and how screaming beetles and how screaming beatles fans disgusted george harrison�*s mum, one of her letters dive ordering all goes under the hammer. time for a look at the business news now with lukwesa. thank you very much, yes, hello there. let's take you through those top stories. we start in russia where the currency, the rouble, has fallen below 100 roubles to the dollar, its lowest level in 16 months. this the latest slump, part of a steep decline which has seen it drop nearly a third of its value this year. it has prompted a response from the russian central bank, where they are expected to give the latest interest rate decision. earlier, i spoke to chris weafer, founding partner of

macro—advisory in moscow. he said the situation for the russian currency is unique. you should not be looking at it in the same way as if there was a slide in a normally functioning economy or a european economy. the rouble is entirely managed now by the central bank in conjunction with the finance ministry, and has been since we last saw the rouble collapse down to about 130 in march of last year. so the central bank's priority last year was to keep the rouble exchange rate high at around 60, because it was tackling inflation, but this year, because of the sanctions impact and because that has led to a big hit on the value of russia's oil exports in particular, they have devalued the rouble in order to compensate for that fall in dollar terms. in other words, weaker rouble translating dollars into a higher rouble amount to balance the budget. that's been the priority this year. it doesn't reflect an imminent crisis. sort of a broad collapse in the economy. it's the result of the central bank managing the rouble. arguably, they've now gone

too far on the other side. well, maxim 0reshkin is the economic adviser, and he's sort of at loggerheads, isn't he, with the russian central bank? he's blaming loose or soft policy. what exactly does he mean by that? yeah. as you say, he has been complaining that the rouble is now too weak. and i guess he's indirectly criticising the central bank's actions with the finance ministry, essentially saying that they have mismanaged the conversion of export receipts sincejune when this latest decline of the rouble started. but, you know, in terms of loose policy, we haven't seen much of an increase in consumer lending. there's no real issue there. there's no big surge in any sort of investment or consumer activity. so i think what he's actually saying is that the central bank and the finance ministry are mismanaging this balance and they need to bring the rouble higher, because of the risk of inflation or the risk of a loss of confidence, which then could have broader economic implications in the autumn.

so there's clear disagreement, as you say, in government over what should be done with the rouble. to australia now, where workers at some of the country's lng plants, producers of liquefied natural gas, will decide this week if they'll go on strike over pay and employment rights. now, this matters as the plants together supply around 10% of the global lng market. european gas prices were pushed up again today after surging last week. joining me now is jake horslen, senior lng analyst at energy aspects. to have you with us here on

bbc news, it is interesting, how significant would strike action be? it would be pretty significant, australia supplies about 10% of this global energy, most of its two northeast asia, not directly to europe, but it would have an indirect impact, because the replacement cargoes for those northeast asian buyers would need to be procured, they would come from the atlantic, places like the us, and that us supply has become so important the european picture in light of the ongoing conflict in ukraine. �* , , , ., ukraine. and yet, i suppose, without euro ean ukraine. and yet, i suppose, without european market, _ ukraine. and yet, i suppose, without european market, there _ ukraine. and yet, i suppose, without european market, there are - ukraine. and yet, i suppose, without european market, there are figures l european market, there are figures showing that demand for energy is actually dropping, without help to mitigate the possible impacts of strike action? at mitigate the possible impacts of strike action?— mitigate the possible impacts of strike action? �* ., , strike action? at the moment, it is dro -|n~ strike action? at the moment, it is dronping because _ strike action? at the moment, it is dropping because of _ strike action? at the moment, it is dropping because of normal - strike action? at the moment, it is| dropping because of normal trends, lower demand during the summer, that

requires less energy, so there is a seasonal drop off, and because european storage sites are very full, over 90% of all, that further reduces the immediate demand for energy on the continent. so it comes at a sort of good time for europe, because demand is quite low, supply relatively healthy, but if this was to drag on into the winter, into the peat heating period, it would cause a lot more disruption. jake. peat heating period, it would cause a lot more disruption.— a lot more disruption. jake, one of the companies _ a lot more disruption. jake, one of the companies involved _ a lot more disruption. jake, one of the companies involved in - a lot more disruption. jake, one of the companies involved in this, - a lot more disruption. jake, one of the companies involved in this, or| the companies involved in this, or rather their workers involved in this possible strike action, say they have contingency plans in place. the australian economy, i mean, lng is worth 90 billion australian dollars, in 2022 figures, the government will be watching this very closely, won't they?— very closely, won't they? yeah, that is riaht, very closely, won't they? yeah, that is right. there _ very closely, won't they? yeah, that is right, there is _ very closely, won't they? yeah, that is right, there is a _ very closely, won't they? yeah, that is right, there is a lot _ very closely, won't they? yeah, that is right, there is a lot of— is right, there is a lot of reputation on the line here, australia is a global energy supply for one, and the companies involved directly as well, and given the

volume is involved, a0 million tonnes per year capacity, you would think there is a lot of incentive to make sure that this finds a resolution without it causing major disruption. resolution without it causing ma'or disrution. , ., ~ resolution without it causing ma'or disru tion. , ., ~ ., disruption. jake, we will leave it there for now, _ disruption. jake, we will leave it there for now, but _ disruption. jake, we will leave it there for now, but thank - disruption. jake, we will leave it there for now, but thank you - disruption. jake, we will leave it | there for now, but thank you very much, thank you. now, from mumbai to bangkok and jakarta, motorbikes are the most popular form of personal transport across asia. they're cheap and convenient, but also extremely polluting. 0ne taiwanese company believes it has a solution. 0ur asia correspondent rupert wingfield—hayes sent us this report from taipei. here i am in taiwan, and this little electric scooter may not look like anything revolutionary, but it is. it is a world—first. and i'm going to show you why. there are 1a million motor scooters here in taiwan, and they are very noisy and very dirty. so how do you get people to switch from their dirty petrol scooters

to clean electric one like this? well, they have to be just as cheap and just as reliable. there is no infrastructure to convert to electric. and then the moment came, what about battery not included? what if you are actually able to sell the vehicle without the battery, reducing the cost of that vehicle by 30 or a0%? so this is the really clever and unique thing about this system. when you buy one of these bikes, it doesn't have any battery in it, that makes it cheap. instead, you subscribe to the company's batteries, and when it gets low, you just come to a charging station like this one and switch it out for a fresh one. there are more than 10,000 of these charging stations across taiwan, with more than a million of these batteries in them. that should mean goodbye to range anxiety. well, if my vehicle has a 100 kilometre range, i can only go 50 and then 50 back, which means that now you have

a tether on your neck, everywhere you go, that's not a solution. we are solving for range anxiety also at the same time, because you canjust hop, hop, hop from point to point. this could be the answer to zero—emissions personal transport for many of asia's huge megacities. and for this taiwan start—up, the next stop is india. and that was rupert wingfield—hayes there. to the us now, where it's a big week for retail results, with the numbers due from some of america's biggest shops giving us an opportunity to take the pulse of the us consumer. 0ur north america business correspondent michelle fleury is in new york for us. hello there, how is it looking? yeah, so a lot of focus will be a big box retailers like walmart and target, as well as home depot, who will all give an update on their

results for the last three months over the coming few days, and it matters because the american consumer accounts for two thirds of all economic activity. and if you think back to things like the blockbuster barbie movie, we have got taylor swift's tour and more economists saying that the economy may well avoid a recession, and a lot of that has to do with consumers doing much better than expected, still spending despite pressures from higher prices, and that has helped the economy continue to grow. the question is, will it still be the case going forward. we are going to get some data tomorrow morning in the form of retail sales figures, and then as i mentioned, those corporate earnings, and taken together, investors and economists are looking to find out how consumers are doing right now and in the months ahead, because we know backin the months ahead, because we know back in may they were starting to show signs of slowing down, that the pressure of those higher prices, higher mortgage rates, all of that

was beginning to show up in things like the level of credit card debt that americans are taking on. is that americans are taking on. is that going to start to weigh them down going forward? that is what people are trying to find out, not just those mortgage rates i mentioned, but also things like that moratorium on student loan debt coming to an end. that will also suck money out of people's pockets, and so people are going to be looking at what companies have to say about their prospects for the next coming months, and will ensure that consumers are perhaps still slowing down, or will it show that they are beginning to hit the wall? 0k, michelle, as ever, thank you very much, live there from new york. in other news, the share price of china's troubled property giant country garden has plunged 15% in hong kong after it warned of losses. the developer suspended trading in many of its bonds, leading to a

wider sell—off in the property sector. it isjust wider sell—off in the property sector. it is just the latest property firm to run into trouble as the sector struggles with weak demand. before we go, pubs in england and wales will be able to continue selling takeaway drinks after the government decided to keep covid licensing rules. pandemic laws allowed them to sell through hatches, the laws were due to expire in september but will now continue until march 2025. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. bbc news, bringing you different stories from across the uk. a cooling paddle in the river deben and at waldringfield. thanks to campaigners, this is one of the country's newest designated bathing water areas. weekly tests show levels of e.coli found in human and animal faeces are safe here. elsewhere in the estuary, it's a different story. testing has found excessive levels of e.coli,

which can cause diarrhoea and sickness. campaigners claim the main source is treated effluent from two sewage works, and they want anglian water to take action. we have prepared a case as part of our next environment programme with the environment agency around disinfection at both our woodbridge water recycling centre and also the one upstream at melton. so in the next few years, levels of faecal coliforms will drop? yeah, absolutely. yeah, they should. they should drop, phosphate should drop, storm overflow should reduce, and e.coli levels should reduce directly as a result of the investment that we're making. for more stories from across the uk, head to the bbc news website. you're live with bbc news. today marks ten years since hundreds of people were killed on the streets of cairo when egyptian security forces dispersed a sit—in of protestors opposing military takeover in the country. it was described as the deadliest

day in egypt's living memory. the bbc�*s sally nabiljoined people who were there that day to reflect on its life—changing impact. a day that turned the streets of cairo into a war zone. ten years ago, just after dawn, gunfire and police sirens filled the air. supporters of the former islamist president mohamed morsi were camped out in the square of rabaa al—adawiya for weeks after the army deposed him. in a matter of hours, hundreds of them were killed and the square was in ruins. ahmed was only 20 years old when he took part in the sit—in. memories of the dispersal still haunt him. he told me he never thought the gathering would be crushed so brutally. translation:

dead bodies were everywhere. a lot of kids lost their lives and bulldozers were crushing people to death. i saw snipers shooting a queue of people who were raising their hands in surrender and leaving the sit—in. humanity was killed in egypt on that day. having spent five years behind bars, ahmed now lives in the uk. he was among many protesters and members of the muslim brotherhood who either ended up injail or exile. the authorities claimed those occupying the area had an arsenal of weapons. something the muslim brotherhood deny. life in egypt has changed for good since this day. politics has come under the full control of the military backed president, abdel fattah el—sisi.

ten years on, there are wounds that are still open and people who find it really difficult to get over their traumas. wafaa tries to find solace in spending time with her grandchildren. her son, mustafa, a police officer, took part in the dispersal but was fatally shot two days later as violence gripped cairo. for three years, he was in a coma with wafaa by his side. translation: bereaved mothers came to visit me in the hospital— and told me we are in a better position than you. at least the fate of our sons has been decided. they called him the living martyr. this dark chapter is not over yet. no—one from the security services was held accountable for the bloodshed, and divisions still run deep,

setting many egyptians apart. sally nabil, bbc news, cairo. for months now, hundreds of thousands of israelis have been joining weekly mass protests against controversial government plans to overhaul the country's justice system. now there are signs that secular israelis are thinking about emigrating. increasingly, they're a minority, because of the higher birth rate among religiousjews who largely support the right—wing government. 0ur middle east correspondent yolande knell sent this report from tel aviv. another takeover of downtown tel aviv. for six months, weekend family outings for this top israeli radiologist have been at these huge anti—government protests. but now professor hoffman is planning a more radical step, moving to a hospital in the uk. i'm going to london for a sabbatical, and this will be my laboratory to see if i can live outside israel.

he may leave for good. in the long term, if the situation will be so bad, it's worsening every day, we will find a place to live outside israel. we all have european passports. and others also think of emigrating as hard—line ministers push through highly controversial laws. they say they're fixing a system in which elected politicians are too easily overruled by the supreme court. protesters argue they're weakening oversight of the government. unfortunately, many, many of my friends check the options in other countries. i will not raise my kids in- a country which is not democratic. what do we want? people are coming out on the streets week after week to protest the dramatic changes that are being made to israel's justice system. but there are also deep social divisions that are opening up in the country. people are worried about the future

direction that israel is taking. israel's current governing coalition relies on ultra orthodoxjews and religious ultra nationalists who represent fast—growing parts of the population. as liberal secular israelis become a smaller minority, they fear the courts will no longer be able to protect their rights. experts warn if it happens, an exodus could be devastating. when the truly talented people, who carry on their shoulders the innovation and the economic development that this country is so dependent on, when they decide they've had enough, then we could see a collapse, an economic collapse. this is the main square. i visit professor hoffman at the israeli hospital where he currently works as a foetal neuroradiologist. he says, like him, many medics now consider heading overseas. even now we have we have a shortage of doctors. so if, you know, even 5% will not come back, it will be a disaster. back at the big protests in tel aviv, the fight

for the government to change track goes on at full volume. but another challenge is also building, with more israelis quietly planning an exit. yolande knell, bbc news, tel aviv. mount etna frequently erupts, but on this occasion, it has forced the closure at this occasion, it has forced the closure ., ., ., this occasion, it has forced the clown ., ., ., ., ., closure of the local airport, and to cive ou closure of the local airport, and to give you an _ closure of the local airport, and to give you an idea — closure of the local airport, and to give you an idea of— closure of the local airport, and to give you an idea of the _ closure of the local airport, and to give you an idea of the disruption, it was scheduled to be the sixth busiest in italy today, with 235 flights scheduled to depart and arrive, that is according to aviation analytics firm. some flights might yet make it, because the airport is currently scheduled

to reopen at 8pm at local time tonight. some pictures to show you now of president zelensky, because he has been out visiting some of the ukrainian troops on the front line in donetsk, where kyiv has been painstakingly clawing back territory from russian forces around the city of bakhmut, about which we have heard so much recently. he has released a statement on social media, president zelensky, saying today we are working in the donetsk region, we discussed problems faced ijy region, we discussed problems faced by the worries and proposals for the solution. you are watching bbc news. if you went to a beatles gig during the height of beatlemania, you would have seen thousands of ecstatic fans, mostly young women, screaming their heads off at the band. let me give you a sense of how that sounded. screaming

but it seems george harrison's mother wasn't impressed. that's mrs harrison who you can see right now. we know that because of a series of letters she wrote. this is one in which she wrote that she was disgusted at how fans behaved at one of her son's gigs is up for auction. mrs harrison answered thousands of letters from beatles fans around the world, including 25 to fanjanet gray, and it's those letters that are going under the hammer. stephen bailey is the manager of the beatles shop in liverpool, who is organising the auction. i asked him what he made of the discussed. i think she was just shocked, it is probably the first time she ever experienced that also it, and you will be shocked as a mum seeing hundreds of girls screaming out your son on stage! i think notjust she was shocked, but it really was the first time we saw this sort of behaviour from fans, wasn't it, in terms of this hysteria? oh, it was a total phenomenon.

through out the beatles�* career, people went along to their concerts and all they wanted to do was scream. let me read you a little bit more of this one, it is quite funny. nobody with any sense would pay and queue for a ticketjust to stand on a seat and scream and not hear one sound from the stage, i was really ashamed that i was female. i mean, they wrote wanting a nice reply from george, they were perhaps not expecting a telling off! no, i mean, she wrote to thousands upon thousands of fans through out the years, and she was always nice and kind to them, always replied to their letters when she could. she is regarded as one being one of the nicest family members that you can find. she wrote to this womanjanet multiple times, i was reading through some of them, it is quite personal stuff, isn't it?

she talks about what she is up to, one of them says, i am really pleased to hear you have got a boyfriend, they are having quite intimate chats, she must have been inundated, and she said at one point she had 3,000 letters to reply to, but she did make it very personal, didn't she? just giving away a little bit of information about george, something like he is looking a bit thin at the moment, married a little bit of gossip in there for them as well as the personal touch. yes, she did throughout her letters. i mean, ijust found them fascinating to read, and i thought it told a story from the beginning through until the height of theirfame, really. they were wonderful letters, little vinaigrettes from their life. network rail has released

some of its cctv footage to highlight the dangers. they have released cctv images of people texting and doing push—ups on level crossings. this report uses images from worcestershire. there's a train is coming! children playing. one—armed press—ups. and selfies with dogs. just some of the incidents seen on level crossings around worcestershire so far this year. these shocking videos were captured on covert cameras by network rail. train horn blares. they've released them as a safety warning to the public. you wouldn't go out into the middle when cars are coming and start doing press—ups or taking a selfie with your dogs and whatnot, so i don't understand why you would do it on a railway, when trains are much heavier, faster, and they can't stop or swerve out the way. this is a location where network rail has seen some of these incidents occur, and they say one of the reasons behind it may be people's desire for interesting videos or photos to post on social media,

but it says that this sort of behaviour comes with huge risks. it's really disheartening to see stuff like that, because ourjob is to make sure it is safe for people. it doesn't bear thinking about, the consequences that could happen. nearly 50 cases of misuse have been reported by train drivers or caught on cameras in the county and the west midlands so far in 2023. safety teams are now visiting the problem crossings to directly warn people of the dangers. the hope is that it may prevent more dangerous incidents, especially over the school summer holidays. navteonhal, bbc news, droitwich spa. now it's time for a look at the weather with ben rich. for some of us, it has been a soggy start to the new working week with low pressure in charge of our weather and this frontal system which has become quite slow moving across parts of northern england and north wales generating

some very heavy bursts of rain. through the rest of the day it is north wales but perhaps more especially northern england and into the far south of scotland where we will see the wettest of the weather. there could well be enough rain to cause localised transport disruption, maybe a bit of flooding. quite windy across southern and eastern parts. sunshine and showers away from our main rain bands and temperatures generally in the low to mid 20s. as we head through tonight, that rain will linger for a time across parts of eastern scotland and north—east england. i think much of it will pull away by the end of the night. one or two showers out west, but the majority will be dry and clear, and not a cold night, 11—15 degrees. tomorrow the last vestiges of that rain will tend to clear from eastern scotland and north—east england, and then it is a sunshine and showers day. some of the showers could be on the heavy side, but there will be some decent dry gaps in between and some spells of sunshine. temperature—wise, we are looking at 19 degrees in aberdeen, 23 in norwich and in london.

as we move out of tuesday and into wednesday, we start to see this quite weak area of high pressure building its way in. that will settle things down to some extent. underneath that high we could see some dense fog patches to start, particularly around western parts of england, wales and northern ireland. some of that fog taking a while to clear, but it should do quite readily through the morning. then some sunny spells, a chance of one or two showers, but signs of something perhaps a bit warmer developing down towards the south—east. it looks like we will see some warmer weather later in the week. it is going to be quite a warm week generally across much of continental europe, and as we move through on into the start of friday, we will start to develop a south—easterly breeze, bringing some of that warmer air our way. butjust how warm it gets depends on the progress of this frontal system swinging in from the atlantic, because that is going to bring cloud and some heavy rain northwards and eastwards. before that arrives, it looks like temperatures will, for some, get up into the middle 20s celsius,

but some very wet weather swinging its way eastward through friday and into the start of the weekend.

live from london. this is bbc news. the death toll in hawaii's devastating wildfires rises to 96 — hundreds of people are still missing. charities and cancer specialists express concern about plans in england to scrap two thirds of cancer targets. niger's coup leaders say they'll prosecute did tens of thousands of steps have

been posted on a wall and belfast and outside of the headquarters in belfast and we are expected to hear from senior officers in the next few minutes. and how screaming beatles fans �*disgusted' george harrison's mum — one of her letters — revealing all — goes under the hammer. hello, i m matthew amroliwala, welcome to verified live, 3 hours of breaking stories, and checking out the truth behind them. police in northern ireland following a major data breach. they're investigating claims that leaked document containing details of thousands of staff have been posted on a wall in belfast in your half a northern ireland police officers around 3000 of them contacted