our business correspondent ben thompson has been at the tower of london to see how how the tourist spotngs in london, up to some of the newest in the city of london. this place normally would have about 15,000 people on an average summer‘s day, at the moment, they get about 500 because of well—documented issues with airports, tourist deciding not to stay away, or in some cases not able to travel here at all. that means it places like this have to work out where their money is coming from. they would traditionally make most of their money in the summer months,

ben thompson.t2 is contacting hundreds of customers on the balearic and canary islands, to ask them to end their holidays early. the tour operator is informing some holidaymakers.. that that their original flight has been cancelled, and requesting that they leave on earlierflights. it's understood that people flying tomorrow and saturday that that their original flight has been cancelled, several families on holiday on the island of mallorca, who were due to return next week, have told the bbc they've had emails and text messages telling them have to return early. the headlines on bbc news: officials extend the isolation period for people showing symptoms of covid in the uk — from seven to ten days — over fears of rising cases numbers in parts of europe. england has recorded the highest levels of excess deaths in europe across the first half of the year, according to new figures showing the impact of the coronavirus. the tour operator, tui, is to close nearly a third of its high street stores in th

ben thompson reporting. essure ben to act more quickly to provide local councils with data about potential spikes in coronavirus cases in their areas. yesterday, leicester became the first city in the uk to be put under a local lockdown. some directors of public health say they are not getting detailed and up—to—date information about local outbreaks — such as individual addresses and workplaces. the doctors' union, the british medical association, says it's vital that councils are given more information so they can act swiftly. dr manish pareek is a professor of infectious diseases at the university of leicester. he says other cities will also see more cases in the coming weeks. those of us who work in the health system always expected that there would be, even after this first wave, that there would be ongoing spikes in activity. the virus hasn't changed. it remains with us, as we know. and as people start to move and mix, what the virus will do is transmit. so in those areas of the city in leicester at the

welcome to breakfast with ben thompson and sima kotecha. our headlines today: anyone arriving in the uk from spain now has to self—isolate for two weeks after quarantine rules changed overnight. it follows a sharp rise in spanish coronavirus infections: travel plans for thousands of britons have been thrown into chaos. we could go on holiday, we cannot come back and then stay in the house for two weeks. that just come back and then stay in the house for two weeks. thatjust wouldn't be possible. for some holidaymakers, relief at landing home late last night before the restrictions kicked in. it was crazy. it all happened so quickly. no—one knows what is going on. we were supposed to come back on monday and we just got the next flight. good morning. it's the final day of the premier league season and it's going to be a nail—biter for fans of aston villa, watford and bournemouth. only one of those three teams will stay up. the weather is not looking too bad at all for most of us on sunday. there are a few showers in the forecast not talking abo

thank you, ben thompson.e who refuse could be fined 100. coronavirus restrictions are reimposing california in america's most populous state. tens of thousands of businesses are told to close. the uk punishment by a fifth under lockdown but started to grow again in may. the government is likely to announce today the chinese tech company huawei will be stripped from the uk's 5g infrastructure. earlier this year boris johnson decided to grant huawei a limited role in britain's 5g networks, but many within the prime minister's own party raised concerns over the potential implications, so let's talk to our assistant political editor norman smith. boris johnson is facing a mounting backbench rebellion and although he has a majority of 80, more than a0 tory mps are now poised to vote against this, he probably could not get the huawei decision through parliament. more than that, i think across—the—board, across westminster, there has been a sea change in attitudes towards china and they feel that huawei is to the ch

here's our business presenter ben thompson. and arduous process to return to the hey day it once enjoyed and it was already in a three—year turnaround plan launched by steve rowe and what they were trying to do was get the business in a better shape to cope with the change in the high street. all of that was thrown out of the window when many of the store like other retailers were. to close because of the coronavirus pandemic. they say now those plans have changed and they have been. look at another 950 job losses and most store closures so probably unsurprising that this has happened but the detail we have today suggests it is management roles that will go rather than front line staff and they are hoping it will give them an opportunity to be more agile, more nimble. this is outside source live from the bbc newsroom. results from two sets of vaccine trials in the uk and china are said to be encouraging. we're going to spend the next few minutes taking you through the latest coronavirus developments starting in europe, where eu

ben thompson.your questions answered. jolining me now are two travel industry specialists, wendy haines and jill starley grainger. good morning to both of you. we have some quite specific and detailed questions. one from rachel for you, jill. a package going to corfu, the holiday is booked is non—refundable, currently looked as if i can tra nsfer currently looked as if i can transfer the whole holiday as an option. rachel paid in full, around £4000, didn't get round to booking travel insurance will stop she is currently shielding and personally would like a refund as she is still too frightened to go. her holiday was booked using her mastercard. what are her options and rights? legally you don't have any right to a refund at all. i always suggest people take out travel insurance and a year ago when i was saying this, loads of people are saying why take out travel insurance customer you can predict what will happen in the future. unfortunately, iguess can predict what will happen in the future. unfo

welcome to breakfast with ben thompson and sima kotecha. 0ur headlines today: anyone arriving in thep rise in spanish coronavirus infections: travel plans for thousands of britons have been thrown into chaos. we could go on holiday, we cannot come back and then stay in the house for two weeks. that just come back and then stay in the house for two weeks. thatjust wouldn't be possible. for some holidaymakers, relief at landing home late last night before the restrictions kicked in. it was crazy.

let's talk to our business correspondent, ben thompson.because of the pandemic? yeah, ithink rather than because of the pandemic? yeah, i think today further evidence, if we needed it, that as we change the way we shop business has to change the way that it operates and therefore ins‘s case they said 70% of all the bookings they said 70% of all the bookings they take are now done online and therefore that makes it more difficult to justify the cost of high street stores with their rent and rates and maintenance that needs to be paid on what they've told us that if they will close around one third of those stores, i66 that if they will close around one third of those stores, 166 will close across the uk and ireland. just in may the firm had announced more than 8000 job cuts across its entire business of airlines, hotels and cruise ships. this affects just the travel agency business. 900 staff are affected and the firm says it hopes it can redeploy some of those staff into other high street shops, but 70% of them it expects to be able to wor

ben thompson, thank you very much. —— laying off 500 staff.h china: the uk is to suspend its extradition treaty with hong kong after beijing accuses the uk of "brutal meddling" in its internal affairs. the race for a coronavirus vaccine — the government signs global deals to purchase millions of doses global deals to purchase millions of doses. more retail misery — as high street stores marks and spencer and ted baker announce major job cuts. we have the latest cases of coronavirus deaths in wales. no new cases, the number of remaining at 1547, the cases, the number of remaining at 15117, the news coming from public health wells, the total number in wales increased by 15, that means the number of confirmed cases are 16,943. also getting covid scotland statistics, seven new confirmed cases of coronavirus, identified in the last 24 hours, coming from the scottish government. no deaths recorded. 299 people were in hospital as of last night. three in intensive care with another seven people in intensive care with suspected covid—19. those latest f

our business correspondent ben thompson explained how the move followed changing consumer behaviour.e today, if we needed it, that as we change the way we shop, business has to change the way that it operates. therefore, in the case of tui, 70% of all the bookings they take are now done online. therefore that makes it more difficult to justify the cost of high street stores with rent, rates and maintenance. what they have told us is that they will close around a third of those stores. 166 will close across the uk and ireland. just in may, the firm had announced more than 8000 job cuts crossed its entire business surveillance. this affects their travel agency business. 900 staff are affected. the firm hopes it can redeploy some of those staff into other high street shops. but 70% of them, it expects to be able to work from home. selling holidays, offering advice to travellers from home, for example. this further underlines the changing way that we work. many more now asked to work from home. the bbc has learnt that holiday firm jet2 is contacting hundreds of customers on the balearic

let's speak to our business correspondent ben thompson.s on what they signify of how much the government has had to spend during the crisis? you are absolutely right, it does show how much it is costing the uk government to try and p"°p up costing the uk government to try and prop up the uk economy and given everything going on. £35 billion, the difference in what it is earning to tax revenue, versus what it is having to pay out to spend on all sorts of things like public services. but most lately, the furlough scheme, propping up salaries and wages. as you said, £35 billion, more than five times the same month last year. let me show you a graph. it started to paint a picture of an economy that is slowly on the mend. you may see that 35.5 billion forjune in 2020, it is the latest figure. it is lower than the previous two months because at the height of the crisis, many businesses closed so not contributing in terms of tax. they are also taking money for their staff through various support schemes. so barring much higher and coming down slo

ben thompson is at the tower of london to see how that's been affected.his, it never fails to strike me when i see locations like this that should normally be packed with people, looking almost com pletely with people, looking almost completely deserted. yes, good morning, you are right and you might be able to make me out at the bottom of your shot, with this glorious view across one of the oldest buildings in london up to some of the newest in the city. this place normally would have about 15,000 people on an average summer day at the moment they are getting around 500 because we know, well documented issues with airports, tourists deciding to stay away, or are not able to travel at all in some cases. for places like this, it means they have to work out where that money is coming from. they would traditionally make most of it in the summer months when the weather is so good, people coming to see this, the white tower and the ravens on the lawn and legend has it that when the ravens leave the tower, it collapses and the kingdom falls. put a lot of work g

earlier, i spoke to our business presenter ben thompson.h that news from airbus, and airbus's problem is that it has not been able to deliver the aircraft that it had made and that people had ordered and that is because it simply can't fly them to the places that they need to get to. but also because many airlines around the world are looking at the state of the travel market right now and saying, hang on, maybe we don't need as many aircraft as previously we did. so they have reported a 39% fall in revenues, their deliveries were down 50% on the same time last year and the crucial thing to remember here is that airbus doesn't get paid until it has dropped off that plane in a place that wants it, so they have been tipped to a loss of 1.9 billion euros. they have also told us over the past week or so that they will lay off 15,000 staff in an attempt to try to balance their books. but you also touched on shell as well and again, unsurprising, oil prices around the world have slumped and that is because demand for cars, for travel, the factori

ben thompson.to lbc, borisjohnson said it did not make a difference if they are reopened on a monday rather than a saturday. i think we wanted to give pubs time to prepare. we wanted a date early injuly and when i look at what is happening, i hope very much that people will behave responsibly and enjoy summer safely. but to his point about monday, why not monday? well, i hope that this will be a reasonable time for people to get ready to enjoy themselves at the weekend but to do it in a safe way. that's not an answer to the question, is it — why not monday? i don't think, frankly, it would make much difference. you don't think that more people go out on a saturday than they do on a monday? well, i look at... i hope that people will do this sensibly and safely. borisjohnson. some boris johnson. some news borisjohnson. some news coming into us borisjohnson. some news coming into us in the last few moments from canterbury christ church university, which has tweeted the news it has terminated david sta

let‘s speak to our business correspondent ben thompson.at are unheard of in terms of tackling a problem but we know where the money has gone. it‘s gone on propping up businesses and wages for staff are not able to work during this coronavirus pandemic. we know the chancellor has been spending money to try to ease off some of the worst effects for the economy but the big questions of course are, who will pay for it? and when will we pay for it? you do have to pay it back. let me show you the graph that does illustrate what is happening as far as finances are concerned and hopefully you can see injune 20... we‘ve lost then who is completely frozen. you can look at the graph and make up your own mind while i see if i can get him back. ben, assume that we missed the... i'm here. my talk is over the graph quickly. yeah, let me show you the graph because the £355 quickly. yeah, let me show you the graph because the £35.5 billion is the latest figure that we have and that suggests that the previous two months were more expensive for government sp

ben thompson is following the story for us. it's another sad case ofjobs going on the high street. been put at risk as part of its transformation plan. we should remember marks & spencer already in a three year transformation plan, before all of the coronavirus crisis hit, they were struggling to try to turn around their fortunes. well—documented problems of marks & spencer. its food sales are pretty robust, but its clothing and home ware that continues to suffer. so what marks & spencer did was to launch a three—year turnaround plan. all of that has been thrown out the window by this unprecedented crisis which has meant its stores have come in many cases, remained closed. some of its food stores were able to stay open but remember too marks & spencer says a lot of outlets and things at train stations and airports, so there we've seen a big falloff in passenger demand and therefore the number of customers going through the doors there also a significant decline, so what they have done today is said we are looking at our entire business. we think we have 900 people to money for the

ben thompson, our business correspondent, there.iving three days of evidence atjohnny depp's libel trial at the high court. ms heard said the actor subjected her to verbal and physical abuse. johnny depp is suing the publishers of the sun for alleging he was a wife—beater — something he strongly denies. lizo mzimba is at the high court for us. just bring us up—to—date on what has been said in court. as you said, amber heard has been giving evidence in the witness box, the first day of the defence case, the sun newspaper case again the allegations brought byjohnny depp, liable for labelling him a wife beater. amber heard was questioned on a number of topics. she was questioned on alcohol and drug use and she said that she is not a regular or heavy user of illegal drugs. the lawyer acting for johnny depp questioned her about that. she brought her attention to a nurse's report where she was said that amber heard had admitted to a history of drug abuse and addiction to cocaine. amber heard said, actually, this was a mistake. she never s

here's our business correspondent ben thompson. ofjobs in the uk are concerned and that ssp story, as you said, the firm we probably all use, maybe on a daily basis, but probably never heard of it because it operates all the brands we may know at airports and train stations, you mentioned upper crust, it also runs caffe ritazza, camden food company found at some airports, and also runs a franchise in those locations for some of the starbucks and burger king outlets as well. it is a huge business, one operating right around the world. but what is interesting about the announcement this morning is that the job losses will come for ssp only in the uk. it says the recovery in the uk is taking longer than elsewhere in those markets overseas and so it has been forced into a position to cut these 5,000 jobs. that is primarily because ssp is a business that operates in railway stations and they have said passenger numbers on the railways are still down by 85% as we all continue to work from home if we can. we are not commuting, we are not