Hume. Two tests for coronavirus and flu which promise results in 90 minutes are to be rolled out in hospitals, care homes and laboratories in the uk as early as next week. Eat out to help out. On the menu from today, the government discount scheme to encourage people to visit restaurants, cafes and pubs across the uk. The tory chief whip faces questions about a conversation he had 4 months ago with a woman who told police she was raped by a former conservative minister. They are very serious allegations and we do take those allegations very seriously. I think its down to the police to do that thorough investigation, not for the whips office to investigate the alleged crime. Its for the police and the authorities to do that. A bridge of hope. 2 years after the collapse of the main road bridge over genoa killed 43 people, italians prepare to open its replacement. Good afternoon. John hume, one of the architects of the Peace Process in Northern Ireland, has died at the age of 83. Received the nobel prize for his part in forging the good friday Peace Agreement in Northern Ireland. Among those paying tribute, Prime MinisterBoris Johnson who called him a political giant, totally opposed to violence. Tony blair described mr hume as a visionary who refused to believe the future had to be the same as the past. John hume genuinely was a political tighten. His contribution to peace in Northern Ireland was extraordinary. I dont think we would ever have really got the Peace Process going and implemented if he had not been there offering help and advice. But he was a bigger figure not just advice. But he was a bigger figure notjust on advice. But he was a bigger figure not just on the advice. But he was a bigger figure notjust on the island of ireland but in europe, yet the United States of america and someone who was held in enormous regard because you can buy this ability to have a great and strong vision with combined. With the commitment and intelligence to make it work and that is really what set emma apart from your ordinary politician. Is there a particular moment during those very fraught months leading up to the good friday deal that six in your mind from john hume . When we came to power in may 1997, the Peace Process had really broken down. The ceasefire had been abandoned by the ira. It looked pretty hopeless. I really want to make it a big part of what we did as an incoming government but there was an incoming government but there was a lot of scepticism around and it wasjohn a lot of scepticism around and it was john hume probably a lot of scepticism around and it wasjohn hume probably more than anyone else who sat me down and said i know you are a new Prime Minister andi i know you are a new Prime Minister and i know a lot of people will be telling you this is impossible but im telling you it can be done. And so im telling you it can be done. And so you im telling you it can be done. And so you are im telling you it can be done. And so you are right to make it a priority, you have to persevere with it and priority, you have to persevere with itandi priority, you have to persevere with it and i know from my long experience year that this is going to bea experience year that this is going to be a moment when this is possible. And the fact he did that and said that to me gave enormous confidence going forward. Then there we re confidence going forward. Then there were months and years afterwards which were very difficult and again he was immensely helpful but that certain conversation gave me the comfort that he was someone steeped in the history and politics of Northern Ireland to thought peace could be done. Would be fair to say that withoutjohn could be done. Would be fair to say that without john hume there would be no peace in Northern Ireland . |j think be no peace in Northern Ireland . think that is likely. He wasnt one ofa think that is likely. He wasnt one of a handful who made it happen. He began on thatjourney of peace when most people thought it was com pletely most people thought it was completely impossible, when there was still very high levels of violence because we forget now thousands of people died in the troubles in Northern Ireland, tens of thousands injured. He was right at the outset when it wasnt fashionable saying this could become a reality and it turned out he was right but for many years it looked as if he was wrong about that, but he did turn out to be right. And tributes contine to pour in from figures across the political spectrum. Among them the irish taoiseach Michael Martin who said in the past hour, former sinn fien president gerry adams spoke spoke aboutjohn humes passing from belfast. John was a giant in irish politics. He and i had many disagreements, and that is a very healthy thing to do and to have, but when we were able to talk and to actively promote the primacy of politics of dialogue, of inclusivity and so on, which then led to the hume adams talks. On this sad day, we wouldnt have the peace that we enjoyed today if it wasnt forjohn hume. Our ireland correspondent chris page looks back at the life ofjohn hume. You shot them with rubber bullets and gas. The crowd was marching over there. The leaders were going to speak to you. Before we even got there, you opened fire. John hume stood against violence for all of his life. But he was never far from confrontation. He took on the army, the police, and the ira, in his quest for a fair and peaceful Northern Ireland. There is not a single injustice in Northern Ireland today that justifies the taking of a single human life. If i were to lead a Civil Rights Campaign in Northern Ireland today, the major target of that campaign would be the ira. Originally, he hadnt intended to be a politician. Mr hume trained for the priesthood, and then became a teacher. But his social conscience led him to campaign for housing and Employment Rights for catholics in the 1960s. After the troubles broke out, he and several others founded a new, nationalist political force. The social democratic and labour party. As sdlp leader, mr hume forged links around the world, with the aim of ending the conflict at home. And the sdlp have failed to do that. Sorry gerry, thats a very fundamental point. In the late 80s, he began talks with the sinn fein leader gerry adams. Having a dialogue with the political wing of the ira was a huge risk, and drew much angry criticism. But mr hume helped to persuade republicans to call a ceasefire. The pathway he carved out led to the good friday agreement in 1998. Today, we can take a collective breath, and begin to blow away, lets hope, the cobwebs of the past. Is give peace a chance. The peace deal was a defining moment for Northern Ireland and forjohn hume. He was lauded as a visionary, and hailed as a hero by pop stars and by president s. Mr president and mrs clinton, as you can see from the people of derry, you are very, very welcome here today. Cheering after he was awarded the nobel prize, mr hume maintained his International Friendships and statesman like reputation. But as he gradually stepped down from his elected roles at stormont, westminster and brussels, as his health declined. In his later years, he was always greeted with admiration when he appeared at events in his home city of derry. Perhaps more than anyone else, john hume was recognised as the father of the Peace Process. The Nobel Peace Prize winner and former sdlp leaderjohn hume, who has died at the age of 83. Two tests which can detect coronavirus and flu and promise results in 90 minutes are to be rolled out in hospitals, care homes and laboratories. The swab and dna tests will help deal with the virus in winter, enabling medical workers to distinguish between covid 19 and other seasonal illnesses. The government has described the development as a a big step forward. Our Health CorrespondentAnna Collinson reports. The more relaxed you are, the easier it is. Test, test, test. That has been the advice throughout the coronavirus outbreak. Testing is vital to understand the virus, to identify spikes and prevent spread. The government has been accused of constantly playing catch up in this pandemic but today, a boost, as it is confirmed 90 minute covid tests will be available from next week. New technologies like this are incredibly important. We are expanding the Testing Capacity all the time and we are on target to meet the goal of half a million by the end of october. With the recent rise in infections, the government is keen to do what it can to make sure the nhs and care homes are ready for winter. There are fears that when the Seasons Change there could be a second wave of cases even bigger than the first. Currently, three quarters of test results are returned within 2a hours, and a quarter can take up to two days. These new tests provide results injust an hour and a half. The first is a swab test. 450,000 tests will be made available to care homes and nhs labs from next week. One really exciting thing about this technology is that one can test for a large range of viruses at the same time. This will be very important in the winter, when we expect to see other coronaviruses, flu and other nasties around. Regular testing of residents, and staff in care homes, was meant to have started in early july. But it is now not due until september. Extra tests will be welcome news for an industry which had felt abandoned during the pandemic. The second test detects dna. From next month, 5,000 machines will be rolled out across nhs hospitals. The supplier, dnanudge, says it will provide millions of tests in the coming months. The small device is described as an entire laboratory. Here is a demonstration of how it will work. A few rubs around the cheek and the tongue. That then goes into the cartridge. The cartridge then closes up with a bung, and the viruses contained and just in a few seconds we extract the viral rna and convert it into dna, and it is the dna, if you like, the fish, that needs to bite the bait, orthe genes, to see whether or not you have covid 19. But some within the Scientific Community are wary about the tests, particularly when they are described as game changers. These are using more miniaturised technologies than the full Laboratory Process that has been used up until now, and quite often, we see some decline in performance, when we see tests put on small platforms. So it is really important that we get good data to understand, are there compromises in accuracy. Despite some concerns, it is hoped the tests will locate local outbreaks quicker and prevent national problems. Anna collinson, bbc news. Lets speak now to professor jonathan ball, professor of molecular virology at the university of nottingham. Is this the big step government says it is . The proof of the pudding is in the eating and as your report hinted at, at the moment we have no idea how sensitive or accurate these assays are, there is no data out in the Public Domain therefore we are a little bit in the dark as to how well they will perform, but make no mistake, certainly having Rapid Testing out in the community will potentially be a big game changer, particularly if numbers pack up and we need to track rapidly. We were told that back in march by the who who said test, test and test. Absolutely. Its the only way that you can identify outbreaks as and when they occur and then trying and control them. As we have started to see as we have come out of social distancing, the virus doesnt ta ke social distancing, the virus doesnt take long to start to gather pace and cause problems out in the communities and therefore your ability to going and find out where the virus is circulating is incredibly important. There is the rub because to do that you need a track and trace system that works . You do, and again at the moment were in uncharted waters. We dont fully understand how well the system is working because its not really been tried out, it has not been tested a greatly over the last few weeks but as we go into autumn in particular, we will expect that the prevalence of the number of cases sta rts prevalence of the number of cases starts to increase and of course it will happen at the same time that we start to see all the other respiratory viruses re emerging for the winter season. So its going to be very, very testing times ahead. That is the hope. The difficulty is here we are months into the crisis and were talking about a test system that may be able to offer a fairly speedy response but most people still dont know, they feel they may have had this but are not sure, we dont know who has got the antibodies and who hasnt. No, is a big problem with antibody test, the more data we game, there are lots of studies from various labs around the world, we understand that some people who have been exposed, many of those will not develop antibodies and often even then the individuals who do develop antibodies, they can very quickly get decline over time. That makes it difficult for us to understand exactly the number of people who have been exposed to the virus but we certainly suspect its not going to be huge numbers. We are talking probably around 10 , maybe even less than the population exposed so far. Anybody who has had the test so far well known it can be fairly unpleasant. Do you think these tests may make it easier . The should make it easier. If one of the biggest problems we have is testing out in the community, so again as your report indicated, testing in hospitals is very efficient and you get the results from those tests within 12 hours, nine times out of ten, but when you go out into community testing, people have to go to drive in centres, that swap sample is taken and transported to a laboratory, the test is performed and then the result is shipped back out. That all takes time and can ta ke out. That all takes time and can take as long as 48 hours, if not longer. Anything that can reduce that time interval has to be a benefit because we know the virus can spread very rapidly. We think that most people will start to spread the virus within four days which gives you a reasonable window of opportunity but it is still tight if you are talking about 48 hours or more for test results. Clearly there are concerns in government that there is some sort of second wave not far off. Is that i fear that you share . Yes, i think all the biologists that i speak to, we discuss these things regularly, we all feel that a second wave is almost inevitable. And the challenge is to try and manage that second wave so that it doesnt overwhelm the nhs and that unfortunately does mean that you have to be able to test widely, take test fast, and then Contact Trace and isolate people as and when they are ill but what you cannot do is base that on symptoms, particularly as we go into winter because if you are asking people to isolate based on symptoms, they might have to do that multiple times during winter, it becomes difficult asking people to do the same thing but if you are testing rapidly, identify infected individuals and their contacts and testing regularly, then you can start to bring this transmission chain under control. Good to talk to you, thank you very much for your time. The Health Secretary, matt hancock, has dismissed the idea that over 50s may be given a coronavirus risk rating, with the aim of increasing the number of people asked to shield themselves at home. Newspaper reports over the weekend said it was among a number of options being considered by the government to help avoid a second lockdown. Mr hancock said those reports were wrong. Of course we have paused the shielding programme because of the number of infections is so low. The reports with respect to the over 50s are inaccurate and speculation. But we will always do whatever is necessary to keep people safe. Diners across the uk will be able to enjoy discounted meals throughout this month, as part of a government scheme aimed at boosting restaurants and pubs post lockdown. The eat out to help out scheme applies mondays to wednesdays at more than 72,000 venues. The discount is capped at £10 per person per meal and does not apply to alcohol. Simon gompertz reports. Getting ready for the dining out giveaway. Its already brought bookings for this restaurant in london and the owner here decided he had to sign up for it, otherwise customers would go elsewhere. We knew most of the people around want to save money this time because whats happened before of course, many people didnt work much. So just dont want to take the risk to be empty between monday and wednesday. This is the deal. You get per person 50 off. Up to £10 each. Its limited to monday, tuesday and wednesday in august though not for takeaways. The discount doesnt apply to alcoholic drinks. At this bar in watford, they reckon that will be enough to make a difference. And it is desperately important for people who work in bars and restaurants, theyve all been worried about their jobs. I think we are definitely going to get customers who wouldnt usually come to us, giving us a try, because i think with the 50 off you would be stupid not to use it, wouldnt you . I think we are going to get some fresh faces and hopefully after that they will stay because they realise how great we are. A lot of People Stress a lot about coronavirus. A lot of people still dont want to leave their houses, so i think it might be difficult. I feel like if you could do the discount with takeaway, then i think it would work a lot more. Some people have been wearing face masks to walk in and then take them off, but i think youve got to go out at some stage because you have to support local businesses. We have been shielding s