this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. a gloomy warning from the head of the world health organisation — he says the impact of the coronavirus outbreak will be felt ‘for decades to come‘. the uk halts any further easing of lockdown restrictions due to come into force in england. borisjohnson said it's necessary; to deal with a rise in infections. we cannot be complacent and i will not stand by and i love this but is to threaten to cause more pain and more heartache in our country. —— and let these virus continue to threaten. three people, including a teeanger, are charged in the united states in connection with the hacking of high profile twitter users.

plus, 30 years ago today saddam husseing invaded kuwait. we have a special report on how that conflict has helped shape the world we know today. and one of britain's most acclaimed film directors — sir alan parker — has died at the age of 76. hello and welcome if you're watching in the uk or around the world — and stay with us for the latest news and analysis from here and across the globe. i'm nancy kacungira. the head of the world health organisation has said the effects of the global coronavirus outbreak will be felt "for decades to come". tedros ghebreyesus was speaking to the who's emergency committee — meeting to assess the covid—i9

pandemic six months after first declaring a global public health emergency. the emergency committee is discussing what more can be done to control the virus. the pandemic is a once in a century health crisis, the effects of which will be felt for decades to come. many scientific questions have been resolved. many remain to be answered. early results from virologist studies are painting a consistent picture. most of the world's people remain susceptible to the virus. even in areas that have experienced severe outbreaks. many countries that believed they were past the worst are now grappling with a new outbreak. some that were less affected in the earliest weeks are now seeing escalating numbers of cases and deaths. and some that had large outbreaks

have brought them under control. meanwhile, the man leading the us efforts to contain coronavirus, dr anthony fauci, has been giving evidence in washington before a congressional committee looking at the handling of the pandemic... for three hours, the health experts were pressed on covid—i9 vaccine development, school reopenings and the efficiency of president trump's response to the virus. let's hear some of dr fauci's comments. we hope that, as a time, we get into the late fall and the early winter, we will have in fact, a vaccine that we can say will be safe and effective. one can never guarantee the safety or the effectiveness, unless you do the trial, but we are cautiously optimistic that this will be successful. if you look at what happened in europe, when they shut down, locked down, went into shelter, however you want to describe it, they really did it to the tune

of about plus—95% of the country, they did that. when you actually look at what we did even though we shut down, even though it created a great deal of difficulty, we really functionally shut down only about 50%. earlier i spoke to saskia popescu — an expert in infection prevention working in one the centres of the us outbreak, phoenix arizona. i asked her what are the most pressing unanswered questions regarding the virus... i think right now what we're most concerned about most curious about, there's two really big things. long—term immunity and what that means and how long people will have immunity following infection and ultimately long—term effects. we do know that people are having prolong symptoms. whether that's a loss of sense of smell, there's also some neurological things coming out. we wanted know the long—term implications or prolonged symptoms or physiological response that might not be indicative of a current infection but something people are going to have to deal with potentially months after their infection. you are in arizona,

which has become a coronavirus hotspot. you've been saying that it didn't have to become a hotspot. what do you think has gone wrong in your opinion? unfortunately i think arizona has been a great case study for fragmented approaches. and premature and rapid reopening. states reopening far too early, far too fast and as dr fauci mentioned, we really didn't lock down or do the restrictions in the united states to the extent that was needed. arizona unfortunately, a really good example of that. we saw a resurge of infections in the month. now were starting to see things hopefully turn around. it has taken weeks and a month at this point with mandated mask and business closures. unfortunately it could've been avoided. looking forward to solutions. what do you think needs to be done right now?

a lot of things. we need a national approach in terms of making sure states are not reopening too early. and too prematurely or fast, i should say. every state at this point kind of did it against what they needed to. they didn't meet metrics, so we need a national approach for states to reopen. we have to address the testing issues we are seeing in the united states, there are some areas were taken over 14 days to get your test back and realistically after five days it's not helpful from a public health perspective. we are asking people to isolate as they are being tested. we really need to address these huge pressing issues as we move into flu season. a further easing of england's lockdown — planned for saturday — has been put on hold because of a rise in the rate of coronavirus infections. the prime minister said it was time to "squeeze the brake pedal" as he warned the country cannot be complacent. he said face coverings will now need to be worn in more places when coming into contact with people you don't know. the decision means bowling alleys, skating rinks and casinos cannot reopen on saturday and certain

beauty treatments involving the face cannot now go ahead for at least two weeks. wedding receptions of up to 30 people and indoor musical and theatrical performances won't be allowed either. you'll have to wear a face covering in cinemas, museums and galleries as well as places of worship from the eighth of august. england's chief medical officer, professor chris whitty, says the country has "probably reached" the limits of what can be done in opening up society. here's our political correspondent leila nathoo. poised to stage a performance for the first time in months — this venue in london was due to open its doors tomorrow. 80 seats, normally 180, and now we can't open. and that's a huge financial hit for us at the phoenix. businesses still closed across england have been waiting for the next phase of unlocking to begin, but now, with cases

of coronavirus on the rise again, the prime minister pressing pause. at every point, i have said our plan to reopen society and the economy is conditional, that it relies on continued progress against the virus, and we would not hesitate to put the brakes on if required. with those numbers creeping up, our assessment is that we should now squeeze that brake pedal. and so... on saturday the ist of august, we had hoped to reopen in england a number of higher—risk settings that had remained closed, and today i am afraid we are postponing those changes for at least a fortnight. boris johnson acknowledging the disruption this will cause. i know the steps we are taking will be a real blow to many people, and i am really, really sorry about that, but we simply cannot take the risk. that apology aimed at people like luke and vicky,

whose wedding reception in chorley, already slimmed down, has now been cancelled. you have dreams of what your wedding will look like, and they've already been shattered so, once we heard about this a week before our wedding, it was devastating and obviously very upsetting. although employers are still being encouraged to think about how to get people back to work, and advice on shielding will still come to an end, face coverings will now be required in more places, like galleries, cinemas and museums. how worried are you that this is going to turn into a surge, and why is it that we find ourselves in this position, because the government's message has been unclear and inconsistent, or are we all to blame? we are now seeing a warning light on the dashboard. it is right to respond in the way that we are. the answer lies with all of us following that guidance. but, from a man who's always struck a cautious tone, a stark warning

about the challenges to come. we've probably reached near the limits or the limits of what we can do in terms of opening up society, so what that potentially means is, if we wish to do more things in future, we may have to do less of some other things, and these will be difficult trade—offs. as well asjuggling what is happening nationally, targeted local restrictions, like those imposed in parts of northern england last night, are here to stay. scotland's first minister now advising against all but essential travel to the affected areas. we see this as being an important and necessary precaution. our advice is, of course, designed to minimise the risk of spread from england into scotland, but also to assist people in these parts of england. and labour questioning how the message was relayed. right decision, very poor communication. it has to improve. we are going to see more of these situations in the coming months and the government needs to learn

the lesson of the last 24 hours, which is to improve communication. still empty spaces, still tables unfilled. the government says it's now up to us to stick closely to the rules so lockdown easing can resume. leila nathoo, bbc news. the us department ofjustice has charged three people in relation to a twitter hack onjuly 15 that took over the accounts of high profile figures — including former president barack obama and bill gates. thejustice department has named 19—year—old mason sheppard from west sussex in the uk, and 22—year old nima fazeli from orlando in florida. the third person is a juvenile and has not been named. let's get more from our technology reporter chris fox who'sjoining me live. hello. good to see you. what more do we know about this hack? twitter actually today has explained a

little bit more about how the attackers got access into the system. they said it was a spear phishing attack. phishing attacks are those ones that most of us have probably experienced where somebody will send you an e—mail or text message saying that urgent action needed on your account, please click this link and feeling your information or maybe you get a suspicious e—mail saying did you order the hundreds of dollars worth of products. that is a phishing attack. a spear fishing attack is a more targeted version of that. the attackers make no some information about two perhaps the name of your bank and your username, so they can send you a much more convincing e—mail. twitter has said that it was a spearfishing attack e—mail. twitter has said that it was a spear fishing attack done on a telephone that tricked some of his employees into handing over their credentials for internal twitter systems. once the attackers had those credentials, they can use them to reset the account information of 130 twitter accounts, including those celebrity ones and get access to them. there are now questions

about just how much to them. there are now questions aboutjust how much access staff at twitter have with the ability to reset accounts like this and it seems like maybe they should've been more security at twitter. thank you for explaining that. that sounds quite scary. is this a common thing 01’ quite scary. is this a common thing orare quite scary. is this a common thing or are quite new? element bitcoins scams are ten a penny on twitter come every time you long my sweet something that goes vaguely viral. there is always an imposter elon musk in the reply it's underneath. posing as him, using his display picture and renaming themselves as elon musk. the trick people into sending bitcoins with the the holy grail of course it would be to get actual elon musk to twitch a bitcoins scale then it looks even more convincing and that is what the hackers have done in this case. this is an unprecedented attack because people have said it was people like elon musk or kim kardashian who got hacked but that is not entirely true. as we now know, it was twitter itself some of the staff that were hacked with that that makes this a

lot more than usual and with the hackers, potentially a lot more lucrative and some commentators have said it is a surprise if anything that all they did was download a few celebrities private messages and post these bitcoins scams. a bit of a smash and grab. when really they could've potentially done a lot worse. it could've been a lot worse. thank you, chris. let 5 get some of the day's other news. the united states has condemned the decision by the hong kong government to put back territorial elections for one year. hong kong's chief executive, carrie lam, said the poll could not take place as originally scheduled in september because of rising coronavirus infections. james murdoch, the son of media mogul rupert murdoch has resigned from the board of newscorp. the company owns a wide range of media outlets, included the times and the new york post. in his letter of resignation james murdoch cited disagreements over certain editorial content as well as other strategic decisions.

a federal appeals court has overturned the death sentence of the boston marathon bomber. at issue is whether the trialjudge had done enough to ensure the jurors weren't biased. but the court upheld his conviction for helping to carry out the attack in 2013, which killed three people and injured more than 260 others. stay with us on bbc world news, still to come: film director sir alan parker — has died — we will look back at his legacy. cheering. the us space agency nasa has ordered an investigation after confirmation

today that astronauts were cleared to fly while drunk. the last foot patrol, once an everyday part of the soldiers' lot, drudgery and danger, no more after almost four decades. 9.2.29 age; 2—735 eir‘? —; 2755.77; —— —— .