this is bbc news. welcome if you're watching here in the uk, on pbs in america or around the globe. i'm mike embley. our top stories: the entire senior police leadership for a city in new york state resigns over the death of a black man in custody. one of the leading opposition activists in belarus rips up her passport to avoid being expelled from the country as the president insists he's not stepping down. as fears rise of another global spike in covid cases, the uk announces it will ban gatherings of more than six people. south african athlete caster semenya loses her court appeal against the restriction of testosterone levels in female runners.

we start with some breaking news this hour because a large migrant camp on the greek island of lesbos is being evacuated after fire broke out at the facility. images on social media showed flames inside and outside the centre, which is home to nearly 13,000 people. the cause of the fire is still not immediately clear. we are continuing to try and find some more detail there is information coming in from reuters who say that fire is burning inside and outside. police say that migrants have been taken to safety and people have been leaving the camp carrying luggage. at least 28 fireman with nine engines and volu nteers fireman with nine engines and volunteers are battling the

flames. the facility is holding four times its official capacity, more than 12,000 people certainly and has been frequently criticised for the living conditions there. the facility was placed under quarantine last week and authorities confirmed a asylum seeker had tested positive for coronavirus. confirmed infections have written —— risen to 35 since then. it is just off the turkish coast and is on the of the massive movement of refugees. since march won because of the pandemic, all migrants reaching the island have been quarantined away from the camps. we will have more on this as soon as we know more. the entire senior police leadership for the city of rochester in new york state has resigned, in the aftermath of the death of a black man in police custody. rochester‘s police chief and other senior commanders have been under intense scrutiny since news of the death of daniel prude became public last week,

sparking protests. 0ur north america correspondent, peter bowes, explains the circumstances surrounding his death. this happened back in march. daniel prude was known to have mental health issues. he was arrested by police, he was naked in the street at the time. during the course of the arrest the police used what is known as a spit hood, a device, a hood put over a suspect‘s head to protect police officers from the saliva of a suspect. this was put into place and his head was then forced onto the ground and shortly after that point he lost consciousness. he died in hospital one week later and according to the autopsy report he died of complications of asphyxia. as i say, this happened in march but has onlyjust come to light over the past week after members of the family got

body camera footage from police officers and made that public. and that has led to the allegation that the police were in some way trying to cover up what happened and that is the central allegation which the now—resigned police chief strongly objects to. such a strong consequence of a death in custody and there have been so many deaths in police custody. it is always tempting to draw lessons from the particular and it is not always appropriate. does this have meaning for the rest of the country? there is still a long way to go on this. there is still an investigation under way. the seven police officers who were involved in this were suspended, and their future is pending an investigation which is ongoing. protesters have gathered, several nights in a row since that footage was released and they have been demanding, they have been demanding justice for daniel prude and changes in the way that police operate and deal with people with mental health issues. of course those are some of the issues that on a national basis are of concern for many people, how police

interact with suspect and this was an african—american man and this happened before the george floyd arrest which was quite similar circumstances. governments in europe and asia are grappling with a surge in coronavirus infections, and struggling to gain control. in the last few hours the british government has announced new rules on social gatherings in england — to take effect from monday. only six people will be allowed to meet indoors or outside. the full details will be outlined by the prime minister borisjohnson on wednesday but here's our political correspondent nick eardley i think it reflects a real concern in government and amongst the scientific experts who advise ministers at the number of cases we have seen in recent days, that rise in the number of positive tests for coronavirus

that we have been talking so much about. clearly part of the concern is that we are meeting too many people, that there are too many social interactions, some of which are leading to transmission of the virus. it is not designed to stop people going to work. it is not designed to stop kids going to school orfor universities to stop opening. it is designed to stop us meeting at each others‘ houses or meeting outdoors. so there is a big headline figure will be that the indoors or outdoors, the limit will be six. that changes the rules onto households meetings for example. at the moment, two households can meet, no matter what the size. the guidelines at the moment say that if you are meeting up outdoors, it can be six people from as many households if you want but that limit is six. that is now been brought

into law and that is partly because police were concerned and they relayed these concerns to downing street that the rules were not simple enough and that it wasn't easy enough to intervene where large groups under 30, which had been the legal limit, to intervene when those groups were meeting up in various places. but as i said, itjust shows that ministers are increasingly worried about transmission of the virus. new zealand's largest city, auckland, has recently emerged from its second lockdown. the spread of covid seems to be back under control and the city looks on track to eliminate the virus, again. so what can the rest of the world learn from new zealand? i asked professor rod jackson, epidemiologist, at the university of auckland. i think the first one is that elimination is possible. we did it for 100 days, we have now got another limited outbreak in auckland but that seems to be under control so we are well on the way to another elimination. so that is a key message and i think many more countries could do elimination then currently

believe they can. you know what people will say, i know new zealand well and i am half kiwi myself, people say that new zealand has factors in its favour, it is a special case. i think that is untrue. australia, outside of victoria and new south wales who were basically eliminated. aside from those two states, the rest of australia is in the same situation as us. taiwan, 20 plus million people is at or close to elimination. cambodia... there are a number of countries that have done so i think it is incorrect to say that new zealand is a special case. it is interesting. i know there was clear leadership that and clear messaging but it is not necessarily a given that the population gets behind that and people get on board. no. that is true and i think we have been incredibly fortunate to have

excellent leadership. they have taken the public with them and they have communicated well. a very clear strategy, right from early on, that elimination was our goal. there has also been incredible respect for the science from politicians. they listened to the epidemiologists and, indeed, every experienced epidemiologist in the country is on board with the elimination strategy to so we have had one clear message from both the scientists and from the politicians. the vast majority of the population are behind it. how would you sell the elimination and lockdown message to countries already in recession? the worst thing for the economy, and i am not an economist, let's be clear about that, is lack of business confidence. if you go out on the street

and you are worried about an infection that will kill one in 100 people in less than a month, i can't see that that will be doing much for business confidence whereas in new zealand, between our outbreaks you have the confidence to go out and not risk the chance of catching a disease that will kill one in a hundred people within a month. i think elimination is the way to get business confidence. a major trial of a coronavirus vaccine developed by oxford university and astrazeneca has been put on hold worldwide because of a suspected serious adverse reaction in a volunteer in the uk. an independent investigation will review the safety data before regulators decide whether the trial can restart. our medical editor, fergus walsh, reports. more than 10,000 volunteers in the uk, many of them elderly, have been immunised with the

0xford coronavirus vaccine. thousands more have received the jab in south africa, brazil and the united states. this is actually the second time the trial has been put on hold since it began in april. such pauses are triggered anytime a volunteer is admitted to hospital and the cause of their illness is not immediately apparent. an oxford university spokesperson said in large trials, illnesses will happen by chance but must be independently reviewed. the final decision on restarting the trial rest with the medical regulator, the mhra and that could happen within days. until then, no more volunteers will be immunised at any of the international sites. the oxford university team believe this process illustrates that they are committed to the safety of their volunteers and the high standards of conduct in their studies.

stay with us on bbc news — still to come: rolling into retail. the rock gods who've opened a store where you can get what you need. george w bush: freedom itself was attacked this morning, and freedom will be defended. the united states will hunt down and punish those responsible. bishop tutu now becomes spiritual leader of 100,000 anglicans here, of the blacks in soweto township, as well as the whites in their rich suburbs. we say to you today in a loud and a clear voice "enough of blood and tears. enough!" translation: the difficult decision we reached together was one that required great and exceptional courage.

it's an exodus of up to 60,000 people caused by the uneven pace of political change in eastern europe. iam free! this is bbc world news, the latest headlines: a large migrant camp on the greek island of lesbos is being evacuated after fire broke out at the facility. these are the latest pick is coming in from that. we do have some information coming in from reuters, other information is sparse. it is an overcrowded camp and we understand that something like four times the official capacity, more than 12,000 people there. it has been frequently criticised for poor

living conditions. the fires, we are told, are burning inside and outside the facility with migrants being taken to safety full people have been seen leaving the camp carrying luggage in their hands. at least 28 firefighters with nine engines aided by volunteers are fighting the flames. this is a facility that was put into quarantine last week after a confirmed report of coronavirus and it has now grown to 35. it was on the frontline of the massive movement of refugees and migrants in 2015 and 2016 and migrants in 2015 and 2016 and since the pandemic, in fact much the first, all migrants have been away from the camps and just to complicate things, there are wild fires burning separately on lesbos separately. we will bring you more as soon as we have more.

it's reported that one of the leading opposition figures in belarus, maria kolesnikova, has prevented officials deporting her to neighbouring ukraine by ripping up her passport, on the border, and throwing it out the window of an official car. colleagues say she then jumped out the back of the car. it's not clear where she is now. one of these colleagues is ivan kraftsov, who spoke to the bbc‘s jonah fisher in the ukrainian capital, kyiv. at that moment, she was forced to leave in the car, she literally tore her passport into small pieces. as they were giving her passport to travel back into the ukraine? exactly, it was lying in the current you took it immediately and ripped it up and then threw it through the rear window and then she escaped through the rear window into the russian territory. no man's land ? into the russian territory. no man's land? no man's land, fantastic, very heroic. she was very clear that she did not wa nt to very clear that she did not want to forced into the

ukraine? once she tore her passport up, that was an absolutely clear message. another important development comes from the president of belarus, alexander lu kashenko. he's insisted he won't step down despite the weeks of protests. that you could probably have predicted, but according to russian media he hasn't ruled out an early election. this is what he said in a russian television interview. "i won't leave just like that. i've been developing belarus for a quarter of a century. i'm not going to simply throw all that way. what's more, if i go, my supporters will be slaughtered." michael carpenter is the manager of the penn biden centre for diplomacy and global engagement. he was former director for russia at the us national security council. i asked him what he made of the recent developments. well, i think that president alexander lu kashenko and well, i think that president alexander lukashenko and the kremlin are clearly afraid of the protest movement and trying to put all of the leaders into

exile from where they will pose less of a threat to his power. but i'm also think we are seeing a larger set of developments taking place in terms of russia's relationship with belarus. kremlin has long wa nted with belarus. kremlin has long wanted to create some sort of a annexation policy with belarus, starting with the economy, single currency, moving to a foreign defence policy and ultimately resulting in a union state, de facto absorption of belarus by russia and now they see a moment to do it. so you see a moment to do it. so you see co—ordinated talks from both minsk and lost our talking about new elections and constitutional changes and both of those are likely to be dressed up as giving more people to the people, perhaps toa people to the people, perhaps to a stronger belarusian parliament but in fact they will give the kremlin the upper hand to put in place kremlin puppet parties in the parliament and also to field a

slate of kremlin vetted candidates for new elections. i think moscow realises that president alexander lukashenko has no legitimacy and have to go so they are trying to create the plan to make sure they control the level. the plan to make sure they controlthe level. and the plan to make sure they control the level. and that is something that the president himself has resisted and presumably that is not that welcome to the protesters? in a senseit welcome to the protesters? in a sense it would be substituting one brutal dictatorship of president alexander lukashenko to another one run by the kremlin but it is something that president alexander lukashenko has avoided four yea rs lukashenko has avoided four years in terms of kremlin encroachment on his domain but he is so we can now, i have come across one internal covert poll done inside an ngo in ella larousse that shows the only has 8.5%, and his legitimacy is shot and he knows that and he has to do this deal to save his skin. do you think this is likely to happen like that?”

think it will be made up along the way, certainly they will be adjustments according to the reaction from the protest movement in belarus and also from western nations, who can determine to a certain degree the extent of this and vladimir putin is looking for an opportunity to create a staged dialogue between lu kashenko opportunity to create a staged dialogue between lukashenko and select vetted kremlin candidates, who they can be counted on to maintain friendly ties with moscow's and also the new elections which are essentially an attempt to buy time so as i said earlier, so a kremlin friendly slate of candidates can be put forward at the next election. michael carpenter there. it was previously on the us national security council. the south african runner caster semenya has lost her appeal at switzerland's federal supreme court against the restriction of testosterone levels in female runners. this means that unless

the olympic eight—hundred metres champion complies with the ruling and takes hormone—suppressing drugs, she will not be able to defend her title in tokyo next year. semenya has said she was disappointed with the decision. morgan carpenter is the co—executive director of intersex human rights australia. i asked him whether this was an issue of semenya wanting to self—identify as female. caster semenya was observed as female at birth and all she is asking for is the right to be accepted as that woman, assigned female at birth and wanting to compete on the basis of her natural gifts. so, what you of the decision? i think it was always a long shot. i think this with federal court has only a very narrow reading and not able to assess many of the

implications of the cast judgement, the previous judgement, the previous judgement, that i think need to be contested. so this with quarters not been able to give proper attention to very human rights — very serious human rights — very serious human rights issues that are at sta ke. rights issues that are at stake. —— the swiss court. and you can see this considerable interference with physical integrity is somehow acceptable, i think, integrity is somehow acceptable, ithink, that integrity is somehow acceptable, i think, that is very dangerous for many people. if you were speaking directly, say, two athletes competing against her, how would you defend those human rights issues? how would you define them? caster semenya is a woman, she was observed at birth as female and i don't think she should be forced to undergo medical intervention to be treated as the woman she has a lwa ys be treated as the woman she has always been. i respect that every 0lympic athlete, every athlete wants to win. they want

to ta ke athlete wants to win. they want to take every legal avenue possible to maximise their chances of winning and i respect that drive but all elite athletes are exceptional, they all have natural gifts, and different athletes have different biological traits that are exceptional. if you put a basketball in a shotput event or an put a basketball in a shotput event 01’ an answer in a basketball event, you will find they are not interchangeable. —— and archer. they each have their prep strengths and talents and people self select for events they are most suited for events they are most suited for and for events they are most suited forandi for events they are most suited forand i do for events they are most suited for and i do not think caster semenya is any different to that. not content with being one of the world's most legendary rock and roll bands, the rolling stones are now trying their hands at shop—keeping. they've opened their first store in london's carnaby street. you'll be able to buy records, clothing and souvenirs. lead singer mick jagger hopes it'll be a nice place to hang out.

bringing you more on the breaking story aren't the fire on the island of nauru one, in and around the facility, the migrant facility. —— the island of lesbos. information is hard to come by, what is the update? desperate scenes breaking out at the migrant camp and the fire is continuing, strong winds are going on and it has engulfed the whole of the central facility and some of the 10th scattered around the facility. as you are saying, 13,000 migrants living there, four times as many that should be there and agency have complained about poor living conditions and ground conditions and ground conditions last week they had their first case the coronavirus, a refugee from somalia listed positive so eve ryo ne somalia listed positive so everyone has been kept in

quarantine and another 35 have tested positive and according toa tested positive and according to a greek news agency, aggression and revolt on the news, people did not want to be confined, caused the fire. it is not clear how or why or if the fire had spread from another part of the island whether the strong winds are spreading the fires around the island. but these refugees are trying to find somewhere to go and they are being escorted by the police, many are looking back and seeing their homes going up in flames and all their possessions, some are trying to get to the port and some are trying to get to a nearby village and locals are trying to stop them. there are many homeless people as a result of the fire and in terms of putting the fire out, there are around 28 firemen we can see and the right beliefs, or the police that are guarding the police that are guarding the camp but it doesn't look like they have it under control at the moment. does not look, but it does look as if somehow managed to take positions away

—— possessions away but it's a desperate situation and even more so now? absolutely and the spreading throughout the and it looks like it may be unstoppable, we will find out in the next few hours how that will turn out. is it clear what will turn out. is it clear what will happen to people now? right now, there is no, we have not received any news yet as to where they will rehouse many of the asylum seekers. thank you for the update. because of the fire not clear and i'm looking at the latest from the reuters news agency but we are hearing that at least 28 firefighters, with nine engines with volu nteers with nine engines with volunteers battling flames, giving you an idea of the scale of this and with at least two wild fires burning on the eye. we will bring you more on that as soon as we have more. more on international and national news any time on the bbc news website and on the twitter feeds. thank you for watching.

hello. it'll be a fairly mild start to wednesday across most parts of the british isles but some of you will have to wait before we get skies like that, particularly in england and wales where you are close by this weather front, won't have an awful lot of rain on it but there will be a fair amount of cloud. that takes the time to pull its way a little bit further towards the south. from the word go, scotland and northern ireland and the far north of england drier and brighter perhaps, some showers is coming through on a breeze. elsewhere, we're in for a pretty dry day. eventually, we break up the cloud in the south and the rain really dies away. while the humid is still across the south—eastern quarter, elsewhere, temperatures mid—teens to about 20 degrees. through the evening, we drag the last of that cloud away towards the near continent, and it's that time of the year where the nights

are a wee bit longer and the skies are clear. somewhere on the eastern side of both scotland and england it'll get down to 3 or 4 degrees. a cool start to thursday, but it's shaping up to be a decent day for many parts of the british isles, certainly to start with a ridge of high pressure just nosing in from the atlantic. but no disguising the fact that a little bit further to the north and west, and closing on the northwest of the british isles, eventually there will be enough cloud to rob you of your sunshine in northern ireland, maybe a passing shower, and more on the way of wet weather into the northern and north—western parts of scotland. and the temperatures are not just as high after that chilly start as they will have been in the first part of the week. that weather front gradually works its way in across the northern part of the british isles in the first part of friday, and then staggers its way a wee bit further south, weakening all the while but before it does that, it will deliver a good bit of rain into scotland and northern ireland and eventually it gets

across the border. so further south, a dry enough day, a top temperature of about 20, 21, things turning a wee bit more showery and breezy across the north—west of scotland to finish out the day. that is the way you start the weekend in that neck of the woods. notice the number of isobars. so really quite windy through the north and western isles, the north of scotland too. high pressure trying to dominate many areas but it doesn't keep the fronts at bay from the north and west of scotland, hence the forecast for 0ban, but elsewhere, a lot of dry and fine weather with some sunshine.

this is bbc news. the headlines: a large migrant camp on the greek island of lesbos is being evacuated because a majorfire has broken out at the facility. latest footage from the scene appears to show flames inside and outside the moria centre, which is home to nearly 13,000 people, around four times its official capacity. the cause is not yet clear. the entire senior police leadership for the city of rochester in new york state has resigned in the aftermath of the death of a black man in custody. they've been under intense scrutiny since news of the death of daniel prude became public last week, sparking protests. it's reported that one of the leading opposition figures in belarus — maria kolesnikova — has prevented officials deporting her to neighbouring ukraine by ripping up her passport, on the border, and throwing it out the window of an official car. colleagues say she then jumped out the back of the car.