earlier, three—time champion michael van gerwen was forced to withdraw from the tournament after testing positive for covid—19. he was due to play chris dobey, who will get a bye into the last 16. fellow dutch players raymond van barneveld and vincent van der voort have also tested positive for coronavirus. and that's all the sport for now. much more a little bit later on. i'm shaun ley with the latest bbc news headlines at 9:30pm. new covid infections in england and wales hit a record daily high, as the government defends its decision not to introduce further restrictions in england before january. we want to party all night long! members of the hospitality industry welcome the move, calling it a "lifeline". protests outside court,

as the kremlin bans one of russia's oldest and best known human rights organisations. right, those are our headlights. i will be back with more in half an hour. now on bbc news, our world. six years ago, amsha escaped from captivity in northern iraq, after being held by is militants. today, she is risking her life to clear her homeland of unexploded mines. in the summer of 2014, is militants swept across northern iraq. gunfire in sinjar, they would go on to commit a massacre, taking thousands of young women like amsha captive.

almost seven years later, much of the region remains in ruins and thousands remain missing. despite everything, amsha chose to remain in sinjar. now every day, she confronts the deadly legacy left hidden by herformer captors.

on the 3rd of august 2014, is militants invaded sinjar, homeland of the yazidi people. gunfire the so—called islamic state regarded this religious minority as infidels, reserving for them their most brutal treatment. is militants dragged amsha and her brother from their car and took them to a nearby base.

dog barks for amsha, it was the start of 11 months of torture. during their occupation of sinjar, the so—called islamic state took over 6000 yazidis captive, forcing boys into training camps and girls and young women into slavery.

five years on, amsha now lives back at home with her family.

dogs bark is militants might have gone from sinjar, but they are still taking lives — civilians are frequently killed or injured by explosive devices. three months ago, amsha started work as a de—miner, working with a british ngo, the mines advisory group.

when amsha firstjoined mag, she worked as a dog handler. it was the start of a new career and an important step in her path to recovery.

iraq remains one of the most heavily mined countries in the world. in sinjar, civilians live side by side with homes still contaminated with explosives and fields laced with ieds.

since 2016, mag has cleared over 27,000 items of unexploded ordnance from across iraq, returning thousands of square metres of land back to the community.

seven years ago, amsha's family, along with hundreds of thousands of other yazidis, fled to mount sinjar. now, a temple on top of the mountain has become a place for reflection for amsha.

back in sinjar, amsha is one of a handful of women who have chosen to stay, to provide for their families and help rebuild.

every week, amsha and her close friend and colleague spend time together in sinjar town.

before is militants attacked, around half a million yazidis called sinjar home. amsha was in high school, alongside her sisters and brothers. is militants are thought to have murdered over 5,000 yazidis. of those taken captive, almost 3,000 are still considered missing.

for amsha and her colleagues, the dangerous work of making their land safe continues. despite the progress that mag and other de—mining agencies have made in clearing the land, the work will continue for years to come.

sinjar remains volatile, with various armed groups spread across the region, often at odds with each other and with the civilian population. but despite this, the numbers

of those returning are slowly increasing. and new signs of life are emerging every day.

hello there. england and wales on tuesday had a lot of cloud, and certainly through the morning, we had some rain around as well, so skies like these were fairly commonplace. but for northern scotland, it was different. a bright start to the day and we had a number of weather watch pictures sent to us showing these fantastic halos, sun pillars and also upper tangent arcs. these phenomena are all caused by ice crystals high in the earth's atmosphere reflecting and refracting sunlight. that was then, but moving on the story, we've got some exceptionally mild air that's going to be pushing in behind this warm front as we go through the next few days. we're going to see temperatures pushing up to near record levels across parts of england. we could see highs reach 17 degrees celsius. while the english temperature record

for december is 17.7, the average at this time of year — around about 8 degrees celsius. these are pretty crazy temperatures, really, for december. and that milder air arrives early in the day across southern wales and south—west england, with temperatures quickly getting into double figures. cold with some frost in northern scotland. again, we'll have some dense patches of fog here. now, through wednesday, this band of heavy rain will be pushing its way northwards and eastwards, but it's behind this rain band that we see that really mild air extending in. so the highest temperatures will be across england and parts of wales, with highs potentially reaching 16, maybe 17 degrees, but it will also be turning milderfurther north — 11 in glasgow, 12 in belfast, both mild for december. we've got more of that exceptionally mild air to come on thursday, still with these brisk south—westerly winds. more heavy rain for wales, western areas of england, and into northern ireland later in the day. but again it is those temperatures that take centre stage —

16 or 17 degrees possible. we are reallyjust talking about temperatures getting close to the english record, because the all—time uk december temperature record stands at 18.7 in scotland. i don't think we'll quite get there. two scenarios for thursday night — one that we have a band of rain and some fairly brisk winds, but a second scenario develops quite a strong area of low pressure. that would bring a spell of much windier weather and heavier rain into scotland. now, if this second scenario happens, and there are a lot of models that do this, it would mean that we could still have rain and strong winds affecting scotland for the first part of friday morning, which is new year's eve. otherwise, there will be a lot of cloud across western areas, with some mist and hill fog patches and some patches of drizzle around as well. we continue with that very, very mild theme, with temperatures reaching those similar levels — 16, maybe a 17 in the very warmest areas. now, for the weekend, we start off with new year's day, and we start off 2022 where 2021 left off, that is still with these exceptionally mild south—westerly winds bringing that crazy 16 or 17

celsius air. across western areas, again, there will be a lot of cloud around, some outbreaks of light rain and drizzle, particularly around the coast and hills. heading deeper into the new year, low pressure looks set to move in and we may well see, at least for a time, the winds turning more to a north—westerly kind of direction, and with that, temperatures will probably come back little bit closer to normal, particularly across northern areas, whereas england and wales, those temperatures still coming down, but 10 degrees in london and cardiff is still way above average for the time of year. that's your latest weather. bye for now.

nearly 130,000 across the uk. but as the booster rollout continues, there are early signs 0micron is leading to fewer hospitalisations. we do watch very carefully all of the data and we have had some good news that it does seem to be a bit milder in terms of severity. meanwhile, france records one of the highest daily infection rates in the world since the start of the pandemic — 180,000 cases. also tonight... protests outside court as the kremlin bans one of russia's oldest and best known human rights organisations. how poverty is forcing children in afghanistan out of school and into work. oh, there we go!

and questions and recriminations after england lose the ashes