the most important speech of his long political career when he accepts the democratic party nomination, to challenge donald trump for the white house. mr biden says he'll use his convention address to set out his vision for america. president trump's former chief strategist, steve bannon, has pleaded not guilty at a court in new york to fraud and money laundering charges related to an online campaign to build a us border wall. he was released on bail of $5 million, and must not leave the country. the russian government says it's prepared to consider a request for the kremlin critic, alexei navalny, to be transferred outside the country for medical treatment, after his supporters said he was poisoned. he's said to be in a coma after collapsing on an internal flight. there have been record pass

rates for hundreds of thousands of gcse students in england, wales and northern ireland who received their results today, which were based on teacher assessments. the results come after a tumultuous period of uncertainty, because pupils across the uk were unable to sit any exams, because of the coronavirus lockdown. our education editor, bra nwen jeffreys reports. the envelope some dread. that walk to the results table at school. gcse grades this year like none before. after turmoil and u—turns, they've got what their teachers think they deserve. i just didn't know what was going to happen, if i was going to have lower than what i was hoping for. but it's, yeah, it was pretty nerve—racking. i was worried about being downgraded. i put in all that time and effort over the last four years, to not be able to continue my life and go on to college or apprenticeships. english literature, which i will be doing at a—level, i never thought i would've got a nine at that, which i'm really proud about. same with french,

a grade eight, which i'm really happy about, and my target's a six. so, two above that, i think i did really well. oh, my god! you got an a! they're not the only ones pleased today. overall, good grades are up and no pupil will lose out, getting whatever is the higher mark. in maths and science, we have a number of students, between 10—15 students in each of those subjects, where the algorithm has given them a grade that is higher than the centre—assessed grade. so, therefore, the grade that they will receive and that they will take with them for their future will be the algorithm grade because that is the highest grade. after months of worrying, they do now have something to celebrate. many getting grades slightly better than they expected based on their teacher estimates. just at this school, around 100 students still haven't got their btec results. it is, like, deflating because we won't be able to get them results when i can get the rest of them, but i think it's worth

the wait, because i know i've probably passed. once i heard why and how they were going to redo the system, i think i was ok with it. just to know that it'd be in the same, like, mark scheme as everything else, so marked fairly. so now, btec grades will also be from teachers, despite being mainly marked on coursework. the idea — to have the same approach for all. in wales and northern ireland, a similar picture of gcse grades going up. that means more signing up for college courses. there was no ideal situation. it is unfortunate for these young people that we've had to go to and fro to get to this point. i'm pleased that for gcse students today, they've got to that point a little bit quicker. but for students downgraded in btecs last week or waiting for results, frustration with the system. it should've been, like, communicated better.

because this has obviously affected a lot of people, and it wasn't nice opening that on a thursday expecting to get such a high grade and then be given the lowest that you could possibly get. i was quite disappointed considering there was a lot of time to figure out something and that there wasn't much trust in teachers' predictions. today, no comment from the regulator in england. ministers insist they were told the system would work. no—one keen to take responsibility. we all remember that they don't we. now on bbc news, philippa thomas hears from people around the world about their extraordinary experiences during the pandemic and how covid—i9 has changed their lives. welcome to coronavirus: your stories, a program

about how covid—i9 is changing lives around the world. i'm philippa thomas and this week we're looking at hotspots, places in the world where the threat of coronavirus remains stark, where people still feel a real sense of emergency. very often when we talk about this virus, we talk about statistics, the numbers of rising infections. the stories, stories of grief and despair and of resilience, often get overshadowed. today, we hear one of those stories from the united states which still leads the world in terms of covid infections and deaths. when angela kender lost her mother to the virus injune, she started a project to commemorate her, presenting their pictures to lawmakers in missouri to ensure, in her words, that loved ones are being acknowledged. we'll start with by far the hardest hit country in africa — south africa,

where a state of emergency was called as covid—i9 cases shot up past half a million. those restrictions have now been lifted, partly to try to revive a flagging economy. there's a real problem with rising unemployment and even hunger. but some of the fastest reactions to these multiple crises has come not from the authorities but self organising groups. they‘ re called ‘community action networks‘ or cans. we've been hearing from public sector doctor and health systems activist leanne brady, and community organiser nadia mayman, who've come together in the network cape town together. this is a health crisis of course with those social economic impact of this health crisis is really, really intense, and i mean, in the work that we've been doing, certainly, those kind of consequences of the crisis have been hugely difficult to manage during the lockdown. many people have been without income, without access to food, some without access to water as well.

and nadia, what have you been seeing, what do you think has been most difficult? i think for our community that is basically a working class community, the assistance from the state has not been forthcoming and as a result, our people felt that they would die of hunger rather than of the disease, and that has made it extremely difficult for us because we've had to respond in various ways. when you tell me some people fear they might die of hunger, some of our viewers might think, ‘cape town, the cape town area is wealthy, what's going on?‘ that is not our daily lived realities on the ground. we have got areas where

unemployment is rife and on top of that, we were faced with this pandemic and it has been extremely difficult for community— based organisations to respond during this difficult time at the best of our ability without any aid. so, leanne, tell us more about what you've been doing within cape town together to deal with these actual realities. the first thing to say to build on what nadia said is of course, cape town is an extremely divided city and what covid—i9 did is it shone a light on and amplified the deep inequalities that we have in our society that are long—standing and historical. and cape town together kind of emerged in this context. so it was kickstarted by a group of social activist, community organisers and public health professionals as a rapid community—led response to covid—i9. it is made up of self—organising neighbourhood—based groups who are taking action in their own local

neighbourhoods, and many of us are part of the cans in our neighbourhood. so for example, i'm part of the salt river can and nadia is part of the bonteheuwel can. while we take action in our local, our local neighbourhoods, we also seek to connect across the city because in a city as divided as cape town, organising across race and class and social divides is extremely important always, especially at a time like this. what kind of actions have worked best? there is a huge multitude of things that have happened. because each neighbourhood is different, there is no—one size fits all. and people have been responding in different ways based on what challenges they face, based on the challenges we face in our own neighbourhoods, and that has ranged from mask making to mobilising around access to water, to setting up community care centres, to going door to door with pamphlets safely to kind

of spread information and awareness. so really, the kinds of actions we have seen have been, yeah, have been incredibly powerful and incredibly daring. there are also been phases of actions. for example, in the beginning when we were all still learning about what covid—i9 was and what it meant for us as a society, there were a lot of activities that focused on mobilising around awareness activities. but after the hard lockdown, as food and security became such a challenge for so many people in the city, people started delivering food parcels. when food parcels couldn't go far enough, people set up community kitchens and hundreds and hundreds of community kitchens have sprung up across the city where people are cooking, often in their own homes, for their neighbours. what we now see is more and more cans working to set up sustainable food systems to keep these community kitchens going.

we've also seen very powerful actions of providing covid care at the neighbourhood level. so with something like covid—i9, 85% of people don't need hospital care but they still need care, and because many people in cape town are unable to isolate in their own homes, staying home safely if you have covid becomes incredibly difficult. nadia, this sounds like a remarkable collaboration, how has it felt to you the way things have come together? for us as a community, it has been absolutely amazing. there's no doubt that we as a community would've responded in our own little pockets but having been part of the cape town together network has strengthened us with regard to, and notjust resources, but also education and working together across race and class and spatial divides which leanne has highlighted. and one of our desires is that post—lockdown and post? covid, that we can continue working across these divides to building a better

society for all. nadia, i remember reporting on the great hope that came with the beginning of the true multiracial democracy in south africa, that sense of optimism, there's been so much turbulence since, i wonder if you can put it in some perspective for us. does this bring back some of the optimism for you? it does in many ways. post—apartheid i — and this is my personal opinion, that we were enthusiastic and were looking forward to a better south africa. 25 years plus down the line, a lot of things have changed but a lot of things remain the same, especially for poorer communities, you know. nothing has changed for us.

we are living in the same conditions, and maybe worse. we are afflicted with more challenges than we were before, meaning that gangsterism and drugs has taken its toll on many communities. the unemployment, the dropout rate of school—goers has increased greatly, our youth doesn't have alternatives and there are no opportunities for the young. we've been saddened by what we've seen not happening and what was promised to us many, many years ago. and it seems that the rich are getting richer and the poor is remaining where they are and our system of inequality isjust getting deeper and deeper. leanne, what do you think government, the authorities can learn from the way that these community action networks have come together and have generated results?

quite often we see top—down solutions being developed very far away from the places where they will be implemented and from the people whose liveswill be affected. i am cooking food for the whole community so every day at 12:30pm, they have a dish. it doesn't matter what food there is to cook, i cook. this is my family cooking for our neighbourhood. something that my mum's been doing ever since i was born, she loves cooking. the collective energy and the collective wisdom that we've all drawn on as part of this movement has really been quite extraordinary in this time of crisis. i think what we've seen over the last five months is an incredible people—led, community—led movement. but of course, wider structural change is also needed. and i think the kind of deep inequalities have always been placed at the forefront of this time. so it is like covid—i9

is teaching us many things and it is important that we listen to those things. doctor leanne brady and nadia mayman from the network, cape town together. you're watching coronavirus: your stories, a program about how covid—i9 is changing lives around the world. i'm philippa thomas and this week we're looking at global hotspots. next, we'll go to the us midwest to the state of missouri where angela kender has been gathering portraits of those who have died from the virus since she lost her own mother who was taken ill in her nursing home. she went into the hospital on may 31, it was the second time that she had gone. on may 20, she went for the first time and she had shortness of breath, rapid heart rate and a fever, but she was testing negative and i talked to the hospital staff and said, you know, this doesn't make sense, she has all the symptoms but you are telling me that she is negative and they said, "yeah,

the tests are only about 70%—80% accurate, and you should expect her to switch to positive at any time." and she stayed at the hospital for a few days and was tested a few more times, each time she was negative and then they released her for a few days and then she went back on may 31. that was a sunday night and then at that point she was positive and admitted into the icu. and as she got worse, you to take some very difficult decisions about a ventilator, for example. my mom had always said that she did not want to be kept alive by a machine, so a true ventilator was not an option. where she ended up was what's called a bipap machine, which forced air in

and forced air out. as they put it on her, she was fighting to get it off, she did not want it on her, so eventually when they said, you know, she's just had such low oxygen for so long and she is not a good candidate to recover from this, you can leave the bipap on for days, weeks, or you can take it off and she would die within15—20 minutes, so, i chose to let them take it off of her onjune 6. were you able to be with her? 0h... no. they let me videoconference with her, so, she went in on sunday night, i got to videoconference with her on tuesday and wednesday. tuesday, i thought she was going to be ok, she was talking, putting

together full sentences, and then wednesday it was totally different, she wasn't coherent anymore and it was very scary and i knew we had a really serious problem. and that was the last time i got to talk to her where she was responsive. and then on saturday, that's the day that we took the bipap off, they let me videoconference with her again just so i could say the things that i wanted to say to her. and she didn't respond anyway, not even a finger twitch, nothing. she wasn't. .. there wasn't any more in her. they said that i could have gone in, i could have gotten completely decked out and gone in, but then i would have needed to quarantine and at the time i had

a three—month—old baby and a four—year—old son, and i could not risk, i couldn't be away from my three—month—old for weeks and i couldn't risk, you know, hurting my immediate family and my home, so... angela, i really appreciate you telling us about what you've been through. i wonder what you would like us to know about your mother and her life, dr gaye griffin—snyder. she was a licensed clinical therapist here in missouri and i've had just so many people reach out to me after learning that she passed away telling me how she truly saved their lives, was such an amazing mentor for them. so, she did amazing good for people. for me, she was a single parent and i'm her only child, so she was literally my everything. she taught me how to have

fun, how to be strong. how to keep going when you're scared, and that's what she had always done. you, then, designed a project to remind others that those who die from covid—i9 are individuals and they are beloved. tell us a bit about your project, angela. this pandemic has been scary, and even before i knew someone who had lost their life to it, it was scary. but then, when my mother passed away and i couldn't mourn the way that i normally would have mourned, i couldn't see my family safely, i felt really, like, isolated and i started thinking about how many of us out there that feel the same way.

i wanted to put, like, have these people represented. have it not be for nothing. put faces to the numbers that just keep going up every day and we just talk about it like it's not that big of a deal, and it's a huge deal. so i started posting in the support groups on facebook about wanting to gather pictures of missourians who had passed away from covid and take them to the capital, because our state government is having a special session last weekend the week before, and they were not addressing covid—i9. that's probably the only thing that they should have been addressing in a special session, but they weren't. so i wanted to take those pictures and i wanted to make them see the faces, what we are really losing, and hope that that would

encourage them to do the absolute bare minimum basics, which isjust require masks. it's not hard. how did they respond? well, i was very lucky in that i was able to have a press conference where i got to give a statement and get some media attention which, that part went very well. i head also printed out what i call flyers for each person that was shared with me that had their picture, their name, their age if i got it and their story, a brief story about them, and i took those to the top elected officials' offices. unfortunately, the front office staff at each one of the top elected officials told me that that official was not there. so i had to give my message and the flyers to front office

staff and hope that they will convey it the way that i want it to be conveyed. so that part did not go as i had hoped but i will be going back. and so, when i go back, i will work again to get face to face time with these people. angela, you're telling a number of stories. can you share anything with us that particularly stayed with you from all these different family memories that you are being sent now? what got me the most was a girl that reached out to me. she's 28 and her brother is 25, and herfather died, he was young, healthy,

and her saying to me, "my brother and i, we needed so much more time with him. we had so much more to learn from him." and it hurts me and i know that there are so many people in this country, in this world, everywhere, that have lost people prematurely and they are scared to leave their homes because they know what this virus can do, they've seen it. and they feel that they're not being heard. we've had our loved ones taken from us prematurely, and people won'tjust put on a mask to protect each other and that's offensive. it's a slap on our faces

because we have lost one of the most important things in the world to us. sharing these sorrowful stories, you are putting yourself through a lot. yeah, it's extremely painful to take on, learn these stories and be trying to deliver this message in a way that actually invokes change, but after being at the capitol last week and seeing how our leaders and their staff are behaving, i'm angry now, and that anger is propelling me to keep going. how do you know that what you are doing is helping? well, i don't know that it's helping my overarching goal of getting our leaders to mandate masks and things

that will keep us safe, but i know for sure that i am helping the families that have reached out to me. they have thanked me for being strong enough for them to make their person's story known, and notjust a number, so if i don't win in this battle, if you will, with the state to try to get them to protect us, i at least know that i have help to these families that have reached out to me feel like it wasn't for nothing, and that there's more people out there that are experiencing what they are experiencing, and they are not alone. our thanks to angela kender, and for her courage in sharing her emotions with us. she is determined that her

mother and others should be remembered not as numbers or statistics, but as individuals who lost their lives to covid—i9. i'm philippa thomas, thank you for watching coronavirus: your stories. in the last day or so, we've had some very windy weather across western parts of the uk. a storm swept across ireland, but on friday, it is going to be blowing a gale across many parts of the uk, certainly wales, england, southern parts of scotland as well. and all because of this low which has decided to park itself very close to the uk, and it will be with us until around about saturday night. eventually on sunday, it should finally pull away into scandinavia. but until then, blustery conditions expected throughout friday. on top of that, some heavy showers,

thunderstorms are possible, too. the heaviest of the showers will be across more western and northern areas of the uk. but let's focus on those winds because they will be hazardous. in fact, strong enough to take branches off trees, and even this time of the year, 50—60 mph winds are capable of bringing down weaker trees. so, some really nasty conditions for some of us. the funny thing is it's actually going to be a mostly sunny day, particularly across many eastern and southern areas of the uk. yes, with a few showers, but predominantly bright or sunny, and the temperatures will get up to around 25 degrees in norwich. obviously a lot fresher around western coasts where we'll see those howling gusts of wind. now, friday night into saturday, the low pressure is starting to pull away, but it's still very much in charge of our weather. so, saturday, once again it's going to be a blustery day across the uk. the gusts of wind won't be quite as strong, but strong enough. on top of that, we've got further showers in the forecast and thunderstorms as well. i think the winds will be gusting more like 30—a0 mph on saturday, so not quite as strong

as the ones on friday. temperatures despite the wind still managing to get up to around 22 degrees in london and norwich, and not far off 20 for our northern towns and cities as well. now, sunday, the low pressure has actually by this stage pulled into norway, and the winds are falling lighter across the uk. still a few showers in the forecast carried on a mostly north—westerly breeze. temperatures in the north dipping down to around 14 degrees, so a bit of a chill in aberdeen. but in the south, still making around 20 degrees celsius. so, once again, a very blustery day on friday. saturday's going to be quite windy, too. and then from sunday, it is going to finally calm down.

welcome to bbc news — i'm lewis vaughan jones. our main story this hour: it's been a democratic party convention like no other. on the final night of this virtual event, the party waits forjoe biden to set out his vision for america, as he prepares to accept the nomination as presidential candidate. joe biden, my name is. look me over, will ya? he's tried twice before, but never been this close. we look at the journey that got joe biden one step away from the presidency. we'll be live injoe biden‘s home—town of wilmington, delaware and in washington. also coming up: the convention will also hear from everyday americans — and some of those — including pete buttigieg and michael bloomberg — who ran in the presidential primaries.