As students scramble to secure university places after the exam fiasco in england, an apology from the education secretary. Chaos for some universities, facing a massive increase in demand from students now achieving top grades. Gavin williamson says sorry for the distress caused to pupils after his u turn in a level and gcse grading. As you can absolutely imagine, i am incredibly sorry for the distress that this has caused for those youngsters and incredibly sort of. This is not something that anyone wanted. As he refuses to say if hell resign, well be assessing the political fall out in westminster. Also this lunchtime. 7,000 jobs are to go at marks spencer, as part of a further shake up of its stores and management after the Coronavirus Crisis. Public Health England is scrapped, and replaced, after criticism of its response to the Coronavirus Crisis. The widow of pc Andrew Harper calls for mandatory life sentences for those who Kill Police Officers. Harpers law is just so important that we bring in. Maybe it will give other families a little bit of closure that we havent got. Coming up on bbc news mps urge the government to help to safeguard Non League Football by permitting fans into grounds ahead of their planned return in october. Good afternoon and welcome to the bbc news at one. First the u turn. Now the fall out. Britains universities are under pressure over their obligations to 55,000 students who could claim places after yesterdays government u turn boosted their grades. Many of the universities are already committed to giving places to students offered before the government changed its mind on how exams are graded. Gavin williamson says he is incredibly sorry for the distress caused by the row but refused to say if he will resign. Dan johnson reports. The change of direction from the top has not necessarily put plans on track for everyone. If i was able to finish all of my courses and finish my sketchbooks and do the exams i am sure i would have got all as and even a s. I do not have time to be in school for ever. It is
disappointing how the government handled the situation. Grades are notjust for the future, handled the situation. Grades are not just for the future, it handled the situation. Grades are notjust for the future, it is handled the situation. Grades are not just for the future, it is also the hard work students have put in for two years. Where is Boris Johnson . We need an apology. He has messed up our lives and how he is on holiday. The buck stops with him. He should be reassuring as. Some stu d e nts should be reassuring as. Some students are now finding the grey is predicted by teachers are not much better. We were not given a free rein because it is having to be paid to previous performance by students. We did the best we could within the straitjacket we were given. It does mean for us some grades will go up asa mean for us some grades will go up as a result of the announcement yesterday, which is brilliant news for those individual students. Some of the students are not able to access the university of their choice. Some btec grades are still missing and with gcses to come on
thursday, the education secretary we re thursday, the education secretary were saying sorry once more and fending off questions about his own future. As you can absolutely imagine, i future. As you can absolutely imagine, lam future. As you can absolutely imagine, i am incredibly sorry for the distress this has caused for those youngsters. This is not something that anyone wanted. There is pressure on the ministers and officials who got them up so badly wrong but the stress has not been lifted for their students. There are huge questions about how universities will pick up the pieces. Some will have more eligible stu d e nts pieces. Some will have more eligible students and places left, so where will they be taught and where will they live in a year defined by social distancing . 0ther universities may be short on numbers and struggling for cash if the clearing system cannot tidy up the mess. Please contact the university and talk to the admissions tutor. Find out what possibilities are. I am sure there will be some disappointments, i am sure there will be cases where it might be
necessary to defer until next year but please be sure our heart is with you and we want to help you. On results day last week that we met abby, who missed out on a place at durham after being marked down. Abby, who missed out on a place at durham after being marked downlj have got to appeal, go through clearing can resit my exams. The great head teachers recommended are better but still not good enough. Great head teachers recommended are better but still not good enoughlj have not managed to get in contact with darren. I tried thursday, friday and yesterday. I was ringing all morning. Every time i almost got through, the being put down. It was being on hold for an hourjust for it to be put down. I have e mailed them that they had not back to me. It is up in the air and i do not know what is going on. When i place is given away or not, i am not sure. The u turns were perhaps the most predictable results but how many features will be jeopardised if
universities cannot accommodate everyone . Lessons to be learned, no doubt. Dan johnson, bbc news. 0ur Political Correspondent iain watson is at westminster. Many are asking how the education secretary still has his job. That is very interesting. Career prospects of many School Students are of great concern but people scratching their heads at westminster. Why the Career Prospects of Gavin Williamson are so good and so positive. Gavin williamson has this human shield of of coal, the exams regulator. Concerns were raised about how they would deal with people is by a cross party would deal with people is by a Cross Party Group of mps in the education select committee. They worried about the effect of disadvantaged pupils, those from ethnic minority backgrounds. All these concerns were raised with 0fqual at a meeting onjuly the
16th. Concerns were raised that he could not devise an algorithm himself and he is saying he did everything he could to try and put fairness into the system and make the appeals process more robust. Any mess up if you like is that of 0fqual and not his. Mess up if you like is that of quual and not his. Does that put an end to the pressure . No, it does not. Lib dem mps have called for him to go. Most significantly, many conservative mps are scratching their heads as to why he is still there. One of them said an education secretary who makes children cry is not a good look. 0ne secretary who makes children cry is not a good look. One reason they are concerned is not about whether he should have been on top of this so much earlier when the exams were cancelled in march but he had been given a warning by what happened in scotla nd given a warning by what happened in scotland where they did a u turn with grades being downgraded. If he is going to do a u turn, why did he not do a week sooner . Saving the
party and people is any anguish. Why is he still defending the system at the weekend when we still know behind the scenes there were discussions about ditching the algorithm and accepting teacher assessments after all . Marks and spencer is to cut 7,000 jobs thats about a tenth of its workforce after a slump in sales during the coronavirus pandemic. It said staff working in stores, regional management and its support centre will be affected. The posts will go in the next three months. Our Business Correspondent emma simpson reports. Marks spencer warned the pandemic would change its business. Like other retailers, its now having to take drastic action to cut costs and respond to the rapid change in our shopping habits. Today big job cuts, 7,000 roles to go, most of them in its stores, nearly a tenth of the workforce. We are hopeful that any redundancies will be done on a voluntary basis. I think it is about looking at the Business Case they are proposing and what its actually based upon. I think its important to remember that the high street is at the centre of all community, and its important that the government really takes a wake up call with this and looks at trying to support the high street more, because i think we are constantly seeing redundancies impacts on the high street as more people are having to, obviously, go to shop online. You just need to look at m ss Trading Update today to see the challenge. In the two months since stores reopened, clothing and home sales are still down 48 on last year, but online sales have soared, up by 39 . Before the pandemic, m s was already in the midst of a plan to transform its business. But changes have been turbo charged now. Theres still is that our traditional stores, bricks and mortar in the high street are expensive to run. They had huge running mates and costs. It is not that online is without flaws does
not have huge operating costs like warehousing. If that is the way the consumer is moving, all of the brands had to remedy that can it out. That means job losses and restructuring. They are coming thick and fast across high streets as all retailers raced to adapt to their new reality. The number of adults in britain experiencing depression has almost doubled during the coronavirus pandemic, according to new figures. Data from the office for National Statistics showed that one in five people are now experiencing some level of depression, compared with around one in ten before the pandemic. Our Health Correspondent Rachel Schraer is here. What else do these figures show . We have been following a group of 3500 people for the past year and asking them how they feel. That is where we get those figures from, the doubling of depressive symptoms. They were not able to say for sure it was because of the pandemic that they we re because of the pandemic that they were able to see this striking
change over the past year. What they we re change over the past year. What they were asking people to do was fill in a questionnaire and think about the last two weeks and how often they had been bothered by various problems, whether that was loss of appetite and a change in sleep or generally feeling down and losing interest in things. What this survey is really good at doing is telling us is really good at doing is telling us changes in people symptoms and how they had been feeling. It is not necessarily great at telling us the cause. Experts have been saying, careful not to other pathology eyes this. We do not necessarily have a whole group of people who are clinically depressed but it might be a reasonable reaction to circumstances they are experiencing. It may be that we had a whole group of people who need extra support and help in the future. People who are being specially affected where people will often see experiencing Mental Health difficulties at greater levels anyway, younger people, women, people with
disability or people who are in squeezed financial circumstances. Thank you. The Health Secretary matt hancock has announced plans to disband public Health England, and create a new Health Protection agency which will take over many of its functions. Phe has come under intense scrutiny of its response to the Coronavirus Crisis but labour say the changes in the middle of a pandemic are irresponsible and risky. Our Health Correspondent Richard Galpin reports. Public Health Englands mission is to protect and improve the nations health. Including responding to emergencies, such as pandemics. But now the government has decided to abolish it, effectively accusing it of mishandling the Coronavirus Crisis. In its place, a new agency has been set up. To give ourselves the best chance of beating this virus, and of spotting and tackling other external Health Threats now and in the future, we need to bring together the science and the scale
into one coherent whole. So today i am announcing that we are forming a new organisation, the National Institute for Health Protection. The government criticism of public Health England includes claims it failed to ramp up Testing Capacity quickly enough. At that time, the decisions were being made by government, not pha. This sparking accusations that government has tried to shift the blame for m ista kes tried to shift the blame for mistakes made early on in the Coronavirus Crisis. Most people working in Public Health in the uk believe very strongly that what is happening to public Health England is scapegoating by ministers for m ista kes is scapegoating by ministers for mistakes which probably were not the responsibility of public Health England but of government itself. And i think one of the things we
should be really concerned about is if this leads to more Central Government control over our Public Health institutions, this will only harm british Public Health. There are also real concerns about the timing of the governments decision to shake up the system, this taking place in the midst of the pandemic. Some experts say it is vital the inquiry promised by the government go ahead goes ahead. Inquiry promised by the government goahead goes ahead. We cannot learn the lessons of what went wrong across multiple organisations and put the blame on one organisation are not learned the lessons across the whole system. It will leave us less prepared when you go into any subsequent ways of the pandemic. The government insists changes needed saying the merger of Different Health agencies will give a stronger, morejoined Health Agencies will give a stronger, more joined up Health Agencies will give a stronger, morejoined up response to protect people and communities. 0ur Health Editor hugh pym is here. What is going on and how concerned should we be . Officially, the line from the government at westminster is this is a new National Institute for Health Protection which will bring together all elements of protecting the public from threats like viruses, future pandemics, dealing with the here and now, coronavirus, the best scientific expertise from public Health England, their test and trace system and the bio security centre. That is the way it is being portrayed. Cynics say it looks like a bit of reaction to decisions made back in march and april which had proved to be mistaken and is there is a way of getting rid of public Health England by another means . The controversy at the time back then was over a suspension of Community Testing and Contact Tracing because it was felt there was no point telling any more
because the infection had started spreading. Weeks later the government realise you needed a mass testing network. It was part of the decision. There is another question about phe. They were doing important work on prevention, dealing with obesity, alcohol consequences and smoking cessation. For the time being hold onto those functions but it is not clear whether they will go after that. That is an important agenda. Who will handle all this sort of thing in the months ahead . A lot more questions to answer. Our top story this lunchtime. As students scramble to secure university places after the exam fiasco in england, an apology from the education secretary. As you can absolutely imagine, i am incredibly sorry for the distress that this has caused for those youngsters and incredibly sort of. This is not something that anyone wanted. Coming up on bbc news, four positive coronavirus tests at marseille force the postponement of fridays opening match in the french top flight season. It was the Opening Night of a Democratic Party National Convention unlike any other. No crowds, no razamtazz, but it was still box office. In an impassioned plea, former first Lady Michelle 0bama urged people to vote for the democrats president ial candidate joe biden, as if their lives depended on it. There was also a video appearance from mr bidens former rivalfor the nomination, bernie sanders. But the evening belonged to a young woman who lost her father, a trump supporter, to covid i9. Peter bowes reports. Remote, virtual, and very unconventional. A political gathering in the era of coronavirus. With no fanfare, it was a scaled down, made for tv event introduced from a studio in los angeles by a hollywood actress. Good evening. Im Eva Longoria Baston and welcome to the 2020 democratic National Convention. On its first night, the convention showcased the stories of ordinary americans. It also highlighted the issue of Racial Injustice after weeks of protests around the country. The grim death toll from covid i9 was a running theme, with speaker after speaker condemning the trump administrations record on dealing with the virus. My dad was a healthy 65 year old. His only pre existing condition was trusting donald trump, and for that he paid with his life. The main task of the week is to anointjoe biden as the democrats choice to take on donald trump. The former first Lady Michelle 0bama said the former Vice President had the experience needed to tackle the Coronavirus Crisis, and when it came to the president ,
she didnt hold back. So let me be as honest and clear as i possibly can. Donald trump is the wrong president for our country. He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. It is what it is. With a theme of uniting the country, the convention also heard from several republicans who believe the next president should be a democrat. Many of us have been deeply concerned about the current path weve been following for the past four years. Its a path thats led to division, dysfunction, irresponsibility and growing vitriol between our citizens. Continuing to follow that path will have terrible consequences for americas soul, because were being taken down the wrong road
by a president who has pitted one against the other. Bernie sanders, joe bidens one time rival for their partys nomination, said they were now united in a mission to defeat donald trump. The future of our democracy is at stake. Economy is at stake. The future of our planet is at stake. We must come together, defeat donald trump and elect joe biden and Kamala Harris as our next president and Vice President. The opening salvo of a Convention Season like no other. Peter bowes, bbc news, los angeles. Barbara plett usher is in washington. Asi as i was saying, none of the razzmatazz, but how has it gone down . Well, there was a lot of
interest in this experiment of a virtual convention, and the reaction has been that produced zoom call, so those pre recorded video segments work the best, especially when they included young people. This feature felt flat because they could not bounce off crowd excitement, except i think michelle 0bama was an exception, she made a real virtue of the medium,
she felt very intimate and very powerful. That was the other main feature, she rocked, that was the dominant message. She went after President Trump as my character, not policies. Sign up for your mail and ballot tonight, line up all night if that is what it takes. Mr sanders, bernie sanders, it was expected he would call on his left wing supporters to backjoe biden because he said all along it was very important to beat mr trump, but he went beyond that with a full throated endorsement of mr biden. President trump has had a bit of a tweet storm, he has responded directly to michelle 0bama saying thank you for the kind comments but i would not be in the white house if your husband thatjoe biden had not done such a bad job. Thank you, Barbara Plett usher. The french government has announced that face masks will become compulsory in the workplace as france works to fight against a resurgence of covid i9 in the country. Face masks will need to be worn in all shared and enclosed company workspaces from the end of august apart from individual offices where only one employee is present. The French Employment Ministry also said that working from home would remain its recommended option for employees. Scotlands top Civil Servant is being questioned by a panel of msps over the governments botched handling of complaints against the former first minister, alex salmond. The permanent secretary, leslie evans, is the first witness
to appear before the inquiry. 0ur correspondent lorna gordon is outside the Scottish Parliament. What is the latest, lorna . This specially convened committee at the Scottish Parliament are just under two hours of evidence from leslie eva ns, two hours of evidence from leslie evans, who denied the Scottish Governments amazon procedures had been engineered to set a specific complaint. She was asked whether it was designed to get alex salmond, no, absolutely not, she said. Earlier in her testimony she said it would have been unconscionable not to investigate historic complaints against mr salmond once raised, he said the Scottish Government acted in good faith but the government inquiry into those complaints are selected by a single procedural floor and she apologised to all involved. The committee is looking into what went wrong, what went on in that initial investigation which was willed in a court as unlawful and painted by apparent bias. Quite and painted by apparent bias. Quite a focus so far on technical and
procedural matters when it comes to the harassment procedure, but this inquiry has the capacity, the potential for explosive testimony. The current first minister Nicola Sturgeon is on the witness list, she said she welcomed the chance to give her side of the story. Her predecessor as fed minister and former mental, mr salmond, has formally been named as a witness. He was acquitted of all 13 charges he faced in a criminal charge but there was a suggestion of a political conspiracy against him herformer mentor, mr salmond. Thank you, lorna gordon. Social media bosses would do more if it was their children dying from drugs bought online thats the stark view of britains most senior drugs police officer, who says social media firms should do more to tackle the sale of illegal substances on their platforms. Jim connolly has been speaking to three families who lost children after their children bought drugs in this way. Three mums brought together by grief after their teenage children died taking Illegal Drugs. She was funny, sassy, a bit of a diva, a bit of a drama queen. Loved to sing. Sarahs daughterjodie died after taking ecstasy that shed bought on snapchat. Fiona is leading their campaign to get social Media Companies to act to stop the trade of Illegal Drugs on their platforms. How can it be that drugs can be offered to children so openly and apparently nothing done . I want to find outjust how easy it is to find drugs in this way on social media, so ive set up a snapchat account, ive set up an Instagram Account and im going to search for a few phrases and see what comes up. Turns out, very easy. Within minutes i was being offered class a drugs. And i decided it was time to challenge the people selling them. Whats good, man . Im actually a bbcjournalist and i just want to ask you, youve made no checks as to who i am and youre willing to sell potentially very dangerous drugs through the post. I could be anyone. Do you have a problem with that . You dont care who you sell the drugs to, do you . No, not that i dont but, like, im just trying to, like, make sure that, you know, i get my product moving. I could end up dead from the products youre selling. Research suggests that a quarter of 16 to 2a year olds have seen adverts for drugs like these on their social feeds. And drug workers have told me that with nightclubs and festivals closed because of coronavirus, more unregulated raves have sprung up, meaning buying drugs online is more popular than ever creating a new challenge for the police. Jason harwin is the uks most Senior Police officer when it comes to drugs. If that was a son and daughter of one of the social networks that are providing or allowing this to take place, would they be thinking, we should do more about this . Im certain they would. Fiona is delivering her letter from what she calls her mums army. Its to snapchat and here at facebook, which owns instagram. Neither would agree to being filmed. Snapchat told fiona that its more difficult to deal with on their platform than other
social media, and its committed to take further steps to ensure the safety of its users. Its also agreed to meet the mums soon. Instagram, which is owned by facebook, said. And they have given fiona a video call and invited her to work with them. So some progress for fiona and her campaign, but both she and the police say this billion pound industry has the technology to block more drug dealing. Jim connolly, bbc news. Lissie harper the widow of pc Andrew Harper has said he would be proud of her campaign to jail for life those who Kill Police Officers or other emergency workers. A month after their wedding he was dragged to his death after he tried to stop thieves fleeing with a stolen quad bike in berkshire. Shes been speaking to the bbc in her first broadcast interview. Daniela relph reports. This was the last photo lissie harper had taken with her husband. They were guests at a friendss wedding. Andrew harper was killed four days later. In herfirst Television Interview she spoke about their partnership and the anguish of his death. He wasjust really selfless. And i think that something we can all kind of learn from. And, you know, loving every moment he had in life and making the most of it. And, yeah, iwill always in life and making the most of it. And, yeah, i will always take that with me. New photos released by lissie plot couples relationship. Here aged 17 on a trip to the river. They both shared a love of travel and adventure, this was a skydiving trip. In their early 20s they took time out to travel around the world, each picture and internet unhappy image and a reminder of her loss and frustration at the Legal Process and child each picture and internet
happy image. It was heard speaking in court, i had the defendants on my left, not really caring about what i was saying. But i found it important to speak to the judge and tell them what they had taken from us. Henry long, with france Albert Barrett and jessica long, were convicted of the manslaughter of Andrew Harper butterworth acquitted of the murder charge. The family feel the Justice System has failed them and now want change. Harpers law, supported by the police federation, with feeders convicted of killing emergency workers given life sentences. With that level of evidence and the details, the way that he was killed, it is so clear that they are responsible, these people are responsible, these people are responsible, and we did not get the right outcome for the trial. So,
yeah, you know, we all feel totally like there has been any suggestions. Changing the law will be an enormous challenge for lissie harper, but she feels the obstacles ahead was taking on. Andrew made the ultimate sacrifice, it was notjust his life, it was his future and my future and, you know, the lives of everyone who loved him. So harpers law isjust so important that we bring in. Maybe it will give other families a little bit of closure that we havent got. Daniela relph, bbc news. Time for a look at the weather. Heres phil avery. It is not dull as . Plenty going on, simon. Ruth has her eye on proceedings in twickenham, the sky is pretty crowded
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