this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. plans to impose localised lockdowns in england will be unveiled later. the government will explain how its test, track and trace strategy will deal with regional outbreaks of covid 19. if there is a flare up in one particular community, and that could be on quite a small scale like a particular workplace or school, then measures can be introduced, local lockdowns may be introduced which hopefully the public will get to tackle regional outbreaks behind, enable us to control of coronavirus in the future. the virus in that locality. the prime minister, borisjohnson, will be questioned by senior mps there‘s no timeframe yet, later amid continued calls for his top adviser but the government says it‘ll dominic cummings to resign. be part of the test, track and trace system. some health officials are concerned elsewhere riot police in hong kong fire pepper pellets to break up about getting the public on board. protests over a law that would criminalise insulting what we must have, if there china s national anthem. was a local lockdown, is adherence of the local president trump accuses twitter of stifling free speech after one population, and they would have of his tweets about postal voting to have the respect and the trust of the people who are actually was given a fact check label. giving that information. and nasa astronauts prepare we‘ll find out more about how to launch into space from the us the system will work. for the first time in nearly also this lunchtime: a decade we count down to the launch. the prime minister will face questions from senior mps this afternoon, amid continuing calls for his senior adviser, dominic cummings, to resign. donald trump has his wings clipped by twitter, after the social media company labels two posts by the president as hello and welcome if you re watching in the uk or around the world and stay with us for the latest news and analysis from here and across the globe. future coronavirus outbreaks in england could be controlled by introducing ‘local lockdowns‘ according to the government. the health secretary matt hancock said some restrictions, including the temporary closure of shops and schools, could be reintroduced in specific areas if there is a spike in the number of cases. there are already arrangements similar to ‘local lockdowns‘ in countries like france and germany. also today the uk prime minister borisjohnson will be questioned by senior mps about the government s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. he s also likely to be asked about his chief adviser dominic cummings‘ controversial trip to the north of england during lockdown. south korea, which avoided a nationwide lockdown, has seen its biggest spike in new coronavirus cases in two months, just as many schools are reopening. the head of the pan american health organisation has warned that latin america has become the centre of the global pandemic. and, back in the uk, research suggests women are more likely than men to have lost theirjobs since the start of the lockdown. they‘re also more likely to be doing most of the housework and childcare. do let us know your experiences you can get in touch on twitter or via email, victoria@bbc.co.uk. letters bring you this first report from andi mohr. more on that later but first this report from andy moore. a testing, tracking and tracing system is regarded as vital if the virus is to be kept in check while lockdown restrictions are eased. the fear is that, without it, there could be a second wave of infections. transmission rates are generally coming down across the country, but there are big regional variations. in somerset, the hospital in western super mare has been temporarily closed due to a high number of coronavirus cases. there‘s said to be an emerging picture of large numbers of staff testing positive, though they‘re showing no symptoms. the hospital says it hopes to reopen its a&e department and accept new patients as soon as possible. if there‘s a high level of infection in a particular area, the government has indicated that local schools, businesses or workplaces could be closed down. at the daily downing street press conference, matt hancock said the nhs test and trace programme would be incredibly important. it will give us the information to have local lockdowns and focus on areas where there may be flare ups, and it is very important that people follow those rules and they should do it don‘t not do it for, um, the government, people need to do this for themselves, for their loved ones, for their communities. it‘s incredibly important and it will stop those local flare ups from happening. a similar system will be launched in scotland tomorrow. it‘s called test and protect. anyone with symptoms will be urged to get a swab. if it comes back positive, 700 trackers will be ready to trace any contacts, with that number rising to 2,000 in due course. andy moore, bbc news. let‘s talk to our assistant political editor norman smith. mrjohnson will be questioned by senior mps later this afternoon. what kind of question is will they be putting to him? they will be a 90 minute grilling for borisjohnson where the questions will only be on coronavirus, the first 20 minutes specifically on the row over his chief aide dominic cummings, but a lot of questions also about the test, track and trace scheme which we have been hearing about and which is crucial in terms of easing the lockdown and is meant to kick in from monday. as part of that, we have been hearing that if there is an upsurge in the virus as a result in easing the restrictions, then the hope is that test, track and trace will enable officials to identify where there is an upsurge in the virus. what the government is now talking about is localised lockdown is so you can actually impose really dramatic restrictions on individual schools, on villages, on to give housing estates, at least that is what will set out this morning by the communities secretary robert jenrick. the trade off here is that for a relatively small number of people abiding by the rules, being inconvenienced in some cases, staying at home and self isolating, the rest of society gets to enjoy far more freedom than we all do today because of the great restrictions we are living under. so the potential is huge to help us get back to all the things we care about in life. the row over dominic cummings, however, rumbles on with two nude of elements this morning. the first, mr jenrick confirming the government will not now carry out a review of the finds of people who have travelled during the lockdown like mrcummings. travelled during the lockdown like mr cummings. robertjenrick saying no, they are just not going to do that. secondly, we had an admission from mrjenrick that if other people find themselves in the same situation as dominic cummings, in other words, they too have to travel for child care, well, they should be able to do it. if there are no other options and if you don t have ready access to childcare, then you can do as dominic cummings chose to do. evenif as dominic cummings chose to do. even if you are in household with symptoms of coronavirus? but the guidelines say that you must do your best mud but they appreciate that family life poses particular challenges, and in order to protect children you are able to exercise a degree of personal judgment. children you are able to exercise a degree of personaljudgment. and i think that s a reasonable way forwards. so it is clear borisjohnson wants to cling on to dominic cummings, despite the fact that around a0 or so tory mps from different wings of the party are demanding he goes. the big unknown is how do the public respond? we big unknown is how do the public respond ? we know big unknown is how do the public respond? we know there is widespread public anger, but is it so intense that it threatens the government‘s public health message? in other words, do people simply decide they are going to do a dominic cummings and ignore further restrictions or lockdowns? thank you very much, norman. norman smith reporting. riot police in hong kong have fired pepper pellets at demonstrators, as mps gather to debate a bill that would criminalise insulting china‘s national anthem. more than 2a0 people are reported to have been arrested by riot police as protesters gather in the central commercial district and in shopping areas. there were the scenes in hong kong‘s commercial district a little earlier when police attempted to disperse the crowds. pro democracy activists have also voiced their opposition to separate legislation which would impose a sweeping national security law on the semi autonomous territory. 0ur correspondent martin yip in hong kong explains the background to the controversy surrounding the chinese national anthem. it‘s pretty much about people thinking that this whole piece of law would bar them from expressing their discontent with governors in some ways, such as making parodies of the national anthem orjust booing at the national anthem. because back in 2017 when beijing made the national anthem law, and put it into what we call annex iii of the basic law of hong kong, which then forced hong kong to make this local legislation, was at a time when there was a series of incidents that hong kong football fans booed at the chinese national anthem at international games. because hong kong, under the one country, two systems rule, hong kong sends its own teams into games like world cup. things like that. but you have to play the chinese national anthem. and beijing treat this kind of behaviour, not just as unpatriotic, but almost as like a betrayal of the country. but to the hong kongers it is one of the many ways they can do legally, at least until this moment, to express discontent to chinese rule. professor arthur li is a member of the executive council which is the top policy making body of the hong kong government. he‘s considered pro beijing in his political outlook and he explained why he supports the national anthem law. well, basically, manners maketh man. i don t think anyone anywhere should insult anybody, any country s national anthem, and it is wrong. but we have seen in hong kong when the national anthem is being played at public events, people, some people, started booing it. this is very upsetting for a lot of hong kong people who feel that, first of all, it s bad manners. secondly, it is a national anthem. and thirdly, something needs to be done about it. as coronavirus restrictions ease in some areas across the world, schools have begun to resume face to face classes. but what should classroom look like now? and how are different nations dealing with the challenges of teaching during a pandemic? in china, schools began gradually reopening earlier this month including in wuhan where the outbreak started. students lined up to give swab samples and have their temperature checked. in france masks are required for students aged 11 years or older but it‘s not yet compulsory for parents to send their children back. schools in sweden have remained open. they have relied on social distancing and lots of washing of hands to reduce the spread of infection instead. and south korea just as over two million school children return to school. but strict measures have been put in place. as laura bicker has been finding out. well, this is pe class, as you can probably tell behind me. 2.5 million students are going back. this is part of a phased return. so a series of students go back every week. but teachers are on edge because there are clusters of infection popping up across the country. this is all related to an outbreak in nightclubs in seoul‘s party district a couple of weeks ago. health officials have traced 86,000 people. and tested them for the virus. but still these little pockets of infection keep cropping up. and that is why every single student must wear a mask. at the gates they are having their temperature checked. that‘s the first temperature check of the day. there are many temperature checks throughout the day. each of the classes have dividers in them to keep students apart. daily, teachers are telling their students to keep that social distance, but it is extremely difficult. as you can imagine, this is the first time that they‘ve seen each other in months. this is the start of the school term which was supposed to happen in march so they are very, very excited. i saw one studentjump up and down desperate to hug herfriend but she was told no, no, no, no by a teacher. but still they are allowing students to go back to school. some schools have decided to say no today but this one has. as you can see they are enjoying their pe class, they don‘t speak much english but they have one word which they can say which is hello! they go, hello from them. and hello from us. we heard about schools in south korea there and headteachers in england have told the bbc that preparing schools to welcome more children back from next week, has been the toughest challenge of their careers. staff rotas, school systems and physical changes to classrooms, have all been considered to ensure pupils can return safely under social distancing guidelines. john maguire has this. 0k, theo, can you tuck your chair and come and stand on the white line. the children returning to school here at the whitehook academies in north somerset next week, everything will be different. each and every aspect of school life has been reassessed. we have a 109 point check list to go through to make sure everything is risk assessed to be safe. we have a a5 page risk assessment that has also gone through a whole checking process, including staff, governors and trustees. but behind that, we have the practicalities of the day to day. so, we have timetables for break time, for lunch time, for outdoor space. we have timetables for different classrooms and different bubbles within those classes. the school has stayed open for key workers or vulnerable children. social distancing rules mean their desk partners are their siblings. there‘s a new theme each week. the latest is japan. they applaud on a normal day, there would be a50 pupils here, and after half term, around 150 will return. class sizes are different. the requirements for children s mixing and interaction is different. the hygiene requirements are a far higher level than we ve ever seen before. also, the risk assessment process behind that, ensuring that our site is as safe as it possibly can be for everyone in our community, is vital. making the physical changes has been very challenging but staff are also preparing to support children emotionally. the decision to reintroduce more pupils hasn‘t been an easy one. not for parents or for staff. for me, being in the classroom is where i belong. i want to be with the children, i don‘t want to be sat at home on my laptop doing things for them. i want to have that interaction and to be there for them, as their journey continues with their learning. a school is so much more than just a classroom. it‘s part of a community. in the office, fiona hague has been on hand to reassure anxious families. parents are still very worried, so it s pointing them in the direction of all the guidance that s coming out. we re ensuring we re getting as much information out to parents as we can via the website, school app, e mails. and making sure they re as up to date as they can be and know as much as we know. when the school gates next open, the canteen‘s shutters will remain closed. mixed feelings. i‘m fine with it. i think i‘m fine with it. we‘ve been. me and sue have been on our own for a while now, so it‘s fine. it‘s a nice big kitchen to social distance in, so, we are lucky, really. we‘re going to do a sandwich selection for them and they‘re going to be eating in their classroom, so we‘ll prepare it here and it will be going over in boxes into their little bubbles in their classrooms. over the past two weeks, primary schools have had to reinvent the wheel. and as these corridors fill in the coming days, there‘ll be much more to learn. so notjust for children, but for parents, teachers, and support staff, every day will be a school day. john maguire, bbc news, nailsea in north somerset. the headlines on bbc news: plans to impose localised lockdowns in england will be unveiled later today. the government will explain how its test, track and trace strategy will deal with regional outbreaks of covid i9. the uk prime minister, borisjohnson, will be questioned by senior mps later amid continued calls for his top adviser dominic cummings to resign. riot police in hong kong fire pepper pellets to break up protests over a law that would criminalise insulting china‘s national anthem. donald trump has accused twitter of interfering in the 2020 us election after it labelled two posts by the president as potentially misleading. mr trump had claimed that the use of postal votes would lead to widespread voter fraud. twitter responded by directing readers to a page with news articles and information from fact checkers debunking the claim. 0ur north america correspondent peter bowes reports. a twitter war about twitter. it started when mr trump, who has more than 80 million followers on the social media platform, tweeted that postal ballot papers would result in a rigged election. mailboxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged and even illegally printed out and fraudulently signed. mr trump also claimed that the governor of california will be sending ballots to millions of people, anyone living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there, will get one. twitter responded with a blue exclamation mark underneath the tweets, suggesting readers get the facts about mail in ballots through stories contradicting mr trump. the president later repeated his claims at a white house news conference. people that aren‘t citizens, illegals, anyone that walks in california is going to get a ballot. we‘re not going to destroy this country by allowing things like that to happen. we‘re not destroying our country. this has more to do with fairness and honesty, and really our country itself. twitter introduced a policy earlier this month to combat misleading information. but this is the first time the platform has applied a fact checking label to tweets by the president who was quick to respond with another tweet. twitter is now interfering in the 2020 presidential election. twitter is completely stifling free speech, and i, as president, will not allow it to happen! thank you. a potentially rocky road ahead for the president and his social media platform of choice. peter bowes, bbc news, los angeles. we are going to stay on that subject because a bbc team has been tracking online conspiracy theories. it has linked to some of the misinformation to racist attacks, arsons and even deaths around the world and now senior doctors in the uk including the royal college of gps are warning that the potential for harm could be much, much bigger. the bbc‘s specialist disinformation reporter marianna spring joins us. what are some of the examples of harm you have been investigating? bad information, bit my coronavirus, has spread everywhere and we have seen cases of harm and even deaths across the world. there have been poisonings in nigeria, the us, vietnam and iran linked to hydroxychloroquine, the drug that president donald trump said he was using to treat himself, or prevent coronavirus. to ward it off. yes, it has been trialled, although the world health organization says those trials have been paused at the moment. and then there have been cases of racist attacks, as you say, in india against muslims because of misleading information suggesting muslim communities have been spreading coronavirus. here in the uk and other places telephone masts have been set on fire because people believe falsely that 5g technology is linked to coronavirus and we have spoken to engineers who have been attacked and abused by people. and then there is the stuff that is less direct but equally harmful in my opinion. so, misinformation that courage to people not to seek help, not to good hospital, to misdiagnosed themselves, to try treatments at home, and i spoke to one man who was an extreme case in florida who believed conspiracy theories, including that 5g was falsely linked to coronavirus, or that coronavirus was like the flu and asa that coronavirus was like the flu and as a consequence he didn‘t follow social distancing guidance and didn‘t seek help soon and has been critically ill in hospital with coronavirus. his wife is sedated on a ventilator and he deeply regrets believing this misinformation. it is incredibly harmful across the spectrum fell. what are people most concerned about when it comes to disinformation? medics are concerned about brian‘s case, although that is extreme, cases that mean people don‘t seek help. i spoke to professor martin marshall the chair of the royal college of gps and he explained to me the kind of things he has been seeing patients saying about misleading stuff online. as health professionals we have a responsibility to raise awareness around the risks around this. government, of course, has responsibility, particularly through its information sources that it provides. possibly, most importantly, the social media companies themselves have a responsibility to police the content that goes up on theirwebsite. explains responsibility this is, as doctors they feel a great responsibility to get the right information out to people and us journalists we also do, but then there is the responsibility of social media companies and companies and governments and what they are doing to properly police their platforms, bit like what we saw about donald trump. you have spoken to governments, social media companies, what have they said to you? they say they aim to tackle disinformation that endangers the life and threatens it. but the problem is that, as we just highlighted, actually a lot of misinformation doesn‘t necessarily cause direct imminent harm, but can actually lead to people not seeking medical help and people miss diagnosing themselves, and particularly with the prospect of a vaccine on the horizon, conspiracies about vaccinations which have really been growing on social media are a serious concern to doctors and aren‘t necessarily tackled properly by social media companies. thank you very much, marianna spring. mums appear to being doing most of the housework and childcare during lockdown. research from the institute for fiscal studies suggests that in homes where there is a working mum and dad, women are doing more of the jobs and spending more time with the children. and mums were only able to do one hour of uninterrupted work, for every three hours done by dads. let‘s speak now to paula sheridan a coach whose firm unwrapping potential works with professional women, helping those who pause their career to have a family. hello, paula. hello. does this surprise you, or not at all? not at all, unfortunately. so many of the women that i speak to have been talking in terms of it‘s just highlighting, lockdown is just highlighting, lockdown is just highlighting what they are experiencing the rest of the time in terms of a lot of their mental energy is going on planning everything, making sure everything is organised in advance, we know what the children are doing, what time they are going to do it, do we have the right materials for them to do it? all of that sort of thing. it really is just a sort of an extension of what ordinary life is before lockdown, unfortunately. yes. why is it not different during lockdown, when often both parents who wouldn‘t normally work, are in the home at the moment? my belief is that it goes all the way back to maternity leave when the birth pa rent maternity leave when the birth pa re nt ta kes maternity leave when the birth parent takes extended time off, at home with the child early on, they are learning how to do it, they are learning how to parent and how to runa learning how to parent and how to run a household. it is a bit of trial and error and you get there in the end and we all make mistakes and then we learn not to do them again. and it tends to be only women that get the opportunity to have that space, learn how to do planning and the running and organising and every thing else. and their partners don‘t usually get that opportunity. so when the woman goes back to work she just carries on doing all the stuff that she‘s been doing. just carries on doing all the stuff that she s been doing. so it s our fault? well, it s not about fault. no, i‘m being slightly facetious! yes, women carry on doing it and the only way to break the cycle is to find a way to stop doing it. that involves letting go a bit of control. i‘ve been in that scenario myself, and guess what, my husband can change nappies just as well as i could but he just did can change nappies just as well as i could but hejust did it can change nappies just as well as i could but he just did it slightly differently and i just could but he just did it slightly differently and ijust had to accept that and it was fine. exactly. exactly. and when i went back to work after maternity leave and i had to go ona work after maternity leave and i had to go on a work trip all the people i was travelling with said to me, will he be all right with your daughter at home? and i was like, of course he will be all right, he is her father, of course course he will be all right, he is herfather, of course he course he will be all right, he is her father, of course he will be all right. but there seems to be this expected norm that men can‘t cope with this stuff, and of course they can. of course they can but we as women need to get out of the way sometimes. james says it isn t the case in my house, my dad is a teacher working from home. my mum is a nurse not working from home. it doesn‘t surprise me, though, that on average it is what is happening. my question would be, as the gap closed since lockdown? matt says, my wife is working full time and looking after three kids at the same time. we are in two different countries, japan and the uk, due to corona. i should be doing my bit but there is only so much i can to help them it is so exhausting, lift the travel ban soon so i can travel to my family. loads on twitter. graham says i do both. leanne says my partner does just as says i do both. leanne says my partner doesjust as much says i do both. leanne says my partner does just as much as i says i do both. leanne says my partner doesjust as much as i do. we work as a team to get everything done. eva says my partner and i share chores, generally, and chris says my wife works and i am furloughed, so i look after my seven year old son and one year old daughter, i cook all the meals and i do all the cleaning. there is also some research from the ifs today which suggests that more women are losing theirjobs during this period of time than men. what do you think of time than men. what do you think of that, paula? i can t necessarily comment on that. because i haven‘t read the research, that bit of the research, in detail. i think it‘s u nfortu nate research, in detail. i think it‘s unfortunate and i think it may well represent the mix ofjobs that there are in society and the gender distribution of roles. i don‘t think i‘m the right person to really comment on that. i think it‘s a shame if it‘s the truth. comment on that. i think it‘s a shame if it s the truth. thank you for your contribution, paula, thank you for talking to us. really appreciate it. and thank you for your messages on the subject as well. the first commercial craft to take people into space is due to blast off from cape canaveral in florida this evening. the spacex rocket and capsule, will be the first to take off from american soil since 2011. two nasa astronauts will be on board the mission to the international space station. here‘s our science correspondent rebecca morelle. getting ready for launch. a commercial spacecraft facing its ultimate test carrying astronauts into space. nasa‘s bob behnken and doug hurley will be at the controls. they‘ve been training for this moment for years. at any time you have the first flight of a brand new vehicle, it‘s exciting. it‘s a bit more risky, which is why we‘re using people like bob and doug, who are very experienced test pilots, they can handle anything that maybe happens that we didn‘t expect. but it‘s what test pilots live for, you know, the chance to be the first one to fly a new, shiny vehicle is a test pilot‘s dream. lift off, we have a lift off. the united states has a long history of space flight. from the apollo missions, which took astronauts to the moon, to the space shuttle programme, which ferried men and women to low earth orbit and back. the shuttle has cleared the tower. but its last flight touched down nearly a decade ago. since then, nasa‘s astronauts have had to buy seats on russian rockets instead. this new spacecraft will restore america‘s ability for human space flight. the fact it‘s owned by spacex, a commercial company, also marks a big change for the us space agency. nasa has said, basically, we ll give you the money and you give us the space flight and that releases nasa to use its resources to do other things. and that s where we can start really thinking big. and instead of spending allthe time, effort, resources on something we ve done now for many years, going into low earth orbit, doing experiments, let s look bigger, let s go further and the ultimate destination has to be mars. last year, a crash test dummy took a test ride in the spacex capsule. now, though, it‘s time for the real thing. a new era in space flight is set to begin. rebecca morelle, bbc news. hello this is bbc news with victoria derbyshire. the headlines: plans to impose localised lockdowns in england will be unveiled later today the government will explain how its test, track and trace strategy will deal with regional outbreaks of covid 19. if there is a flare up in one particular community, and that could be on quite a small scale like a particular workplace or school, then measures can be introduced, which hopefully the public will get behind, enable us to control the virus in that locality. the uk prime minister, borisjohnson, will be questioned by senior mps later amid continued calls for his top adviser dominic cummings to resign. elsewhere, riot police in hong kong fire pepper pellets to break up protests over a law that would criminalise insulting china‘s national anthem. president trump accuses twitter of stifling free speech, after one of his tweets about postal voting was given a fact check label. and nasa astronauts prepare to launch into space from the us for the first time in nearly a decade we count down to the launch. police officers in the us city of minneapolis have fired tear gas at demonstrators protesting the death of an unarmed black man in police custody. soon after george floyd died on monday a video emerged showing a white policeman kneeling on his neck forfive minutes despite the man complaining that he couldn‘t breathe. these are some of the protests you can see now. protestors filled the city‘s streets on tuesday evening hours after it was that four police officers had been sacked. this report starts with images of the dead man being detained. a disturbing scene caught on camera by witnesses incensed over the police‘s actions. bro? the ten minute video shows george floyd pleading with officers who have him restrained on the ground. one of them using his knee to pin the man down by his neck. clearly in distress, he tells the white officer he can‘t breathe and is in pain. the crowd tries to help, and grows increasingly concerned and frustrated. when george floyd appears motionless, bystanders question why he isn‘t being given urgent medical attention. seven minutes into the video, an ambulance arrives. he‘s put on a stretcher, still handcuffed, and taken to hospital. at a press conference, the minneapolis police department offered their version of events. they said they were responding to a crime and that the man appeared to be under the influence. he physically resisted officers. officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and officers noticed that the male was going into medical distress. officers called for an ambulance. he was transported to hennepin county medical center, where he died a short time later. mayorjacob frey said that four of the officers involved have now been fired, after initially being put on paid leave. the fbi is also investigating the incident. being black in america should not be a death sentence. for five minutes, we watched as a white officer pressed his knee into the neck of a black man. for five minutes. when you hear someone calling for help, you are supposed to help. this officer failed in the most basic human sense. the viral video quickly sparked outrage. yesterday, what we saw was a black man who was lynched. right? they didn t use rope, he used his knee. and that black man, mr floyd, said, i cannot breathe. minnesota prides itself on being progressive and being the north. but this is the jim crow north, and we demand justice. police officer: put your hands behind your back! george floyd: i can t breathe! for many, this is a case of history repeating itself. millions protested in 201a after eric garner, an unarmed black man in new york, died after being restrained by police. his repeated plea of i can‘t breathe , also captured in cellphone footage, became a rallying cry at demonstrations against police brutality against african america ns. there are sometimes investigations, but many feel there is rarely any accountability. nada tawfik, bbc news. the husband of the jailed biritsh iranian woman nazanin zaghari ratcliffe, says there is some hope his wife could soon be allowed to come home from iran. to the uk. iran‘s leader is expected to pardon 3,000 people as part of the countty‘s eid celerations, and richard ratcliffe has told the bbc he expects to hear around lunchtime whether or not his wife is among those to be released. she was arrested in 2016 and sentenced to five years in prison, accused of plotting to overthrow the iranian government, something she denies. the charity which runs the uk‘s national domestic abuse helpline has had a ten fold increase in visits to its website in the past two weeks. refuge said numbers have spiked again significantly since it started recording rises during lockdown. but figures revealed to the bbc request show that more uk police forces recorded a fall in calls about domestic violence at the start of lockdown, than recorded a rise. why the disparity? abby newbery reports. for some, lockdown has meant feeling trapped in an abusive situation at home. itjust got me down more and more. i thought i can‘t go on like this. this is one woman‘s experience, recreated and voiced by actors, to protect her identity. he got more and more aggressive, saying he‘d like me to go now. he got a stick and he came back with it and he stood there with the stick in his hand and he said, i want you out now or i‘m going to hurt you and you know i can kill you, waving this stick at me. and he really, really did frighten me. this woman has now escaped her situation. but that‘s not the case for many. the bbc asked all a5 of the uk‘s police forces how many domestic abuse calls they‘d had. a1 responded. more than half had fewer calls at the start of lockdown than at the same time last year. but that‘s not the case for refuge, a domestic abuse charity that has seen 66% more calls and almost 1,000% increase to its website in lockdown. as director of communications, lisa king explains. refuge is concerned to see such demand on its services and what we really want all women to know is that they are not alone. that domestic abuse is a crime and that refuge is here to support them every hour of every day. it shows that domestic abuse is perhaps a bigger issue than we have even anticipated in this country. but why is there not a similar recorded increase in police calls? there needs to be an understanding of what domestic abuse is. claire walker is a domestic abuse consultant and she thinks more training is needed to spot the signs. 100% of victims will experience coercive control. not so much what he does, it s about what he. ..disables her from being able to do. their systems and their policies and practices need to change. i am tired of police officers not understanding what coercive control is. the country‘s leading domestic abuse police officer, louisa rolfe, says that all front line officers across the uk receive training to spot the signs of coercive or controlling behaviour. she adds they are working with domestic abuse charities to understand the nature of their demand. drones are being used to deliver medical equipment to a scottish island, as part of a trial to prove the efficiency of the technology. the test flights can carry protective equipment and packages between the hospital in oban and the isle of mull, in 15 minutes. that must be good, i assume. it‘s hoped that test kits and samples could, in time, be transported in this way. iain macinnes reports. did the preflight check? preflight check completed. ready for take off. this is a drone flight with a difference. medical supplies carried on board will head 12 miles across the water to the isle of mull injust 15 minutes. i think anything that improves island medical health has to be tried. i think it‘s extra resilience for our island, as well. because of covid 19, we were looking at ferry sailings and trying to cut down the risk of transmitting infection. so even if it saves one life, it will give great confidence to the island. the heavily regulated process has been accelerated by coronavirus but the drone and its carrying abilities can be the latest tool in fighting the virus. i think particularly we are moving into the phase now where we re looking at testing and isolation, the speed of getting a test kit out to some of our more remote communities, or getting that result back will allow us to make those decisions and support the communities in protecting them and keeping them safe and well in their community. and obviously supporting the health service so that we can cope with any peak in demand. the health board say other crossings like this could be made to island surgeries and hospitals, and there‘s no suggestion the west coast weather will cause any issues. within a couple of years, we hope to have multiple drones over multiple routes, serving lots and lots of different purposes. of course, when you get to that stage, the economics start to get better for the nhs and other users, because you can fly packages out, you can fly samples back, you can integrate with the mail, any goods that need to go over. then it really becomes an efficient form of transportation. another test flight has successfully made its way back here to oban. the hope is, though, that if this technology could be proved, that we may see drones like this more widespread across the country. ever since the pandemic began countries around the world have been desperately trying to get hold of personal protective equipment or ppe. that‘s the gloves, face masks and gowns needed for doctors, nurses and carers. but what happens when these items mostly made of plastic get thrown away? the bbc‘s tim allman reports on the potential hazards of discarded ppe. in the waters off the coast of southern france, a perhaps unexpected consequence of covid 19. this video, shot by an environmentalist called laurent lombard, appears to show disposable gloves on the sea bed, near the resort of antibes. and it‘s notjust gloves. there are face masks, too, in amongst the usual plastic pollution of the mediterranean. laurent lombard is part of a group called operation clean sea, which describes the oceans as our heritage that must be respected. this is what he found during just two hours of snorkelling, dozens of plastic bottles and, lying in a row at the front, face masks and latex gloves. the demand for personal protective equipment has been, understandably, huge, country after country scrambling to get hold of as much of this stuff as they can. france alone is reported to have ordered somewhere in the region of 2 billion face masks. much of it cannot be reused and some of it seems to be ending up discarded in the ocean. this has been described as a new form of pollution and there has been a warning that if nothing is done, we may end up with more face masks than jellyfish in the mediterranean. one consequence of so many shops, bars and restaurants being closed around the world is that it can be harder for people who are out and about to find a toilet. and the problem is even worse because many public toilets are closed, too. but for vulnerable people, it‘s more thanjust an inconvenience it‘s feared the lack of facilities is stopping some of them from leaving their homes. tim muffett has more. inconvenience. with lockdown easing, more people are out and about and needing the loo. and that‘s been a problem in many places, such as skegness. so, how are you coping, then? there‘s no toilets down by the beach. yeah, it‘s a killer and i got a water infection. we knew about the toilets. and how have you coped? just won t have to have too many of them. she laughs. they re basically not keeping two metres distance, they re going into the sand dunes and, excuse my language, peeing in there. it‘s notjust trips to the beach that have been affected. jonathan‘s a lorry driver from hampshire. it‘s making it really difficult for us lorry drivers. we‘re out on the road, doing ten, 12, 13 hours a day and we‘re not able to use toilets anywhere. it‘s just getting worse. places i used to go to the toilet, different businesses, they‘ve stopped letting people go there. there‘ve been instances where i‘ve had to stop somewhere and maybe have a wee in a bush, or do something like that. but there‘s people where i work, you know, that have. ..had to have a number two in the back of a lorry, which is not good and it‘s not dignified. some public loos have reopened, but the british toilet association says the majority are still shut, as, of course, are cafes a nd restau ra nts. and whilst the site of a closed toilet can be a nuisance for many, for those with a bowel condition such as crohn‘s or colitis, it can be much worse. what we want is for local authorities in thinking about opening back up again, it s really important to prioritise those local conveniences for people with crohn s or colitis or other disabilities who need them. it s not a luxury, it s actually a necessity. the way we live our lives might have changed, but basic human needs will always remain. and finding a loo when out and about has become much harder. tim muffet, bbc news. the headlines on bbc news: plans to impose localised lockdowns in england will be unveiled later. the government will explain how its test, track and trace strategy will deal with regional outbreaks of covid 19. the prime minister, borisjohnson, will be questioned by senior mps later amid continued calls for his top adviser dominic cummings to resign. riot police in hong kong fire pepper pellets to break up protests over a law that would criminalise insulting china‘s national anthem. let‘s get more now on plans for some coronavirus restrictions, including the temporary closure of shops and schools, to be reintroduced in specific areas in england if there is a spike in the number of cases. so called local lockdowns will be used to suppress flare ups of the virus once the nationwide lockdown restrictions have been lifted. dr george rae is north east chair of the british medical association and joins me now. what do you think of this idea of local lockdowns? well, the very first thing we‘ve got to be thinking about, victoria, is the continued protection of public health. and we have got to make sure that we are maintaining the suppression of covid 19. now, what we‘ve noticed in the north east of england about four weeks ago was that we had a higher rate of patients testing positive for covid 19. also, very sadly and tragically, we had more deaths pro rata 100,000 tragically, we had more deaths pro rata100,000 patients as opposed to any other area in england. at the time, but four weeks ago, we had 55 deaths per 100,000 population as opposed to further south in the more affluent areas about 25 deaths. we raised concern about that. there was no doubt in our mind it would be more than likely multifactorial in explanation. for example, more people are being tested in the north east. however, health inequalities have a huge implication in this. what do i mean by that? thejobs huge implication in this. what do i mean by that? the jobs that people have, the employment or unemployment ata have, the employment or unemployment at a look all those factors have an effect on health and the sort of factors, they have caused more chronic bronchitis, more emphysema and heart disease. therefore, the ability of the people to actually contend with that virus like covid 19, it is reduced. at that time, when we were debating it, we felt it is not inconceivable that in the future, when, eventually, the lockdown measures come off, that they might find in some areas there will be further restrictions. that was a massive concern for us. right. are you saying that if there are more restrictions in your particular area of the country, for example, because of flare ups, then. what are you saying? because of flare ups, then. what 7i m because of flare ups, then. what ? i‘m sorry. because of flare ups, then. what are you saying? i m sorry. what i m saying is that it is not inconceivable that in certain parts of the country, and i‘m talking about in england, but it can happen within the united kingdom, that particularly when there are areas where there is deprivation and higher rates of infection and higher death rates that you could find that when we are coming out of the lockdown that there is an actual rise in the r number in certain areas in the country and that would bea areas in the country and that would be a concern for us. it is something we would do something about. ok, forgive me, i absolutely understand, something would have to be done and that would be where presumably this local lockdowns would come in? would that be enough? very unfortunately, we would have to bring in a local lockdown. this is all predicated on the testing, tracing and isolating and making sure we have got all the reliable information. what i would think. i was speaking to doctors last evening during a virtual conference, we would want the local public health to be involved in that. but also working with public health england with the test, track, trace and isolate. if there was a local lockdown, we would have to have adherents of the local population. they would have to have the respect and trust of the people who are actually giving that information. lets be honest, victoria, a lot of people would think, well, this is unfair, the rest of the country is coming back out and we are being told to go back to the square before, we are having further restrictions , this could have an effect on their health, their mental health and the local economy. but nevertheless, if there are spikes in certain parts of the country, if there are clusters, they have actually got to be brought under control. because if not, if it was ina under control. because if not, if it was in a part of the north east, it was in a part of the north east, it was a part of the midlands, in the south west, that cluster could spread. that can spread to further areas in the region and of course, you know, people would realise it could further spread within the country. that is the very last thing we want. that is why i feel there has got to be, with the population, if there is a local re occurrence, there has got to be trust. there has got to be respect. they have got to be saying, look, the public health, the doctors say it is in the north east, say it is in the south west, they are saying to us that there is a problem here and they would adhere to the guidance, which is being given. because, in many respects, they will be feeling, well, this is unfair because i‘ve done my bit over the last ten or 12 weeks, i have abided by what is actually happening at now i am being asked to further go back into restrictions, so we are going to have to look at how that actually is carried forward in the future. ok. thank you very much for talking to us, thank you. the north east chair of the british medical association in england. around the world, thousands of music concerts and festivals have been cancelled because of the coronavirus. the organisers of the high profile afro nation music festival in portugal have told the bbc they received death threats and racial abuse, after they refused to offer ticket holders refunds. shamaan freeman powell has this report. and just to say it does feature images of racially abusive messages. it was meant to be one of the highlights of the summer. after selling out in its debut last year, fans of the afro nation portugal festival had big plans for summer 2020. so well organised, so nicely put together. it was such a vibe. i bought a vip ticket this year because i thought, yeah, let me just go bigger and better. but those plans were scuppered by the covid 19 outbreak and while other festivals offered refunds, afro nation only offered a ticket to next year‘s event, causing outrage amongst some customers. at the moment, a lot of people are financially stressed and people are losing jobs or working less. and then on top of it, i found that i can t get a refund. so it was just a lot to take in. many ticket holders were even more shocked to see one of the men behind the festival, adesegun adeosun, better known as smade, posted a controversial message on twitter, threatening to block people who complained. if you try to ask a question, or could you please reply me, i have messaged you in the dms, they would block you. afro nation say, like all festivals, they remove abusive, anti social or bullying comments from social media feeds and haven‘t blocked anyone since announcing the event was postponed. as for smade, he says he reacted after receiving threatening and racially abusive messages online. some suggested that he should go and live in a zoo, whilst others wished terminal cancer on his mum. i regret tweeting what i tweeted, but i don t think anyone deserves any of those. um, messages. but on may the 11th, organisers announced that they will be using a new portuguese law, which was passed in march. the law was introduced to protect the tourism industry in portugal and it allows events to be rescheduled within a year with the same line up. because the main promoter of afro nation is based in portugal, this law applies and means customers get a ticket to next year‘s event but no refund. ijust want my refund back, that‘s really it. and if i want to go next year, because i don‘t know the plan for next year, then i‘ll go on my own terms. some of the people that i have spoken to have said that they‘ve lost some faith in the festival. what would you say to them about that? i would say to them to continue to believe in afro nation. a lot of people are disappointed. a lot of people are sad, at the moment. you know, 2021 is going to be a bigger opportunity. the festival organisers say cancelling the event would have damaged local businesses and the portuguese economy. and say they‘ve done everything possible to ensure 2021 is better than before, adding extra names to the line up. this leaves ticket holders with only two options try and resell their tickets using the platform provided by afro nation or hope that the pandemic is over by 2021. shamaan freeman powell, bbc news. many couples across the uk have been forced to cancel their wedding plans, but one doctor and nurse from south london were able to tie the knot this week, in the hospital chapel where they both work. after calling off their august wedding because of fears their family would be unable to attend, jann and annalan decided to hold their nuptials early in the grade 2 listed chapel, at st thomas‘ hospital. they described the day as intimate and lovely , but said it felt surreal getting married at work. look at those pictures. absolutely brilliant, stunning, amazing, joyous. thank you for your messages today, always appreciate them. try today, always appreciate them. try to read most of them. on the split of housework in the house, heidi says it is the opposite in my house, iam says it is the opposite in my house, i am working from home, my husband is furloughed, he is doing all the cooking, housework and lots of diy at my teenage children are doing their bit. my daughter willingly and she is also working part time. my son under sufferance. thank you very much, heidi. now it‘s time for a look at the weather with carol. hello again. if you‘re looking for rain, there really isn‘t much in the forecast for the next few days. and that that we do have isn‘t going to be particularly heavy where it falls. most of us are going to remain dry, sunny and warm and for some by the weekend very warm. what we have today is high pressure still in charge of our weather, it has been with us this week and it will see us through this week as well. but across the north of the country, we have a couple of fronts which are introducing thicker cloud and also some rain. as we go through the afternoon, there will be a lot of dry weather, a lot of sunshine, some low cloud just lapping on shore across parts of eastern england. and the front‘s coming in from the west producing some rain but it‘s not going to be heavy at this stage. we might see the odd drop across northern ireland and western scotland. temperatures ranging from 12 in the north to 25 in the south. now, if we pick up this rain through the evening and overnight as it crosses northernmost scotland, it will turn that bit heavier. move away from there, we are looking at a lot of dry weather, some clear skies, with some of this low cloud lapping a bit further inland. as a result of all of this, it‘s not going to be a cold night for most of the uk. so tomorrow, we say goodbye to that rain. you could even see a few spots across south east scotland and north east england before it eventually moves away. and once again it‘s going to be a dry day, variable amounts of cloud and a fair bit of sunshine. temperatures responding, 22 in edinburgh, 25 in liverpool, 26 in cardiff. by the time we get to friday, we still are looking at a lot of dry weather, the high pressure through thursday and into friday drifts in towards scandinavia. we start to pull in some breezier conditions, but also some warmer air from the near continent. so a largely dry day for us all during the course of friday, a lot of sunshine, a little bit of fair weather cloud here and there. not really that much of a breeze on friday, but temperatures, well, they are going to get up into the low to mid 20s quite widely and 27 in cardiff is likely to be the highest temperature and with high pressure in charge it is effectively keeping these weather fronts at bay. we don‘t think they are going to make any progress. if they do, then we are likely to see the odd spot of rain in northern ireland, possibly in western scotland but they are more likely to stay in the atlantic. on saturday, a breezier day, a dry day with a lot of sunshine and highs up to 26.
this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. plans to impose localised lockdowns in england will be unveiled later today. the government will explain how its test, track and trace strategy will deal with regional outbreaks of covid 19. if there is a flare up in one particular community, and that could be on quite a small scale, like a particular workplace or school, then measures can be introduced, which hopefully the public will get behind, enable us to control the virus in that locality. the prime minister, borisjohnson, will be questioned by senior mps later amid continued calls for his top adviser dominic cummings to resign. elsewhere, riot police in hong kong fire pepper pellets to break up protests over a law that would criminalise insulting china‘s national anthem. president trump accuses twitter of stifling free speech after one of his tweets about postal voting was given a fact check label. and nasa astronauts prepare to launch into space from the us for the first time in nearly a decade. we speak to british astronauts tim peake and helen sharman. hello and welcome if you‘re watching in the uk or around the world and stay with us for the latest news and analysis from here and across the globe. future coronavirus outbreaks in england could be controlled by introducing ‘local lockdowns‘, according to the government. the health secretary matt hancock said some restrictions, including the temporary closure of shops and schools, could be reintroduced in specific areas if there is a spike in the number of cases. there are already arrangements similar to ‘local lockdowns‘ in countries like france and germany. also today, the uk prime minister borisjohnson will be questioned by senior mps about the government‘s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. he‘s also likely to be asked about his chief adviser dominic cummings‘ controversial trip to the north of england during lockdown. south korea, which avoided a nationwide lockdown, has seen its biggest spike in new coronavirus cases in two months, just as many schools are reopening. the head of the pan american health organisation has warned that latin america has become the centre of the global pandemic. and, back in the uk, research suggests women are more likely than men to have lost theirjobs since the start of the lockdown. they‘re also more likely to be doing most of the housework and childcare. more on that later but first, this report from andy moore. a testing, tracking and tracing system is regarded as vital if the virus is to be kept in check while lockdown restrictions are eased. the fear is that, without it, there could be a second wave of infections. transmission rates are generally coming down across the country, but there are big regional variations. in somerset, the hospital in western super mare has been temporarily closed due to a high number of coronavirus cases. there‘s said to be an emerging picture of large numbers of staff testing positive, though they‘re showing no symptoms. the hospital says it hopes to reopen its a&e department and accept new patients as soon as possible. if there‘s a high level of infection in a particular area, the government has indicated that local schools, businesses or workplaces could be closed down. at the daily downing street press conference, matt hancock said the nhs test and trace programme would be incredibly important. it will give us the information to have local lockdowns and focus on areas where there may be flare ups, and it is very important that people follow those rules and they should do it don‘t not do it for, um, the government, people need to do this for themselves, for their loved ones, for their communities. it‘s incredibly important and it will stop those local flare ups from happening. a similar system will be launched in scotland tomorrow. it‘s called test and protect. anyone with symptoms will be urged to get a swab. if it comes back positive, 700 trackers will be ready to trace any contacts, with that number rising to 2,000 in due course. andy moore, bbc news. let‘s talk to our assistant political editor, norman smith. the government wanting to talk about what is going to be happening going forward , what is going to be happening going forward, but so much of the figure still on dominic cummings. huge still on dominic cummings. huge still on dominic cummings. huge still on dominic cummings. a0 or so tory mps all saying in effect he must go. that said, there is absolutely no sign of borisjohnson backing down there. media, angry tory mps, hoping they will move on. hoping based on that is a really crucial coronavirus issues coming down the track very, very quickly. we know the government wants schools back by next monday. they also want to have reached 300,000 tests a day and, crucially, they want to roll out test, track and trace which is absolutely central to easing the lockdown. 200,000 tests a day. what we have learned today is the possibility of renewed localised lockdown is, if there is a flare up in the virus in some particular areas. this could be in individual villages, housing estates, hospitals or schools, where a lockdown would be reimposed and people basically we go back to square one and have to self isolate for 1a days. have a listen to how the communities secretary robertjenrick set out the plans. the trade off here is that for a relatively small number of people abiding by the rules, being inconvenienced in some cases, staying at home and self isolating, the rest of society gets to enjoy far more freedom than we all do today because of the great restrictions we are living under. so the potential is huge to help us get back to all the things we care about in life. a couple of other things we learned from robertjenrick is the promised review of the fines imposed on people for breaching the lockdown by travelling, not going to happen, even though the health secretary matt hancock in response to the question in the news conference yesterday seemed to say there would bea yesterday seemed to say there would be a review. according to robert jenrick, that is not going to be such a review. secondly, he conceded that if people found that the childcare reasons they had to travel, to their parents‘ to ensure adequate childcare, then they could do the same with dominic cummings. they could do the same as dominic cummings. if there are no other options, if you don t have ready access to childcare, then you can do as dominic cummings chose to do. even if you re in a household with symptoms of coronavirus. but the guidelines say that she must do your best, but they appreciate that family life poses particular challenges and in order to protect children, you are able to exercise a degree of personaljudgement and i think that is a reasonable way forwards. we know that many tory mps are angry at the conduct of dominic cummings, we know the polls, if they are to be believed, the public are unhappy. we don‘t know how people respond when the government comes asking them for further restrictions, whether it is through a localised lockdown or quarantining if they come back from abroad, whether they will think, i am going to do a dominic cummings and just use my own instinct. i am going to use my own judgment. and just use my own instinct. i am going to use my ownjudgment. we don‘t know whether people will choose in effect to flout rules because they take the view that dominic cummings has say they are going to do the same. i can‘t really recall many if any incidents in politics where there has then such demands for somebody to stand down or be sacked. and that they have survived, even if it is gone on first a long period of time, normally the inevitable happens. does this seem like a different one to you this time? it does, if you look to comparable situations, alastair campbell and tony blair would be an obvious one. mr blair hugely dependent on alistair campbell but at the end of the day he had today. borisjohnson seems to ta ke he had today. borisjohnson seems to take the view that dominic cummings is pretty much indispensable, that he is absolutely critical if he is to deliver on brexit but also it seems in terms of managing coronavirus and he has taken the view that he is going to take a hit, and a mighty hit it would seem, in order to keep mr cummings, regardless of what the media say, what tory mps say will indeed what public opinion thinks. thank you, norman. riot police in hong kong have fired pepper pellets at demonstrators as mps gather to debate a bill that would criminalise insulting china‘s national anthem. more than 200 people have been arrested by riot police as demonstrators gather in the central commercial district and in shopping areas. this was the scene in hong kong‘s commercial district a little earlier when police attempted to disperse demonstrators. pro democracy activists have also voiced their opposition to separate legislation which would impose a sweeping national security law on the semi autonomous territory. our correspondent martin yip in hong kong explained the background to the controversy surrounding the chinese national anthem. it‘s pretty much about people thinking that this whole piece of law would bar them from expressing their discontent with governors in some ways, such as making parodies of the national anthem orjust booing at the national anthem. because back in 2017 when beijing made the national anthem law, and put it into what we call annex iii of the basic law of hong kong, which then forced hong kong to make this local legislation, was at a time when there was a series of incidents that hong kong football fans booed at the chinese national anthem at international games. because hong kong, under the one country, two systems rule, hong kong can send its own teams into games like world cup. things like that. but you have to play the chinese national anthem. and beijing treat this kind of behaviour, not just as unpatriotic, but almost as like a betrayal of the country. but to the hong kongers it is one of the many ways they can do legally, at least until this moment, to express discontent to chinese rule. professor arthur li is a member of the executive council which is the top policy making body of the hong kong government. he‘s considered pro beijing in his political outlook and he told us why he supports the national anthem law. well, basically, manners maketh man. i don t think anyone anywhere should insult anybody, any country s national anthem, and it is wrong. but we have seen in hong kong when the national anthem is being played at public events, people, some people, started booing it. this is very upsetting for a lot of hong kong people who feel that, first of all, it s bad manners. secondly, it is a national anthem. and thirdly, something needs to be done about it. and we‘ll be getting the latest from hong kong live later in this half hour. as coronavirus restrictions ease in some areas across the globe, schools have begun to resume face to face classes. but what should classroom look like now? and how are different nations dealing with the challenges of teaching during a pandemic? in china, schools began gradually reopening earlier this month, including in wuhan where the outbreak started. students lined up to give swab samples and have their temperature checked. in france masks are required for students aged 11 years or older, but it‘s not yet compulsory for parents to send their child back. schools in sweden have remained open. they have relied on social distancing and hygiene measures to reduce the spread of infection instead. south korea, just as over two million school children return to school but strict measures have been put in place. as laura bicker has been finding out more. well, this is pe class, as you can probably tell behind me. 2.5 million students are going back. this is part of a phased return. so a series of students go back every week. but teachers are on edge because there are clusters of infection popping up across the country. this is all related to an outbreak in nightclubs in seoul‘s party district a couple of weeks ago. health officials have traced 86,000 people. and tested them for the virus. but still these little pockets of infection keep cropping up. and that is why every single student must wear a mask. at the gates they are having their temperature checked. that‘s the first temperature check of the day. there are many temperature checks throughout the day. each of the classes have dividers in them to keep students apart. daily, teachers are telling their students to keep that social distance, but it is extremely difficult. as you can imagine, this is the first time that they‘ve seen each other in months. this is the start of the school term which was supposed to happen in march so they are very, very excited. i saw one studentjump up and down desperate to hug herfriend but she was told no, no, no, no by a teacher. but still they are allowing students to go back to school. some schools have decided to say no today but this one has. as you can see they are enjoying their pe class, they don‘t speak much english but they have one word which they can say which is hello! there you go, hello from them. meanwhile, headteachers in england have told the bbc that preparing schools to welcome more children back from next week, has been the toughest challenge of their careers. staff rotas, school systems and physical changes to classrooms, have all been considered to ensure pupils can return safely under social distancing guidelines. john maguire reports. ok, theo, can you tuck your chair and come and stand on the white line? well done. the children returning to school here at the whitehook academies in north somerset next week, everything will be different. each and every aspect of school life has been reassessed. we have a 109 point check list to go through to make sure everything is risk assessed to be safe. we have a as page risk assessment that has also gone through a whole checking process, including staff, governors and trustees. but behind that, we have the practicalities of the day to day. so, we have timetables for break time, for lunch time, for outdoor space. we have timetables for different classrooms and different bubbles within those classes. the school has stayed open for key workers or vulnerable children. social distancing rules mean their desk partners are their siblings. there‘s a new theme each week. the latest is japan. they applaud on a normal day, there would be a50 pupils here, and after half term, around 150 will return. class sizes are different. the requirements for children s mixing for interaction is different. the hygiene requirements are a far higher level than we ve ever seen before. but also the risk assessment process behind that, ensuring that our site is as safe as it possibly can be for everyone in our community, is vital. making the physical changes has been very challenging but staff are also preparing to support children emotionally. the decision to reintroduce more pupils hasn‘t been an easy one. not for parents or for staff. for me, being in the classroom is where i belong. i want to be with the children, i don‘t want to be sat at home on my laptop doing things for them. i want to have that interaction and to be there for them, as their journey continues with their learning. a school is so much more than just a classroom. it‘s part of a community. in the office, fiona hague has been on hand to reassure anxious families. parents are still very worried, so it s pointing them in the direction of all the guidance that s coming out. we re ensuring we re getting as much information out to parents as we can via the website, school app, e mails. and making sure they re as up to date as they can be and know as much as we know. when the school gates next open, the canteen‘s shutters will remain closed. mixed feelings. i‘m fine with it. i think i‘m fine with it. we‘ve been. me and sue have been on our own for a while now, so it‘s fine. it‘s a nice big kitchen to social distance in, so, we are lucky, really. we‘re going to do a sandwich selection for them and they‘re going to be eating in their classroom, so we‘ll prepare it here and it will be going over in boxes into their little bubbles in their classrooms. over the past two weeks, primary schools have had to reinvent the wheel. and as these corridors fill in the coming days, there‘ll be much more to learn. so notjust for children, but for parents, teachers, and support staff, every day will be a school day. john maguire, bbc news, nailsea in north somerset. in wales, the test, trace, protect scheme is due to be in place by the beginning ofjune, but there are fears among some council leaders that it will be delayed by at least a week. our correspondent, tomos morgan, joins us from cardiff. what are the reason that it may be delayed? i thinkjust because what they have been saying for a while that this is a huge, a mammoth task, according to the welsh local government association. the track, trace and protect scheme is to be in place, as you say, at the beginning ofjune and what that involves is tracing anyone that has come into close contact with someone who has tested positive for covid 19 and advising them to self isolate, to stop further spread. the welshman says ttp, the acumen for the scheme, is further to easing any further lockdown restrictions on well‘s the welsh government. we deployed council staff across wales will be redeployed to run this programme. it will increase testing capacity across hospital care homes and key workers to about 10,000 by the end of this month. currently in the middle of may, the capacity and wells were just about 5000 each day in wales. it means almost double that when they start this new scheme. what will happen is they will be a central data system for all the local authorities in wales so they can track their information, eve ryo ne so they can track their information, everyone can check that to make sure thatis everyone can check that to make sure that is across coordination of the information so everyone is on the same page. there have been trials the last couple of weeks, most important of those over the bank holiday weekend and whatever comes out of those will be key into one this first starts next week or the following week. some of the issues that have arisen in wales is to do with concerns that some people in wales are still not able to book dry coronavirus test. i‘m just on the website here, the uk government website. wales is still not available as an option to book drive through test in wales, so that will hamper the effectiveness of this new scheme if people cannot pick those tests. the other issue is there have been concerned home testing kits aren‘t as readily available as they have been in other areas of the uk, but that is not just an issue in well specifically. the plan is for this to start next week but there are concerns that it may take another couple of weeks or another week to get the system working at full capacity. how does the information get disseminated? is how does the information get disseminated ? is it how does the information get disseminated? is it a voluntary application like the system that was trolled on the isle of wight? application like the system that was trolled on the isle of wight7m will be a central data system, according to the local government. local authorities, they will all import the information than anyone that gets tested well notify whoever needs to be tested and they will pass on the information from there. i think one of the concerns has been, where do the additional staffing members in the testing kits come from and how will that were with mag i think there has been a huge effort made by the welsh government and local authorities to make sure that everything is in place so when this new testing scheme starts, everything can run as smoothly as possible, everyone has the information they need and they can track entries and make sure there is not any more spread of the virus that needs to be. testing is a really vital part of this because otherwise there will be a situation where people are told to self isolate when they are not showing symptoms and perhaps it is just on the basis of someone else having showed symptoms but not had a test. well rigorous testing be firmly behind and underpinning all of this? yes, i think the rigorous testing is the biggest issues for all the home nations of the uk, really. i think in wales, just like other areas of the uk, there have been certain issues and there have been delays in certain aspects of testing, the goal and the number of testing capacity will change at some part during the lockdown for various reasons. the welsh government say they are doing as much as they can to make sure that all the testing facilities are available to everyone. as i mentioned, there is still an issue on the uk government website that it is not possible to book drive through test at the moment in wales, where as it is possible in other areas of the uk. the other home nations. that is something that still needs to be addressed, but the welsh government are clear and adamant that they will make sure that they will be an increase testing capacity and they are working around the clock, every time i speak to them, to make sure there will be more testing capacity available because that is, as you say, a key part in making this new scheme work and they say they need it to work because otherwise, well, they need it to work so they can ease the restrictions further down the line. thank you. meanwhile, in scotland a test, trace and isolate programme will begin tomorrow, to try to limit the spread of the virus. people with symptoms will be asked to have a swab test immediately, and if the result is positive, anyone they have come into close face to face contact with, will be traced and told to isolate for 1a days. earlier, national clinical director of the scottish government, jason leitch explained how it will work. u nfortu nately we unfortunately we cannot bring that tea, we will try to bring it to you a little bit later. mark u nfortu nately we a little bit later. mark unfortunately we cannot bring that to you. let‘s return to the situation in hong kong. we can speak to mary hui, a reporter for the news website quartz. welcome. this centring on concerns around the new national anthem bill and concerns it could make protest difficult. tell us a bit more about the background to this, why is it being introduced and why now? this bill was part of beijing and the hong kong‘s efforts to essentially legislate respectful pictures, something that has long been a priority of beijing to instill the sense of love for the motherland. that is not something that many hong kong people feel very strongly and the fact that this bill is being pushed through is, for many protesters, reminded that it is yet another encroachment on loss of theory domes and liberties that they hold so dear to their heart hurt loss of freedoms. we see the pictures of platers, these are coming in covid 19 times when there is social distancing, how many people are going up to protest and how are they being handled? it is hard to tell exactly how many are out because the police today have used vastly different tactics compared to what we saw last year. they have blanketed much of downtown hong kong with a huge show of force, right police deployed and what feels like every other street corner, every other street. essentially it means there are no crowds of any sizeable, of any kind of size able to congregate. protesters are taking to congregate. protesters are taking to singing and chanting on streets and in shopping malls, but already by about 6pm here, hong kong time, just about half an hour ago, over 300 people have already been arrested and many of them just passers by, young schoolchildren. when you talk about last year, that is the extradition law protest that obviously went on for a long time and did result in some changes from the national executive. what lessons can be learned, what will protesters ta ke can be learned, what will protesters take from what happened and in terms of how far they can push it, and how the executive might respond? the larger battle now is for national security bill that beijing announced last week, it would be enacted in hong kong. ithink announced last week, it would be enacted in hong kong. i think that essentially changes the game, one pro democracy politician today said that a lot of things now are out of the hands of a hung kongers and urge processes to privatise returning him safely tonight rather than risk arrest on the street. i think it tends to a change in mindset and energy levels amongst protesters. in the sense that beijing is really cracking down very hard and that the wiggle room that was present last year may not be here now. mary, thank you very much. the husband of the jailed biritsh iranian woman nazanin zaghari ratcliffe, says there is some hope his wife could soon be allowed to come home from iran. iran‘s leader is expected to pardon 3,000 people as part of the countty‘s eid celerations, and richard ratcliffe has told the bbc he expects to hear around lunchtime weather or not his wife is among those to be released. she was arrested in 2016 and sentenced to five years in prison, accused of plotting to overthrow the iranian government, something she denies. president trump has accused twitter of interfering in the 2020 us election after it labelled two posts by the president as potentially misleading. president trump had claimed that the use of postal votes would lead to widespread voter fraud. twitter responded by directing readers to a page with news articles and information from fact checkers debunking the claim. our north america correspondent peter bowes reports. a twitter war about twitter. it started when mr trump, who has more than 80 million followers on the social media platform, tweeted that postal ballot papers would result in a rigged election. mailboxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged and even illegally printed out and fraudulently signed. mr trump also claimed that the governor of california will be sending ballots to millions of people, anyone living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there, will get one. twitter responded with a blue exclamation mark underneath the tweets, suggesting readers get the facts about mail in ballots through stories contradicting mr trump. the president later repeated his claims at a white house news conference. people that aren‘t citizens, illegals, anyone that walks in california is going to get a ballot. we‘re not going to destroy this country by allowing things like that to happen. we‘re not destroying our country. this has more to do with fairness and honesty, and really our country itself. twitter introduced a policy earlier this month to combat misleading information. but this is the first time the platform has applied a fact checking label to tweets by the president who was quick to respond with another tweet. twitter is now interfering in the 2020 presidential election. twitter is completely stifling free speech, and i, as president, will not allow it to happen! thank you. a potentially rocky road ahead for the president and his social media platform of choice. peter bowes, bbc news, los angeles. hello this is bbc news. the headlines: plans to impose localised lockdowns in england will be unveiled later today the government will explain how its test, track and trace strategy will deal with regional outbreaks of covid 19. if there is a flare up in one particular community, and that could be on quite a small scale like a particular workplace or school, then measures can be introduced which hopefully public will get behind, enabling us to control the virus in that locality. the prime minister, borisjohnson, will be questioned by senior mps later amid continued calls for his top adviser dominic cummings to resign. elsewhere riot police in hong kong fire pepper pellets to break up protests over a law that would criminalise insulting china‘s national anthem. president trump accuses twitter of stifling free speech after one of his tweets about postal voting was given a fact check label. the first commercial craft to take people into space is due to blast off from cape canaveral in florida this evening. the spacex rocket and capsule, will be the first to take off from american soil since 2011. two nasa astronauts will be onboard the mission to the international space station. here‘s our science correspondent rebecca morelle. getting ready for launch. a commercial spacecraft facing its ultimate test carrying astronauts into space. nasa‘s bob behnken and doug hurley will be at the controls. they‘ve been training for this moment for years. at any time you have the first flight of a brand new vehicle, it‘s exciting. it‘s a bit more risky, which is why we‘re using people like bob and doug, who are very experienced test pilots, they can handle anything that maybe happens that we didn‘t expect. but it‘s what test pilots live for, you know, the chance to be the first one to fly a new, shiny vehicle is a test pilot‘s dream. lift off, we have a lift off. the united states has a long history of space flight. from the apollo missions, which took astronauts to the moon, to the space shuttle programme, which ferried men and women to low earth orbit and back. the shuttle has cleared the tower. but its last flight touched down nearly a decade ago. since then, nasa‘s astronauts have had to buy seats on russian rockets instead. this new spacecraft will restore america‘s ability for human space flight. the fact it‘s owned by spacex, a commercial company, also marks a big change for the us space agency. nasa has said, basically, we ll give you the money and you give us the space flight and that releases nasa to use its resources to do other things. and that s where we can start really thinking big. and instead of spending allthe time, effort, resources on something we ve done now for many years, going into low earth orbit, doing experiments, let s look bigger, let s go further and the ultimate destination has to be mars. last year, a crash test dummy took a test ride in the spacex capsule. now, though, it‘s time for the real thing. a new era in space flight is set to begin. rebecca morelle, bbc news. we‘re delighted to be joined by helen sharman, the first british astronaut to go into orbit, who spent six days on the mir space station in 1991. and i‘mjoined by tim peake, the first british astronaut to visit the international space station. thrilled to be able to talk to you, thank you forjoining us. tim, how much of a game changer de think this is? this is huge, it is notjust the element of the commercial launch, which is obviously for america returning lunches to the usa, but europeans will fly in this vehicle as well. my classmate is next in line to fly and that could be this one or the other commercial vehicle. so this is a game changer. how different is it going to look? the spacecraft itself is going back to the capsule, rather than the larger shuttle, so we are going back to a capsule style vehicle. what is unique about it is, glass cockpit, lots of new technology, a booster will come back and land on a ship out in the atlantic in the capital itself can be reused and that is what is driving down the cost of access to space. helen, you mentioned that once nasa resources can be released from other things, thatis can be released from other things, that is when it is to get exciting and you mentioned the prospect of going to mars, what are your thoughts on where things will go from here? i think it is notjust the cost, but also the access to space for everybody. so this space driver can seat seven people. nasa is likely to bite four seats so people around the world will fly because their space agencies are painted it but that does release probably other receipts that will be positioned underneath the four that the other astronauts will fly in, saw three extra seats. they will buy those three extra seats? it could be a space agency, it could be a research institute, it could be tourists, so i think the whole access to space issue changes as well, so that also increases this game changer idea. well, so that also increases this game changer ideal well, so that also increases this game changer idea. i love the story of how you ended up going to space which is, you heard something on the radio, you applied to be put in the mix for somebody who would get to go into space. 13,000 applied and you we re into space. 13,000 applied and you were whittled down to one of two and you did it and were whittled down to one of two and you did itand it is were whittled down to one of two and you did it and it is amazing. were whittled down to one of two and you did itand it is amazing. in terms of just anybody you did itand it is amazing. in terms ofjust anybody being able to get on the slides and go up, what are the rigours of training and preparing for that process of going to space? well, unfortunately this still uses quite a hefty lunch and in particular, this will have a splashdown so it is the re entry thatis splashdown so it is the re entry that is going to be interesting prospect. we have not done a splashdown since apollo time and in particular, rescuing people from the water. what will be interesting is, how do we do that with astronauts who may have spent many months in space and how they will feel on the splash down like that rather than land on dry land? it is actually less risky rescuing people from dry land. tim and i both were rescued from dry land. in the sea, that is a different thing. people will public have to be moderately healthy. in the end, like flying in airlines, it is going to become more commonplace as long as nothing else wrong. you don t have to be hugely physically fit to fly into space, i don t think. i don t know what you think about that, tim? i completely agree, i think we are opening up space lighting more and more people. they will have to be an element of medical selection but i think you will find, as helen says, this will become more and more normal in next ten to 15 years. you both will obviously hold a special place because you are in a very small elite at the moment. what do you think about that commercialisation and opening up, tim?|j think about that commercialisation and opening up, tim? i think it is very exciting. international space station has been brilliant over the last 20 years in being our human outpost in space and be done and up a lot of valuable science and we have learned a lot about new technology as well, but we do want to go further, we want to go back to the moon and as helen said, we ultimately want to get to mars and in order to do we need the health might help from commercial companies to provide things like launch vehicles, supply craft. so, this is a great era of space flight we are about to embark on. in terms of what these missions achieve at each stage, what would you see as your legacy? obviously, the first british astronaut in space. in terms of what that mission delivered, do you have something you would point to?|j think my specific mission was exactly what you said, putting the first person from britain and getting bitten on the map of international human space flight. i did some experiments. i cannot really claim specific science was done because of my space flight but i think it is all part of this international collaboration and trying out new ways to cooperate with different countries. tim flew as part of the european space agency and of course, it is those agencies that need notjust the resources but also the money to pay other people like the russian space agency to fly a possibly nasa or crew dragon. it isjust this whole a possibly nasa or crew dragon. it is just this whole opening up a possibly nasa or crew dragon. it isjust this whole opening up now. it isa isjust this whole opening up now. it is a completely new way of thinking about human space flight and if we can get this nice and reliable, what next? really, we can win it now started think very big. tim, how would you see your legacy? it is cooperation with the international space station partnership that has been so successful and will continue to do so. what is exciting is that same partnership that is looking to go back to the men to build a gateway to go and do lunar surface operations so the uk being part of that partnership and continuing to do so, the european space agency is not part of the eu so our membership is not affected by brexit. this is very much our space agency and we are part of this future exploration and that is very exciting and i think people in the uk should be excited about it. is a dog and bob continuing to launch hopefully later today, how will they be feeling? what is it like, that moment when you are about to be propelled into space? they are going to be feeling more excitement than anything else. of course there is some apprehension and anxiety, especially with a new test vehicle, but they are professional test pilots. they will have a her thirst might rehearse this many times and frankly, they will be willing and delighted to get a mission into space and so they will be excited about the mission to come. helen, does it take you back? you were in your 20s when you went 7 you were in your 20s when you went up? i think every ulster not members lunch. it is the beginning of that next phase. as tim says, we have trained for so long to do this but it is the launch bear actually, there is nothing new to do. you know what you need today, he had trained for it, you trust all the teams that are working and have worked so hard to make that mission a success and now isjust the to make that mission a success and now is just the day that they got to get on and do it, so good luck to them. indeed, it is a privilege to talk to you both, thank you. police officers in the us city of minneapolis have fired tear gas at demonstrators protesting the death of an unarmed black man in police custody. shortly after george floyd died on monday a video emerged showing a white policeman kneeling on his neck forfive minutes despite the man complaining that he couldn‘t breathe. protestors filled the city‘s streets on tuesday evening hours after it was that four police officers had been sacked. a warning, this report starts with images of the man being detained. a disturbing scene caught on camera by witnesses incensed over the police‘s actions. bro? the ten minute video shows george floyd pleading with officers who have him restrained on the ground. one of them using his knee to pin the man down by his neck. clearly in distress, he tells the white officer he can‘t breathe and is in pain. the crowd tries to help, and grows increasingly concerned and frustrated. when george floyd appears motionless, bystanders question why he isn‘t being given urgent medical attention. seven minutes into the video, an ambulance arrives. he‘s put on a stretcher, still handcuffed, and taken to hospital. at a press conference, the minneapolis police department offered their version of events. they said they were responding to a crime and that the man appeared to be under the influence. he physically resisted officers. officers were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and officers noticed that the male was going into medical distress. officers called for an ambulance. he was transported to hennepin county medical center, where he died a short time later. mayorjacob frey said that four of the officers involved have now been fired, after initially being put on paid leave. the fbi is also investigating the incident. being black in america should not be a death sentence. for five minutes, we watched as a white officer pressed his knee into the neck of a black man. for five minutes. when you hear someone calling for help, you are supposed to help. this officer failed in the most basic human sense. the viral video quickly sparked outrage. yesterday, what we saw was a black man who was lynched. right? they didn t use rope, he used his knee. and that black man, mr floyd, said, i cannot breathe. minnesota prides itself on being progressive and being the north. but this is the jim crow north, and we demand justice. police officer: put your hands behind your back! george floyd: i can t breathe! for many, this is a case of history repeating itself. millions protested in 201a after eric garner, an unarmed black man in new york, died after being restrained by police. his repeated plea of i can‘t breathe , also captured in cellphone footage, became a rallying cry at demonstrations against police brutality against african america ns. there are sometimes investigations, but many feel there is rarely any accountability. nada tawfik, bbc news. the headlines on bbc news. plans to impose localised lockdowns in england will be unveiled later today the government will explain how its test, track and trace strategy will deal with regional outbreaks of covid 19. the prime minister, borisjohnson, will be questioned by senior mps later amid continued calls for his top adviser dominic cummings to resign. riot police in hong kong fire pepper pellets to break up protests over a law that would criminalise insulting china‘s national anthem. the charity which runs the uk‘s national domestic abuse helpline has had a ten fold increase in visits to its website in the past two weeks. refuge said numbers have spiked again significantly since it started recording rises during lockdown. but figures revealed to the bbc request show that more uk police forces recorded a fall in calls about domestic violence at the start of lockdown, than recorded a rise. why the disparity? abby newbery reports. for some, lockdown has meant feeling trapped in an abusive situation at home. itjust got me down more and more. i thought i can‘t go on like this. this is one woman‘s experience, recreated and voiced by actors, to protect her identity. he got more and more aggressive, saying he‘d like me to go now. he got a stick and he came back with it and he stood there with the stick in his hand and he said, i want you out now or i‘m going to hurt you and you know i can kill you, waving this stick at me. and he really, really did frighten me. this woman has now escaped her situation. but that‘s not the case for many. the bbc asked all a5 of the uk‘s police forces how many domestic abuse calls they‘d had. a1 responded. more than half had fewer calls at the start of lockdown than at the same time last year. but that‘s not the case for refuge, a domestic abuse charity that has seen 66% more calls and almost 1,000% increase to its website in lockdown. as director of communications, lisa king explains. for some, lockdown has meant feeling trapped refuge is concerned to see such demand on its services and what we really want all women to know is that they are not alone. that domestic abuse is a crime and that refuge is here to support them every hour of every day. it shows that domestic abuse is perhaps a bigger issue than we have even anticipated in this country. but why is there not a similar recorded increase in police calls? there needs to be an understanding of what domestic abuse is. claire walker is a domestic abuse consultant and she thinks more training is needed to spot the signs. 100% of victims will experience coercive control. not so much what he does, it s about what he. ..disables her from being able to do. their systems and their policies and practices need to change. i am tired of police officers not understanding what coercive control is. the country‘s leading domestic abuse police officer, louisa rolfe, says that all front line officers across the uk receive training to spot the signs of coercive or controlling behaviour. she adds they are working with domestic abuse charities to understand the nature of their demand. women appear to being doing most of the housework and childcare during lockdown. research from the institute for fiscal studies suggests that in homes where there is a working mother and father, women are doing more of thejobs and spending more time with the children. and mums were only able to do one hour of uninterrupted work, for every three hours done by dads. amidst the chaos and confusion left in coronavirus‘s wake has been a wave of bad information, spread online sometimes even by world leaders. a bbc team tracking online conspiracy theories have linked some of them to racist attacks, arsons, and even deaths around the world. and now senior doctors in the uk including the royal college of gps are warning that the potential for them to cause harm could be much, much bigger. the bbc‘s specialist disinformation reporter marianna spring joins us. give us some of the examples you have been looking at. as you said, but information has spread everywhere during this pandemic and it has spread across the world causing harm to people in a variety of different countries. we have seen poisonings in nigeria, iran, the us and vietnam and some of those poisonings have been elected to this drug and rumours about it that have been circulating online. it was promoted by donald trump as a way to prevent coronavirus but in a misleading way that encourages people to use it at home without consulting a doctor outside drug trials which the world health organization have been opposed. there are other information is about harm, there have been racist attacks in india against muslims and members on whatsapp, and here in the uk, there have been sown mass being set alight as a consequence of misleading claims suggesting 5g is linked to coronavirus and telecom negations workers have been assaulted. but it is not a case of these direct cases, there are also more indirect instances of misinformation causing harm and those can be just as dangerous. i spoke to brian who lives in florida and he believed conspiracies such as sg and he believed conspiracies such as 5g being linked to coronavirus what that coronavirus was a hoax orjust like the flu and as a consequence, he and his wife didn‘t follow social distancing guidance and didn‘t seek help when he has been ill. he has beeniuin help when he has been ill. he has been ill in hospital and his wife is incredibly unwell on a ventilator and he deeply regrets believing these claims because they led him to not seek the help he needed. there is direct harm caused by dodgy cures and treatments, people using disinfectant to treat themselves and then as other kind of harm that is a consequence of medical myths, underlining health messages. what are doctors on the front line saying about all of this? doctors are worried about people like brian, although his case is very similar across the world, they have been seeing instances of patients either not seeking help because they are trying to diagnose themselves using dodgy tests and various other things. i spoke to the chair of the royal of gps who explained to me his response it is to deal with this. we, as health professionals, have a responsibility to raise awareness of the risks around this. government of course has responsibility, particularly through its information sources that it provides. possibly, you know, most importantly, the social media companies themselves have a responsibility to police the content that goes up on theirwebsite. what are government and social media companies doing about this? what are government and social media companies doing about this7m what are government and social media companies doing about this? it has been a big problem and today i am sure lots of people heard how twitter have sacked checked for the first time one of president trump‘s tweets. but to do with coronavirus but postal voting, but a step in the right direction. however, those claims about the drug, they have not been fact checked and i think has been fact checked and i think has been a real issue social media companies in distinguishing harm and misinformation that poses an immediate threat or harm as opposed to the kind of misinformation we are talking about that could undermine public health messages. as we look towards a possible vaccine and there has been an increase in support that is what doctors want social medias to tackle because if this affects a solution to this pandemic, it could be incredible difficult to resolve. that fact check thing on president trump‘s tweet, very high profile, is that going to be the start of a whole new wave of that happening on twitter and other social media cosmic we will see, there has been a relu cta nce cosmic we will see, there has been a reluctance to tackle misinformation thatis reluctance to tackle misinformation that is spread by the president. other world leaders have had misinformation taken down on platforms like facebook. trump has not on this the first instance we have seen this happening. the problem is, donald trump came back amid italy and said, this is a question of freedom of speech and you are trying to suppress what i say. that‘s one of the big issues and trying to tackle this information because there is a fine line between tackling that misinformation, sending people in the right direction, which is what twitter prides today, but to make sure people are allowed to express their opinion freely and that is the conundrum of a social media companies. this is a drone flight with a difference. i think anything that im proves difference. i think anything that improves island medical health has to be tried. it is extra resilience for our island as well. because of covid 19, we were looking at ferry sailings, trying to cut down the risk of infection even if it saves one life, it will be a big confidence to the island. the heavily regular process has been accelerated by coronavirus but the drone and its carrying abilities could be the latest chill in fighting the virus. i think particularly when moving into the phase where we are looking at testing and isolation, the speed of getting a test kit out to somewhere more remote or getting that result back, will allow us to make those decisions and support the communities in protecting them and keeping them safe and well in their community and supporting the health service so that we can cope with peak in demand. the health board says other crossings like this could be made to island surgeries and hospitals and is no suggestion the west coast weather will cause any issues. within a couple of years we hope to have multiple drones over multiple routes serving out and lots of different purposes. when you get to that stage, the economics start to that stage, the economics start to get better for the nhs and how we use it because you can fly packages out, samples back, any goods that need to go over, then italy becomes a very efficient form of transportation. another test flight has successfully made its way back here. the hope is that if this technology could be proved, we may see drones like this more widespread across the country. now it‘s time for a look at the weather. hello, again. if you‘re looking for rain, there really isn‘t much in the forecast for the next few days. and that that we do have isn‘t going to be particularly heavy where it falls. most of us are going to remain dry, sunny and warm and for some by the weekend very warm. what we have today is high pressure still in charge of our weather, it has been with us this week and it will see us through this week as well. but across the north of the country, we have a couple of fronts which are introducing thicker cloud and also some rain. as we go through the afternoon, there will be a lot of dry weather, a lot of sunshine, some low cloud just lapping on shore across parts of eastern england. and the front‘s coming in from the west producing some rain but it‘s not going to be heavy at this stage. we might see the odd drop across northern ireland and western scotland. temperatures ranging from 12 in the north to 25 in the south. now, if we pick up this rain through the evening and overnight as it crosses northernmost scotland, it will turn that bit heavier. move away from there, we are looking at a lot of dry weather, some clear skies, with some of this low cloud lapping a bit further inland. as a result of all of this, it‘s not going to be a cold night for most of the uk. so tomorrow, we say goodbye to that rain. you could even see a few spots across south east scotland and north east england before it eventually moves away. and once again it‘s going to be a dry day, variable amounts of cloud and a fair bit of sunshine. temperatures responding, 22 in edinburgh, 25 in liverpool, 26 in cardiff. by the time we get to friday, we still are looking at a lot of dry weather, the high pressure through thursday and into friday drifts in towards scandinavia. we start to pull in some breezier conditions, but also some warmer air from the near continent. so a largely dry day for us all during the course of friday, a lot of sunshine, a little bit of fair weather cloud here and there. not really that much of a breeze on friday, but temperatures, well, they are going to get up into the low to mid 20s quite widely and 27 in cardiff is likely to be the highest temperature and with high pressure in charge it is effectively keeping these weather fronts at bay. we don‘t think they are going to make any progress. if they do, then we are likely to see the odd spot of rain in northern ireland, possibly in western scotland but they are more likely to stay in the atlantic. on saturday, a breezier day, a dry day with a lot of sunshine and highs up to 26.
this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. plans to impose localised lockdowns in england will be unveiled later today. the government will explain how its test, track and trace strategy will deal with regional outbreaks of covid 19. if there is a flare up in one particular community, and that could be on quite a small scale, like a particular workplace or school, then measures can be introduced, which hopefully the public will get behind, enable us to control the virus in that locality. the prime minister, borisjohnson, will be questioned by senior mps later amid continued calls for his top adviser dominic cummings to resign. elsewhere, riot police in hong kong fire pepper pellets to break up protests over a law that would criminalise insulting china‘s national anthem. president trump accuses twitter of stifling free speech after one of his tweets about postal voting was given a fact check label. and nasa astronauts prepare to launch into space from the us for the first time in nearly a decade. we countdown to the launch. hello and welcome if you‘re watching in the uk or around the world, stay with us for the latest news and analysis from here and across the globe. future coronavirus outbreaks in england could be controlled by introducing ‘local lockdowns‘ according to the government. the health secretary matt hancock said some restrictions, including the temporary closure of shops and schools, could be reintroduced in specific areas if there is a spike in the number of cases. there are already arrangements similar to ‘local lockdowns‘ in countries like france and germany. also today, the uk prime minister borisjohnson will be questioned by senior mps about the government‘s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. he will also be asked about his chief adviser dominic cummings‘ controversial trip to the north of england during lockdown. south korea, which avoided a nationwide lockdown, has seen its biggest spike in new coronavirus cases in two months, just as many schools are reopening. the head of the pan american health organisation has warned that latin america has become the centre of the global pandemic. and, back in the uk, research suggests women are more likely than men to have lost theirjobs since the start of the lockdown. they‘re also more likely to be doing most of the housework and childcare. more on that later, but first this report from andy moore. a testing, tracking and tracing system is regarded as vital if the virus is to be kept in check while lockdown restrictions are eased. the fear is that, without it, there could be a second wave of infections. transmission rates are generally coming down across the country, but there are big regional variations. in somerset, the hospital in western super mare has been temporarily closed due to a high number of coronavirus cases. there‘s said to be an emerging picture of large numbers of staff testing positive, though they‘re showing no symptoms. the hospital says it hopes to reopen its a&e department and accept new patients as soon as possible. if there‘s a high level of infection in a particular area, the government has indicated that local schools, businesses or workplaces could be closed down. at the daily downing street press conference, matt hancock said the nhs test and trace programme would be incredibly important. it will give us the information to have local lockdowns and focus on areas where there may be flare ups, and it is very important that people follow those rules and they should do it don‘t not do it for, um, the government, people need to do this for themselves, for their loved ones, for their communities. it‘s incredibly important and it will stop those local flare ups from happening. a similar system will be launched in scotland tomorrow. it‘s called test and protect. anyone with symptoms will be urged to get a swab. if it comes back positive, 700 trackers will be ready to trace any contacts, with that number rising to 2,000 in due course. andy moore, bbc news. let‘s talk to our assistant political editor, norman smith. the government wanting to talk about what happens going forward, but obviously the question still come in, the pressure still there over dominic cummings. each pressure still over dominic cummings, around a0 or so tory mps from different wings of the party all demanding he walk the plank. the hope of team johnson seems to be that we‘ll get fed up with this and we move on. the medium of song, tory mps move on and attention shifts to some of those coronavirus issues trundling down the track towards us at high speed. top of which is this test, track and trace scheme, due to be unveiled on monday. what we learn now is that as pa rt monday. what we learn now is that as part of that, the government is looking at it very, very localised lockdown for where there is any upsurge in the fine is because once restrictions are eased, it seems pretty likely that the virus will begin to pick up again. what ministers are looking at is targeting individual schools, hospitals, workplaces, parts of towns, rather than much larger geographical areas all larger communities, in otherwise trying to identify the virus very quickly, lockdown those individual offices and say to people in them you have to self isolate for a0 days. have a listen to the communities secretary, robertjenrick. the trade off here is that for a relatively small number of people abiding by the rules, being inconvenienced in some cases, staying at home and self isolating, the rest of society gets to enjoy far more freedom than we all do today because of the great restrictions we are living under. so the potential is huge to help us get back to all the things we care about in life. what it means is that for many of us, yes, the restrictions will gradually fall away, but in those little tight communities where there is this sudden uptake, they face going back to square one pretty much when it comes to restrictions. they will face lockdown is of up to 1a days self isolation. a couple of other things we learnt this morning from robertjenrick, there is not going to be a review of fines, which matt hancock seem to mix yesterday. mrjenrick said if people are in a similar situation to dominic cummings and they cannot get adequate childcare, it is ok for them to try and travel to secure that childcare. this is what he said about that. if there are no other options, if you don t have ready access to childcare, then you can do as dominic cummings chose to do. even if you re in a household with symptoms of coronavirus? but the guidelines say that she must do your best, but they appreciate that family life poses particular challenges and in order to protect children, you are able to exercise a degree of personaljudgement and i think that is a reasonable way forwards. this afternoon, we make it a bit more detail about all of that when the prime minister will be facing the prime minister will be facing the liaison committee made up of some of parliament‘s may senior mps who are to quiz him for 90 minutes about coronavirus, including 20 minutes over the dominic cummings saga. these and arc when someone in the public eye is under pressure to go is normally that it does not matter how long it takes, the pressure will build on a belt and eventually the inevitable happened, they will jump they are pushed eventually the inevitable happened, they willjump they are pushed and we forget about it. does it feel differently this time? it is certainly different to what has happened in previous incidents. if you look at, i suppose the most comparable example is alistair campbell, who tony blair did a banner, even though he were central to his administration. a rough rule of thumb if you are a8 hours and the headlines, then you begin to wobble and in all likelihood you go. dominic cummings has been in the headline since friday and are still very much there. i think the simple truth is, borisjohnson has nailed him to his badge and said, you are not going anywhere, even if he had volunteered to quit, which he has not. because it seems mrjohnson ta kes not. because it seems mrjohnson takes the view that he is absolutely critical to his government, notjust in terms of delivering brexit policy but a broader agenda and i suspect in terms of managing coronavirus. he absolutely believes he cannot do without dominic cummings. norman, thank you. riot police in hong kong have fired pepper pellets at demonstrators as mps gather to debate a bill that would criminalise insulting china‘s national anthem. more than 200 people have been arrested by riot police as demonstrators gather in the central commercial district and in shopping areas. this was the scene in hong kong‘s commercial district a little earlier when police attempted to disperse demonstrators. pro democracy activists have also voiced their opposition to separate legislation which would impose a sweeping national security law on the semi autonomous territory. our correspondent martin yip in hong kong explained the background to the controversy surrounding the chinese national anthem. it‘s pretty much about people thinking that this whole piece of law would bar them from expressing their discontent with governors in some ways, such as making parodies of the national anthem orjust booing at the national anthem. because back in 2017 when beijing made the national anthem law, and put it into what we call annex iii of the basic law of hong kong, which then forced hong kong to make this local legislation, was at a time when there was a series of incidents that hong kong football fans booed at the chinese national anthem at international games. because hong kong, under the one country, two systems rule, hong kong can send its own teams into games like world cup, things like that. but you have to play the chinese national anthem. and beijing treat this kind of behaviour, not just as unpatriotic, but almost as like a betrayal of the country. but to the hong kongers it is one of the many ways they can do legally, at least until this moment, to express discontent to chinese rule. the number of coronavirus deaths in scotla nd the number of coronavirus deaths in scotland has just been released, the number of coronavirus deaths in scotland hasjust been released, the latest number, there is some good news, the number has fallen for the fourth week in a row. last week, children 30 people confirmed or suspected to have the virus died, that compares to 3a5 the week the fourth. hundred and 25 people died in care homes last week and that is just over half of the total of 5a%. in all, 3779 people have died with confirmed or suspected coronavirus in scotland since the pandemic began. as coronavirus restrictions ease in some areas across the globe schools have begun to resume face to face classes. but what should classroom look like now? and how are different nations dealing with the challenges of teaching during a pandemic? in china schools began gradually reopening earlier this month, including in wuhan where the outbreak started. students lined up to give swab samples and have their temperature checked. in france masks are required for students aged 11 years or older, but it‘s not yet compulsory for parents to send their child back. schools in sweden have remained open. they have relied on social distancing and hygiene measures to reduce the spread of infection instead. and south korea just as over two million school children return to school. but strict measures have been put in place. as laura bicker has been finding out more. well, this is pe class, as you can probably tell behind me. 2.5 million students are going back. this is part of a phased return. so a series of students go back every week. but teachers are on edge because there are clusters of infection popping up across the country. this is all related to an outbreak in nightclubs in seoul‘s party district a couple of weeks ago. health officials have traced 86,000 people. and tested them for the virus. but still these little pockets of infection keep cropping up. and that is why every single student must wear a mask. at the gates they are having their temperature checked. that‘s the first temperature check of the day. there are many temperature checks throughout the day. each of the classes have dividers in them to keep students apart. daily, teachers are telling their students to keep that social distance, but it is extremely difficult. as you can imagine, this is the first time that they‘ve seen each other in months. this is the start of the school term which was supposed to happen in march so they are very, very excited. i saw one studentjump up and down desperate to hug herfriend but she was told no, no, no, no by a teacher. but still they are allowing students to go back to school. some schools have decided to say no today but this one has. as you can see they are enjoying their pe class, they don‘t speak much english but they have one word which they can say which is hello! there you go, hello from them. laura bicker and a lot of schoolchildren. meanwhile, headteachers in england have told the bbc that preparing schools to welcome more children back from next week, has been the toughest challenge of their careers. staff rotas, school systems and physical changes to classrooms, have all been considered to ensure pupils can return safely under social distancing guidelines. john maguire reports. ok, theo, can you tuck your chair and come and stand on the white line? well done. the children returning to school here at the whiteoak academies in north somerset next week, everything will be different. each and every aspect of school life has been reassessed. we have a 109 point check list to go through to make sure everything is risk assessed to be safe. we have a as page risk assessment that has also gone through a whole checking process, including staff, governors and trustees. but behind that, we have the practicalities of the day to day. so, we have timetables for break time, for lunch time, for outdoor space. we have timetables for different classrooms and different bubbles within those classes. the school has stayed open for key workers or vulnerable children. social distancing rules mean their desk partners are their siblings. there‘s a new theme each week. the latest is japan. they applaud on a normal day, there would be a50 pupils here, and after half term, around 150 will return. class sizes are different. the requirements for children s mixing for interaction is different. the hygiene requirements are a far higher level than we ve ever seen before. but also the risk assessment process behind that, ensuring that our site is as safe as it possibly can be for everyone in our community, is vital. making the physical changes has been very challenging but staff are also preparing to support children emotionally. the decision to reintroduce more pupils hasn‘t been an easy one. not for parents or for staff. for me, being in the classroom is where i belong. i want to be with the children, i don‘t want to be sat at home on my laptop doing things for them. i want to have that interaction and to be there for them, as their journey continues with their learning. a school is so much more than just a classroom. it‘s part of a community. in the office, fiona hague has been on hand to reassure anxious families. parents are still very worried, so it s pointing them in the direction of all the guidance that s coming out. we re ensuring we re getting as much information out to parents as we can via the website, school app, e mails. and making sure they re as up to date as they can be and know as much as we know. when the school gates next open, the canteen‘s shutters will remain closed. mixed feelings. i‘m fine with it. i think i‘m fine with it. we‘ve been. me and sue have been on our own for a while now, so it‘s fine. it‘s a nice big kitchen to social distance in, so, we are lucky, really. we‘re going to do a sandwich selection for them and they‘re going to be eating in their classroom, so we‘ll prepare it here and it will be going over in boxes into their little bubbles in their classrooms. over the past two weeks, primary schools have had to reinvent the wheel. and as these corridors fill in the coming days, there‘ll be much more to learn. so notjust for children, but for parents, teachers, and support staff, every day will be a school day. john maguire, bbc news, nailsea in north somerset. mcdonald‘s has announced that every restau ra nt mcdonald‘s has announced that every restaurant in the uk and ireland with a drive through option will be open between tuesday and thursday next week. they plan to expand the availability of its delivery service. they say they‘ve been working on implementing procedures to ensure safe working in pilot restau ra nts a nd to ensure safe working in pilot restaurants and some dry through lines had to be closed where it impacted on the safety of customers, or the local community. donald trump has accused twitter of interfering in the 2020 us election after the site labelled two of the president‘s posts as potentially misleading. mr trump had claimed that the use of postal votes would lead to widespread voter fraud. twitter responded by directing readers to a page with news articles and information from fact checkers debunking the claim. let‘s speak to dr paul reilly, a senior lecturer in social media and digital society at sheffield university. thank you forjoining us. what do you think of this intervention on twitter, why now? i think it is a good question, i think on the back at the coronavirus, that information academic, there has been a push for twitter and facebook to please content that could be harmful. i think that is part of that but interestingly will this be something that they will continue to do 3d out the campaign. what are the rules around it. there is previous stuff that president trump is put out previously that could have wanted a response by twitter and it has not happened. what can they do? one of the things that they introduced in march around the pandemic was this labelling system and i think that is the first time we have seen this used in an election context and a context of political leader making false statements about something thatis false statements about something that is not public health related. the labels system is interesting, i think also thinking about what to extent they will retrospectively fa ct extent they will retrospectively fact check what he says. i think thatis fact check what he says. i think that is proper not going to happen. it will be interesting to see whether his claims over coronavirus key is in march, will they get the same labelling? i am not so sure they will. do they have the resources to actually apply this, not just to president trump, but to everybody on twitter? i think that is a great question. one of the things that is difficult here is that certainly twitter have said they are using machine learning, automated techniques because they could not employ enough people to fact check every statement made by a politician or a member of public, it is very hard for them to do that because they publish and then filter. they rely on us to report information that may be misleading or harmful. it is very difficult to do given the amount of information out there. president trump has hit back, saying this is an infringement of free speech. showing how he is going to handle this, he is not going to take this lying down. i think! can this, he is not going to take this lying down. i think i can this makes to trump‘s base, and i think trump will benefit from this, he will say that without the social media companies are against him. a perhaps benefits him to say that twitter are 20 clamp down on what he sees as free speech, even if it is not about freedom of speech at all. thank you forjoining us, paul riley. let‘s go live to holyrood and listen in to first minister‘s questions with the first minister nicola sturgeon. an increase of a7 yesterday, the number of confirmed cases has decreased by 23. last night, 38 people were in intensive care with confirmed or suspected covid 19, an increase of three since yesterday. yesterday‘s figure of 36 has been revised to 35. i never ate in the 2a hour is, 13 deaths have been registered as patients who have been confirmed as having the virus, taking the total number of deaths to scotla nd taking the total number of deaths to scotland to 230a. national records of scotla nd scotland to 230a. national records of scotland has just published its more detailed weekly report, unlike the daily figures, its figures do not just include the daily figures, its figures do notjust include a a confirmed diagnosis, every person cases where no formal test was carried out but when the virus was depicted on the death certificate. at that point, three days ago, according to our daily figures, 2273 deaths have been wretched with people who had tested positive for the virus, today‘s report says by sunday, the total numbers of registered deaths related to covid 19 confirm tampers with 3779. 230 of those deaths were registered in the seven days up to sunday, that isa in the seven days up to sunday, that is a decrease of 105 from the week before and indeed this is the fourth week ina before and indeed this is the fourth week in a row in which deaths have fallen. deaths in care homes made up 5a% of all deaths linked to the virus last week, that is down from 56% in the previous week and the number of covid 19 deaths in care homes also reduced again from 186 loss to one to four in the most recent week. that figure remains too high. two 12a. the number of access gas for the same time of year five year average decreased from 1572158. i think it remains she that these statistical trends will never consult people who have lost loved ones to this file is in my thoughts and sympathies are with each and every one of them. these trends have been suspended for overfour these trends have been suspended for over four weeks they definitely give us grounds for encouragement. the weekly number of verse five deaths have fallen by more than 60% at its peak, excess does have reduced by more than three quarters and deaths in care homes are also falling. tomorrow we will take a formal decision on whether to begin cautiously to emerge from lockdown, and the early steps are likely to focus on outdoor activities and we will provide full information of what individuals and businesses should and should not be doing. i stress that if restrictions are relaxed later this week, it will be essential to follow guidance, stay two metres apart from people from other households and self isolate if you have symptoms. at the moment the message in scotland remains the same, stay at home, except for essential purposes. when you leave the house, stay two metres apart and do not meet up with those from other households. please use a face covering in a shop on public transport and remember to wash your hands thoroughly and regularly. let me remind people if you or someone in your household has covid 19 symptoms, you must stay at home and isolate completely. what we have all done so far has made a difference and today‘s figures show that, everyone has played a part in slowing the spread of the virus, protecting the nhs and saving lives. i want to and by thanking everyone across scotland are doing that but to stress as we start to emerge from lockdown, that cooperation will become more important than others. we will now move to questions. we will now move to questions. we now know that more than 900 patients were discharged from hospital to care homes are much before compulsory testing was announced on april 21, far more than become the previously suggested. does the vestments are now know the number of patients who were discharged from hospital to care homes without being tested? did the government do everything it could to protect care home staff and residents. we have published the figures for fa bry we have published the figures for fabry and march. the figure for april will be published on the 2nd ofjune in a few days‘ time. on the issues about care home, to think suggested about care homes, both of them very serious and legitimate. one is that we should not have discharge order. you are watching bbc news, he is nicola sturgeon. people will look at those things and ask why that was done. i invite people to look at the situation at the time. old people, delayed discharges of course, do not need to be in hospital, even in normal times it is not in the interest to be there. at the time we are talking about, we were waiting for a tsunami of coronavirus cases to enter our hospitals and remember the scenes we we re hospitals and remember the scenes we were seeing from italy at that time, it would have been unthinkable to leave older people that in the face of that, that would have put a huge risk and many i am sure would have died in the circumstances. i think i will be getting asked different questions right now. secondly on testing, at that time the advice was people who did not have symptoms we re people who did not have symptoms were not likely to spread the virus and they testing people without symptoms was unavailable and indeed that latter point is still a concern to some extent. if we apply what we know now to that situation then, of course we may ta ke situation then, of course we may take different decisions. but when we face these decisions, we have to act on the basis of the information we had and based on the information, yes, we did everything possible to protect older people, risk assessments of people leaving hospital and the guidance to care homes about isolation. but on this, as on everything, we continue to attach our response is the knowledge we have continued to develop. the numbers we are talking about here are so considerable that we do sometimes forget we are talking about individuals. let me mention just one. this week we were contacted just one. this week we were co nta cted by just one. this week we were contacted by a lady in glasgow called sandra o‘neill, her mother marie sadly died from covid 19 on april eight at the care home in drumchapel. she has nothing to say but good things during the front line staff who looked after her mother. she has a series of questions about how her mother caught the disease. she said and much, as in other care homes, there are examples of people who were in hospital he will return home despite clearly being ill. she said those are the home that home that believe that at least one case, residents have symptoms can deliver consistent with covid 19 when returned. we know the first mentor has confirmed elderly people we re mentor has confirmed elderly people were taken out of hospitals and put back into hospitals without being tested, but can you confirm that people who were ill anderson displaying symptoms of the disease we re displaying symptoms of the disease were removed from hospital and taken back to care homes? i never forget that when we save these statistics, we are talking about real people and real individuals, it is something i take at the time and always will do to remember each day when i read out the grim statistics that i required to read up, behind each and every one of these statistics is a human being who is being grieved by their loved ones. on the issue at hand, it is not possible for me to comment on individual cases when i do not know the full circumstances. anybody who has lost a loved one to this file is, understandably will have questions in the fullness of time i think we want to try and answer all of these questions as far as we possibly can. i would point to the guidance that was issued at the time, which made clear that clinical risk assessments should be done of patients who were being discharged from hospital. nobody who had symptoms of coronavirus and certainly nobody within the clinical assessment with they should continue to be in hospital wedderburn discharge in this way. these are risk assessments required to be done by clinicians and professionals but the guidance in place was clear and should have been followed as all guidance, whether due hospitals or to ca re guidance, whether due hospitals or to care homes, should be followed very carefully. jackson. i thank the first minister for that. it is not clear whether people with symptoms may well have been discharged into the hospital, even though was a clinical assessment made. if they had symptoms discharge into the care homes. sandra‘s view is that unwell elderly people should not have been sent back to care homes. we have had read press reports that five residents have died in this particular car home, even though mrs o‘neill said she believes it is now more than that. there was little or no attempt to isolate residents who would then return from hospital. as she maintains, she says the front line care staff at the home did everything they could for her mother, they were not to blame for what happened. there is a growing feeling that residents like sandra‘s mother were treated like second class citizens. can the fed might givea second class citizens. can the fed might give a clear commitment that the situation at the care home will be examined in full and other residents in my family who remain worried about their own relatives will be better treated ? in the karen specter has a duty to make sure concerns around any care home public considered and standards are. on the two specific issues that he raises, i think i was clear, the guidance in place is very clear. the patient should have been clinically risk assessed so patients with symptoms should not have been discharged to care homes. clearly i did not see every patient, i cannot stand here and give a categorical assurance that no patient with symptoms was discharged. it would be wrong of me to do that but the guidance in place was very, very clear. with isolation, the guidance that was issued to care homes in march made clear that there should not be communal dining, communal activities that people coming to ca re activities that people coming to care homes should be isolated in a way that has been hard for others but particularly hard for older people living in care homes. while all parts of the system have to work together and are working together, the primary responsibility is for ca re the primary responsibility is for care home providers to make sure that guidance is being followed and i would continue to expect that that is the case. it is not the case, this is the issue i do take exception to, we have learned about this virus all along, we have had to adapt our approaches but at no point older people treated like second class citizens, at no point was anything other than the greatest ca re was anything other than the greatest care and attention and thought given to the decisions that were being taken in the guidance being put in place and that will continue to be the case every single step of the way. with or without hindsight, it is now clear that what happened in our care homes in march and april was a national scandal. on monday the first minister said undoubtedly there would be an inquiry into all aspects of this pandemic and i think thatis aspects of this pandemic and i think that is right and proper. care homes will be part of that review. the scale of what had happened and what we know to have been so far 17a9 deaths in the tragic stories of people like sandra and her mother underlined the need notjust for a review but for a public inquiry into what has happened in our care homes specifically. when the first minister agreed to confirm that she will in due course instructor that formal public inquiry into the care home sector. of course there will be a public inquiry into this hill crisis and every aspect of that crisis and that will undoubtedly include what happened in care homes. decisions we re happened in care homes. decisions were taken for the best of reasons based on the best evidence. they we re based on the best evidence. they were similar decisions taken in scotland, wales and star as i am aware, in northern ireland. the decisions were committed very clearly to this parliament by the health secretary. this is not something that was done without proper transparency and notification in the normal way. we will look back on all of this and learn a lot. few people want to make sure we all learn appropriate lessons than i do but throughout this crisis i had taken the best decisions i can every step of the weight based on the best information and evidence i had at the time. all of these decisions have been tough, some have been really tough but i have not shied away from taking them, nor will i ever shy away from being candid about mistakes or instances where had i known then what i know now, i may have come to different conclusions but that is what leadership means, you have to make the tough calls you cannot hide away with your head down, hoping it will all go away, and i hope jackson carlo and others will reflect on that. applause. back on the 5th of march, i asked the first minister about the challenge of delayed discharge in light of covid 19. we now know the government rushed to discharge almost 1,000 vulnerable patients from hospital in the month of march alone. and we have now seen the devastating consequences in a scotla nd devastating consequences in a scotland boss mike care homes. the first minister told me at the time there would be, and i could, and intensive focus on ensuring that we can discharge people appropriately. but right up until the 22nd of april, scottish government guidance on the discharge of patients from hospital into care home stated that, andi hospital into care home stated that, and i could, individuals being discharged from hospital do not routinely need confirmation of a negative covid 19 test. just yesterday, a nurse working at a care home in lanarkshire told me, we had several residents that came from hospital, none of them knew they we re hospital, none of them knew they were going to a nursing home, so when they arrived, we contacted their next of kin, who didn‘t know they were going to a nursing home either. it was all one big mess. does the first minister accept now that her intention of discharging people appropriately was not met, and can she explain why she allowed it to remain in place for so long? we have adapted our approach as the evidence and information that we have had has developed. the previous guidance around tests, yes, we now had different advice around testing presymptomatic people but at that time, there were two things that we re time, there were two things that were different. firstly, there was a view that it was not likely that people without symptoms which spread the virus and secondly, there was a concern about the lack of reliability of testing people without symptoms. that latter point still exists to some extent so we have developed our approach to testing and other things as the evidence and the advice has changed. i cannot, and richard leonard says he was talking about discharge in early march, the fact he was not raising those specific questions then, that he is now, shows that we cannot apply hindsight and change what we knew at the time. we can only operate on the basis of what we knew and operate with absolutely the best of intentions. i would challenge richard leonard when he says we rushed to discharge patients from hospital. i need to points to him that i have made before. firstly, in normal times, him that i have made before. firstly, in normaltimes, remember, richard leonard and others are usually standing up here criticising the scottish government for not reducing delayed discharge because these are older people that have no medical need to be in hospital and being in hospital is not an interest. secondly, yes, i regret more than richard leonard might ever be able to know, every single person who has lost their life in a care home as a result of this virus but again this is where the hindsight point comes in. had we not tried to get older people out of hospital, they would have potentially exposed to the virus in hospitals and many of them would have died. in those circumstances, richard leonard would undoubtedly be standing here saying to me, but the benefit of hindsight, why didn‘t we try to get older people out of hospital? the point i am making is that there are no easy choices when you face these decisions. what you have to do is make the decisions based on the best evidence and information you have. that is what we did, putting in place the guidance i have spoken about and we have continued to adapt our approach as our knowledge is developed and that is what we will continue today every single step of the way. we will continue to be, as we have been all along, open and transparent with this parliament about the decisions we are taking on the reasons why we are taking them. well, i have said, and we have said repeatedly, you should listen to the world health organization which said, test, test, test. it has been saying that since march so sadly, the result is the consequences we see in our residential care homes. the crisis in our care homes may be linked to the release of those hospital patients who have not been screened but this crisis has not stopped there. every day the government data shows that there are more new covid 19 infections in even more new covid 19 infections in even more care homes. it now stands at over 5,500. that is as many as one in six residents, with over 60% of all care homes in scotland reporting at least one case. so let us be absolutely clear, this crisis is not yet under control. last week, the scottish government announced regular testing for care home staff, but the royal nursing is warning today that scotland is lagging behind. so, can i, once again, as the first minister, help many care home staff and residents have now been tested, and when will all those staff finally have access to regular testing? testing of care home staff will be an ongoing process because it is not enough to do it once, we have to do it regularly and we will publish data as we have published data on testing as we go along. and we are certain that that data is robust and able to be published. i would caution against making comparisons between scotland‘s testing and figures that are being published uk wide, is not for me to go into detail about those statistics but i am certain in the validity and robustness of the data that is being published in scotland and of course, this is not political in any way, shape orform. this is not political in any way, shape or form. i this is not political in any way, shape orform. i took this is not political in any way, shape or form. i took about these issues regularly with richard leonard‘s colleague, the first minister of wales, where we are all grappling with these issues and basing our decisions on the best evidence that is available. on the issue of the current situation in ca re issue of the current situation in care homes, i would never describe this crisis generally or specifically in relation to care homes as being under control. we have a long way to go abut in point of fa ct, have a long way to go abut in point of fact, both in terms of the number of fact, both in terms of the number of care homes with an active case, the percentage of care homes with an active case and new cases being reported everyday, as well as the number of deaths, we are seeing all of these decline so in today‘s figures which will be published at tpm, the increase in committed cases in care homes increased by 60 which is much lower than what we have seen previously. we will continue for as long as this virus is a threat, to ta ke long as this virus is a threat, to take the right decisions based on the evidence and the knowledge that we have got. these are all horrendously difficult decisions because all of us understand and i absolutely understand the consequences of all of these decisions which is why they have to be taken with such care, thought and attention. as far as i‘m concerned, the absolutely always will be, with com plete the absolutely always will be, with complete focus on doing the right thing as best we can at every stage. the situation is urgent, so it is not a matter of whether it is politics or not, it is the urgency of it, and as we start to see an easing of the lockdown, the human right and the dignity of care home residents must be paramount. there isa residents must be paramount. there is a basic duty of care which government has too its most vulnerable citizens, so those residents will need continued protection. that means widespread and regular testing of staff. that means adequate ppe, and it means true transparency. we know that flawed government guidance led to the discharge of untested patients into ca re the discharge of untested patients into care homes. we know that flawed government guidance meant that care home residents were not transferred into hospitals when they were ill. we cannot make the same mistakes again. this time, the guidance must be right. so, when the first minister today commit to an urgent review of her government‘s approach to ca re review of her government‘s approach to care homes so that lessons can be learned and action can be taken quickly as we begin to ease the lockdown? asi lockdown? as i said previously, not only do i expect, i absolutely want there to bea expect, i absolutely want there to be a review, an inquiry into every aspect of this crisis, that is vitally important for accountability but also for learning lessons for the future. that will undoubtedly include the situation was in care homes. if richard leonard will forgive me, right now, my focus is on continuing to do everything we need today for the remainder of this crisis. we are not through this crisis. we are not through this crisis yet, we are not even through this phase of the crisis yet and therefore my responsibility as first minister and the responsibility of eve ryo ne minister and the responsibility of everyone of my ministers is to make sure we focus on the decisions that still need to be taken, learning the lessons and applying the knowledge that we have at the time. richard leonard because the guidance of lord, what he has doing, and he is entitled to do this, but it is reasonable for me to point out that what he is doing is taking knowledge we have now that we did not have at the time and applying that retrospectively. i wish i had the benefit when i took these decisions of the foresight that changing circumstances so i could apply it then but we had to take decisions based on what we knew then. richard says these things are urgent and trust me, whatever else you want to criticise, i don‘t think you have to tell me about the urgency of this. literally every waking moment of mine and the health secretary and the cool government right now, there are plenty of waking moments right now, they are spent on trying to do the best thing to do with this crisis and that will continue to be the case for as long as we are facing it. from tomorrow, test and protectable finally be ruled out, though idp regret contact tracing was abandoned in the first place. going into isolation for two weeks, particularly when there are no symptoms is necessary but it is a big ask. this week‘s news has been dominated by the failure of a wealthy and powerful individual to self isolate, but imagine the difficulties faced by those who are not privileged. for the self employed, isolation may be unaffordable, for those who share their homes with families or others, isolation may be impossible. for the sole carer of a loved one, isolation may be heartbreaking, so can the first minister outline what support will be made available to those who need to isolate, for example, will accommodation like hotel rooms be offered free to those who need thank you. the short answer is yes, we issued guidance yesterday to employers around expectations to employers. we are in discussions with the uk government around changes that may be needed to benefit statutory sick pay to make sure people do not lose income of and we also should guidance to individuals about what they could do to prepare in advance for potential periods of isolation but also on the support that will be available to them. that support will be provided largely easing the kind of infrastructure we have put in place to give support to those in the shielded grip and that could be support accessing third and medicine if there are no family members that are able to do that, or it could be supported with alternative accommodation. it is absolutely the case that we will require to make sure anybody who has been asked to enter a period of isolation for 1a days gets the support they need to dh. cani days gets the support they need to dh. can i make an important point here, i feel this will be lost as a major and protect, which is busy very important. my biggest fear is we all feel we can stop doing the other things we have been doing because testing and protecting is a system there that will keep us safe from this virus regardless of what we do. if you do not want to face a period of self isolation, the best way to minimise that risk is not to be in close contact with somebody outside your own household so if you ta ke outside your own household so if you take care not to be within two metres of somebody outside your household, then you are minimising your risk of ever being in the position of getting that phone call from a contact racer and being advised to self isolate. if all of us continue to follow that advice to stay two metres apart, then collectively, we keep this virus suppressed so test and protect is very important but fundamentally, how we stop this virus is spreading is down to us and our behaviour and reducing the number of pages we give it tojump reducing the number of pages we give it to jump over reducing the number of pages we give it tojump overand reducing the number of pages we give it to jump over and that means physical distance and continues to be many important and as we start to ease some of the lockdown measures, becomes more important than ever. i think the first minister for that response. test and protect will have an impact on front line staff and theirfamilies. a an impact on front line staff and their families. a report an impact on front line staff and theirfamilies. a report yesterday linked 2a members of medical staff the western general hospital contracting the virus but the admission ofjust one patient. we need to do more to suppress the spread of the virus in hospitals to protect patients, staff and the families. it has been over a month since i started calling for regular, routine testing for nhs workers on the front line but we have had a little movement, even though two of our capacity remains unused muscle can the first minister tell us whether regular testing and hospitals will be introduced alongside test and protect? that is something we continue to ta ke that is something we continue to take clinical advice on and we will make decisions on that in due course. on the issue of hospital transmission, there is a huge amount of work, not just transmission, there is a huge amount of work, notjust in scotland but across the uk and globally, to better understand that. when somebody tests positive was confirmed as having the virus in a hospital, it cannot automatically be assumed that they got it in the hospital because of the often lengthy and commissioned. we established an advisory group some weeks ago to identify additional interventions to reduce in hospital transmission, health protection scotla nd transmission, health protection scotland is working with uk cou nterpa rts scotland is working with uk counterparts on these issues as well. testing will undoubtedly be a pa rt well. testing will undoubtedly be a part of that but there is a whole range of things around infection prevention and control including courting of patience where appropriate but also it continues to be important as well. we need to speak with one voice. what dominic cummings did was wrong. the prime minister was wrong to defend him. they are treating people like mugs. this is wrong and we should condemn it, everyone should condemn it. can i ask the first minister about the legal tourist industry. the precautionary approach will mean a longer lockdown for the sector. the industry is anxious that this could up h its summer season and that many businesses will colla pse and that many businesses will collapse without additional support. this will result in thousands of jobs lost. the uk government has extended the furlough scheme stop will this scottish government extend its grant scheme as well to avoid that business collapse? firstly ca n that business collapse? firstly can i say on dominic cummings, i have made my views clear. i think it was wrong, the prime minister is wrong to defend it because it has involved a retrospective rewriting of the reels which undermines confidence in the rules and guidance that remain so important. i don‘t want to be standing here talking about that, my job is to make sure that i get a message across to scottish people that the what we are asking you todayis that the what we are asking you today is important, notjust because you are being told to do it, it is important for your own protection for you and your loved ones and that is the one voice that we all must speak with in the weeks to come. on the tourist sector, he is right. all of the sectors and there is not a sector that has not been hit by this virus but there are some that have been hit harder than others and tourism is one that has been hit ha rd est tourism is one that has been hit hardest and potentially have the longest lasting impact. these are issues that the scottish government issues that the scottish government is actively considering both in terms of grant support and what happens to that in future and we will take decisions on that engine course but we are also looking carefully at the ways in which the tourist industry may be able tourism activities and a safe way. fergus ewing has been needing work there andi ewing has been needing work there and i chaira ewing has been needing work there and i chair a sub committee every week looking at the economic issues and this is one we are due to look at in detail shortly, so these are issues absolutely at the top of our minds and we will take careful decisions trying to make sure that at all stages, as much support as possible is in place for businesses that have been affected. i think that is right because of the support mechanisms, the financial support mechanisms, the financial support mechanisms, the financial support mechanisms need to match the lockdown as well. many working in the tourism sector in the summer months but if it does not reopen, stu d e nts months but if it does not reopen, students will be without an income. normally support is only provided in term time basis so students are leading campaign to extend grant payments over the summer months. the campaign has the support of sensible msps from across the parliament, so we‘ll the first minister get behind it, too, and provide financial support for students of the summer? we will look very carefully at that as we are looking very carefully at all suggestions that are made about how we mitigate the impact of this on businesses and individuals. i hope he will appreciate that i will not stand here and get categoric assurances on things while you‘re still going through the process of consideration because there are many suggestions being made and i would love to be able to agree to all of them but we have to make careful decisions bearing in mind that there isa limit decisions bearing in mind that there is a limit on the financial resources that we are able to bring to bear but we will do as much we possibly can. i recognise in a whole range of ways that students will be affected by this, given the nature of some of the industries, that will have the longest lasting impact but i don‘t want to lose sight of the five that we want to try to get businesses and all sectors operational to a greater or lesser extent as soon as possible. it got to be done safely and that is a big focus of the work that fiona heslop is leading overall right now but we do want to see as much economic activity risen as quickly as possible, consistent with continuing to suppress the virus because if we ta ke to suppress the virus because if we take our eye off that, then the damage to the economy will be even deeper and longer lasting and what it is currently estimated to be. has the scottish government had discussions with the treasury about project burch cosmic we are in discussion with the uk government about a whole range of matters right now as members would expect. i welcome the indication that they are prepared to provide support for large companies and failure would harm the uk economy. today the scottish government has not been involved in specific discussions with the treasury regarding that particular initiative although we will seek to be over the days to come and we would expect the uk government to share more details of this project with us particularly where the businesses they are looking at as possible recipients for this kind of support i critical to the scottish economy. there is an scotland can continue watching first ministers questions on bbc scotland and on bbc parliament. the bbc news at one is next but first a look at first the weather. the sunshine has been beating down. this was the weather watcher picture taken earlier on. not a cloud in the sky. some areas have been seeing some cloudy, here in cambridgeshire we had some cloud, limiting the timber to rise for a while but that has been offending and breaking. we have high pressure still in charge of our weather. this weather front is approaching into the north west and that will probably steer to the north of northern ireland but will bring more cloud this evening and overnight into scotland and some rainfora overnight into scotland and some rain for a while across the northern half of the country. we will see semester and low cloud coming into eastern parts of england but the earlier fog has now eastern parts of england but the earlierfog has now appeared eastern parts of england but the earlier fog has now appeared away from the south west and it should be clear here overnight. for most places, it really will be a mild one again. as we head into tomorrow, what is left of the rain, this time in the north east of scotland, by early morning will move away into the north sea. the cloud will then and we will get sunshine developing more widely. while some time to come for northern ireland and across england and wales once that low cloud england and wales once that low clou d m oves england and wales once that low cloud moves away. more other breeze properly and it‘s an easterly breeze septemberjust properly and it‘s an easterly breeze september just won‘t be properly and it‘s an easterly breeze septemberjust won‘t be as high in the south east of england. that warmth is getting pushed further towards the west. any low cloud again across eastern england on friday will not last long and it is sunshine petty much all the way. appraisal continue to pick up and turning more to a southerly as you head northwards towards the uk so it will push the heat further north. probably warmer in glasgow than in london. over the weekend, still high pressure in charge. these weather fronts will be patchy and we will draw ourair in fronts will be patchy and we will draw our air in from continental europe. temperatures aren‘t appointed to change a huge amount, looking at highs of the mid 20s but they will be a lot of sunshine this weekend and strong sunshine. maybe a bit of cloud at times in scotland and northern ireland but hopefully not a great deal. temperatures into the mid 20s. highs of 26 or 27 in the mid 20s. highs of 26 or 27 in the sunshine. and no rain, it has been a joy month for most of the country and it could be a possible record breaking may, especially in 02:58:53,765 > 4294966103:13:29,430 the south east.
over the next few nights, the nairobi audiences are in for a treat. people are freaking out, joel. they thought that this our main and developing story this was the best show ever. but that s only cause they weren t hour is the fifth night of protests here for last night. yeah, and they don t know when it s not good or not. in cities right across america. we can only pray. romeo &juliet, balcony scene. after the death of george floyd. he died after being held on the back of the neck to the ground by a police officer in minneapolis. that sparked protests in that city and they have now spread to dozens and dozens of cities right across the country. cu rfews have been cities right across the country. curfews have been in place in scores of cities and some people have it was amazing to watch, honestly. obeyed those cu rfews of cities and some people have obeyed those curfews and left the streets after protesting peacefully just spectacular. this afternoon. but others have from the last time i saw him dance to now, his skill remained on the streets and there level has improved. it s just fascinating to watch. are tonight clashes between i thought it was amazing. protesters and police forces across i enjoyed every second. america. and it was such a pleasure to look at. here, private tenants are more likely to be in financial difficulty the first night of the performance, than home owners because of opening night, my mum was there, the pandemic, according my sister was there. to a new study. and i didn t know that she was going the report by the think tank the resolution foundation says many to come onstage and give me flowers renters have seen afterwards the performance, their incomes fall. which was pretty cool, because i had never gotten the government insists it s taken action to support tenants, including banning evictions a chance like that. for three months, as our business correspondent katy austin explains. so it was lovely for herjust to be on stage with me and give me flowers paying the rent has become too much at the end of the performance in nairobi at the kenyan national for denny while her hair salon is shut. theatre and it was pretty cool. her landlord has agreed to postpone two months‘ rent, to be paid back in future. i enjoyed it. at the moment, we owe april and may, and thenjune is due back in london just a week later, the 1st ofjune. the harsh reality of exams, assessments, and auditions i feel sick, actually. is beginning to hit home. because at the moment, now, that s obviously one of our biggest outgoings, the rent. today i m doing a class with alexander whitley citizens advice estimates 2.6 at the wayne mcgregor studios, million tenants expect to fall because i m graduating behind on rent because of in three months time. coronavirus, and the resolution foundation think tank says one in five private renters have been basically the students furloughed or lost their job. are auditioning for certain it says they are struggling companies, ballet companies, with payments more than homeowners. going into the crisis, they had lower levels of savings, contemporary companies. for example and, critically, they also spent considerably more of their income on housing costs in the first place. government has brought in measures considering this is the first time he s done class with us, to try and help struggling tenants. i think a lot of it isjust in march, evictions were banned for three months, but a committee being familiar enough with the kind of mps has warned a crisis of exercises to be able is looming in the private rental to learn them and do them sector. quickly, you know. one, two, three, back. he s got the willingness and the aptitude to try and take risks and explore new things. when we re out there citizens advice says further just doing our thing, measures will be needed you re happy, you re when the eviction ban smiling, so i think no, i know that it s ends in late june. going to be amazing. whether he decides to do what we want the government to do ballet or contemporary, one things for sure, is make sure that there joel s dancing career will take off is protection for people who have once this lockdown is over. fallen into arrears due but, for now, as with most of us, to coronavirus, and then also joel and his friends in kenya to accept and make sure the landlords have to put spend their time online taking in place things like classes and looking forward affordable repayment plans. to the day they can take landlords say they are working out solutions with tenants wherever possible. to the stage again. the ministry responsible for housing said support for renters joel, would you like to be our first guest teacher next week? and landlords is being kept under review. katy austin, bbc news. um, sure, yes, please. actually, no, i ve changed my mind,because they ve had you recently for romeo and juliet. now on bbc news, before the coronavirus lockdown, professional dancerjoel kioko all the boys. returned to his home city, ten push ups. nairobi, meeting dance students face your camera down. emerging from a thriving classical ballet scene in kenya. you ready? ready? laughter. and one and two. oh, i miss this. i used to do this! four, five, six. seven, eight. one month since the coronavirus nine. lockdown started, 19 year old joel kioko completes daily ballet classes at his home in london, with instructions coming in from his teacher via zoom. come on! demi detourne. derriere. stretch out a little bit. ten! oh, no. switch davant fondu. you only get ten. you re only getting ten. second. all right. let go of the bar. that s fine. that s about nine. front reverse the port de bras. back in february, joel was taking his final classes hello there. at the english national ballet saturday brought more school and preparing for a major dry, sunny, and warm challenge the leading weather across the whole of the united kingdom. role in romeo and juliet now, it was a fine end to the day in london at the kenyan national theatre. and west london did quite well for temperatures. with classical ballet, heathrow got up to 26 degrees. you re always learning something. but for the most part on saturday, the highest temperatures were across that s how i see it the north and the west i don t know how other of the uk with kinloch here in the highlands people see it of scotland, the nation s and especially for me, hotspot with highs of 27. because i started late, we re going to see similar kind i have so much to learn. joel has come a long way since his upbringing in the kuwinda of temperatures for these slums, where his incredible talent was spotted. he s the first student western areas as we get from an emerging classical ballet on into sunday as well. now over the next few hours, scene in nairobi to train most of us are going to keep professionally in london. the clear skies but probably some low cloud and some sometimes, when i am fog begin to push onto the eastern shores of scotland in class, i am like and although temperatures i have never seen that in the towns and cities between around 8 13 degrees, in the countryside the coldest spots get down to about 3 before but i have to play degrees so it will be quite chilly for some of you to with it because later on, i ll go start sunday morning. sunday, well, that low cloud into the studios and i ll play and fog can take the first with a certain movement that i ve few hours of seen that i ve never seen before, the morning to clear away from east scotland. and i ll practice and i ll do until it will be perfect. but i think i m comfortable to go out there and start dancing. maybe a bit of misting this i just want everyone to just get a job and dance. as well in north east england. to reach this stage in the competitive ballet world has been hard work, and the dancers will take up places in international but otherwise, a sunny start to companies when the current the day and a sunny afternoon. isolation ends. now, the highest temperatures companies when the current in scotland probably again to the north west isolation period ends. of the country, the highlands doing ok with highs probably so our third years will be taking reaching around 25 26 degrees celsius here. auditions for companies outside, you might see another 23 or 2a for westernmost areas of northern ireland. so they would have finished, and some of the highest temperatures in england they would have got across western areas and wales too. they would get their diploma you could see highs locally hitting around 27. injuly, after a school performance. now for monday s forecast, they are already auditioning the high pressure is still for all sorts of different companies in charge of our weather, all over the world so, so we ve got more of that dry weather to come. you know, to find a job. more of the sunshine as well. temperatures still on the high side for the time of year, that s everybody. looking at highs of 2a in glasgow, 26 or so head of year and joel s tutor mr yow in cardiff, but from then on we re going to start to see has guided them throughout. the weather changing somewhat because an area of low pressure is going to start to develop ok, so last time we got to see to the north of the uk you doing nutcracker. and move in as we head this afternoon, the class towards tuesday and wednesday. so, that is going to be bringing some cloudy skies rehearsed pas de deux. with rain or showers pushing southwards and as well as that, the area is going to piano plays. be getting cooler. so temperatures will be coming back down close to normal for the time of year and normal isn t something we ve seen for quite a long time. so, scotland is going to be cooling down as you can see, there will be some rain and showers around as well as we go through tuesday and wednesday. perhaps some of the heaviest rain actually working through during tuesday night. it is quite scary for the students further southwards to go out there in the big world across england and wales, still hanging onto some warm sunshine on tuesday after being in a school for three but the change comes really on wednesday with thicker cloud. years with the same friends. again, rain or showers working in. that s your latest weather. but once you re out there, you have to look after yourself. so we actually, as a school, try to prepare them for that. joel is one of our students. he is very professional. after hours of technical classes, later in the day the students get to practise their own choreography. third year innis‘s piece is based on swan lake. five, six, seven, eight! you can choose any music and then you get four dancers or more, if you want. i have three. i don t have a name for it yet but i ve chosen indian music. it is based on contemporary and kathak. you need that. i need that passe. oh, wait, shouldn t we do this? we did a passe! yeah, yeah, we did it. this is the beginning. yeah. as well as the movements, joel is working out the soundtrack with his classmate ludmila. it s one of their last projects together before they leave college. it s a bit sad, because we ve known each other for a long time good morning. and knowing that from next year, welcome to breakfast with ben thompson and sally nugent. we re not going to have each other our headlines today: to come to talk to, so it s curfews across america as a fifth going to be very sad. night of protests spread to more than 30 cities. as this chapter of their lives, the bonds formed police cars are set on fire during their halcyon days at college will stay with the students long riot officers respond with tear gas. after they have left. we are very close. demonstrators converge on the white house in washington. the unrest follows the death of an african american man in the hands of the police. we i think we ve grown more into, like, very good friends. when i first metjoel, after ten weeks at home, more than two million people it was so interesting to hear in england who ve been stories of, you know, shielding during lockdown, where he d came from. are told they can go outdoors it is really quite amazing and inspiring how far he has come and how lovely he is as a person and a dancer. we share a passion. i think i ve gotten closer with most of my school classmates. everyone has started getting close but in the beginning, because it was new competition, no one really wanted to talk to anyone else, it s really lonely. sometimes you get homesick, i am not going to lie. sometimes, when i ve been walking around london and i see a picture of my mum on facebook while i m on facebook, and i am like, oh, yeah, i miss my mum . for three years, joel has been living with a london family, so he has four new surrogate sisters. but now, joel will soon be reunited with his family as he has been offered a unique opportunity to return to nairobi to play romeo, with the dancer who first discovered him playing juliet. it is going to be boiling all day long doing ballet. it s going to be emotional because we share so much and, especially with romeo and juliet, it s like it s all about love. i know something good is going to be created. soon, joel will once again meet the dancers who discovered him as a boy. touchdown. so we re going to one of the studios, which is in hardy. that s where we re going. we re going to rehearsal because we only have a week to put this on. romeo and juliet is being staged under the directorship of american ballet dancer cooper rust, who founded dance centre kenya. dance is taking over nairobi and even spreading beyond. the employment opportunities in the city that has 40% unemployment and now all of a sudden, there s dance teachers and it is an opportunity for people to make a living through dance and i am just as excited about training future dance teachers and having more of these little studios around nairobi and around kenya as i am about training dancers that are leaving kenya and going abroad, likejoel. annabel shaw, playing juliet, from the northern and manchester city ballet is on hand to greet him. romeo and juliet is my favourite ballet. i think the score, prokofiev s music, isjust to die for. i think it s gorgeous. when cooper told me kind of, yeah, only five weeks ago, oh, you re going to do romeo and juliet. you re going to be juliet. joel is coming but he is not arriving until a week before the show, i was kind of like oh, 0k! the cast have already been rehearsing for three weeks asjoel arrives, with the opening nightjust seven days away. for now, i want you to get your tights and your dance pointe on. i don t have to put my tights, no? uh, yeah, we have rehearsal until seven. go ahead, next section. everybody go with your partners. michelle, you work with pamela, but michelle can help you discuss a lot. joel is thrown straight in at the deep end as the company begin rehearsals for the ball scene, where romeo falls forjuliet. i learned a lot of the choreography beforehand because at least, if one of you knows it, you ve got at least something to fall back on. but what s really nice is that, because we do know each other so well, a lot of the figuring out has kind of already been done over the years, so a lot of the kind of partnership and predicting where the other is going to be and how we re going to fit together, we ve kind of already done all of that, so that definitely makes it easier, as well. do it again. back up and set her back down. i would recommend not trying this the first time with a skirt on. 0k. joel and annabel have just six more days to learn a one hour and 50 minute ballet. let go of your dancers around. things do not always go quite to plan, even for experienced dancers like joel. so let s hear this musically, this whole section. step, up, up. dance. music playing. by the end of the first day, joel has already learnt the first pas de deux. i do not even think about it. i see it s just a dance that s it. as long as i keep on repeating it, that s why we have rehearsals, it will be there. the movements, i have seen them, and i think that is why i remember them. i have seen them before, you know the names, you know the terminology and i guess that is why it is easier to remember. through artists for africa, a charity set up by cooper, more children from the slums are hoping for a career in dance. cooper fosters eight of them, including 12 year old michelle and 13 year old lavender, who regularly travel to rehearsals after visits to their families in kibera. i m from kibera slums, which is one of biggest slums in kenya, and i love it there because i was born there and i m from there. and that is why i started dancing. you, like, have to do everything correctly, like, arms and put your legs where they are supposed to be but then africa is like, you are just free, you can do anything. for now, i want to be a professional dancer when i grow up, because i love it so much. keep them it s very hard. withjoel as their role model, the young people cooper has fostered from the slums, and others like them, believe a career in dance and an escape from poverty is possible. joel s friend silas is the first certified male ballet teacher in kenya. it is a growth for me. i see it as a growth of talent and growth of art in our country, not only here at dck, but as a country. it shows that there is a bright future ahead. dance teachers going out into schools around nairobi through artists for africa are inspiring the next generation of children from the slums. 1,2 -i, 2. sometimes the kids come from slums, they have a lot in their heads so when they dance they free up their minds. the kids can choose what they want after a dance. maybe others want to be an engineer, maybe others want to take dance as a career. so it is up to us to show them the way. today the cast are learning the scene where tybalt kills romeo s friend mercutio and, in turn, romeo exacts his revenge and is banished from verona. five, six, seven, eight. one, two, three, four, down, up, down up. learning the fights is hard, not to mention the acting. you want him and them to be friends now after 20 years of hating each other. so don t grab it. na uh uh! it s even the fingers in the. don t. i m serious. details matter. it s not fingers in front as if you re grabbing it. it s fingers in back as if you re saying hey, excuse me . it s a very different gesture. as well as the fight scenes, joel must learn the harlot‘s dance with benvolio and mercutio. romeo &juliet - morning dance. when they re not in the main rehearsals, joel and annabel practice in a side studio. it has gotten on ok. tiring. but i m getting there. almost done with, like, with the first act almost finished. by the end of the third day, joel almost has the ballet done. this is absolutely insane. him learning all of romeo and juliet in three days. we ve got about six minutes left here. an hour and 56 minutes or something like that. he just has a few minutes left to learn. and it ll be done this evening. with the castjust needing to fine tune their routines, joel is absolutely exhausted. getting the show onto the stage at the kenyan national theatre seems a long way off. finally, there s a break in rehearsals for romeo and juliet, so annabel is taking joel to visit his mother. it s going to be nice. have dinner. hang out with my mum. because i haven t done that in a while. mum! many of the families here were forced to relocate after a massive fire, including angela. angela has seen her son transformed since the days he started dancing. he told me he was going to dance and then he was dancing, everyday dancing. at first i wasn t taking it seriously. i didn t know that dancing was done for, maybe, for a career. joel regularly returns to kibera, where he used to give ballet classes to the children at the angel kindergarten. me teaching the kids was always fun, stressful sometimes, because i didn t know how they would react to it. you see them smiling, you see them happy. they are talking, they are dancing. i was very eager to learn in the beginning when i started doing ballet. it was through an outreach programme like this thatjoel first met annabel. we were both really young. i was maybe 14 and joel was 13 or 12. but i sort of spotted joel. he was always coming in, he was always on time, and he had this beautiful elevation and his long legs when hejumped. annabel decided to invite cooper rust in to seejoel dance. and immediately i sanoel. so i started home schooling him so he could both learn to read and learn to dance. asjoel‘s skills increased, cooper secured an audition for him at the english national ballet school. she has pretty much changed a lot of lives. she s a mum to a lot of people. she s my best friend. whilejoel trained, he spent most of the time with his ballet friends at cooper s. these are home grown zucchinis? yes. cooper s really amazing that she does all of that. i don t think i ve met anyone else who can do such brilliance that she does. it really brings us together. emotionally we talk about everything. and we just really understand each other. so let s get everything cleaned up tonight and teeth brushed and ready for bed and we ll make some plans. cool? after dinner, cooper has some last minute notes forjoel. in the death pas de deux. more emotion. a lot more emotion. by putting your own worst nightmares into it. when you re acting it out you have to take it all the way. when you re in the moment it s ok and annabel won t mind. it ll help her. i think sometimes you re like what comes next, what comes next, what comes next it s natural. but you have to think what comes next, what comes next, what comes next. laughter. after a late night there s just time to grab some breakfast. it feels surreal, because, first of all, i would never have imagined performing romeo and juliet here. it s something that never crossed my mind even as a role that i would ever get to perform. so i m just thankful. i don t know. it s crazy. it is crazy. while the theatre technicians get across the lighting and stage cues, the company have a chance to get used to this space, including a renowned actor john sibi okumu playing lord montague. it is a wonderful story and i wanted to be on the same stage asjoel. because what he has achieved is phenomenal. to get where he is, and annabel, these are home grown superstars. at the kenyan national theatre, the public arrive for the opening gala. the show must go on. applause. places for act one! 00:22:04,332 > 2147483051:47:46,881 romeo &juliet, 2147483051:47:46,881 > 4294966103:13:29,430 dance of the knights.
this is bbc news. the headlines. the family of george floyd, the black man who was killed while being restrained by police in the us city of minneapolis last week, are joining tens of thousands of people on a march in his hometown, houston. the us democratic presidential candidatejoe biden said black communities were being victimised, and their cries of anger were being ignored. he accused president trump of fanning the flames of hatred. here in the uk, a report confirms that black, asian, and minority ethnic people are more likely to die of coronavirus than their white counterparts. the health secretary matt hancock said it was still unclear why this was the case but that the government would get to the bottom of it. clashes have broken out in paris between riot police and protesters demonstrating over the death of a black man in police custody four years ago. now on bbc news, it s hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i m stephen sackur. the coronavirus pandemic has hit europe hard, but now that most eu member states have curbed the rate of infection and begun to ease their lockdowns, does the eu have a coherent recovery strategy? well, my guest today is mario centeno, finance minister of portugal and head of the eurogroup of ministers. has this pandemic exposed the eu s greatest weakness, economic divergence? mario centeno in lisbon, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. thank you, stephen, thank you for having me. we saw deep divisions within the european union at the beginning of the covid 19 pandemic. have those divisions been healed? well, if you look back, you may see that these divisions have played a role in all the debate. but at the end of the day, we were able to act fast in a very flexible way. and for me, as president of the eurogroup, which is very important in a very pragmatic way, we had a few goals to achieve, to react quickly in a sizeable way and in a way that prevents further fragmentation of the european union and especially in the eurozone. but, minister, if i may, you didn t really react quickly, did you? we saw the chinese government offer medical assistance to italy long before other member states of the european union. and we saw some of the members, like the dutch, for example, criticising southern european countries for the weakness of their public finances rather than focusing on offering help. your own prime minister described that as repugnant and small minded . now, people don t forget these things, minister. they do not forget, indeed. but the fact is, in the economic front, we took ten days in eurogroup to approve the three backstops representing 540 billion euros of support for sovereigns, for firms and for workers. the ecb also took only a few days to raise to the occasion and come forward with a new package of help for banks and for the economic fabric of the european union and the eurozone. but what we saw and maybe what we still see in the european union is that politicians across the member states first and foremost think of the self interest, the national interest of their own countries. and at a time of crisis like that, it means the european union finds it very difficult to function collectively. well, as president of the eurogroup, i cannot deny that i would prefer domestic policy to be a little bit. ..on the back of our arguments when we are taking decisions for the european union as a whole, or the eurozone, which is the same for that matter. but in fact, the several trillion euros in measures that were taken at the national and at european level speak probably louder than a few altercations that we may have seen in this process. i know you re dying to talk to me about the, as you put it, the more than trillion euro package that the european commission wants to put together and push through as a recovery and rescue package for europe, and we will talk about it, i promise you. but before we get there, i just want to focus a bit more on the fact that different nation states, member states of the eu, are pursuing different policies. right now, we see it in terms of the easing of the lockdown, where if you visit different countries, from austria to germany to france to sweden, all of them are operating their own particular form of post total lockdown strategy. in the case of sweden, they never even had a lockdown. they re also operating in different ways in terms of their opening up of borders to each other. now, you re a european union, but this doesn t sound unified at all. we are in the middle of a very severe and unique sanitary crisis. this is a matter for many people of life or death, and the personal sentiments are very sensitive at this moment. compare us with the us you have the same sort of debate across us states. you have the house of representatives making proposals to the senate then the senate rejecting them. the debate in the uk parliament is not much easier than that. and even across regions in the uk, you see the same sort of scenes. people become very, very sensitive when we talk about issues like life and death. i m afraid that we have also to take that into consideration. fair point. fair point, and i understand that. but, as you know much better than me, freedom of movement, for example, is one of the key pillars of the european union. because this time it was not only about the economic and monetary union, it was about the single market, it was about precisely the free movement of people, of workers across europe. people at this time in different countries and governments, they need to understand that it was very much the basics of our economies that were at stake and, of course, all of our societies, as well. the single market is a pillar for european integration as much as the euro, and both things this time were injeopardy. but explain this to me. i mean, you re the finance minister of portugal. your economy is deeply dependent on summer tourism, so your government has sent the message that tourists are welcome from all over and, we are opening up. other european countries aren t sending the same message. we have some internal disputes where, for example, the danes and the finns are telling swedes that they re not welcome as tourists because sweden has a high rate of infection. we have britain, which admittedly is not any more in the european union but a very close neighbour, saying that all visitors will be quarantined for two weeks, if they arrive. so it looks like a european mess, and it is an important part of your economy, this notion of tourism and travel within the european union. how are you going to sort it out? this is a sanitary crisis, and people are very much afraid of their health. and we have to overcome this and we need to make this with a great deal of confidence and safety. i think most of those measures are measures that governments will take at the beginning of the de confinement period, in the exit strategy of the lockdown, in order to understand better how the society and pandemic reacts to this slow movement of openness. and i expect governments to lift these restrictions as soon as we are confident enough with them. but let me ask you bluntly, minister, if i may, do you accept that you in portugal have put economic priority above public health priority when you ve opened up your country to travellers from overseas because you are so desperate to save your tourism industry? that s an economic decision which could raise serious risk in terms of public health. it is true, but take the uk, take the uk example, and then i can give you also the same sort of examples for portugal. scotland and northern ireland, if i understand correctly, are not going as fast as other parts of the country, right, in terms of exiting the lockdown? the same thing is true for portugal. the area around lisbon is a little bit backwards compared with other parts of the country. ican, for example, tell you that algarve, which is where most of the people from the uk go for holidays, do not have a single case of covid i9 in the last couple of weeks already. so things are going very well there. so if you want to go to algarve, you can feel safe, and please visit as soon as you can. i am also very much eager to visit london in a couple of weeks if it s possible without the lockdown, as soon as you guys in the uk feel confident with opening up your borders again. well, as you say, the situation fluctuates from area to area. i do get that. let s take a big picture look, though, at the european economy, the state of health of the european economy. we have the imf predicting that the economy could shrink by 10% to 12% overall this year. the ecb, the european central bank, says that it could go as much as 12% reduction of european gdp. these are absolutely disastrous numbers christine lagarde calling it the biggest economic crisis certainly since the second world war. and we see the debt levels in countries like italy projected to rise to something like i60%, possibly 170% of national income. how on earth does the eurozone and the wider eu get out of this economic mess? well, pretty much as all other economies will. this is a temporary thing. this is very, very serious. i agree with all the numbers you gave. they are a very good description of the hardship we will experience in the coming months, but we really need to make this a temporary crisis. it does not come as the regular and usual crises in economics do. interest rates are low. we were following a very long probably the longest path of economic growth in recent history. unemployment rate was very, very low at the beginning of this sanitary crisis. one of the champions is the uk, but you have other examples in europe and worldwide. so. i understand that, minister. but the problem i m getting to is that what you have in the midst of this public health crisis is an economic crisis which is exacerbating the fundamental flaws in the european economic system. and that is all about divergence, because while you have italy, italy, with a national debt of i60% of gdp, you have the dutch and the danes and the swedes with loads of fiscal headroom. they can do whatever they need to do to manage this economic crisis. the italians have no headroom at all. you, as president of the eurogroup, are on top of a system which is incoherent, such is the deep divergence. we learned a lesson from the past, and we could not afford to have this sanitary crisis to morph into a financial crisis. so we really took the measures that and that s my expectation allow us to evolve through the crisis without creating further fragmentation in the eurozone and the european union. the measures we took are meant to a specific goal, which is to level the playing field of our political response at a national level so that we can somehow reduce the asymmetries that you are pointing out. we are all going to get out of this crisis with a larger amount of that, and we needed, we really needed, to find a common instrument in the form in this case of common debt issuance to spread the cost of this crisis in a way that we never did before. this is a very important step towards integration. here, if i may say so, minister, we get to the very heart of the problem. you ve just used this phrase, common debt issuance , which many people might find a bit baffling. but the truth is, what you re talking about is burden sharing, debt sharing. you want now the european union as an institution through the commission to go to the financial markets, raise vast amounts of money and pump it into those parts of the union that have been most badly affected by the pandemic. now, i understand all of that, but it is in essence a form of debt mutualisation, and that is a concept which many europeans in the prosperous north, these countries won t accept debt mutualisation. you ve got a very big problem on your hands. the negotiation is under way. i think all countries, including the so called frugal four , understand the importance of the single market. you know that the netherlands exports 60% of its gdp and the vast majority of their exports are to the single market, to the european union. so it would be a very significant change in economic model for each of our small open economies if we cannot preserve this vast single market. and what we are doing is precisely taking steps that we never thought we were able to travel before. for example, this common debt issuance was an avenue that was basically a dead hand before. but hang on. we ve had several weeks now of. first it was merkel and macron, and then we ve had ursula von der leyen, the president of the commission, outlining how this massive recovery plan is going to work. and it involves, as you said, in the end, over a trillion euros and it involves long term borrowing and it involves adapting the eu budget for years to come. i understand all of that. but when you tell me everybody has to realise this is vital for the future of the union, the truth is these frugal four , the netherlands, sweden, austria, denmark, these countries have listened to your arguments and they re not accepting them. i mean, i can quote to you the swedish prime minister saying, sweden has all along pushed for the fund to focus on loans, we will not accept grants. we ve got the austrian chancellor saying, we re only ready to approve a rescue front that gives out loans. they re not prepared to support your plan. well, i don t want to enter into each of the countries you ve mentioned in terms of domestic policy. but i can only say to you that unions in sweden and denmark play a very important role and they don t have such a clear idea on these issues. also, the greens in austria, they do have a quite different perspective, and they are part of the coalition government. what i want to portray is that, yes, this is a debate, yes, this is quite important to all of us and please judge us by the final agreement. i just want to reassure you that we won t give up in the first difficulty we have. well, you re going to have difficulties. and give me brief answers to brief questions. number one, is there going to be conditionality to the giving out of these grants, huge amounts of money to countries like italy? will there be a demand tied to the grant that italy must restructure, must make some fundamental economic reforms? there will be no conditionality attached other than what is typical in the european union budget. but this weekend, officials in italy already referred to the very strong commitment of italy to put the country in a sustainable path. well, we ve heard promises like that before, minister. and on another level, what if you re wrong? you say that this scheme is going to work because the economic recovery post covid i9 will be very quick. what if you re wrong? what if it s not quick? and what if the debt mountain continues to rise? at some point, this is going to be unsustainable. all forecasts point in different directions. but if you want a picture, i can give you one. think of this as a long, a long, a very long sunday and we are about to enter monday. and as you know, gdp collapses on sundays for our own pleasure and picks up very strongly on mondays when, unfortunately, we have to go back to our offices and factories to work. so this is precisely what we all want. well, one can only hope the virus recognises the difference between a sunday and a monday, minister. i m not sure that that s going to work. but is this an existential moment for the eu? i think emmanuel macron warned a few days ago that the collapse of the eu as a political project was possible if this recovery plan doesn t get pushed through and doesn t work. you know, unfortunately, the eu is quite often at the verge of an existential collapse! that has been the way many, many commentators describe all challenges to the eu for quite some time. but the resilience of the project, the fact that it is the biggest source of peace and prosperity in europe in the last 70 years. ah, minister, we hear that phrase all the time. but what do you say to those italians, two thirds of italians, who now say.? ..because the counterfactual is very negative. yeah, the italians now, two thirds of them say that being in the eu is a disadvantage for their country. and at the same time, polls in holland, in the netherlands, say that the dutch will be deeply unhappy if the eu promises to mutualise the debt of a country like italy. so wherever you look at it, north or south, there is a profound problem. what i can say is that the support for the euro is at the highest level ever in history. 76% of euro area citizens approve very strongly the euro. we are providing this network of support to all member states and to all citizens. i am sure that even in the more sceptical regions, they do understand that. take the numbers of the netherlands 60% of their gdp is made of exports, and the vast majority of those exports are for european countries. this is a very, very strong mutualisation of the economic model of the netherlands and denmark. well. ..of sweden, of portugal, spain. yeah. you have to hope you re right and that scepticism doesn t rise, because we see where scepticism can take a nation it can take a nation like the united kingdom out of the european union. let me end with just a brief question about the state of play in the negotiations between the eu and britain on a future trade agreement. as you know, if there is no agreement to extend the talks, to have an extension to the transition by the end ofjune, they must end by the end of the year. and we get the noises from the eu chief negotiator, michel barnier, and the british side that no progress is being made. how worried are you that there won t be an agreement to extend the talks and the talks will fail and that at the end of this year, the uk will be left trading with the eu on what is called world trade organization terms, which will, frankly, not be good for either side? well, michel is negotiating this for the european union as a whole, so i think we show that we are more united than ever. we need to understand, of course, the reasons of the uk. but, for me, the crucial thing is still to avoid an exit from the uk. so this is very important for both sides around the table and we need to keep focus on having a deal that serves both the uk and the european union. but to quote one british minister, he says, i think the covid crisis in some respects will concentrate the minds of eu negotiators, reinforcing the vital importance of reaching a deal. has this pandemic put more pressure on your side, the eu, to make some compromises with britain? britain, for example, not prepared to accept this idea of a level playing field as part of a preferential trade deal. well, we have been concentrating from the beginning on getting a deal. i mean, at face value, the argument seems to be a little bit absurd. we need to focus on all aspects of the challenges we have in front of us. and for sure, covid i9 is one of the most important, but we need to also get the other issues done, and i hope we can do that to the benefit of the uk people and the eu people, as well, so that again, going back in a much nicer tone, for you to come to visit us and to have your summer vacations here back and done in portugal. and i think it s very important to have all these issues clarified. i look forward to that prospect. thank you very much indeed forjoining me. minister mario centeno, in lisbon, thank you very much. thank you, stephen. thank you for this opportunity. hello there. the temperature reached 27 celsius in hampshire on tuesday but that was the last of the very warm days for probably quite some time. the next few days at least will be feeling much cooler thanks to a northerly wind, more cloud, and some wet weather around as well. and that rain certainly arrived in scotland during tuesday knocking the temperatures back as well. and the cloudier weather together with the rain is continuing to push its way southwards overnight. many areas by the end of the night will have had some rain. the exceptions really being towards the south east and east anglia where it is going to be a little chilly in the countryside. and probably drying off later in the night for northern ireland and western scotland. but some cloudy skies for wednesday in england and wales. and some outbreaks of rain, too could be a little heavy at times. across northern ireland, largely dry with a little bit of sunshine and missing most of the showers across western scotland where temperatures may make 18 degrees in glasgow, much cooler with the showers in eastern scotland and across the rest of the uk, temperatures quite a bit lower than they were yesterday. and continuing that cooler theme through the rest of the week because pressure is lower across scandinavia where we once had high pressure. instead, we got high pressure retreating out to the atlantic. it s not close enough to the uk and it means we are drawing down a northerly wind which will feed in that cooler air. and continue to feed in some showers. perhaps some longer spells of rain to clear away from the south east of england early on thursday morning, and then a little bit of sunshine but on the whole pretty cloudy skies and further showers which could be heavy at times as well. and if anything in that northerly wind, temperatures may be even lower on thursday. typically 14 15 degrees or so and quite a bit cooler than it should be this time of year. so this weather is quite a change to what we ve seen for a long time, and those cooler northerly winds pick up again on friday. we will blow down some heavy showers from the north, temperatures across southern england, south wales may get up to 16 or 17 degrees but for northern scotland, we are struggling to make double figures. and as we head into the weekend, we no longer have got high pressure close to the uk. instead we re dominated by low pressure and it s quite a deep one as well. it could bring some unusually windy weather to some northern and western parts of the uk at least for a while on saturday. there is the risk of some gales. even without the strong winds, it will feel cool in the cloud and with showers or longer spells of rain.
a very warm welcome to bbc news, with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. my name s mike embley. a president under pressure protesters gather outside the white house, and criticism continues for donald trump s handling of the continuing unrest. these are live pictures from the us capital. violent clashes between police and protesters have continued in cities countrywide after the death of a black man being detained by police. but the president issued this warning. ifa if a city or state refuses to ta ke if a city or state refuses to take the actions necessary to defend the life and property of their residents than i will deploy the united states military and quickly solve the problem for
this is bbc news, the headlines: the british prime minister has defended his top advisor, dominic cummings, amid a row over the aide s travel during lockdown. boris johnson says mr cummings followed the instincts of every parent and acted with integrity, in seeking childcare with family members, after his wife had developed symptoms of the virus. thousands of people have been taking part in mass protests againsts china s plans to impose a new security law on the territory. more than 100 people have been arrested. beijing says the legislation will improve people s lives, but campaigners warn fundamental freedoms are being eroded. brazil s coronavirus death toll continues to rise steadily, with more than 600 fatalities reported on sunday. however, president jair bolsonaro is still refusing to implement social distancing rules. meanwhile, the us has imposed travel restrictions on foreign nationals who have been to brazil in the last 1a days. now on bbc news, the week in parliament. hello there, and welcome to the week in parliament. on this programme labour says there s been no tracking and tracing of coronavirus in the uk for months. for ten weeks, there s been no tracing, unlike germany and south korea. and tracing is critical. but the prime minister promises the uk will have a world class track and trace system. and, yes, it will be in place it will be in place byjune 1st. the immigration bill bringing in a points based system passes its first parliamentary hurdle. scotland s first minister sets out her plans to ease the lockdown. and how about this as an idea to lift the spirits when the crisis is finally over? we could possibly have a bank holiday in october, because the industry has sort of lost the benefit of the two main bank holidays. but first, the government faced criticism from senior figures in the care sector of its handling of coronavirus. giving evidence to the health and social care committee, the head of the organisation representing care homes said elderly people should have been prioritised from the beginning of the crisis. the chair of the committee asked about a government ambition to move to routine testing of front line care and nhs staff. have you had any indication or sense that this is going to start anytime soon? well, i mean, we ve had the announcements, but so often the announcements, there s a time delay before delivery. so, ithink, you know, the intention is there but also i want to say that it would be very helpful to have both testing and track and trace in place, because i think that could be a game changer as well in this. so, i think the short answer, chair, is we had the announcement but what we haven t had is the delivery, and we re not really clear when that s going to arrive. professor martin green. and those comments on routine coronavirus testing in care homes were seized on by the labour leader sir keir starmer at prime minister s questions the next day. official figures suggest more than 11,500 people have died from the infection in care homes across the uk since the start of the pandemic, so sir keir starmer wanted a straight answer when would routine testing start? the chief executive of care england, who knows what he s talking about, gave evidence yesterday that it hasn t. if the prime minister is disputing the evidence of the select committee, that s his own business. order, order! secretary of state for health, please. i don t mind you advising the prime minister, but you don t need to advise the opposition during this. sorry, do you want to leave the chamber? we re at maximum numbers. if you want to give way to somebody else, i m more than happy. keir starmer. mr speaker, to assure the prime minister, i m not expressing my own view, i m putting to him the evidence of experts to the committees yesterday. we have a growing confidence that we will have a test, track and trace operation that will be world beating and, yes, it will be in place it will be in place byjune1st. the snp‘s westminster leaderjoined calls to exempt more key workers from abroad from having to pay a surcharge to use the health service. people migrating to these nations and choosing to work in our nhs and our care sector must have this government s cruel nhs surcharge removed, and removed immediately. will the prime minister make that pledge today, or will he clap on thursday, hoping that no one really notices that he s giving with one hand and raking it in with the other? well, boris johnson didn t answer that directly, but he had earlier been asked a similar question by sir keir starmer and told him that changing the system would leave a hole in the nhs budget. like him, i ve been a personal beneficiary of people who ve come from or carers who ve come from abroad and frankly saved my life, so i know exactly the importance of what he s talking about. on the other hand, we must look at the reality that this is a great national service, it s a national institution, it needs funding, and those contributions actually help us to raise about £900 million. and it s very easy er, very difficult in the current circumstances to find alternative sources, so with great respect to the point that he makes, i do think that that is the right way forward. but on thursday afternoon, just 28 hours after those exchanges, it emerged that the prime minister had changed his mind. number ten said borisjohnson had asked the home office and the department for health and social care to remove health service and care workers from the nhs surcharge as soon as possible. now to brexit, swept off the front pages in recent weeks by the coronavirus crisis. peers wanted to know if customs posts would be established at ports and airports in northern ireland from january and how, if that were the case, it was compatible with repeated assurances from ministers that goods moving from northern ireland would have free and unfettered access to uk markets. my prime minister said there will be no forms, no checks, no barriers of any kind. you will have unfettered access. my lords, i simply ask the noble lord, the minister, what is the truth? the prime minister said that if there was any forms of any kind, if someone asked you to fill in the forms, tell them to ring up the prime minister and i will direct them to throw that form in the bin. he was referring to customs and tariffs. on that point, can i ask him if somebody does what the prime minister says and tears up the form and puts it in the bin, what number should they call to speak to the prime minister? well, peers didn t have long to wait for an answer to those questions. on wednesday, the government confirmed that there will be new checks on some goods entering northern ireland from the rest of the uk as part of the brexit deal. the cabinet office minister michael gove told mps northern ireland s ports would be developed to carry out checks on animals and food products. the province will continue to follow some eu rules after the brexit transition period ends on december 31st, but mr gove said there would be no new customs infrastructure. we acknowledge, however as we ve always done that on agrifood and live animal movements, it makes sense to protect supply chains and the disease free status of the island of ireland, as has been the case since the 19th century. that will mean some expansion of existing infrastructure to provide for some additional new processes for the agriculture and food sector. but these processes will build on what already happens at ports like larne and belfast. will my right honourable friend confirm that as from the 1st of january 2021, that northern ireland, i.e., a part of the united kingdom, will be required to abide by eu regulations on certain goods until at least 2024, and potentially indefinitely? it is the case that there will be eu regulations, aspects that will apply in northern ireland to 202k. but of course, she draws attention to a very important point, which is that if the workings of the protocol are viewed by the people and the parties of northern ireland as onerous, too much, intrusive and unacceptable, then they have the opportunity to vote them down in 202a. michael gove. meanwhile, measures to create a trade policy independent from the eu came a step closer when the trade bill passed its second reading in the commons. the legislation replaces trade agreements the uk had as an eu member state. as we recover from the economic shock of the coronavirus crisis, providing certainty and predictability in our trading arrangements will be vital to securing the interest of businesses and consumers. we will unleash the potential and level up every region and nation of our united kingdom. now is the time for this house to speak out against protectionism. it is time for us to embrace the opportunities that free trade and an export led recovery will bring. but labour said the bill was a missed opportunity. instead of a bold strategic vision for the future of our trade policy, we have a stopgap piece of legislation that even ministers are trying to talk down. instead of putting issues like climate change and human rights at the heart of our trade policy, they have been ignored or consciously dropped. instead of opening our trade policy to the expertise of others, the government is denying them even a seat at the table. and instead of restoring parliament s sovereignty over trade policy, this bill leaves mps even more powerless than before. emily thornberry. and another key piece of government legislation also cleared its first commons hurdle. the immigration bill ends the free movement of eu nationals at the end of this year. the aim is to introduce a system whereby would be migrants to the uk will need a certain number of points such as for skills, education and salary before they‘ re allowed to come to work. the home secretary said the bill would give people what they called for when they voted for brexit. the bill before us today will play a vital role in our recovery plans for the future. it will end free movement and pave the way for our new points based immigration system a firmer, fairer and simpler system that will attract the people we need to drive our country forward through the recovery stage of coronavirus, laying the foundation for a high wage, high skill, productive economy. labour focused on the proposals to bring in a salary threshold and how that might affect health and care workers. in the midst of this crisis, the government is putting forward an immigration system containing a salary threshold of £25,600 that sends a signal and tells people that anyone earning less than that is unskilled and unwelcome in our country. we know that one in six of those brave care workers on the front line of the battle against coronavirus are non uk nationals. i commend the home secretary for her commitment to extend visas for doctors and nurses, but what of care workers? are they to be the cinderella service, forgotten once again? and what of ancillary staff in our hospitals, so crucial in a war against a virus where repeated deep cleaning is an absolute imperative? we cannot open hospitals if we cannot clean the loos. i m afraid to say that this is a dreadful bill, one which will destroy opportunity for future generations and will split even more families apart. it s a bill that will result in many thousands of eu nationals losing their rights in this country overnight and will extend the reach of the hostile environment even further. it also fails to protect the rights of petition citizens to live, work and study in other eu member states. nor does it fully guarantee the rights of uk citizens already living across the eu. and while i m disappointed and frustrated that the government refuses to respect the rights of eu citizens who contribute to this country, ifind it beyond comprehension that they do not recognise the need to protect the rights of our citizens, either. a conservative recognised immigration had been a factor in the brexit vote. today, we can put the dilly dally, dither and delay to an end. i understand there are some concerned about what they see as a bizarre concept the end of free movement. to me, it s rather simple. a uk immigration system created and developed by the uk select elected government, a system devised by our national interest, determined by the needs of our economy. a system that treats immigrants from every corner of the globe on the same basis. matt vickers. now, the number of people claiming unemployment benefit in the uk jumped to just over 2 million in april the first full month of the coronavirus lockdown. the figures came from the office for national statistics on tuesday. by coincidence, the chancellor rishi sunak was in front of the lords economic affairs committee and its chair got straight to the point. what do you anticipate the level of unemployment will be in the fourth quarter of this year? i don t have a precise estimate. there are a range that are out there from the bank of england and the obr. most of them point to around a double digit percentage unemployment rate. obviously, the numbers you would have seen today show just under a million new claims in the last month over 800,000 taking total number of claims to two million. i think the obr estimate had that tapping out at about three million. obviously, the impact will be severe. there will be more hardship to come. this lockdown is having a very significant impact on our economy. we are likely to face a severe recession, the likes of which we haven t seen, and of course, that will have an impact on employment. do you accept that the length and depth of that recession you refer to will be very much related to the length of the lockdown? i think there s also two things to distinguish. one is the immediacy of the economic impact, the depth of the recession. the question that occupies my mind and, indeed, long term is probably more relevant is, you know, what degree of long term scarring is there on the economy as a result of this recession? what is the depth, what is the loss in productive capacity? because ultimately, once we recover from this crisis by nature, i believe it will be temporary, of course, we will suppress the virus, we will progressively now lift the restrictions the question is, what do we return to? and, you know, the question there that the jury is out. first minister nicola sturgeon has set out how lockdown restrictions will be eased in scotland. she said schools would start preparing next month to reopen from august 11. some outdoor activities would be allowed from thursday, including opening gardening centres and waste and recycling sites. it would also be possible to meet people from other households, but only outdoors and in small numbers. the first minister said that businesses would reopen as part of a four phase easing of the lockdown, which would only continue if the spread of the virus was being controlled. we view them as a proportionate and suitably cautious set of first steps and i hope that they will bring some improvement to people s well being and quality of life, start to get our economy moving again and start to steer us safely towards a new normality. she said the timing of moving between different phases would depend on everyone. we must continue, all of us, to recognise that every single decision we take as individuals has an impact on others and our collective well being. does the first minister accept that for parliament and the public to have confidence and for scotland to feel safe as we come out of lockdown, it s essential that the infrastructure for testing and tracing or test and protect is in place? i want to align our lifting of lockdown measures with our ability to implement a substantial significant test and protect operation, and we will be able to do that from the end of next week in every health board area in the country. we need three guarantees. first, the government should publish the evidence behind the decisions it has taken and it will take in the future. second, we need to see maximum testing capacity and a test, trace and isolate system that is fully working and universally rolled out. and thirdly, the government s strategy must be flexible and able to adapt quickly to changing circumstances. can the first minister give us these guarantees? first minister. yes, i think i can in broad terms. but obviously, the detail of that will be scrutinised on and developed in the weeks to come. a green msp raised newspaper pictures of sunbathers on an edinburgh beach flouting the current lockdown rules. does the first minister agree, particularly given the scenes in portobello, in my own city of edinburgh yesterday, that the lockdown is getting harder to sustain? when i saw the pictures of portobello beach yesterday, i almost felt like crying to some extent because i know why people felt the need to do that and i completely sympathise. but every time we have people getting together in ways that provide opportunities for this virus, we risk the progress we have made together, so i appeal to people to stick with these restrictions for a bit longer so that we can much more quickly work through these phases and get back to the normality all of us so badly crave. meanwhile in wales, there were questions for the first minister about his government s road map out of lockdown. mark drakeford described it as a traffic light system , but it had come with no dates attached. is this road map the best hope the welsh government can actually offer the people of wales and when can we expect to see some timescales alongside your exit strategy? on timescales, let me say, as i ve said before and i ve been asked, there is a genuine debate to be had as to whether timescales are a helpful way of setting out the future. in the end, we thought that it was more of a distraction than a concentration on the matters that really deserve our attention. why should people in wales be subject to the most extraordinary, intrusive and prescriptive restrictions on their freedom if they are not necessary? many who had not before understood the scope of devolved powers don t now like the answer. it s because of devolution. mark dra keford accepted extraordinary powers were being used. i agree with what he has said about devolution being brought home to people in this crisis in a way that it hasn t been over the last 20 years, and i doubt that it is true that in wales, people aren t aware of devolution. it is certainly true of people outside wales and in london appear to have woken up from a 20 year sleep. local authorities in northern ireland are to get access tojust over £20 million in emergency covid 19 funding from the executive. councils are still carrying out essential work but have lost income from sectors like leisure and tourism. the new funding will help cover costs between now and the end ofjune. northern ireland s communities minister said the executive had agreed to an immediate intervention to avoid a cash crisis. the losses sustained to date are such a magnitude that councils will soon be unable to meet their financial liabilities. the executive again yesterday agreed to make funding available of £20.3 million to my department, for local councils to alleviate these financial pressures. this intervention will provide relief to our local councils, to protect the delivery of front line services during this crisis and ensure the councils are ready to play their role in our post pandemic recovery plans. will primary schools in england be reopening for some pupils from 1 june? schools are looking at ways to enforce social distancing and make sure it s safe for youngsters and teachers. but at least 11 councils in england have expressed concerns about the plan, and the teaching union, the nasuwt, said it remained unconvinced reopening schools was appropriate or practicable . peers were told that certain year groups would be expected to go back, providing the government s five tests on easing lockdown restrictions were met. well, labourfocused on the spread or r value of the virus. the minister will have seen today that various local authorities across england are advising schools not to open schools in their areas. with public health england having said r values vary across different regions, it s difficult to understand the logic of the government s decision that schools should reopen nationwide on the 1st ofjune. can the noble baroness the minister reveal to the noble lords what the scientific evidence says about re opening schools in communities which have an r value which is closer to one in the average? the r rate is not actually broken down regionally. it is not published in that form. it s a uk wide estimate range that s published each week. the individual modelling groups include epidemiological information on the intensive care unit rates of admissions, death rates and the rates of hospital admissions. so it is an average value that can vary across communities, but it is not published on a regional basis. what are you going to do when lockdown is finally over? top of many people s list, no doubt, is a holiday. the covid 19 shutdown has had a massive impact on the tourism industry. despite the sunny spring weather, beaches have been deserted. popular beauty spots have been, for the most part, empty. hotels up and down the uk are shut, along with campsites, b&bs and holiday homes, all of which has left businesses locked up and facing a shaky financial future. the digital, culture, media and sport committee heard from a wide range of tourism organisations about the effects on them. in your written submission to the committee, you said that you thought the cost impact of covid 19 on your sector could range from £8 billion to £22 billion. that s quite a range. does the fact that we re now talking about a 14 day quarantine and we have a stubbornly high r rate in certain parts of the country, does that mean that you re likely to be toward the top end of that expectation in terms of the cost of covid 19 on your sector? yes, indeed. every time we do the modelling, the figures get worse. i think the worrying thing we see is the lack of confidence in the british public about travelling, so that 74% of people who have a holiday booked forjuly and september think that holiday won t take place. she had a suggestion that could help the industry. we could possibly have a bank holiday in october because the industry has sort of lost the benefit of the two may bank holidays. i think that s an idea that is being considered, have an october bank holiday around half term. because what we re going to need to do is notjust generate income injuly and august but, really, extend the season. coastal tourism has also been hard hit. the key for us, really, is that we believe the coast will take a three year recovery period before it s back to pre covid 19 levels, and what we would like to see is a collaborative approach across all stakeholders to build back better. now is our opportunity to really tackle seasonality on the coast. many businesses, over 20%, are looking at how they extend their opening this year so that they can claw back some of their lost revenue. the national trust told the committee it had closed all its buildings, gardens and car parks and had stopped all non essential projects. we will need to review oui’ human resource. we have a lot ofjobs that people simply won t be doing for the next nine months, so we re in the process of reviewing that at the moment. we re not anticipating another three months‘ closure but if we have a second wave and we had to close completely, that would be deeply, deeply concerning. and what we re watching very carefully, as you would expect, is the decline in membership. we were losing, certainly in the first month, the rate of members four times the normal rate and, of course, we cannot replenish our members because our properties are not open. so it s the membership base we re watching very closely because once that declines, it s incredibly hard to build it up again. there s been a lot of messaging that s gone on from councillors and members of parliament to stay away. understandably so, it was the lockdown rules, etc. but as we move out of that, is there any chance that that sort of messaging has had a more long term effect, could make people nervous or feel as if they are not that welcome? we have had vigilantes. we have holiday parks accommodating nhs key workers when we could. we ve had vigilantes checking up and reporting them to the council and the police. who are at these people on your holiday park? that negative anti feeling is going to be an issue. at the same time, there was something very, very similar after foot in mouth. people did not want tourists in the countryside because we had to protect farmers, but it settled down within a fortnight. if we don t get a second wave, things settle down, people will get used to having their tourists back. and if they don t have them back, they won t have the village shop or the garage the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker because the tourists are sustaining all the local businesses when you have a tiny local community that s unable to do so. it is all part of it. we re integrated in our rural and coastal communities. so we re hoping that it will be seen, but there is a real challenge there at the moment. and that s it from me for now. parliament is taking a break for a week, so we ll be back when mps and peers return on 2june. but until then, from me, alicia mccarthy, goodbye. hello there. we saw a top temperature of 23 celsius in the london area on sunday afternoon. bank holiday monday today looks warmer still further south, we could make close to mid 20s celsius across parts of the south east. but generally, much of the country will be dry and sunny thanks to the influence of this area of high pressure. but through the day, these weather fronts will start to play a part in the weather across the north west of the uk to bring outbreaks of rain and stronger winds. a fairly fresh start to the day today. we had temperatures in single figures in places, a little bit of early mist and fog across western areas, which will tend to burn away quickly through the morning. many places will be dry and sunny, england and wales, eastern scotland, but then western scotland, lots of northern ireland will stay windy and cloudy and wetter later in the day. that will impact the temperatures around the mid teens in the north west, closer to the low 20s and the mid 20s in the south east. now, that band of cloud and rain across the north west moves its way south eastwards during monday night, tending to fizzle out, though, as it reaches parts of england and wales, just a few showers along it. but with more cloud cover generally, i think it should be a little less chilly with temperatures in double figures for most. now, as we move into tuesday, we ve got high pressure with us once again. this area of cloud associated with that weather front will straddle central areas and push its way south eastwards through the day, so i think england and wales could see more cloud around generally. a bit more sunshine, though, for scotland and northern ireland, but slightly fresher air mass here with temperatures into the low to mid teens. but again, despite the cloud across england and wales, the air is quite warm here, so still 20 to 25 or 26 degrees will be the high. high pressure still with us on into wednesday, we ve got this feature which will bring thicker cloud, perhaps some patchy rain to northern ireland and in towards central and western scotland. but to the north of it, dry, little bit cooler with some sunshine to the south of it, plenty of sunshine for england and wales and, again, another warm day, 25 or 26 will be the high, closer to the mid teens in the north. but that fresher air in the north gets pushed away northwards as high pressure changes its position, moves to the east of the uk and starts to draw up this warm, southerly wind from the near continent. that will drive the warmth northwards into scotland and northern ireland as we reach the end of the week, and it ll be very warm for england and wales with plenty of sunshine. this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. i m aaron safir. uk prime minister boris johnson stands by his chief advisor, rejecting calls for him to resign over allegedly breaking coronavirus lockdown rules. i believe that in every respect, he has acted responsibly, and legally, and with integrity. in hong kong, more than 100 people are arrested in protests against beijing s new proposed security laws. brazil s president continues to dismiss warnings over social distancing, despite the number of cases rising sharply. meanwhile, turkey says it is turning the tide in its coronavirus outbreak as the rate of infection drops
of confirmed coronavirus infections. the country has now recorded more than 263,000 cases, placing it behind only the united states and russia. more than 1,000 people have died. millions of people are evacuated from the coastal areas of india and bangladesh, as a huge storm bears down on the bay of bengal. cyclone umpun is expected to make landfall later on wednesday. the world health organisation has defended its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, following criticism from the united states. it comes as the who s member states agreed to an independent evaluation of its response. global carbon emissions fell by more than a sixth at the height of the coronavirus lockdown, according to a new study. the reduction was partly due to a fall in the number of cars on the road. now on bbc news, it s time for hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk, i m stephen sackur. the european union has struggled to find a collective response to the coronavirus pandemic. those countries hit first and worst by the virus, italy and spain, have complained of a lack of solidarity. well, is that about to change? because france and germany are now backing a 500 billion euros economic recovery fund that would be made up of grants, not loans. my guest is french finance minister bruno le maire. is the pandemic taking the eu in a new direction? minister bruno le maire, welcome to hardtalk. thank you, good morning. let me start getting your response to the dramatic video conference joint appearance by your president, mr macron, and angela merkel of germany yesterday. mrs merkel said that the eu is facing the greatest crisis in its history, and we must find appropriate answers. do you believe those answers have been found? i think they have been found. and i fully share the assessment of chancellor angela merkel. we are clearly facing the gravest crisis in the history of the european union. an economic crisis, a social crisis, but also a political one. we need a new and strong response, and i really think that chancellor merkel and president macron have been able, both together, to provide the necessary response to the crisis. this is a major step, and i would say an historical step that has been decided yesterday by president macron and chancellor merkel. for the first time in our history, we are ready to provide 500 billion of expenditures, public expenditures, to fight the economic consequences of the virus and to face the economic crisis. this is a historical step for france and germany, and i hope for all european countries. but let us be clear, minister you say mr macron and mrs merkel have decided, but frankly nothing at all has been decided. this is simply a proposal, and it is a proposal that is so historic to use your word that it seems very likely significant numbers of other member states of the eu will not accept this idea of debt sharing which, in essence, is what this is. i know what that it will be difficult to convince the other partners some of the partners, for instance, austria, denmark, sweden, the netherlands to go this way. but when you look at the steps that have been already decided, i think that we are on the right way. we have been able, with the 27 member states on 9 april, to adopt a global package for the economic recovery within the eu with a new loan from the eab, with the so called mechanism sure, with their use of the esm, and with this recovery fund. now france and germany have been able to find an agreement on the funding of this recovery fund with the common debt. but minister. i just want to explain to the other member states. there is no agreement let us be clear. ..and political interest to go this way. there is no agreement, though. after the. it will be difficult to find an agreement, i know that. it will be. but all the member states should be aware of the necessity to adopt new responses to fight such an important economic, social, and political crisis in europe. but the point is surely simple there are significant numbers of countries, mostly in the north of europe, and you ve pointed to austria, denmark, sweden, and many people inside germany, as well who think one of the fundamental principles of the european union has to be that each member state remains fully responsible for its own debt. and your proposal completely eliminates that principal. my response is that nobody is responsible for the way it has been hit by the coronavirus. nobody is responsible for the health crisis and for the coronavirus. and i think that the eu and the eu in the 21st century should not be based only on selfish behaviours, but also on solidarity. and what is at the core of the agreement between france and germany is the fact that the eu of the 21st century should be based on solidarity. when one of the member states is hit by a crisis, by the coronavirus crisis, and if the state needs the help of the other member states, he should take for granted that it will have the support of the other member states. so when the austrian chancellor, sebastian kurtz, says, as he did after the macron merkel meeting yesterday by video when he says, look, we are only ready to approve a rescue fund that gives loans, ie money that must be paid back, rather than grants, you say he s being selfish, do you? i just say that it is also in the interest of austria, but also the netherlands, also denmark, also sweden to have a stronger eu after the crisis. this is a profoundly important moment for the eu, isn t it? because if we take seriously what you are saying and indeed what mrs merkel appears to have signed up to in this plan, we re looking at a massively deeper integrated eu economic system in which fiscal, as well as monetary policy is being collectivized? i think that we are clearly at a decisive moment of the history of the european union. because we are facing the greatest crisis, which is an economic, but also i want to insist on that a social and political one. and now it is time to choose. it is time to choose what kind of a eu we want for the 21st century. there are two choices. either you go the way of having some member states working together without any solidarity, without common funding of innovation, new technologies, disruptive technologies, artificial intelligence, 5g and so on in that case, that is the end of the eu. we never play any role on the international stage because we will be overcome by china in the united states. or we can make another choice, which is, to me and the french president, the right choice for the 21st century for the eu which is to gather our fundings, even through common debts just for the sake of financing the economic recovery, but also financing the new technologies for the sake of having more independence, more serenity, and being able to have our own 5g, our own artificial intelligence, our own renewable energies, our own technologies, not relying on the support of other world powers, butjust relying on our own forces. that is the right choice for the eu for the 21st century, and that is what is exactly behind the agreement between france and germany yesterday. well, you may be absolutely convinced of this, but i wonder if all the french people are, let alone the people of germany, the netherlands, austria, sweden, denmark, and a host of other countries. let me read to you an interesting thought from the financial times‘s chief foreign affairs commentator, gideon rachman, the other day. he wrote, the mutualisation of debt within the eu was always been the reddest of red lines for the german people, the dutch, the austrians, the fins and others. if it is pushed through now in this atmosphere of crisis, it could set a time bomb under the eu. because there will be a backlash, won t there? i don t share that point of view. i think that a large majority of european citizens wants to go the way of more independence and more serenity. they don t want to be dependent any more on china or on the united states. 0r on brussels. they want to be independent, and if we want to be independent, if we want to have our own technologies once again, which is the key point for the 21st century, then we need to gather our efforts. now i want to be very clear that the idea is not to provide money without any conditions. the idea is just to support some of the member states for the sake of having a quicker and stronger economic recovery after the crisis. that is the idea behind that. but you are not really addressing my point, that what we may see it as a backlash in the north european countries where the populations think, we don t want to pay for the debts of the italians, the spanish, and others. and hang on you may see a much deeper division growing. because it is in the interest of these northern countries to have a single market working very well, and making profits and making benefits. that is also the point. let s think about the situation in france in particular, because you are the french finance minister, one of the most senior voices in the government. would you agree with me that the way france has handled its own coronavirus crisis has left a deep sense of unease amongst many in your population? the government has not come out of this looking very good, has it? i agree that there has been critics, doubts, because we have been hit very severely by the coronavirus. did you see the new york times investigation of a couple of days ago that compared emmanuel macron‘s rhetoric about declaring war on coronavirus, promising that all of france s front line health workers would be given the means and protection they needed and the reality was, concludes the new york times, that france was nearly defenseless ? and that even today, if there is a second wave, a new spike in the spread of the virus in france, your emergency services still do not have access to the kind of emergency ppe protective equipment that they would need? you are still dangerously reliant on getting supplies from countries like china? i think that is not the case any more. i hope there won t be a second wave of the virus in france, and i think that we are taking with the prime minister all necessary measures to avoid such a second wave in france. and if we are taking some decisions that are really hard to take and difficult to take, it is for the sake of avoiding a second wave of the virus in france. i will not say that the emergency services do not have the necessary equipment. we have been hit severely by the crisis. we had to take some reactions with a sense of urgency, and we have taken the positions that i think our emergency services now have the necessary equipment to face such a situation. but once again, i hope we will not be in a situation to face a second wave of the crisis. you re the finance minister, you know the french economy is facing a deep recession, like most of the national economies across europe and, of course, that is your prime concern in your dayjob. but you re also watching as france reopens businesses, shops you can even get a haircut in france today, which you couldn t do in london the metro in paris is crowded again. are you entirely happy that france has got the balance right between normalisation, reopening the economy, and maintaining the strictest of discipline in the fight against the virus? that is a balance which is obviously very difficult to find. but we are trying to find this right balance between the protection of the population and the necessity to go back to work. because there is a necessity to go back to work if we want to avoid an economic collapse. so our first reaction was a very strong support to the french economy with partial unemployment scheme, for instance, with loans to the private companies, with temporary cash flow needs that have been provided by the state. then we are entering a second phase which sees support to some specific economic sectors tourism, the automotive industry, and the aeronautic industry. and before the ist ofjuly, we will have decided three sets of plans to support those economic sectors. and then will come the time of huge economic recovery plan that should be announced by the french president in some weeks, i think by the end of august or the beginning of september, to really define the perspective for the french economy. and i think we should get through this crisis, to rebuild the strongest french economy which will be a competitive economy and a sustainable economy. you re looking, it seems, according to all of your national and imf and other estimates, a recession which could see a contraction of gdp between 6 8% this year. you and your government have put aside hundreds of billions of euros in a national economic recovery plan. many french people are wondering, where on earth is this money coming from? will it be tax rises across the board, or are you going to have to slash public spending in the next few years? first of all, that is a choice that has been made by all the major member states of the eu because we did not have any other choice but to support our economy also and i really think it was the right choice. then it will be funded by debt let us be very clear about that and there will be the necessity at some stage to reimburse the french debt. but it will be later. and i really want the french debt to be reimbursed by growth. and that is the meaning of this economic recovery plan, that is the meaning of these hundreds of billions of euros to support our economy, to have a quick and strong economic recovery for the sake of having more prosperity, and being in a situation to reimburse our debts. not through new tech stations, but through growth. right, so just very simply, what is france s debt to gdp ratio going to be in, let s say, a year s time? 0ur assessment now is that, in 2020, it should be 100 115% of the gdp. it could be more because there are some new spendings that might be necessary to support some economic sectors. but once again, the key question is not debt the key question is the economic recovery and growth. so what you have is an economy that is looking extremely fragile in the medium and, frankly, even the long term, and you have a president who came to power promising a whole slate of reforms. and we ve seen his attempts to change the welfare system and the pension system, and we ve seen his popularity plummet, and we ve seen the rise of the gilet jaunes movement of protesters. isn t the truth that the macron plan for changing, radically reforming france, is now off the table? there s no way he can continue with that plan given the situation you ve just described to me. 0n the contrary. because we have been successful in the decisions we have taken during the three first years of the mandate of emmanuel macron. well, not according to the french people. there are many policies that we ve put in place that gave some very strong reserves at the beginning of 2020 we were one of the strongest economies within the uso. which means that after the crisis, our economy will not be fragile because the basis of the french economy is solid. so we will stick to the way of reforms, of improvements of the french economy and the french competitiveness, for the sake of having more growth and more prosperity. we had had some very good reserves, we have been hit by the crisis but, after the crisis, there will be a french rebound. and what kind of france and what kind of europe? will there be a rise in protectionism? we see donald trump with his language which suggests that he believes china is responsible for this virus, also talking about long term implications for us china relationships. you in france have talked about bringing some supply chains home, a much more nationalist approach to economic policymaking in the future is this what france wants to see, a new era of economic nationalism? i don t think that economic protectionism would be the right response to the crisis. that won t be the end of globalisation. what we need is a new globalisation based on more fairness and the fight against climate change. that s the key point. but i don t believe in this economic protectionism. i really strongly believe that there is a need for a new globalisation, being able to have a more level playing field and a better fight against climate change. that s what we are proposing to the other member states of the eu. and is this crisis going to change france s relationship with china, as it appears to be changing the us‘s relationship with china? i think it will change all the relationships among the superpowers. and the key question is whether the eu is one of these superpowers in the 21st century or not. everything that we are supporting with president macron is for the sake of having europe being one of the three superpowers among china and the united states. and if we want to be one of these superpowers, we need more solidarity, more investment, more innovation, and providing the right funding for the states that are in difficulty because we want all the member states to go out of this crisis stronger than ever. and a final thought you ve talked a lot about europe going forward. of course, europe is minus the uk, we re in the current transition phase and, by the end of the year, the idea is that transition phase ends and a new economic relationship is negotiated. and the negotiations right now are stuck at an impasse, michel barnier on the eu side says he s not optimistic about reaching a deal because the uk continues to want to have the best of both worlds. the uk negotiator says, we need a change of eu approach, and the brits appear to believe that if they just let this slide for long enough, the eu will make major concessions. to quote michael gove, a british minister, i think the covid crisis, in some respects, will concentrate the minds of eu negotiators. do you think the british, if they believe that your economic problems will lead to concessions, have got it right or wrong? i m afraid they are wrong. you know, i miss the uk. i miss the uk because i think that we would be stronger with the uk within the eu. but that s not the case any more, and the british people has made its choice about its future. but now, do not make any mistake about that there won t be any further concessions from the eu. and on the contrary, i will think that this economic crisis will lead to the reinforcements of the eu, will lead to more solidarity among member states. and we are not ready to make concessions that mightjeopardise the eu construction, and that might fragile eyes what we once built together. so i hope that everybody will be resilient and we can find an agreement as soon as possible between the eu and the uk. it is up to michel barnier to pave the way for this compromise, but do not believe that being opposed to any kind of compromise would lead to more concessions from the eu member states, because i think it will not be the case. bruno le maire, we have to end it there. i thank you very much indeed forjoining me from paris. thank you. hello there. tuesday was very sunny and very warm for some of us but not for all. in fact, it was the warmest day of the year so far. 26 degrees recorded in stjames‘ park in london. but i suspect wednesday will be warmer still and a little more widespread across the country. however, it s going to be a chance of a few thunderstorms on thursday, then as we head into the weekend, fresherfor all of us. but for the time being, high pressure, the dominant feature, and it s keeping these weather fronts out in the atlantic for the moment. that s allowing ahead of it to southerly feed, a very warm air coming up from the very near continent. so despite a little bit of early morning mist and fog around, it will be a mild start, as you can see, widespread double digits. now, any murkiness close to the coast will lift quite readily away, and there will be lots of sunshine coming through the day. just a little bit of fairweather cloud into the north, and maybe some showery outbreaks of rain into the northern isles. here, a little disappointing, but the warmth will be quite widespread, low 20s into central scotland, as high as 27 celsius perhaps in the southeast that s 81 fahrenheit. it s worth bearing in mind that, if you are going to be spending a little more time outside, well you have got the sunshine, we re looking at high uv levels throughout the day. now, as we move out of wednesday into thursday, that weather front will start to push and from the atlantic, and it ll bring some outbreaks of late showery ring to scotland. so starting off pretty grey and wet to the west, that will drift its way steadily east, allowing for an improvement. and at the same time, it stays pretty hot and humid in the southeast corner, and that could trigger off a few sharp thundery downpours. dodged the showers, keep the sunshine again, we could see highs of 27 celsius. but the real change arrives on friday. you can see quite clearly, more of a significant area of low pressure, tightly squeezed isobars around that centre of the low. so that means the strongest of the winds look likely through northern ireland and western scotland. gales not out of the question. and there will be some sharp showers and longer spells of rain as we go through the day. a little more cloud generally on friday, and as a result, not quite as warm. top temperatures of around 11 20 celsius that s 68 fahrenheit. so a fresher start to the weekend, but look at this for england and wales, as we go into next week, the heat is set to build yet again.
this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. my name is mike embley. brazil s daily death toll passes 1,000. it s now the third worst hit country in the world. pollution and the pandemic. the world sees a dramatic improvement in air quality. millions are moved from coastal areas as a huge cyclone bears down on the bay of bengal. and the mum and dad who never gave up. kidnapped at two years old, mao yin is finally reunited with his parents 32 years later.