this is bbc news, the headlines: a former police officer in the us state of georgia has been charged with murdering rayshard brooks, the african—american man shot twice in the back as he fled two white officers in atlanta. garrett rolfe has been sacked from the force. he faces ten other charges. after nearly two months with no coronavirus infections, the chinese capital is under another lockdown. restrictions on movements have been re—introduced in beijing, to try to contain a new outbreak which emerged a week ago. in a new book, donald trump's former national security adviser claims the president tried to get china's leader to help secure his re—election. john bolton also claims mr trump told xi jinping it was the right thing to do for china to detain about a million uighur muslims and other minorities in camps in xinjiang for punishment and indoctrination. the white house is trying to stop publication of the book.

now, it's time for a look back at the day in parliament. hello again, and welcome to wednesday in parliament. you turn if you want to. labour keep up the pressure on the prime minister. the government has had three three u—turns in the last month. we had immigration health charges, then mps voting, then free school meals. borisjohnson voting, then free school meals. boris johnson says voting, then free school meals. borisjohnson says getting children back to school would help tackle poverty. let's hear it from him one more time. will he say that schools are safe to go back to? come on. but school still out for many children. mps demand answers. why is it that children and parents can have access

to primark over the next few months but most won't have access to schools. all that to more, but first i minister ‘s questions. boris johnson and keir starmer clashed over child poverty and getting youngsters back to school. boris johnson faced mps 2a hours after his u—turn on free school meals, prompted by a campaign led by the footballer marcus rashid. but the prime minister's decision to enable disadvantaged children in england to access food vouchers during the summer access food vouchers during the summer holidays didn't prevent him facing more questions about hardship. the labour leader said the social mobility commission had warned the pandemic could push more families into poverty. iam sure i am sure the prime minister will agree and even higher child poverty rate will be eight outcome from this pandemic. what will he do to prevent it from? the prime minister said the government was protectjobs. it from? the prime minister said the government was protect jobs. we intend to make sure we minimise impact of coronavirus on the poorest

kids in this country and one of the best ways we can do that will be to encourage all kids who can go back to school to go back to school now because their schools are safe. last weekl because their schools are safe. last week i asked him whether he would say publicly that schools were safe to go back to. now is his time to say clearly schools are safe to go back to. your witness. mr speaker, the prime minister, what the report said last week, and he talks to me about consistency and u—turns. the government has had three u—turns in the last month. immigration health charges, mps voted and free school meals. the only question now whether u—turns at the dispatch box earlier or later. ministers had promised to do whatever was necessary to help councils respond to coronavirus. does the prime minister believe that

the government has kept that promise? £12 billion to tackling coronavirus. we didn't hear an answer did we, mrspeaker? how can we talk... how can he talk about tackling the effect of coronavirus on the most disadvantaged? it's the most disadvantaged kids, mr speaker, who need to go back to school and it is those groups which are unfortunately at the moment not going back to school. let's hear it from him for one more time. will he say that schools are safe to go back to? come on! keir starmer. mr speaker, this is turning into oppositions' questions. if the prime minister wants to swap places, i'm very happy. cheering we could do it now! i spoke with council leaders across the country this week. they face a choice — the prime minister must know this — between cutting core services or facing bankruptcy under section 114 notices.

either outcome will harm local communities and mean local services can't reopen. that will drive up poverty, something the prime minister says he doesn't intend to do. local councils have done everything asked of them during this crisis. the government hasn't. will the prime minister take responsibly and actually do something? well, mr speaker, with great respect to the right honourable gentlemen, i've outlined what we're doing to support local government and i think that this country can be very proud of the investments that we have made. i think by the way that they could be very proud of all the incredible work that local government officials have done across this country. but i must say there is some councils in particularly labour councils alas that are not opening their schools now when they could be opening their schools. the prime minister warming to his theme, but the snp's westminster leader also challenged him over the impact of coronavirus on poverty. marcus rashford has shown more model leadership in tackling poverty

in a matter of days than this tory government has in the past decade of cuts. but as he says, people were struggling all year round and more needs to be done. he offered his own solution — a boost to universal credit for families. an extra £20 a week in social security support would prevent millions of families from having to make the choice of paying their bills or feeding their children. this is a government that has done everything that we possibly can so far to help families in need to make sure that nobody is penalised for doing the right thing during the crisis because i know how difficult it has been. that's why we uprated the universal credit by £1,044 benefiting i think 4 million families in this country. but i say in all sincerity to the right honourable gentlemen that we are fully aware that there will be tough times ahead and we do stand by to do more where we can. but the lib dems' leader said

the pandemic meant brexit should be delayed beyond the end of the year. rather than risking a bad deal or a no—deal due to the deadline set before coronavirus, why doesn't the prime minister show some good old—fashioned british common sense, give our economy the chance to breathe, and accept the eu's offer of a delay? well, ijust put it to the right honourable gentlemen that there is another way of looking at it. and the first point i think the people of this country are heartily sick of going on about brexit. and we got it done, we want to move forward. and the other point is when we come to the end of the transition period, we will be able, mr speaker, to do things differently. we will be able to respond to our economic needs in a creative and constructive way, looking at regulation, looking at ways in which we support industries in a way that we haven't been able to do before.

that will be very productive for this country. let's not delay that moment. let's get on with it! and after the political drama inside the chamber, borisjohnson faced drama of another kind on his way back to downing street as his car was involved in a minor collision outside parliament when a protester ran towards the convoy of vehicles. this forced the lead car in the convoy to brake suddenly causing the escorting vehicle to collide with the saloon car carrying mrjohnson. number ten confirmed he was in the car and said there were no reports of any injuries. back on the virtual committee corridor, those arguments over schools were fought out at the education committee, where mps questioned teachers unions about their approach to reopening schools in england and their talks with the department for education. the result was some robust exchanges. so, why is it that children and parents can have access to primark over the next few months, but many of them won't have access

to schools according to your risk assessments? the risk assessments are based on the dfe guidance. so the risk assessments follow the guidance the dfe issued for primary schools, for secondary schools, and for post—16 establishments. it is those risks, which we turned into our checklists, and which have gone through what should have been going through with our members. if you have a quarrel with the risk assessments that are being done in schools, then that is a quarrel and an issue you should take up with the dfe. i don't think it's ok to say on one hand, teachers, union members, any of us as members of parliament second—guess decisions of the epidemiologists whose job profession it is to advise the government and make those decisions. the schools should be open. i'm afraid, david, that won't quite do. we have to... let us look at what sage has said. and sage has said — this is not independent sage — this is sage,

that whilst the evidence is clear, that there is high confidence in the evidence that children if they get covid, don't get it badly, that they may transfer... but there is low confidence in the evidence about whether children transmit covid to adults and to the wider communities. we think we need to bring more teachers in... i get all that, but i'm just asking you about the five tests. if you don't meet the five tests, will you support, will you not support a school reopening? because you have been very clear that they are very important. so if the government doesn't meet them all, will you then oppose a full school reopening in september? i will try and answer the question for the third time in the way that i can answer it, which is we will support an education reopening on the lines of our education recovery plan which will enable all children and young people to get a much better education, which will guard us against a second spike or local rises in the r value... and include the five tests. yeah, the five tests have to be met. a union'sjob is to protect staffers, health and safety. but it's also the job of a union rep and unions to come to the table

and speak with the department of education, head teachers and for the unions to say to staff, "don't engage with schools at all" as david johnston said, which means that... what's not going on? what support has not been given to kids that could have been given? i am absolutely outraged at the sheer damage that unions have done to the teaching profession. yeah, well, i mean, i respect the rights of members of the committee to have their views, but i would seriously challenge members of the committee to ensure that their views are rooted in the evidence of what unions are actually saying. and certainly, for the record, the nasuwt has not been engaged in any campaign to keeps schools closed. dr roach, if that's the case, then why is it that every time i see a teaching union on tv, they say, "schools aren't safe to open, schools aren't safe to open"? a campaign has been run,

whether you like it or not, to breed fear into parents about the idea of sending their kids back to school. and so whilst i appreciate the nasuwt has not run a specific campaign, whether you like it or not, it has come across to parents that these schools are death traps. i think you accept that we have not been running such a campaign and i would defy the committee to show me where we have. every day for the last three months, there has probably been on average two or three changes to guidance, which we've had to flag up to members. so, the quantity has been enormous. the challenge, i think, has been — it's been very piecemeal and it has lacked a sense of an overall strategic plan and coherence. so, we'll get an announcement via the sunday newspapers that something is going to change. that will be followed up by an announcement from perhaps the prime minister or secretary of state. then the civil servants will be left to try to put together some detail around those announcements so that schools can actually make sense of them. julie mcculloch. you're watching wednesday in

parliament with me, david cornock. still to come — what to do with all the spoilt beer unsold by closed pubs. the lords have an idea. the health secretary says finding a drug that reduces deaths among severely ill covid patients is not a cure but "the best news we've had". answering an urgent question in the commons matt hancock told mps the nhs has 240,000 doses of dexamethasone "in stock and on order". researchers found that the drug reduces deaths by up to a third among patients on ventilators and by a fifth for those on oxygen. this is an important moment in the fight against this virus. it's the first time that anyone in the world has clinically proven that a drug can improve the survival chances for the most seriously ill coronavirus patients. he said the government had begun stockpiling the drug in march in case the trial was successful.

as of today, we have 240,000 doses now in stock and on order. and this means that the treatment is immediately available and already in use on the nhs. i'm incredibly proud that this discovery‘s happened right here in britain through a collaboration of government, the nhs and some of our top scientists. he said work to develop a vaccine was as he put it "moving at pace". his labour shadow welcomed both developments. i note what he says about vaccinations. we know a vaccine is absolutely crucial. i hope he willjoin with me, as i'm sure he will, in saying that when a vaccine is available, we must have no drug with those who spread poisonous anti—vax propaganda on social media because vaccinations save lives and, ultimately, itll be the exit strategy of this dreadful horrific disease.

he moved on to the figures for england's test and trace programme. 8,000 people went into the contact tracing system in england, yet, during that week, the government testing figures says there was around 12,500 positive cases in the uk. even if we make an assumption for how many of those cases are in england, that still suggests there's around 2,000—3,000 cases not being traced and contacted. can he explain why is that, and what he's going to do to fix it? he asks about the positive cases that don't go into the nhs test and trace scheme. this is largely because they're inpatients in hospital therefore, testing and tracing in the normal sense doesn't apply, because we know exactly where the person is and who has been in contact with them because they've been in hospital in a controlled environment. test, trace and isolate is obviously key to stopping a second wave, particularly in england, where lockdown has been relaxed at quite a rate. is it not, therefore, a little bit shambolic that the government's flagship app is still only available on the isle of wight? no. the snp's spokesperson asked

about supplies of personal protective equipment or ppe. the secretary of state has struggled to provide sufficient ppe to nhs staff in england. he has now awarded £350 million of ppe contracts, but can he explain why 108 million of that was awarded without being advertised to crisp websites limited, which trades as pest fit, a small pest extermination company. why was such a large contract awarded to a company with no expertise in trading or supplying any ppe, let alone highly specialised equipment for nhs staff? we have enhanced — under the leadership of lord dighton — the supplies of ppe across the whole united kingdom. i worked very closely with the snp government on this matter, and we have made sure that ppe is now available in large part across the whole nhs and social care

and all those others who need it. all of us who grew up in my constituency are very part of marcus rashford today, mr speaker. does the secretary of state agree with the health foundation that people facing the greatest deprivation have a higher rate of exposure to covid—19 and more severe outcomes when they contract the virus? and if you're wondering why mps were muttering "marcus" in the background it's because in an early morning interview the health secretary had accidentally called the footballer daniel rashford. last night, mr speaker, i was reading my son harry potter, and it was clearly still stuck in my mind at 7:00 this morning when i started out on the tv. but we all make errors sometimes, i apologised to marcus for getting his name wrong. matt hancock. the prime minister has defended the appointment of munira mirza to lead his commission into racial inequality.

munira mirza, who's one of borisjohnson‘s advisers, has questioned the idea of "institutional racism" and said there's a "culture of grievance" among anti—racism campaigners. ..the pages of...living marxism in the revolutionary communist party into the heart of number ten has not gone unnoticed, mr speaker. on a monday, the prime minister appointed him to lead the commission, the government's commission for racial inequality and it was greeted with some disbelief, given their well—known views on the matter. so, iwonder mr speaker, can the prime minister tell us today, does he with miss mirza that previous inquiries have fostered "a culture of grievance" within minority communities? mr speaker, i am a huge admirerof doctormirza — who is a brilliant thinker about these issues, and we are certainly going to proceed with a new intergovernmental commission to look at racism and discrimination, and it will be a very thorough piece of work —

looking at discrimination in health, in education, in the criminaljustice system. i know the house will say we have already had plenty of commissions and plenty of work, but it is clear from the black lives matter march and all the representations that we have had that more work needs to be done. this government is going to do it. a report by public health england has made seven recommendations to address the greater risks from coronavirus faced by people from black, asian and ethnic minority communities. at equalities questions, labour called for immediate action. professor fenton's report finally published yesterday highlights yet more evidence that socioeconomic inequalities, racism and discrimination are root causes to bame communities being disproportionately harmed by covid—19. these injustices were already known and has already cost lives. the government's denial and delay further compounds despair at their lack of care and concern.

the seven practical recommendations the government should have taken much sooner include risk assessing of black and minority ethnic workers on the front line. black lives matter is more than just a slogan. so what immediate and decisive action will the minister take now to develop and deliver culturally competent occupational risk assessment tools? minister. mr speaker, i refer again to the ministerial statement which was laid yesterday which does cover this. the government did not delay publishing any reports and recommendations which were published, most of which of those actions were already trained and can be seen on the gov dot uk website. the equalities committee has been hearing from senior medics about the impact of covid—19 on bame communities. in the peak of the pandemic,

or as we approached the peak, we had a lockdown where the purpose of the lockdown was because if people mixed, the infection was just going to spread further and the key workers of whom, as we have heard, some occupations had some higher levels of bame people working within those roles — they were not protected. so they were mixing with others, if you are riding a taxi, you are a few feet away from another in a close environment. those working as a cashier in a supermarket may have been in close contact with hundreds of customers or more in a day. and this was during the peak. those who are driving buses, those that were keeping shops open as independent shopkeepers and so forth. so, whilst i think it's obviously important to focus on the biological and other co—morbidity factors, there was also the issue around protection — which i don't think was happening in the right way.

there was a shortage of ppe, so it was obviously prioritised for the health service and the care sector thereafter. but many key workers went unprotected, and, you know, i think it stands to reason that they would have been exposed and many would've become infected. to holyrood now, where scotland's first minister, nicola sturgeon, has pledged to "move heaven and earth" to get schools back to normal as soon as it's safe. when scottish schools go back in august the plan is for what's called blended learning, with pupils spending part of the time in the classroom and part of the time studying at home. but opposition leaders were unimpressed. so where is the commitment? where is the energy? where is the drive? where is the conviction? where is the national plan and the national leadership? where is the ambition to tackle the school crisis with the same urgency? to pull out all the stops to make the resources available? to get our schools safely reopened and to uphold our children's right to an education? soft words is matched by a record of non—delivery, months of dithering on education.

presiding officer matthew eastward appeared with two young children in edinburgh has put it better than any of us can, writing to msps this weekend he said, "whilst careers may be "furloughed, childhood cannot. " iagree. we must not put a price tag on our children's future. so far, what we have seen are half measures, buck—passing, and parents are rightly furious. i don't put a price tag on the education of children, but equally, i will not act recklessly to put the lives of children, teachers or the wider community at risk. i will continue to work through these issues in the way that the public would expect me to do. what i won't do, what we haven't had to do is cancel plans to bring schools back this month because we hadn't thought through and worked through the practicalities and difficult issues the way that the uk government had to do just last week. nicola sturgeon. the scheduled virtual sitting of the welsh parliament was cancelled after the sudden death

of one of its members. mohammed asghar was the first member elected from an ethnic minority, and also the first to "cross the floor" defecting from plaid cymru to the conservatives. before his election, thirteen years ago, he'd even had a spell in labour. members of the senate held a minute's silence before sharing tributes. oscar saw his colleagues as an extension of his own family, and because he was so warm and bighearted, we will all carry memories of him that will make us smile. he had a warmth and generosity that was never hidden. i know that members of other parties site two. oscar was generous and genial to his core. a political free spirit in many ways, larger than life character who could never be contained in the confines of any one party. now to an unexpected challenge of the pandemic. 56 olympic sized swimming pools worth of surplus beer which has to be disposed of.

one of the costs of the economic fallout hitting the brewing and hospitality industries. in the lords, peers wanted to know about the government's discussions with publicans to find alternative uses for and stopping the waste of perishable products. is he concerned that millions of litres of beer had to be poured down the drain when the lockdown was first announced, and that so many pubs are continuing to seek approval from the water companies to pour beer away — when it could be used for other purposes? is he concerned that when the pubs eventually do reopen, it will be the local craft breweries that will have been the hardest hit by the lockdown, putting them at a huge disadvantage to the global brewing companies, and affecting our local and national culture for many years to come. there are 47,000 pubs across the uk and between them they have around 140 million l of spoiled beer, which needs to be cleared from pub sellers to make way for fresh stock. that's the equivalent of around 56 olympic swimming pools.

but there are enormous difficulties in relation to disposing of spoiled beer. the main obstacle is that they require beer containers to be removed from pub sellers, and around three quarters of pub sellers are subterranean. most are designed to allow full containers of beer to roll into the seller using gravity, and given that each one weighs around 70 kilograms, taking them back out is at least a two—personjob, and under current conditions, that obviously poses logistical and health & safety code challenges. lord goldsmith ending this edition of wednesday in parliament. thank you for watching. i do hope you canjoin me at the same time tomorrow for the week in parliament. until then, bye for now.

hello there. it's been a very thundery week so far across the country, thanks to the warmth and the humidity. gusty and the humidity. winds and flooding and places. this gusty winds and flooding and places. this morning we start off grey and wet with persistent rain across the midlands moving northwards and west. scotla nd midlands moving northwards and west. scotland and northern ireland find. thunderstorms breaking out again. and some will be really intense and it will be a warm and humid day. early day across the rest tending to clear or ease away and are then heavy showers developing through central, northern and eastern areas into the afternoon. another warm and muqqy into the afternoon. another warm and muggy day. big changes into the weekend. wind and fresher conditions from the atlantic. but also some

sunshine as well.

welcome to bbc news, i'm mike embley. our top stories: rayshard brooks shot in the back as he fled police in atlanta, georgia. the officer who killed him is charged with murder and ten other offences. the possible sentences for a felony murder conviction would be life, life without parole, or the death penalty. as coronavirus cases rise again in china, we visit the wet markets blamed by some as the original source, and consider the latest theories. in exclusive analysis, we disclose the real global death toll from coronavirus. a bombshell allegation from john bolton. he claims president trump asked china's leader to help him win re—election. and a leading theatre producer warns that some of the biggest