this is bbc news: i'm sally bundock with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. more protests expected in belarus following sunday's huge gathering. president lukashenko remains defiant. house speaker nancy pelosi announces a vote to prevent changes in postal services ahead of the us election. rejecting the mask. why some europeans are refusing to wear them. australia suffers its worst coronavirus day as 25 die in the state of victoria.

more protests and strikes are expected in belarus, in an attempt to force president alexander lukashenko to step down. on sunday, tens of thousands of people marched through the capital, minsk, calling for a rerun of last week's election, which they believe was rigged to secure mr lukashenko‘s victory. jonah fisher has sent us this report. all chant. a week after the disputed election, belarus is voting with its feet. the centre of the capital, minsk taken over by hundreds of thousands of people. united in their demand that alexander lu kashenko, the only president this country has ever known, leave office. well, i really hope that when he sees all these people, he will step down. you really think that's likely?

he's been here a long time. maybe, it's. .. i hope so. do you think this sort of demonstration is going to convince the president to go? yes, we believe. that's why we're all here. all minsk, all our country. belarus has never seen scenes like this before. a couple of weeks ago, demonstrations were extremely rare and they were usually brutally snuffed out by the government. now there are people marching as far as the eye can see through the centre of the capital, minsk. there's a real sense of change in the air. but for now, president lukashenko clings on to power. this was his rally today in minsk. just a few thousand showed up — an embarrassing turnout for a man who claims to have won 80% of the vote. in a defiant speech, he rejected calls for new elections,

telling his supporters that nato tanks were near the border. chanting "leave, leave", they chant, but exactly how that happens is far from clear. do you think the president is going to go peacefully? i'm not sure about it, but we will not go away. today, tomorrow, next week, we will sit here on the streets, and i would like to say that i was born in 1998 and i spent all my life with president lukashenko and i don't want it any more. this was a day when belarusians found their voice. all chant. "lukashenko, lock him up", they're saying here. europe's longest serving leader may have passed the point of no return. jonah fisher, bbc news, minsk.

we will be live to moscow shortly to discuss that story in more detail. to the us now, where house speaker nancy pelosi is arranging for a vote in congress later this week on legislation to protect the postal service. ms pelosi has accused president trump of a "campaign to sabotage the election" and her democratic party is looking to unwind recent changes which they say could hamper postal voting in november's presidential election. alanna petroff has the story. banjo playing and singing # do not deliver us mail should be against the law #. cheering it's come to this. a musical protest about the post office. demonstrators gathered outside the home of the new postmaster general louis dejoy, for another day of dissent. de joy, recently appointed to the role, is a big trump donor. his cost cutting moves at the cash—strapped postal service have slowed down mail delivery. i was overseas and i cast my

vote by mail—in ballot! protesters worried de joy's changes will hinder mail—in voting during the 2020 presidential election. voting by mail is especially important this year. many americans will want to avoid busy polling stations to cut down on the risk of catching the coronavirus. president trump isn't a fan of voting by mail. he's warned of potential voter fraud, without proof, and he says he's blocking billions of additional funding for the postal service which democrats want to deliver a fair election. you are going to have a catastrophic situation with universal mail—in votes. he has said... members of the democratic party accuse the president of trying to suppress votes.

he says he wants to slow down the mail to hurt the elections and make people doubt the results of the election. maybe he's worried he's going to lose, it doesn't matter. our elections are sacred. men and women have died for them and the right to vote, and to do this is disgraceful. democratic presidential contenderjoe biden recently tweeted this... democrats believe the leaders of the us postal service have some explaining to do. the us house of representatives is calling on top figures in the postal service to testify at an emergency hearing on august 24. they specifically want to hearfrom this man, the postmaster general himself. the us postal service has a long time motto about making swift deliveries, despite snow and rain. voters will be hoping that even

with financial difficulties and polarising politics, the postal service will stick to its motto and make sure every vote gets through and gets counted. alanna petroff, bbc news. let's get some of the day's other news. the government in somalia say that a five hour siege at a hotel in the capital, mogadishu, has been brought to an end by security forces. 20 people were killed when al—sha baab islamist militants exploded a car bomb and stormed the beachside hotel. more than 200 people were trapped before being evacuated. new zealand's prime minister has announced that general elections due to take place in mid—september have been postponed because of a fresh covid—i9 outbreak. jacinda ardern said the poll date has been pushed back to october the 17th.

police in warsaw have kept apart pro— and anti—gay rights protesters outside the university, two days after being accused of heavy—handed policing towards lbgt campaigners. a right—wing former presidential candidate told the conservative rally that if they failed to stop gay rights activists, poland would, as he put it, go the way of the west. coronavirus is continuing its spread across the globe, with the world health organization releasing the latest figures. according to the who, there have been around 21 million confirmed cases in 188 countries. more than 750,000 people have lost their lives, the highest death toll being the united states. and on sunday, the who reported that the number of confirmed global coronavirus cases had increased by almost 300,000 in 2a hours, the highest daily figure so far. hundreds of people have gathered in the spanish capital

madrid to protest against the mandatory use of facemasks in public spaces, and other new government measures aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus. there were similar scenes in warsaw, as people there called for an end to the restrictions. the bbc‘s tim allman reports. no social distancing at this demonstration. packed in together, close as can be. the unmasked of madrid. with their angry cries of freedom, they seem to believe the government is now a bigger threat than the virus itself. "i am here because there are too many repressive measures," this woman says. "they are taking all our rights away from us." "the solution is that everybody takes to the streets to their voices," insists this man.

"we need to prove we know what this is about and we are claiming our rights." spain was one of the earliest and ha rdest—hit countries in the pandemic, and has had more cases than any other nation in western europe. infections have spiked in recent weeks, but for these protesters, the battle to combat covid has gone too far. it was a similar story in warsaw, where there was another anti—mask march. here, they argue any restrictions aimed at fighting the virus are illegal and unconstitutional. in paris, face masks are now compulsory in much of the city, which has been named a high—risk zone. the attitude here seems a little more accepting. translation: i think it is best to wear it everywhere. at least we know we are protected. are we going to get to a second wave?

we don't know, so the best thing is to protect ourselves everywhere. face masks have become symbolic, a political debate, but scientists insist they are still vital in the fight against coronavirus. tim allman, bbc news. australia has seen its deadliest day of the coronavirus pandemic after the state of victoria recorded 25 deaths in 2a hours. victoria's previous daily record was 21, recorded last wednesday. there were 282 confirmed cases in the state in the past 2a hours. let's get more from our correspondent, shaimaa khalil, in sydney. just put this in perspective for us. we are calling it the deadliest day. it does seem that every other day you get a depressing and troubling record

from victoria, you're right, todayis from victoria, you're right, today is the deadliest day, 25 people dead and that compares to 21 last week. 22 of those cases are linked to aged care out breaks. a large chunk actually of the deaths end of the cases in victoria have been linked to aged care facilities that are actually now seen as a crisis within the crisis of the state of victoria. another thing that's troubling health officials and people in melbourne as well is that the number of mystery cases, where this author is unknown, is also growing. that is at 150 now and as the number rises of the cases we don't know where the source is, that means more community transmission cases are likely to pop up and they are likely to pop up and they are harder to control. so a depressing number in terms of the death, but in terms of the new cases recorded in the last 24 new cases recorded in the last 2a hours, that is now more than

one day where you get the number below 300 so in a way there's a cautious optimism that the number of new cases recorded in 2a hours is now looking down, so we're hoping that means that the state the city is past the peak time where we were getting really high numbers over 500. and how are those living in the state of victoria coping with the really strict lockdown measures? a nighttime curfew, et cetera, how are they managing? you are right, the state of victoria has now been ina very state of victoria has now been in a very strict lockdown for a number of months, with the added restrictions of a midnight curfew, but they think what they are seeing now and what they are seeing now and what they are hoping cautiously is that this curve going down and the number of new cases in 24 and the number of new cases in 2a hours now below 300, that these are the restrictions that are paying off and we are

hearing reports on local media of people breaking curfew, fines being issued to people who are either not wearing a mask in public or breaking cu rfew, mask in public or breaking curfew, but there is a long way to go and i think there is still a great deal of concern about the health workers controlling this and bringing the number of cases down to single digits, and of course we talk about these numbers and again, i've always have to reemphasise this reporting covid—19 in this part of the world is that compared to the rest of the world these are low numbers and compares to other parts of australia actually, what other states are doing much better than victoria, it's almost like a very localised bleak picture in victoria where they are trying to control the number of cases to get it to low numbers to at least try to open those internal borders. thank you. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: calling for political reform, why the thai protests have shocked the nation.

washington, the world's most political city, is today assessing the political health of the world's most powerful man. indeed i did have a relationship with ms lewinsky that was not appropriate. in fact, it was wrong. in south africa, 97 people have been killed today, in one of the worst days of violence between rival black groups. over the last ten days, 500 have died. chanting: czechoslovakia must be free! czechoslovakia must be free! chanting: czechoslovakia must be free! russia is observing a national day of mourning for the 118 submariners who died on board the kursk. we all with them now. with — in our hearts. the pope has celebrated mass before a congregation of more

than 2.5 million people in his hometown of krakow. "stay with us, stay with us", chanted this ocean of humanity. "well, well", joked the pope, "so you want me to desert rome?" this is bbc news, the latest headlines: more protests are expected in belarus following sunday's huge gathering. president lukashenko is defying demands for his resignation following disputed election results. let's go back to our top story, the marches in belarus, protesting the re—election of president alexander lukashenko. i'm joined by our correspondent, sergei goryashko, in moscow. what is being set in russia about what is happening in belarus? russian state tv is interpreting it as another covert revolution, like something that happened in the ukraine in 2014. it's not a

surprise for russian tv. they are always talking about any events like this happening in post— soviet republics is covert revolution is which is pocketed by the west. actually, politicians and especially vladimir putin remained silent about what's happening in belarus and they get very few comments on that so we are still waiting for the reaction, on sunday, the biggest protests in minsk ever. and when president putin says he is ready to assist president lukashenko, what does that mean? it was actually lukashenko who said after talking with mr putin, russia, in his words, was fully ready to give any assistance to belarus but actually, the kremlinjust gave a

belarus but actually, the kremlin just gave a very small statement on the kremlin website that lukashenko and putin had some phone talks. but actually they didn't specify how exactly russia will help belarus and we are still uncertain about that. we can remember protests in 2018, in armenia, where protesters urged the president to resign, after the president to resign, after the leader of the opposition became prime minister, and russia didn't intervene in that, despite it being the talks of a revolution there, and some influence from the west. so probably the kremlin won't intervene in this situation either because putin and lu kashenko's situation either because putin and lukashenko's relationship 110w and lukashenko's relationship now is worse than ever. thank you very much.

in thailand, an estimated 20,000 people havejoined a protest in bangkok calling for sweeping political reform. the thai government has successfully contained the coronavirus, but the tourism—dependent economy was badly hit — and a series of other blunders have eroded its popularity. however, it is the student movement's unprecedented call for reform of thailand's monarchy, which has stunned the country, where harsh laws criminalise any negative comment about the royal family. jonathan head reports. they haven't seen a protest this big in thailand since the military seized power six years ago. and for these youthful demonstrators, the military‘s influence is still too great. its performance in government on freedom, human rights, and in managing an ailing economy is now a burning grievance. this large gathering at the monument which has always symbolised the hopes for a real democracy in thailand is the culmination of weeks of student—led protests demanding wholesale reform

of the political system. but that is not all they are demanding. they are also asking for significant changes to the monarchy, an institution that is officially viewed as sacred and untouchable. and in a country where few have even dared to broach the subject before, that is revolutionary. it is almost unimaginable. only a couple years ago, saying what the youth are now demanding on stage as part of their manifesto for reforms. they seem to be unafraid i would say. they haven't been held back by the concerns that previous generations had before, not even to talk about, not even discuss about the monarchy.

complaints about the monarchy have been heard at the protests in recent weeks. but it was the manifesto read out by this young woman at a university rally last monday that sent shockwaves through the country. for the first time, it demanded an accountable monarchy. one that limited its power and its spending. the king, making a rare visit back to thailand this week from germany, where he stayed during the covid—19 crisis, has said nothing. the prime minister, while acknowledging the students' right to protest, said he would investigate who was behind them and punish any who had broken laws. the students, though, seem undaunted by threats of prosecution or worse.

we have to try to start talking about and making it a new norm for the society that it is ok to talk about the monarchy. do you think many thai people agree with your programme? i think the silent majority itself want to talk about it, and the monarchy, because if you don't act on something or reform something, nothing will happen, and it will collapse on itself. this is a historic moment for thailand. a taboo has been broken by a younger generation who have lost faith in the old, royalist establishment and want change. it is though hard to imagine that they will be allowed to go on saying what has always been unsayable here. let's get all the latest sports news now. hello and this is your monday sport briefing where we start with the footballing news that manchester united have been knocked out of the europa league, beaten 2—1 by sevilla

in their semi—final. the match in cologne was poised for extra time at 1—1 with 12 minutes remaining before luuk dejong got on the end of a cross to grab the winner and set up a final against either inter milan or shakhtar donetsk. lewis hamilton is closing on michael schumacher‘s all time record of wins after taking the spanish grand prix on sunday. the briton started on pole and never relinquished the lead holding off red bull's max verstappen to make it an 88th victory, just three short of schumacher. the win extended his world championship lead to 37 points over verstappen, who's six ahead of hamilton's mercedes team—mate valtteri bottas. ronnie o'sullivan claimed a sixth world snooker championship with an 18—8 win over kyren wilson at the crucible theatre. the rocket claimed the last 8 frames on sunday to ease away and take a first world title since 2013. it was the biggest winning margin in a final since 2008, when o'sullivan defeated ali carter by the same scoreline and moves him level with steve davis and ray reardon and just one

short of stephen hendry. the second of the europa league semi—finals take place later with intermilan up against shakhtar donetsk. the winner in dusseldorf will face sevilla who are record five—time winners, while antonio conte's inter side are favourites to win the competition for the fourth time. the delayed nba season sees the play offs get underway later on monday in the florida bubble. defending champions, the toronto raptors are one of eight teams playing and they take on the brooklyn nets in the best of seven first round eastern conference series. we should know later on monday whether or not simona halep will play at this year's us open. so far, five of the world's top 10 have said they won't be going to new york because of concerns about coronavirus and also the reigning men's champion rafael nadal. halep claimed her second tour title of the year with victory at the prague open on sunday. the world number two

from romania beat belgium's elise mertens in straight sets — 6—2, 7—5 — injust over an hour and a half in herfirst event since february. meanwhile japan's kei nishikori has tested positive for covid—19, and pulled out of this week's cincinnati masters, which is actually being played at flushing meadows in new york. nishikori — who's currently ranked 31 in the world — says he's "feeling well" and will now self—isolate, before another test on friday. you can get all the latest sports news at our website — that's bbc.com/sport. the world's oldest giant captive panda bear has celebrated her 37th birthday day. ——38 birthday. she received a kick of bamboo

shoots and watermelons are more than 100 fans were there at the birthday party as a zoo. to wish you all the very best. hello there. we had lots of thunderstorms across england and wales on sunday, but it's not every day you see one of these. yes, a waterspout that formed out in the bristol channel, and this was seen by a number of our weather watchers, actually, from north somerset. it was also spotted around the newport area of south wales as well. that was all associated with this low pressure that's across northern france. we can see an occlusion. this band of cloud here that brought some thunderstorms across eastern england, and they were torrential. 28 mm of rain on sunday fell in bedford. looking at the weather picture at the moment, this system, essentially, is going to split into two bits, with this branch not really making much progress further north. that means the rain will continue to affect

greater manchester, lancashire, merseyside along with wales for a time before easing later in the night. it won't really push that much farther north. that means the far north of england, northern ireland and scotland stay largely dry over the next few hours, but with low cloud. there'll be some mist and fog patches, and maybe a little bit of drizzle around some of the eastern coasts in scotland as well. for the rest of monday, the low pressure will continue to move its way in, and that will bring showers. this time, the showers will be affecting scotland and northern ireland through the afternoon, but it's further south across england and wales that the day's heaviest showers are most likely to be. 20 or30 mm in the space of an hour. again, that's enough to cause some localised flash flooding. in between those showers in the sunshine, still feeling warm, still a little on the humid side. but we're not finished with the showery story just there, because tuesday will be another showery day. this time, the heaviest showers look more set to go in across northern england and scotland. lots of thunder and lightning, a bit of hail mixed in with some of these.

fewer showers in the south. still one or two fairly pokey ones as we go into the afternoon. beyond that, we see some changes in the weather. this area of low pressure, slow—moving, will be with us for much of the rest of the week with fresher air following this cold front through. it means on wednesday many of us start off on a dry note, but the cloud and rain will spread in across northern ireland, england and wales. eventually, it will turn a fair bit windier across the south—west. gusts of around 30—40 miles an hour, all the while staying largely dry in scotland through the afternoon with sunshine. fresher air then arrives from thursday onwards, but that's not an end to the wet story. it stays unsettled with rain or showers to take us into next weekend.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. as talks between the world's two largest economies are postponed, companies in asia look to diversify their production out of china and japan is hit by its biggest economic contraction on record as the coronavirus pandemic crush consumption and exports. and the rise of ‘barter classes' — how rural schools in india have educated during the pandemic.

if you have just joined if you havejustjoined us if you have justjoined us you are very welcome, i am sally bundock. we will now focus on the top business stories. the us and china postponed talks over the weekend aimed at reviewing progress on phase one of their trade agreement. the delay does nothing to abate business concerns on tensions between the two sides. for decades, china has been the go to country for raw materials and manufacturing for many asian companies. but the trade war, plus the pandemic has seen some businesses rethink their strategy. so just how easy is it to de—couple from china? our asia business correspondent karishma vaswani reports. nothing escapes the reach of the pandemic, not even the

tiniest artefact. for decades this fine arts studio has made jewellery for royalty. the coronavirus has closed down borders meaning they cannot meet their orders. the raw materials are missing during this covid—19 situation. materials are missing during this covid-19 situation. this company sources the materials from italy and distributed in china. they could not get either of their supplies. for us either of their supplies. for us to learn what it was, we also need to have an alternate source for supply chain, we need to know that if this will hit us again, what can we respond to in terms of packaging materials, that is definitely possible for us to look at other suppliers. for companies like royal insignia and others around the world, the pandemic caused a massive disruption in global trade and it was a huge wake—up call. it taught them a valuable lesson, depending on one country all the time and for everything is

bad for business. and it's starting to have a real—world impact. 95% of us companies surveyed recently said they we re surveyed recently said they were looking to diversify their suppliers both in and out of china, but a complete break is tough. 87% said the mainland is still one of their top three sourcing destinations. but it's not just that. as sourcing destinations. but it's notjust that. as a market for high—tech goods, china's appetite is growing. when other countries are cutting back. for taiwanese firm advantage which makes industrious computers, tony makes up almost a quarter of its business. china is a second—biggest market. we cannot from a business point of view, we cannot just cannot from a business point of view, we cannotjust say cannot from a business point of view, we cannot just say we give up this market. especially the chinese government no the economic stimulus are most of the country and automation

companies, china's spare is a big market. globaltrade has been defined by toner in the last few decades, and that's not going to change. is the only economy that is likely to grow this year. it's gone from being the world's supplier to also becoming one of the world's most important customers. joining me now is thomas gift, lecturer of political science, at ucl. good morning and good to see you again. let's start with the trade talks. should be read into the fact that they have been postponed? into the fact that they have been postponed ? what into the fact that they have been postponed? what do you think is going on? it is really ha rd to think is going on? it is really hard to know whether we should read too much into the delay over the trade deal. we might be forgiven for thinking this is more evidence that the two sides are quite far apart and that talks at this time would not have been productive. the fa ct not have been productive. the fact that the us representative has said that a new date has not been set for the talks doesn't provide much cause for optimism, but i think given

that there are less than three months between now and the us election it does seem increasingly clear that no deal will be brokered between washington and beijing at this time. i don't think that will come as a surprise to most experts, relations between the two have been increasingly icy, not only due to trade but also the ongoing stoush over the chinese companies moving into the us market. how is that playing into talks, because although we don't hear about it, we don't report on it, the conversation is ongoing, between trade representatives, between trade representatives, between beijing and washington, so how is the bigger picture impacting that? the rhetoric coming out of the white house at the moment? the white house is facing an upcoming election in less than three months and one of the consisted mantras of donald trump has been to take a ha rd donald trump has been to take a hard line on china, and so he may just hard line on china, and so he mayjust think hard line on china, and so he may just think that the lead up

to the selection and he needs to the selection and he needs to remain consistent on that stance, to give republican voters what they want to hear. that does not bode well for relations between the united states and china, but at the same time, the prospects of brokering a deal before the election are so low, maybe we should not expect anything else, and china probably is just biding time and hoping that a new president is elected next january. today joe biden will be officially put in place as the runner against president trump for the democrats. what is his stance on trade, to we know? i think the growing consensus know? i think the growing consensus is that biden will be more likely than not to dial back the rhetoric on china. it will not happen immediately, but given concerns that many democrats raised when tribe started a trade war, joe biden will face internal political pressure to improve diplomatic relations with beijing. maybe the biggest difference between

donald trump and joe biden is he will be more likely to provide predictability into relations with china, and trump's approach has been criticised as rather ad hoc and lacking in a long—term strategy. by contrast, joe biden will be more likely to flash our plans he has to deal with beijing, and that will bring some predictability to the markets, and allow wall price to put a factor on the relations between china and usa. joe biden may be posed to some degree by those on the left within his own party today, harder line on china, and it's hard to know how that might affect his calculations. we will find out in time, thank you very much, good to see you again. let's talk about the world's third biggest economy. japan's economy continue to be in the doldrums. the country has registered it's third month of economic slowdown. in fact it is the worst

contraction on record in the last quarter forjapan. let's go to sharanjit leyl in our asia business hub. no respite for the japanese? they seem to be heading in one direction and faster. absolutely. none for them, and for others in this region as well, and you mentioned they we re well, and you mentioned they were in the doldrums, well, this is the biggest economic contraction on record for japan. really since records began way back in 1980, and it was largely expected, as the coronavirus pandemic crust businesses in consumer spending during april to june lockdown months, and the gross product actually shrank and 27.8% in april tojune, actually shrank and 27.8% in april to june, according to government data out today, and it is incredibly worrying, because as you said, japan is the world's biggest third largest economy, and the trade tensions between the number one

and two mega deviant trigger — make it even trickier for the massive exporter. while the economy we know is emerging from the doldrums after the lockdowns were lifted in late may, many analysts expect any rebound in the next few months to be modest, because really a lot of people are very worried about a rise in infections, and they are keeping their purse strings fairly tight as you can imagine. private consumption fell more than expected, and it was not just japan we fell more than expected, and it was notjust japan we heard from today because thailand is well, it's from today because thailand is well, its economy contracted, at its sharpest pace in 22 yea rs at its sharpest pace in 22 years in the second quarter, again the coronavirus outbreak has been blamed, it battered thailand's a key tourism export and domestic sectors, it is southeast asia's second largest economy, and entering more than 1296 in economy, and entering more than 12% in april to june

economy, and entering more than 12% in april tojune from a year earlier. the only consolation being that it was slightly better than even worse projections that were expected. this is the world brn at the moment. let's see how all this has been interpreted on financial markets are. a new trading week is well under way, and you can see no surprise the main market injapan, the nick kay down by almost 8%. it was doing well prior to that economic data released today, hong kong up over a percent as you can see there, and the price of oil edging higher as well. brent $45 a barrel, but as we said, notjust bad news from japan but also thailand. it will be interesting to see what happens in the us, big retailers reporting this week to bring to a close the second quarter earnings season, and actually we will hear from walmart this week, home depo, cold, so that will be interesting to see how the big retailers are doing in the us.

many schools around the world closed during the pandemic. this week we'll be looking at what impact that has had, and how companies and parents have responded to the crisis. today, we report from india where, according to unesco, more than 320 million children have been affected. while many urban schools have been able to switch to online learning, many indian villages are struggling with poor digital connectivity. in some cases that's given rise to ‘barter classes' as devina gupta reports. these children in chanderpaul are getting ready to study. their school is such a the band since march and with no access to the computers or internet, they come to this community tuition centre for everyday what are called barter classes. instead of money, they pay for the lessons with vegetables each day. translation: due to the lockdown, the villagers facing extreme economic

hardships. i teach children for two hours and the parents give me vegetables and rice. this helps me and my household during these difficult times. most of the villagers here are daily wage workers who lost theirjobs due to the coronavirus restrictions. this system helps them save cash for urgent expenses. translation: i don't have work right now, so i don't have work right now, so i don't want to pay in cash, but i'm happy giving may vegetables for my child's future. the global economy has shaken up how things work in india. nearly 70% of rural households have reported a decline in their monthly household income during the months of lockdown in march and april, because farmers could not sell their produce on the market or even get the right price for it. now they are cash—strapped, and that's why they are shifting to barter systems where they can, especially when it comes to education of the children, and

this practice is gaining popularity in the hinterland. but there are problems in. in this village in the northern state, this 12—year—old is trying to learn english. her father has been giving a portion of his wheat crop to her teacher, but he admits he can't continue the system for more than two months. translation: i spoke to this teacher and he used to charge $15 to teach children every month, but now i pay him five kilograms of wheat, but my stock will run out soon and i don't know long i can continue with this. these classes are irregular and unstructured. even the children feel they are not learning as much. translation: this has disrupted my studies, i want to go back to school. with over 2.4 million cobra cases in india, the schools were now i keeping the schools were now i keeping the gates shut, until then, these barter classes are not only a reminder of the deeper digital divide in rural india but also a sign of economic

distress that needs urgent attention. this here in the uk, an influential think tank, the institute for public policy research, has warned chancellor rishi sunak he is putting two million viable jobs in peril by ending his coronavirusjobs support program too early, risking an unnecessary unemployment crisis. joining me now is russ mould, investment director at aj bell. good morning to you. there is huge debate about the timing of the ending of this scheme where staff have been furloughed for many, staff have been furloughed for any staff have been furloughed for many, many months. it's costing the treasury abortion. what do you make of this latest call from the institute of public policy and research. it's quite understandable given we have still haven't managed to quash the pandemic and we still don't know what the shape of the recovery is going to be as lots

of people are working from home. i'm still working from home, rather than commuting to london every day, and spending my money on cafe ‘s and restau ra nts my money on cafe ‘s and restaurants and shop so if we can get people back to work by making them feel safe, the economy will be stronger but at the moment, the picture is unclear. what will add to the uncertainty is all children returning to schools in a few weeks' time, assuming they do so of course, and they will open, and the impact that will have an infection rates but also the ability for parents to return to work. again, there are so many variables in the task that the chancellor and government have got is to balance physical health with mental health and financial health. there is some good news in the uk economy. capital economics estimated around 4 million people have left because they been able to go back to work as bars and other

leisure facilities begin to open. nevertheless, that is five olympic —— 5 million people in the scheme and 5 million people who are self—employed, so if you do start to see those people lose their jobs, start to see those people lose theirjobs, the economic shock will be very considerable. think tac is saying to million jobs that would be sustainable, would remain in place with long—term employment at risk if the furlough scheme was to end in october. what's your thinking on whether the chancellor should extend. the daily cost is pretty huge. something we will pay for in yea rs something we will pay for in years to come. i'm afraid it's going to be our grandchildren who will be footing the bill to some degree and this is the balance. some of those jobs may have gone anyway. you will see firms rise and fall, even with a normal recession, extraordinary one we are seeing at the moment, some of those jobs may not have been and still is, some clearly are and

that's what the chancellor will be looking it. maybe the current chancellor rishi sunak from the conservative party, as opposed to the labour party chancellor, who said good government was forjobs chancellor, who said good government was for jobs for those who wanted them, support for those who can't get them and that is maybe where the chancellor needs to look, how can we help people retrain and be more socially mobile and find newjobs if some of their own ones disappear. thanks for getting up early, nice to see you again. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: a new initiative to save small music venues affected by coronavirus lockdown. grammar school heads and sixth form colleges have joined the growing chorus of criticism over the process for deciding this year's

a level grades in england. the grammar school heads association said a great injustice had been done to students after nearly forty per cent received grades that were lower than their teachers predicted. the association of sixth form colleges said it looked at 65 thousand entries and concluded that ——overall—— grades were 20 per cent lower than past performance for similar students in those institutions. a group of liberal democrat and labour mps is urging ministers to do more to prevent a rise in homelessness because of the pandemic. a ban on evictions — introduced in march in england and wales — ends today, meaning that landlords can go to court to attempt to remove tenants. the government said it would continue to provide appropriate support to those who have been particularly affected.

this is bbc news, the latest headlines: more protests are expected in belarus following sunday's huge gathering. president lukashenko is defying demands for his resignation following disputed election results. the speaker of the us house of representatives, nancy pelosi, has said she will recall the house to vote on legislation which would prevent changes in post office services. democrats are concerned changes would affect postal voting in november's election. one sector that's been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic is smaller music venues. they often don't have the financial muscle to cover costs while remaining closed. at the same time they are the incubators of talent, artists who are big now often started by playing to small crowds in places like this one (point to screen), in manchester. today a new initiative launches in the uk, called passport: back to our roots. it asks you to support a small venue via crowdfunding. in return you're entered

into a lottery to see and hear a big artist return to, and perform, in that small back to our roots. it asks you to support a small venue via crowdfunding. in return you're entered into a lottery to see and hear a big artist return to, and perform, in that small venue — once it's safe to do so. joining me now is mark davyd, ceo and founder of the music venue trust one of the organisations supporting the campaign. thanks for being on the programme. just tell us a bit more about how this would work. it basically launches at 10am today, we have five artists right now including ash, alvo, everything everything, all those artists committed to performing a small venue as soon as it's safe to do so at full capacity, so sometime next year and for full capacity, so sometime next yearand fora full capacity, so sometime next year and for a small donation of £5, you can win two tickets

and those will be drawn out by prize pool. so it sounds like a great idea, a way of raising much—needed funds for these small venues because i assume many of them are on the brink of colla pse many of them are on the brink of collapse if they don't get the vital funding? it's still a very serious situation. there's a lot about the government programme, cultural recovery fund, but we won't actually have the results of that even until the beginning of october. we have many, many venues right now facing the threat of closure. your earlier article mentioned the eviction is coming to an end. we will see landlords forced to take action against their tenants. so yes, it's a very serious situation and it's a great opportunity to see an amazing event. also supporting local grassroots music venues. the government

has pledged money for the arts and specifically for music venues. how is that going in terms of these music venues getting hold of the government support. there is an emergency fund we will know the results of. we think it's been fairly effective for a number of venues. we do have a lot of venues. we do have a lot of venues that don't qualify for that support because of their structure, the size of the venue. a lot of problems out there, a lot of very specific stories. we've got venue owners who live on their premises who are facing eviction so this is are facing eviction so this is a very serious situation. we still need audiences and artist support. so we really want to see it and getbacktoourroots.org is their website they can go to. and the draw will be running for two

weeks from monday. they opened today, 10am, the first events, you buy a ticket, it runs for two weeks and in that period, will be answering the next set of five artists and carry on doing that while we have artists who want to go back. these are really picking places they love. it's really important. alvo are going back to the night and day, they started there and worked at the bar there. i'm sure there is a lot of heart involved. mark, thank you very much. let's squeeze in some more business stories before we wrap up. the departure of the msc grandiosa from genoa, the first cruise ship to set sail from the mediterranean since the worldwide grounding of liners in march. it also led to accusation a botched handling

of the epidemic in this early stage so that is taking off the departure today. jewellers in the tradition of indian jewellers in the traditionally lucrative indian gold market indian gold market are struggling, even while the metal‘s value skyrockets as coronavirus fears keep sales down, craftsmen at home and shops shuttered. months after india lifted its strict lockdown, the country's biggest gold market remains desolate, with most stores closed and no customers in sight. india's main opposition party has accused facebook of favouring the prime minister narendra modi's party in order to protect the company's commercial interests. the congress party says facebook and whatsapp employees should have barred a lawmaker who had posted incendiary comments, rather than just deleting the remarks. the party has called for parliament to investigate. india is facebook‘s biggest market.

you are now right up—to—date. if you are with us on bbc world those news, i will see you soon. breakfast will begin in five minutes. have a good day. hello there. we had lots of thunderstorms across england and wales on sunday, but it's not every day you see one of these. yes, a waterspout that formed out in the bristol channel, and this was seen by a number of our weather watchers, actually, from north somerset. it was also spotted around the newport area of south wales as well. that was all associated with this low pressure that's across northern france. we can see an occlusion. this band of cloud here that brought some thunderstorms across eastern england, and they were torrential. 28 mm of rain on sunday fell in bedford. looking at the weather picture at the moment, this system, essentially, is going to split into two bits, with this branch not really making much progress further north. that means the rain will continue to affect greater manchester, lancashire, merseyside along with wales

for a time before easing later in the night. it won't really push that much farther north. that means the far north of england, northern ireland and scotland stay largely dry over the next few hours, but with low cloud. there'll be some mist and fog patches, and maybe a little bit of drizzle around some of the eastern coasts in scotland as well. for the rest of monday, the low pressure will continue to move its way in, and that will bring showers. this time, the showers will be affecting scotland and northern ireland through the afternoon, but it's further south across england and wales that the day's heaviest showers are most likely to be. 20 or30 mm in the space of an hour. again, that's enough to cause some localised flash flooding. 20 or30 mm in the space of an hour. again, that's enough to cause some localised flash flooding. in between those showers in the sunshine, 20 or30 mm in the space of an hour. again, that's enough to cause some localised flash flooding. in between those showers in the sunshine, but we're not finished this time, the heaviest showers look more set to go in across northern england and scotland. lots of thunder and lightning, a bit of hail mixed in with some of these. fewer showers in the south.

still one or two fairly pokey ones as we go into the afternoon. beyond that, we see some changes in the weather. this area of low pressure, slow—moving, with us for much of the rest of the week with fresher air following this cold front through. wednesday, many of us start off on a dry note, but cloud and rain spreads in across northern ireland, england and wales. eventually, it turns a fair bit windier across the south—west. gusts of around 30—40 miles an hour, all the while staying largely dry in scotland through the afternoon with sunshine. fresher air arrives from thursday onwards, but that's not an end to the wet story. it stays unsettled with rain or showers to take us into next weekend.

good morning. welcome to breakfast with dan walker and louise minchin. our headlines today. anger grows over a level results as the government comes under increasing pressure to change course. does support for the self—employed go far enough? the second scheme to help the nation's taxi drivers, builders and hairdressers opens today, but millions could still be left without. the mothers of harry dunn and pc andrew harper tell us how the loss of their sons brought them together to form a remarklable bond. when you know that you've got somebody that's equally broken