this is bbc news. the headlines at 8pm. two doses of the main covid vaccines used in the uk are found to be highly effective against the indian variant of the virus. belarus forces a ryanair plane to divert to minsk so it can arrest an opposition activist onboard. nato demands an international investigation. a mountain cable car has plunged to the ground in northern italy, killing at least 1a people. the eurovision winner's lead singer agrees to a drugs test after speculation over this competition footage. and bell—ringers return to durham cathedral's tower for the first time in more than a year after coronavirus restrictions were eased.

a new study has found that two doses of the uk's main covid vaccines offer strong protection against the so called indian variant of the virus. the public health england study — the first to look at the vaccines�* effectiveness against the indian variant — comes amid warnings that the new strain is now the dominant one in some parts of the country. here's our science correspondent pallab ghosh. today and through the weekend, people in rochdale were actively coming forward to receive their vaccinations. the latest research shows that the jabs are effective in reducing the chances of getting infected from the variant that came from india, and experts think that the vaccines are stopping serious illness as well. of the 3,000 or so cases of the variant, there have only been 31 hospital admissions

and just six deaths. most of these vaccines are really good. i'm definitely... i'm going for my second astrazeneca jab soon and i think we'll get more refinement of that data as we go forward. so, just a straightforward message is get your second dose. as restriction ease, there's a greater chance people will be infected. it's thought that the variant from india spreads more quickly than the current kent strain. research shows that the first dose of the pfizer and astrazeneca jab are 33% effective against the variant from india. the second dose boosts that to 88% for pfizer and 60 for astrazeneca. the lower figure for astrazeneca is down to the fact that people in that group were older and it's thought that both vaccines are just as effective. experts say that it's important for people to come forward for vaccinations and to take their second jab. there is a bit of a race

going on between the vaccine programme and the relaxation of restrictions and so on, and we will see more cases over the coming weeks as a result of that. so there's still a need be cautious and not to form the false conclusion, if you like, that the story's all over because it isn't over yet. scientists expect to have a clearer idea of how quickly the variant from india spreads in the coming weeks, which in turn will determine whether all legal restrictions can be restricted onjune the 21st, but the news that vaccines are effective against it is a big boost to those wanting to get back to a more normal life. pallab ghosh, bbc news. meanwhile a senior minister has rejected a claim from borisjohnson�*s former senior advisor that the original government plan for coronavirus was to allow most of the population to develop �*herd immunity�* to it... it comes ahead of an appearance

by dominic cummings before mps this week. here's our political correspondent damian grammaticus. late last year and out of downing street. dominic cummings had been boris johnson's closest aide. now, he's spilling his stories, even if they damage his former boss. the events he wants to highlight, last march and how the prime minister handled the start of the pandemic. in spain and italy, covid was spreading fast, lockdowns being brought in. in the uk, lockdowns came ten days later. mr cummings said borisjohnson�*s strategy was different, to try for herd immunity, letting people build natural resistance. he tweeted today... "herd immunity wasn't a secret strategy, it was the official strategy." he says, "it only changed when officials understood herd immunity�*s effects — hundreds of thousands choking

to death, no nhs for anybody. an economic implosion, so we moved to plan b, suppression." and he says, "critical as i am of the pm, the disaster was notjust his fault, the official plan was disastrously misconceived. plan b had to be bodged amid total and utter chaos." this is one of those public explanations he points to, talk about cocooning the most vulnerable only from the government's top behavioural scientist on march tenth. by the time they come out of their cocooning, herd immunity�*s been achieved in the rest of the population. and the chief scientific adviser two days later. it's not possible to stop everybody getting it and it's also actually not desirable because you want some immunity in the population. we need to have immunity to protect ourselves from this in the future. today, the home secretary insisted herd immunity had never been the strategy. not at all, no, absolutely not. our policy from the outset, andrew, the policy and the strategy... so why is dominic cummings telling us that is true? well, i can't speak for mr cummings

and one individual. the government says it followed the science and acted to protect lives and the nhs. mr cummings will have his chance to produce his own evidence before parliament this week. damian grammaticus, bbc news. and the latest government figures on coronavirus show 2,235 new infections in the latest 24—hour period — which means an average ofjust over two and a half thousand cases per day, in the last week. five deaths were recorded in the last 2a hours, and that means an average of six deaths per day in the past week. the total number of uk deaths is now 127,721. and, turning to the vaccination programme... just over 200,000 people have received a first vaccine dose in the last 2a hours. in total, almost 38 million people have now had their firstjab. that's 72% of the adult population. nearly 557,000 people had their second dose in the past 2a hrs and takes the overall number in that group, to more

than 22.6 million or 43% of the adult population. and we'll find out how this story — and many others — are covered in tomorrow's front pages at 10:30 and 11:30 this evening in the papers — our guestsjoining me tonight are france 24's uk correspondent benedicte paviot and the sunday times's deputy political editor caroline wheeler. nato has demanded an international investigation after a ryanair plane was forced to make an emergency landing in belarus, allowing the authorities to arrest an exiled opposition activist who was on board. roman protasevich has played a key role during the protests against the authoritarian leader, alexander lu kashenko. the ryanair plane was travelling from greece to lithuania when it was diverted. and in the last hour, it has landed in lithuania. for more let's speak now to moscow

our correspondent, sarah rainsford. sera, widespread condemnation on this this evening.— this this evening. really strong lanauuae this this evening. really strong language from _ this this evening. really strong language from leaders - this this evening. really strong language from leaders and - language from leaders and politicians across europe. the uk as well. the foreign secretary speaking out and calling this abhorrent. some politicians describing what has happened as a hijacking and certainly calling for something to be done. some kind of measures to be taken. against the authorities in belarus who appear to have sanctioned the diversion of a plane in order to arrest, purely and simply to arrest a critic, a key critic of alexander, the president. the stories that we have been hearing suggest some passengers have been speaking to lithuanian media suggesting there was no kind of warning of what was happening, that simply the plane started heading in another direction, and as that happened one passenger on board

according to these accounts started shaking. that was the by the russian opposition journalist. shaking. that was the by the russian oppositionjournalist. and shaking. that was the by the russian opposition journalist. and at the passengers were taken off the plane and attempt was made to search for some kind of suspicious package on board, was that was happening he was led away by belarussian security officers. and officials have confirmed that he has been detained. so it does appear to be an audacious operation to take an international flight, diverted to minsk and arrest in opposition figure in belarus. thank you very much. the foreign secretary dominic raab said this "outlandish action" would have serious implications. earlier i spoke with the chair of the foreign affairs select committee, tom tugendhat. this is an attack by a dictatorship on a civilian aircraft, an irish civilian aircraft,

flying between two european union capitals, two nato capitals, in order to detain an individual who was only exercising his civil rights of freedom of speech. this is a right that is absolutely guaranteed in almost all european states, and this flight, this transit route over belarus, was completely legal and had no reason for interception. yet the belarus authorities scrambled to intercept and force this aircraft to the ground, with terrible echoes of the shooting down of the malaysian aircraft over ukraine in 2014 which killed so many dutch civilians. we have touched on the widespread condemnation from latvia to germany. tonight the foreign secretary here. even by the standards of the belarus crackdown, this is alarming. what repercussions do you envisage? this is alarming, and i have been speaking to opposite numbers in washington, lithuania, estonia and other european capitals as well,

and we are very clear that there are several things we need to see immediately. we need an investigation by the international civil aviation organisation, the un body charged with monitoring civilian aircraft. we need to see supplementary sanctions on the lukashenko regime to make sure they are not profiting from assets overseas, and as we await the reports we will get from these organisations and in order to protect our citizens and other citizens who are using transit routes around europe, we need to make sure all flight over belarus ceases immediately, including flights into and out of that country, and therefore the grounding of the belarus air fleet. but all the while this is going on many opposition figures have been arrested or have fled into exile, so why will something be done now? many of us have been calling for things to be done a long time ago, and this is evidence that if you fail to act then

eventually you act to fail, that is exactly what we are doing. we have allowed, we have encouraged people to think they can act with impunity. we must make sure they realise they can't, because this is a direct threat, notjust to belarusian people speaking out, but to all of us. scrambling jets to force them to the ground is extremely dangerous and if this country can get away with it how many others around the world do you think will be looking at the opportunity to force aircraft to the ground because a journalist, civilian, businessmen or perhaps a politician who they don't like is on that aircraft? we already know china is holding two hostages from canada, and we know that the iranian government holds hostages, such as nazanin zaghari—ratcliffe, so how much worse would it be if we saw civilian air traffic force to the ground in order for hostages to be taken?

that is what this president is and it must be made very clear that nato countries and european countries will not tolerate this act of violence against european people. 0ur correspondent in moscow mentioned that plane had now landed, and these are pictures just into us of passengers on that plane who were diverted earlier and now have arrived, by the looks of things at the airport earlier this evening. yes, they arejust the airport earlier this evening. yes, they are just arriving but have obviously had their audio of being diverted —— ordeal of being diverted. we will have more in the story later in the evening. i think we can actually hear what one of those passengers has to say.

they were checking our suitcases but at the same time they were arresting the journalist. at the same time they were arresting thejournalist. the at the same time they were arresting the journalist. the guy. at the same time they were arresting thejournalist. the guy. no, we were not scared but, i mean... it was quite crazy because for three hours we were being kept in some kind of core doors. then later they put us in the lounge. from regular passengers? not really. just checking and inspected our stuff, they were touching us and looking. not in front of us, but we were afraid. ., h.

not in front of us, but we were afraid. ., m, ., , su er afraid. how scared was the? super scared. i looked _ afraid. how scared was the? super scared. i looked directly _ afraid. how scared was the? super scared. i looked directly into - afraid. how scared was the? super scared. i looked directly into his i scared. i looked directly into his eyes and it was very sad. passengers s-ueakin eyes and it was very sad. passengers speaking about _ eyes and it was very sad. passengers speaking about their _ eyes and it was very sad. passengers speaking about their arrival - eyes and it was very sad. passengers speaking about their arrival after - speaking about their arrival after having their plane diverted. a cable car has plunged to the ground near lake maggiore in northern italy, killing 13 people and seriously injuring others, including children. the service was taking passengers up into the mountains from the resort town of stresa at the time of the accident. the resort had only recently reopened as covid restrictions were eased. 0ur italy correspondent mark lowen reports. a climb to admire alpine beauty ending in tragedy. the cable car was in the last part of its journey, nearly 1500 metres high, when it plunged to the ground, killing most on board. it seems a cable near the final pylon broke away but the cause isn't yet clear. rescuers struggled to reach the densely wooded site, one fire vehicle even overturning en route. no teams were injured.

heading up the mountain from lake maggiore in north—west italy, it's a stunning spot. it's a very popular destination. it used to carry, before covid, approximately 100,000 passengers every year. and nothing has ever happened of this type before. the cable car had reopened from covid lockdown just last month. it underwent a two—year, four million euros repair in 2014. an investigation will try to discover how and why a trip through this tourist idyll collapsed in disaster. mark lowen, bbc news, rome. the headlines on bbc news. two doses of the main covid vaccines used in the uk are found to be highly effective against the indian variant of the virus. belarus forces a ryanair plane to divert to minsk so it can arrest an opposition activist onboard. nato demands an international

investigation a mountain cable car has plunged to the ground in northern italy, killing at least 1a people. the sister of the murdered mpjo cox has been chosen as labour's candidate to fight the batley and spen by—election. kim leadbeater said she was "overwhelmed and humbled" by the support she had received from party members in the seat her sister used to represent. 0ur political correspondent damian grammaticas said she had a strong connection to the local community. i think we've seen this, the announcement, just today. the hustings was today. kim leadbeater said she is the candidate the tories fear, in her words, because she's grown up there, she's lived in every part of the constituency. she says she's connected with local people and of course, given her sister was the mp for the constituency and was

murdered in the constituency, in 2016, just before the eu referendum, i think labour hopes that connection will translate into votes. labour i think reacting here to the loss of the hartlepool by—election which we sawjust a short time ago, and that one of the criticisms was that it wasn't a local candidate who was chosen. on that, damien, how big a job does she have on her hands and what reaction to this news? well, there's is interesting because the labour party is under pressure to keep hold of this seat. it has been labour. the difficulty they're going to have is that as in hartlepool they face a challenge from the conservatives. in the last election here the labour candidate, tracy brabin, she won the seat but with a majority of fighting 3500. there was an independent brexit candidate standing who got almost double that number of votes. this is what we saw in hartlepool.

we saw a small majority overturned because the brexit supporting candidate now wasn't standing and the vote had gone to the conservative candidate there. so it's a difficult one but it will be a big test for the labour leadership, who are under pressure after the recent by—election. the former bbcjournalist, martin bashir — who's been found to have used lies and fake documents to secure his 1995 panorama interview with princess diana — has insisted he never intended to harm her. he told the sunday times that everything about the interview was done in line with the princess's wishes. here's our home editor mark easton. martin bashir, the bbc reporter whose lies and deception initiated the current crisis at the corporation, has given an interview to the sunday times putting his side of the story on that interview with princess diana.

"i never wanted to harm diana in any way", he tells the paper. and on using fake bank statements to help get the interview he says, "obviously i regret it, it was wrong but it had no bearing on anything. it had no bearing on diana. it had no bearing on the interview." the dyson report into the affair rejected martin bashir�*s account of what had happened, describing it as incredible, unreliable and, in some cases, dishonest. it effectively established a false narrative. the duke cambridge has suggested that the way the interview with his mother was obtained fuelled her isolation and paranoia. mr bashir, who resigned from the bbc a week before the dyson report, rejects the criticism. "to channel the tragedy, the difficult relationship between the royal family and the media purely onto my shoulders feels a little unreasonable. the suggestion that i am singularly responsible, i think, is unreasonable and unfair." former bbc presenter dame esther rantzen, who knew diana, says the bbc should have done more to protect the corporation's journalistic values.

loads of the checks and balances put onto bbcjournalism didn't seem to have been used in order to protect the bbc from experience what i call "scoop frenzy". being a journalist involves trying to make the headlines. i've been very fortunate because i've made the headlines on several occasions. mr bashir had been understood to have been too unwell to answer questions about his behaviour and neither he or anyone from bbc management was available today to respond to mounting criticism. good morning. let me start with the bbc. the home secretary, priti patel, appeared on the andrew marr programme this morning, to suggest bbc executives did have important questions to answer. this is a really, really significant moment of reflection, ithink, for the bbc. there's no doubt this world—class institution, its reputation has been highly damaged. i would have thought, actually, members of the british public, but even around the world right now,

watching what has happened will rightly, clearly be asking the questions, where is the bbc? you know, the leadership of the bbc at this moment in time. the role of bbc news in holding the powerful to account and as a trusted media voice means it will always have its opponents, but the bashir revelations have left the corporation particularly vulnerable to attack and the director general has said he will talk about what needs to happen in the coming days. mark easton, bbc news. it's emerged that the body which regulates human rights in the uk has refused to renew its membership of a diversity scheme run by britain's best known lg bt organisation, stonewall. the equality and human rights commission told stonewall in march that it was not continuing its membership of its diversity champions scheme. earlier this week stonewall co—signed a letter to the ehrc, saying it was not doing enough to champion lgbt rights, but stonewall itself has been accused of giving potentially illegal advice to a public body.

0ur correspondentjohn mcmanus has been following the story. lots to unwrap here, what is the scheme, first up? it’s lots to unwrap here, what is the scheme, first up?— lots to unwrap here, what is the scheme, first up? it's a scheme that has been run — scheme, first up? it's a scheme that has been run by _ scheme, first up? it's a scheme that has been run by stonewall— scheme, first up? it's a scheme that has been run by stonewall for- has been run by stonewall for several years and hundreds of organisations, other charities and the bbc are all members and they pay an annualfee and the bbc are all members and they pay an annual fee and in return stone will advise them on their policies, their internal policies to make their internal policies to make their workspaces open places where games, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people work without fear. now, the equality and human rights commission on the other hand is charged with making sure that protected characteristics things like age, disability, gender reassignment, sexuality and biological sex are protected under law. and so to that end the hrc recently intervened in an appeal tribunal brought by my afore starter

because she raised concerns about what she says are clashes between women's rights and what are called gender critical rights, the hrc said in its statement to the tribunal that maya forstater was protected under law and holy ghost police and should not be treated any differently are her employers but that drew an open letter of criticism from stonewall and several other trans rights organisations criticising the hrc and say it was not doing enough to help trans— equality. separate to that, the founding member said to an interview that people who hold views that are questioning a trans identity to a trust questioning whether human beings can change sex, they should not be criticising and should be protected under law.—

not be criticising and should be protected under law. thank you very much. the lead singer of eurovision's winning group maneskin has said he will undergo a voluntary drugs test, after footage from last night's show prompted speculation that he may have been taking drugs. lead vocalist damiano david and the band have strongly refuted the allegations. here they are speaking to journalists as they landed in rome earlier today. we told to the eu, and we told them we were totally available to do the tests, but they told us there was no need because they trusted us, but again, to shut down all the rumours, i am going to do that tomorrow morning. we are totally against cocaine and the use of drugs and we would never have done it, of course, so we are really shocked that many people are believing this and we want to shut it down. well, earlier i spoke with newsbeat reporter steve holden, in rotterdam, and i asked him what eurovision bosses are saying about these claims... they put out the statement earlier saying the band

and everyone around them, the head of the italian delegation, they said no drugs were present last night. in the press conference yesterday when damiano from maneskin was asked about this he said that it was because he leaned forward because there was some broken glass on the floor, that one of the bottles had broken, and eurovision said there was broken glass on the floor. so they are looking at the footage carefully. as you just heard, damiano will do a voluntary drug test in italy, because there wasn't time to organise one while they were still in the netherlands. they are back in italy now. we have just seen some footage of that event. do you think it has tarnished their win? i don't think tarnishes the word, ben. i think people are still celebrating their massive win, which it was, and for all intents and purposes eurovision is going to italy next year. but it has definitely

been a distraction. that clip went viral all on social media and loads of people were messaging me about it. in the chaos of the wind yesterday, we were getting ready to try to interview the band, the press conference, and my phone was pinging with people sharing that clip, so it was certainly a talking point. so a distraction and i don't think the band are necessarily tarnished by it. like mad on the performance, on your phone, you tweeted last night, italy were tremendous, absolute star quality, and assured and confident performance. why so good? it was a powerhouse. it looked and sounded good. it combined a good rock song with powerful imagery, the outfits attitude, the pyrotechnics which finished off the song. all that in a big eurovision blender, and you come out with the winner. it's a hit. the uk, on the other hand, james newman, zero points. someone you know very well because you spent some time making

a documentary with him. how is he feeling? i haven't heard from james since last night but i think a lot of people in the british delegation will now see the only way they can go is up. i was singing about this earlier. there has to be a different strategy now for the uk. if you look at the top five in last night's eurovision, you had rock, ukrainian techno, you had a french ballad. you had genres of music that a lot of people don't necessarily associate with eurovision, it's not the eurovision pop a lot of people think the contest is. so maybe, going forward for the uk, it's time the music has to change in what we put in. bell—ringers returned to durham cathedral's tower for the first time in more than a year after coronavirus restrictions were eased. the cathedral has 10 bells in its tower but since march 2020 only one has been rung before services. there was one small difference

today though, in order to maintain social distancing, instead of the usual ten people, only six were allowed to climb the tower. alison freeman reports. bells ring. it's a sound that signifies another step towards normality. this afternoon the bells and durham cathedral were run by a team of bell—ringers for the first time in more than a year. this highly skilled group hadn't been able to get together to bring them in sequence since the start of the first lockdown, last march. i think probably everyone in the country has missed hearing church bells everywhere and now we're getting back to ringing again there might be a bit of hope for everyone as well that we are finally getting out of this terrible year. a lot of us rain, two, three times a week and it's been something that's been missing from our lives, effectively, for the last year and a bit. it's fantastic for us all to get back in the tower together and be able to make

a hopefully glorious noise. over the past 1a months, a single bell has tolled before services. today, those six bells could be heard for 45 minutes, something the cathedral�*s vice dean believes will make a huge difference to the entire city and not just the congregation. well, one of the saddest things about lockdown and all of the effects of the pandemic has been a sort of pall of silence that's fallen over a place like this. one of the great things about the bells, there's nothing silent about them. the bells tumbling over themselves as they ring is making a lovely insistent sound that's both heart—warming, but also gets you up on your toes and thinks, hey, i want to be part of the stuff that's going on in this wonderful world. the bell—ringers say they are delighted to be back together, but can't wait for the time when the full team are allowed to bring the bells again. alison freeman, bbc news, durham.