this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. as more than 65,000 coronavirus cases are confirmed in a single day in the us, we report from the country's worst—hit state. arizona is now the coronavirus hotspot, not just for the united states but the world. chanting celebrations in istanbul, as the president recep tayyip erdogan signs a decree converting one of the world's most important historic buildings, the hagia sophia, into a mosque. travellers arriving in the uk from more than 70 countries and overseas territories are no longer required to quarantine for two weeks, making it easier to go on holiday.

and in the libel trial of the hollywood starjohnny depp, more allegations of arguments and violence with his ex—wife amber heard. hello and welcome if you're watching in the uk or around the world. the united states has once again breached a new daily record for confirmed coronavirus infections. cases were falling towards the end of last month, but they are now rising steeply again, exceeding 65,000 — making these the greatest single—day tallies for any country since the global pandemic began. the spike in infections has been particularly bad in the south and west of the country, with the state of arizona recording the most cases. 0ur correspondent sophie long has been there. loud music plays

when the governor of arizona lifted the state's stay—at—home order, people partied, pre—pandemic style. it was a joke to us. we werejust like, "covid's fake news." days later, many woke up to what will probably be the worst hangover of their lives. never imagined in my life i'd be in a hospital, you know, on a breathing, oxygen tube. and i felt like i was going to die. the bars and nightclubs have now been shut down again. the pumping music replaced by an eerie silence. but the damage has been done. at the beginning of the pandemic, some hoped the summer heat might help slow the infection rate. well, if you want proof that that is not happening, it's here. it's currently around 44 celsius in phoenix. the temperature is rising, and so are the number of confirmed covid cases — at an alarming rate. arizona is now the coronavirus hotspot, not just for the united states,

but for the world. and yet people here are still queueing many hours for tests and waiting many days for the results. they're getting results back in eight days. well, eight days, that's not actionable information. you can't use that information any more. if the person was infected with covid—19, you've missed your opportunity to intervene and get them into isolation so they don't infect their family members and co—workers. those who have lost loved ones in this sudden surge find ways to express their grief and their anger. i don't want my father to just be another number. the reason why people are getting sick and numbers are skyrocketing here, and we are number one not only in the entire country, but the entire world, is not because of lack of individual responsibility. it's because of lack of leadership. and it's the tired hearts of medical staff that are breaking as they're forced to make decisions they hoped

they never would. sometimes you just have to go into crisis mode, and what that means is basically having the triage, like, in a military setting, having a triage of who gets to get that resource and who doesn't. but you have very limited resources and you know a bunch of sick patients need it, you have to pick and choose who gets that life—saving intervention. that's a horrible situation to be in. i've never had to be in that situation. some hospitals here are now preparing to operate at up to 150% capacity, an indication that arizona is expected to continue to be the epicentre of this explosion of new cases, and the impact on people across the state could get even worse. sophie long, bbc news, phoenix, arizona. president erdogan of turkey has signed a highly controversial decree turning one of the world's most historically significant buildings, hagia sophia in istanbul, back into a mosque.

the unesco world heritage site was built in the 6th century as a greek orthodox cathedral, serving as the home of the eastern orthodox church for nearly 900 years. then, following the ottoman conquest in the 15th century, it was turned into a mosque, with spires and minarets added to the impressive structure. when the ottoman empire ended after world war i, turkey became a secular nation. a law was passed in 193a banning religious gatherings at hagia sophia, and the following year, it became a museum. turkey's highest court has now ruled that conversion into a museum should never have happened. turkey's most famous writer, the nobel—prize winner 0rhan pamuk, has spoken exclusively to the bbc, opposing the change to the status of hagia sophia. he said it was "a jewel of istanbul", and the change would be a great scar on the city. we are proud to be a unique nation, who believe both in islam and also secularism. and internationally, sophia is a sign of modern

turkish muslim secularism. now, to convert it back into a mosque, into a regular mosque is to say to the rest of the world, "unfortunately, we are not secular any more. unfortunately, we don't want to be friendly with the west any more. that secular any more." there are millions of secular turks like me who are crying against this, but their voices are not heard because we don't have enough free speech and democracy in turkey, unfortunately, any more. let's get more on this now. let's speak to unesco's matthieu guevel. thank you very much forjoining us. this decision, how does that affect global public access to the hagia sophia? because this is one of tu rkey‘s sophia? because this is one of turkey's biggest tourism attractions, it attracts more than 3

million people every year. this is exactly million people every year. this is exa ctly o ne million people every year. this is exactly one of the points. first of all, i wish to say unesco deeply regrets this decision of the turkish authorities, which was made without prior dialogue, without prior discussion, and recall for the universal value of this splendid world heritage should be preserved. indeed, this decision raises the question of the outstanding value that will have to be discussed by the world heritage committee and we deeply regret that this was taken without any discussion. more regarding that status, because this has been a world heritage site. what happens now from your position as unesco? can it continue to have that designation now that it is a mosque? first of all, we need to establish oi’ first of all, we need to establish or reestablish a dialogue, and recall on the turkish authorities to restore the dialogue. scholars

shared their concerns over several letters for the discussion, and reg retta bly, letters for the discussion, and regrettably, this decision has been taken without this consultation, because this is the purpose of unesco and of world heritage sites. bring people together around universal values. and this is what we work for and what should be back on the table. when it comes to some of the nuances of this decision, we can considerfor insta nce decision, we can considerfor instance some of the original prison time iconography that is within the museum, time iconography that is within the museum , now time iconography that is within the museum, now mosque “— byzantine. but will happen to icons like those? that is why we need a dialogue, because we don't know, and when the turkish authorities decided

and asked for the world heritage committee to consider this splendid monument as a world heritage site, it agreed to abide to a certain number of obligations, under international laws, and these are if turkish authorities decide to change an aspect of that heritage, we need to discuss first. indeed, there could be several impacts, including the fact that world heritage sites must ensure inclusive and effective participation of all communities involved, and this has to be, this is very clear, and this is part of the outstanding universal value of the outstanding universal value of the site. the second thing is that anything that affects the access, the physical integrity, the intangible elements that are inside the monument and the way it is

managed, can affect the outstanding value, and so we need immediately to restore the constructive dialogue, to see how this effect the site. matthieu guevel, thank you very much for joining matthieu guevel, thank you very much forjoining us from unesco. travellers arriving in the uk from dozens of countries are no longer required to quarantine for two weeks. the rules are being relaxed for arrivals from more than 70 countries. travel agents says the easing has led to an an increase in demand forforeign holidays. john mcmanus has this report. spain's tourist industry is keen to say hola to british holiday—makers as soon as possible. one of them, paul, is heading there on saturday. now we don't have to quarantine coming back in, it's a big help, knowing we can just go out there, we can stay in the hotel, obviously taking all the precautions, social distancing and masks and everything, hand

sanitiser and everything. the hotel seems to have it mostly under control. more britons are likely to venture abroad now that the uk's travel quarantine has been relaxed, but it's not straightforward. take europe. travellers arriving into the uk from most places now don't have to self—isolate for two weeks. but some of these countries have restrictions when british people go there. those travelling from anywhere else, including controversially portugal, do still have to follow the quarantine rules. and people arriving into scotland from spain will, too. if you fly to portugal at the moment, you will invalidate any travel insurance that you have. so the fco warning still applies. portugal, as we discussed earlier, is not on that exclusion list. so if you do travel, and you do have travel insurance and you are relying on that, you will invalidate it. liz's package holiday to croatia tomorrow is still booked,

but her flight‘s been cancelled. from what i understand, although some countries have opened up to tourists, a lot of flights are not currently running, so although the accommodation is available for tourists, there are no flights to get there. and i think that is where the confusion is. airports will become a bit busier again in the coming weeks. they and the airlines which use them are desperate to get paying passengers through their doors and into the air. but the return of international travel won't be plain sailing. the uk's foreign office is advising all britons not to travel on cruise ships at the moment. instructions which it says are based on advice from a government health body, public health england. john mcmanus, bbc news. do stay with us on bbc news. still to come: as the us supreme court rules that about half of oklahoma belongs

to native americans, we'l get reaction for the state's attorney general. 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've pipped the favourite, south africa, by a single vote. in south africa, the possibility of losing hadn't even been contemplated. celebration parties were cancelled. a man entered the palace through a downstairs window and made his way to the queen's private bedroom. then, he asked herfor us a cigarette and, on the pretext of arranging for some to be brought, summoned a footman on duty, who took the man away. screaming one child, one teacher, one book and one pen

can change the world. education is the only solution. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: the us records another record jump in coronavirus cases, with more than 65,000 confirmed in a single day. the turkish president recep tayyip erdogan has signed a decree to turn one of country's most important buildings — hagia sophia in istanbul — back into a mosque. in the united states, the country's top court made a historic ruling seen as a major victory for native indigenous tribes relegated since the 1800s to parcels of land in oklahoma.

the supreme court ruled that nearly half of the state, including its second biggest city, tulsa, falls within native american jurisdiction. the ruling stems from a 1997 sentence by an oklahoma court ofjimcy mcgirt for sexual crimes. he challenged his conviction on the ground his crime took place on muscogee creek territory and therefore falls outside of oklahoma's jurisdiction. the 71—year—old argued successfully that only federal courts could rule on his criminal case as part of a treaty between native tribes and the us government. thejustices ruled 5—4 in favour of mcgirt. the ruling reaffirmed the jurisdiction of native tribal reservations in nearly half of oklahoma. the muscogee creek nation reservation encompasses 1.8 million people and spans 3 million acres. i'm joined now by the attorney general of oklahoma, mike hunter. thank you very much for making time to come on tonight. this ruling,

what are the ramifications for other cases in this state? could we see any other cases, rulings being overturned? the state felt that the status quo in relation between the tribes and the state and the state having criminaljurisdiction over both tribal members and nontribal members within the historic treaty lands was preferable to the outcome of the case this week, but we were not surprised. we've actually been in negotiations with the five tribes, in addition to muscogee creek, the five civilized tribes, the historic record of how those sovereigns entered 0klahoma, the historic record of how those sovereigns entered oklahoma, is almost identical. the ruling in the mcgirt case will likely be applied to, as you say, most of the eastern pa rt to, as you say, most of the eastern part of the state. we are very confident that they're going to be

some hurdles with respect to ensuring that individuals whose sentences may be impacted by this will receive attention by federal law. the outcome here is that jurisdiction over crime within the muscogee creek reservation lands is a shared responsivity between the federal government and the tribes meso that will be some issues that we need to address, likely some of these people are going to have to decide whether they want to be retried or whether they will allow themselves to continue in state custody, but we are very confident that working with the tribes, the history, particularly in recent yea rs, history, particularly in recent years, between the state and the tribes is on that we are very proud of and we are going to build on that. can you tell us a little bit more about the steps you will be taking in the coming weeks and

months that are going to be a direct result of this ruling? in the near term, we'll be spending a good amount of time with state and local law enforcement to make sure that they understand the decision, the extent to which they are going to be working with the creek nation and their law enforcement agents to ensure that public safety is a priority. with regard to the future, there has been months of work and anticipation of an outcome of this case, with the five tribes, to develop a proposed piece of legislation that will provide clarity with both civil and criminal jurisdiction within the treaty lands going forward, so we are hopeful. we already have, i think, in agreement principal to that which we will be

72 congress and i hope we will be able to win passage of this before congress adjourns. the outcome will be that the state and the tribes will have concurrentjurisdiction over crimes and a shared civil jurisdiction regime which i think we are all good be very practical with. and how does this change your officers relationship with the native american community? on a personal level, i am the attorney generalfor personal level, i am the attorney general for everybody personal level, i am the attorney generalfor everybody in personal level, i am the attorney general for everybody in the state of oklahoma, whether a native american or a non—native american. i ta ke american or a non—native american. i take that responsivity very seriously, and the commitment that i have two working with the tribes and their members, to ensure that we are able to work through any alms in the road as a result of this decision is something i'm committed to. this is not going to turn into some kind of an us versus not going to turn into some kind of an us versus them dialogue or conflict. we are very proud of our

native american heritage as a state. they were 39 clearly recognised tribes in the state and this is something that, again, we are committed to working through, i am confident that we are going to come to an arrangement that is going to establish, as i said, generally speaking, concurrentjurisdictions in the treaty lands. michael hunter, thank you very much forjoining us. mike hunter is the attorney general of oklahoma. results are starting to come in in singapore's election which has been conducted under strict social distancing conditions. the election is being seen as a referendum on the government's handling of the virus pandemic amid a backdrop of global economic crisis. we can speak now to the bbc‘s sharanjit leyl in singapore as those results continue to come in. hello. good to see you. what is the latest there? i am in a constituency

thatis latest there? i am in a constituency that is a stronghold for the opposition party, and for the last couple of hours, the people here have been celebrating. i am sure you can hear them. essentially, they have been celebrating, you would think they have had a big win but in actuality, could not be further from the truth. they have actually lost, but in singapore, where there is only ever been one party that has ruled, and that is the people's action party, the fact that the opposition workers' party has managed to pick up ten seats is actually a historic when since independence, so this is going to prompt a lot of soul—searching from the pap. any sort of little shift on how they do tends to result in changes of policy, etc. and as you say, this is a pandemic election. this has been dubbed a pandemic election. the economy has been a chief orfor election. the economy has been a

chief or for many people. singapore isa chief or for many people. singapore is a very open economy, it's a very trade oriented economy, and the pandemic and the various lockdowns here as well as the rest of the world has really impacted it very badly. they are expecting some of their worst growth numbers since independence. it was really interesting as well, we are right in the midst of this. it is a city with three strict rules but we have been seeing in the last couple of hours, there been lots of flouting of the social distancing rules, because we are right in the middle of the pandemic, so potentially this could cost them, but it's interesting to see the celebration going on. it is unusual in the city. sharanjit leyl, thank you very much. i know you will be keeping an eye on those develop his for us in singapore. let's take a look now at some of the day's other news. hong kong's bureau of education has

announced that all schools will be closed from monday because of a spike in locally transmitted coronavirus cases. the city reported 42 new cases on thursday, of which 3a were locally transmitted, marking the second consecutive day of rising local infections. reports from china say at least 140 people have died or are missing, following days of intense flooding. four cities along china's yangtze river have declared severe flood warnings. nearly 300,000 people have been evacuated, as homes have been destroyed, roads blocked and many left stranded without food or electricity. more heavy rain has been forecast in parts of the country. venice has been carrying out the first full test of its multi—billion—dollar flood defence system. the project is made up of 78 mobile barriers, which can be raised in the lagoon to stop tidal surges from the adriatic sea. the system won't come into full operation for at least another year and a half. the high court in london has been hearing details of arguments

between the actorjohnny depp and his ex—wife amber heard. mr depp has been giving evidence for a fourth day in his libel trial. he's suing the sun newspaper for calling him a "wife beater". david sillito was in court. johnny depp and a fourth day of questioning about his turbulent relationship with his former wife amber heard. this case for libel against the publishers of the sun was triggered by an article that described johnny depp as a wife beater. in court, johnny depp was questioned about those alleged assaults. he was shown photographs and texts, all of which amber heard says is evidence she was attacked, and which he says is an elaborate hoax. he was asked about an incident involving a phone in may of 2016. it was put to him... he was shown this photograph and asked...

a police officer who was called at the time said her face was, she felt, flushed and red and from crying but there was no sign of any injury. it is part of a whole series of photos and text that have been shown to the court. johnny depp describes the evidence as a choreographed hoax, but news group newspapers says there is overwhelming evidence johnny depp assaulted amber heard in a relationship we heard today ended with an incident when cleaners discovered a deposit in their bed. the couple had yorkshire terriers, butjohnny depp said it wasn't left by a three or four lb dog. it was, he felt, a fitting end to their marriage. david sillito, bbc news. here in the uk, hundreds of people have gathered to pay their respects at the funeral of the world war ii forces' sweetheart dame vera lynn, who died last month at the age of 103. her cortege was accompanied by a battle of britain fly—past

as it travelled through her home village of ditchling in east sussex. that's it for now. stay with us on bbc news. hello there. despite there being more sunshine around across the uk as a whole today, there were some pretty hefty showers across northern and eastern parts of the country. behind me, you can see the heavy shower clouds there in redcar and cleveland, some rumbles of thunder heard, but through tonight, most of the showers will fade away as the pressure continues to build. as the winds turn light with a cooler air mass under the clear skies, turning quite chilly. high pressure continues to build in. it kills off the showers, which will eventually fizzle away, leaving clear skies with barely any cloud. there will be a bit more cloud across the north and west of scotland. here, a bit more of a breeze, one or two showers at times,

but elsewhere, it will be drier and much cooler as well. lows of six to nine degrees quite widely. pretty cool for the time of the year. so into the weekend, looks like high—pressure dominating so plenty of dry and sunny weather around, with light winds, and it will be dry for most but there will be a little bit of rain arriving across the northwest of the uk during sunday. the high—pressure really establishing itself across the country for saturday, so a fine start to the morning, lots of sunshine around, pretty much how it will stay apart from a bit of fairweather cloud bubbling up at times. around the edge of the high, we could see stronger westerly winds through the northern isles and the north west of scotland, so breezy here and a bit more cloud and perhaps a few showers pushing in here, but lighter winds further south, pretty strong sunshine this time of the year. it will feel warmer with top temperatures, 21 or 22 degrees here. the mid to high teens further north. high pressure still with us into sunday. subtle changes. we see this low pressure system and the weather front skirting towards the northwest of the uk. skies will turn cloudy for northern ireland and western scotland through the day,

increasing breeze and outbreaks of rain arriving here later on. for the rest of scotland, for england and wales, another dry day, plenty of sunshine, light winds and a bit warmer across the board. high teens in the north, we could see 23, maybe 2a degrees in the southeast, so closer to the mid—20s there. that area of low pressure across the north and west starts to bring more rain and cloud across northern areas as we move into next week. the further south you are, it tends to stay drier, variable cloud, but it will be a bit warmer here too.

this is bbc world news. the headlines... more than 65,000 coronavirus cases are confirmed in a single day in the us. we report from the worst hit state. celebrations in istanbul, as the president recep tayyip erdogan signs a decree converting one of the world's most important historic buildings, the hagia sophia, into a mosque. travellers arriving in the uk from more than 70 countries and overseas territories are no longer required to quarantine for two weeks, making it easier to go on holiday. in thejohnny depp libel trial, more allegations of arguments and violence with his ex wife, amber heard.