In parts of Northern England, it is the third day of new restrictions that were brought in to curb the recent rise of coronavirus infections. Friends and families from different households are being told once again to keep apart. The interventions that are likely to be the most effective when you have outbreaks like these ones on a local level, will be things that impact on that particular scenario. So people gathering under a roof, families getting together, extended families getting together, extended families getting together, extended families getting together, i think that is why the government had taken the approach they have. There has been disappointment the businesses in england that were planning to reopen this weekend as the government decided against easing the restrictions for some part of the economy. According to new reports, new shielding measures could come in with Vulnerable People being allocated specific times of having access to services and shops. There could be a citywide lockdown in london if infection rates spike and the tightening of quarantine restrictions of those flying into the uk. But, the government is not confirming that it would take such measures. There is a lot of speculation about what might happen in the future. What we are concentrated on is a targeted, rather than a blanket approach. So if the rate of infection rises to a concerning level, we will take Decisive Action and you can see that we in liverpool, Public Health officials are bringing in their own guidelines in dealing with the spike in cases in the princess ward park of the city. This area includes parts of toxteth, dingle and areas close to the city centre are being urged not to mix households or have overnight visitors. It is not a National Lockdown it is us taking action at a very local level to try to stop the virus spreading and it is us being in control of it, the city who know the city best, understanding how the virus is spreading and stopping it doing it any further. The governments recent tightening of measures in england is leaving questions over whether schools can reopen in september, with unions calling for greater clarity and more detail on how to prepare for pupils return. This comes prepare for pupils return. This co m es after prepare for pupils return. This comes after two scientists advising the government suggested pubs in england may need to close to allow schools to reopen next month. Until a vaccine is found, it is likely a return to normal life as we knew it before the pandemic is some time away. Jenny kumah, bbc news. The housing secretary has also announced plans today, to speed up and simplify the building of new homes, in a bid to radically shake up what he described as a complex and outdated planning system. Writing in the sunday telegraph, robertjenrick said land designated for growth will enable homes, hospitals and schools to be developed automatically. Areas of outstanding Natural Beauty and the green belt will come under a protection category. A cluster of 13 cases of coronavirus linked to a pub in aberdeen, is being investigated by nhs officials. The pubs owners said some customers who visited last sunday have since tested positive for the virus and showing mild symptoms. Public Health Officials say there may be further cases linked to the cluster. A conservative mp and former minister has been bailed by the metropolitan police after being arrested on suspicion of rape. A former parliamentary employee has accused the mp of rape, Sexual Assault and coercive control. Our political reporter Tony Bonsignore is here. What do we know . What we know is these allegations are againsta what we know is these allegations are against a current mp, a former minister and they were made by a former parliamentary employee. According to the sunday times, she alleges the mp assaulted her, forced her to have sex and left her so traumatised, she had to go to hospital. She is accusing him of rape, Sexual Assault and coercive control. We have had a statement from the metropolitan police and they say on friday the 31st ofjuly they say on friday the 31st ofjuly they received allegations relating to four separate incidents relating to four separate incidents relating to Sexual Offences and assault. These offences are alleged to have occurred at addresses in westminster, lambeth and hackney between july last year and january this year. A man in his 50s was arrested on saturday the ist of august on suspicion of rape. He has been released on bail to return on a date in mid august. There are reports that the conservative party chief whip, mark spencer had been aware of allegations and spoke to the victim. But sources told us mark spencer did not know the magnitude of the allegations and a spokesman for the chief whip said he took all allegations of harassment and abuse extremely seriously and strongly urges anyone who contacted him to approach the appropriate authorities. The conservative party say they take all allegations of this nature extremely seriously and as this matter is in the hands of the police, they say, it would be inappropriate to comment further. Tony, thank you very much indeed. The australian state of victoria has declared a state of disaster and is introducing the country s toughest ever covid i9 lockdown measures on the state capital melbourne. Residents of the city have been placed under a night time curfew. The move comes as a further 671 cases and seven deaths were confirmed in the past 2a hours numbers that are high in the context of the countrys infection rate. From sydney, phil mercer reports. A Public Health bushfire is how the authorities in victoria are describing the covid i9 emergency. You cannot smell the smoke and you cannot see the flames, but this, they say, is a wicked demic knee. The state of disaster has been declared and the city of melbourne is under tough new restrictions, including a night time curfew that will last for six weeks. I am declaring a state of disaster across victoria. This will be in addition to the state of emergency that has operated throughout. This means that police and others have additional powers, we can suspend various acts of the parliament, we can make sure we can get the job done. After early success in suppressing the coronavirus, australia has had fewer confirmed infections and deaths than many other countries. But the worsening situation in victoria has the entire country on edge. On sunday, 671 new infections were reported, seven people died. In the australian context, these numbers are significant and disturbing. The victorian State Government says previous Disease Control measures we re previous Disease Control measures were working too slowly. Residents will have to stay within five kilometres of their homes and only one person per household is allowed to go shopping for food each day. Schools and childcare centres will close. Australias strictest lockdown close. Australias strictest lockd own follows close. Australias strictest lockdown follows the deadliest week of the pandemic here so far. Health experts believe a surge in covid 19 cases was exacerbated by a relaxation of earlier restrictions, complacency and social distancing and sheer bad luck. Phil mercer, bbc news. Lewis hamilton will start todays british grand prix on pole position for the seventh time in his career after qualifying fastest ahead of his team mate Valterri Bottas yesterday. Usually the race sees 140,000 fans descend upon silverstone but today its a far quiter affair due to coronavirus restrictions. Our Sports Editor dan roan is there for us this afternoon. Thank you. Yes, this is a british grand prix like none other before. We are slowly getting used to, arent we, the size of major Sports Events behind closed doors. Along with yesterdays fa cup final at wembley, silverstones british grand prix is the event of the sporting summer where the absence of fans is felt most keenly and where it really does feel most surreal and strange. After all, an hour before the race gets under way, in any other year this would be absolutely packed. This race provides british sport with its biggest attendance of the year usually. As you can see, it is entirely empty. The only people allowed inside this bias circuit behind me is the drivers, their teams and race officials. Nonetheless, some things dont change and once again Lewis Hamilton is on pole position, having, as you can see here, produced the fastest lap ever recorded at this famous old circuit during qualifying. He is bidding for a seventh british grand prix victory and a record equalling seventh Lodge Championship crown as well. As we have seen before the season, the drivers before the race will take any, most of them will we think, as an antiracism gesture. 0k, thank you very much. The next news on bbc one is at 6 35pm. That is it from me, goodbye for now. Hello there. Part two of the week and a little bit cool and fresher today than what we had yesterday and there was hello. Youre watching the bbc news channel. Sport and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre. Good afternoon. The british grand prix starts in just over an hour, with Lewis Hamilton favourite to win it for the seventh time. He broke the track record twice on his way to pole position the 91st of his career. Hell be joined on the front row of the grid by his merdedes team mate valtteri bottas, with red bulls Max Verstappenjust behind. F1 journalist Chris Medland cant see past hamilton for victory today and beyond. Lewis is clearly the favourite for both the title, but also for today and probably for next years title as well, because these regulations we are racing under this year have been frozen to help save money with the current climate so everything is looking really good for hamilton to equal Michael Schumachers record and then break it next year. Arsenal will be more determined than ever to keep hold of their captain Pierre Emerick aubameyang, after he led them to victory over chelsea in the fa cup final. The win secures arsenal a place in europe next season. Hes been linked with a move away this summer, but there was no questioning his commitment yesterday, at an empty wembley stadium. He equalised with a penalty and then scored a sensational winner. He refused to discuss his future after the game, but manager mikel arteta said he wanted to build a squad around him next season. Nick kyrgios said it hurt him to his core, but he felt compelled to pull out of the us open, which starts at the end of this month, due to on going fears over the coronavirus. In a video posted on social media, he said he had no problem with the tournament going ahead and understood how much the support staff needed their jobs, but urged tennis to consider the importance of health and safety, and was again criticial of players who took part in exhibition matches during the outbreak. Tennis players, you have to act in the interests of each other and work together. You cannot be dancing on ta bles together. You cannot be dancing on tables and money grabbing your way around europe or trying to make a quick buck hosting an exhibition. That is just so selfish. Think of the other people for once. This is what this virus is about. It doesnt ca re what this virus is about. It doesnt care about your world ranking or how much money you have. Act responsibly. To those players that have been observing the rules and acting selflessly, i say good luck to you. Play your own risk and i have no problem with that. I will not be playing this year at the us open, it hurts me at michael not to be out there competing in one of the sports greatest arenas. But i am sitting out for the people, for my fellow australians and the hundreds of thousands of americans that have lost their lives and all of you. It is my decision, like it or not. After an 18 week suspension because of the pandemic, the Super League Season resumes this afternoon. It took a government loan to enable them to return and, like most sports, things will look very different most notably in rugby league, therell be no scrums. Its third against fourth later, with Huddersfield Giants versus leeds rhinos. Champions st helens were struggling when the season was paused they face catalans dragons. It isa it is a different challenge, you know, it is our new normal if you like now. We have to adjust to it and get on with it, really. The teams that handle those situations the best will probably do the best come the end of the year. Thats all the sport for now. Ill have more in the next hour. There have been renewed lockdown measures brought in for parts of Northern England since friday. But in the city of liverpool, the measures are even more localised. There have been 20 cases in the princes park ward in the last week about half of the total for the whole city. People in that area, which includes parts of toxteth, dingle and areas close to the city centre, are being urged not to mix household or have overnight visitors. Matthew ashton is director of Public Health for liverpool, he explained why the targetted actions were being taken. Overall, levels of infection in the city are ok. We want them to be as low as possible but most have quite low numbers. But what we have experienced over the last week, particularly in the princes park ward of the city, is an increase in numbers, so going from quite a low level up to 20, which is, as you say, almost half of total number of cases in the week. What are the exact restrictions on people there . We have put in enhanced testing at the heart of the community, so there is Testing Available for everybody between yesterday, actually, for the next week, and what we have also done is close homes care homes to visitors, make sure Community Assets remain closed for the next two weeks and we have cancelled any Upcoming Events and gatherings and we are reinforcing the measures that members of our community and our bars, cafes and restaurants need to be taking. How good an idea do you think you have of where cases are springing up . Can you do this street by street . That is exactly what we are doing. We are doing our response through the community, our faith leaders and Community Leaders and volunteers targeting the areas where those infections are popping up and we know where they are, we are doorknocking and contacting people and finding out exactly where they might have got the virus back from, so backwards Contact Tracing, and then closing down on those routes of virus transmission. What you want to avoid is a situation like leicester where you have had lockdown measures imposed on the whole city because of quite a high number of cases. Yes, exactly, this is not a National Lockdown, this is us taking action at a local level to try and stop the virus spreading further. It is us being in control of it, as well, those who know the city best and can operate in the city best really understanding how the virus is spreading and stopping it doing it any further. Is that a blueprint for the future, do you think . Local representatives and authorities taking the lead rather than the National Government . I think it is essential that local government and local leaders those who know the city and area best are those that run that response. This is a traditional response for Public Health and it is not new and we have always done outbreak control in the past, but this is now on a much larger scale across the country with the pandemic. We must have the data coming to us at a local level to allow us to take this approach. So what is the picture in liverpool generally, then . You mentioned the number of cases is not too bad, but how does it compare to the rest of the north of england . Our rate as a city is around 10 per 100,000, so it is ok, and obviously i always want it to be as low as possible and it is increasing and getting higher. But it is much lower than parts of Greater Manchester or lancashire. The reason why we are taking these actions is to stop it getting any higher. Are you worried that with a general easing of lockdown measures, the reopening of pubs and so on, that the number of cases will rise over the summer . Yes, of course. I think there is a general upward direction across the whole of the country and liverpool is no different from that. We have to keep on reinforcing those Public Health messages, particularly around hand hygiene and social distancing and avoiding crowds and face coverings, as well as the importance of people getting tested when they are not well and sharing that information into the Contact Tracing system. India has recorded more than 50,000 new coronavirus cases for the fourth consecutive day. Overall, theres been 1. 75 million cases and there are now fears the country could overtake the us and brazil to become the country with the highest number of infections. Many states are imposing individual lockdowns for 15 day periods to help control the spread, but the Indian Government is stressing that mortality rates are low, at roughly 2 . Earlier i spoke to dr ramanan laxminarayan. Hes director of the centre for disease dynamics, economics policy in delhi and is advising various indian State Governments on their covid response. There are basically two kinds of countries. Basically, one set that has the epidemic under control and the other set, like youve mentioned, brazil, mexico, the us and india, which dont. In india, it first started with places like delhi, which had an early rise of cases and then its sort of starting to taper off in some of these places, but now theres a new set of states which include the south. Gujarat continues to have an epidemic and states, very large states, the size of brazil as far as population goes, which are now picking up the pace in terms of numbers of cases, and so this is expected to go on for quite a while yet. Because the epidemic, to be honest, its not within control partly because of the dense population and movement of people, which really cant be controlled, inadequate social distancing, again, which is a function of poverty people not being able to do that even if they were asked to do so. And its now entering places, parts of the country, which really dont have much by way of Public Health infrastructure. And so one would expect to see the cases go up in the days to come. South africa has now registered more than 500,000 cases of coronavirus, making it by far the hardest hit country on the continent. It now accounts for more than half of africas diagnosed infections. The Authorities Say the rate of infection is increasing rapidly and its not expected to peak for another month. Paul hawkins has the latest. Mourning another life taken by coronavirus. 8,153 people have died from it in south africa, but it could be much higher. The south African MedicalResearch Council says the number of people dying from Natural Causes from may 6th tojune 21st is 60 higher this year compared to the same period in 2019 and 2018. The government says there have been over 500,000 confirmed