release political prisoners and start dialogue with belarus, and you know, i m sure that belarus she told the president the us could be an invaluable future partner to an independent belarus, but for that to become a reality, the situation on the ground would have to look vastly different to this, with no immediate sign it will. mark lobel, bbc news. a draft law in the scottish parliament has been amended to exempt the queen s land from measures to encourage green energy after her lawyers raised concerns. the changes meant land owned by the royal household such as the balmoral estate could not be subject to compulsory purchase orders without the monarch s approval. the correspondence between buckingham palace and the scottish government was first reported in the guardian.
the president is about to announce that all government workers and contractors be vaccinated against covid 19 or be required to submit to regular testing. we still have a lot of people not vaccinated. the pandemic we have now is a pandemic of the unvaccinated. so please please, please, please if you re not vaccinated, protect yourself and the children out there. it s important. all americans are being advised to wear facemasks again indoors, in public spaces in parts of the country with substantial or high transmission rates. that applies to 67% of counties up in just 24 hours from 63%. some of the big tech companies, such as facebook and google, have said their staff must be vaccinated before stepping back into the office. netflix has reportedly made jabs compulsory for all cast and crew members on us productions. the enforcement of
and analyse these events, but they warn that extremes are becoming the new norm. rebecca morelle, bbc news. president biden says he was honoured to meet the exiled belarusian opposition leader, svetla na tikhanovskaya, at the white house. she said the visit would prove inspirational to her opposition movement, which is trying to oust president lukashenko from power, after what they claim was a rigged election last year. mark lobel has more and his report contains flashing images. this was the state s response to protesters disputing what they called a rigged election back in august. few here believe the country s long time president alexander lukashenko when he claimed he had won re election with 80% of the vote, and neither did governments in the eu, uk, canada and the us. and this is the woman who says she won that election, svetla na ti kha novs kaya.
president biden is expected to announce that federal workers will soon be required to confirm they are vaccinated orface more testing. the numbers of coronavirus cases are rising with the director of the us national public health agency. the cdc, saying cases have increased over 300% nationally since mid june. our north america correspondent peter bowes reports. there s a growing sense of urgency. about half the population is fully vaccinated, but infection rates are rising, the delta variant is spreading rapidly, and the number ofjabs in arms is still much lower thanjoe biden wants to see. the president is about to announce that all government workers and contractors be vaccinated against covid 19 or be required to submit to regular testing. we still have a lot of people not vaccinated. the pandemic we have now is a pandemic of the unvaccinated, so please please, please, please get vaccinated.