this dog and so eventually, i decided to run down to the water's edge to help it out. i lowered myself into the water and obviously broke through the ice to save the dog. i wouldn't recommend anybody obviously doing what i did, luckily, i'm trained in itand i know how my body reacts. i do cold water swimming. obviously, i live in yorkshire. i am a triathlete as well, so this all played a part in that. it is not like something ijust did out of the blue. time for a look at the weather, here's darren bett. thank you, simon. i am going to start with some stunning weather watcher pictures taken last night of the northern lights, taken in scotland, and a shooting star as well. i am veryjealous, i scotland, and a shooting star as well. iam veryjealous, i have never seen the northern lights. in shetland, this picture was taken in between the wintry showers. those showers have been moving down into the north sea and it has been

clearer, colder air moving down across the country. still some cloud stuck across western areas on this weather front. over the next few days it will be a battle between the colder air and this milder air which is trying to come in from the atlantic. today, the highest temperatures will be in the south—west of england, where we have still got weather like we had yesterday, temperatures will be in double figures here, but also sam rainbird drizzle. there is a bit of a shield of cloud in northern ireland, wales and the south—east of england. elsewhere, where we have got more sun, it is going to be quite cold. this evening and overnight, we see the cloud coming backin overnight, we see the cloud coming back in again from the atlantic, bringing rain into northern ireland, patchy rain for wales and the south—west of england. but although we will see some cloud further east, it is not going to prevent a frost from forming very quickly in the

night. and in the morning, the threat of freezing rain and ice for a while in these areas as this band of rain moves across. and the threat by the end of the day of summer snow developing over the hills of scotland. it is going to be cold again in scotland and northern and eastern england. much milder in northern ireland, wales and the south—west. but these weather fronts are moving into the uk and they are just going to hang around. they are not moving very far, and they are not moving very far, and they are not pushing away the cold air that we have got in the north and the east. wednesday night into thursday, we will find snow falling merrily over the hills of scotland and northern england. it should turn drier across wales and the south—west of england, where it will be windy and

britain's top police officer has warned that those who break the rules are now more likely to face fines. where somebody is breaking the law, breaking the regulations, and if it is absolutely clear that they must have known, or that they do know, that they are doing so, then we will move very swiftly towards enforcement and a fine. we nowjoin the bbc news teens where you are. good afternoon, it's 1.30pm and here's your latest sports news. the new formula one season will start later than planned after the first race —

the australian grand prix — was postponed beacuse of covid restrictions in the country. it means the season will be delayed by a week, with bahrain hosting the opening race on march the 26th. despite the disruption to this year's calendar, organisers are still planning on running a record number of races, six more than last season, as our formula one reporter jennie gow explains. as our formula one reporter 23 as our formula one reporter race season is what ti with 23 race season is what they came out with provisionally and even with this revised calendar they are sticking to it. this season will start a week later, so no australia opener. a little break before we head to italy which is a race that we we re head to italy which is a race that we were not expecting. that has taken a spot. then china looks as if it will not happen at the moment because of covid and want to be announced at some point and australia shuffled back eight months. now a november race. will formula i get those races away? that

is the big question. they manage i7 last year to great plaudits. fingers crossed they are expected to welcome vance back in the paddock club. it will be interesting to see what the season will be interesting to see what the season is. pressure's growing against the continuation of elite football. it comes as the premier league reminds players and staff of adhering to the rules as they step up their protocols. referees will be asked to remind players to socially distance and avoid unnecessary contact on the pitch like goal celebrations and handshakes. there are growing concerns that footballers are breaching too many of the regulations. totte n ha m tottenham playful fulham this week. i don't even celebrate goals. because of the var. i believe the players can do a little bit more of the same. organsiers of the tokyo olympics say they will make a decision on whether to admit fans to events

in february or march. in february or march. the games have been delayed for a year because of the pandemic, and are scheduled to take place at the end ofjuly. a state of emergency has been called in tokyo amid ecent rising infection rates. the british olympic association have said british athletes should notjump the queue in receiving vaccinations. the australian cricket captain, tim payne, has defended steve smith over claims that he deliberately scuffed up the crease duing scuffed up the crease during the third test match with india. smith was seen on the stump camera scraping the crease with his boot during the drinks break — something that the former england captain michael vaughan said was very, very poor. smith, remember, was banned over his part in australia's sandpaper scandal, but his captain says he's done nothing wrong. it is something we have a laugh about because he loves batting so much. even when he is on the field he is shadow batting. he does a lot, there was no chance he was trying to

change. it is one of these things that he does. it has come up like it is, again, it is something he might need to look at because of the perception of it. and the legendary american football coach bill belichick says he will not accept president donald trump's offer of the presidential medal of freedom. the new england patriots boss — who's won a record six super bowl titles — said he was ‘flattered' when he was first offered the medal which is the top award given to civilians in the us. but he has now refused it after last weeks riot at the capitol week's riot at the capitol building in washington. belichick had previously spoken of his friendship with president trump. plenty more on the bbc sport website and app, including the full draw for the fourth and fifth rounds of the fa cup. some brilliant ties set to be played. we will have plenty more later on. for now it is back to

simon. the first minister nicola sturgeon has announced that pre—departure testing for people travelling into scotland will begin on friday morning. it means anyone arriving in scotland after 4am on friday will need to present evidence of a negative test taken in the previous three days. speaking at her daily press briefing, the first minister said the need for people to quarantine for ten days will continue for anyone travelling from a country not on the exemption list. we confirmed last week that we would introduce a requirement for predeparture testing for anybody travelling here from overseas. this requirement, i can confirm today, will come into effect on friday morning. so anyone arriving in scotland after four o'clock on friday morning will be required to present evidence that they have received a negative test result from a covid test that has been taken in the previous three days. the nature of the test will be set out in regulations, but it will need to be highly

reliable, and that means in practice that the test required will almost certainly be a pcr test. there will be some limited exemptions from the requirement for a test, for example, for younger children. but the details of who exactly might be exempt will be set out on the scottish government website. now, i want to be very clear here that this requirement for testing before entry to the country is seen, not as a substitute for other protections and mitigations in place, but as an addition to those. testing before entry to the country is not a magic solution to the risk of cases being imported, so it will reinforce rather than replace our current travel restrictions. in particular, anyone travelling to scotland from a country that is not on the exemption list will still require to quarantine, to self—isolate, for ten days on arrival. and, of course, any of these mitigations and protections should only be applying right now to a very

small number of people. in short, people who have an essential purpose to be travelling. the most important point of all i can make in relation to travel remains this one — we should not, as a general rule, be travelling in and out of scotland right now, just as we should not be travelling freely within the country. it is only legal to travel to and from the country if you are doing so for an essential purpose. so the fundamental advice remains, do not travel right now unless you have a genuinely essential purpose, stay at home. british companies doing business in china could face fines if they are unable to demonstrate that their products are not linked to forced labour in xinjiang province. the foreign secretary, dominic raab told mps there was clear evidence that more than a million uighurs and members of other minorities are being held in camps where they face forced labour and torture on an industrial scale. mr raab has been outlining the measures the government will take to ensure companies are not complicit in or profiting from human right violations in the region.

ouraim, put simply, is that no company that profits from forced labour can do business in the uk, and no uk business is involved in their supply chains. let me set out the four new steps we are now taking. first, today the sdto have issued new robust and detailed guidance to uk businesses on the specific risks faced by companies with links to xinjiang and underlining the challenges of conducting effective due diligence there. a minister led campaign of business engagement will reinforce the need for uk businesses to take concerted action to address that particular and specific risk. second, we are strengthening the operation of the modern slavery act. the home office will introduce fines for businesses that do not comply with their transparency obligations. and the home secretary will introduce the necessary legislation setting out the level of fines as soon as parliamentary time allows.

third we announced last september that the transparency requirements that the transparency requirements that apply to uk businesses under the act will be extended to the public sector. so they will work with the cabinet office to provide guidance and support to uk government bodies to excludes suppliers where sufficient evidence of human rights violations in any of their supply chains. let me say that we, in the united kingdom, rightly ta ke we, in the united kingdom, rightly take pride that the overall majority of business do so with professionalism around the world. that is the hallmark, it is part of oui’ that is the hallmark, it is part of our usp. it is because of that that any company profiting from forced labour will be barred from government procurement in this country. fourth, the government will conduct an urgent review of export controls as they apply specifically geographically to the situation. to

make sure that we are doing everything that we can to prevent the export of any goods that could directly or indirectly contribute to human rights violations in that region. this package put together will help make sure that nobody —— british organisations, deliberately oi’ british organisations, deliberately or inadvertently are profiting from contributing to human rights violations against their uighurs are other minorities. of course, i am sure the house will accept the overwhelming majority of uk businesses would not dream of it. today's measures will make sure businesses are aware of those risks and help them to protect themselves. but it will shine a light and penalise any reckless businesses that don't take those obligations seriously. as ever, we act in coordination with like—minded partners around the world and i welcome the fact that later today the foreign minister will set out an

approach on these issues. australia, france, germany and new zealand are considering the approaches they take. we will work with all of our international partners but how should know in the comprehensive scope of the package i am setting out today, the uk is again setting an example and leading the way. mr speaker, we want a positive and constructive relationship with china. we will work tirelessly towards that end. but we will not sacrifice our values or our security. the foreign secretary. in terms of the prime minister's controversial bike ride at the olympic park over the weekend, which the metropolitan police commissioner said was not a breach of the law. we are hearing from the official spokesman for the prime minister who has insisted he was cycling in

accordance with the guidance. we have trusted the public to exercise judgment. we did in the first lockdown and continue to do so. the prime minister acted within the guidelines at all times and the word from the met commissioner were wise. the instruction is to stay local and for her reasonable understanding was to exercise from your front door. but everyone should exercise their ownjudgment. sort but everyone should exercise their own judgment. sort of clarifying it, sort of not. anyway, a reaction to the row over free school meals. this is marcus rashford criticising food parcels been sent to children and families and a response from the prime minister's spokesman. we are aware of the images, these are images of one particular food hamper, which showed a parcel supposedly costing £30 with £5 worth of food is in it. we are aware of the images and clear that those contents the images and clear that those

co nte nts of the images and clear that those contents of those packages are unacceptable. the department for education is looking at this urgently and then minister of children is speaking to the company responsible. that is happening right now. food parcel should contain food that allow parents to make a healthy lunch throughout the week. the ad that the department for education will be opening a free school meal voucher scheme and working closely with schools and the companies responsible for those food boxes. just updating you on a couple of stories that are rambling on today. now on bbc news — another chance to see your question's answered a little earlier with geeta guru—murthy. well, you've been sending in as your questions in us your questions on the coronavirus vaccine and lockdown rules across the uk. with me now to answer some of those questions i'm joined by doctor naomi forrester—soto, a virologist at keele university

and by professor keith neal, emeritus professor in infectious diseases at the university of nottingham. thank you both very much forjoining us today. can i start with you, naomi. and a question from david williams who says, on vaccines, does the second dose administered have to be the same type as the first? that's a really good question. against the same spike protein and there is evidence from the literature that what we call giving one dose of vaccine and a second dose of a second vaccine, has sometimes been beneficial. so although the vaccines were tested in clinical trials with the same repeated dose, there are now trials going on, i think, orjust about to start, to test whether or not this heterologous boosting would actually be beneficial. so in an ideal situation, i would

say no, get the same vaccine. but under these circumstances, i think we need to wait and see what the data says for the different vaccines. can ijust pick up with one question i have been sent on twitter by peter lewis. i am 80 years old, i had myjab five days ago and want to know how much protection i now have. what does 70% after 21 days mean, naomi? so that means after 21 days, 70% of people didn't show any evidence of disease. it's quite complicated. but i think that if you haven't had your second boost, you still need to take precautions. i can't state that enough. the second boost gives you the full protection. you are probably somewhat protected with the first dose, but it is definitely better to protect yourself until you get that second dose. 0k. and if i can bring in professor neal with a question from joe davenport in brighton who says, does the government's roll—out plan include ensuring we are only invited to have a second dose of the same brand, which is, again, the same theme, really?

i think generally the answer is yes for the same reasons that naomi alluded to. that we have to deal with the vaccine on the evidence we have got. at the moment, the evidence is that we will use the same vaccine in the trials. the question comes really if there is a problem with vaccine supply and one brand isn't available. in which case, we are left with the situation, do you give nothing or do you give a second dose of a different vaccine? one of the things that has plagued vaccines for years and decades is the supply issue. personally, i would have no qualms about having a second dose of a different brand if that was the only alternative. 0k. that's very clear. naomi, a question here from jean who says do people who recover from covid also need the vaccine? that's a good question. so we do know that immunity wanes a bit after coronavirus infection. so it's likely that even people who have been exposed to the virus

or who have had severe coronavirus may actually require a vaccine at some point. when? i think is probably, we don't know. but i think at the moment the idea is just to give it to everybody, thinking that the vaccine willjust boost whatever immunity anybody has, even if they have already got immunity to the virus. and hopefully that vaccine induced immunity will last longer than virus induced immunity. yes. and liz gray, professor, asks again in a similar theme. what happens next year, will we all need a booster? i haven't got a crystal ball, so we don't know. there's also the possibility the virus may change, that we might want to modify the vaccine to improve it. but i think it's relatively simple because we will be able to do this, flu in one arm and covid macro in the other arm. so it isjust a technical exercise. we don't know, but it's... it can be done at great... not at the same speed we are having to roll out this emergency programme.

yes and the vaccine may need to change to take into account all these different mutations. claudette lyons asks, why does herd immunity affect not seem to work in one as we have seen with the vaccine? we don't know if that is true, naomi, because you just need to get up to a certain level of the population and you hope there will be herd immunity. yes. we do hope that there will be herd immunity in a certain proportion of the population once enough people have been vaccinated. the reason why herd immunity hasn't been working is because prior to 2019, nobody had ever seen this virus before. so the whole population was what we term naive. that is had no immunity to this virus. so there is no herd immunity in our population because we haven't vaccinated enough people yet to get to herd immunity. professor neal, a very interesting question that keeps being asked. john hewitt from preston, is it definitely safe to leave a longer time period before administering the second dose or do we risk the virus getting immunity to the vaccine? we know that in the united states, plus the world health organization, they are all having, you know, they are sticking really to these shorter intervals of three

weeks or so, six weeks at the most according to the world health organization. i think it's quite, some people who are in this actually have to follow the evidence based on what the drug companies... and they are not only allowed to say what is actually being published on licensing criteria. i think the issue is if you have got 1000 doses of vaccine, do we give it two doses to 500 people or one dose to 1000 people? and we will protect a lot more people and faster by giving a second, one dose, and then delaying the second dose. what we don't... what we do know is that many people do miss vaccines in their routine schedules, children may have a cold and not well or they fail to get an appointment for their basic childhood programmes, and it doesn't compromise the long—term immunity. and children's immune systems are actually a little bit more sensitive to this than adults. personally, iwould prefer to have my first dose early and a second dose later,

than not having a dose at all. 0k. there is a question about whether the virus then will get around it and perhaps be immune to the vaccine, there is a slight risk of that, isn't there? there is. viruses, you know, especially the coronavirus, mutate all the time. however, ijust... i am not sure that we would see a huge amount of change. the virus is so well adapted to humans infecting to humans, we have a statement on the military involvement. we have been getting weekly updates on the work. what we fight back against this awful virus. we might not be on the front line of this fight but we are with them in trenches. since last year, in

increasing numbers. defence's contribution to the covid response is the largest since peacetime. more personnel are committed than any time since the pandemic. that is why it is important to make a statement to the house detailing the breadth and complexity of these activities. it is worth considering some statistics on what has been provided thus far. since last january, the standing joint command has received some a85 military assistant to civilian authority request since the start of last year. some a00 of which have been related to a domestic covid response. that is more than three times the average annual number. we currently have 56 ongoing tasks in support of 13 other government departments with a670 personnel committed and almost 10,000 more held at high readiness,

available to rapidly respond to any increasing demand. as is well known, the uk armed forces have billed nightingale hospitals around the country and distributed vital ppe, delivering more than 6 million items to hospitals and clocking up enough mass to circumnavigate the world ten times. personnel from all three services have backfilled oxygen tanker drivers, welsh ambulance drivers, nhs hospital staff such as those deployed to the essex trust this week. they have helped care assista nts this week. they have helped care assistants shoulder the burden in ca re assistants shoulder the burden in care homes and in schools and the wider community. during christmas, when the new variant of covid disrupted the board of crossings, the military stepped up. while most of us were settling down for a festive dinner and break, the military when working with the department for transport to test wholly as crossing the english channel. approximately a0,000 tests have been conducted in that

operation. and at all times our people have shown fleet of foot, switching tasks as the occasions demanded and well relatively small in scale, always having a catalytic effect. our involvement in testing isa effect. our involvement in testing is a case in point. with diploid personnel to liverpool for a mass testing pilot. the lessons learned are being applied in testing across the country from medway in kent, to merthyr tydfil, kirklees, lancashire, greater manchester. recently in greater manchester i author —— not authorise the employment of 8000 personnel and yesterday the started focused community testing. the country is eager to see the roulette of the vaccination programme and the nhs is delivering vaccines to those who need it at an presented speed. the defensive contribution has been primarily through planning support provided by defensive cetaceans providing supply chains in need in

complex environments and as the commander said in the press conference last week, this operation is unparalleled in its scale and complexity. as that operation has shifted from planning to execution, and is now focusing on rapid scaling up, preparing to adapt its support to the nhs, not only have we set additional planners to assist expansion, including in devolved administrations, but following a request from the department of health and social care, we have a vaccine quick force of medically trained personnel who are in other regions and they can respond in the vaccination process and can be scaled up if required of any of the national health services across the united kingdom. throughout the pandemic it is understanding the requirements that has has been the

priority in all... we have sent ten military assessment teams to each of the ten nhs regions and devolved administrations. they're the ten nhs regions and devolved administrations. they‘ re helping the ten nhs regions and devolved administrations. they're helping to assess the situation on the ground before formulating and coordinating the best effective response. we currently have experts working at the newly reopened nhs nightingale hospital and a mass vaccination facility that will help the capital and covid—19 second wave. defence's effo rts and covid—19 second wave. defence's efforts have been visible like providing critical support to overseas territories. last weekend the royal air force delivered 5000 doses of the pfizer vaccine in gibraltar. we should not forget our armed forces. our plan is embedded in local authorities, working aside regional liaison officers and logistic support. they know how to

deal with deadly diseases like ebola and how to stay calm under pressure. those cool heads have been pivotal not just according those cool heads have been pivotal notjust according effort but assessing where defence can deliver the best response. i have mentioned the best response. i have mentioned the personnel we have deployed and at high readiness but a real number helping the nation to combat the coronavirus is greater. we have an excess of 5000 armed forces personnel and civilian staff supporting the covid response from behind the scenes as part of the routine duties. today i want to pay tribute to these men and women. they include the hundreds of personnel in defensive quarter is responsible for coordinating covid support force. among 100 staff of the winter operation team and many... that is the secretary of state outlining the current role for the military and the pandemic crisis. i role that has moved to helping the nhs with the vaccination programme. if you want

to keep watching that, bbc parliament is the place to keep watching the defence secretary. this is bbc news. the headlines... britain's top police officer warns those who break covid rules are now more likely to face fines, saying it's preposterous for anyone to claim they don't know what the rules are. where somebody is breaking the law, breaking the regulations, and it is absolutely clear that they must have known what do that they must have known, or do know that they are, then we will move very swiftly to enforcement and fining people. 2020 saw the largest increase in uk deaths in a single year since the second world war. a warning that core staff could leave the nhs after the coronavirus crisis — due to the "unsustainable" workloads. free school meals: parents and marcus rashford blast the ‘woefully inadequate' food parcels for children