good afternoon. gps in england have been told they can defer some of the services they provide to patients in order to allow doctors to deliver covid booster jabs instead. routine health checks for the over—75s and minor surgery could be affected. the move, by nhs england, comes as 75 new cases of the omicron variant have been identified in england. that brings the total number in the uk to 134. the government has also launched a new campaign urging all unvaccinated pregnant women to come forward and receive their jab. megan paterson reports. at this medical centre on merseyside, the demand for boosterjabs is high. staff here have seen nearly 800 walkins a day over the last week. we are doing over 30,000 booster vaccinations since september but people are still coming for their first and second vaccination, which is great news, because it is never too late to stop the vaccination. —— to start the vaccination. gps across england will now be allowed to defer some of the services they provide to patients like routine health checks for over 75s to allow doctors to focus on covid—19 booster jabs instead and to ease growing pressures. we are struggling to meet increased demand of day—to—day work, our own backlog and also the backlog from the hospitals, but at the same time, we do understand the importance of trying to vaccinate the population. but there is concern from some patient groups. they warned that the measures will disadvantage older people and lead to early warning signs of illness being missed. the british medical association insists all patients will still receive the care they need. i was in surgery yesterday and i saw dozens of patients, many of whom were over 75 and that care is not being compromised. we are still caring for all of our patients as best we can. as the boosterjab roll—out continues, the government has also introduced a new campaign, urging all unvaccinated pregnant women to accept theirjab. it comes as figures from the department of health show 98% of pregnant women critically ill in hospital with covid are unvaccinated. one in five women need to be delivered preterm, when in five babies need to go to the neonatal unit. so it's really clear that covid—19 infection has got serious implications for the woman and the baby. but we now have evermore data to say that the vaccines are safe in pregnancy and very strongly recommended by everyone. more than 90 million covid—19 booster or third doses have been given in the uk so far. the new measures for gps in england, an attempt to meet what's been described as a national mission to increase vaccine capacity. our health correspondent laura foster has been telling us how unusual a step this is. so, it was earlier this year, a month into the vaccination programme on the 7th of january that nhs england sent out a very similar letter to its gps and directors of primary care, saying that you can suspend nonessential work in order to make sure that we've got enough people around to deliver the covid—19 vaccination programme. now, so much has changed since january but gps still have a very high workload. on top of the stuff that they are already doing, you've got the backlog from the first, second and third wave, winter pressures are really starting and now they've got to contribute to the biggest expansion of the vaccination programme yet. now, some people will be worried by today's news and to them nhs england went to point out that it's not a blanket ban, it's all about cancelling checks where gps think it's clinically appropriate to do so. police in the us state of michigan say they've arrested the parents of a teenager accused of killing four fellow students. prosecutors say fifteen year old ethan crumbley carried out the shooting at his school on tuesday with a semi—automatic pistol, which had been bought by his father. aruna iyengar reports . i am jennifer crumbley. i'm james crumbley. the parents of ethan crumbley were found in a warehouse in detroit, hours after going on the run. a reward of $10,000 had been offered for information leading to their arrests. their lawyer says they fled for their own safety. the pair, seen here earlier following the arrest of their son, face charges of involuntary manslaughter. prosecutors say they ignored warning signs before their 15—year—old son, ethan crumbley, allegedly used his father's gun to shoot classmates in oxford, michigan, killing four and wounding seven. james crumbley bought a gun and made it available to his son. at school, the teachers spotted ethan searching online for ammunition and alerted his mother. prosecution says she later sent text messages to her son saying, "lol i am not mad at you, you have to learn not to get caught." then on the morning of the killings, teachers contacted the parents over a note ethan had drawn. the note contains the following... a drawing of a semiautomatic handgun pointing out the words, "the thoughts won't stop, help me." in another section of the note was the drawing of a bullet with the following words above the bullet, quote... "blood everywhere." but some question whether the parents really can be held responsible for the actions of their teenage son. i think it is actually highly unusual. it is opening the door for a very large, slippery slope. and so, that is kind of where i am having trouble saying that the parents committed manslaughter, meaning they were aware that this was going to happen. at a candlelit vigil in oxford last night, the community came together to honour the four teenagers, four minutes of bellringing, one minute for each victim. ethan crumbley is being charged as an adult and is accused of terrorism charges and first—degree murder. aruna iyengar, bbc news. president biden has warned he will not accept "red lines" set by moscow as fears mount that russia is planning an imminent invasion of ukraine. the us president and vladamir putin are due to talk over the next few days about the build up of nearly 100,000 russian troops near the ukraine border. us media is reporting that us intelligence officials fear that an invasion could take place early next year. a senior officer who leads police scotland's efforts to counter terrorism and organised crime has been suspended from duty following a "criminal allegation". the officer, who's understood to be temporary assistant chief constable pat campbell, was suspended from wednesday. that's according to the scottish police authority. the police watchdog will now investigate the allegation. the metropolitan police say they'll consider correspondence asking them to investigate a claim that christmas parties were held in downing street last year in breach of covid rules. the force responded to the complaint by some labour mps by saying it wasn't their policy to routinely examine �*retrospective breaches' of covid rules. here's our political correspondent, ione wells. this is all stemming back to this time last year, there were reports that a party took place in downing street on the 18th of december. the prime minister wasn't present at the party that was said to be four members of number ten staff. 0ne members of number ten staff. one source told the bbc that there was food and drinks are served and games were played at the party. this has caused quite a lot of upset are among the members of the public and the opposition, who have accused downing street of not following the very rules that they set out. you see, at the time, london was in tier 3 restrictions, which meant that you were not meant to gather in events like christmas parties. in terms of the latest update now, number ten themselves have not commented on the party. they insisted as have the prime minister that rules were followed at all times although they haven't explained exactly how those at the party were following the restrictions that were in place. in response to these reports, two labour mps have written to the metropolitan police, asking them to investigate the alleged breaches of the coronavirus restrictions. today, the coronavirus restrictions. today, the police have issued a statement in response saying it's not their policy to investigate retrospective breaches of the coronavirus regulations but they were going to consider this correspondence up that they receive from the labour mps. this follows the deputy leader of labour party, angela rayner, who has also written to one of the uk's top civil servants, asking whether they will be making a complaint of the metropolitan police as well. pressure is on number ten to explain just how people at this party were allegedly following the rules. has this made a _ allegedly following the rules. has this made a big impact beyond parliaments?— this made a big impact beyond arliaments? ., ~ , ., parliaments? one of the mps who wrote to the _ parliaments? one of the mps who wrote to the police, _ parliaments? one of the mps who wrote to the police, has _ wrote to the police, has particularly raised hopes that his constituents are. he says that the constituents are. he says that the constituents feel like it was one rule for the government at the time and when rule for him and his constituents. he has mentioned the fact in his letter to the commissioner, dame cressida dick, that have also issued more than 1000 fixed penalty notices in december 2020 alone for people breaching coronavirus regulations, so he has asked for that to be reflected and for these claims to be investigated fully. numberten for these claims to be investigated fully. number ten is still stressing that they did follow the rules but we are waiting for an explanation of just how that was possible. people in around nine thousand homes are facing a second weekend without power in parts of scotland and northern england, following storm arwen. those affected are now bracing themselves for almost freezing temperatures forecast over the next 2a hours, and the army and the british red cross have been distributing emergency aid in some areas. 0ur correspondent peter harris has been giving us the latest from cramlington in northumberland. yes, so the soldiers are here now as you can see in this fire station, receiving their briefing, and shortly, they will be moving off to some of those communities in south northumberland that remain without power for an eighth day. the total as of now is round about 5100 homes in north—east england still without power. the arrival of the soldiers follows northumberland yesterday declaring a major incident. that follows neighbouring county durham, which did that on thursday, and the reason for doing that is it unlocks further support and it's felt it necessary to get the army in and to get people out on the streets because they can't be sure from the northern power grid when exactly all of those homes will have their power reconnected, so the soldiers will be going out, knocking on doors, providing reassurance and we saw them yesterday as county durham also providing food parcel, support and that kind of welfare that people without power might need. to give you an idea of how much longer this problem has to run, northern power grid say that they have around 700 engineering projects left to do — 200 this weekend and another 500 to do next week — so the best guess is the middle of next week before all of this is back to normal. earlier, i spoke to an independent councillor for earlier, i spoke to an independent councillorfor rothbury earlier, i spoke to an independent councillor for rothbury in northumberland. in our areas, we've got around 160 properties off—line. they've gone eight days without electricity and some of them we know will be heading into their ninth day. it's pretty daunting knowing that you're going to be going into day nine without any power as well. are you able to speak to them and if so, what are they telling you? i so, what are they telling you? i speak to them in the morning and in the evening and they give me the plan for the day and in the evening what they have done for the day what the plan is for the next day as well. the areas that we have got left are the really difficult areas, where either transformers are blown all the power lines and the polls are lying on the ground and they are going to take some time to fix. fire going to take some time to fix. are ou going to take some time to fix. are you satisfied with the speed of the response? i you satisfied with the speed of the resonse? ., ., ., i. response? i would love for everyone to have been — response? i would love for everyone to have been on _ response? i would love for everyone to have been on for _ response? i would love for everyone to have been on for the _ response? i would love for everyone to have been on for the next - response? i would love for everyone to have been on for the next day - response? i would love for everyone | to have been on for the next day and i would have loved for things to be done quicker but i think a major incident should have been declared a lot sooner. ~ . , incident should have been declared a lot sooner. ~ ., , , lot sooner. what is the single hardest part _ lot sooner. what is the single hardest part of— lot sooner. what is the single hardest part of the _ lot sooner. what is the single hardest part of the response l lot sooner. what is the single l hardest part of the response at lot sooner. what is the single - hardest part of the response at the moment? aha, hardest part of the response at the moment? �* ., ., ., ., , hardest part of the response at the moment? �* ., ., ., ., �* moment? a lot of the areas don't have any means _ moment? a lot of the areas don't have any means of _ moment? a lot of the areas don't i have any means of communication, moment? a lot of the areas don't - have any means of communication, so some landline telephones are still down and a lot of the areas don't have mobile phone reception, so the only way we can communicate with these residents is knocking on their doors. . , ., these residents is knocking on their doors. ., , ., ., these residents is knocking on their doors. ., ., , ., doors. have you had reports of those conversations? _ doors. have you had reports of those conversations? i— doors. have you had reports of those conversations? i don't _ doors. have you had reports of those conversations? i don't know - doors. have you had reports of those conversations? i don't know if - conversations? i don't know if you've been able to get out yourself or not. i you've been able to get out yourself or not. ., , ., ., or not. i have. let me give you an example. — or not. i have. let me give you an example. the _ or not. i have. let me give you an example, the fire _ or not. i have. let me give you an example, the fire service - or not. i have. let me give you an example, the fire service came i example, the fire service came across one of the elderly residents in this area, who had fallen, they had injured themselves and they were in their 90s and hypothermic. we had to get them transported to the nearest hospital asap because i think if they had been left for another day, i'm not sure they would have made it. is another day, i'm not sure they would have made it— have made it. is there a balance between peeple _ have made it. is there a balance between people staying - have made it. is there a balance between people staying in - have made it. is there a balance between people staying in their| between people staying in their homes and an effort being made to find and rescue them and take them to safety, particularly if you give that example of them being older more vulnerable?— more vulnerable? we've got 20 residents so — more vulnerable? we've got 20 residents so far _ more vulnerable? we've got 20 residents so far in _ more vulnerable? we've got 20 residents so far in alternative . residents so far in alternative accommodation in northbridge. they come out of their homes because they got no heating, no power or no water or a combination of all. we have got alternative accommodation and a lot of residents had toughed it out for a week but they've decided to go into accommodation now. people could ossibl do into accommodation now. people could possibly do without _ into accommodation now. people could possibly do without phone _ into accommodation now. people could possibly do without phone eyes - into accommodation now. people could possibly do without phone eyes for- into accommodation now. people could possibly do without phone eyes for a i possibly do without phone eyes for a few days but you cannot do without heating. how are people, if at all, managing to keep their homes? aha, iiat managing to keep their homes? a lot of --eole managing to keep their homes? a lot of peeple in — managing to keep their homes? a lot of peeple in this _ managing to keep their homes? lot of people in this area, although the government did when people to put in these heat pumps, which are next to useless in circumstances like this. a lot of people have gas heaters and people have been cooking with camping stoves and were struggling to get hold of any of those butane gas cylinders for those camping stoves and gas heaters. we have got candles, water, batteries and we are delivering those and we're delivering those and we're delivering logs as well. but those butane gas cylinders are what we are struggling to get hold of. the headlines on bbc news... doctors leaders welcome moves to ease the workload of gps in england so they can focus on the covid booster rollout —— but some patients' groups say postponing services could be dangerous. a campaign begins encouraging expectant mothers to get vaccinated: unvaccinated mums who were severely ill with coronavirus tell their stories. dozens of troops have been deployed to northumberland to help people whose homes are still without power, eight days after storm arwen. sport and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre. good afternoon. hello there plenty of sport around today but we'll start with the premier league. west ham united are taking on league leaders chelsea in the early kick off. they're approaching half time. it's been a busy first half. chelsea looked in control early on. manual lands a level things up for west ham but we mason mount has scored a great goal. chelsea is 2—1 at the moment. if chelsea slip up, both liverpool and manchester city will be hoping to take advantage, jurgen klopp's side are away at wolves while manchester city are at watford. i don't know what's going to happen in the next games. what i'm saying, i said one month ago, is that we are playing on a good level. on a high level in many aspects but we have to prove again, so i know how difficult it is and we drop points, everything will be difficult. what's important is the way that we are going to play. rangers will be looking to extend their lead at the top of the scottish premiership to seven points. they host dundee in one of four 3pm kick offs. second place celtic are away at dundee united tomorrow there's live football on the bbc at the moment. buxton are hoping to continue their fa cup dream. they're the lowest ranked side left in the competiton. these are live pictures from the silverlands ground... latest score 1—0 to the visitors. it's live on bbc1 right now. later, national league side yeovil host league two stevenage at 5.30pm and you can watch that on bbc two and the iplayer. there are eleven more ties that kick off at 3pm. full details on the bbc sport website. forjust the third time in the history of test cricket, a bowler has taken all 10 wickets in an innings. new zealand's ajaz patel achieved the milestone in the second test against india in mumbai. he took four wickets on the first day and then proceeded to take another six on day two. he'sjoinsjim laker and anil kumble as the only men to have achieved the feat. kumble described it as a special effort, especially as it came so early in a match, when conditions are normally harder for spinners. not so good for patel�*s side though — they're staring at defeat after being bowled out forjust 62. the racism crisis at yorkshire, has overshadowed england's preparations for the ashes series, which starts midnight on tuesday, uk time. australia's build up, has also been disrupted. their captain tim paine resigned last month over revelations he had been investigated, for sending sexually explicit text messages, to a female co—worker. paine is taking an indefinite break from the game, to protect his mental health. australia's coachjustin langer, has been to see paine, and he's launched a strong defence of his former captain. there's not one person asking questions here or who is on the camera there and listening to this or who is watching those who hasn't made a mistake in their life. there isn't a single person and our captain, one of the best, made a mistake and he is paying a heavy price for it. and what i see, i continuously see in this job and it can be brutal but you learn your lessons and you live and learn and we are an unforgiving society and that's a real shame. the uk snooker championship in york has reached the semi final stage. these other live pictures... kyren is currently taking on luca brecel. the first player to six frames will make it into the final and that is the first frame of that semifinal ongoing bear. so a very busy day in sports. there is all the latest updates on the bbc sport website this afternoon, including live women's rugby. you can find that on the website if you want to follow that and all of the days events. that's the sport for now. football fans in england will unite this weekend to pay tribute to six—year—old arthur labinjo—hughes, who died after months of abuse by his father and step—mother. the pair were jailed earlier this week — arthur's stepmother emma tustin was convicted of his murder, while his father thomas hughes was found guilty of manslaughter. birmingham city, the club arthur supported, will pay tribute to him by applauding during the sixth minute of the game. the pope has arrived in athens at the start of a two—day visit to greece. it's the first papal trip to the greek capital for twenty years, and the city will be under high security. pope francis says he wants to improve relations with the orthodox church in greece and will visit the island of lesbos which he last went to in 2016 at the height of the migration crisis. here in the uk, there's been a record rise in anti—semitism during the first six months of this year. the community security trust, the charity which monitors anti—jewish incidents in the uk, says that 2021 is likely to be �*the worst year on record' for incidents of anti—semitism. 0ur reporter tom brada has more. i'm tom and i am a bbc journalist who also happens to be british and jewish. i'm proud of who i am, but the past year has been complicated and sometimes frightening. let's break that. he's bleep jewish. in the first six months of 2021, there was a record spike in anti—semitism. from controversy around the middle east, to conspiracy theories and the toxic environment of social media, manyjewish people are questioning how safe it is to express who they are. i want to find out what is going on and i'm starting in burnley where ashley was the victim of an extreme example of anti—semitism. in march 2020, ashley was attacked by three menjust outside his home. the assault took place in front of his mum. they were going where that blue car is now, but it was a different coloured car then, and started shouting, "dirtyjew, look at that dirtyjew," and then one of them came onto the driveway and started attacking me and i was full of blood and i was still with the adrenaline pumping. how long were you dealing with the physical injuries? about three or four weeks. and any mental injuries of the back of it? ptsd. it took me a while to go back outside again. quite a lot of people in burnley actually came to me and said are you 0k? do you need anything? stuff like that. it was really heart—warming. what does yourjewish identity mean to you? everything, absolutely everything. it is my life, really. and how does it make you feel that something you hold clearly so dear to you, something you love about yourself, is something that other people use as a target? it hurts me a lot, because at the end of the day, what we all want is to just live our lives in peace. never gonna happen, though. 0ne harmful stereotype people hold aboutjews is that we are a monolithic group who think, feel and even look the same way, but that is far from the truth. i'm meeting up with the nadine, a blackjewish woman who last year confronted the grime artist wiley after he posted an anti—semitic rant on twitter. ijust think it just demonstrated the complexity of what it can be like being a jewish black person. it is a lot easier to recognise if someone calls me the n word or someone says something derogatory about my skin colour to know that it is racist versus if someone makes a comment like, "oh, you know, jews run the media," it is not as overt in some ways, but i also think they manifest themselves differently and i think in the 21st century. you do not have the structural socioeconomic intergenerational inequality that you see within black communities, as in the same in the jewish community, but that does not mean that, you know, the threat levels are not serious. see, ijust don't think people have a very solid understanding of what anti—semitism is, because i don't think we are taught about it very well. there are many elements behind what drives racism and specifically anti—semitism, but there is also a familiar pattern that whenever israel is in the news, there is a spike in anti—semitism here in the uk. it all happened very quickly. obviously, it is petrifying. i do not think that whatever is going on in the world in terms of the fighting and the, you know, do you believe in this side, do you believe in that side, should affect anyone's medical care that is happening, and i would never use someone's beliefs or religion or ethnicity or anything to decide how i am going to treat them. cat micro—chipping is to be made compulsory in the uk under new government rules. owners will have to microchip their cats by the time their pets are 20 weeks old, or risk incurring a £500 pound fine. it's aimed at ensuring that the cats can be returned home if they stray or are stolen. fiona lamdin reports. seven—year—old scarab went missing in truro just days after his owner moved house. scarab just completely disappeared, so i was quite concerned, and i was really worried for him because, yeah, it was nearly a whole year. if it was not for the microchip, i would never have got him home. but 11 months later, the pair were reunited, as luckily he had been microchipped as a kitten. with the microchip they found out i was his owner and got him home to me. i burst into tears when i got the call, ijust couldn't believe it. he was so thrilled to come home, he wouldn't leave me alone for 2h hours, he was constantly rubbing his face on me and fussing at me. now there are plans in the coming year to get all pet cats chipped. it is going to be mandatory that all owners chip their cats once they are 20 weeks of age. we really, really welcome the idea. we get a lot of stray or injured cats that are brought in by members of the public. about half the time they are chipped, which means we can reunite them really quickly with their owners. and for those who don't, they could face a fine. if you are checked by an authorised person and found not to have a microchip, then you will be given 21 days to rectify that, and we would strongly advise for all the good reasons, you know, getting your animal microchipped and we know the average cost of that is about £17, it is well worth doing, otherwise after 21 days it precedes to become a criminal offence. so, what does the procedure which costs about £20 involve? it is really simple, theyjust come in and we can do it in a consultation. it isjust an injection underneath the scruff of their neck. it is done really quickly and often doesn't cause them any discomfort at all and it is over very, very quickly. each chip has a unique serial number which will link to a pet database where owners�* contact details are stored. there are thought to be 10.8 million cats in the uk, and while scarab and jane had a happy reunion, for the other 2.8 million, who are currently unchipped, the ending is not always a happy one. fiona lamdin, bbc news. now it�*s time for a look at the weather with darren betts. we have got quite a mixture of weather around today. showers coming into western scotland, northern ireland, wales and the south—west. a chilly feel, certainly. the band of wet weather continues to work its way southwards. heavy rain arriving in the north—east england. temperatures will be generally above freezing but where we have snow over higher parts of gotland and the pennines, obviously temperatures will be below zero. we keep the wind coming in off the north sea for the eastern side of england. further west, and further north, it will feel much more pleasant tomorrow and it will turn generally dry with more on the way of sunshine, so temperature not quite as low as today end up as high as seven or eight celsius. hello, this is bbc news. the headlines: doctors leaders welcome moves to ease the workload of gps in england so they can focus on the covid booster rollout — but some patients�* groups say postponing services could be dangerous. a campaign begins encouraging expectant mothers to get vaccinated: unvaccinated mums who were severely ill with coronavirus tell their stories. the parents of a teenager accused of the fatal shooting of four us high school students — using a gun bought by his father — have been arrested. dozens of troops have been deployed to northumberland to help people whose homes are still without power — eight days after storm arwen. britain is witnessing a spike in anti—semitism — one charity estimates 2021 could be �*the worst year on record.�* dontae sharpe spent 26 years in a us prison in north carolina for a murder he did not commit. after proving his innocence, we follow dontae as he demands justice. people really don�*t know how going to prison for something you didn�*t do, a crime you didn�*t commit, especially for a long, long time... ..what it does to a person.