britain's prime minister, borisjohnson, has said he regrets the "confusion and anger" caused by his chief adviser‘s long journeys across the uk during the anti—virus lockdown, but reiterated his support. the comment came after the advisor, dominic cummings, held a news conference insisting that he didn't violate the rules. the world health organization has suspended the testing of hydroxychloroquine as a possible treatment for covid—19 because of safety concerns. it comes after a study suggested the drug could increase the risk of death. hydroxychloroquine is traditionally used to prevent malaria and has been recently used by president trump. northern and central india have been hit by huge swarms of locusts, some described as wide as five kilometres. it's said to be the worst outbreak in a quarter of a century, the locusts could damage

crops with millions of dollars. —— worth millions of dollars. now on bbc news: robotics company ceo xu jishui and software entrepreneur huang tiesen fight to establish their start—ups in wu han‘s fast—growing new technology sector. wuhan — china's economic heartland and the epicentre of a global pandemic. the city at the heart of a public health crisis in china is shutting its public transport network to try to prevent the spread of a virus. in the spring of 2017, we set out to follow the fortunes of two companies as they fought to establish themselves in the city's optics valley. a dedicated zone for new technology enterprises, it's part of the move to transform the city's economy. this is the story of some of the people who live and work in the city.

and the story of wuhan before and after the arrival of the coronavirus that would change all of our lives. the city of wuhan is the capital of central china's hubei province. home to 11 million people, it lies at the confluence of the han and yangtze rivers. known as the cradle of chinese civilisation, the yangtze is the longest river in the world to flow entirely within one country. and it was here in wuhan that, in 1966, chairman mao zedong

made his famous swim — aged 73 — to prove he still had the stamina to run the nation. xujishui came to wuhan to pursue his education. a former university lecturer, he now heads up a robotics company in the city's optics valley zone.

xu's company began working in car assembly. the competition was tough. and the company is now automating the distillation process for a local white liquorfactory.

for xu jishui and his business partners — zhang zipeng and li yi — there are constant challenges. one of the young technicians was recently caught breaking health and safety regulations. and it is not the first time.

huang tiesen also came to wuhan to make his name. his start—up company, senguo, is trying to market software that will enable fruit retailers to adjust their stock and pricing according to real time demand. but, after a year, there has been little sign of success. staff are becoming nervous. this man is a front—end programmer who has been with the business since it began.

tiesen chose wuhan to set up his company, hoping to break into this major new technology centre. he turns to his technical director to discuss finding a replacement programmer, but the cream of the crop has been snapped up

by all the big players. tiesen lives with his girlfriend, ying menghua, who's in charge of operations at senguo.

the business premises are also tiesen and menghua's personal residence. xu visits the distillery to offer a personal apology to his client after one of the young technicians was caught breaking health and safety regulations. in china, sitting down over a meal is the best way

of clearing the air. the client is appeased for the moment. but xu has to make sure they deliver on time. he dismisses the technician at fault as a warning to others.

his business partner, zhang zipeng, disapproves.

it is a difference of opinion that will lead to trouble between the partners. tiesen is also feeling the pressure. he is trying to persuade fruit retailers of the benefits of online to offline commerce. but the angel investment of $300,000 he got a year ago is running dry and he can barely afford staff wages.

an average of 70 start—ups are registered every day and over the past 20 years the population of optics valley alone has jumped eleven—fold to nearly 2 million. the zone was established, in part, to encourage young talent from the city's 80 plus universities to stay in wuhan.

like huazhong univeristy of science and technology — tiesen‘s alma mater. tiesen needs another $700,000 to keep his business afloat, so he seeks out professor liu, nicknamed "business matchmaker" for her aptitude in pairing start—ups with investors.

in spite of tiesen‘s shortcomings, professor liu can see promise and offers him a place at the next optics valley investment fair she's organising in beijing. but she gives him a strong warning. in the 19th century, wuhan was known throughout the west as a major commercial port and trading centre for tea and tobacco. due to its prime location,

it later established itself as a home to heavy industry. the recent push to establish the city as a burgeoning hub for tech companies means businesses have had to move fast to keep up. at the robotics company, an emergency meeting of senior management has been called to discuss the status of the distillery project. with the deadline looming, xu notices something he was not expecting.

it seems that zhang has been taking things into his own hands. he has given orders to continue production of equipment for a different project.

with the clock ticking and senior management at odds, not only is the prompt delivery of the robots in doubt, but the company's entire operation is called into question. beijing — capital of china and the dream destination for all start—ups.

for dot—com businesses, zhongguancun in the north—west part of the city is china's answer to silicon valley. business broker professor liu is prepping her young entrepreneurs from optics valley. senguo gets its first black mark.

with two black marks already in professor liu's book, tiesen is off to a bad start. tiesen and his partner meet with an investor who had specifically sought them out.

they meet with other investors throughout the day.

desperate not to lose his one chance at getting an injection of new capital, tiesen intercepts the investor who had specifically wanted to see him.

in wuhan, xu's business partner zhang is frustrated with the way the emergency meeting went.

at the end of an unsuccessful day of meetings, tiesen is also worried about the future of his company. in the next episode, tiesen and menghua's relationship comes under pressure. and xu jishui struggles with setbacks.

hello. if you're looking for rain through this week, well, there is not very much in the forecast. but what i can offer you is plenty of warmth. in fact, during monday, to the south—west of london, temperatures got very close to 27 degrees. we'll see more very warm weather over the next few days. on the satellite picture, though, you can see this stripe of cloud that's been working its way in towards the north—west. not bringing an awful lot of rain, though. this is a frontal system, but one which is weakening very quickly, so really wejust have a band of cloud sitting

in place across parts of england and wales through tuesday morning. maybe the odd spot of drizzle around, but generally speaking, it'll be dry, just with a bit more in the way of cloud generally than we had during monday. conversely, for northern ireland and scotland, well, here we see long spells of sunshine. still quite breezy in the far north, and a little bit on the cool side here, i suppose. but the further south you are, top temperatures getting up to 25 degrees. now, as we move through tuesday evening, our old front will still be sitting in place, but reallyjust a band of cloud really at this stage. could be a little bit misty and murky in some coastal spots in the south and west. and then we see some more cloud start to work in towards parts of northern ireland. but generally it's a dry night, and not a particularly cold one, with lows between 7—14 degrees. so, during wednesday, high pressure still very much in charge. but this warm front here will be introducing more cloud, and maybejust nosing some rain into the western side of northern ireland and potentially the west

of scotland. there is a bit of uncertainty about just how far east this rain will get. but, to the south of this band of cloud and patchy rain, well, that's where we have the very warm air. so temperatures down towards the south, cardiff, london, into the middle 20s celsius. not quite as warm as that across the northern half of the uk. but, as we move towards the end of the week, as this area pressure moves its way a little bit further eastwards, well, more and more of us get to feel the effects of some very warm air. and i think, on thursday, we will see plentiful sunshine across most areas. a bit more cloud across scotland, maybe just the odd across the northern half of the country, but the vast majority will be dry. but those temperatures up to 26 degrees there in cardiff, 22 in glasgow, but a little bit cooler for some of those north sea coasts. that's a trend that will continue on into friday, and as we head into the weekend, well, those temperatures stay pretty high for the time of year, and very little sign of rain for most of us.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. i'm mike embley and these are our top stories. britain's prime minister says he regrets the ‘confusion and anger‘ after his special adviser admitted making long journeys during the anti—virus lockdown. no, i don't, i don't regret what i did. as i said, i think reasonable people may well disagree. brazil's virus death rate overtakes the united states, but the government is still refusing to lock down the country. the who suspends testing of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for covid—i9, warning the drug could damage the health of some people. haiti's battle with covid—i9 — an aid worker tells us of shortages in