they will mail come to bbc news. our top stories. they will mail come to bbc news. ourtop stories. more than 150 countries news. 0urtop stories. more than 150 countries but not the us or china sign up to an agreement to distribute future covid—19 agreements. this is not charity. this is in every country's best interest. we think we swim together. the english pubs and restaurants are to be ordered to close early as britain fights to contain a resurgence of the virus. debate gets ps over the preston's choice over the supreme court. president tom says he will name a female nominee by the weekend. signs of global warming. this yea r‘s signs of global warming. this year's arctic summer sea ice melts to the smallest area

since records began. the world health organization has called for more wealthy countries tojoin has called for more wealthy countries to join its global vaccine agreement. it aims to distribute future vaccines against covid—19 in a fair and equitable way. more than 150 countries have signed up to the covax scheme representing around two thirds of the world's population. the us and china had declined. the covax facility will help to bring the pandemic under control, save lives, accelerate the economic recovery and ensure that the race for vaccines is a collaboration, not a contest. this is not charity. it's in every country's best interest. we sink or we swim together.

doctorjames mcdevitt told me the programme is designed to ensure all countries have fair access. we have been pinning all their hopes on a vaccine to get us out of this messy opinion in the global pandemic and imagine a world where there are countries that our hearts and countries that i have nots and countries that i have nots and watch ten by mike is attempting to do is avoid a situation where some countries just don't have access to the vaccine. so if you look at the us case, for example, operation warp speed, 300 million doses and they have already spent $21 million, surrey, $21 billion which is more than the gross domestic product of honduras. so countries could be in a situation where they cannot compete with the large

manufacturers. the who is already very short of funds. what impact specifically if the us and china not taking part going to have? some people will lose out? certainly it would help the effort of the us and china andl help the effort of the us and china and i think russia, that isa very china and i think russia, that is a very large percentage of the world's population. the london 25 million population in the us alone. i think we are balancing some political issues. obviously the poor relations between who and the us government fights now isn't helping matters. i can speak to china's motivations but i think potentially there is a fair degree of fallout. there are moral implications to not providing vaccines to all the world citizens. there are potentially political ramifications. these countries think there are. some countries like russia seem to use the vaccine as a political tool and

i think the real economic consequences to to not functioning like a world community. there are real concerns to about how confident people would be in a vaccine in this kind of, these discrepancies, this fight over who is responsible, he was going to do it best, is only going to do it best, is only going to do it best, is only going to feed into that lack of confidence, isn't it? i think the more ambiguity the more uncertainty we have worse things are going to be and that is working on a lot of different levels. if you look at countries such as russia has chosen to skip phase three clinical trials and jump into distributing the vaccine, if we put a vaccine out that is not safe, i think that is going to cause potential problems and potentially cause people not to get vaccinated for other diseases. if we put a vaccine out that is not distributed equitably ethic that causes a different set of problems.

pubs and restaurants in england are required to close early. it is feared infections could quickly climb into the tens of thousands each day. our medical ella rd thousands each day. our medical ellard esther reports. no one wa nts to ellard esther reports. no one wants to see a huge wave of covid cases in hospital with nhs staff working round the clock and ppe. the government's key advisers on the pandemic delivered a sombre warning. other hospital cases are low 110w other hospital cases are low now compared to april, that could all change. if we don't do enough to buy this will take off and at the moment, that is the path that we are clearly on and if we do not change course then we are going to find ourselves in a very different problem. it is thought the epidemic is doubling in size in the uk every week. that was to happen for the next four weeks we could have nearly 50,000 cases per day and this was not a prediction from government

scientists. it does not take into account measures to control covid like the rule of six which only came into force a week ago and it would still be half the estimated number of cases that we saw in early april. government scientists are worried that we could be just a few weeks behind spain and france where cases have soared in recent weeks although much of that will be among younger people who are unlikely to fall ill. are you feeling tired? covid to fall ill. are you feeling tired 7 covid has to fall ill. are you feeling tired? covid has had a profound impact on many who survived disease. the message today was ta ke disease. the message today was take action now to tackle the rising cases or see the virus spreading again among the vulnerable with perhaps 200 deaths a day by november. the challenge, therefore, is to make sure that we do not enter into this exponential growth and end up with the problems that you would predict as a result of that. that requires

speed, it requires action and it requires enough to be able to bring that down. if we look at admissions to hospital in england with the confirmed covid diagnosis, they've been rising for the past couple of weeks and now stand at around 200 patients per day. if we go back to the beginning of april, though, back then up to 3000 patients were being admitted every day so we're still a long way off that figure. one key problem that needs sorting is the delay many had faced trying to get a swab test to find out whether they have the infection. that is a key part of knowing exactly where and how quickly the virus is spreading. sadly, i am not that optimistic that we can suppress the epidemic as much as we would like and i think we do need to start thinking about how we identify and advise and protect the most vulnerable.

the people who are more likely to get severely ill. enjoying the freedom to eat out late file they can. the weather and the rules are set to change. the government scientists say curbing the virus will continue to be an issue for the next six months. it could be a long winter. in the number of covid —related deaths is reaching 200,000 people. i spoke to the director at texas children's hospital and asked them how things got so and asked them how things got so bad when the country are such good medical resources. it is incredible, isn't it? we never thought we would get to this point but there has been so this point but there has been so many missteps by the us government in getting us here. missed the entrance of the virus from europe into new york

in march, i'm sorry, in early february. allowed transmission to go on for weeks undetected. that because that horrific epidemic in new york city where you heard sirens wailing day and nightand you heard sirens wailing day and night and then we still did not learn from our mistakes in new york city and we never mounted a national response, really. we allowed a strategy in which states were in the lead in the us would provide some back—up support, supply chain management, but never mounted a national strategy. and then we allowed a massive resurgence across our southern states are what you see is a biphasic epidemic, a big peak of cases and deaths in march and april and then a second major peak across the summer and now we oppose to get yet third peak as we move into the fall. the numbers are starting to pick back up again so some estimates able to easily reach

300,000 deaths by the end of the year, or predicted unpredictable. when you stand back from it, is that really fair? you know that so many countries, developing and developed, are still struggling. you pick any government, any president actually could have done much better? no question. certainly we should have been able to detect the presence of the virus when it came into new york. after all, our centers for disease control is considered a model for the world in terms of how to model public health agencies. we missed that and then we never provided the advocacy and leadership in the directive to prevent that resurgence and for me that was particularly reprehensible that we allowed that big spike to the curve and we knew exactly what was coming, we knew exactly what needed to be done. we learned the hard lessons after we saw what happened in europe and we learned them again in new york and allowing that resurgence was particularly tragic and of course were forcing schools to reopen in areas of high

transmission in colleges and universities and this will happen at that time, i'm sorry to say. there does seem to be concern even among people who have recovered that they could be long—term implications. recovered that they could be long-term implications. the figures could go up for years. well, that is it, isn't it? as you have already seen in the united kingdom, that is one piece but there is another very important component which is what some are calling long haul survivors. they serve long lasting symptoms from an injury oran injury to lasting symptoms from an injury or an injury to the lungs, vasculature, their heart, and there is a lot of concerns about the long—term neurological effects. we are seeing cognitive disturbances and some refer to it as brain fog that prevent individuals from being fully engaged in the workforce and back to a normal existence. in severe depression also, so the bottom line is we think this virus is going to be haunting us for years to come even after we have vaccines.

stock markets have fallen sharply today as fears grow that the economic damage caused by measures to tackle a fresh wave of infections. britain's stock market suffered the worst day in three months. $65 billion wiped off the ftse 100. billion wiped off the ftse100. the italians want fewer politicians, exit polls indicate voters have decided on a referendum to reduce houses of parliament. it confirmed the new law will come into force at the next elections and backed by the readers of the populist five star movement of said paying 1000 politicians is a waste of money. president trump says he expects to announce his nominee for the supreme court on saturday. he said he wants the senate to confirm his nominee before november's presidential election. ijust think it would be better. they asked if i'd rather have it. i'd rather have it

before the election. i think it'd be better for our country. and we'll pick somebody that's outstanding, very qualified. they're all qualified, but somebody that is outstanding. and i'd rather see it all take place before the election. over the weekend, mr trump pledged to nominate a woman. here are some of the frontrunners. amy coney barrett is a judge on the circuit court of appeals. she's 48 and previously served as a clerk for the conservative barbara lagoa also serves on the circuit court of appeals. she's a 52—year—old cuban—american. and while she's considered a staunch conservative, she received strong bipartisan support at her confirmation hearing. another name in the mix is appeals courtjudge allison rushing. she'd be particularly controversial because she's only 38—years—old.

it does look, that president trump and mitch mcconnell had the numbers they need to get any nominee through a republican—controlled senate. very little the democrats can do about it. if all of the republicans vote in favour, but there are seven seats that are a toss up and said those senators may find that it is in their best interest of being re—elected in november them not to support a nomination right now or at least not to vote for the nomination on november three. so we don't know if all the republicans will fall in line. this barely 40 days before the election when in 2016, of course, more than 200 days to an election, the republicans refused to consider resident obama's nominee. yes. we saw complete hypocritical move, frankly, in 2016 were all that the republicans were crying foul that obama would replace justice scalia

crying foul that obama would replacejustice scalia and it had been more than 200 days before the election was even scheduled so it is very obvious and there are news stories showing exactly the opposite statement that the republicans made at a time and you had almost an entire year before the election now only 40 days before the election. there are some bad faith or more precisely some very realpolitik going on which is about getting their person in the supreme court and the evangelicals in particular and the christian conservatives, think they want amy barrett because she is the most conservative at least on social issues. she is the one, her record indicates, is more likely to overturn roe v wade or support the of those that are making it impossible to have abortion clinics in many of the states so that even though abortion is technically legal there is no abortion clinic for low income women particular of rural women to use and therefore it is a

hollow right. we should stress the people who are thinking this is a peripheral or obscure issue just how important the courts decisions are. even if mrtrump courts decisions are. even if mr trump loses courts decisions are. even if mrtrump loses in courts decisions are. even if mr trump loses in november his appointment to the supreme court, so that conservative majority on the court could shape the country for decades to come. absolutely. there are many cultural fault lines right now. there are issues in immigration, for example the border wall, asylum, the dreamers. you have voting rights, particularly lingering concerns about repression of voting rights of minorities. we just had a case in florida which wasjoined in in just had a case in florida which was joined in in the 11th circuit, essentially reversing the popular referendum that if you are a former valve and convicted of a known by then

click crime you can now boat and she held the majority that stated, no, not unless you've paid all yourfees stated, no, not unless you've paid all your fees and fines and asa paid all your fees and fines and as a result tens of thousands will not be able to vote and they are likely going to bed for the democratic nominee. so that is another reason why she is on the shortlist. she is from florida and was nominated the florida supreme court by the republican governor and her husband is very active in the federalist society which is a conservative legal organisation so i think that's probably going to be someone trump will take seriously because the only thing he cares about right now is getting re—elected in november. there is more to talk about on this but we to leave it for now. professor, thank you very much. within the six weeks till election day in the us the cou ntless election day in the us the countless conspiracy theories in the online presidential campaign. music. ben johnson, the fastest man

on earth, is flying home to canada in disgrace. all athletes should be clean going into the games. i'm just happy that justice is served. it is a simple fact that this morning, these people were in their homes. tonight, those homes have been burnt down by serbian soldiers and police. all the taliban positions along here have been strengthened, presumably in case the americans invade. it's no use having a secret service which cannot preserve its own secrets against the world. and so, the british government has no option but to continue this action, even after any adverse judgement in australia. concorde had crossed the atlantic faster than any plane ever before, breaking the record by six minutes.

welcome back. good to have you with us. the latest headlines. a least 130 countries signed up to an agreement to distribute future covid—19 vaccines fairly. the us and china are not on the list. the english pubs and restaurant are ordered to close early as britain fights to contain a resurgence of coronavirus. american scientists are reporting that the arctic‘s floating ice cover shrunk to the second lowest since records began. only once in the past 42 months has the frozen skullcap covered less than 4 million square kilometres so the artic might see its first ice free summer as early as 2035.

very good to talk to you. thank you for your time. what you make these figures? well, this confirms that arctic sea ice is melting at a very rapid rate which is very bad for our global climate. arctic sea ice, which is floating ice, reflects and holds, reflects about 80% of the sunlight and now it's going to be, with that sea ice melting, we are going to be absorbing an even larger percent of that sunlight, making it a feedback loop or, as we collect, threat multiplierfor as we collect, threat multiplier for accelerating climate change. and how are we likely to feel that impact? well, we've seen it already in the siberian summer where we had heat waves of over 100 degrees in siberia. we now have wildfires across

the region, we have collapsing permafrost which is the frozen land where sea ice is the frozen water. the collapsing permafrost which is releasing methane and pollutants across the region. we are seeing increasing traffic, ship traffic across the region, increasing human activity and we are also seeing a decline in habitat for polar bears and will probably see changes in fish stocks in coming seasons as well. the date of 2035 is being mentioned but it does seem that in all the scientists' can do a calculation of their worst case scenarios are coming true. we are feeling some of that already. are we likely to feel the worst of it sooner? well, we'll have already, for example, in the us we see the polar vortex coming down, the arctic air hitting down, the arctic air hitting down further and further south in the united states. we see

changing ocean circulation patterns which provide for more disruptive weather events. so we are seeing a sort of disruption in our global climate as a result of the arctic sea ice melting at such a rapid rate and yes, this is a deeply concerning for all of us where ever we are the planet because it's where ever we are the planet because its leading to further, more vapid disruption ata further, more vapid disruption at a pay slightly faster than we can begin to adapt. see much chance of humankind coming together to do anything about it? will just have it? willjust have to live with the impact? well, we have to accelerate our efforts to adapt and become resilient to the changing climate because we cannot stop it now but at the same time we have to do our very best to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. the us should rejoin the paris climate agreement and those around the rest of the world who are still in its need to move faster to a net zero emissions economy. as

fast as we can. and move towards a low carbon future and energy transition. it still won't be fast enough to reduce the changes we are seeing. we are going to have to learn how to live with some level of climate change and manage to that very different future. thank you for talking to us. thank you for talking to us. thank you. the us presidential election is just six weeks away, and aside from the main campaigning by president trump and his democratic rival, joe biden, voters are taking the debate online in record numbers. as they do, concerns are growing that conspiracy theories on various social media platforms on both sides of the political divide could have a meaningful impact on the outcome of the vote. our reporter, marianna spring, who specialises in investigating disinformation has more details. there is the election campaign you see on the surface. and then there's the one being waged beneath it, a subterranean social media campaign sucking people into a world dominated by conspiracy theories. and it could impact their vote. qanon is one of them. it claims president trump

is fighting a secret war against elite, satan—worshipping paedophiles. though completely unfounded, it's been entertained by the man himself. these are people that love our country, they just don't like seeing it. so, i don't really know anything about it other than they do supposedly like me. tom long runs a local facebook group in the swing state of florida. it's one of the places false claims from qanon has reached. you see all these crazy things that are posted and reposted, and then reposted. and if you know that person, you think, oh, that person knows what they're talking about. and then it gets spread, and spread, and spread. even though it's completely false. qanon has also surfaced on younger platforms like instagram and tik—tok. jade flury is from houston, texas. she says it could affect how her friends vote. honestly, they believe that the republican party and the democrat party are both just evil. so, they think that they're better offjust not voting.

they have no idea that it's linked to qanon. some of them do, and some of them don't. i would say the majority of them have no idea. exclusive research from the bbc shows that qanon has generated over 100 million comments, shares and likes online this year. that increased sharply over the summer, with more people at home because of lockdown. social media sites stepped in and began to slow oanon's spread. by then, it had already reached the mainstream. qanon is a very pervasive conspiracy theory with a lot of very cult—like tentacles that can really grab onto people's minds when they spend a lot of time online. if you're in a dark place, you're very susceptible to easy answers to very complex problems. it's not just a domestic problem. whilst qanon appears to have originated in the us, it's these sorts of spaces that could be exploited by foreign interference campaigns as polling day approaches. marianna spring, bbc news.

that's it for now. thank you very much for watching. temperatures have been well above the seasonal average recently. lots of sunshine around but as we head through this week all that summery weather is about to change to something a lot more autumnal as we reach the end of the week. through monday we saw highs of 26—27 across the south of the country. low 20s for the north, but watch as we start to see the blue covers invade from the north and north—west. bringing that arctic air to our shoress. that will push temperatures below the seasonal average by the end of the week struggling to get into double figures by the north of the uk. changes taking place early on tuesday across

the north—west of the country, an act of where the front bringing windy weather here, at base of rain for the south, tuesday will start generally dry with clear skies. a few mist and fog patches are banned in most places will be relatively mild but more cloud across scotland and ireland to start tuesday. at base of rain continue in the northern western isles in particular. some of that heavier here and windier too. as we head through the day that rain will push south—eastwards into much of scotland and northern ireland. but for england and wales the last of the warm, sunny days for those highs of 25 or 26 degrees. perhaps the odd shower developing in the the west, as we head on into the evening. overnight, rain band in the north—west continues to migrate south—eastwards. going through central areas by the end of the night and that will make the difference between much colder chilly conditions across scotland and northern ireland, by the end of tuesday night, versus something a bit milder england and wales, but will be cloudy here without outbreaks of rain.

as we move into wednesday that when the front will push its way eastwards affecting much of england and ridge of high pressure will tend to settle things down across scotland and northern ireland but it will be much chillier here so the best of the sunshine across the west of the country by the odd shower. england and wales cloudy skies and outbreaks of rain across eastern areas and some of this will be quite heavy at times. turning windier around the temperatures ranging from the temperatures ranging from the low to high teens so of a deeply feeling noticeably different. towards the end of the week all the areas we much cooler with showers and long spells of rain. chilly by day and chilly by night with a touch of frost in places.

the latest headlines for you from bbc news. more than 150 nations have joined a world health organization project aimed at the common development and fair distribution of future vaccines against covid—19. the scheme hopes to add 2 billion doses of vaccine available by the end of next year. the us and china had declined to sign up and china had declined to sign upfor and china had declined to sign up for the project. pubs, bars and restaurant are to be ordered to close by 10pm under new virus restrictions. the government's scientific advisers have warned that without action in a little over three weeks they could be 50,000 new cases a day. president trump plans to announce his female nominee for the us supreme court on saturday. the death ofjustice with vado ginsberg on friday has ignited a furious debate about whether her replacement should be chosen before or after november's presidential election. the decisions of the court should shape the country for decades.