this is bbc news. i'm lewis vaughan jones with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. china denies an accusation by britain's foreign minister, that it's carrying out human rights abuses against its uighur population. can i ask you why people are kneeling blindfolded and shaven and being led to trains in modern china? what is going on there? i do not know what you are getting this video tape. president trump has defended his handling of the coroanvirus pandemic, incorrectly telling fox news that the us has the lowest mortality rate in the world. i heard we have one of the lowest, it may be lowest mortality rate anywhere in the world. do you have the numbers, please? i heard we had the best mortality rate.

the huge swarms of desert locusts in asia that could increase by 20—fold if they're not tackled. and blast off — as the first arab mission to mars launches successfully. hello. we start with china's ambassador to the uk denying reports that his country is carrying out a programme of sterilisation of uighur women in the western part of country — xinjiang. reports and eyewitness accounts have accused china of trying to reduce the uighur population by forced sterilisation. the uighur muslims are the largest ethnic group

in china's far west xinjiang region. china denies human rights abuses there, but there's evidence of mosques being destroyed — as you see in these before and after pictures — and uighurs say they are subject to intense state surveillance. britain's foreign secretary, dominic raab, said there were gross human rights abuses going on there and that he found it deeply troubling. it comes amid a rise in diplomatic tension between the two countries caroline hawley has the story. hong kong in crisis was not the protests have been going on for months and the fate and future of britain public former colony isa of britain public former colony is a straining relations. china public decision to impose new security laws undermining hong kong's autonomy has dramatically escalated tensions between beijing and the west. as britain prepares to step up its response, a warning from china. if a uk government go that far, goes that far, to impose sanctions on any individuals in china, china will certainly make resolute response to it. but britain

feels it must act when it can no longer trust the independence of hong kong's legal system. i said we would conduct a review of our relationship and also a range of other measures we may wish to ta ke of other measures we may wish to take full stop i now, with the home secretary and the rest of government, have concluded that review and i will update the house of commons on what further measures we will take tomorrow. five years ago, david cameron spoke of a golden era with china the relationship has deteriorated badly in recent months and is now beset by problems on several fronts. take huawei. last week, the government banned the technology's company in britain public 56 network because of security concerns put up a u—turn fronted by pressure from the americans. there are fears now of the potential economic fallout for british business. other countries including the us,japan and other countries including the us, japan and australia, have paid a price for falling us, japan and australia, have paid a price forfalling out with china. china has sanctioned commerce, trade, the companies of those countries

operating in china, so, to be honest, it is difficult to predict what china might do with regard to the united kingdom, but we might have to expect that british companies would be in the crosshairs. what china is doing to its uighur minority has caused international outrage. men have been forced into mass rehabilitation —— re—education camp and women forcibly sterilised. dominic raab today said human rights abuses were egregious and deeply, deeply troubling. the ambassador was shown video that appeared to shown video that appeared to show bound men forced onto a train. this was his response was not to limit what is happening here, ambassador?” don't know, where did you get this video? '5 have been going around the world and have been authenticated by western intelligence agencies and by australian experts who say these are uighur people... let me tell you, let me tell you this, the so—called western intelligence keeping up make

these. accusation against china. —— make these false accusations against china. the government here must weigh up human rights as well as its economic and diplomatic interest. a difficult balancing act. in the united states, the number of people who've died with covid—i9 has passed 140,000 — almost a quarter of the global total. but president trump has dismissed evidence from johns hopkins university that the us has the world's seventh highest mortality rate from the disease. in an interview with fox news, he insisted — incorrectly — that his country had one of the lowest rates. here's our north america correspondent peter bowes. america's sunbelt is being hit hard. southern and western states are dealing with a big surgeon coronavirus cases and lockdown restrictions are back in force. —— a big surge

in coronavirus cases. but president trump insists that the us is the envy of the world for the way it is dealt with covid—i9. again, playing down the seriousness of new outbreaks of the disease and suggesting the scake of the problem is being exaggerated by the media. many of those cases are young people that would heal in a day, they have the sniffles and we mark it down. it's around 99.7%, people, people are going to get better and better quickly. in a contentious interview, mr trump denied a high death rate from the virus in the us was to blame for the country's continuing isolation from europe. the european union has us on the travel ban. what we will do, we have them on a travel ban too, chris. i closed them off. i was the one that did european union very early, but when you talk about mortality rates, i think it is the opposite. i think we have one of the lowest mortality rates.

that is not true, sir. we have 900 deaths in a single day this week. can you please give me the mortality rate? she is right here. i heard we have one of the lowest, maybe the lowest mortality rate anywhere in the world. do you have the numbers, please? because i heard we had the best mortality rate. this is... number one low mortality rate. data collected from johns hopkins university does not support the president's claim. it is mortality rate in the us is higher than many other countries, although the uk is worst affected. president trump also defended his decision not to enforce the use of facemasks around the country. no, i want people to have a certain freedom and i don't believe in that, no. i do not believe that if everyone wore a mask, everything disappears. doctor fauci said that do not wear a mask. our surgeon general said do not wear a mask, everyone was saying do not wear a mask and now

everyone has to wear a mask. and as you know, masks cause problems too. with that being said, i'm a believer in masks, i think masks are good. this is the new epicentre for covid—i9 and there is little sign of masks here. florida is facing a growing crisis, although the streets of this party town are still busy. with a persistently high number of cases and states, miami beach is under curfew. we have a lot of visitors, a lot of folks that were not necessarily complying with the mandates of the orders to wear a face cover and to have that social distancing. so, we are hoping that by closing earlier, we actually close down the party and will allow these people to go back to their hotels wherever they are staying and possibly keep everyone else around them and everyone in our city safe. at least 14 us states have reported record numbers of people being admitted to hospital with coronavirus so far this month. with president trump again repeating his view that the virus will eventually disappear, there is little sign

of it happening anytime soon. peter bowes, bbc news, los angeles. we can now speak to dr peter hotez who's professor and dean of the national school of tropical medicine at the baylor college of medicine, hejoins us from houston. where are we with the latest figures in the united states? we are in a dire public health crisis and right now, the southern part of the united states accounts for 25% of the global pandemic was up 25% of the 200 thousand daily cases globally are now occurring in the southern united states and the southern united states and the numbers very steeply. on a daily basis, we have gone from — gone daily basis, we have gone from —— gone to 70,000 and we will be at 80,000 new cases by the end of the week. the tragedy is this is now, we are now seeing a delayed increase in the

number of deaths. typically what happens is that after patients are hospitalised and in intensive care for a couple of weeks, that is when you see the sharp rise in deaths. we are now seeing this. in many states such as the south, such as texas and florida, within a couple of weeks, covid—i9 will be the leading cause of death in those dates. as it was in new york back in the spring and tragically, again, this is both predicted and predictable and we are also upset because it is especially the low income neighbourhoods that are getting hit. we are seeing huge numbers of deaths and severe disability, hispanic, african—american populations, we are failing to protect our most vulnerable here in the country. donald trump's point that the number of testing is so high so they are catching a lot of cases and the vast majority of those cases won't be severe. he knows that's not

true. and the white house knows that the increased number of cases is being paralleled they are very steep rise in hospitalisations and intensive ca re hospitalisations and intensive care unit admissions and the positivity rate is also climbing very steeply so now we have a situation where in many parts of the southern us, we are running out of intensive ca re are running out of intensive care beds. the other thing that has happened which is hard to quantitate is the hospital staff are getting exhausted donning and doffing at ppe 20 times a day and then what happens is hospital staff are becoming ill and getting sick so now the federal government is flying in healthcare professionals from around the country into the southern united states and as you know better than anyone, what you experience in the uk, france and italy, that is when mortality rates also client so we will see two phases to this increase in mortality than what we're seeing now as patients are on the ventilator for long periods and now is hospital

staff become exhausted, the mortality will then show another steep acceleration and thatis another steep acceleration and that is not even accounting for the southern deaths at home from covid—i9 which we think may account for another 28— 2996. may account for another 28— 29%. we are in a full—fledged public health storm, a public health crisis, it may be the worst public health crisis to hit the united states in the last 100 years since the 1918 flu pandemic and the reason i'm being so vocal about this is because it is our most vulnerable who are dying and getting sick and there doesn't seem to be an engaged white house orfederal seem to be an engaged white house or federal response of any kind. yes, really is distressing to statistics —— really distressing statistics. let's get some of the day's other news. the leaders of the 27 eu countries are continuing negotiations into the night in brussels in an attempt to reach a compromise on a plan to invest 750 billion euros to revive their economies after the coronavirus crisis. they haven't been able to agree

what proportion of the money would be allocated as non—repayable grants, rather than loans. portland mayor, ted wheeler, has accused federal troops of abusive tactics against protesters, saying they are sharply escalating the situation in the city. protests have been ongoing in portland since the end of may, following the death of george floyd with the situation becoming increasingly volatile since the arrival of federal officers, deployed by president trump. a man in france has been detained in an investigation into saturday's large fire in nantes' gothic cathedral. stained glass windows and the grand organ were badly damaged in the blaze which began early in the morning. prosecutors said they believed three separate fires at the site had been started deliberately. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: how the worst locust infestation in asia could see numbers increase

a further 20—fold if swarms are not tackled before the coming rainy season. see them coming down the ladder now. one small step for man... one giant leapfor now. one small step for man... one giant leap for mankind. catastrophic engine fire is being blamed tonight for the first crash in the 30—year historic —— history of concord, the world's first supersonic airliner. it was one of the most vivid symbols of the violent most vivid symbols of the viole nt and hatred most vivid symbols of the violent and hatred that tore apart the state of yugoslavia but now a decade later, it is being painstakingly rebuilt and it opens again today. there has been a 50% decrease in sperm quantity and an increase in malfunctioning sperm unable to swim properly. thousands of

households across the country are suspiciously quiet this lunchtime as children bury their noses in the final instalment of harry potter. this is bbc news, the latest headlines: i'm lewis vaughan jones china is denying an accusation by britain's foreign minister that it's carrying out human rights abuses against its uighur population. president trump has defended his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, incorrectly telling fox news that the us has the lowest mortality rate in the world. covid—19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, only came to light at the end of last year and the more scientists study it, the more they're learning about who is most at risk. here's our medical correspondent, fergus walsh.

the risk of catching and dying with covid—19 varies dramatically depending on your age, and roughly doubles every five to six years. now if we look at data for england and wales up to the end ofjune, if you're over the age of 90 there was a one in 49 risk of dying with covid—19. but just look how quickly that risk falls away the younger you are. under the age of a5, there was a greater risk of dying in an accident during that period. and for the five to 14—year—olds, the risk was one in 2.4 million. there were three covid deaths in that age group during that period, compared to 138 from other causes. but even though the risks to the young are incredibly low, they can still pass on the infection to older and more vulnerable people. i think the figures for covid are quite extraordinary. we know that in normal life older people are at a greater risk of dying each year than younger people, but for covid

the difference between the old and young is far more extreme than in normal life. older people might have 1,000, 10,000 times the risk of a very young person. of course, it is not just your age that's important. men are twice as likely to die in hospital with covid—19 as women. people living in deprived areas are also at increased risk, as are some occupations, such as security guards, bus and taxi drivers. now even after adjusting for socio—economic factors, ethnicity plays a key role. black and south asian men have up to twice the risk of dying as white men, and women from these ethnic groups are also at increased danger. then there is your overall health. nine in ten people who have died have had at least one underlying condition, such as diabetes, high blood pressure or lung disease. scientists have developed a tool to help them assess an individual‘s vulnerability to covid—19.

take peter. he is a 63—year—old white man. to his covid now, his body mass index of 37 adds five years to his covidage, but it is his type—2 diabetes that has the biggest impact, adding eight years, giving him an overall covid age of 76, which places him in a more vulnerable age group. now, what about mantej, who is 65? we know women are less vulnerable than men, so we can take eight years off her covid age, but because she is of south asian origin, we have to add four years back on, giving her an overall covid age of 61. now, it is not possible to give a completely personalised risk, but it is clear that sex, ethnicity, age and overall health are key factors. fergus walsh, our medical correspondent, reporting there. huge swarms of desert

locusts are wreaking havoc in parts of east africa, asia and the middle east, threatening crops, livelihoods and food supplies. it is already the worst locust infestation in decades, but the forthcoming rainy season could see numbers increase a further 20—fold in some places if swarms are not tackled. sridhar dharmapuri is the senior food safety and nutrition officer from the un's food and agriculture organization. shejoins me now from bangkok. thank you for talking to us. how bad could this be? at this point of the situation has largely come down in iran and pakistan. india has been covered by the monsoon. but the bottom areas of india and pakistan, which are desert air is and where breeding is in

progress. what is important right now is for countries to be really watchful and alert and monitor the situation to ensure that first the standing crop which will come into the fields into the next few weeks does not get affected and also pakistan does not get affected later in the year. this is a time to build up the surveillance capacity going to only control measures so that the first stage coming out of the first stage coming out of the eggs are controlled on the ground. talk to what exactly needs to be done? how do you try and control this infestation? the best way, what you would call to prevent swarms attacking, is to control them into the early stages when they are nymphs and unable to fly. once they are gregarious and are flying, it is more

about choosing area sprays as well as mobile sprays on the field which killed them while in flight. if that control is not working for whatever reason, the farmers will need masses of support here. what kind of help is available to farmers? for some, the state of rajasthan has agreed to provide 2596 rajasthan has agreed to provide 25% of insurance payments in advance. earlier in the year, compensation was paid for the damage sustained in the earlier pa rt damage sustained in the earlier part of the year. at this point, because the focus is on the sowing and planting of the agricultural season, we focus on prevention and then be ready with what packages can be made available to the farmers. we will see what happens next.

sridhar dharmapuri thank you for joining sridhar dharmapuri thank you forjoining us. thank you. the first mission to mars by an arab nation has launched into space. the spacecraft, which belongs to the united arab emirates, will take about seven months to reach mars and, once it's there, will study its atmosphere and weather. the country hopes it will pave the way for it to move away from oil and gas production, and enter the global space industry. our global science correspondent, rebecca morelle, has more. blasting off, the start of a journey to mars. the united arab emirates making history. for the team, a moment of celebration. 51 years ago on the 20th ofjuly, man first walked onto the moon and today, on the 20th ofjuly for us here it marks a milestone, change and transformation and that i hope will stimulate and push forward an entire generation to think differently. the

spacecraft is called hope and was built over six years with help from american scientists. until now the eua is only launched satellites into orbit, getting to mars is a huge leap. a view of mars is about to be transformed. most aircraft have orbited around the planet's poles but this has meant a limited view. hope though is a mission with a difference, it is heading towards the equator and ina is heading towards the equator and in a much wider electrical orbit and this means it will reveal every pa rt orbit and this means it will reveal every part of the planet at every time of day in each 10—day cycle. —— elliptical. much more information about its weather and climate. even though the atmosphere of mars is 100 times thinner than on earth, we still see whether type events, dust storms, cloud, fog, lightning even so

understanding the weather on mars will help us understand more about the weather on earth. until now oil and gas have driven is the uae economy. it will act as an inspiration for young people in the uae to show that they too can be part of great challenge in space exploration. their mission might be the one that finds evidence of life on mars. the spacecraft will take seven months to reach the red planet. when it gets, a new player in the space race will have truly arrived. rebecca morelle, bbc news. over the weekend the metropolitain police in london released this footage from an ilegal rave. the bodycam footage shows officers trying to break up the party just after midnight on friday. some people hurled bottles and canisters at officers. last month the met police commissioner, cressida dick,

promised to break up events in london that break coronavirus regulations. meanwhile in canada, fans of the band monster truck got to rock out at a safe distance at a drive—in concert. the event space is designed to host at least 200 vehicles in parking spots spaced a minimum of two metres apart. a reminder of our top stories colin china is denying an accusation by britain's foreign minister that it is carrying out human rights abuses against its uighur population. there is a rise in diplomatic tensions between the two countries over new national security law in hong kong. and president trump says the united states has one of the lowest coronavirus mortality rates. mr trump refused to accept statistics that discredited its claim from

john hopkins university. you can reach me on twitter — i'm @lvaughanjones. i'm lewis vaughan jones i'm lewis vaughanjones and this is bbc news. hello. temperatures by day this week will be close to average — high teens, low 20s — but we are starting the week with overnight temperatures below average. quite chilly first thing monday morning, and the temperatures will head up because there will be a fair amount of sunshine out there. this high—pressure settles things down, then, to start the week. although toppling around the area of high—pressure will be a few showers, more especially in scotland and a few from the word go, but these are the starting temperatures, then, for monday morning, widely in single figures. these are town city centres. cooler than this in the countryside. so mid to low single figures in the chilliest spots. but again, those temperatures are going to be heading up in the sunshine. a lot of that to come first thing. some cloud is going to build. for scotland, it's a mixture

of cloud and sunshine. most of the showers will be north of the central belt. northern ireland and northern england mayjust pick up a shower later but the bulk of england and for wales, will stay dry. lion share of the sunshine through wales and southern england so this is where we will see the highest temperatures, and some spots just creeping into the low 20s. now, as for the cricket, at old trafford, it is looking like not particularly warm monday to come, for the final day. that'll be a mixture of cloud, sunshine. just a slight chance of picking up a brief passing shower. now, as we go into monday evening, any of those showers that have formed, will tend to die away. they still will continue on and off through northern parts of scotland overnight, but for most of us it is going to be another dry, clear and chilly night going into tuesday morning. but again on tuesday, there will be a lot of sunshine to start the day. now, there's a chance of catching a shower again, more especially across parts of scotland, but the odd one may be found elsewhere in northern ireland and northern england. and the cloud may well thicken in northern ireland to bring the chance of seeing some patchy rain, especially the further north and west you are,

deeper on through the day. and temperatures, a few spots getting into the low 20s in some sunny spells, but most won't get that high. now, there is a weather system coming on tuesday night and into wednesday. these weather front move in. these weather fronts move in. they will bring a spell of rain into parts of northern ireland and scotland. and perhaps on wednesday, also reaching for time for some of us into northern england. now for thursday and friday, the chance of a shower, and then into next weekend, looks like low pressure will come back. temperatures will come down a few degrees. the breeze picks up. and we will see a spell of rain spreading east. bye— bye.

this is bbc news, the headlines: china is denying an accusation by britain's foreign minister that it's carrying out human rights abuses against its uighur population. it comes amid a rise in diplomatic tension between the two countries over a new national security law in hong kong. president trump has defended his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, incorrectly telling fox news that the us has the lowest mortality rate in the world. the number of people who have died with covid—19 has now passed 140,000 — almost a quarter of the global total. the united arab emirates has launched its first space mission, using japanese rockets to send a spacecraft on a 500 million kilometere journey towards mars. the robotic probe, called hope, is due to study the red planet's weather and climate when it arrives next february.