this is bbc news. my name is mike embley with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. a coronavirus warning: the leading american virus expert says case numbers in the us are going in the wrong direction. we are now having a0,000—plus new cases a day. i would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day. hong kong marks the 23rd anniversary of the former british territory reverting back to chinese sovereignty as beijing imposes a tough new national security law. the new research which suggests the virus can lead to strokes and long—term brain damage. hi, my name is kaitlyn. i am nine years old and i'm a figure skater. grace, poise and a message of hope:

the young skater capturing the hearts of millions on black lives matter plaza. hello. the democratic presidential candidatejoe biden has made a withering attack on donald trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. he said the president was in retreat with more than 126,000 americans dead and infections surging in many states. mr president, the crisis is real. the crisis is real, and it's surging, mr president. your promises and predictions and wishful thinking, pulled out of thin air, are not only doing the country no good, but making them lose even more faith

in their government. america knows this crisis isn't behind us, even if you don't. we need a president, mr president. a president who will level with the american people. a president who'll tell us the unvarnished truth. a president who'll take responsibility, instead of always blaming others. a president who'll listen to the experts, follow the science, allow them to speak. a president who'll lead, and be an example for the nation. wear a mask. keep your distance. limit the size of crowds. mr president, this is not about you. it's about the health and well—being of the american public. the country's top infectious disease expert, anthony fauci, has also warned that unless the us manages

to control the spread of the virus, the infection rate could more than double. we can't just focus on those areas that are having the surge. it puts the entire country at risk. we are now having a0,000—plus new cases a day. i would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around, and so i am very concerned. texas, which had been at the forefront of states peeling away restrictions designed to control the deadly pandemic, has witnessed one of the biggestjumps in new cases in the united states, reporting more than 6,000 on monday alone. the state has seen a record number of hospitalisations for 13 days straight. in galena park, about 12 miles from houston, there's a curfew in effect from 10pm to 5am to keep people off the streets. i short time ago, i spoke to the mayor of galena park, esmeralda moya, who told me about the measures she is taking to try to stem the number of cases.

the number of cases in houston are up to 47,1121, with 630 deaths. just in our city of galena park, there has been 43 new cases since june 1. the current numbers here in our city sincejune 30 at 4pm are 66 confirmed. we have averaged 7.6 cases a month in the first three months of this disease, and we are currently on pace to see almost six times that amount in a single month. every age group in the city has seen cases of this disease, from infants to 80 years of age and up. but let's keep in mind that this disease continues to be an issue. hospitals are seeing a large amount of patients and their capacity is filling up quickly. that's why i placed a curfew, because this is manageable. we're trying to keep the people out of the hospitals, and if people limit their interactions with people,

we may be able to bring back some of the curve. the new mask order and the city curfews will help, but it will require time to work, and for the people to stay home. the next two weeks will be critical and we can turn the numbers around. we have to remember that this is a disease that is really spreading through droplets, and when we have close contact, we need to remember to always, always wear a face mask, avoid large crowds and maintain good hygiene. we have to continue practising the social distance and stay home. so we're hoping the curfew will take care of those issues. we have implemented a curfew in the past and we have seen a steady pace in the number of cases, and i believe this will be helpful. and, mayor, it's very noticeable, of course, that you're wearing a mask

from the city of galena park. it also seems amazing, doesn't it, that wearing a mask has become a political issue, especially in a state such as texas. texans are texans — they don't like to be told what to do by anyone. what was it the governor said recently? "this is texas — we've got this." well, i've been blessed in my city that a lot of the citizens, they do want to play their part, and ifeel blessed because they are understanding the severity of this disease. and we can take care of other cities if we can't take care of ourselves. so we will continue to fight this disease, and it's very difficult to fight something you can't see, but we're going to do our best. i was looking at the figures. i know that something like 85% of your population are hispanic people. hispanic people, like african—americans, particularly vulnerable to this virus,

like also people living in some degree of poverty or deprivation. am i right that you don't even have a local hospital, and you only recently got a medical centre? well, we've been blessed that in 2016, we were able to bring a clinic that extends to a hospital here to our city, so we are working with them to bring testing in. and in terms of the nationality, i think this is a disease that doesn't discriminate, so we are working very hard to keep our individuals, our citizens, safe here. we're providing masks to every household here in galena park, we're having food drives, we're doing home deliveries to our home senior citizens and our citizens with disabilities, and we continue to work together as a community to move forward. hong kong's leader, carrie lam, has described a controversial new security law imposed on the territory by china as the "most important development" since britain handed back the city.

speaking at a ceremony marking the 23rd anniversary of the handover, ms lam called the law a "turning point" from what she termed chaos to being governed well. western governments have condemned the move as an unprecedented assault on hong kong's liberties and autonomy. beijing's new security laws are now a reality. many things seen until now as civil rights are now crimes, punishable by life in prison. pro—democracy groups are dismayed, many other countries are concerned, but china is insistent that its laws must be followed. john sudworth reports. this was the moment china tightened its grip on hong kong. the process itself spoke volumes. 162 votes in favour, none against, for a new law, the text of which was kept secret until after it was passed. this is what it is designed to stop. under the national security law, many of the acts

of protest that have rocked hong kong over the past year could now be classed as subversion or secession, and punished with up to life in prison. the legislation will not undermine... via video link to a un human rights council meeting, hong kong's pro—beijing leader said the law was long overdue. the question of how long we could tolerate such a gaping hole in national security has to be asked and answered. since lastjune, hong kong has been traumatised by escalating violence, fanned by external forces. when the uk handed over control of hong kong in 1997, china promised to safeguard the city's freedoms for 50 years. butjust 23 years on, the balance is shifting. a national security commission will be above the law. suspects can be extradited to the mainland. for beijing, a rising,

wealthy superpower, this is all meant as a show of confidence. it could, though, also be seen as the opposite. for a system built on denying people a voice, the resistance and dissent in that unruly city to the south presents a real threat. the impact has been immediate. activists like youth leader joshua wong have announced they are stepping back from politics. you've been arrested yourself... this protester‘s words are spoken by an actor. people will feel the fear. this will have a chilling effect on hong kong society. many people just stop talking about politics. with just a few hours before the law took effect, protesters in hong kong made their opposition known, a small, brave gesture in a city at risk of losing its voice. john sudworth,

bbc news, beijing. victoria hui is a china and hong kong analyst at the university of notre dame in indiana, as well as a hong kong native and author. she says she's extremely disappointed at the events. it's really horrifying, because in one go, beijing has killed hong kong. now, we should always remember that in 1984, when china signed its british joint declaration with london, the mood in beijing at the time was to reassure notjust britain, but also hong kong people and the rest of the world that — don't worry about china. don't worry that we're going to kill hong kong. everything will be fine. but today, essentially, while the law is named the security law, it really is meant to serve for the regime. it's to make hong kong safe for the ccp. it's a beijing security law. this is a big change. do you think there is anything — it is possible to do anything about it, really?

is any pushback possible? well, people are going to push back. we know that a lot of the activists already announced that they are going to continue with the annualjuly1 protest, which they've been doing every year during the handover ceremony. and on the other hand, though, today in hong kong, when people do this, they are going to be subject to charges of subversion. and the definition of subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion in this law, they are very, very loose. early on, the report suggested that beijing said this is really going to try and stop any violence in these street protests, except that the law will cover notjust violence, but any activity. incitement, provision of service, provision of materials, provision of training and financial support — almost anything can be seen as subversion of the regime.

but of course, we have seen many high—profile protesters backing out of their public role just in the last few days, deleting posts, as well. and china is such a power in the world, isn't it, economically and politically. the rest of the world's made very little difference to chinese policy in xinjiang or in tibet. can it really make much difference to hong kong? this is a very good question. china is doing this to hong kong. given what it has done to xinjiang, with the "re—education camps," and also sending people to these forced labour facilities, and also total domination and repression of tibetans, the world so far, the international community, has only issued verbal condemnation and not taken any action. and so, beijing was expecting that the world would continue to do this. i think that when boris johnson said that we're going to give a path to hong kong people born before 1997, a path to citizenship,

and also, the us has also revoked hong kong's special economic status, these actions really have taken by surprise beijing. but they are still betting that, 0k, they're basically all talk, no real actions. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: grace, poise and a message of hope: the young american skater who's captured the hearts of millions of people on black lives matter plaza. china marked its first day of rule in hong kong with a series of spectacular celebrations. a huge firework display was held in the former colony. the chinese president, jiang zemin, said unification was the start of a new era for hong kong. the world's first clone has been produced of an adult mammal. scientists in scotland have produced a sheep called dolly that was cloned in a laboratory using a cell

from another sheep. for the first time in 20 years, russian and american spacecraft have docked in orbit at the start of a new era of cooperation in space. challenger powered past the bishop rock lighthouse at almost 50 knots, shattering a record that had stood for 3h years. and there was no hiding the sheer elation of richard branson and his crew. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: america's leading virus expert issues a stark warning that cases are going in the wrong direction as infections soar in some us states. hong kong marks the 23rd anniversary of the former british territory reverting back to chinese sovereignty as beijing imposes a tough new, national security law.

authorities in ecuador have started using artificial intelligence to track people in the capital city, quito. there has been a rise in new coronavirus cases in parts of the city, which authorities hope to get under control. freya cole has more. it is like a game of trigonometry, measuring the distance between people. and if you are caught too close, authorities will be watching. translation: the software is being funded by the inter— development bank, used first and ecuador were coronavirus has infected more than 55,000 people. translation: we think roughly 90% of residents use a facemask and we do not know if they are used correctly, we can see out on the street and in many areas social distancing is not practised. it is just not being done. lockdown measures have

eased across ecuador but there are new outbreaks in parts of quito. translation: we are very concerned with the increasing infections in some suburbs of the capital. in co—ordination with the authorities, there are two be restrictions in the historic centre. unfortunately, thatis historic centre. unfortunately, that is where there has been an increase. the world health 0rganization says the virus is yet to peak across south america and one of the biggest fears is widespread complacency. we are still at an early stage of knowing the long—term effects of what the effects are of people who survived covid—19. although more than 10 million people around the world are known to have suffered from covid—19, we're still at a very early stage of knowing what the long—term effects of the virus

will be on those who survive it. 0ur medical correspondent fergus walsh has the story. paul milray will never be able to go diving again, but he feels fortunate to be alive. covid—19 first attacked his lungs and then caused two massive strokes. the 64—year—old has made an astonishing recovery, which doctors put down to his high level of fitness. i have four weeks of my life that is absent. i don't remember it. when i came round, i couldn't really get out of bed and i couldn't read anything, so i'm lucky in the physical terms. i've still got a bit of problem on the right—hand side, but it's minimal. i can read now, but it's tough. i forget what i've done. i've done something and then suddenly i forget what that is. so, paul, welcome to your cognitive rehab session. paul is not alone. in just two weeks, doctors at the national hospital for neurology in london treated six covid patients who suffered strokes, all triggered by unusually sticky blood.

this is the area that has been affected by the stroke, this is the acute stroke... after his first stroke, paul was put on blood thinners but despite that he suffered a second, even bigger stroke. to their surprise, doctors found clotting markers in the blood hundreds of times higher than normal. it's not the likes of anything we've seen before in stroke. certainly from a treatment perspective, certainly from the clotting factor perspective. i don't know if we exactly know, but something about this illness is causing a hyper clotability, causing clots in the legs, lungs and brain, like we've seen here. neurologists are also seeing covid patients with extensive inflammation of the brain, caused, they think, not by the virus but by the body's immune system overreacting to the disease. we were quite concerned that we are starting to see

effects of covid on the brain that we haven't seen before. for some people, it's going to be a devastating, life—altering illness and i think we need to be prepared for decades of impact on people's brains. and mental health. there's so much yet we don't know about how coronavirus attacks the body, but it's clear the brain is vulnerable. paul's recovery is exceptional, others are not so fortunate. fergus walsh, bbc news. borisjohnson has spelt out his hopes that innovation will play its part in an economic recovery from the coronavirus in creating new jobs and that innovation included the potential of a zero—emissions commercial aircraft. he also mentioned hydrogen technology for heavy transport and industry, but as our environment analyst roger harrabin reports, creating a hydrogen economy will present enormous challenges. is this the future of heavy transport? a lorry... ..a boat... ..a bus... ..evena plane?

all of these are powered by hydrogen. and what about this beast being put through its paces in the staffordshire hills? this too is running on hydrogen. the gas in the tank is mixed with oxygen in the fuel cell which makes electricity to drive the machine. the only exhaust is harmless, nonpolluting steam. this digger could be powered like an electric car, using batteries, not hydrogen. but they would be much heavier and slower to refuel. there are two zero—emission solutions to the future, batteries and hydrogen. we've lost the lead on batteries to china. let's not lose the lead on hydrogen. but germany is already racing ahead with hydrogen trains. a 15—minute fill—up gives 600 miles of travel. hydrogen single—deck buses

are already on the uk's roads. you might have been on one. now there's a double deck hydrogen bus. they're being built at ballymena in northern ireland, with potentially hundreds ofjobs. the hydrogen flows into the fuel cell. inside the fuel cell, the chemical reaction takes place. there are two main ways of producing the hydrogen in the first place. the main one uses fossil fuels. at plants like this, hydrogen is split off from natural gas, but it's costly and polluting. there's a lot of hype around hydrogen today, but virtually all hydrogen produced today is made using fossil fuels, and that brings with it all the problems of traditional fossil fuels. in other words, emitting large amounts of carbon emissions into the atmosphere and heating the planet. here's how hydrogen is made without carbon emissions. in the orkney islands, renewable electricity is used to split hydrogen from water — totally clean.

many see hydrogen as a key fuel of the future, but producing enough of it from renewables to meet the prime minister's dream of zero—carbon long—haul flying, well, that is a mighty challenge. roger harrabin, bbc news. easyj et easyjet is consulting on closing bases, extending to southampton newcastle airport. the airline announced it may reduce the airline announced it may red u ce staff the airline announced it may reduce staff up to one third because of the pandemic. unions say at least 1300 could use —— lose theirjobs. airbus plans to cut 15,000 jobs due to the pandemic, it will cut 1700 in the uk, thousands more in germany, spain and elsewhere. the area outside the white house in washington has been the scene of sometimes violent clashes recently but 9—year—old skater kaitlyn saunders saw something different.

for her, the road surface known as black lives matter plaza became a place to perform. she and her mother have been telling us about her inspiration. my parents were talking to me about the black lives matter protests, and i decided i wanted to do something. hi, my name is kaitlyn, i'm nine years old, and i'm a figure skater. i was in awe watching her skate across black lives matter plaza. i wasn't sure as a parent how much she really understood about what was going on in the world. we had talked to her about some of the things, but to see her think about how she was feeling and express yourself in that way, and put those into her skating was incredible. there's some messages that are coming in, saying that people are watching it before they start their day, before they get up — just to have hope for the day. so it's inspiring to us,

just the outpouring. well, there are thousands of thousands of comments, and they really make me smile. we went through it a few times and itjust got more powerful each time. and i think that the words "black lives matter" being written on the street while she was performing was definitely a game—changer. i asked her afterwards if the words were not there, would she have skated the same way? and she says she doesn't think she would have, because the words gave her the freedom and the power to kind of go all out. and the idea that people had been down there protesting, and the thought that she could have a voice in that was really powerful. nine years old! thank you for

watching. hello there. the rest of this week is looking fairly unsettled with pressure always a little bit lower. that'll bring showers through today, and also thursday, and on friday, we'll see another area of low pressure bringing some wet and windy weather to many of us. now, this is the weak area of low pressure i was talking about. across the country today, it's a weather front bringing more persistent rain to start the day across parts of central southern scotland, northern ireland and the far north of england. this tending to break up into showers, which could turn out to be heavy into the afternoon. england and wales may see the sunshine breaking through that cloud — all that'll do is set off some heavy, maybe thundery showers. temperatures reaching the high teens, low 20s in the south, but a chilly feel to things across northern and eastern scotland and northeast england

with a northerly wind here, so, temperatures at best around the mid—teens celsius. looks like the showers will tend to merge together to create longer spells of rain across southern scotland, northern england, the midlands, and northern wales during wednesday night. it'll be milder in the south, further north with some clear spells with single figure values. again, it'll be chilly where we have our northerly wind. 0n into thursday, this weather front continuing to bring further showers particularly towards england and wales, but a brief ridge of high pressure will be trying to nose into scotland and northern ireland. so, here through the day, it should turn drier with light winds and sunshine. so a better day here, but for england and wales, again the threat of heavy, it may be thundery showers developing through the midlands into east wales, and across into the south—east. temperatures reaching again the low 20s in the south with sunshine, a little bit better further north—west, but still chilly near those north—east coasts. as we head on into friday, here it is, the next area of low pressure starts to push in off the atlantic. lots of isobars on the charts, so it'll turn windier initially across the west, then spreading its way eastwards through the day. the rain will be persistent — northern ireland, especially

western scotland, into the cumbrian fells, perhaps north—west wales. but i think central and eastern areas should tend to stay dry with variable amounts of cloud and some sunshine. so here again, 20—21 celsius, mid—to—high teens further north. into the weekend, it remains unsettled with the pressure always lower, so it'll be quite windy at times and there will be rain around, particularly across the north and the west of the country. here, it will be windier and wetter, whereas further south and east you are, especially on sunday, it could be a bit brighter and feel a little bit warmer.

this is bbc news. the headlines: the leading american expert on infectious diseases, dr anthony fauci, has warned that coronavirus cases in the us could double to 100,000 a day if lockdowns are not maintained. the surge has forced at least 16 mainly southern and western states to pause or reverse reopening plans. hong kong has marked the 23rd anniversary of the former british territory reverting back to chinese sovereignty, as bejing's new security law comes into force. many things seen until now as civil rights, including pro—democracy protests, can now be deemed subversion, terrorism or secession punishable by life in prison. president trump is denying reports from many sources that he or his close advisers were briefed on intelligence

suggesting russia covertly offered taliban militants money to kill us troops in afghanistan last year. now on bbc news, panorama. tonight on panorama: the great testing gamble. the stakes are very high indeed. testing is absolutely critical and central to preventing a second wave now. thousands of lives now depend on the government getting testing right. we should be very concerned, until we can see there is a fully effective testing and contact tracing system in place. so why do our covid investigators have nothing to do? i have had zero cases. absolutely zero. and why haven't millions of test results been shared with the nhs?