this is bbc news. the headlines. people across england have enjoyed theirfirst night out in pubs for more than three months, after a major easing of lockdown but there are concerns about social distancing. the nhs in england will get whatever funds it needs according to the health secretary matt hancock. we protected the nhs during the peak of this crisis and we will protect the nhs in the future. despite a surging number of coronavirus cases in the united states, donald trump has used his independence day speech to attack those he accuses of seeking to erase

america's history. the uk government is to announce a doubling in the number of staff working in frontline job centres to help deal with rising unemployment because of the pandemic. now on bbc news, how covid—19 triggered the spread of a 56 conspiracy theory. at first i did believe there was a virus, but when they start taking away your rights it doesn't make sense. the coronavirus is the biggest threat this country has faced for decades. if you don't follow the rules, the police will have the powers to enforce them. you must stay at home. conspiracy theories about 56 have been spreading since the beginning of lockdown.

there is no virus. it's 56 radiation poisoning. this is all a big part of the eventual goal, which is control. your body can't handle this new 56. it's not built for it. and lots more people are going to be ill. these false theories have been contagious. bbc news at two o'clock. this is nicky cardwell. police have broken up a group of around 25 people protesting about the lockdown in central london. the demonstration took place near to the a&e unit of st thomas's hospital. 56... get used to this. tyranny. fascism. fascism! major health organisations have said that 56 is safe, and that there is absolutely no link between it and coronavirus. arrest bill gates! so where did the idea come from?

and how far are its believers prepared to go? you're going to be poisoned. are you going to stand for that? well, we're not standing for it. it isn't coronavirus. hi, how's it going? i'm good. how are you? yeah, i'm good. nice to meet you. nice to meet you, too. how much time are you spending online? i looked at my screen time on my phone, i think it was like... 16 hours, maybe? a day? yeah. yeah, but it's gone down now. but at first it was like 16, maybe 17 hours. yeah. what did your mum say? my mum was not happy at all. isaac is 17 and he's been stuck at home like the rest of us. he's been living through his phone, and in early april his friends started sharing something unusual. someone sent something to my snapchat group chat, it was some guy who was talking about how the sg thing is the real

thing that we should be scared about, not coronavirus, and coronavirus is a cover—up for a lot of different things that the government is doing. i was thinking, this guy is definitely bored, because it makes no sense. what are your friends thinking? they're thinking about the sg stuff, the radiation and it making them sick and whatnot. some of them actually genuinely believed it, and some of them haven't. they basically don't want to leave their houses. wow. yeah. false theories about the virus and sg spread quickly at the beginning of lockdown. do you think it's difficult to tell what's true and what's false at the moment? very, very difficult. i just don't believe anything, to be honest. unless i see it come from one of boris‘ speeches. the misinformation that people are spreading, it's quite dangerous. there isn't one coherent sg conspiracy theory.

some people say the virus is man—made and lockdown is a cover for installing sg. others say it's actually 56 that's causing coronavirus symptoms. and some think it's an excuse for forced global vaccination. it all comes back to a fear that 56 is harmful to human health. there is no credible evidence to support that. but that hasn't stopped wild speculation online, and celebrities have been super spreaders. us singer keri hilson was one of the first. she shared this now debunked video of an alternative doctor in march. and i'll finish with, anybody want to make one guess as to where the first completely blanketed 5g city in the world was? wuhan. exactly. keri later tweeted that her management asked her to remove the post. what the doctor said wasn't true, but the idea was infectious, and anti—sg posts went viral.

on the first day of lockdown, mia tweeted then later removed this... here's the broadband that they're digging up to install. why are these men here? then calum best put a post on instagram. so did lee ryan from boy band blue. like so many of these posts, it has since been deleted. then hollywood actor woody harrelson. .. these messages were coming up on all of our feeds and they weren't stopping. amanda holden said she accidentally tweeted a link to this petition. but four hours after she shared it, the page had over 120,000 signatures. bbc news at eight o'clock. there's been another record increase in the number of deaths... i think it's a man—made thing.

guys, it's been put there for a reason. to keep everyone in while they test the sg. amongst his usual posts, british musician black the ripper was sharing anti—sg videos. and i'm mad at trump for allowing 5g to come in. then he died. rest in peace, black the ripper. and respect for speaking the truth before you died. it fuelled even more conspiracy theories. by the end of the first week of april, fake news was everywhere and the government decided to step in. 0n the point about the sg masts, the stories that have got about that they play a role in the spread of the disease, that's just nonsense. dangerous nonsense as well. then this happened

on itv‘s this morning. the fake news that is travelling around at the moment isjust ridiculous. do you remember, first of all, you can't ignore the 5g conspiracy theory. what is that all about? it's not true and it's incredibly stupid... the only thing i... i totally agree with everything you're saying, but what i don't accept is mainstream media immediately slapping that down as not true when they don't know it's not true. no one should attack or damage or do anything like that, but it's very easy to say it is not true because it suits the state narrative. that's all i would say as someone with an enquiring mind. the theory that 56 had something to do with coronavirus had made its way onto breakfast tv. he immediately said that this wasn't being challenged by state media. now, as 50011 as someone talks about the british press as a state media, you know they've been

on the internet too long. the media regulator 0fcom later said that his comments were illjudged and risked undermining trust in public authorities and scientific evidence. just before we go on to the programme, i want to clarify some comments that some of you may have misinterpreted from me yesterday around conspiracy theories and coronavirus, and this involved the roll—out of 56. every theory relating to such a connection has been proven to be false, and we would like to emphasise that. however, many people are rightly concerned and are looking for answers, and that is simply what i was trying to do, to impart yesterday. but for the avoidance of any doubt i want to make it clear, no scientific evidence to substantiate any of those 56 series. i hope that clears that up. with all the misinformation swirling around, it's easy to lose sight of what 56 actually is. david robert grimes is a physicist and cancer researcher. hello, how are you doing?

hey, i'm doing great, how are you? 56 is essentially a new standard in mobile technology. and one of the things that people correctly realise is that this is a form of radiation. radiation is scary, people are frightened of that word. there are forms of radiation that are very, very dangerous. but what people forget is light is also a form of radiation. 56 is tens of thousands of times less energetic than even the visible light to which we are exposed every day. technology, it pushes us forward. while companies like 02 are promoting 56 with glossy adverts like this... and it has long empowered generation after generation. ..there is an underbelly of people that have long opposed it. i think it's really important to work out that a lot of conspiracy theories being spread at the moment are actually not even new. there was people against ag, there's groups against wi—fi, and back in the 1910s

there were people against radio. what has changed now is not that these fringe groups have existed, they always have, but now they can harness the power of social media to go and spread their beliefs and to evangelise them. and because we live in a world where we use technology but we don't always understand what it really means or how it works, we are very susceptible to frightening claims. as we see more and more sleek sg adverts... welcome to the fifth generation. ..some people have become increasingly afraid. when i heard the word 56, i just felt horrible... naveed works for bt 0penreach. a lady approached my van. she said, i know what you're here for, i know what you're doing, you've been hired by the council to basically roll out 56. he installs home internet and phone lines, not mobile networks like 56. but he's been targeted just

like other engineers. one day in april, a woman approached quoting false information. it made no sense to me, as well, about microwaves and blood cells and how it affects everyone. she walked further up past the shop, and probably about ten metres down there was a group of ten men. when she was pointing at me and she said, that person, he is the cause of everyone dying, then i could hearfoul language, i could hear abuse, i could things like, murderer, killer. threats like, watch out, watch what happens to you. you feel very, very frightened and scared. nojob is worth risking your life for. between april and june 2020, telecoms engineers reported 264 similar incidents. so what are you laying? fibre.

what kind of fibre? fibre—optic, sg ones. you know when they turn it on, it's going to kill everyone, and that's why they're building the hospitals? no idea. noidea? no. because when i put it on facebook it's going bleep viral. is this, is this, is this your rf reader? no. is that your rf reader? this is a bleep label machine, mate. look. 0k, well, i'mjust saying... you're safe. that is them. that's one of them. what was he saying? tell them we don't want 5g in this area. why are you guys hassling this man? i see him take a lot of crap before. they attacked him, and they say, why is he putting in 56? and he says, it's not 56. he's a professional guy, he's working. come on. this thing is bigger than all of us here. because i could find myself in a box tomorrow. because the government can kill people if you talk too much. the birds are getting the biggest hit because, you know, they get the radioactive...

they can't take certain microwaves in the air, you know? because they are weaker than us. yeah, we die slowly. naveed is one of many engineers who have been harassed thanks to the spread of theories linking 56 and covid—19. and there's consequences. one study found that if you believe in a link, you are far more likely to leave the house even if you have coronavirus symptoms. the latest figures show that another 346 deaths linked to covid—19 have been confirmed across the uk in 24 hours, bringing the total number of victims to 31,587. it's early may, a month since the government assured the public that 56 conspiracy theories are false. ladies and gentlemen, your government have lied to you. a small group of protesters have gathered in saint james' park, london. their concerns range from vaccines to freedom of speech. bill gates, he is saying

that we have to have mandatory vaccinations. until we all take the vaccinations, the whole world is on lockdown. but 56 fears after what seemed to unite them. there is an appeal from over 240 scientists and doctors, formally appealing to the un, asking for the stopping of 56. it's already been stopped in a lot of cities and countries. it was there that we metjohn. 56, when that gets turned up that's when they're going to start blaming the second wave. so all our kids are going to get done. radiation poisoning. this ain't no virus. there is no coronavirus. they're not treating people with coronavirus. they ain't. they are just liars. there is no virus... my name is john, i'm a carerfor my dad. i'm a qualified personal trainer. in my spare time i like to do boxing and train my clients. so we met you at the protest — why did you decide to go down? my concern‘s over 56. there is no virus, in my eyes,

because everywhere they are turning on 56 is where this so—called virus is coming now. i've had concerns over 56 for over four, five years now. the vast majority of scientists think that it's safe. they don't, they don't, that's what the media are telling everybody. the proper scientists have come out and said it's not safe. i know my body. for ten years it's been a certain way. until they brought a 56 tower to literally two minutes from my house, and i've got a metaljaw and that's been in agony. i've had headaches, i've had eyeballs feel like they are boiling, i'm getting rashes, i'm getting my psoriasis has come up when it never has, and all this has happened within five weeks, since they put a 56 tower next to my house. have you been to the doctor about that? i'm not going nowhere near the nhs, the hospitals, they are murdering people. doctors get into medicine... i'm not going near any hospital.

no doctors, nothing. so what you think is really going on? i think it's a new world order. he's pulling the strings, bill gates. they're wiping people out with radiation and then they can come for the children with the vaccines. the same man who wants to vaccinate us is the same man who wants to de—populate the world. vaccines stop people from getting illnesses... they don't, they don't, they don't. there is no virus. a lot of people have died from the virus. no, they haven't. we are being played, whatever way it is we are being played. when i deal with people who are anti—5g, they are very frequently anti—vaccine and anti—medicine, in the conventional sense. bill gates has put an awful lot of his work into vaccinating people in developing countries. and we do that because after clean water and sanitation there is nothing that saves more lives than vaccination. that makes him a villain to people that are ideologically

opposed to vaccination. so to accept that 5g is secretly doing us harm, you have to then accept that the who and the center for disease control and all these international health protection bodies are lying to us, and as it goes on you have to accept more and more to preserve your initial belief. and that drives people deeperand deeper into, i would say, the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories. and conspiracy theorists have turned on people in unexpected ways. in april a pair of amateur 56 fans noticed their website had suddenly become a lot more popular. today i'm in grimsby, a north—east lincolnshire fishing town, which also happens to have a 56 site in the town centre. which you will be able to see right behind me here. and that is the site, i'm going to be testing out today. i'mjake. i'm peter, and today we are in oxford city centre to look at networks.

peter and jake are 56 enthusiasts. they run a site that maps out the masts around the country. so we are now nearjubilee gardens and just to the side ofjake, there, is a three samsung small cell. three do actually have small cells. yeah. that is indeed true. recently we saw a spike in traffic to the website. at first we were just like, oh, our seo must be really good. we are at the top of the google search results. people mustjust be interested in 5g. it was only when we started to look on the "stop 5g" pages that we realised it was a bit worse than we had actually thought. 5g tower. zero g now. mad, are you? remember when lots of celebrities were posting about 56? that week there were 20 arson attacks on masts. the website traffic increased

by about 3000%, but some pages were increasing in traffic by over about 14,000%. one group in particular was specifically titled as a mast arson competition, and that is when we made the rather sad decision that it was probably best to start to take down some of the pages. in another part of the internet, one doctor has stepped up in the fight against misinformation. did 56 cause coronavirus? people suggest that 56 damaged the immune system and boosted the viruses. this is not true. dr karan rangarajan is a surgeon in the nhs. how do you know coronavirus is real? well, apart from all the science and medicine and ct scans and chest

x—rays and tests we've had to prove it exists, i've had coronavirus. he has become an online medical myth buster. 56 mobile data is transmitted over radio waves. these radio waves are non—ionising which means they don't damage the dna inside ourselves, unlike x—rays, gamma rays and uv rays. spread knowledge, not the virus. i did a video on youtube and on tiktok. the comments which dominated the comment thread are all about i'm not a physicist, which is obviously accurate, but you don't need to be a physicist to know that 56 does not cause coronavirus, you need to be human with common sense and logic. the real worry is young kids and other people who could be, for want of a better term, brainwashed by these ludicrous theories, which doesn'tjust stop with 56 and coronavirus. it goes to vaccines, then young mothers not vaccinating their kids. and by not vaccinating,

we can have outbreaks of these things, we don't want that. it has been over seven weeks since most people have seen their loved ones. around 300 people have taken part in a protest against the lockdown. but a week after the last protest there was another, and it was much bigger. tom symons was there. protesters gathered near spea kers' corner making few attempts to keep their distance from one another. they oppose the government's measures, some saying the virus was a hoax. piers corbyn, the brother of the former labour leader, was among those led away. it had been a while since i'd seen john from the last protest, so i met up with him on the eve of the final clap for carers. how's it going? how have you been since last time? still in pain from the sg towers. that's about it, myjaw. but we have to keep going. instead of clapping, he has made a sign.

i agree strongly with this, no clapping for the murderers. no to 56 and the radiation that comes with it. because all our kids are going to be harmed. it's that time again, loud and proud. let's all clap for our carers. cheering and clapping. while the rest of the uk were clapping, john held his cardboard. i remembered something he had said earlier. when i spoke to you last time, you said you were a carer. yes, i am a carer myself. it's called clap for carers, so aren't they clapping for you? well, i don't want anyone to clap for me, i'm a carerfor my dad which i would do forfree, i don't want help from the government, i don't want no one to clap for me. these are things we should do anyway. the nhs are doing theirjob. how is your dad? at this moment, it's touch and go on what is happening

and how long he's got. but i've got him comfortable. don't you think maybe it might be good to spend the time and effort you put into this you could be spending with your dad? i get that, but again it comes down to humanity. i can't sit back and rest while i know we are being murdered. don't you worry that you are isolating yourself a bit? no, i'm not, i was isolated away from the world anyway, because the world has too many nasty, evil, greedy people in it. so my life has not changed much. i don't care what anyone thinks. i would lose my own family over this, i stand by my beliefs, i have a fire in myself and i will not back down. john is one of the growing minority who believe in the sg theories. and that anger is having a big impact around the country. welcome on board the avanti west coast service to liverpool lime street.

there has been nearly 100 mast fires since the start of lockdown. merseyside has been a hotspot. i'm not aware of us having any attacks against 56 masts prior to the covid—19 pandemic. detective chief superintendent mark kameen has had to set up a unit dedicated to investing the fires. merseyside police received a call from a member of the public who had seen three figures running away from a telecommunications mast, and he could see that the mast was on fire. we found the partial burnt remains of a rubber glove. when we sent it off the dna investigation, a profile came back for michael whitty. michael whitty was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to arson. this is the first time we've had a conviction in the uk. it is arson that they are committing. it is a very serious offence. this is foolish behaviour,

done by stupid people who don't understand the impact of what their actions are doing to the wider community, removing a key means of communication for people who may be vulnerable to get in touch with emergency services or to get in touch with their own loved ones. it is an attack on our national infrastructure. today we can say that our long national hibernation is beginning to come to an end, and life is returning to our streets. the uk is emerging from a lockdown infected by damaging misinformation. theories about 56 mutated and multiplied, undermining social distancing and potentially stopping people from getting future vaccines, meaning this conspiracy theory could have a toxic legacy

for all of us. hello there. an unusually deep area of low pressure for the time of year is sweeping to the north of the uk. that is bringing unseasonably strong winds across the uk, we are expecting gales across central and northern areas. 0n the plus icon they should be more sunshine through this afternoon than what we had yesterday, but also heavy showers. that area of low pressure continues to push over into the norwegian sea, lots of isobars on the chart which is why we are seeing a strong winds,

particularly across scotland, northern ireland and northern england. lots of showers here through the afternoon, blustery showers, heavy and perhaps sundry, fewer showers further south and east. those winds are really a feature through the afternoon. 30 to 40 mph in the south, 40 to 60 mph across worst affected areas, particularly over the pennines, we could see some disruption at times. the temperatures reflect that as well, it will feel like autumn than july. the mid teens in the north, hire teens further south, perhaps 20 or 21 hire teens further south, perhaps 20 or21 in the hire teens further south, perhaps 20 or 21 in the south—east. as we head on into this meaning overnight, remains blustery, feeding and more showers in northern and western areas but lengthy dry spells further south. cooler air mass coming in from the north—west so it will be a much fresher night than last night. 0urarea of much fresher night than last night. 0ur area of low pressure continues to push off into scandinavia taking the gales and heavy rain with it. we look to the south—west, an area of high pressure which is slowly

building in, slowly quiet things down. remaining quite windy across the country, not as windy as today, blustery are quite windy across the country, not as windy as today, blustery acquirers eastern areas. the further west that you are, the better chance of staying dry with some sunshine. a fresh feel to the day, 16 to 20 degrees in the south—east. it doesn't last long though, another area of low pressure will wriggle in from the west during tuesday, a bit of uncertainty but it looks like it will bring central areas a spell of pretty wet weather. we could see a little bit of dry and brighter weather in the south and drier weather in the north with one or two showers. again, temperatures nothing that great for the time of year, mid to high teens. it remains pretty unchangeable as we move through the week, further spells of rain at times, particularly across southern areas.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. will there be a hangover? england wakes up after a major easing of its lockdown as pubs and restaurants re—open. a warning from authorities in the australian state of victoria that a coronavirus outbreak in melbourne has "genuinely explosive potential" as thousands of residents are told not to leave their homes for at least five days. a leading health official calls on the uk government to put in place plans to adequately fund england's social care system within a year. despite surging coronavirus infections, donald trump

uses his independence day speech to praise the us response