this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. g7 finance ministers agree a deal to make big tech companies pay more tax. the post—pandemic world must be fairer, especially with regard to international taxation. a uk health boss says the coronavirus vaccines have "broken the chain" between infection and serious illness. jamaica's shelly—ann fraser—pryce becomes the second—fastest woman in history with her 100m victory in kingston. and an unfriendly farewell: a chorus of boos for the first cruise ship to leave venice since the pandemic started.

hello and welcome. i'm lewis vaughan jones. it's being hailed as a "historic agreement", that could see global governments make billions more in tax revenue. the deal made by the g7 group of leading economies could shake up the tax system for multinational companies like big tech giants. it could include a global minimum corporate tax rate of 15% to avoid countries undercutting each other. tech companies google and facebook have welcomed the move. our economics editor faisal islam reports. multinational companies, especially the big tech giants, have become more powerful than some governments — especially in their ability to pay minimal tax bills. today, the finance ministers of the seven leading economies, the g7, hit back with an historic deal brokered

by the chancellor, rishi sunak. i'm delighted to announce that today, after years of discussion, g7 finance ministers have reached a historic agreement to reform the global tax system, to make it fit for the global digital age but crucially, to make sure it's fair, so that the right companies pay the right tax in the right places. they agreed to the principle of a global minimum corporation tax of at least 15%, as well as rules to make the largest companies with profits of more than 10% pay more tax in countries where sales are made, not just where they declare their profits. the us had initially wanted a higher minimum rate of 21%. what do you say to those campaigners who say 15% isn't really going to bite, isn't going to be the transformative change? we have yet to set the final rate. there is an agreement among the g7, though, to go for at least 15%, and i do think that's an historic achievement.

foryears, campaigners and european finance ministers wanted this change, but it was unthinkable, up until a few months ago. it's the pandemic that has changed things, requiring finance ministers around the world to have to fill coffers emptied by a year of lockdowns, but also the change in the american government as well, creating a window of opportunity. now, they need to get the rest of the world on board. the proposals must now go to the wider g20 group, including china, russia and brazil, then the rest of the world. the german finance minister hailed today as an important step, even if difficult conversations lay ahead with countries whose tax rates are below 15%. i'm sure that the decision that has been made today is — will be very successful. this is a train that already started and anyone willjoin the train. ireland's rate of corporation tax is 12.5%. isn't this notjust

about a corporate tax rate but the end of a low tax business model for your country? we will, even with an acknowledgement of the change that is coming, continue to have the kind of legitimate policies in place in ireland that deliver a competitive approach for ireland and allow us to grow and retain employment. google and amazon have said they support the work being done to reform tax rules. so has facebook, which acknowledged it could end up paying more as a result. this deal is a product of very different times — an opportunity taken in a crisis by the world's big seven. the americans are also using this meeting to urge the rest of the world, despite worries about high borrowing and rising inflation, to carry on pumping financial support into the recovery, or risk undermining it. faisal islam, bbc news, at the g7. a health boss in england says the decision on easing restrictions on the 21st ofjune is finely balanced. chris hopson warned that the delta variant, first discovered in india, is still spreading but he said vaccines appear to be breaking the link between coronavirus

cases and serious illness. our health correspondent naomi grimley reports. it's the big question of the summer — can hospitals still cope with the numbers of people who'll fall seriously ill with covid—i9 before the full effects of mass vaccination are felt? hospital admissions are well below the levels we saw in winter and today, one of those representing health trusts appeared to strike an optimistic note. it does look as though the vaccines have kind of broken the chain between catching covid—i9 and potentially being very, very seriously ill and potentially dying. bolton is the area hit hardest by covid's more transmissible delta variant, first discovered in india. looking at what's happening in hospitals is a gauge to whether the nhs in general will be able to cope.

this graph shows the number of covid patients in bolton's hospitals over the last few months. you can see there are high peaks in november and again in january and february. in the last few weeks, the figures have been rising again, but they are nothing like those earlier peaks. but new cases are rising noticeably as we mix more, and some experts fear the delta variant could take hold in groups which haven't yet been fully vaccinated. more mutations could be incorporated into the delta variant that could mean that vaccines are less effective and that is really what we want to avoid. the worst—case scenario for us is a variant that is both more transmissible and resistant to vaccination. opinions in the scientific community remain split. perhaps the only thing everyone can agree on is that more data is needed. naomi grimley, bbc news.

western diplomats in nigeria have expressed disappointment at the government's decision to suspend twitter. a joint statement from the us, eu, britain, canada and ireland said the right to free expression and information was a pillar of democracy in nigeria. the row started after twitter removed a tweet by nigeria's president muhammadu buhari, saying it breached the social media platform's rules. the government accuses the social media platform of "undermining nigeria's corporate existence". mayenijones reports. on saturday morning, twitter users in nigeria woke up to find that they no longer had access to their accounts — that's using most mobile phone networks. on wi—fi, you could still access the website and the hashtag #thankgodforvpn has been trending, suggesting many users have managed to find a way to use the website by using virtual private networks. the nigerian government had announced on friday that it planned to suspend all

of twitter�*s activities in the country. at the time, it was unclear what they meant by that. it seems that they have now decided to block access to the website. the telecoms companies that operate in nigeria released a statement, saying that they had received a directive from the government to suspend twitter and that they had complied, but they did say that they followed the united nations provisions on the freedom of communication and that they agreed with those. twitter users in nigeria have been very angry. they say that this is undemocratic. nigeria is africa's largest democracy and many see this as a step backwards for the country. many also pointing out to the fact that president buhari was a military dictator in this country in the �*80s and they see this latest move as a continuation of that legacy. twitter has issued a statement. they say they are deeply concerned by the suspension of their services in nigeria and they say they will work

towards reinstating a service for its users here. there are about 150 million internet users in nigeria and according to the authorities here, just over 60% of those use twitter, so it is a huge market for the social media company and they will be really desperate to try and rebuild relationships with the government. for a little bit of context, this has happened because twitter deleted a post by president buhari earlier this week. they said it breached its rules in that post. many nigerian users flagged it because they felt that it was a threat to a secessionist movement in the south—east of nigeria. let's get some of the day's other news. un secretary—general antonio guterres has expressed outrage at a suspected jihadist militant attack in burkina faso. at least 132 people have been killed in the north—eastern village of solhan in the sahel

region of the country. three days of mourning have been announced. the president of el salvador has told attendees at the bitcoin 2021 conference in florida that he'll make the cryptocurrency legal tender in his country alongside the us dollar. if congress backs his proposal, el salvador would become the first country in the world to formally adopt bitcoin. a bipartisan delegation of three united states senators have arrived in taiwan, where they've announced that washington will donate 750,000 coronavirus vaccine doses to its ally. the high—profile delegation and gift comes as taiwan accuses china of hampering its efforts to secure enough doses as part of beijing's ongoing campaign to keep the island isolated. former us president donald trump has returned to the stage to address the republican faithful for his first speech in several months as he considers

a new presidential run in 202a. organisers at the convention of north carolina's republican party said the event was a sell—out, with all 1,250 tickets sold. although mr trump has been cut off from social networks, many republicans still see him as a valuable asset ahead of midterm elections next year. it's a disgrace what is happening to our country. the survival of america depends upon our ability to elect republicans at every level, starting with the midterms next year, we have to get it done. we have to get it done. we have no choice, actually. a us federaljudge has overturned california's 32—year—old ban on assault weapons, calling it unconstitutional. he's given the state 30 days to appeal. california's governor condemned the ruling saying it is a direct threat to public safety. robyn thomas, executive director of giffords law center to prevent gun violence, told us the case may go to the supreme court.

i certainly expect that gun rights advocates, the gun lobby and the gun industry, who would love to be selling many more assault weapons to many more americans, would like it to go to the supreme court because they will do anything they can to convince people to buy these guns. this is what drives a lot of the momentum behind this litigation is the — is the desire to sell more guns and to encourage americans that they need these very, very lethal weapons in order to be safe when, in fact, having these kind of weapons on our streets endangers the safety not just of our communities, but of your own family. many, many of these mass shootings that happen in our society happen because of unsecured assault weapons left in the home, like the sandy hook shooting. this is bbc news. the former british prime ministerjohn major has urged borisjohnson to let compassion prevail and reverse the decision to cut foreign aid this year. it comes as more

than 1700 charities, business and academics written to the british government, calling on it to keep its can provide fitment. helen catt reports. rishi sunak announced late last year he was going to cut uk aid budget from 0.7% of national income to 0.5%, reduction about £4 million. at the time is said it was temporary and because of the pandemic. in a letter the charities say it is having a real impact, as a result families are going hungry, girls are not going to school and vaccines are expiring on shelves. they argued there is no justifiable economic need for the cut and that, they say, is because forecasts suggested by the end of this year the economy will have returned back to its previous pre—pandemic levels and also say the uk is hosting the g7 this week. they say that if the uk calls on the

believers to do more, it will risk ringing hollow. on the government side, they say it will spend £10 million this year, 2021, on aid. the uk government spokesperson said the seismic impact of the pandemic had forced to take tough but necessary decisions but the government was committed to returning to spending 0.7% when the fiscal situation allows. thank you to helen. with six weeks to go before the olympics, jamaica's two—time olympic champion shelly—ann fraser—pryce has become the second fastest woman in history after running 100 metres in 10.63 seconds. ms fraser—pryce beat the 10.72 seconds run by sha'carri richardson earlier this year, and is second only to florence griffith—joyner who has held the world record since 1988. johanna gretschel is a sports journalist in texas. she gave me her reaction. wow! incredible!

imean, 10.63! you said it yourself —— we haven't seen a time like this in nearly 33 years and the fastest anyone has run this year is 10.72, so, i mean, to take the leading time down by that much is something definitely nobody saw coming and bodes really well. and, given her age, how unexpected is this? um, well, ok, shelly—ann's 3a years old, so obviously a little more advanced than your typical elite athlete but she is really part of a larger trend where we are seeing women not being able to continue their athletic careers into their late 30s. and something we have not mentioned yet but i'm sure we will get to, she also recently had a child just a couple of years ago and was already

able to come back from childbirth in 2019 and win the world championships in the 100 metres from that, and was able to change her colloquial nickname from the �*pocket rocket', which she is called because she is very short, around five feet tall, to the �*mummy rocket'! she draws that mum strength that, sometimes when women go through childbirth and are able to make that big jump back into athletic fitness, they are also able to gain some kind of unprecedented athletic gains and inner strength that wasn't there before. at 3a, she is more advanced in age than a typical elite athlete but i think it is a larger trend that we will see, especially at this olympic games, because it was delayed for a year, from 2020 because of the pandemic, there

may be some athletes who would have retired last year are able to stay in the game and prolong their athletic career. just briefly, looking ahead to the athletics at the olympics, what are her chances? oh, man, shelly—ann is the favourite, for sure! there was a lot of talk about the young american sha'carri richardson, who came out blazaing fast this year, laying down a lot of10.7s, ran two 10.7s on the same day, that a lot of people got excited about, but10.63, shelly—ann is definitely cementing her status as the favourite. tennis, and roger federer admists he's considering pulling out of the french open after a gruelling four set victory over germany's dominik koepfer. the match lasted more than 3.5 hours. the eighth seed is playing in only his third tournament since january last year after two knee surgeries. i thought it was very important for me. i clearly had not

practised three hours 35 minutes because that is obviously always pushing it. i pushed as much as i could as i thought reasonable. but this, today, was i think a huge step forward for the team and for all of us. i did not expect to be able to win three matches here and back up a good performance of marin cilic and completely different com pletely different circumstances completely different circumstances tonight so i'm very happy and i think we have a lot to go through with the team tonight. dozens of people are facing fines for taking beach sand and shells from the italian island of sardinia, where it's illegal to remove the island's natural resources. authorities there say the investigation is ongoing. with me is our news reporter courtney bembridge who's been following this story.

so people are stealing sand? this is a phenomenon that happens every year in this operation has found 41 people. they have taken a total of 100 kilograms of sand, shells and pebbles, so not a small amount and authorities say desist at the tip of the iceberg and what they are doing is selling them online. there is a flourishing black market for sand, would you believe! they are getting huge prizes for these, making a profit out of this. is huge prizes for these, making a profit out of this.— profit out of this. is because of is particularly _ profit out of this. is because of is particularly special - profit out of this. is because | of is particularly special from the beaches there are? $5 of is particularly special from the beaches there are?- the beaches there are? as a western australian, - the beaches there are? as a western australian, would l the beaches there are? sis —. western australian, would say all sand from the beach is particularly special! no, it is because people are taking them from 70s and in fact in 2019, a french couple talk a0 kg as a 70! people love 70s and want to take mementos but it is a unique beach in terms of sand. so authorities are taking this very seriously? are they

investigating and trying to clamp down, what are they doing? fix, clamp down, what are they doinu ? �* ., clamp down, what are they doinu? ., ., ., doing? a “oint operation, customs_ doing? ajoint operation, customs or— doing? ajoint operation, customs or involved - doing? ajoint operation, customs or involved and | doing? ajoint operation, i customs or involved and the military is involved and they are x—raying luggage and finding water bottles full of sand and pebbles and then a volunteer organisation is actually taking the samples back to the beaches where they were taken from to try to kind of restore the situation. they are really concerned because millions visit the island every year and if they all take a0 kg with them, they may not have any beach left and they are one of the star attractions that bring tourist to sardinia. that is the difficult _ bring tourist to sardinia. that is the difficult balance - is the difficult balance because just so like many parts of the world, they are hugely dependent on tourists and want to attract people there and it is that balance between scaring people off and attracting people off and attracting people are making sure the natural resources are there for future generations i suppose. it seems a bizarre thing to be spending police authority time on but it is very important for that reason. we must move on.

thank you for that. staying in italy, and the first cruise ship to leave venice since the pandemic began has set sail. while people are keen to get back to normality, not everyone was happy about the ship entering the giudecca canal. rachel stanton reports. chanting in italian. "no big ships!" that is what is on the flags being waved here in venice. people have taken to the streets and waters as they are concerned about the impact cruise ships have on the historic city. back in march this year, italy's government said cruise ships would no longer sail past venice's st mark's square and dock in the historic centre but, instead, be diverted to the industrial port. however, the infrastructure is not yet in place for this to happen. this is the msc orchestra, set to cruise around the mediterranean with about 650 passengers. but residents in in venice have

been urging the government to ban large cruise ships from the green —lagoon, over safety and environmental concerns. we are citizens of venice and we are against this passage but also against this type of tourism model that is destroying the city and is pushing out residents and people that want to live here. arrival protest took place in support of the resumption of the tourist season as many have suffered financially as well as losing livelihoods. in the last two decades, the picturesque city has become one of the world's most important cruise destinations and people are keen for things to get back on track. venice is a home port. this is where many itineraries begin or end. this means that two things, firstly, the economic impact on venice is huge. the other thing is that, well, basically, there is a risk that

if venice is taken off the itineraries, all the adriatic will suffer the consequences of this. so, yeah, it would be a huge impact. the battle to stop large vessels from being in these waters is far from over. the government said it is organising bids for a viable alternative outside the lagoon, relieving the traffic through venice. rachel stanton, bbc news. from a sprint to a long distance trek that's captured the imagination of millions of people across china, a herd of wild elephants that has been moving northwards over the course of several months. they began theirjourney in a nature reserve in yunnan province and after 500km, they've now reached the outskirts of the city of kunming. the bbc�*s tim allman reports. day after day, week after week, month after month, the elephants are on the march.

15 of them, heading northwards, for reasons known only to themselves. occasionally, the smaller members of the group need a helping hand, or trunk, to get them on their way. translation: such a situation has happened for the first time | in history. it has never happened before, so everyone is thinking about the reasons. it remains to be further observed and studied. it is not entirely clear when their odyssey began but some suggest they set out as early as december, the animals forging a trail through the chinese countryside, occasionally straying into towns and villages, even helping themselves to something to eat as theirjourney progressed. translation: they like to go| to areas frequented by humans as there's plenty of food. the asian elephants take such areas as their habitats. the authorities have deployed thousands of people to evacuate homes, block off roads and try to lure the animals

away from the local population but they have now reached a major city of more than 6 million people. what they plan to do next is anyone's guess. tim allman, bbc news. and have a look at these clubs, in mexico city. they are part of a breeding programme that has actually kept the species alive. that is it from me. there is plenty more on the website of course and if you are online can get me on social media. you can reach me on twitter — i'm @lvaughanjones

iam the i am the was . this is bbc news. hello. the weather on sunday is going to be a little hit and miss, particularly across england. you're likely to have a lot more cloud around, compared to saturday, and there will be a few showers around, too, but across scotland and northern ireland, i think it is a case of sunshine right from the word go. on the satellite picture, you can notice this little lump of cloud drifting out of the south—west. it is a weak weather front, joining a big area of low pressure to the north but that will bring some showers to parts of wales, and england, from morning onwards. this is what it looks like through the early hours. you can see some rain affecting parts of devon, dorset, into wales, midlands, the stray shower in the north

of scotland but, generally speaking, a clear night in scotland, northern ireland, probably the lake district as well, but many of us in england and wales will be waking up to overcast skies and it could actually stay like that through the afternoon as well but i think the biggest chance of catching some heavier showers further south into the midlands but also around wales and east anglia the best of the weather on sunday, northern ireland, scotland, the lake district should be fine as well, but modest highs, 16—18, in the south. despite the cloud and the showers, still managing around 21 in london. there is the clock, 8:00pm, 9:00pm still some showers around around in the evening across parts of england and wales. not a completely dry day but, with a bit of luck, you will have some prolonged sunny spells instead of heavy showers. monday, also likely to be some showers around, particularly across northern and eastern areas of the uk, so the best of the weather, although hazy at times, out towards the west but decent enough temperatures —

around 22 in london, 20 in liverpool, probably nudging up to 20 in glasgow as well for monday. then, the rest of the week, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, we'll see the jetstream low pressures and weather fronts mostly between scotland and iceland, but the chance that some of these weather systems will clip the very far north—west of the uk. in the south, it is closer to their high pressure so, basically, the further south you are, the better the weather will be in the week ahead, further north, dry generally, but always a bit more cloud. that is it for me. bye— bye.

this is bbc news. the headlines:

the g7 group of advanced economies have reached a deal to make multinational companies pay more tax in the countries where they do business. finance ministers, meeting in london, agreed to a global minimum corporate tax rate of 15% to avoid countries undercutting each other. a senior nhs official says the uk vaccination programme appears to have broken the link between cases of the covid—19 and serious illness or death. the head of nhs providers says people in hospital with the delta variant of coronavirus are significantly younger, which puts less strain on critical care. the nigerian government has defended its decision to suspend twitter, saying the social media platform had been used to spread misinformation that had violent consequences. a joint statement from the us, the eu, britain, canada and ireland said the right to free expression was a pillar of democracy.