this is bbc news. i'm rajini vaidyanathan with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. tech titans in tiny boxes. four of the biggest names in technology get a grilling at a congressional hearing over claims they're stifling competition. in a bbc interview, america's top infectious diseases expert warns the politicisation of coronavirus is getting in the way of an effective response. there is a considerable degree of political divisiveness to a level that everyone admits you don't need me to make that declaration. the debate over quarantine measures for travellers to the uk intensifies, with the spanish government putting more pressure on britain to rethink its policy. and, why scientists are confident that stonehenge has yielded another of its ancient secrets.

they wield huge influence. their combined net worth is staggering. today, four of the biggest names in technology found themselves in front of a us congressional committee in a hearing to determine whether they wield too much power. the ceos of apple, amazon, facebook and google‘s parent company alphabet were all questioned via video link. the bbc‘s james clayton has the story. these four titans of tech run companies that are worth nearly £4 trillion. today they were grilled in the us capitol over whether their companies are too big, whether they stifle competition. the richest man in the world, jeff bezos, runs amazon, which accounts for around 40%

of online retail in the world. mark zuckerberg is the boss of facebook as well as instagram and whatsapp. together they have more than 2 billion users worldwide. google and youtube are run by sundar pichai. around 90% of internet searches are on google. apple is run by tim cook. the question is, do they own a bit too much of the internet? that's what us legislators wanted to find out today. zuckerberg on the hook first and asked whether they simply bought competitors rather than compete with them, notably instagram? he accepted they were a competitor. in the growing space of mobile photos and camera apps, they were a competitor. he was also asked whether he wanted to buy google at one point. it will be a while before we can buy

google, did you recall writing that e—mail? i do not, but it sounds like a joke. some pretty pointed questions to tim cook of apple, that apple uses its position to hurt businesses. so, we do not retaliate or bully people, it is strongly against our company culture. and the questions got harsher, at one pointjeff bezos‘s amazon's treatment of smaller businesses was compared to eight rug dealer was compared to a drug dealer dealing with a drug addict. you had to get your next fix, your next check. this is one of your partners, why on earth would they compare your company to a drug dealer? i have great respect for you and this committee but i completely disagree with that characterisation. in truth, there was a clear theme.

democrats want more on competition, republicans more unsentimental republicans more on censoring and whether these tech platforms were biased against conservatives. this to sundar pichai of google. i am concerned you are helping joe biden over president trump. we will not do any work to politically tilt anything one way or the other. the political split at times boiled over. i would like to redirect your attention to anti—trust law rather than fringe conspiracy theories. mr chairman, we have the e—mail... what i want to know, when somebody comes after... the gentle lady is recognised. the hearing is still ongoing but the committee so far has not landed any serious knockouts. the share price of all the companies has picked up since the start of the committee.

the united states continues to struggle with combatting covid—i9. the latest stats from johns hopkins university shows 61,700 new cases of covid—i9 were confirmed on tuesday. president trump says that's because the united states is the world leader on testing. but many disagree, saying that new cases are rising faster than the nation's testing capacity. in total, over a5 million cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the united states, and in the last few hours the death toll has reached a new grim milestone in the united states to above 150,000. well, the bbc‘s katty kay has spoken to dr anthony fauci to talk about where the united states goes from here and how president trump has handled the outbreak. let's take a look. when the president, as he did again yesterday, retweets things from people who say you don't need to wear a mask, how unhelpful

is that from a medical perspective? you know, this issue of tweeting and retweeting is something i have never understood or gotten involved in. but i can tell you, you would have to say it is not helpful if people get signals about not wearing masks when we are trying to get people to universally wear masks. so you would ask the president not to do that? that is not the way it works. i think my feeling about what we should do with masks is very clearly understood by everyone, including those in the white house. what about the drug hydroxychloroquine? it has come back in the news and the president said he believes in it and it is safe and again seem to be touting this drug. is the president right?

again, it is not productive or helpful for me to be making judges on right or wrong, but what i can say is what i have said all along, that the overwhelming body of data from trials that were well run, randomised placebo—controlled trials indicate that hydra clocks are clean is not effective in treating coronavirus of covid—19. indicate that hydrochloroquine is not effective in treating coronavirus of covid—19. here in the uk, the government is coming under increasing pressure to introduce coronavirus testing at airports in order to shorten the 14—day quarantine period. airlines and travel industry leaders say tests are vital to the uk's post—covid recovery. heathrow chief executive john holland—kaye said testing could be up and running within weeks at his airport and could allow passengers to go back to work more quickly. but the british culture secretary 0liver dowden said that testing is not a "silver bullet" to stop

the need for quarantine because the virus can develop over time. 0ur europe correspondent gavin lee sent this report from the island of majorca. this is the street that is legendary for millions of british partygoers in magaluf — the strip, wall—to—wall with pubs and bars, all closed now. the club reps have no clubs to represent. at least 10,000 people normally. at least 10,000 people a night at this place. and now it's like a ghost town. jodie and christian from london come to work here every summer season. so i actually worked here, crystals bar, magaluf. i also lost myjob, obviously. there's about 20 other people that have lost theirjobs too now, people with kids, people that live here permanently, everyone, and now the british government have brought out the new two—week quarantine, which has completely destroyed it for everyone. it's even quieter this week than it was last week. we've literally looked forward to it so much and then we've come

here and it's just been taken away again. after we've waited, it's gone. the stuart family spent £5,000, hoping for a post—pandemic week in a deluxe villa. they were told the day before they arrived the hotel had closed. the only alternative was a theme park hotel. were you disappointed that you couldn't go on the holiday we booked and we had to come here? i was very disappointed. we'd waited two years to come back, hadn't we? we saved up all that money. it means now i have to go two weeks without any pay. i've been a key worker through the whole pandemic. i'm an essential key worker, so i'm going to lose out. majorca acted quickly when the pandemic first broke. it was the first airport in spain to close and, on the balearic islands, including menorca and ibiza, they've seen just 2,000 cases in five months. we are told that many businesses that only opened a week ago have now closed again because of the quarantine rule and the advice not to travel here.

in the side streets of the capital, palma, the tourism minister for the balearic islands says money from british holiday—makers has provided the backbone to the economy for decades. translation: no one in the uk seems to understand quite how much economic damage these quarantine measures are causing. in terms of the health risk, someone coming here will be far safer than in the uk. 0ne tourist returning home from spain today, transport secretary grant shapps. he said the government had considered allowing quara ntine—free travel to the islands. we did have a look at whether certain islands could be included and not others. chris whitty, the chief medical officer, was very clear with us that he was concerned about the data. across spain, covid cases are still rising, the majority in the north—east of the country. but the wish—you—were—here appeals from politicians on these islands now appear to have been in vain. these shores are likely to stay quiet for some time. let's stay with that story and bring

you some breaking news. the bbc understands that people returning to the uk from luxembourg are likely to have to quarantine. the uk government is expected to announce that later this week. we also understand that the uk government will announce that the isolation period for people with symptoms of covid will be extended from seven days to ten. currently those with symptoms should isolate for a week, while other members of their household should stay at home for two weeks. the us homeland security secretary, chad wolf, has said that federal agents will be withdrawn from 0regon‘s largest city, portland. the agents have been accused of using overly aggressive tactics, after being deployed under the remit of protecting federal buildings from damage or destruction. but as they withdraw from portland, federal units are due to be deployed to three other us cities — detroit, milwaukee and cleveland — an expansion of so called

‘0peration legend'. michael chertoff was the longest serving head of the department for homeland security under president george w bush, who also helped co—author the us pariot act. good pariot act. to have you with us. a lot to get good to have you with us. a lot to get through but first of all, what do you make of the president expansion of operation legend?” think there are two distinct issues. the issue with portland had to do with whether there was excessive force used dealing with demonstrations and crowd control. 0peration election the something different. that has to do with sending investigators and prosecutors to cities to help investigate and prosecute drug gangs, arm smugglers, and similar kinds of transnational criminal groups. that if something was to be honest we have done for the last a0 yea rs. honest we have done for the last a0 years. when i was a prosecutor we

had an operation where we had federal investigators and prosecutors focusing on people who we re prosecutors focusing on people who were involved in gun smuggling. so to the instinct that 0peration legend has been expended that is likely to be welcomed by most of the community. but that is a very different issue then using tactics to disperse crowds like we saw in portland or like we saw injune in washington, dc. what do you think is the effect of that? the effect of which? the operation legend or crowd espresso? the crowd dispersal. -- crowd dispersal. i think the federal authorities and i really authorised to engage generally and crowd dispersal. it is true it is legitimate to protect federal buildings and courthouses. but when you get far away from the actual federal institution, you begin to get a little outside of your authority. and particularly, the training that the agents have with

dealing with for example serious conflict in the southern border is not really appropriate to deal with demonstrations. so i think it is welcome now that they have announced that the state and city are basically going to take over most of the responsibility for this, with the responsibility for this, with the federal government essentially operating only within the federal court. that i think is a useful retreat from what was perhaps an overly aggressive set of tactics you have written a piece in the new york times which is quite damning. another way the president has handled this. we say the president is reveling in the use of brutal force. you talk about that being in cities that are run by liberal democrats mayors. you think he is politicizing this in a way. why did you say that? because i think you can say there are errors in judgement in the actual execution of the operation in the actual execution of the operation of portland. but to my mind what made it much worse and created really a

crisis of public trust was the way the president traded and political terms with the by saying we will go into cities with these liberal democratic mayors come a couple of months ago he said if they loot, we shoot. some of these images have actually been used in trump campaign ads on television. that creates the impression that all of this is being deliberately ratcheted up in order to make political points for the president can say i am crushing my adversaries and people who i don't agree with. that is something that undermines the mission of the department and of course the constitutional requirement that a pa rt constitutional requirement that a part serving the public and not a political agenda. what is the alternative? run the department of public security. if this is not the way forward, what is? that she used to run. —— department of homeless

occurred. it is for coordinating with the government come if there is a requirement for the federal government to support state and local officials, then absolutely he should stand ready to do that. —— the department of homeland security. but what we should not do is push it a and bigfoot them and take over their whole process themselves. this is about teamwork. that means that the teams have to know each other, they have to co—operate them and they have to co—operate them and they have to be in communication with each other. thank you for joining us. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: german police complete the latest stage of their investigation into the disappearance of madeleine mccann 13 years ago. cheering.

the us space agency nasa has ordered an investigation after confirmation today that actually not were cleared today that actually not were cleared to fly while drunk. —— action knots. the last foot patrol once an everyday pa rt the last foot patrol once an everyday part of the soldiers lot, drudgery and danger coming no more after almost four decades. in a private house. not doing any harm to anyone. i don't see why all these people should wonder in saying you're doing something wrong. six rare white line comes on the prowl at the park and already we have been met with a roar of approval from residents. they are lovely and really sweet. they are cute. this is bbc news,

the latest headlines. the bosses of amazon, facebook, apple and google are being grilled by congress over claims they're stifling competition. dr anthony fauci, a leading member of the white house coronavirus task force, has told the bbc that hydroxychloroquine is not effective against the coronavirus. german police in hanover have completed the latest stage of their investigation, in the case of madeleine mccann, the three—year—old who disappeared on a family holiday to portugal in 2007. it's now emerged that the prime suspect, a convicted paedophile who's in prison in germany, rented the allotment that's been searched by police. 0ur correspondentjenny hill has the latest from hanover. yes, this is the allotment which has been the focus of such intense police scrutiny. they have all gone now but they spent the last few days digging, taking material off the site. the police will not tell us

what they were looking for and certainly not whether they found it, but we know that the main suspect in this case lived not far from here in the years following madeline's disappearance and there are reports that his connection to this site might be even deeper. this afternoon we spoke to a neighbour who told us that in the spring or summer of 2007, madeleine went missing in the may of that year, the suspect rented this garden. a neighbour said there was a little hut, it sat on a concrete base, there was a small cellar underneath. the man told the neighbour he wanted to insulate that hut. the neighbour says that he went on his summer holidays, came back in august to find th garden deserted, the hut had disappeared and he never the man again. it and he never the man again. is quiet here tonight. the police operation is apparently over. it is impossible tonight to say with any certainty whether that operation will contribute

towards establishing finally what happens to madeleine mccann. let s get some of the day s other news. the new head of the uk's secret intelligence service has been announced. richard moore, who is currently political director at the foreign office and a former ambassador to turkey, will become the new chief of m16, known as c. he will take over from sir alex younger in the autumn. a railway bridge has collapsed after a freight train caught fire and derailed in arizona. it's being reported that between eight and ten cars from the train left the track at tempe town lake, just west of the city of phoenix. police have not yet reported any injuries. the hajj, the annual pilgrimage to mecca, is officially underway, though on a much smaller scale than usual. normally more than two million muslims would take part in the five day pilgrimage to the holy city, but international visitors have been banned this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. hong kong's chief executive, carrie lam, has warned that the territory is on the brink of a large scale coronavirus

outbreak, which could overwhelm hospitals. local media reports say ms lam might seek beijing's approval to postpone september's elections for the city's legislature, citing concerns about the virus. ms lam has already urged people to stay indoors. fellow citizens, hong kong is facing a new wave of covid—19 infections, with an upsurge in locally affected cases, many with the yet unknown sources. we are on the verge of a larger scale community outbreak. i appeal to you to follow strictly the social distancing measures and stay at home as far as possible. if we stand united and work together, we can suppress this epidemic again. well, opposition figures have criticised the possibility of delaying the elections set for this september in hong kong for a year. they say the delay has less to do with public health, and more to do with china's hope that time will quell anger over

the new security law which has sparked widespread protests. we can speak now to paul tse, a pro—establishment member of hong kong's parliament who believes the elections should be delayed. very good to have you with us. critics say that this is a politically motivated decision rather than one based on public health. what do you make of that? thank you for having me. nowadays, the whole thing has become very political. first off, i think that the pandemic situation here in hong kong is far worse than any of any time before. in were since the outbreak last year. —— infected worse. 0ne outbreak last year. —— infected worse. one would assume they given inafew worse. one would assume they given in a few weeks' time that we are expecting a high tide, a third wave of the pandemic situation, so we just are expecting that perhaps for

health reasons, and for the risk involved, i think we should delay having this similar situation in singapore. we know singapore held their elections on the 10th ofjuly. as soon as after that, the situation was far worse than before. i think the number of cases confirmed it was doubled. so hong kong is a very densely populated city. it is like another big city in the world we have perhaps more open spaces and what have you. there is a real risk there. how long would you delayed these elections for is the next question many people have. these elections for is the next question many people havem these elections for is the next question many people have. it is very u nfortu nate question many people have. it is very unfortunate that we have to delay it. i for very unfortunate that we have to delay it. ifor one, there's very unfortunate that we have to delay it. i for one, there's a very unfortunate that we have to delay it. ifor one, there's a lot of hassle in the lincoln. i ready for it. but once we delayed, there is no point in delaying it for one month or so. it is either three much, six mustard 12 it is a question of how the a miniature

chick the change in how the logistical issues evolve. it will be a delay. six months would be the minimal. 0therwise a delay. six months would be the minimal. otherwise there is no point in itfor minimal. otherwise there is no point in it for the pro democrat activist fa re if in it for the pro democrat activist fare if it is too long, they may not happen at all. that is one fear. what would you say to that?” wouldn't think so. certainly, we have existing laws providing for delays for 1a days but that is hardly enough. anything more than one year would be undesirable. i would have thought the delay would be something between three months and 12 months. these elections, whenever they happen, at a time when the pro—democracy activists say they are having less of a voice but that we have the anti—beijing protest last year. your side were defeated and last year's local elections. there is now this national security law that is usually unpopular. they argued that the more time there is, that actually, there is more time for more things to be passed through

and there is less democracy. what would you say to that? nothing on the table or agenda at the moment. i don't see anything controversial passing in the next four months if anything it will be normal with the annual budget of the ceremonial policy address. 0therwise annual budget of the ceremonial policy address. otherwise i don't see any controversial bills moving on the horizon anyway. thank you very much forjoining us. new research has revealed the origin of stonehenge s giant upright boulders. scientists have known the smaller, blue , horizontal, stones on top of the monument came from wales, but the vertical stones have been a mystery until now. the findings, published in thejournal science, have pinpointed the huge megaliths, known as ‘sarsen stones‘, to an area around 15 miles north of the stone circle. geo—thermal tests show they came from a site called ‘west woods' on the edge of wiltshire's marlborough downs. it's still not clear how the ancient britons moved the boulders, which weigh

as much as 30 tons. i'll be back shortly with a round up of tomorrow. that is it for now. hello again. it was a little bit warmer out there today. but over the next two days, the heat will really build. temperatures will rise and, by friday, it could be the hottest day of the year so far. temperatures will be slower to rise in scotland and northern ireland, perhaps because we've got these weather fronts coming in from the atlantic, bringing more cloud and some outbreaks of rain. and through the night, most of the rain will be affecting northern ireland. there will still be some for a while in wales, and a few spots will head up into the northwest of england and southwestern parts of scotland. either side of that, some clearer skies developing. and generally, temperatures 10—12 celsius tonight, but probably a bit colder across northern parts of mainland scotland with maybe some early sunshine on thursday. very quickly, though, we'll see that rain turning heavier in northern ireland.

it will cheer up through the day as the wind picks up and blows that rain away, pushing it further north into scotland. at the same time, we'll see more sunshine coming up from the south across england and wales, and it's here that temperatures will get particularly high — 27—28 celsius through the midlands and the southeast of england, warmer than today for northern ireland. now it was only yesterday that we had those cool, northwesterly winds. in order for the temperatures to rise so rapidly in the next few days, the wind direction has to change. and we're tapping into a south—easterly breeze bringing in warmth from continental europe ahead of these weather fronts, trying to push in from the atlantic. so whilst it's getting much warmer across much of the country, northern ireland may miss out on the high temperatures because we've got this showery rain coming in from the west. ahead of it, more of a breeze picking up, blowing in lots of sunshine — strong sunshine, as well — lifting temperatures in scotland into the mid—20s, widely 29—30 celsius in england and wales, and 3a in the southeast of england.

this will be the peak of the heat on friday and, with that heat, there could be a few showers developing across the midlands and eastern england ahead of the rain that's coming in from the atlantic to western areas. all that wet weather pushes its way eastwards overnight and, as we head into the weekend, it's all change again. we return those winds to the west or southwest atlantic air, and that means it will turn cooler and fresher. those temperatures certainly will be dropping away. there'll be some sunshine and a few showers, with most of the showers in the north—west of the uk.

this is bbc world news. the headlines...

the bosses of amazon, facebook, apple and google are being grilled by congress over claims they're stifling competition. the hearing follows a year—long investigation into market dominance. dr anthony fauci, a leading member of the white house coronavirus task force, has told the bbc that hydroxychloroquine is not effective against the coronavirus. president trump has again defended the use of the malaria drug to ward off the virus. the debate over quarantine measures for travellers to the uk has intensified with the spanish government putting more pressure on britain to rethink its policy on journeys to and from spain. the us department of homeland security says federal agents will be withdrawn from 0regon‘s largest city, portland. but dozens of federal agents will be sent to three more cities as part of president trump's 0peration legend programme to combat violent crime.