this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. i'm kasia madera. america's top expert on coronavirus, dr anthony fauci, says the white house attempts to discredit him are "bizarre". elon musk, bill gates and barack obama — some of the names whose twitter accounts have been taken over in a hack that's still ongoing. shocking scenes in south africa's hospitals. a bbc investigation reveals serious mismanagement in some of the country's covid hotspots. and a look at what's behind the recent heatwave in the siberian arctic and how that's affected weather in other parts of the world.

hello and welcome if you're watching in the uk or around the world. we are covering all the very latest coronavirus developing here in britain and also globally. i'm kasia madera. we are going to start in the united states. nothing seems to be able to stop the rise and rise of covid—19 numbers there. a further 67,000 cases and 900 deaths have been recorded in the last 2a hours. there are new outbreaks in alabama, nevada and north carolina, which are all beginning to report a jump in cases. cases have surged in oklahoma too, and the state's governor, kevin stitt, has tested positive. he says he thinks he is the first state governor to get the virus. i feel fine. ifelt a little bit achy yesterday.

didn't have a fever butjust a little achy, sojust did my regular testing and it came back positive. so, ijust want to be transparent with 0klahomans. from the very beginning, i want to share every piece of data and then let 0klahomans know exactly where we're at in our state, and i'm so proud of how we've handled it thus far. america's top infectious diseases expert, anthony fauci, has recently been criticised by white house officials, including peter navarro, donald trump's trade adviser, who said in an op—ed that dr fauci was wrong about everything they had discussed together. dr fauci, a key figure in the white house coronavirus task force, responded in an interview in it, a journalist from the atlantic asks... dr fauci responds...

today, president trump was asked for his view on dr fauci. we're all on the same team, including dr fauci. i have a very good relationship with dr fauci. and we're all on the same team. we want to get rid of this mess that china sent us. so, everybody‘s working on the same line and we're doing very well. we're doing well in a lot of ways and our country's coming back very strong. when you look at those job numbers — we've never had job numbers like we have right now. so it's coming back very strong. dr fauci has openly disagreed with president trump who's been eager to open up the economy amidst the pandemic. the bbc‘s north america correspondent david willis is in los angeles. it's somewhat surreal, isn't it, that as the death toll here in the united states reaches 137,000 people, you have this apparent

feud going on between the top infectious diseases expert, dr anthony fauci, and the white house? over the weekend, the white house issued a series of bullet points detailing why dr anthony fauci should not be trusted. then peter navarro doubled down today on all that in an article in the usa today. president trump has since sought to distance himself somewhat from peter navarro‘s comments. dr fauci, as you just were explaining, has said that he doesn't really understand what is going on. he called a major mistake, didn't understand why the white house would seek to discredit him. and it is of concern to people here, given that dr anthony fauci is by far the more trusted of the two, between him and donald trump, when it comes to navigating this country out of the coronavirus pandemic. he is the man who stood america through six previous outbreaks of disease, if you like, under both democrat and republican presidents, and his approval

ratings far exceed those of president trump. a short while ago, the vice president, mike pence, tweeted a still photograph of today's white house coronavirus briefing — and there, prominently, centre of frame, was none other than dr anthony fauci. make of it what you will. 0ur thanks to david willis there. now, to a story that is developing in the past hour. the twitter accounts of major figures and companies, including barack obama, elon musk, bill gates and uber, have been hacked in what appears to be a large—scale coordinated attack. the democrat presidential candidate joe biden and also the apple corporation were among those affected. twitter says it's investigating the issue. let's crossover to san francisco. ryan mac is senior technology reporter with buzzfeed news. good to see you, ryan. explain

to us what is happening. because this is ongoing at the moment, so what is going on with this? twitter has not kept control of this. the whole issueis control of this. the whole issue is under investigation. after 1pm here, a bunch of accou nts after 1pm here, a bunch of accounts started tweeting out what looks at a bitcoin giveaway scam. these scams have existed on twitter over the last couple of years but today it was the person we've axley seen real verified accounts get hacked to promote those scams and, like you said, some of these accounts are some of the biggest in the world on the platform. they are absolutely huge. elon musk, millions of millions of followers, barack 0bama. explain to us. millions of followers, barack obama. explain to us. for those who are not familiar with bitcoin and how this works. the account gets hacked and then what happens? what happened today the account gets hacked — let's say elon musk, one of the

first — and tweets language that if you send an amount of bitcoin, i will double that and send it back to you. of course, that never happens and the account just keep that never happens and the accountjust keep that money. and typically, what is also included in that tweet is the wall that dress, age is a wallet is where you store and can receive and send bitcoin, so can receive and send bitcoin, so that address is included in the tweet and, yeah, that's basically how it works. so these tweets fishing for money, fishing for bitcoin, they come from the genuine account. do they look real? do they sound real? no, they don't. as someone real? no, they don't. as someone who has all of years, they are typically not in the voice of the actual account holder, they are just scammers hoping whoever comes across these things might be gullible enough to believe that and technically savvy enough to

send bitcoin their way. we were monitoring the account, one of the accounts, the wallets, and it had amassed more than $100,000 worth of bitcoin, so not a bad amount for a scam like this. not a bad amount at all. is there any way of, by its very nature, with bitcoin, you can't stress it back as to where this money eventually ends up? right. we know the wallet address, but we don't know who is behind the wallet, we don't know where it's being removed to because money will be removed from that wallet into another account, so once you send it as well, you can't recall it. it's gone. what is during stink about what happened here? is this basically an ordinary, i say ordinary, on this scale, it is huge, but is this a scam to get money? 0r huge, but is this a scam to get money? or is there something clinical behind it? it is still unclear if this political. we are seeing this small amount of money the move. this is a

serious security issue for twitter. these are power users, these are the uses people come to see and read, people like elon musk orjoe biden or bill gates. these are people who use these platforms on a daily basis, and the fact that twitter cannot keep that secure isa twitter cannot keep that secure is a massive issue for them. ryan mac, i think you're going to be busy! thank you for taking some time to explain that. right, let's catch you up on some of the day's other news. in india, at least 50 people have been killed and more than 2 million affected by heavy monsoon flooding in the north—eastern state of assam. the video you're seeing right now shows a regional minister wading through floodwaters to rescue people and the clip has highlighted the plight of those hit by the floods. in britain, prime minister borisjohnson has thrown one of his own conservative mps out of the parliamentary party after his chosen candidate failed to get the chairmanship

of a key parliamentary committee. julian lewis worked with opposition mps to get himself elected as chair of the intelligence and security select committee. france will cut the taxes french companies have to pay by 20 billion euros over the next two years. a package will also be launched to tackle youth employment during the pandemic. the country's finance minister, bruno le maire, said the measures will be in addition to emergency aid to protectjobs during the lockdown. a reservoir behind ethiopia's disputed grand renaissance dam on the river nile has started filling with water. satelite images showed water levels rising a day after talks with egypt and sudan ended without agreement. sudan and egypt both fear the $4 billion dam could lead to water shortages in their own nations. a prolonged heatwave in the siberian arctic this year is "unequivocal evidence of climate change" — that's according to an international team of scientists.

they say the record high temperatures would be impossible without man—made global warming. that matters here in the uk because the arctic drives much of the weather we experience, as our chief environment correspondent, justin rowlatt, reports. six months of record—breaking temperatures have fuelled massive forest fires in the siberian arctic this year. great plumes of smoke were visible on satellite images last month. the red areas on this map show just how exceptional temperatures have been — more than five degrees above average across much of siberia. that included the highest temperature ever recorded north of the arctic circle, a sweltering 38 centigrade, and now a met office—led international study has concluded this period of exceptional weather would have been impossible had the world not been warmed by man—made greenhouse gas emissions. in the winter of 2018, the uk experienced a beast

from the east, a period of exceptionally cold and snowy weather. it shows us that what happens in the arctic doesn't stay in the arctic. there are six main weather systems around the uk, and four of those six come from the polar regions or from the arctic directly, so whilst a lot of this is uncertain, if something happens in the arctic, it's going to be reasonable to assume something's going to happen in the uk, too. today's report is yet more evidence that the growing concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is changing our climate. what we're seeing really is unprecedented. it's the strongest result we've ever seen, actually. we've never seen a change in the probability of an event of more than 600 times. we've never seen a result like that. many storms and floods in europe are reckoned to have

been driven by conditions in the arctic. and we know the polar region is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world. the long—term impact that will have elsewhere is less certain. looking at the geological record, we don't think we've had c02 levels this high for about 5 million years, so we really don't know what to expect into the future. we are in uncharted territory. the reduction of arctic sea ice cover and melting of the permafrost has accelerated during this year's heatwave. that will drive even more warming and, in turn, means we can expect more extreme weather around the world. justin rowlatt, bbc news. we do have much more on climate change on our website. do stay with us here on bbc news. we have lots more still to come. after months of talks and missed deadlines, a deal has been struck to keep greece within the eurozone. the immediate prospect

of greece going bust, in the worst crisis to hit the eurozone, has been averted. emergency services across central europe are stepping up their efforts to contain the worst floods this century. nearly 100 people have been killed. broadway is traditionally called "the great white way" by americans. but tonight, it's completely blacked out. it's a timely reminder to all americans of the problems that the energy crisis has brought to them. leaders meet in paris for a summit on pollution, inflation and third—world debt. this morning, theyjoined the revolution celebrations for a show of military might on the champs—elysees. wildlife officials in australia have been coping with a penguin problem. fairy penguins have been staggering ashore and collapsing after gorging themselves on their favourite food, pilchards. some had eaten so much, they could barely stand.

hello, welcome. you're watching bbc news. our main headlines this hour... as coronavirus cases continue to soar in the us, dr anthony fauci describes efforts by some in the white house to discredit him as "bizarre". a number of high—profile twitter accounts are simultaneously hacked to spread a cryptocurrency scam. chronic failures in the health system of south africa's eastern cape have been exposed by the coronavirus pandemic, according to a bbc investigation. key staff are on strike or sick with covid—19, nurses have been forced to act as cleaners and there are reports of unborn babies dying in overcrowded, understaffed wards. exhausted doctors and nurses say the province's health system has collapsed under the strain, with one doctor calling it "an epic failure of a deeply corrupt system". after initially controlling the virus, south africa is experiencing a sharp rise in coronavirus cases — currently more than

10,000 new cases a day. 0ur africa correspondent andrew harding sent this report from port elizabeth. a windswept cemetery outside port elizabeth, and a queue of hurried burials as covid—19 finally surges across south africa. but already, this troubled city's health system is close to collapse. we've uncovered shocking evidence from two filthy, chaotic state hospitals. here, security guards coverfor absent medical staff as a sick man is hauled into casualty. inside livingstone hospital, essential cleaning, laundry, and some nursing staff are refusing to work. soiled linen was found all over the hospital passages there was blood on the floor. we cannot risk the lives of the nurses.

they are human beings. but that means just a handful of doctors and nurses are left, overwhelmed. fearful of being sacked for speaking out, staff asked us to hide their identities. there's a shortage of staff, so you end up nursing 50 patients and more. we are living in fear. and there is plenty to fear here — rats converge on blood and other waste in an open drain. inside the hospital, patients have come to blows over scarce oxygen supplies. there are reports of patients fighting for oxygen. limited bed capacity, limited staff. and services are starting to crumble. four medics have independently confirmed to us that at least two unborn babies died — and several mothers, too — after urgent non—covid—related surgery was delayed for days. there's a reason these horror stories are emerging here

in south africa's eastern cape — a region that's become synonymous with misrule. to be clear, this is not about a poor region being suddenly overwhelmed by an unexpected virus. no, this is about a pandemic exposing the rot here, the years of epic corruption and mismanagement. at livingstone hospital, for instance, derelict buildings, absent bosses and, even before covid, staff members at half the desired levels. mismanagement, corruption, maladministration have all led to us being in this situation where, in the face of a global pandemic, the health system is crumbling. but the man in charge of health here tells me that's not the case. the health system in the eastern cape has not collapsed. well, we've been told quite the opposite from people on the front lines.

and one thing they do say is that this has been a long time coming, that this is years in the making. very clearly, there is a need for a really reinforced health care system. we knew that when the covid came up, we needed to really prepare ourselves. and we've been working on that preparation. i think we are still on track. 0n track? the arrival of a team of army medics suggests otherwise. urgent reinforcements for a battle against a virus that is exposing south africa's institutional rot. andrew harding, bbc news, port elizabeth. the trump administration is ratcheting up pressure on china through the technology giant huawei. secretary of state mike pompeo promised to impose visa restrictions on workers for the company. he also praised the uk's decision to ban huawei from its 5g network. china is not happy. it's pushed back,

calling the ban groundless. julia voo is a china specialist at the harvard kennedy school of government. i asked her what she made of china's reaction. i'd expect reciprocal action from china. this is what we've seen with the american and chinese journalist restrictions earlier this year, when, in march, china expelled journalists from three us newspapers after the us said it would begin to treat some chinese state—run media entities as foreign embassies as a result of china's oppression of independentjournalists. and so i would expect a similar chinese action in response to this. do you think there's any understanding in beijing of why the us, why the uk are doing this? i think that beijing understands why the us and the uk are doing this. so, in terms of the fact that

they're acting so strongly, because of the moves the china are taking when it comes to, well, anything, from the hong kong security laws to their treating of the uyghur community to their territory—grabbing within the south china sea? yes. i think they understand that and, to be honest, i would expect a future challenge around the response from perhaps us industry, who depend on chinese visas for their non—chinese staff on the mainland, so i think that they understand and see what the next steps might be. and when it comes to going forward, do you think we're at a stage... one of the newspapers, for example, is talking about a cold war era, that we've got this divide between two superpowers. is there a chance of de—escalating this or are we past that point? i think that we are reaching a point where there seems to be

less and less opportunity to walk it back, but based on this back—and—forth and tit—for—tat retaliatory actions over the past few months, it suggests that i think we're poised for a further downwards trajectory in the bilateral relationship. thanks to julia thanks tojulia voo for speaking to me earlier. in the first verdict of its kind, a south korean court found that a woman adopted by an american couple almost four decades ago must be recognised as the daughter of an 85—year—old south korean man. the ruling provides hope for the thousands of korean—born adoptees who want to know the identities of their birth parents. but for kara bos, the adoptee who brought the case, it's been a painful struggle that is still not over. when you finally decide as an adoptee to kind of open pandora's box, you have no idea

what to expect. my name is kara bos — or my korean name, as stated on my file, is kang mee sook — and i was adopted to america when i was around two years old. it wasn't until i had my daughter that i understand the real unconditional bond that's really built during the initial couple years of caring for a child. i also then thought of my mother and how that must have beenjust so painful, to have to make that excruciating choice of abandoning a child. dna obviously doesn't lie, so i had a true biological link for once in my life. but his family was unwilling to help or to release any kind of information, or even help me actually at all. the fact that they can't

see the bigger issue involved with this, like, the fundamental issue of the fact that it's just a girl looking for her mother, they can't even be human about that, i can't comprehend it, to be honest. i just can't. that's when i started to get upset about the injustice of it all. i think this day is momentous for all of us adoptees, just to have a right, finally. i'm starting to really close off to everything

that i'd kind of opened up to — my identity with korea and korea as a country, as a society — because i have been hurt and rejected now countless times. i want to just go home right now. and my home is with my family in amsterdam. a very emotionaljourney. before we go, let's have a look ata before we go, let's have a look at a little animal who was enjoying some water. if you look at these images, these are beach—goers in rio dejaneiro. a little surprised to see this elephant seals seals swinging among them —— elephant seal swimming among them. a local marine biologist said the seal likely came up from patagonia or even antarctica. such animals are often

threatened by large—scale fishing, meaning it would have to venture further from home in search of food. but judging butjudging from those images, it was very happy. from me and the team... hello there. prospects do look better for thursday, but wednesday didn't look or feel much like summer at all. we've had this damp, muggy air stream bringing in an awful lot of cloud and some drizzle earlier on too. there was some sunshine that did develop in the far southwest of england, but even those breaks in the cloud have been filling in overnight. it's a cloudy start to thursday, mild as well — typical temperatures 12 to 1a degrees. may still be early drizzle around and some western hills may stay cloudy all day. but we're likely to see things brightening up elsewhere and some sunshine where we get a bit more shelter, eastern parts of northern ireland, east wales, eastern england and particularly eastern scotland. and where we get some warm sunshine coming through, temperatures will lift into the low 20s, with the highest temperatures probably around aberdeenshire and the murray firth —

23 or 2a degrees here. where it stays quite cloudy, though, 18 is going to be a typical temperature in the afternoon. that's what we're expecting in manchester, old trafford, for the first day of the second test match. should be dry, mind you. there is some rain arriving in the northwest of scotland, though, later on thursday. and that weather front will take that rain very slowly southwards. it's going to stagger its way southwards. it may get stuck throughout friday across southern scotland, northern ireland, northern england and perhaps north wales. to the north and south of that, there will be sunshine coming through, but differing temperatures. across much of scotland, it's cooler, fresher air, so temperatures will be a bit lower on friday. but towards england and wales, especially in the southeast, it's the peak of the heat. 25 or 26 around the london area. that weather front still on the scene, then, on friday and still moving very slowly southwards on saturday. it's slowing down quite a bit, actually. eventually, we'll find this cooler and fresher air following in its wake. but we've got some cloud and rain moving a little further south across england and wales. unlikely to reach the southeast

of england until the evening. to the north, across northernmost parts of england, northern ireland and scotland, we're into some sunshine. a few showers in the northwest. into the southeast of england, again, the highest temperature is 23 or 2a degrees here. some rain, though, likely overnight. maybe a bit of rain left to clear away in the far southeast on sunday. once that goes, it's sunny spells across the board. there will be a few showers, again, particularly for western parts of scotland, but we're into cooler and fresher for all areas — with a top temperature into the low 20s.

this is bbc news.

the headlines: twitter says it is working to resolve what it calls a "security incident" after the twitter accounts of several high profile people were simultaneously hacked by attackers who used the accounts to spread a cryptocurrency scam. joe biden, jeff bezos, and barack obama were among those targetted. president trump's leading adviser on the coronavirus pandemic, dr anthony fauci, has described efforts by some in the white house to discredit him as bizarre. he said a series of attacks on him reflected poorly on the trump administration. a prolonged heatwave in the siberian arctic this year is "unequivocal evidence of climate change", that's according to an international team of scientists. they say the record high temperatures would be impossible without man—made global warming.