yesterday was gloomy before it rained at those conditions were ideal for bowlers to stop right now, there is bright sunshine, and south africa are about to resume after lunch 27 without loss. who is the kind of batter they could look to emulate, someone who always produced some of his best cricket here on his home ground? i was thinking of andrew strauss, who isjust home ground? i was thinking of andrew strauss, who is just over there, still in his red i'm sure he has appreciated the emotion of the occasion today, but i still think he'd like to see if you wickets quite soon. indeed! thank you, joe wilson. time for a look at the weather. here's louise lear. but at lord's today compared to yesterday, with some heavy rainfall, but it's rare that i start with a pressure chart because low pressure dominates the weather story at the moment, and these weather fronts will continue to produce more cloud and we've seen recently. but also some thundery rain as well. we have

lost the risk of shop thundery downpours, still the risk of a few isolated showers in east anglia, its frontal rain at the moment, fairly light and patchy, and we could see some heavy bursts and whisk facing cuts of wales and north—west england this afternoon for up the cloud should remain broken in the south—east, still quite warm out there and we are likely to see temperatures peaking at 25 or 26, the high 70s. a bit fresherfurther north and west, with a brisk wind, costing in excess of 35 mph. that frontal rain will sink steadily south and east this evening and overnight but getting weak considerably, with no considerable rain for the south—east this evening at overnight, in fact, with the cloud around, it will stay quite muqqy cloud around, it will stay quite muggy through the night, 17 or 18, uncomfortable for a good night sleep. first thing, the isobars open up, the winds will fall lighter, which means any showers in north—west scotland and northern

ireland could be slow—moving. they should be fairly isolated on the whole of friday, with a good deal of dry, fine weather dominating, and temperatures will be on the warm side across england and wales, 22 to 25 or 26. in scotland and northern ireland, 17 to 20. more low pressure and frontal systems arrive for the weekend into saturday, with some showery outbreaks of rain sinking south and east, fairly pathetic as they push further south, and we will not see much significant rain for england and wales on saturday, as temperatures at similar values, highs up to 25 or 26, again the high 70s. as we move into sunday, a greater chance of seeing more significant rain for the that this area of low pressure moving in, a bit slower than we had anticipated so, for many on sunday, that brief ridge of high pressure keeps things quiet, so eastern areas, the top two towns and cities dry, settled and

saved up out to the west, a greater chance of some rain during daylight hours on saturday that ijust want to finish with and and finally, the sun is pretty active at the moment. before you go to tonight, look out of your window flip there is a greater chance of seeing the aurora, the northern lights over the next few nights, tickly with clear skies. worth a look! a reminder of our top story... the first students to sit formal exams since the pandemic have been getting their a—level and btec results. the number awarded top grades is down on last year but higher than before covid. that's all from the bbc news at one, so it's goodbye from me. 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. south africa are firmly in control on day two of the first test against england at lords. england resumed on 116 for 6 after the visitors fearsome attack ripped through their top order on wednesday. ollie pope — who resumed on 61 after a gutsy innings — went earlierfor 73. suart broad followed — gone for 15, before england's final wicket ao—year old jimmy anderson fell for 0. south africa trail by 158 runs with 10 wickets left. the european championships continue in munich this morning with the athletics underway. and there's been good news for great britain's jake wightman, who came first in the men's 800 metre heat to secure his place in sunday's final. wightman is coming off the back of a brilliant summer after winning gold at the world championships in oregon, and bronze at the commonwealth games.

i haven't run one since may, you know, so i was nervous i hadn't done enough work for it but it woke me up and was a very early start but i'm just glad i got through. if i needed to push on a little bit to guarantee to keep it safe then that's what i did. it's more good news for great britain in the women's 800 metre heats as commonwealth silver medalist keely hodgkinson takes the top spot and books her place in the semi—final. joining keely hodgkinson in that semi final will be her teammatejemma reekie who qualifed fastest in her heat. reekie who didnt make either final at the world championships or commonwealth looked pretty comfortable throughout. great britain's alex bell is also through. over to rome where the european aquatics championships are taking place. and the defending champion jack laugher is safely through to the final of the men's one metre springboard. he qualified in second place below

italy's lorenzo marsaglia. great britian�*sjordan houlden will also be in the final which takes place at three forty this afternoon. british businessman jim ratcliffe is interested in buying premier league side manchester united. side manchester united. news of his interest follows a bloomberg report that the glazer family are willing to sell a minority stake in the club. ratcliffe — here on the left — whose company sponsors the ineos grenadiers cycling team — is one of the uk's wealthiest people. he also owns the french ligue un side nice, and the swiss club lausanne—sport. in response, manchester united supporters�* trust cautiously welcomed the interest from ratcliffe but said a takeover would need the support of fans. a spokesperson told bbc sport: "any prospective new owner has to be committed to the culture, ethos and best traditions of the club.

they have to be willing to invest to restore united to former glories, and that investment must be real new money spent on the playing side and the stadium. finally, any new ownership structure must embed supporters, including a degree of fan share ownership, in their operating model." golfer patrick reed has filed a 750 million dollar defamation lawsuit against the american television network the golf channel and its commentator brandel chamblee. in his filing, the american golfer — who joined the controversial saudi backed liv golf series injune — says "calculated, malicious, false and reckless attacks" have caused him major damages, and cost him several multi—million—dollar sponsorship deals. chamblee and the golf channel have yet to respond to reed's accusations. that's all the sport for now. you can find more on all those stories on the bbc sport website. that's bbc.co.uk/sport. thank you very much. now on bbc news, another chance to hear your questions answered, with your inquiries about results day and what happens next

here is lewis. we've got catherine and adrian with us this morning to answer your questions on exam results. good morning. we've got a couple of questions to get through but i want to start and this may sound silly but with some really basic definitions so we know exactly what we are talking about. because we've got a—levels which we are used to and i want to get in the process of what happens next, clearing and so forth but on t levels, i want to talk about that and those getting to grips with them. what's a basic definition? who wants to take that away? what exactly are t levels?

i can start with that if that would be helpful. t levels are a new qualification. they are an equivalent of three a—levels but they are focused much more on vocational—technical with the opportunity for students to study in—depth a subject and also do a high—quality work placement, so students go out and do 45 days in the industry and i think that those who achieve their results today is that they really enjoyed that part of their course so we've got lots of students achieving their t levels today. that's a high—level overview of those. thank you for that. adrian, let's come to a—levels and let's start with those poor people who did not get the grades they expected. what are their options now? i mean, there's a whole range of options. whether it's switching focus

to a different university which is what the clearing system is all about but there are also other options. degree apprenticeships are available. some have decided they may not want to go to universities. there are thousands and thousands of options out there for students who still want to go to university who aren't getting into their first choice. on clearing, just briefly, what is it? how does it work and what should people expect? without over—complicating it, clearing is a period of time which starts at the beginning of the month where we sort of associate clearing with results day but students have been going into clearing for a while now. obviously, it peaks on results day when students get their results and it's a chance for those who didn't getting telephone choice who didn't getting their firm choice

or didn't get into insurance or don't want their insurance to look at alternatives. there are also growing numbers of students who actually don't use the main cycle to apply and apply just through clearing and also some who feel that in some years there is an opportunity to trade up from their firm choice because the results are better, because their results are better, they have the option to look at alternatives as well. probably less so this year, given the results, but it's a clearing house for students and universities to be matched up with places. it's a stressful time, isn't it? there's no getting around it? yes, it is. i refer to it— 40 years ago, i was a clearing student and in that first period when you get your results and even if you're expecting not

to do as well as you need to, there is still this hope and it comes as a real gut punch and i think students need to understand that this is the only day of their life that they will talk about clearing. no one will ever ask you, no one has ever asked me! there are role models out there for people who are successful who did not go to university or who dropped out. there are no role models for clearing because it's never talked about again but so many people do. that is really interesting. i had not thought of that! i just want to bring catherine into talk about those alternatives. what other kind of pressures that most, when you are hearing from students? so, i think obviously there's the anxiety of doing well and also i think added anxiety this year because there was a move back to exams. now students had said they really wanted to engage with exams and they felt that was the fairest way to achieve their qualifications but there is always going to be a degree of anxiety and i think the key point is that today we are celebrating success after two really difficult years for young

people, and colleges and schools. and the most important thing is that as we've already heard there are options but everybody. there are options for everybody. whether that's going through clearing, or if you are looking at doing an apprenticeship or going straight into employment. i think the key thing is to take advice at the national careers service. go to your local school or college and ask what the options are and you don't have to make the options right this minute today. i think lots of people getting on the phone to the clearing services great but do give yourself time to think about what you want to do next because you are making decisions that will impact. as we've just heard, no one will ask if you are a clearing student but the decision you make now will impact at least the first three

or four years of your life, if not the rest of your life. take some time. speak to someone you trust and make your decision but there are lots of options available. adrian, i want to bring in a question from nicole who has been in touch. for those students who missed offers and need to retake due to the difficult nature of the exams this year, will there be any extra support for the november cycle of exams? it's not really a question i can answer because that support will probably come from the institution they are doing the retakes with. obviously, for those students doing retakes, it's going to be too late for them tojoin a university in the current intake. many institutions have january in takes of undergraduates now, although in a far more limited range of subjects and it's not every university but it might be worth a student who is considering retakes, it might be worth considering looking around at the universities who are offering january intakes as opposed to having to wait till

the following september. catherine, could you pick this up? lots of people have questions around finance. it can be expensive. what are the options? for students who are looking at progressing, they probably will have put in applications for finance and it is very much based on those students who need it most. i think no one should be put off going into higher orfurther education for fear of finance. i think the key thing is to go and speak to people. find out what your options are. there are bursaries and funding options. i think the key thing there is to make sure you are having again those conversations but please do not be put off because you are concerned about finances. i appreciate particularly with the cost of living concerns, therefore people will be more anxious but make sure you are going and asking

all of those questions and i'm sure you will be able to put together a package that works for you. adrian, i want to come to you with this fiddly, technical one which is coming from matthew. we will give it a go. when stating 36% of students got a grades or a star, what do you actually mean? is that a—level grades awarded or 36% of students got at least an a star or a, 36% of students got straight a stars? i'm not sure where this statistic

has come from but i can only base it on the grammar of the sentence but the inference i would take from that sentence is that 36% of students got an a or and a star so i don't know whether this was because it was a slightly sloppily written sentence, i don't know. i can only base it on how it's written. i don't know where the percentage has come from? the idea that the number of grades this year at that top level is lower than last year but higher than pre—pandemic levels? can you explain that for us? i think the key thing to remember here is that we have been through two years of pandemic where we've had teacher or centre assessed grades and to move from the great last year, the teacher assessed grades, which were perhaps the highest we'd ever seen, to move back to the exam grades we saw in 2019, it was felt it was felt that would be a big shock, particularly when students have been through the impact of the pandemic so this year we have a midpoint

between 2019 and 2021 so we should see that on average the results are in between those two groups. so between 2019 and 2021. i think the important thing to remember is that there has been a lot of work going on behind—the—scenes to make sure students are not disadvantaged and they have every opportunity to be successful and go on to whatever destination they are intending to go on to. a big day for so many young people. catherine and adrian, thank you so much for your tips and advice. ambulance services across england and wales are booking taxis to take tens of thousands of patients who call 999 to hospital. figures obtained by the bbc, show the practice is increasing as trusts struggle with rising call volumes and handover delays. nhs trusts says the most life threatening cases are prioritised

and the proportion of patients affected is small. nikki fox reports. ambulances queueing outside busy hospitals to off—load patients. an increase in demand and lack of social care means scenes like this are becoming more common, and the consequence, fewer are on the road to respond to other urgent calls. when andrew weeds developed excruciating stomach pain, his wife dialled 999. i wanted help. i was in so much pain, wracked in pain, vomiting too. i vomited several times during the evening. i didn't know if it was appendicitis, i didn't know what it was. i felt terrible, thought i was dying. the 73—year—old from norwich was told it could be 15 hours until an ambulance arrived. the trust says it was classed as a less urgent call, but andrew says the clinician on the phone told him he needed to be seen and booked him a taxi.

he said to me, you need to get to hospital. he said the ambulance service is in so much disarray, it's unbelievable. but he said, what i'm going to do for you, he said, i'm going to get a taxi for you. and this situation is not unique. in the year up to the end ofjanuary, more than 23,000 patients in england and wales whose cases were classed as urgent were booked taxis in place of ambulances. a small proportion of nearly seven million calls received, but includes a three—day—old baby and a 103—year—old. we were contacted by one manager at a taxi firm used in the east of england. his name is being withheld to protect him. it's very unfair on the customer who needs to get to the hospital. it's also extremely unfair on the driver, because he has no training to deal with that sort of situation. he's a self—employed taxi driver whose only training is to drive a car. he's got no first aid training, no emergency medical treatment training.

he's probably not even aware of what he was getting involved in at that particular time. he also told us he had been asked to pick up covid—positive patients but refused. however, a separate taxi company in great yarmouth has a different view. if they phone up for a taxi to take somebody from home to an a&e department, nine times out of ten, that's a quicker option than an ambulance, so we are more than happy to help out. nhs england told us these figures account forjust 0.3% of ambulance call—outs. emergency ambulances are sent to life—threatening calls, and taxis are only used to transport other patients when it is clinically appropriate. while the welsh ambulance service added, a taxi is only used for red calls after an ambulance resource has arrived at the scene and clinically assessed the patient. i was gobsmacked, really, to think, in this day and age, they are using taxis to transport emergency cases to hospital like that. if that's the only resource

that they have got now, yeah, it's not great at all, is it? as services are stretched, prioritising ambulances for the most life—threatening patients is important, but those like andrew are worried that even if it is assessed as being safe, there should be enough resources to send to any case that is classed as urgent. nikki fox, bbc news. farmers and scientists say we can expect wonkier vegetables on the supermarket shelves this winter. the hot weather and lack of rainfall in parts of england has stressed crops which may affect the look of some produce. but the national farmers union says they'll still taste the same and is urging supermarkets to sell more wonky veg. the recent dry weather has caused havoc for parts of the countryside. and small wild animals

are finding it tough too. one farmer in suffolk is so worried, she's been trying to help. debbie tubby has more. this hare is wary, but thirsty. it normally wouldn't drink out of a container but there is no moisture in the grass. this jay is trying to cool off. a badger, brazen about enjoying a possibly life—saving drink. even a fox has come to this man—made watering home. i kind of thought it might be a goshawk and i've never seen one to photograph. i didn't know they were on the farm. which is really nice. all of them have been caught on camera by sue cross, who is so concerned about their welfare after weeks of no rain she has been putting water out for them to drink. i think the wildlife needs water. our ponds have dried up, the river is very low. and they are using the water trays that are out, so it obviously is making a difference. she lives on a 600—acre farm near bury st edmunds. just go over there.

there's probably about three on the other side of this hedge here. she now spends all day every day refreshing and refilling 70 trays of water for the wildlife which calls this farm home. she is a farmer, but her hobby is wildlife photography. her priority now is keeping them alive and capturing them instead on hidden cameras. oh, wow, this is a first. a tawny owl. that's amazing. you see things you haven't seen before. a camera card full every day to get through and see it, but it's a nice thing to do in the evening. some are so desperate for water they don't mind who they drink with. this rat is possibly dinnerfor this polecat, once on the brink of extinction, but it needs a drink first. we've got to do things differently. things have got to change. without water and moisture — it is moisture which is

the main thing we need — things are going to struggle. it's a big wake—up call. all creatures great and small. amazing pictures, but many will question whether we should be seeing this at all. an astronaut on the international space station — who's an amateur radio buff — has become firm radio friends with an eight—year— old school pupil from kent. they've been chatting while nasa's kjell lindgren is in orbit round earth. josie hannett went to meet her. mike zero lima mike kilo. this is an na1ss, welcome to the international space station. november alpha one sierra sierra. mike zero lima mike kilo. my name is isabella, i'm eight years old. you're five—oh—nine. thank you. mike zero lima mike kilo, this is november alpha one sierra sierra. isabella, it's so great to chat with you, thank you for getting on the radio and saying hello.

thank you, bye. fly safe. speaking to an astronaut live on the international space station might be one for the bucket list, but for eight—year—old isabella from broadstairs, it was a regular tuesday. it was very amazing to talk to an astronaut, and i was amazed. it was like deja vu had come to me, and granted me my wish. and when you were talking to him, what were you thinking? i was thinking, oh, my goodness, oh, my goodness, i'm talking to someone out of the earth's atmosphere. her dad matthew is a licensed radio amateur, and since isabella was a toddler, this is the room they have been experimenting in together. so she's got dad to thank for the experience. i'm not going to lie, i was a little bitjealous that it wasn't me talking to him but it was amazing seeing isabella have that contact. it's quite unusual that the astronauts on the international space station

actually use the amateur radio equipment, but they have been known to do it in the past. so through the network and through the communities that i'm involved in, i had a word that the astronaut that was up there was using the equipment, so we just started listening out for him. and it'sjust a game of luck, really. you have to get the right time when the space station is passing overhead, and it has to be the right time of day when the astronauts are actually using the equipment. i've had that dream of becoming an astronaut for as long as i can remember. kjell lindgren was the man in space who picked up the signal. he even tweeted isabella to thank her, saying it may have been his favourite contact so far and he also sent her this picture. i really want to inspire other little girls, and i want them to know thatjust because boys have all the space clothing doesn't mean they don't have to love space. who knows what this pair will do next, but something tells me it's going to be out of this world. josie hannett, bbc news.

jane hill will be with you from tpm. but now let's get your weather. we lost the risk of sharp thundery downpours. you can see that at frontal rain is sitting through scotland head a bit with some sunshine coming through we will see highs of 26 celsius. fresher further north and west with a few scattered showers lingering in the final left of scotland. overnight tonight, that weather front will sink its way south so a band of cloud and light rain will be across east england. that will act like a blanket preventing the temperatures from falling too far. a fresher, more comfortable night further north and

west. as we go into friday we will see a return to more in the way of sunshine and a few isolated well scattered showers to come.

this is bbc news. the headlines... results stay as top a—level grades fall in the first exam is covered. it feels amazing. because not only did i prove to, like, my future uni that i can do this, i've also proven to myself that i can do this. so i'm happy about that. rail workers are on strike again in their dispute about pain. there is lots of disruption on the network across england and wales. 44—year—old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after the fatal stabbing of thomas o'halloran while he was out on his mobility scooter west london. the un secretary general is in tel aviv for talks

with ukraine's president