this is bbc news. the headlines at apm: a senior conservative mp warns borisjohnson he'll lose the support of so—called �*red wall�* voters in former labour seats unless he resolves the row about lobbying. the two russian men suspected of carrying out the salisbury nerve agent attack three years ago are being sought by police in the czech republic. the czechs, for example, in the past, until quite recently, have been reticent about picking a fight with moscow and it is quite interesting how the czechs have pivoted, and they are being very robust in their response. a warning from nhs providers — it's chief executive says it will take five years for some hospitals to catch up with the backlog caused by the pandemic once the world's largest iceberg — but now no more — satellite images show the "mega—berg" has virtually gone.

good afternoon, welcome to bbc news. the environment secretary george eustice has told the bbc that the government will "look at" any recommendations made to change the rules around lobbying. inquiries have begun into former prime minister david cameron's communications with cabinet ministers while working for the collapsed firm, greensill capital. it comes as a senior conservative mp warns borisjohnson he'll lose support from former labour voters unless he resolves the lobbying row. our political correspondent nick eardley has this report. david cameron's lobbying of ministers on behalf of a finance company he worked for has led to wider questions about the relationship between government and the private sector and about possible conflicts of interest.

a number of inquiries have been set up to look at the issues. the environment secretary used to work for mr cameron. he insisted his former boss hadn't broken the rules, but there was a hint the rules might need to change. it may be something that is... that is looked at, as a result of all this and i said there's a number of parliamentary committees that are exploring it. it absolutely does matter to the prime minister, which is why he set up a review. but not to you, you don't think there's a big problem? no, what i'm saying is there may be a problem, which is why we've set up a review. there's concern this row will impact on trust in politics. lobbying is part of what goes on here, lots of people try to influence their mps in different ways. but listen to this, from a senior tory. boris defeated what he regarded, had described as, an out—of—touch elite in the 2016 referendum and won a general election victory. he is seen as different from his predecessors.

and has won a lot of support as a consequence. and he will lose that support, unless he acts decisively now. labour's rachel reeves faced questions this morning, too, about why the former labour first minister of wales took a job despite being advised not to by an independent committee. the party thinks the rules, more broadly, need tightening up. what we've seen this week is that tory sleaze is back and that - it's bigger than ever. we need real change to restore trust in our democracy and in the very- essence of public service, - which matters to so many of us and matters to people in our country. we've seen a steady stream of questions in recent weeks about the connections between politics and private companies. many, from government to opposition, are now looking for answers. nick eardley, bbc news. police in the czech republic say they want to question the two

russian men suspected of carrying out the salisbury nerve agent attack after linking them to a fatal explosion four years earlier. 18 russian diplomats have been expelled from prague, after the czech government said there was strong evidence moscow was involved in the blast. the foreign secretary dominic raab said the british government stands in full support of the czech republic, and called the actions of russian intelligence services �*reckless and dangerous'. gareth barlow reports. the czech republic, 2014. an explosion at an arms depot leaves two people dead, damages nearby homes and sends smoke rising from the ruins. following years of investigations, the czech authorities allege these two men were behind the blast. alexander mishkin and anatoliy chepiga, also known as alexander petrov and ruslan boshirov, the two russian intelligence officers the uk says in 2018 carried out the poisoning of a former russian agent on british soil. announcing the news on saturday, the czech foreign minister said 18

russian diplomats would now have to leave the country. translation: as foreign minister of the czech republic, _ i made the decision to expel all personnel at the russian embassy in prague, identified by our secret services as officers of russia's secret services. within 48 hours, 18 staff of the russian embassy must leave the czech republic. the czech prime minister said the two suspects were members of the gru, russia's military intelligence service. a senior russian parliamentarian called the claim absurd. it all follows tit—for—tat expulsions of diplomats by the us and russia at the end of last week and western concern over the build—up of russian troops along the ukrainian border. the latest development a serious escalation in a region that is already on a political knife edge. gareth barlow, bbc news. our security correspondent gordon

corera told us that the explosion in the czech republic in 2014 was widely—assumed to be an accident. but after the salisbury poisonings, investigators went back over the evidence. one of the things they found was an e—mail requesting access to the arms depot that blew up with the names of two people who wanted to visit it. when they looked at the pictures attached to the passport scans requesting that access, they could see these were the same images as the men who are alleged to have carried out the salisbury poisoning. they had entered the czech republic using the same cover names, the same false names they used when they came to the uk in 2018. so a trail of evidence built up suggesting that this same unit of russian military intelligence had carried out this blast in 2014, possibly targeting a bulgarian arms dealer and then some of those individuals had gone on to carry out the salisbury poisoning. russia has, of course, denied any role in this but the czechs are clearly taking it seriously, expelling 18 diplomats from russia who they say are intelligence operatives, and suggesting another sign

of growing tension over russian intelligence activity. gordon corera, our security corresponds to us earlier. corresponds speaking to us earlier. nhs providers has warned that it will take five years for some hospitals to catch up with the backlog of patient care caused by the coronavirus pandemic. the trusts in england worst impacted, wont return to pre—covid levels, for between three to five years. that according to the association which represents nhs trusts. while, nhs providers also says that covid—19 has resulted in the biggest backlog of care in england for 20 years. earlier i spoke to the chief executive of nhs providers, chris hopson. i started by asking him what he thinks could be done to improve the situation? well, i think it is going to be a very important and challenging task. what we have said today is that we need a plan, a team plan, between the nhs and the government.

on the nhs side, we are going to have to do do a range of different things. we are going to need to change the way that we provide some of this care. that's going to need the government to come up with some extra funding. in the past, you may remember for example, in the early 2000, when we had similar sizes of waiting list problems, we sort of got round it by paying more overtime by using the private sector. this time, particularly given the range of things that we have to do at the same time, we are going to have to be bolder. we are going to have to do adopt, for example, new technology solutions. we are going to have to get trusts working together much more effectively to improve productivity and efficiency but the bit that is really important is that this is a very big challenge. this is... people have been doing some work over the last month to really look at how they will plan to deal with this and the conclusion that they have come to is that, as you have said, in the worst areas, in the areas with the biggest problem, on the current trajectory, they are currently looking at a three to five year period to get through that backlog. everybody knows that's not appropriate. we are going to have to do better. we are going to have to work

with government to help get a plan to do that. i think you have just set out there how big a challenge this is. so, is three to five years too optimistic? no, i don't think it is. again, it is really interesting talking to trust chief executives as i do every day of the week. they are absolutely clear that every single statistic on the waiting list, there are 4.7 million people currently waiting for care, is. they know the pain that people have and they know the impact that this can have. i think what particularly worries people is that we know that if you leave these for too long, you get into places, where for example, people actually experience permanent disability. you get to a point, where actually people will never be able to go back to work. so, every single trust executive is aware of the consequence of these delays. but this i'm afraid it's one of the prices of covid—19, which effectively is, as soon as we got hit with covid—19, we had to dial back on the amount of selective surgery that we were doing.

that was the only way that we could create the space to treat covid patients. we are not in the situation because the nhs hasn't been doing what it should be doing. it's been having to focus elsewhere and that is the challenge that we have got. and that focus elsewhere on the pandemic, on covid—19, that is likely to affect staffing levels within the nhs. i visited a hospital a few months ago during the pandemic and the majority of the staff that i spoke with there told me that they were really considering their future working within the nhs, so if the staff numbers aren't there, you have an even bigger problem here. yes, absolutely. i think one of the things that we have been saying is that it is notjust about the many. it is absolutely about having the right size of workforce. so, we know that we need to support our staff,

who have been through some very, very difficult periods in the last 12 months but have done some absolutely amazing things and we need to retain our staff. we also need to ensure that we grow the workforce but we also know and you are mentioning about how we run covid and ordinary care alongside each other, here is a great example. we know that during covid, we had to take a number of operating theatres out of commission. we had to ask anaesthetists because we were short of intensive care unit staff, we had to ask them, who were used to dealing with patients, for example who need mechanical ventilation, we had to ask them to help out with covid—19 patients. one of the problems we face is, you have got to realistically assume that there will be more covid—19 waves, so how do you ensure that at the same time as dealing with those waves, you can allow hospitals to continue to elective surgery activity, so you don't have to divert the anaesthetists off doing elective surgery and you don't have to divert your operating theatres out of commission in order to create makeshift icu you space. so, there is a whole bunch of issues that the nhs faces here about everyone to get through this backlog quicker than three to five years in the workplace,

which is what we absolutely must do, we have got to do things differently but we need the government to make the funding available to do that. chris hobson, chief executive of nhs providers speaking to me a little bit earlier. let's stay with the pandemic. new numbers havejust been released for the uk. it shows another ten deaths recorded after a positive test within 28 days. 22.84 million people have now received the first covid vaccine dose. on a more global level... more than 200,000 new cases of coronavirus have been recorded

in india for three days in a row, taking the total number to nearly 14.5 million. it makes it the world's second worst—infected country — behind the united states. india has also suffered one of the highest number of fatalities. while here, health officials say they're studying the coronavirus variant that's emerged in india, to see whether it can spread more easily, or evade vaccines. more than 70 cases have been identified in the uk — leading to calls that india should be put on the government's �*red list�* for travel. the environment secretary george eustice has been explaining the reason why this isn�*t yet the case. we are allowing people in from india, providing they have had a predeparture test, providing they then quarantine, albeit not in a hotel or a designated facility, but quarantining at home, and then have a test at two and eight days. so there are quite a lot of robust tests and checks for everybody coming into the country. but we keep this under regular review and we take the advice of scientific experts on this. if the advice was to change that

and move them onto a red list then we would. let�*s get more on this latest variant from danny altmann who is professor of immunology at imperial college london. there are still a lot we don�*t know about this variant, how worried should we be? we about this variant, how worried should we be?— about this variant, how worried should we be? ., �* ~ ., ., ., should we be? we don't know a lot about it. should we be? we don't know a lot about it- we _ should we be? we don't know a lot about it. we should _ should we be? we don't know a lot about it. we should be _ should we be? we don't know a lot about it. we should be as - should we be? we don't know a lot about it. we should be as worried l about it. we should be as worried about it. we should be as worried about it. we should be as worried about it as we are about the other variants, like in south africa and brazil, the californian one, they share certain amino acid changes so we are getting to know some of their properties and knowing which ones evade immunity better on this one does look like it has those features. does look like it has those features-_ does look like it has those features. ., , features. one government minister was sa in: features. one government minister was saying there — features. one government minister was saying there is _ features. one government minister was saying there is no _ features. one government minister was saying there is no evidence - features. one government minister| was saying there is no evidence that the indian variants can avoid vaccines, what is a timescale for working that stuff out? mil

vaccines, what is a timescale for working that stuff out?— vaccines, what is a timescale for working that stuff out? all labs to do this kind _ working that stuff out? all labs to do this kind of _ working that stuff out? all labs to do this kind of stuff _ working that stuff out? all labs to do this kind of stuff are _ working that stuff out? all labs to do this kind of stuff are working i do this kind of stuff are working like crazy at the moment. we don�*t know until the date is in. my assumption is that the viruses that have this four — eight — four change are quite good at avoiding antibodies. you mention 200,000 cases per day in india. that correlates with 60% of the virus sequences being of this type. so that doesn�*t prove cause but it might accomplish sudden peak. more than 70 cases — might accomplish sudden peak. more than 70 cases of _ might accomplish sudden peak. more than 70 cases of this _ might accomplish sudden peak. more than 70 cases of this variant reported here. are we identifying these variants quickly enough? i hope so. i feel like the genomics and the testing are going extremely

well and i hope will be able to crack on any outbreaks and catch them before they spread but we have to be really, really vigilant. ii to be really, really vigilant. if the cases are already here is it too late to place india on the red list? that is a political policy decision and not one for scientists. i see variants of concern notjust in india but in brazil, south africa and also other ones we don�*t know about that will be cropping up. so why not be cautious? why not err on the side of caution? {line why not be cautious? why not err on the side of caution?— the side of caution? one one last cuestion. the side of caution? one one last question- it _ the side of caution? one one last question. it seems _ the side of caution? one one last question. it seems like _ the side of caution? one one last question. it seems like formality| question. it seems like formality starting to return, what could effects of these variants have on that? i effects of these variants have on that? ., , effects of these variants have on

that? .,, .., , effects of these variants have on that? .,, .., y ., effects of these variants have on that? .,, .., , ., ., that? i hope we carry on with our road map — that? i hope we carry on with our road map and — that? i hope we carry on with our road map and anything _ that? i hope we carry on with our road map and anything will- that? i hope we carry on with our road map and anything will be i that? i hope we carry on with our| road map and anything will be ok that? i hope we carry on with our- road map and anything will be ok and so far, so good, but ijust think that variants like this one do have the ability to cause damage in people who have only had one vaccine dose or had no vaccine doses and could set us back. so let�*s be careful. could set us back. so let's be careful. ., , ,., ., ~ could set us back. so let's be careful. ., , ., ~ , ., careful. ok, professor, thank you for talking — careful. ok, professor, thank you for talking to _ careful. ok, professor, thank you for talking to us. _ the headlines on bbc news... a senior conservative mp warns borisjohnson he�*ll lose the support of so—called �*red wall�* voters in former labour seats unless he resolves the row about lobbying. the two russian men suspected of carrying out the salisbury nerve agent attack three years ago are being sought by police in the czech republic. a warning from nhs providers — it�*s chief executive says it will take five years for some hospitals to catch up with the backlog caused by the pandemic.

sport and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre, here�*s chetan patak. good afternoon. lewis hamilton pulled off a remarkable comeback to retain the lead of formula one�*s drivers�* championship as max verstappen won the emilia romagna grand prix in italy. a damp imola track produced a chaotic race from the off with the red bull driver starting from third and surging past pole sitter hamilton to take the lead. the world champion made a rare mistake, sliding off the greasy track and slipping down to ninth. the race was suspended for more than 25 minutes after britain�*s george russell crashed into the mercedes of valtteri bottas. after the restart, hamilton fought his way back through the field to finish second behind verstappen who won by more than 20 seconds. britain�*s lando norris completed the top three.

in the premier league, where there was a late goal at the emirates which prevented fulham from getting the win they desperately needed in their quest for survival fulham took the lead at arsenaljust before the hour mark thanks to a penalty from josh maja. and they held on until the 97th minute when arsenal substitute eddie nketiah poked home the equaliser. heartbreak for fulham who are six points from safety. we always look at the positives. of course we�*re disappointed at not picking up the win in those games but we have to stay and stay confident and remember the good things we do in the game and hopefully in the next game we can pick up three points instead of ten. you�*ve still got the belief? we you've still got the belief? we alwa s you've still got the belief? we always got _ you've still got the belief? - always got belief. burnley would have relieved to see that late arsenal equaliser, because they�*re currentlyjust one place above fulham and

they�*re taking on manchester united at old trafford where it�*s currently goalless. fans return to wembley this evening with 4,000 set to be in attendance for the fa cup semi final between leicester and southampton. it�*s part of a government pilot event. the winner will face chelsea in next month�*s final. today�*s tickets have been limited to local residents and key workers. in the long run. in the long run it is to get fans back into stadium. i know the fans won�*t see their team because it is just for local people but i just can�*t wait to watch live sport again. with around an hour played in the old firm derby at ibrox, rangers lead celtic 2—0. steven davis with an overhead finish from six yards out early in the first half and an own goal from celtic�*sjonjoe kenny doubling rangers�* lead. earlier hibs beat league two stranraer 4—0.

martin boyle on the scoresheet twice. arsenal have thrashed gillingham 10—0 in the fourth round of the fa cup this afternoon, west ham went one better with an 11—0 win over chichester and selsey and in the day�*s early game birmingham beat coventry 5—1... claudia walker on her 50th appearance for the club scoring twice. it was only 3—1 after 90 minutes but sarah maylett scored twice in injury time to wrap up a convincing victory for carla ward�*s side. reigning masters champion yan bingtao is through to the second round of the world snooker championship in sheffield. resuming his match at 4—4 against martin gould, yan took control of the morning session to come through 10 frames to 6. four—times world champion john higgins is at one frame all with tian pengfei of china, while david gilbert is 8—4 up against fellow englishman chris wakelin. before we go just to let you know

that britain�*s tom pidcock has won the amstel gold race. that�*s all for me for now but i will be back with more spot at 6:30pm. let�*s return to coronavirus news. the global number of covid—19 deaths has now passed three million. in brazil more than 370—thousand people have now died. yet the president there refuses to lock down despite a sharp rise in infections. mark lowen sent us this from sao paolo. this from sao paulo. every day, the faces of despair multiply. the food lines in sao paulo�*s largest favela go on and on. with most here working in the grey economy, covid has destroyed jobs. queues have more than tripled in recent months, as the pandemic takes lives and livelihoods of brazil�*s poorest. for luciana firmino and herfamily, this is now their only meal of the day. she lost herjob in a manicure studio with the pandemic and they�*re unable to pay the rent.

translation: i've lost hope. we will have to live on the street or under a bridge soon. sometimes, i think i should give my children away to social services. she sobs. with the pandemic, six out of ten brazilians households now lack sufficient access to food. government hand—outs last year helped, but they�*ve been reduced as money ran scarce. no such concerns for the wealthiest food producers and backers of the president. it�*s corn harvest time on frederico da vila�*s 1,300 hectares. but with the president�*s anti—lockdown stance, slow vaccine purchase, and more than 365,000 dead here, his critics call his handling genocidal. the president bolsonaro is not focused on killing anyone,

he want to preserve the liberties of the people. he want people to get... to get out, to get work. with the public health disaster, economic woes, and a divisive leader, brazil is facing a perfect storm. it urgently needs a way out from the darkness of the pandemic. mark lowen, bbc news, sao paulo. supporters of the jailed russian opposition activist, alexei navalny, have said he could die within days. doctors say blood tests indicate he�*s at risk of both kidney and heart failure. mr navalny has been on a hunger strike for more than two weeks, because he�*s not being allowed access to his own medical team. the european union says it is deeply concerned about reports of his health and has called for his release. speaking on the andrew marr show russia�*s ambassador to the uk, andrei kelin, was asked if mr navalny would be allowed to die in prison.

he will not be allowed to die in prison but i can say that mr navalny behaves like a hooligan, absolutely, in trying to violate every rule that has been established. his purpose of doing that is to attract attention for him, also by saying that today his left hand is sick, tomorrow his leg is sick and all of that stuff... the european court of human rights has ruled that the charges against him for the money laundering are, they say, arbitrary and unfair. isn�*t the truth that he is in prison because he is a threat to president putin, for democratic reasons? no, not at all. he has violated his terms of parole and that is why he has been given a sentence and i have to say that julian assange here in britain was arrested by british police because he had also violated the terms of parole. what was the biggest iceberg in the world has completely broken up. a68, as it was known, measured around two thousand three hundred square miles when it broke away from antarctica, in 2017.

here�*s victoria gill. a1 billion tonne block of ice. when iceberg a68 broke away from antarctica back in 2017, it measured more than 2,300 square miles, a quarter the size of wales. it was only by imaging it from space that scientists could actually follow the massive iceberg�*s journey as it inched its way north. at one point, it was on a direct collision course with the antarctic island of south georgia, potentially threatening to cut off vast populations of penguins and seals. but it was off that coast in the open ocean swell that the world�*s largest iceberg broke apart. it lasted for years like that, as it moved around, but eventually broke in two, four, five pieces and then those broke up again. but the end point for some of these fragments was quite interesting because just very suddenly overnight, theyjust fragmented into millions of little tiny pieces. and you could see that on the satellite data.

and that process, i think, is something that needs studying a little bit more because it might tell us a little bit about how ice shelves break up in the future. a68 being the size of a small country made it the focus of global media attention. but the breaking away, or calving, of these giant icebergs is a natural part of the ebb and flow of the dynamic ice shelf. what we are looking at is the regularity of these events — are they becoming more frequent? and if iceberg calving is a big factor in ice loss from antarctica. so, if these iceberg calving events are becoming more frequent, then it's a really important factor that we need to be looking at and researching. while a68 will be remembered as a social media star that was visible from space, scientists will now be turning their attention to the newest chasm on the edge of the vast ice sheet and the next giant berg to set off on its own epicjourney. victoria gill, bbc news.

now it�*s time for a look at the weather with susan powell. the best of the sunshine will be across much of england and wales and with light winds heading in a southerly direction it will feel just a little warmer than it did yesterday with highs as we go through the afternoon picking at 15 or 16. through the afternoon picking at 15 or16. not through the afternoon picking at 15 or 16. not quite as warm where we have the cloud with a bit of breeze in the far north and west. it looks likely as we go through the week we will continue with the warmer start and noticeably cooler as the week

goes onwards and that could bring the return of overnight frost. hello this is bbc news. the headlines... a senior conservative mp warns borisjohnson he�*ll lose the support of so—called �*red wall�* voters in former labour seats, unless he resolves the row about lobbying. the two russian men suspected of carrying out the salisbury nerve agent attack three years ago are being sought by police in the czech republic. the czechs, for example, in the past until quite recently have been quite reticent about picking a fight with moscow and it�*s quite interesting how you have the czechs now, who are being very robust in their response. a warning from nhs providers — it�*s chief executive says it will take five years for some hospitals to catch up with the backlog caused by the pandemic. once the world�*s largest iceberg — but now no more — satellite images show the "mega—berg" has virtually gone.

now on bbc news... africa has the youngest population of any continent in the world, with an average age ofjust19. but is a lack ofjobs for young people threatening its future stability? that�*s the subject of this week�*s global questions. hello, welcome to global questions with me, zeinab badawi. africa has the youngest population on earth. the average age on the continent is 19. yet many young people don�*t have a decent education or properjob and are worried about theirfuture. that�*s global questions: is africa failing its youth? well, to bring you this edition of global questions, our two

panelists and our questioners join us via video link.