for buttler, and for england, this was a day that went slowly downhill. patrick gearey, bbc news. time for a look at the weather with stav danaos. gorgeous weather in adelaide, it is there some of course. what is it looking like here?— there some of course. what is it looking like here? yes, they are in the full swing _ looking like here? yes, they are in the full swing of— looking like here? yes, they are in the full swing of summer - looking like here? yes, they are in the full swing of summer with - looking like here? yes, they are in the full swing of summer with high temperatures but a different story here. the temperature is not too bad for the time of year but it is lack of sunshine, gloomy and grey day for many today and again tomorrow. but there have been areas of sunshine, particularly towards norfolk and suffolk, glorious conditions here. glimmers of brightness for cornwall and the channel islands, and parts of scotland and into northern ireland. for most, we are under this dense layer of cloud, low cloud and mistiness. the front spreading north across the country will be confined

to the northern isles, a bit more of the breeze here, the same for the far north—west and far south—west, and temperatures at 13 degrees, well above par for the time of year. through this evening and overnight we hold on to a lot of cloud and mistiness but what we have across east of england in particular, clear skies will allow temperatures to plummet and hear a touch of frost and some dense fog patches, particularly across yorkshire and down into norfolk. that could be problematic through tomorrow morning so bear that in mind. i pressure with those into the weekend, drifting up towards iceland. that will allow cooler air to move down from the north—east off the north sea, particularly into the start of next week. friday are pretty similar data today, a lot of grey and gloomy weather around with mistiness and murkiness too. there was temperatures down a notch, seven to 11 degrees. the weekend is looking

pretty benign, much like we have had today and will have tomorrow. it will be turning cooler, that will be noticeable on sunday. a largely grey day with light winds on saturday, mainly dry with some brightness around, particularly towards western areas, and in the north—east of scotland perhaps the higher ground poking above the cloud. a similar story on sunday, we start to pick up more of a cold and north—easterly breeze, and that cooler air will be spreading southwards and on sunday we are in single figures across the board, just about 9 degrees across the south—west. it looks like the cooler air at the moment all the colder air i should say will start to win out spreading southwards in the run—up to christmas. some models are thinking some milder air could work in from the south—west so we could become a battleground between the air masses and when we get this set up, there is a chance of rain, sleet and snow. but with this scenario, we will see wintry showers

across higher ground and in towards the east. that's how it's looking but stay tuned into the forecast. we'll do. thank you. a reminder of our top story... the government's chief medical adviser says omicron cases are likely to go up "incredibly fast" and that the previous record of daily hospital admissions could be broken. 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 1.30pm and here's your latest sports news... leicester's match with tottenanham in the premier league tonight has been postponed as the grip of the covid outbreak worsenes. it is the fourth match to be called off, with at least half of all clubs in the top flight affected by positive cases.

brentford who were due to play manchester united on tuesday have at least 13 players missing with the virus, their manager thomas frank has called for a suspension of all fixtures in the premier league this weekend. we think we should postpone the full round of premier league games this weekend coming up. the covid—19 cases are going through the roof in all the premier league clubs, everyone is dealing with it and everyone has a problem at this moment of time. to postpone this round and the cup round, we want to carry on, we think it's important that football keeps going, but this way, we can have the boxing day going without problems, 100% sure of that. so in that aspect, we think that would be very sensible to do that. simon stonejoins us. simon, this situation evolving very quickly. and worsening very quickly. and will only add to calls to suspend the league?

it is interesting what thomas frank said because he is saying if you had a shutdown, boxing day will go ahead with no problems, he is 100% certain of that but i cannot see how anybody can be certain that by boxing day everything will be ok. that is the act —— my argument against a partial shutdown of the league because there is no guarantee when you reopen anything will have changed. that is the problem the administrators are wrestling with. leicester applied yesterday for the game this evening to be postponed, that was rejected. there were more positive cases within their camp this morning. they went back to the premier league. the premier league have now agreed that they can have their training ground close down to get on top of the situation which is exactly what happened with tottenham and with manchester and because their game to

be called off so we have four call offs in five games. the premier league are trying to navigate their way through the situation but there are no easy answers and that includes trying to shut the league time for a period of time.- includes trying to shut the league time for a period of time. indeed it does. time for a period of time. indeed it does- thank _ time for a period of time. indeed it does. thank you _ time for a period of time. indeed it does. thank you very _ time for a period of time. indeed it does. thank you very much. - time for a period of time. indeed it does. thank you very much. two . time for a period of time. indeed it - does. thank you very much. two more matches scheduled to go ahead this evening in the premier league. the day started with the dramatic omission of australia captain pat cummins, deemed a close contact of a positive coronavirus case in an adelaide restuarant on the eve of the second test. unfortunately the day ended in familiar fashion for england, the hosts piling on the runs in the second match of the ashes series, with wicket keeperjos butler guilty of a glaring dropped catch which would have seen marnus laburshagne depart for 95. instead at stumps he remains alongside steve smith unbeaten on 18, who took the captaincy

in absence of cummins. just the two wickets falling off the bowling of stokes and broad. australia 221—2. mercedes say they're dropping their appeal against the result of last weekend's abu dhabi grand prix as lewis hamilton missed out on a record eight title to max verstappen. mercedes lodged two protests at the end of the race over the way the it was restarted before a final lap in which verstappen overtook hamilton. their decision to drop the appeal coincides with the fia's decsion to launch a commision to establish what happened at the race, learn from it and to maintain fair competition. robbing him in the last lap of the race is unacceptable and it is up to the fia to decide going forward how these decisions and these situations can be avoided. i would have been totally ok with max and red bull winning the championship on sunday

and the situation is nothing to do with max. ., ., ~ ., ' , . with max. toto wolff, the principal of mercedes _ with max. toto wolff, the principal of mercedes clearly _ with max. toto wolff, the principal of mercedes clearly still _ with max. toto wolff, the principal of mercedes clearly still frustrated | of mercedes clearly still frustrated with the fallout of the end of the formula 1 season. i'll have more for you in the next hour. thank you very much. let's return to evidence england's chief medical officer, professor chris whitty, has been giving to mps on the health select committee about the spread of omicron. at a news conference at downing street yesterday, he urged people to be cautious about socialising before christmas. professor whitty said the uk could surpass the daily peak number of people admitted to hospital with covid—19. he told the commons health and social care committee: �*it is possible because it is going to be very concentrated... even if it is milder, because it's concentrated over a short period of time'. asked about socialising, he said it's "sensible" to cut down on work or other interactions,

like social events, that might be "less important" to you. and prof whitty underlined the importance of getting a booster — and warned "even if the boosters do hold" a lot of people will fall ill simultaneously. cases of omicron have been doubling every two to three days but professor whitty explained how the numbers will start decreasing. the doubling rate will slow down for two reasons. the first is that people are taking sensible precautions, it is very clear they are taking sensible precautions. that itself will help to slow the doubling rate down. the points we were making about prioritising the interactions that matter most to you, the government advice on working from home, they are all designed to help slow this down, particularly at the beginning, to buy us time to get through the boosting. and then at a certain point, the number of people who have already been infected and got immunity eitherfrom the boosting or from omicron itself will mean that the group of people it can infect now is

getting smaller and that will also slow it down and a certain point, that reaches its peak. professor whitty also outlined the impact of omicron on hospitalisations — saying there could be fewer due to people being vaccinated. one of the things that really matters to the nhs is also how long people remained. if people remain in hospitalfor a shorter people remained. if people remain in hospital for a shorter period because they are protected by prior vaccination that means the total number could still be lower even repeat number per day is going up even higher. so the total number of inpatients was about just even higher. so the total number of inpatients was aboutjust under 40,000, it could be you have a higher daily rate but a lower inpatient rate because of the short hospitalisation. the other thing is the number going to intensive care could also be quite a bit lower if in addition to taking in

hospitalisations vaccines provide additional protection. so what we should not do as if we get the same number going in that necessarily translates to the same numbers in intensive care at some point in the new year. nicola sturgeon has said latest figures suggest that omicron is likely to be the dominant strain of coronavirus in scotland by tomorrow. she said that would drive an even more rapid increase in infections. the first minister said there was a danger of a sleep—walking into an emergency if decisive action was not taken quickly. ms sturgeon said the scottish government was not able to trigger the scale of finance necessary to deal with the situation and she had asked for an urgent conversation with the prime minister later today. ahead of first minister's questions, she gave the latest case figures for scotland: 5951 were reported yesterday.

45.4 percent of cases now show the f gene drop—out indicative of omicron, it therefore seems likely that by tomorrow omicron will be the dominant strain in scotland and because of its much higher transmissibility this will drive an even more rapid increase in cases. omicron is spreading exceptionally fast, much faster than anything experienced so far ain the pandemic. i am profoundly concerned by the scale and immediacy of the challenge facing. in response we are already rapidly accelerating boosting and we will continue to do so. 59,437 booster doses were administered yesterday, an increase on the day before. we must understand that omicron is currently running faster than even the fastest roll—out of vaccine and also a key point that the immune protection from vaccination is not immediate, it takes a few days. so as we speed up vaccines we must also act to slow this virus down, if we do not, the consequences

will be significant. even if omicron�*s impact on individual health is milder than other variants and let me stress, we have no evidence of that yet, many will still become severely unwell and die and the sheer number of people infected will present a massive challenge. indeed in london where transmission of omicron is currently the highest in the uk, hospital admissions hospital admissions are now rising sharply. if we do not act now what we have feared all along but so far avoided, the overwhelming of the nhs could happen. let me be clear, this is not a choice between protecting health and protecting the economy. a surge in infections will cause and is already causing staff absences which will cripple the economy and other critical services. presiding officer, this is a really serious situation and we must respond accordingly. i therefore want to strongly underline the advice that i gave on tuesday,

please reduce your contact with people from households other than your own as much as you possibly can. for now, please stay at home much more than you normally would and as much as is favourable. right now the risk of getting covered from interaction with others is high and rising. so ask yourself before doing anything you may have planned over the coming days, is it as safe as it needs to be and is it vital enough to you to justify that risk? i suspect what is most important to most of us over the next couple of weeks is having time with our families over christmas. every interaction we have before then increases risk of having covid and possibly losing that. more generally, i suspect what matters most to us and i know this is strongly my view, is protecting children's education. so by acting to reduce community transition we will also be helping keep schools open and open safely. presiding officer, given what i'm being advised about the risk omicron poses to health

and the economy, i would not be i would not be fulfilling my duty if i failed to give this advice. i would not be acting in good conscience. however i am acutely aware of and deeply concerned about the considerable impact of this advice on businesses and let me repeat, businesses will also suffer if we do not act to slow the virus. business now needs the type and scale of financial support that was available earlier in the pandemic. however there are simply no mechanisms available to the devolved administrations to trigger the scale of finance needed to support such games. we need the uk government to act urgently and in the same way other countries are already doing. i made this point at a cobra meeting again yesterday, chaired by michael gove and attended by the chief secretary of the treasury. this now needs urgent engagement of the prime minister and chancellor. we must not sleepwalk

into an emergency that for both health and business will be much greater as a result of an action plan it will be if we act firmly and strongly now. i have therefore written to the prime minister this morning appealing to him to put the necessary support schemes in place, such as the urgency i have asked to speak to him directly later today. presenting officer, none of us want to be in this position but omicron presents a renewed and very real challenge for the whole world. the world health organization could not be clearer about that. once again the duty to protect the nhs, lives and livelihoods must be uppermost in our minds and it must try their actions. all of us, government and citizens must do what is required and i am asking everybody across the country please play your part again by following the advice we are giving. thank you. the first minister, nicola sturgeon speaking earlier there. the headlines on bbc news... the bank of england increases interest rates for the first time in over three years, from 0.1% to 0.25%.

the country's chief medical officer says the uk could surpass previous records of people admitted to hospital with covid—19. labour say businesses will have to start making redundancies next week — unless government give more support for struggling firms. now it's time for across the uk. lancashire's director of public health says they're preparing for a �*tsunami' of covid cases in the next 2 to 3 weeks — after a huge rise in the omicron infection rates in london. meanwhile, the region's hospitality and entertainment industries are calling for urgent financial support — with many bookings being cancelled. mairead smyth reports. it is christmas, but the advice from the government last night was to think carefully about any celebrations. at last night's briefing,

the chief medical officer professor chris whitty went further, saying don't mix with people you don't have to. businesses like this live music venue in birkenhead are feeling the impact. it has almost been like it's fallen off a cliff edge. we've seen a 70% to 80% cancellation, both in terms of audiences, but also artists and promoters who either feel they can't put on the shows or are conflicted about whether they should or whether they shouldn't. the hospitality and entertainment industries have called for urgent financial support. many businesses say they now face a cliff edge. celebrity chef tom kerridge has a restaurant in manchester. there are so many different spaces that are going to be unable to cope, not being able to take their revenue, and what also happened is it has left a huge amount of insecurity in and worry about future bookings. so ourjanuary and february bookings, they are normally quite strong, particularly in a couple of our places. they are very, very quiet,

because people are not sure what is going on. the effort to get the boosterjab to as many people as possible before the end of the month is continuing, with new vaccination site opening around the region. but yesterday's national leap in covid case numbers is deeply concerning for health officials in the north west. we are preparing for that tsunami of cases that is starting elsewhere, in london particularly, to arrive in lancashire in the next two to three weeks. and as we have seen in the past, once it starts, especially with a highly transmissible virus like the omicron, it is very hard to stop until we all take steps. covid continues to have the impact. burnley�*s premier league match last night was called off two hours before kick—off because of a covid outbreak in the watford squad. tonight, the liverpool fans going to anfield for the match against newcastle will have to show covid passes. some schools have said they are prepared to switch to online learning if they have two next term, as more children stay at home because of covid.

one deputy head in the north tested positive yesterday, and is now isolating herself right up to christmas eve. i've avoided covid thus far, so i feel like i was on borrowed time a little bit. however, i have seen in the schools it escalated phenomenally the amount of cases. christmas in isolation will be interesting. it will feel very much like last year, where you weren't allowed anyone to come round to your house. my husband at the moment had not tested positive. how long that is going to last for, i do not know. # king of all the world. # and all the angels sang for him... one school in cumbria has put its nativity online. kirkbride primary filmed on location around the village of wigton. they didn't want crowds in their school hall. it may be a sign of things to come for other festive plans.

the government's �*plan b�* covid restrictions are already having a big impact on the hospitality sector in the west. in weston—super—mare the situation is particularly difficult with some tourists no longer coming to the town and christmas bookings being cancelled. dave harvey reports. weston of course is famous for its summer and sunshine and sea side and of course the pier but a lot of christmas parties happened here as well or at least they normally do. unfortunately lots of people are cancelling with worries about omicron. tina, this is your hotel and restaurant. what have you had? we have had quite a few cancellations and the hotel has been closed for the last three weeks because we had no bookings. because the government says there are no restrictions, you can carry on coming, what messages are they sending out? the government is saying socialise but don't socialise. see your friends but don't see your friends. it's a mixed message and people

don't know what to do so they are just cancelling. i really hope you managed to get through this difficult time. let us chat to caroline. what do you hear along the seafront? like with tina, it is a very mixed bag. some hotels are saying they have loads of cancellations. others saying they are full for the whole of next year and for christmas. there is the tinsel and turkey brigade that is still coming and perhaps some of those coaches are running with lower passengers. it is difficult for everyone. it is not easy to get a turkey at christmas and if you have to get millions of turkeys because you're doing all these parties and your hiring staff, it is very difficult to predict so it is going to put people in financial difficulty. so the treasury is going to have to find money from somewhere to help the hospitality industry again. they are always the first hit. the park lane stables, in south west london, which helps children with disabilities has been in temporary home

for the last 7 months. they needed to raise £1 million by the end of february in order to buy the original land from the owner — they ended up raising £1.3 million in total with more than 27,000 people donating. they are now returning to the site. fiona lamdin was there as the horses and riders returned. cheering and applause. the horses can go in! lights are going on. natalie... car beeps horn. oh, look, people are beeping as they are going past! natalie. i don't even know what to say. i'm lost for words for once in my life. i want to say thank you to every single person that has supported us, all of the bbc breakfast viewers, the 32,000 people that donated

so that we could save the stables! we have got the d on the end now, because we have actually done it. and we are here forever, and nobody can ever take it away from us, and itjust means that we can make horses more accessible to even more people. let's meet louis. this is louis. tell us, have you been here over the last few months are not? we haven't, no. we haven't been here, so we haven't seen the horses, and we've really missed them. we've really missed them. we are just so happy that they are back our community and back in their home. now, louis, i think you've got a little treat. is this marcus? show us who this one is behind you. marcus. and what have you got for marcus? oh i've got a treat, i a welcome home treat for all his hard work. he has been through. oh, look. oh, look, he loves that, louis. does that feel nice in your hand? yeah. louis, what has it been like? you haven't had the horses here. have you missed them? yeah, i missed them so much. and this was the only.

home they had been in, but for now it has changed for them so, yeah. - how do you feel this morning? well, i feel great. it has been an amazing morning. park lane is now back and they are here, as nat says, forever. now it's time for a look at the weather with stav danaos. hello there. we are keeping hold of this very benign weather for the foreseeable future, all down to this large blocking area of high pressure which is going to dominate the weather. there is going to be a lot of gloomy, cloudy skies, but also some sunshine like we have seen through today, and most places will be dry. we have had that weather front bringing further light and patchy rain today across the north of scotland, the northern isles. the best of the sunshine has been in eastern scotland and also eastern england. a few glimmers elsewhere, and it has been mild, too. temperatures for most in double figures. as we move through this

evening and overnight, most places state rather cloudy, a bit misty and murky in places. we lose the rain across the far north of the country. it is eastern scotland and eastern england which continue to see some clear spells. so here temperatures dipping close to freezing. could see a bit of mist and fog developing under the clear skies. for most, where the cloud holds, those of four to 7 degrees. so here it is. a big strong area of high pressure which will be sitting on top of the uk this week. and then tending to drift across towards iceland by sunday and into the start of next week that will allow some cooler air to move down from the north sea. for friday then it is a similar story. most places dry, light winds, a lot of cloud. rather gloomy in central and southern areas. probably the best of any brightness in eastern scotland and north—east england. temperature wise, maybe a notch down on today's value. seven to 11 celsius. the weekend, very little change. it stays largely cloudy and grey and dry for most, but it will be turning cooler from the north and the east. so this is the picture for saturday.

you can see a lot of cloud around, but there is a little bit of brightness across the far south—west. again, across scotland mainly the higher ground poking out of the low clouds, and the grampians and the highlands seeing some sunshine. temperatures five to 8 degrees in the north and east. double figures in the south—west. but that cooler air begins to filter southwards to all areas on sunday. another grey day for many single figure values, as you can see right across the board. and that cooling trend continues in the run—up to christmas. we could even see some wintry showers appearing in northern and eastern areas with that onshore north—easterly breeze. but some of the computer models want to favour some milder air moving in from the south—west to bring some rain. so we could become a bit of a battleground of air masses towards the end of the week. so stay tuned.

this is bbc news. i'm annita mcveigh. the headlines: the country's chief medical officer says the uk could surpass previous records of people admitted to hospital with covid—19 and warns of major challenges in the days ahead. a lot of people simultaneously fall ill and be unwell, isolating or caring for others at the same time across the whole economy. so that side of things, i also do think we need to take quite seriously. the chancellor will hold talks with representatives of the hospitality sector, who are asking for further government support to cope with the challenges of the omicron variant. the queen has cancelled her traditional pre—christmas family party next week. sources suggest it could have put too many people's christmas arrangements at risk. coming up at 2:30pm, we'll be answering your questions