this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. questions over coronavirus antibody tests in england. they're being rushed out, according to a group of doctors. new york, newjersey and connecticut have asked people travelling from states where covid—19 cases are rising to go into self—isolation for m days. the uk housing secretary is under pressure after documents reveal his close relationship with a conservative party donor, whose housing scheme he approved against the advice of his own officials. the met police says 15 officers have been injured following violence at an unlicensed street party in south london last night. around 2,000 management jobs are being cut at uk delivery service royal mail in a bid to save £130 million in staffing costs next year.

warnings over safety on what's set to be the hottest day of the year in the uk. uv rays could reach record levels. hello and welcome if you're watching in the uk or around the world, and stay with us for the latest news and analysis from here and across the globe. i'm annita mcveigh and you can contact me on twitter about any of our stories @annita—mcveigh. we start with the coronavirus pandemic here in the uk — where a group 01:14 leading scientists and academics has criticised the decision to roll out mass covid—19 antibody testing in england. in a letter to the

british medicaljournal, they say the tests — which establish whether someone has been infected — are unable to prove immunity from coronavirus and offer "no benefit" to hospitals are care staff. it adds that they have been rolled out without adequate assessment. public health england said all tests had been "extensively validated" by the manufacturers. 0ur health correspondent, naomi grimley, reports. immunity remains one of the big mysteries of covid—19. even if you know you have antibodies, does that mean you're actually immune to the virus and can you still transmit it to other people? sharp scratch. antibody tests are already proving popular and last month the government said it had bought 10 million to be used on nhs england staff as well as some patients who are having their blood taken and want to know if they've had the virus. but in a letter to the british medicaljournal,11i senior

academics question the wisdom of doing that. they're worried both about whether the tests have been properly assessed and whether it's a good use of resources, given that there are still so many unknowns. there are lots and lots of problems with these tests. the first is they haven't been properly validated and we've got very little data and understanding of what these tests actually mean. these tests are for research and they don't actually tell you, as an individual, whether you are safe or not. in response to the bmj letter, public health england said it believed its evaluation of the tests was to a high standard. the department of health said that antibody testing will play an increasingly important role as we move into the next phase of our response to this pandemic. naomi grimley, bbc news. new york state — for a long time the epicentre of the coronavirus

pandemic in the us — has announced it will quarantine arrivals from other states experiencing a surge in infections. and they're not the only ones. neighbouring states new jersey and connecticut are taking the same measures, after bringing their outbreaks under control. this map shows the eight states which will effectively be cut off from much of north—eastern america — including economic powerhouses texas and florida. all of them are in the south and south—west — and all have posted record spikes in infections in recent days. david willis reports. new york, newjersey and connecticut were initially among the worst hit by the coronavirus, but recent weeks have seen a fall in the number of covid—i9 cases there, and in an effort to keep the virus at bay, the three states are imposing a two—week quarantine on travellers arriving from some other parts of the country. eight states are included in the quarantine order, some of which, like texas, arizona and florida,

have seen a dramatic increase in coronavirus cases in recent days after lifting lockdown restrictions. this virus is risky enough on its own in terms of the potential to flare back up, so doing something common—sense as this is to say to folks, listen, it's time for personal responsibility. if you've been in a state that has a high infection rate, do the right thing, and that is taking 14 days and self quarantining. it's the right thing to do, it's the common sense thing to do, it's the responsible thing to do. new cases of covid—i9 in the us have risen to their highest levels since april. some southern states that were swift to lift their lockdowns have since seen massive spikes, with thousands of new cases being reported every day. what we're seeing in florida is really rapid transmission in that 18 to 34 age group, and you're seeing a lot of cases come up.

and granted, they weren't being tested at this level a couple of months ago, but i also think they're testing positive at a higher and higher rate, so clearly you have a lot of spread there. i stand before you today... president trump says coronavirus cases are on the increase because america is doing so much testing, and although some state governors are saying they may be forced to introduce new measures to combat the spread, the white house continues to insist the virus is going away. nobody is talking in some of these states about going into another economic lockdown and creating a pandemic within a pandemic, but we are in a much better situation now than we were previously in terms of dealing with the pandemic. meanwhile, the university of washington is forecasting that the number of deaths caused by the coronavirus in the us could reach 180,000 by october. currently that figure

stands at around 122,000. david willis, bbc news, los angeles. so, new york has now gone from being an epicentre of the covid—19 pandemic in the us, to a place trying to protect itself from imported infections. we asked cbs reporter laura podesta to outline how significant this turn—around will be. absolutely, a 180 from just a few months ago when new york was the epicentre. now in new york, newjersey, connecticut, a lot of the north—eastern states really have this virus under control, and that's why they're imposing this travel advisory to several of the southern states that have seen virus cases explode, and that travel advisory as you just heard in that report requires any visitors to self quarantine for 1h days. and this is not unprecedented, we should say, because just a few months ago, florida, texas, few other states, were imposing similar restrictions to travellers from new york,

and saying, if you come and visit, you have to self quarantine in texas, in florida, for two weeks. so now the situation is flipped, and what new york's governor is saying is that new yorkers, they really have to police each other. for example, if there is a businessman who is going to a new york office from florida forjust a quick trip, that those office workers should contact authorities and say, this person isjust arriving from florida, and they're not self quarantining, they're here in a business meeting. so they're really asking for new yorkers to be on the lookout and to make sure that they're stopping the spread by alerting authorities that those that are travelling. sad news coming from the scottish highlands where we hear that a ten year boy has died after getting into difficulty in a lock —— loch. this

happened on the early evening of wednesday. emergency services were called to the loch after reports of a child experiencing difficulties in the water but were unable to save the water but were unable to save the ten—year—old boy. they say there we re the ten—year—old boy. they say there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the little boy's death. we can only assume, we don't have all the details, but given the hot weather, obviously more people swimming in lochs, in the sea, in rivers, and obviously the message is there to take extreme care. the uk housing secretary, robertjenrick, is facing mounting pressure to resign after he released emails and texts relating to a decision to grant planning permission to a one—billion—pound housing development in east london. mrjenrick‘s decision to approve the scheme, which was later rescinded, came the day before a local infrastructure levy would have added tens of millions of pounds to the cost of the project. the developer, richard desmond,

subsequently donated £12,000 to mrjenrick‘s conservative party. both men have denied breaking any rules. let's take a closer look at the timeline of events between robertjenrick and richard desmond. the pair first met after sitting next to each other at a conservative fundraising dinner on the 18th of november last year. robert jenrick admitted they exchanged phone numbers. and in a series of texts mrjenrick said: ‘good to spend time with you tonight richard. see you again soon i hope'. two days later, a meeting was arranged for december. on that same day, mr desmond sent a text in which he referred to a new infrastructure charge that was being introduced by the labour—run council of tower hamlets. the charge would have added millions to the cost of the proposed project. mr desmond's text said "we don't want to give marxists loads of doe for nothing". 0n the 15th of december, robertjenrick texted richard desmond to cancel

their meeting — as he needed to be in parliament for the queen's speech. on january the 9th this year, the housing secretary urged approval of the one—billion— pound housing development. five days later, mrjenrick overruled a planning inspector and gave permission to build on the westferry site. a day before a new infrastructure levy would have cost the developer an extra £40 million to build in london's poorest borough. 0n the 29th of january, richard desmond donated £12,000 to the conservative party. the planning permission was rescinded on 22nd may after towers hamlets accused robertjenrick of bias in his decision over his relationship with richard desmond. 0ur assistant political editor norman smith is at westminster. norman, the prime minister said as far as he's concerned matter is over, but how much extra pressure do you think there is now on robert jenrick‘s position after the release

of these texts? it is clear that robertjenrick released of these texts? it is clear that robert jenrick released all these documents, e—mails and texts in an effort to kill off the story, to put everything in the open and say, i've got nothing to hide, there you are. 0nly, got nothing to hide, there you are. only, when we've gone through the texts a nd only, when we've gone through the texts and e—mails itjust further reignites the question is, the controversy reignites the question is, the c0 ntrove i’sy over reignites the question is, the controversy over why he seem to have made himself so available and accessible to this wealthy donor who also happen to be the man pushing a very, very controversial house—building project in tower hamlets which the local council were dead set against. and what we learned from these new e—mails is that after the two men sat together ata that after the two men sat together at a tory party dinner at which the developer, richard desmond, a p pa re ntly developer, richard desmond, apparently showed mrjenrick a video, a promotional video of the housing project on his phone, after the dinner, mrjenrick stayed in touch with richard desmond when in

normal times he should have stepped back and had nothing more to do with the developer, to put an iron curtain between the two of them so there was no hint of any impropriety. instead, he texted him to say, nice to meet you and richard desmond gets back in touch and sta rts desmond gets back in touch and starts pressing for a meeting. initially, the minister seems to go along with that before pulling back. so the first thing we've learned is that the housing secretary chose to stay in touch with richard desmond, the developer. many people would say he should not have done that. the second thing we have learned is that even though his own officials in his own department said to give this project the big thumbs down, he chose to give it the thumbs up, and the third thing we learned is that he wanted to rush approval for the deal through before a new community charge could kick in, potentially costing mr desmond tens of millions of pounds. all of it looks bad. does

it prove wrongdoing? maybe not yet, but it certainly has enabled the labour party to revive the old taunt of tory sleaze. albeit this morning the business minister said that no wrongdoing was done here. robert jenrick actually promised a select committee he would publish everything around this decision. he himself has said, look, with the benefit of hindsight he might have done things slightly differently. he doesn't think that he was biased in any way, but the perception of bias that allowed this to happen was the reason that robert pulled this application and allowed another minister to determine it. in the messages you just read out, interesting, two words. 0ne, viability, and the other, social housing, and robert wanted to see both things actually happen. more social housing being built, more housing being built, and a viable development. so, it looks bad. is there a smoking

gun? maybe not yet. that's a fire alarm, not a smoking gun, sorry about that. timing is everything, norman. i think the signs are, to cut it short, robertjenrick will try to hunker down and at the moment he seems to have the backing of the prime minister. norman, thank you very much. norman smith in westminster. the metropolitan police say they are investigating a ‘large public disorder event‘ which began overnight in south london. 15 officers were injured, and four people were arrested on assault and public order offences in the clashes. unverified images on social media appear to show police cars and other emergency vehicles being damaged by crowds in brixton. earlier i spoke to our reporter sean dilley who said police responded to reports of an unlicensed music event. there were crowds in the street around cecilia road in the lambeth and brixton area.

when officers turned up they describe the crowd turning hostile against them needing to bring in reinforcements. the crowd can be seen by some of that unverified footage posted to social media being very hostile and throwing things towards officers. police vehicles were damaged and the metropolitan police have confirmed that there were a few vehicles that were damaged. two of the 15 officers injured had to be taken to hospital as a result of their injuries. and the police saying that what they were doing on the scene was to try to enforce the guidelines, social distancing guidelines, to prevent the spread of covid—19. we know the police council guidance is that people should engage in the first instance as it was a mass gathering and the crowd did not respond so they used something called a section 35 dispersal order to clear the area and at that point it really did take a turn for the worse. we can see on social media from the unverified footage some of those scenes, but some people were apparently goading others on as they were smashing police cars and throwing missiles

towards police lines. the headlines on bbc news. questions over coronavirus antibody tests. they're being rushed out, according to a group of doctors. new york, newjersey and connecticut have asked people travelling from states where covid—19 cases are rising to go into self—isolation for 1h days. the uk housing secretary is under pressure after documents reveal his close relationship with a conservative party donor, whose housing scheme he approved against the advice of his own officials. could vladimir putin continue as president of russia until 2036? well, voting has begun in russia on constitutional changes which would allow him to do so. if the public back the measures, mr putin could be allowed to serve two more terms of six years in the kremlin. voting began a few hours ago — because of the coronavirus outbreak, it will continue into july. the pandemic seems to have had an effect on mr putin's popularity —

as our moscow correspondent sarah rainsford explains. coronavirus hasn't helped with that at all. certainly some of the independent polling here has suggested that mr putin's approval rating is down to around 59%, which of course in a western democracy might not sound too bad, but it's not great for vladimir putin. and i think he's aware that things aren't going to get better here, particularly economically. the impact of coronavirus and oil prices are all having an effect, notjust on the economy but on the public mood. so i think that's why the kremlin's so keen for this vote to happen now. otherwise you might wonder why on earth hold a vote in the middle of a pandemic. mr putin already postponed this vote from april. it was supposed to happen towards the end of april. it's happening now. and in fact because of the pandemic it's been spread over an entire week instead ofjust one day, so there is early voting beginning today. people can head to the polling stations across the country

from today, but the big final day will be onjuly the 1st. but i think what the kremlin really hopes for this vote is that it can get as many people to turn out as possible, because this is really a vote where mr putin wants the legitimacy, the mandate, of a big turnout, people coming out in force to approve many changes to the constitution, including this key one which would allow him to stay on until 2036. as the hot weather continues, people are being urged to take care in the sun. the uk expected to see record levels of uv radiation with temperatures are expected to reach a high of 3a degress in london. let's get more from our weather presenter, matt taylor. nice to see you here, rather than on the balcony or elsewhere. matt, let's talk about those record uv levels expected today, because safety first, people really need to get the sun cream on. exactly, exceptionally high levels, and not usually seen in this part of the

world. uv, of course, ultraviolet rays from the sun that can damage the skin quite rapidly if you spend any time in it. during the summer months in the uk the uv is measured ona months in the uk the uv is measured on a scale between zero and 12 and in the uk, during the summer it is usually six or seven but we expect it to reach a level nine today which is akin to the beaches of southern spain. why is that? a number of reasons. we have just spain. why is that? a number of reasons. we havejust gone past spain. why is that? a number of reasons. we have just gone past the summer reasons. we have just gone past the summer solstice so the sun is high in the sky for us and we saw an exceptionally large depletion of ozone in the northern hemisphere caused by natural weather patterns this time round. high pressure is with us which keeps the skies clear so with us which keeps the skies clear so uv levels won't be interrupted by that and you have to take in the fa ct we that and you have to take in the fact we have been under lockdown. industry, travel, has been much reduced so the level of pollutants in the atmosphere is a lot lower thanit in the atmosphere is a lot lower than it has been and pollutants tend to scatter the uv rays a little, so all that has come together to because what could be a day of

exceptionally strong sunshine. and the hottest day of the year. and the hottest day of the year. yes, we saw 33 degrees yesterday and we could get1 degrees 33 degrees yesterday and we could get 1 degrees higher 33 degrees yesterday and we could get1 degrees higher but we will note that the heat is more widespread across the uk, more above england and wales and the likes of glasgow and aviemore could get close to the 30 degrees mark as well. wow, so to the 30 degrees mark as well. wow, so if you don't like the heat, there is some change. there is good news. big storms around tomorrow, but this weekend much cooler for all of us and rain as well. 0k, weekend much cooler for all of us and rain as well. ok, when i get home, i will slap on the sunscreen. thank you, matt. around 2,000 management jobs are being cut at the uk's royal mail. the delivery service announced the restructuring in order to save £130 million in staffing costs next year. the company has reported a 31% fall in annual profits and says it will also reduce capital spending by £300 million across the group during the next two years. earlier we heard from our correspondent sean farrington who explained a little more about the cuts. not surprisingly, royal mail are

saying this morning that the impact of covid—19 has meant they are having to cut costs quicker than they previously thought. they say this morning that 2000 jobs will be going, that consultation will start today. half of senior leaders will be included in that, so that is 2000 managementjobs. we are not talking about the postal workers that many of us will see day to day in our lives. the chief executive of royal mail is saying this morning that the business as a whole has not adapted as quickly as it should have done the uk in recent years anyway, falling letter volumes and increasing parcel problems has been a problem for royal mail and that has been exacerbated by coronavirus. even fewer letters and parcels becoming more dominant in that business so they will start a consultation on that today and they are the latest in a long line of businesses as almost every week we talk about a big company announcing majorjob

cuts from british airways, bp, rolls—royce, jlr, it's getting into the hundreds of thousands when you tot up the job losses. and royal mail are the latest to say that 2,000 jobs will be going. german authorities in the state of north rhine—westphalia have reimposed lockdown restrictions in two districts after a spike in coronavirus cases. more than half a million people have been affected. one area is home to a meatpacking plant where more than 1,500 workers have tested positive to the virus. 0ur correspondent, gavin lee, is in the german city of munster. the source of the outbreak is this company called tonnies, one of the biggest in germany. it is a place called gutersloh, and that whole region is now one of two in lockdown, as you said, nearly half a million people. tonnies reported turnover of about 7 billion euros a year, slaughters 30,000 pigs a day, and has a workforce of 7,000 people, mainly migrant workforce from bulgaria, poland, romania — 1,700 of them have caught covid—19.

now, the workforce and the workers' accommodations are clustered together, high—rise flats and terraced houses as well, it is literally fenced off and under police guard right now. they are under strict quarantine, they cannot leave their premises, and what that means is you have local volunteers that we saw with trolleys bringing in basic food for the next few days because people can't leave. we heard many people shouting that they wanted to leave to go back, for example, to bulgaria because they have children there, they said, that they weren't getting paid from the company and they needed to get back to help the family. there are more questions, scrutiny on the company, as to what went wrong here. charities including caritas have accused the company of exploitation of workers, of ignoring social distancing rules. and video has emerged all over german media, david, of workers appear to be cheek byjowl sat together without any masks, any precautions, but the company have denied any wrongdoing, they have denied the exploitations.

they do acknowledge, they say, full responsibility for this outbreak and have apologised. it's been a month since george floyd died while being detained by police in the american city of minneapolis. the event triggered global protests, led to some changes in laws, and the removal of symbols and statues seen by many as celebrating racism. but why did george floyd's death have such an impact, when so many other tragedies seem to go unmarked? we asked three generations from one african—american family to explain. it happens all the time, you know. but people don't get to see it. everybody saw this. i saw this and it reallyjust sucked all the air out of me. my name is leonard and a 73 years old and i am the uncle of dwayne. my name is dwayne, i'm 49 years old, and i am nigel's father. my name is nigel, i'm 16 years old,

and i live in las vegas, nevada. when i saw this happening with george floyd i started have flashbacks about things that happen when i was growing up when i was old enough, you know, to realise what was happening. and i got extremely emotional. it started to take its toll. i'm sorry. that's the problem i have now. i have that emotional thing that has stirred in me because i've seen this all my of life. 73 years. my first reaction to it, just like you, uncle, was i was in shockjust because of that situation could potentially happen to me, you, or my dad, considering you guys look exactly alike. it made me more cautious of my surroundings to try to avoid those open situations. he and i have had the talk many times. the talk that every

black parent and has with their children about what to do when you are approached by the police. i struggle with that because it makes me wonder how can you tell your son to cower down and submit and cover up and submit in a way that i think is unnecessary without filling him with rage? that's a hard thing for me to see my nephew having that same conversation with his son. i never had it, you know, because of the time i grew up. you had your separate water fountain that you would drink from, you had yourfront and back door entrances. we had places you were not allowed to go because the laws that were set in place to keep you out. they teach a small portion of it in history class, but you have a better connection and you can understand better, me, personally, ican considering my uncle had to go through it. and, honestly, it really wasn't that long ago that all this type of stuff was happening. i've been a fire captain for the last 15 years.

i have been called the n—word by people that i was there to help. and only now, since george floyd, there are conversations that are going on. my generation isjust a little bit more open to change. because i know many my personal white friends, they are all in, they are posting on instagram pages explaining the inequality going on in this world. white people are listening to us based on what they saw with floyd. people are listening to you and they are hearing the things we have been saying for 400 years. we have been crying for freedom. we been crying forjustice. because our lives do matter. i look at young people like nigel, this is where the changes going to place. people are standing up to injustice and making changes far as legislation, with politics. it's going to take things like that, exercising our to vote. i've feel like, my generation will come together. i am hopeful.

i hope this movement continues. i hope doesn't let up until change comes. for parents, racism is an issue they've had to address with their children, notjust now, but for many yea rs. anita whittaker has four sons. she's been campaigning for better education to try and ensure a future where they're not judged by the colour of their skin. anita and one of her sons, kaliyl, are with us. really good to have you with us. good morning to both of you. let me begin by asking you, in the months since the killing of george floyd, what conversations have you been having with your sons, they range in ages from 26 down to eight, slightly different conversations depending on the edge. i can say honestly, the conversations i've been having are the same for years. what has happened with george floyd is not

new to us, it's something we've been aware of, and and as a parent, i've been trying to make sure my sons are aware of what's happening and how to deal with these. what we've been having conversations about recently is what our next steps are now that a lot more people are aware of what's happening. you feel this is going to make a change, what's happened to george floyd. what's happened to george floyd. what's happened since then, is going to make a change? i feel like it's already started to make changes, i think there have been so many other issues that happened over the years that haven't made the impact like what's happened now. everyone was still, watching, it hit more people emotionally and a lot more people are starting to take direction, starting to listen and learn by reading various books and making actual steps. cali oh, you must be

very proud of your mother. you are one of four boys, talk to us about your experience of racism. —— khalil. i've been stopped before. police officers reason for stopping me is that they'd heard some black children had been going about robbing kids at knife—point, really bright orange hair, i was in my school uniform. i'd been discriminated against about certain people, accused of stealing and then once i'd proved i hadn't gotten anything there'd still been a level of mistrust. i've experienced little things here and there. through all different parts of life, whether it's school, outside, the workplace, it's school, outside, the workplace, it's real. what are you doing, i

believe you were involved, and are studying politics at school, involved in activism at school to try and begin conversations about racism and make people think differently, tell us more about that. i mean, yes, for years i've been badgering on about racism, i'm proud to say a lot of my friends do try and educate themselves about it and are trying to make positive change and i think, just now, i feel like a lot of people don't think it's real, just because they haven't experienced it personally. i do try quite a lot to explain to people who maybe haven't seen it, how it does and has reflected lots of black people's lives. what khalil is saying there a lot of people has set up saying there a lot of people has set up to now, because they haven't seen it or experience did they don't

think racism is out there. do you think racism is out there. do you think that's changing? listening to the conversations since george floyd was killed, reading things since george floyd was killed, it seems to me that that is changing. definitely, i do see the change, it's been difficult for people to fully understand, when you haven't experienced it yourself and at times it's felt when i have spoken up or khalil has spoken up, it's as though, it's in your imagination but now that it's been put out there for the world to see, i think more people are actually recognising those little things here in the uk that are at the micro aggressions, those little things that are hidden that actually cause issue for black people to move forward. when you talk about micro aggressions, can you give me any examples? goodness, i'd say one example that khalil went through in primary school was when he was specifically told he had to

draw a picture of adam and eve and god and he had to colour them peach because god made people in his likeness. to tell a ten—year—old that, make them question who they are and what that means to them in the wider community, what that means within the faith there needs to bea within the faith there needs to be a reworking of the education system could doesn't there, to not come from a position of purely whiteness? yes, i think for me, what i'd like to see changing, introduction of not what people call black history, recognising that by omission, by removing the blackness from history, that is the problem. i'm not looking for a gimmick or about to be thrown my way, what i wa nt about to be thrown my way, what i want is that if we are discussing world war ii, we recognise and acknowledge those that have been involved from the caribbean,

soldiers that came from the caribbean, soldiers that were active and part of world war ii, if we're to discuss what's happening in colonialism, we need to discuss actually how the impact of that and what that meant to black people, fight them and rush generation were here, people to understand that actually, they had british passports and they were a british colony, they thought this was the motherland because they were british. thought this was the motherland because they were britishlj thought this was the motherland because they were british. i need khalil, thank you both so much for talking to us today. one month on since george floyd was killed. i'm alsojoined byjulia, since george floyd was killed. i'm also joined byjulia, a since george floyd was killed. i'm alsojoined byjulia, a mother of two daughters, and shejoined by one of them kayla it now. really interesting to talk to our previous guests, about what has happened over the past month, the death of george floyd, the killing of george floyd during the pandemic, when people

we re during the pandemic, when people were paused and looking out at what was going on in the world around them, that is making a difference. do you share a similar outlook?|j totally do you share a similar outlook?” totally agree with what anita said. you know, we've got to start somewhere and definitely it needs to start in schools. especially them going into employment. some of the employees still don't recognise the need to speak to black people and how they can get people to develop so how they can get people to develop so it's very important especially starting off in schools, it will make a difference. timbuktu, i wonder what discussion in has been happening in your school since the death of george floyd. —— kayla. we've been talking about the black

lives matter movement, trying to get us lives matter movement, trying to get us to understand what it is, what it's about, how we can help. and looking at the slogan on your t—shirt, embrace the past, address the present, change the future, what do those words mean to you? they meana do those words mean to you? they mean a lot to me. i got this shirt for black history month and it's just, it explains everything in three lines. it shouldn'tjust be a month, she did, it should be part of the ongoing discussion. yes. julia, i don't know whether as a mother of daughters, you feel more or less worried than a mother of sons, you know, as they go about their daily business? i've always informed my children that they have to work the ha rd est, children that they have to work the hardest, there is nothing in life that they cannot do. i was always

told as a young person, as a young black woman, you cannot do mechanics, why should you go and do mechanics? that is a man ‘sjob. at the end of the day that deterred me from doing probably a job that i wa nted from doing probably a job that i wanted to go on and pursue, you know? so i always told my children whatever you want to do in life, you go and do it and whatever you want to do in life, you go and do itand i whatever you want to do in life, you go and do it and i will support you 100%. that brings us full circle, finally, to where you began, with education being at the rate of change, you firmly believe that's where it needs to come from, through the education system. definitely, definitely. it's important, and eat it mentioned about secondary school, primary school, why should a child have to colour in a person in a certain colour? it doesn't make sense. especially if you are not from that background. we need to educate the schools about our culture. we also need to educate

them about our ethnicity. and it's so important. julia and kayla, thank you so much for talking to us today. morbidly obese patients are twice as likely to die from covid—19 than those who are not overweight, according to research by public health england. campaigners say the pandemic should be seen as an opportunity to help those living with the condition. fiona trott sent us this report from the north east of england, which has the highest number of obesity—related hospital admissions in the country. it was a bit frightening because i thought, what is the correlation between obesity and covid—19. you start listening to the reports and you hear that people overweight are more at risk and then you think, how serious the pandemic is. we know obesity is strongly associated with deprivation, so it's no surprise that the north—east which has high levels of deprivation has also got high levels of being overweight and obesity. a first walk alone

during this pandemic. michelle knows she is at risk and has been afraid to go out. during lockdown, she has also gained weight, and that worries her. this is the furthest i've been from home, by myself. it's been very hard getting fresh fruit and veg at the supermarkets. it's a lot better now, but at the beginning it was very difficult. my husband would go and do the shopping to get items and having to go down the next day, but it's a lot easier ordering takeaways. plus with my stress and anxiety i do a lot of comfort eating, but i know it's got to stop. it's got to stop. michelle is not alone. the north—east has the highest rate of obesity—related hospital admissions in england and almost a quarter of children starting secondary school are obese. ben used to weigh 20 stone.

i never really know what time i'm going to get in, so it's dead easy to pop in and get a chinese meal or pop into the fish and chip shop. he lost weight through a fitness programme at sunderland football club. the pandemic makes him want to lose more. i think it's got to make you think about your lifestyle changing and things. with the pandemic, it has changed me in a way that i never thought i would change, but i have. and being locked in the house is horrendous, so i think the exercise was an excuse to get out of the house as well. helping people lose weight is something a local nhs trust is trying to do. it was so concerned about obesity it appointed a specialist consultant in public health. obesity is complex, so so many factors go into it, notjust the clinical aspects but the social and environmentalfactors which mean the nhs, the hospital on its own, can't address this problem and it really needs everybody going in the same direction,

so that is central government but also the nhs, the local authority, the communities themselves all working together towards it. hi, caroline, how are you? but campaigners say the government hasn't done enough. two years on and nothing has changed and these policies have been left to languish and are no closer to becoming reality and in the meantime, the number of children and adults living with obesity has increased. and this should really be a catalyst now for the government to finally step up, take some action and create an environment that makes it easier for everyone, adults and children, to be healthier. the department says it is working with local councils to tackle child obesity and has made huge progress already by cutting sugar from half of all drinks on sale. being vulnerable to covid—19 has changed michelle's outlook. coming out of the pandemic, i feel the future, for me, is positive, it's bright.

i will lose weight. my grandkids are still young and i want to be there a long time for them. an update on some disturbances that happened in south—east london, brixton last night, unverified social media footage show crowds of people attacking emergency vehicles including police vehicles. in what was an unlicensed music event. police said. they said they were called to the event, arrived at the scene, tried to encourage people to leave in order to keep to social distancing guidelines but then problems followed on from that. the metropolitan police now updating the number of officers injured in that incident to 22 officers hurt. the home secretary priti patel describing the events in brixton as utterly vile scenes and has said she would speak to the commissioner for

the metropolitan police immediately. let's get some of the day's other news testing for covid 19 is being stepped up in the australian state of victoria, following a fresh outbreak of the disease. a thousand troops are being deployed there to help with testing, and to monitor quarantine programmes at hotels for returning travellers. three men in the us state of georgia have been formally charged with the murder of ahmaud arbery — a young black man who was shot dead in february while outjogging. his case went largely unreported until video emerged of the killing more than two months later. the australian airline, qantas, has announced plans to cut 6,000 staff from its workforce, as a response to falling business during the coronavirus pandemic. it also said it won't be flying its airbus a380 fleet for up to three years. the chief executive of qantas, alanjoyce, said there were no other options.

we have to position ourselves for several years where revenue will be much lower and that means becoming a small airline in the short term. but the collapse of billions of dollars in revenue leaves us with little choice if we are to save as manyjobs as possible longer term. many of the 6,000 job losses we have announced today are people who have spent decades here, they are people we know personally, they are people that we have known for a long time. separate to the 6,000 job losses, about 15,000 people will remain stood down for some time, people from whom we have no work but we will have work for them in the future. the headlines on bbc news... questions over coronavirus antibody tests. they're being rushed out, according to a group of doctors. new york, newjersey and connecticut have asked people travelling

from states where covid—19 cases are rising to go into self—isolation for 14 days. the uk housing secretary is under pressure after documents reveal his close relationship with a conservative party donor, whose housing scheme he approved against the advice of his own officials. the lives of hundreds of sick palestinians are being put at risk because of the latest downturn in relations between their leaders and israel. last month, the palestinian president said his government was giving up on past peace agreements, because of israel's plans to annex parts of the occupied west bank. that decision stopped cooperation on many security and civil matters, including medical travel permits, as our middle east correspondent, yolande knell reports. crying. myra's in constant pain. cancer has blinded her in one eye

and the tumour is spreading. she needs an israeli permit to leave gaza for specialist surgery abroad but the palestinian office that should help her is no longer working. "she is my daughter, not a dog, she is a child," her mother, mariam, says. "where are the children's rights? the human rights?" last year, it was crowded when we visited this cancer centre at a palestinian hospital in eastjerusalem. today, each empty seat represents someone who could not get here. palestinian leaders have stopped cooperating with israel because of its plans to annex land they want for the future state. but when it comes to medical care, that is leaving their own people suffering. anyone coming for treatment from the west bank or gaza has

got to have israeli permission and security clearance. those from gaza, which is ruled by hamas militants, face the tightest restrictions and hospitals there lack equipment and drugs. without the palestinian authority making the connection and paying the bill, hundreds of people are stuck. but in this children's ward, there is some positive news. 0sama has leukaemia. this doctor and the team here worked around the clock to bring him from gaza with his mother, but they cannot do that for every patient. i spent two hours talking to many people to explain how it is critical and life—saving for this child to reach this hospital, so it is not easy and i can say that if this child did not get this referral, he will die waiting for, you know — one day is critical for acute leukaemia. doctors say he now has very good odds of surviving.

meanwhile, other palestinian patients like little myra remain unable to get treatment, caught up in the politics. yolande knell, bbc news, eastjerusalem. representatives of the uk's 40,000 driving instructors are calling for driving lessons to resume. other than emergency training and tests for critical workers, tuition and tests have been on hold since the start of lockdown. tim muffet reports. over the past 12 years, chris bensted has helped hundreds of people pass their driving test. now he's being driven to despair. i never knew it could be this bad, and we'rejust not hearing anything, so what we need is we need information, we need some kind of guidance so we can plan. there are more than 40,000 approved driving instructors in the uk, the vast majority are self—employed. lessons and tests have been stopped. so too have incomes.

what should have been done better do you think? if we knew where we were, instructors could have gone out and found otherjobs and at the moment we can't do that, and most instructors have been hanging on. i don't think it can get much worse than this, we're just given nothing and i think we will lose many good driving instructors. joe is 19 and has cerebral palsy. lessons in his adapted car are banned, he can't book a test. living in a rural area, the public transport is not accessible, and both my parents work so this means until i pass my test, and i can't have driving lessons to pass my test, i will not be able to get out and have a sense of independence. my future, my career, is on hold and it's quite scary and daunting and my confidence has gone quite downhill. throughout the pandemic,

driving instructors have been able to give lessons to key workers providing they've already got a test booked, but for some that's raised even more questions — is it ever safe to give a driving lesson or not? we'll do whatever we feel we can with regard to sanitising and wearing masks, but even some of the insurance companies have questioned the safety of wearing a mask to be able to communicate — especially when there is background noise. sasha works in a care home. as a key worker she was offered a driving test, but couldn't get to it. the only centres that were offering it were london, birmingham and i think it was manchester, so you have to get to it. i don't obviously drive, we don't have a car in my household, so it's, like, public transport is the only choice but we are told only go via public transport if you really need to. i'm currently a half—an—hour walk from my workplace but as a drive, it's probably, like,

five minutes and to make it easier i could probably take more earlies to drive because it's only a couple of minutes up the road. the driver and vehicle standards agency oversees tests and tuition in england and wales. it told the bbc: meanwhile, a plea from the organisation that represents driving instructors. i would like to urge parents and pupils to not try and negate the need for a driving instructor because you're so worried about the risk of being in their car, because what we don't want to do is create the other public health risk of improperly trained candidates going to the test centre and maybe, just maybe, getting through the driving test on mum and dads training, but that's not we're supposed to be preparing them for here, we're supposed to be preparing them for a lifetime of safe driving. for now, instructors and learners are stuck waiting for the green light. tim muffett, bbc news.

the surge on stock markets since april — and the recent steep sell—offs — have meant a roller coaster ride for the thousands of private investors trading at home. interest in day trading has been booming — with people cooped up at home with time on their hands — and no shortage of apps allowing them to buy and sell via smartphone. it's caught some wall street professionals by surprise — as samira hussain has been finding out did you ever imagine that you would get interested in trading stocks? no, never. kelly works in the film industry but once a covid 19 hitter home in new orleans, she found herself out of work and with a lot of time on her hands. after playing a video which involved buying and selling fictitious items, she thought she would try her hand at the stock market. i'm not trying to make money, and trying to spend my time because i have nothing else to do. a recent survey said 3596 of americans have exposure to the stock market but much of that is through

retirement and investment accounts, managed by professionals. a new range of apps and no free trading options is making it easierfor everyday americans to buy stocks themselves. professionals here on wall street, they haven't been so receptive to these new investors, especially those that were able to ta ke especially those that were able to take advantage of the big plungers on financial markets earlier this year. many institutional investors didn't invest in march and april, at the height of the covid 19 didn't invest in march and april, at the height of the covid19 lockdown. investors shove their way in and have made large returns on this market which is great for them but frustrating for wall street professionals and frankly, they don't like it and they want to say it's a sign of rational exuberance, when it was just intelligent picking ofa when it was just intelligent picking of a market bottom. eric is using money he would normally spin going out with friends to trade on the stock market. he is also new to day trading and is not at all surprised

wall street does not like it. they don't want us to trade, they want us to give them money so they can trade and make money with it. so of course they're going to be against it. right now i have the time to be on my phone all of the time, i'm consta ntly my phone all of the time, i'm constantly watching what's going up, down. doing new research and everything but when i go back to work, no! that's the real mystery. will these new investors stop actively trading 1's life gets back to normal? 0r actively trading 1's life gets back to normal? or will the pandemic have made a fundamental change to those who play the markets? we are hearing that the environment secretary has told the house of commons this morning the outbreaks of covid 19 at three meat processing factories in england and wales are thought to be linked to canteens and car sharing schemes. george eustace said the government would issue new guidance to plants to try to stop further spread. of course we've been

talking about the 1500 workers at a meat plant in germany testing positive for covid 19 as well. you are watching bbc news. it's time for a look at the weather. matt taylor has the details. hello. exceptionally strong sunshine for some of you through today, it's a day in which heat and humidity will be more widespread across the country. it will peak today, if you are not enjoying the heat are sunshine things looking fresher and wetter this weekend. this afternoon temperatures widely into their 30s across england and wales. in scotland, the likes of glasgow, aviemore, could get close to 30 degrees. the sunshine exceptionally strong across the south, at levels close to record—breaking four some southern parts of england and wales, the sun is strong as it should be in southern spain. that means short amount of time before damage is done to your skin amount of time before damage is done to yourskin and amount of time before damage is done to your skin and there will be lots of sunshine around for most today,

cloud and heavy thundery showers in the western isles of scotland, some cropping up in the south—west later but through this evening and overnight they develop widely across the west, torrential in places, hail and gusty winds, one or two developing elsewhere as we continue human conditions tonight and tomorrow. like this morning, one or two of you waking up to temperatures starting the day at 20 celsius. tomorrow will be a day of change. things gradually turning fresh it but to get there, some hit and miss torrential thunderstorm is, pinpointing exactly where they will be is difficult but likely to see some across the west of scotland, breaking out elsewhere across the country during the day, from south—west to north—east. quite a few of you who miss out on the storms altogether, staying dry but they will turn fresher in the west, temperatures dropping relative to today. humid in the east, potential for 30 degrees across parts of east anglia. bigger change through friday night into the weekend, low—pressure

circulating to the north—west, bands of rain sweeping around that, fairly gusty winds, introducing atlantic air sweeping away humid conditions. fresher start to saturday, all of us seen fresher start to saturday, all of us seen rain at times. but more in the way of dry weather across the south, persistent rain later in northern england, scotland, northern ireland but the temperature is not into the 30s, mid to high teens for many, low 20s in the south and east. fresher tea m 20s in the south and east. fresher team continuing on sunday, persistent rain and mist in scotland, showers for northern ireland, north and west wales, drier further south but all of us see temperatures much lower, 15 in glasgow, 20 in london.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. questions over coronavirus antibody tests in england. they're being rushed out, according to a group of doctors. new york, newjersey and connecticut have asked people travelling from states where covid—19 cases are rising to go into self—isolation for 14 days. the uk housing secretary is under pressure after documents reveal his close relationship with a conservative party donor, whose housing scheme he approved against the advice of his own officials. the met police says 22 officers have been injured following violence at an illegal street party in south london last night. around 2,000 management jobs are being cut at uk delivery service royal mail in a bid to save £130 million in staffing costs next year.

warnings over safety on what's set to be the hottest day of the year in the uk. uv rays could reach record levels. hello and welcome if you're watching in the uk or around the world — and stay with us for the latest news and analysis from here i'm geeta guru—murthy. we start with the coronavirus pandemic here in the uk — where a group of 14 leading scientists and academics has criticised the decision to roll out mass covid—19 antibody testing in england. in a letter to the british medical journal, they say the tests, which establish whether someone has been infected, are unable to prove immunity from coronavirus and offer "no benefit" to hospitals

or care staff. it adds that they have been rolled out without adequate assessment. public health england said all tests had been "extensively validated" by the manufacturers. 0ur health correspondent naomi grimley reports. immunity remains one of the big mysteries of covid—19. even if you know you have antibodies, does that mean you're actually immune to the virus and can you still transmit it to other people? sharp scratch. antibody tests are already proving popular and last month the government said it had bought 10 million to be used on nhs england staff as well as some patients who are having their blood taken and want to know if they've had the virus. but in a letter to the british medicaljournal, 14 senior academics question the wisdom of doing that. they're worried both about whether the tests have been properly assessed and whether it's a good use of resources, given that there are still so many unknowns.

there are lots and lots of problems with these tests. the first is they haven't been properly validated and we've got very little data and understanding of what these tests actually mean. these tests are for research and they don't actually tell you, as an individual, whether you are safe or not. in response to the bmj letter, public health england said it believed its evaluation of the tests was to a high standard. the department of health said that antibody testing will play an increasingly important role as we move into the next phase of our response to this pandemic. naomi grimley, bbc news. new york state — for a long time the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic in the us — has announced it will quarantine arrivals from other states experiencing a surge in infections. and they're not the only ones. neighbouring states new jersey and connecticut are taking the same measures, after bringing their outbreaks under control.

eight states will effectively be cut off from much of north—eastern america, including economic powerhouses texas and florida. all of them are in the south and south—west, and all have posted record spikes in infections in recent days. david willis reports. new york, newjersey and connecticut were initially among the worst hit by the coronavirus, but recent weeks have seen a fall in the number of covid—19 cases there, and in an effort to keep the virus at bay, the three states are imposing a two—week quarantine on travellers arriving from some other parts of the country. eight states are included in the quarantine order, some of which, like texas, arizona and florida, have seen a dramatic increase in coronavirus cases in recent days after lifting lockdown restrictions. this virus is risky enough on its own in terms of the potential to flare back up, so doing something common—sense as this is to say

to folks, listen, it's time for personal responsibility. if you've been in a state that has a high infection rate, do the right thing, and that is taking 14 days and self—quarantining. it's the right thing to do, it's the common sense thing to do, it's the responsible thing to do. new cases of covid—19 in the us have risen to their highest levels since april. some southern states that were swift to lift their lockdowns have since seen massive spikes, with thousands of new cases being reported every day. what we're seeing in florida is really rapid transmission in that 18 to 34 age group, and you're seeing a lot of cases come up. and granted, they weren't being tested at this level a couple of months ago, but i also think they're testing positive at a higher and higher rate, so clearly you have a lot of spread there. i stand before you today... president trump says coronavirus

cases are on the increase because america is doing so much testing, and although some state governors are saying they may be forced to introduce new measures to combat the spread, the white house continues to insist the virus is going away. nobody is talking in some of these states about going into another economic lockdown and creating a pandemic within a pandemic, but we are in a much better situation now than we were previously in terms of dealing with the pandemic. meanwhile, the university of washington is forecasting that the number of deaths caused by the coronavirus in the us could reach 180,000 by october. currently that figure stands at around 122,000. david willis, bbc news, los angeles. so how do diferent states within the us compare and which areas are seeing the largest surge in infections? as you can see from the from this data, there's a sharp devide between regions.

it's the southern and western states seeing a steep rise in infections. arizona on wednesday reported almost 1,800 new infections that's down from the record 3,600 on tuesday. florida also reported a daily record of 5,500 new cases. it brings the state's total number of confirmed infections to over 100,000, with 3,281 deaths. texas on wednesday also reported a new record daily number of over 5,500 confirmed cases — it follows a warning that new restrictions may be needed. by contrast, new york, which at one point had the most daily virus cases, recorded just 581 new cases on tueseday after testing more than 51,000 people. so — new york has now gone from being an epicentre of the covid—19 pandemic in the us, to a place trying to protect itself from imported infections. cbs reporter laura podesta outlined how significant this turn—around will be.

absolutely, a 180 from just a few months ago when new york was the epicentre. now in new york, newjersey, connecticut, a lot of the north—eastern states really have this virus under control, and that's why they're imposing this travel advisory to several of the southern states that have seen virus cases explode, and that travel advisory as you just heard in that report requires any visitors to self quarantine for 14 days. and this is not unprecedented, we should say, because just a few months ago, florida, texas, few other states, were imposing similar restrictions to travellers from new york, and saying, if you come and visit, you have to self quarantine in texas, in florida, for two weeks. so now the situation is flipped, and what new york's governor is saying is that new yorkers, they really have to police each other. for example, if there is a businessman who is going to a new york office from florida

forjust a quick trip, that those office workers should contact authorities and say, this person isjust arriving from florida, and they're not self quarantining, they're here in a business meeting. so they're really asking for new yorkers to be on the lookout and to make sure that they're stopping the spread by alerting authorities that those that are travelling. the latest numbers on test and trait in the uk. they have said that 6923 people have tested positive the coronavirus had a case transferred to the contact tracing system in the third week of this system being up and running. they are saying that test and trace identified 30,286 has close contacts of possible cases. of these, 24,734 people, 81.7% were reached and asked to self—isolate.

they say that 1791 people, 25.9%, could not be reached by test and trace. we know that in the past, they were also struggling to get to about a third of the people, but those are the latest numbers just out now. the uk housing secretary, robertjenrick, is facing mounting pressure to resign after he released emails and texts relating to a decision to grant planning permission to a £1 billion housing development in east london. mrjenrick‘s decision to approve the scheme, which was later rescinded, came the day before a local infrastructure levy would have added tens of millions of pounds to the cost of the project. the developer, richard desmond, subsequently donated £12,000 to mrjenrick‘s conservative party. both men have denied breaking any rules. let's take a closer look at the timeline of events between robertjenrick and richard desmond. the pair first met after sitting next to each other at a conservative

fundraising dinner on the 18th of november last year. robertjenrick admitted they exchanged phone numbers. and in a series of texts mrjenrick said, "good to spend time with you tonight, richard. "see you again soon, i hope." two days later, a meeting was arranged for december. on that same day, mr desmond sent a text in which he referred to a new infrastructure charge that was being introduced by the labour—run council of tower hamlets. the charge would have added millions to the cost of the proposed project. mr desmond's text said "we don't want to give marxists loads of doe for nothing". 0n the 15th of december, robertjenrick texted richard desmond to cancel their meeting — as he needed to be in parliament for the queen's speech. 0njanuary the 9th this year, the housing secretary urged approval of the £1 billion housing development. five days later, mrjenrick overruled a planning inspector and gave permission to build on the westferry site. a day before a new infrastructure levy would have cost the developer an extra £40 million to build in london's poorest borough.

0n the 29th of january, richard desmond donated £12,000 to the conservative party. the planning permission was rescinded on 22nd may after towers hamlets accused robertjenrick of bias in his decision over his relationship with richard desmond. 0ur assistant political editor norman smith is at westminster. many of the front pages here are piling on the pressure and pressure from the opposition as well on this. striking, really, because this has been rumbling away now for several weeks, was already controversy, simply by the fact that here you have a conservative housing secretary giving the go—ahead to a hugely controversial housing development in the teeth of opposition from the local council, the planning inspector and the developer behind the project, yes, just happens to be a wealthy tory donor. it was already hugely controversial. what is added to that controversy is the release of all

these documents by mrjanuary, which he clearly hoped would put an end to the matter. far from he clearly hoped would put an end to the matter. farfrom it, because we now learn thatjenrick the matter. farfrom it, because we now learn that jenrick and the matter. farfrom it, because we now learn thatjenrick and mr desmond had a comfortable relationship whenjenrick desmond had a comfortable relationship when jenrick should have been ensuring that he had nothing to do with mr desmond as he was the applicant further this planning development. instead, we learned they had each other‘s mobile phone numbers, they were swapping texts, they were talking about maybe even arranging a site visit to have a look at the scheme. secondly, we learn, thatjenrick had been told by officials, no, don't let this project go ahead. and yet, he chose to override them. and thirdly and perhaps most importantly, we learn that mrjenrick wanted to have the project fast tracked. to make sure that it's got the green light before mr desmond might have had to face a whopping great bill from tower

hamlets council running into tens of millions of pounds. it all, frankly, looks bad. does it prove wrongdoing? not yet. but, in the eyes of public opinion, i think many people will be surprised at the way this is now playing out, albeit this morning, the business minister insisted nothing wrong here. robert jenrick actually promised a select committee he would publish everything around this decision. he himself has said, look, with the benefit of hindsight he might have done things slightly differently. he doesn't think that he was biased in any way, but the perception of bias that allowed this to happen was the reason that robert pulled this application and allowed another minister to determine it. in the messages you just read out, interesting, two words. 0ne, viability, and the other, social housing, and robert wanted to see both things actually happen. more social housing being built, more housing being built,

and a viable development. so, will so, wiler so, will mrjenrick have to walk the plank? perhaps not now, at least borisjohnson has clearly indicated that he still has confidence in housing secretary, he says there is need for an enquiry. amongst tory mps, you don't sense any groundswell of opinion that he has to go, that he has become toxic. that's now, but we will have to see how this develops. thanks very much indeed, norman. we can speak now to labour's shadow housing minister, mike amesbury. nothing specific in terms of wrongdoing has been proved here, has it? it certainly has. the crux of the matter is that actually, the secretary of state was taken to the high court, a judicial review, and he knew he wasn't going to be found

in his favour. he has admitted apparent bias, he broke the law. look, the rules apply to everyone. we have had dominic cummings and now we have the secretary of state mr jenrick. we can't have one rule for the elite few and then rules and indeed laws for the rest of us. well, he hasn't admitted, he hasn't admitted bias, he says very clearly in those text messages that he didn't want, there shouldn't be any impression of undue influence, that was the essence of the message you are sending. yes well, following his report, i'm sure you will check what was said in the course documentation. apparent bias. that was in the high courtjudicial review. so, not only broke the rules but certainly unlawful and unlawful determination for the billion pound development. but very importantly, you have mentioned the timeline there, some interesting language

about, we want to avoid the marxists in the town hall receiving thisjoe, i think you put. actually, thatjoe come up to £50 billion, provides extra production like schools, surgeries, schools, cycling past. the poorest communities in the uk, it's one of the poorest in the uk. this is scandalous. it takes is right back to cash for questions. this is cash for favours. labour does want to see affordable social housing. ultimately, mrjenrick didn't benefit personally from this at all. so what ultimately has gone wrong? again, i will repeat that in the high court, this was apparent bias, so it was an unlawful planning

direction. that is a very important point to get out there and also, in terms of the ministerial code. we expect high standards in public life. the rules apply to everyone and as an ex councillor, i'm speaking to you as an ex councillor, i know when it comes to planning which is semi—judicial, you step away. so if you're in a major fundraising exercise for the conservative party and coincidentally, property developer happens to sit next to you, coincidentally with three of the executives, coincidently £12,000 appears in the tory coffers just a few weeks later. coincidentally, are planning direction which is unlawful is made a day before the community infrastructure levy comes in. coincidentally, the requirement for affordable housing he has tried to negotiate down from 35% to 21%, you know, so it's less affordable housing, less social housing and

there are serious questions left unanswered, and he has come back to parliament and explain himself. do you think you should resign? that's a matter of a prime minister. the prime minister's track record on that one with dominic cummings is not great. look, this is about maintaining standards in public life and people are sick and tired of one rule for a select few, and elite view and a roll and laws for everybody else. mark sedwill has said that there won't be an enquiry and the prime minister so far has given mrjenrick his backing. well, the cabinet secretary is following the cabinet secretary is following the instructions of the prime minister, believe me there are u na nswered minister, believe me there are unanswered questions and we will be pursuing this every step of the way. many thanks, labour's shadow housing secretary there. the metropolitan police say they are investigating a large

public disorder event which began overnight in south london. 22 officers were injured, although none seriously, and four people were arrested on assault and public order offences in the clashes in brixton. it happened near the angel town estate. unverified images on social media appear to show police cars and other emergency vehicles being damaged by crowds. the met police have released a statement. these gatherings are unlawful, as well as posing a risk to public health and against coronavirus restrictions. the violence shown towards officers is totally u na cce pta ble and we will not tolerate it in anyform. an investigation into the incident is now taking place and those involved will be brought to justice. earlier our reporter sean dilley has been following the story. there were crowds in the street around cecilia road, in the lambeth and brixton area. when officers turned up, they described the crowd turning hostile against them and needing to bring in reinforcements. the crowds can be seen by some of that unverified footage posted to social media, being very hostile in fact, throwing things towards officers.

police vehicles being damaged, the metropolitan police have indeed now confirmed that those... that there were a few vehicles that were damaged. two of the 15 officers who were injured had to be taken to hospital as a result of their injuries. we know that the police chiefs council guidance is that people should engage in the first instance. it was a mass gathering. apparently, the crowd didn't respond to that so they used something called a section 35 dispersal order, just an authorisation to clear the area. at that point, it really did take a turn for the worse, we can see on social media from the unverified footage some of those scenes. but, some people were apparently goading others on as they were smashing police cars and throwing missiles toward police lines. could vladimir putin stay in office until 2036? well, voting has begun in russia on constitutional changes which would allow him to do so. if the public back the measures, mr putin could rule for another 16 years. voting began a few hours ago — because of the coronavirus outbreak, it will continue into july. the pandemic seems to have had

an effect on mr putin's popularity, as our moscow correspondent sarah rainsford explains. coronavirus hasn't helped with that at all. certainly some of the independent polling here has suggested that mr putin's approval rating is down to around 59%, which of course in a western democracy might not sound too bad, but it's not great for vladimir putin. and i think he's aware that things aren't going to get better here, particularly economically. the impact of coronavirus and oil prices are all having an effect, notjust on the economy but on the public mood. so i think that's why the kremlin's so keen for this vote to happen now. otherwise you might wonder why on earth hold a vote in the middle of a pandemic. mr putin already postponed this vote from april. it was supposed to happen towards the end of april. it's happening now. and in fact because of the pandemic it's been spread over an entire week instead ofjust one day, so there is early voting beginning today. people can head to the polling stations across the country from today, but the big final day

will be onjuly the 1st. but i think what the kremlin really hopes for this vote is that it can get as many people to turn out as possible, because this is really a vote where mr putin wants the legitimacy, the mandate, of a big turnout, people coming out in force to approve many changes to the constitution, including this key one which would allow him to stay on until 2036. german authorities in the state of north rhine—westphalia have reimposed lockdown restrictions in two districts after a spike in coronavirus cases. more than half a million people have been affected. one area is home to a meat—packing plant where more than 1,500 workers have tested positive to the virus. 0ur correspondent gavin lee is in the german city of munster. the source of the outbreak is this company called tonnies, one of the biggest in germany. it is a place called gutersloh, and that whole region is now one of two in lockdown, as you said, nearly

half a million people. tonnies reported turnover of about 7 billion euros a year, slaughters 30,000 pigs a day, and has a workforce of 7,000 people, mainly migrant workforce from bulgaria, poland, romania —1,700 of them have caught covid—19. now, the workforce and the workers' accommodations are clustered together, high—rise flats and terraced houses as well, it is literally fenced off and under police guard right now. they are under strict quarantine, they cannot leave their premises, and what that means is you have local volunteers that we saw with trolleys bringing in basic food for the next few days because people can't leave. we heard many people shouting that they wanted to leave to go back, for example, to bulgaria because they have children there, they said, that they weren't getting paid from the company and they needed to get back to help the family. there are more questions, scrutiny on the company, as to what went wrong here. charities including caritas have accused the company of exploitation of workers, of ignoring social distancing rules.

and video has emerged all over german media, david, of workers appear to be cheek by jowl sat together without any masks, any precautions, but the company have denied any wrongdoing, they have denied the exploitations. they do acknowledge, they say, full responsibility for this outbreak and have apologised. around 2,000 managementjobs are being cut at the uk's royal mail. the delivery service announced the restructuring in order to save £130 million in staffing costs next year. the company has reported a 31 percent fall in annual profits and says it will also reduce capital spending by £300 million across the group during the next two years. earlier we heard from our correspondent sean farrington who explained a little more about the cuts. not surprisingly, royal mail are saying this morning that the impact of covid—19 has meant they are having to cut costs quicker than they previously thought. they say this morning that 2000 jobs will be going, that consultation will start today.

half of senior leaders will be included in that, so that is 2000 managementjobs. we are not talking about the postal workers that many of us will see day to day in our lives. the chief executive of royal mail is saying this morning that the business as a whole has not adapted as quickly as it should have done in the uk in recent years anyway, falling letter volumes and increasing parcel problems has been a problem for royal mail and that has been exacerbated by coronavirus. even fewer letters and parcels becoming more dominant in that business so they will start a consultation on that today and they are the latest in a long line of businesses as almost every week we talk about a big company announcing major job cuts from british airways, bp, rolls—royce, jlr, it's getting into the hundreds of thousands when you tot up the job losses. and royal mail are the latest to say that 2,000 jobs will be going.

morbidly obese patients are twice as likely to die from covid—19 than those who are not overweight, according to research by public health england. campaigners say the pandemic should be seen as an opportunity to help those living with the condition. fiona trott sent us this report from the north east of england, which has the highest number of obesity—related hospital admissions in the country. it was a bit frightening because i thought, what is the correlation between obesity and covid—19. you start listening to the reports and you hear that people overweight are more at risk and then you think, how serious the pandemic is. we know obesity is strongly associated with deprivation, so it's no surprise that the north—east which has high levels of deprivation has also got high levels of being overweight and obesity. a first walk alone during this pandemic. michelle knows she is at risk and has been afraid to go out. during lockdown, she has also gained weight, and that worries her. this is the furthest i've been

from home, by myself. it's been very hard getting fresh fruit and veg at the supermarkets. it's a lot better now, but at the beginning it was very difficult. my husband would go and do the shopping to get items and having to go down the next day, but it's a lot easier ordering takeaways. plus with my stress and anxiety i do a lot of comfort eating, but i know it's got to stop. it's got to stop. michelle is not alone. the north—east has the highest rate of obesity—related hospital admissions in england and almost a quarter of children starting secondary school are obese. ben used to weigh 20 stone. i never really know what time i'm going to getting, so it dead easy to pop in and get a chinese meal or pop into the fish and chip

shop. he lost weight through a fitness programme at sunderland football club. the pandemic makes him want to lose more. i think it's got to make you think about your lifestyle changing and things. with the pandemic, it has changed me in a way that i never thought i would change, but i have. and being locked in the house is horrendous, so i think the exercise was an excuse to get out of the house as well. helping people lose weight is something a local nhs trust is trying to do. it was so concerned about obesity it appointed a specialist consultant in public health. obesity is complex, so so many factors go into it, notjust the clinical aspects but the social and environmentalfactors which mean the nhs, the hospital on its own, can't address this problem and it really needs everybody going in the same direction, so that is central government but also the nhs, the local authority, the communities themselves all working together towards it. hi, caroline, how are you? but campaigners say the government

hasn't done enough. two years on and nothing has done and these policies have been left to languish and are no closer to becoming reality and in the meantime, the number of children and adults living with obesity has increased. and they should really be a catalyst now for the government to finally step up, take some action and create an environment that makes it easier for everyone, adults and children, to be healthier. the department says it is working with local councils to tackle child obesity and has made huge progress already by cutting sugar from half of all drinks on sale. being vulnerable to covid—19 has changed michelle's outlook. coming out of the pandemic, i feel the future, for me, is positive, it's bright. i will lose weight. my grandkids are still young and i want to be there a long time for them.

today on bbc news, we're looking at how the coronavirus pandemic has affected the film industry and the future of cinema. let's speak to one of india's biggest names in film production, siddharth roy kapur. he's also the president of the producers guild of india. he's produced many major bollywood films and his production company, roy kapur films, has recently bought the rights to william dalrymple's bestselling book, the anarchy: the relentless rise of the east india company. thank you forjoining us today. we will come onto the east india company ina will come onto the east india company in a moment if we can. can you hear us? yes, absolutely. watching indian movies down the year, there are lots of crowd scenes, i imagine everything has stopped, has it? yes, ithink scenes, i imagine everything has stopped, has it? yes, i think the last three months notjust upended every production in india but i

guess around the world too. there has been no question of any production going on whatsoever but there have been some guidelines that we have managed to put in place going forward. of course, there will be very stringent safety conditions, very stringent protocols which will have to be maintained. and i dare say we will have to really learn as we go, because it is a new normal and if we do intend to start production it needs to be completely keeping the priority the safety of the cast and crew. how can you realistically do that? because obviously the numbers are very, very high still in india, when i open to get up and running again?m high still in india, when i open to get up and running again? it is a great question. i think the idea really would be to take baby steps, the smaller units are the ones i dare say would start first. and really more contained, one set

shoots, social—distancing can be maintained in that situation. you have fewer people in front of the camera as well and it is a group of people who are staying together for a long period of time on one unit and therefore have the ability to keep within themselves to some extent. the larger shoots, it will ta ke extent. the larger shoots, it will take some time. it will not be something that starts immediately while safety protocols and shooting guidelines are in place. i think producers are looking into various aspects, be it the safety protocols on set and how maintainable they are, and also the fact that insurance is going to be a very key pa rt insurance is going to be a very key part of everything and i think the global insurance industry needs to figure out how it will react right now. are you worried about the future of the bollywood industry as a whole? i think if you look at things long—term, there is nothing to worry about. people want and need entertainment, we have seen the incredible rise in tv viewership and

platforms over the long—term. so it isa platforms over the long—term. so it is a given that art and artists are going to be required even more so if not at least as much as now. i think the question is what it will be like in the next few years until we either find in the next few years until we eitherfind a cure or in the next few years until we either find a cure or vaccine. in the next few years until we eitherfind a cure or vaccine. until that time i think we willjust have to be able to figure out how to adapt to the new conditions, but you know, there is no option but to be optimistic and keep chugging along and hoping that there will be a brighter tomorrow. and in that time if we start shooting in a safe and manageable way then we will do that and keep learning as we go. moving onto yourfilm, and keep learning as we go. moving onto your film, the and keep learning as we go. moving onto yourfilm, the rights and keep learning as we go. moving onto your film, the rights you and keep learning as we go. moving onto yourfilm, the rights you have but covering that east anglia company, it feels very topical given the challenging of historic notions and colonial rights and the slick history of the british empire here,

when are you hoping this film will come here? —— will come out? when are you hoping this film will come here? -- will come out? we are looking at a series because the scope and vastness of the topic would really be justified scope and vastness of the topic would really bejustified by scope and vastness of the topic would really be justified by a series rather than a feature film. you are right it is us topical as it could get, a time when we are talking about the power of giant corporations and the ability to control mines and nations around the world what could be more fitting than the story of a smallest trading start—up for more than 200 years ago? most people are pretty amazed at the fact that the raj in india began in 1857, until then it was run bya began in 1857, until then it was run by a trading company. there are wonderful characters, scale, lots of entry and drama and it is all true. we don't even need to make it up. so it is very, very exciting. something ido it is very, very exciting. something i do believe will have global

resonance in something it die will be working on very enthusiastically over the coming months. —— something my team and i. if you ask over the coming months. —— something my team andl! if you ask me, i think it's important for people to learn history but when you put up a statue of someone, you are giving respect to the achievements of the person in making a statement. which is what statues do and i think it's important as we go along in history to revise that assessment of certain characters who might at one time have seemed to us how to work but in the light of history it is quite clear we are not and therefore a statue really does commemorate the life and i think it's important to acknowledge which lives are worth celebrating and which are not. coming back to india right now it has one of the highest number of cases in the world, perhaps

inevitably because of the sheer density and scale of the population size, are you confident state governments, the national government are governments, the national government a re really governments, the national government are really equipped and doing all that they can? it is a massive struggle, isn't it? sure. i'm definitely not an authority on it and therefore will not be able to comment with any more than an educated opinion, but i do think eve ryo ne educated opinion, but i do think everyone is trying their best. it has hit the world in a completely unexpected and surprising way. we have seen the most advanced economies around the world struggling to cope with it, you are right, a country like india which has been, it has a population that we do, with obviously the infrastructure which are not that of other nations around the world, i think so far we have done an admirablejob think so far we have done an admirable job on the scale as well as population of the country. we are just hoping we are able to get through it. interact best of luck, i know everyone will want to see all

those movies out there. the australian airline, qantas, has announced plans to cut 6,000 staff from its workforce, as a response to falling business during the coronavirus pandemic. it also said it won't be flying its airbus a380 fleet for up to 3 years. the chief executive of qantas, alanjoyce, said there were no other options. we have to position ourselves for several years where revenue will be much lower and that means becoming a small airline in the short term. but the collapse of billions of dollars in revenue leaves us with little choice, if we are to save as manyjobs as possible longer term. many of the 6,000 job losses we have announced today are people who have spent decades here. they are people we know personally, they are people that we have known for a long time.

separate to the 6,000 job losses, about 15,000 people will remain stood down for some time. people from whom we have no work but we will have work for them in the future. let's get some of the day's other news. testing for covid19 is being stepped up in the australian state of victoria, following a fresh outbreak of the disease. 1,000 troops are being deployed there to help with testing, and to monitor quarantine programmes at hotels for returning travellers. human trials have begun of a second british—made covid—19 vaccine, with about 300 people to be given the jab. imperial college london, where the vaccine has been developed, says if it works and is safe, there could be enough doses to immunise 40 million people in the uk by next year. three men in the us state of georgia have been formally charged with the murder of ahmaud arbery, a young black man who was shot dead in february while outjogging. his case went largely unreported, until video emerged of the killing

more than two months later. relations between israel and the palestinians have been strained in recent weeks, after israel announced plans to annex parts of the occupied west bank. the decision led to both sides stopping co—operation on many security and civil matters, including medical travel permits. and the palestinians say that is now putting the lives of hundreds of people at risk, as yolande knell reports. crying. myra's in constant pain. cancer has blinded her in one eye and the tumour is spreading. she needs an israeli permit to leave gaza for specialist surgery abroad. but the palestinian office that should help her is no longer working. "she is my daughter, not a dog, she is a child," her mother, mariam, says. "where are the children's rights? the human rights?"

last year, it was crowded when we visited this cancer centre at a palestinian hospital in eastjerusalem. today, each empty seat represents someone who could not get here. palestinian leaders have stopped cooperating with israel because of its plans to annex land they want for the future state. but when it comes to medical care, that is leaving their own people suffering. anyone coming for treatment from the west bank or gaza has got to have israeli permission and security clearance. those from gaza, which is ruled by hamas militants, face the tightest restrictions and hospitals there lack equipment and drugs. without the palestinian authority making the connection and paying the bill, hundreds of people are stuck. but in this children's ward, there is some positive news. 0sama has leukaemia.

this doctor and the team here worked around the clock to bring him from gaza with his mother, but they cannot do that for every patient. i spent two hours talking to many people to explain how it is critical and life—saving for this child to reach this hospital, so it is not easy and i can say that if this child did not get this referral, he will die waiting for, you know... one day is critical for acute leukaemia. doctors say he now has very good odds of surviving. meanwhile, other palestinian patients like little myra remain unable to get treatment, caught up in the politics. yolande knell, bbc news, eastjerusalem. the surge on stock markets since april and the recent steep sell—offs have meant a roller coaster ride for the thousands of private investors trading at home.

interest in day trading has been booming, with people cooped up at home with time on their hands and no shortage of apps allowing them to buy and sell via smartphone. it's caught some wall street professionals by surprise, as samira hussain has been finding out. did you ever imagine that you would get interested in trading stocks? no, never. kelly works in the film industry but once a covid—19 hit her home in new orleans, she found herself out of work and with a lot of time on her hands. after playing a video which involved buying and selling fictitious items, she thought she would try her hand at the stock market. i'm not trying to make money, and trying to spend my time because i have nothing else to do. a recent survey showed 35% of americans have exposure to the stock market, but much of that is through retirement and investment accounts, managed by professionals. a new range of apps and no—fee trading options is making it easier for everyday americans to buy stocks themselves.

professionals here on wall street, well, they haven't been so receptive to these newbie investors, especially those who were able to take advantage of the big plunges on financial markets earlier this year. many institutional investors didn't invest in march and april, at the height of the covid lockdown. we tell investors shove their way in and have made large returns on this market which is great for them but frustrating for wall street professionals and frankly, they don't like it and they want to say it's a sign of rational exuberance, when really it wasjust intelligent picking of a market bottom. eric sutherland is using money he would normally spin going out with friends to trade on the stock market. he is also new to day trading and is not at all surprised wall street does not like it. they don't want us to trade ourselves, they want us to give them money so they can trade and make money with it. so of course they're going to be against it. right now, i have the time to be

on my phone all of the time, i'm constantly watching what's going up, down. doing new research and everything but when i go back to work, no! that's the real mystery. will these new investors stop actively trading once life gets back to normal? or will the pandemic have made a fundamental change to those who play the markets? the headlines on bbc news... questions over coronavirus antibody tests. they're being rushed out, according to a group of doctors. new york, newjersey and connecticut have asked people travelling from states where covid—19 cases are rising to go into self—isolation for 14 days. the uk housing secretary is under pressure after documents reveal his close relationship with a conservative party donor, whose housing scheme he approved against the advice of his own officials. representatives of the uk's 40,000 driving instructors are calling for driving lessons to resume. other than emergency training

and tests for critical workers, tuition and tests have been on hold since the start of lockdown. tim muffet reports. over the past 12 years, chris bensted has helped hundreds of people pass their driving test. now he's being driven to despair. i never knew it could be this bad and we're just not hearing anything, so what we need, we need information, we need some kind of guidance so that we can plan. there are more than 40,000 approved driving instructors in the uk, the vast majority are self—employed. lessons and tests have been stopped. so too have incomes. what should have been done better, do you think? if we knew where we were, instructors could have gone out and done some work, found jobs and at the moment we can't do that, and most instructors have been hanging on. i don't think it could get

much worse than this, we'rejust given nothing and i think we will lose many good driving instructors. joe is 19 and has cerebral palsy. lessons in his adapted carare banned. he can't book a test. living in a rural area, the public transport is not accessible, and both my parents work so this means that until i pass my test, and have driving lessons to pass my test, i will not be able to get out and have a sense of independence. my future and my career, is on hold and it's quite scary and daunting and my confidence has probably gone quite downhill. throughout the pandemic, driving instructors have been able to give lessons to key workers, providing they've already got a test booked, but for some that's raised even more questions. is it ever safe to give a driving lesson or not?

we'll do whatever we feel we can with regard to sanitising and wearing masks, but even some of the insurance companies have questioned the safety of wearing a mask to be able to communicate, especially when there is background noise. sasha works in a care home. as a key worker she was offered a driving test, but couldn't get to it. the only centres that were offering it were london, birmingham and i think it was manchester, so you have to get to it. i don't obviously drive, we don't have a car in my household, so it's, like, public transport is the only choice, but then we are told only go via public transport if you really need to. i'm currently a half—an—hour walk from my workplace but as a drive, it's probably, like, five minutes and it would just make it easier i could probably take more earlies if i could drive because it's only a couple of minutes up the road. the driver and vehicle standards agency oversees tests and tuition in england, scotland and wales. it told the bbc...

meanwhile, a plea from the organisation that represents driving instructors. i would like to urge parents and pupils to not try and negate the need for a driving instructor because you're so worried about the risk of being in their car, because what we don't want to do is create the other public health risk of improperly trained candidates going to the test centre and maybe, just maybe, getting through the driving test on mum and dads training, but that's not we're supposed to be preparing them for here, we're supposed to be preparing them for a lifetime of safe driving. for now, instructors and learners are stuck waiting for the green light. tim muffett, bbc news. now, you might not be able to be physically at glastonbury this year but that doesn't mean you have to go without. we're all used to doing things virtually now and this is no exception. the v&a is hosting a week—long celebration of the festival

let's speak to katie bailey who's curator of theatre design and scenography at the v&a. thank you forjoining us. the weather is perfect, of course, for glastonbury at the moment. what will people be able to see if they sit on their garden and look online at the v&a website? we have really celebrated our archive, we are the custodians of the glastonbury archive so you will be able to look on the website and look at items from the collection, everything from backstage material to photographs, tickets, to performances, playbills and we also have lots of additional content which will you of the festival, we have some soundscapes that were recorded by gareth at the festival which really take you into that sonic experience of glastonbury and might trigger some memories. there's some fantastic activity you can do, the younger audiences we have let's make wednesday's caecum create a festival look and add tab a spot of five playlist we really want

you to engage and hear your memories as well. how big is glastonbury and how important is it at the moment? it is 50 years, five decades of performance, it has been a mirror to so performance, it has been a mirror to so much change from the origins in 1970 when it was a festival forjust 1500 people, tickets were a pound and we can see that change so it is hugely significant in terms of how it has mirrored social and political change, and music over the last 50 yea rs change, and music over the last 50 years and has paved the way for festival culture we know and love across the world. what are the musical highlights were particularly drawing on for this? we'd like you to suggest your music, so there are many, to suggest your music, so there are any to suggest your music, so there are many, many references through the photography, from david bowie's

performance back in 1970 and again in 2000 right up to storm the on the pediment stage in 2019, all things we're pediment stage in 2019, all things we' re really interested pediment stage in 2019, all things we're really interested in and the bbc will be running simultaneously lots of archive performances. so if you have a memory triggered by these performances, they will be shown across the bbc channels, we would love to hear your memory. real shame for everyone missing out this summer he maybe had tickets booked. the use thank they will really be able to get something from this that they cannot just by listening to get something from this that they cannotjust by listening to the music was not i think we're all learning to experience things actually. 0f learning to experience things actually. of course it is such a shame there not the live on—site experience this year but i think it will be phenomenal to look back on the archive and we will all be able to experience and remember those

moments and wonderful that so much of glastonbury is about watching it from home anyway so great we can do that and we can add additional kind of co nte nt that and we can add additional kind of content and narrative to that. thank you very much. good luck with it. as the hot weather continues, people are being urged to take care in the sun. the uk expected to see record levels of uv radiation with temperatures are expected to reach a high of 34 degress in london. let's speak to our weather presenter nick miller. is its completely boiling already? we know it is a very hot day already, a very sunny day as well. i have stepped out of the sheet into the sunshine to talk to you right now about these remarkable for that uv for the uk levels which are taking place today. normally something you would get out on a very hot day on a mediterranean beach, not what you would normally see in the uk. severalfactors feed

into that at the moment. we're just passed the summer solstice which was on saturday so the sun is directly above us at the middle of the day taking its shortest route through atmosphere to reach us so the uv radiation. we would also expect ozone high in the atmosphere to absorb a lot of this uv radiation before the gets was but it normally goes down in the winter and spring, ozone levels and its exceptionally low after the winter and spring, mainly due to natural factors, another thing which is going on here. and then something else and thatis here. and then something else and that is the lockdown we have been through and of course reduced air traffic and road traffic and pollution in the atmosphere which may normally scatter or reflect some of suv radiation getting to us which is not there so all of these things combined means we have this remarkable for the uk and quite widely across the uk very high levels of uv radiation so we have to protect ourselves against that when we are going out, trying to enjoy

this weather, particularly the lighter skin will burn very quickly so lighter skin will burn very quickly so of course it is sunscreen, wear a hat, stay out of the sun at the hottest pa rt hat, stay out of the sun at the hottest part of the day and perhaps don't do what a lot of us do which is to sit outside for about 15 minutes and think it's hot i am starting to burn i will put sunscreen on. that is the wrong way around, we do not want to do it that way so around, we do not want to do it that way so we around, we do not want to do it that way so we want to stay safe and enjoy what is this summer heat before of course the thunderstorms arrive which is what is coming next. i think we have all got to enjoy it whilst it's there, but be careful. thanks so much and enjoy it whilst you are out there. we have had some more statistics we revealed earlier on testing and tracing numbers. this week's data shows that 70.3% tested positive for coronavirus were reached by the contact tracers here and asked to show details. 81% of close contacts we re show details. 81% of close contacts were reached and asked to self—isolate and that was about

24,700 for, compared with 90.9% in the previous week. the nhs test entry the previous week. the nhs test e ntry syste m the previous week. the nhs test entry system updating us there. this is bbc news. now it's time for a look at the weather with matt taylor. hello, there. exceptionally strong sunshine and heat and humidity will be more widespread across the country, it will peak today, if you're not enjoying the heat or sunshine, things look fresher and wetter this weekend. this afternoon, temperatures more widely into the 30s across england and wales and in scotland, the likes of glasgow and aviemore, could get close to around 30 celsius. i mention the sunshine, it is exceptionally strong across the south, levels close to record—breaking i think for some southern parts of england and wales, as strong as it would be in southern spain which means a short amount of time before damage is done to your

skin. lots of sunshine around for most of you, heavy thundershowers in the western isles of scotland, cropping up in the south—west later but through this evening and overnight they will develop more widely across the west, could be torrential in places, large hail and gusty wind, one or two developing elsewhere as we continue with the humid conditions tonight into tomorrow morning like this morning, one or two of you waking up to temperatures to start the day at around 20 celsius. as i have entered, tomorrow will be a day of change. things will gradually turn fresher but to get there we will see some hit and miss torrential thunderstorms. in pointing where they will be is always difficult but we are likely to see some across western scotland to begin with and then break out elsewhere across the country during the day, mainly south west to north—east but some of you will miss out on the songs altogether and stay dry. it will turn fresher in the west, temperatures dropping a few degrees relative today, still humid in the east and still the potential for 30 degrees across parts of east anglia. beggar change comes friday night

into the weekend, low pressure will circulate to the north—west of us, bands of rain sweeping around that and fairly gusty winds. introducing atla ntic and fairly gusty winds. introducing atlantic air, sweeping away the humid conditions we have had, a fresh start to saturday, all of us will see rain at times, a bit drier across the south, more persistent rain later on northern england in scotla nd rain later on northern england in scotland and northern ireland but temperatures not into the 30s any more, high teens for many and low 20s in the south and east. that fresher theme continues into sunday, showers for northern ireland, northern england and north and west wales, drier the set further south you are but temperatures much lower for all of us, 15 in glasgow, 20 in london.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. questions over coronavirus antibody tests in england. they're being rushed out, according to a group of doctors. in the united states — new york, newjersey and connecticut ask people travelling from states where covid—19 cases are rising to go into self—isolation for 14 days. the uk housing secretary is under pressure after documents reveal his close relationship with a conservative party donor, whose housing scheme he approved against the advice of his own officials. police in south london say 22 officers have been injured following violence at an illegal street party in brixton last night. russians vote on new constitutional reforms which could see president putin stay in power for another 16 years. around 2,000 management jobs

are being cut at the uk's postal service royal mail in a bid to save £130 million in staffing costs next year. warnings over safety on what's set to be the hottest day of the year in the uk. ultraviolet rays from the sun could reach record levels. hello and welcome if you're watching in the uk or around the world — and stay with us for the latest news and analysis from here and across the globe. i'm geeta guru—murthy. we start with the coronavirus pandemic here in the uk — where a group of 14 leading scientists and academics has criticised the decision to roll out mass covid—19 antibody testing in england. in a letter to the british medicaljournal, they say the tests,

which establish whether someone has been infected, are unable to prove immunity from coronavirus and offer "no benefit" to hospitals and care staff. it adds that they have been rolled out without adequate assessment. public health england said all tests had been "extensively validated" by the manufacturers. 0ur health correspondent naomi grimley reports. immunity remains one of the big mysteries of covid—19. even if you know you have antibodies, does that mean you're actually immune to the virus and can you still transmit it to other people? sharp scratch. antibody tests are already proving popular and last month the government said it had bought 10 million to be used on nhs england staff as well as some patients who are having their blood taken and want to know if they've had the virus. but in a letter to the british medicaljournal, 14 senior academics question the wisdom of doing that. they're worried both about whether the tests have been properly assessed and whether it's

a good use of resources, given that there are still so many unknowns. there are lots and lots of problems with these tests. the first is they haven't been properly validated and we've got very little data and understanding of what these tests actually mean. these tests are for research and they don't actually tell you, as an individual, whether you are safe or not. in response to the bmj letter, public health england said it believed its evaluation of the tests was to a high standard. the department of health said that antibody testing will play an increasingly important role as we move into the next phase of our response to this pandemic. naomi grimley, bbc news. new york state — for a long time the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic in the us — has announced it will quarantine arrivals from other states experiencing a surge in infections. and they're not the only ones. neighbouring states

new jersey and connecticut are taking the same measures, after bringing their outbreaks under control. eight states will effectively be cut off from much of north—eastern america — including economic powerhouses texas and florida. all of them are in the south and south—west, and all have posted record spikes in infections in recent days. david willis reports. new york, newjersey and connecticut were initially among the worst hit by the coronavirus, but recent weeks have seen a fall in the number of covid—19 cases there, and in an effort to keep the virus at bay, the three states are imposing a two—week quarantine on travellers arriving from some other parts of the country. eight states are included in the quarantine order, some of which, like texas, arizona and florida, have seen a dramatic increase in coronavirus cases in recent days after lifting lockdown restrictions. this virus is risky enough on its own in terms of the potential

to flare back up, so doing something common—sense as this is to say to folks, listen, it's time for personal responsibility. if you've been in a state that has a high infection rate, do the right thing, and that is taking 14 days and self—quarantining. it's the right thing to do, it's the common sense thing to do, it's the responsible thing to do. new cases of covid—19 in the us have risen to their highest levels since april. some southern states that were swift to lift their lockdowns have since seen massive spikes, with thousands of new cases being reported every day. what we're seeing in florida is really rapid transmission in that 18 to 34 age group, and you're seeing a lot of cases come up. and granted, they weren't being tested at this level a couple of months ago, but i also think they're testing positive at a higher and higher rate, so clearly you have a lot

of spread there. i stand before you today... president trump says coronavirus cases are on the increase because america is doing so much testing, and although some state governors are saying they may be forced to introduce new measures to combat the spread, the white house continues to insist the virus is going away. nobody is talking in some of these states about going into another economic lockdown and creating a pandemic within a pandemic, but we are in a much better situation now than we were previously in terms of dealing with the pandemic. meanwhile, the university of washington is forecasting that the number of deaths caused by the coronavirus in the us could reach 180,000 by october. currently that figure stands at around 122,000. david willis, bbc news, los angeles. so how do diferent states within the us compare, and which areas are seeing the largest surge in infections?

as you can see from the from this data, there's a sharp divide between regions. it's the southern and western states seeing a steep rise in infections. arizona on wednesday reported almost 1,800 new infections, that's down from the record 3,600 on tuesday. florida also reported a daily record of 5,500 new cases. it brings the state's total number of confirmed infections to over 100,000, with 3,281 deaths. texas on wednesday also reported a new record daily number of over 5,500 confirmed cases — it follows a warning that new restrictions may be needed. by contrast, new york, which at one point had the most daily virus cases, recorded just 581 new cases on tuesday after testing more than 51,000 people. the metropolitan police say they are investigating a ‘large public disorder event‘ which began overnight in south london. 22 officers were injured, although none seriously,

and four people were arrested on assault and public order offences in the clashes in brixton. it happened near the angel town estate. un—verified images on social media appear to show police cars and other emergency vehicles being damaged by crowds. let‘s talk more about this now with the national chair of the police federation of england and wales, john apter who joins me from their headquarters in leatherhead. do headquarters in leatherhead. you have any more d what do you have any more details about what has happened here? well, the information is still coming in, i know that a number of officers have been injured and whilst we say non—seriously, thankfully, to have had to go to hospital. this, in london alone, we have seen about 250 police officers injured over recent weeks, that‘s just unimaginable numbers. 250 police officers in one force, but last night, the scale of

this order and the targeting of my collea g u es this order and the targeting of my colleagues is an absolute disgrace. we are reaching the point where, it is only through fortune that my collea g u es is only through fortune that my colleagues are not being more seriously injured or in fact killed. that‘s how bad it is getting in certain parts of the country. it‘s com pletely u na cce pta ble certain parts of the country. it‘s completely unacceptable and something has to be done and i have to say, some of the vilification of policing in this country by some mainstream media has been really unprofessional, unfair and it paints a target on my colleagues back. it‘s really tough, policing is a really difficult at the moment with the crisis that were in with the pandemic. we are starting to move towards an easing of the lockdown, which is going to create its own special pressures, not in a good way, for policing and the wider nhs, but this is just wrong, what is happening to our colleagues, my colleagues, police officers who are

trying their best in the most difficult of circumstances. and yet, no matter what we do, we are damned if we do, damned if we don‘t. if we are too soft, we are criticised and thenif are too soft, we are criticised and then if we go in order, we have criticised more. it really is a difficult situation for policing at the moment, not only in london but across the whole country. when you savour the occasion, what are you talking about specifically? why do you think it is getting harder? why it is getting harder, 2018 into 2019, we have seen 30,000 police officers be assaulted to varying levels. 85 police officers a day on average. that is getting worse and worse, so average. that is getting worse and worse, so the violence on our streets against police officers is certainly increasing. and i talk about the vilification, we have seen in some media outlets were police officers are being accused of murder, murdering people, and things have gone through due process. some

cases have not even gone to you —— but gone through due process, it is being discussed on social media and mainstream media. that gives people, when we are not able to correct that ina timely when we are not able to correct that in a timely way, that gives people a sense of anger and frustration and i understand that there is a lot of frustration at the moment, a lot of angen frustration at the moment, a lot of anger, not only because of what has happened overseas, but also because of this pandemic that we have been in with the restrictions that have been placed honours, and all of us, and it is created a pressure cooker. my and it is created a pressure cooker. my colleagues are having to deal with the brunt of that and it is getting more and more difficult and asi getting more and more difficult and as i say, somebody is going to be killed and nobody wants that. we have to start communicating with our communities, our communities have got to understand that this is absolutely not the right thing to do. and if we do see large—scale disorder like this, there has to be

a consequence. we need to be putting some of these people in prison where they belong because this is not a cce pta ble they belong because this is not acceptable at any level. 0k, chair of the police federation, thank you very much indeed. the uk housing secretary, robertjenrick, is facing mounting pressure to resign after he released emails and texts relating to a decision to grant planning permission to a £1 billion housing development in east london. mrjenrick‘s decision to approve the scheme, which was later rescinded, came the day before a local infrastructure levy would have added tens of millions of pounds to the cost of the project. the developer, richard desmond, subsequently donated 12—thousand pounds to mrjenrick‘s branch of the conservative party. both men have denied breaking any rules. let‘s take a closer look at the timeline of events involving robertjenrick and richard desmond. the pairfirst met after sitting next to each other at a conservative fundraising dinner on the 18th of november last year. robertjenrick admitted they exchanged phone numbers. and in a series of texts mrjenrick said: ‘good to spend time with you tonight richard. see you again soon i hope‘. two days later, a meeting was arranged for december.

on that same day, mr desmond sent a text in which he referred to a new infrastructure charge that was being introduced by the labour—run council of tower hamlets. the charge would have added millions to the cost of the proposed project. mr desmond‘s text said "we don‘t want to give marxists loads of doe for nothing". 0n the 15th of december, robertjenrick texted richard desmond to cancel their meeting — as he needed to be in parliament for the queen‘s speech. 0njanuary the 9th this year, the housing secretary urged approval of the £1 billion housing development. five days later, mrjenrick overruled a planning inspector and gave permission to build on the westferry site. a day before a new infrastructure levy would have cost the developer an extra £40 million to build in london‘s poorest borough. 0n the 29th of january, richard desmond donated £12,000 to the conservative party. the planning permission was rescinded on 22nd may after towers hamlets accused robertjenrick of bias in his decision over his relationship with richard desmond.

0ur assistant political editor norman smith is at westminster. how much pressure is there now on robertjenrick to go? how much pressure is there now on robert jenrick to go? mrjenrick tried to clear the air last night by releasing these documents, it seems to have had precisely the opposite effect because of what has now emerged in what has emerged is that actually, mrjan rick and mr desmond had a pretty pali relationship. they had a pretty pali relationship. they had each other‘s mobile numbers, they shed texts, they were talking about arranging a site visit. we also learned that mrjenrick overrode the advice of his own officials who said, don‘t give this project of the thumbs up and we learn that he fast tracked approval, thereby ensuring that mr desmond did not get hit with a massive big tax bill, which is why labour are now saying it all smacks of tory sleaze.

the labour leader, keir starmer is demanding an enquiry. it is now got to the stage with the prime minister'sjudgments, to the stage with the prime minister's judgments, he says to the stage with the prime minister'sjudgments, he says the matter is closed, but it is far from closed. there are discrepancies, jenrick initiated conversations. we need to see the full disclosure, we wa nt need to see the full disclosure, we want straight answers from this. public do as well, they can tell that something is straight answers, full disclosure and an investigation. let's have the full disclosure, let's have those answers, but the cabinet secretary should look at it. but the idea that the public don't know there is something wrong here is false. significantly though the, there has been no rumblings on the tory backbenches of tory mps saying, you know what, his position is untenable, he will have to go. so, that may help mrjenrick and

certainly listing to the business minister seems to be a rallying round at the moment. robert jenrick actually promised a select committee he would publish everything around this decision. he himself has said, look, with the benefit of hindsight he might have done things slightly differently. he doesn't think that he was biased in any way, but the perception of bias that allowed this to happen was the reason that robert pulled this application and allowed another minister to determine it. in the messages you just read out, interesting, two words. so, willie go? perhaps not now, borisjohnson has pretty much said, nothing to see here. but, this story has been coming out in drips and wraps and there may be a way to go yet. norman smith at westminster, thank you very much. could vladimir putin stay in office until 2036? well, voting has begun in russia

on constitutional changes which would allow him to do so. if the public back the measures, mr putin could rule for another 16 years. voting began a few hours ago — because of the coronavirus outbreak, it will continue into july. the pandemic seems to have had an effect on mr putin‘s popularity — as our moscow correspondent sarah rainsford explains. coronavirus hasn‘t helped with that at all. certainly some of the independent polling here has suggested that mr putin‘s approval rating is down to around 59%, which of course in a western democracy might not sound too bad, but it‘s not great for vladimir putin. and i think he‘s aware that things aren‘t going to get better here, particularly economically. the impact of coronavirus and oil prices are all having an effect, notjust on the economy but on the public mood. so i think that‘s why the kremlin‘s so keen for this vote to happen now. otherwise you might wonder why on earth hold a vote in the middle of a pandemic. mr putin already postponed this vote from april. it was supposed to happen towards the end of april.

it‘s happening now. and in fact because of the pandemic it‘s been spread over an entire week instead ofjust one day, so there is early voting beginning today. people can head to the polling stations across the country from today, but the big final day will be onjuly the 1st. but i think what the kremlin really hopes for this vote is that it can get as many people to turn out as possible, because this is really a vote where mr putin wants the legitimacy, the mandate, of a big turnout, people coming out in force to approve many changes to the constitution, including this key one which would allow him to stay on until 2036. the uk‘s environment secretary has told parliament that outbreaks of covid—19 at three meat processing factories in england and wales are thought to be linked to canteens and car—sharing schemes. george eustice said the government will issue new guidance to plants to try to stop further spread. we suspect that these outbreaks might have been linked either to

canteens or, potentially, to car sharing arrangements in those plants. we will be revising guidance to ensure that businesses have the approach that they need to prevent further outbreaks. it‘s not the only outbreak linked to the industry. in germany, europe‘s largest meat processing plant suffered a covid—19 outbreak which led to around 7,000 people being quarantined. a british trade union, unite, is calling for more support for workers at meat processing plants. regional official, brian troake, is with us. and tobias wienke is a journalist based in germany. thank you both for your time today. why is there an apparent problem here? we have heard from the government that they are putting it down to car sharing and canteens here, but is there a bigger explanation that we can see? if i could start with you brian. through

speaking to our international colleagues, the meat processing sector is by far affected by the cold, humid environments and recycled air and largely metallic work surfaces and the places. but in no doubt in my mind this was caused by the zero social distancing that has been implemented in the processing areas. we have been asking since day one for social distancing to be adhered to and also for that risk to be mitigated by implementing physical barriers between people. 0hta slow the production lines down to allow social distancing between people. u nfortu nately, social distancing between people. unfortunately, these proposals have fallen on deaf ears are so far and employers are reporting a 40% upturn in productivity and that is coming at the risk of our members and the companies are putting profits over people. tobias, is there any evidence there to try and explain what is happening in a meat

processing plants? not real evidence, but rumours because it might be because of the working conditions, as the colleague said, they work very close together, there is no chance of social distancing and they have to work heavily, they have to breathe heavily and this might raise up the infection of covid—19. plus, the conditions of the workers are very very bad. if they get sick, they have to pay some fees to their supervisors so that they can stay longer in their flat and that is why if they feel sick, they don't stay at home or in quarantine, so they went to work still when i feel sick and... brian, the government believe this is linked to canteens and car sharing schemes and we did see some images inside a place where people were eating, it wasn‘t clear when that was filmed but the whole structure seems to need a close look. yes, and

the video from the canteen from this plant was filmed at the beginning of april, so even when the so—called lockdown had already started and so the video happened when already people should be doing social distancing, so yeah, it depends on it, and when it started with some diseases in meat factories weeks ago, the german minister of employment said that they have to look out and take care of their workers and change all of this contracts that happen there and change the laws, so now all of this stuff is coming into focus. it does certainly play a part in terms of the car sharing and canteens, but it isa the car sharing and canteens, but it is a small part. the vast majority, we need to consider here, is our members do not get company sick pay,

through no fault of their own. they are being forced into self isolation and having to survive. we must remember that these are forgotten key workers, they are some of the lowest pa id key workers, they are some of the lowest paid people in society. they don‘t have savings to fall back on. it is socially irresponsible of the employer is not to fund a company sick pay scheme at this time. i have survey the membership, 65% of our members are reported going to work on well because they cannot afford to self—isolate. that is appalling. it is about time these companies started doing right thing. and, tobias, he was saying some of the rules in germany may have to change. will governments have to do... they will be pressure on governments now to guarantee the food supply chain and guarantee health care and bringing tighter regulations on companies across europe. the pressure on germany here is rising because it is the barbecue season right now, people want to eat meat and now they get, they start

thinking about where does my mates come from question mark why is it so cheap? all of this stuff that has been known for years is in focus now and there is pressure to change contracts. brian, these things all have a cost, so who should bear that? should it be a companies or the governments? i would suggest the companies in the first instance, these are large conglomerates companies with huge turnovers of billions of pounds. lots and lots of healthy profits to be used but they are choosing not to share that with their workforce and they are putting profit over people and it is socially irresponsible. nobody should have to take that horrendous choice between their own health and hardship and unfortunately our members are being confronted with it everyday. tobias, what is happening germany has led to a wide shut down in those areas, politically, what is the pressure light on the authorities as a result of this

because germany so far as had one of the best records on controlling the numbers. one big pressure on politics right now is the people that live there that don't work in a factory, they can't go on holiday now. the holiday season starts tomorrow or next week, people that live there even if they don't work ina live there even if they don't work in a factory, they'd can't go on holiday in germany in some places. they have to go back and cancel their holidays and that's why the pressure really rises up because people want to go out and want to go on holiday and now they can't, and thatis on holiday and now they can't, and that is why pressure is rising very much. ok, thank you very much both of you. the eiffel tower has reopened more than three months after france went into lockdown. measures are in place to keep people 1.5 metres apart and the number of visitors will be limited to comply

with social distancing measures. anybody over the age of 11 will have to wear a face mask. now it‘s time for a look at the weather with matt taylor matt taylor has a look at the weather for it is all, it will be lovely for most of us. hello there, exceptionally strong sunshine today and a day in which heat and humidity will be more widespread across the country, but it will peak today, if you are not enjoying the heat or the sunshine, things are fresher and wetter this weekend. certainly this afternoon, temperatures widely into the 30s in england and wales and in scotland, the likes of glasgow and aviemore could get close to around 30 celsius as well. but as i mentioned, the sun shines exceptionally strong across the south, levels close to record—breaking fur some parts of england and wales, the sun is a strong as it is in the south of spain. that means it is a short

amount of time before damage is done to your skin. lots of sunshine around, a bit more cloud and heavy thundery showers in the west of scotland, if few cropping up in the south—west this evening. this evening and overnight, developing overnight, torrential in places with hailand overnight, torrential in places with hail and gusty winds. 0ne overnight, torrential in places with hail and gusty winds. one a to developing as we continue with humidity tonight and tomorrow morning. 0ne humidity tonight and tomorrow morning. one or two of you will be waking up to temperatures at around 20 degrees tomorrow. but, as i hinted, tomorrow will be a day of change. things will gradually turn fresher but to get there, there will be some hit and miss torrential thunderstorm is. pinpointing exactly where they will be as difficult but we are likely to see some across western scotland and then breaking out elsewhere across the country during the day, mainly going through south—west and north—east, but there will be quite a few of you who miss out on storms altogether and stay dry, but they will turn fresher in the west, temperatures dropping a fair few degrees relative today. still humid and ease and still potential for 30 degrees across

parts of east anglia. bigger change comes through friday night and into the weekend, low—pressure circulating to the north—west of us, bands of rain sweeping around that and some fairly gusty wind. introducing atlantic air, sweeping away the humid conditions that we have had so a fresh start on saturday, all of us will see rain at times, a bit more in the way of dry weather across the south, more persistent rain late on, northern england, scotland and northern ireland, temperatures not in the 30s any more, mid to high teens for many, low 20s for the south and east. that fresher theme continues into sunday, the most persistent rain will be in western scotland, showers in northern ireland, northern england, north and west wales, dry the further south you are but all of the same temperature is much lower, 15 in glasgow, 20 in london.

hello this is bbc news. the headlines. questions over coronavirus antibody tests in england.

they‘re being rushed out, according to a group of doctors. new york, newjersey and connecticut have asked people travelling from states where covid—19 cases are rising to go into self—isolation for 14 days. the uk housing secretary is under pressure after documents reveal his close relationship with a conservative party donor, whose housing scheme he approved against the advice of his own officials. the met police says 22 officers have been injured following violence at an unlicensed street party in south london last night. around 2,000 management jobs are being cut at uk delivery service royal mail in a bid to save £130 million in staffing costs next year. we will go to ephedra in a moment because nicola sturgeon will be giving her daily coronavirus briefing. we know that borisjohnson here has stopped the uk government briefings this week but nicola

sturgeon obviously also carrying on and we have had some more figures on test and trace. from the new nhs service. let‘s see how scotland figures are updating now. good afternoon everyone. i will start as i always do with the statistical update on covid—19. an additionalfive statistical update on covid—19. an additional five positive cases were confirmed yesterday which takes the total number in scotland to 18,000 196 which is the second day in a row in which the number of new cases has beenin in which the number of new cases has been in single figures and to put that into context, the last time that into context, the last time that happened, was march 11. that is a sign of how far we have, and the progress we have made. a total of

826 patients are currently in hospital with a virus either confirmed or suspected. that is 54 fewer than yesterday and includes a reduction of 17 in the number of confirmed cases. a total of 18 people were in intensive care last night with confirmed or suspected covid—19 and that is five fewer than the number reported yesterday. and since fifth march, a total no of 4034 patients who had previously tested positive and required hospital treatment have now been discharged from hospital. in the past 24 hours, two deaths were registered of a patient who had been confirmed through a test is having covid—19 and that takes the total number of deaths under that measurement now to 2482. as i always do and as the numbers reduce i think it‘s important to continue to do this. i want to emphasise again that these numbers are notjust

meaningless statistics. they represent individuals whose loss is a source of grief to many people. and therefore i want to again send my deepest condolences, notjust to family and friends of the two deaths, the people who die too i reported today but everyone across scotla nd reported today but everyone across scotland who is currently grieving asa scotland who is currently grieving as a result of this illness. and again, today, because there are people across this country who continue to go above and beyond the call of duty, that clearly includes health and care workers but many other key workers across the country continue to do so so my grateful thanks with all of you for the incredible work you tenure to do. later this afternoon, we will publish as we do every thursday, the latest estimate of the r number which as you will recall as the average number of people that would be infected with covid—19 by one infected individual. last week we estimated it was in the range of

0.6- 0.8 estimated it was in the range of 0.6— 0.8 and you will recall the ems to keep it below one. our modelling work suggests this week —— our aim is. it remains in 0.6 — 0.8 so continues to be under one. we also expect our estimate for the number of infected people in scotland will have fallen further, will be published in the report today. last week we estimated on the previous friday 2900 people were infectious andi friday 2900 people were infectious and i expect today‘s estimate will show that now to be around 2000. all of these figures demonstrate again the progress we are all collectively together making in the fight against covid—19. and they are the reason why as i gave some more detail obviously we are now able to make some further changes to the lockdown restrictions and give greater clarity about our likely path out of lockdown in the weeks to come.

although i must stress that all of the indicative data i give yesterday continues to be dependent on continued progress against the virus so continued progress against the virus so that we keep it and get it to the lowest possible levels. all of that is good news and i know people across the country are anxious to get back to normal. i know i am. i will not be alone there. businesses are obviously anxious to open up and start trading again. all of that is extremely understandable. but it must also be accompanied by an understanding of the risks that we still face by ongoing vigilance and bya still face by ongoing vigilance and by a collective determination on the pa rt by a collective determination on the part of all of us to do what is required to reduce these risks. my main worry right now is that we start to believe that the virus has gone away. and that it no longer poses a risk and as a result, we all drop our guard poses a risk and as a result, we all drop ourguard and poses a risk and as a result, we all drop our guard and simply go back to life exactly as it was before we

we re life exactly as it was before we were dealing with this epidemic and that would be a mistake. and it is a mistake that would be very costly. at every stage we need to remember that the virus has not gone away and it is very, very unlikely to simply go away of its own accord. there are places right now elsewhere in the world, some states in the usa for example, and parts of australia, that look as if they are already dealing with a resurgence of cases. so my plea to everybody today and this will continue to be my plea for some time to come, is please do not forget that the virus is still out there and it is still highly infectious. and if we give it the opportunities to spread again, if we allow it bridges from one person to another, that it can jump across, it will take those opportunities in a flash. and a resurgence in cases could force us to postpone the reopening plans or even reimpose some sections as places elsewhere in

the world i just some sections as places elsewhere in the world ijust mentioned are already having to consider. so we must take care and we must adopt the right mitigating measures at all times. that continues to be essential in some of the basic hygiene measures i will come back to at the end of my remarks are actually more important for us all to comply with now than they had been at a previous stage when we we re been at a previous stage when we were all in the main staying at home. all of that is relevant to the first of the two items i want to update on this evening before i hand over to the cabinet secretary and then the chief nursing officer. i gave a statement in parliament yesterday many of you will either have watched or caught up on since announcing some indicative provision announcing some indicative provision a changes oh dates or changes to lockdown measures that will be happening during july and the latest stages of phase two and then phase three. i want to remind you of the changes we announced last week which will come into effect on monday.

from monday onwards, some indoor workplaces which have so far opted to remain closed such as factories, la bs to remain closed such as factories, labs and warehouses can start to reopen again. nonessential offices and call centres though must remain closed at this stage. workplaces that are reopening should apply strict physical distancing and must comply with all other aspects of health and safety guidance. the vast majority of employers have been aged remain responsible throughout this crisis and i am sure they will continue to be so and i am extremely grateful to them for that but i would remind workers that if you genuinely think you are working conditions are unsafe you do have rights under employment with legislation, particularly if you have a trade union and have concerns about your conditions you should speak to them. from monday, outdoor playgrounds and outdoor sports courts will be able to reopen. 0utdoor businesses like zoos and garden attractions can also reopen however for the first few days until we hopefully left this guidance at

the end of next week, you should not be visiting them unless you live within around five miles of them. and within these places are ticketed, tickets should be bought in advance. restrictions on moving house will be lifted on monday, updated guidance on that was issued two days ago. registration businesses for marriages and civil partnerships can be permitted but will have to take place outdoor with limited numbers. finally on monday, retail premises of all sizes can reopen if they have outdoor entrances and exits, outdoor markets can also reopen, indoor shopping centres will remain close except for access to essential shops like supermarkets and pharmacies but we hope they will be able to reopen on monday the 13th july. shops that are reopening on monday and that will be the vast majority of shops that have been close up until now, must ensure appropriate physical and hygiene measures are in place and we will

update guidance tomorrow. i will say more about that tomorrow when i will also visit a shop preparing to open to see for myself the steps they are taking. i also want to stress that there is a responsibility here on all of us as customers as well as on retailers. i want us all in the weeks ahead to support the retail sector. to support shops as they try to get back to normal. but we must all shop responsibly. the experience of shopping is going to be a bit different and there will be times when retail staff asked us to follow rules that had not previously been in place and it is vital we listen to them and follow the advice they give and to treat them with respect as they do the jobs that they are there to do. and please everybody with a facemask and that will help to protect shoppers and staff and when others wear a face covering they will be helping to protect you too. finally i will touch on to listen briefly. later this afternoon

the first meeting of our two dozen recovery task force will take place, co—chaired by the tourism minister and the business minister. it will bring together more than 30 people with expertise and experience of across the whole two dozen sector andindeed across the whole two dozen sector and indeed the whole country. the task force will look at a number of pressing issues, for example how we promote the steak asian market for domestic tourism, —— stay vacation market. and looking at the funding support available to two dozen businesses, including whether there are gaps in that support. we know the vital importance of tourism to communities across scotland. it‘s important to our economy but tourism is also part of how we sell ourselves to the world and we have such a great reputation. we are already doing a lot to support the tourism sector through our business support measures and i hope the gradual reopening of the sector during july will give some measure of hope for the future but we do

know just what a serious blow of hope for the future but we do knowjust what a serious blow could virus has been and we will do everything we can to help recovery. let me end now by simply highlighting our key public health messages. again, iwill highlighting our key public health messages. again, i will make the point that as you hear me report figures every day that show progress going firmly in the right direction, and when you hear a lot of discussion about restrictions being changed and lifted and you hear some people exposing opinions that we should be lifting the restrictions more quickly, it might be tempting to think that we can all relax more and get back to normal more quickly. and you might start to think that the rules don‘t matter as much. but we are only able to change restrictions now because so many of us restrictions now because so many of us have stuck to the rules and we will only be able to continue this progress if we continue to do so. and these rules now basic hygiene measures as i said a moment ago are much more important as we start to

go out and about and into that more with each other. so, remember right now you should still only meet up with other households outdoors and only two other households at any one time. only go indoors in somebody else‘s house if you are going to use a toilet or get through to a garden and you should make sure you clean any surfaces that you touch as you do that. the public health campaign relaunched last week, summarising the key points you need to remember. face coverings should be worn in enclosed spaces like shops and public transport. they are mandatory on public transport and we are still considering that for shops. avoid crowded places even as places open up crowded places even as places open up and you are able to go to different places. do not go to places that occurs because that poses a higher risk. clean your hands and have surfaces regularly. to meet a distancing remains the rule and self—isolate and book a test if you have symptoms of covid—19. if all of us remember

these five basic measures and if all of us comply with these five basic measures, we are reducing the ability of this virus to spread between one person and another and one household and another and in that way we are all playing our part in staying safe as individuals, protecting others and saving lives. my protecting others and saving lives. my thanks to all of you for doing all of that. please continue to do it. i will hand over now to the health secretary who has got a word or two to say about care homes and then the chief nursing officer will say a few words too. thank you very much, first minister. currently and for some time, only essential visits to care homes have been permitted. now i know that these necessary restrictions that were placed on ca re restrictions that were placed on care homes and the pores are normal activities and routines have been both difficult and at times distressing. people living in care homes, for their loved ones and for the staff. the decision to restrict visitors was not taken lightly. it

was informed by scientific and clinical advice and was taken to protect those living and working in ca re protect those living and working in care homes and visitors from the risk of infection. significant progress has been made and we have seen progress has been made and we have seen improvements in the number of ca re seen improvements in the number of care homes with ongoing infections. to the extent that we can now see a phased return, a cautious phase to return to visiting in care homes when and where it is clinically safe to do so. today we have published detailed guidance to support that phased return to visiting and communal activities in care homes. a ca re communal activities in care homes. a care home will be able to permit visiting if they have had no covert covid—19 . residents will be able to receive

visitors from outside for an single nominated visitor who will be required to wear a facemask for the duration of the visit and for physical distancing, hygiene and other appropriate safety measures in place. the detailed plan and the guidance has been produced by the ca re guidance has been produced by the care home clinical and professional advisory group which is a multidisciplinary group, chaired by members of the chief medical officer and the chief nursing officer is director it's. it is crucial that we do this incremental and proceed with caution, to protect residents and staff. when the scientific and clinical advice is clear that it is safe to do so, then we can consider gradually opening up further visiting options. in all of this, our care homes will be supported by the local nhs health protection team. i know that this will be important and! team. i know that this will be important and i hope welcome news for family and friends with loved

ones in care homes. i know how long you have been waiting to see them. but i also know that you will understand our caution. when the evidence shows that it is the right time to move to the next stage of the plan, we will provide you with an update. and for those in hospital or in other health care settings, i am pleased to say we are also working on a phased reintroduction of visiting there and i hope to be able to share details with that next week. finally, let me take the opportunity to thank everyone for their patients and their understanding and to a care home staff for all they have done to promote the well— being staff for all they have done to promote the well—being of those they support during what has been a very challenging time. thank you, i will hand over now. as the first minister and cabinet secretary have said, we have ta ken a and cabinet secretary have said, we have taken a long time and it has been hard in terms of decisions that

have been made, to keep people safe. clearly, the tragedy and sadness of people passing away and the grief that has left their loved ones is something that some of us share, but many of us don't. what we have all shared however is the way that our lives have changed because of covid. nobody has been left untouched. our health and shows staff have worked tirelessly to care for people who had covid but those who needed emergency care or shielded population who needed care at home. they have done that willingly and seen they have done that willingly and seen it as a deep privilege. however it has been incredibly hard and they have made personal sacrifices to be able to do that. as we are into this next phase, society is beginning to have choice where errol sold assisted at, only go there was little in the way decisions we had to make and what i

am asking people to do be purposeful in what you were now doing. clearly public transport wearing a face in covering if we're looking at facts is mandatory. but what i would say to people as there are those who are travelling either to see a relative or travelling either to see a relative ora travelling either to see a relative or a loved one, who needs them, or probably more likely to go to work who need to use public transport. so when you are wearing that mandatory facial covering on public transport nature your journey is facial covering on public transport nature yourjourney is essential and similarly when you are shopping within a face covering, that does not substitute for the two metre rule. we well only keep this virus in retreat if we follow the rules and that then means respecting essential shop workers and staying to metres away from them and also from our fellow shoppers. avoiding crowded places is so incredibly important so lifting and easing lockdown does not mean to say that people can be reckless and see more

than the designated number of people they are supposed to see even outdoors, we have to be careful and practice catchment purposeful in what we do. so we should or seeing the more people outside then we should. people have been desperate to see care home, people in care homes. that could be lost if people are not thoughtful in what they are doing. in terms of cleaning, when you come in from outside, always nature your door handles and hands are washed or gelled and any surfaces you do touch, try and avoid them. make sure that you wake them down. the two metre distance as i have talked about in terms of avoiding crowded places is so fundamental and essential and that is the advice we have at the moment. we should not believe because at times that's not always possible perhaps in public transport, passing people it is

acceptable, to do that, because when you reporting and people are self isolating reporting to our test and protect system, that they feel u nwell protect system, that they feel unwell or symptoms, they will be asked for who they are contacted be and the surest way of not being named as a contact is to keep following the rules so that you can live your life in a bit of a more free—form over the next few weeks but more importantly, to remember those who have gone above and beyond the call of duty, essential workers and front line staff but also those who have been shielding or have been in care homes and have not managed to see loved ones. many in society have found this incredible difficult. please follow the rules, make sure that we do look after each other and honour those who have had greater sacrifices than your own and continue to be purposeful and thoughtful about the everyday

actions. thank you. i will go now to questions. the first today is hazel martin for bbc scotland. thank you, first minister. on the subject of ca re first minister. on the subject of care homes, we have heard from a woman today who is sister has bipolar, is shielding due to another condition and has barely left her ca re condition and has barely left her care home room for 14 weeks. she is in no way critical of the care home staff but is very worried about her sisters mental health. they want to know what effort will be made to assess and provide support and treatment to those who have been isolated in care homes and what support will be available for their families who are often even more traumatised by the separation?” will hand over to the health secretary who will answer that in detail. a general comment from me. i absolutely understand how difficult

this is for relatives of people in ca re this is for relatives of people in care homes and indeed people in care homes, that isolation, being separated from loved ones and not having the interaction that all of us having the interaction that all of us in care homes and otherwise find so us in care homes and otherwise find so vital to our quality—of—life, i wa nt to so vital to our quality—of—life, i want to remind people that none of this has been done lightly. for no reason, and therefore we have to be very careful as we left these resections in future. not so long ago, legitimately, at these briefings, they were dominated by questions about whether we had done enough and were doing enough to protect people in care homes. so as we come out of this crisis, hopefully stay out of this crisis, we also have to take care just as we had to take care going into it and that will be the principle that drives these decisions we take but i will hand over to the health secretary to give a bit more detail of what we were doing about some of these issues. thanks very much, first minister. i completely understand the challenges and distress at times people have felt

because of these measures which were absolutely necessary. that clinical and professional advisory group i mentioned earlier that has worked so ha rd to mentioned earlier that has worked so hard to devise this phased introduction of visiting into care homes with the conditions i described is also currently working on support and guidance for residents in care homes in terms of rehabilitation, both in mental and physical well—being and a particular focus on those who suffer from dementia. all of that work is under way and the group itself involves ca re way and the group itself involves care home providers as well as scottish care, it involves some of our prominent third sector organisations in this area, alzheimer‘s scotland as well as significant clinical advice from a range of different but relevant

professions. as that advice is worked through, and the guidance is produced and supporters need available, to care homes, it will be communicated to care homes and talked through with them about what they can do with their residents as we slowly and gradually ease some of these restrictions to address specifically their physical and mental rehabilitation. std. in a -- stv. the letter says why is it important to wear a facemask on public transport but not classrooms? does he have a point? everyone who prioritise a safety has a point and

anyone who has listened to me over the last three months on a daily basis well know that safety issues are not matters we should compromise or take undue risks on. in school... studio: nicola sturgeon giving the latest briefing on numbers seeing five cases have been confirmed in the last 24 hours and the first time nicola sturgeon has said the figure has been at that level since march, two deaths have been registered since yesterday and the first minister said her main worry is that people might think the virus gone away. now it‘s time for a look at the weather. todayis today is the peak of the short lived heatwave. pretty u nco mforta ble today is the peak of the short lived heatwave. pretty uncomfortable for many through the afternoon. hot and humid, lots of strong sunshine and very high uv levels across the south

of the country. into this evening, changes across the west, perhaps some showers or thunderstorms across the south—west and these could merge together to produce clusters moving northwards overnight as parts of wales and the irish sea and northern ireland into south—western and western scotland by the end of the night some could be torrential, very heavy rain, perhaps frequent lightning. some areas stay dry, very warm, muggy and uncomfortable night for sleeping for most of us. big changes heading into friday. the air destabilises as pressure moves in, bringing increasing threat of hit and miss torrential thunderstorms. those from the word go across western scotland through the morning, some move across england and will see the morning and then spotted downpours and thunderstorms into the afternoon. difficult to see where but if you catch when they will be torrential, large—scale perhaps in frequent lightning. some areas stay dry, temperatures not

quite a sight tomorrow, stilled anyone, feeling quite humid. into the weekend, fresher conditions for all of us, belts of removing east to west, isobars close together will be quite windy, particularly the north of the uk for part two of the weekend. this is saturday, very different to the week for many others. cloudy skies, outlets of rain, there will be some sunshine, mean wind speeds, blustery day for all and temperatures high teens across the north, 21 or 22 across the south—east given good size felt. on sunday a similar story, windy in fa ct. on sunday a similar story, windy in fact. especially northern areas will see prolonged rain. further south, a few showers, sunny spells, it will feel more

coronavirus antibody tests are being rolled out too soon, say senior medics and scientists. the blood test can show whether someone has had the virus, but some doctors say it hasn‘t been adequately assessed. we can‘t really work out a good reason for this sudden "everyone can have an antibody test" rhetoric because it doesn‘t make sense. the government says the tests could be a game—changer — we‘ll get the latest from our medical correspondent. also this lunchtime: we may soon be able to holiday in much of europe and not have to quarantine when we return — new rules are just being finalised. 22 police officers are injured during an illegal street party in south london. it‘s another hot day for many of us — there‘s a warning to take extra