in his first coronavirus briefing for weeks, president trump has sought to defend his administration's handling of the pandemic and urged people to wear face masks if they can't maintain a safe social distance. he acknowledged that the outbreak is likely to get worse before it gets better. russian attempts to interfere in the uk have been described as ‘the new normal‘ in a long—awaited report by british lawmakers. mps on a key house of commons committee describe the uk as one of russia's top targets and criticise the government for "badly underestimating" the threat and the response it required. the us secretary of state, mike pompeo, has said washington wants to build a coalition of like—minded allies to counter, what he called, the threat from china. he was visiting london, meeting prime minister borisjohnson and foreign secretary dominic raab.

you are pretty much up—to—date on the headlines. now on bbc news — tuesday in parliament. hello again and welcome to tuesday in parliament. a medical expert says the uk should have been better prepared for coronavirus. the fact that we were asleep to the concept that we would have a pandemic, i think shame on us. after the windrush scandal, priti patel promises to change the way the home office is run. and there are far too many times where i am the only non—white face in the room. and a former prime minister speaks up for the families of victims of dangerous driving. all feel that justice is currently, in many cases, not being done. but first, experts have told mps that the the uk will be living with coronavirus for many years

to come and even a vaccine is unlikely to eliminate it for good. the director of the wellcome trust told the health committee that "things will not be done by christmas" and humanity would be living with the infection for decades. last week, the prime minister said he hoped for a return to normality by christmas. but sirjeremy farrar, who's also a member of sage — the government advisory body — warned against complacency and said the summer months should be used to prepare for a second wave. he told the committee that other countries had been quicker to react to the emergence of the virus. the uk was slow to put in testing, to put in place extra clinical capacity and to make workers were protected with ppe. and as a result, subsequent events led to the epidemic taking off in a way in the uk, which wasnot the same it was in korea, germany or in singapore or vietnam. another expert said he had struggled to find out who was in charge.

my experience in talking to advisers and also politicians is that i have never found it too easy to find out who is actually responsible for the different parts of the strategy and the tactics that are being put in place. i have a sense that there has been too much pass the parcel, where you we talk to somebody and they say we are only responsible for one part of the system. we are not responsible for the other part of the system. what we need to think about, do we have clear government systems in place? do we have it both in the executive level, do we have it at the political level? and unless we get that straight, we may run the risk of sleepwalking into frankly a winter of discontent. what do you think are the key failures and successes of the uk response to the pandemic so far? i think the failures

are the ones thatjeremy laid out at the beginning and that is we started this really too slowly. and that if i canjust add a comment to his, the fact that we were asleep to the concept we would have a pandemic, i think shame on us. since the year 2000, we have had eight close calls of emerging infectious diseases, any one of which could have swept the globe as a pandemic. sirjeremy farrar said it was vital to prepare now for a possible second wave. if we don't use the three months wisely, and if we don't assume there is no second wave coming, and if we get complacent, because people say it is not quite as bad as people thought it was or there is a lot of mild disease out there or young people don't suffer, if we have any sense of complacency that this is behind us, then we will undoubtedly have a second wave and we could easily be in the same situation again. lockdowns had made an enormous difference to the community transmission. they have done nothing to change the fundamentals of the virus. it remains as infectious

as at the end of december, it has the same clinical syndrome, it kills the same number of people, and as soon as the lockdowns ease, if we don't have mechanisms for the fundamentals, that means diagnostics, testing, treatment and vaccines, and this will come back and it will come back in winter to with all the other respiratory. so june, july and august is absolutely critical and if we don't have things in place by the beginning of september when schools restart, we will face a very difficult winter. how do you feel about the message at the moment that everything is fine and will be done by christmas? do you think that is helpful or unhelpful? things cannot be done by christmas. this infection is not going away. it is now a human endemic infection. even actually if we have a vaccine, or very good treatments, humanity will still be living with this virus for very many, many years to come. i think we need to transition from this sense of crisis and urgency, we need to keep the urgency for the next three months but we need to move now

to a consistent long—term approach that is because humanity will be living with this infection for decades to come. england's chief medical officer also faced mps' questions. professor chris whitty defended the decision to drop early attempts to track and trace suspected cases. there were some testy exchanges between professor whitty and jeremy hunt, the former health secretary who now chairs the committee. we know now we are able to expand testing capacity for thought we were able to expand the contact tracing system. why didn't you advise that in january? sirjeremy gave an extremely sensible answer on this. you cannot stand these things up practically. and one of the ways you can really... but we did. we did stand them up. i respectfully differ. even now, you're going to say at some point because people keep on saying why is test,

trace and isolate not brilliant now? this is after we've had huge investment in many months of preparation. to think you can certainly switch this on is incorrect. looking back at the advice you gave injanuary on testing and contact tracing, do you think that was the correct advice, just to be absolutely clear, given the capacity we had there, was it correct to say that we stop community testing on the march 12th? you stand by that advice? yes. the words that carry the most weight is given the capacity we had. given that capacity, that was in my view is the correct advice. chris whitty. later, it was the current health secretary's turn to be grilled by mps this time on the science and technology committee. matt hancock was asked about criticisms of public health england — or phe. this morning, a number of witnesses, including sir jeremy farrar, said the months of the summer

were crucial to make the preparations for the winter, if the structure of public health was found not to be fit for purpose for the early part of a pandemic, is not now the time that you should be making those reforms? what i would say is what matters right now is the capability and i want the capability to be doing what it needs to do and the capability on test traces there because we have built up nhs test and trace which works hand in glove with phe. the home secretary has promised a full review into what's known as the "hostile environment" policy introduced to tackle illegal immigration. priti patel was updating mps on the progress in righting what she described as the "scar" of the windrush scandal. the windrush generation are those who arrived in the uk from caribbean countries between 1948 and 1973. many were later denied

the right to live and work here because they didn't have the correct paperwork. priti patel explained that what the government calls the "compliant environment" towards migrants would change. what happened to the windrush generation is unspeakable. and no one with a legal right to be here should ever have been penalised. i have tasked my officials to undertake a full evaluation of the compliant environment policy and measures individually and culmatively to make sure the crucial balance is right. i have asked them to evaluate the changes that were made to immigration and nationality laws over successive governments to ensure that they are fit for purpose for today's world. she said there would be race awareness training for home office staff and a drive for more diversity. we will create an inclusive workforce in the home office. the home office must reflect the diverse communities that it serves at every single level.

there are simply not enough individuals of black, asian or minority ethnic staff working at the top in senior roles. and there are far too many times where i am the only non—white face in the room. the review into the windrush scandal was carried out by wendy williams. the home secretary and i don't always see eye to eye, but i wanted to thank her for doing what she was unable to do last time, which is to confirm that she will be carrying out the root and branch review of the hostile environment policy which wendy williams stipulated in her recommendation seven. it is fair to say that my commitment on this issue, but more fundamentally with regard to the home office, is absolutely solid and firm. i have seen all sorts of practices. i have experienced all sorts of practices in the home office. and i have been on the receiving end of certain practices in the home office as well was quite frankly speak to some of the points that came out

of wendy williams‘s review. there was concern about how long it was taking to compensate victims of the scandal. gloria, who had been in this country since she was ten, lost herjob as a care worker as she was unable to renew her passport and prove her identity. pauline, who came to the uk at 12 and qualified for social work. she went on holiday to jamaica that became an 18 month nightmare. detained and refused uk reentry, losing her home and her livelihood. these are just two examples of the lives devastated by this scandal and all the more shocking thatjust 60 people received compensation from the windrush compensation scheme in its first year of operation. ministers must get a grip of this scheme. the windrush lessons learned review recommends the home office implements a comprehensive programme to educate staff about britain's colonial history. but the prime minister, in an article he wrote, said that the problem with british colonialism was not

"that we were once in charge, but that we are not in charge any more." if we are to have trust in this government to deliver that education programme, will the home secretary condemn the prime minister's remarks and acknowledge the brutal crimes that british colonialism inflicted upon people across the globe? playing party politics on the windrush generation is shameful. given the hostile environment started in 2007, will she join with me in urging the party opposite a members opposite to work with the government to right this wrong? but could the windrush scandal repeat itself — for example, with eu children after brexit? if we are learning lessons, why will she not act now on looked after children and care levers eligible under the eu settlement scheme to ensure that they are all urgently processed? otherwise, they are destined to end up in the same position as the windrush victims. with respect, i disagree

with his last comment. and when it comes to carers and children in particular, he has rightly highlighted, there is a great deal of effort taking place, notjust in the department but working with local authorities, specifically on the groups that he speaks about. priti patel. you're watching tuesday in parliament with me, david cornock. still to come, why the rules on free tv licences are changing. peers have called for a public health approach to tackling knife crime. the latest figures from the office for national statistics show the number of crimes involving a knife in england and wales has risen to a new record high. there were more than 16,000 offences in the 12 months to the end of march this year, up 6% from the previous year. there was also a big rise in murders.

of all the killings, 256 involved a knife or sharp object, up very slightly on the year before. the bishop of st albans led the calls for a more ambitious approach. will her majesty's government commit to a public health approach to this problem, encompassing poverty reduction, increasing youth services and strengthening community policing? the cause of knife crime problems are not from any one source. and the interventions needed have not got any... there is not a magic area in which we can deploy those interventions. it has got to be a multi—agency approach, a public health approach, as the right reverend says. it'sjust been said that stop and search is an important part of the police system of dealing with this matter.

is there anything that can be done to remove the fact that its use appears to be strongly biased against black people? it does appear to be used disproportionally towards black and asian young people. of course, they are the victims, quite often, in all this. and what i think is important to add — i think i've said it — is that no—one should be stopped and searched based on their race or ethnicity. and the metropolitan police is quite sure that their increase in stop and search has in fact helped stem knife crime. what are the police chiefs telling the government, firstly, are the reasons for the national increase in knife crime, and secondly, the action they, the police chiefs, consider needs to be taken and by whom to address this issue and bring the knife crime figure down? the minister didn't go into details,

but she said the drugs market certainly played a part. i know the impact such crimes have. on 28 january 2000, i was one of the victims of a sword attack in my mp's constituency office, in which my colleague died. these latest figures show the government needs a new policy, so will they get those who've turned their lives around, after wasting time in prison for knife crime, who kids can relate to into schools to convince them to bin their knives? we've had several knife amnesties. children need to feel supported in binning the knife, feel supported in not carrying knives, as opposed to feeling penalised. now, the former prime minister theresa may has called for the maximum sentence for dangerous driving in england and wales to be increased to life in prison. she had an example of the devastation it could cause.

in 2015, my 19—year—old constituent bryony hollands died at the hands of a dangerous driver, a driver under the influence of drink and drugs. he was sentenced to eight years and served just four years in jail. bryony hollands‘ father, my constituent mark hollands, has campaigned since her death for the maximum sentence for causing death by dangerous driving to be increased from 14 years to life. the ewans family have campaigned for the same, as have many others. all feel that justice is currently, in many cases, not being done. now, when i was prime minister, the government listened to those concerns. we consulted on driving offences and penalties relating to causing death or serious injury. and that consultation found considerable support for increasing the minimum sentence for causing death by dangerous driving. 70% of respondents thought the maximum sentence should be increased from the present 14

years to life. my government committed to introducing that change in a sentencing bill. for various reasons which i won't go into today, madam deputy speaker, that bill was delayed under my premiership and was not brought forward before i stepped down as prime minister. but the current government is also committed to a sentencing bill. and my right honourable friend, the lord chancellor and justice secretary, has indicated in this chamber that he supports the change in sentencing. yet the sentencing bill has not yet been introduced and the change has not yet been made. theresa may won the backing of mps to take her bill forward — but unless the government supports it, it won't become law. mps have passed the counter—terrorism and sentencing bill, which aims to ensure the most serious offenders spend longer in prison. ministers had promised tougher action following two recent terror attacks in london, at fishmongers' hall and in streatham. under the proposals,

court orders restricting the movements of suspected terrorists will also be strengthened. a conservative mp told the story of her friend louise, who survived the 7/7 attacks in london 15 years ago. she'd been on an underground train when a bomb went off in the next carriage. she said it looked like it had just been ripped apart, like a can of coke. she passed two bodies on the track, covered roughly up by a fluorescent transport worker's jacket. she saw a man who was badly injured being tended to by paramedics. he was barely clothed — the bomb had ripped the clothes from him — and he was propped up against the tunnel wall, his entire body blackened by bomb blast. julie marson wanted to see tougher sentences for terrorism. but a labour mp said the bill's approach was fundamentally wrong and said she'd had first—hand experience of the rise in islamophobia over the past decades. every single day, people of muslim backgrounds like myself face discrimination and prejudice. and it is notjust about enduring offensive remarks and presumptions —

as bad as these are — but about living with a real and serious constant threat to our safety. at the end of that, the debate the bill cleared its last commons hurdle and now goes off to be considered in detail in the lords. now, even though many sectors of the economy are now allowed to open up again after the coronavirus lockdown, every day seems to bring news of further redundancies. labour have called for more protection for both jobs and incomes — and warned the government against any blanket withdrawal of the furlough scheme, which is due to be gradually wound up over the next few months. yesterday, make uk, the manufacturers organisation, said a furlough extension was vital, and i quote, "to avoid a jobs bloodbath in aerospace and automotive." we see the looming threat in sectors that have not yet reopened,

like events and exhibitions, and those operating well below capacity, like hospitality. yet from next week, the government is insisting that every single employer, whatever their industry, will have to start contributing to the furlough. does the secretary of state not recognise that this decision, to phase out the furlough irrespective of circumstance, risks handing a pas to hundreds of thousands of workers? mr speaker, the furlough scheme will have been up and running for a full eight months, providing a huge amount of support to over 9 millionjobs. and, of course, it is becoming more flexible, it is allowing people to return to work part—time, and he will also know that the chancellor set out the job retention bonus as well, which, if it is taken up by allemployers, will represent a £9 billion boost for the economy. as i say to him once again, the key is to get the economy up and running and get businesses trading. the snp wanted scotland to get a bigger share of extra spending in england. the institute for fiscal studies has exposed that the promised £800 million of consequentials

for scotland from the chancellor's job package is, in fact, only £21 million. so will he now do the right thing by scotland's businesses and urge the chancellor to replace the missing £779 million, or is he also bought into the prime minister's stated view that a pound spent in croydon is of more value than a pound spent in scotland? mr speaker, he talks about supporting business in scotland. and what i would say to him is that perhaps he would then come forward on the uk internal market white paper, which was published, and give his support for that. alok sharma. conservative mps have called for the bbc licence fee to be reviewed and non—payment of the television licence to be decriminalised. the demands came following the bbc‘s announcement of cuts to its output and the loss of hundreds ofjobs and a decision to end free tv licences for the over—75s, with only those receiving the pension credit benefit exempt.

answering an urgent question, a culture minister regretted that decision. we were deeply disappointed when the bbc board announced earlier this month that it would be ending that concession from the 1st of august. as a result, four out of five of those previously eligible for a free tv licence will now need to pay. it was the conservative government that took the decision in 2015 to stop funding for free licenses, and it was the conservative government which forced responsibility onto the bbc board to make the decision on the future of the concession. the government should never have asked the bbc to take that on and the bbc should never have accepted it. continuing with the licence fee scheme for over—75s would have cost £745 million — one—fifth of the bbc's budget. the bbc received a number of concessions which they had strongly asked for. and in return for those,

they agreed that they would take on the responsibility for the maintenance of the over—75s' free tv licence concession. it was up to them as to how they decided to take it forward, and a number of options were suggested and consulted on by the bbc. and the government was disappointed, as i say, but they decided to completely remove that concession. the conservatives had a manifesto promise to maintain the over—75s licence. they broke it. instead, they passed responsibility onto the bbc, knowing that it would never be able to afford that responsibility. since then, they have tried to blame the bbc at every turn, every cut of every service, at every redundancy, and no doubt they will try to blame the bbc when the bills start landing in august and september on pensioners' doorsteps. the government demanded that what should be a social provision — free tv licences for the over—75s — be funded by the bbc, and the bbc was unwise enough to knuckle under and accept. the bbc couldn't afford it, and i warned at the time it

would lead to swingeing bbcjob losses and pensioners being pursued through the courts for licence payments — a double whammy of cruelty, especially during covid. several tory mps called for the decriminalistation of non—payment of the licence fee and for a review of the way the bbc is funded. mr speaker, i know you're a man who likes to netflix and chill, but with the rise of... laughter with the rise of on—demand services, such as amazon prime and netflix, is it still right that we are criminalising non—free payments for the bbc? in a world where subscription is becoming the norm, would my right honourable friend agree reform and identifying better ways to fund the bbc is well overdue? funding for the bbc's uk public services is now around 24% less in real terms than if the licence fee had risen with inflation from 2010. the bbc's facing £800 million of cuts.

now, given all that, does the minister seriously expect that the bbc would able to keep funding free tv licenses for all over—75s? can he actually tell us that with a straight face? the cost of giving free tv licenses to those aged over 75, which was only introduced in 2008, was soon rising inexorably and would soon be approaching £1 billion. and i have to say to all the honourable ladies and gentlemen opposite that if they believe that it should continue, then are they committing that a future labour government, or even a liberal democrat government, might one day pay in order to restore the free tv licenses at a cost, by then, of well over £1 billion? john whittingdale bringing us to the end of tuesday in parliament. thank you for watching. i do hope you canjoin me at the same time tomorrow for wednesday in parliament, including the last prime minister's questions before the summer break. until then, from me, david cornock, bye for now.

hello. well, for some of us, the skies have remained clear but overall a very cloudy picture on the way, at least for the northern half of the uk during the course of wednesday, and on top of that, we've got some patchy rain as well. and you can see where the clouds coming from, off the atlantic as it often does. it's spreading across northern ireland and into scotland. eventually, it will engulf northern england, too. to the south of that, however, i think some sunshine in the morning and in fact, it will end up being a pretty decent day for the channel counties, certainly for london — perhaps east anglia, too. temperatures could get up

into the mid—20s in one or two spots but for northern england, scotland, and northern ireland at times overcast, and there will be a little bit of rain, too. and temperatures will be mostly in the mid or the high teens. now, this is the following night, so early hours of thursday, and you can see that cloudy theme continues. if anything, further patchy rain streams in on a south—westerly breeze off the atlantic. and it's going to be mild early on thursday morning, around 13, 1a, 15 degrees. now, this is thursday's weather map and quite a complicated structure of weather fronts sitting on top of the uk. that basically means a lot of cloud and outbreaks of rain. and you can see dumfries and galloway, the lake district, the north—west of england, certainly wales getting some rain, too. now later in the day on thursday, it does look as though it will brighten up across parts of scotland and northern ireland and there might even be some sunshine there across the south—east in the afternoon, too. that was thursday, this is friday. and on friday, we are actually in between weather systems. so, one moves away towards the east. another one waiting in the wings here and approaching ireland during the afternoon with the bulk of the uk during the course of friday

actually enjoying a pretty bright if not in places sunny day with temperatures into the low 20s. now, here's the weekend. at this stage, it is looking unsettled. you can't miss that — low pressure with weather fronts moving across the uk, quite a few splodges of blue here moving across the uk and increasing breeze as well, so a pretty unsettled start to the weekend for many of us on saturday. and those temperatures a little lower than the average for the time of the year, especially in the south of the uk. now, there is a possibility things will brighten up at least a little bit by the time we get to sunday but on the whole, an unsettled weekend on the way.

welcome to bbc news, i'm mike embley. our top stories: a change in tack as president trump brings his daily virus briefings back. he urges americans to socially distance and wear masks as deaths rise across the us. when you are not able to socially distance, wear a mask, get a mask. whether you like the mask or not they have an impact, they'll have an effect, and we need everything we can get. british lawmakers criticise the government for not doing enough to tackle the threat from russia, as their report reveals the uk's one of moscow's top targets. around a dozen people are freed from an armed siege in the ukraine, after the president complies with a hostage taker‘s bizarre demand to promote an animal rights film.