measures to help with cash flow and a promise to reimburse some lost income, but many authorities say they need a long—term plan for how services are provided and paid for. in luton, polly works with children struggling with their mental health — a service part dependent on public grants. nationally, reports of domestic abuse had increased significantly, traumatic bereavement. it's at the time of decreasing funding actually coinciding when we are anticipating an increase in referrals, an increase in need. the concern for many is service cuts to come, notjust here but elsewhere, as this pandemic piles pressure on the public purse. alex forsyth, bbc news, luton. the response to the pandemic has varied across the uk, with the devolved governments have taken decisions on how to set their own rules

to deal with it, and testing their relationship with the uk government at westminster. this week we've been exploring these contrasting approaches, and what they reveal about the union. tonight our correspondent emma vardy has been speaking to people in northern ireland. pulsing beat. the pulse of the pandemic across the island of ireland brought about new thinking, in a place often defined by old divides. even in the mostly unionist areas of northern ireland's east coast, there was unease over following westminster‘s lead. at the beginning, it seemed to be a choice between an all—ireland approach and a uk—led approach and, in the end, i think rightly, northern ireland kind of made its own decisions. controlling the virus brought about a greater divergence between the devolved nations and westminster than ever before, with northern ireland ahead of other parts of the uk in lifting the lockdown and, in some areas, much earlier going into it. do you think it's strengthened the union or weakened it? i think it's probably weakened it.

we have seen some really bad government from westminster, whereas i think, you know, watching the scottish government and the northern ireland assembly, i think they have been better at, sort of, guiding us from the top. this perception, that devolved governments took better decisions in handling the crisis, is replicated around the uk. with polls indicating people believe the leaders of the devolved assemblies did a betterjob. but, for northern ireland, devising its approach was far from straightforward. on one island, with two jurisdictions, at times, there were conflicting strategies on how to deal with the virus. the irish republic closed pubs, while large events in the uk were still going ahead. in many nationalist areas of northern ireland, schools took their own decisions to close, while the uk government was advising pupils to stay in class. i think the population

of northern ireland looks both ways. they look to london for advice, but they also look to the republic of ireland for advice. what we found, certainly in the west of northern ireland, was that they looked more towards dublin, so that we went into lockdown probably a week and a half, maybe two weeks, before the rest of the united kingdom. despite this divide, on the canvas of northern ireland, so often depicting struggles past, in this new war, a sense of unity. along the irish border, near newry, the natural direction of travel is often to look towards dublin over westminster. i suppose people recognise that each of the four regions is very different, and what works for london doesn't necessarily work for northern ireland. what state is the uk union in, then, at the end of all of this? it's still in a reasonably good state, but they have to deal with brexit yet, that's coming down the tracks. then you're going to have scottish independence, there is going to be a fight for that.

as unionist culture is celebrated at scaled—down july parades, the worst of the pandemic, it is hoped, is over. but it leaves northern ireland in a changed united kingdom, with now more independent and autonomous parts than before. emma vardy, bbc news. working from home means millions of people have taken to video calling in the past few months. including the queen — she has been talking to three serving members of the armed forces stationed around the world about life and work during the coronavirus pandemic. our royal correspondent nicholas witchell reports. she normally meets her servicemen and women face—to—face, butjust now it has to be done via a conference call. no reason to forget protocol, though. watch the top right of the screen. good morning. yes, if you're a general, chief of the defence staff, no less, you begin with a bow. and then to business. first to a sailor, speaking from a royal fleet auxiliary ship in the caribbean. and where are you at the moment? i'm currently in curacao

at the moment, ma'am. well, i would think the last time i saw you, you wouldn't have imagined that this is what you'd be doing now. in holyport, we met. yeah, it was, ma'am, in 2014, i believe it was. then to west africa, and a soldier from the yorkshire regiment who's been there since last year. the covid crisis has meant that the rest and recuperation flights have been put on hold, so i'm afraid my wife has been slightly abandoned with our two young children. and she works for the nhs? she's training nurses and other health care professionals. finally to a member of the queen's colour squadron of the raf, who has rather an unusual sideline. so i'm the pilot for the jamaican bobsleigh team. gosh! the queen laughs. sounds a very dangerous job. it can be quite dangerous. so how do you train? i've been pushing a car up and down the street.

i've had to make... the queen laughs. they all laugh. well, i suppose that's one way to train! that's definitely one way to train, ma'am. well, i'm very glad to have been able to meet all of you, and the best of luck. nicholas witchell, bbc news.

welcome to bbc news. let's cross now to the white house where president trump is holding a press conference. president trump just announced that he signed into the hong kong act and would now be treating hong kong as pa rt would now be treating hong kong as part of the chinese mainland. in other words, removing some of the exceptions and exemptions he had for the territory. geopolitical and economic disasters in world history. you look at china, you look at the moment theyjoined the world trade they were flatlining for years and yea rs they were flatlining for years and years and years and decades. and then all of a sudden theyjoined the wto and they went like a rocketship.

they were given all sorts of advantages, they were considered a developing country. as a developing country they got tremendous advantages over the united states and other countries. and they took advantage of those advantages and then some. biden personally led the effort to give china the most favoured nation status which is a tremendous advantage for a country to have. few countries have it. but the united states doesn't have it. never did, it probably never even ask for it. because they didn't know what they were doing. as vice president biden was a leading advocate of the paris climate accord which was unbelievably expensive to oui’ which was unbelievably expensive to our country. would have crushed american manufacturers while allowing china to pollute the atmosphere with impunity. yet won more gift from biden to the chinese

communist party. they took all of the advantage away from us, they took everything away. they don't have oil, we would've had i closed up. tremendous amounts of our energy to qualify, eventually. not too far into the future. we would have done things that would have been unbelievably destructive to our country. including the possible closing of 25% of our businesses, thinking that. and it was going to cost hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. for the privilege of being involved in the paris climate accord. and you just have to look at what took place this yearin have to look at what took place this year in paris and france. where money was being sent to countries all over the world and the people of france didn't want to take it. and they didn't and they did a lot of rioting. they had their taxes raise, we would had to have raised our

taxes. and it was a disaster. i've been given a of credit for what i did there. it took a certain amount of courage, i guess. sounds so nice, the paris climate accord. but it wasn't good for at all. america lost nearly 10,000 factories whilejoe biden was vice president. think of that, 10,000 factories. he wrote something today and he made a statement today i wrote down, pretty accurate. so, biden was here for 47 yea rs, accurate. so, biden was here for 47 years, eight years, the last eight yea rs, years, eight years, the last eight years, not long ago as vice president he said one and five miles of our highways are still in poor condition. well, we're doing a good job on highways but why didn't he fix them three years ago? why didn't he fix and? tens of thousands of bridges are in disrepair and on the verge of collapse. well, it's probably not not a right number but

we have bridges that should've been fixed. why didn't he fix them? he was there for eight years with president obama. why didn't they fix them? tens of thousands of bridges. this is what he wrote. high—speed broadband, we want high—speed broadband, we want high—speed broadband well then why did they get a? three years ago is not a long time. and he didn't do any of the things but now he says he's going to be president. as president he's going to do all the things he didn't do. never did anything. except make it very bad decisions. especially on foreign policy. so joe it very bad decisions. especially on foreign policy. sojoe biden and president obama freely allowed china to pillage our factories. president obama freely allowed china to pillage ourfactories. plunder oui’ to pillage ourfactories. plunder our communities and steal our most precious secrets. and i've stopped it largely but i've stopped it and it largely but i've stopped it and it wasn't easy. because you talk about a certain power telephone and

they would call and say no i don't wa nt to they would call and say no i don't want to do that. in other countries would call about china. but i did it, idid would call about china. but i did it, i did what has to be done. you just take a look at what has gone on and the kind of, the numbers where they devalued the currency and ordered to pay the terrace. now the democratic party is calling for the defunding of our military. think about. they want to defend our military. when china is building a massive military. they are building a massive military and biden wanted to fund art military and the world needs american strength right now more than ever. and we've got it. as all this equipment comes in all made in the usa. we've got the newest, most incredible weapons anywhere in the world. we have the best tanks, the world. we have the best tanks, the best ships, the best missiles, rockets. we have the best of everything we have fighterjets, 35,

the f-18, everything we have fighterjets, 35, the f—18, all of these assets are being built. tankers, incredible tankers bombers, and hope we don't have to use them. but we have the most incredible military. when i came in the military was totally depleted. it was at a level that was absolutely incredible. you know the statements, i made the statements before. well we are going to pull out of this press conference by donald trump for just pull out of this press conference by donald trump forjust a few minutes. we will probably return what he ta kes we will probably return what he takes questions. he's been talking about signing into law the hong kong autonomy act removing the special rights for hong kong. treating hong kong now is the mainland, holding, adding new tools to hold individuals in china responsible. he's accused a who abita puppet of china. and also blaming the democrats, joe biden in

particular. president obama, for allowing his preferential trading status for china. we will return to the rose garden for questions and a few minutes on. before that let's just catch up with some of the first international and national papers. hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. with me are french writer and broadcaster agnes poirier and broadcaster david davies. tomorrow's front pages, starting with. .. sorry we lost a bit of time because of presidential. we've got a few front page already in. we've got a few front page ‘we'll go our own huawei' reads the front page of the metro — after the uk bans chinese telecoms giant huawei from involvement in it's 5g network, a u—turn which the paper says could cost £2 billion. the i says a crisis with china looms and describings diplomatic

relations between the two countries as plunging. the financial times says the decision has provoked ‘fury‘ in beijing, and reports that britain's roll—out of 5g phone networks could now be delayed by up to three years. ‘next stop, masks in offices' the telegraph says that the uk government is preparing a ‘road map‘ to avoid a second wave of coronavirus, that could include asking people to wear face coverings in all public places. on the philippine star — reports of house to house coronavirus searches which will be conducted by state security forces. the paper says they'll search for people with the virus who are quarantining at home and transfer them to isolation facilities managed by the government. the front page of the straits times is headline ‘singapore enters technial recession‘. the paper reports that the country's gdp has taken a dive of 12.6% attributed to circuit breaker

measures and weak external demand. on the front