welcome to bbc news. i'm aaron safir. our top stories: the taj mahal stays shut as india's coronavirus cases reach a record high. galicia in the north—west of spain becomes the second region to impose a local lockdown after a fresh outbreak. the australian state of victoria closes its border with neighbouring new south wales as a spike in cases forces further restrictions. and the show must go on — republicans say they will hold their annual convention in florida despite its infection rate.

hello, and welcome. india has now overtaken russia to become the country with the world's third—highest confirmed coronavirus infections, after the united states, and brazil. but experts warn the true scale of the outbreak in india could be far higher. a sharp rise in new cases in recent days has taken the total health ministry figure to nearly 700,000. more than 19,000 people have died in india so far. alanna petroff reports. the taj mahal, a monument to love from the 17th century. a world—famous attraction with millions of visitors each year. one of the seven wonders of the modern world in the city of agra. it's been empty since mid—march. it was meant to reopen on monday. thousands were expected.

at the last minute, plans were scrapped. authorities extended local lockdown measures. there is no word on a new reopening date. just days earlier, a representative for local tour guides was feeling optimistic about the reopening. translation: it's great news and has brought cheer to guides. work that was closed for months will now start again. this will give a boost for the tourism sector. north of agra, in south delhi, officials focused on a different kind of opening, a vast new treatment centre with capacity for up to 10,000 beds. in a country of 1.3 billion people, authorities are struggling to balance urgent priorities. the number of confirmed cases keeps rising to hit daily record levels. the healthcare system is stretched. even so, experts say the true scale of the pandemic is unknown.

the figures are underreported. the virus continues to spread in a country that imposed one of the most stringent high—profile lockdowns in the world. it hit migrant workers particularly hard. in a nation that's been humbled by the pandemic, it seems tourism, and the taj mahal, just can't be the priority right now. alanna petroff, bbc news. and as alanna was saying, judging the true scale of the problem in india is proving difficult, as our south asia editor anbarasan ethirajan explains. many healthca re experts would point out the best way to contain the virus is test, trace and treat, and these three things should be done, but if you look at the number of tests being conducted in india at the moment, we are talking about around 200,000 tests per day

and so far, they have done about 10 million tests. but that is nothing compared to the size of the country and the population. we are talking about 1.3 billion people so it is basically only about 4,000 tests per million. whereas the world average is nearly 30,000 so testing is a big issue because when you look at how this pandemic started in india, the number of tests were very, very low and now they've increased it. that's why you are seeing more and more cases are coming out, but the challenge for the authorities, is what is happening in the rural areas of this country, because many people would hesitate to go to any hospital, saying, "i have coronavirus," because there is a stigma attached to it, many people would ostracise them, telling them not to come out of the house, that they fear they might be taken to some of these quarantine centres where they'll be kept for 1h days. so what the experts are pointing out that what is happening in india

at the moment is the tip of the iceberg and the peak period is yet to come in india, probably in the end ofjuly or even august or september. anbarasan, briefly, you referenced there the scale of india, presumably we're seeing some states doing better than others and some local decisions being better than others as well. for example, if you take a state like kerala in the south, they have only 26 tests and about 5,000 infections. but in neighbouring tamil nadu, there are more than 100,000 cases. the difference was kerala was taking a very strict testing regime, as soon as they reached the state, they were able treatment to trace them and immediately and give treatment. but in tamil nadu state, they relaxed the lockdown and people are going to the markets, the fish markets and vegetable markets and then it started again, and that's why they had to reimpose lockdowns when a particular situation

doesn't apply to one particular part of india. however, what the authorities in india are facing, convincing people they should come in test so we can give you the proper treatment. anbarasan ethirajan on the situation in india. the authorities in the north—western spanish region of galicia have imposed restrictions on about 70,000 people after a fresh outbreak of the coronavirus there. it's the second region in spain to introduce a local lockdown after restrictions came into force in parts of catalonia at the weekend. from spain, our correspondent guy hedgecoe reports. the area of a marina on the atlantic coast will be cut off from the rest of spain. movement will be allowed in the zone, which has 70,000 inhabitants, but police will prevent people from entering or leaving without a specific region. with 106 new cases of virus in the area, the authorities say this as a precautionary measure which is expected to last five days. translation: detecting these outbreaks early proves that our health system is much readier than in march, and it also shows that we need to learn to live

with the virus. we have to remain vigilant and keep social distancing. over the weekend, the regional government of catalonia in the north—east of spain put the country of segria into isolation due to a spike in coronavirus cases. two weeks ago, spain's government lifted a strict national lockdown on the grounds that the pandemic was under control, but since then, there have been a number of new, mostly small outbreaks. the border between australia's two most populous states is to be closed to guard against a spike in coronavirus cases. travel restrictions between victoria and new south wales will come into effect on tuesday night. more than 30 suburbs have been locked down in the victorian capital, melbourne, which has reported another 182 cases over the weekend. the victorian premier announced the border closure after speaking to the australian prime minister and the premier

of new south wales. i spoke with the prime minister, i spoke with gladys, we agreed that this is the best thing to do at this time out of a sense of caution. beyond that, if you think about the resources that are needed, from a victorian point of view, to be monitoring and checking people just from those hot loa ns, people just from those hot loans, this is a much more logical way of doing it. no—one enjoys doing it, but it is, i think of the right step to take at this point. that won't be a feature that goes on any longer thanit feature that goes on any longer than it needs to and i'm grateful it will be enforced on the new south wales side of the border, so it isn't a resource burden for us. we have quite a bit to go on with at the moment and that is where our focus and energies have been and where they will remain focused. 0ur correspondent shaimaa khaliljoins me from sydney. shaimaa, took us to the situation in melbourne and the focus on nine housing estate

there? that's right. nine housing tower blocks have been in full lockdown, which is the first time it has happened in australia, even during the peak time in march there were travel restrictions, there were movement restrictions, but really this is the first time we are seeing people being told not to go in or out, for at least five days, which is the time it would take according to authorities, to test everybody there. this happened on the weekend, on saturday, and many residents have been quite shocked to be told they couldn't leave those tower blocks. and the reason was because of a local coronavirus outbreak there was not nearly 30 cases were detected, in those towers. health authorities have said just by the sheer density of people living in those areas, by the fa ct living in those areas, by the fact they share communal lifts, communal walkways, published facilities, it's very, very difficult to social distance ——

rubbish facilities, and that is why the restrictions are as strict as they are. testing is going on knowing there is a great deal of concern that many, great deal of concern that any great deal of concern that many, many people, hundreds of hundreds of people have now been posed to those infected and are now in the incubation period of the virus. and that is really at the moment what is concerning health authorities with those nine tower blocks. we heard there, this idea that it is easier to lockdown a smaller area than a bigger area. is that a change, then, in the tactics from the australian government when it comes to consenting coronavirus? well, i think what they are trying to do is again reiterate the fact that this up until now has been happening in victoria. mind you, other states have been quite successful in controlling the virus, some have been quite successful in eliminating it. what they want to do is to have it contained within victoria at the moment. the closing of

borders between victoria and new south wales as you there is a great deal of concern about a crossover, especially between the two. there are about 50 border crossings between the two states, towns that share borders between the two states, because of the australian summer because of the australian summer there are because of the australian summer there are a because of the australian summer there are a lot of people crossing the borders. but what the local authorities in victoria want to do is say, 0k, we have lockdown or we have put very high restrictions in, 12 suburbs lockdown now, we can still control it before it gets out of hand. the victorian premier, speaking earlier before i came on, was being quite serious, saying this is due to people socialising in densely populated areas, and if this lockdown doesn't happen now, it means the whole state could potentially lockdown if the spread continues. yeah, shaimaa, it's a reminder of how contagious this virus can be in

the right circumstances. thank you forjoining us in sydney and bringing us this update. here in the uk, it's now four months since the first covid—19 deaths, with figures showing at least 114,000 people have lost their lives to the coronavirus. 0ur medical correspondent fergus walsh can take us through the figures, both here and around the world. by any measure, the uk is one of the worst—affected countries in the world. official figures show there have been more than 114,000 covid—19 deaths in the uk, the third—highest death toll after the united states and brazil. if you look at excess deaths, the number above what you'd expect for the time of year, that rises to over 65,000. that means, very roughly, one in 1,000 people in the uk have died due to the coronavirus pandemic. by far, the biggest single risk factor is age. 85 in every 100 deaths has been among people aged 70 and over. the younger you are, the lower your risk. daily confirmed coronavirus cases have fallen from a peak of over 5,000 a day in april to fewer than 1,000 a day now. there are hot spots

in areas like leicester, and there are thought to be about 1,000 to 2,000 cases a day that are never identified. but although coronavirus cases are falling across most of europe, globally, the pandemic is accelerating. it took more than three months to reach a million cases worldwide. by mid—may, it had topped 5 million, and it now stands at over 11 million, with a million new cases being added every week. the global death toll is now over 500,000. in the united states, the world's worst—affected country, there have been record numbers of new daily cases, with 50,000 being added every 2a hours, driven by outbreaks in states in florida, arizona and texas. many other countries are also seeing a surge in cases, with major outbreaks in brazil, mexico, india, south africa and russia. little wonder that the world health organization has said

the pandemic is not even close to being over. 0ur medical correspondence, fergus walsh —— correspondent. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: how argentina achieved its goal of playing football, even during covid—19. central london has been rocked by a series of terrorist attacks. police say there have been many casualties, and there is growing speculation that al-qaeda was responsible. germany will be the hosts of the 2006 football world cup. they pipped the favourites, south africa, by a single vote. in south africa, the possibility of losing hadn't even been contemplated, and celebration parties were cancelled. the man entered the palace

through a downstairs window and made his way to the queen's private bedroom. then he asked herfor a cigarette, and on the pretext of arranging for some to be brought, she summoned a footman on duty, who took the man away. one child, one teacher, one book, and one pen can change the world. education is the only solution. applause this is bbc world news. the latest headlines: india's tourist landmarks stay shut as the country overtakes russia to reach the world's third—highest number of coronavirus infections. galicia in the north—west of spain becomes the second region to impose a local lockdown after a fresh outbreak.

let's go to the united states. republican party officials say they are committed to holding their annual convention in florida at the end of next month despite a record spike in coronavirus cases there. julia manchester is a political reporterfor the hill. she told me how the convention came to be moved from its original location of charlotte in north carolina to jacksonville in florida. just weeks ago, or maybe a little over a month ago, president trump tweeted that it would be moving, he didn't announce where, but it was because we saw that the state's democratic governor, roy cooper, was very hesitant to hold the convention with all of its bells and whistles. we know that president trump wanted to have a very normal rockstar—like convention where he would receive the nomination to be re—elected — to be the party's nominee in his re—election bid. we then saw governor ron

desantis start to tell florida as a potential site, then we saw that jacksonville, florida, which is in the northern part of the state, was announced. but now we are seeing plans for that convention, which is supposed to have all the bells and whistles according to president trump — that is all now up in the area because we are seeing severe spikes of coronavirus in the sunshine state. and those bells and whistles don't come cheap, do they? there's a lot of money goes into putting on a convention, a lot of donors get involved, a lot of sponsorship. what happens then if this doesn't go ahead or if it's moved or it's postponed 7 what happens to the money that's been given, and what happens to these political supporters? well, that's a question a lot of us are asking right now. i mean, we saw that millions of dollars were donated from north carolina donors and other donors outside of the state that were hoping to have the convention in charlotte. however, now that's been moved to florida, we've seen that the florida republican party is now working with president trump and the republican national committee to put on this convention.

however, the issue is that we are actually seeing a lot of republican donors who are now very wary about giving to this convention, essentially saying, "look, we don't want anybody to get sick, this is obviously in a hot spot and we don't know what this convention is going to look like." so, right now, there's so much up in the air, that a lot of donors are being very cautious because they don't want what happened in north carolina to happen once again. julia, we have got used to living without quite a few things over the past few months. i just wonder what difference would it make if there wasn't a republican convention or even a democratic convention this year? they are big set—piece events, but do they matter? well, they are more formalities at this point. joe biden has amassed enough delegates to become the democratic nominee. so has president trump on the republican side. so there is no question that they will be the nominees at this point unless

there is some eleventh—hour bid to make them not the nominee, and that probably will not happen, 99.9% sure! however, there is the question of what the convention will look like. i imagine that on the democratic side at least, there needs to be some formality where delegates vote and such, we know that the democratic national convention is going to be much more scaled down, involve a lot more virtual elements. however, the republican national convention, president trump has said that he wants a full—on convention, and we saw that from his rally in south dakota over the weekend where there was no social distancing, no mask wearing. he wants to have one of his normal rockstar—like rallies, so i don't think you are going to see the president backing down on this. however, you could see other people very close to him maybe start to pressure him to start to make some concessions. let's get some of the day's other news. partial results in croatia's parliamentary election predict a strong victory for the

governing right—wing hdz party. pre—election polls had suggested a tight race with the centre—left social democrats. but it seems that the prime minister, andrej plenkovic, is set to extend his term in office. austrian police have arrested two russian citizens, both from chechnya, over saturday's murder of a chechen dissident in a suburb of vienna. media reports have named the victim as mamikhan umarov, a blogger and an outspoken critic of chechnya's autocratic ruler, ramzan kadyrov. italy has given permission for 180 migrants to disembark from a charity—run ship at a port in sicily after a stand—off lasting more than a week. medics have already tested the migrants and staff aboard the ocean viking for covid—19. as the lockdown has eased, professional sport has made somewhat of a comeback.

formula 1's back on track and many countries have seen the return of football. but in argentina, restrictions remain, so people have had to improvise as the bbc‘s tim allman explains. the beautiful game probably seems even more beautiful after such a long absence. across parts of europe and asia, matches have been played, goals have been scored, championships have been won. but not here. not in argentina. a recent spike in cases means lockdown measures have been reinforced. so they have come up with a suitable alternative. translation: this is for two teams of five players, for recreational activity that practices distancing with no contact. there are fixed positions, just like a goalkeeper with the defence and the forwards. known locally as ‘metegol humano',

it works like this — the pitch is separated into rectangular segments and each player has to stay in their own zone. there is no tackling, no dribbling. it has been described as a life—sized version of table football. for some, it couldn't have come a moment too soon. translation: the truth is that i tried it and it is the first time i've kicked a ball in months. i'm telling you this truthfully — i am emotional. of course the hope is proper football will eventually be given the green light. in the meantime, socially distance ‘fussball‘ will have to do. tim allman, bbc news. we would just stay in south america so we can show you these pictures of suspected drug traffickers.

in the mexican state of quintana roo, they made an emergency landing on a public highway before setting the plane alight and fleeing the scene. this is how the plane was left. federal investigators are still trying to establish the exact details but it is believed the plane was transporting drugs into mexico from central america before running into difficulty and being forced to land on the stretch of public road. now, a robotic helper that could increase the pace of discovery has been developed at the university of liverpool. it's part of what's being called a new digital age for science, with artificial intelligence and robotics keeping research moving at a time when social distancing means fewer human scientists in their labs. victoria gill has more. keeping the experiments going single—handedly. in a chemistry lab that's been closed to most human researchers since the beginning of lockdown, this robotic scientist has been working 2a hours a day, all alone. just occasionally, its designers are able to check in on their

intelligent machine. doesn't get bored, doesn't get tired, it works around the clock, it doesn't need holidays. it frees up my time to focus on innovation it frees up my time to focus on innovation and new solutions rather than doing the same action over and over again. because it would easily go through thousands of samples, which would take me a very long time to do by hand. in the age of social distancing, this £100,000 robot has taken on a whole new role. so many of us are going to have to get used to keeping our distance from each other and just not coming in to workspaces that we used to share with other people, and this robot scientist can keep experimenting 2a hours a day so that the human scientists can work from home. in manufacturing, robots are often used, programmed to repeat one task. but this new generation of robotic researcher actually learns as it works. it can record its results and use them to fine—tune the next set of experiments. so, could these machines do all of the science?

absolutely not. this is about human beings harnessing all of these digital technologies so that they can explore bigger and tackle much more complex problems, like decarbonisation, preventing and treating disease, making the quality of our air cleaner. but we'll always need people. so, with time—consuming tasks increasingly done by robotic collaborators, the next generation of human scientists could be trying to solve some of the world's most pressing problems from home. victoria gill, bbc news. before we go, snow in norway, which is normally a news story. —— isn't. july is normally the warmest month of the year with temperatures likely to rise up to 30 degrees celsius. but the nordic country has been experiencing some unusual weather in recent months. last january, western norway was hit with a rare heatwave, at a time when temperatures stay below freezing. that is all for now.

you can reach me on twitter. i'm @aaronsafir. thank you for watching. hello. monday looks set to be a rather breezy day, but not quite as windy as it was on sunday, when we had scenes like this — gusts of 50mph or more across some parts of the uk, the sorts of winds that we would expect during autumn, but are pretty unusual during summer. the area of low pressure responsible still not too far away, sliding towards scandinavia. high pressure trying to build in from the south—west, but it's not going to be quite as windy as it has been through monday. still pretty blustery out there, i have to say. fewer showers but still some showers. those particularly affecting parts of scotland, northern england, maybe clipping into east wales, the midlands, certainly the eastern side of england and some for northern ireland as well. the further south and west you are, not as many showers, more dry weather and some spells of sunshine here. still, a noticeable

north—westerly breeze. these are the wind gusts we're expecting. they are just a notch or two lower than the wind speeds we saw during sunday. but it will still feel fairly cool out there, i suspect, with top temperatures between 1a and 21 degrees, and it will remain fairly cool and fresh as we head through monday night. many of the daytime showers will continue to fade. i think we will see some showery rain drifting across the far north of scotland and cloud amounts increasing across northern ireland through the early hours of tuesday morning. temperature—wise, we start the day between 8 and 12 degrees. so, high pressure just about in charge as we begin tuesday. you can see this little bump in the isobars here. however, there is a frontal system that will be working in very quickly to northern ireland. i showed you the increasing amounts of cloud. well, rain will set in through the morning and then spread its way eastwards. there is a bit of uncertainty aboutjust how far north or how far south this wet weather will get. there is likely to be a swathe of dry weather

through southern counties of england and certainly the channel islands, and also some dry conditions with just showers in the northern half of scotland, but still, those temperatures in a range of 1a to 21 degrees. now, that frontal system is not finished with us as we head towards wednesday, another pulse of energy, another wave on this weather front, so that's likely to hold it in place with more rain across southern counties. and to the north of that frontal system, the air will never get particularly warm. we can expect temperatures to stayjust a touch below the average for the time of year. some rain at times through the middle part of the week. the driest of the weather likely to be across the north.

this is bbc news, the headlines:

as its tourist attractions stay shut, india has overtaken russia to become the country with the world's third highest number of confirmed cases. a sharp rise in diagnoses has taken the confirmed total to around 690,000. more than 19,000 people have died so far. the authorities in the north—western spanish region of galicia have imposed restrictions on about 70,000 people after a fresh outbreak of the coronavirus. it comes a day after catalonia also introduced a local lockdown to curb the spread of covid—19. the australian state of victoria has closed its border with neighbouring new south wales, after a new spike in coronavirus cases. in melbourne, over 30 suburbs have been locked down, and 3,000 residents living in public housing will not be able to leave their flats for the next two weeks.