this is bbc news, with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. my name is mike embley. after hundreds of arrests in hong kong in protests against china's new security laws, up to 3 million residents could be granted new rights to live and work in the uk. putin poised to keep power for a very long time. early official results in russia show apparently overwhelming approval for keeping the president in place. the white house insists claims that russia paid bounties to the taliban to kill us troops are unverified.

the us strikes a deal to buy almost the entire world supply of a drug that helps recovery from covid—19. hello and welcome. if anyone in hong kong was wondering what china's new national security law would mean, they didn't have long to wait. protesters took to the streets on the first day of it coming into force, and hundreds of arrests soon followed. the majority were for public order offences, but a handful came under the new legislation which carries a potential life sentence for crimes such as calling for independence from mainland china. john sudworth reports. 23 years after china took control of hong kong, it was an anniversary marked with tear gas and arrests.

familiar scenes, but the stakes for protesters are now so much higher with the new national security law in force. for hong kong's pro—beijing leaders, though, this was a day to celebrate, with a flag—raising ceremony and a champagne toast with chinese officers. for beijing, this is all about sovereignty, with china denying that the new law breaches its promise to britain to uphold hong kong's freedoms. but the uk government clearly disagrees, and it is now pushing ahead with its plan to offer up to 3 million hong kongers eligible for british national overseas passports, or bnos, a route to citizenship. we will grant bnos five years‘ limited leave to remain with the right to work or study. after these five years, they will be able to apply for settled status. and, after a further 12 months

with settled status, they will be able to apply for citizenship. senior chinese officials, though, had already made it clear they've no time for what they see as foreign meddling. translation: we are making a law concerning a region of china to safeguard its national security. it's none of your business. hong kong's protesters, though, are certain that something fundamental is being lost. i'm angry at the disrespect for human rights that this national security legislation brings. i think, very obviously, the purpose of the law is to change hong kong from rule of law to rule of fear. this photo shows the first man arrested for advocating independence from china. and new police banners were on display, warning that such slogans could constitute secession or subversion — new offences punishable with up to life in prison. john sudworth, bbc news, beijing.

in response, the us house of representatives has implemented sanctions. the new security law according to nancy pelosi signals the death of one country, two systems. we were concerned. it was frightening. it is nothing short of an all—out effort to negate the rights of the people of hong kong, in violation of the agreements made under the one country, two systems. we we re one country, two systems. we were concerned with what it might be, and it exceeds even those horrors. the law is of brutal, sweeping crackdown against the people of hong kong, intended to destroy the freedoms they were promised. ho—fung hung is professor

in political economy and china expert atjohns hopkins university. professor, thank you very much for your time. do you think this is in effect the end of any hopes of democracy in hong kong? china is such an enormous political and economic player in the world. definitely this is not only the death of hope for democracy in hong kong, but also the end of freedom, freedom of speech and freedom of different opinions, in hong kong. because what is striking about the national security law is that it allowed the government to charge people, make them guilty, by their opinions, by theirspeech, and then by their associations, and also allowed china's government to tra nsfer also allowed china's government to transfer some of the offenders to mainland china to try, and also tried in a secret section of the court. so it is a huge violation, and change... huge violation of the rights of hong kong people, and also a

change. what you think the chances are of the rest of the world doing something about it. there is talk of the us, as we we re there is talk of the us, as we were saying, of sanctions, but were saying, of sanctions, but we know also that president trump has given his backing, privately, apparently, to xi on the camps in xinjiang. privately, apparently, to xi on the camps in xinjianglj privately, apparently, to xi on the camps in xinjiang. i think there is a bipartisan call for doing more concrete things to penalise china for doing this, passing this law, and it is very difficult particularly in an election year for trump, who is running for re—election, to resist this call with bipartisan support to do something, and also the us, the uk, taiwan and other places are considering offering political refugee status or pathway to citizenship for people who are at risk of being persecuted by the new law. how do you think many people in hong kong are going to deal with this? do you think many will want to leave jobs and homes, and leave hong

kong altogether, or will people just essentially put any expression of political opinion on hold for the duration?” think most people for now, they will wait and see, to see how serious they are to implement the law, or whether they are going to arrestjournalists and public opinion leaders. and in september, upcoming september, there is a legislative council election, and it is going to be an important testing case about how they are going to enforce the law. because usually, in those election forums, people are expressing different views, different opinions, and it will be very interesting to see whether the government will use the election security law to persecute candidates who express views critical of the chinese government, for example, and people will wait and see to see how they will enforce the law. professor, there must be great nervousness in taiwan about all of this. definitely, and interestingly,

that xijinping has been talking about using the one country, two systems to contemplate the prospect of the unification with taiwan, but now the taiwan public opinion, now the taiwan public opinion, no matter whether they are supporting the independent government or opposition government, and all people of political parties are saying that one country, two system is not suitable for taiwan. they will be not interested in the one country, two systems model. they are very worried. professor, thank you very much. thank you. preliminary results suggest that voters will overwhelmingly approve vladimir putin's move to change the russian constitution, which would allow him potentially to stay in the kremlin until 2036. first returns suggest his referendum has won a 3:1 majority backing, but his rivals say it's just a blatant power grab. our moscow correspondent steve rosenberg has the story. in russian polling stations right now, rule number one —

put on face masks and gloves. rule number two — if you're vladimir putin, ignore rule number one. the president called this vote to change russia's constitution, to make the country stronger, he says. to protect russia's history and its heroes. to guard its natural resources. to keep the animals happy. but critics say the smiles are a smokescreen for the kremlin‘s main objective. putin himself, and his people, they pretend that the major change is about this, about strengthening russia. but the main purpose is to allow mr putin to stay and to occupy the position as a president forever. two terms — it means forever. for this family, that's a worrying prospect. in a polling station that looks more like a clinic, they voted no to the new constitution, but with little hope of winning.

after all, campaigning against the amendments has been banned. and the vote itself lacks independent observers. russia is going the wrong direction. the direction is to dictatorship. i think it is a sad day. there will be less political freedom. that is very bad for us. i think, for putin, it is not acting in our best interests, and he needs to step down. critics of the vote say that what is happening here is nothing more than a show, and here's one example. even before polling began, copies of the new constitution were printed and published and available in the shops. it says here on the cover, "valid when the official results are announced." in other words, what that result was going to be was never in doubt. some russians believe that

putin forever is a good thing. when an experienced politician is staying in power, especially in a country as difficult as russia, i think it doesn't hurt if he is supported by the people, and that is exactly the case. the president said he would never change the constitution to stay in power. well, never say never. so you could see more of this, only next time, it'll be the new constitution. president trump has insisted that he was never told by the us secret services about reports that russia paid afg hanistan‘s taliban militants to kill american soldiers. in the past few days, the us media have reported that according to the us intelligence, russian bounties resulted in the deaths of several us servicemen. we never heard about it, because intelligence never found it to be of that level

where it would rise to that... when you bring something into a president, and i see many, many things, and i'm sure i don't see many things that they don't think rose to the occasion, this didn't rise to the occasion. and from what i hear, andi occasion. and from what i hear, and i hear it pretty good, the intelligence people didn't even. . . intelligence people didn't even... many of them didn't believe it happened at all. i think it's a hoax. i think it's a hoax by the newspapers and the democrats. let's speak to the bbc‘s north america correspondent david willis. david, it's not hard to imagine how republicans would have reacted if this had been alleged about hillary clinton. how has it all played? well, the white house has been scrambling to deal with this ever since last friday, mike, when the new york times first published these allegations. the new york times has since followed up with more details, more flesh on the bone, if you like. well, today, the national security advisor, robert o'brien, has said that the president wasn't briefed on this particular piece of

intelligence, because it was uncorroborated at the time. he said that the information was included in the president's daily intelligence briefing, but the career cia officer who was giving that briefing decided not to include it in the mention that — the report that she gave to the president, for the simple reason that it was unverified intelligence. and mr o'brien said he supported that decision. now, president trump has described all this as a hoax, made up by the fake news media, but the fa ct the fake news media, but the fact is, mike, that it is well—known that the president doesn't, perhaps, pay the closest attention to his daily intelligence briefing, and prefers, on many occasions, to rely on an oral summation, and on information he gets from the conservative news media. now, today the white house spokeswoman said that the president does indeed read his daily briefings. she attacked

the new york times for the leak of this, publishing the leak of this information, and she said the president is the most informed person on planet earth when it comes to the threats we face, andi when it comes to the threats we face, and i quote. it is a difficult one for the president to defend himself on, though, because the commander—in—chief above all else is supposed to have the back of the american soldier. this might trouble many people, even some of his diehard supporters. it might indeed, and also troubling is the fact that this is a briefing, daily briefing, made up briefing, daily briefing, made up of hundreds of pieces of raw intelligence, which is passed on to the president every morning in written form, and indeed, in president trump's case, in oralform, in a tradition that goes back to harry truman. now, the president, the commander—in—chief, is not the only person who has access to this information. the vice president, senior members of the cabinet, get access to it as well. hencejoe biden, the

presumptive democratic presidential contender this november, has accused president trump ofa november, has accused president trump of a dereliction of duty. and he said that when he was in the white house, as vice president, both he and barack obama would read the daily intelligence briefing from cover to cover. so we intelligence briefing from cover to cover. 50 we have intelligence briefing from cover to cover. so we have a lot of democrats piling in on the president, and this is becoming increasingly embarrassing for the white house, given the fact that the former national security adviser, john bolton, has said that he briefed the president in person on this very piece of intelligence about russian bounties, as far back as march of last year. david, thank you very much. let's get some of the day's other news. the military has been deployed in ethiopia's capital addis ababa to control protests over the killing of prominent musician and activist, hachalu hundessa. at least 80 people are reported to have died in unrest since he was shot on monday night. police have detained two people in connection with the shooting. a statue of the civil war general stonewalljackson

has been taken down in richmond in the us state of virginia after the city's mayor authorised the removal of all confederate monuments. richmond was the capital of the confederacy. mayor levar stoney said statues were being removed in the light of anger triggered by the killing of george floyd. the number of forest fires in brazil's amazon region went up by almost 20% in june compared with the same month last year. satellite data gathered by the brazilian government shows that there were more than 2,200 fires in the rainforest injune. that's the highest figure for this time of the year in more than a decade. presidentjair bolsonaro has been criticised by environmental groups and world leaders for encouraging an expansion of agriculture and mining activities in the amazon. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: back into lockdown. we'll have the latest from australia as tighter regulations are imposed on 300,000 people in melbourne

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.

welcome back great to have you with us. police in hong kong have made several arrests under china's new national security laws on the first day they came into force. preliminary official result suggests russians have overwhelmingly supported plan to allow vladimir putin to run for presidential terms. in australia, lockdown restrictions have come back into force in melbourne, with ten suburbs linked to coronavirus outbreaks returning to stage 3 restrictions. more than 90,000 victorians were tested over five days, but it hasn't stopped the need for stricter measures to be enforced. residents in the identified "hot zones" can only leave their homes to shop for food and supplies, exercise, for care or caregiving and to study or work — if they're unable to do so from home. let's speak to the bbc‘s phil mercer in sydney.

this is the result of a spike in infections in the southern state of victoria in the last couple of weeks. double—digit increases every single day. australia's confirmed coronavirus cases are relatively low by the country's standard we know that there are just under 8000 confirmed covid—i9 cases in this country and there have been 104 covid—19 cases in this country and there have been 104 death but it is that spike in places in victoria that has the state government down there extremely concerned. the chief medical officer of the state said the increases were heartbreaking so what it means more than 300,000 people will now be subject to stay—at—home orders. they are legally enforceable for the next four weeks. and the increases are worrying but it is another big economic hit. australia's economy is facing an almighty hit, facing its

first recession since the early 19905 first recession since the early 1990s so many businesses around the country who were hoping thatjuly could ring some sort of resolution and some sort of end to the restrictions, certainly in victoria and those lockdown suburbs will once again be feeling the financial pain. it is worth noting that the state government in victoria is blaming breaches in its hotel quarantine system for many of these new cases and what happened with returning australian citizen and permanent residents returning to australia, they face a mandatory 14 day stay in isolation in a hotel and it is thought that infections have somehow leaked out of those hotel into the broader community and that is why parts of melbourne and are subject to these reintroduced lockdown orders. in effect it is community transmission which is a lwa ys community transmission which is always more of a worry for the authorities. however it is

contact tracing? what australia has done pretty well since march, looking down international borders, mass testing of people, especially in the big cities and compliance, general compliance to lockdown orders. these three measures have help australia to largely contain the coronavirus out rate. cases are increasing in the states of victoria but here in new south wales and in the neighbouring state to the north, queensland, restrictions are easing and it is also worth noting that the new south wales state government says anyone from those hotspot suburbs in melbourne who tries to cross the border into new south wales could go to jail so that is just an indication of how serious the other parts of australia are taking the spike in cases in the state of victoria. thank you for that. the united states has struck

a deal to buy almost the entire world supply of a drug that's known to help people recover from covid—19. tests suggest remdesivir speeds up the recovery of those who are fighting back from being seriously ill by as much as four days. it's one of only two drugs known to be effective in treating the virus, as our medical correspondent fergus walsh reports. geraldine from north london is one of more than 1,000 covid patients who took part in a global trial of remdesivir. this is her receiving the drug in april. she made a rapid recovery and is shocked that the drug has been bought up by the us. i wanted to be part of something that could potentially help everyone, and i feel that now only a small percentage of the world's population really are going to receive any benefit from it in the near future. it's really disappointing. remdesivir takes months to manufacture, so there was already a shortage. this deal means the american pharma company gilead will reserve nearly all

production in the coming three months for us patients. covid is a global problem with millions of patients affected worldwide. those patients need access to proven treatments. for one country to dominate the access to a single treatment is beyond u nfortu nate. there are now two drugs which are proven to be effective against covid—19, remdesivir and the steroid dexamethasone. remdesivir costs £1,900 per course of treatment, whereas dexamethasone costs just £5. remdesivir cuts the duration of symptoms from 15 to 11 days, but it's not proven to reduce the risk of dying, whereas dexamethasone cuts the risk of dying by a third in the most seriously ill patients. the nhs says it has enough remdesivirfor patients who currently need it, but how long that will last is unclear.

but there are ample supplies of dexamethasone, which is now the standard treatment for seriously ill covid patients. fergus walsh, bbc news. this more than 350 elephants have died in botswana, but mystery surrounds the cause of their death. i should warn you that some of the images in this story are upsetting. the cluster of deaths was first reported in early may of this year, in the north of botswana in the 0kavango delta. by mid june, the number had more than doubled. scientists have described the incident as "completely unprecedented" and a disaster for africa's declining elephant population. botswa na's government has ruled out poaching — noting the tusks had not been removed. the two most likely causes are poison of some form either laid by people or something that is occurring naturally, such as anthrax which is in the soil. or a disease, a pathogen.

either is very concerning, but from a conservation perspective and a public health perspective as there is significant populations of people living nearby. in a world of covid—19 were everyone is focused on the fact that diseases can pass from animals and people and can have catastrophic consequences for the global economy, but it is quite complicated in the current administration have gone to great lengths to try and demonstrate to rural people in botswana that they do not put the lives of elephants before the lives of people. they're trying to encourage people to think that the government is looking after them and not solely focusing on wildlife. the problem with that, for me, is that this is not necessarily a wildlife situation, this is potentially a public health situation and catastrophic for the economy as well. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter —

i'm @bbcmikeembley. hello. 0ur weather is sent to serve up some pretty mixed fair in the days ahead. the general theme is that things are unsettled and spells of rain affecting all areas of some stage and it will be pretty windy and our temperatures are looking distinctly lacklustre. if anything, perhaps thursday, one of the quieter days of the three or four days, this is low pressure that will come barreling again. thursday, a couple of weather fronts working their way south across the uk. cloud and rain to start the day. drifting into northern england. through the afternoon we start to see the rain turning increasingly into showers. a little bit of warmth in the atmosphere, showers can

really get going through the afternoon across the midlands and east in england and some heavy downpours to come. not all areas thing that punchy weather. here are thursday's top temperatures. 12 across northern scotland despite the sunshine. in the south, up to 20 degrees but the temperatures of course will plummet if you get caught in a heavy shower. thursday evening, we will see many of those showers dying away any stray showers from scotland clearing away but then we look to the west into the early hours of friday for the big area of low pressure starting to show its hand, rain by the end of the night and at the south was scotland and northern ireland. 0vernight lows, 11 to 14 just about covering it. wind strengthening already first thing on friday. it will be a windy day across the board. a set of weather fronts will mean some fairly persistent rain across the northern half of the uk, just a chance the southeast of england may stay dry throughout despite building cloud here. some of this rain

for wales, northern england and northern ireland is going to be heavy and it will get significant totals by the time the day is out. top temperatures, typically in the mid to high teens. feeling cooler in the rain. 21 with a bit of brightness in the southeast. and here is the weekend. low pressure still doing its business sending a series of weather fronts our way. the positioning of those at the moment is quite difficult to pin down but a rough rule of thumb at the moment, looked like the wettest of the weather on saturday will be across the southern half of the uk and shifting further north for sunday. it stays unsettled and rather cool even onto next week.

this is bbc news. the headlines: following protests in hong kong against china's new security laws, up to 3 million residents could be granted rights to live and work in the uk. nearly 400 people were arrested, the majority for public order offences. some face potential life sentences for calling for independence. preliminary results suggest that voters will overwhelmingly approve vladimir putin's move to change the russian constitution, which would allow him to stay in power until 2036. first returns suggest a 3:1 majority backing. his rivals say it is just a blatant power grab. the white house has insisted that the president was never told by the us secret services about reports that russia paid taliban militants to kill american soldiers. senior congressional leaders —known as the gang of eight are briefed