victoria gill, bbc news. years she isn't — because of coronavirus. there are no crowds and all the jockeys are wearing face masks. the first race has just finished and our sports correspondent laura scott is there. yes, i'm outside one of the main gates at ascot and it would typically be a hive of activity. the champagne would already be flowing and people would have gathered on to the parade ring steps behind me to watch the royal procession. but not this year. we are not allowed inside the racecourse today because of the strict limits on numbers but we took a look inside yesterday to see how different this year's meeting will be. first race... nothing epitomises the sport of kings quite like royal ascot. traditionally, one of the society events of the summer, it blends high—class racing, glamour and of course, royalty. but behind closed doors, the 2020 version will be like no other, even down to what people wear. there isn't actually going to be a formal dress code this year. with no actual royal enclosure

our science correspondent victoria gill has been listening to the toots and quacks. bees buzz.y and vital pollinators. the buzz of honeybee activity is, despite the insect‘s ongoing decline, a very familiar sound. these sounds, though, might be less familiar. tooting and quacking. they're the toots and quacks of queen honeybees... tooting and quacking. ..duets detected during the late spring swarming system. by recording them and observing how the colony behaved, researchers revealed their crucial role in bee society. scientists used vibration detecting devices in the honeycomb to record and decode the signals. so rather than talking to other queens, the researchers found that a tooting queen was moving around the colony, announcing her presence to the workers. the responding quacks were from queens that were still wax sealed inside their special cells, but were ready to emerge. the life of a queen bee depends on the workers‘ response to those signals. they'll keep all the captive queens sealed away until an existing one has left with a swarm. if two queens are released at the

victoria gill is going to talk us through what's being called the "anthropause".nd who's been shielding because of a pre—existing health condition, restrictions are easing in a fortnight, and ending at the start of august. you'll be able to meet up to six people outdoors and form "support bubbles" with other households. in scotland, the restrictions will continue until at least the same time, the start of august. that's when northern ireland's restrictions are due to end. the welsh government says restrictions will continue until mid—august. this means many clinically vulnerable people could be heading back to work. there's concern about whether that's safe. here's the uk health secretary. it's so important that employers work with us, and, crucially, work with their employees to support them to get back to work in a covid secure environment, and it is critical that work is provided in a covid secure way for people who are shielding. this is outside source live from the bbc newsroom. there's been a record number of new coronavirus cases in one day — 183,000 people

victoria gill, bbc news.t in the madeleine mccann case are examining links to the disappearance of two other children, according to reports. the 43—year—old convicted german child sex offender, named by german media as christian b, is currently in prison in his home country. german prosecutors believe madeleine is dead after she vanished from an apartment in praia da luz, portugal, in 2007. 0ur europe correspondent gavin lee has the latest on the investigation from there. there are two main strands to this investigation. there is this ongoing public appeal, with photographs of the vehicles and the properties here, used by the main suspect, following the disappearance of madeleine mccann in 2007, but we are getting out more of a picture, certainly of what has been happening here, at least, in terms of the portuguese police saying they have been carrying out their own investigations for the past three yea rs. investigations for the past three years. this began a joint investigation when german police first got

victoria gill, bbc news.ach resorts in italy are gearing up for a covid—secure 2020 season. face masks, hand sanitiser and more space between sun loungers are being put in place. 0ne beach resort owner, 84—year—old arnaldo valentini, has lived through a series of events which threatened tourism in the region. we've been to meet him. the top business stories are coming up next. i will see you soon. hello there. the phrase "sunshine and showers" can at times seem quite trivial, can't it? but i'm sure if you were caught in the thundery downpours on monday, you knew about it. there was a lot of heavy rain in a very short space of time. if we take a look at the rain radar and the thunder and lightning strikes as we went through the afternoon, they were quite frequent across south—west scotland, northern ireland, north—west england and north wales. it certainly does look as though tuesday we could see more showers in a similar area. now, plenty of showers across europe as well, all under the influence of low pressu

victoria gill, abc news.ed to squeeze in this hour online. that's the bbc news website of course. if you are watching from the uk, you can join bbc breakfast in five minutes. if you are watching us around the world, they will be back. see you very soon. hello there. sunday was another very warm day nationwide, and capping off a very sunny weekend was a beautiful sunset to end the day in the herefordshire area. 20 degrees in porthmadog, making it wales's hottest day of the year so far, and only three tenths from the highest temperature we've seen in the uk this year. at the moment we got clear, starry skies out and about. a few mist and fog patches possible later on across coastal parts of scotland and north—east england, but probably not too many of these. temperatures first thing, eight to 13 degrees in towns and cities and cooler than that in the countryside first thing, but what you will notice first thing on monday is we've got plenty of sunshine. into the afternoon, a bit of fair weather cloud popping up

victoria gill reports. we are ready to get dragon docked to the international space station.he earth. soft capture confirmed. stand by for retraction and docking. the first astronauts to arrive at the international space station in a privately owned spacecraft floated safely through the hatch at 6:22pm uk time. we have bob behnken from spacex demo two mission, entering the international space station. doug hurley and bob behnken, dubbed america's favourite dads, are now the newest space station crew members. it's great to get the united states back in the crewed launcher business, and we are just really glad to be on board this magnificent complex. lift off! go, crew dragon, go, nasa! the success of their voyage marks the start of a new, commercial era in space travel. it's the first trip of a $2.6 billion space transportation contract that nasa has signed with spacex. watching from home was british astronaut tim peake, who says he hopes to get back to the international space station within the next four years. any chance that you might be going back to space with spacex? i c

victoria gill reports. we are ready to get dragon docked to the international space station.ed. stand by for retraction and docking. the first astronauts to arrive at the international space station in a privately owned spacecraft floated safely through the hatch at 6:22pm uk time. we have bob behnken from spacex demo two mission, entering the international space station. doug hurley and bob behnken, dubbed america's favourite dads, are now the newest space station crew members. it's great to get the united states back in the crewed launcher business, and we are just really glad to be on board this magnificent complex. lift off! go, crew dragon, go, nasa! the success of their voyage marks the start of a new, commercial era in space travel. it's the first trip of a $2.6 billion space transportation contract that nasa has signed with spacex. watching from home was british astronaut tim peake, who says he hopes to get back to the international space station within the next four years. any chance that you might be going back to space with spacex? i certainly hope so. what the nat

victoria gill, bbc news.o agreed to extend the eligibility window for nominees to the end of february. considerations will be extended temporarily to films that are released on streaming platforms rather than solely in cinemas. thank you for your messages today, this is from ian and whether free school meal vouchers should be extended. i am a one parent family andi extended. i am a one parent family and i depend on these badges because i have had to stop work to look after my sons. i get universal credit but my income has drastically dropped because i cannot work and home school them. i believe the school meal vouchers should continue, they are a big help. we live in county durham and we have three children aged five and under. the cost of food has gone up, we are on low benefits and we are struggling. we cannot go to a family previously could for help. and we cannot getjobs in the of england. you are watching bbc news. now, it's time for a look at the weather with nick miller. hello. the weather where you ar

our science correspondent victoria gill has been listening to the toots and quacks. bees buzz.d their crucial role in bee society. scientists used vibration detecting devices in the honeycomb to record and decode the signals. we think that the signals are sending information to the colony, to the worker bees. so rather than talking to other queens, the researchers found that a tooting queen was moving around the colony, but were ready to emerge.

our science correspondent victoria gill is here.ed lack of human activity, so through the most tragic of circumstances we have pushed the pause button on human movement and

victoria gill has been looking into the hunt for the next pandemic.ity. as the search for the solution for covid—19 continues, some scientists are looking to the future. in the next 20 years we may get another six or even more, so it is really essential that we get onto this in advance and we go out there and we try to find these pathogens before they find us. the focus of that search? the frontier between humans and the natural world. being on watch at these boundaries enables scientists to understand which animal diseases, of the thousands known to science, pose most of a threat to us. now, researchers have developed a computerised disease recognition system to predict which ones have the ability to infect humans. this minutely detailed map shows the scale of that puzzle. every line represents a disease that is shared between different species. the system looks for red flags, identifying any viruses or bacteria that can infect lots of different species or any that, like the coronavirus, belong to a family of diseases already known to infect humans.