staying with hong kong, let's cross live to our correspondent, martin yip. t him? who is he and what i his priorities?— him? who is he and what i his priorities? john lee has been a career policeman _ priorities? john lee has been a career policeman inaudible i priorities? john lee has been a l career policeman inaudible late 19705 career policeman inaudible late 1970s and worked his way up inaudible and became the secretary for security just before the 2019 anti—government protests broke out and that's exactly what the policy inaudible amendment to the extradition law of hong kong back then which inaudible so dramatically but then we saw beijing imposing the national security law, a major damp down of hong kong's pro—democracy movement so now he is going to run the government, being the first policeman to run this job. he promised in his speech just before the president made his speech that he would dramatically increase hong kong's inaudible economy in this backdrop of xi jinping's greater area policy, that's what he promised to inaudible. his appointment h

let's cross live to our reporter martin yip now.e heard comments from president xijinping, and one of them he said that after the storms, hong kong has been reborn by fire and what does exactly mean by that what will he say later on?— he say later on? very likely, but pretty — he say later on? very likely, but pretty much _ he say later on? very likely, but pretty much the - he say later on? very likely, but pretty much the main i but pretty much the main interpretation is that he's referring to what happened in 2019, the anti—government protests brought on by the proposed amendment to the extradition law in hong kong, which has died down in 2020, first because of the covid—19 pandemic, and then because of the proclamation by beijing of the proclamation by beijing of the hong kong national security lord which stopped many activities and literally poured activities and literally poured a bucket of water, you could say, on the fire of this raging pro—democracy movement —— the security law. in beijing's point of view, hong kong is rais

martin yip, bbc news.g positive for covid—19 has continued to increase across the uk, the office for national statistics says. in both england and wales, data suggests that around one in 30 people had coronavirus in the week ending 2ajune. in northern ireland, the figure was 1 in 25 and in scotland the rate was1 in 18. with me in the studio now is our health correspondentjim reed. how concerning are these figures? this is a significant weekly increase in the level of covid infections but we should point out because some people might be thinking, are we even testing for it any more? this is the office for national statistics that go out and randomly test tens of thousands of people each week to see if they have covid so it is not based on people coming forward with symptoms, so it is seen as the most accurate reading we have of infections across the country and it shows in the last week they have gone up from 1.7 million people to around 2.3 million people which is across the uk as a whole. in scotland in p

for more on this i am joined now by martin yip in hong kong. good to see you there.monyjust lace. can you give assistance of what you are seeing, the kind of celebrations in hong kong and what is planned? 50 celebrations in hong kong and what is planned?— celebrations in hong kong and what is planned? so the talk of celebration, _ what is planned? so the talk of celebration, it's _ what is planned? so the talk of celebration, it's more - what is planned? so the talk of celebration, it's more about. celebration, it's more about the official celebrations. you mentioned the flag raising ceremony, it's not quite done yet because as you can see, parading right at the back of where i am and i'm roughly one kilometre away from the flag raising ceremony and victoria harbour, there is a parade going on. we saw the new chief executive be sworn in in two hours time as well as the outgoing chief executive carrie lam but technically, president xi is not in hong kong yet, he went back to mainland china, and in about one hours time, just to oversee the new government swearing in an

from there, martin yip reports. a day of celebration under bad weather.eturned hong kong to china. beijing promised then to keep the one country, two systems principle for at least 50 years, after the i997 for at least 50 years, after the 1997 handover, meaning hong kong would remain part of china but be free to govern itself. lord patten was the last governor of hong kong and was at the handover ceremony in 1997. he told the bbc that china has broken its promise. the words i spoke then saying it was now hong kong�*s dester need to be run by the people of hong kong, have turned to ashes, because hong kong was once one of the freest, arguably the freest and most open society in asia. it has now been turned into a police state. in the past two years beijing has cracked down on dissent in hong kong, introducing a national security law in 2020 that critics say has stifled free speech. pro—democracy news outlets have also been shut down and a zero covid policy makes life here and easy. there are those who are pro—beijing who are _ there are those who are pro—b