this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. i'm shaun ley. president biden underlines america's strong support for nato as leaders warn of the military challenge posed by china. plans to ease covid restrictions in england are delayed. prime minister borisjohnson said right now it was best to be cautious. now is the time to ease off the accelerator, because by being cautious now, we have the chance, in the next four weeks, to save many thousands of lives by vaccinating millions more people. denmark resume training, and pledge to achieve something special at the euros for star player christian eriksen — who's recovering after a cardiac arrest during

their last match. hello and welcome. president biden has sought to underline america's support for nato, striking a very different tone to that of his predecessor donald trump. joe biden said that the military alliance was �*critically important�* to the usa's interests. he was speaking at a nato summit belgium as our north america editor jon sopel reports. there's a new sheriff in town, and if nato members could have thrown rose petals in front ofjoe biden�*s motorcade, they probably would have done. he is resetting the relationship after the hostility of his predecessor. and look at the body language — the mock double—take. there was the hybrid fist—cum—elbow bump,

and even a jokey hello with turkey's president erdogan. joe biden likes nato, and nato seems to like him. let me make it clear. nato is critically important to us interests, in and of itsself. if there wasn't one, we'd have to invent one, and i just want all of europe to know that the united states is there, the united states is there. donald trump, on the other hand, questioned the whole idea of collective security, thought america was paying far too much, and wanted to pull the us out of nato. those arguments are in the rear—view mirror, as the transatlantic defence organisation puts its focus on a resurgent china and its increasingly militaristic stance. we all recognise that china's heavy investment in military capabilities and continued aggressive behaviour and growing influence matters for our security, and we need to respond to that together as an alliance. joe biden says this trip is a battle of ideas — the competition of values between democracy and autocracy

and authoritarianism. while all nato members are happy to sign up to compete against china, they're very worried that it could tip into confrontation. and then there's russia, where relations are at a low ebb. there seems to be a much greater willingness to confront vladimir putin over what he's doing, but also the state and non—state actors responsible for election interference and ransomware attacks, like the one that crippled the colonial pipeline supplying fuel to america's east coast. biden will meet his russian counterpart on wednesday in geneva. it's not going to be a meeting of minds. jon sopel, bbc news, brussels. zhaoyin feng is from the bbc�*s chinese service. she has more details on china's

reaction to being singled out. since now is still early in the morning in beijing we have not heard a direct response to today's nato statement. however, over the weekend when the g7 summit was over, after publishing a very critical statement against china, china in a lengthy statement did push back against the g7 saying they are making up lies and baseless claims and allegations about china and its policy of xinjiang and hong kong. and also last week when the foreign ministry spokesperson of china, responding to a question so that they believe the ties with russia were grown for the world peace and stability. so we can expect china to have a pretty strong response to today's nato summit

saying they are playing small circle politics. i was going to ask you that some of the rhetoric ofjoe biden is not so dissimilarfrom the hostile rhetoric from donald trump's time. but with trumpet seemed like economic tariffs and with biden will the approach be different? while you are right that the biden ministration has maintained a lot of the policy from the trumpet ministration on china, but as you remember trump was very focused on trade with china. while the new administration is more comprehensive and sophisticated in their strategy towards china. for example in the past few days you have seen this series of diplomatic events for the budget ministration refers to china and the communist regime but emphasises the ideological difference with china saying that democracy has to face up to the challenge of china.

you will see more and more events like this where biden uses the pressure of western democracy to face up to china. and the question is how solid is this alliance to other nato allies and g7 countries, the same with the relationship with china. so that remains the question. a look at some of todays other news stories. the outgoing chief prosecutor of the international criminal court says she has asked judges to allow her to open a fulljudicial investigation into murders carried out during the war on drugs in the philippines. human rights watch says that more than twelve thousand filipinos have been killed since president rodrigo duterte ordered his security forces to enforce his war on drugs policy in 2016. the trial of ousted myanmar leader aung san suu kyi has got under way, four months after a military coup removed the elected government from office. she is charged with owning unlicensed walkie—talkies and violating covid restrictions.

later trials will focus on allegations of corruption and breaking the official secrets act. prosecutors have begun questioning the seven members of the medical team who treated the argentine football star diego maradona before he died. a board of experts looking into his death decided he had received inadequate care. maradona died of a heart attack last november at the age of sixty, weeks after surgery to remove a blood clot. britain's prime minister, borisjohnson has confirmed a delay to stage four of his road map out of the coronavirus pandemic. instead of lifting all restrictions onjune 21st as previously announced, mrjohnson said it would be put back untiljuly 19th. the delay is over concerns about the rapidly spreading delta variant first identified in india. borisjohnson said the delay would give the vaccination programme a chance to reach millions more people in england. i'm confident we will not need more than four weeks.

and we will not need to go beyond july the 19th. it is unmistakably clear the vaccines are working and the sheer scale of the vaccine roll—out has made our position incomparably better than in previous waves. but now is the time to ease off the accelerator. because by being cautious now we have the chance, in the next four weeks, to save many thousands of lives by vaccinating millions more people. as we said, the delay in lifting restrictions in england is due to the spread of the delta covid variant — first identified in india — and now spreading around the world. our medical editor fergus walsh has been taking a closer look. it is the rise of the more infectious delta variant that has led to the pause button being hit on unlocking. scientist modelling the epidemic had warned ministers that a final lifting

of all restrictions next week would lead to a large resurgence in cases and hospital admissions, though just how big a wave is unclear. they suggest a four—week delay in unlocking would reduce the peak in hospital admissions by a third to a half — as more people will be vaccinated. the next four weeks will reduce significantly the risk of a very high peak, which could cause significant problems in terms of pressure on the nhs and all the knock—on effects of that and direct deaths from covid. the hope is the increase in cases will start to fade in the coming weeks because so many people have been vaccinated. most people getting infected with delta have not been immunised and they're tending to be younger and recovering quicker. so what will covid vaccination coverage look like by the middle of next month? just over two million adults a week in the uk are receiving their second dose of covid vaccine — mostly those

in their 40s and 50s. a four—week delay would allow an extra 10 million adults to be fully immunised compared to today. that's around three quarters of the adult population. though maximum protection does not kick in until around two weeks after that second shot. just over a million adults a week are receiving their first dose of vaccine — mostly those in their 20s. if vaccine supply remains steady, then by the 19th ofjuly, around nine in ten adults in the uk will have received at least one dose of covid vaccine. and the pledge to offer a first

dose to all over—18s by the end of next month is being brought forward by 12 days. by getting to both more people over the age of a0 double—vaccinated, which protects those most likely to end up in hospital and getting seriously ill, and giving all over—18s one dose, that will reduce spread, because the single dose will put up another barrier to spread amongst the age group most likely to spread cos they have more social contact. and there is more good news on vaccines. analysis by public health england confirms they offer high levels of protection against severe illness with the delta variant. 0ne dose is good, but two is better. so the race continues against the vaccine and the virus. fergus walsh, bbc news. the belarusian activist, roman protasevich — seized three weeks ago on a diverted airline flight — has been brought, unexpectedly before journalists at a news conference in minsk. he was there supposedly, to give more details of the incident. the bbc and other international media, as well as foreign diplomats, left the press conference so as not to validate the seizure of the journalist.

jonah fisher reports. so we were invited to this briefing here in minsk, in belarus, because the belarus authorities said they wanted to give a more complete and detailed account of what happened to the ryanair plane that was diverted last month with the blogger and activist roman protasevich on board, and he was arrested of course here in minsk. so we came here at relatively short notice and they facilitated our visas for coming here, we were brought to this press conference, and then just as it was about to start a label was changed and it became clear that roman protasevich, the man detained on board this plane, was going to be taking part. in effect, we had been duped into coming here, basically, to try and lend credibility to this press event. he is clearly not here under his own free will. he is being held in detention centres here in minsk.

some people have suggested he may also have been tortured. when it became clear to us that he was there, he was going to be taking part in the press conference, well, for us, that was impossible for us to be there any longer so we have walked out of that press briefing, which is still going on behind us now. that was jonah fisher. the india starting to see a decline in infections are rare and deity with india starting to see a decline in the second wave of coronavirus infections, a rare and deadly fungal infection has been spreading amongst patients. we'll be hearing from an expert about why it's so dangerous. there was a bomb in the city centre. a code word known to be one used by the ira was given. army bomb experts were examining a suspect than when there was a huge explosion. the south african parliament

has destroyed the foundation of apartheid by abolishing the population registration act, which for 40 years forcibly classified each citizen according to race. just a day old and the royal baby is, tonight, sleeping i in his cot at home. early this evening, - the new prince was taken by his mother and father to theirapartment- in kensington palace. germany's parliament, the bundestag has voted by a narrow majority to move the seat of government from bonn to berlin. berliners celebrated into the night, but the decision was greeted with shock in bonn. the real focus of attention today was valentina tereshkova. the world's first woman cosmonaut. what do you think of - the russian woman in space? i think it's a wonderful achievement, and i think we might be able to persuade the wife. it would be a good idea, if i could, to get her to go up there for a little while. this is bbc news, the latest headlines... president biden underlines america's strong support for nato as leaders warn of the military challenge posed by china.

in england the final stage of easing covid restrictions is delayed until the 19th ofjuly. data is slowly emerging in india which gives some indication of the real scale of the covid death toll in the country, during the devastating second wave of the pandemic. officially, the country has recorded more than 370,000 deaths, the third highest in the world but there's more evidence to suggest the number is massively under reported. the bbc�*s india correspondent yogita limaye reports from mumbai. this is something we have seen in india from the start of the pandemic, the underreporting of covid deaths. we first heard it in testimony from doctors and otherfront line workers and we have seen evidence of it on the ground when we were reporting during the second wave of the pandemic, but the poor the limit reports that have appeared in the past few days really give a sense of how acute the scale of underreporting could be.

she has looked at two dead states in india, andhra pradesh and madhya pradesh, and she has looked at in excess deaths in these states. when we say that what she means is the overall deaths that took place in a region over a period when the second wave was at its worst, minus the number of deaths that took place in the same region in a pre—pandemic year over the period. so these excess deaths she has found in the state of andhra pradesh where 3a times the reported covid death toll in that region, and in the state of madhya pradesh she has found that these excess deaths were 42 times the reported official covid death toll in that state. of course, you know, it is important to point out that not all deaths in these regions would have been caused by the coronavirus. there could be other reasons

for these deaths as well, and that is why it's never going to be a simple equation where you will be able to determine that if you multiply the official deaths by a certain number, and then you can get the official death toll in india. this is also partly because the reporting of deaths in different parts of this country, you know, it's very different. in some parts it is good, in other parts it is not. but what we can say with certainty is that there is more and more evidence now that the scale of underreporting in india has been massive, and we will never know how many people died of the virus in this country. india is starting to see a decline in the second wave of coronavirus infections, but a rare and deadly fungal infection is affecting patients recovering from covid. but what is mucormycosis or black fungus — and why is it so dangerious? it's caused by exposure to mucor mould — which is found in soil, plants, manure, and decaying

fruits and vegetables. its far more common in india than any other country — with 70 percent of all covid related cases reported there. it damages the sinuses, the brain and the lungs — and can be life—threatening in diabetic or immunocompromised individuals. in fact a recent study showed 94% of patients had diabetes — and it was poorly controlled in 67% of cases. and about half of patients affected do not survive — and many others will sustain permanent damage to their health. professor monica slavin leads the immunocompromised host infection service at royal melbourne hospital. she explained more about the early symptoms. not much warning and it can be very mild symptoms to begin with. you can see fevers or nasal stuffiness or discharge from the nose, and a headache which may be pretty nonspecific. pretty difficult to diagnose

in the early phases, but it can progress quite rapidly. and cause the infection in sinuses that can get into the brain. getting into this infection quickly is very important in trying to improve survival. how much time you have to treat it to reverse the effects and how do they do that? it's quite difficult to treat. it requires antifungal drugs but also her surgery can be important in removing the dead tissue, and this fungus goes in the blood vessels and causes more death to the tissue and removing that dead tissue is very important. unfortunately that can be very disfiguring and people may lose an eye or part of their nose and face from trying to get rid of this infection. that sounds bad enough and in essence the alternative is worse. is it correct that the

mortality rate is 50% on those people who develop it? yes. that's correct. that's a rough estimation. if you diagnose the infection early you may be able to lead to a better survival. but overall it has a very grim prognosis. we have an idea why india might be more affected than other countries? are there any factors in the people and the climate that might contribute to it? we know with fungus, there is a geographical distribution. the certain parts of the world have more of certain different fungus. so in india it's very prevalent in the soil and also been detected in the air as well. particularly around some air conditioning units. so i think it's just the actual prevalence. and the infection in the environment in india, and we know that before covid these infections were about 100 more times,

and in india than anywhere else in the world. so it seems to be something of a local issue. just finally the suggestion that diabetes could be a factor that makes you more vulnerable to this, why would that be? that's correct. looking at the fungus it really likes an environment where it can have glucose, and where there is a kind of acidic environment. and we know that with high blood sugars, there's that kind of environment in their tissue. so it really is a fertile ground from the fungus if they have diabetes and it is not well controlled. let's bring you some pictures now from the us state of illinois. a massive industrial fire at a chemical plant in illinois that started monday will likely be allowed to burn for days in order to avoid chemically—polluted water from entering

into a nearby river. the chemtool plant in rockton, which manufactures oil—based lubricants, sits 300 meters from the rock river. it was not immediately clear what caused the fire. some 70 plant workers were safely evacuated from the site. the danish footballer, christian eriksen, says he wants to thank everyone who's sent him best wishes, after his collapse during a euro 2020 match on saturday. he'd suffered a cardiac arrest and is now undergoing more hospital tests. here's nick beake. less than 48 hours after they nearly lost one their team—mates on the pitch, the danish side were back on the training ground, trying to prepare as best they can for their next euro 2020 match. leicester city goalkeeper kasper schmeichel said they'd give it their all for christian eriksen. the real important thing for us is that we know that christian's 0k, and from there on, we would talk a lot about the spirit we have in this team, and to be able to fight

the way we've done. that wouldn't be possible without us knowing that christian was ok. this was already a very close group of players, and it seems their ordeal has only brought them closer together. but there's been strong criticism of the way they were asked to make a decision very quickly on saturday night as to whether or not they resume the match. very emotional experience for everyone of us. and you come you could just see on the danish player's faces... this evening, the captain of finland, the team that was playing denmark, told us football bosses need to reconsider their rules. did you feel you are being forced in some way? i did not have the feeling that we were forced to do anything that we wouldn't want to do. i'm not saying that it's a good decision to go out and play football after something like this, i think it's inhumane. but, you know, that was the option that we had. some of the denmark

players have now been able to visit ericksen, who is undergoing further tests. but he is said to be making jokes and spurring on his friends to beat belgium later in the week. nick beake, bbc news, copenhagen. now to news on the pitch because scotland's first appearance in a major tournament in 23 years has ended in defeat. two goals from patrik schick — including one from the halfway line — was enough to secure the points for the czech republic at hampden. milan skriniar scored the winner in slovakia's surprise 2—1 win over poland in their group e game in saint petersburg. and the final match of the day was a disappointing 0—0 draw between spain and sweden in seville. and before we go, in recent years people have been putting their faith in animals to predict the future. there was the octopus that guessed world cup winners — a goat that supposedly saw brexit coming. and now, an elephant in germany is picking the flag of teams it thinks will win

euro cup matches. yesterday she disappointed german fans as she pulled out the french flag. meaning france is set to win. they are the current reiging world champions, so she may be correct. kickoff is tomorrow evening local time in munich. guess we'll have to wait and see. curious though because some elephants never forget but i did not know they were blessed with the power of prediction. maybe someone will give the elephant a crystal ball? a reminder of our top story.... nato leaders have warned of the growing threat posed by china to the security of the alliance. the secretary general of nato, jens stoltenberg, warned that beijing was coming closer, through its military activities in the north atlantic and africa, in cyberspace and through chinese investment in nato members' critical infrastructure. the leaders also said that russia's military build up on nato's eastern front contributed to instability. they warned russia that there

would be no quick return to business as usual. you are watching bbc news. hello there. monday was a day of contrast. still hot and humid in london. the temperatures were soaring by the middle of the afternoon, we reached the highest temperatures recorded so far this year and that was 30 celsius in greater london. now, it was a different story further north and west because of the weak weather front that was spilling in across scotland into the north of england. behind it, the wind direction changing to a northwesterly and that brought with it some fresher air and a marked contrast. look at sunday's highs across northern ireland, 25 degrees, the warmest day of the year here. by monday, those temperatures were down quite sharply. it looks as though that fresher feel will continue to be the theme of the weather into tuesday, as well. starting off the good

deal of dry weather, or week weather front just a band of cloud lingering first thing in the morning but there will be a lot of sunshine coming through in area of low pressure bringing in some rain into western reaches of scotland by the middle part of the day and the winds increasing here. so, we're looking at around ten to 18 degrees as the overall height but 25 is not out of the question. down the touch, but still that is 77 fahrenheit. that weather front is bringing the rain is going to bring some heavy bursts of rain for a time across scotland and overnight, so moving to wednesday, to be fairly weak affair by then as it moves out of the scottish border into the north of england and parts of north wales. behind it we'll see some sunshine as well, drop temperatures of around 14 to 18 degrees ahead of it and starting to track more heat and humidity once again, 20 degrees not out of the question. and it is this heat and humidity which could trigger some sharp thundery downpours towards the end of the working week. why?

we've got this warm humid air starting to move up from spain and into france and to trigger some sharp thunderstorms and there's a lot of uncertainty just where these thunderstorms are likely to crop up and so, it's worth keeping up with the rest of the forecast been anywhere across eastern englandcould be ta risk to real torrential thunder downpours and top temperatures down considerably and we are looking at 13 to 22 degrees.

this is bbc news, the headlines president biden has said he will lay down red lines to his russian counterpart in their meeting on wednesday. speaking after a summit of nato leaders, mr biden acknowledged that he faced a tough opponent in vladimir putin. he insisted the us would respond if russia acted against its interests. britains prime minister borisjohnson has delayed the final lifting of covid restrictions, in england. it means the final stage of unlocking will not take place on monday — but four weeks later onjuly the 19th. business groups are demanding more support for firms hit by the delay. the belarus journalist, roman protasevich, has made a surprise appearance before journalists and diplomats who were expecting to be given more details on why his ryanair flight was forced to land last month. foreign news crews walked out, saying mr protasevich clearly had no choice but to take part. now on bbc news. hardtalk.