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. lockdown hits hard. 12,000 jobs are lost in the uk in the past two days. 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 a right to work or study. after these five years, they'll 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 representatives has unanimously approved legislation seeking tough sanctions against chinese and hong kong officials involved in women rights abuses, the so—called hong kong autonomy act. house speaker nancy pelosi said the new security laws signal the death of the one country, two systems principle. when ageing announced its intention to pass the so—called national security law, so—called, 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 were concerned of what it might be, and it exceeds even those horrors. the law is a brutal, sweeping crackdown against the people of hong kong, intended to destroy the freedoms they were promised.

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. 0ur 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 the barabanov 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 had been banned. and the vote itself lacks independent observers. russia is going the wrong direction. this direction is to dictatorship. i think it's a sad day. there will be less political freedom. that's very bad for us.

i think, for putin, he's 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.

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 ‘stonewall‘ jackson 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% injune 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.

the president has been criticised by environmental groups and world leaders for encouraging an expansion of agriculture and mining activities in the amazon. 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—i9. tests suggest remdesivir speeds up the recovery of those who are fighting back from being seriously ill by as much as four days. 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 is 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. lets speak now to a primary care physician and public health expert at columbia medical centre in new york. i know you have had something like 15 years of experience working to improve public health. american officials when you speak to them about the criticism of this, do point out that gilead is an american company and there are licenses for other companies to produce the drug outside the us. that's true, and you know, it is clear we have the largest outbreak, we have the largest outbreak, we have the largest outbreak, we have the largest number of cases, and there are no signs

of it slowing. so it is disappointing but it is not altogether surprising that the us has behaved in this way. you know, it is sad because patients from ten countries, including the uk, participated in the clinical trial of remdesivir, and the idea that access to that treatment, which many people risk their lives to trial, may not be available to them is truly a comment both on, you know, the protectionist and isolationist tendencies of my government, but also of a really fundamentally broken global patent and pharmaceutical system. if the jump pharmaceutical system. if the jump administration is prepared to do this, what does it tell us about their likely response ifan us about their likely response if an effective vaccine does become available, and also about the chances of a global response to a future pandemic? iam response to a future pandemic? i am terribly worried about the distribution of any potential covid—19 vaccine that could be available, potentially at the beginning of next year. we need

desperately to have a global framework for procurement, for distribution, to ensure that, in the midst of a raging global pandemic, that we are ensuring that all countries are getting access to this vital preventive, which is incredibly true especially if we don't plan to close national borders, the idea that somehow one country could get vaccinated and then somehow protect itself from incoming virus isjust and then somehow protect itself from incoming virus is just not the case. none of us are truly safe until all of us are truly safe, and we have a lot to learn, for example, from the hiv pandemic, when it wasn't until we establish things like the globalfund until we establish things like the global fund and other pooled procurement mechanisms and regulatory mechanisms that we we re and regulatory mechanisms that we were truly able to get antiretroviral therapy is out to the developing world into all countries who needed it. so iam very all countries who needed it. so i am very worried that, when a vaccine is available, that

we're not going to have the systems and the efficiency to get it out to where it is needed, and is going to cause unnecessary delays and lingering epidemic. just on remdesivir, how long do you think it might be before supplies of the drug can be produced by other companies outside the us? i am certainly encouraged that gilead has issued voluntary licenses for production outside of the us. i am hopeful that countries like the uk and others in europe and elsewhere will employ compulsory licences, should they run out of supply. but i am worried, you know. the united states has bought up the next three months of global supply, next three months of global supply, and it doesn't appear that generic companies are close to having enough supply to meet the need for the rest of the world. so i am hopeful that gilead will reconsider its purchasing decisions, or to whom it sells, in the fault when they are ready with the next tranche of medicines, and we are able to have a little

bit more of an equitable system —— in the fall. bit more of an equitable system -- in the fall. very interesting to talk to you. thank you very much. thank you very much. stay with us on bbc news. hundreds of elephants have been found dead in botswana. 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 results suggests russians have overwhelmingly supported plans to allow vladimir putin to run for more presidential terms. president trump has insisted he was never told by the us secret service about an intelligence

report that afghan militants we re report that afghan militants were paid to kill us soldiers. the past few days, according to us intelligence, these bounties resulted in the deaths of several american servicemen. we never heard of them because intelligence never found it never heard of them because intelligence neverfound it to be of that level where we would rise to that. when you bring something into a president and i see many things and i am sure i do not see many things do not rise to the occasion this did not rise to the occasion. and from what i hear and i hear pretty good, the intelligence people, many of them did not believe it happened at all. i think it is a hoax. i think it isa think it is a hoax. i think it is a hoax by the newspapers and the democrats. more details now from david willis. 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 0'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 0'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 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, kayleigh mcenany, 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, 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 die—hard supporters. it might indeed, and also troubling is the fact that this is a 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. hence joe biden, the presumptive democratic presidential contender this 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 0bama would read the daily 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. like many countries, the uk tried to provide financial support to people who were not able to work during the coronavirus lockdown — principally through a furlough scheme. but as the economy here starts to open up again, struggling companies

are starting to cutjobs. in the past two days alone, some 12,000 redundancies have been announced across the uk — and there are fears more will follow. our business editor simonjack reports. airlines, manufacturers, retail. the damage is deep and wide and seems to be getting worse by the day, or even by the hour. the announcements ofjob losses are coming thick and fast. at the airbus factory in broughton, there was a sombre mood as people digested yesterday's announcement that 1,700 ukjobs would be going. it's a great shame to a lot of people. i've got family members who live here, so everybody everywhere's going to be impacted. i don't know, it's a big part of the community, obviously one of the main source ofjobs around here so i would say, if it goes, it will make a big impact on the community. that is why these painful decisions... the chairman of airbus uk said its customers were facing a crisis that would leave lasting damage and airbus had to ensure its own survival. look into the sky.

i mean, the tourism industry, our bloodline are airlines, those are our customers and, you know, if they catch a cold, we are obviously in the same situation, so this is unprecedented and we want to be there for the recovery, so we have to cut our cloth according to our means. and it's tough, but we've got to do it, it's the right thing to do. with fewer people getting on planes and trains, those stalwarts of airports and stations, upper crust and cafe ritazza, cut 5,000 posts. keir starmer. today, in parliament, the leader of the opposition confronted the prime minister with a grim roll call that, hours later, is already out of date. airbus announced 1,700 job losses. easyjet, 1,300 job losses. tm lewin and harveys, 800 job losses. that's just yesterday. the prime minister defended the government response, pointing to a job retention scheme unprecedented in its scope and cost, but conceded some very tough times lay ahead.

we've supported huge sectors of the uk economy at the cost of £120 billion and i'm not going to give a figure for the number of job losses that may or may not take place but, of course, the risk is very, very serious, as he rightly says. a month from today, employers will have to start paying an increasing portion of that cost until the scheme is withdrawn at the end of october. one reason, perhaps, byjob losses are picking up pace. there's been a seismic economic shock to the local economy and these job losses are like waves crashing down on uk shores with alarming severity and frequency. the government spent tens of billions of pounds trying to delay this inevitability, but, with this flood of new announcements, it's clear they are struggling to hold back the tide. the government has already spent tens of billions on keeping dying businesses alive. the chancellor's focus will now shift from trying to sustain jobs that may no longer exist to trying to create brand—new ones. simon jack, bbc news.

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 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. nasa has relief —— released time—lapse photography of the sun's outer atmospheric layer. it shows the transit of mercury and venus across the face of the staff. thank you so much

for watching. —— face of the star. hello. 0ur weather is set to serve up some pretty mixed fare in the days ahead. the general theme is that things are unsettled and there will be spells of rain affecting all areas at 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 ahead. this is the area of low pressure that will come barreling in on friday. thursday, we have a couple of weather fronts working their way south across the uk. cloud and rain to start the day in southern scotland, northern ireland. drifting into northern england. through the afternoon we then start to see the front breaking up and the rain turning increasingly into showers. a little bit of warmth in the atmosphere, those showers can really get going through the afternoon across the midlands and eastern england and some

heavy and thundery downpours to come. not all areas seeing them, but pretty punchy where they do break out. here are thursday's top temperatures. 12 across northern scotland despite more in the way of sunshine here. in the south, we could get 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 as well but then we look to the west into the early hours of friday for that big area of low pressure starting to show its hand, rain by the end of the night into southwest scotland and northern ireland. 0vernight lows, about 11 to 1a 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 and scotland 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, it looks like 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 on into next week.

this is bbc news. the headlines: amid protests in hong kong against the new security laws imposed by china, it's been announced that up to three million residents could be granted rights to live and work in the uk. nearly 400 people were arrested, most for public order offences, some face, potentially, a life sentence for calling for independence. early official results suggest that voters apparently will overwhelmingly approve vladimir putin's move to change the russian constitution and allow him to stay in power until 2036. first returns suggest a three—to—one majority. his critics see it as a blatant power grab. the white house has claimed that president trump was never told by the us secret service about intelligence reports that russia paid taliban militants in afghanistan a bounty for killing american soldiers. senior congressional leaders are to be briefed by the directors of intelligence agencies.