before we get a result. as to whether this will have a material difference. well, in this statement, as you were saying, he has admitted that he breached covid rules albeit last month in a different country. so not something that is an immediate concern to the australian government but, at the same time, here is somebody admitting they are breaching guidelines and that may well have an influence on the way the public of australia view novak djokovic. then there s this administrative error and it s actually entirely plausible that that is what happened. that these forms are filled out by all passengers travelling to australia, or in this case their representatives, and djokovic s agent forgot that he d moved from belgrade to spain before flying out to australia. that in its own probably wouldn t have caused him enormous problems but when you throw it into the mix with everything else, it means that djokovic is still in a very difficult situation and far from guaranteed to start the de
in the rod laver arena. what does this mean for the scheduling for the tournament, is everything going ahead on the basis that he will be there, even though we don t have this decision from the immigration minister? it is for now. that practice session was one that went ahead in full view of everybody. yesterday, it was very cloak and dagger, very secretive, nobody was allowed to watch. the screens around melbourne park were blanked out. there were no pictures from the rod laver arena and it was down to the channel 9 drone overhead that we got to see a picture of djokovic in action. but it must be very chaotic, i think, behind the scenes at tennis australia, that theyjust don t quite know what the situation is. the verdict from the minister could come before the draw at 3pm tomorrow but if it doesn t, novak djokovic will take his place in the draw as the defending champion and the number one seed. he ll be drawn again somebody but we won t know for sure if the match will take place or
days after he tested positive on december the 16th. in the post, he also blamed his agent for making a mistake on the travel form he used to enter australia. he wrote: the player is waiting to find out if the australian government will allow him to play in next week s 0pen or deport him. 0ur tennis correspondent russell fuller is following all the developments from melbourne. we know there were a lot of questions unanswered and he knows he has a realfight on his hands to stay in the country because that immigration minister has not made the decision yet. djokovic s legal team have provided more paperwork, there s a lot of discussions going on behind the scenes and it could be at least another 24 hours
if it doesn t, novak djokovic will take his place in the draw is the defending champion and number one seed. he will be drawn again somebody but we won t know for sure if the match will take place or not. ok, we will watch that very closely. 0k, we will watch that very closely. i know you certainly will be doing that for us in melbourne. russell fuller, thank you very much. the expansion of some smart motorways which use the hard shoulder as a permanent lane has been temporarily halted. the goverment has announced the move while their safety is assessed. it s follows the recommendations of a committee of mps, who had concerns about the safety of the roads because of a number of fatal crashes. here s our transport correspondent, katy austin. smart motorways. there are hundreds of miles of them across england, and plans for more. the point of smart motorways is to reduce congestion using technology, instead of having to build any new road. but the type that involves permanently removing
under clear skies further south, well, we ll see fog reform and also a widespread frost. so, that s how we start tomorrow. the fog, if anything, more widespread than last night, and it will also take its time to clear, some of itjust lifting into low cloud. but where it does clear, once again, we ll see the sunshine. whereas for northern ireland and also for the north west of scotland and parts of northern england, there ll be a bit more cloud around. in the north west, there ll also be some spots of rain. hello, this is bbc news. the headlines: borisjohnson will face mps as pressure mounts for him to say whether he attended a drinks party in the downing street garden during the first lockdown and calls for him to resign if he did. double fault for novak djokovic as the tennis star admits breaking isolation rules when he had covid and says there was an error on his immigration form. putting the brakes on smart motorways the government pauses their rollout