Transcripts For BBCNEWS BBC World News 20200523

Guernsey becomes the first part of the British Isles to remove nearly all its lockdown restrictions. Funerals take place in pakistan after a plane crash in a residential area of karachi kills 97 people. Joe biden apologies for suggesting that black people who consider voting for donald trump arent black. Hello and welcome if youre watching in the uk or around the world and stay with us for the latest news and analysis from here the Prime Ministers top aide, Dominic Cummings, is facing calls to resign after it emerged he travelled more than 250 miles with his wife who was sick with suspected coronavirus to be near relatives during the lockdown. Downing street says that mr cummings drove from london to County Durham to be near relatives who could help with childcare if he too became unwell and that his actions were in line with coronavirus guidelines. Mr cummings said today hed done the right thing and believes he behaved reasonably and legally. The transport secretary, grant shapps, says that Dominic Cummings has the Prime Ministers full support. Heres our political correspondent, iain watson. Youre supposed to be more than two metres apart. Borisjohnsons Senior Adviser Dominic Cummings lecturing reporters on social distancing. When his wife and a four year old child did not self isolate when she fell ill, but travelled more than 250 miles to County Durham. Its a question of doing the right thing. Its not about what you guys think. The governments guidance on self isolation says. But in a statement, downing street set out to explain why borisjohnsons adviser didnt stay at home. Durham police say they made contact with the owners of an address. Downing street insists that at no stage was Dominic Cummings or his family were spoken to by the police about this matter. Where does this leave the governments stay at home guidamce now . Is the advice now to parents that, if you dont have your own extended family nearby, even when youre ill with covid symptoms, you are allowed to leave your home, travel many miles across the country and isolate closer to your extended family . The important thing is everyone remains in the same place while they are locked down. Thats exactly what happened with mrcummings. He was staying put and didnt come out again until he was feeling better. But he did travel 250 miles from his london home, did he not . The guidance says, if you live with children, keep following this advice the best you can. However, we are aware that not all these measures will be possible, depending on circumstances. Senior ministers have rallied around to defend Dominic Cummings, but there have been calls for his resignation from some opponents. Dominic cummings should have done the right thing and resigned, but now borisjohnson must show leadership and remove him immediately. We have had a lot of people who have been struggling throughout this pandemic and sticking by the rules, weve got care workers moving into care homes, hospital staff staying in hotels, and theyve struggled for not seeing their family and they have adhered by the rules. Hes broken them and its just so irresponsible. This isnt just about Dominic Cummings. Its about the guidelines parents should follow. Whether the rules that apply on your street also apply to downing street. Iain watson, bbc news. Earlier, our political correspondent, iain watson, told me how mr cummings actions could impact how flexibly the guidelines are perceived. God. There is very straightforward guidance. The whole household needs to self isolate for m days. The interpretation put forward by the transport secretary was that it is perfectly possible if you do not have a local network of support to leave home if you or your spouse are ill and to travel 250 miles to be closer to that network of support if you have a young child. He was saying that the guidelines are flexible enough to allow that. But in most peoples interpretation of what the guidelines were, stay at home, this seems to be something which is a new emphasis, and the potential danger for the government, and they are under pressure politically, the danger is this they are trying to down the reproduction rate of the virus, making sure it is beneath one, but if they are seen to apply their own restrictions incredibly flexibly that someone ill can leave home and travel the length of england, if they are doing that, other people might think, my goodness, this is not as hard and as fast as we thought, we might decide to do our own flexible interpretation of the guidelines that make it more difficult to keep the spread of the virus down. Now opposition parties have written to senior members of the civil service, asking what . They are asking the countrys top Civil Servant to take a look at this whole issue and to investigate. You have got two competing narratives. Labour and the snp say he clearly broke the guidelines, and he works in downing street. And they are saying, they are interested in who knew about it at the time. The Prime Minister had advised and approved the visit to County Durham by his adviser, but we did not get an answer to that. We got an answer that the Prime Minister has full confidence in Dominic Cummings and he was aware he was self isolating but its not clear to me whether he was aware he was self isolating in durham rather than london. Nonetheless, it is those issues that the opposition want to push but quite frankly they want to keep the pressure on the government because they think they are vulnerable and borisjohnsons trusted adviser. The British Government is facing more questions over its plans to introduce a 14 day quarantine for people arriving in the uk. From 8thjune, travellers will have to self isolate for two weeks and could face fines of £1,000 if they break the rules. France has said that visitors arriving from the uk will also have to self isolate for m days from the same date. Airlines and travel companies are worried it could damage their businesses even further. The uk government says the measures are designed to stop a second wave of coronavirus. 0ur correspondent, simonjones, is at Heathrow Airport and sent us this update. To give you an idea of how heathrow is currently being affected, normally, at this time of year, at the start of the half term getaway, they would be dealing with around 250,000 passengers. Today they are likely to see 5 6000 passed through. And thats before the quarantine measures have even been introduced. The boss of heathrow has this morning called for clarity about what happens next. Hes questioning this blanket in position of quarantine. He understands Public Safety needs to be the number one priority. But he feels there should be deals between uk and the other countries that have low rates of Coronavirus Infection to allow the travel industry to open up. The call for clarity is being echoed by passengers too, wondering if theres any chance they will be able to get away for a break abroad this summer. The reality is, even if you are allowed to travel to say spain, for a couple of weeks of sun and sangria, when you get back you have that two weeks of quarantine to do. The way it will work is youre going to have to declare before entering the uk where exactly you will spend those two weeks. If not, you could face a fine of £100. If you dont respect the quarantine, you could face a fine of £1,000 in england. We are up waiting to hear how the other nations will police that. The governments reasoning is coronavirus cases are coming down here in the uk and what they dont want to do is risk a second deadly wave by importing coronavirus cases from abroad. But here at heathrow, things are likely to be very different when flights do resume in big numbers. For example, its possible we will have to have our temperature taken in planes. We will have to likely wear face masks and gloves. Travel is likely to be very different for some time to come. In china, Health Authorities have recorded no new Coronavirus Infections for the First Time Since the outbreak began in the city of wuhan. The country has seen a sharp fall in locally transmitted cases since march as major restrictions on peoples movements were introduced to help control the epidemic. The number of deaths due to coronavirus in new york state has fallen below 100 for the First Time Since late march when lockdown began. State Governor Andrew Cuomo said the number of deaths recorded in the last 2a hours was 8a. New york has been the epicentre of the virus in the us at the height of the outbreak last month, more than 800 people a day were dying. The worldwide Tourism Industry has been badly affected by coronavirus and many popular destinations are now trying to find ways to welcome visitors back. Italy is planning to reopen its airports from 3rd june, and International Charter flights to popular locations in greece are due to resume injuly. 0ur correspondent in athens, quentin somerville, explains. Greeks have been able to come to the beaches for a couple of weekends now. But what about the rest of us . Well, from 15th ofjune, the greek authorities are going to welcome tourists back from all over the World Without a quarantine. There will be some exclusions, though countries with high infection rates and, at the moment, that looks like britain, russia and the united states. Greece has been very successful in controlling the pandemic fewer than 170 deaths. So it wants to tread very carefully. It needs to reopen its beaches and, as of monday, the greek islands will reopen again too. But it has to take a very cautious approach to this. It realises business wont be the same as before, but just these small, incremental changes, letting people get back to the beach, get in the sea, is very important to regaining that life we once had. Beaches across cyprus have reopened as the meditteranean island nation gradually eases its lockdown. The countrys Health Ministry has issued strict social distancing guidelines for beach goers. It comes two days after a mini heatwave in the region saw temperatures hit 43 celsius. Cyprus partially sealed its borders ahead of most european nations, managing to keep the number of coronavirus related deaths to fewer than 20. Funerals have taken place in pakistan for some of the victims of fridays plane crash in karachi in which 97 people died. Flight data and cockpit recorders have been recovered and an investigation into the cause of the crash is underway, but the Pakistan Pilots Association says it doesnt trust the government to investigate properly. Bbc urdus umer nangiana sent this report from the scene. This is exactly the site where where this Pakistan International Airlines Plane crashed in karachi yesterday. As you can see, this is that street where this debris is all over the place. You can see one of the parts of the wings of the aircraft here, and there are parts of the engine and the body of the aircraft spread all over into the street. This is a very narrow street, about 20 feet wide or something. And we have been told by the eyewitnesses here that they were inside these houses when the plane crashed here. If we can show you a little bit of what happened to the house that was dragged right into the fireball. The owner of the house said that he was inside the house praying when he heard this boom and he rushed out. And then he realised that some of his relatives who were present at this were very close to the gate here were badly burned. This is the engine of the aircraft that you can see here. And this skeleton you can see here was actually cars like this one. The security agencies, when they first moved in, and the rescue workers, they had to make a place for themselves to pull the bodies out of the rubble. If we can show you the point of impact where the plane first crashed was that house which is, like, 3 4 houses from here. This is where the plane first hit. And then itjust crashed into the street. And on the impact, it went into a fireball and the whole place caught fire. The headlines on bbc news a senior aide to the uk Prime Minister faces calls to resign after he travelled hundreds of miles with his wife who had virus symptoms during the lockdown. The government defends him, saying he wanted to stay with family to ensure he had childcare if he got symptoms of coronavirus. Spain continues to gradually ease its lockdown with its top football division, la liga, given the go ahead to resume behind closed doors from 8th june. The Prime Minister also says International Tourists can come to the country from july. However, thousands of people protested on saturday against the governments handling of the coronavirus outbreak. Guy hedgecoejoins me from madrid. We have seen what football looks like behind closed doors in germany and certainly lacks atmosphere, doesnt it . Yes, certainly. Its obviously an enormous relief to football fa ns obviously an enormous relief to football fans here and to the football industry which is so enormous in spain that things will resume. Clearly, there will be a lot of restrictions. Things will not be back to normal as they were before the lockdown. But the fact that the league will resume with these 11 fixtures will be an enormous relief both economically and emotionally here in spain. And as for tourism then, how openable the country really be, will every region visitors . They are certainly some regions which are much more used to receiving tourists, for example down the mediterranean coast and the costa del sol, and cities like madrid and barcelona. Madrid and barcelona have been particularly ha rd barcelona have been particularly hard hit by the coronavirus, so there might be a concern there by people visiting, but the government has said the country will be open for business when it comes to tourism from the beginning ofjuly and that the country as a whole would be safe. The Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez had the hallmarks of spanish tourism Going Forward will be environmental sustainability and safety when it comes to the coronavirus, so in theory the government wants to welcome people across the country and make sure that they feel safe all the way across spain from the beginning of july. These protests then against the governments handling of the coronavirus outbreak, what world they think that spain should have done . Because compared with some countries in europe the restrictions were quite strict. Thats right. The protesters who were led by the far right party were calling for more freedom and the relics of the nation of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. Resignation. When it comes to claims against the government, it has not been entirely clear what they have wanted. They have talked about wanting a better economic response when it comes to dealing with those who have lost theirjobs. They have also said the government was simply ill prepared. But the government say that people like this far right party that organised this march today all these demonstrations are simply playing politics with the Coronavirus Crisis and that the country needs to unite. What this reflects today is the deep divisions in Spanish Society over the coronavirus. There are people who believe the government has done a very bad job and others who simply feel that the government has done what it can in very difficult circumstances. Thank you very much. Joe biden, the Presumptive Democratic president ial nominee, has expressed regret for suggesting that African Americans were not black if they consider voting for President Trump in novembers election. He made the comment to a black radio presenter after being asked whether hed choose a black Vice President ial running mate. Listen, youve got to come see us when you come to new york, vp biden. I will its a long way until november. We got more questions. You got more questions but i tell you, if you have a problem figuring out whether youre for me or trump, then you aint black. It dont have nothing to do with trump. It has to do with the fact i want something for my community. I would love to see. Take a look at my record, man i extended the Voting Rights act for 25 years. I have a record that is second to none. The naacp has endorsed me every time ive run. I mean, come on, take a look at the record. Daniel lippman is a political reporter for politico. Speaking from washington, he told us how the Trump Campaign is taking advantage of this. The Trump Campaign is spending 1 million on ads making fun of biden for this mistake. They have tried to get black people to vote for the president. They think he has a winning message although historically the trends are very much against him. The only thing he has going for him is that he did pursue criminal Justice Reform bill that made it into law and has helped thousands of people, but democrats will always harken back to trumps remarks in charlottesville where trump basically praised people marching on the streets. What impact though is a comment like this likely to have on joe bidens prospects . It encourages him to pick an African American female running mate. He has already said his Vice President ial pick would be a woman and he is considering several African American women. Like the senator from california and a georgian politician. So that encourages him to do that. But i do not think there will be long term damage because the new cycles in the us are so quick and people still have the pandemic to deal with so in a week or two most people will not have remembered this. I heard joe biden say, come on, look at my track record. What is his potential appeal to black voters . African america ns traditionally vote for democrats, but they do not want to be taken for granted, and especially from a 77 year old white man who supported legislation, the 1994 crime bill which a lot of African Americans did not like, it tightened criminal sentences, so you do not want an old white man deciding who is black or not. But the appeal is that he is a trusted messenger, and also the fact that he served an African American man loyally for eight years as Vice President , so that love of barack 0bama in the Democratic Party and among African Americans and the fact that joe biden was his right hand man, he was number two, that is a big part of the appeal. What will black voters want particularly then in this election from the winning candidate, be itjoe biden or anyone else . They want someone who will listen to their concerns and also address the vast economic damage that the pandemic has had on the African American community, and one last point is that African Americans have been harder hit by the coronavirus, sojoe biden has to be seen as a good person to lead to address that. The Channel Island of guernsey has become the first part of the British Isles to remove nearly all its lockdown restrictions after reporting no new cases of covid 19 for over three weeks. Robert hall has more. In a guernsey garden, eight week old Charlie Flood is meeting his widerfamily. Until now, his grandparents have only had glimpses of him at a distance. Today, the family can hold charlie and hug each other for the First Time Since lockdown began. We are so fortunate because in england they cant do that and it must be so difficult for them. We are just really, really lucky. It feels absolutely amazing, it has been a long time coming, and it feels so nice. I cant put him down. Guernsey families and friends can meet up under what is called a bubble system, gradually widening their contacts. Guernseys success against covid 19 is down to a community effort. Social distancing combined with testing and tracing has brought new cases down to zero. In a weeks time, most lockdown measures will disappear completely. At the peak of when we were seeing most of our cases, we were regularly doing over 100, up to 126, some days up to 180 tests a day. In uk terms, that is over 100,000 tests per day. Injersey too the curve of new cases has flattened close to zero and life looks almost normal. Shops, businesses and outside eateries have reopened, but social distancing measures remain in place and islanders have been advised to use masks if they can. Beaches, though, remain mostly deserted, and that sums up the dilemma now Facing Island governments. Getting covid 19 figures down to or close to zero is a cause for celebration, but the celebration might be short lived. The Channel Islands know that they cannot remain within a sealed bubble indefinitely they must open their borders if they are to slow the decline in their economies. Latest figures from jersey show the island is losing £120 million a month from its economy. Increases in testing and tracing might replace quarantine, but even a gradual return of sea and air links could reverse the progress made. To keep it in a bubble and to keep cases low, but at the same time, if you dont have immunity, you dont really know what is going to happen as things open up. I think we should see it out, but then youve got to test people coming in and that is going to be the problem. As politicians and Health Experts debate their next moves, islanders are savouring their freedom. Robert hall, bbc news, in the Channel Islands. A development from Durham Police regarding the decision of Dominic Cummins to travel to County Durham at the end of march because his wife was suffering from coronavirus symptoms and he wanted to make sure, he said, that there was childcare for their daughter if mr cummings succumbed to the virus as well. Durham police are saying on tuesday the 31st of march and offices were made aware that Dominic Cummings travelled from london to durham. At the request of his father an officer made contact the following morning by telephone and during that conversation mr cummings further confirmed that he had travelled from london to the north east of england and was self isolating in part of the property. Darren constabulary deemed no further action had required but the officer provided advice in relation to security issues. Durham. Butjust worth reminding ourselves that this morning downing street had said that at no stage was Dominic Cummings or his family spoken to about this matter is being Durham Police are 110w matter is being Durham Police are now saying that they did speak to mr cummings and his family on the 31st of march. Hello there. The evening showers across england and wales should tend to clear away or turn drier. The rain continues for the north and west of scotland. As we head on into tomorrow though, it should be less windy and the rain in the north should gradually peter out and it will become drier for monday. High pressure will continue to build in from the south as we move through tonight and into tomorrow. Low pressure to do north of the uk. So, tonight, the rain eases up for a time across scotland and another wave of cloud and rain pushing into northern ireland, south and western scotland, perhaps Northern England through the night. A bit more because generally i think across england and wales by the end of the night. But the breeze and the cloud should tend to stop temperatures from falling much below 10 degrees for most of us. So, we start sunday off on a rather damp, cloudy note across the north. The rain slowly peters out from western scotland into north west england. A bit of sunshine appearing certainly across eeastern scotland, north east england, northern ireland, much of england and wales and, because the winds will be lighter, more sunshine and it will feel a bit warmer too particularly in the south. And it stays dry, sunny, and warm for many of us for bank holiday monday. Very warm in the south east. Hello, this is bbc news with martine croxall. The headlines. A senior aide to the uk Prime Minister faces calls to resign after he travelled hundreds of miles with his wife who had virus symptoms during the lockdown. The government defended him saying he wanted to stay with family to ensure he had childcare if he got symptoms of coronavirus. Businesses in the uk will be expected to pay a quarter of the wages of furloughed workers from the start of august. And guernsey becomes the first part of the British Isles to remove nearly all its lockdown restrictions. Funerals have taken place in pakistan after a plane crash in a residential area of karachi kills 97 people. Spains Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, says overseas visitors can visit the country from july and top flight spanish football will resume behind closed doors next month. Now on bbc new, spain is one of the countries hardest hit by coronavirus. Our world follows the lives of some of those at the heart of the crisis