to ensure that young straightaway, to ensure that young players learn a safe, low tackle technique, wejust need players learn a safe, low tackle technique, we just need to try to make the game safer and safer. while those in charge look to the future and the next world cup, the grim reality that some stars of the recent past are struggling is casting a lingering shadow over by casting a lingering shadow over rugby union. time for a look at the weather. here's sarah keith lucas. thanks, simon. a mild and unsettled speu thanks, simon. a mild and unsettled spell of mid—december weather is set to continue. we have lots of views like this, sunshine and showers, plenty of rainbows. that will be the story to the rest of the day, still u nsettled, story to the rest of the day, still unsettled, some brighton centre spells but some heavy showers moving on the breeze and there is more wind and rain in the forecast over the next couple of days, no letter to this unsettled spell. over the past

few relatively look at the radar and satellite you can see where the showers have been filtering in, particularly frequent in the match, so particularly frequent in the match, so to northern ireland, wales, southern england and south—west scotland, thierno ballo showers, table head north antrim. many places about them but if you catch one, there could rumble of thunder —— seeing the odd showers, they will head further north. temperatures of about eight to 12, certainly above—average. some showers across scotla nd above—average. some showers across scotland this evening, many places dry before the next area of rain arrives from the west overnight. turning wet and windy biped thing tomorrow, particularly for the south—west of england, wales, north—west england, south—west scotla nd north—west england, south—west scotland and northern ireland. starting wet and windy down to this area of low pressure, that tracks slowly eastwards tomorrow, bringing the wind and rain gradually eastwards a cross

the wind and rain gradually eastwards across the uk. for east anglia and the south—east you should stay mostly try eight is part of the day, turning breezy, a retentive sunshine for the west and blustery showers —— for east anglia and the south—east, you should stay mostly dry. when the other to 60 mph unexposed i wish the coasts, further east, gusts of around 30 mph. —— unexposed irish coasts. with outbreaks of rain and wind—chill it will feel cool about those temperatures look. sunshine around on thursday, some scattered showers, then the next area of rain arrives from the atlantic, bringing cloud, rain and strengthening winds. further east, staying dry, still mild, temperatures around 9012 degrees. still mild and unsettled on friday, scattered showers through

the weekend and things turning cooler towards the festive break. a reminder of our top story... pressure mounts for a rethink of plans for easing covid restrictions at christmas. that's all from the bbc news at one, so it's goodbye from me, and on bbc one we nowjoin the bbc‘s news teams where you are. good afternoon. it's 1.33pm and here's your latest sports news. with the new restrictions putting london into a higher tier, that means no more spectators at the world darts championship after tonight. plans for 1,000 fans to attend the remainder of the tournament at alexandra palace have had to be scrapped at the last minute, with the capital moving into tier 3. chairman of the professional darts corporation, barry hearn, says it's a huge blow. i'm gutted to lose the fans

because they are an integral part of live sport, there is no doubt. no more so than at the world darts championships, which, as you know, starts today. creates a brilliant atmosphere. but these are unusual times and we have to do the bestjob we can. as usual with us, whatever happens, we carry on. so without fans, the event continues, but behind closed doors, and we keep our fingers crossed that, on the next review day, on the 23rd of december, perhaps we can go back to where we thought we were today. rangers manager steven gerrard says he's finding the death of his former boss at liverpool gerard houllier very difficult to take. houllier gave gerrard his liverpool debut in 1998, and made him captain five years later. debut in 1998, and made him he debut in 1998, and made him was a special man, a a he was a special man, a caring man, a loving man, more thanjust a manager. he did an incrediblejob for me in terms of where i was at

from an age and also as a player. gerard was at the forefront of that in terms of shaping me into a better player, into a better person, a better leader. i have an awful lot to thank the man for and i'm finding it really ha rd to thank the man for and i'm finding it really hard to come to terms with right now. it really hard to come to terms with right now. arsenal have all sorts of problems at the moment — but granit xhaka isn't one of them, according to manager mikel arteta, who says he still has a future at the club. they're 15th in the premier league after their worst start to a season for 46 years and there's speculation linking the swiss midfielder with a move in the january transfer window. he was sent off in their home defeat to burnley on sunday, having previously had a rocky relationship with the club's fanbase. arteta maintains that xhaka's professionalism should not be questioned he knows and we all know that he had a moment where he has lost it and i know the reason why, but what i

cannot do is just through everything that he has done away because he has made a mistake, we all make mistakes, and i am here as well to protect the players when i see that they deserve that and for sure granit is one of them. the former yorkshire bowler azeem rafiq has filed a legal complaint against the club under the equality act, following his allegations of institutional racism at the club. rafiq played for the county for ten years until 2018, and he first spoke out in august, saying the incidents had left him close to taking his own life. in response, yorkshire commissioned an independent investigation into his allegations. rafiq claims he suffered "direct discrimination and harassment on the grounds of race". posing for a selfie proved costly for england's new call—up dan lawrence and brisbane heat captain chris lynn. they've been fined over £5,000 each for breaching their big bash bio—bubble after agreeing to a photograph with a fan.

in today's game, we saw the new x—factor substitutes rule used for the first time. england spinner danny briggs was among them, replaced after he conceded 15 runs in his only over for adelaide strikers against hobart hurricanes. there was already a far better bowler on the pitch, former australia paceman peter siddle, who took 5—16 — his best figures in t20 cricket. the hurricanes were all out for 146 and the strikers had no trouble in chasing down their target, winning by five wickets. that's all the sport for now, but website there's more on the bbc sport website, including today's premier league news conferences and build—up to tonight's games. more from me throughout the afternoon. the british medicaljournal and health servicejournal have made a joint call for christmas guidelines to be tightened to avoid excessive pressure building on the nhs.

at the moment, across the uk from the 23rd of december three households will be able to form a christmas bubble until the 27th. the journals say, "with the number of hospital patients with covid—19 again on the rise, and a third wave almost inevitable, the new year is likely to see nhs trusts facing a stark choice — be overwhelmed or stop most elective and non—urgent work". so what are the rules across the uk for the christmas period 7 three households can form a ‘christmas bubble' from 23rd december to the 27th, but that's limited to eight people in scotland, not including children under 12, and there are two extra days in northern ireland. they can mix indoors in private homes, which includes overnight stays. no travel restrictions are in place in the five—day period. you can't go to a pub or restaurant with your bubble. if you have coronavirus sysmptoms or are self—isolating, you cannotjoin a bubble. you can meet people outside your christmas bubble outdoors,

but only in line with rules of the tier where you staying. keir starmer has demanded an urgent review of the relaxation of covid rules over christmas and has asked foran rules over christmas and has asked for an urgent meeting of the cobra committee to review the situation. michael gove, he is meeting over the phone with leaders of the devolved administrations, so we will keep a rise of the developments in that story. it looks like there is some sort of movement. a generation of children and young people risk worsening health and shorter lives post covid—19 pandemic. that's according to professor sir michael marmot, director of the ucl institute of health equity in his new landmark report, published today. the build back fairer report says that despite england having a higher excess death rate than any other european country, the pandemic containment measures like lockdowns,

the tier systems and social isolation have harmed children and young people's well—being and has damaged everyone's prospect for better long—term health. sir michael marmot, professor of epidemiology from university college london, explained a little earlier how the pandemic has seen inequality in society worsen. coming into the pandemic, we had high rates of child poverty. in britain we had closed 1,000 sure start children's centres over the last ten years, so the situation for young children was not good coming in. then, of course, the poor response to the pandemic nationally meant that coming in out of severity of lockdown was a necessity, unfortunately, and that harmed poorer children more. we saw for young children, if parents couldn't work from home and schools and early years settings were closed, the poorer

children fell behind in preschool development. and because early years settings were closed, they were not getting the input. the children who continued with early years settings did get input and they continued to flourish. with education, we saw an opening up of the educational divide. in the first lockdown, when the schools closed, the evidence shows clearly that children in more disadvantaged areas fell behind much more than did children in less disadvantaged areas, so the educational divide opened up. and then food insecurity. people literally couldn't afford to feed their children. it took a young footballer to get the nation aware of this problem. but all of those things are damaging the lives of children and will continue to do so in the future unless we take the urgent action needed.

that's the interesting part i want to talk to you more about, the ongoing damage that you believe there will be because it is obvious these things have an immediate impact, but you talk about the long—term, including shorter lives. why do you believe that would be so? our analysis show, and the report be published in february this year supported it, that good health through the life course starts at the beginning of life — at birth... infact, pre—conception, pre—birth, at birth, and the early years are critical. children who flourish in the early years and have higher readiness for school do better in the school system. children who do better in the school system are more likely to get training, qualifications, get a betterjob, higher income, live in better circumstances and have healthier lives. it all starts in those early years.

so focusing on the early years and education can make a real difference to lifelong health and health inequalities. it's this cohort that's been scarred by the pandemic, they remain scarred and if we don't take the remedial action it will damage their life chances throughout the rest of their lives. the headlines on bbc news: the labour leader adds his voice to calls for christmas coronavirus guidelines to be tightened, amid worries a relaxation of the rules will case a surge in covid cases. a council in south—east london has said it will comply with a government demand and withdraw a letter ordering all its schools to close and move to online teaching. hospitality and retail sectors are the hardest hit, as a record number of people are made redundant and unemployment continues to rise.

now it's time for your questions answered. my colleaguejoanna gosling puts your questions to the experts on the move into the toughest covid restrictions for millions of people in england plus the discovery of a new variant of coronavirus. we can talk now to dr naomi forrester—soto, a virologist at keele university. i'm also joined by professor robert west, professor of health psychology at university college london and a member of the sage subcommittee on behaviour. we have lots of questions to get through, so if i could ask you to be relatively concise we can get in as many we can. coming to you first, naomi, paul asked where did the new genetic covid variant originate and how was it detected? that is a really good question. what we don't know at the moment is where it originated.

we just know that it is around. we don't know if it originated in this country or whether it was brought in. it was detected because the uk has a really good sequencing capacity and they sequence a lot of these viral strains so they can keep a really good tab on what virus sequences are running around the country. robert, to follow up on that, how worried should we be about this new variant? well, these mutations are expected. at the moment, we don't know if the mutation is responsible for the increased infection rates, so we always need to be cautious, but at the moment there is no particular cause for alarm. robert, a question for you from sarah, and it is a question a lot of people are asking. i will go into a tier 3 area, my daughter lives in a tier 2 area, can she visit for christmas?

under the current tier rules, no. but obviously the government is going to set out potentially a relaxation over the christmas period and there may be some scope for it in that. as things stand at the moment, it is not advisable. another question on the new variant. chris asks, is the new variant in england this same strain as that found in denmark connected to mink farming or is it yet another variant of corona ? if it is another variant, the possibility of covid being a never—ending fight, similar to the fight against flu, is the main issue. luckily for us, coronavirus are much more stable than flu so they don't mutate as rapidly, which means they don't mutate

all the time like the flu does. flu changes every year, but coronavirus don't as rapidly, which means that although variants arise, they will not arise at the same degree and it will probably stay more close to the original strain that first emerged in wuhan. i don't know if it is connected to the mink farming because i haven't seen the details, but my suspicion is not because otherwise i think it would have been mentioned that this was the same mutation found in the mink. this is a new variant, suggesting it is new, that this mutation has not been seen before, that is how i would interpret what we have been told so far. can you explain the difference between the terms strain and variance? they are not interchangeable, although people do use them like that. variant describes a novel mutation within the virus that is circulating at the moment. a strain has some significant differences, either it causes a slightly different disease

or it is isolated geographically. at the moment it is very difficult to know whether or not we are seeing lots of different variants or if any of them will evolve into a strain. i don't think we are there with strains yet. robert, why does the government think leaving shopping centres open won't spread the virus? shopping centres are operating at full capacity. is it not a good idea to reduce trading hours to restrain the virus? unfortunately, the government does think that shopping centres will increase the spread, but it is making a judgment that the increase of spread caused by that won't be so great as to offset the commercial and economic factors. i'm afraid it will increase the spread, there is no question about that. as you rightly say, people are not

necessarily following social distancing rules. the issue of whether to close shopping centres early or to limit the trading hours is a tricky one, because it could just increase the congestion within those hours. i haven't seen the modelling on this, but i would be surprised if you could make a significant difference by changing the trading hours. nicky asked, can you get the new variant of coronavirus if you have already had covid—19? it doesn't matter whether you have had the old variant or the new variant of coronavirus. it looks like people can be reinfected with coronavirus and they may be different or the same, we are not quite sure yet. there haven't been that many cases documented. it is possible to get reinfected, and we are not quite sure at what frequency that will happen. it may start happening more over the next couple of months, unfortunately.

another question about christmas. bethan says, i live with my partner, if ijoin my pa rents' christmas bubble while hejoins his parents' christmas bubble, can i see him over christmas? this is quite a common one. if you live together you are a household. it depends on the relaxation to the rules. they are probably going to allow mixing with three households. i am not sure i would advise it, to be honest. we are all going to have to make difficult choices and if i was you i would make a choice, i can't say how to do it, it is so hard, but make a choice between one or the other. everyone wants to know about this new variant. i know it is hard to answer this question because it is so new.

does the new variant spread more rapidly? we don't have any firm information on how rapidly it spreads compared to those already circulating in the uk. we do know that it has been found in a lot of people recently so it looks like it's becoming the predominant strain. until there has been lab work to confirm how quickly it spreads, we can't say if it is faster or slower. we just have to wait and see, really, until that lab work has been completed. i live in a tier 3 area, my relatives are in a care home in a tier 2 area. the home is now offering visits after a lateral load test.

can i travel to tier 3 to visit my relatives? not really. you are allowed to travel if you have caring responsibilities, but visiting someone would not count probably. with those travelling rules, it is important to bear in mind, i don't think they are set in law. they are advisory. i do think it probably would not be advisable. the lateral flow test is not really very good at detecting whether you haven't been infected. it is quite good at detecting if you have. the false negative test on the lateral flow test is between 30% and 50%. you could probably do a number of tests over a period of time and isolate in between. the whole principle of it really is to avoid transmitting the virus, so it sounds really, really tough, but i probably would avoid it. joe says, is it possible keeping borders open, especially to air travel, has enabled this mutated virus to enter the population?

how might that be impacted by allowing high value travellers not to quarantine? we have had varients enter the uk before from travel. the one from spain in the summer happened. so it is possible that this has happened, but it is also equally as possible that itjust arose by chance in the uk for some reason, either through random chance or that it is better at replicating than other variants, it is starting to emerge in the population. it is very difficult to know. with regard to the isolation question and the quarantine, anytime that you eliminate anybody from that need to quarantine you do increase the risk of a new virus variant coming in from abroad, so yes, that might be possible, but how much that will impact given our high case numbers at the moment i am not sure. robert, another question a lot of people are asking about similar versions of this.

i live in plymouth in devon, three days a week i work in london and i renta room in a family home during this time. is that still allowed? in principle, you are allowed to travel across tiers for essential purposes, and work is counted as that. i think that probably would be allowed. obviously, i would take every possible precaution that you can in terms of making sure that when you stay in this other accommodation, you maintain as much isolation as possible within that household. naomi, a question from christine. is it a possibility that the new covid variant could be caused by the winter weather? it is an interesting possibility, but it turns out probably not because viruses mutate all the time, they produce new variants every time they replicate. admittedly, coronavirus fewer than most, but they do still do that.

it is just a matter of the virus replicating. therfore more viruses replicating and there is more likelihood of these new variants are rising, so potentially yes with the winter weather, potentially more variance, but it is not a direct consequence of the winter weather. thank you both. good to have you both sharing your knowledge. dr naomi forrester—soto and professor robert west, thank you. now it's time for a look at the weather with sarah keith—lucas. good afternoon. it was a chilly started the day for some of us but things are turning milder and temperatures are above average for the time of year in those this was earlier on in highland. some clear spells through the rest of the day,

but also some scattered showers. some of them will be on the heavy side, particularly in the west. some showers around here and there, particularly in western scotland. further east, fewer showers. into this evening, we will start to see some of the heavier showers pushing north—eastward across parts of scotland, few dotted around towards the south—east. many places having an quiet, dryer and to the day before this rain moves in from the west. it will turn wet and windy for the morning. the further east, you should start wednesday on a dry note. this area of low pressure will move its way eastwards. east anglia and the south—east keeping the dry weather for quite a good and the south—east keeping the dry weatherfor quite a good part and the south—east keeping the dry weather for quite a good part of the day and rain eventually arriving here during the afternoon. there

will be some clearer, dryer intervals in the afternoon. the wind gusts are a real feature of the weather, 60 mph gusts on exposed coasts on the irish sea, particularly on the south—west of england. 30 miles an hourfurther east. a blustery sort of day with the removing eastwards. temperatures similarto the removing eastwards. temperatures similar to what we have had today, between nine and 11, but feeling cooler with the wind and rain. into thursday, quieter day. sunny spells, breezy but not as windy as wednesday. a few showers in the west, then the next spell of wet and windy weather arrives later on at the day. further east, g should stay dry for quite a good part of the day and temperatures between nine and 13 degrees. still mild for this time of year. looking towards friday at the weekend, unsettled, further showers around, still mild on friday but things are turning a little bit cooler so we are back into single figures for most of us by the time

we get to sunday. goodbye for now.

this is bbc news. i'm simon mccoy. the headlines... pressure mounts for a re—think of plans for easing covid restrictions at christmas — two prominent medicaljournals say mixing households "will cost lives" our health system is not going to manage if we allow the current trend to continue out on top of the superspread event that will be these five days of christmas. labour leader sir keir starmer calls on ministers to hold an emergency review of the christmas plans as the government prepares to hold talks with the devolved administrations. a london council backs down and asks schools to remain open, after the education secretary threatens to take legal action. we'll hear from the council leader live this hour. more than 800,000 fewer people are on the payroll now than at the start of the pandemic, with hospitality and retail particularly badly hit.