In his Independence Day message to Americans, President Trump has claimed that the US is on its way to a 'tremendous victory' over Covid-19, despite all evidence suggesting otherwise. Also in the programme: Books by Hong Kong democracy advocates are disappearing from libraries after Beijing imposes a new national security law; and leading expert of Afghanistan Barney Rubin on whether the Taliban are really committed to peace. (Photo: US flag. Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

England has taken another significant step out of its coronavirus lockdown as pubs, restaurants and hairdressers reopen. Also in the programme: How Covid-19 could have been avoided and how the Jewish community in Moscow is dealing with the pandemic (Photo: a group of friends give a toast in a pub with their drinks. Credit: PA Media)

Miami-Dade County in Florida is imposing a curfew to stop a surge in coronavirus. Florida is among a number of Southern and Western states that have seen a sharp rise in positive cases of Covid-19. Also on the programme: Hong Kong's democracy activist Nathan Law explains why he fled the territory; and France returns the remains of twenty four Algerians who died fighting the colonial occupation. Picture: A health worker distributes bags with masks, sanitisers, and gloves to residence of the Miami-Dade County in Florida. Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images.

Twenty Saudi nationals are being tried in absentia by a Turkish court, over the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. Also in the programme: An explosion at Iran's Natanz nuclear facility is claimed by an unknown group calling themselves 'Cheetahs of the Homeland'; and how coronavirus outbreaks could be detected early in sewage. Photo: A candlelit vigil is held for journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Credit: Reuters

US President Donald Trump has continued to play down allegations that Moscow paid the Afghan Taleban to kill US troops in Afghanistan. Also in the programme: how European police broke into a secret messaging service used by hundreds of criminals; and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell is charged with procuring underage girls for the convicted paedophile, Jeffrey Epstein. Photo: Armed Taliban in Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, in June 2018. Credit: REUTERS

As the US registers 50,000 new virus cases in a single day, we hear from the country's leading disease control expert, Anthony Fauci, and look at the psychology of facemasks. Also in the programme: Turkey struggles with the future of one of the world's great religious buildings, Hagia Sofia; the perils of jade mining in Myanmar; and we ask how many residents might leave Hong Kong as China tightens its control. (Picture: New York Public Library lion statues wear masks in COVID-19 awareness campaign. Credit: EPA/PETER FOLEY)