welcome to bbc news, i'm ben boulos. our top stories. president biden announces plans to share the first batch of the us's unused coronavirus vaccines — three quarters will go to the covax global programme. and why exiled uighurs are in london to put pressure on the international community to act against china. portugal is removed from the uk's safe "green" travel list. a bitter blow for travellers hoping to get to one of the very few options for european holidays. twitter introduces a new subscription service, but will users want to pay?

hello. the biden administration has unveiled plans to share millions of unused covid vaccines with the rest of the world. they'll distribute 25 million doses immediately, with a goal of handing out 80 million by the end ofjune. of that initial batch, 19 million will be allocated to covax, the global facility designed to distribute vaccines fairly. the remaining six million doses will go directly to countries experiencing surges and to us neighbours. they include mexico, canada, south korea and ukraine. president biden�*s national security adviserjake sullivan outlined the criteria for vaccine distribution. we've received requests from all over the world, and a number of important factors went into our decision about how to allocate these first 25 million vaccines. these factors included achieving global coverage, responding to surges

and other specific urgent situations and public health needs, and helping as many countries as possible who've requested vaccines. gavin yamey is the professor of global health and public policy at duke university, and gave me his reaction. covax, the global sharing mechanism, has only distributed about 76 million doses so far to low income and lower middle income countries. this 19 million doses donation from president biden is a good first step. it's churlish to complain. on the other hand, it's not commensurate with the size of the problem and the need. it's like putting a really tiny band—aid on a giant gaping, bleeding wound. we really are going to need 11 billion doses in order to vaccinate 70% of the world. that's a proportion many

scientists think would allow us to reach vaccine herd immunity. it's an important step, a small one, and let's not forget the reason covax has so few doses is nations like the us, like the uk, like israel, new zealand, canada, they hoarded doses, they cleared the shelves and there were none left for covax. you have a hoarding nation like the us finally donating some doses. a few crumbs from a rich person's table, if you like. in which case, how do you make those vast numbers of doses available? is it waiving the intellectual property rights? is it making the manufacturing processes, helping poorer countries set up production to make their own vaccines? all of the above. look, right now, rich countries are sitting on around 200—300 million doses,

sitting on fridges, not used, not needed, ready to go. they should be shots in arms in lower middle income countries now. secondly, rich countries have bought an additional 1.5 billion doses, advanced purchases, that they don't need. they need to free up those doses, they are not made yet but they will be soon, and give those to covax. and lastly, your point, absolutely we need what is what is being called a people's vaccine. we have to make sure that low and middle income countries are empowered to make vaccine doses themselves. no more trickle—down manufacturing where a few doses might make it down from the global north to the global south. waive the patent, transfer the technology. that is not going to make doses tomorrow. i'm not naive enough to think that. but it could, in four or six months�* time. and there are manufacturers in thailand, bangladesh, egypt,

hungary, ready to go. give them the ip, transfer technology, support them to manufacture doses. this pandemic will be with us for years to come, we have to globalise the manufacturing. in a week's time, president biden will arrive in the uk as the leaders of the world's largest industrialised democracies gather for the g7 conference. one of the issues on the agenda is their relationships with china and ongoing concerns about beijing's alleged persecution of the country's uighur population. the us is among several countries to have accused china of committing genocide — china denies these accusations. this week, dozens of uighurs have come to london to put pressure on the international community to act. caroline hawley reports. this man wants to tell the world his story. so does gulbaharjalilova, to speak out for their people. china's accused of mass atrocities against the uighurs, of incarcerating over a million people, of subjecting

uighurs to forced labour and sterilisations — allegations it denies. but in this remote area of north—west china, wearing a headscarf or having a beard can put you behind bars. gulbaharjalilova says she was arrested in 2017, accused of terrorism, and put in a cell with dozens of other women who were all given regular injections and pills that stopped their periods. once every ten days, she says, they were forced to strip naked. this man was accused by china of revealing state secrets in1993, and jailed. he now has asylum in norway, where he's active in the uighur community. but in 2017, he says he got a video call in which he could see his brother and sister

hanging by their arms from a ceiling. he says a policeman called and told him to stop funding uighur groups in turkey, to stop mixing with other uighur exiles. he refused. since then, he says his entire family — 30 people in all — have disappeared. it's impossible for us to verify their accounts. china prevents independent journalists and human rights organisations from operating freely in xinjiang, where most uighurs live. these pictures from state media show the region as a happy tourist destination. chinese officials call it a place of harmony. but the witnesses who've come to london to testify at a self—styled tribunal will tell a very different story. it has no government

backing or legal force, and china has vehemently denounced everyone involved. translation: the so-called uighur special tribunal - is neither legal nor credible. it's just another anti—china farce, concocted by a few people. the chinese authorities say that the witnesses to the tribunal are all acting, are actors, that this is a show. both say they've come to london to put the spotlight on the uighurs�* collective suffering, and china's efforts to erase their identity. caroline hawley, bbc news. the detained bela rusian opposition journalist roman protasevich has appeared again on state television, tearfully confessing to helping to organise anti—government protests. he is also seen recanting his

criticism of belarus�*s authoritarian president, alexander lu kashenko. his family and opposition groups say he was clearly speaking under duress. the authorities, who've labelled mr protasevich an extremist, claim television confessions by government opponents are purely done voluntarily. officials in sri lanka are desperately trying to contain a potentially devastating oil leak from a sinking cargo ship. the ship caught fire nearly two weeks ago, debris and oil have already spread onto the coast, sparking fears of an environmental disaster. the bbc�*s secunder kermani has more. an environmental disaster that only looks to be getting worse. after a fire broke out around two weeks ago, this huge ship, the x—press pearl, is sinking. desperate efforts to tow it further away from sri lanka's western coastline have failed, with part of the boat striking against the sea bed.

millions of plastic pellets that were being transported have already contaminated sri lanka's beaches. clean—up operations are under way, but the tiny pellets used to manufacture everyday products are often mistaken for food by marine life. the fear now is of a possible huge oil spill. around 350 tonnes were on board. it's not known how much has been burnt off. this is by far the worst marine environmental disaster sri lanka has ever seen, because if there's oil spills, it's going to be adding onto the plastic pellets and on top of the chemicals and the toxins, and the environmental disaster is going to quadruple. at the main fish market in the city of negombo, local fishermen know this could be a devastating blow to their livelihoods. the pandemic means any clean—up is likely to take even longer. "the authorities need

to stop environmental damage happening," says this fisherman. "they should have sunk the ship as soon as the fire started. it's not officials who will pay the price for this. it's us." 25 tonnes of nitric acid were also on board the ship. a leak in one of those containers likely caused the fire. port officials in both qatar and india had earlier refused to allow the chemical to be unloaded there. an investigation is under way, but for now, the focus is on preventing even more environmental damage. secunder kermani, bbc news. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: as a major airline buys 15 new supersonic planes, will we soon be hearing the boom in our skies once more? the queen and her husband

began their royal progress to westminster. the moment of crowning, in accordance with the order of service, via a signal given with the great guns of the tower. tributes have been paid around the world to muhammad ali who has died at the age of 7a. outspoken but rarely out—fought, ali transcended the sport of boxing of which he was three times world champion. he was a good fighter, he fought all the way to the end — even through his illness. yes, he did. uefa imposes an indefinite ban on english clubs playing in europe. today is the 20th anniversary of the release of the beatles lp sgt pepper's lonely hearts club band, a record described as the album of the century.

this is bbc news, the latest headlines. president biden has announced plans for the us to start sharing millions of doses of covid vaccines with the rest of the world before the end of the month. portugal is removed from the uk green travel list. british travellers now have to quarantine on their return. the changes will come into effect onjune 8th. twitter has launched its first ever subscription product. the new service, called twitter blue, allows users to "undo" tweets, a long—awaited feature, and organise saved tweets into bookmark folders, among other things. twitter blue will initially be available in australia and canada. analysts say the tech company wants to expand from its core business of selling advertising on the platform. social media strategist meg coffey in perth, western australia, says she'll definitely be joining. i can't wait to sign up.

for me, twitter has been my favourite platform. the things i have gotten out of twitter far outweigh what a monthly service is going to cost me so i can't wait to sign up, i think it's brilliant. you are speaking as someone who works in the social media sector, you are a specialist and you engage with it a lot. if people are browsing while they are waiting in a coffee shop, are they really going to want another subscription on top of all the others they have? i think that's the difference. because i use it every day, and for work, it makes sense for me to buy it. if you just use it casually, you don't spend a lot of time on the platform, not using it for news, sport and politics, i can see it wouldn't fit in for you and you think social media needs to be free,

it's just another communication tool. on the business side, this is really interesting, because the problem twitter has is monetising. advertising is such a competitive market up against the likes of google and facebook and youtube and the rest. do you think this could become their main source of income orjust in addition? that's a tough one. i think it's probably going to be in addition. 11.99, for 25 million people, that's not going to happen. but the super—users who love twitter will be more than happy to sign up and not see ads or have a way to limit it. ads will still exist for some, but it's a side hustle for them. do you think other social media platforms will follow suit? watch that space. i think for the average user, they are going to baulk

if they have to pay for social media because it should be free. facebook and instagram love to copy what everyone else does, so they will be watching intently to see how this goes and how many people take it up, and what the feedback is about that. i think it is too early. facebook always used to say, always free, on the front. they removed that a while ago. watch this space. why do you think it is being rolled out in australia and canada in particular? we get a lot of things in australia first because we have the perfect test population, english—speaking, 25 million people, so it is controllable, we like the things america and the uk likes, america and the uk likes, so it's a great way to test it and see how it is taken up. what is fascinating to me, twitter is not that popular in australia. so i am surprised they came here first even though we are the perfect test.

twitter�*s working to fail fast with new products lately, so i think they will pay a lot of attention and make sure they get it exactly right before they take the risk of rolling out in a bigger country and it not working. let s get some of the day's other news. four countries have started legal action against iran over the accidental shooting down of a ukrainian airliner near tehran last year. ukraine, britain, sweden and canada all had citizens aboard the plane. they're demanding that iran officially take responsibility for what happened. the ukrainian plane was mistakenly shot down by iranian forces during a period of very high tension between iran and us forces based in neighbouring iraq. a court in pakistan is reported to have overturned a death sentence handed down to a christian couple for blasphemy and ordered their release. shagufta kausar and her husband shafqat emmanuel were convicted in 2014 of insulting the prophet muhammad. the couple's case attracted

global attention. one of the most famous lawyers in the united states has died at the age of 87. f lee bailey was part of the defence team who worked for oj simpson during his murdertrial, dubbed the trial of the century. he was also known for representing some of america's most notorious defendants in court, including albert de salvo, also known as the boston strangler. hundreds of uk holidaymakers and would—be travellers have had their plans thrown into disarray, as quarantine rules for those returning from portugal are to be reintroduced. the country had been the only mainstream european travel destination on the uk's green list, but those returning from there after 4am on tuesday will now have to isolate for ten days and take two coronavirus tests. bbc transport correspondent caroline davies reports. it was a brief moment in the sun. after three weeks, portugal is off the green list. for passengers heading

out there today, the news came as a shock. gutted, really. but, anyway, it is what it is. i understand, but we can't quarantine when we come back. we've got to work. so we just had to cancel everything. frustrating. it's not a problem for me, i'm retired. but my daughter was coming out with her friends on sunday. they've now had to cancel. so four of them are really disappointed, i guess. i definitely can't quarantine - for ten days when i come back, due to business commitments. i will make a decision very shortly as to - whether i go at all. in portugal, beach bars and restaurants had been steadily filling up. uk visitors were surprised by the announcement. it's a little bit sad, really, because we're here, we're on holiday, and everything seems really safe. everyone's wearing their mask, probably a bit more protected than the uk. it's just sad that it's going onto the amber list. we travelled here because we didn't have to isolate on our return.

so for tourism, i think it's going to be a big blow. the news was crushing for the seabrooks, who run this beachfront bar in the algarve. well, unfortunately, we've employed ten new staff in the last week, and every single one of them is going to have to be made redundant. it's just terribly sad. and again, the suppliers, carriers, all of the testing centres for the travellers to get back efficiently without queues, it's just rubbish. there's no two ways about it. it's heartbreaking for us, we're going to have to let all these staff go again, and we don't know when — if — we'll be able to employ them again. no other countries have been added to the green list either, meaning portugaljoins spain, greece and france on the amber list. the small trickle of passengers back into uk airports over the course of the last few weeks hasn't been the restart that many in the industry wanted. but today's announcement is a very bitter blow. well, the uk has, essentially,

with the decision that it's taken today, which i said was unjustifiable and completely irrational, cut itself off from europe — and from the world, for that matter. i would urge them to re—look into this, because there are so many families now who can't reunite that should be able to do so, and i think it's utterly confusing for british people. so, what's the justification? we've seen two things, really, which have caused concern. one is the positivity rate has nearly doubled since the last review, in portugal. the other is that there's a sort of nepal mutation of the so—called indian variant which has been detected, and we just don't know the potential for that to be a vaccine—defeating mutation, and simply don't want to take the risk as we come up to 21stjune. seven more countries were also added to the red list — afghanistan, bahrain, costa rica, egypt, sri lanka, sudan and trinidad and tobago.

with concerns about new variants, some have argued that the government have made the right decision. to be cautious at this stage, it's, yes, an extreme measure, but it's a pandemic situation and you don't want more variants coming to the uk. but many who were planning foreign trips, and the industry that was hoping to take them, will be bitterly disappointed by today's news and worried about the uncertain shadow it throws across the summer. caroline davies, bbc news. united airlines has revealed a plan to bring back supersonic passenger travel by 2029 announcing it would buy ultra—fast jets from denver—based aerospace company boom supersonic. commercial supersonic flights ended in 2003 when concorde, flown by air france and british airways, was retired. christopher wanjek, who authored spacefarers: how humans will settle the moon, mars, and beyond, says while it's a thrilling prospect, there are plenty of challenges ahead.

very exciting. i am wondering why it took 20 years since the retirement of concorde. will it be environmentally friendly at a time when we are being urged to fly less? right! big open ended questions, it sounds too good to be true, they want to fly on biofuel. can they pull it off? they will need a lot of it and it is in short supply. that will raise the costs, with tickets at $25,000! good luck with that. a lot of promises right now. you touched on the cost. this is going to be for an elite few who can afford to spend this much on a plane ticket. that's right. that's not what they want it to be, but let's face it, concorde was that way. in today's dollars, it

would be around $13,000 for a round trip new york to london. that's probably what the cost is going to be for this new venture. i don't know how they can make it much cheaper. they talk about efficiencies, 50 years of plane technology, but it is a long way to get it down to $2500 per ticket. who is going to pay? the government, private investors? right now it is private, but i think the government should get involved, that helped concorde get off the ground. concorde started in the 1950s, didn't fly a test until 1969, and then it took until 1976 before it went commercial. this is a start—up company with a bit of money from united airlines, can they pull it off all by themselves? i just don't think so. i think government investment is very prudent in this regard. will it have any effect on space exploration? i think it's a good

stepping stone to get i think it's a good stepping stone to get people excited again about another destination very far, quickly. let's face it, blue orbit, virgin galactic, spacex, they are talking about sending tourists to space but the ultimate goal for many of them is to have suborbital aeroplane flights, essentially taking you from london to australia in two hours. new york to hong kong. if you are interested in space travel, there is an interesting piece on our science page on the website about sending thousands of worms and baby squid to space as we speak. check it out on the website or the app. you can reach us on social media as well. this is bbc world news, thanks for

watching. hello there, it was a bit cooler on thursday. we still managed temperatures into the low 20s in northern scotland. highest temperatures were across east anglia and the south—east — 25 degrees in suffolk. you may not find temperatures quite as high as that in the next couple of days but for many it will still be dry and there will be warm spells of sunshine, as well. the fly in the ointment is all this cloud we have kept a close eye on moving up from northern parts of spain across france, and threatening to bring some showers across east anglia and the south—east. we have seen more cloud coming in across eastern parts of england for a while, hence the higher temperatures early in the morning. some clear skies for many other areas, quite a cool start for wales and the south—west. for many on friday, it will be dry with some sunshine, the threat of these showers coming up as the cloud

thickens to east anglia and the south—east and already more cloud coming into northern ireland — that will be spilling its way into western parts of scotland. it could bring one or two showers towards the highlands. not as warm as it was thursday for northern scotland. much of the country dry with sunny spells, top temperature of 19 degrees. a couple of degrees lower in northern ireland and already more cloud. it will be brighter towards the east. a good deal of sunshine for many parts of england and wales — strong sunshine and high uv — but more cloud for east anglia and the south—east for a time through the day and a threat of some showers and wetter weather towards kent and east sussex. a chance we could see a little rain in london during the cricket at lord's but it looks dry on saturday and sunday with some sunshine, as well. that threat of showers pulls away overnight and the cloud will break early on saturday morning. then we look into the atlantic and this is where our weather is slowly coming from for the weekend. that weak weather front will bring more cloud to western parts of the uk,

it could deliver some heavy showers in the afternoon across northern ireland and western parts of scotland. drier elsewhere with more in the way of sunshine towards the south east, and temperatures climbing up to around 23 celsius or so. heading into the second half of the weekend, probably starting sunny in many areas, temperatures rising and bubbling up a little bit of cloud, could squeeze out a few showers. a very low risk. the sunniest skies likely to be continuing around coastal areas and temperatures on sunday similar to those of saturday.

this is bbc news. the headlines:

the biden administration has unveiled plans to share millions of unused covid vaccines with the rest of the world. they'll distribute 25—million doses immediately, with a goal of handing out 80—million by the end ofjune. of that initial batch, 19—million will be allocated to covax. portugal will be removed from the uk's green travel list from tuesday, amid rising coronavirus cases and concern over variants. it willjoin the amber list, meaning holidaymakers should not visit and returnees must isolate for 10 days. seven new countries and territories will be added to the red list. four countries have started legal action against iran over the accidental shooting down ofa ukrainian airliner last year. ukraine, britain, sweden and canada all had citizens aboard the plane. they want iran to officially take responsibility for what happened.

here in london, the high court has ruled that the uk