thank you, hugh pym. _ high demand for beds. thank you, hugh pym. our — high demand for beds. european athletics championships in munich, non stanford has won the first gold medalfor great britain. racing in a british vest for the very last time, she followed up her commonwealth team silver, with gold in the women's triathlon. stanford is retiring from the sport in october to become assistant coach of the great britain team. seven uk cities have been named to compete to host next year's eurovision song contest. it's coming to britain after we came second in this year's contest — and organisers decided it wouldn't be safe for the winning country, ukraine, to host. our arts correspondent david sillito is in liverpool — one of the cities on the shortlist. fanfare katie boyle, 1960. good evening, ladies and gentlemen. on behalf of the bbc, i'd like to welcome you all to the fifth annual eurovision song contest. europe thinks the british are reserved! the uk has a long history of staging the eurovision song contest. london, edinburgh, brighton, harrogate and birmingham have all pla

hugh pym, bbc news. that is hugh pym, our health editor.bulance service, we haveissued from the welsh ambulance service, we have issued a statement saying they have issued a statement saying they have experienced a major outage of their nhs computer system. they have just put this out on twitter. they say that has now ended, they have managed to restore service. let's have a look at what it is saying on that twitter feed. so, have a look at what it is saying on that twitterfeed. so, it is have a look at what it is saying on that twitter feed. so, it is the system which refers patients from the out of hours, from the nonemergency line, 111, which is the number obviously you call if you haven't got an emergency, but you need medical advice, two out—of—hours services. they say the incident related to a cyber attack, but now... only 2% of its services were affected at any time. it says that all services will be back up and running over the weekend, so some good news on that, they have got that attack under control. they say it is only affected

hugh pym, bbc news. now on bbc news, take me to the opera with zeinab badawi.fan for decades and i want to share my passion with you, so i'm on a mission to find out how opera is making itself fit for the future. i've come to munich to meet one of my all—time opera heroes, the german tenor jonas kaufmann, who's widely viewed as the world's leading opera singer. he's a charismatic person, performer. his way of communicating, his intelligence that one hears whenever he is singing, isjust unique. and that makes him really very special. but the pressures of staying at the top are immense. the highs and lows of life as an operatic celebrity from one of the people who knows him best. to get to the top is not so difficult, but to stay there, this is really a hard one. are the sacrifices worth it? the moment it all falls into. place and you are at a position that you've hardly ever dreamt| of is so much of a payback that everything, all the worki that you've done before, seems to be minimal. jonas kaufmann unveiled. let me take you to the opera. singing jonas kaufmann

hugh pym, bbc news.rd from the first of his alleged victims that he had a "predatory look" in his eye as he pursued her around his cheshire mansion. she accuses the manchester city footballer of attempting to rape her at his home in 2018 despite her repeated pleas for him to stop. judith moritz reports. in september 2017, manchester city defender benjamin mendy picked up a knee injury during a match against crystal palace. he was sent to a clinic in barcelona for surgery. today his trial heard that whilst he was recovering in the spanish city the following month, he and his entourage met a group of women in a nightclub. one of them stayed in touch with a friend of mr mendy�*s and in 2018 shejoined both men and others on a night out in manchester. the woman says that despite being with one of the footballer�*s friends, benjamin mendy pursued her. she said, at one point he came up to me and said, "when he's not here, i'm going to kidnap you." "i thought he was joking," she said. the group went back to benj

hugh pym, bbc news. stay with us on bbc news. heats up in california, we have a special report. the question was whether we want to save our people and the japanese, as well, and win the war — or whether we want to take a chance on being able to win the war by killing all our young men. the invasion began at 2am this morning. mr bush, like most people, was clearly caught by surprise. we call for the immediate i and unconditional withdrawal of all iraqi forces. 100 years old and still full of vigour, vitality and enjoyment of life. no other king or queen in british history has lived so long — and the queen mother is said to be quietly very pleased indeed that she's achieved this landmark anniversary. this is a pivotal moment for the church as an international movement. the question now is whether the american vote will lead to a split in the anglican community. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: israel launches multiple air strikes on the gaza strip, killing a senior commander of the palestinian group islamichhad. at least te

our health editor, hugh pym, has been looking at the figures. hugh.train right across the nhs. injuly in england, 29% of patients had to wait longer than four hours to be treated or assessed in a&e departments, a record high. and what about the other uk nations? the figure for a&e delays was a bit lower in scotland, but higher in wales and northern ireland, though data is published at different times. and there was a record 6.73 million people in england waiting for planned operations and procedures injune. some are enduring very long and debilitating waits for their treatment. james is in training for the great north run. he's had his heart valve operation, but only after going private. he felt he had to do that after repeated delays in the nhs system, including last—minute postponements. get yourself prepped, you're starving yourself, you wake up the next morning, they shave your chest, get you all gowned up, get you on the bed, and then the nurse turns up and says, "sorry, it's not happening today." then your emotions just go. and the first time th

our health editor, hugh pym, is here. hugh.tories of overstretched amublance services and long waits seem to be emerging every week. even now, in the height of summer. for category 2 reponse times for emergency calls in england — which includes strokes and heart attacks — there's been a sharp increaase this year to nearly one hour, on average, last month. the target, as you can see, is 18 minutes. the nhs confederation says things could get worse this winter, partly because of soaring fuel bills. it cites an estimate by a fuel poverty charity that cold homes are already linked to 10,000 deaths a year. for now, covid infections are falling, according to the office for national statistics. 1.7 million had the virus in the first week of august. that was down 34% on two weeks previously. but it hasn't gone away, nor have the pressures on the nhs. jan had classic heart attack symptoms, including chest pain, and rang 999. she was told it was very busy and it wasn't clear when an ambulance would get to her. there was an anxious wait.

our health editor, hugh pym, is here with this thoughts.e for england as health is devolved. top of the agenda will be a&e and ambulance delays. according to the association of ambulance chief executives, handover delays caused harm to thousands of patients — ambulances lost almost 333,000 hours in the year tojuly 2022 — 18 times more than during the same period two years ago. that's because of logjams across the system, including hold—ups discharging patients fit to go home. this may be an extreme example — ambulances queueing last week to hand over patients at one hospital, but there were delays at many others. one heart attack patient told us he waited two and a half hours for an ambulance, and his partner had to take him into hospital. i was told that i wasn't out of the woods, and if i'd left it any longer, or my partner had left it any longer getting me in, i wouldn't have made it. and then there are the workforce issues. a commons report published last month found that england is now short of 12,000 hospital doctors and more than 50,

hugh pym, bbc news.oy hackett, has died. he was 93. he helped organise the bristol bus boycott, the campaign in 1963 to end the bristol omnibus company's colour bar on employing black and asian people. the protests that followed paved the way for the race relations act. bristol, it wasn't like it is today. it was very hard for us to find a place to live, number one. and very hard for a black man to get a job here in bristol. roy hackett, who's died at the age of 93. england's victorious women footballers have written an open letter, urging the next prime minister to help inspire more girls to take up the sport. the team acknowledged that while women's football has come a long way, it still has a long way to go. the scorer of england's winning goal against germany, chloe kelly, has been speaking to our sports editor, dan roan. it was a moment english football will cherish forever. commentator: chloe kelly! unreal scenes! the images of chloe kelly's match—winning goal in the euros final, and the pure elati

hugh pym, bbc news.e agreed on the need to send inspectors to zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant as fears grow around the safety of the plant. it comes as the un secretary general antonio guiterress said he hopes �*discreet diplomacy�* can secure the safety of the plant amid concerns it could be damanged by shellfire. mr guterres who�*s visiting the ukrainian port of 0desa told the bbc, the aim was to stop military activity around the facililty, and gain access for inspectors from the international atomic energy agency. 0ur correspondent hugo bachega is in 0desa in southern ukraine the visit has been overshadowed by the tensions around the nuclear power complex for days russia and ukraine have traded accusations for who�*s responsible for showing the complex. ukrainians accuse or shift during this nuclear facility into a military base and using it to launch attacks against ukrainian towns, preps knowing ukrainians are unlikely to retaliate. the russians reject those accusations sing russian troops are ther

hugh pym, bbc news.be given urgent access, to a ukrainian nuclear power plant, being held by russian forces. jens stoltenberg says the seizure of the zaporizhzhia site, which is europe's largest nuclear powerfacility, posed a serious threat to ukraine and neighbouring countries. moscow and kyiv have blamed each other for recent shelling in the area, in southern ukraine, which russia seized early on in the war. 0ur ukraine correspondent, james waterhouse has the very latest. ukraine's vast, rich landscape, full of produce, industry, but still under threat. we are being taken to see preparations for a worst—case scenario. if you want to get anywhere quickly these days, this is how you do it. we are travelling very low to stay out of range of russian missiles and aircraft. you get a real sense ofjust how vast this country is. in zaporizhzhia they are training for a crisis which some fear could be more serious than the chernobyl nuclear disaster, the worst ever. the region's power plant further south has bee

hugh pym, bbc news. council after a report found extensive errors by the authority. a commissioner is being put in place to oversee the council's finances, with four others already in control of other council operations including planning and regeneration. our north of england correspondent judith moritz has more. the speed of change in liverpool has not been fast enough. for the last year, the government has helped to run some parts of the council, but the city's finances are still in such trouble, now they will also be supervised by whitehall. the city's mayor says that's not the right decision. i'm not denying that we have problems, we do, and we're uncovering problems, more problems than we anticipated in the beginning, but i do question whether an intervention that is costing us so much is the solution. there have been a series of expensive mistakes, including a mess over the city's energy contract which could cost an extra £10 million. today, the government wrote to the council saying the scale of

hugh pym, bbc news.sunak to be the next prime minister. writing in the times newspaper, mr gove said many people expected liz truss to win, but branded her campaign as a �*holiday from reality�*. he said he believes rishi sunak "makes the right arguments". he also added he cannot see himself being in government again — bringing hiscareer in front line politics to a close. finland�*s prime minster, sanna marin, says she has nothing to fear after taking a drugs test, following the emergence of a video of her, at a party. the 36—year old took the test, after some in finland, interpreted comments by partygoers in the footage, as referring to drugs. here�*s caroline hawley. these are the pictures that have put the finnish prime minister in the spotlight, sanna marin in the black top enjoying herself at a party, but the leaking of the footage prompted her to take a drugs test, and today she announced she had, though she said she considered the call as unfair and was doing it for her own legal protection. she s

hugh pym, bbc news. how have we got into this situation? was only the other day that the commons select committee said this was he was to workforce crisis in the history of the nhs and social care, and that reflect shortages going back to training decisions made sometime ago. it didn't tell pennington that the nurse bursary was withdrawn few years ago, that deterred some people from going into the profession, so money was then restored. the uk's nations will say they have plans to train more professionals, but that is for the future. it takes time. only the other day, jeremy hunt, the former health secretary, said the short term solution was a mass overseas recruitment drive to bring more staff into the nhs. the problem with that is that it is short—term, but what if other countries are competing for those same staff, and what about the ethical issue of bringing other people from disadvantaged countries with their own health challenges? the world health organization has a red list, saying you shouldn't recruit from these countries, but that

hugh pym, bbc news.live fire military drills around taiwan tomorrow in response to the visit of a senior us politician, nancy pelosi. coming up, iam in birmingham at the athletics where katarina johnson—thompson is aiming to defend her heptathlon commonwealth title. coming up in sportsday on the bbc news channel — she's leading the heptathlon, but can england's katarina johnston—thompson stay at the top of the standings to take commonwealth gold with two more events to go? the deeply conservative us state of kansas has voted in a referendum to protect abortion rights. it's a major victory for pro—choice groups, and the first electoral test of the issue since the supreme court decision two months ago allowing individual states to ban the procedure. projections suggest kansans voted by more than 60% to uphold a woman's right to access abortion, a decisive vote against the republican—led legislature, which wanted to pass severe restrictions, and despite the state voting republican in every presidential elec

our health editor, hugh pym, has been looking at the figures. hugh.s had to wait longer than four hours to be treated or assessed in a&e departments — a record high. and what about the other uk nations? the figure for a&e delays was a bit lower in scotland but higher in wales and northern ireland — though data is published at different times. and there was a record 6.73 million people in england waiting for non urgent operations and procedures injune. some are enduring very long and debilitating waits for their treatment. james is in training for the great north run. he's had a heart valve operation but only after going private. he felt he had to do that after repeated delays in the nhs system including last—minute postponement. system including last-minute postponement.— system including last-minute --ostonement. , , ., ., postponement. they get you ground u - , postponement. they get you ground u, on postponement. they get you ground u - , on the postponement. they get you ground up. on the bed. _ postponement. they get you ground up, on the bed, th

hugh pym, bbc news.t in a series of hosepipe bans came into force today, following the driestjuly in england since 1935. in the areas affected, people won't be allowed to use hosepipes to water lawns or plants, to clean cars or to fill paddling pools. restrictions for southern water customers in much of hampshire and the isle of wight came into force at 5pm this afternoon. about one million south—east water customers in kent and sussex will face measures from next friday, august 12th. and welsh water has announced a ban covering pembrokeshire and a small part of caermarthenshire to start on august 19th. thames water, south—west water, yorkshire water and ses water say they may introduce restrictions if the weather stays dry. a significant water scarcity has been declared in central and north east fife by scotland's environmental regulator. 0ur correspondent zoe conway reports from hampshire where the ban has just come into effect. i'll do the beans. have you got some water? for malcolm and jill prince, t

let's get more from our health editor, hugh pym. ling with their energy supplies comes on top of warnings about flu and covid — it could be another tough winterfor the nhs? well, yes, indeed. the news right now on covid is that it is receding. we have just got the latest results from the survey by the office for national statistics, showing that 1.7 million people in the uk had the virus in the week leading up to august the 8th. that was down 34% over two weeks and was back to levels last seen around aboutjune. so, in the summer, yes, the news has been slightly better on that front. of course, when schools of course, when schools return and when people get back from holiday and go back to work, as we've seen in the last couple of years during the pandemic, covid rates tend to pick back up again. that is why the booster campaign is going to be very important. certainly, health chiefs are worried that there will be another wave of covid, and that flu could be particularly unpleasant this year, because we have had a couple of years when

hugh pym, bbc news.in the future. why notjust wait for that deal to and forjunior doctors and wake for the matter then? , ., ., ~ ., then? first of all, i think what we need to be _ then? first of all, i think what we need to be clear _ then? first of all, i think what we need to be clear on his _ then? first of all, i think what we need to be clear on his back - then? first of all, i think what we need to be clear on his back on i need to be clear on his back on track deal we made in 2019 did include a clause that allowed the 2% uplift to be revisited if the situation changed. and it's hard to imagine that situation changing more than with a global pandemic and with inflation as it is now. we are seeing a huge impact on morale for junior doctors. i've been a junior doctorfor nine years junior doctors. i've been a junior doctor for nine years now. this junior doctors. i've been a junior doctorfor nine years now. this is the lowest i think i've ever seen morale and i've never known so many of my colleague

hugh pym, bbc news.nd the chancellor nadhim zahawi and bosses from the electricity sector has ended with no solution for people struggling with soaring energy bills. the annual charge for a typical household is set to top £4,000 a year from january — that's over double what it is now. our business correspondent, caroline davies, reports. i find it quite degrading to live in this situation. there is little left in dallas' one—bedroom flat. she says to keep paying the bills and a roof over her head, she sold the rest. my flat is empty, so ijust don't know how i can possibly make any more adjustments or changes to try and satisfy this gas bill. in my fridge, just some bottled water... dallas says her gas bill went up a few months ago from £30 to £150. although she is on universal credit and should be eligible for extra government payments to help, she says any help now is too little, too late. it is making me feel very, very anxious all the time. just switching a light on, you know, worrying about where i w

hugh pym, bbc news. this is 0utside source live from the bbc newsroom.ajor damage at a crimea airbase, following explosions there this week. let's go to washington. we flagged this up earlier. the attorney general merrick garland is about to make a statement. we don't have any details on what that statement will be, we do know one extra detail, and that is that the white house has not been given advanced notice of these remarks. bit of mystery about what is going to be said, but we will cross live back to washington as soon as we see any movement, really, behind that lectern. let's look at the covid situation in north korea. it's accused south korea of causing the outbreak of coronavirus and, on top of that, has threatened deadly retaliation. let's go through how we got here. the country's leader kim jong—un has declared victory in the battle against the virus. there was the usual pomp and ceremony as the north korean leader made the announcement, ordering all restrictions to be lifted. he described government figures ofjust 7a deaths as an unprecedented

hugh pym, bbc news.n speak now to gp natalie rout, who runs a practice in central london and is health columnist. thank you very much for being with us on bbc news this evening. let's start with the general question about what impact some of these factors are already having on the patients you see. have you seen any evidence at the energy prices people are paying are having an effect get on their health? the are paying are having an effect get on their health?— on their health? the cost crisis is certainly affecting _ on their health? the cost crisis is certainly affecting many - on their health? the cost crisis is - certainly affecting many households. i have patients that are struggling to feed their families nutritious food because they cannot afford to pay for it. and now if the cost of fuel is going to go up even more the going to be having to make the choice between feeding good food, eating food at all, cooking food and heating the house. you eating food at all, cooking food and heating the house.

our health editor hugh pym is here now. yes, george.lth is devolved. top of the agenda will be a&e and ambulance delays. according to the association of ambulance chief executives, handover delays caused harm to thousands of patients. ambulances lost almost 333,000 hours in the year tojuly 2022 — 18 times more than during the same period two years ago. that's because of logjams across the system, including hold—ups discharging patients fit to go home. this may be an extreme example — ambulances queueing last week to hand over patients at one hospital, but there were delays at many others. one heart attack patient told us he waited two and a half hours for an ambulance, and his partner had to take him into hospital. we saw that i wasn't out of the woods, and if i'd left it any longer, or my partner had left it any longer getting me in, i wouldn't have made it. reflecting back on that, you know, i... it's quite a shock, and i feel quite let down by the system. and then there are the workforce issues — a commons report published last month

i'm joined by our health editor, hugh pym. a winter plan being announced in august.about this winter, even in the summer we can see just how stretched the nhs is, a&e and ambulance service is very busy so nhs england is setting out this plan to get hospitals and the rest of the system ready and the aim is to create the equivalent of 7000 extra beds. some of them will be so—called virtual wards with patients at home being monitored remotely and that has been tried out before and was quite successful, freeing up beds for other patients. other beds will come in mobile units, set up on the grounds of hospitals and so on. the worry is if there will be enough staff to run the services. and the threats ahead or possibly another wave of covid but also the flu, we have not had much fillerfor wave of covid but also the flu, we have not had much filler for two years so immunity is low and it is pretty bad in the australian winter so it could be quite nasty here in the uk. a government expert modelling committee says that even in an optimistic scenario, the demand for beds will

hugh pym, bbc news.age" of an nhs computer system it uses , says the incident is now over. local health boards use the system to refer patients from the nhs111 line to out—of—hours services. officials now say that the incident related to a cyber attack but only 2 % of its servers were affected. it's hoped that all services will be back up and running over the weekend. the commonwealth games has crowned a new oldest gold medallist today as 75—year—old george miller from scotland made history in the b2, b3 mixed pairs bowls. miller is a director for visually impaired oola melanie innes and formed part of the team alongside robert barr and sarah—jane ewing that defeated wales 16—9 into day's final. thousands of performers from across the world are in edinburgh for the start of the world's biggest arts festival. the edinburgh festival fringe will see more than 3000 shows from 58 countries to mark 75th anniversary. it all opens tonight with a free open—air performance at murrayfield. pauline mclean reports. p

hugh pym, bbc news. let's speak to wendy stubbs. is now seriously ill with a degenerative neurological disorder, which she believes is linked to his infection. good evening, thank you for coming on the programme. first of all, your reaction to the announcement today and that compensation. long-awaited for and very. — and that compensation. long-awaited for and very. very _ and that compensation. long-awaited for and very, very welcomed - and that compensation. long-awaited for and very, very welcomed for- for and very, very welcomed for infected and eventually hopefully affected. so, well done to the government for listening. it is a ste in government for listening. it is a step in the _ government for listening. it is a step in the right _ government for listening. it is a step in the right direction - government for listening. it is a step in the right direction as - government for listening. it is a step in the right direction as far| step in the right direction as far as you are concerned. absolutely. could ou as you are concern

our health editor hugh pym has been setting out the task ahead of the new pm.th the agenda is andy and ambulance holdups. according the chief executives handy for delays caused harm to thousands of patients and ambulances lost almost 333,000 hours in the year tojuly 2000 22,18 times more than during the same period two years ago. that is because of logjams across the system, including holdups discharging patients fit to go home. this may be an extreme example, ambulances queuing up last week and patients at hospital but there were two plates had to make delays in many areas, one way between a half hours for an ambulance and his partner to take him at the hospital. we went out of the woods if we had left it any longer, bringing in men and i would not of made it. and then their workforce issues. they found that england is not short of 12,000 hospital doctors and more than 50,000 nurses and midwives they call this the worst workforce crisis in nh is history. this the worst workforce crisis in nh is history-— this the worst workforce crisis in nh is history. matern