Image source, Reuters

It's now a few minutes past midday, which means the deadline has passed for Greater Manchester leaders to reach an agreement with the government.

The two sides have been in talks over whether Manchester will move to tier three Covid restrictions - the highest level. Local leaders want better financial support from the government.

We're yet to hear whether any deal has been reached. Our man in the Commons, Iain Watson, says that he has not heard anything yet - but it "could be that they are still talking".

Earlier, Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick said the PM would decide on the next steps if the two sides cannot agree.

It's just gone midday in London and in Manchester

Image source, Reuters

Last week, the government announced its new system of lockdown restrictions - the three tiers. Millions of people in areas across England were moved into a higher tier, which means tougher rules.

The government wanted Greater Manchester to move to tier three which is the top level, meaning very high alert - just as the Liverpool City Region has done.

Measures under tier three include pub closures and a ban on household mixing indoors, in private gardens and in most outdoor venues. Plus crucially further measures agreed locally that will have an impact.

But the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, and local leaders resisted the move.

Mr Bunham said there was not enough financial support for people and businesses who would be affected. But the government says regions should "set aside party politics".

Although central government does not need the support of local leaders to implement the rules, it is an advantage, particularly in deciding what can work locally.

Talks were held between the government and local leaders last week. The talks stalled and then they resumed again. Yesterday, they ended without any agreement.

Local leaders were then given a deadline of 12:00 BST today to agree a deal, or the PM will decide on next steps.

For people and businesses in Greater Manchester, the last few days have been quite uncertain.

In his response to Andrew Gwynne, Rishi Sunak:says: "Greater Manchester is being treated exactly the same as every part of our United Kingdom."

He adds that it is disappointing to hear Gwynne's tone.

Chris Mason
Political Correspondent

With just minutes to go until the government's deadline for Greater Manchester to reach an agreement with ministers, Chancellor Rishi Sunak is facing questions in the Commons.

And it's a fiery one: Andrew Gwynne, the Labour MP for Denton and Reddish, has just thundered into his laptop: "Why does this government hate Greater Manchester?"

Appearing remotely, he was clearly furious at the ongoing impasse.

Mr Sunak insisted the government didn't [hate anyone] and wanted to discuss things constructively.

Ok, with midday approaching, we'll turn our focus back to the stand-off between the Westminster government and local political leaders in Greater Manchester...

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has urged Tory MPs to back Marcus Rashford's call to extend free school meals over the holidays.

He said on Twitter: "Over a million children could go hungry over half-term and Christmas holidays if free school meals aren't extended.

"Conservative MPs must listen to campaigners, including Marcus Rashford and vote with Labour tomorrow to extend free schools meals."

It comes after a government minister claimed parents would prefer to pay a "modest amount" for children's food at a holiday club, rather than have the label of a free school meal.

Business Minister Nadhim Zahawi also said Universal Credit is available to support hard-pressed families.

Footballer Rashford successfully campaigned to have meals provided to schoolchildren in need during summer holidays. He now wants this to be extended.

Labour is forcing a Commons vote on the extension of free school meals to eligible children after the government refused to prolong the scheme through the October half-term break.

Image source, EPA

A district in the German state of Bavaria famous for its stunning Alpine scenery is going under lockdown, the first in the country to do so since the spring.

As of 14:00 local time this afternoon, residents of Berchtesgadener Land will only be able to leave home for shopping, work or other valid reasons.

Schools, restaurants, bars, theatres, gyms, cinemas and hotels will be closed, but church services will be allowed.

The local infection rate over the past week has hit 272.8 per 100,000.

Bavarian Agriculture Minister Michaela Kaniber said the measures would last two weeks.

Image source, DStuzhuk/Instagram

A Ukrainian fitness influencer who denied the existence of Covid-19 has died of the disease, leaving behind his bereaved ex-wife – who is also a social media celebrity in their country - and their three young children.

Dmitriy Stuzhuk, 33, died of heart failure at the weekend and was kept in a sealed coffin – contrary to Ukrainian tradition – with numbers of mourners restricted to avoid infection.

In his final Instagram post he told his 1.1m followers he wanted to “firmly warn everyone: I too thought that there was no Covid, that it was all relative – until I got sick”. Then he wrote “COVID-19 IS NOT A PASSING SICKNESS! It’s serious”.

On the second day of a trip to Turkey, he wrote, he woke up with a swollen neck and difficulty breathing.

On returning to Ukraine, he tested positive for the virus, but decided to stay at home with an oxygen supply rather than go into hospital, as he feared poor-quality treatment in the struggling health service.

His ex-wife Sofia Stuzhuk, a fashion guru with 5.2m Instagram followers, paid him warm tribute. She wrote: “We went through so much together – you were by my side through sadness and joy, you taught me so much."

More now from that weekly drop of figures from the Office for National Statistics in England and Wales and their counterparts in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Tuesday's are always the day we get the latest update for death registrations that mention coronavirus as a possible cause of death, which is one of the three measures the government is using to monitor the effect of the pandemic.

We now know that figure is creeping towards 60,000, at least based on these figures which always lag a few days behind and are only updated once a week.

Firstly in England and Wales there have been 53,863 deaths up to 9 October where Covid-19 was cited among the causes.

Figures published last week by the National Records for Scotland showed that 4,301 deaths involving Covid-19 had been registered in Scotland up to October 11, while 915 deaths had occurred in Northern Ireland up to October 9 according to the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency.

Together, these figures mean that so far 59,079 such deaths have been registered in the UK.

There are two other ways of counting the death toll from coronavirus. The government, via the NHS, separately counts people who tested positive for the virus and died within 28 days. That figure is updated daily and is currently standing at 43,726.

The third way looks at all UK deaths over and above the number usually expected for the time of year - known as excess deaths.

Adam Easton
Warsaw Correspondent

Image source, Reuters

Poland, meawhile, has seen daily case numbers double in the space of a week - with 9,291 new Covid-19 infections reported in the most recent 24-hour period.

That is 16 times more than the highest reported in spring’s first wave and means the outbreak is stretching the country’s public health care system to the limit, officials admit.

Nearly 9,000 hospital beds are now in use by Covid-19 patients, so the health ministry is raising the number of beds available to around 15,000 - some individual hospitals are already reporting shortages.

On Saturday, work began on the country’s first temporary hospital - 500 beds are being installed in the conference rooms of the country’s biggest arena, Warsaw’s National Stadium.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has ordered preparations be made to create temporary hospitals in all 16 of Poland’s regions. Private clinics are to make beds available for Covid patients and soldiers are to staff drive-through testing points.

There were 107 virus-related deaths in the same 24-hour period. Poland has reported 192,539 cases and 3,721 deaths overall.

A professor has said there is "light at the end of the tunnel" for hopes of the UK getting a vaccine for Covid-19.

Peter Openshaw, professor of experimental medicine at Imperial College London, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme earlier "I'm really quite optimistic.

"I think there is light at the end of the tunnel, in that there are so many trials of vaccines going on under very, very well-controlled conditions.

"I would be surprised if some of those vaccine studies don't report this side of Christmas."

Some of those vaccines have already been purchased and batched up ready for distribution if they are found to be effective in phase three of trials, he added.

"So I think that that will be limited stocks of vaccine which are going to be available for the most high-risk people in the early part of next year," he said.

"But of course there won't be sufficient vaccine to roll out a full vaccination programme; we need to take it stepwise and be cautious."

As the US prepares to go to the polls, what can it learn about how to conduct elections despite coronavirus restrictions?

BBC World Service's Nabihah Parkar looks at how other countries have held elections, with varying success.

Image source, Reuters

As restrictions tighten in the UK and Europe, here's a look at how the battle with coronavirus is faring in other parts of the world.

• Argentina is now the fifth country in the world to record more than a million confirmed cases of Covid-19, with nearly 13,000 infections in 24 hours
• New infections are increasing rapidly in the US, with cases trending upwards in 48 out of 50 states. Friday saw nearly 70,000 new cases, the highest number in a single day since July
• India has recorded its lowest single-day rise in the number of confirmed cases in nearly three months. Health ministry data show the figure fell below 50,000 for the first time since July.

Ruth Saunders, 104, started taking daily walks during lockdown, to stay active.

But then her granddaughter encouraged her to cover the distance of a marathon - which she is now well under way to completing.

She has around 30 laps of her house to complete before reaching her goal and is raising money for Thames Valley Air Ambulance.

Self-employed workers in rural areas of England near the Wales border could be badly affected by Wales' "firebreak" measures - but miss out on Welsh government lockdown support measures, it is feared.

Heather Kidd, a Liberal Democrat who represents Chirbury and Worthen on Shropshire Council, told BBC Radio Shropshire the nearest towns for most people in her patch are in Powys. Some workers get most of their income in and around Welshpool and Newtown, she added.

She said she was particularly concerned about self-employed workers lsuch as hairdressers and cleaners "who work either side of the border and some of them solely in Wales".

She added: "There is financial provision put in place for quite a lot of those in Wales, but that's not true for our side of the border."

Image source, LHR Airports/PA Media

Passengers flying from London's Heathrow Airport to Hong Kong and Italy on Tuesday will be the first to have the option of paying for a rapid Covid test at the airport before checking in for their outward flight.

The test will cost £80 and the result is guaranteed within an hour.

The aim is to help people travelling to destinations where proof of a negative result is required on arrival.

A growing number of countries have classified the UK as being "at risk", meaning travellers from the UK face more restrictions.

The rapid saliva swab, which is now available at Heathrow Terminals 2 and 5, is known as a Lamp (Loop-mediated Isothermal Amplification) test.

British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Cathay Pacific will offer it to customers.

Image source, PA Media

Speaking on BBC Breakfast a little earlier, First Minister Mark Drakeford said the Welsh government decided to go for the "shortest possible" lockdown-tightening measures - in part, to reduce the impact on people's mental health.

He said: "It is a very difficult time indeed and it's why, in the end, we decided to go for the shortest possible period of a firebreak - a two-week period.

"But if you're doing it short, you've got to do it deep. There's a trade-off there.

"We could have gone for a longer period with slightly fewer restrictions but, in the end, the advice to us - partly because of the impact on people's mental health - was that if you could keep this period of time as short as you could, that would help to mitigate that impact."

The firebreak - as Welsh politicians have consistently called it - is from 23 October to 9 November.

Drakeford has warned the impact will not be felt until after it is over.

Robert Cuffe
BBC head of statistics

There were a total of 11,359 deaths registered in the UK in the week of 9 October, according to the latest figures reported by the Office for National Statistics.

Remember this is the weekly update of all deaths, not just those directly attributed to coronavirus. It is studied by ministers and their scientific advisers just to understand how much of an effect the disease is having on society.

And although we know the deaths of people with coronavirus has been climbing recently, that figure for overall deaths is slightly down on the previous week (by 85) and within the normal range of the last five years.

A total of 474 of these deaths were registered on the death certificates as having involved coronavirus, up by 131 (or 38%) on the previous week’s figures. This figure has roughly doubled over the course of the last two weeks (from 234) and quadrupled over the course of a month (it was 110 four weeks ago).

That figure of 474 is 5% of the peak of 9,495 deaths in a week reached on 17 April. It would take between four and five more doublings to reach that peak.

Manchester MP Lucy Powell says the government's response to Greater Manchester this morning was an "insult".

She tweeted: "Where to start with government response to GM this am:"- Not good faith discussion but only 2 ministerial meets."- Been in Tier 2 since July when our rates lower than lowest regions today."- Rates are falling in Mcr and stabilising across region."- £7.85/person offer is insult."