this is bbc news, the headlines: the world health organisation has urged african governments not to lose faith in the astrazeneca vaccine, after more than a dozen european nations suspended theirjab roll—out, over a blood—clot, health scare. the eu's medical regulator says they remain convinced the vaccine is safe. health authorities in several of brazil's larger cities are calling for the country's new health minister to impose a national lockdown after the country reached a record number of deaths due to coronavirus. the country's largest city sao paulo has reported almost 700 deaths in the past 2a hours. the ride hailing service, uber, says its drivers in the uk will now be treated as workers, rather than self—employed contractors, after the supreme court ruled they were entitled to greater benefits. thejudgment is expected to have significant implications for employment rights, within the so—called gig economy.

now on bbc news, tuesday in parliament. hello again and welcome to tuesday in parliament. what does global britain look like? the prime minister unveils his plan. stronger, safer and more prosperous, while standing up for our values. so why, mps ask, is he cutting aid spending? when will the prime minister understand that full tummies, economic opportunity and stable governments create the stronger, safer and more prosperous world that he wants? also in this programme, the government's mental health ambassador on why we should all mind our language. using words like "lost generation" and "catch—up" is, ithink, - hugely potentially- damaging to young people.

and a cabinet minister sparks conflict on the committee corridor. the way you just spoke to me is beneath your office and beneath how we should be speaking to each other as mps. but first, borisjohnson has unveiled his blueprint for the uk's future foreign, defence and security policy. the prime minister told mps that after brexit, the uk would have to "relearn the art" of competing against countries with "opposing values". the integrated review allows the uk to reshape its approach to china, which it says is a "systemic challenge" to britain's security and values. questions about the future size of the armed forces remain, but the uk will increase its stockpile of nuclear weapons and there'll also be a new counter—terrorism operations centre. the overriding purpose of this review, the most comprehensive since the cold war, is to make the united kingdom stronger, safer and more prosperous, while standing up for our values. the truth is that even if we wished it — and, of course, we don't —

the uk could never turn inwards or be content with the cramped horizons of a regionalforeign policy. for us, there are no far—away countries of which we know little. global britain is not a reflection of old obligations, still less a vainglorious gesture, but a necessity for the safety and prosperity of the british people in the decades ahead. he said the uk had led the world in expressing its deep concern for what he called china's mass detention and opposition mps called genocide of the uighur people. there is no question that china will pose a great challenge for an open society such as ours, but we will also work with china where that is consistent with our values and interests, including building a stronger and positive economic relationship and in addressing climate change.

the labour leader, sir keir starmer, said borisjohnson left some questions unanswered, amid reports the army could lose 10,000 troops. the prime minister can't avoid the question that everyone in our armed forces and their families will be asking today. prime minister, will there be further cuts to the strength of our army and our armed forces? the british army is already 6,000 below the minimal level set out in the last review. it's been cut every year for the last decade. 0n china, he said policy had been inconsistent. conservative governments have spent ten years turning a blind eye to human rights abuses while inviting china to help now, that basic inconsistency is catching up with them. and he'd noticed another omission from the statement. the prime minister's statement, mr speaker, didn't mention international development once. and i wonder why. because he's cutting development spending for the first time in decades and denying this house a vote on it — if global britain is to mean anything, it cannot mean selling arms to saudi arabia

and cutting aid to yemen. the snp weren't impressed either. mr speaker, today's statement is one more insight intojust how hollow- the brand of "global britain" actually is, because - the prime minister's rhetoric always fails to come close to reality. - just because he wastes £2.6 million, desperately trying to copy— |the white house's press briefingi room, doesn't hide the reality of the uk's weakening global influence. several mps highlighted plans to cut the share of national income spent on overseas development. reneging on the commitment to retain 0.7% of gni on development spending is a short—sighted mistake, and the prime minister's promise that it will be just temporary isn't good enough. after all, he said he wouldn't cut it in his own party's manifesto.

weasel words on aid won't wash. i'm really shocked that _ development is barely mentioned in the integrated review. when will the prime minister. understand that full tummies, i economic opportunity and stable i governments create the stronger, safer and more prosperous world that he wants, - not more nuclear weapons? when we look at the cuts that we know of so far, . . cuts to the conflict, stability . and security fund and an 80% cut in aid corruption work, _ how does this make sense to create this stable world? a conservative former international development secretary said the uk was the only one of the g7 group of major industrial nations to cut its development budget. and if he is determined to pursue this aspect of his policy — i know my right honourable friend, he is a democrat — when will he bring it to the house for a vote? otherwise he may be in danger,

as from the start of the new financial year, of creating an unlawful budget. the investments that we are making are colossal, absolutely colossal, by international standards, by any international standards. we're the second—biggest contributor in aid in the g7 already and we are contributing... in spite of all the difficulties occasioned by this pandemic, we are contributing £10 billion this year to support the poorest and neediest in the world. other senior conservatives were unhappy about the prospect of deeper links with china. doesn't that unfortunately demonstrate that the grasping naivety of the cameron—osborne years still lingers on in some departments of state? | there is a 1930s feel to the scale of challenges that we face today, with rising authoritarian powers, weak global institutions - and an absence of western leadership and collective resolve. _ i was hoping for a fulton, - missouri moment, mr speaker, when we finally call out china for the geostrategic threat i that it is.

there is a balance to be struck, because, after all, we have a strong trading relationship with china, worth about £81 billion, china is the second—largest economy in the world and a fact of our lives, and i think we must accept that fact in a clear—eyed way. and he said the uk continued to call out china for what was happening in xinjiang. the health secretary, matt hancock, has defended plans to give nhs staff in england a i% pay increase and rejected suggestions that the proposed increase will leave health workers worse off. mr hancock made his comments when he gave evidence to a group of mps about his plans to restructure the health service. now, as you know, the nhs 10—year plan made a 2.1% provision for annual pay increases for nhs workers, so how did your department come to recommend just 1%, given the incredible pressures staff have been under during the pandemic? well, as you know, chair, i'm a huge fan of and supporter

of the workforce right across the nhs, who have done an incrediblejob, as you say, during the pandemic. absolutely extraordinary. and the nhs was carved out of the pay freeze that's been applied due to the enormous pressure on the public finances that's been applied to everybody else in the public sector, and we put in place evidence reflecting what is affordable. and, of course, we'll study what the pay review body says. can ijust ask you to clarify one thing over which there's been some uncertainty? does it constitute a real terms pay cut or not? is there an extra 0.7%

on top of the 1%? could you just explain that one? well, inflation is below 1%, and therefore a proposed 1% pay rise is indeed a pay rise. and that's simply a matter of fact. last month, matt hancock announced plans to overhaul the nhs in england so that health and care services worked more closely together. the purpose of these reforms is to strengthen integration, to reduce bureaucracy and to strengthen accountability within the nhs, but the goal of them is to build on the best practice that's already out there when systems work together. and this has been strengthened significantly by the crisis, where systems across notjust the nhs but also local government and others working together has been critical, and perhaps the best example of this is the vaccine roll—out, which is being done at a system level. and systems are broadly often the same geography as a county council,

sometimes a little bit bigger than that. for instance, the whole of greater manchester is one health system. and the goal is to have that greater integration and remove a load of bureaucracy. when it comes to accountability for ministers asking questions, we know that there's numerous levels of accountability for ministers to answer questions that they actually fail already. why do you think that you should be trusted on the issue of workforce planning and the accountability when it comes to answering how many health care staff we actually need, when so many questions that you're well, i think that, actually, we're in an incredibly strong position on this, and i obviously completely reject your assertion. so the first is that we committed, 18 months ago, to having 50,000 more nurses in the nhs over this

parliament, and we're already well on the way to do that and on track. in addition, we've notjust... secretary of state, how many are planning on leaving? well, fewer... you'll have seen in the peoples survey, fewer than a year ago... how many more do we need? the point that i think the chair was trying to get to is, it's very difficult to say that we're training enough nurses and doctors if the public aren't being told exactly how many we need. why wouldn't you include it in the bill and cut out the middleman? it's quite hard to be accountable for answering questions when, every time i try to answer one, you cut in. i mean, i will bow to no—one in my enthusiasm for having a properly staffed nhs... secretary of state, thank you. just before i move my next questions, i'd like to say that i think that the way you just spoke to me is beneath your office and beneath how we should be

speaking to each other as mps. sarah owen and matt hancock. you're watching tuesday in parliament with me, david cornock. still to come, the return of the music festival season. now, what will be the long—term impact of the pandemic on our children? mps on the education committee have been trying to find out. they took evidence from the government's youth mental health ambassador, a&e doctor alex george, on the reality show love island. he told the committee that use of some phrases is "hugely potentially damaging to young people". we do know when we look at things like learning loss, etc, there is a big challenge in front of young people, teachers and parents to try and overcome some of that. when i read media and i see words like lost generation and all of this

other stuff, we're dealing with young people who are potentially deeply anxious anyway, and ijust think we need to be very sensitive and careful and to what extent... ..important and how we can overcome that challenge. can i ask alex to answer this question, if i may? i couldn't particularly hear- the last point he made there around the phrases and using words - like lost generation and catch up. these are, i think, hugely potentiallyl damaging to young people. they do listen, they see the media, they see social media, _ and ijust wonder where that leads young people feeling like - they're left and if i don't catch up, what am i? i and i've actually had that l echoed in messages across social media to myself, a lot - of concern from young people saying, "am i part of this lost generation? "what does that mean for our future?" - so i think we need to be very, very careful, and something l |i've echoed to number ten aroundj some of the things that have come out, that we must steer away from i that language, and i hope that's. agreed by the others as well. it's a i think, actually, there's a lesson for all of us and me

particularly on this, because we've all been using these words quite all the time. i think tom's point about language is very important. and actually, some parents have mentioned that to me as well. mps were told that even before the pandemic, there was a crisis in child mental health. in november, nhs benchmarking reported the greatest ever demand for child mental health services, and that was up 20% on the year before, so there is a huge demand. we have an increasing problem, and on top of that, we were struggling to recruit staff prior to the pandemic. we know that property is a huge

driver for mental health problems, hairdressers will start operating again from the 5th of april, with gyms and nonessential shops allowed to open a week later. in wales, salons have been doing a roaring trade since they were allowed to open on monday as part of a general easing of restrictions there. but at first minister's questions in the senedd, labour's mark drakeford came under pressure to agree to a public

inquiry into the pandemic. i want to see a public inquiry as soon as possible, make progress and rather than lead it in a wider uk public inquiry, have a wales—specific public inquiry. could you clarify your remarks so that we can understand exactly when you believe that a public inquiry should start, and that you agree that it should be a stand—alone welsh public inquiry looking at the measures the welsh government have control over rather than submerge into a wider uk inquiry? well, i believe an inquiry will be a necessary, - important part of the way we learn the lessons of the extraordinary i 12 months that we have lived through. - i did not say yesterday that i i thought you should wait until coronavirus was over. i said i thought it should wait until we are all confident - that coronavirus is in| the rear—view mirror. i don't agree with him - about a welsh—only inquiry. i've lost count of the number

of times he has urged - on me a four—nation approach. on this issue, it appears - it is insensible to go it alone. a wales—only inquiry would not be . able to grapple with a long list l of issues that would be fundamental to being able to draw— the lessons from what has happened. plaid cymru suggested one of the lessons to be learned was from a failure to plan properly for the pandemic. the science around a flu pandemic suggests that it was very, very difficult, even futile to try and suppress community transmission once it's become endemic, which isn't the case, as we now know with covid. does that explain the two principal mistakes early on, that the failure to lock down restrictions sufficiently early and the abandonment of community test and trace later readopted, of course?

i think it is too early to talk- of mistakes and to attribute causes to things that could have been done differently. i i'm quite sure that things - would have been done differently if we knew then what we know now, . so that's not in any way to deny. that things could have j been done differently. mark drakeford. peers have urged the government to renew funding to the charity voluntary service 0verseas, which is injeopardy as a result of cuts to the international aid budget. vso was set up in 1958 and promotes volunteering to fight global poverty and inequality. it's recently been involved in helping the roll—out of the coronavirus vaccine in developing nations. a conservative former international development minister, lady sugg, resigned last year in protest at the government's decision to break its commitment to spend 0.7% of national income on aid.

she said it looked like vso would be an early casualty of the move. the current law allows the government to miss the .7% by accident or an emergency. it does not allow the government to plan and do this with intent for an indefinite number of years. it's now been nearly four months since the announcement, and we're seeing the real world distressing impacts of this policy. can my noble friend the minister tell me when we will see the legislation to make this policy lawful and confirm that the vote will be held in both houses? the legislation allows the .7 target not to be met in a particular year in light of economic and fiscal circumstances. the foreign secretary is currently looking carefully at what is required by law. the legislation visages that the 0.7% target may not be met in a particular year as a consequence of circumstances which we're all too familiar with. vso is the uk's flagship i development agency but, in just two weeks from now, will be forced to close down|

its covid—19 response work in 18 countries i if its grant isn't renewed. allowing this vital work to fold would be totally at odds - with the uk's commitment to support covid recovery globally, _ notjust domestically, _ and completely out of sync with any definition of global britain. if vso do not get reassurance within the next two weeks, the knowledge, the skills, the experience and the networks and influence that they bring will be thrown away if the government cannot come to a decision in just two weeks' time. if the cuts to the overseas aid budget leads to cuts in the voluntary service overseas programme, it will negatively impact the international distribution of covid—19 vaccines, given the involvement of vso in covid—19 response programmes in different parts of the world, such as covid safety training for health care workers in rural populations in tanzania, sierra leone and ethiopia, etc.

how can the government be - so negative in funding programmes which support girls' education, health systems and much else| in parts of the world _ where development and soft power are surely key to - government priorities? vso is indeed a highly valued programme that the fcdo's been proud to support for many years. i would have to reiterate the point that i made earlier that no decision has yet been taken on the programme. officials have been working closely with vso to understand their position and we will, of course, continue to do so. mps have heard a warning about the potential impact of illegal drug use ahead of the anticipated return of the summer music festival season. the culture committee has been looking into how to reduce the harm done by illicit substances. research in 2019 found that drug—taking at festivals tended

to be more widespread and riskier than elsewhere, with more than half of festival—goers using illegal drugs. but an academic and drug testing expert said there were also particular concerns about this summer. we know from switzerland and from drug—taking there that they've tested the highest—strength pills in circulation ever, at over 3050 mil of mdma, so that's probably three or four times an adult dose. so we've got concerns about the strength of what's in circulation, also about adulteration of mdma. and in new zealand — their festivals have continued in their summerjust gone — and what they found was that in about half of mdma, half of substances sold as mdma turned out to be a cathinone or butylone, which is a particular concern. there were worries, too, about the behaviour of individuals. most people haven't been to festivals or nightclubs for a year. their tolerance is going to be much lower. and also, because they haven't been partying for a year, you can imagine there's going to be some pent—up demand for partying, and so we are concerned that combination of lower tolerance to drugs, plus a greater desire for partying, could be quite a problematic combination.

her charity, the loop, is involved in multi agency safety testing at festivals. i think festivals is a particularly good opportunity to engage with people who use drugs and have those sorts of conversations. and by and large, people respond insensible and responsible ways if they have that information. and when we put out alerts, for example, for adulterous in circulation at festivals, quite often, people come to use our service and they will voluntarily drop off those substances because they don't want to take them. and that puts the dealers on site out of business because they can't sell them because we put out alerts. so in some ways, it's a virtuous circle about getting that information out. and is the case that there have been

no drug—related deaths at any festival that mast has operated at? to the best of my knowledge, there's never been a death related to a drug—taking service in the world in 50 years. there's no evidence of that, to the best of my knowledge. and, yes, there hasn't been a death at a festival that the loop�*s operated at. the drugs lead on the national police chiefs council said that criminals would see this year's festival season as an opportunity. and the reality is that, ultimately, they'll be looking to make the most money they can in events, and therefore the risk is they'll be and again, we've seen it in intelligence where it's two for the price of one, which is ultimately trying to get the poly—use — again, which is a bit unique to festivals and the night—time economies — where it's notjust about drugs, and at the same time, we recognise here that were going to have an audience there that have not been out, as fiona said, for a number of months — and, to be fair, years now — that, ultimately, we will look to use it as a celebration. he said there were clear benefits in allowing the testing of illegal drugs. the challenge with the testing that fiona does is,

because it's against the law, some people will be very reluctant to get their drugs tested because, actually, they know they're committing an offence by being in possession and potentially they could get arrested in doing that event. the second bit, certainly from my side, again, is then potentially, we have a situation with people describe as tolerance areas, where, ultimately, the police will not enforce the law, to allow people to go into fiona's areas to test the drugs. so we get into this bit of a no man's land, if i'm very honest, where policing is stuck in the middle because, actually, we all want to make it safe. we don't want anybody to die. far too many people die from illicit drugs already. jason harwin. that's it for tuesday in parliament. thank you for watching. i do hope you canjoin me at the same time tomorrow for wednesday in parliament, when borisjohnson will be facing mps for prime minister's questions. until then, from me, david cornock, bye for now.

hello. tuesday brought us a very mild day across the uk. in fact, for wales and scotland, it was the warmest day of the year so far, and widely, we had temperatures in the mid to high teens. this is how we ended the day in north somerset. the warmeest spot was in worchestershired where temperatures gotjust shy of 18 celsius. now, it won't be quite as mild as we look through the course of wednesday, but another largely dry settled day for many of us. there will be some spells of sunshine around on wednesday, still a few spots of showery rain, mainly for parts of eastern england. high—pressure is dominating our weather at the moment, but we have got a couple of weather fronts that will be working their way south down the north sea over the next couple of days. so, for wednesday morning, then, we start off on a chilly note, some mist and some4 fog patches possible for parts of midlands, perhaps wales as well. through the day, the cloud will thicken bringing a few splashes of rain, particularly for parts of east anglia, the southeast, but there

could be a few showers towards the east midlands as well. now, these northerly winds in the east are blowing over fairly cold sea surface temperatures, only about 6 celsius in the north sea at the moment. so where you are exposed to that wind coming off the chilly sea, temperatures only about 9—10 celsius around that east coast, but away from the east coast, most of us up to about 111—15 celsius. so, anotherfairly mild day. fast forward into thursday, a fairly similar story once again, quite cloudy skies, but there will be some sunshine breaking through. and again, it's across parts of eastern england that we we'll have a few showers. those fairly cool northerly winds keeping temperatures here around 9—10 celsius, but elsewhere, 13—14 celsius once again on thursday. now, as we look towards the end of the week, we have that high—pressure still out towards the west with the winds rotating. they're going to start to come in from a northeasterly direction. you can see those blue colours just pushing in across parts of southern and eastern england, so a bit of a change as we look towards the end of the week, a change in wind direction draws that colder air in across really the southeastern third of the uk. but elsewhere, we have still got a fair amount of cloud, quite a lot of dry weather, we could see temperatures about 13 degrees for the likes of glasgow,

but for norwich, stuck at only around about 8 celsius. and it's going to be a southeast—northwest split northerly breeze, it's going to feel quite chilly for the likes of dover, for instance, but it's looking mild or towards the northwest with highs of around 11 celsius. bye for now.

welcome to bbc news — i'm mike embley. our top stories: the eu's medical regulator remains "convinced" astrazeneca's vaccine is safe — despite more countries suspending roll— out of the covid jab. brazil marks a record number of covid deaths — as medics in several cities call for a national lockdown. in a world first — uber drivers in the uk will be classed as workers, not self—employed, with big implications for global employment rights. and — israeli resarchers unveil the find of a lifetime — dozens of dead sea scroll fragments, that are shedding new light on the history of human—kind.