In upcoming elections. Today we are seeing the results of being relentless of the oppression that this regime is starting. And new figures show england has had the highest level of excess deaths in europe. Welcome. We start in the us at the funeral of civil rights pioneerjohn lewis in atlanta, georgia. It was held at the Ebenezer Baptist church where his friend and fellow activist Matin Luther King once preached. John lewis was the son of an Alabama Farmer who was arrested dozens of times for civil rights activism. Then in 1986, he was elected to represent the state of georgia in congress where he continued to serve until he died just under two weeks ago. Three former president s were at his funeral. One of them, americas first black president , barack obama, gave this eulogy. We had not yet reached that blessed destination where we are judged by the content of our character. He knew from his own life that progress is fragile, that we have to be vigilant against the darker currents of this countrys history. Of our own history. But there were pools of violence and hatred and despair that can violence and hatred and despair that ca n always violence and hatred and despair that can always rise again. Connor may be gone, but today, we witness with our own eyes Police Officers kneeling on the necks of black americans. George wallace may be gone, but we can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators. Applause we may no longer have to guess the number of jellybea ns in we may no longer have to guess the number of jellybeans in a jar we may no longer have to guess the number ofjellybeans in a jar in order to cast a ballot, but even as we sit here, there are those in power who are doing their darndest to discourage people from voting by closing polling locations and targeting minorities and students with restrictive id laws and attacking our bowling rights with surgical precision, Voting Rights. Even undermining the Postal Service in a run up to an election. It will be dependent on mailing ballot so people dont get sick. Barack obama speaking there. Katty kay is live in washington. Amazing tribute to a remarkable man. What significance do you think this has, given the timing of all this . Significance do you think this has, given the timing of all thi57m significance do you think this has, given the timing of all this . It was partly a funeral eulogy to somebody who was a civil rights icon. Everyone who spoke remembered him very fondly. President obama talked about his bravery as just a 20 year old in taking on what he called the infrastructure of oppression of segregation and racism in this country. It was also interesting that president obama used the occasion to be very political, much more political than you would think that a in a funeral usually dont eulogy. Warned about people and leaders who are trying to stop people from voting. Theres a lot of concern amongst democrats that minorities in this country have their Voting Rights suppressed. Theres also concerned because of covid the middle of a pandemic that this election is going to be decided through mail in voting. There are some concerns that the president is trying to undermine the Postal Service as well as the moment. I was struck by how intensely political this was. It was very much about the election, and the formal president former president made direct categorical appeals saying to people they have to vote. Its important to carry on the work ofjohn lewis. They have to vote. Its important to carry on the work ofjohn lewis. On that theme of voting and the election, i just want to bring that theme of voting and the election, ijust want to bring in a tweet. One president who did not attend was the current one, donald trump. Instead, this morning he tweeted this its interesting. The president does not have the power to choose the date of the election. What is going on there . No. Back to 1845, a little bit of a history lesson, a law that states on the first tuesday after the first monday of the month of november, every four years, there will be an election. So its in law. What it would take to change that is congress and the house of representatives is held by democrats. They wont agree to that. More interestingly, youve had quite a slew of republicans, even die hard rest of die hard supporters like ted cruz, theyve all come out, even mitch mcconnell, the leader of the senate have come out and said since that tweet, this is not happening. This election will be held on november three. That the law. Its not going to be delayed. One republican suggested the president was just joking, republican suggested the president wasjustjoking, but again, because the president is not doing very well at the polls in the moment, the economy is in a bad shape, covid is rampant in many parts of the country, there are concerns that the president would try to delay the election or change the result or challenge the result in some way so people pounced on this. But, youre right, you we cant do it. Its a tweet, not law. The election will be held under american law on november three. A tweet not a law, something to live what by. Well, president trumps tweet came shortly after news that the us economy suffered its biggest contraction on record. It shrank by 9. 5 in the three months from april to june. The historic fall shows the impact of coronavirus with many restaurants, shops and factories shutting during lockdown. Weve also had the latest weekly unemployment numbers. Another 1. 4 Million People lost theirjobs and filed for unemployment benefits. Heres Samira Hussain on the economic damage behind those numbers. If you look at any sector, if you look at trade we saw the trade was down. If you look at how much people were investing in their businesses. That was down. And most crucially, weve seen if you look at consumer spending, while that has really taken a beating. Dont forget americas gdp remains going back remains heavily on peoples spending. So people need to go out and spend money. But the harsh measures put in place to protect people from the coronavirus pandemic welt that meant that people were at home and they werent out shopping. And that had a really severe impact on the overall gdp number. I want to pick up on something is the idea of the pick up in the economy and the second half of the year. A lot of the congress and even President Donald Trump and members of this administration had said that look, we are going to see its pretty difficult in the First Six Months of this year. But in the second half of the year everyone is expecting that rebound. But as we see the number of cases rising so dramatically, a lot of states are rolling back those reopening measures, and that is putting this potentialfor a rebound in the second half of the year really in jeopardy. Part of americas response to the coronavirus outbreak was a huge Economic Relief package agreed by congress in march, but that will run out this week and congress have yet to agree an extention. Heres an economist from the Brookings Institution to explain why further support is needed. We seem to be running an experiment and seeing how dysfunctional our just in time of crisis. As you know the Congress Expanded the safety net early in march. As a result of the covid crisis. And now a lot of those programmes particularly in extra unemployment check of 600 a week that people are getting is expiring. And congress is unable to come to term fully met terms with an expansion. Congress has so far been reluctant at least the republicans to expand the food stamp safety. State local governments are cutting back because their revenues are down. And they are spending on essential Public Health and Public Safety has lapsed. So theyre cutting other things. We dont have a strong safety net in the us as most European Countries do. Weve discovered how frayed it is. We are lucky that we got as much out of congress as we did in march. This would be a lot worse if we hadnt had the temporary repairs to the safety net in march. But now some of those repairs have worn off. And we are seeing a lot of people fall through the cracks. Caddy, what happens next with this legislation . Where do we go from there katty . Legislation . Where do we go from there katty . It doesnt look Like Congress is anywhere close to the legislation at the moment. You have the current head of the american Federal Reserve saying congress has to do something and spend more money because people are about to run out of money in their pockets. One of the key planks of that rescue package that was agreed back in march was that americans who are unemployed got an extra 600 a week in their pocket. That runs out on friday. From next week on, they wont get that extra 600. They will be able to pay their mortgages or rent or bills or any extra services. That all has a cascading effects down the economy, and if congress can agree to help those people carry on helping those people, it looks like things are going to get quite worse here. Certainly there will be a lot more pain amongst people who are doing well already. 33 is a huge amount of attraction in the american economy. Other economies have suffered come up that the next biggest is germany. That only declined by 10 during the same period. This is a huge shock to the american economy. Congress doesnt seem american economy. Congress doesnt seem to be able to get its political act together to agree on a stimulus package that would keep the safety net in place until the economy gets back on its feet. Thanks, katty. Stay with us on outside source, still to come we look at excess deaths across europe. New figures show england recorded the highest rate, followed by the uk as a whole. Taiwans first popularly elected president lee dung hway has died, aged 97. He served as leader from 1988 to 2000 and is credited with turning taiwan into a democracy. Mr lee had been in hospital for the last six months, and was suffering from multiple organ failure. But there hadnt been much information about his condition so his death came as a shock to the people of taiwan. Cindy sui is in taipei. His legacy survives to his day this day. Even though his predecessor is credited with paving the way for democracy, it was president hwey who made it a reality. He carried out a number of political reforms that enable taiwan to reform the parliament and allow for a long time. This is outside source live from the bbc newsroom. The funeral of civil rights icon and Congressmanjohn Lewis hasjust finished in atlanta, georgia. To hong kong next. The government there has disqualified 12 pro democracy candidates from upcoming Legislative Council elections thats hong kongs mini parliament. It says the candidates were not fit to run for office. Unsurprisingly, the candidates themselves see it differently. Heres one of them. When the National Security law was passed, i said that one country to system is finished. Today we are seeing the results of being relentless that this regime is starting. One country two systems is the policy which up till now has given hong kong a high degree of autonomy from mainland china. The man that you just heard, dennis kwok, is an elected member of the Legislative Council, for the civic party. The party is considered relatively moderate. But four of its lawmakers, who you see here, are among those disqualified. The others you see here, many are prominent activists, like lester shum and joshua wong. Lester shum was elected as a District Councillor last november, as part of a Pro Democracy Party surge in those elections. They took 17 out of 18 districts. And theres some suggestion that might be a calculation here. Joshua wong tweeted i was just disqualified from legco election, despite being the biggest winner in hk primaries. Gwyneth ho is another candidate whos been disqualified she spoke to the bbc. The Hong Kong Government is denying people who are running and going to vote, they are denying them the right to voice their discontent. Lets go into a bit more detail on why the Hong Kong Government says its done this. It says candidates cant be considered to be abiding by the constitutional duty required of lawmakers if they advocate for hong kongs independence try and get foreign governments to intervene in hong kongs affairs. Express an objection in principle to the imposition of the National Security law or vote down proposals and force the government to meet political demands after securing a majority. On this last point, the bbcs grace tsoi writes in this piece then the next question is will any opposition candidates be allowed to run in the future . Heres another of the barred candidates. I think hong kong needs a good opposition voice. Because you cannotjust have legislators supporting the government all the time. We need to be critical. And we want honestly one country two system autonomy of hong kong to be run as normal. For example, we did the past ten years after 97. But i think things have changed drastically for the past two or three years. Its nothing legislators and the council can control states. We are not told what are the rules. Where are the rules, where are the red lights . Red light seem to be everywhere restricting the freedom and of speech is of the legislators. And especially after National Security laws passed we are very aware of all these red lines. Weve mentioned the National Security law a few times already. It was enacted by china, and came into force last month. Hong kong was always meant to have a security law, but could never pass one because it was so unpopular, so beijing passed it instead. This bbc article outlines the main provisions of the law, but basically it criminalises acts of secession thats breaking away from the country. And subversion, undermining the power of central government. Critics say it effectively restricts protest and freedom of speech. China says it will return stability. Heres the Chinese Ambassador to the uk. It has nothing to do with freedom of speech, freedom of expression. That has been clearly stimulated in the National Security law, that basic human rights will be fully respected. This law is only targeted on a very few criminals. The law came into effect on the 30th ofjune. The first arrests came the next day, at protests. One person was arrested for holding a flag calling for independence. Then this tuesday, four students aged between 16 and 21 were arrested. They all had links to student localism, a Pro Independence youth group. Also this week, benny tai, a law professor who was one of the founders of the 2014 umbrella protests, was fired from a leading Hong Kong University over his role in those protests. He said this was the end of Academic Freedom in hong kong. and this is from leading commentator ian bremmer reacting to the weeks events. rip free speech in hong kong. Helier cheung often covers this story for outside source. Good to see you. 12 people being barred from these elections, whats the significance with this . Its significant because we havent seen such a large number of opposition candidates disqualified for. Even if some of them can run, there is a question mark over whether the elections will go ahead at all. Some politicians have suggested the government should postpone the elections by up to a year due to the coronavirus pandemic. They say at the Public Health issue, while the opposition says they want to stop them from winning a majority that they did very well in last years District Council elections. In any case, there still some pro democracy candidates waiting to hear back about their nominations, but some of them are also from the civic party and of them are allies. Since the government has specifically said that it does not its not ruling out qualifications, some believe they could be disqualified as well. More broadly, just look at the idea of protesting if youre angry you get these proposals or whatever. Where does this lead people who want to oppose the authorities . Where does this lead people who want to oppose the authoritie57m certainly going to be interesting to see what happens in hong kong in the weeks Going Forward because the opposition in parliament will be weekend, even if the elections go ahead and they when the seats. While it is still legal to protest in hong kong, journalist there have noticed people have become a lot more cautious since they say the National Security law is quite vaguely defined. Police have said that certain protest is charges are illegal. Some people held up white sheets of paper at a protest and some other protesters started chanting long live liverpool, but even then those cases, people were briefly detained by police. Lets get the latest on the coronavirus. New figures show england has had the highest level of excess deaths in europe. This graph shows the numbers between the end of february and mid june. You can see england at the top, followed by the uk as a whole and then spain. This is what we mean by excess deaths you can see the dotted line here which represents the number of deaths we would expect based on previous years. Then in red you can see the covid 19 related deaths, then in blue thats other deaths excess deaths. The measure is seen by many experts as the most reliable way to assess the impact of the pandemic. Heres our head of statistics robert cuffe. This is different to what we hear about every day in the daily briefings. This is looking at all deaths in the uk. Doesnt matter what caused them. Irrespective of the data. The patterns are reall