i'd heard rumours, not from any news sources but people talking about, oh, well, it could cause... it could have effects, people getting sick over the 56 towers being too close. brian's wife is still fighting for her life in hospital. as the human harm caused by misinformation rises, so doctors are speaking out. tales of patients trying to self—diagnose by holding their breath, not seeking help soon enough or taking poisonous substances they think will help. the problem with misinformation in this setting is, it does two things. firstly, it obscures the truth, and then the second thing is that it might mean people start to do things that are going to be bad for them, and may be dangerous, and they start to use treatments that don't work. misinformation is a structural

problem that we have and it's, and blaming someone for ingesting bleach or for staying at home and dying, to me is akin to blaming someone for living next to a factory that pollutes and then they die of pulmonary disease. i have spoken to the government and social media sites who say they aim to stop the spread of disinformation that poses a threat to life. however, often misleading posts that pose a less immediate threat could prove to be just as dangerous, like conspiracies about vaccinations. anti—vaxx conspiracists have seen their numbers swell on facebook and doctors warn, if left unchecked, they could undermine an effective vaccine. for the public to buy into any solution to this pandemic, facts must triumph over fiction online. marianna spring, bbc news. within the past hour, the first private sector mission to the international space station has been postponed because of bad weather. the spacex falcon 9 rocket, developed by the billionaire

entrepreneur elon musk, was scheduled for liftoff from the kennedy space center in florida atjust after 9.30 tonight, but thunderstorms criss—crossing the area forced a delay. our science editor david shukman reports. heavy cloud over the launch pads, the weather ominous for this new era in space. two astronauts, doug hurley and bob behnken, getting ready. veterans with nasa, but now in the flashy suits of a private company, spacex. wishing them well, from a careful distance, the head of nasa and the founder of spacex, elon musk. he's worked for this moment for years. well, this is the culmination of a dream. this is a dream come true. in fact, it feels surreal. if you'd asked me when starting spacex if this would happen, i'd be, like, 1%, 0.1% chance. then, a farewell for two remarkable families. both men are married to fellow astronauts. they all know what's at stake.

to get to the rocket, electric cars. teslas, also made by elon musk. a new look for everything. soon, both men were inside, getting connected to the high—tech controls. the weather, looking better. so the countdown began. then came another forecast, and the whole thing was brought to a dramatic halt. we continue to violate a couple of different weather rules that we now do not expect to clear in time to allow for launch today. the long—planned return to space flight from american soil will have to wait. for years, space shuttle struck americans into orbit, but they became too expensive. and lift off, the final liftoff of atlantis. so, russian rockets were used instead, and they were the only way for americans to reach space. until now. now, this is a prototype of the dragon capsule. back in 2011, i was allowed

into a spacex capsule. it's all about finding cheaper ways of getting into orbit, and freeing up nasa to go further. nasa said, basically, we'll give you the money and you give us the space flight. and then that releases nasa to use its resources to do other things. and that's how we can start really thinking big. and instead of spending all the time, the effort, resources on something that we've done for many years, going into low earth orbit, doing experiments, let's think bigger. let's go further and the ultimate destination has to be mars. countdown, clear, go for launch. this is how it was meant to look. a smooth ride to the international space station. but the weather was against it this time, and the next chance is saturday. david shukman, bbc news. that's it. newsnight is on bbc two in ten minutes. now on bbc one, time for the news where you are. have a very good night.

welcome to bbc news.

hello and welcome to our look ahead at what the the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. with me are anna mikhailova, deputy political editor at the telegraph, and sonia sodha, chief leader writer at the observer. tomorrow's front pages, starting with. .. the pointed headline in the daily mirror as the paper reports the uk government telling the public to do its ‘civic duty‘ to curb the virus, while boris johnson continues to back his senior aide dominic cummings who is accused of breaking lockdown rules. "zooming fuming!" is the metro's reference to the uk prime minister's virtual appearance before mps when he was accused of putting politics ahead

of public health for sticking by mr cummings. the guardian says tory mp's defy borisjohnson to pile pressure on the daily mail's headline "test and trace revolution" refers to the uk's new scheme, where people who have come into close contact with a coronavirus sufferer will be told to stay at home for 14 days — even if they don't have any symptoms. they are not legally enforceable, though, we learnt from the prime minister. singapore's straits times reports on hong kong riot police detaining a group of people during a protest as the city's legislature debated a law that would criminalise disrespect of the national anthem. this story is also on the front page of the international new york times which also details how china is acting to tighten control over hong kong. the international edition

of the financial times focuses on a warning from the european central bank that soaring public debt is poised to heap pressure on the eurozone. and the times' main picture story is of astronauts doug hurley and bob behnken on their way to the cape canaveral launch pad, of course before the bad wether got in the way. welcome to you both. let's start with the metro, several papers picking up on the liaison committee appearance by the prime minister today. anna, what did you think of the prime minister's performance? first of all, he appears in front of the liaison committee which is just a corrupt clarify is the most senior mp in every single type of committee. not all of them were included today but they tend to have the punchy is questions for the fai

minister and that was the same today with dominic cummings. i thought the most important bit of it was meg hillier is question where she just asked very to the point had ec seed in any evidence that dominic cummings story was true and he hadn't broken the bull rules that we re hadn't broken the bull rules that were alleged to be broken and boris johnson said that yes he had seen evidence that he would not pass it over to an independent enquiry. did he confirm that he had seen phone records and tracking confirming what dominic cummings said? none of that was said. he said he didn't want to start an investigation because he reasoned that it would be a waste of official time at the moment which mps really pushed him on but hejust said point blank that ultimately i think the thing borisjohnson clearly prepared

a lot for the dominic cummings part of this committee which didn't take up of this committee which didn't take up the whole bit at all and they will be interested to see what's on your things about this but personally it looks a bit like he had spent a lot of time preparing for the cummings park and on the other very important questions which included care homes and testing, he was a little bit less prepared for. frankly. sonia, iwatched it going out lied as i am sure we all did, andi out lied as i am sure we all did, and i was just struck by the fact that he didn't seem to have a grasp of detail and he also seemed to be asking the questions that we are all on the skin he didn't know the a nswe i’s on the skin he didn't know the answers and yet he is the prime minister. i think that is right. i thought it was an absolutely disastrous appearance by and i think you can see why this is a prime minister who has failed to turn up for the first ten months he was prime minister and for the first ten months he was prime ministerandi for the first ten months he was prime minister and i think he was under some duress to turn up this time. iagree under some duress to turn up this time. i agree with annie about that

question from meg was really key. there was also really excellent question from yvette cooper who said to him, you know, you know, you have got to choose between protecting your advisor here and maintaining the tape with ace of the public health crisis that he has undermined vibrating little guidelines and it was very clear that boris johnson was very clear that boris johnson was doubling down, he refused to apologise for the actions of his advisor breaking guidelines that many people around the country observed at great cost to themselves. it really came across as a prime minister who is so reliant oi'i a prime minister who is so reliant on one a prime minister who is so reliant on one advisor that even when that adviser breaks really critical public health advice from the government, he is not prepared or willing to let him go, so he looks incredibly weak and then there were other occasions as well on the commits may. at one point... let's move on to some of the other titles because they are concentrating on

the liaison committee as well. daily mirror, why don't you do your duty. the prime minister would argue that this is a false argument because he says he believes what dominic cummings told him and he didn't do anything wrong. yes, and, i mean, two things that the prime minister said today, one was he said there we re said today, one was he said there were false media reports mother when he was actually asked what exactly was false he didn't clarify, and the other thing he kept saying that the attacks were political, so especially when labour mps asked him about the coming issues he said lets moved on from political point scoring, which is his source of defence today. the problem is today we had more tory mps, including, actually, a conservative minister, speak out over the coming issue and in penny modern's case she was writing a letter to constituents and while she wasn't going as far as the others in saying he should resign

and she said his actions, you know, we re and she said his actions, you know, were not defensible. lets move on to the telegraph. to me she could rule could be reduced as the prime minister. i thought some of the scientific questions were the most illuminating as well, when he said that he was reading the conclusion but he didn't actually read the detailed scientific advice. and on this to meet a distancing role, it is absolutely integral, isn't it, to opening up the lockdown for pubs, clu bs, opening up the lockdown for pubs, clubs, public transport, and things like that, and again, he seemed to be saying yes, i don't know why it is two metres as well apart from what sage tells me. well, as if you look at the scientific evidence as i understand it i am not an expert but what i have read suggest that the two metre rule was picked because it is not to minimise the risk of infection so that if you are at one metre it goes up quite a lot, far

more than double, but i think what the telegraph is also focusing on is that this track and trace scheme which the government launched in the press c0 nfe re nce which the government launched in the press conference today, there are real questions tonight. now, the track and trace scheme is really critical to ensuring that the economy can be reopened, schools can be reopened, while minimising the risk of a second array of infections. they have real questions coming up tonight. contact traces who have been recruited to the scheme have been contacting journalists saying they didn't even know it was going to go live tomorrow so it looks like this might be an announcement that the government has rushed preliminarily in order to try and get the dominic cummings story of the front pages. now, it has worked for some papers but not all papers that i think that raises very serious questions. is this something that has been rushed out to distract from the governments political woes. is this your view? i

think it is fine to meet the day may deadline because we have been told that they forged it a little bit but we have been told by midway neighbour system should be set up and then it said it is only the app thatis and then it said it is only the app that is going to be later but i think they were planning to put this out already but of course it is indisputable that —— fudged it a bit. they are key to get standing straight off the front pages and you can see every paper has some mention, obviously the telegraph focused on track and take trace but dominic cummings is in paragraph four. if you think we have got problems look at what europe is facing. brussels asked to borrow 750 billion euros to bang folk coronavirus recovery and that is what a pastel 27 and basically german is up against austria, holland, and finland, over the

whether they should be