this is bbc news. welcome if you re watching here in the uk or around the globe. i m aaron safir. our top stories: council members in minneapolis pledge to dismantle the city s police force following the death in custody there of george floyd. thousands of people continue to take part in peaceful protests against police brutality and racism in the us. huge crowds gather in cities and towns across the country. thousands of people across britain take part in more anti racism protests. in bristol a statue of a 17th century slave trader is torn down and rolled into the river. and in brazil hundreds of people have demonstrated there against president bolsonaro‘s response to the coronavirus. we start with news that minneapolis city council has voted to dismantle its police department. minneapolis is the city where two weeks ago the unarmed black man george floyd died after a police officer officers knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes triggering protest against racism and police brutality that have gone global. significant reform or even the defunding of the minneapolis police has emerged as a key demand of protesters in recent days. over the weekend, the mayor of the city jacob frey was forced away from a rally after he would not commit to abolishing the police. now, nine of minneapolis council s 13 members said they would create a new system of public safety, telling demonstrators the police department could not be fundamentally changed. miguel otarola is the minneapolis reporter for startribune and was at powderhorn park in minneapolis where the pledge was taken. speaking to me earlier he said the actual process of setting up a community led body might take several months. i want to be very clear that there has been no vote made yet, this isjust a verbal pledge, a statement made in front of more than 1000 people to say that they are committed to end the minneapolis police department. it s definitely a sign of action based on the last couple of weeks of reaction that we ve seen following the death of george floyd. what could this mean for the police force in the city? what kind of future can people start imagining now? we arejust beginning that conversation. in fact, inside the council itself, it s unclear what they mean by what it means. what it means to have the reform that so many people are doing right now. are asking for right now. already the minneapolis police department is under investigation over the past ten years. that is probably the most imminent thing they are facing and just on friday, the city council had voted to go ahead and ban the use of chokeholds and neck restraints, have police intervene with other officers who are using too much force, so already you are beginning to see some wheels in motion but this is likely going to be a process that takes months, if not more than a year. you hinted at previous cases of police brutality against african americans in minneapolis. why is it that previous attempts to reform the police department have failed? that s a great question. and honestly, when i go out into the protests, it s one of the main things i ask people that are out demonstrating. why do you think this feels so much different? there are many factors to put in play, whether it s the pandemic, people being cooped up for so long, wanting to show their actual feelings, maybe there is unemployment that goes into that, but honestly, when i speak to african american protesters, they say they feel why people also walk up to them and obviously this is something that is much bigger than minneapolis now. it s gone across the entire world, even london. miguel, i wonder what we re going to see, what you expect to see in your city over the next few days. now that this big announcement has been made, big concession has been made, other protests going to fizzle out, will they start focusing on another of their demands? what is your sense of what could happen? exactly. to be honest, i do not think this is going to be enough for the demonstrations to end. doi do i believe the city council will start to take a little bit more time and put in more community input when it comes to their future decisions? sure, i don t think there is going to be so many big decisions made in the coming days, but the demonstrations are sure not to end. the feelings against the police department and george floyd s death and the arrests and the charges, and the case, continue. here, demonstrators in bristol in the west of england, pulled down a bronze statue of a 17th century slave trader, edward colston, and threw it into the harbour. there were also a few skirmishes in london after an otherwise peaceful protest. the prime minister borisjohnson says that the anti racism protests across britain have been in his words subverted by thuggery. jon kay reports from bristol. chanting: take it down! 300 years after his death, edward colston‘s fall from grace. for centuries, he took pride of place in bristol, celebrated as a merchant, politician and philanthropist. now, reviled for his part in the slave trade. that statue represents years of oppression, it represents years of hurt and just a lot of emotion and hatred that has been built up inside of us, that we have internalised for years, and that coming down today hopefully signifies change, hopefully we have sent a message, notjust to everyone in the uk or the usa, worldwide. cast in bronze, now daubed with graffiti, one of bristol s most famous sons. some protesters knelt on his neck, a reference to the death of george floyd across the atlantic. this had begun as a black lives matter demonstration, but it ended in the historic docks, where colston‘s ships once sailed. cheering and yelling gone! jasmine is a trainee teacher. what do you say to somebody who lives in bristol who is horrified by the fact this is gone? people might say it s vandalism, but black people have to walk these streets, black slaves built bristol. we have to walk the streets and see that statue of colston every day. that is what it means. that statue is a kick in the face to all black people. there has been a growing campaign in recent years to remove colston‘s name from buildings across the city, but many feel destroying the statue was the wrong way to do it. tonight, there was a small counter protest, claiming local history had been trashed. sheer vandalism and disorder, is completely unacceptable, and it is right, actually, that the police follow up on that and make sure that justice is taken and undertaken with those individuals that are responsible for such disorderly and lawless behaviour. avon and somerset police say they deliberately took a low key approach to the whole protest, due to sensitivities, safety and social distancing. some people will look at this and think, hang on a minute, you should have intervened and stepped in and at least challenged the behaviour that was happening. this was a very difficult policing operation. there is a lot of context that sits around it and i believe we did the right thing. no regrets? no regrets. well, this evening, people are coming down here and laying placards and many are just standing, looking in disbelief at what has happened here, that in one afternoon, this city has challenged its history and changed its landscape. jon kay, bbc news, bristol. the tearing down of the statue of bristol slave trader edward colston followed a fresh wave of demands in america, for the removal of statues representing figures who fought for the confederates during the civil war there. on saturday, crowds in richmond tore down a statue of confederate general williams carter wickham which stood outside virginia commonwealth university. that followed the decision by virginia s governor to order the removal of a statue of the leading confederate solder robert e lee from the state s capital. earlier i spoke ashleigh lawrence sanders an assistant professor at dayton university specialising in public memory and african american history. i asked her why the death of george floyd has led to a resurgence of these damnds. well, we saw in the first wave of statue removals, it all began pretty much recently, i say all began, but the recent wave began in 2015 after the murders in charleston, south carolina. dylann roof, the murderer, was associated with white supremacist causes and used the confederate flag in many of his pictures, that sped up the removal of the confederate flag from the south carolina state house but also a questioning of the space of the legacy of the confederacy in public spaces throughout the south, so we saw eventually new orleans removed several of their monuments, baltimore removed some of their monuments. defence of the monuments coalesced in charlottesville, the unite the right rally where heather heyer was killed, because white nationalists gatherred to defend that monument. defending those, the conversation set back off a bit but as i said, that in addition to the massacre that happened in 2015, it was sort of a joining together of a lot of grassroots movements that had been put together on the ground by black lives matter in the previous year, 2014, 2015. local youth led protests, black led protests joined with long standing anti monument sentiment to help begin this conversation again on why these monuments are up in the first place and that s what we are seeing here right now, the linking of racial violence against african america ns with a long standing legacy of racial violence that statues represent. in bristol, we saw that statue being torn down by a mob. they were a happy mob, they were quite pleased with what they were doing and they had many supporters but they also had many detractors. also people who may well agree with the statue being taken down but not happy with being taken down in a lawless way. where do you stand on that? i think we need to be clear here there have been processes before to try to take down this statue before, the legal bureaucratic incrementalist processes of trying to petition, trying to ask your local leaders, but we are seeing these processes have not panned out. many cities after 2015 in the united states created monument commissions to look at the monuments and statues in their cities and i would say for a good chunk of them, the decision making process was not in the hands of people in the community, particularly not from those communities that were harmed by these people and the second thing is that these commissions did very little. in the case of charleston, where the massacre happened in 2015, where this sort of wave began, no confederate statue has come down. they had a commission. one of the outputs of the commission was a similar controversy as bristol, they wanted a plaque to contextualise the statue. but they couldn t even agree on the language of the plaque, the language of the plaque was controversial, they couldn t vote on it, they watered it down and there was a good chunk of black council members who are like, no, we should take the statue down. so these incrementalist processes have not served the people who have been particularly harmed. what i heard in that new segment just now, what the young lady was saying, if you are a black person in bristol or if you are a black person or charleston or richmond or these places, you have to walk by the statues every day and on top of that, in the united states at least, your taxpayer money, your public money that is supposed to be for everyone, is going to maintain these statues, millions of dollars has gone to maintain the statues and these monuments in the states over the years. new zealand has announced it has no active cases of covid 19. we re also hearing the prime ministerjacinda ardern who isjust the prime ministerjacinda ardern who is just confirming the country is lifting a lot of restrictions and moving to level one. it will have one of the most open economies in the world. let s have a listen. there is a reason our borders remain. 0urfirst line of defence is we are not to import the right virus. borders remain in ourcomparable countries as well. it will continue and will be as important as ever as we know this is a potential pathway. that is key because we want to just not moved to level one, we wa nt to just not moved to level one, we want to stay there. so there is a key asked that i have of all of you today and of businesses. we are asking that businesses and services where the public visit and enter, to provide the public to maintain their own diaries of where they have been. so are all of government tea m been. so are all of government team will continue working with groups, businesses, hospitality firms, churches, schools, others, to encourage them to display qr codes via posters at the entrance of premises. most of you will have seen at businesses you are out and about ad over the weekend. so that everyone can maintain their diaries through the new zealand covid trace out. manual signing is no longer required but we do ask that you put up a qr poster at the door of your business if you are a premises so business if you are a premises so people can just scan it and keep a record for themselves. 0ngoing improvements will be made to ensure these qr posters are as assessable for as possible for businesses. accessible. we have also worked with the events sector or a volunteer qr code to ensure that at these bigger events, where we think the virus can spread more where we think the virus can spread more over where we think the virus can spread more over large groups. the reason for that is a simple, if we get one or two cases in the future which will remain possible for some time to come due to the global situation and nature of the virus, we need to shut down these cases fast. the last thing, asi these cases fast. the last thing, as i say, we want to do, is move the cup the alert level system again. so, this is a key new behaviour we are asking all new zealanders to adopt at level one. you can do and go wherever you like, wejust asked you keep a record of where you have been by scanning in orjust by noting down your movements for yourself. i have one more thing to ask. at level two, agencies have been managing the return of employees to work with around 50% of people back at their places of work last week. now, at level one, you can, unless you feel unwell, back to your place of work. there has been some fantastic adaptation over the past couple of months with flexible working and this is progress that has helped people with care arrangement, help people avoid congestion, and those are things we should not lose, but we can balance that with also ensuring that we have a thriving cbd ‘s. for our part, we have asked the state services commission to issue new workplace guidance to make it clear that every workplace sector should return to the usual place of work, taking into account flexible work policies. we have got to level one. now let s make our next goal supporting our recovery right across the economy. i know that having such a firm site on success for so long has sometimes made the road we have taken seem longer and the steps we have taken seem more laboured. at every step, they have been those that have pushed us to do something different, to go faster or further, our collective results, i think, further, our collective results, ithink, speak further, our collective results, i think, speakfor themselves. their caution and ha rd themselves. their caution and hard work got us down the mountain safely when the descent is almost always the most perilous part. moving to level one now is the dividend for everyone s hard work for 110w. for everyone s hard work for now. but we need our team of 5 million for the next phase, and thatis million for the next phase, and that is to get new zealand moving again. as we move from the collective call to action to unite against covid 19, to unite for recovery. i encourage you to buy, play and experience new zealand made to get our country moving again. consider itan country moving again. consider it an extra form of support to visit our country, to buy our local products and to support oui’ local products and to support our local businesses. for my part, this week is about the government s recovery efforts and focus on jobs and you will be seeing that in my agenda. tomorrow, i will be in the bay of plenty, is eating a kiwifruit and avocado pack house to see we have how we can further help the sector. horticulture has picked up 13 hundred workers that have lost theirjobs due to covid 13,000. also giving the equivalent of the unemployment benefit to those who might be relied on it. at an electrical business installing solar power and heat pumps. 0n business installing solar power and heat pumps. on wednesday, i will be in kaikoura for a tourism enactment. 0n will be in kaikoura for a tourism enactment. on thursday, iam in tourism enactment. on thursday, i am in auckland making a health and infrastructure announcement and on friday, living a 30 million investment to restart the economy. i will speak at a summit. that is the new zealand prime minister jacinda ardern giving an update on good news for new zealand was not essentially easing what is one of the world s most district lockdowns because the country has no active cases of coronavirus. let s speak to phil mercer who s in sydney. it s a significant easing in new zealand but not a complete return to normal life, is it? no, it s a big step back to what life was like before the pandemic. wejust what life was like before the pandemic. we just heard from jacinda ardern, the prime minister in wellington, that the country had united to crush the country had united to crush the virus so what level one means is that it will be no restrictions on the number of people allowed at gatherings, for example, but crucially new zealand ‘s international borders will remain closed so from mid night tonight, injust under nine hours time, that level one alert level comes into effect so a big step forward for new zealand. they did back in march introduce some of the toughest block down measures to try to stem the spread of covid 19 anywhere in the world and there have been no active cases in new zealand for 17 days in a row and that s why we ve been hearing from the prime minister, jacinda ardern, and her goal now is to re reignite the economy after being in hibernation for the best pa rt being in hibernation for the best part of three months. and phil, throughout this process in new zealand, the prime minister, the government are really ta ke n minister, the government are really taken the people with them. there s been no drop off in support for the government which we ve seen and a lot of other countries? i think in the last few days, maybe the last week or so, there has been mounting political and public pressure on the government to announce when level one, the level one alert level will come in because of the fact that there are no active cases in new zealand anymore but the new zealand government has been steadfast in its approach. jacinda ardern said right at the start that her country would go early and hard and introduce those very strict lockdown measures, when they we re lockdown measures, when they were just lockdown measures, when they werejust 100 lockdown measures, when they werejust100 confirmed countries cases in the country but in the last few days there has been pressure on the government to win back restrictions to try to allow new zealand to get back to something approaching normal and as we say, in about nine hours time, that alert level one will come into effect in those strict loch down measures will end for now at least. phil mercer in sydney, thank you for bringing us up to date? up to date. the new suspect in the madeleine mccann case has been described as strange and intimidating by people in the portuguese village where he stayed around the time of the child s disappearance in 2007. 0ne resident claimed people were terrified of the man identified by the german authorities as christian b because he carried a gun. 0ur correspondent gavin lee sent this report. this small village is where christian b is said to have stayed in the weeks after the disappearance of madeleine mccann. the suspect is reported to have turned up here, 30 miles from where she went missing, without money, asking for work. christian b is understood to have stayed in this village for several months, and was often seen at this restaurant and with his campervan that police have appealed for information on, and several people have told us they found him strange and that he was intimidating. they said he spent time with two friends who rented this house and claimed they were fostering german children. this woman, who asked not to be identified, rented the property to the couple. she says locals feared him, and he was seen with a weapon on his belt. everybody was really terrified of him, because my friend s daughter had a health issue, a mental health issue, and my friend was very scared that, you know, he could he could really do something to her. and being seen with a gun, i suppose, you know, people would be frightened. in germany, police are also investigating the suspect over the disappearance of five year old inga in 2015. and the father of another german child, six year old rene, who went missing from this algarve beach in 1996, says police have told him there could be a link. this local fireman was part of the search team. translation: we never had any evidence about where rene had been seen. one person said he was near the river, but wasn t very sure. normally, when people drown in this part of the coast, a body appears after a few hours. in four days since the new madeleine mccann appeal, police have received almost 400 tip offs from the public, help which is vital, they say, if there is to be a breakthrough in this case. gavin lee, bbc news, portugal. england and manchester city footballer raheem sterling has backed protests taking place across the uk, saying the only disease right now is the racism that we are fighting . he s been speaking to the bbc‘s newsnight programme. the only disease right now is the racism we are fighting. i think right now, this is the most important thing is, at this moment in time, because this moment in time, because this is something that s been happening for years and years and just like the pandemic, we wa nt to and just like the pandemic, we want to find some solutions to stop it. the samsung group heir lee jae yong has appeared in court for a hearing to determine whether he should be jailed over allegations of accounting fraud. south korean prosecuters sought the warrant last week over suspicions of stock price manipulation and perjury, among other offences. the heir to the world s largest maker of computer chips and smartphones has already spent about a year in jail on a separate charge of bribery. a reminder of our top story before we go. councilmembers in the us city of minneapolis have pledged to dismantle the city s release force, a key demand of protesters following the death in custody there of george floyd. his death of course sparking protests across the united states and the world. that s it from me and the team. you can reach me on twitter i m @aaronsafir. hello there. the first week of summer has certainly brought a big change in the weather pattern. over the weekend, cool northerly winds, some rain, and a good deal of cloud around as well. interestingly, at loftus, in redcar and cleveland, there s been more rain in the last week than we ve had during the whole of spring. the start of the new week, though, looks a lot drier. the winds won t be as strong either. that s because we ve got this area of high pressure, or at least the nose of it, heading towards the uk. may not last long, but for a while, it will keep those weather fronts at bay from the north west of the uk. now, many places will have a dry day on monday, the sunshine coming and going. there ll still be a few light showers blown onto some of those north sea coasts, and during the afternoon, watch out for some heavy, slow moving showers in wales and the south west of england. but, on the whole, a lot of dry weather around. temperatures not very different from what we had on sunday, but you will find that the winds are a good deal lighter today. and those light winds continue into the evening. it shouldn t be too long before we see the back of those showers from the south west, and overnight into tuesday morning, it s going to be dry pretty much everywhere. a fair bit of cloud around, perhaps not quite as chilly across scotland and the north east of england as it will be first thing on monday morning. well, moving into tuesday, and there s still quite a lot of cloud in the picture. and whilst most places will be dry, there s the odd shower developing through the day ahead of the main change, which is this band of rain here arriving into western scotland and northern ireland, probably very late on in the day on tuesday, if not into the evening. temperatures still on the cool side, though, for many. 15 17 degrees. and then more significant changes arrive from mid week onwards. we ve got that weather front driving some rain southwards. pressure is dropping, we end up with an area of low pressure a cross the uk on wednesday. so we ve got some cloud, we ve got some outbreaks of rain pushing towards the south east. and whilst it may well brighten up a bit further north, look at all the showers developing, and those actually could be heavy and thundery. and because there s more cloud, because there s more rain around, temperatures will be a bit lower, 14 16 degrees. that area of low pressure is still going to be around during thursday and perhaps into friday. it s drifting further south, as well. so the wetter weather as we head towards the latter part of the week more likely to be across england and wales. we ll see the winds picking up, but by the end of the week, it could be a warmer wind.
this is bbc news, the headlines: a majority of the minneapolis city council has promised to dismantle its police department. the move follows the death of an unarmed black man, george floyd, in minneapolis police custody, nearly two weeks ago. council members said they would create a new system of public safety. in the us, large numbers of people are continuing to take part in peaceful protests against police brutality and racism. tens of thousands gathered in cities including washington and new york, as well as small towns across the country. new zealand has announced that it has no active cases of covid 19 for the first time since the end of february. the health ministry says the last person who was being monitored for coronavirus has now been released from isolation as he s been symptom free and is regarded as having recovered. now on bbc news it s time for hardtalk.
a very warm welcome to bbc news. my name s mike embley, with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the brother of george floyd testifies before congress, calling for real change in american policing. my family cry every day and just ask why? why? britain s prime minister announces a further easing of the coronavirus lockdown, but only in england. we are making this change to support those, particularly lonely citizens. a virus warning for indian capital. officials say there could be 500,000 coronavirus cases in delhi by the end of next month. and as the landmark film gone with the wind is dropped from hbo because of its depiction of slavery, we ll look at the arguments around censorship and sensitivity. hello to you. the brother of george floyd, whose death in the custody of minneapolis police has triggered protests around the world, has urged congress to ensure he did not die in vain. philonise floyd called on lawmakers in washington to work together to make meaningful reforms to how law enforcement operates in the us, with the hope that changes worldwide might follow. this report from our north america correspondent, aleem maqbool. less than 2a hours ago philonise floyd, in the white suit, buried his brother in texas. mr floyd, what do you hope to tell the committee today? justice for george. today he came to washington to plead with politicians to ensure that george wasn t killed in vain. his kids had to watch that video, itjust hurts. it s a lot of people with. a lot of pain. my family, they just cry and cry every day and just ask why? why? he pleaded for his life, he said he couldn t breathe. nobody cared, nobody. it was all part of an emotional hearing about what changes need to be made to police practices. some forces, like the one in minneapolis where george floyd was killed, say they are going to reform anyway, but acknowledge training can t solve all their ills. i ve struggled when i watched that video, that i did not see humanity, i did not see humanity. and arguably a lack of humanity has been displayed by many police over the last two weeks, but it s clear not all officers are going to welcome change. this isn t stained by someone in minneapolis, it s still got a shine on it and so do theirs, so do theirs. stop treating us like animals and thugs and start treating us with some respect. back on capitol hill there was a powerful testimony from the sister of an officer who was shot dead in violence on the streets two weeks ago. my brother wore a uniform, he wore the uniform proudly. i am wondering where is the outrage for a fallen officer that also happens to be african american? the pain being felt by so many here is raw, but there are no easy solutions. aleem maqbool, bbc news, washington. the us secretary of state has promised an investigation into allegations that foreign journalists were abused by american police as they covered the protests ignited by the death of george floyd. australia, britain and germany have voiced concern over video of journalists coming under direct attack from officers. i know they have been concerns of their reporters being treated inappropriately here. we ve seen some of the allegations come in from the state department. you should know and those countries should know we will handle them in a completely appropriate way. we a completely appropriate way. will do our best to investigate we will do our best to investigate them to the extent that the state department can do that. here in the uk, the prime minister has announced that lockdown rules in england will be eased from saturday for adults living alone, and single parents with children under the age of 18. they will be able to form what the prime minister minister is calling a support bubble with another household. it means a grandparent can go and stay with their grandchildren, no longer social distancing, or a couple who ve been kept apart by lockdown can spend the night together, or a single parent can link up with their own parents or a friend. the rules say you can only choose one other household for your bubble, but you won t have to register that it s being done on trust. borisjohnson said the measure was to help those who ve been particularly lonely during lockdown. the latest official figures from the government show 216 more deaths from coronavirus registered in the past 2a hours, taking the overall death toll in the uk, at least officially, to 41,128. that s the second highest in the world after the us. here s our political editor, laura kuenssberg. keepers, not crowds have fed the penguins in the last few months. as we creep out of lockdown, the birds and animals will soon have company again. it was sort of getting to a point where we didn t really understand why we couldn t open. so the news is really good. zoos, safari parks and outdoor cinemas can reopen, along with shops from next week, as long as, as you are well used to hearing by now, everyone keeps their distance. and for millions of humans in england life will soon change indoors too. from this weekend, we will allow single adult households, or single parents with children under 18, to form a support bubble with one other household. all those in support bubbles will be able to act as if they live in the same household. for single mum becky and her mum alexandra in gloucester, that could means a real life reunion soon after weeks of very limited contact. the comfort for me of being in my mum s house, having a cup of tea, having dinner with her and for my little boy having a roast dinner at his nanny‘s on a sunday is everything for him. so i can t wait to be able to do that. how as prime minister have you allowed a situation to arise where a child can go and look at lions in a zoo, a single relative will now be able to go and have sunday dinner with their family, but in many situations that same child might not be able to go back to school until september? we would like to be in a position where we could have got the remainder of the primary back for a couple of weeks before the summer holidays. we wanted to do that if that was going to be possible. clearly we have got it right down, but it is not down far enough to change the social distancing measures that we have in our schools. labour claims boris johnson just is not taking proper control. drive in cinemas, safari parks and zoos can open and yet we can t get more children back into school. that is really a disgrace and the government have been asleep at the wheel. government need to do much more to ensure that our young people can get back into school and that will also help their parents get back to work. but life is still limited, livelihoods too. buy easter time, farmland s funfair should look like this. instead it is all packed up in an empty field in devon. this is the dodgems that should be out, taking money and entertaining people. the owners have no income and no idea when the waltzers will be able to spin and the dodgems be driven. no one is letting us know, the government is not letting us know, what the situation is. and to be quite truthful, at the minute, we re desperate. the gradualjourney out of lockdown is now under way. caution may be wise. but for so many families and firms the moves are painfully slow. laura kuenssberg, bbc news, westminster. india is being hit hard by coronavirus. with more than 250,000 confirmed cases, hospitals are stuggling to cope. it s predicted that india s capital, delhi, could have more than 500,000 infected people by the end ofjuly. and yet the nation is re opening its economy. india correspondent yogita limaye reports from mumbai, the city that has been worst affected so far. a family that was preparing for a celebration, now in mourning. for 13 hours, they went from hospital to hospital. nilam singh was eight months pregnant. when she started getting breathless, some hospitals said they were too full because of covid 19. others were too scared of it. she died in an ambulance. i feel so alone, i have no words. my son asked me where his mother is, i don t know what to say to him. she was such a good person, we are devastated, her husband, rajinder singh, says. this man is pleading for his wife to be treated. he says hospitals are turning him away. after many hours, she was admitted. social media is flooded with people calling for help. a woman in delhi made a desperate appealfor herfather. a former mp struggled to save his niece. a mumbaifamily lost two members before they could get proper care. too many stories of despair and helplessness. and even as the situation is grimmer than ever, india is lifting its lockdown. economic compulsions have driven the government to open up the country again. and for many people even in hot spots like mumbai, there is no option now to avoid public transport or to stay indoors. and every time they step out, it s with the knowledge and fear that if you get sick you could well be on your own. frontline workers say not enough was done to contain the virus. what we were expecting from the lockdown is the first thing that we will try to break the chain of infection. we will try to break the spread. and for that, what was needed is to do extensive testing but now what we have seen is that the lockdown was very unplanned. there could be more than half a million cases in delhi alone by the end ofjuly, the government has said. and a shortage of 80,000 hospital beds. the moment that many had feared since the virus reached the country is here. yogita limaye, bbc news india. scientists are still not sure how many people get coronavirus from those who are infected but have no symptoms. the world health organization has admitted it s a big unknown, some think it s rare for the virus to spread that way, others fear those so called asymptomatic cases are responsible for close to half of all infections. here s our science editor, david shukman. this is a message from the government s chief medical 0fficer about coronavirus. if you, or anyone in your household. for months, government advice has focused on symptoms, how you must isolate if you get them. you should all stay at home. but what about people who don t look as if they have the disease, but are still carrying the virus? like paramedic chelsey mason, who had a test for coronavirus and expected to be clear. i felt absolutely fine. i came into work and had the test done and then, a couple of days later, i got a call back saying it was positive. so, really shocked, because i had no symptoms whatsoever. so, how many cases are there without symptoms? a study at addenbrooke‘s hospital in cambridge found that 3% of the staff were positive, but didn t show it. in the us, at a care home in washington state, the numbers were higher. 56% of people with the virus had no indication of being ill. and on the diamond princess, a cruise ship offjapan, as many as 72% of positive cases showed no symptoms at all. so, why does it matter if people have the infection, but don t have any symptoms? well, for two reasons. first, if someone becomes infected, it may take five days before they show any signs of illness, but for the 48 hours before their symptoms start, they could be passing the virus on. then there s the category of people who catch the virus and at no stage have any symptoms at all maybe for ten days or more, no one really knows, and scientists are desperate to find out how much they can spread the virus. one of the first things i thought about really was, oh, my god! i ve done two night shifts, i ve come into contact with, you know, six or seven patients per night. i ve been with my crew mate for 12 hours. you know, as much as we minimise the risk, there is still that risk there. and with me being positive and not knowing about it, i could have passed it on. if you lower your window for me, i ll pass the test to you. working out what s going on now is really difficult. the government is mainly testing people who may have symptoms. those who don t might slip through the net. so, scientists in norwich want to test the entire city 100,000 people. they say it s the only way to discover who s spreading the virus. if you don t realise you re ill, as we come out of lockdown and people are going to have more contacts than they did previously, the risk from those individuals is likely to increase. the upshot is that keeping a safe distance still matters, and where you can t, governments around the world are recommending face coverings in case you ve got the virus and don t know it. david shukman, bbc news. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: kicking over the statues campaigners in scotland take aim at monuments to 18th century slave owners. the day the british liberated the falklands. and by tonight, british troops had begun the task of disarming the enemy. in the heart of the west german capital, this was gorby mania at its height. the crowd packed to see the man who for them has raised great hopes for an end to the division of europe. it happened as the queen moved towards horse guards parade for the start of trooping the colour. gunshots the queen looks worried, but recovers quickly. as long as they ll pay to go and see me, i ll get out there and kick ‘em down the hill. what does it feel like to be the first man to go across the channel by your own power? it feels pretty neat. it feels marvellous, really. this is bbc news, the latest headlines: the brother of george floyd has told the us congress there must be meaningful changes to america s policing practices. there will be a further easing of the lockdown restrictions for single people living in england. from saturday, they ll be able to form support bubbles with one other household. the multiple oscar winning film, gone with the wind, has been removed from the american streaming platform hbo max, after the company reassessed its policy following mass protests against racism. the company said the film, made in 1939, would return with a discussion of its historical context and a denouncement of those depictions. disney plus also advises its subscribers that some of its older films, among them 1941 animation, dumbo, may contain outdated cultural depictions. the cable network, paramount, has cancelled one of america s longest running reality shows amid the protests. cops was first aired more than three decades ago. and here in the uk the programme little britain has been removed from bbc iplayer, netflix and britbox as objections resurfaced over some of the sketch show‘s characters, who put on make up to portray people from different ethnic backgrounds. gina yashere is a british comedian and writer, currently in los angeles, making a sitcom broadcast prime time on cbs network, about a family of nigerian immigrants settling in america. basically it is about a family of nigerians in america working and one of them is a nurse and she basically has a patient in hospital who has a heart attack and basically falls in hospital who has a heart attack and basically falls in love with her. two families that realise they have a lot more common ground than initially thought. it is about love, acceptance, friendship and the fa ct acceptance, friendship and the fact that immigrants are just people just like anybody else, trying to make a living, trying to have a happy life, trying to give their children the best life they possibly can. you are well placed to talk about this matter because you wrote and act in it. even at the time some of these movies were made, there were plenty of people unhappy but they just were not being listened to. exactly, i cannot understand that in 2020 we are still talking about blackface. no one was listening to us and we were complaining about it, all the way back in the gone with the wind, the black and white minstrel shows which is hugely offensive and the way native americans were portrayed in films, cowboys and indians, but now it takes a horrendous motor seen online to make people realise maybe blackface is not good, come on, it is ridiculous. the first black person to win an oscar one it with gone with the wind. we should also note that at the ceremony she had to sit separately from the rest of the cast. they would not even let her in the room. she won an 0scar her in the room. she won an oscar and she was not allowed to be in the room. they brought in through the back door to get home award. she was in separate place completely. people also suggesting, it is unfair to say, supporters of donald trump, blazing saddles is also in their targets. the trump supporters are always going to say things like that, i am not interested in people saying that they will be treated in such a horrible way. black people were discriminated horribly. they were not even allowed to play black people. plenty of black actors to play the part and they were discriminated all the time. the fa ct discriminated all the time. the fact that people were complaining now, iam not interested in what the donald trump supporters have to say on the matter. movies, books, tell us the matter. movies, books, tell usa the matter. movies, books, tell us a lot about the time in which they came out. it surely does not make sense they should be simply removed but we need context, told about them and the times. yes, but that is not what is happening. both of the nation was another hugely racist movie made and that was of the time that is not a movie people gladly show because it is offensive so why are they arguing about these things now. is it because it featured the kkk? what is the difference. i am not saying that you should censor the whole thing but what iam censor the whole thing but what i am saying is people should be aware that some of this stuff is not good. amen to that, gina, thank you very much. you are welcome. since a statue of the slave trader edward colston was toppled in the english city of bristol at the weekend, there have been calls for similar monuments to be removed, across the uk. scotland s first minister nicola sturgeon says she wants to establish a special commission, to look at the issue. in edinburgh, the monument to the imperialist henry dundas has prompted fierce debate, as allan little reports. 200 years after he died, henry dundas still stands on his looming pedestal in edinburgh. for decades, he was the most powerful figure in scotland. he served as home secretary, extended british power in india, and notoriously delayed the abolition of slavery for 15 years. at the weekend, his plinth was dogged with graffiti, as well as a street bearing his name. should he now be removed? we have curriculums at schools where people can deep dive into good people, bad people, and complex people, and also people of their time. whether they need to be in a place where we have to walk past them every day and subconsciously salute to them because they are larger than us, i don t know. history needs its villains as well as its heroes. in bristol, edward colston will be fished from the sea and placed in a museum to be a reminder of the darkness in the city s past, rather than an object of public veneration. bute house, the official residence of scotland s first minister, was once home to men who owned slave plantations in the west indies. today, nicola sturgeon said it is time to take a hard look at the way our streets continue to honour those who profited from human misery. i live in glasgow. i represent a constituency in glasgow, and i ve heard both opinions. rename all of the streets on the one hand, which i ve got a lot of sympathy for, but on the other hand, don t brush under the carpet the history, the shameful part of our country s history. the people who put henry dundas on his column 200 years ago wanted future generations to know that, in his day, he was revered, that the values he embodied and defended were regarded by his contemporaries as great public virtues. many argue that it is precisely to remember that that s what our country used to be like, that he should stay where he is. if you take the statue down, you will be removing some of the evidence of the history of scotland. it s that serious. my view is, i would rather have a plaque on it to explain what he did. and i would hope that tourists or the general public can learn something about our history by going over there and looking at his plaque. in edinburgh, the city council said it would put a plaque on the dundas column, explaining henry s role in prolonging the slave trade. when we put up a statue, we are signalling to posterity something about the values of our age. but posterity will make its own judgement in the light of its own values. allan little, bbc news, edinburgh. a brief military ceremony to mark the queen s official birthday will be staged at windsor castle this saturday in place of trooping the colour, which was cancelled because of coronavirus. the queen will be greeted by a royal salute before a series of military drills socially distanced of course are carried out. a reminder of our top story: the brother of george floyd, whose death in the custody of minneapolis police has triggered protests around the world, has urged congress to ensure he did not die in vain. he called on lawmakers in washington to work together to make meaningful reforms to how law enforcement operates in the us, with the hope that changes worldwide might follow. much more for you any time on all the news national and international on the bbc website and you can reach me and most of the team on twitter. i m @bbcmikeembley. thank you for watching. it does not look like the weather is ready to settle down anytime soon. it has been raining quite heavily across the south west of england, western parts of wales, all thanks to this weather front moving across the uk. quite sluggishly really, overcast skies across much of the country. for most of us it has just been patchy rain here and there, and the heaviest of the rain has indeed been across parts of cornwall, devon. it is now clearing away from wales. the little bits of pieces further north and actually scotland and northern ireland escaping most of that rain. 10 degrees will be morning temperature. so here are the occasional showers during the middle of the day. a lot of cloud across england and wales, with a few glimmers of brightness. and then we see another spell of rain heading towards eastern parts of the uk, thursday, late afternoon and evening. and that rain is sort of going to barrel across the uk, across the pennines, into parts of wales but, all the while, scotland and northern ireland escape all of that weather so actually, during thursday, this is where the best weather will be, in northern ireland, and particularly western parts of scotland. low pressure is pretty much stuck end of the week to the south of us, it s stuck around the bay of biscay but, within this area of low pressure, there is actually quite a lot of fairly warm and humid aircircling. that warm and humid air heading our way but, with it, also comes the return of this weather front so that does mean that on friday we are anticipating again a dose of heavy rain, particularly across the south south west, and into wales as well and, again, the best of the weather will be the further north you are, in fact cracking weather there in the north of scotland but it will be cooler there, around 1a degrees. that weather front will make its journey a little bit further north during saturday and to the south of that, we ll probably see showers breaking up, the possibility of some thunderstorms as well. this is actually humid air streaming in from the south. those temperatures will be rising. given a bit of sunshine, we could see highs into the mid 20s across the south. 20 degrees or so on saturday in glasgow. but in western scotland, still a lot of sunshine around. and here s sunday again, the best of the weather i think the further north you are. in the south we still could catch some thunderstorms. bye bye.
this is bbc news. the headlines: the brother of george floyd, whose death in police custody in minneapolis has ignited anti racism protests around the world, has called for meaningful changes in american policing. philonise floyd told a congressional hearing his brother s death did not have to be in vain. democrats have introduced legislation on police reforms in congress. the british prime minister has announced an easing of lockdown restrictions for single people, but only in england. from saturday, they ll be able to form support bubbles with one other household, allowing them to stay at each other‘s homes without social distancing. authorties in the indian capital delhi have warned that coronavirus infections in the city could shoot up to more than 500,000 by the end ofjuly. they say the city would need 80,000 hospital beds by that time, compared with its current capacity ofjust 9,000. health experts in england are warning that the number of people on nhs waiting lists could double to 10 million
this is bbc news, with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. test and trace systems get underway in england and scotland today, as part of a more targeted approach to tackling coronavirus. scientists say it s not a magic bullet but government ministers hope it will allow lockdowns restrictions to be eased across the uk. if we all participate in this system when asked, then we ll be able to more safely lift the lockdown measures and lift the sort of the aggregate national lockdown by having this more targeted approach. beijing overwhelmingly endorses a hugely controversial bill that paves the way for a tough new security law in hong kong. translation: this is a major move to practice one country, two systems and is also in line with china s constitution and the basic law of hong kong. the number of people who ve died with covid 19 in the united states has now passed 100,000. south korea is re imposing some social restrictions in its main cities, to combat a small spike in coronavirus cases. nissan has announced the closure of its factory in barcelona with the loss of almost 3,000 jobs however, its sunderland production plant in the uk will remain open. hello and welcome if you re watching in the uk or around the world. we are covering the latest coronavirus stories here and globally. first. new coronavirus test and trace systems have gone live in england and scotland this morning. in an attempt to keep infection outbreaks contained, anyone who s been in close contact with someone who has tested positive will now be contacted and asked to self isolate. the uk government has said the english the system will change people s lives scientists think it could prevent between 5 15% of cases. northern ireland has its own version of the programme already up and running and in wales, their scheme is due to start in earlyjune. in the united states, more than 100,000 people have now died from covid i9. apologies, that should say 100,000. that is the figure there. that s more than the combined total of american fatalities from the korean, vietnam and iraq wars. south korea is re introducing tougher social distancing measures after officials there recorded a fresh spike in coronavirus infections. 79 new cases were identified on thursday the highest daily figure for nearly two months. first, with this report on the test and trace system being rolled out in parts of the uk, here s charlotte rose. we ve all got used to the slogans and rules for tackling covid 19, but, from today, there s a further change, as parts of the uk move into the test and trace phase. the aim is to start to ease the nationwide lockdown and only bring it back in places where there s an outbreak. so, how will test and trace work in england? if you get symptoms a high fever, persistent cough or loss of taste and smell you must self isolate and order a test. if you test positive, the contact tracer will identify people who you ve been close enough to pass the virus to. those contacts will be either classed as low or high risk. contact tracers will then get in touch with people who might be at risk. they ll be asked to isolate for 1h days, or get tested themselves if they develop symptoms. you might remember an app which was being trialled on the isle of wight. that s not yet ready to be launched across england, so it s not part of government plans. the new system will be dependent on people following the rules around self isolation. if you are contacted by nhs test and trace, instructing you to isolate, you must. it is your civic duty. so you avoid unknowingly spreading the virus and you help to break the chain of transmission. but some remain cautious about how well the new system will cope. you absolutely need rapid test turnaround. the international standard is you should get the test results back within 24 hours. there are far too many places, in terms of our trusts, the trusts that we represent, but also care homes who are saying they can t get results back any quicker than, for example, an average of 3 5 days. later today, scotland s first minister nicola sturgeon is set to announce plans for an easing in lockdown measures. the first minister s already announced plans for a scottish test and protect system. northern ireland has already launched its tracing system and wales is set to follow next week. it comes as a further 412 people died with coronavirus yesterday, taking the total number of deaths to 37,460. 117,013 tests were done yesterday, with 2,013 people testing positive. those people living in england will be the first to be contacted today as the new system launches. the government hopes these new measures will help to start to allow the economic and social recovery from the virus. charlotte rose, bbc news. 0ur health correspondent, catherine burns, is here with me now. hello to you, catherine. the test entries getting under way today but news of some teething problems? we ve heard from a tracer who has tried to log on and can t but there are 35,000 trying to logon and maybe thatis are 35,000 trying to logon and maybe that is it. many traces are starting to make those calls, texts and e mails to around a dozen people who tested positive yesterday. 0k, e mails to around a dozen people who tested positive yesterday. ok, that is how it works, they will essentially be trying to deal on a given day with the cases of people who have tested positive the previous day, get lots of information from them. it depends, of course, as we have already been discussing so far today, on people being open and being honest about where they have been, what they have been doing, even if that wasn t keeping to a social distance. we are trying to break the chains of transmission here but every chain relies on its weakest link. there s a few things. the tests need to come through quickly. the new target is 24 hour is. i had blood on monday i didn t get it to last night, so that s one thing, the tests need to come through quickly. the second thing is people need to be honest. they need to say what they have done, who they have seen and then, those further contacts need to all agreed to self isolate. 0ne those further contacts need to all agreed to self isolate. one way to see this is this is a waiter or open up see this is this is a waiter or open up the country for most people, for the many, but at the same time it will be toughening things for the few who seem to be at risk here. 0k, so some few who seem to be at risk here. 0k, so some people will be asked to take further measures, further steps to lock themselves down for the greater good. so say you get a call and you are told that you have been in contact with someone who does have the virus. the assay, actually, i had the virus weeks ago, i m fine. is that the case? tough luck! hancock has been on today talking about this, at this stage, is someone about this, at this stage, is someone who has had it, it doesn t matter. if you get the call, because we don t know how long immunity lasts for, if you get a call saying you have been in contact with someone, you have you have been in contact with someone, you have to go into isolation for two weeks. what about the members of your household, the same? know, unless you or someone in the house develop symptoms. this isn t just staying at the house develop symptoms. this isn tjust staying at home, it is isolating at home. not lockdown as we know it but a step up from that. 0k, important to emphasise, isolate, not just stay at home. 0k, important to emphasise, isolate, notjust stay at home. you need to behave as if you have the virus. let say you are perfectly well and you get the call and someone says, go into isolation. you may feel perfectly well but you have to behave as if you have it. that is staying away from your family. if you then feel ill, you can get tested and have a certain answer but until you know otherwise, you behave as if you have it. catherine, thank you for that. ministers will meet their scientific advisers today to finalise plans for the next phase of easing the lockdown in england. the measures are reviewed every three weeks. an announcement is expected at today s downing street news conference. 0ur assistant political editor, norman smith, is at westminster. norman, first of all, as catherine was saying, this test and trace system depends on a few things. it depends on people being absolutely open and honest with the contact tracers and those tests getting turned around really quickly. what is the government saying about its capacity to get in touch with people and, indeed, to get those test results turned around really quickly? at the moment, they are talking a good game on the test and trace system. they say they have around 25,000 people ready to trace people and that is more than enough, they believe, to make the system operate, in terms of the tests. yes, there is still quite a lot of tests that take longer than 2a hours. they haven t set a date for getting 224 hours but that is their aspiration. in terms of people complying with these new rules, they remain hopeful. for getting it down to 24 hours. by and large, people have been a good deal more compliant than ministers had hoped for. added to which, i think significantly, the new system will be relatively light touch to start with. there will be no fines, no checking up, you won t have placement knocking on the door demanding to know if you are cell self isolating. and crucially it will be fronted by the nhs. it won t be the government ordering you to do things, it will be clinicians asking you to do things. so there is a hope that that softly softly approach will land better with the public and people will be more ready to go along with that. before moving to the next stage, when the app is rolled out in the middle ofjune. but it is, as matt hancock was saying this morning, going to depend on people doing, as he puts it, their civil duty. all of this is about doing the very best that we can, not only my team, the people who are working in nhs test and trace, but also all of us who are participating those who test positive and those who are contacts and so get the communication from nhs test and trace that they need to self isolate. if everybody does our best, then we will get that rate of transmission down and we ll break the chain of transmission from the virus more often. i suppose in the real world, the hope is that for many people, reporting on who they have come into contact with will also be, to some extent, in the interests of their family and friends because by and large, the people you come into closest contact with are your nearest and dearest. so there is a hope that people, because they will wa nt to hope that people, because they will want to protect their family and friends, will be quite determined to make sure those people do self isolate and do look after themselves. so, at the moment, i think they are broadly optimistic that people, even though these are entirely new restrictions, will be ready to go along with them. 0k, norman, thank you. norman smith at westminster. members of the chinese legislature the national people s congress have overhelmingly endorsed sweeping and controversial new security laws for hong kong. the bill, which now passes to china s senior leadership, has caused deep concern among those who say it could end hong kong s unique status. here s a look at what the law will do. firstly, it will criminalise conduct in hong kong that harms national security a measure pro democracy campaigners fear could be used to target them. it permits china s national intelligence agencies to set up offices in hong kong, to oversee its enforcement. beijing will also be able to place the measure into the basic law that s the mini constitution on how hong kong is run effectively bypassing the territories own lawmakers. li zhanshu a member of the chinese communist party s standing committee welcomed the law at the closing ceremony of the national people s congress. translation: this meeting deliberates and approves a draft decision of the national people s congress for establishing a legal system and enforcement mechanism for hong kong, to safeguard national security. this is a major move to practice one country, two systems and is also in line with china s constitution and the basic law of hong kong. it also aligns with the fundamental interests of people in mainland china, as well as hong kong residents. 0ur correspondent stephen mcdonell said that it was no suprise the national people s congress overwhelmingly approved the legislation. look, it s a rubber stamp session. there was never going to be any resisting this at the national people s congress, but even so, 2787 in favour and only one against, with six abstentions, it is quite something! however, what it means, though, is that this bill will now go to the next stage, which is that the standing committee of the national people s congress works out the details of the law and writes it up and it could actually come into effect before the end of the year. what s not clear is exactly what types of speech or exactly what actions might constitute treason under this new law. there are some concerns that even calling for hong kong independence could be seen as secession. so, these crimes, like treason or secession, they are serious and, at the moment, people are being charged, activists, with rioting and assembly charges and, to tell the truth, not that many people have actually been punished under that process. although, 7000, more than 7000 have been charged over the last year. under this new law, well, these crimes like treason, that can mean decades in prison and so this is why there s been a lot of concern in hong kong amongst the pro democracy camp that it could be eroding the city s freedoms. of course, those who defend the bill, though, would say that they protest have gone too far, they ve been too destructive and something had to be done to try and rein in this movement. let s cross live to hong kong and speak to our correspondent martin yip. tell us more about the reaction of those pro democracy protesters at what has been happening at the national people s congress, do they feel now that their efforts over the last year or so have been in vain, to some extent? do they feel hong kong s status is changing permanently? well, the answer to this question would actually be something that we still have to wait to see. the reason i m saying so is that we ve seen reason i m saying so is that we ve seen rather violent clashes in the past couple of days and over the last week, literally after this deal in beijing was announced in the previous weekend. but then, dave been venting their anger already. they ve been talking about what you just mentioned, the demise of prosperity in hong kong as well as one country, two systems. the game changer would be developments in the united states as well. you have the secretary of state, mike pompeo, reporting to the congress that they are not seeing hong kong as having autonomy any more and that might trigger some sort of response, at least from washington, dc. there would be more diplomatic conversations between beijing and washington, and there is some speculation at this stage. but that doesn t mean they are not angry at all and that is why we saw what we saw yesterday, the clashes on the street between the protesters and riot police. while also at the same time, we have other groupsjust after this law has been passed, i m just reading a report from the local broadcaster, people from the arts industry raising concerns about this law to be imposed by beijing. they are raising scenarios like if someone goes are raising scenarios like if someone goes to are raising scenarios like if someone goes to a are raising scenarios like if someone goes to a concert and someone sang a song someone goes to a concert and someone sang a song that there is lyrics that are seen as subversive, would those audience members end up being charged with the same charge? so there are so many questions to be a nswered so there are so many questions to be answered from beijing, from the hong kong government to satisfy people s worries. . thank you very much. martin yip in hong kong. the headlines on bbc news. test and trace systems get underway in england and scotland today as part of a more targeted approach to tackling coronavirus. beijing overwhelmingly endorses a hugely controversial bill that paves the way for a tough new security law in hong kong. the number of people who ve died with covid 19 in the united states has now passed 100 thousand. the coronavirus pandemic has claimed more than 100,000 lives in america over the last four months. it s the highest total of any country in the world. 0ur north america correspondent, aleem maqbool, has been speaking to some of the families who have lost loved ones. # happy birthday to you.#. friends and relatives of more than 100,000 people in america can nowjust cling to the memories of happier times before the coronavirus. my father was a really caring person and he just wanted to help people and he was really outgoing. he thought he was really funny! doug lambrecht was one of the first confirmed deaths, back on the 1st march. as somebody who lost someone so close to them, and who was obviously very, very dear to you, so early on, when you saw the way this was going in the country, how has it made you feel over the last couple of months? it s scary, it s sad. i feel angry. we should have been listening to the doctors and the scientists. we should not have been listening to people talking about the stock market. it s natural that people are reaching for answers, for someone to be accountable, after scenes like mass graves being dug in new york and refrigerated trucks lining up to receive the dead once the morgues were full. if the lord says so, i ll see you saturday. we now know that african americans, like rhoda hatch, are still dying in disproportionate numbers. i think 100,000 is an extraordinary number. it means that there s a lot of pain and grief. but some of us in the black community are very concerned that as the narrative became that african americans were disproportionately impacted by the virus, that there was also then a push to open up the country, that many of us think prematurely, that, again, suggested the evaluation of black lives. those calls to reopen go on, even as the number of dead continues to mount and as the nation mourns. well, flags have most recently been lowered here after tragedies like mass shootings, and even then, it s been difficult to grapple with the scale of loss after sometimes dozens of people have been killed. but how, then, does america even begin to count the emotional cost of such a staggering number of deaths? to really do justice to the stories of those lost would take many lifetimes. for people left behind, the question lingers could more have been done so these americans and tens of thousands of others might still be around? aleem maqbool, bbc news, in washington. frank langfitt, correspondent at npr us national public radio joins me now from weybridge. thank you forjoining us. and incredibly grim tally to be talking about, 100,000 deaths. 0ne incredibly grim tally to be talking about, 100,000 deaths. one report has the virus infection rate still going up in approximately 20 states. what has been a public reaction to news of this figure being past?|j think it s a huge milestone for the country and i think it has a big impact. the united states, before this happened, people in the united states thought the country was prepared for this sort of thing and clearly it s not. to be not only the country that has suffered the most deaths but has crossed this incredible threshold, i think it has people reassessing the country s effectiveness in dealing with the sorts of things. the united states is normally good at dealing with these disasters and problems. i think it has shaken people all over the country. this is clearly a public health emergency, it s also a political emergency in some countries, depending on how the public view a particular government, a particular leader has handled the situation. clearly, it s a pressing one for donald trump, up for re election, he hopes, in november. he himself has been talking about this pandemic in terms of his election, he has created that narrative. how do you think his handling of the pandemic and this death toll, and it s still on the rise, affect his chances for a second term? i think it will be front and centre of the final five months of this election race. as unusual as it is because joe election race. as unusual as it is becausejoe biden election race. as unusual as it is because joe biden has election race. as unusual as it is becausejoe biden has hardly been able to go out and the president hasn t gone out much. i think as we get closer to november, the big question for people will be what you heard an earlier report, what more could have been done? there are reports out of the united states that say even if the country had locked down a bit earlier, a week or two earlier, could have maybe saved tens of thousands of lives. i think president trump will have to content with that. the other question will be, where is the economy, as we move into 0ctober be, where is the economy, as we move into october or november? how on an individual level do people experience this, did they know people who have died, are they out of work? that will be crucial as they go to the ballot box for president trump s chances of being re elected. president trump s chances of being re-elected. president trump says we cannot allow the cure to be worsen the problem itself. he s clearly focused on the economy. if you look back a few weeks, he was talking about the economy opening up at easter again, clearly that didn t happen. it was much, much too early. so do you think in the remaining months between now and november that we are going to see perhaps more so than ever before a really bitterly fought campaign, with lots of blame being flung around? fought campaign, with lots of blame being flung around ?|j fought campaign, with lots of blame being flung around? i think so. i think if you are on the democratic side, you know the sort of commercials you are going to run because donald trump, because he is out there so much, since january. for a long time downplaying this. now it s 100,000 for a long time downplaying this. now it s100,000 dead, 40 million americans out of work. you can just imagine what kind of campaign democrats will run against him. he will push to get the economy into recovery as soon as will push to get the economy into recovery as soon as possible. that could help him. on the other hand, even though we ve seen good things out of the stock market, the stock market is not the american economy and it takes a long time the job market is not the american economy and it takes a long time thejob is to come back after a deep recession like this. so i think anybody else, any other candidate, incumbent, it would be very hard to imagine they could win the election. 0n the other hand, donald trump, as he s proved over and over again, is a unique president in modern american history. clearly some of his supporters are utterly devoted to him. absolutely. they believe in the make america great again slogan. but with the economy in trouble, as economies around the world are in the wake of this pandemic and during this pandemic, for those voters who might be persuaded to change their minds, how much is this pandemic going to shift thinking away from donald trump and towardsjoe biden? i think that s a great question. i think there are very few people that these two men to fight over. most americans know donald trump very well and i think it is going to come down to the economy and to personal experience with this pandemic. if joe biden is going to win people over it will be because people have lost faith, his supporters have lost faith in him, donald trump, bringing back the economy or because they know people who have lost their lives and they feel the president deserves some responsibility for that. 0k, frank, good to talk to. frank langfitt at national public radio, thank you very much. easyjet says it plans to cut 4,500 jobs, and shrink its fleet, as a result of the coronavirus. the airline says the reductions will fit the smaller market it expects to emerge from the collapse in air travel due to covid 19. easyjet employs more than 15,000 people in eight countries across europe. other airlines have already announced job cuts and restructuring programmes as they fight to stay in business. these include british airways, which is set to cut up to 12,000 jobs from its 42,000 strong workforce the airline s parent company, iag, said it needed to impose a restructuring and redundancy programme. also ryanair, which is set to cut 3000 jobs 15% of its workforce. boss michael 0 leary saying the move was the minimum needed just to survive the next 12 months. and virgin atlantic announced plans to cut more than 3000 jobs in the uk out of a total of 10,000 and to end its operation at gatwick airport. the japanese car firm nissan has announced the closure of its factory in barcelona, with a loss of almost 3000 jobs. the spanish government said the move was part of a new worldwide three year restructuring plan. nissan says its plant in sunderland will remain open as a production base. here to talk about all that is our business correspondent ben thompson. easyj et festival, easyjet festival, looking at the other airlines, it s no surprise we we re other airlines, it s no surprise we were going to hear about restructuring from easyjet as well, tell us more. yes, you are absolutely right, no huge surprise but may be the scale of thejob huge surprise but may be the scale of the job cuts announced this morning will worry many. we have had reaction, as you would expect, from the unions, the pilots union calling itan the unions, the pilots union calling it an unnecessary knee jerk reaction. they say demand will pick back up and easyjet is acting too quickly first we heard from unite which says it is unnecessarily hasty. but if you look at the detail we have had from easyjet today, they talk about demand not getting back to levels of before this crisis until at least 2023. so for airlines that have a lot of costs associated with just keeping their planes on the ground, they are having to come up the ground, they are having to come up with ways to keep their costs down. a large proportion of that will be labour costs, of course, their staff. they have said they we re their staff. they have said they were cut 30% of the workforce and given it employs about 15,000 people, we expect that to be about 4500 roles. you talked about all other airlines right around the world having to think about new ways of doing business because airlines operate with very small profit margins in many cases. they rely on seats being full to keep those planes profitable. 0f seats being full to keep those planes profitable. of course, with concern about things like social distancing, even when restrictions are lifted, i think there is a fear people will not return to the travel habits they had before. that could have a longer term impact on airlines and the ability of airlines to make money when those planes do finally start flying again. remember, easyjet, like many others, has grounded its entire fleet since march. so now it is starting to look at how it can resume flights but quite crucially, how it can make some money from the flights it does operate. let s talk about nissan. they were also using the restructuring word, what is the thinking behind the decision to close the barcelona plant and what is the news of sunderland here in the uk? an expected update from nissan today talking about their three year turnaround plan because there are so many factors at play as far as nissan is concerned, not least that sales were falling sharply even before the coronavirus outbreak. sales were down about 14% and they we re sales were down about 14% and they were on track to make their first loss in 11 years, so the boss has been outlining plans for how they will return to profitability and remember this is a global car giant, so remember this is a global car giant, so clearly based injapan with big operations in china but also europe, north america and latin america and what we have heard from nissan this morning is that it will have to close the barcelona factory with the loss of 2800 jobs, it says, to shift some production elsewhere because at the moment it has the capacity around the world to make 7 million vehicles when actually it only needs the capacity to make 5 million vehicles so it will cut production by 20%, cut the number of models it makes, car models, van models, by 20% and we expect from about 69 down to 55 to streamline production and interestingly nissan says the focus will be on japan, interestingly nissan says the focus will be onjapan, china and the us with europe not getting a look in as far as that is concerned that this is when it gets interesting because nissan has a tie up with the french cargiant nissan has a tie up with the french car giant renault and we expect to hear more details when we hear from renault next week about where they will focus their production and it could emerge that nissan is more dominant in china and japan and north america and renault will take the lead in europe and that is where the lead in europe and that is where the sunderland plant comes into it. currently one of its biggest sites there is a suggestion that the production lost in barcelona might move to the sunderland plant, so at the moment it s employing 2800 people with 350,000 vehicles that it makes at that site every year so we could see an increase in production if some of that is moved from a plant in barcelona but clearly no details yet about what role renault will play in that and crucially aboutjobs. there will play in that and crucially about jobs. there is will play in that and crucially aboutjobs. there is speculation the site will move from three shifts down to two but we might get further details when we hear from renault a little later. but the glimmer of hope for those workers at the sunderland plant in the north east of england is that they have committed to that site of being a production base that they were maintaining sunderland as a production base for the company, so some hope there despite the job cuts announced in barcelona. then, thank you very much. let s take a look at the latest headlines. test and trace systems get underway in england and scotland today as part of a more targeted approach to tackling coronavirus. scientists say it s not a magic bullet but government ministers hope it will allow lockdowns restrictions to be eased across the uk. applause beijing overwhelmingly endorses a hugely controversial bill that paves the way for a tough new security law in hong kong. this is a major move to practice one country, two systems and is also in line with china s constitution and the basic law of hong kong. the number of people who ve died with covid 19 in the united states has now passed 100,000. south korea is re imposing some social restrictions in its main cities, to combat a small spike in coronavirus cases. nissan has announced the closure of its factory in barcelona with the loss of almost 3,000 jobs. however its sunderland production plant in the uk will remain open. large protests have broken out in america after the death of an unarmed black man in police custody. president trump says he s asked the fbi and the department ofjustice to investigate the incident. george floyd died in minneapolis. he d been arrested and pinned down in the street, with an officer kneeling on his neck. four officers have been sacked. a warning there are some images you may find distressing in this report from david willis. racial fault lines laid bare once again in a nation at the epicentre of the covid pandemic. protesters clashed with police in the city of minneapolis and looting broke out as calls grew forjustice following the death of another unarmed black man at the hands of white police officers. cellphone video of the arrest of george floyd shows him handcuffed and pleading forair. i cannot breathe! ..as an officer presses his knee on the back of mr floyd s neck. he eventually loses consciousness and was then taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead. police originally said he was resisting arrest, but security camera footage provided no evidence of that. during a visit to nasa s kennedy space center, president trump gave his reaction to george floyd was ‘s death. very, very sad, sad event. reporter: should the police officers be prosecuted, sir? well, we re going to look at it and we re going to get a report tomorrow when we get back. and we re going to get a very full report. but a very sad day. 46 year old george floyd was arrested on suspicion of trying to part of a counterfeit cheque, four of the police officers involved in his arrest have since been fired, but there are now growing calls for them to face criminal charges. i m calling on hennepin county attorney mike freeman to act on the evidence before him. i m calling on him to charge the arresting officer in this case. a demonstration in support of george floyd in los angeles also turned violent police cars were attacked and one of the city s main freeways was blocked for a time by protesters. in minneapolis, a city with a police force has long been criticised for tolerating racism, feelings are running high. george floyd s death has prompted comparison with previous killings in other parts of the country involving black suspects and white police officers. the problem this country cannot seem to shake off. david willis, bbc news, los angeles. most children across the uk haven t stepped foot in a school for more than two months. for some of them, it s been a welcome break, but for others the pandemic has affected their confidence and their mental wellbeing. with some pupils in england due to return to the classroom as early as next week, the children s commissioner is now calling for a mental health counsellor in every school. sima kotecha reports. sunshine and cricket. the lockdown hasn t always been like this. for ten year old aman, the youngest of three brothers, it s led to anxiety and distress. on one occasion he had what felt like a panic attack. i was very tense inside. it was very hard because i was thinking about what was going to happen next, like, is anything going to happen between the family? i couldn t do it any more so ijust wanted to go out and just let it all out but i couldn t. his mum is worried about the impact it will have on his long term mental health. trying to support him now, and in the future we don t know how this is going to impact him. the constant question of when will it end? what if it comes back? what if one of us gets it? what if we die? it s quite a lot for a ten year old. a survey by one charity suggests 67% of parents and carers are also concerned about the mental health impact the coronavirus outbreak will have on their children with many noticing an increase in depression and anxiety. the children s commissioner for england wants schools to be at the forefront of providing mental health support. so, what i m calling for is a mental health counsellor in every school to help children recover from the covid emergency and help them gain the confidence and resilience they need to move forward and make the most of their education and their childhood which has been on hold for so many weeks. but, at a time when the country is facing a recession and there is likely to be tighter budgets, there is doubt over whether this idea is financially viable. the government says it recognises the importance of mental health during this time. in a statement it says. that is why we have published guidance for schools and families about how to support their children s mental well being and education at home. it says. coronavirus has affected the lives of all of us. its impact on the minds of the youngest in society might only be properly understood in years to come. sima kotecha, bbc news. south korea is re introducing tougher social distancing measures after officials there recorded a fresh spike in coronavirus infections. 79 new cases were identified on thursday the highest daily figure for nearly two months. hundreds of schools have switched back to online classes in response. the bbc‘s seoul correspondent laura bicker explains what has led to the current situation. the eyes of the world have been on south korea as a role model to test, trace and track every case when it comes to the pandemic and they have so comes to the pandemic and they have so far been successful and remain so. so far been successful and remain so. however, however hard they try, these cases keep cropping up around these cases keep cropping up around the country. the latest is at a distribution warehouse, a huge company that sends out basically e commerce right across the country. so far 79 cases, as you said, the highest number of cases in two months. so today, health ministers in the last hour have made an urgent plea to try to maintain some kind of distancing measures. they say they will not step up the social distancing measures but what they are asking people to do is stay away from mass gatherings, to look at wearing masks where possible and also they are closing public parks, museums and they are urging businesses to maintain working from home orflexible working businesses to maintain working from home or flexible working hours. businesses to maintain working from home orflexible working hours. it is not, they say, a step backwards in social distancing measures. they are calling for a concerted effort for two weeks to try to get schools to maintain opening times, so basically they have had a phased reopening. yesterday 2.5 million children went back. next week, more are due to go back. they want the education system to remain open if possible and that is the plea that is going out to the people, stay apart where possible, maintain these measures and allow the children to go back to school. the real worry here is these cases are close to metropolitan areas like here in sale, which have so far avoided mass outbreaks of kobe of karma nirvana and they are worried it could spread quickly if it takes hold in the city and that is why the concern is so high right now. it s not a step backwards, they are saying, but they are trying to push people to maintain some kind of vigilance. a british charity dealing with forced marriages says it s seen an increase in the number of young people asking for help since lockdown began in march. karma nirvana which provides support for people who are facing physical and emotional abuse from relatives has told bbc asian network it s currently dealing with 116 new cases where women are being threatened with forced marriage or are trying to escape one. sheetal parmar reports. the hidden victims of lockdown, young people not going to school, college or work are now at risk of a forced marriage. one of them is jasmine, who is in her early 20s and who fled her family home after threats were made to her life. since the beginning of lockdown i ve had all my human rights taken away from me by my family members, my mother, my father and my siblings. jasmine, whose name we have changed, left her home early one morning fearing for her safety. my mother had threatened to burn my skin, burn my body, if i neglected the prayer and she said to my face, wait till lockdown is over, you are getting married. during the lockdown we have had an increase of up to 200% to the helpline. the charity karma nirvana says they are dealing with 116 people who have been asked to go into a forced marriage in the last two months of lockdown. what we need to understand about this abuse is it s one of britain s worst kept secrets, it is not a cultural issue, its abuse and victims need to be empowered to come forward and likewise, professionals need to be empowered to recognise the issues so they respond appropriately when victims do come forward. forced marriage has been illegal since 2014 but there have only been two convictions in that time and very few prosecutions. while the problem is suppressed during lockdown, authorities fear there could be a spike in cases when restrictions are lifted. while lockdown permits this sort of behaviour and enables it, young people are isolated in the homes with their families without their usual support mechanisms, and families who are intent in arranging orforcing marriages, particularly with family who are living abroad can easily do so online. zara, which isn t her real name, is a teenager who wrote to me about her lockdown ordeal while schools are closed. they are on whatsapp to my family in pakistan, looking at pictures of men for me to marry. my brother sticks with my dad and my mum is just too scared to say anything. charities and some experts who worked on the original forced marriage law are calling for specialist services to have a ring fenced funding during the lockdown if they are going to help with multiple victims in the months to come, but that may not come easily. the headlines on bbc news. test and trace systems get underway in england and scotland today as part of a more targeted approach to tackling coronavirus. beijing overwhelmingly endorses a hugely controversial bill that paves the way for a tough new security law in hong kong. the number of people who ve died with covid 19 in the united states has now passed 100,000. more than 100,000 people have now died from covid 19 in the united states by some distance the highest number in the world. of the more than 5.6 million confirmed cases of the virus around the world, 1.7 million have been in the us. well let s take a look at how the us got to this point. the first death was reported on february the 29th. on march the 13th, president trump declared a national emergency as schools were closed. stay at home orders were issued in california, new york and washington. by then, 40 people had died. within a month, the us passed italy s death toll withjust over 20,000 making it the highest number of deaths recorded just four days later the death toll was above 30,000. president trump released his guidelines for reopening the country, as anti lockdown protests broke out. into may, and the president said his coronavirus task force would continue indefinitely, 24 hours after announcing it would close. the death toll stood at 71,000. and now, just three months on from the first death, 100,000 deaths, officially. dr peter drobac is a global health physician and an expert in infectious diseases, and jan halper hayes is a republican commentator. theyjoin me now. thank you for your time today. 0bviously theyjoin me now. thank you for your time today. obviously there are different measures by which we can compare various countries and their response to this pandemic. but how do you assess the death rate in the us and the response of the us government? well yesterday, of course, was a grim milestone in the us with 100,000 deaths in the country has 4% of the world population but nearly 30% of the covid 19 deaths worldwide occurred in the us and this is nothing short ofa in the us and this is nothing short of a tragedy. there are a number of reasons why things have got where they got to. earlier on there was a slow response so once we they got to. earlier on there was a slow response so once we learned about the virus and the virus was sequenced, we began to see how quickly was spreading in the countries that did well started preparing as early as january and the us lost time in those early months through a sense of complacency and overconfidence and didn t doa complacency and overconfidence and didn t do a lot of planning and there were also technical mishaps with testing that set things back. but as things continued to spread, they were slow to act in terms of more extreme social distancing and what is really has continued to be an issue has been the lack of a really coordinated national plan for how to address the pandemic in a coordinated response and this approach of letting states go it alone. lets put what you are saying tojam. atragic alone. lets put what you are saying to jam. a tragic death toll, 100,000 and according to some estimates cases of the virus still going up in as many as 20 states. in the early days of this president trump said the coronavirus was very much under control in the usa when clearly it wasn t. i think by any reasonable estimate one can say that the us was slow to act, wasn t it, hence the death toll? you know, i m not willing to criticise whether it is borisjohnson or donald willing to criticise whether it is boris johnson or donald trump because this was something that not a single country, not a single medical person, not a single expert in infectious diseases had ever dealt with. and i think when you compare the us to other countries it is unrealistic. the uk fits in to the us 40 times, france is smaller than the state of texas. why when italy is about the size of california but california had less than 3000 deaths but yet they have a population that is two thirds of new york and new york had basically almost the same amount of deaths as italy. put on the point of the speed of reaction, if you look at the response times and this was some work the bbc did. if you look at the response times of countries in terms of introducing lockdown is after they had reached the point of one death per million residents because of covert 19. germany and france locked down in a couple of days and italy had a higher death toll within six days and the us still hasn t got a nationwide lockdown, has it? so clearly that is a factor, isn t it? well, how can you compare 50 different states to those small countries, and i just different states to those small countries, and ijust cannot agree with you on that. the fact remains that you have to look at how each of the governors are making decisions. you have to look at how the chief medical adviser has gone back and forth, seesawing on advice. donald trump closed the country at the end of january. why trump closed the country at the end ofjanuary. why don t we look at how the world health organization told us the world health organization told us in february that it could not be transferred human to human. us in february that it could not be transferred human-to-human. let s talk about the public health message on the importance of setting the tone, which is something we have been talking about the uk a lot in the last few days. peter, how much do you think the tone set by trump has been key to the response in the us, the reaction of the public in the us and ultimately, i suppose, the us and ultimately, i suppose, the death toll? the measures that need to be taken to control a pandemic, things like social distancing are acts of sacrifice that individuals have to make on behalf of the greater good, so those who really acts of solidarity so one of the most important parts of leadership in a pandemic is to develop that sense of shared mission and purpose and to communicate clearly a nd and purpose and to communicate clearly and with an evidence base, and a scientific way and to bring people together and unfortunately some of the messaging we have seen has been confused and sometimes in contrast with the evidence and u nfortu nately we have contrast with the evidence and unfortunately we have seen some evidence of the pandemic response become politicised in the us which isa become politicised in the us which is a dangerous place because we really need to be coming together to beat this thing. that s a really good point to come back to you on, jana. the message has become highly politicised in the us at a time when arguably we should be taking politics out of this and judging this not on whether you support the republicans or democrats, but purely on how the president has handled this unprecedented challenge for the whole of the usa. he talked about, infamously, drinking bleach and that he hoped people would be back in churches at easter not because of any data, because he thought it would be a beautiful timeline. many people will be asking, when is the president going to get a grip of this crisis and that it is too late already, in fact? well why do you focus on some of the things that he said and you don t focus on the things that he did. also new york, of the 100,000, new york had 20% of those deaths so, again, the fact that you blanket to the us against other countries, i understand that there was great criticism one trump said, look, part of my role is to be a cheerleader and sometimes he doesn t actually communicate as well as he could but if we are really going to look at this, do we want to condemn any of them? how about fauci? the two medical advisers did not tell us to wear masks and now they are telling us to wear masks. you have to look at all of the inconsistencies, or another way to look at it is, what was done initially, what didn t work, what changes were made, what then worked and what do we need to do to create and what do we need to do to create a benchmark to prepare for the future? to a benchmark to prepare for the future ? to criticise a benchmark to prepare for the future? to criticise is ridiculous. it s not intelligent. thank you very much for sharing your thoughts today. thank you for your time. bad weather has delayed the launch of the first privately funded mission to the international space station. the space x falcon 9 rocket, funded by tesla owner elon musk, was halted 17 minutes before take off because of thunderstorms. the next available window for a new attempt is on saturday. a perfectly preserved ancient roman mosaic floor has been discovered under an italian vineya rd. after decades of searching experts in verona finally unearthed the well preserved tiles buried under tonnes of earth. apparently, scholars first found evidence of a roman villa there more than a century ago. archaeologists are still excavating the site to see the full extent of the ancient building. decades in the making but absolutely beautiful there in verona. we will now say goodbye to viewers on bbc world news. thanks for watching. you are watching bbc news. now it s time for a look at the weather with matt taylor. hello there. if your garden is desperate for rain at the moment, none in the forecast for the rest of this month and certainly out there today, a day of blue skies from dawn till dusk in many parts. the early cloud, though, we did see across eastern england will have gone through the afternoon. a bit more cloud to the north of scotland. that will limit temperatures here to between 11 14 degrees where it lingers, orkney and shetland. mainland scotland, though, warming up, 22 25 degrees, potentially. around the coast, where the breeze is off the sea, a little bit cooler. temperatures only around 9 10 degrees across the north, 10 14 further south. western parts of northern ireland warm at 24. western parts of england and wales highs of 25, 26, maybe 27 degrees. and that s why it s a bit cooler towards the east is that we ve got more of an easterly breeze here compared to the past few days. but even here, the sun every bit as strong, very high uv levels across the south through today. into tonight, well, mostly dry and clear. low cloud lingers in shetland, some misty low cloud returns to the eastern parts of england. tomorrow morning, a good morning after the heat of today. open the windows, let some fresh air in. temperatures will be down to single figures in one or two spots. it will quickly warm up, though, and whilst we ll have some low cloud to begin with in eastern counties of england, that will break up. maybe just one or two spots lingering near the coast. even the low cloud in shetland will be a little less dominant. a better chance of some sunshine. for most, another sunny day, a little bit more breeze, though, coming infrom the east or south east. so where the wind is off the sea, temperatures will be in the teens. most, though, widely into the 20s. 25 27 degrees in the west, could hit 26 celsius in the north west of scotland. a good 10 12 celsius above where we should be for the time of year. with high pressure remaining across scandinavia, the flow of dry air off the new continent keeping weather fronts and clouds at bay out in the atlantic this weekend, so it s going to be a sunny weekend. that will certainly be the case on saturday. strong sunshine across the board. what you will notice on saturday, though, a bit more breeze blowing across the country and where that breeze is off the sea, those eastern coastal counties of england and eastern northern ireland in particular, temperatures generally in the teens. most, though, into the 20s again, 27 or 28 degrees possible towards the west. sunday, maybe a little bit cooler across scotland and some other eastern areas again with that breeze coming in off the sea, but warmest of all still towards western parts of england and wales, where 26 or 27 celsius is possible. and the dry story continues into the start of next week at least.
this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. test and trace systems get underway in england and scotland today, as part of a more targeted approach to tackling coronavirus. scientists say it s not a magic bullet but government ministers hope it will allow lockdown restrictions to be eased across the uk. if we all participate in this system when asked, then we ll be able to more safely lift the lockdown measures and lift the sort of the aggregate national lockdown by having this more targeted approach. beijing overwhelmingly endorses a hugely controversial bill that paves the way for a tough new security law in hong kong. translation: this is a major move to practice one country, two systems, and is also in line with china s constitution and the basic law of hong kong. the number of people who ve died with covid 19 in the united states has now passed 100,000. south korea is re imposing some social restrictions in its main cities, to combat a small spike in coronavirus cases. nissan has announced the closure of its factory in barcelona with the loss of almost 3000 jobs however, its sunderland production plant in the uk will remain open. 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. new coronavirus test and trace systems have gone live in england and scotland this morning. in an attempt to keep infection outbreaks contained, anyone who s been in close contact with someone who has tested positive will now be contacted and asked to self isolate. the uk government has said the english system will change people s lives scientists think it could prevent between five and 15% of cases. northern ireland has its own version of the programme already up and running and in wales their scheme is due to start in earlyjune. in the united states, more than 100,000 people have now died from covid 19. that s more than the combined total of american fatalities from the korean, vietnam and iraq wars. south korea is re introducing tougher social distancing measures after officials there recorded a fresh spike in coronavirus infections. 79 new cases were identified on thursday the highest daily figure for nearly two months. first with this report on the test and trace system being rolled out in parts of the uk, here s charlotte rose. we ve all got used to the slogans and rules for tackling covid 19, but from today, there s a further change, as parts of the uk move into the test and trace phase. the aim is to start to ease the nationwide lockdown and only bring it back in places where there s an outbreak. so, how will test and trace work in england? if you get symptoms a high fever, persistent cough or loss of taste and smell you must self isolate and order a test. if you test positive, the contact tracer will identify people who you ve been close enough to pass the virus to. those contacts will be either classed as low or high risk. contact tracers will then get in touch with people who might be at risk. they ll be asked to isolate for 14 days, or get tested themselves if they develop symptoms. you might remember an app which was being trialled on the isle of wight. that s not yet ready to be launched across england, so it s not part of government plans. the new system will be dependent on people following the rules around self isolation. if you are contacted by nhs test and trace, instructing you to isolate, you must. it is your civic duty. so you avoid unknowingly spreading the virus and you help to break the chain of transmission. but some remain cautious about how well the new system will cope. you absolutely need rapid test turnaround. the international standard is you should get the test results back within 24 hours. there are far too many places, in terms of our trusts, the trusts that we represent, but also care homes, who are saying they can t get results back any quicker than, for example, an average of 3 5 days. later today, scotland s first minister nicola sturgeon is set to announce plans for an easing in lockdown measures. the first minister s already announced plans for a scottish test and protect system. northern ireland has already launched its tracing system and wales is set to follow next week. it comes as a further 412 people died with coronavirus yesterday, taking the total number of deaths to 37,460. 117,013 tests were done yesterday, with 2,013 people testing positive. those people living in england will be the first to be contacted today as the new system launches. the government hopes these new measures will help to start to allow the economic and social recovery from the virus. charlotte rose, bbc news. our assistant political editor norman smith is at westminster. how central a policy and plank is this test and trace system going to beat for the government? it s huge for all of us because this is the key to easing the lockdown, but it does involve an almighty big ask of many people who may be asked to self isolate for up to 14 days while feeling perfectly well, having no symptoms of coronavirus but who have come into contact with someone who does have it and there will be no exceptions. it doesn t matter whether you have had coronavirus before it yourself or credit you get a test which proves you don t have it. once you have been asked to self isolate, you will be expected to do that. the big question is will people comply, and ministers seem pretty hopeful that they will, in pa rt pretty hopeful that they will, in part because of the experience of the lockdown so far when people have been remarkably compliant and been willing to go along with fairly unprecedented restrictions, added to which the weight this is being pitched, it s being done in a light handed way at least to start with so there will not be any fines or punishment or police banging on the door demanding to know if you are self isolating, it s entirely volu nta ry self isolating, it s entirely voluntary and i hope is that will make people more comfortable with the system, but it will be fronted by the nhs, not the government telling you what to do. it will be initially clinicians having a discussion about who you have been in contact with and who they need to send to racers after to get in touch with and get them to self isolate and that is pivotal, making this almost a request by the health service, health advice rather than government instruction, but as matt hancock was dressing this morning, it will come down to what he calls people observing their civic duty. all of this is about doing the very best that we can, not only my team, the people who are working in nhs test and trace, but also all of us who are participating those who test positive and those who are contacts and so get the communication from nhs test and trace that they need to self isolate. if everybody does our best, then we will get that rate of transmission down and we ll break the chain of transmission from the virus more often. one of the reasons why people might be more willing to go along with this system is because those people who you come into contact with most of our friends and family, your nearest and dearest so you will know who they are but also, you may want them to be safe so you may feel it would be better if the date self isolate, so that too may help bed in public acceptance of this new system, certainly before we moved to the next stage, probably later in the next stage, probably later in the month, the roll out of the app. this morning matt hancock said they haven t rolled it out not because there is a technical problem but they are a little wary in case people have concerns about privacy and about data retention so they are starting with this more basic human tracing system first before later rolling out the app. norman, thank you. norman smith at a sunny westminster. and with the launch of testing and tracing systems in england and scotland today, we d like you to send in your questions to us about how the system is going to work get in touch by emailing yourquestions@bbc.co.uk or you can use the hashtag #bbcyourquestions and we will answer your questions at 12:15pm this afternoon. members of the chinese legislature the national people s congress have overhelmingly endorsed sweeping and controversial new security laws for hong kong. the bill, which now passes to china s senior leadership, has caused deep concern among those who say it could end hong kong s unique status. here s a look at what the law will do. firstly, it will criminalise conduct in hong kong that harms national security a measure pro democracy campaigners fear could be used to target them. it permits china s national intelligence agencies to set up offices in hong kong, to oversee its enforcement. beijing will also be able to place the measure into the basic law that s the mini constitution on how hong kong is run effectively bypassing the territories own lawmakers. the chinese premiere li keqiang welcomed the new law at a press conference today. translation: the decision adopted at the ncp session is designed for steady implementation of one country, two systems, and hong kong s long term prosperity and stability. our correspondent stephen mcdonell said that it was no suprise the national people s congress overwhelmingly approved the legislation. look, it s a rubber stamp session. there was never going to be any resisting this at the national people s congress, but even so, 2787 in favour and only one against, with six abstentions, it is quite something! however, what it means, though, is that this bill will now go to the next stage, which is that the standing committee of the national people s congress works out the details of the law and writes it up and it could actually come into effect before the end of the year. what s not clear is exactly what types of speech or exactly what actions might constitute treason under this new law. there are some concerns that even calling for hong kong independence could be seen as secession. so, these crimes, like treason or secession, they are serious and, at the moment, people are being charged, activists, with rioting and assembly charges and, to tell the truth, not that many people have actually been punished under that process. although, 7000, more than 7000 have been charged over the last year. under this new law, well, these crimes like treason, that can mean decades in prison and so this is why there s been a lot of concern in hong kong amongst the pro democracy camp that it could be eroding the city s freedoms. lo kin hei is vice chairperson of the pro democracy democratic party in hong kong and spoke to my colleague david eades a short while ago. the decision is very clearly something that we have no doubt it will be passed so i think hong kong people, it is just like a usual day for us because we know it will be passed and our protest and our resilience will notjust stop there. will there be any protest today? i am not sure but in the coming days, months and years i am sure hong kong people will keep on fighting. your message and many others has been if this comes into play, it is effectively the death of hong kong as you know it and we know it, so what does that do for your future? what does it do for the territory? i think it is a very looming situation for hong kong right now. when the united states, secretary pompeo, they have a statement saying hong kong is no longer autonomous and there are rumours that they would stop the special treatment for hong kong, the trade status for hong kong for one year and then they will see if the situation is better and if there is no better situation they will altogether cancel the hong kong policy act so i think it is a very looming situation but this is also what some hong kong people have expected because when the beijing government chose to violate the one country, two systems, and to crush hong kong into a place that is no other than any more chinese city, this is the destiny of hong kong society but hong kong people are still fighting because we believe that our rights, human rights and freedoms should not be just stopped there, we should have our freedom. the coronavirus pandemic has claimed more than 100,000 lives in america over the last four months. it s the highest total of any country in the world. let s take a look at how the us got to this point. the first death in the united states was reported on february the 29th. on march the 13th, president trump declared a national emergency as schools were closed. stay at home orders were issued in california, new york and washington. by then, 40 people had died. within a month, the us passed italy s death toll withjust over 20,000 making it the highest number of deaths recorded just four days later the deathtoll was above 30,000. president trump released his guidelines for reopening the country, as anti lockdown protests broke out. into may, and the president said his coronavirus task force would continue indefinitely, 24 hours after announcing it would close. the death toll stood at 71,000. and now, just three months on from the first death, 100,000 deaths, officially. our north america correspondent, aleem maqbool, reports from washington. # happy birthday to you. friends and relatives of more than 100,000 people in america can nowjust cling to the memories of happier times before the coronavirus. my father was a really caring person and he just wanted to help people and he was really outgoing. he thought he was really funny. doug lambrecht was one of the first confirmed deaths, back on the 1st march. as somebody who lost someone so close to them, and who was obviously very, very dear to you, so early on, when you saw the way this was going in the country, how has it made you feel over the last couple of months? it s scary, it s sad. i feel angry. we should have been listening to the doctors and the scientists. we should not have been listening to people talking about the stock market. it s natural that people are reaching for answers, for someone to be accountable, after scenes like mass graves being dug in new york and refrigerated trucks lining up to receive the dead once the morgues were full. if the lord say so, i ll see you saturday. we now know that african americans, like rhoda hatch, are still dying in disproportionate numbers. i think 100,000 is an extraordinary number. it means that there s a lot of pain and grief. but some of us in the black community are very concerned that as the narrative became that african americans were disproportionately impacted by the virus, that there was also then a push to open up the country, that many of us think prematurely, that, again, suggested the evaluation of black lives. those calls to reopen go on, even as the number of dead continues to mount and as the nation mourns. well, flags have most recently been lowered here after tragedies like mass shootings, and even then, it s been difficult to grapple with the scale of loss after sometimes dozens of people have been killed. but how, then, does america even begin to count the emotional cost of such a staggering number of deaths? to really do justice to the stories of those lost would take many lifetimes. for people left behind, the question lingers could more have been done so these americans and tens of thousands of others might still be around? aleem maqbool, bbc news, in washington. let s get more now on the uk government s track and trace scheme for england that went live this morning. the bbc has received several reports that some of those meant to start work today are struggling to access the government website. we can talk to harold who wants to remain anonymous so that s not his real name. he is a locum a&e doctor. he s also a track and trace team leader but has been unable to access the website to start work today. harold, thank you forjoining us. tell us what your day has consisted of so far. mostlyjust tell us what your day has consisted of so far. mostly just clicking tell us what your day has consisted of so far. mostlyjust clicking and waiting and saying it cannot be reached from about 8am. we had a statement from the department of health and social care saying the system hasn t crashed, anyone in the country can put a test if they have symptoms and we have tracers to do their vital work, as with all large scale operations and some staff initially encountered issues logging on and these are rapidly being resolved. how does that answer your concerns you are experiencing? i would agree with some of it, we we re i would agree with some of it, we were meant to start nearly two weeks ago on the 18th and we have been waiting, doing a bit of training but not really doing anything. i didn t know we were starting today until i found out on the news last night at 7pm, we didn t get e mails from public health people until 9:50pm last night with logins which didn t work last night or this morning, then a happy e mail saying good news, we are going live tomorrow but thatis news, we are going live tomorrow but that is all i heard about it even though i had a webinar yesterday, they didn t make any mention so it may have been rushed through. they didn t make any mention so it may have been rushed throughlj believe may have been rushed through.” believe everyone taking part in this has received an e mail saying we are grateful for your time and expertise, thank you. how well organised has it been so far? you have gone to the lack of communication. that s the main thing, i spent most of the last two weeks trying to contact people and was put on hold for an hour and a half, didn t receive any information about when we were starting. we were often told we would start on the 18th, until the 17th, then on sunday i was told we are not starting tomorrow. the training has been 0k and nhs professionals have been great but the overarching organisation seems to be a shambles. how is it meant to work? at the moment because there isn t an app, people will be notified they are positive and then can log in and put in their data so that it might be going at the moment, i don t know but searching online i cannot find anywhere you can put that in, but then we contact if they are high risk or if they are too complex for them to put in themselves or in nurseries etc, we will then do it, or if they don t want to fill out the form themselves, we will ring and fill it out for them, but i don t have any access at the moment so don t have any access at the moment soi don t have any access at the moment so i don t know how that is going. we said you are ordinarily a locum accident and emergency doctor so i assume you think this is an important project if you are giving up important project if you are giving up working in a&e. i was working a lot at the start of the pandemic but then as it got a bit quieter and they started bringing regular staff back into hospitals there wasn t as much work for me and i m starting a proper training job in august but i was filling in the gaps so i thought i would do this full time but for two weeks i have just been twiddling my thumbs and sitting by a laptop in case anything changes but it hasn t until today, when it should have changed but it hasn t. how helpful are you that this system will make a difference because it seems the scientists are more cautious than the politicians? i think where we have seen in other countries track and trace has been amazing but that was at the start when there were a few cases and it is easier to hurt a few cases and it is easier to hurt a few cases and it is easier to hurt a few cases then when you have of thousands of like we have. it s better than nothing but is it too late? we could have done it three months ago or even when we new coronavirus was coming back in january, but it s better than nothing and in theory it can work but with people s trust in the government not looking good at the moment, whether people will listen to the advice when we have heard it is only advice, they are considering fines but they haven t said yet, we will have two seat but at the moment i m not hugely optimistic. we are told it s our civic duty to self isolate if we are found to be positive. how unhelpful it has all the focus on dominic cummings decision been in conveying that message more firmly to people who are positive? i think it s difficult when you see people breaking rules and not following everything and the continued messaging we have had from the beginning. we had our prime minister boasting he was shaking hands with people so everyone is very confused about the messages, some people more scared than they need to be and some people are nowhere near as scared as they need to be. we have some legislation and some guidelines and it s difficult to tell the difference. especially when it changes on a weekly basis. it sounded like from what man can concoct saying it is not a legal thing to do, they are not sticking to self isolation then what do we do? in the nicest possible way, harold, i hope you get started very soon. harold, i hope you get started very soon. thank you for talking to us. no worries, thanks. easyjet says it plans to cut 4,500 jobs, and shrink its fleet, as a result of the coronavirus. the airline says the reductions will fit the smaller market it expects to emerge from the collapse in air travel due to covid 19. easyjet employs more than 15,000 people in eight countries across europe. the japanese car firm nissan has announced the closure of its factory in barcelona, with a loss of almost 3000 jobs. the spanish government said the move was part of a new worldwide three year restructuring plan. nissan says its plant in sunderland will remain open as a production base. let s talk now to our business correspondent, ben thompson. barcelona loses out, sunderland is the winner here. yes, potentially. we don t have a huge amount of detail about what will happen at sunderland except that nissan has recommitted to its future. you may remember lots of questions over nissan s presence in the uk as brexit negotiations continued and whether it would still be viable to operate here if it was subject to ta riffs operate here if it was subject to tariffs and import charges on parts or equipment it would need to make those cars, but what we heard today, as part of a restructuring plan, nissan will focus the nissan part of its business on china, japan and north america and its partner, ran out, may end up taking some of the priority in europe and that includes sunderland, and we will get an update from renault about what it means to do and maybe some of the production that was based at barcelona could shift to sunderland, sunderland employing about 7000 staff making 350 cars every year so a big presence in the north east of england and there will be some relief that its future is assured so let s talk about this in more detail, we will speak to amory basson, who was head of what bmi research. give us your sense of what you have heard this morning because nissan are in a difficult position, facing falling car sales even before the outbreak of coronavirus. what does this announcement tell us about its plans? it gives us an idea of what their priorities will be going forward for the next two or three years and it s a pivot from the previous strategy that was based around expansion and hitting volume targets, now it s more about doing things profitably and if you look at the language, results, it s about sta ble the language, results, it s about stable market share and sustainable market share and financial stability so market share and financial stability so it s about doing these things profitably which is where things like sharing capacity between the brands will come in. and nissan told us brands will come in. and nissan told us this morning it has the capacity to make 7 million vehicles. it now says it needs the capacity to make 5 million so quite a significant reduction, it will reduce the number of models it makes, reduce output and may beat showing some of those resources between plants so not great news for those 2800 staff in barcelona but potentially good news for sunderland. yes, and it makes sense because that cash chi and that duke that are made in sunderland already share chassis from to soak from a business perspective it makes sense, they share parts, the barcelona plant was operating well below capacity so while it s unfortunate for the people in barcelona, it makes sense in terms of sharing to get more profitable. and give us a sense about the brexit issue, because nissan was pretty vocal at the time, they said it was unviable to operate that plant in sunderland if they were subject to wto rules on things like tariffs, so they have either changed their mind where they are more reassured by what they have heard from the brexit negotiations about the future of that plant. yes, this was always a risk at the fact the uk industry as a whole, there is a lot of trade between the uk and the eu especially in terms of parts and you would think that would be an issue, producing a model that is currently based in europe, so we would expect, as you say, they have heard something in the negotiations that has reassured them or you would imagine it having got this far into coming up with the plan, to bring renault model is over, they have some kind of contingency plan for various scenarios. we will watch and wait to see what happens. anne marie, good to talk to you. that idea about the brexit issue, one that will be front and centre of older workers mines because their future could depend on that. when nissan were talking about the future of the sunderland plant they said their business in the uk and europe is not sustainable in the event of wto ta riffs is not sustainable in the event of wto tariffs so we should get an indication tomorrow from renault about its plans for sunderland and whether it will bring those models over from barcelona but whether it will bring those models overfrom barcelona but some assurance for those workers there, nissan confirming the future of that plant, the detail of which we may get in the next couple of days. hello, this is bbc news. the headlines. test and trace systems go live in england and scotland as part of a more targeted approach to tackling coronavirus. scientists say it s not a magic bullet but government ministers hope it will allow lockdowns restrictions to be eased across the uk. applause. beijing overwhelmingly endorses a hugely controversial bill that paves the way for a tough new security law in hong kong the number of people who ve died with covid 19 in the united states has now passed 100,000. south korea is reimposing some social restrictions in its main cities, to combat a small spike in coronavirus cases. nissan has announced the closure of its factory in barcelona with the loss of almost 3,000 jobs however its sunderland production plant in the uk will remain open. china s parliament has rubber stamped a new national security law for hong kong despite mass protests against it in the territory. the legislation will allow chinese intelligence agencies to operate in hong kong for the first time. last year, protests over an extradition law turned violent and evolved into a broader anti china and pro democracy movement. china is keen to avoid a repeat of that unrest. the uk s opposition labour party is calling on the goverment here for an urgent inquiry into police brutality in hong kong. lisa nandy is the shadow foreign secretary. shejoint is now. welcome. what other concerns that you have looking at what is happening. shejoins us. at what is happening. shejoins us. this is the latest in a series of atte m pts us. this is the latest in a series of attempts by china to erode the joint declaration which britain co signed with the chinese government when we handed over hong kong and protected its special status. that is the basis for the right that people in hong kong enjoyed, the freedoms, the human rights, democracy and the rule of law that has lasted since then. last year we had the extradition bill which attempted to encroach on those rights and freedoms, and since then we re seen a rights and freedoms, and since then we re seen a series rights and freedoms, and since then we re seen a series of attempts to continue to do that, the latest and most serious being of this bill that has just been passed. most serious being of this bill that hasjust been passed. we most serious being of this bill that has just been passed. we want to see the uk government stepped up now, it is very welcome that dominic rob the foreign secretary issued a statement on friday, jointly with australia and canada, which is very important, but we want to see the uk calling for concrete measures to restart to push back on this very aggressive approach by the chinese government or there could be very serious implications for the people in hong kong. concrete measures by whom? well, the first we want is independent investigation into police brutality. even related yesterday thereby right please on the streets. many young protesters protesting for democracy subject to a tear gas, they have been hit by pellets. there has been serious amounts of violence over the last few weeks, and there was an enquiry into police brutality but it is largely seen by the people of hong kong is a whitewash. we want the government to call for an independent enquiry to be established. most importantly, in the end the only way that this will be resolved is by universal suffrage, and that s why i have asked dominic raab to come to the house of commons on tuesday and make a statement about theirs, calling on the hong kong authorities to start implementing the democratic reforms that were promised and to give universal suffrage to the people of hong kong. i understand why you think britain has some particular duty, because it was a british territory for so long until 1997, but how much sway does britain really have in hong kong these days, let alone mainland china? that was the importance of the statement that dominic raab made on friday in conjunction with its australian and canadian counterparts. there has to be pressure coming from an alliance of countries around the world. the right to say that britain alone trying to stand up to chinese aggression will not be enough, but it is symbolically important that britain does that add early. the government s response has been slow, it is not just government s response has been slow, it is notjust a moral question about our obligations to the people of all hong kong, although that is the case, but it is in britain s interest. we have seen with covid 19 that they will of law, democracy, these are the basis for alliances around the world and those alliances matter deeply when we are thinking about trying to get a global response to a global pandemic. the rule of law. rebuilding after the rule of law. rebuilding after the health crisis, these will require cooperation. we cannot have bought two sealy world turn away from defending those values of human rights, democracy and the rule of law. thank you for your time. now, back to our top story new coronavirus test and trace systems went live in england and scotland at 9am today. in an attempt to keep infection outbreaks contained, anyone who s been in close contact with someone who has tested positive will now be contacted and asked to self isolate. but as we have been hearing, there have been some teething problems. allyson pollock is professor of public health at newcastle university. shejoins has now. we have spoken before and you have advocated for this sort of system. what are you hearing about its launch? it is about short on detail, the way the system should be working is through a local outbreak teams liaising very closely with general practitioners and public health in local authorities. we still don t have a sense that is happening. the problem is that circo has recruited many of the call handlers, and this is through a centralised system, and then we had regional epidemiologists, but we don t know how patients are icily going to report their symptoms and how they will be tested and whether the test welcome back to gps and how this will all work on the ground. what i have had as a lot of e mails from people who are call handlers at the higher level of the case control managers saying that their training has been poor, a few hours at most, it has been rather chaotic and there is no clear sense of what they are doing. this is very important if we are going to roll out a system across the country that people have great confidence and trust in the system, add that it is going to work and that the government is going to support them. if they are isolating out in quarantine. is it not true that the government cannot really win on this? they criticised for being too slow and for ringing it too quickly. there is always a system bedding down, and we have to accept that. we have been doing this for decades, but the problem is that the government has ripped out the systems that wear their local authorities to do contact tracing, and how it should work is very simple. a patient with symptoms will report to their gp, the gp orders a test, the test comes back and at the same time the general practitioner lets the local public health department no the contact. this is not the reality of what is happening. we already have a very good established notification system, and a good legal basis for contact tracing. it is a real puzzle as to why the government did not simply restore all the lost capacity and make this happen locally with central funding and central coordination. instead it has stolen a lot of money at the private sector and companies like serco and the commercial testing schemes, but it really hasn t built up a local capacity that is needed for testing and contact tracing. we have a very confused picture at the moment, add that means urgent clarification. needs clarification. non essential shops have been given the go ahead to open their doors again in england from 15june. this includes shops selling clothes, toys, books and electronics, as well as auction houses, photography studios, and indoor markets. many department stores are also preparing to reopen withjohn lewis, next and primark all announcing plans for a gradual reopening. we can speak now to chris wooton, who is the chief financial officer for fraser s group which includes some of the high streets biggest brands. including sports direct the uk s largest sporting goods retailer. welcome to bbc news. how does the 15th of june suit welcome to bbc news. how does the 15th ofjune suit you and your company? i think it has been reported that we are not particularly happy with the mixed m essa g es particularly happy with the mixed messages that come out of government. ourselves and others we re government. ourselves and others were expecting the messaging to be the opening date, that is what the government led us to believe. they said it would be a phased reopening from the 1st of june said it would be a phased reopening from the 1st ofjune if the signs allowed them. as i said the other day and as i have had confirmed, it seems dominic cummings fiasco has made the government much more cautious in taking decisive action i did has been pushed back to the 15th. is it caution a good idea when lives are a state? isn t caution. i understand this is a difficult crisis that we are in, but i think our sales, other retailers and indeed just generally people need more clear guidance, the government guidance on most things including retail opening has been vague.” have seen some correspondence that you have sent to the business department. what response did you get, because you were asked for better engagement with them, so you could ask them pertinent deadly questions. very limited, frankly. we have written a number of letters to them. the only real engagement we got was when mr gove went on as morgan in the morning after this crisis started and lockdown started and responded to the media rather than picking up the phone, which we didn t think woodford very clever. we have written, got a brief response to the from the bias to a letter we sent, be gone back to them asking whether the government think it would be a good idea if we opened sports direct for the nhs for a day before the 15thjune and gave them 50% of display price. we have not had a response. how damaging has a lockdown be for your company?” cannot go into specific details as a listed business but clearly the bricks and mortar retailer, having our main source of revenue shot down for a number of months, has clearly cost us money. what measures are you putting in place to make sure your stores are safe and customers will feel confident enough to come in? we have put a lot of work in our teams, they have done a sterling job of putting health and safety procedures. screens on their tails, ppe falstaff, safety signs hanging from the roofs, stickers on the floor. we have had a big pack that has gone out to all applicable staff independently verified by an expert, we have actually, just an example, on local guidelines, opened in jersey as well this week, and we have had great feedback from local consumers who have said they feel very safe at the service was very friendly. well done, ourjersey team. we appreciate you talking to us. team. we appreciate you talking to us. thank you for your time. south korea is reintroducing tougher social distancing measures after officials there recorded a fresh spike in coronavirus infections. 79 new cases were identified on thursday the highest daily figure for nearly two months. the bbc‘s seoul correspondent laura bicker explains why south korea is taking action once again. the eyes of the world have been on south korea as a role model to test, trace and track every case when it comes to the pandemic and they have so far been successful and remain so. however, however hard they try, these cases keep cropping up around the country. the latest is at a distribution warehouse, a huge company that sends out basically e commerce right across the country. so far 79 cases, as you said, the highest number of cases in two months. so today, health ministers in the last hour have made an urgent plea to try to maintain some kind of distancing measures. they say they will not step up the social distancing measures but what they are asking people to do is stay away from mass gatherings, to look at wearing masks where possible and also they are closing public parks, museums and they are urging businesses to maintain working from home orflexible working hours. it is not, they say, a step backwards in social distancing measures. they are calling for a concerted effort for two weeks to try to get schools to maintain opening times, so basically they have had a phased reopening. yesterday 2.5 million children went back. next week, more are due to go back. they want the education system to remain open if possible and that is the plea that is going out to the people, stay apart where possible, maintain these measures and allow the children to go back to school. the real worry here is these cases are close to metropolitan areas like here in sale, which have so far avoided mass outbreaks. it s not a step backwards, they are saying, but they are trying to push people to maintain some kind of vigilance. the headlines on bbc news. test and trace systems get underway in england and scotland today as part of a more targeted approach to tackling coronavirus. beijing overwhelmingly endorses a hugely controversial bill that paves the way for a tough new security law in hong kong. the number of people who ve died with covid 19 in the united states has now passed 100 thousand. works across europe, life for many is gradually returning to normal as countries ease restrictions on movement, which have been in place in some areas for almost three months. rich preston has this look at a continent coming out of lockdown: stay in italy, a visit to a nice cream parlour after almost three months under an intense date of lockdown, this stands for so much. translation:” of lockdown, this stands for so much. translation: i missed it from this ice cream shop, one of the best you can find in rome. just a few mods ago, the world s focus was on italy is the centre of the coronavirus outbreak. now with its infection rate slowing by the day, the lives of italians are being allowed to return to normal. translation: we have been coming today one of the reopening. we have been passing everyday to check out if it was open. we have literally circled it. when coronavirus first hit switzerland, the company s military routers were called to action, supporting emergency services to contain a pandemic. now a demobilisation ceremony. these soldiers are being stood down. with the situation deemed under control, they have been told they can return to civilian life. for many countries, the worry is over the long term impact of the virus, particularly on essential tourism industries. cyprus has taken a novel approach to try and win back business. it has promised to cover the cost of the holiday as well as the cost of the holiday as well as the medical treatment of anyone who falls ill after visiting the island. a measure it hopes will reassure potential visitors that a trip to cyprus is safe from both a health and financial point of view. on wednesday, the european commission announced plans for an $825 billion fund to help countries whose economies had been hit by the pandemic. not all member states agree on the method of this kind of financial rescue, but few disagree with its motor. after asia, europe was the heart of the coronavirus pandemic, now, as other regions see the death tolls continue to rise acrobatic rates, the sights of italians eating ice cream or the swiss army being stood down may provide a glimmer of hope for the future. though governments around the world are clear, the fight against the virus are still not over. most children across the uk haven t stepped foot in a school for more than two months. for some of them, it s been a welcome break, but for others the pandemic has affected their confidence and their mental wellbeing. with some pupils in england due to return to the classroom as early as next week, the children s commissioner is now calling for a mental health counsellor in every school. sima kotecha reports. sunshine and cricket. the lockdown hasn t always been like this. for ten year old aman, the youngest of three brothers, it s led to anxiety and distress. on one occasion he had what felt like a panic attack. i was very tense inside. it was very hard because i was thinking about what was going to happen next, like, is anything going to happen between the family? i couldn t do it any more so ijust wanted to go out and just let it all out but i couldn t. his mum is worried about the impact it will have on his long term mental health. trying to support him now, and in the future we don t know how this is going to impact him. the constant question of when will it end? what if it comes back? what if one of us gets it? what if we die? it s quite a lot for a ten year old. a survey by one charity suggests 67% of parents and carers are also concerned about the mental health impact the coronavirus outbreak will have on their children with many noticing an increase in depression and anxiety. the children s commissioner for england wants schools to be at the forefront of providing mental health support. so, what i m calling for is a mental health counsellor in every school to help children recover from the covid emergency and help them gain the confidence and resilience they need to move forward and make the most of their education and their childhood which has been on hold for so many weeks. but, at a time when the country is facing a recession and there is likely to be tighter budgets, there is doubt over whether this idea is financially viable. the government says it recognises the importance of mental health during this time. in a statement it says. that is why we have published guidance for schools and families about how to support their children s mental well being and education at home. it says. we have also placed significance on mental health and well being in our planning framework for the wider opening of schools. coronavirus has affected the lives of all of us. its impact on the minds of the youngest in society might only be properly understood in years to come. sima kotecha, bbc news. a british charity dealing with forced marriages says it s seen an increase in the number of young people asking for help since lockdown began in march. karma nirvana which provides support for people who are facing physical and emotional abuse from relatives has told bbc asian network it s currently dealing with 116 new cases where women are being threatened with forced marriage or are trying to escape one. sheetal parmar reports. the hidden victims of lockdown, young people not going to school, college or work are now at risk of a forced marriage. one of them is jasmine, who is in her early 20s and he fled her family home after threats were made to her life. since the beginning of lockdown i ve had all my human rights taken away from me by my family members, my mother, my father and my siblings. jasmine, whose name we have changed, left her home early one morning fearing for her safety. my mother had threatened to burn my skin, bone my body, if i neglected the prayer and she said to my face, wait till lockdown is over, you are getting married. burn my body. during the lockdown we have had an increase of up to 200% in the healthline. to our helpline. the charity karma nirvana says they are dealing with 116 people who have been asked to go into a forced marriage in the last two months of lockdown. what we need to understand about this abuse is it s one of britain s worst kept secrets, it is not a cultural issue, its abuse victims need to be empowered to come forward and likewise, professionals need to be empowered to recognise the issues so they respond appropriately when victims do come forward. forced marriage has been illegal since 2014 but there have only been two convictions in that time and very few prosecutions. while the problem is suppressed during lockdown, authorities fear there could be a spike in cases when restrictions are lifted. while lockdown permits this sort of behaviour and enables it, young people are isolated in the homes with their families without their usual support mechanisms, and families who are intent in arranging orforcing marriages, particularly with family who are living abroad can easily do so online. zara, which isn t her real name, is a teenager who wrote to me about her lockdown ordeal while schools are closed. they are on to my family in pakistan, looking at pictures of men for me to marry. my brother sticks with my dad and my mum is just too scared to say anything. charities and some experts who worked on the original forced marriage law are calling for specialist services to have a ring fenced funding during the lockdown if they are going to help with multiple victims in the months to come, but that may not come easily. bad weather has delayed the launch of the first privately funded mission to the international space station. the space x falcon 9 rocket, funded by tesla owner elon musk, was halted 17 minutes before take off because of thunderstorms. the next available window for a new attempt is on saturday. if you ve ever thought the prospect of finding treasure hidden in the garden was exciting, imagine how one group of surveyors felt about coming across a roman mosaic floor, concealed under an italian vineyard. after decades of searching, experts in verona finally unearthed the well preserved tiles buried under tonnes of earth. apparently, scholars first found evidence of a roman villa there more than a century ago. archaeologists are still excavating the site to see the full extent of the ancient building. now it s time for a look at the weather with matt taylor. hello there. if your garden is desperate for rain at the moment, none in the forecast for the rest of this month and certainly out there today, a day of blue skies from dawn till dusk in many parts. the early cloud, though, we did see across eastern england will have gone through the afternoon. a bit more cloud to the north of scotland. that will limit temperatures here to between 11 14 degrees where it lingers, orkney and shetland. mainland scotland, though, warming up, 22 25 degrees, potentially. around the coast, where the breeze is off the sea, a little bit cooler. sea temperatures only around 9 10 degrees across the north, 10 14 further south. 12-14. western parts of northern ireland warm at 24. western parts of england and wales highs of 25, 26, maybe 27 degrees. and that s why it s a bit cooler towards the east is that we ve got more of an easterly breeze here compared to the past few days. but even here, the sun every bit as strong, very high uv levels across the south through today. into tonight, well, mostly dry and clear. low cloud lingers in shetland, some misty low cloud returns to the eastern parts of england. tomorrow morning, a good morning after the heat of today. open the windows, let some fresh air in. temperatures will be down to single figures in one or two spots. it will quickly warm up, though, and whilst we ll have some low cloud to begin with in eastern counties of england, that will break up. maybe just one or two spots lingering near the coast. even the low cloud in shetland will be a little less dominant. a better chance of some sunshine. for most, another sunny day, a little bit more breeze, though, coming infrom the east or south east. so where the wind is off the sea, temperatures will be in the teens. most, though, widely into the 20s. 25 27 degrees in the west, could hit 26 celsius in the north west of scotland. a good 10 12 celsius above where we should be for the time of year. with high pressure remaining across scandinavia, the flow of dry air off the new continent keeping weather fronts and clouds at bay out in the atlantic this weekend, so it s going to be a sunny weekend. that will certainly be the case on saturday. strong sunshine across the board. what you will notice on saturday, though, a bit more breeze blowing across the country and where that breeze is off the sea, those eastern coastal counties of england and eastern northern ireland in particular, temperatures generally in the teens. most, though, into the 20s again, 27 or 28 degrees possible towards the west. sunday, maybe a little bit cooler across scotland and some other eastern areas again with that breeze coming in off the sea, but warmest of all still towards western parts of england and wales, where 26 or 27 celsius is possible. and the dry story continues into the start of next week at least.
this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. test and trace systems go live in england and scotland, as part of a more targeted approach to tackling coronavirus. scientists say it s not a silver bullet but government ministers hope it will allow lockdown restrictions to be eased across the uk. if we all participate in this system when asked, then we ll be able to more safely lift the lockdown measures and lift the sort of the aggregate national lockdown by having this more targeted approach. beijing overwhelmingly endorses a hugely controversial bill, that paves the way for a tough new security law in hong kong. translation: this is a major move to practise one country, two systems, and is also in line with china s constitution and the basic law of hong kong. the number of people who ve died with covid 19 in the united states has now passed 100,000. south korea is re imposing some social restrictions in its main cities, to combat a small spike in coronavirus cases. nissan has announced the closure of its factory in barcelona with the loss of almost 3000 jobs however, its sunderland production plant in the uk will remain open. hello and welcome to audiences in the uk and around the world. we re covering all the latest coronavirus developments here in britain and globally. first, new coronavirus test and trace systems have gone live in england and scotland this morning. in an attempt to keep infection outbreaks contained, anyone who s been in close contact with someone who has tested positive will now be contacted and asked to self isolate. the uk government has said the english system will change people s lives . scientists think it could prevent between 5% and 15% of cases. northern ireland has its own version of the programme already up and running and in wales their scheme is due to start in earlyjune. in the united states, more than 100,000 people have now died from covid 19. that s more than the combined total of american fatalities from the korean, vietnam and iraq wars. south korea is re introducing tougher social distancing measures after officials there recorded a small spike in coronavirus infections. 79 new cases were identified on thursday the highest daily figure for nearly two months. first, with this report on the test and trace system being rolled out in parts of the uk, here s charlotte rose. we ve all got used to the slogans and rules for tackling covid 19, but from today, there s a further change, as parts of the uk move into the test and trace phase. the aim is to start to ease the nationwide lockdown and only bring it back in places where there s an outbreak. so, how will test and trace work in england? if you get symptoms a high fever, persistent cough or loss of taste and smell you must self isolate and order a test. if you test positive, the contact tracer will identify people who you ve been close enough to pass the virus to. those contacts will be either classed as low or high risk. contact tracers will then get in touch with people who might be at risk. they ll be asked to isolate for 14 days, or get tested themselves if they develop symptoms. you might remember an app which was being trialled on the isle of wight. that s not yet ready to be launched across england, so it s not part of government plans. the new system will be dependent on people following the rules around self isolation. if you are contacted by nhs test and trace, instructing you to isolate, you must. it is your civic duty. so you avoid unknowingly spreading the virus and you help to break the chain of transmission. but some remain cautious about how well the new system will cope. you absolutely need rapid test turnaround. the international standard is you should get the test results back within 24 hours. there are far too many places, in terms of our trusts, the trusts that we represent, but also care homes, who are saying they can t get results back any quicker than, for example, an average of 3 5 days. later today, scotland s first minister nicola sturgeon is set to announce plans for an easing in lockdown measures. the first minister s already announced plans for a scottish test and protect system. northern ireland has already launched its tracing system and wales is set to follow next week. it comes as a further 412 people died with coronavirus yesterday, taking the total number of deaths to 37,460. 117,013 tests were done yesterday, with 2,013 people testing positive. those people living in england will be the first to be contacted today as the new system launches. the government hopes these new measures will help to start to allow the economic and social recovery from the virus. charlotte rose, bbc news. our assistant political editor norman smith explained how the new track and trace system would work. the way this is being pitched, it s being done in a light handed way at least to start with so there will not be any fines or punishment or police banging on the door demanding to know if you are self isolating, it s entirely voluntary and the hope is that will make people more comfortable with the system. interestingly, it will be fronted by the nhs, not the government telling you what to do. it will be initially clinicians having a discussion about who you have been in contact with and who they need to send tracers after to get in touch with and get them to self isolate and that is pivotal, making this almost a request by the health service, health advice rather than government instruction, but as matt hancock was stressing this morning, it will come down to what he calls people observing their civic duty. all of this is about doing the very best that we can, not only my team, the people who are working in nhs test and trace, but also all of us who are participating those who test positive and those who are contacts and so get the communication from nhs test and trace that they need to self isolate. if everybody does our best, then we will get that rate of transmission down and we ll break the chain of transmission from the virus more often. one of the reasons why people might be more willing to go along with this system is because those people who you come into contact with most are friends and family, your nearest and dearest so you will know who they are but also, you may want them to be safe so you may feel it would be better if they self isolate, so that too may help bed in public acceptance of this new system, certainly before we move to the next stage, probably later members of the chinese legislature the national people s congress have overhelmingly endorsed a sweeping and controversial new security law for hong kong. the bill, which now passes to china s senior leadership, has caused deep concern among those who say it could end hong kong s unique status. here s a look at what the law will do. firstly, it will criminalise conduct in hong kong that harms national security a measure pro democracy campaigners fear could be used to target them. it permits china s national intelligence agencies to set up offices in hong kong, to oversee its enforcement. beijing will also be able to place the measure into the basic law that s the mini constitution on how hong kong is run effectively bypassing the territories own lawmakers. the chinese premiere li keqiang welcomed the new law at a press conference today. translation: the decision adopted at the npc session is designed for steady implementation of one country, two systems, and hong kong s long term prosperity and stability. our correspondent stephen mcdonell said that it was no surprise the national people s congress overwhelmingly approved the legislation. look, it s a rubber stamp session. there was never going to be any resisting this at the national people s congress, but even so, 2787 in favour and only one against, with six abstentions, it is quite something! however, what it means, though, is that this bill will now go to the next stage, which is that the standing committee of the national people s congress works out the details of the law and writes it up and it could actually come into effect before the end of the year. what s not clear is exactly what types of speech or exactly what actions might constitute treason under this new law. there are some concerns that even calling for hong kong independence could be seen as secession. so, these crimes, like treason or secession, they are serious and, at the moment, people are being charged, activists, with rioting and assembly charges and, to tell the truth, not that many people have actually been punished under that process. although, 7000, more than 7000 have been charged over the last year. under this new law, well, these crimes like treason, that can mean decades in prison and so this is why there s been a lot of concern in hong kong amongst the pro democracy camp that it could be eroding the city s freedoms. the coronavirus pandemic has claimed more than 100,000 lives in america over the last four months. it s the highest total of any country in the world, although as a percentage of the population the us death rate is lower than in the uk, italy, spain and france. well, let s take a look at how the us got to this point. the first death in the united states was reported on february the 29th. on march the 13th, president trump declared a national emergency as schools were closed. stay at home orders were issued in california, new york and washington. by then, 40 people had died. within a month, the us passed italy s death toll withjust over 20,000 making it the highest number of deaths recorded in the world. just four days later the death toll was above 30,000. president trump released his guidelines for reopening the country, as anti lockdown protests broke out. into may, and the president said his coronavirus task force would continue indefinitely, 24 hours after announcing it would close. the death toll stood at 71,000. and now, just three months on from the first death, 100,000 deaths, officially. our north america correspondent, aleem maqbool, reports from washington. # happy birthday to you. friends and relatives of more than 100,000 people in america can nowjust cling to the memories of happier times before the coronavirus. my father was a really caring person and he just wanted to help people and he was really outgoing. he thought he was really funny. doug lambrecht was one of the first confirmed deaths, back on the 1st march. as somebody who lost someone so close to them, and who was obviously very, very dear to you, so early on, when you saw the way this was going in the country, how has it made you feel over the last couple of months? it s scary, it s sad. i feel angry. we should have been listening to the doctors and the scientists. we should not have been listening to people talking about the stock market. it s natural that people are reaching for answers, for someone to be accountable, after scenes like mass graves being dug in new york and refrigerated trucks lining up to receive the dead once the morgues were full. if the lord say so, i ll see you saturday. we now know that african americans, like rhoda hatch, are still dying in disproportionate numbers. i think 100,000 is an extraordinary number. it means that there s a lot of pain and grief. but some of us in the black community are very concerned that as the narrative became that african americans were disproportionately impacted by the virus, that there was also then a push to open up the country, many of us think prematurely, that, again, suggested devaluation of black lives. those calls to reopen go on, even as the number of dead continues to mount and as the nation mourns. well, flags have most recently been lowered here after tragedies like mass shootings, and even then, it s been difficult to grapple with the scale of loss after sometimes dozens of people have been killed. but how, then, does america even begin to count the emotional cost of such a staggering number of deaths? to really do justice to the stories of those lost would take many lifetimes. for people left behind, the question lingers could more have been done so these americans and tens of thousands of others might still be around? aleem maqbool, bbc news, in washington. the headlines on bbc news: test and trace systems go live in england and scotland as part of a more targeted approach to tackling coronavirus. beijing overwhelmingly endorses a hugely controversial bill that paves the way for a tough new security law in hong kong. the number of people who ve died with covid 19 in the united states has now passed 100,000. now on bbc news it s time for your questions answered. and today we ll be talking about the govenrment‘s new test and trace scheme. with me in the studio is our health correspondent catherine burns, and also i m joined by guy harling, he s a infectious disease researcher at university college london and co authored a report for the royal society about the effectiveness of test and trace programmes. welcome to you both. lots of good questions and still a lot of doubt about how it will all work but let s have a go. guy, tracy asks, how will this work? i work in a shop, my customers don t keep two metres apart at the checkout so how can you trace them? those are good questions. i think the key issue will be to understand exactly what we mean by tracing and when we talk about that i believe the government s standing is you need to be within those distances for quite some time so ten or 15 minutes and if that s the case, people you are passing by within two metres may not fall within that so we are talking about reasonably intense contact. so about reasonably intense contact. so a period of time it needs to be met before it is triggered. catherine, eva says, i work in a care home, if i get tested and positive, does that mean the whole staffing team needs to self isolate because you are working together for many hours, i could be in contact with them all during a week. ijust got the answer to that from the department of health, they say if someone works in or has recently visited at social health and care setting, their case will be escalated to a local public health experts who will decide the course of action so if they have been wearing ppe they will probably been wearing ppe they will probably be ok but if someone in that setting gets identified outside of work, normal rules will apply. breaking news there. john asked, the government websites is the contact ofa government websites is the contact of a positive person needs to arrange for vulnerable people to leave their household. why? the simple answer is that you want to protect that vulnerable person so if you are a contact of someone who is positive, there is a possibility if you become infectious you will pass it to them so everything they can do to keep a gap between you as a possibly infected person and the vulnerable person you were living with you would want to take account of. but that s hard to do for a lot of. but that s hard to do for a lot of people. it assumes you have an option. the tide are asks, what happens if you struggle to use a mobile phone or don t have one, a lot of people still don t, choose not to or cannot afford one, this is the case with me and what if you are till ill the case with me and what if you are till ill too ill to use one? the case with me and what if you are till ill too ill to use one? they will be looking at mobile phones and e mail, they may possibly have your landline. if you are too ill to talk, by that level you would be in hospital anyway so in the system. there are other ways, it s not like we are relying on an app. there is talk of an app launching next month but we are not at that stage, this is people getting a call and e mail. die, do you want to add something? one of the key things in a report was that the app would be an adjunct to the broader system this new nhs trace and test system, the human involvement will be crucial even if we have an app available. ealing asks, will traitors track those people who tested positive before wednesday and if not, that s a lot of potential positives that won t be tracked. i don t have that information at my fingertips, i don t know how it would work but in essence they are starting from somewhere and they will work forward , somewhere and they will work forward, i don t know when. they can only trace you if you tested positive, there will be people around who have coronavirus and don t know it. absolutely, either because you don t have symptoms yet or you never had symptoms and one of the key messages about the system is it s part of a larger infrastructure, a wider set of policies the government have put in place to fight the coronavirus and we need to treat it as part of a broader system. it s a multipronged approach, at the risk of sounding like a press release. sarah asks, i will contact tracing a fact that thousands of community based nhs staff going in and out of patients houses who will have been in contact with quite a few people who might test positive, will be all be expected to self isolate and will just apply every time we are in contact with another person who tests positive? the answer to this is it will be escalated up to a local level and they will judge is it will be escalated up to a local level and they willjudge it ona local level and they willjudge it on a case by case basis but you are right, there is a risk of people being asked to isolate again and again. the point is that in theory if people are sticking to lockdown that risk should be low because they shouldn t be within two metres. james asked, i am concerned the system will be abused by fraudsters. how will we know the difference between a genuine contact tracer calling and texting us or someone who was coming? that s an operational question and one i don t have the answers to, i hope there is a system in place but i don t know enough about it. i guess you have to satisfy yourself. ijust enough about it. i guess you have to satisfy yourself. i just spoke to a contact tracer and asked them that so contact tracer and asked them that so this person is poised by the phone waiting for a job, they don t have many yet and they said if people ask those details, we say there is a number you people ask those details, we say there is a numberyou can people ask those details, we say there is a number you can ring to verify this is us or we can send you an e mail. verify this is us or we can send you an e-mail. this is why we have you both here because we have a panel of talent, journalists and scientists. helen asked, will people who recently tested positive and have already self isolated be required to self isolate again if they are contacted self isolate again if they are co nta cted by self isolate again if they are contacted by track and trace? helen might not like the answer, yes. matt hancock was asked about this as someone hancock was asked about this as someone who has tested positive and he said he would be in that position because we don t yet know what kind of immunity levels we are looking at after this so they would be in the same boat as everyone else, they could have done there two weeks and be back again. we don t know whether there is immunity or you can still spread it, as we have said if you area spread it, as we have said if you are a symptomatic you could still pass it on. victoria says, if we have to tell him why is it safe for me to leave my house and drive to a testing site? these sites have been setup to minimise the potential risk, i was talking to a friend you had to go a couple of weeks ago and he said he would walk over and get a test and i said no, you must come in a car in test and i said no, you must come in a carina test and i said no, you must come in a car in a way that you minimise contact at the testing site so it is very much around how you do that, you would not be encouraged to get onto public transport to this. catherine, you did the test so can tell us what it s like. i was ill at the weekend and thought i would take the weekend and thought i would take the test, you drive in, you cannot ta ke the test, you drive in, you cannot take public transport, a sign says do not open your window and a test at says plea called this number, you ring them to get instructions, it s really well thought out, it didn t feel that anyone was at risk in that chain of events. a question about saying somebody has been at a party, which we are not meant to have, but if someone has been to a party and test positive, there could be a tonne of other people who have come into co nta ct tonne of other people who have come into contact with you, it might flag up into contact with you, it might flag up that there is 30 people here, do you get into trouble? this was one of my first crush and so the department of health has said the information is there solely to contain the virus and i asked to contact tracer who said we are keen to stress this is not about blame but getting the information, we will not do anything with that so if you test positive and got a call from these tracers and said you had been toa these tracers and said you had been to a party, it s about getting the information and stopping the virus rather than getting anyone in trouble. but please don t have parties! what if someone is contacted and won t cooperate and they say i don t want to take part in this? i would have to look at the regulations but essentially this is not an optional involvement, this is a requirement. it s written into various regulations and i imagine in the end it will be something you have to comply with come if you don t then there are fines and potentially beyond that there may be other forms of requirement. this is the difficulty because some is legislation and guidance and some is our civic duty, to quote matt hancock. at this stage this is volu nta ry. hancock. at this stage this is voluntary. i asked the wrong person. it is all moving quickly so it s understandable but the contact tracer, i asked what you do if you get a patient who says i don t want to be part of this and they say you can escalate up to a manager but you cannot force them, it just ends as a non traceable call. yesterday matt hancock said at this stage it was volu nta ry hancock said at this stage it was voluntary but they could quickly make it compulsory. were it mandatory it would need parliamentary oversight. so far they are very much making it front and by the nhs, clinicians getting in touch with you, not the government, you are being asked to cooperate with the nhs and if it doesn t work there isa the nhs and if it doesn t work there is a threat it could become mandatory. great questions, and it s perfectly 0k mandatory. great questions, and it s perfectly ok for us not to know all the answers because it s terribly new. guy harling and catherine burns, thank you both very much and thank you to you for sending us such fantastic questions. we will do more of those here on bbc news. let s date with the new test and trace let s date with the new test and tra ce syste m let s date with the new test and trace system that has gone live today. in an attempt to keep infection outbreaks contained, anyone who s been in close contact with someone who has tested positive will now be contacted and asked to self isolate. but how can we be sure our data and information will stay safe? tom chivers is from the website proprivacy.com, experts in digital security. thank you forjoining us. what concerns do you have about the purpose each side of things, the security of the system?” purpose each side of things, the security of the system? i think this process of data collection come if we ta ke process of data collection come if we take number one, all it takes is one person with an agenda to spread this data at far and wide so any of those track and tracers with an agenda, and i saw a story if few weeks back where in south korea there was a spike in cases in lgbt areas, lgbt there was a spike in cases in lgbt areas, lg bt bars there was a spike in cases in lgbt areas, lgbt bars and the story was lea ked areas, lgbt bars and the story was leaked to the media which then led toa leaked to the media which then led to a rise in homophobia, so stuff like that is troubling. but people who sign up to beat the track and tracers, surely they will have to sign agreements like we do in lots ofjobs sign agreements like we do in lots of jobs that they will treat the data they receive sensitively and in confidence. they will definitely have to sign those agreements but whether they stick to them is another kettle of fish. they could literally send something to a whatsapp group chat and then that goes viral and cannot be traced back to them so there are a lot of ways they can undermine that while still having signed the document. how securely stored will the data be?” couldn t site myself but what i can say is i don t think we can definitively say something can never be hacked because if we go as far back as 2017, the nhs suffered a massive ra nsomwa re back as 2017, the nhs suffered a massive ransomware attack and i m not sure they would beat such a thing because i imagine there is a lot of security about this and it will be quite sophisticated but it is possible. we were just asked this question, i will put to you, how do you satisfy yourself if you were contacted you satisfy yourself if you were co nta cted by you satisfy yourself if you were contacted by somebody who claims to be at track and tracer that they really are who they say they are? that s an issue i have with it, because there is no way in my mind they can really verify themselves, because the app hasn t gone live yet so because the app hasn t gone live yet so if someone calls you and says they are a track and tracer, you pretty much have to take them on their word which is problematic because this is something scammers could then potentially take and run with because all they need to do is for a with because all they need to do is fora up, ask with because all they need to do is for a up, ask for your e mail address and site we will send you a form, then you click on a document and your computer is infected with malware so it s quite complicated. tom chivers, thank you for your time. thank you. time for a look at the weather melt with matt. sunshine from dawn to dusk in many areas and starting to get warmer with a few exceptions. we started with a few exceptions. we started with a few exceptions. we started with a mist and low cloud in the east, that has gone but we will see more cloud in the afternoon across northern scotland, elsewhere 24 or 25 degrees in western scotland, 27 to the west of england and wales, cooler in the south east but strong sunshine especially in the south, tonight low cloud lingers in shetland and returns to eastern counties of england but temperatures still dropping back into single figures for one or two so a fresh start to friday morning, a bit more breeze tomorrow especially in the west, a better chance of sunshine in shetland but for most another day of sunshine but with a bit more braze where you have that coming in off the east or south east, some coastal areas seeing temperatures in the teens but most well into the 20s. forjoining us. today, as you are probably anticipating, i will confirm some careful and cautious changes to the current lockdown regulations. i will set out what the changes are shortly. firstly, i would like to begin with a simple, but really important point. the only reason we can make any changes today is that we have made progress in suppressing this virus. and that is entirely down to the sacrifices that all of you have made. more than ever today, i want to say thank you to each and every one of you. i will come to the changes themselves in a moment and because there is a lot to cover my updates will be longer than normal. firstly, iwill cover my updates will be longer than normal. firstly, i will provide the usual statistical update. 9am this morning, there have been 15,288 positive cases confirmed, that is an increase of 48 cents yesterday. a total of 1000 hundred and 38 patients are in hospital with confirmed or suspected covid 19 that represents a decrease of nine overall from yesterday, including a decrease of 13 and the number of confirmed cases. a total of 37 people last night were in intensive ca re people last night were in intensive care with confirmed or suspected covid 19. that is a decrease of1 cent yesterday. i am also able to confirm today that since the 5th of march a total of 3635 patients who had tested positive for the virus have now been able to leave hospital. unfortunately, in the past 24 hours, 12 deaths have been registered patients who had been confirmed in a test as to having the virus which takes the total number of deaths in scotland under that measurement to 2316. i feel very strongly, as i am sure you do, particularly today as we talk about the first steps out of lockdown, that we must never become glued to the statistics and must never forget that behind each one as a person who is loved and is deeply missed. in the future, we will collectively wa nt the future, we will collectively want as a nation to remember and mourn that loss. let me send my condolences to every family who has lost a loved one to this virus. let me also express my deep gratitude to our health and care workers for the incredible work you have done and continue to do in such extraordinary difficult circumstances. the figures i have just given difficult circumstances. the figures i havejust given remind as difficult circumstances. the figures i have just given remind as that the progress we have made so far is real, but these figures also remind us real, but these figures also remind us of the toll that this virus is taken and us of the toll that this virus is ta ken and that us of the toll that this virus is taken and that ever progress remains fragile. the virus is still proving fatal for too many, hundreds fragile. the virus is still proving fatalfor too many, hundreds of people are still in hospital, and new infections are being identified in most health board areas. as i said before, that means that we must proceed with the utmost care and caution. nevertheless, the downward trend in covid 19 cases is now sustained and unmistakable. the law requires us to formally review the lockdown regulations at least every three weeks and to keep them in place only for as long as it is necessary. the latest review period ends today. i can confirm that we have considered the latest evidence of the spread of the virus and i can report as follows. the r number, the transition rate of the virus, remains ina the transition rate of the virus, remains in a range of 0.72 1%. we cannot be certain how far below 1% it is and that confirms and underlines that we must continue to exercise caution. however, we have reasonable confidence that the r number has been below one for a period of more than 31 three weeks. the modelling also shows the prevalence of the virus is reducing. last week you might recall i reported an estimated 25,000 infectious cases across the country. our latest estimate is that as of last friday, the 22nd of may, there we re last friday, the 22nd of may, there were 19,000 infectious cases in scotland. in addition, the number of patients in intensive care has fallen by 80% since the peak, and a number of new hospital admissions has fallen by more than 80%. as we saw yesterday in the national records of scotland report. the deaths associated with covid 19 overall and in care homes, have now declined for four consecutive weeks. this evidence has allowed the scottish government therefore to conclude that we can now move into the first phase of our four phase route map out of lockdown. my confidence in that conclusion is bolstered by the launch today of test and protect, our system of test, trace and isolate. we are asking any person who has symptoms of covid 19, that is a cough, a temperature or loss or change of taste or smell, to take immediate steps to book a test. if this applies to you, please go straight to nhs inform to get a test, or if you cannot go online, call nhs 24 on oh 800 028 2816. don t wait to feel better before booking a test and apart from going for a test, you and other people in your household should self isolate. if you are contacted should self isolate. if you are co nta cted by should self isolate. if you are contacted by test and protect to say that you have been in contact with someone that you have been in contact with someone who has tested positive, please follow the advice to self isolate for 14 days. but remember, and this is a really important point, that you can minimise the chances of that happening by taking care not to be a close contact of someone outside of your own household, and that means staying at least two metres distant from anyone who is not part of your household. test and protect will be a crucial part of our efforts to control this virus in the weeks ahead, but it will not to do it and cannot do it alone. the decisions all of us make about staying two metres apart, washing your hands, wearing face coverings with enclosed spaces matter just wearing face coverings with enclosed spaces matterjust as much. in many ways, in fact, they will matter even more as we start to slowly relax these lockdown rules. if we do not pay close attention and follow physical distancing and hygiene rules, those are 19,000 estimated cases i mentioned earlier will quickly rise again. however, all of that said, we are now any position to make careful changes and i would like to set out now what those changes will be. many of these changes will be. many of these changes come into effect tomorrow. we are publishing on the scottish government website specific guidance to help you understand the changes and also the rules that we are still asking you to follow. so, please ta ke asking you to follow. so, please take the time to read that. the focus of our first phase of changes is on outdoor activity. the reason for that is that as long as people from different households remained two metres apart and do not touch the same surfaces, and wash hands and surfaces regularly, the risk of the virus spreading is lower in an outdoor environment than it is indoors. even so, in making changes at this stage, we have limited room for manoeuvre. so, we need to get the balance right. of course, we wa nt to the balance right. of course, we want to restart the economy as quickly as possible, but we have also kept a very firmly in mind the things that matter most to our quality of life, family, friendship, love. i therefore spend most of my time today talking about the changes and what they will mean for your ability to interact with friends and family. firstly, let me cover what they mean for business and public services. from tomorrow, most outdoor work that has been put on hold can resume, and the construction industry will be able to restart site preparation. that is the first phase of its restart plan. it will require to consult further with government before moving on to the second stage of that plan. from tomorrow, garden centres and plant nurseries can reopen some of their services and we will no longer be discouraging drive through food outlets from the opening as well. nonessential shops, restaurants and pubs in cafes except for takeaways must however remain closed at this stage. household waste recycling centres stage. household waste recycling ce ntres ca n stage. household waste recycling centres can be open from monday and guidance on this was issued yesterday. we continue to ask other business premises to remain closed at this stage unless providing essential goods and services, and we ask all businesses to let staff work from home wherever possible. from monday onwards, the 1st ofjune, teachers and other staff will be able to enter schools for the purpose of preparing for a reopening of all schools on the 11th of august, for a blended in school at home model of learning. and from next wednesday onwards, the 3rd of june, child care will be available toa june, child care will be available to a larger number of children who most need it, for example, vulnerable children and children of essential workers. childminding services and fully outdoor nursery provision will start to reopen from next wednesday as well, however, they will continue to be limits on they will continue to be limits on the number of children that can be cared for and guidance for childminders will be issued on monday. during the first phase, some key public services, for example, some respite care, children s hearings and some key health programmes will also begin to restart their work and further announcements on timing will be made in due course. in terms of sport and recreation, some noncontact outdoor leisure activities will be allowed to restart, again, from tomorrow. this applies to activities where you can this applies to activities where you ca n safely this applies to activities where you can safely keep a two metre distance from others at all times, and follow strict hygiene practices. for example, golf, tennis, bowls and fishing. you will also be able from tomorrow to sit or sunbathe in parks and open areas. i am sure that will be welcomed by many, particularly in this weather, but it will be a special welcome i suspect by those who do not have gardens. and you will be able to travel, preferably by walking or cycling, to a location near to your local community for recreation. however, we are asking you for now to please stay within or close to your own local area, and do not use public transport unless it is absolutely necessary. now, we re not setting a fixed distance limit in law, but our strong advice is do not travel further than around about five miles for or recreation. and it remains the case that you should not go to our island communities except for essential reasons. we simply do not want, in this phase, to see large numbers of people at tourist hotspots or local beauty spots. crowds of people, even if they are trying to socially distance, brings more risk than we judge is a cce pta ble more risk than we judge is acceptable and safe at this point. so, if you do go somewhere and you find it is crowded, please use your judgment, change your plans and go somewhere else. the final area i wa nt to somewhere else. the final area i want to discuss is social interaction. before i do that, i wa nt to interaction. before i do that, i want to say something specifically and directly to people who are shielding. the people most vulnerable to this virus. you are now well into your third month of being advised not to leave home at all, and i know that listening to the changes today which do not yet bring a change to your own circumstances will be particularly ha rd circumstances will be particularly hard for you. so i want to assure you that we will be providing you with more information and guidance in the next couple of weeks. and we will be trying, as far as possible, and as faras will be trying, as far as possible, and as far as safe, to move to less ofa and as far as safe, to move to less of a blanket approach, one which requires all of you to stay at home all of the time, to one that more reflects your individual circumstances. we know the impact that our advice is having on you and on your loved ones is significant, and we are doing everything we can to get that advice right so that you can to get that advice right so that you ca n safely to get that advice right so that you can safely albeit gradually, start to lead a less restricted life. and i want you to know that today you have not been forgotten and you are an essential part of our thinking as we consider how we move forward. more generally, though, we can today confirm changes to the rules on meeting socially, and i know this is something that everyone has been eagerly anticipating. from tomorrow, the regulations on a meeting other people will change. you and your household will be able to meet with another household outdoors, for example, ina another household outdoors, for example, in a park or in a private garden. we said last week this should be in small groups, and to give you greater guidance on that, we are asking that the total number of people between the two households meeting up should be a maximum of eight people. please keep it to rest and that if you can. now, we are not suggesting that you must pick one household and only meet the same one during the first phase, but we are saying you should only meet you should not meet with more than one household at one time. whilst this is not the law, we do recommend that you don t meet with more than one other household per day. this change will allow us to meet with more people than we can right now, but please remember that we should still be meeting far fewer people outside of our own household than we would in normal times. now, of our own household than we would in normaltimes. now, i know of our own household than we would in normal times. now, i know how much all of you will be looking forward , much all of you will be looking forward, all of us, we ll be looking forward, all of us, we ll be looking forward to seeing family and friends forward to seeing family and friends for the first time in a while, but how we do this is going to be really vital. before you meet up from people from another household, you should stop, think, read the guidance and make sure you are protecting yourself and others. in particular, you must stay outdoors and remain two metres away from people from the other household. that is crucial. you should also avoid touching the same hard surfaces that they do. let me give you a specific example of that. i suspect many of you will be planning a picnic or a barbecue this weekend. if you are, not only should you remain two metres apart from those in the other household, but each household should bring its own food, cutlery, plates or cuts. do not share these things. and please, do not go indoors. being in someone else s house should still be avoided unless, of course, you are providing support to someone who is vulnerable. and that means linking ina very vulnerable. and that means linking in a very practical terms. we are not putting a legal limit on how far you can travel to meet another household, but please use your good judgment. if the distance so far that you would have to use someone else s bathroom, perhaps you should not be doing that. the reason for this is simple but it is worth repeating, because i am not putting all of these restrictions or asking you to put these restrictions on your activity for no reason. the reason is this, if you go inside a house or you share an item and touch the same services as another house or come within two metres of each other, that is when you are creating an opportunity, a bridge, if you like, for the virus to spread from one household to another. that is what all of us must still do, everything we can to avoid the information i give out these briefings must sometimes be hard to absorb. but today s information is really vital, so, please watch this back later to make sure you ve caught all of it and please read the guidance you will find at gov.scot. what i have announced today it is important first steps back to some kind of normality but they are by necessity cautious. i said before that no changes are and there are no in any of this. but i ve also said i wa nted in any of this. but i ve also said i wanted to ensure with every step we do takea wanted to ensure with every step we do take a muddy ground beneath our feet is as solid as possible and thatis feet is as solid as possible and that is what we are taking to ensure every step we do take is on solid ground. i don t admire admitting to you that i feel a bit nervous as we ta ke you that i feel a bit nervous as we take these first steps. i worry that the limited changes we are making to these rules, the very careful changes, might lead to much greater changes, might lead to much greater change in reality. and so i really need your help to make sure that is not the case. i am sure there are going to be lots of emotional reunions this weekend. you ll be planning to see family and friends you haven t seen for weeks. based on the current forecast, the sun will be shining, too. we ve all waited a long time for this, so i hope you all really enjoy it. but, please, please, respect the parameters we are setting out. be respectful of each other‘s space and to make sure things still feel different to normal, because they should still feel different to normal. above all, remember that each individual decision we will take will affect the safety and the well being of everyone. make sure that love, kindness and solidarity continue to be ourguiding kindness and solidarity continue to be our guiding principles. to recap, still stay at home as much as possible, the virus has not gone away. lockdown is being modified slightly. it is not over. make sure you re still seeing far fewer people than you might normally do. don t meet up with more than one other household at a time. don t meet more than one a day and keep to a maximum of eight people in a group. stay two metres apart when you do meet. i know that will be really difficult, perhaps the most difficult part of all. the instinct to hug somebody you love is a really strong one. especially when you haven t seen that person for quite some time. i know that for some couples who live apart, for example, for them, this is even more difficult. i want to assure you that we are considering that point very carefully. for now, whether it s grandparents, aunties and siblings from other household, don t put your loved ones or yourself at risk. also, wash your hands regularly and thoroughly, avoid hard services and clean any that you are touching. if you have symptoms, get tested and follow the advice on isolation. to end where i started, we are only able to take these careful steps towards a less restricted to lifestyle for all of us restricted to lifestyle for all of us now, because all that you have overwhelmingly stuck to the rules so far. and the truth is, we will be able to take more steps more quickly in the future if we all continue to do the right thing, stick to the rules and most importantly of all now, exercise good judgment at all times. i want to thank you again for all you have done so far but thank you in advance for continuing, as i know you will, for doing the right thing and remember, this is notjust about protecting ourselves but protecting each other. i know these changes are small at this stage. they make a positive difference and leave all of us positive difference and leave all of us with a real sense of hope that we are on the right track, the track towards greater normality, where we continue to beat this virus along the way. thank you very much for listening. that was longer than normal, but it had important ground to cover. in the interest of time, we will go straight to questions from journalists, although as he will have seen, i am joined by the chief medical officer and the health secretary, who of course will be answering questions with me. i will go to the first question today, which is from glen campbell at bbc scotland. first minister, it still says stay at home in front of you. do you really mean that when there are so many new reasons to do you really mean that when there are so many new reasons to get out and about that you have given us? yes, right now, that is the fundamental foundational message. i know, as we go along this gets more complicated and we have to make sure our messaging keeps up with that. but as i said in my remarks, i am still asking you to stay at home as much as possible. there has always been exceptions to that, going out forfood been exceptions to that, going out for food and medicine, been exceptions to that, going out forfood and medicine, going to essential work you can t do at home, and exercise. what we are doing todayis and exercise. what we are doing today is adding some more exceptions today is adding some more exceptions to that, the ones i have covered. when you are not doing any of that, the advice is still to stay at home as much as possible. that will undoubtedly evolve in the weeks ahead, but it is really important we don t get ahead of ourselves and we ta ke don t get ahead of ourselves and we take these steps hopefully with a sense of optimism and hope and positivity, but we don t forget to ta ke positivity, but we don t forget to take them carefully and cautiously. this virus is still out there and we cannot forget that. if we do forget that, the danger is that it will run out of control again. please read the guidance on the website and pay close attention to the parameters of what we have set out as changes today. gordon cree from stv. throughout this whole process, supermarkets, which exist to sell food have been able to sell clothes. now, garden centres, which exist to sell plants, are able to sell clothes, but people who run independent retail shops that sell clothes have to remain closed. they tell us that s unfair. what can you say to them? i appreciate that for lots of people, individuals as well as businesses, there will be all sorts of aspects of this that feel unfair, that feel as if there are anomalous. the situation we have been in, and perhaps some of that is and unavoidable and inevitable. we are trying to be a deadly virus right now. therefore, that has to be our priority. we have had to have supermarkets open because people have to have food. it is not as essential to go to a clothes shop when you can still shop online. these are distinctions we are making right now to try to keep the overall interaction of people and the footfall out in retail as low and as minimised as possible. now, we will gradually start to increase that. i wa nt gradually start to increase that. i want people to focus on the phase one changes today, i won t get drawn into future phases, but you can look at the route map we published a week ago today, which shows that gradually we want to see nonessential retail open. but if we don t do this carefully, if we don t don t do this carefully, if we don t do this with small steps to start with, the danger is all that this will end up being closed again because we will have allowed the virus to run out of control. i ask for people to s forbearance and patience. i know it is frustrating and it gets more frustrating, not less, as we go on butjust as people have done so far, to this advice, and abide by it, act responsibly and in the right way for the right reasons, continue to do that listen to this advice. i want to see the economy operating again as pretty as possible but i m not prepared to put people s lives at risk unnecessarily. we got to continue as we have been doing, taking careful, cautious steps with confidence that, as we do that, we are absolutely going in the right direction. well, we re leaving the press conference there as it s coming up to the one o clock news, but our live coverage continues on the bbc scotland channel. the first minister nicola sturgeon has just announced what she called ona day on a day when we have been asked to trust the system, we carried an interview yesterday with the officer who fitted up to ten delegates. she describes it as an up close and personal process measuring and so on, taking more than one hour. she subsequently had flu symptoms, travels across to portugal, was among vulnerable people, went to a retirement do which she said she would not have done. my question is not about patient confidentiality or the non publicising of the outbreak full question is about. in the city, she had previously probably the longest contact with delegates who may have had coronavirus. she wasn t contacted traced. is that an endorsement of the contact tracing system or a failure of it? i am not a co nta ct system or a failure of it? i am not a contact traitor, and not a public health expert. but i trust the people who do this work for us. the tea m people who do this work for us. the team that work on health protection scotla nd team that work on health protection scotland as local health protection schemes across the country, it is theirjob based on expertise and judgment to trace and attract people that they define as being our close contact situation. i am not going to get drawn into individual circumstances because it is the people we trust to make these judgments that we should enable to make them. that will be really important going forward and will continue to be important. one other thing. that is where we were leave the first minister of scotland answering questions from reporters. she was talking about cautious changes being brought in because of a production rate of the virus has dropped over the last few weeks. they really relate to how many people you could meet, where you can travel to, the kind of shops that will be opened by tomorrow or the middle of next week. in a moment it s the bbc news at one with jane hill, but first it s time for a look at the weather with darren bett. hello there. another warm sunny day, and foremost a completely dry again. this was the weather watcher picture taken in the south east of england earlier, editors across the south east, when pa rt editors across the south east, when part of the country that is expecting to have the driest may on record. in general about four millilitres of rainfall in south east england, 7% of average. by south east england, 7% of average. by contrast we looked was highland scotland, the weather improving today. this is one part of the country that has above average rainfall, 150% of expected rainfall, most of it fail a week ago. we have had rain earlier in northern scotland, that has pushed away out into the north sea, and sunny skies pinning much across the board. that is the weight will stay for the next few days. things evening out in the highlands with lots of sunshine and temperatures around 23 celsius. the reason it has been so dry all month up reason it has been so dry all month up assisted areas of high pressure, and we have one of those dominating the weather is a moment. around the top of that area of high pressure, still more clout, this evening out overnight, up to was the northern isles some of the cloud putting down was the nowthey, heading into eastern part of england later. otherwise clear skies, lowest temperatures around east anglia, 7 degrees or so, temperatures around east anglia, 7 degrees or so, many temperatures around east anglia, 7 degrees or so, many ten which is remain in double figures. friday, more of the same, probably get a bit more of the same, probably get a bit more sunshine pushing its way to the northern isles, clad across eastern england will fade, there will be blue skies across the board. probably a breeze noticeable, easterly or south easterly, onshore and some coastal areas will be cooler. plenty of heat around, and thatis cooler. plenty of heat around, and that is pushing its way northwards. cabbage is rising in scotland, even into the mid 20s. the weekend, that area of high pressure still in charge, centred over scandinavia. we keep those weather front at bay and we draw only one from continental europe, and more importantly it will stay dry. this sums it up for the weekend, sunny and warm and no sign of any weekend, sunny and warm and no sign ofany rain, weekend, sunny and warm and no sign of any rain, the uv levels will be high, perhaps even very high in some areas. city forecasts for the weekend, patchy cloud for the weekend, patchy cloud for the weekend, plenty of sunshine around, temperatures peak at 26 or 27. a coronavirus contact tracing programme has got under way in england and scotland. people who ve been in close contact with someone who has the virus will be asked to self isolate. the government says the system is voluntary for now. the overwhelming majority of people, when instructed to self isolate by the nhs, will do so. but, of course, we have the legal powers to make this mandatory if we need to. we ll assess the scale of the task with our health editor, and from westminster. also this lunchtime: scotland s first minister has confirmed its lockdown restrictions are to be eased slightly, from tomorrow. from tomorrow, the regulations on meeting other people will change. you and your household will be able to meet with another
thank you for watching the news cont6:00. ues captioning sponsored by cbs o donnell: tonight, alarming spikes in coronavirus cases seen across the nation. at least 16 states see infections rising, hospitals in arizona nearing capacity. officials worry we are on the verge of a second wave as beaches, movie theaters, and restaurants continue to open nationwide. grim economic outlook: a new prediction says the unemployment rate will end the year at 9.3%, and it will likely stay high for the next two years. the fed chair s urgent plea to lawmakers. police reforms: the minneapolis police chief under pressure to change his department takes on the police union as george floyd s brother delivers emotional testimony on capitol hill, demanding justice. i m here to ask you to make it stop. stop the pain. stop us from being tired. o donnell: nascar bans the confederate flag at its events,i bases named for confederate generals. how the president is responding tonight. breaking news: family members say remains found buried in idaho were those of two missing children. the new charges against their stepfather tonight. and the story of a chance encounter on a flight leads to a conversation about how we are a lot more alike than we are different. this is the cbs evening news with norah o donnell, reporting from the nation s capital. o donnell: good evening and thank you for joining us. we are going to begin tonight with a sudden surge in coronavirus cases across the country. at the same time the government is warning that the financial damage caused by the pandemic will last for years. tonight, the head of the federal reserve says congress may need to do more to help those who are out of work, saying millions of americans who lost their jobs will not get them back, even after the country fully reopens. tonight, there are more signs the country is reopening, and some people are going back to work. a.m.c., the world s largest theater chain, says it will start showing movies again in july, and vacationers are back on the sands of miami beach tonight, but that comes as we re learning 16 states are seeing rises in coronavirus cases, including texas and arkansas, where hospitals there are facing record numbers of coronavirus patients. and as we come on the air, more than 112,000 people have been killed by the virus nationwide, and there are nearly two million confirmed cases here in the u.s. tonight, cbs news has learned the president s coronavirus task force is privately warning governors there could be an even bigger spike in cases following those protests over the death of george floyd. floyd s brother was on capitol hill today, calling for change to the nation s policing practices during an emotional hearing just one day after floyd s funeral in houston. well, there s a lot of news to get to tonight, and our team of correspondents is standing by. cbs manuel bojorquez is going to lead off our coverage tonight in miami. manny. reporter: well, florida is one of the states with infections on the rise. more than 1,300 new coronavirus cases were reported in the state just today. in other states, the concern is the strain new cases are putting on hospitals. two weeks after the memorial day holiday, some states are not only seeing a spike in coronavirus infections, but a surge in cases filling up hospitals. texas reports more than 2,000 hospitalized, a record high. arkansas hit a record, too. and in arizona, officials urged hospitals to fully activate emergency plans as nearly 80% of adult i.c.u. beds are full. some hospitals say they ve already reached capacity. george floyd! reporter: cbs news obtained audio of the president s coronavirus task force telling governors they re worried about a spike in infections due to recent protests. this was dr. deborah birx on the call: it does worry me, because not everyone was in a mask. and some people were shouting. and we don t know the efficacy of masks with shouting. reporter: it all adds up to a pandemic dr. anthony fauci calls his worst nightmare. he had this reminder: masks can help, but it s masks plus physical separation. reporter: federal reserve chief jerome powell says unemployment will likely fall to 9.3% by the end of this year, and vows consumer support, holding down near-zenterest rates through 2022. we re not thinking about raising rates. reporter: the push for a vaccine got a boost from the federal government, which reportedly announced it will fund and conduct three trials this summer involving roughly 30,000 people in more than 50 cities. a vaccine can t come too soon as more places with crowds indoors, like movie theaters, plan to reopen. a.m.c. announced a plan to open its doors next month. as for the outdoors, miami reopened beaches for the first time in three months. you have to have a face mask on. reporter: albeit with volunteers making sure people abide by the new social distancing and face mask rules. we had to all make sure we had our masks on, and since we didn t have any we ll have to go get some so we can all be safe. that s the bottom line. reporter: today, the director of the harvard global health institute offered yet another sobering prediction, that the u.s. could see another 100,000 coronavirus deaths by september. norah. o donnell: manny bojorquez in miami, thank you. today, the brother of george floyd told congress that he believes his brother s death was a premeditated murder. in tearful testimony to a house committee, he also urged congress to deliver justice for victims of police brutality. cbs nancy cordes reports tonight from capitol hill. i wish i could get him back. reporter: an emotional philonise floyd pleaded with congress to act one day after laying his brother george to rest. george wasn t hurting anyone that day. he didn t deserve to die over $20. i m asking you, is that what a black man is worth, $20? reporter: he came to testify about the justice in policing act, a sweeping refoil house democrats hope to pass in the next two weeks. i grieve every day for these continued losses. i grieve as a mother who lost her own child to the very same violence that we re talking about today and tomorrow and next week. reporter: the hearing revealed some bipartisan consensus, a sign that the message from widespread protests ( blast ) has sunk in. i do think there is not a legitimate defense of choke holds or lynching or bad cops that get shuttled around, and you will be able to count on republican cooperation. reporter: some states and cities aren t waiting on congress. the d.c. city council passed a bill tuesday to publicize the names of officers who use unnecessary force. and new york s governor is about to sign a bill to unseal police disciplinary records. the most dramatic police reform in the country, and it will happen in new york this week and we re proud of it. reporter: the white house says the president is hard at work on his own proposal, but in a meeting with african american supporters this afternoon, he did not go into details. when you look at how well the black community s been doing under this administration, nobody s done anything like we ve done. reporter: tonight, george floyd s brother paid a visit to the newly named black lives matter plaza, where that giant mural was painted on the street near the white house. he was surrounded by supporters a couple of hours after telling lawmakers that he can t stop thinking about that video of his brother s death, and that it felt like it lasted eight hours, norah, instead of eight minutes. o donnell: a powerful image there. nancy, thank you. turning now to minneapolis where after calls to dismantle his police department, the police chief today outlined transformational reforms in weeding out bad officers, even if it means taking on the powerful police union. cbs jeff pegues spoke with the chief and continues his reporting from minneapolis. good evening, jeff. reporter: norah, the pressure has really been on this police chief here to come up with some sort of plan for the future. the arrest of the former officers has really tainted this ceeptment, so much s at i m standing next to still have razor wire around them to keep the public out. under pressure by protesters demanding radical reform, the embattled minneapolis police chief vowed change is coming. we will have a police department that our communities view as legitimate, trusting, and working with their best interest at heart. reporter: the first step, the chief said, would be for the department to withdraw from contract negotiations with the police union to reform use of force and disciplinary procedures. did resigning cross your mind over the last two weeks at all? not at all. history is being written now. and i need to make sure that we are part of the right side of history. saw on thavideo, do you think race was involved in that? what i know is that, far too often, when we have white officers and black victims, it permeates and goes back to a history of our american policing where race is inextricably linked to that. reporter: do you think there are racist cops on the force? i believe that there probably are. reporter: cbs news has learned that prosecutors tried to reach a plea deal with derek chauvin before initially charging him with third-degree murder. arredondo says he refuses to even say chauvin s name. wh is that? because i don t want to bring any sort of credibility or legitimacy to that. use your voice! reporter: today, protests calling for justice around the country continued. one day after floyd was buried, disturbing video has surfaced showing a group of white men in new jersey mocking his death, kneeling on each other as demonstrators pass by. here in minneapolis, the home town native who became chief in 2017 says his city will make progress. we will not let what that person, who i refuse to name, define us. we won t. and we owe it to our communities we serve to not let that define us. i m confident we ll move forward. reporter: late this afternoon, one of the cops arrested, thomas lane, one of the rookie cops arrested in connection with george floyd s death, posted bond, left jail, and headed for home awaiting trial. norah. o donnell: jeff pegues in minneapolis. thank you. tonight, nascar is banning the confederate flag at all of its events. the racing giant says the flag runs counter to a welcoming and inclusive environment, and the move comes after bubba wallace, nascar s only black driver, on monday, called for the ban. at tonight s race in virginia, wallace plans to drive with black lives matter and compassion, love, and understanding newly painted on his car. there s also a growing movement to remove the names of confederate generals from ten army bases. the army secretary says he s willing to talk about it. the commander in chief is not. president trump tweeted my administration will not even consider the renaming of these magnificent and fabled military institutions. here s cbs david martin. reporter: it s not just the statues of confederate generals, it s the army bases, which bear their names. as now-retired general david petraeus put it, the irony of training at bases named for those who took up arms against the united states and for the right to enslave others is inescapable to anyone paying attention. retired major general dana pittard has been paying attention his entire career. it just always seemed strange and, in fact, insulting, that we had posts like fort hood, fort bragg, fort benning, that were named after confederate generals who betrayed our country. reporter: ten army bases in all. fort bragg, the largest, is named after braxton bragg. who wasn t even a very good confederate general. why would we name a base after someone like that? reporter: does the quality of the general make any difference? these ten generals fought against the united states army, killed u.s. troops. it makes no difference how well they performed. reporter: great field generals, like robert e. lee, should still be studied, pittard says, but not honored. david martin, cbs news, washington. o donnell: tonight we re delving into a painful discussion taking place in african american homes across the country. it s the talk between black parents and children about the hate they may encounter and possible brushes with the police. mark strassmann introduces us to a father and son who are taking that conversation beyond the walls of their home. i can t breathe, officer. i can t breathe! there s always in the pit of your stomach it can happen to anybody and no parent wants their child to be a hashtag. reporter: kendrick dixon is o race. no justice! reporter: when atlanta protested george floyd s killing, israel wanted his voice heard. it was rage, what was going through my mind, here we go again. what s going to happen this time? reporter: do you think your white friends get it? no, they don t realize it s actually happening to people like me every single day. reporter: as israel grew up, his father tried to prepare him. black parents call it the talk. trayvon martin, michael brown, ahmaud arbery, george floyd, every one of those situations, a different kind of talk. sure. my ultimate end game, my wife and i, is get home. do what you have to do to come home. reporter: ahmaud arbery s killing especially hit home. in georgia, shot dead while jogging. i had never thought that, you know, i would have to fear formg in my neighborhood, but that just put into a new perspective that this is really real out here. reporter: israel is in training. our valedictorian, mr. israel dixon. reporter: the valedictorian will enter west point this summer. i feel like he shouldn t have to walk around wearing a resume around his neck saying, i m a valedictorian. resume saying i m a human being that s it, that s all that matters. reporter: israel dixon is hardly alone when he says this moment in america woke him up. it made me realize that we need to start having this conversation because throwing all this hate at each other is not going to get us anywhere. reporter: mark strassmann, cbs news, atlanta. o donnell: and there is still much more news ahead on tonight s cbs evening news. investigators confirm a family s fears about two missing children. prosecutors waste no time hitting their stepfather with new charges. later, at a time when americans are being pulled apart, a chance conversation on a plane shows us how to come together. sure. okay. okay! safe drivers save 40%!!! guys! guys! check it out. safe drivers save 40%!!! safe drivers save 40%! safe drivers save 40%!!! that s safe drivers save 40%. it is, that s safe drivers save 40%. - he s right there. - it s him! he s here. he s right here. - hi! - hi. hey! - that s totally him. - it s him! that s totally the guy. safe drivers do save 40%. click or call for a quote today. safe drivers do save 40%. i have the power to lower my blood sugar and a1c. because i can still make my own insulin. and 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[announcer] you can quit. for free help, call 1-800-quit now. so bob, what do you take for back pain? before i take anything, i apply topical pain relievers first. salonpas lidocaine patch blocks pain receptors for effective, non-addictive relief. salonpas lidocaine. patch, roll-on or cream. hisamitsu. o donnell: tonight a nationwide search for two missing children has come to a gruesome end. family members confirm that the remains found on chad daybell s rural property in idaho are the bodies of his stepchildren. here s cbs jonathan vigliotti. reporter: the families of eight-year-old j.j. vallow and 17-year-old tylee ryan saying in a joint statement, we are filled with unfathomable sadness that these two bright stars were stolen from us. mr. daybell, do you understand the allegations on both counts that have been brought against you? i do. reporter: today, their stepfather, chad daybell, sat emotionlesses as the prosecutor laid out the grisly discovery that brought him to justice. we are aware those remains are the remains of children. reporter: police, joined by the f.b.i., unearthed those remains outside his home in idaho and arrested him. he is charged with willfully destroying, altering, and/or concealing human remains. it s unclear how they died and how long the children were buried in daybell s backyard. the two children disappeared shortly before their mother, v pular podcaster who believed in doomsday. vallow has been in jail since march, charged with child abandonment. daybell remained free until authorities closed in. the court is going to set bail in the amount of $1 million. reporter: and it s still unclear what the motive was and what led police to that backyard. we can tell you, norah, investigators only dug one hole, so it appears they knew exactly where to search. norah. o donnell: such a disturbing story from the beginning, jonathan. thank you. coming up next, two strangers met on a plane with no idea how their conversation about race in america would touch so many. it s totally normal to have constipation with belly pain, straining, and bloating, again and again. no way. more exercise. more water. and more fiber is the only way to manage it. is it? maybe you think. it s occasional constipation. maybe it s not. it could be a chronic medical condition called ibs-c, and time to sss!nzess. linzess works differently than laxatives. it helps relieve belly pain and lets you have more frequent and complete bowel movements. do not give linzess to children less than six and it should not be given to children six to less than 18, it may harm them. do not take linzess if you have a bowel blockage. get immediate help if you develop unusual or severe stomach pain, especially with bloody or black stools. the most common side effect is diarrhea, sometimes severe. if it s severe, stop taking linzess and call your doctor right away. other side effects include gas, stomach area pain, and swelling. change your thinking to ibs-c. if your constipation and belly pain keeps coming back, tell your doctor and say yesss! to linzess. don t bring that mess around here, evan! whoo! don t do i don t you dare. i don t think so! 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(announcer) you can quit. for free help, call 1-800-quit now. 1 in 3 deaths is caused by cardiovascular disease. for free help, millions of patients are treated with statins-but up to 75% persistent cardiovascular risk still remains. many have turned to fish oil supplements. others, fenofibrates or niacin. but here s a number you should take to heart: zero-the number of fda approvals these products have, when added to statins, to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. ask your doctor about an advancement in prescription therapies with proven protection. visit truetoyourheart.com saturpain happens. aleve it. aleve is proven stronger and longer on pain than tylenol. when pain happens, aleve it. all day strong. o donnell: on tomorrow s cbs evening news, why thousands have volunteered to get infected with the coronavirus all to help researchers develop a vaccine. and if you can t watch us live, don t forget to set your dvr, so you can watch us later. that is tonight s cbs evening news. i m norah o donnell in our nation s capital. we ll see you right back here tomorrow. stay safe, and good night. captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org
i imagine the day. we re live with the push underway right now to defund one school district s police department. but similar efforts in washington appear to be falling flat. if you believe that we should defund the police, will you please raise your hand? just a bunch of cowards on the battlefield. the search for a killer tonight who opened fire at a children s birthday party in the east bay. around breaking news right now on the kpix 5 news at 7:00 streaming on cbsn bay area, state lawmakers are now backing a plan that would give voters a chance to overturn the ban on affirm five ac.
this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the terrible toll of coronavirus. in the uk more than 40,000 people, have now died the second worst in world, behind america but there is some more postive news, latest figures for england suggest infections are falling, dramatically. a pensioner is assaulted by police in new york state, as the protests over the death of george floyd, continue. meanwhile us job figures show that the unemployment rate has fallen. welcoming the data president trump has come under fire for bringing george floyd into his comments about the economy. hopefully, george is looking down right now and saying, that s a great thing that s happening for our country. that s a great day for him. it s a great day for everybody. it s a great day for everybody. there s a great, great day in terms of equality. in pakistan doctors are warning the already weak healthcare system could soon be overwhelmed by coronavirus patients. and a new boss in the house. tim davie is the bbc‘s new direcor general promising accelerated change, when he takes up the role. with swimming pools shut and the unusual warm weather ‘wildswimming is on the rise in the uk but how safe is it? we find out about the risks involved. 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. the terrible toll of covid 19 on the uk, has been starkly highlighted today in the passing of a grim milestone. the number of people who ve died after testing positive for the coronavirus, has passed 40,000. britain is now only the second country in the world to reach that figure, after the united states. but the number of new infections is falling and quite dramatically. an office for national statistics study of adults and children in private households estimates one in a thousand people in england tested positive for the coronavirus in the last week of may, not counting those staying in hospitals or care homes. this is down from last week s estimate of one in 400. with the latest, here s our health editor, hugh pym. forfamilies for families and friends of the bereaved some of whom spent weeks in intensive care to have the months of grief and emotional turmoil. she was my best friend. she was kind, funny. this is just the worst pain in the world. i feel like without the proper protection, then more things like this and more families will lose a loved one. since the first uk death in early march, a total of 40,000 have now died after testing positive for coronavirus. the government s chief scientific adviser said keeping the death total to 20,000 or below would be a good outcome. it is now above 40,000. how do you assess that outcome, given where we are now? the day that the number of deaths from coronavirus has gone over 40,000 is a time of sorrow for us all. we have got to remember that each one of these is. is an impact on a family that will never be the same again. and my heart goes out to them all. and it makes me redouble my determination to deal with this virus. so how did we get here? on march the 11th, the world health organization formally declared a pandemic. that day, spanish football fans were in liverpool for a champions league fixture. the next day, testing and tracking of new community cases was stopped, with resources focusing on hospitals. the four day cheltenham racing festival was in full swing. 0n the 16th of march, people were told to avoid pubs and other social venues and work from home as possible. the next day, the chief scientific adviser made this prediction. if we can get this down to numbers, 20000 and below, that is a good outcome. on march the 23rd, lockdown began across the uk. 0n the 21st of april, the daily death toll hit a peak, with more than 1000 deaths. since then, the overall total has climbed and now stands atjust over 40,000 deaths, though this does not include those in all settings where there was not a test. some experts argue that government should have reacted more quickly after seeing what was happening in italy. we had two to three weeks more time to get ready for this. but i think we just took it too easy, to be very frank. i think we assumed that we were different, that somehow, we were going to respond in a different way, that we could cope. and then, by the time they realised they had the problem, it was too late. the uk covid i9 death toll, at around 40,000, is ahead of other european countries, with italy next on the latest reported figure atjust over 33,500, followed by france, spain and belgium. but adjusted for the size of the population, belgium has the highest death rate, at around 84 per 100,000 people, with the uk at 60, a little above spain, italy and france. there are slight differences in the way each country calculates its figures. this virus has hit lots of very developed nations with robust health care systems, robust health infrastructures, and it has taken a lot of people by surprise and i don t think the uk is alone having been taken by surprise. i think we need to essentially wait until the end of the pandemic and then have a section of what happened and learn lessons from it. for now, the authorities will focus on testing as many people as possible and then tracing their contacts, seen as the best way to suppress the virus. hugh pym, bbc news. so as we mentioned, new figures suggest coronavirus infections in the community are falling. the office for national statistics, says the number of cases in england is down to 5,600 a day, from 8,000 a day, last week. although one study suggests that in the north west and the south west of england, the rate at which the virus is reproducing, the so called r rate, could be near one, suggesting infections may rise. here s our science editor, david shukman. with people out and about across the uk over the past week or so, what do we know about the virus and whether it is under control? well, despite the scale of the death toll, there are some signs that things may now be going in the right direction, at least for the moment. the latest survey shows how the percentage of the population testing positive for covid i9 as fallen in each of the last five weeks, which is of course good news. but bear in mind that there is a very wide margin of error with this study and also that the swab tests were carried out by people themselves. because that is not easy, the results may not be that accurate. i think it is incredibly important for us not to lose sight of the fact this is a virus which is incredibly contagious, can transmit very easily and efficiently between people, and still, most of the population have not seen this virus and are susceptible which allows it to spread very rapidly if we let our guard down. the big worry is that more contact will mean more infections. so what is the latest assessment about the speed with which the virus is being spread? at the height of the outbreak, the infection rate, the r number, was running at about three, meaning anyone infected was on average passing it on to three others. the key was to get it down below one because below that number, the disease does not escalate, and the latest estimate is that we are for the whole uk running at about 0.7 up to 0.9. below one, but not falling rapidly. and if we break that down across the uk, the picture varies. 0ne computer model shows that in most areas of england, the rate is thought to be below one except in the north west and south west, where it is estimated to be right on one. a different study suggests that scotland, wales and northern ireland are on 0.8. so for the moment, the advice is still to keep at least two metres apart, and barriers and signs have been springing up to remind people. the lockdown has suppressed the virus but it hasn t killed it off. david shukman, bbc news. the parent company of british airways, iag, is considering a legal challenge to quarantine rules, which are due to come into effect from monday. the uk s biggest airline, opposes travellers entering the country having to isolate for two weeks. iag argues it wasn t consulted over the plans, but government officials say they were ‘disappointed,’ at ba s absence from a meeting yesterday, to discuss the proposals. people living in the republic of ireland, will be able travel anywhere inside their own county from monday, instead of being limited to a range of 20km from home. the irish cabinet is accelerating the easing of the country s lockdown, allowing groups of up to six people to meet indoors or outside, provided social distancing is maintained. so with an assessment of what today s figures mean, and how they might direct government policy in england, here s our health editor hugh pym. the new daily reported death total, the trend for that, the seven day rolling average, is moving downwards. that being said, there are one or two slightly worrying signs. hospital admissions in england and wales have gone up for the last couple of days as no data from scotland and northern ireland. they have fallen. we have been hearing this regional r number, in the southwest and northwest of england because it s up at one which isa england because it s up at one which is a very maximum it can be before epidemics start picking up again. there is concern there. matt hancock, the health secretary, made clear at the briefing people should very clear at mass demonstrations this weekend, he said he was a part of the death of george floyd understand why people were deeply upset, but said coronavirus is still a health crisis and a real threat. and people should certainly try to avoid large gatherings of more than six people. as the protests about the death in police custody of george floyd continue, president trump has said that every american must receive equal treatment from law enforcement, regardless of race, gender, or creed. it comes as a new video has emerged of a 75 year old man being pushed to the ground by police in new york state. aleem maqbool‘s report contains some content that some may find distressting. we re not leaving. and there s no sign they are. not here outside the white house, in spite of driving rain. and not around the country, including chicago, where kanye west took to the streets with protestors. but there continue to be staggering and disturbing incidents involving police. in buffalo, new york, a 75 year old protestor was shoved to the ground by an officer. he is seen motionless and bleeding from his skull, as police file past without coming to his aid. two officers have been suspended. but it is just the latest in a torrent of apparently unjustified use of force at these protests. an assault from behind in seattle. what is that really doing? the arrest in charleston of a man peacefully trying to reason with officers. and police in la, driving into protestors, to name but a few examples. particularly troubling, given the incident that sparked awe of this. three officers have now appeared in court charged with aiding and abetting murder, in addition to the one already charmed with murdering george floyd. the president of the us. the president s called for authorities to continue to be tough on the streets, but has also talked of equality for black people. they have to receive fair treatment from law enforcement. they have to receive it. we all saw what happened last week. we can t let that happen. hopefully george is looking down right now and saying, this is a great thing that s happening for our country. it is a great day for him, it s a great day for everybody. nobody‘s ever done for the black community, what president trump has done. think of it. well, it is easy to say there should be fair treatment for african americans, but given the deep rooted issues with racism in this country, and, as we are seeing almost daily with police culture, that is of course far harder to achieve in practise. aleem maqbool, bbc news in washington. well, as we heard in aleem s report there, president trump pondered on what george floyd might think about the economy. joe biden who s likely to be the democrat candidate taking on mr trump in november s election for the white house called his comment despicable. george floyd s last words, i can t breathe. i can t breathe. have echoed all across this nation and quite frankly around the world. for the president to try to put any other words in the mouth of george floyd, i frankly think is despicable. and the fact that he did so despicable. and the fact that he did so on despicable. and the fact that he did so on the day when black unemployment rose, hispanic unemployment rose, hispanic unemployment rose, hispanic unemployment rose, black youth unemployment rose, black youth unemployment skyrocketed, it tells you everything you need to know about this man. and what he really cares about. congresswoman frederica wilson campaigned for change following the death of her constituent trayvon martin, an unarmed teenager who was shot dead by george zimmerman in 2012. shejoins me now from florida. very good to have you with us. eight yea rs very good to have you with us. eight years ago, when trayvon martin was shot dead, you called for change, do you think this time is different?” think that the video that we saw, there was no video with trayvon martin, and the video we saw was despicable. and to watch a man plays his foot on the throat of a human being and leave it there until he died, it took, it tore this country apart. and that s what you see today. because people are tired of that. trayvon martin was the start, but he was not murdered by a police officer. so these are the people that are sworn to protect us, and that are sworn to protect us, and thatis that are sworn to protect us, and that is what makes it so despicable. sworn to protect the american public, but today we are focusing on another incident, doesn t it this time not involve a black man, it involves a 75 year old elderly man. you see police officers walk past him as blood pours from his ear. what do you think there is so little accountability? i think that this started, i m going to give you a history lesson. 0ur started, i m going to give you a history lesson. our nation has a lwa ys history lesson. our nation has always had an army. we never had a police force until after the slaves we re police force until after the slaves were freed. and the police force was organised for the specific purpose of tracking, torturing, dehumanizing black men. so they were hanged and the escrow items were removed, and people carried them around as trophies. and this whole police methods, the police, you must remember now that these are family members from generation to generation. most police officers with the father of a police officer, the son, the grandson. so this is an intrinsic hates, i believe, of black men. so does it conduct recruitment? asa men. so does it conduct recruitment? as a conductor diversity in the police force? i think diversity helps, but the colour blue is still there. even when it s diverse. in my particular city that i live in diversity has helped considerably. and it s in miami. miami, florida and miami gardens because we insist upon it. something else we have, is called a consent decree that president 0bama put into place that demanded oversight of police in cities that had excessive police forces. my city had seven black men killed in seven months, and a consent decree was put over them, that was back in 2011. we have not had a police incident since then. a police shooting or police murder, or police shooting or police murder, or police killing. that s very interesting. let me ask about the legislation he proposed last year. it s called the commission on the social status of black men and boys act of 2019. what does that do? social status of black men and boys act of 2019. what does that (mm would provide a clearing house in the department ofjustice under the civil rights division to establish a commission for the express purpose of looking at all of the disparities that we know historically affect black men and boys. education, health care, criminaljustice, housing, welfare, all kinds of things. a holistic approach looking at holistically the deep rooted problems. which we see in the job figures, good job problems. which we see in the job figures, goodjob figures problems. which we see in the job figures, good job figures much better than we thought, i say that they are good, they are terrible but a lot better than people supposed that they would be. when you look at them and look deeper into the numbers is that things have gotten worse for african americans. numbers is that things have gotten worse for african-americans. and it has a lot to do with discrimination and racism, but this commission will investigate this, and it allows for us investigate this, and it allows for us to have a huge panel of experts to serve on this commission, to investigate the causes and come up with solutions, and to put in policies that will help us. as we try to deal with this issue that has been haunting this nation since it was founded. since they brought us to this country. black men, what can i say? can i ask you one other thing? the mayor of washington has called on president trump to remove the military and federal police from the military and federal police from the city. there was this ring of steel getting bigger and bigger around the white house, and wondering what you see when you see the white house cut off from the people like that? first of all, the president is not what we would call a strong leader. the president is afraid, and he has every right to be afraid, and he has every right to be afraid, because there are so many people who want to stop him from being such a coward. he should be the leader of this nation, and speaking out to calm everybody, and to bring us together. he is a uniter, and that s why he is building the fence. because he is a divider. he should be a uniter, but he isa divider. he should be a uniter, but he is a divider. it is so sad that during this time we have to deal with a president who is quite racist, there s no question about it. and so what is happening in our country now is showing that people are not listening to him. they are following their hearts. and it s so wonderful to see so many different kinds of people who are protesting and who are marching, and who are disturbed, and who are upset. and that s what s different from the trayvon martin case. very good to talk to you today. thank you very much for being with us. the european union s chief brexit negotiator, michel barnier, has accused the uk of ‘backtracking on its commitments, over a future trade deal. however the government s chief negotiator, david frost, says the latest round of talks had been positive in tone, and the uk remained committed to a successful outcome . time is running out, with just six months to go to reach an agreement, before the end of the uk s transitional arrangements with brussels. we cannot accept this backtracking, but we will have the full respect of the withdrawal agreement. 0ur reality check correspondent chris morris has this assessment of what each side wants to achieve. it s the fourth round of post brexit trade talks between the uk and the eu and they ve been taking place remotely in the shadow of the coronavirus crisis. now, that hasn t really helped matters but it s not been the only reason these talks haven t made much progress. there s even no agreement so far on the structure of what they re trying to negotiate. the eu wants one comprehensive deal, but the uk sees that as an effort to keep it tied more closely than it wants to european institutions and ways of doing things. the uk argue that there should be a series of separate agreements, but the eu sees that as another example of the uk trying to cherry pick the benefits it wants while avoiding the obligations of eu membership. there are also specific issues on which negotiators seem to have hit a brick wall. there is what s known as the level playing field. that s measures to ensure businesses on one side don t have an unfair advantage over their competitors on the other. now, all trade agreements have these, but the eu wants the uk to stick particularly closely to eu rules on things like workers rights, environmental regulations and subsidies for business. then there s fisheries. now, the uk would like full access to the eu market to sell its fish there, but in return the eu wants full access for its boats to fish in uk waters. british negotiators say that has to change. and then there s the governance of any future agreement. that s partly about how new agreements would be enforced and about the role of the european court ofjustice. now, it normally takes years to do a trade deal but this process only has a matter of months left. remember, the uk left the eu on january the 31st and we re now in a transition period when all the rules and regulations and payments stay the same until the end of the year. but if no trade agreement is completed by then the uk won t have any formal deal with its closest neighbours, which account for nearly half its total trade. by law, any extension to the transition period would have to be agreed by the end of this month and the eu says it s willing to talk about an extension. the scottish and welsh governments are also in favour. so is the northern ireland assembly. but the uk government has repeatedly ruled it out. so can any basic deal still be done? well, if there s political will to make concessions on both sides, then, yes, perhaps it can. the prime minister will get directly involved this month, holding talks with the european commission and council presidents on how the negotiations are going, and high level political involvement can lead to progress. if it doesn t, businesses on both sides of the channel have just over six months to prepare for an abrupt change in the way they trade at a time when many are already struggling to stay afloat. those economic challenges caused by covid could strengthen the case for compromise, or they could provide cover for those who favour a far more radical break with the eu. so crunch talks coming up later this month between borisjohnson and the commission president. we will talk more about brexit and what the chances are of a breakthrough in the coming half hour, seduced do stay with us for that. we will also talk about the grim milestone pastor in the uk, 40,000 deaths now from the coronavirus. in the latest from the 0ffice coronavirus. in the latest from the office of national statistics. plenty to talk about, do stay with us. good evening. not only has it turned a lot cooler this week, but during the day today it has turned a lot windier as well. the reason is this deep area of low pressure, unusually so for the time of year, and the tightly packed isobars are bringing some stronger than average winds to say the least. gale force winds across parts of the north of the uk, particularly scotland and northern ireland which will continue through the rest of today and pushed southwards into tomorrow. even ahead of it there was some quite lively gusts of wind, but potentially 50, 60 mph gusts through the night which of course, with the trees in full leaf could cause some issues. and we are getting some rain with this system as well. much needed rain. a few millimetres falling as the head this way southwards, but as it does so through the day on saturday it could well turn quite showering. that said, when you put a little bit of the junior strength sunshine in there it could turn heavy and sundry. lots of showers coming in behind, and another band of rain as well further north. so it still, or the potential is still there for some rainfall, much needed rainfall for the gardens. but it will be windier tomorrow for the south as winds really picking up here. gusts of 40 45 mph. still pretty windy further north, although it using just a little across eastern scotland. but still some more rain to come here. of course there will be some sunshine in between those showers, and as a result we may realise temperatures into the high teens, but for most of us it will feel much cooler. and much cooler because of the wind direction and wind strength. now that will continue through the night to push that through saturday night and sunday committed to push shall rearrange southwards. all the time, i think with that crowd and that breeze temperatures will hold up. but as you can see at eights and nines. and then gradually through the day on sunday. so as we move into sunday we start to see these hi pushing it off the atlantic. so that will have two effects, it will start to ease the wind and start to cut off the moisture for the showers. so sunday still looks unsettled as you can see. we will stop showers around across much of north and eastern scotland, and across much of england as well, particularly near the north sea coast, but fewer showers. and hopefully lengthier and drier spells if that s what you are after, of course, further west. but unfortunately no usable rain. but it does mean that temperatures might get up again into the high teens, possibly pushing 20 degrees, and the winds will ease. and that process will continue into the early part of next week. bye bye.
this is bbc news, with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the terrible toll of coronavirus. in the uk more than 40,000 people, have now died the second worst in the world, behind america. but there is some more postive news latest figures for england suggest infections are falling, dramatically. shouting. a pensioner is assaulted by police in new york state, as the protests over the death of george floyd continue. meanwhile, us job figures show that the unemployment rate has fallen. welcoming the data, donald trump has come under fire for bringing george floyd into his comments about the economy. hopefully, george is looking down right now and saying, that s a great thing that s happening for our country. that s a great day for him. it s a great day for everybody. it s a great day for everybody. there s a great, great day in terms of equality. in pakistan, doctors are warning the already weak health care system could soon be overwhelmed by coronavirus patients. and a new boss in the house: tim davie is the bbc‘s new direcor general, promising accelerated change when he takes up the role. with swimming pools shut and the unusual warm weather wildswimming is on the rise in the uk but how safe is it? we find out about the risks involved more details are emerging of the new suspect in the case of british girl madeleine mccann, who went missing while on holiday in portugal in 2007. according to german media, the suspect is also being investigated, over the disappearance of a five year old girl in germany. it s reported the man, partially named as christian b, is 43 years old and is believed to have been in the same area of southern portugal at the time madeleine went missing. 0ur correspondent gavin lee has more details. this is christian b. the man suspected of the murder of madeleine mccann. she disappeared in 2007. ten years later, the suspect became the focus of a europe wide police investigation when german police received a tip off from an associate of the subject who says he made disturbing comments as they watched tv news coverage in a bar on 10th anniversary of madeleine s disappearance. here in praia da luz, we re told police have been making house to house inquiries since then. this person works close to one of the properties used by christian b. i think i have seen this man, at some point i saw him not here but in the town. he says the police have come back several times after the first search for her body. two years before madeleine mccann went missing from this hotel apartment, a woman was raped in praia da luz. christian b is remanded in germany charged in connection with that case. he s also charged with other crimes, and locals are questioning while portuguese police hadn t picked up this man with an extensive criminal past before that. in the years after madeleine mccann‘s disappearance, the suspect is said to have moved several times between germany and portugal. in 2015, he owned this run down property in the east of germany. it s emerged he has also also been invested over this german girl who went missing from a family party. that investigation has now been re opened. the search for madeleine mccann has been unprecedented with numerous suspects and several false hopes. we have been told this joint operation depends on new information from the public, if they are to find clear evidence in this case. gavin lee, bbc news. more now on the uk research that suggests there s been a significant drop in cases of coronavirus in england, on the day that the uk s official tally of covid deaths passed 40,000. the office for national statistics estimates that during the past fortnight, one in 1,000 people had the disease outside hospitals and care homes. that equates to 53,000 cases less than half the previous estimate of 133,000. in separate analysis, the 0ns examined the extra deaths seen during the pandemic that are not registered as covid related. it found that lives lost to dementia have been higher than average. 0ur head of statistics, robert cuffe, has been looking at the details and joins us now. there are two studies out there today. there s the 0ns one that says that there are 6000 new infections every day, then there s the public health cambridge university study, which says the number could be closer to 17,000 a day. there s a big disparity between these two studies, which one should we trust was yellow i think i would always go for one that finds out directly how many infections there are. and that is what the 0ns survey does. it goes to people s houses and administers swa b tests to people s houses and administers swab tests to people directly, so they swab themselves. that goes back to the 0ns. there picking people at random, doesn t matter if you have symptoms or not. that s how they work out how many people are infected. the public health england model is different. they re trying to calculate what s going on in the epidemic. they do that by looking at the number of deaths we ve seen recently in the pattern in deaths. they have some assumptions about how long it takes for the infection to turn into a death. what the death rates are. and then on top of that, they added some more assumptions about what s happening, some more mobility data. there are assembling a jigsaw with lots of different pieces from lots of different boxes to come up with a big picture of what s going on in the epidemic. they do two very different things, but simply i m just asking, how any people are infected? the 0ns asks people, so i think that s the primary one to look at. let s talk separately about the r rate, which is the rate of infection. largely across the uk right now, it is below one, but there are two areas we have concerns about, and that is the northwest of england and the southwest of england. what is going on there? again, this is based on the modelling data. so we have lots of different hotspots coming into it. and models like that from cambridge and public health england, and another one posted today are all trying to estimate what s going on in the regions using things like death rates or the infection rates, 01’ death rates or the infection rates, or the number of people in hospital to work out what s going on with the epidemic. and while they ve seen a slight hint that the rates might be higher in the southwest, for example, in the southwest they ve had a very low level of infection overall, there s been an outbreak in the hospital there recently. and when you see that happening, that can when you see that happening, that ca n stall when you see that happening, that can stall the progress that we ve seen can stall the progress that we ve seen that the constantly following figures we ve seen over time. there s normally a lag, and you re saying in two weeks time we might seea you re saying in two weeks time we might see a rise in the death rate in those particular areas?” might see a rise in the death rate in those particular areas? i think it is probably too soon to say to say there is a lag if this was a real increase in r, we would see. it is quite possible this is an a rtefa ct that is quite possible this is an artefact that is caused by an outbreak, for example, in a hospital 01’ outbreak, for example, in a hospital oran outbreak, for example, in a hospital 01’ an area outbreak, for example, in a hospital or an area that s had very low level of infections. so that makes a big difference. the model that has led to this discussion is one of at least six that fits into sage, the scientific advice group for emergencies, and when you look at all those models, there is really strong evidence of big regional differences. there s regional differences, of course there is local variations, you will see changes of infection. but when you look at units of 10 million people, you re not seeing strong examples of one area being radically different. we should say this was to be expected, that there would be a slight rise in the protected r rate, because government figures were supposed to go up as they lock down the economy. there s going to be more opportunities for the virus to spread as people walk around, and that rate might rise some. what people are worried is whether it goes above one. the evidence is strong, we could look at the data and see the number of infections are falling. 0ne and see the number of infections are falling. one of the issues with these models, they are based on deaths and historical data, and there is a lag. the 0ns shows that there is a lag. the 0ns shows that the number of infections in england has been falling over the last few weeks. the data from the 0ns shows that over the last five weeks, including three weeks it the stay alert area, the margin of error but make the most recent set of figures where one in 1000 people are infected. it could be twice as high and that is shown by the hairline that shows the infection rates. but the infection rates haven t done have consistently been going down. the overall trend is showing that overall infections are going down in england. we will take good news wherever we can get it. thanks so much. the uk health secretary, matt hancock, has implored people not to attend large gatherings, including protests over the killing of george floyd this weekend. a senior metropolitan police officer has said any future mass gatherings to protest against the death of mr floyd would be unlawful amid concerns they could lead to the spreading of the coronavirus. the comments come ahead of two planned demonstrations in london this weekend as part of the black lives matter movement. london s mayor has also urged those attending to respect social distancing rules. 0ur correspondentjames waterhouse reports. the now familiar pose against racial injustice. today is small in scale, but huge in meaning. i m lucky enough to be relatively unscathed, living in northwest london. but i have seen it, i ve seen it covertly and overtly. and the issues that exist in the us exist here, except you can t see them. it an nfl player called colin kaepernick who first took the knee in 2016. his sporting career has stalled since, but the movement he started has not. these students from ireland took their turn to protest over the death of george floyd and outline what they want to happen. more money into the curriculum and educating people on institutional racism, colonization, getting books like the good immigrant and why i m no longer talking to white people about race into regular parlance, like getting people talk about it and they ll learn. they have to learn! there is a momentous field to the last ten days embodied here by some of our emergency services feeling able to take a knee, as well. the fact that a white police officer would show solidarity by taking a knee i think demonstrates the decency of our police. some will criticise them for doing so, i don t. i think what it shows is the fact that our police services empathize with the protests, and they do accept and believe that black lives matter. social distancing was impossible when thousands came out on wednesday. at the time, police said they stood by them but urged people to follow social distancing guidelines. now, the language has changed. it is unlawful. you know, the government have set that for health reasons, that people should not be in groups of more than six. so we would strongly encourage people not to come out and gather in these large numbers because they re putting themselves and others at risk. i went to south end for a drive, and that was awful. but no one was talking about social distancing then, i was just seeing articles saying, like, people are out there sunbathing the day people were in conga lines, you know? for thousands, the need to highlight racism and prejudice has been at odds with the social distancing laws we are expected to follow. neither this movement nor health crisis are going anywhere soon. james waterhouse, bbc news. more now on progress with brexit talks, after the european union s chief negotiator, michel barnier, said there has been no significant progress in talks with the uk about a future trade deal. let s cross to brussels where we can speak to roberta metsola an mep for malta who is also the home affairs spokesperson for the european people s party group. lovely to have you with us, thanks for being on the programme. i wonder what you make of what you heard today, it doesn t seem like there s been great progress. where do you think we go from here? well, we had hope, andi think we go from here? well, we had hope, and i think there is a lot of disappointment in brussels, but also across the european union, including in my home country of malta, that has a very long standing historical and cultural tie with the united kingdom. the day is approaching, we have a solid road map that is the blueprint of what this trade agreement should look like. in a few weeks, borisjohnson agreement should look like. in a few weeks, boris johnson is agreement should look like. in a few weeks, borisjohnson is going to meet with the commission president, andi meet with the commission president, and i must say today, we don t know what that meeting will look like. and that is a real pity.” what that meeting will look like. and that is a real pity. i saw michel barnier waving around papers today, saying that you can read this in any language you want, it is quite simple and straightforward. in english it is the political declaration. yet months ago, he told us declaration. yet months ago, he told us the political declaration wasn t legally binding, it was just an ambition of where they want to go. so why is he criticising the uk side for sticking to something that s not legally binding, or not sticking to what they promised in that document? it was because the uk side was present and agreed to that document, together with every single other member start in together with every single other memberstart in uk together with every single other member start in uk parliament. when you enter in negotiation, you expect the other party to. it s not legally binding, that s the point they re making. there are lots of issues that were outlined at that there was agreement upon, and today we ve seen the uk starting to backtrack. we are still very far on what the role of the european court ofjustice is, on fisheries, i think the line in the sand has been drawn without officials, and i think at this point we should hope for clarity, both sides playing a fair game, and making sure rules are followed. because ultimately, what will i tell my citizens, but will i tell of the businesses and uk citizens living in malta or eu citizens living in malta or eu citizens living in the uk? they want clarity as to where we will be going forward. nobody wants, at least i can speak for a lot of us here, a ha rd can speak for a lot of us here, a hard brexit. that would be so economically problematic for both sides. i think it would be much more mature to return back to the table, which is also what michel barnier said today, that he hopes the next meetings to be in person. because ultimately, a deal has to be done. this was not started by the eu, the eu is not the enemy. but there are things that need to be tied. we should be clear if there was no deal on the future relationship, that would still leave the withdrawal agreement in place, so citizens rights would still be protected. yes, and there are in fact a number of eu citizens who have been democrat received status. it lots of uncertainty exists in every single other area. when we talk about the future commercial relationship, when we talk about what will happen with movement we have not yet set out the rules as they will apply, on money laundering, counterterrorism, we are still very far away. of course we need to ask what will happen. we would like there to be a deal before he crashed into a no deal, and that would be, i think, unnecessary and unwanted by both sides. just moving away from brexit, i wonder if i can get your thoughts ona i wonder if i can get your thoughts on a life breaking copy here that i have that donald trump says the us will impose a tariff on eu cars u nless will impose a tariff on eu cars unless the eu changes its tariffs on american lobsters. i think donald trump should focus on what s happening in the us right now before starting to talk about creating another war with the european union. laughter. bringing it back to brexit, is this theissue bringing it back to brexit, is this the issue here that obviously the uk wa nts the issue here that obviously the uk wants this deal with the us, but you have an income in the white house who may be there for the next four yea rs, who may be there for the next four years , we who may be there for the next four years, we don t know, who plays ha rd ball years, we don t know, who plays hardball with the years, we don t know, who plays hard ball with the eu ? years, we don t know, who plays hardball with the eu?” years, we don t know, who plays hardball with the eu? i think playing hardball hardball with the eu? i think playing hard ball means hardball with the eu? i think playing hardball means that you stick to your ground. but at the same time, you need to play fair. now if a trading partner will play fair, the eu will oblige, but if the other party decides to go astray from everything it has if you don t say bound, but at least was discussed, that is not what we saw today, we saw backtracking which is unacceptable for us. do you eat american lobster in malta?” unacceptable for us. do you eat american lobster in malta? i eat lobster. everywhere, i m not sure what nationality. you might have to eat more, i don t know, we will see. thank you very much for being with us separately lobster has no by nationality, thank you very much. the bbc has appointed a new director general, who ll take over from tony hall in september. tim davie is currently the head of bbc studios, one of the corporation s commercial subsidiaries. among his priorities for the corporation, will be funding and the future of the licence fee. we can now speak to chris curtis, editor in chief at broadcast magazine. good to have you with us. he was the favourite, but is he the right choice? he s a very credible choice, and he s got lots of the right attributes to take on what is a very difficultjob. as you said in the intro there, he s a commercial animal. he s a deal maker, a strategic leader with lots of business expertise. and a lot of what he will be tasked with doing is having the high level political conversations around bbc finances that will be crucial for its future. he isa that will be crucial for its future. he is a deal maker, but one of the deals he won t be involved in is who becomes the next chairman of the bbc next february. could that be a problem for him? he starts in september, so he s got six months working with sir david clemente, the incumbent chair. that gives him a little bit more time to get his feet under the table, get his vision under the table, get his vision under way. i think that time is incredibly important because it will give him a chance to establish things and be moving in a certain direction, so that when the new chair comes direction, so that when the new chaircomes in, direction, so that when the new chair comes in, they will most likely want to influence and shape a strategy that is already in place, as opposed to if tim davie was starting now with a brand new chair who might want to have greater influence on his own vision for the corporation. he will have to negotiate the next licence fee, the work will probably start on that in earnest in 2022. the fact that he comes from a commercial background, will that inform how he thinks? whether he thinks it can be a full licence fee, whether it means he has to find other methods of funding can that affect the decision? potentially. there is two questions around funding. there s the question around funding. there s the question around the level of funding the bbc has in the question around the method of funding. now the licence fee, the way it is done at the moment as a nonprogressive charge thatis moment as a nonprogressive charge that is paid universally across the board those are the principles that will be up for debate. and it will be interesting to see the extent to which the bbc is totally wedded to the licence fee as a funding model, or whether it will countenance a different model as long as that model didn t inevitably lead to a massive decline in funding. if the level of funding coming to the bbc was significantly less, that would mean vast cuts. and no one wants to be the director general that has to usher in an era of vast cuts. one of the other issues he will have to focus on is trust in the bbc. we ve seen over the last couple months with coronavirus huge audiences, record audiences for the bbc. so the demand is still there, but there is still a big question over trust. it is accentuated by social media not only what people are saying about the bbc, but also the role presenters and reporters have on social media. look, the nature of impartiality has become more complex in the last decade than it was previously. and it is also challenging when there are so many red hot topics. at the moment, bbc is covering the black lives let matter movement. the bbc can tie itself up in impartiality, it doesn t need to be impartial in issues like racism. but once that tends to the clinical sphere, that s where it gets very complicated. and there are lots of examples of director generals who have got into hot water and, ultimately it has cost them theirjob because of scandals around news, bbc‘s light on things, and that coming into conflict with the political world. big challenge ahead of him. thanks for talking to us. thank you. chris curtis there. taking a dip in a stream, waterfall, or lake is fashionably called wild swimming these days and it s become more popular under lockdown. with swimming pools shut and weeks of warm sunshine, one group in sheffield has seen its membership swell by 700 in just six weeks. but outdoor swimming also carries risks, as 0livia richwald reports. you cannot beat the thrill of getting into cold water. it s a huge dopamine fix, it really is. it s a bit like a reset button after a hard day at work, and you come out and you just swim, and you feel calm afterwards. it s completely all body, all mind, sensory overwhelming experience. life under lockdown has been restricted and confined. it s no wonder that many people have sought out adventures on their doorsteps. 0pen water or wild swimming in rivers and lakes is becoming more popular, fuelled by social media where people post photos of their dips. these sheffield swimmers say they enjoy the hobby safely and responsibly. 0utdoor swimmers always have a mantra that you leave the place cleaner than you found it. and every outdoor swimmer that i ve seen often comes to the place with a plastic bag, and they fill up all the rubbish from around. they re part of the sheffield 0utdoor plungers, a group with more than 4,000 members. but swimming in nature does carry risks. both south yorkshire fire service and yorkshire water want to discourage open water swimming, saying it can be very dangerous. although water may look enticing, you don t know what lurks underneath there might be strong currents or hidden hazards which could hurt you, or you could get cold water shock, which could lead to death. is it safe? yes if you inform yourself. i mean, i think there are two approaches to safety, aren t there? one approach is to ban anything that has the slightest element of risk. and the other approach is to give people really good, true information. you know, we re very much into getting that information to people. i make sure it s safe. so for example, i make sure she has a wet suit on because she loses body heat quicker than we do. also, i make sure she gets dressed as soon as we get out i get her dressed first before me. she s got shoes to protect her feet and she has flotation devices, and she never leaves my side. so i d say yeah, it s pretty safe. these wild swimmers are all experienced. they recommend that novices seek advice and also company before attending their first dip. 0livia richwald, bbc look north, sheffield. if you are considering doing that this weekend, i would take a look at the weather forecast before you do that. you might need to grease up, it will be very cold. stay with us on bbc news, still more to come. good evening. not only has it turned a lot cooler this week, but during the day today it has turned a lot windier as well. the reason is this deep area of low pressure, unusually so for the time of year, and the tightly packed isobars are bringing some stronger than average winds to say the least. gale force winds across parts of the north of the uk, particularly scotland and northern ireland which will continue through the rest of today and pushed southwards into tomorrow. even ahead of it there was some quite lively gusts of wind, but potentially 50, 60 mph gusts through the night which of course, with the trees in full leaf could cause some issues. and we are getting some rain with this system as well. much needed rain. a few millimetres falling as the head this way southwards, but as it does so through the day on saturday it could well turn quite showering. that said, when you put a little bit of the junior strength sunshine in there it could turn heavy and sundry. lots of showers coming in behind, and another band of rain as well further north. so it still or the potential is still there for some rainfall, much needed rainfall for the gardens. but it will be windier tomorrow for the south as winds really picking up here. gusts of 40 45 mph. still pretty windy further north, although it using just a little across eastern scotland. but still some more rain to come here. of course there will be some sunshine in between those showers, and as a result we may realise temperatures into the high teens, but for most of us it will feel much cooler. and much cooler because of the wind direction and wind strength. now that will continue through the night to push that through saturday night and sunday to push showery rain southwards. all the time, i think with that crowd and that breeze temperatures will hold up. but as you can see at eights and nines. and then gradually through the day on sunday. so as we move into sunday we start to see these highs pushing it off the atlantic. so that will have two effects it will start to ease the wind and start to cut off the moisture for the showers. so sunday still looks unsettled as you can see. we will still have showers around across much of north and eastern scotland, and across much of england as well, particularly near the north sea coast, but fewer showers. and hopefully lengthier and drier spells if that s what you are after, of course, further west. but unfortunately no usable rain. but it does mean that temperatures might get up again into the high teens, possibly pushing 20 degrees, and the winds will ease. and that process will continue into the early part of next week. bye bye.
this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the terrible toll of coronavirus. in the uk more than 40,000 people, have now died the second worst in world, behind america but there is some more postive news, latest figures for england suggest infections are falling. a 75 year old man is assaulted by police in new york state, as the protests over the death of george floyd, continue. meanwhile us job figures show that the unemployment rate has fallen. welcoming the data president trump has come under fire for bringing george floyd into his comments about the economy. hopefully george is looking down right now and saying is that the great thing that s happening for our country. this is a great day for him, isa country. this is a great day for him, is a great day for