this is bbc news, the headlines: the world health organisation has hailed as a life—saving breakthrough the discovery by scientists in the uk that a steroid, already widely available, can dramatically lower the risk of death for the most seriously ill covid—19 patients. dexamethasone is well—tried and relatively cheap. the trump administration is suing the president's former national security advisorjohn bolton, trying to block the release of a book about his time in office. thejustice department claims the memoir contains classified information which threatens national security. mr bolton argues the president committed several impeachable offences. chinese and indian troops have clashed along their disputed himalayan border, in ladakh — it's the most serious incident between the two nuclear—armed neighbours in four decades. the indian army says 20 of its soldiers were killed. beijing has acknowledged casualties, but officials haven't said how many.

now on bbc news, it's time for hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. it has not prompted a united collaborative response and multilateral institutions that have defined are era look increasingly fragile. my guest today is spain's foreign minister, arancha gonzalez. has europe come to terms with increasingly defined by american and chinese nationalism?

foreign minister arancha gonzalez. welcome to hardtalk. great to be with you. let us start with the latest on the coronavirus pandemic in spain. is your country ready to declare that your national emergency is over? we will be ending state of alarm in spain on the 21st ofjune. but i do not think we can claim victory against covid—19 until we have a vaccine or a treatment, we have to remain vigilant. so, we will into the harsh measures we took to control covid—19 in spain, but we will keep everyone on the alert to make sure that we can open spaces for freedom, for free circulation, for people's contacts and we will keep covid—19 under control.

with the spanish central bank predicting that your economy could contract between nine and 11% in 2020, would it be fair to say that your prime concern right now has perhaps switched from the public health crisis, which is easing, to a national economic crisis which is very deep? indeed, but i would say that this is not the spanish economic crisis. this is a worldwide crisis and it does not matter how good your economy was at the beginning of the crisis, we for example in spain were growing above eu average, we were creating jobs, we were making much reforms but we have all been impacted by this crisis and this is what we call a systemic shock. it has different ramifications depending on the country, but we are all being hit hard and this is why when spain thinks

the wisest decision would be to work in concert and co—operate to exit this crisis as soon as we can. i just wonder whether spain is beginning to rush things little bit, the government will open borders to eu travel onjuly one and suddenly 2a hours ago, you said no, you will do it byjune 2i. it seems that your travel and tourism sector is taking priority over everything else. you are so desperate to get the economy moving. this is incorrect. we have always said we'll look at the epidemiological data and the preparedness of our region to face a second wave. this is what is driving the decisions in spain. other european union member states have decided to open gradually on the ist ofjune and some others on the 15th ofjune. we've decided to take a little bit longer, one week longer but make sure that we do this and that we open the country on the economy and gradually, depending on the state of affairs in spain.

we need to make sure that we tell our citizens that we can open in safety for themselves and for anybody else coming to spain, who want to know is a country that was open but is safe. it looks like there some anomalous situations with the united kingdom wherebyjune 21, you and spain are saying that all british visitors are welcome to comment that will not be quarantine or restrictions. and yet, at the same time the british government is saying from anybody coming from spain since they left are going to two weeks of quarantine and the irony here is that the british right now, the coronavirus infection rate and death toll is much higher than that in spain. so, it looks entirely anomalous. are you happy to live with a situation where the brits impose quara ntines on travellers from spain?

we are not letting people come unchecked into the country. even when we decide to open the borders, which will be open on the 21st ofjune, we will still have control of the borders. we will still be checking citizen's temperatures. and we will be asking every person entering the country to register and to give us a contact where we can be in touch and case the declare that they have the symptoms of the virus. there will be an ability to trace the context of this person and there will be hygiene measures from entry to exit and it is not like we're going back to our old norms, we have introduced measures to make sure that we guarantee safety and health for the citizens. just this one point,

on the mandatory quarantine that spanish visitors to the uk will have to experience, does it seem to you that it is not right and it is not fair that this would be the situation for spaniards entering britain but for brits entering spain, there's no quarantine. all of these measures that we are all adapting to the circumstances, will be checking with the uk will be doing and we will be in dialogue with the uk to see whether or not we should be introducing reciprocity as they have different measures than the rest of the european union. but, for the members of the european union, we have decided that the best way is to do away with the quarantine measures. we will have them until the 22nd ofjune and after that we will remove them. should the uk want to keep them

beyond that date for reasons that deal with their own view of health, then we will respect this, but we will probably reciprocate. in other words, all of this is a moving target that we have to keep on adjusting and the most important ingredient being to make sure that we respect what scientists are telling us and to act accordingly. but you will probably reciprocate if the uk government does not change its current two week quarantine rule for people coming in from spain, you'll probably reciprocate and impose that on people from the uk coming to your country? that is an option if we think that this is necessary to guarantee that health and safety of those britons coming into spain but again, the situation is very fluid, so rather than speculating, what we would like to do is probably engaged in a dialogue with the uk authorities to make sure that we both take the measures that best correspond to the health

situation which is a bit better in the uk than it is in spain but by the time you open the borders of leave the situation will be better. the ramifications of this crisis for spain, the nation state. we have seen that it is impacted different parts of spain and the catalans appeared to have concluded that the coronavirus has yet again, in their view, showing the need for an independent catalan state, there stated they would've handled the epidemic in a much more efficient way than the madrid national government did. do you feel that yet again, the integrated nature of the spanish nation has come under threat here? that is a very interesting comment but i would say that catalans are, since 1981, free to run their health care. they have independent management of their health care system. it simply is not true.

they've been running their health care system, they've been able to purchase their products, able to purchase their medicines, contact the personnel, organise their hospitals in the best way possible and when they cannot do that, the spanish government, including the army, has been present to support them. in spain, we have a decentralised system of governance. the regions in spain, the 17 regions have autonomy over the management of their health care systems. and this is not changed with the pandemic, the only thing we have done is ensure that the central, the ministry for health in the central government could co—ordinate better, the actions of the different regions, but the regions have remained free to manage covid—19 and the best possible.

in the past, you have advocated resumption of negotiations with catalans leaders to get past the impasse that we have seen for so long between catalans, politics and madrid's politics. there is no sign of any meaningful negotiation resuming and the catalans say that it can not happen until you release the nine political prisoners that have been imprisoned on charges of sedition. is there any likelihood that your government will release those people and engage in meaningful negotiation? in spain, regarding the independent system ofjustice, it is notjust them to tell them what to do. they are independent, like in a democracy, they decide for themselves. on the dialogue, it is true that before covid—19, there was already a dialogue between the central government and catalonia, the only difference is covid—19 change the priority. it would've been a priority,

it was no longer a priority in march because the national priority in spain, like anywhere else in the world was all energy, all hands on deck to address the coronavirus. but of course the prime minister has already indicated that he is open to re—engage in a dialogue with the catalans in order to advance whatever issues need to be discussed and we would do this like we were ready to do this before covid—19, calmly, openly and democratically, which is the basis of our nation. but it will not go anywhere unless those nine individuals that catalans insist are political prisoners are pardoned and freed. i strongly refute the fact that they are political prisoners in spain. we are in the 21st century,

they are not political prisoners, but i would also like to remind you and through you, all of the viewers that in spain, the justice system is an independentjustice system. minister, you have made that point so let us move away from the national scene to the european scene. you worked for the european commission and you are a strong advocate of a strong eu, an integrated eu. would you accept that the coronavirus crisis was a disaster for the european union with the signal lack of solidarity? the european union has very few competences in the area of health. so it is true that at the beginning of this pandemic, which is a health crisis at the end of the day, there was some hesitation

on the eu institution side, but did not last long because we soon realised what was a health crisis posed a threat to the three fundamental ingredients of the european union. one was the movement of people, circulation within the eu, and it was a threat to the internal market in that at the beginning of covid—19, number of countries decided to take measures to restrict circulation of medicines or protective equipment within the eu, something that should not be done and the third threat, and it is a fundamental one, was the threat to the economic and monetary union. this is why after this, the response that the european institutions have given to covid—19 have been swift, they have been robust and we are not yet there in that there is missing part that we are still trying to construct. but i would say that in europe, we learn the lessons from 2008 and this time around,

we have been better prepared to face this pandemic. this is a very positive spin because we have seen the commission, come out with a proposal to find on the financial market, more than $750 billion euros of borrowed money to pump into those countries worst affected by coronavirus and that would include spain but there is no information on this recovery fund at all. —— agreement on this recovery fund. business was to be a part of the next eu budget and it will require the unanimous agreement for 27 member states and it is clear that at least four of them are simply not prepared to accept it because they see it as an unacceptable form of debt neutralisation. it is true that we still have work to do on two fundamental pieces for the medium to long—term of the european economy, one is the budget for the next seven years

in the other one is the recovery funded and these are fundamental ingredients, notjust for spain or italy, france or greece, this is also fundamental ingredients for austria, the netherlands, denmark or sweden, because what is at stake here is the solidity of the european union and this is the market that belongs to all the europeans and this is the market that we need to leverage to have a rapid exit from the crisis. we understand that you and madrid are eager to make this happen because you will benefit from it. this is a backdoor plan. this would keep the rich north of the eu be able to avoid new borrowings to get yourselves out of the mess that you're currently and in the northern nations do not want to do it. that is the reality. i will question that assertion because it is not as if the beneficiaries of this recovery fund in eu budget would only be spain, france or italy or greece. for every euro that is invested

in the european union, it gets double the benefit in the internal market than a spaniard or an italian. we should be doing the right account. we should be running the right account. we should be explaining to our citizens that this common investment is as much as important to a spaniard as it is to a dutch. because at the end of the day is the we will all be, irrespective of where we are sitting, whether we're sitting in the north or in the south, suffer the consequences of a slow recovery. maybe their data not listening because the prime minister in the netherlands says it should be about loa ns netherlands says it should be about loans rather than the neutralisation of debt. —— the neutralisation of

debt. and as you know, you said that a few weeks ago, this has to happen urgently because it still has not happened and it's going to be knocked to the next leader's summit and the snow sign of agreement on this. so, you're in big trouble. i do not think, i would not agree with your characterisation. but we are trying to do now is build the consensus. building consensus in europe is long, arduous and tedious. but we need a big plan and three months later we are discussing this plan. no, i do not spend too much time arguing and we have to spend much more time doing, building the consensus that will get us to have a recovery instrument to help us citizens. workers and business people alike.

this is stuck in an impasse and that is the negotiation between the eu in the united kingdom on what a trade deal might look like. we are currently in a transition period and it is now clear that there is no extension of transition so it will end at the end of 2020 and looking at the words of the chief eu negotiator and boris johnson and his team, it looks like there's going to be no negotiated trade deal. looks like the uk may formally end its relationship with a return to wto trade rules in its relations with the eu. that would be a disasterfor the eu economy at a time where your economy is very vulnerable. how worried are you? we are at a time of incredible turmoil. the economies of the world, including the uk and europe are

going through turmoil and when you are going through such a situation, the last thing you want to do is add volatility. your responsibility, our collective responsibility, is to add stability to the global economy. and we can't add stability by negotiating the terms outside of the european union with the eu. this is how the message is pretty simple. sit down and start negotiating. it is a message that we in spain, as part of the eu, barnier was giving this to the uk. and we know the uk will not ask for an extension of this deadline if this is the case, let us simply sit quickly and start negotiating. let us make sure we add a stability to our economies to not add more volatility.

this is what responsible negotiators do. michael gove said that he thought the coronavirus pandemic and its effect on the european economy would focus european mines —— minds on making the concessions necessary to get a deal. is he correct? and negotiation is here between two. it takes two to tango and what we need is a disposition on the uk side and have a clear sense of moving those negotiations forward. before we end, let's talk geopolitics, how did you feel about the relationship between what was your strongest partner, the united states of america. we have donald trump's administration withdrawing from the world health organization and in the last few days, we've had the united states talking about imposing new sanctions on officials from the international criminal court, calling it corrupt.

you are the foreign minister of spain, how worried are you about the deteriorating relationship between donald trump's whitehouse and the european union? we value the transatlantic relationship a lot. we value this historic link to the united states. we value the interests and values that bind us. but we also know, that this relationship requires today, a bit of updating and that sense of purpose. but minister... in any relation, you have to understand why you are together, what is it that binds you to the other side, and for a long time, we have been running without really asking ourselves what sense does this relationship have? what is the purpose of being in this transatlantic relationship? and if i may, sitting here in spain,

i would say that we need to reinvent, it used to be about democracy you to the other side for the long time, we have been running without really asking ourselves what sense does this relationship have? what is the purpose of being in this transatlantic relationship? and if i may, sitting here in spain, i would say that we need to reinvent, is to be bringing democracy when it was about fighting totalitarianism. i think we have to bring it to this new level that is the 21st century and i would say to re—humanize globalisation should be the sense of purpose to be put into this transatlantic relationship and it would take the two of us to invest and to nurture this relationship. if we wanted to work. we are almost out of time, what do you as foreign minister of spain, make of the united states leaving the who and putting new sanctions on the criminal court? we value multilateralism and we think it is better to engage in multilateral organisations and reform them from within, rather than leave seats empty that others will occupy in the future. so, engage, participate, reform, but have a seat at the table. finally, what we see here is frankly, the looming cold war between the united states and china.

both of them pursuing economic protection of a different sort or other, both of them interested in nationalist politics right now and the european union, with its weak economy, does not appear to be in very good shape to adapt to this new world, bipolar world, of us—china tensions and cold war. it is the european union going to do? the eu to regain a bit of strategic autonomy. the eu needs to be stronger in order to have a say in international matters in order to weigh in this much more geopolitical world and this is why what happens of the next weeks the recovery package for the european union is very important. if europe ends this crisis strong, robust, it will have a say in shaping this much more fractured geopolitical world. if we don't, if we do not invest in a stronger europe,

including in a stronger recovery package to exit this crisis, then we willjust simply not be up to shaping tomorrow's world, and that is what we have to do. we have to end it now. arancha gonzalez, thank you forjoining me from madrid. always a pleasure. hello there. expect a stormy spell of weather over the next few days. not just for the uk, across much of central and eastern europe. we've seen some sharp, thundery downpours. we start off quite promising but then showers are likely to develop in the uk as we go through the day.

after a sunny start, afternoon thunderstorms could be an issue and because we have light winds, it could be slow—moving. so localised flooding not out of the question. we could start off with low cloud, mist, and fog. that burns its way back to the east coast where it may well linger, but elsewhere, lovely spells of sunshine but as the heat builds, the showers will arrive. they should be few and far between across scotland and northern ireland. the most frequent ones through wednesday will be across england and wales. so through the afternoon — this is a snapshot — you can see just a brighter colour denoting the intensity of those showers. slow—moving, a lot of heavy rain and some hail and thunder and lightning. it will be quite warm and humid out there. temperatures likely 22 degrees, 72 fahrenheit. the showers will continue for a while through the early evening, hopefully starting to ease away before during the night, we could see more persistent rain pushing in through east anglia

and moving through northern england. as we go through the day on thursday, rain to the north of england, then that's going to be replaced by some pretty intense thundery downpours across england and wales. in the space of two or three hours, we could see a couple of inches of rain. so, weather warnings have been issued by the met office, certainly worth bearing in mind if you're going out and about. a slightly quieter day in scotland 17—22 degrees the high. as we go into friday, england and wales will see the quietest of the weather. fewer showers around, but more frequent showers are likely through northern ireland and scotland. again, some of these will be heavy and thundery. 17—23 degrees the high. we could do with some slightly quieter weather. we may well get it between england and wales for the start of the weekend as high—pressure builds, but this area of low pressure could spoil the story a little bit further north and west. so there's a chance this weekend of more rain to come across scotland and northern ireland, but it's drier elsewhere with the heat set to build across england and wales as we go into next week.

take care.

this is bbc news. i'm sally bundock, with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. it's the day football fans have been waiting for. the premier league is back after a 100—day absence because of the pandemic. a record number of new coronavirus cases in brazil, nearly 35,000 in 2a hours, and it's on course to reach a million cases by the end of the week. we return to wuhan — the chinese city where the pandemic started — to see what lessons have been learned. china is determined that this place will not be remembered for a cover—up that put global health at risk, but rather as the cornerstone of a great national victory.