tonight at ten, the prime minister provides a roadmap for a further easing of the lockdown in england, saying he hopes the country will return to normality by christmas. from next month employers can ask staff to go back to the office, as long as the proper safety measures are in place. hoping for the best but planning for the worst. and it's in that spirit that we must carry on waging this long, hard fight against coronavirus. the nhs is to get an extra £3 billion ahead of the winter flu season, amid fears of a new wave of coronavirus infections. the key now is confidence. do the public have confidence in the measures the government's put in place? do businesses have confidence in the advice that's been given?

we'll be assessing just how realistic the government's plans are for a "return to normality" in england, by the end of the year. also tonight... get off my neck! the metropolitan police suspends an officer after footage emerges of him kneeling on a man's neck during an arrest. cracking down on fake fashion, but are social media influencers helping to promote it? now, it's captain sir tom moore, knighted by the queen for his remarkable charity work for the nhs. and are the glory days back for leeds united, now in the premier league, after 16 years? and coming up in sport on bbc news... a big century from ben stokes puts england in control against the west indies. we'll have the latest from the second test.

good evening. borisjohnson has announced further steps to ease the coronavirus lockdown in england, offering a roadmap of measures that, he says, will return the country to "significant normality, possibly in time for christmas." from the beginning of next month, employers will have the power to decide whether they want workers to return to the office, and those heading back to work can use public transport as needed. another £3 billion has been pledged for the nhs, ahead of the winter flu season and a possible rise in coronavirus infections. the funds will also maintain the nightingale hospitals, and further expand the coronavirus test and trace programme. meanwhile, local authorities have been given the power to introduce their own regional lockdowns from tomorrow, if infection rates rise. ourfirst report is from our chief political correspondent, vicki young. the journey out of lockdown has been slow and cautious. now the government's mapping out

the next stage for england, hoping to encourage us back on public transport... back to the office... ..and back to the shops. but even after all these months it's impossible to say whether life will be normal by november. even as we plan for the worst, i strongly believe we should also hope for the best. that means looking ahead with optimism, now extending our plan to lift the remaining national measures. the prime minister's next steps for easing the lockdown in england include, from august, more people can return to the workplace, facial beauty treatments and indoor shows can resume, and casinos can reopen. in september, schools, nurseries and colleges will reopen on a full—time basis. from october, subject to successful pilots, stadium events with audiences and other business events could be allowed. today we are publishing... there will be more cash for the nhs and councils will have extra powers

to deal with coronavirus outbreaks in theirarea. guidance that people should work from home if they can will change from the beginning of august. we're going to give employers more discretion and ask them to make decisions about how their staff can work safely. whatever employers decide, they should consult closely with their employees, and only ask people to return to their place of work if it is safe. some companies have said to their workers that they don't need to be back in the office untiljanuary. are you now saying that employers should be doing more to encourage workers back in august? obviously, it's not for government to decide how employers should run their companies. what we're saying now is that if employers think it would be better and more productive for their employees to come into the office and they can work

in a safe way, then there should be discussions between the employers and employees. city centres like birmingham have been badly hit. fewer workers going to the office has left businesses struggling for custom. it is weird cos birmingham, as we know, you come to birmingham and it's a vibrant place, everyone is crowded, hustle bustle, you knock into people, "oh, sorry," and you carry on. none of that now. it will take a bit of time for people's confidence to get back and people understanding you can come, it's ok to come to town but you have to be cautious. if you rush it too much we are going to go back to where we were before and there will be spikes in infection because a lot of people will think everything's finished and we have to be mindful of that. scotland and wales are following a more cautious timetable than england. our advice is that you should stay at home and work at home if you are able to do so. i positively don't want people to be returning to offices in the way that we did

before coronavirus happened. this pandemic has left leaders treading a precarious path between controlling the virus and kick—starting economic activity. borisjohnson always prefers an optimistic message. today he held out the possibility of life being normal by christmas, but even he warned several times that restrictions would be back in place if people didn't behave sensibly. the rules in england are relaxing again but there is no guarantee that everyone will feel confident about going back to the way things were. vicki young, bbc news, westminster. despite the prime minister's hopes for a return to normality by the end of the year, businesses remain cautious about the latest easing of lockdown measures for england, and warn that any mass return to work immediately is unlikely. the british chambers of commerce says companies still need "crystal—clear official guidance" on safety. from the beginning of next month, employers will have discretion

to ask employees to continue working at home, or ask them to return to the office. here's simonjack. remember this? the daily commute, a fact of life for millions before lockdown. work from home if possible was the message, until today. from august 1st, employers will decide who needs to come in. are we ready to return? i walk to the office, i don't have to commute, and take public transport, and the safety measures that they have implemented i feel very comfortable with. i do feel comfortable going back to work and actually i signed up to it. because i'm living alone, i have really wanted to go back to work. so, yeah, i'm excited. i'm eager to go back to work because i miss the people. going on the tube when it is so crowded and during rush hour, that's not something i'm looking forward to. the employers group, the cbi, said this will be a delicate moment but a really important one for the economy. it's going to rely on confidence and health measures,

so the huge investment that so many businesses have made in being covid secure, the conversations they've had with employees to ensure they are comfortable, and of course, transport, education, testing, it is not like flicking on a light switch, it's not all going to happen on 2nd august, but it could mark the gradual return to work that could help prevent mass unemployment. as you can see we sit quite closely together. business attempts to be covid—safe will make a full return to work impossible. this was nadine warburton‘s office in march. and this is it now. we had 28 members of staff in there before and the way that we have set the office space up now we can have nine as a maximum at any one period of time. so it has been drastically reduced and it will be a phased return so that we can maintain that social distancing and keep everybody safe. today's announcement appears to put the responsibility, and some would say, the power, back in the hands of the employers. but there will be a lot of questions from workers. what about public transport? what about childcare? some will want to come back, some

won't and some might not be able to. today's announcement, therefore, is a step towards normality but not a step change. many businesses depend on the office worker and their travel. upper crust, caffe ritazza, pret a manger and whsmith‘s have together cut thousands of jobs. unions today accused the government of lacking leadership and passing the buck. but without a return to work, there may be precious few bucks left to pass. simon jack, bbc news. the prime minister has promised an extra £3 billion of funding for the nhs, saying the health service needs to be prepared for a possible fresh coronavirus outbreak in the winter. borisjohnson has also pledged to provide more ventilators and more protective equipment, as well as a bigger flu vaccination programme. here's our health editor, hugh pym. at the peak, when covid—i9 hit the hospitals, there were fears the system would be overrun, but after a huge effort it coped.

the big question now, could the nhs handle a second peak next winter at the same time as a flu outbreak? that's what the prime minister was addressing today, first with more nhs funding for england, which will mean extra for the rest of the uk, too. some of the money will be used to keep the nightingale hospitals open right through until next march. that's for covid cases and other nhs work if needed. and there's a deal with private hospitals to help clear the backlog of nonurgent operations which were cancelled during the first months of the crisis. i'm glad you felt safe to come into the hospital today... here at london's royal free hospital more patients are coming back in for cancer clinics. they're being reassured there are strict infection control measures and it is both safe and essential they come in if required. but the chief executive told me that getting through the workload would be a major challenge.

it's one of the biggest worries we have in the nhs, how we make sure that patients who have been waiting a long time get treated as quickly as we can. and, of course, we're bringing patients back for their treatment according to their clinical need. there will be an awful lot of patients who are still waiting. so, the independent sector capacity is really important. there will also be an expansion of virus testing. lower your window for me and i'll pass the test through to you, 0k? this is seen as essential for finding out those who have the virus and then tracing their recent contacts to ensure they self—isolate. borisjohnson says he wants uk testing capacity to be 500,000 a day by october. right now it's around 3a0,000. but 220,000 tests were actually provided yesterday. increasing capacity is clearly important but the capacity alone is nowhere near enough to ensure that we can stay on top of this virus, so what we are seeing with the track and trace system, for example, is gradual improvements in the number of cases that are reached and not much improvement in the number of contacts that are reached.

widespread testing is vital for local outbreaks to be spotted. today, public health england said it was focussing on certain towns and cities. leicester and 0adby and wigston are listed as areas of national intervention. next come blackburn with darwen and pendle as areas for enhanced support. then come barnsley, bradford, kirklees, 0ldham, peterborough, rochdale, sheffield and wakefield. in one area near barnsley a pop—up centre has been set up to help monitor the spread of the virus. i think it's important for everybody to get tested if they can do because if you have the virus you shouldn't spread it around, you should keep out of the way. i think there will be a lot more local lockdowns, you know? because i don't think it's ever going to go away. the government hopes new powers for local authorities in england to impose their own restrictions will remove the need for any further national lockdown. hugh pym, bbc news. the latest figures from

the department of health show that in the last 2a hour period the deaths of another 114 people were recorded in the uk after testing positive for covid—i9, bringing the total number of people who've died to 45,233. on average in the last week, 83 people died every day from coronavirus. and hugh pym is here. there is some consternation tonight about how england's debt figures are calculated. yes, there is real confusion over this because it seems as if they are calculated in different ways in different parts of the uk -- different ways in different parts of the uk —— death figures. scotland, wales and northern ireland reported deaths of people who have tested positive for the virus within the previous 28 days but it has emerged today that public health england calculate them with people who might have tested positive months beforehand. there is no time limit. they might even have died with another cause, but they are still added to the coronavirus death total. so it seems as if this has

overstated english deaths compared to the rest of the uk, though maybe not by very much. public health england say there is no standard way of doing it set out by the world health organization. they chose that route because they thought it would give a wider picture. but it raises questions over integrity and trust and it will be important going into winter to have standardised data to see if the virus picks up what is happening to the death rate. that is why matt hancock, the health secretary for england, has announced an urgent review of the way these figures are compiled in england and until it is resolved, i gather the figures tonight are going to be paused. hugh pym, many thanks. a metropolitan police officer has been suspended after footage emerged of him kneeling on a man's neck during an arrest. the met‘s deputy commissioner says the images posted on social media are "extremely disturbing". another officer has been placed on restricted duties and an independent investigation is under way. tonight a man has been charged with possession of a knife in a public place.

danny shaw has the details. get off me! get off my neck! yesterday evening in islington. an officer appears to kneel on the neck of a man police are trying to detain. get off my neck! they were called after reports of a fight. the footage, shot by someone at the scene, shows the struggle with police. we've blurred the faces of those involved for legal reasons. at this point, the officer's knee seems to be on the ground, but his hand remains on the man's head. when i went to see what happened, there was a crowd and his knee was stood on his neck like i told you. when i got there, his knee was on his neck still. the crowd has told him, "take your knee", they were screaming, "take your knee off his neck". so he listened to the crowd and removed his knee. scotland yard believes that in recent weeks, officers have been unfairly targeted for using force after footage of incidences appeared on social media.

police say clips tell only part of the story. but on this occasion, the met‘s response to the video has been robust. in a statement, sir steve house, the met‘s second highest ranking officer, said: he went on: the incident comes after black lives matter protests sparked by the death of george floyd in america. a police officer knelt on his neck for almost eight minutes. after this arrest, the suspect was taken to a police station and examined by a doctor. he's been charged with possession of a knife. danny shaw, bbc news. let's take a look at some of the day's other top stories, and the united nations says 265 million people around the world could face starvation by the end of year because of the economic

effects of the coronavirus pandemic. it's warning of the threat of food shortages in a growing number of countries and is appealing for funds. the un says failure to act now could undo decades of development work. there's been a record daily number of infections in india from coronavirus, with 35,000 new cases reported in the last 2a hours. it's only the third country to record one million overall, along with the us and brazil, three of the world's most populous nations. infections in brazil have passed two million in the last 2a hours. and the united states has seen its biggest dailyjump to more than 77,000, tripling in the last few weeks. overall, the us has had more than 3.5 million cases. and some of america's most senior infectious disease experts, including a leading member

of the white house's coronavirus task force, are urging all citizens to wear masks to try to curb infections. more than half of america's 50 states have made the wearing of face coverings compulsory, but a number of areas that have reported spikes in new cases recently, including the southern state of georgia, have refused to force the wearing of masks, asjon sopel explains. when donald trump arrived in atlanta earlier this week and descended the steps of air force one, he was arguably breaking the law. the democratic mayor of georgia's biggest city had made it mandatory to wear a mask to halt the spread of coronavirus, and he wasn't. and now the pro—trump state governor, himself seemingly unsure whether it should be off or on, is suing the atlanta city mayor over forcing people to wear a face covering. mayor bottoms' mask mandate cannot be enforced, but her decision to shutter businesses and undermine economic growth is devastating. i refuse to sit back and watch as disastrous policies threaten the lives and livelihoods

of our citizens. georgia, like nearly all states in america, has seen a big surge in new cases. the mayor insists she is simply following the science and is incredulous at the action being taken by the state governor. when you are reckless, as the governor has been, when you disregard science, as the governor has done, then certainly people are suffering and people are dying in our state. into this debate has waded the administration's top infectious diseases expert. i would urge the leaders, the local political and other leaders, in states and cities and towns, to be as forceful as possible in getting your citizenry to wear masks. but donald trump, at a white house event last night, didn't event last night, barely

about the coronavirus. in fact, he seemed to want to talk about anything other than that topic. dishwashers, you didn't have any water, so the people that do the dishes, you press it and it goes again. and there were all manner of other topics too. unable to get out to rallies, the white house is being used increasingly as a backdrop for his re—election campaign. in the debate over masks, donald trump has now been filmed wearing one. but what he hasn't done is gone that extra step and tell americans they have to wear a facial covering if they can't maintain social distance. a lot of health experts believe that until he does, then america's coronavirus nightmare just goes on. jon sopel, bbc news, washington. here, a quicker, less invasive test for the coronavirus is being piloted in southampton. thousands of people are having samples of their saliva analysed rather than swab tests, which many can find uncomfortable. if the four week trial goes well, the entire city of more than a quarter of a million people could be offered weekly tests. our medical correspondent fergus walsh has the full details.

right, so, take your pots, take the lid off. never has testing for coronavirus been so simple. lean your head forwards to get some saliva in the front of your mouth and then spit. jane, who is a nurse at a gp surgery, and her three teenage children, are part of a trial in southampton involving weekly testing of saliva. it's an alternative to nose and throat swab tests, which many find unpleasant. the swab test is quite invasive, especially if you're not feeling very well. if you've got a cough, it can really trigger a cough by putting something in the back of your throat, and so it is much, much easier to do. most people with coronavirus have no symptoms on the day they are tested. so regular saliva sampling could be a way of detecting cases earlier. after months of home—schooling and lockdown, it might allow a return to normal life. yeah, very sensible.

just to help get it over with, the pandemic over and done with, make it change lives. if the four—week trial is successful, then the whole of southampton — more than 250,000 people — could be offered weekly saliva tests in a bid to prevent infections from spreading. it does seem that people become positive in their saliva before they even become positive in the rest of their breathing tubes, the respiratory tract. so, if we're seeking to pick up this early spread, this may be the way forwards. if the trial here in southampton goes well, saliva testing could play an increasingly important role in controlling the coronavirus epidemic. weekly testing could be done in schools, care homes, or in hotspot areas to try to prevent outbreaks from getting out of control. another advantage of saliva sampling is speed. it takes just 20 minutes for this laboratory in surrey to get a result,

compared to hours for a swab test. the key remaining question is whether the saliva test is accurate enough to be rolled out widely, even potentially nationwide as a way of trying to end the epidemic here altogether. so, this saliva test has got the potential to be done on a very large scale, in multiple locations, and can be done at speed. so the sort of setting this could be done in could be almost like for a drive—through. you take the sample, you run the test, you have a result. so this could revolutionise the way you actually carry out and do surveillance. it's negative. could, then, this be the way forward for us all, to have regular testing like jane and family? and perhaps a means of allowing us to abandon social distancing. fergus walsh, bbc news. police and trading standards officers have told the bbc that some high profile social media

users may be unwittingly helping to fuel the trade in counterfeit goods. with millions of followers, they're often paid to promote clothing on their accounts, but sometimes they're unknowingly advertising fakes, at a cost of billions of pounds to the economy. here's angus crawford. when is fashion just fashion? so this says it's from paris but, actually, it's from liverpool nine. yeah, that's correct. people just think, it's a nice jumper, i like that. it's, like, £40, instead of £4,000. ..and when is it a crime? they are selling clothing bearing yves saint—laurent and other brands. an unwelcome visit by trading standards officers in liverpool. take that camera. don't film that in here. bagged and confiscated. low—cost tops, using designer brand names on the front.

that's a breach of trademark. so, the main brands we've got are balmain, saint—laurent, dior... the shop advertises these designs on instagram. well, one of them's got two million followers... yeah. using some of social media's superstars. obviously, influencers that are advertising these products really need to sort of take a hard look to recognise what they are wearing and what they are advertising. she was on love island this year. oh, really? yeah, and you can see, that was one of the ones that we... and she's wearing one of the shirts in here. yeah. sophie kasaei, two million followers, in prada. only she isn't. charlotte dawson, from mtv‘s ex on the beach, wears ysl. but it's not. and love island's tyne—lexy clarson sports gucci. except, it's not real gucci. do you remember this one? i do remember promoting that brand, yeah. i do love thejumper, though. you've showed me that and you do

think twice about it but, obviously, when you're in a group of, like, a community where you see other people doing it, it can slip your mind. and sometimes, you'rejust, you're looking at, well, that is something my followers would love because i love it, and you're not actually thinking... because i know for a fact, obviously, i know it's not gucci, i would assume that everyone else would, like, know it's not gucci and it's just a jumper. influencers may not know clothes are fake, or think they're doing anything wrong. sophie kasaei didn't want to comment. charlotte dawson said she was sent the top as a present and wasn't paid to promote it. the police see it differently. here, a raid, filmed just before lockdown in manchester. we came here for the purpose of a section! warrant. an illegal trade, which costs the economy billions of pounds and thousands of jobs. one increasingly moving online, especially during lockdown.

social media in itself is so wide—ranging, so easily accessible, and so many people nowadays are using it from different age ranges that it's just so easy to share that information amongst kind of peers or other people, or even people that you don't know, just advertise quite widely. a serious question, then, for influencers getting paid for their posts — how much do they really know about the clothes they promote? angus crawford, bbc news. captain sir tom moore, the centenarian who's raised more than £32 million for nhs charities, was knighted by the queen today. he received the honour in an outdoor ceremony at windsor castle and said chatting with her majesty capped "an absolutely outstanding day". our royal correspondent sarah campbell reports. for such an inspiring individual, it seemed appropriate that he should be given a uniquely special investiture. beneath brilliant blue skies,

and adhering to socially—distant guidelines, she used the sword which had belonged to herfather, george vi, to knight captain sir thomas moore. to meet the queen was more than anyone could expect. i mean, it was... never, ever, ever did i imagine that i should get so close to the queen and have such a kind message from her. that was really outstanding. it really was truly outstanding. and can you explain the message, what did she say? no! that's between you and her majesty? that's between the queen and i, yes. i've been really honoured that this should happen and i'm thrilled that it did happen. and thank you everybody who subscribed to the funds, i really appreciate it, and thank you all very much. it all started with a family challenge to walk 100

lengths of the garden to mark his upcoming 100th birthday. sir tom's journey captured the imagination of people around the world. the original target was to raise £1,000 for nhs charities. the final amount topped 32 million. there to support him on his big day, his family. we've stood by in awe as a family as these amazing things have happened to him and we've been so delighted. we've never wanted the limelight. it's him. he's the beacon of hope. i can't believe we're actually here. we've come and visited sometimes but now it's... i'm speechless. this was a ceremony involving two people — one aged 94, the other 100 years old. both can be said to have helped keep people's spirits up during the darkest of days. sarah campbell, bbc news, windsor castle. a superb batting peformance from ben stokes has put england firmly in control on day two of the second test against the west indies at old trafford.

he scored his fourth century in the past 12 tests before falling for 176. dom sibley also completed a century, with england declaring on 469 for 9. the west indies finished the day on 32—1. leeds united are a premier league team once again. formerly one of england's biggest clubs, the yorkshire side has been out of the top flight for 16 years. but a 2—1 defeat for championship rivals west brom at huddersfield tonight secured leeds' promotion, as katie gornall reports. so close, they could almost touch it. last night, leeds put themselves on the brink of promotion. tonight, west brom's failure to beat huddersfield made it official. after 16 years, leeds united are back in the premier league. the history of leeds united is peppered with soaring highs and crushing lows. one of the biggest clubs in britain in the 19705, in 1992 they became the last champions of the old first division and at the turn of the century

were one of the most exciting teams