson. morgan took over the captaincy for kolkata. chris gayle was stirring for kings 11 punjab, robert half century. kolkata have two matches there. live commentary on five live of the delhi game. nottingham — and parts of the surrounding county is another area heading towards tier 3 restrictions. our correspondent geeta

pendse has the latest. this was widely anticipated announcement about individual tier 3 for nottingham, it was an entity yesterday and shall take effect from thursday, it will also be full support of nottinghamshire —— this was widely anticipated announcement about moving into tier 3. there are questions about why it took so long to place these areas into tier 3, because nottingham had the highest level of infection in england for nine consecutive days. that rate has fallen and it is now the 24th highest in england but despite that drop they are concerned, officials here, about rising infection in older age groups, especially the over 65s, and they‘re worried about pressures on the nhs, with a significant rise in hospital admissions which they say is why they are taking action now and these restrictions will come into place from thursday. just like another parts of england where we see tier 3 restrictions, it will mean households cannot mix indoors or outdoors at hospitality

venues or in private venues, it means there is a rule of fixing venues or in private gardens, it means there is a rule of fixing it means there is a rule of six in outdoor spaces so people can beat as long as they have social distancing, it also means pubs and bars that do not serve meals will have to close in tier 3 areas, which will be a huge impact for a place like nottingham, often seen as really thriving for nightlife in particular. but one of the things everybody is looking for now is details around a support package. five councils have been involved in negotiation with the government and say they had secured a package similar to other parts of england in tier 3, but the city council leader says he does not believe it is enough. we are awaiting specific details to emerge later today. warrington was placed into tier 3 restrictions overnight, affecting a further 200,000 people. our reporter mairead smyth has the latest. the council leader russ bowden

responded when they knew warrington was headed to this tier 3 level. he said it was necessary and appropriate and that‘s because there is a rising number, a rising infection rate, here in warrington. i think it‘s around 399 people per 100,000 of the population. slightly less than neighbouring areas of liverpool city region and greater manchester just up the road but high nonetheless. the main concern is in the working population over the age of 60 where they‘re seeing a growing number of cases and really, across the whole population here as well, so it is something that has been welcomed, there is a package of support here, just under £6 million, that will be split for public health needs and to support businesses but of course those tier 3 rules come into effect here, it reduces the interaction you can have with people. you can‘t meet anyone outside your support bubble or family indoors, and restrictions on who you can meet outdoors, of course,

sticking to that number of six. the scottish parliament will vote on nicola sturgeon‘s five—tier system of coronavirus restrictions this afternoon. last week the scottish first minister announced the new system, which comes in next monday. our scotland correpsondent lorna gordon explains what curbs apply to each tier. the lowest tier of the new restrictions would be closer to normal and allow for meetings indoors with a maximum of eight people from three households. in tier 1, the rule of six from two households kicks both indoors and outdoors. people living in tier 2 areas would be banned from socialising in each other‘s homes, public houses and restaurants could only serve drink outdoors with a main meal. restaurants may be able to stay open under strict conditions in tier 2. in the highest tier, nonessential shops are shut, travel severely limited and tourism would close down.

schools would remain open. now it‘s time for a look at the weather with matt. great so far but things pricing and up great so far but things pricing and up to the south and the west. rain band pushing north and eastwards, taking away the sunshine that so far in the far north—east of scotland. by in the far north—east of scotland. by the end of the day, brighter skies moving into the west. this evening and overnight, rain band continuing to linger up towards the north—west of scotland, replaced by chris kaz, scattering of showers overnight, some to the heavy side towards the west, may be thunder. in the east temperatures dropping back to lower single figures. tomorrow sunshine and showers. after sunshine ship county and west, showers frequent in the west and south, thunder. southern counties of england and south wales during the middle part of the way. south and

east dry all day long, blustery day tomorrow, feeling fresher as well in the breeze and into wednesday evening they flat showers will fade with rough seas out towards the west tomorrow.

hello this is bbc news with joanna gosling. the headlines: scientists say the number of people with coronavirus antibodies has dropped by a quarter in three months, raising the risk of being infected again. more than 50 conservative mps representing the north of england write to the prime minister, calling for a "clear road map" out of tough restrictions. we are asking people to give up huge civil liberties, businesses to close, people to live on two—thirds of their normal wages. i don‘t think it‘s unreasonable to say that the other side of that coin should be "show us the way out". mobile phone companies have been ordered to stop selling phones locked to one network from december 2021. # she‘s got it. # yeah, baby, she‘s got it. coming up this hour, we‘ll hear from banarama about why they‘ve been in a band

bubble since lockdown. with just one week to go until the us presidential election, judge amy coney barrett has been sworn into the supreme court, after being nominated for the role by president trump. democrats have criticised the timing of the vote and argued that it should have been postponed until after the election. our north america correspondent, david willis reports. question occurs on the nomination of amy coney barrett. the vote was along party lines in a deeply divided senate. the ayes are 52. the nays are 48. the nomination of amy coney barrett of indiana to be an associate justice of the supreme court of the united states is confirmed. confirming that conservative christian amy coney barrett to a lifetime appointment on the highest court in the land. the process then moved swiftly to a prime—time event at the white house.

described by president trump as a "towering intellect", amy coney barrett was sworn in by the longest—serving supreme courtjustice, clarence thomas. and i will well and faithfully discharge. herfirstjob could be to decide the outcome of the presidential election, should the matter end up in the supreme court. and, with the president alongside her, the former appeals courtjudge pledged her independence from the political process. the oath that i have solemnly taken tonight means, at its core, that i will do myjob without any fear or favour, and that i will do so independently of both the political branches and of my own preferences. ruth bader ginsburg. but in taking the place of the liberaljustice ruth bader ginsburg, who died last month, she will change the political complexion of the nine—member court — possibly for decades to come.

amy coney barrett refused to be drawn on issues such as abortion, climate change, and gun control during her confirmation hearing, but few doubt her appointment could herald a new era of rulings on some of the key issues of american life. but the confirmation of a christian conservative to the us supreme court is undoubtedly a huge victory for donald trump. and regardless of its impact on the election, experts agree it could change the shape of american life long after he has left office. david willis, bbc news, los angeles. in just one week the us election will take place to decide whether donald trump remains president orjoe biden takes his place in the white house. four years ago, jon kay went on a road trip along route 45 meeting people along the way. in five days, he made his way through wisconsin, chicago, tennessee, mississippi and alabama. now, jon has been back in touch with some of the people he met to see how they‘ve been feeling

about life since then. milwaukee, four years ago, just after donald trump‘s victory. cheering. this place helped him win. ifeel you should be, like, square on top of it. and back then we met nancy here. it‘s time to get real. it‘s time to be a little risky. she told me at the time she‘d voted trump to shake up politics. trump makes a decision, he gets it done. hi, how are you? 0k. four years on, time to reconnect. i wish the american people either had more choices... she tells me she‘ll probably vote trump again for his policies, but she feels let down by the man himself. donald trump is somebody who potentially had the world in his hands. he‘s made people so disappointed in how he‘s conducting himself. we‘re just fighting over here. it‘s insane.

what is it about donald trump that has disappointed you? i think that a leader, personality, and their conduct and respect for the people will be taken on by the people. and i think he screwed that up. if he‘s going to stay in the white house, donald trump must hold on to wisconsin and the other states we visited on route 45 during our road trip four years ago. so can he still drum up the support he needs? steven and jared are now in college. first—time voters. when we met them four years ago, they were playing in their mississippi high—school band, and stephen was keen to support donald trump. i think some of his ideas are actually pretty great, and i think he actually can make america great again. after these four years of trump... i don't really support him that much. but now, stephen says trump has

caused too much division on issues like race and the environment. donald trump, representing the country as a whole hasn't really been. . .you know, the best. you have someone like joe biden who's, you know, maybe not the best president, but i think he can represent america better than donald trump can. when we filmed four years ago, the band was off to washington to play at president trump‘s inauguration. even then, jared wasn‘t so sure. i don't like him. you‘re about to go and play for him! i know but, like... i'm forced to play. i like washington and ijust, i don't like him. you were never a fan, i could tell that when we met. now a student in the swing state of florida, jared is also voting biden, but isn‘t overly enthusiastic. ithink i'mjust going to go with him.

and then, watching the debate, i mean, he's pretty... ..he's pretty solid, so i'm going tojust, you know, stick with him probably. how happy are you voting for biden, jared? i say, like, uh...50%. 50%, only 50%? yeah, 50%. four years ago, we also headed to washington — washington county, alabama. we‘re open, ladies, we‘re open for business. and at the food bank we met willean. these all for me? ..handing out parcels and singing the praises of donald trump. he‘s not afraid to go into poverty areas and talk to the people. i support him 100%. catching up again now, willean tells me that — like many in the bible belt — she‘s still devoted to trump and predicts a landslide next week. i think he‘s a god man and i think he‘s going to follow what god tells him to do. isjoe biden not a god man?

no. biden is a puppet. i can‘t stand the man. when we visited four years ago, we found poverty and a sense of powerlessness. and many voters told us they voted for donald trump to boost the economy. i can't believe that dude won. but back then, army veteran tyrone was horrified. i will never respect him as my president — no. he is untrustworthy. four years on, tyrone tells me he‘s lost friends to the pandemic, and he‘s angry. how important do you think covid will be as an issue in the way people vote this november? i believe it's going to be a big issue. a lot of lives could have been saved if the trump administration would have acted faster, and i think we could have saved a lot of lives.

so after four years, these voters have one thing in common — they‘re as divided at this election as they were at the last. john kay, bbc news. baroness doreen lawrence has set out 20 recommendations for the government to protect those most at risk from coronavirus and tackle inequality in the longer term, in a new report which was comissioned by labour leader sir keir starmer in april. the report said bame workers were more likely than white people to work in frontline jobs and come into contact with coronavirus. amongst her recommendations is an urgent plan that urges the government to implement a national strategy to tackle health inequalities. she spoke to our correspondent greg mckenzie earlier about why it is important to hear from voices from all backgrounds. what the report is aiming to achieve is to hear individual voices, to talk about their experience of covid in their working environment, as well as within the community.

for me, it was very important to make sure that we had a voice within the report, so that helps to structure how we see how the recommendation should go. and some of the findings you found, one nurse had said that she didn‘t want to go to work to die. i think for our interview... we did interviews right across the country, so we heard from teachers, the professions, people within the community, unions, so we had a broad perspective of people who are in the report. for me, it was interesting to hear the voices, which i think is so important, because without the voices it can‘t inform you as to where things are within the community, so that is one of the things i wanted to make sure. we have had so many different views and so many different reports have come out, unless you hear the voices, you don‘t really know what is happening up and down the country.

with me now is marsha de cordova, the labour shadow equalities secretary. thank you very much forjoining us. good afternoon. a government commissioned reportjust good afternoon. a government commissioned report just said good afternoon. a government commissioned reportjust said that structural racism is not a reasonable reason for second two people... it was that it was time to stop using it necessary when deciding who needs help in all of this. now here commissioned report today says structural racism is at play. how much of a factor do you believe racism is? thanks for having me this afternoon. covid has thrived on structural inequalities that have long been a scar on our society and we have seen that black and ethnic minority communities have been

disproportionately affected by this, and that is mainly down to them working on the front line and in many other shutdown sectors. they also experience discrimination in the workplace and in many cases are likely to live in overcrowded housing or poor quality housing. in terms of accessing health care, there are many other factors that contribute to this, so i absolutely do agree and a report has found that structural racism is a contributing factor to the disproportionate impact has had on our ethnic minority communities. how much does this report contribute to overall understanding and pragmatic positioning in terms of how to deal with the issues going forward when there is already the press disparity unit in numberten there is already the press disparity unit in number ten looking at this, producing quarterly reports and assessing all of the evidence on how

to cope with 19 has affected ethnic minority communities? what today? report has highlighted a sum of the disproportionate impact that the virus has had on our communities. we set out ten clear recommendations that the government can take in terms of immediate steps and actions that will ensure that people are protected as winter approaches. you have spoken about the race disparity unit that is already doing work, but last week there was the first progress update report into the virus and what we have seen from that report is just steps to gather more data, so more funding to help with public messaging and communications, what is really required is some concrete actions that will actually make a difference to the lives of those ethnic

minority communities that are being disproportionately impacted. then tell us what those concrete actions would be. what we have called for todayis would be. what we have called for today is a plan that would include ensuring that all workers, particularly those in high—risk environments, have access to adequate ppe. that is essential, because we have seen from the evidence we have gathered over this last period that many felt they were pushed onto the front line. sorry, just to quickly discuss each point that you make. on that about ppe, that you make. on that about ppe, that affects anybody working on the front line, doesn‘t it? that is not an ethnic issue. it will affect every person on the front line whether they are in the nhs were key workers, they are entitled to have adequate ppe, but what we have also found is that many gave us evidence

and share their experiences where they felt they were being pushed to they felt they were being pushed to the front without adequate pe —— ppe, that is why it has being called for. public health england had already highlighted a number of these factors being a contributory factor, being a fact about being pushed to the front line without adequate ppe. it is fundamental that thatis adequate ppe. it is fundamental that that is put in place to ensure that all workers are protected and in these days, the evidence would suggest that there are more black and ethnic minority workers working on the front line, so it is important that we know they are protected under front line. added important that we know they are protected underfront line. added to thatis protected underfront line. added to that is also ensuring that all employers make sure that they are carrying out and recording outcomes of risk assessments and what medications are being put in place for our workers, because it is also about ensuring that everybody is

protected in all workplaces, whether within the nhs or in any other working environment. these are vital protections to make sure that all workers are being protected. those are both steps that the government has taken? we need to ensure that this is happening. in relation to making it out legal requirement for employers to record risk assessments, it is not something that the government has put in place so we are that the government has put in place so we are calling for that is one of the recommendations. thank you very much forjoining us. thank you very much. the uk‘s mobile networks are to be forbidden from selling phones locked to their services from december 2021. the regulator ofcom said unlocking handsets could often be a complicated process and this was discouraging owners from switching providers at the end of their contracts. our business presenter ramzan karmali is with me. it is quite frustrating when you have a phone and you want to change

network and you probably have to pay around a tenner to get it unlocked, it isa around a tenner to get it unlocked, it is a bit ofa around a tenner to get it unlocked, it is a bit of a hassle. at the moment it affects the brands ee, vodafone and tesco mobile. if you have one of those fuji can change to another network without getting the phone unlocked. ofcom have said that it is unfair, people need to be able to switch easily from one provider to switch easily from one provider to the other. a lot of the time so people are stuck on those contracts to find it very difficult to move on to find it very difficult to move on toa to find it very difficult to move on to a better deal. they are saying that protect —— they are protecting the community by doing this. kate bevan is a tech expert from the consumer website which? kate, what is your reaction to this news? we think it is good news. we have been saying for a long time that a phone should not be sold lock toa that a phone should not be sold lock to a particular network. it is good news for consumers. already some of the phone providers are selling unlocked phones, so 02, sky, three

and virgin are already selling unlocked phones. why have the others dawdled here? i think it is because it makes it just... dawdled here? i think it is because it makes itjust... edges puts a little bit more friction into moving providers. itjust little bit more friction into moving providers. it just makes little bit more friction into moving providers. itjust makes it a little bit more difficult to find a better deal. it produces more friction and they are not keen to remove friction. since ofcom, architect, vodafone and ee have both said they will comply with the new guidelines. why are we waiting until december 2021, why is this happening right now? it seems a long way away. 2021, why is this happening right now? it seems a long way awaylj imagine because it probably takes time to rule out the hard —— hardware and software changes. it just takes time to get that through the system, i imagine that is the reason. for consumers, they should be able to switch more easily. at the moment a lot of consumers don‘t realise they even have locked

phones, is that a problem you guys hear a lot about? yeah, we have been talking about this problem for a while. it also means that people don't often check to see at they are paying for a full day already have —— have paying for a full day already have — — have already paying for a full day already have —— have already paid for. you always need to ask your provider if you are still paying for the phone. it is taking away a bit of a barrier, making it easier for the consumer to ta ke making it easier for the consumer to take back the power and get better deals for themselves. that is the business. earlier this year, we covered the story of single dad samuel and his two sons. they spent lockdown in their small one bedroomed flat in bristol with nowhere to play outside. two viewers were so moved by samuel‘s story, they offered the family a free stay at their holiday park in devon. fiona lamdin reports. it‘s like rabbits in a hutch —

we‘re all cooped up. there‘s not that much we can do — cos we‘re just in a one—bedroom. when we first met single dad samuel... when we go in the lifts, what do we do? we spray. ..it was six months ago, when the country was in full lockdown. if you could pan around and see the walls, they‘ve turned into graffiti artists! some good, some bad. samuel and his two boys — six—year—old lysander and three—year—old denuel — share this one—bedroom flat on the 15th floor. i‘ll tell you about some of the things in the block. we‘ve had neighbours having to go at each other when they‘re so tightly close together. we‘ve had arguments — heated arguments — heated arguments in the laundry! and it was a big bust up in there the other day, as well. yeah, it‘s all due to lockdown. people being together so much. with nearby parks closed and the lifts often broken, this family would spend 23 hours in here. but after months of being inside,

today they‘re off. holiday! go on, then. 100 miles away to north devon. ken and sheila — bbc breakfast viewers — wanted to give samuel and his boys a break, so they offered them their home in devon. we saw your piece that you did on samuel, about him living on the 15th floor of a block of flats and trying to, you know, get the children not to touch the inside of the lift in case they picked up the virus. and it was that that really made me think. took you back to when you were... yeah. ..little. i lived in east london in a block of flats. i thought, if we could get him down here to north devon, you know, they've got the best beaches. we got all countryside, lots of place. so you can run round here, there's room. and for the next week, it‘ll be all theirs to explore.

oh, it‘s lovely. the boys are enjoying themselves. i know we‘ve only been here for an hour or so, but they‘re really enjoying themselves. i don‘t know, i can‘t find the words. it‘s just. . . overwhelming. just to see them doing what they‘re doing now. 12 steps from one side of the room to the other and probably eight or ten width wise, but here — look. just run wild. beautiful. look at them — loving it. as we head towards a winter full of unknowns, for this family, this space and this freedom feels all the more precious. fiona lamdin, bbc news. new york‘s metropolitan museum of art is marking its 150th anniversary. as part of the celebrations it‘s putting on an exhibition about the changing nature of fashion.

‘about time: fashion and duration‘ explores the idea that design can be both linear and cyclical. the bbc‘s tim allman explains. in the world of fashion, everything is new and everything stays the same. look at these dresses. some of them are more than 100 years old. some are much more recent. this giant pendulum represents the passage of time and the evolution of design. instead of staging a masterworks show, we wanted to, in a way, i suppose have a show that is a meditation on temporality and fashion, in a way. archive: what could be smarter than this dress with diamante effect on collar and cuffs and a pleated skirt? artistically designed, it costs only £3, 17 and six.

fashion is and always has been a hugely important and lucrative business. it has fascinated men and women throughout the decades. almost all the dresses here are in black to emphasise the change in silhouette, paying tribute to the famous and not so famous. part of the show is also looking at designers, well—known designers like galliano and issey miyake, but less designers who have been sort of written out of fashion history because they‘re not so well—known and they didn‘t maintain their business. who else do you invite to a show like this than anna wintour, editor in chief at vogue? the exhibition runs until early next year, showcasing the spectacular, the unusual and the timeless. they were childhood friends and the ultimate ‘80s girl group, but since lockdown, sarah dallin and keren woodward have formed their very own "bananarama bubble".

instead of the planned tour, the pop superstars behind hits like ‘venus‘ and ‘really saying something‘ used the time to write their autobiography. they have taken our entertainment correspondent colin paterson back to one of their old stomping grounds. ta—da! here we are. it‘s been a while. bananarama. oh, it‘s still got the squeaky floor. back at london‘s pineapple dance studios. all the classics were rehearsed here. i heard a rumour, love in the first degree... did we do venus here? i think we may. i forgot. i‘ve got a bad arm. # i‘m your venus. # i‘m yourfire. # yourdesire...#. this trip down memory lane is because bananarama used lockdown to write their autobiography. you have actually been bubbling during lockdown? we‘ve been bubbling since lockdown, yeah. how‘s it been for you? great! great, actually, yeah. really good.

yeah, i mean, it made sense because of the book and the fact we‘re best mates anyway. so while everyone else was doing box sets and jigsaws, bananarama were writing away? yes, absolutely. # it ain‘t what you do, it‘s the way that you do it. # it ain‘t what you do it‘s the way that you do it. # that‘s what gets results #. it was 1981 when bananarama first shuffled onto top of the pops. keren and sarah have been the two constants in the band ever since. writing the book has allowed them to think about their contribution to pop history. there were moments where i got quite emotional. like, i think writing the book for me brought a real sense of achievement. that maybe i wasn‘t as proud of myself as i should have been. # he was really saying something...#. there were so few girl groups around at the time, that i think that‘s probably why we sort of stuck out as something different.

yeah, we've worked hard and i think we deserve our place in pop history. you don‘t want to go on and on about how hard it is for women, but it is harderfor women. it‘s harder to get respect. but looking back, you realise what a battle it actually was. # it‘s a cruel, cruel summer. # leaving me here on my own. # it‘s a cruel...# now it‘s time for a look at the weather with matt. the weather is coming... hello, they are. there is some pretty lively weather out in the north atlantic at the moment. this is the remnants of hurricane epsilon whipping up some incredible seas. that is sent to the north—west of us, but it will have an influence on

our weather. it is pushed of rain from the south—west up to the north—east, becoming confined to the north—east, becoming confined to the north—east of scotland by the evening. after some late afternoon sunshine elsewhere, showers are pushing to the south and west. this evening it will be on the cool site, temperatures dipping to single figures. overnight the more persistent and remains in the north—east of scotland. clear skies and showers elsewhere. the clearest of the skies, the coldest conditions the furthest east you are. further west, not quite as chilly because of the breeze and the showers will be frequent into tomorrow. tomorrow will be a day of sunshine and blustery showers, some of the shower is happy with hail and thunder. we will see some pretty rough seas around his atlantic coast of great britain and western ireland, to the west of ireland in particular we could see the way stock ten metres in height, that is over 35 feet. showers most frequent across western and southern most areas through wednesday. we could see them ganging

into longer spells of rain and southern parts of england and wales. the east will stay largely dry, blustery day for all and a very cool one. you can start a wednesday night. showers most frequent in the west of scotland. they will be replaced by more persistent re—entry into thursday. here it comes pressure chart. running around that area of low pressure in the north atlantic, it will bring persistent rain across western errors during the day. dressed for the longest in the day. dressed for the longest in the north—east of scotland. brightening up towards the south—west later. overall, a fairly cloudy day. the wimple coming from the south—west, which could touch gill first time to around the coast. a mild night will follow, some of the night time temperatures higher than we would normally see by day at this time of year. the risk of flooding in wales. 18 or 19 degrees as possible in london. blustery and

the south—east. the remnants of another hurricane could bring us more wet and windy weather over the weekend.

eight million people face the highest covid restrictions — more than 50 mps write to boris johnson over the north/south divide having put their areas into lockdown — the mps want to know how he plans to get them out of it we are asking people to give up huge civil liberties, businesses to close, people to live on two thirds of their normal wages. i don‘t think it‘s unreasonable to say that the other side of that coin should be show us the way out. we want to build back better across the north of england. we‘ll be getting the latest — as warrington becomes the latest area to go into tier 3. also this lunchtime... think catching coronavirus once means you can‘t catch it again? the latest research suggests you may need to think again as the presidential election campaign enters its final days — the focus turns to the key swing states set to determine