tonight at ten — the prime minister rejects claims by his former adviser dominic cummings that government mistakes led to thousands of extra covid deaths. the health secretary matt hancock — accused of falsely claiming hospital patients were tested for covid before being discharged into care homes — denies he lied about protecting them. my recollection of events is that i committed to delivering that testing for people going from hospital into care homes when we could do it. people are being urged to get their second covid jab as data suggests up to three quarters of new infections in the uk could now be of the indian variant. we'll be asking what it means for the end of restrictions cross the uk. also tonight... china's lab in wuhan —

president biden orders another investigation to establish if it was the origin of covid—19. how the british social media platform onlyfans failed to prevent some underage users from selling and appearing in explicit videos. dark matter — the most mysterious substance in the universe — now scientists have mapped it out. and coming up in the sport on the bbc news channel... a sensational return on the cards? tottenham hotspur make contact with former manager mauricio pochettino. good evening. the health secretary matt hancock has denied lying to his colleagues and to the public about dealing with covid in care homes, saying he's been "straight with people" throughout the pandemic. yesterday the prime minister's former special adviser dominic cummings said mr hancock should have been sacked for lying

on multiple occasions but he has hit back saying the allegations are unsubstantiated and untrue. tonight he came under more pressure over accusations that he falsely claimed hospital patients were being tested for covid before they were discharged back into care homes. here's our political editor laura kuenssberg. the accusations were grave... tens of thousands of people died who didn't need to die. delivered with vicious candour... when the public needed us most, the government failed. the adviser who used to stalk the corridors of number ten now has it in his sights... fundamentally, i regarded him as unfit for thejob. what was his response to his former right—hand man? i think, if i may say so, that some of the commentary i have heard doesn't bear any relation to reality. we did everything we could to protect the nhs, and to protect care homes, as well. did you test anyone being put into a care home?

we did everything we could... i mean, you didn't, did you? we did everything we could. but mr cummings�* claims have made him a temporary political friend of the labour leader. we know that we've got one of the highest death tolls i in europe, and the families who havei lost someone are entitled to answers in relation to this, - because bad decisions have consequences, and in this case the consequence, i'm afraid, . are unnecessary deaths. but the minister who stepped into the most trouble is the health secretary. then i will be going to the house of commons and i will answer questions there. thanks very much. after his profile was under heavy attack, seeming to wind down the window for a better snap. the barbs at matt hancock came again and again... the secretary of state for health should have been fired for at least 15, 20 things, including lying to everybody. or, specifically, on what happened in care homes, where thousands died... the government rhetoric was, "we put a shield around care homes" and blah blah blah" —

it was complete nonsense. listen to whether the denials were quite so complete today... these unsubstantiated allegations around honesty are not true, and that i've been straight with people, in public and in private, throughout. is he ashamed that he promised a protective shield around care i homes, and over 30,000 care home residents have died? _ why were 25,000 elderly people . discharged from hospitals into care homes without any tests? questions will continue, though, whether in the commons, or here, at the department of health, especially around what happened in our care homes, behind closed doors. because, from early on, there were public calls, from care home managers and mp5, for a harder look at what was going wrong, or to get more tests to them, and at the beginning of may, there was acute concern expressed in number ten. an urgent meeting brought together to get to the bottom of what was going on.

it was common knowledge last year that there were terrible problems in care homes. can you still stand there today and say it's true that you protected care homes from the start? we worked as hard as we could to protect people who live in care homes. we committed to building the testing capacity to allow that to happen. of course, it then takes time to build testing capacity. perhaps, then, that's the end of one government claim, but it won't be the last you'll hear of dominic cummings' allegations. he may be gone, but his shadow, and the events of the last year, still stalk number ten. laura kuenssberg, bbc news, westminster. the health secretary says up to three quarters of new cases of coronavirus in the uk could now be of the indian variant. 3,542 new cases were reported in the latest 24—hour period — that's the highest daily figure since the middle of april. ten more deaths have been reported. the number of cases is rising slowly

— it's up 20% in the past week. in the vaccine roll—out, just over 236,000 people have had their first covid vaccine in the last 2a hours. in total, more than 38.6 million people have now had their firstjab. that's more than 73% of the uk's adult population. more than 427,000 people had their second dose in the past 2a hours, meaning just over 2a million people have had both doses. 45.6% of the population are now fully vaccinated. well, the prime minister says there's nothing in the data from england to suggest the final stage of lifting lockdown, onjune 21st, can't go ahead. but others have warned the decision is "in the balance". our health editor hugh pym has been looking at the numbers. the final laps in the race to get all adults vaccinated. from today in northern ireland, those aged 18 and over are eligible to get theirjabs,

and there was a steady stream of takers. in england, it's 30—year—olds and over booking in, and all this as the data points to a slight pick—up in the spread of the virus. daily reported covid cases in the uk rose steeply to hit a peak injanuary. then they fell back, butjust since early may, they've started rising slowly. this map shows hotspot areas in different parts of the uk. red, with the highest case rates, followed by orange and then yellow. experts say cases were expected to rise as the economy opens up, and it shouldn't necessarily be a concern. as long as our vaccination programme continues successfully, and as long as people are taking up the opportunity to get vaccinated, i think we will still continue in a positive way. we just have to be incredibly careful that, when this new data arises, we give it the analysis and the attention it deserves, to make sure that we can

avoid another lockdown. hospital numbers have been going up. there were 826 covid admissions in the uk in the last seven days, an increase of nearly 20% on the previous seven—day period, though they are still relatively very low. in bolton, where there's been a surge in cases with the indian variant of the virus, the local hospital has come under intense pressure, with more covid patients needing to be admitted. and trust leaders in other areas with the variant are also reporting higher numbers. they're optimistic at this point that they are not going to skyrocket, but they're really saying this week is the crucial week. this representative of hospital leaders says a common picture is emerging. what's particularly striking is that chief execs are saying that the people who are coming in are a lot younger, they need less access to critical care — they can treat them on general wards, but also, crucially, that the significant majority of people who are in hospital with covid—19 are people

who haven't been vaccinated. as vaccinations continue in areas like leicester, with rising cases of the variant first identified in india, public health officials are urging everyone who is invited for a second dose to come forward. they stress it does offer a high degree of protection against the variant. france is to ban non—essential travel from the uk from monday because of fears about the indian variant of the coronavirus. travellers who do arrive in france from the uk will be expected for essential reasons will be expected to self—isolate for a week. it comes after germany said that travellers arriving from the uk have to submit to a quarantine period of two weeks. hugh is here. concern is growing about the indian variant abroad. how concerned are people here? variant abroad. how concerned are peeple here?— variant abroad. how concerned are --eole here? ., , . , ., , people here? there are big decisions to make about—

people here? there are big decisions to make about easing _ people here? there are big decisions to make about easing restrictions, i to make about easing restrictions, in england onjune the 21st is the next potential date on the road back. the background we should keep on saying is that case numbers on hospital numbers are very low relative to where they were earlier this year. yes, cases with the variant first identified in india are rising rapidly, but very much in the hotspot areas which are already known about and actually officials are saying of course more cases are picked up when there's more testing and there is a surge testing going on in these areas including in bolton, where the army have been going house to house. we know it's more transmissible, it spreads more than the existing kent variant, and we are hearing of rising hospital admissions in some areas. but as we heard earlier, health leaders think the next week or so it's going to be crucialjust the next week or so it's going to be crucial just to see the next week or so it's going to be crucialjust to see how the next week or so it's going to be crucial just to see how the the next week or so it's going to be crucialjust to see how the data actually plays out on hospital numbers and the impact of this variant and of course that data will be watched very carefully by ministers who have to make the decisions. , . ~ ministers who have to make the decisions. , ., ~ , .,

president biden has ordered a review of intelligence about where the covid—i9 outbreak originated from. it follows renewed speculation in america that the virus leaked from a laboratory in the city of wuhan. the world health organization is preparing further studies into its origins having previously said it was "highly improbable" to have come from a lab. but china has accused the us of playing politics with coronavirus. here's our china correspondentjohn sudworth. for more than a year, the theory that the virus leaked from this wuhan laboratory has largely been dismissed as a conspiracy. the invisible enemy, the china virus... the theory�*s association with donald trump made it for manyjust one more piece of disinformation. but in the mouth of president biden, well, that feels different, and suddenly the world's media are taking it seriously. well, i think it's very important because it will feed into... a welcome change for those long trying to argue that all possible origins need to be investigated.

well, it matters because it has had a huge impact on everybody's lives around the world. we need to find out how this started, so we can prevent it happening again. if it turns out it was a lab leak, we need to make sure our bio—safety and bio—security policies are solid and that they're in place and implemented. china now finds itself repeating its earlier denials. translation: the united states does not care about _ facts and truth at all. nor is it interested - in serious scientific tracing. but instead wants to use i the epidemic to politically manipulate and to stigmatise. many scientists still favour a natural origin. coronaviruses are known to have jumped from animals to humans in markets like this in the past. lab leaks, though, have also happened before,

and the wuhan lab has collected, studied and experimented on coronaviruses on a huge scale. when we tried to report on this science, we were followed, obstructed and prevented from filming. have you found the origins of the coronavirus? but the world health organization team that visited wuhan all but ruled out a lab leak. today, one of them told the bbc if the us has evidence that lab workers got sick, it should share it. they've been saying that for almost a year now, so if there is real evidence, then i think the responsibility of the us is to share it because then it can be followed up. the debate will continue, but evidence is what matters, and there's little prospect of china allowing another investigation on its soil. john sudworth, bbc news, taipei.

let's take a look at some of today's other news. the tv celebrity doctor christianjessen has been ordered to pay £125,000 in damages to the northern ireland first minister, arlene foster, for a tweet that falsely claimed she was having an affair. the high court in belfast awarded the record figure to compensate the dup leader for what it called a "baseless accusation". no human remains have been found by police who have been excavating a cafe cellar in gloucester for more than a week in the search for a suspected victim of the serial killer fred west. officers have been searching for mary bastholm, who worked at the pop—in cafe — now called the clean plate. the 15 year old was last seen in 1968. the conservative mp rob roberts has been suspended from the commons for six weeks after he made repeated unwanted advances to a member of staff. mps approved the motion to suspend him. the commons leaderjacob rees—mogg said it would be "honourable" if mr roberts stood down as an mp.

the manchester united player marcus rashford says he received "at least 70 racial slurs" on social media after the team lost last night's europa league final to villarreal. manchester united said its players had been subjected to "disgraceful racist abuse" which wouldn't be tolerated. foreign secretary dominic raab has welcomed an international investigation into the diverted ryanair plane, that led to the arrest in minsk of the belarrussian journalist roman protasevich. the eu says it's almost ready to launch new sanctions on the country. sarah rainsford is in minsk for us tonight. sarah, diplomatic tensions still rising. that is right. more strong words from the international community and more moves towards concrete actions from the authorities towards those in belarus, talk of a package of sanctions against the authorities here, and possible economic measures

soon after that. there is one sanction already kicking in here with the national airline here now banned from flying to europe so there is an increasing sense of isolation in this country. from that move. i spoke to people here trying to return their tickets, talking about the fact they felt trapped in the country but interestingly they also said they welcomed the move and they welcomed the sanctions. they hope it could increase the pressure on the authorities, that they tried to do with their street protest last year, and of course they were forced off the streets by the massive security forces mash back and crackdown that followed. another consequence of the sanctions could be pushing belarus closer to russia, vladimir putin a critical backer of alexander lukashenko, keeping him in power until now, and both of them are set to meet tomorrow in russia. sarah rainsford, many thanks. two metropolitan police officers accused of taking

photographs by the bodies of two women at a crime scene in london have said they are "sorry beyond measure" for the pain they have caused. pc deniz jaffer, who's a7, and 32—year—old pcjamie lewis have been charged with misconduct in public office. from westminster magistrates�* court, helena wilkinson, reports. bibaa henry was celebrating her birthday with her sister nicole smallman last year when they went missing. two days later, their bodies were found next to each other. pc deninaffer and pc jamie lewis were assigned to protect the crime scene, but they were later arrested, after an investigation into accusations they had taken selfies by the bodies. last year, the sisters' mother spoke to the bbc. those police officers... ..dehumanised our children. today, the officers appeared

in court, charged with misconduct in a public office. both police officers appeared together in the dock, and through their lawyer, they issued an apology, saying they are sorry beyond measure for the pain that they have caused. their barrister also said that both defendants had indicated they would plead guilty at the old bailey next month. separately, 19—year—old danyal hussein is facing trial next month at the same court, accused of murdering the two sisters. helena wilkinson, bbc news. mozambique is being urged to accept thousand of troops from neighbouring countries in africa to help quell a growing islamist insurgency. two months ago, co—ordinated attacks claimed dozens of lives and drove tens of thousands of people from their homes. over 2,500 people have been killed since the insurgency began in 2017. many of those who died were in the city of palma

in mozamique's north—eastern province of cabo delgardo. some of those who fled sought safety on a small group of islands. our correspondent catherine byaru hanga is among the firstjournalists to make it to quirimba island where she found that even there the islamist threat continues. the new front line in mozambique's islamist insurgency. militants linked to the islamic state stalk these waterways, attacking fishing boats and raiding villages. paradise islands, once famous for luxury holidays, now shelter thousands displaced by the fighting. we are one of the first foreign media teams to get here. this man and his wife are expecting their first child. they escaped the coastal town of palma, where the insurgents carried out their last big attack.

"it was pure terror, she says, "decapitated bodies were everywhere. "building and banks were burned." this woman arrived here with her three children. but one child died when she went into labour on a boat out at sea. she says without medical help her premature son passed away. it's two months since the big attack on palma and everyday people are still coming here having travelled across the region. this is a population constantly on the move, trying to find safety. everyone here knows the militants could attack at any moment. there's a desperation for the insurgency to end.

translation: the government l is working on it because it doesn't want to see its own people suffering. this is the reason why this war must end. more than ever before, the government is working to end this war. we hope so. but the militants seem to be getting stronger. the attack in palma was close to africa's biggest gas fields. the french energy giant total was forced to suspend its operations. mozambique is under pressure to let in foreign troops from its neighbours. there is a fear the insurgency could spread across southern africa. for now, the government is telling the world it has the situation under control. catherine byaruhanga, bbc news, northern mozambique. it's ten years since undercover filming by the bbc�*s panorama programme at a residential care unit

called winterbourne view near bristol shocked britain, revealing bullying and abuse of people with learning disabilities and special needs. pledges to shut all similar hospitals have been missed. every day around four people are admitted to specialist hosptials — according to the charity mencap — and their figures show that over a recent period spanning two and a half years — there've been more 100,000 incidents of patients being restrained, drugged or put in isolation. our social affairs correspondent, alison holt reports. winterbourne view caused incalculable damage to simon. he went somewhere where they beat him, they abused him. it's been a decade since this deeply upsetting undercoverfilming by bbc panorama showed people with learning disabilities and autism being abused at winterbourne view hospital. it closed, and the government promised all similar institutions would shut, with better support provided in the community.

but this online vigil by families marks what they see as ten years of broken promises, because more than 2,000 people are still locked up in such places. among them, elliott. he was taken to a specialist hospital after a crisis. three years later, he's still there. there's times where he rings, and he's crying, and breaking his heart, saying that he just wants to come home, he's had enough. and you're kind of fobbing him off. you can't give him a direct answer, to say, "you're coming home in august", because giving him that guarantee and it not happening is difficult. simon endured some of the most distressing abuse at winterbourne view. now he lives in his own home with support, but he is still dealing with the aftermath of what happened. they ridiculed him, and emotionally tortured him, and he just couldn't understand.

his mother feels let down that government promises to protect others from what simon faced haven't led to enough change. they failed their own targets, and i find that astonishing, because we're talking at the highest possible level of government, and those changes did not happen. people didn't come out of units, and people continued to go in them. norman lamb was the care minister in the coalition government who made the first promise to close specialist hospitals by 2014. unfortunately, i discovered that, as a government minister, you don't have nearly as much power as you would want to effect change, and i also recognise that it takes time to move institutions, and it requires constant focus, over many years. the government and nhs england say winterbourne view has led to the number of people in specialist hospitals being reduced by a third, and that increasing support

in the community is a priority. alison holt, bbc news. onlyfans is a british website on which people share photos and videos — much of it adult content — in return for a subscription fee, and it has become a global phenomenon. but a bbc news investigation has found that the site has failed to prevent some underage users from selling and appearing in explicit videos, and that under—18s have set up accounts by using fake identification. onlyfans says its age verification systems go "over and above" what's required by "current regulations" and that it takes preventing underage use very seriously. our correspondent rianna croxford reports. it's a british website that has boomed during the pandemic. welcome to my onlyfans. allowing people to post photos and videos in return for a subscription fee.

it's popular with celebrities who offer exclusive access into their lives and now has more than 120 million users worldwide. the site hosts a range of content from music to beauty videos but it is best known for pornography, and users have to be over 18. we found that onlyfans is failing to prevent some underage users from selling and appearing in videos. police say one 14—year—old used her grandmother's passport to sell explicit images, and a mum of a 17—year—old says her daughter's bank account was frozen after she made £5,000 from posting nudes. these are the type of comments she received while promoting her onlyfans account on twitter. some request more graphic content and ask if she'll meet up. well, she did say that originally she was only going to be doing pictures of her feet. the girl's mother, who is played by an actor to protect the teenager's identity, said she has since stopped posting on her account but her nudes have been leaked across the internet. she wants to go to college but she suffers really badly with anxiety. she won't go out any more.

she doesn't want to be seen. onlyfans says the girl had used a fake driver's license and that approving the account was an oversight during a transition to a more effective age verification system. all active subscriptions have now been refunded. but the uk's lead officer for child protection says onlyfans needs to do more to protect underage users. it's becoming increasingly clear that onlyfans is being used by children and children on occasions are being blackmailed and exploited. the company are not doing enough to put in place the safeguards that prevent children exploiting the opportunity to generate money but also to prevent children from being exploited. onlyfans says their work to stop children accessing the site limits the likelihood of them being exposed to blackmail or exploitation, and if it is notified about these behaviours it takes swift action and disables accounts. we are seeing child sex trafficking victims exploited

and sold via onlyfans. an american watchdog also said it is receiving reports of missing children appearing in explicit videos. that really hit our radar in 2019, where we saw a dozen or so children that were also linked with content on onlyfans, and that dramatically increased in 2020. we saw it almost triple. in a statement, onlyfans said preventing underage use of its site is something it takes very seriously. it said it constantly reviews its systems to make sure they are as robust as possible and manually reviews every application it receives. it added that it works with charities and organisations to raise any potential issues with the relevant authorities. in response to our findings the government said that onlyfans had failed to properly protect children and that the online safety bill would make sure this no longer happens. but child protection campaigners say it is still not clear whether this

new law will actually require onlyfans to do more than it currently does to protect children from harmful content. rianna croxford, bbc news. dark matter — it's the most mysterious substance in the universe. little is known about it. scientists are pretty sure it exists, but still don't know what it is. now they have created the largest ever distribution map of dark matter in the universe, as our science correspondent pallab ghosh reports. look up at the skies and you see stars. but this telescope, in the deserts of chile, is able to see the universe as it really is, filled with a mysterious substance, called dark matter. it can't be seen, but this instrument can detect dark matter by the way it distorts starlight. this is a map of matter in the universe. and that's allowed astronomers to produce this map of how it's spread across the expanse of space. it's an element of,

you know, unveiling mystery. something you couldn't see before, and suddenly, it's there, and you think, "wow." so what is dark matter, and where is it in space? well, let's start off with our own sun. it's one of 100 billion stars that make up our galaxy, the milky way, which, in turn, is one of countless others throughout the universe. dark matter permeates space, with galaxies like tiny gems on a tangled cosmic web. the bright areas are where dark matter is most concentrated, and it's here that galaxies form, but the map is not what astronomers expected. the matter should be slightly more clumped together. instead, it's smoother than predicted by einstein's theory of general relativity, which helps determine how the matter should have spread out after the big bang. if the structures in this map are smoother than we expect them to be, which is what the results

seem to hint at, it means that einstein's theory is wrong.