this is bbc news. i'm david eades with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world: the titans of us tech under the microscope — facebook, amazon, google and apple challenged in congress over claims they're stifling competition. we face a lot of competitors and every part of what we do. —— in every part of what we do. russia joins the coronavirus vaccine race — scientists there say they will have one ready for approval in august. is there anyone out there? nasa's new perseverance rover heads to mars to search for evidence of life. song. # i want to ride my bicycle # i want to ride my bike...#

and, it takes two to tandem on a journey right around the world. hello and welcome to audiences in the uk and around the world. we're covering all the latest coronavirus developments here in britain and globally. first: they don't get any bigger than facebook, amazon, google and apple. these giants of global tech wield huge power and influence the world over, nowhere more than in the us. and their role has come under scrutiny in a congressional inquiry, where they were accused of being too dominant in the market — while their political leanings

were also questioned. all four of them put their ceos up to defend their companies. mark zuckerberg, jeff bezos, sundar pichai and tim cook have all been questioned. our tech correspondent james clayton has been watching the hearing. these four titans of tech run the companies that are worth nearly £4 trillion. today they were grilled over whether their companies are too big, and whether they stifle competition. the richest man in the world, jeff bezos, runs amazon, which accounts for around 40% of online retail in the states. mark zuckerberg is the boss of facebook, instagram and whatsapp, with more than 2 billion users worldwide. google and youtube is run by this man — sundar pichai. around 90% of all internet searches are on google. and apple is run by tim cook, the most valuable of the big four and the company behind the iphone and its software. the big question is, do they own a bit too much of the internet? that's what us legislators wanted to find out today. zuckerberg: thank you.

before i begin, i want to add my points... zuckerberg on the hook first and asked whether rather than compete with competitors, they simply bought them, notably instagram. zuckerberg accepted that they were a competitor. in the space of mobile photos and camera apps, which was growing, they were a competitor. i have been clear about that. zuckerberg was also asked whether he, at one point, wanted to buy google. "it will be a while before we can buy google." do you recall writing that e—mail? congressman, i don't specifically, but it sounds like a joke. to apple's tim cook, and some pretty pointed questions. that apple uses its position to hurt businesses. this was cook's defence. sir, we do not retaliate or bully people. it's strongly against our company culture. bezos: i was born into... and the questions got harsher, at one pointjeff bezos' amazon's treatment of smaller

businesses was compared to a drug dealer dealing with a drug addict. "and you had to get your next fix, your next cheque." so, mr bezos, this is one of your partners. why on earth would they compare your company to a drug dealer? sir, i have great respect for you and this committee but i completely disagree with that characterisation. it was a yes—or—no question. in truth, there was a clear theme. democrats went more on competition, republicans more on censoring and whether these tech platforms were biased against conservatives. this to google‘s sundar pichai. what i'm concerned about it you're helping joe biden over president trump. we won't do any work to politically tilt anything one way or the other. it's against our core values. that political split at times boiled over. and i'd like to redirect your attention to anti—trust law, rather than fringe conspiracy theories. mr bezos, our investigation... mr chairman, we have the

e—mail, there is no fringe... chairman: excuse me! it is not your time! you do not... what i want to know, is when somebody comes after my modus for asking questions, i get a chance to respond. the gentle lady is recognised. the committee so far hasn't landed any obvious knockouts. the share price of all the companies has in fact picked up since the start of the committee. james clayton, bbc news. it's beginning to feel a bit like the space race again: who will be first to produce an effectivve vaccine against covid—i9? the russian government now says it's on track to approve a coronavirus vaccine in august, well ahead of other countries, including the us, uk and china. but as alanna petroff reports, human safety trials for the vaccine have been very limited. in russia, researchers are racing for a coronavirus vaccine.

within just two months, the state recruited military volunteers and tried out their vaccine on 18 individuals. they say it's safe. they say it works. now, it's being fast—tracked for approval in august. russia's deputy prime minister presented her latest vaccine plans to president vladimir putin, saying two were very promising. the first was developed with the ministry of defence. translation: the vaccine state registration is planned in august 2020, and another clinical trialfor 1,600 people will be carried out after registration. the launch and production is expected in september 2020. a second russian vaccine developed in siberia will be approved in september, produced in october. there's no doubt that developing, approving and producing a vaccine is the holy grail, but researchers outside russia have been taking longer

as they conduct more trials. a vaccine being developed by the university of oxford is going through rigorous tests. the next phase will involve tens of thousands of people around the world. while russia says it's leading the way forward, others have accused the state of hacking vaccine information. british, american and canadian security services said this month a hacking group targeted organisations working on vaccines. the uk has said it's almost certain that the russian state was responsible. given that the world is trying to come together to find a vaccine for our own peoples, british people here in the uk, but also for people around the world, i'm afraid it's pretty egregious behaviour. russia has denied responsibility. as coronavirus cases keep rising around the world, the race for a vaccine has never felt so urgent. the desire to be first has never felt so important.

alanna petroff, bbc news. the world health organization says that young people could be driving the resurgence of coronavirus in europe. last month, the us vice president said at least half the new covid—i9 cases recorded in the us were adults under the age of 35. doctor hans kluge, who director in europe, says more must be done to make sure young people understand the consequences of their behaviour. what we see, epidemiologically, is a shift in younger ages cohorts of new covid—i9 infections. so not scientifically tested yet. but this is to do with behaviour, social interactions, so the key issue here, to take it positive, is that the observed trend justifies a reflection on how to harness the youth to push back the covid—i9. let's not make it easy for the virus.

the united states is still struggling with covid—i9. latest stats from johns hopkins university show 61,700 new cases of covid—19 confirmed on tuesday. president trump claims that is because the united states is the world leader on testing. most epidemiologists say that's wrong — new cases and hospitalisations are rising faster than the nation's testing capacity. in total, at least 11.3 million cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the united states. and, in the past few hours, the american death toll has reached a new milestone, rising above 150,000. the bbc‘s katty kay has been speaking to dr anthony fauci about where the united states goes from here and how president trump has handled the outbreak. when the president, as he did again yesterday, re—tweets 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 re—tweeting is something i have never understood or gotten involved 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 hydroxychloroquine is not effective in treating coronavirus disease or covid—19. that was the doctor leading the us fight against coronavirus, dr anthony fauci speaking to my colleague katty kay. coronavirus has now claimed more than 150,000 lives in the united states as the world's worst—affected country battles raging infections in many states.

the speaker of the house of representatives, nancy pelosi, is compelling lawmakers to wear face masks on the floor of the chamber. the bbc‘s david willisjoins me live from los angeles. interesting, david, listening to anthony found she talking about president trump's position on face masks. it is a political issue, let us recognise that first and foremost but nancy pelosi said she would feel very good grounds for a decision? makes the rules if you like and she has ruled that members of the house will wear face masks apart from when they are called upon to speak. should they refuse to do so she said they could be reported to the serjeant—at—arms could be reported to the serjea nt—at—arms and ejected

from the chamber! it all follows the news that a republican member of congress, louis go mad, tested positive the coronavirus today, due to fly with president trump above air force one above home state of texas but everyone he flies with the president gets tested and he failed the test twice. he is something of a coronavirus denier, if you like, certainly a face mask denier and have had some unorthodox views on this and claimed after this that wearing a face mask as he has done intermittently over the last few weeks, begrudgingly, may have contributed towards his diagnosis today. health experts, doctor fauci among them, continues to insist that wearing a facemask and social distancing are actually two of the best ways to combat contracting the virus. and as

they hit those awful milestones and the numbers were died, that be honest, doesn't look as if it is about to recede. no, the death toll here by far anywhere the largest in the world, more than 150000 and indeed the number of deaths has risen every month for the last three months and we have also had word today that seven individual states have seen new records for the number of coronavirus cases within the course of 2a hours or so, including florida, texas, and california. there is some sign that the surge we saw in the southern states is starting to level off but experts are saying it looks as though it could also be spreading north to the midwest states, away from the so—called southern belt states who have been so badly affected over the last few months. david, thank you

indeed. we will reflect on the gdp and last quarter late in the programme as well. the us expect pitfalls courtesy of the coronavirus. —— expect big falls. let's get some of the day's other news: the number of rape convictions in england and wales has fallen to a record low, according to figures seen by bbc news. it stands at around 1,400 suspects who were convicted of rape or other offences — that's half the number of three years ago. the national police chiefs' council say it's getting harder to achieve the evidential standard required to take cases to court. the crown prosecution service said it is "working hard to reverse the trend." italy's senate is expected to vote later on thursday on whether prime minister matteo salvini should be stripped of his parliamentary immunity so he can be tried for the second time for allegedly illegally detaining migrants at sea.

it's alleged he prevented more than 80 migrants rescued in the mediterranean from disembarking from a charity ship. he has insisted the decision was collectively take by the italian government and was brokered with eu countries. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: what do we do with statues linked to slavery? in a quest for an answer, we speak to south african sculptor pitika ntuli. the us space agency nasa has ordered an investigation after confirmation today that astronauts were cleared to fly while drunk. the last foot patrol

in south armagh, once an everyday part of the soldiers' lot, drudgery and danger, now no more after almost four decades. if one is on one's own in a private house, not doing any harm to anyone, i don't really see why all these people should wander in and say, "you are doing something wrong." six rare white lion clubs are on the prowl at worcestershire park and already they've been met with a roar of approval from visitors. they're lovely, yeah, really sweet. yeah, they were cute. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: the heads of some of the world's biggest tech companies have appeared before washington lawmakers to defend their firms against claims they abuse their power to quash competitors. the appearance comes

as congress considers tougher regulation. russia has announced it will approve a coronavirus vaccine in august ahead of other countries. but there are concerns that the safety trials have been very limited. brazil has reopened to foreign visitors arriving by plane despite reaching a new covid—19 milestone on wednesday with a record number of new daily cases, more than 69,000. figures are rising right across latin america. tanya dendrinos reports. 2.5 million cases and more than 90,000 deaths. the latest staggering figures out of brazil after another record—breaking day on wednesday. it was also the day presidentjair bolsonaro attended his first official event after recovering from the virus. bolivia's interim president has also returned to work after contracting covid—19.

the crisis, taking a clear toll on emergency services in the country, police struggling with a lack of protective equipment. translation: we've had bodies in homes and we didn't know they had covid, so our workers were carrying out this job without protection and some of them became infected. in cases where covid had been identified by the health service, we still didn't have the necessary protection to remove the bodies. so families were waiting with the bodies in their homes were three or four days. and as coronavirus cases continue to soar across latin america, the pandemic is driving a crisis of a different kind. just in the areas where wfp have been in this region alone, we have seen a substantial increase in over 11 million people that are marching towards the brink of starvation. so it's devastating. it is why we must act. and we must act now. according to the wfp, the number of people facing

severe food insecurity across latin america and the caribbean will soar to 16 million, up from 11.3 million in 2019. it says inaction risks fuelling conflict and political unrest, and forcing vulnerable families to migrate. tanya dendrinos, bbc news. in a few hours, nasa is set to launch an ambitious mission to mars with the lift—off of its next—generation perseverance rover. when the robot lands on the red planet in february, it will not only search for evidence of life, but also package rock samples for return to earth. this will be the third mission heading to mars this month after launches by the uae and china. rebecca morelle reports. getting ready for mars, the final test for the most advanced rover that nasa has ever built before it heads to the red limit. it will be

collecting samples of martian rocks from an area that was once a river bed. the hope is it will answer the key question, was there ever a life on mars? what we now know, mars had an enormous amount of water in its past. if ancient life was on mars, we have a good bet that we might be able to find it in these sediments. so this is really a life detection mission. the rock samples will be stored and brought back to earth on a future mission. but this mission is also taking something back to mars. a piece of martian meteorite from the natural history museum plasma collection. it blasted off the surface of the red planet more than half a million years ago. now it is heading home. we really know what meteorite is made from, we can use it to compare the meteorite with the new rocks, that unknown rocks we are looking at the first time on mars and see how similaror time on mars and see how similar or different they are.

also on board is a miniature mars helicopter that for the first time will attempt to fly in the extremely thin martian atmosphere. nasa want to test this technology for future missions. american spacecraft is the last of the trio heading to the red planet. china and the united arab emirates are already on their way. if they all succeed, it will mean a giant leap in our understanding of mars. rebecca morelle, bbc news. more about the coronavirus pandemic which has cast a light on those in the care sector, the ones who look after the elderly and disabled. even before the lockdown, a team in scotla nd before the lockdown, a team in scotland are trying to come up with a technological solution. meet papa, your with a technological solution. meet pa pa, your little with a technological solution. meet papa, your little robot friend. she can answer the phone, help you find missing items and even do a spot of

aerobics. researchers at this university in edinburgh are trying to assess whether she could be a potential companion for the lonely and vulnerable. the robot will be able to walk ina the robot will be able to walk in a hospital, helping the ca re rs in a hospital, helping the carers working there, but also helping people at home and people that may need help with their physical aspect of care. pepper and fellow robot to iago are part of an experiment called ambient assisted—living. they perform basic household tasks, easing the burden on human haircare tasks, easing the burden on human hair care workers. it also helping patients to help themselves. the focus of the project is on the end user and there is a real codesign element to it so the innovation is going to be driven by the end user themselves, so everything that this project reduces will be supporting them to live their day—to—day lives a little bit better. the teams say they want to understand the names of the most vulnerable and use technology to improve

their lives. here is another great challenge being achieved in fact. as you can see from these two. getting around the world on tandem, two british women, and they have circumnavigated the globe all on pedal power. # i want to ride my bicycle, i want to ride my bike... kat dixon and raz marsden like to cycle, which is a good thing, really, when you think about what they've just done. the two of them, on a tandem bike called alice, pedalled and pedalled and pedalled. well, i've always wanted to cycle around the world and we've been cycling together for a little while and we started talking when we were riding and we said, "why not?" and then, "why not on a tandem?" yep, and so it seemed like a good idea at the time, so ijust said yes, and then it probably took about a year

for us to get everything together and line...line everything everything up, and then we left lastjune. yeah! theirjourney of more than 18,000 miles or nearly 30,000 kilometres took 263 days, eight hours and seven minutes. no—one, man or woman, has tandemed the globe faster. but they completed their world record just in time. we got back on the wednesday, and that monday was when the uk locked down, and so it was a real kind of contrast from being riding all day and the freedom of it being locked down. these two women and alice overcame bushfires and monsoon rains. a global pandemic was never going to stop them. # i want to ride it where i like... tim allman, bbc news. well done. quite an achievement. stay with us. we

will have a look at the business implications of the coronavirus not least on the us economy, but also on the risks of spikes around europe as well. to stay with us. —— do stay with us. hello there. so far this month we have seen temperatures around or below the seasonal average. quite a lot of cloud and rain at times too. but by the end of this month, so that's for friday, a hot spell is likely for much of the uk and we could see in fact the hottest day of the year so far on friday. we could see temperatures reached 3a celsius. pressure chart shows for thursday we have got low pressure to the north and the west. that's going to bring more cloud, outbreaks of rain for northern ireland, northern england, perhaps north wales. that rain will be pushing into scotland as we move through the day. some of the rain will be quite heavy as well as it exits northern ireland. but brightening up for northern ireland, southern scotland, for england and wales, though,

afine, dry day from the word go with sunshine turning increasingly warm and humid with the mid—to—upper 20 celsius, and a bit cooler further through the north. through thursday night, that rain will continue to move northwards across scotland, eventually becoming confined to the northern isles, but for much of the country, it will be a warmer and a clear night with those temperatures generally between 11 and 15 or 16 degrees across the south. that takes us then into friday. we really tap in to some very hot air across northern spain and france on this southerly breeze. it will push that warmth northwards right across the country, in fact, but low pressure out towards the west means these weather fronts will encroach into western areas, destabilising the atmosphere so we could see showers or thunderstorms through the day. many of us starting off dry, sunny and warm, it will be hot day for much of the uk. but this band of cloud with rain on it, maybe some embedded thunderstorms, northern ireland, then western parts of scotland, western england and wales later in the day. those temperatures, widely the mid—to—upper 20s celsius.

and for east wales, the midlands, south—east england, we could see 31 to 3a degrees in the south—east. like i mentioned, that could be the hottest day of the year so far. a chance of some showers and thunderstorms developing in response to that heat through friday evening and friday night. but that weather front continues to work its way in from the west, introducing cooler air just in time for the weekend. so it will be noticeably different, the feel of the weather this weekend. it will be cool and fresher, temperatures fall lower even into sunday and we'll see a mixture of sunshine and showers too in those brisk west—south—west winds. most of the showers in the north and the west.

this is bbc news with the latest business headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. is big techjust too big? the bosses of amazon, google, facebook and apple face congress on accusations they use their vast power to stifle competition. plus, the worst slump since world war two? official figures could confirm the us economy was declining at a rate of 35% between april and june. we start with those technology giants

because the bosses of google, apple, facebook and amazon have been facing questioning from the us congress over claims they are too big and too powerful and that they use that power to stifle competition. here they are: amazon'sjeff bezos, the world's richest man, facebook‘s mark zuckerberg, apple ceo tim cook, and sundar pichai who runs google's parent company alphabet. between them, their companies are worth $5 trillion the head of the house antitrust committee, said the pandemic has given them even more power. prior to the covid—19 pandemic these corporations already stood out as titans of the economy and in the wake of covid—19 they are likely more stronger and powerful than ever before. as american families shift more of their work, shopping and communications online, these giants stand to

profit. locally run businesses, mum and dad businesses on main street faith and economic crisis like no other in history. —— face an economic crisis like no other. the questioning went on forfive hours, much of it divided along party lines. some democrats are worried about the impact on smaller businesses or would even like to see tech giants broken up. many republicans are concerned that conservative voices get marginalized on social media. for his part, mark zuckerberg warned poloticians about about damaging highly successful us corporations. new companies are created all the time, all over the world and history shows that if we do not keep innovating, someone will replace every company here today. that change can often happen faster than you expect. of the ten most valuable companies a decade ago, only three still are with us today and if you look at where the top technology companies come from, the vast majority were

american over a decade ago and today, they are chinese. the message there was do not stifle you with enterprise. —— us enterprise. joining me now is ed stringham, economics professor at trinity college in hartford, connecticut, and president of the american institute for economic research. i was stru ct struct about that chair saying he will not bow down to these companies, is that a view most americans will share? yeah, an increasing scepticism of big technology, specifically the social media companies, google, facebook and twitter. the number of americans who distrust these companies have been rising, depending on the survey, 70%, 80% of people have a distrust. apple has better favourability, amazon has better favourability but there

is an increasing worry, people think they are manipulating, manipulating politics, taking data and selling it without knowledge and are related, unrelated set of criticism that came up in the hearings is that they are just too big and we cannot have big business and we have to think about breaking up big business because of their size. good point. how it affects us, you and me and eve ryo ne affects us, you and me and everyone of us and how it affects competitors. mark zuckerberg had an answer, do not knock the made in usa brand, ina not knock the made in usa brand, in a sense. do you think they won their argument? yeah, i found the whole hearing very tedious because the politicians basically came up with a series of rapidfire questions and the ceos would start answering after five seconds and in many

cases the politician would interrupt them, go onto the next question, ceo start answering, five seconds later, get interrupted and gone to the next question. it's almost as if the politicians were there to develop a series of of soundbites for the next election campaign. very little dialogue between the two different parties. it was also extremely political. based on the party of the questioner, there was one type of question, oh, you are big, you are humming business, consumers, and the other side it was more discussion of is their political bias and censorship among these platforms? so i think the politicians came in with their pre— decided dispositions and there was very little changing of mines today. right, our technology corresponded described it in soccer corresponded described it in

soccer terms as emile —— you'll and that probably fits the tech giants best —— as a 0—0 result. definitely, when they did speak, i thinkjeff bezos, this was his first congressional testimony and 30 with the most natural and answered honestly what was on his mind and if you look at the end of the day, the stock prices overall in the stock prices overall in the stock market are up 1%. in the stock market are up 1%. in the stock prices of these companies up stock prices of these companies upa stock prices of these companies up a couple percentage points. so, even though the politicians at the end of the hearing said we now conclude that we need to break up big tech at least in terms of their stock market prices, that did not get reflected today. quite a bit of scepticism coming out of you as well, i think, scepticism coming out of you as well, ithink, ed, thank you. let's stay in the us where, in the next few hours, we will find out how much damage was done to the world's

biggest economy in the three months to june. some economists warn it could have declined at a rate of 35% in the second quarter. on wednesday, the chair of the us federal reserve, jerome powell, warned the slump is "is the most severe in our lifetime" as america's central bank left interest rates near zero — and pledged to contine supporting the economy. the bbc‘s north america business correspondent michelle fleury reports from new york. closed, closed, closed. this story is the same on main street ‘s across america, businesses shutdown and in some cases for good. heavyjob losses and weary consumers, the toll on the economy from the coronavirus devastating. this thursday we are about to see the worth decline in us gdp since world war ii. us growth, a measure of goods and services, is expected to show

an annualised decline of 35% between april and june, and much of the country was in lockdown. but is the worst behind us? economic conditions appear to have improved since then, restrictions eased, not that they have noticed at this brooklyn restaurant. the bean postie still on, barely. brooklyn restaurant. the bean postie still on, barelylj don't think it will bounce back at all. this is a long time for people not to be making money and a long time that people have not been doing what the norm is and i'm afraid that people will get used to it. i'm nervous that in 2—3, four months from now, if it was to come back all of these businesses along with avenue and in bay ridge, i am fearful they will not be year. one third of new york's small businesses may never reopen, shutting economy down, it turns out, is pretty simple, starting it again is another matter. with infections on the rise, the spotlight was on america's top banker, federal reserve

chairjerome powell, and his comments on the state of the economy. it looks like the data is slowing on the pace of the recovery but it is too early to say both how large it is and how sustained it will be. the path of the economy will depend, to honour a very high extent, on the course of the virus and the measures we take to keep it in check —— will depend toa to keep it in check —— will depend to a high extent. the president insists there's nothing to worry about. we set record job numbers, and i think it will be very good. in truth, washington is finding it difficult to come up with a plan to help an economy that is the more peril than anyone can remember and even the most optimistic of forecasts cannot save the businesses and jobs that have already been lost. michelle fleury, bbc news. fiona cincotta is market analyst at city index here in london.

fiona, good to see you, thank you forjoining us. starting, we do not have the figures but one way or another, we are dealing with april and may, maybe general be better, but it will be horrible? yeah, these are expected to be ugly figures and if we think the economy was pretty much shut so consumer spending was really low and also business investment again very low. it only gradually opened up towards as he said thejune opened up towards as he said the june area and opened up towards as he said thejune area and the very end of may and june so these are expected to be some of the worst results since records began in the 1940" and you may expect that that would speak the markets a bit. jerome powell of the federal reserve said look, we hope for the best, we plan for the worst. that is a pretty reassuring message to put out? that is right. the markets feel that jerome powell have their back.

the fed has a presence in the market offering support and the prospect of cheaper money for longerfederal support prospect of cheaper money for longer federal support to come means that the stocks and sentiment are lifting up this morning. so, yeah, looking positive as long as the fed has their back. what they are looking for now is some sort of fiscal support but the democrats and republicans are still discussing that, so that is one to watch as well. president trump also jogging up record numbers of jobs president trump also jogging up record numbers ofjobs being created at this difficult time —— talking up. pushing up forward a little bit from where we are now, it would be the end of october when we get the next quarter, so literally a couple of weeks on the election, you get a sense ofjust how critical this next three month period will be for america's future? exactly. it will be extremely critical. what is important here is that we are

still getting very high numbers of new daily coronavirus cases, so there is not a sense that the virus is under control there yet i wager starting to see that the recovery in the labour market is actually starting to stall, consumer confidence is starting to slip again and they really need to get control of the spread of the virus before we can expect see the economy really starting to improve in any sort of meaningful ways. fiona, to improve in any sort of meaningfulways. fiona, thank youindeed meaningfulways. fiona, thank you indeed for your analysis. consumer confidence is everything, it seems, everywhere right now. let's go to france now, where the health minister has urged the country not to drop its guard against covid—19, saying it faces a long battle ahead to avoid a second national lockdown. tourism businesses are hoping to avoid the fate of spain which has become the target of new quarantine regulations for visitors returning to the uk after a spike in cases. the uk government is also looking at similar restrictions on luxembourg and belgium.

tourism employs 2 million people in france and represents around 8% of the economy. joining me now is jeremy ghez from the hec business school in paris. there is a lot to gain and a lot to lose. thank you for joining us. one does wonder about the level of anxiety now after what i think even just a few weeks ago there was a sense of relief, that we would get a summer season? yeah, no, plenty of anxiety to go and we are having reports from the south of france that we are not seeing as many americans as we used to and we don't have them to rely on, we don't have the russians and truth be told, we don't see as many tourists from china as we used to. a lot of anxiety and i thought that basically this is all lost and they are keen to make up the

money that they lost but right now the recovery is very slow and very frustrating for many people in tourism. we can do a bit of anecdotal research which is my producer, he thinks he may be going to france but is not so sure anymore, and i'm in exactly the same boat and i cannot work out whether bad news from spain and belgium and luxembourg benefits france or is actually another obstacle? is an interesting question and by the way, please do come to france! it is as safe as any other place. i think what france is trying to do is a lot more contract chasing and in the past —— contact tracing and an don't think another lockdown will be a possibility. i don't think the economy will be able to digester shock and the people, truth be told, would be open to open to these, i think

that targeting measures towards the vulnerable people, the elderly in retirement holm will be the rule rather than the collective measures we saw in the past. —— in retirement homes. this is a 2—way street, it's about what france does in other countries including the uk decides in terms of policies and this may be a hard one to predict. some of it feels very political at times. ultimately, with many issues still being felt very keenly within france, not least issues about aged ca re not least issues about aged care home ‘s and the elderly, is there a sense amongst the large general populace that they do want tourists in all, really, actually, they don't wa nt to ta ke really, actually, they don't want to take the risk? it feels like people do want tourist in. a lot of french people seem to think it is time to live again, open up and try to live again, open up and try to find a sense of normality.

here is the problem. this is not your typical economic crisis because the fundamentals prior to the health crisis, prior to the health crisis, prior to the lockdown were pretty good. this is not your typical health crisis in the sense that when you look at the problem, there is more uncertainty about this virus than real clear dangers about it, the dangers are clear but we are still trying to grapple with what the right measures are. it is not your typical clinical crisis because you have senior technocrats communicating about it and it is atan communicating about it and it is at an intersection. this uncertainty creates a lot of fear and when there is fear, a lwa ys fear and when there is fear, always try to cling to something in here people are trying to get a sense of normality. the jury is still out on whether they can still go back to normality and it is unlikely to be the case 100%, but i think that is going to be shaping the debate over the month of august and probably september. that hunt for normality. thank you very much

indeed. life is not as we know it. let's get some of the day's other news. the number of cars built in the uk over the past six months has slumped 42% to the lowest since 1954 according to the industry's trade body. the society of motor manufacturers and traders estimates the car industry lost more than 11,000 jobs in the past six months and warns more jobs are at stake if brexit leads to trade tariffs. 1,200 staff at britain's national trust have been told they face redundancy. the heritage charity closed its houses, gardens, car parks, shops and cafes during the coronavirus pandemic, and now says it expects to lose nearly £200 million. the trust's director—general told staff they had exhausted every other possibility before proposing job cuts. stay with us on bbc news. we have something particular to bring you in a moment.

still to come: dr anthony fauci, the man leading the us efforts to contain the coronavirus, tells the bbc the pandemic has become politicised. the us space agency nasa has ordered an investigation after confirmation today that astronauts were cleared to fly while drunk. the last foot patrol in south armagh, once an everyday part of the soldiers' lot, drudgery and danger, now no more after almost four decades. if one is on one's own in a private house, not doing any harm to anyone, i don't really see why all these people should wander in and say, "you are doing something wrong." six rare white lion clubs are on the prowl at worcestershire park

and already they've been met with a roar of approval from visitors. they're lovely, yeah, really sweet. yeah, they were cute. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: the heads of some of the world's biggest tech companies have appeared before washington lawmakers to defend their firms against claims they abuse their power to quash competitors. the appearance comes as congress considers tougher regulation. i want to focus on the us, and in particular, one person who was seen as in particular, one person who was seen as perhaps the face and voice and dealing with the coronavirus crisis. as we've been hearing, the bbc‘s katty kay has been speaking to the expert leading us efforts to contain

the coronavirus, dr anthony fauci, about how president trump has handled the outbreak. so, we're in this position that's bad today. when you look forward, doctor fauci, for the next four orfive months, how's it going to be? well, i hope it's going to be considerably different, katty, because even as we are getting... do you have any reason for optimism? well, iwould hope that the country — i mean, i always say and i still do — have faith in the american citizens and the people living in this country, that they will appreciate what went wrong as we get up and say, you know, and that's the reason why i am trying to do a lot of outreach, katty — not onlyjust me, obviously, but many of my public health colleagues who are out there, talking to the populace, explaining to them that there are really four orfive simple things that we know from experience can turn things around. and we're trying to preach that as far and wide as we can.

universal wearing of masks, physical distancing — six feet or more — avoiding crowds, avoiding bars, and if the states and the regions in the counties go along with it, closing bars if necessary, then physical — hand hygiene, such as washing hands. if you just do those five simple things, you're going to be able to turn a lot of this around. so, hopefully, we're getting that message out and the lesson that we hopefully learned from the explosion of cases that we have seen in florida, texas, southern california and arizona are not going to spill over into some of the other states if they do the kinds of things that we saw being done in the states that were affected. 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? well, you know, i mean, this issue of tweeting and retweeting is something that i've never understood or gotten involved in, but i can tell you, you'd have to say it's not helpful if people get signals about not wearing masks when we're trying to get people to universally wear masks. so you would ask the president not to do that, if he listens to you? but, katty, that's not the way it works. i think my feeling about what we should do with masks is very, very clearly understood by everyone, including those in the white house. what about hydroxychloroquine? and i ask you about this because it's come back into the news because the president yesterday evening in the white house stood there and said that he believes in it

and that it is safe and, again, seemed to be touting this drug. is the president right? again, katty, it's 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—control trials indicate that hydroxychloroquine is not effective in treating coronavirus disease or covid—19. can i ask you about europe now? you mentioned young people. the who today is looking at young people in europe. europe seems to have effectively managed the reopening process. when it started reopening a couple of months ago, things went well. we didn't see big spikes. now, you have a number of european countries that are concerned. when you look at the situation

in europe, are you worried that they could be sliding back again? yes, iam. as you said correctly, katty, when at the beginning of their opening up, they really did very well. what i hope does not happen with our european countries is that they get a little bit complacent. and as they open up and see that things are doing well, and they're able to contain any of these little blips that might turn into spikes that may turn into resurgences, i hope that they pay attention to the fact that the reason that they've done well is that they've done it correctly. his full title is a director of national parks of allergy and infectious diseases. that is a position he held since the mid— 19805, position he held since the mid— 1980s, so he is a man who

should know what he's talking about. you are watching bbc news. thank you for being with us. hello there. so far this month we have seen temperatures around or below the seasonal average. quite a lot of cloud and rain at times too. but by the end of this month, so that's for friday, a hot spell is likely for much of the uk and we could see in fact the hottest day of the year so far on friday if we see temperatures reached 3a celsius. pressure chart shows for thursday we have got low pressure to the north and the west. that's going to bring more cloud, outbreaks of rain for northern ireland, northern england, perhaps north wales. that rain will be pushing into scotland as we move through the day. some of the rain will be quite heavy as well as it exits northern ireland. but brightening up for northern ireland, southern scotland, for england and wales, though, a fine, dry day from the word go with sunshine turning increasingly warm and humid with the mid—to—upper 20 celsius, and a bit cooler further through the north.

through thursday night, that rain will continue to move northwards across scotland, eventually becoming confined to the northern isles, but for much of the country, it will be a warmer and a clear night with those temperatures generally between 11 and 15 or 16 degrees across the south. that takes us then into friday. we really tap in to some very hot air across northern spain and france on this southerly breeze. it will push that warmth northwards right across the country, in fact, but low pressure out towards the west means these weather fronts will encroach into western areas, destabilising the atmosphere so we could see showers or thunderstorms through the day. many of us starting off dry, sunny and warm, it will be hot day for much of the uk. but this band of cloud with rain on it, maybe some embedded thunderstorms, will affect northern ireland, then western parts of scotland, western england and wales later in the day. those temperatures, widely the mid—to—upper 20s celsius. and for east wales, the midlands, south—east

england, we could see 31 to 3a degrees in the south—east. like i mentioned, that could be the hottest day of the year so far. a chance of some showers and thunderstorms developing in response to that heat through friday evening and friday night. but that weather front continues to work its way in from the west, introducing cooler air just in time for the weekend. so it will be noticeably different, the feel of the weather this weekend. it will be cool and fresher, temperatures fall lower even into sunday and we'll see a mixture of sunshine and showers too in those brisk west—south—west winds. most of the showers in the north and the west.

good morning. welcome to breakfast with naga munchetty and charlie stayt. 0ur headlines today: people with covid symptoms in england are expected to be told to self—isolate for ten days instead of seven to help avoid a spike in cases. good morning. with spanish holiday hopes dashed, what if you try to transfer to a uk break? bookings have been booming — what's that done to availability and prices? care home owners say they felt pressured into taking patients who had not been tested for coronavirus at the height of the pandemic. it makes a few angry because they

should have protected us.