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BBC News. Hello, I'm Gareth Barlow.
With cases of coronavirus rising 70% in the United States in the past week, the Biden administration has accused social media platforms like Facebook of killing people by allowing misinformation about vaccines to be posted online. Most outbreaks are occurring in parts of the country with low vaccination rates such as Florida. Here's our North America correspondent Peter Bose. The Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Facebook, in particular, should be reacting more quickly in taking down problematic posts. Facebook said it would not be distracted by accusations that were not supported by the facts, and that it was, in fact, helping to save lives by sharing information about how to get the vaccine. US health officials say the current spike in COVID-19 deaths and illnesses is almost exclusively hitting people that have not been protected against the virus. President Biden said the only pandemic the country had was among the unvaccinated.
The head of Colombia's national police says a former Haitian justice ministry official ordered the murder of President Jovenel Moise. The Haitian leader was killed last week in his private residence by a group of Colombian mercenaries. Nicholas Rocha reports. According to Colombia's police, the Haitian ministry official Joseph Felix Badio first told two Colombian former soldiers in charge of a group of Colombian mercenaries that the mission was to arrest President Moise. But a few days before the operation, Mr. Badio told them the plan had changed and they had to kill the president. Mr. Badio has been accused of murder and he's on the run. Eighteen Colombians are in police custody in Haiti. Three were killed and three others are being sought.
Top climate scientists have admitted they failed to predict the intensity of the floods in Germany and North America's recent heat waves. They say that despite correctly warning for decades that climate change will bring worse rain and heat, more powerful computers are essential to predict the severity of extreme weather patterns more accurately.
As unprecedented flood waters begin to recede, countries in northwestern Europe are taking stock of the disaster that struck the region this week. More than 100 people are dead, most of them in Germany and hundreds are unaccounted for and thousands homeless. Jenny Hill has more details. The water is slowly subsiding from western Germany's devastated towns and villages, but the number of dead continues to rise. Adding to the distress of those returning to their damaged homes and businesses is the fact that many people are still unaccounted for. Tens of thousands of households are still without power, and there's severe disruption to the road and rail network. The regional governments in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate have both promised emergency financial aid to restore infrastructure and support those in the most need. Beyond that, politicians say the cost of rebuilding the region is incalculable.
World news from the BBC.
