very good this year. it says there's been a surge in demand for traditional selection boxes to be used at home. in 2020, the moments of brightness have been rare. those planning to have fun and with fireworks are being urged more than ever to do so safely. tim muffett, bbc news. time for a look at the weather. any plans for november the 5th. i was expecting a bit of a sparkle from you, simon. looking at the satellite picture, a of cloud across the central portion and some across the central portion and some across the north. at the temperatures will be vastly different different. 10 degrees in parts of devon but in northern scotland it will be more

warmer with 16 degrees, 7 degrees above normal. the reason we are seeing the differences comes to where the air started off at the start of the month. this cold air across southern england sat across canada, where is this air across northern scotland were sat across the bahamas at the start of the month. that is why the temperature is also different. a lot of difference in the weather from place to place. early mist and fog clearing away with sunshine coming out. the central suede stays cloudy and taking a fort‘s bit of rain across the hills. but it it is the north—east of scotland, the northern highlands and the mariko seeing 16 degrees. overnight, it stays cloudy across northern areas and the air stays relatively mild here. temperature is about six or 7 degrees, it eight in places. further south some frost patches and a few dense patches of fog around. as the breeze picks up quickly across southern areas breeze picks up quickly across southern areas on breeze picks up quickly across southern areas on friday morning, the fog will likely lift until a

cloud which will disperse some sunshine eventually coming out as we go on through the day. further north in scotland, it will be cooler and cloudy and mild air is getting blown away northwards. temperatures dropping, about 12 degrees also in aberdeen compared with the 15 or 16 this afternoon. into the weekend, we have got some cloudy weather spreading up from the south with a bit of rain to come as well. it will be turning milder progressively from the south as well. the milder air reaching across england and wales on saturday, boosting temperatures. they could be rain across western areas, brighter skies perhaps in the north. the temperatures in scotland are nothing to write home about, just about 7 degrees in the central belt. into sunday, the cloud around and the chance of more rain dotted around the uk as well. at the temperatures will continue to live. about 11 degrees through the central belt, 13 to belfast on up to around 15 or 16 for southern part of

england and wales. their mixture of weather to come over the next few days but the weather turning milder as we head into the weekend. chris fawkes, nice guy. a reminder of our top story... chancellor extends the fellow scheme until march. the chancellor says the priority is to protectjobs and livelihoods. the fellow scheme was designed and delivered by the government of the united kingdom on behalf of all the people of the united kingdom where ever they live. that's all from the bbc news at one. so it's goodbye from me, and on bbc one we nowjoin the bbc‘s good afternoon, it's 1.30pm, and here's your latest sports news. the pressure is increasing

on manchester united manager ole gunnar solskjaer after abject defending contribued to a champions league defeat at turkish champions istanbul basa ksehir last night. united started by gifting their opponents a bizarre opening goal. according to united's manager, his players forgot about the istanbul striker demba ba, in the bright orange shirt during this corner, and the former newcastle player has a free run on goal. it ended 2—1 to the turkish champions. the defeat is another blow for manager solskjaer, with united also struggling in the premier league. it's early on. and opinions are out there all the time. you've got to stay strong. i'm employed by the club to do a job and i do that to the best of my ability with our staff. the pressure is growing on him. well, former manchester united striker dion dublin was highly

critical of solskjaer‘s side. speaking to bbc radio 5 live he said the performance was "embarassing". it was really, really poor from united and no one has taken response ability from it on the pitch and no one shouting and telling each other off, ijust did not see any responsibility via actions and this is at manchester united in europe, you know? i have not seen a performance like this in the first half for a long time and i have seen some bad ones from man united recently, this was really poor. they got outplayed, out muscled, out everything. onto today's action. the europa league returns this evening with celtic, rangers, arsenal, leicester and tottenham all in action. ahead of spurs' trip to bulgaria to play ludogorets, their manager jose mourinho has been defending striker harry kane. there have been some suggestions that kane dived to win a penalty against brighton in the premier league last weekend, but mourinho has refuted that. there is no more story.

what are they speaking about us? speak about liverpool, speak about man city, speak about man united, speak about these penalties that you see the clever guy that comes near somebody and blows and... they're on the floor. do not speak about harry kane. when i say my team has to be ready to compete, i am not speaking about that. gareth bale is back in the wales squad for three matches later this month. bale suffered a knee injury during wales' win over bulgaria in september, but has built up his fitness sincejoining tottenham on loan. wales play the usa in a friendly next thursday, before hosting the republic of ireland and finland in two nations league matches on the 15th and 18th. british cyclist ian stannard has been forced to retire from professional racing due to rheumatoid arthritis. stannard has been with the ineos grenadiers team since its launch in 2010. he's a former national champion, and ends his racing career with seven wins, including two at the tour of britain.

he was also a key member of five grand tour winning lineups. england's sophie ecclestone starred in the women's t20 challenge in the uae. she proved why she's the world's number one t20 bowler, taking four wickets for her side trailblazers in what is the women's version of the ipl. her opponents, velocity, who compatriot danni wyatt plays for, could only manage 47 runs from their 20 overs. a total that traiblazers made light work of chasing, finishing with a six to win easily by nine wickets. that is all that the sport. i'll have more for you in the next hour. thank you very much. chancellor rishi sunak has today confirmed that the government's furlough scheme will be extended until the end of march. it comes after days of wrangling over the scope and duration of furlough, which was due to end on october 31st, but has been extended to cover the new four—week lockdown. mr sunak said the scheme will pay

for up to 80% of a person's wage up to £2,500 a month. he made the announcement in the house of commons. so, we can announce today that the furlough scheme will not be extended for one month, it will be extended until the end of march. the government will continue to help pay people's wages, up to 80% of the normal amount, all employers will have to pay for hours not worked is the cost of employer nics and pension contributions. we will review the policy in january to decide whether economic circumstances are improving enough to ask employers to contribute more. of course, as the furlough itself is now being extended to the end of march, the original purpose of thejob retention bonus, to incentivise employers to keep people in work until the end of january, obviously falls away. instead, we will redeploy a retention incentive at the appropriate time. and for self—employed people, i can confirm that the next income

support grant, which covers the period november to january, will now increase to 80% of average profits, up to £7,500. mr speaker, i also want to reassure the people of scotland, wales and northern ireland. the furlough scheme was designed and delivered by the government of the united kingdom on behalf of all the people of the united kingdom wherever they live. that has been the case since march, it is the case now, and will remain the case until next march. it is a demonstration of the strength of the union and an undeniable truth of this crisis we have only been able to provide this level of economic support because we are a united kingdom. and i can announce today that the upfront guaranteed funding for the devolved administrations is increasing from £14 billion to £16

billion. this treasury is, has been and will always be the treasury for the whole of the united kingdom. mr speaker, i know that people watching at home will have been frustrated by the changes the government has brought in during the past few weeks. i have had to make rapid adjustments to our economic plans as the spread of the virus has accelerated. so i would like to take this opportunity to explain how and why this has happened. during the summer as we began slowly unlocking, it was our hope that the country would continue to be economically open, albeit with local restrictions being put in place as and when needed. we knew there would likely be a resurgence in the spread of the virus, but with increased nhs capacity and test and trace, our belief was we would be able to stay ahead of the virus.

on this basis, we designed an economic approach which continued providing wage support to people, incentivised businesses to retain staff beyond the end of the furlough scheme, and created newjob creation and training schemes such as kick—start. all built to support an economy that was broadly open, but operating with restrictions and overall lower demand. at the time, this approach was not government acting alone, our proposals secured wide—ranging support from the tuc to the cbi. it was their hope, as it was ours, that the public health situation would allow us to keep businesses and workplaces open. the virus, however, continued to spread. localised restrictions were having an impact, and so we intensified this approach and added further areas. as these restrictions intensified, the economic impact, particularly on industries such

as the hospitality sector, was significant. so, in response, we altered our approach to wage support making it much more generous to employers and in turn protecting jobs. we also introduced a range of grants to businesses, whether open or closed, to help them meet their fixed costs. and additional funding for local authorities to respond to specific local economic challenges. but again, the virus continued to spread. but more quickly. and so we arrive at last week when the government's scientific and medical advisers presented data which showed that r is greater than one in all parts of the country, that the nhs was at risk of being overwhelmed in a matter of weeks and the likely result of the loss of life that would accompany such an event. the only viable solution left to protect our nhs was the reimposition of temporary significant enhanced

restrictions in england in addition to those in wales, northern ireland and scotland. and so, given these changed public health restrictions and the economic trauma they would cause in job losses and business closures, i felt it best to extend the furlough scheme rather than transition at that precise moment to the newjob support scheme. now, political opponents have chosen to attack the government for trying to keep the economy functioning and to make sure the support we provide encourages people to keep working. and they will now no doubt criticise the government on the basis we have had to change our approach. but to anyone in the real world, that is just the thing you have to do when the circumstances change. we all hope for the best, but make sure we plan for any eventuality. we can reintroduce the furlough now only because we kept the system on which it is based operational,

because there was always the possibility that we would be back in this situation. i will leave it to the people of this country to decide whether they believe the government is trying its best to support people through an unprecedented crisis, to decide whether it is a good or bad thing to alter our economic plans as the health restrictions we face change. what i know is that the support we are providing will protect millions ofjobs. what i know is that it is never wrong to convey confidence in this country in our economy through our words and action. and what i know is today's announcement will give people and businesses up and down our country immense comfort over what will be a difficult winter. and i commend this statement to the house.

the shadow chancellor, annaliese dodds, said the government has failed to offer certainty to businesses and the chancellor himself has always been one step behind. businesses and workers have been pleading for certainty from this government, but the chancellor keeps ignoring them until the last possible moment afterjobs have been lost and businesses have gone bust. the national lockdown was announced on saturday. many weeks after both sage and labour called for a circuit breaker. the chancellor ridiculed those proposals for a shorter, more effective a circuit breaker as a blunt instrument. just a moment ago, he argued that it was only last week when the government's scientific and medical advisers presented data showing that nhs was at risk of being overwhelmed. sage presented that evidence, mr speaker, on the 23rd 21st of september, so i will give him the chance now to correct

the record and state that actually the record and state that actually the government knew about that evidence that many weeks ago, rather than last week. he can intervene on me if you want to write the record. he has not done that. that delay in implementing the measures, we know has cost livelihoods and lives. let's get more on the economic impact of the second national lockdown in england. i think some businesses are feeling a bit of deja vu, like many of us are. if you walk down a high street today, you will see what this new lockdown looks like and it looks like what we saw in april. lots of shops have closed, fewer people out and about because they cannot go in to these shops and what does that mean for businesses? that means less revenue, because there is, as i said, fewer people going in to buy things and they might make some headway from online sales, but some businesses are very worried that

that will not be the case. one business that is particularly worried is the managing director of j°j° worried is the managing director of jojo maman bebe. thank you so much for coming on. how are you feeling about this new lockdown on the impact it could have on your business? high. obviously, our teams atjojo are really business? high. obviously, our teams at jojo are really despondent by the state is not done. since july when we reopened, we have been trading our store is. —— despondent by the state of this lockdown. nonetheless, we have been there as part of our communities to offer support and advice to pregnant women and new parents and we find that our teams are really depressed, because they know our customers want us to stay open, we want to stay open, they do not want to go home and be a burden on the taxpayer. we do not want to

ta ke on the taxpayer. we do not want to take the furlough scheme. we want to continue trading and offering that service to our local community residents. our stores are aware our customers live, so it is not a matter of having to drive out to them. it is on at their walk to the park, we specifically chose those locations to be amongst communities of young families. sol locations to be amongst communities of young families. so i think this is... ourteams are of young families. so i think this is... our teams are very despondent, it isa is... our teams are very despondent, it is a real shame. what would you say to the argument that the government is making that this is about everybody‘s health, about not putting people in danger of catching coronavirus? i absolutely agree that we have to do everything sensible to stop the march of the pandemic and in the first lockdown, we closed our stores, we did everything we could, but nowadays we know a lot more about this disease. we do note that it is not as dangerous for certain

members of society. we do know that if you are managing your store carefully, we only have one or two customers in a store at a time, we are obviously not going to have our christmas shopping events or anything else that would drive a large numberto anything else that would drive a large number to the store. just think about it from a support level, there is a new parents, pregnant women, who have now been through, in some cases their entire pregnancy, without anyone supporting them, even the health visitors are doing sumo calls, i do not know any of the parents out there that remember what it was like the first time you have a baby, how much advice and information you want to gather, you wa nt information you want to gather, you want that human support. our stores are that place to go for empathy and support. we can do it over the phone is, but of course every time we close our stores, experts massive pressure on our delivery services, warehouse, customer service team and it is very difficult to get through on the phones when we close our stores, whereas we are that

community place to go for pregnancy and new baby advice. your first shoes for your baby, you want to have them properly fitted etc. those things cannot be done online and yes, we want to stay safe and our stores have been safe. since we reopened, we have not had a single case of covid in our stores, we have ke pt case of covid in our stores, we have kept them say. i think when off—licences and chocolate shops can stay open, surely specialist mother and baby stores should be included in that essential retail? ok, thanks laura, making your case are very strongly and obviously feeling very passionately about how these stores are essential for new mums and some people will be thinking, are the essential? are they a necessity? but asi essential? are they a necessity? but as i said, you made that argument very well. as i was saying, martin, lots of businesses in a similar position and we had the prime minister tell the cbi yesterday that

these restrictions will only stay in place until the 2nd of december, but from people i have been speaking to, there is concern whether that will remain the case and obviously all eyes will be on the chancellor this morning to see what he is going to announce about the state of our economy and how he is going to act going forward. the scotland first minister nicola sturgeon has given an update on the coronavirus situation. she said scotland has recorded 39 coronavirus deaths and 1,216 positive tests in the previous 2a hours. addressing the scottish parliament, ms sturgeon also gave her reaction to the chancellor's new furlough announcement. on furlough, i haven't had the opportunity to see the detail of the chancellor's announcement. i hope it is an announcement that we will be able to unreservedly welcome. and certainly if it is about the extension of furlough on 80% terms, then we will do so. the acid test on this will be whether somebody, whether in scotland, england, wales or northern ireland who is on 80% furlough nowjust because england is in a full

national lockdown will continue to be on 80% furlough once england is out of a full national lockdown. that will be the acid test, and the detail that i am looking for. unfortunately, because many businesses and workers expected the furlough...the existing furlough scheme to end at the end of october, and i know people in this circumstance, we all know people in this circumstance, made people redundant. i know people who put businesses into liquidation because they did not think furlough was going to be extended. and i think that is deeply regrettable. we should have had the ongoing assurance of 80% furlough from the chancellor all along. we will work with trade unions, workers, businesses to try to help as much as we can everybody who is eligible for furlough, on the terms that i hope now are being extended on, to access that as effectively as they possibly can.

the nhs test and trace system reached just under 60% of the contacts of people who tested positive for covid—19 in england in the week ending the 28th of october. that's the lowest weekly percentage since test and trace was launched at the end of may. our head of statistics, robert cuffe, gave us more details. we have seen a slight improvement this week, just over a quarter of tests that were conducted in person, soa tests that were conducted in person, so a walking or driving site, came back within 2a hours. it was just under a quarter last week. that is higher than the low point, so it is moving in the right direction, but it was kind of closer to 90, above 90%, injune, so they are still not coming through as quick as many people are asking that they should. i should say of course we focus on this 24—hour turnaround time a lot. the government prepares to talk about people getting the results the next day. —— prefers to talk. that is also moving in the right direction for dot last week it was probably about half coming back the

day after you took your test and this week it is just after 60%. so there is a sign that some of the extra capacity that was added into the testing in the last week of october it's playing into the figures, but still not evidence it is reaching the high levels we were out in the summer when demand was much lower. a month ago, there were just under 100,000 contacts needed to be traced and now it is over 300,000. so the number of people being traced has changed a lot, but the performance of the system has not really changed and that is what has been coming under a lot of criticism, because it test and trace system diverted from sage a few weeks ago and said it was having a marginal impact on transmission. for that to change, the performance needs to improve radically. are still reaching around four and five of all of the people who have coronavirus and asking them about contacts and then if they are given

the name of somebody to follow, they reach almost everyone if it is an outbreak and they reach only about 60% of people of the contacts of people are tested in the community and that 60% —ish figure has been pretty steady. part of the business they have not given the contact details of the contacts and part of the region as they are not reaching them. so it is hard to see the big improvements, where they are coming from, if it is going to have a bigger impact on transmission over the course of the next few weeks. now it's time for a look at the weather with chris fawkes. hello there. we've got a real mixture of weather to take us through the rest of this afternoon. now, for england and wales, we did see a few mist and fog patches dotted around this morning. most of those weren't particularly thick, so tending to clear and lift out of the way to give some sunny skies. and similar across the south, we have already seen some sunshine this morning. now, across the central swathe of the uk, a lot of cloud,

thick enough to give an odd spot of drizzle in northern england. into scotland, the clouds breaking across the north east. and in aboyne in aberdeenshire, it has become quite warm for the time of year, we have already seen temperatures reaching 15 degrees, and we could see highs around 15 or 16. now, the air is warmer across northern scotland because at the start of the month, it actually was sitting across the bahamas. whereas the air across england and wales at the start of the month was over in canada. that is why it is warm across the north of the uk and we have those cooler conditions in the south. now, looking at the weather picture as we go through this evening and overnight, again we are expecting some mist and fog patches to form, particularly across england and wales. maybe one or two further north, but by and large, the air is going to continue to be a little bit milder across scotland, northern ireland and the far north of england. still the chance of seeing some frost patches further south. now, for friday, high pressure is still with us, but it is starting to slip away. the winds starting to strengthen and turn more to a south—easterly direction. and that will probably mean that the fog patches tend to clear pretty quickly across south—east

england, but they may well clear and lift into low cloud which could lingerfor a time before that, in turn, breaks up. probably quite cloudy, i think, in scotland, but the best of the sunshine as we go through the day further south across england and wales. temperatures between 10 and 13 degrees, so notice it will be turning that bit fresher and cooler in scotland. now, looking at the weather picture into the weekend, it will be generally pretty cloudy, and there will be some rain at times this weekend. eventually, it will turn milderfrom the south. now, on saturday, we will probably see the milder air arrive across a good part of england and wales with temperatures peaking at around 16 degrees. but notice it is quite cool really across parts of scotland, highs of 7 degrees or so in glasgow. it looks like there will be some rain at times this weekend, with probably the wettest weather around on sunday. but there is some uncertainty about where the heaviest rain will be. there will be a lot of cloud, those temperatures begin to edge upwards a little bit further north. highs again of16.

this is bbc news i'm simon mccoy. the headlines at two... the chancellor extends the furlough scheme until the end of march — the government will continue paying 80% of wages. the furlough scheme was designed and delivered by the government of the united kingdom on behalf of all the people of the united kingdom wherever they live. joe biden edges closer to victory in the us presidential election — all eyes on a handful of key battleground states. i'm not here to declare that we've won, but i am here to report, when the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners. a new four—week lockdown begins in england — with police saying they won't tolerate people breaking the rules. our offices and others will be out there and if people are not abiding