martin patience, bbc news, beirut.dding of princess beatrice and italian count edoardo mapelli mozzi. the private ceremony took place in secret at windsor‘s royal chapel on friday. keith doyle has more. like thousands of couples, this was not the wedding they had planned this summer. beatrice's grandparents, the queen and duke of edinburgh, were among the guests, which numbered no more than 30, to stay within the government guidelines. prince andrew did walk his daughter down the aisle, but he does not appear in the official photographs released. he has taken a lot of flak over the past few months, ever since that newsnight interview in november last year. he has come under a lot of fire, a lot of pressure, a lot of criticism, and he probably felt that it was time to be expedient, let the focus be on his daughter, it is after all her day. and he would keep out of the photographs. for the ceremony, princess beatrice wore a modified vintage dress belonging to the queen. she also wore the diamond fringed tiara which the q

this is from martin patience again... me understand at the moment what restrictions are in place? at the moment the restrictions that are in place are not 100% confirmed yet. the government will be meeting in a cabinet session tomorrow to approve ofa number of cabinet session tomorrow to approve of a number of what they are calling severe preventive measures. today however at the interior minister did confirm that the country would be going into a sort of two—part lockdown from july 31 two august the 3rd and then august the 6th to august the 10th. and in that time he said that bars, nightclubs, will be close, religious gatherings will be banned which will impact muslims celebrating eib this weekend but nothing yet has been confirmed regarding the airport. is there anything the government can do to try do protect the lebanese economy what goes through this? that is a very tough question. right now it is a precarious balance between resuscitating the economy and making sure the oscar system is not overwhelmed which is why w

martin patience, bbc news, beirut.k businesses listed on the london stock exchange during the first half of this year were at record levels, a new study has found. a third of the 350 companies have said they don't expect to make as much money as expected, mainly because of the impact of covid—19. the research by the city analysts, e:y, found that most warnings were posted by companies in the travel, hospitality and retail sectors. taylor dewar is a senior partner in ey‘s turnaround and restructuring strategy practice. i suppose this research and these figures are not hugely surprising but they kind of underlined the crisis we are in. absolutely right. the second quarter is another exceptionally high quarter for the uk. the usual types of businesses that consumers would expect to see warning were warning but what we are now seeing is the ripple effects of covid, moving into supply chains, and businesses up and downs in hand, no matter what size they are, are not immune from the effects. are all these businesses now thin

martin patience, bbc news, beirut.wedding of princess beatrice and italian count edoardo mapelli—mozzi. the private ceremony, attended by the queen and the duke of edinburgh, took place in secret at windsor‘s royal chapel on friday. keith doyle has more. like thousands of couples, this was not the wedding they'd planned this summer. coronavirus meant princess beatrice's marriage to edoardo mapelli—mozzi was a scaled—down affair held in secret. these, the first official photographs, show it was still an elegant event with flowers completely covering the archway of the royal chapel of all saints in windsor. beatrice's grandparents, the queen and duke of edinburgh, were among the guests, which numbered no more than 30 to stay within the government guidelines. prince andrew did walk his daughter down the aisle, but he does not appear in the official photographs released. he's taken a lot of flak over the past few months ever since that newsnight interview in november last year. he's come under a lot of fire, a lot of press

martin patience, bbc news, beirut. who have special educational needs and disabilities. the places will be in so—called "free schools", which are funded directly by the government as opposed to being run by local authorities. jon donnison reports. under the government plans, there will be 35 new schools for children with special educational needs and disabilities. enough for 3000 pupils across england. ministers say they wa nt to across england. ministers say they want to put the most disadvantaged and vulnerable children first. but campaigners, who have long criticised the lack of provision for children with special educational needs, say it is not enough. cautious is the word. there are more than 3000 children requiring special educational needs. the last figure was between four and 5000. no timeline as to when the programme will be completed. but the government says the new schools will start to open from september 2022. labour says the funding is welcome. it says cuts to school bus or budgets have put huge pressure

martin patience, bbc news, beirut. is preparing to lift off in just under an hour's time. the rocket will send the united arab emirates probe, named hope, into orbit to the red planet to learn more about its atmosphere and weather. our science correspondent rebecca morelle reports. mars is a mysterious planet. it has always fascinated people on earth. heading for the red planet, the united arab emirates about to make history. the spacecraft is called hope. until now, the uae‘s only launched satellites to earth orbit. getting to mars is a huge leap. feeling more nervous than anything else. we've tested and tested and tested the spacecraft to ensure that it can survive every single scenario, and now all of that rests on a launch pad on top of a rocket that is destined to a planet that is millions of kilometres away from us. our view of mars is about to be transformed. most spacecraft that have been there have orbited around the planet's poles and very close in, but this has meant a limited view. hope, though, is a missio

martin patience, bbc news, beirut. is taking place in government controlled areas to decide the make—up of parliament. no serious opposition has been allowed to parties loyal to president bashar al—assad, who has remained in office despite a devastating nine year war and the collapse of the economy. julie norman is a lecturer and researcher on middle east politics at university college london. thank you for being with us. given there is no challenge to president bashar al—assad what is the significance of these elections? well, that said, we know these elections will go the same way the previous parliamentary elections have gone throughout the war which is with the baath party dominating so this is an election for show. what has changed, though, is that the regime is in charge of much more of the country now than they were since the last election in 2016. at that election the government only controlled 20% of the country and they now control 70%, so it is away for bashar al—assad to show his own legitimacy within the c

martin patience, bbc news, beirut.ning street released this image of the prime minister and his fiancee carrie symonds with their 11—week—old son. they were speaking via a video conference call to midwives who helped to deliver wilfred at london‘s university college hospital. now it‘s time for a look at the weather with louise lear. hello there. we can split sunday‘s weather quite cleanly into three areas. it has been rather cloudy, damp and dull so far in the south east corner, the best of the sunshine has been across england, wales and northern ireland, with a scattering of showers into the far northwest of scotland. and that is how we are going to close out the day, with temperatures peaking between 15 and 22 degrees, now, through this evening and overnight, skies will continue to clear. those showers, bit of a nuisance into the far north, but under those clear skies, temperatures are likely to fall away into single figures. quite unusualfor the middle part of july, so it is going to be a chilly start, but there wil

this is from martin patience again...a cabinet session tomorrow to approve of a number of what they're calling severe preventive measures. today, however, at the interior minister did confirm that the country would be going into a sort of two—part lockdown from july 31st to august 3rd, and then from august 6th to august 10th. and in that time he said that bars, nightclubs, restaurantes will be closed, religious gatherings will also be banned which will definitely impact muslims celebrating eib this weekend but nothing has yet been confirmed regarding the airport. and is there anything the government can do to try do protect the lebanese economy while it goes through this? oh, wow. that's a very tough question. right now it is a precarious balance between resuscitating the economy and making sure the health care system is not overwhelmed which is why we have been seeing the surge we have been seeing in the last few weeks. i should have mentioned just before that cliff that was our generals in beirut. stay with us on oustid

martin patience has more from beirut.e current rate of hospital admissions is maintained, this country will run out of hospital bed to treat covid—19 patients by the middle of next month. that's because of a spike in reits and affections. relatively speaking, —— recent infections. lebanon has done well with the virus. since the start of the year, it had around 50 fatalities, but that now is all changing. beirut airport was reopened last month, and that has contributed to a rise in infections. with this country in a state of economic collapse, many officials are deeply concerned that lebanon could pass up on it early games. those early games could quickly unravel. in fact, the top official in the country who runs the hospital, the main hospital, dealing with the virus here, he has warned that lebanon may have won the battle but ultimately, it could end up losing the war against the coronavirus in the coming months. the president of the philippines has repeated his call for the return of the death penalty. he said he was co