and outgoing shells, every 30 seconds or so. it really doesn t stop. and science fiction made reality as nasa plans to try to divert an asteroid by crashing a rocket into it. we start in the uk where the bank of england says it won t hesitate to take action to control inflation, after the pound slumped to an all time low against the dollar. take a look at this chart from this morning s asia trading. at one point sterling fell to $1.03 the lowest since 1971 though it s since recovered slightly. there s been speculation that the bank of england may announce an emergency hike in rates to control rising prices. for the moment, that hasn t happened. well there s lots to unpack. first to understand what s happening today we must go back to friday and to this annoucement in parliament. i can announce today that we will catch the basic rate of income tax to 19p, in april 2020 three, one year early. that means a tax cut for over 31 million people injust a few months time. t
overturning of health care that will specifically harm women of colour and marginalised peoples. this specifically harm women of colour and marginalised peoples.- specifically harm women of colour and marginalised peoples. this is a heavy responsibility. and marginalised peoples. this is a heavy responsibility. to and marginalised peoples. this is a heavy responsibility. to make - and marginalised peoples. this is a heavy responsibility. to make an i heavy responsibility. to make an abortion heavy responsibility. to make an abortion illegal and impeccable throughout our nation. a second earthquake rocks an area in south eastern afghanistan causing further deaths and destruction. a third day of strike action on the uk s rail network only a fifth of train services are expected to run. and it s day two of performances at glastonbury with sir paul mccartney as the saturday night headliner. hello and welcome if you re watching in the uk or around the world. borisjohnson
We spoke tojoe burton, professor of international security, Lancaster University and he gave us his assessment on what exactly people should be aware of. I think there are two main trends at the moment. The first is we are in a worsening geopolitical environment. Our relationship nationally and internationally with russia and china is not great. And in the last five or ten years, theres been clear evidence of both of these countries trying to subvert democratic processes in the uk, in europe, in the us and indeed elsewhere, and theyre becoming increasingly brazen in doing so. The second element, i think, is the technological tools they now have at their disposal to interfere in our democracies, whether thats the political use of ransomware, whether its synthetic media. Youve just showed the clip of the robo call of a call mimicking joe bidens voice in seemingly a very authentic way, whether thats more traditional hack and leak operations or indeed disinformation disseminating through s