crowds of protesters have gathered for a sixth day in cities across the united states following the killing by police of an african american man george floyd. curfews have been imposed in more than 20 cities to try to stop the violence. in the capital, activists have gathered outside the white house. there have been packed beaches at sun drenched british resorts as ministers announced an easing of the english lockdown starting later on monday. the government says they are reasonably confident the measures will be manageable . some gps have raised concerns about a second wave of infections. brazil has overtaken france as the country with the fourth highest death toll from coronavirus. nearly 29,000 people have died in south america s biggest country. there have been clashes between police and anti government protesters demanding the resignation or impeachment of the president over his handling of the pandemic. now on bbc news, hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i am stephen sackur. in some countries, the coronavirus pandemic has enhanced unity and solidarity. in others, it has exposed deep fault lines. in india, it is the poor migrant workers who have been hardest hit by the crisis, which has also seen heightened tensions in the hindu majority and the muslim minority. my guest today is a general secretary of the ruling hindu nationalist bjp party, ram madhav. it is prime minister modi stoking intercommunal tensions even in this time of national emergency? ram madhav in delhi, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. let us begin with the coronavirus situation in your country. 0fficials with the coronavirus situation in your country. officials in your government have proclaimed the success government have proclaimed the success of your lot down policy, have pointed to a relatively low number of deaths, but right now, we see the curve, the infection rate curve in india seems to be rising, and rising alarmingly. do you think your government has been complacent? we are 15% of the world s population. yet if you look at the rate of the affected people in india, it is very low and you are right, that the very rise in numbers very simply, but if you look at this period during the type of lockdown, the first four weeks, it was strictly under control. as we relax the block down a little bit, there isa the block down a little bit, there is a little rise in the cases, but it is very much limited to a few areas and contained in that sense. that is what worries some of the scientists, epidemiologists in that country, that you are easing the down very significantly in large parts of the country while, to quote an epidemiologist at the university of michigan who watches india s case very closely, he said, we see no flattening of the india curve. so why is the lockdown that not ease the lockdown so significantly now? certain diameters are very much in place even now. there are re lacerations in some of the industries, they have been allowed to restart. but let me tell you relaxation is. let me tell you, we did not have enough preparation in terms of healthcare facilities. but six to eight weeks down the line, we are fully prepared, i can tell you today we are ready 900,000 beds, we have hospitals ready, we are taking full precautions, we are quarantining people who are returning from destinations, we have not lapsed in precautions. perhaps the worst way anything at all about the worst way anything at all about the indian situation is the extent to which your sudden dramatic lockdown all those weeks ago forced millions of your poorest people, migrant workers in the big cities to head for home. the famous indian writer has written, the lock down works like a chemical experiment that suddenly illuminated many hidden things. the urban poor were driven out by employers and landlords, millions of impoverished impoverished, thirsty, hungry people, including the old and young and sick, were forced to attempt a long walk home. they are now homes, the lucky ones who made it, and they are infecting other people in those parts of your country least able to deal with the pandemic. that is a pretty exaggerated statement i tell you. you see the lockdown that was announced on the 24th and 25th at midnight. the decision taken at the right time, the health scare of 1.3 billion indians. that is only held in managing the spread of the virus ina very in managing the spread of the virus in a very significant way. it is now restricted to a few pockets in the country, that was essentially because of the timely lockdown. now, migrant workers, let me give you some information before we descend upon the impact of it. india has 120 million migrant workers. 0ut upon the impact of it. india has 120 million migrant workers. out of that, about 80 million work in other states tha n that, about 80 million work in other states than their home state. it is bigger than the entire population of the uk. 0ut bigger than the entire population of the uk. out of that, the majority of them i would say about 90% of them still have not undertaken this particular journey, still have not undertaken this particularjourney, but, yes, you are right, about 4 million, 5 million people have taken to the streets to get to the destination. how do you feel about the members of your own party, the ruling party, the bjp, who have specifically explicitly blamed muslims for spreading coronavirus? firstly, let me tell you in this fight against the virus, 1.3 me tell you in this fight against the virus,1.3 billion me tell you in this fight against the virus, 1.3 billion people of india are united and together. all the differences. know, that is clearly not true. you are not united. it is wrong. we do not endorse it, nor do we support that statement. what has happened to the local bjp leader who is known for his intemperate language who tweeted, and this is a quote, the people from the religious organisation who held a meeting in south delhi at the beginning of all this, these people, he says, have begun spitting on doctors and other health workers. it is clear that the aim of these people is to infect as many people as possible with coronavirus and kill them. he has referred to coronavirus terrorists, and he means muslims. yes, those state m e nts and he means muslims. yes, those statements are wrong. we have cautioned or warned if they are indulging in any such statement. i would like to make one submission. sometimes some people talk about the bla key jamal, please don t sometimes some people talk about the blakey jamal, please don t take it they are talking about the entire muslim community. within the muslim community, there is a large sector of the people in india and elsewhere who don t approve of those in india. tablighi jamaat. who don t approve of those in india. tablighijamaat. i who don t approve of those in india. tablighi jamaat. i want to know what the bjp is doing. the communal violence that we have seen since the beginning of the coronavirus epidemic in your country, for example, to muslim civilians who volunteered to distribute food and emergency aid in their communities, they were attacked by a gang of bjp activists on april the fourth. what have you done to punish those people who attract the volunteers, and also, to ensure it never happens ain? also, to ensure it never happens again? certainly, any such act of violence will be punished, and in what you are saying is true, certainly take action. but it me tell you for information, in india, 4 million were attacked, so many volu nta ry workers 4 million were attacked, so many voluntary workers were attacked, police officers, their arms were chopped off, things have happened during the lockdown. i am not talking in terms of which religion has done it. whoever does such things will be punished in india. we shall never approve of any such activities. what do you say to a nalysts activities. what do you say to analysts who study your communal relations inside india very closely, like people who say the government has seized the opportunity of the lock down and the coronavirus crisis to go after muslim activists? totally baseless. as far as we are concerned, the government is concerned, the government is concerned in this fight we are together. you see the ratings of the prime minister by independent agencies above 90%, 90% is not a hindu population in india. that means everybody support the actions, the decisions that the government is taking because it is to help the entire population. in india we do not approve or do not see any communal kind of situation or any communal kind of situation or any communal conflict happening. you seem communal conflict happening. you seem to be living in a parallel universe and many indians, particular muslim indians. are you not aware that just last particular muslim indians. are you not aware thatjust last month the bj p not aware thatjust last month the mpmp not aware thatjust last month the bjp mp swami said muslims, if they become anything like 30% of our population, will be a danger to the country. muslims, he said, are not in an equal category. this is the language of pure discrimination, and it is coming from senior figures language of pure discrimination, and it is coming from seniorfigures in your party. 0k, it is coming from seniorfigures in your party. ok, now it is coming from seniorfigures in your party. 0k, nowl have not directly seen that statement. i think that what you are saying is true, but you will be careful not to use this. having said that, we do not approve of any such sentiments, any such statements in the country, people who make the statement, but other parties and governments, we shall not approve of any such state m e nts shall not approve of any such statements targeted at any community oi’ statements targeted at any community orany statements targeted at any community or any religion. again, ijust wonder on what basis you are telling me all this stuff about harmony and unity in india today. are you not aware of that fallout from your own government citizenship amendment act has included the office of the un high commissioner for human has included the office of the un high commissionerfor human rights calling that legislation, which causes fundamental to your government puzzlement programme, called it fundamentally discriminatory. called it fundamentally discriminatory. a lot of disinformation and lack of knowledge about that leading people to make all sorts ofjudgement. let me tell you fourth of all, number one, provoke the amendment act does not apply to a single indian. you know that? 1.3 billion indians, out of 200 million of that, it does in no way affect them. secondly and most importantly,. your way affect them. secondly and most importantly, . .. your message way affect them. secondly and most importantly,. your message does not discrimination. no, your message to the world is quite clear that you make a distinct category for muslim people, in this case, it is a case of people who come from neighbouring state into india, you give the right to non muslims to a fast track citizenship, which you specifically and explicitly denied to muslims. yes, america has done to certain sections, vietnam, ifi yes, america has done to certain sections, vietnam, if i am not wrong, even spain has done to certain jewish people wrong, even spain has done to certainjewish people of wrong, even spain has done to certain jewish people of the wrong, even spain has done to certainjewish people of the second world war time, citizenship hasjust been fast tracked. nobody is denied citizenship in india. if one qualifies for example, i tell you, at least close to 15 pakistani citizens have acquired citizenship. ido citizens have acquired citizenship. i do not want to misunderstand you all put words in your mouth, but when you start telling me about the way in which germany or austria treated the jewish. .. way in which germany or austria treated thejewish. i begin to wonder what you are driving at. for example, i was very struck yesterday that your prime minister, mr moody, paid fulsome tribute to one of the great ideologues, in mr modi puzzlement view of the hindu movement, which of course your previous organisation and your current part of the bjp is very much a part of. mr modi said that he showed extraordinary courage and leadership. we know in 1939, they expressed sympathy for what the germans were doing to thejewish and said that our muslims in india are very much like thejewish people of germany. there are many people around the world who find this sort of ideological connection and background to the bjp and the rss to be deeply and profoundly disturbing. you have totally misunderstood that philosophy. he was for the greater unity of all the indian citizens with respect to all religion. that is the reason why even leaders such as gandhi also praised his vision for the nation. he was one leader who was given a 50 yearjail term by the british during colonial rule in india. he fought for independence. so he is one of the misunderstood leaders in india. so here s misunderstood because his sympathy for what the nazis were doing was 0k? no, he was not sympathetic to nazis at all. that is a great misinformation that is spread about him. forgive me, but it is notjust critics outside the country that are deeply disturbed by some of the ideology they hear from the rss and the bjp. here is mahatma gandhi s great grandson. he said the bjp and the rss right wing groupings have polarised indian society and presents a grave danger. the danger is that in ten years time this country won t be india anymore it will be a fascist dictatorship. those are the words of mr gandhi s great grandson today. those are the words of mr gandhi s great-grandson today. that would be his personal opinion. mahatma gandhi himself attended a rss rally. he created the discipline of the rss. he said, the work i am doing for the uplift of the country, the rss is doing it is removing this from society. i fully appreciate that it is not what mahatma gandhi himself said. his grandson, some of them are in our party, for your information, so in our party, for your information, so don t go by one statement. there are different views. india is a democracy with totally different views. that is their personal views. 0n views. that is their personal views. on another point, one more quote from you from mss golwalkar, another senior leader from from you from mss golwalkar, another senior leaderfrom your organisation. he wrote admiringly about what the nazis were doing in 1939. he said, quote, to keep up the purity of its recent culture, germany shocked the world by purging the country of the dues. it was national pride at its highest, said mr golwalkar. that book was disowned by mr golwalkar immediately. secondly, he already said it was shocking i don t know how shocking becomes praise. he said it was shocking to see this kind of behaviour in the name of nationalism. the rss has never, ever approved of nazis or fascists. although supremacist ideology. they have always sided with the persecuted jewish people. even to this day we believe the persecution happened against the jewish people and was one of the worst crimes of the 20th century. one more thought on this, and then i want to move on. if you are so sure there is not racism, deep discrimination and communal hate at the heart of your party and movement s ideology, how do you react when your own home minister, amit shah, describes migrants from muslim majority bangladesh living in india as, quote, termites who will be thrown into the bay of bengal. it is the classic technique of othering and dehumanising those who regard as second class. how do you react to it yourself? that statement was taken out of context. what was the right context? hang on, you tell me, what is the right context for calling a human being a termite? please tell me, how can illegal migrants be persecuted on account of religion by definition? they are not welcome in india, and we are taking certain measures, but that is taken out of context, which is not correct. you think it is justified to call albeit an illegal migrants, a muslim, a termite, and insect? in the context, a termite, all these words are taken com pletely a termite, all these words are taken completely out of context that s what i am saying. what we tried to do was to regulate the flow into india. it is done by every country, not just india. it is done by every country, notjust india. india. it is done by every country, not just india. every india. it is done by every country, notjust india. every country that suffers from illegal migrants, that is essentially what we are doing. not ina is essentially what we are doing. not in a humanitarian spirit or anything. we have humanitarian sentiments about every person to save their people and livelihoods from illegal immigrants.” save their people and livelihoods from illegal immigrants. i want to briefly, if i may, before we finished touch on kashmir. last august you revoked article 370 from the constitution, the special status for kashmir. you sent thousands and thousands of troops into the territory and arrested a large number of kashmiri political leaders. we interviewed shah faisal in india, not kashmir. he spoke to us, i believe, from delhi. he was arrested hours after talking to us. he is still in detention today. this month his detention has been extended. he is a so called moderate leader, a civilian politician, a kashmiri who is proud to be kashmiri. why on earth is he in detention today? many people have been detained immediately after the important decision that we took on the fifth of august to nullify the impact of article 370. now, most of them have been sent free. mr faisal and a few others, four or five of them, are still held under the public safety act, but i tell you, these are measures taken based on best information. but they will be set free very soon. hundreds have been set free. they are all set free no. and mr been set free. they are all set free no. and mer been set free. they are all set free no. and mr mr faisal. there is no. there is nojustification for it, really, is they are, mr madhav? north for the continued control of the internet, 4g services severely restricted, when doctors in kashmir say they need the greatest access possible to the internet and public and health information on the internet to deal with the coronavirus crisis. what kind of humanitarians are you in the indian government that won t even allow doctors to use the in kashmir? you should check the reality before accusing us of being inhuman and all that. doctors in our medical centres, we have broadband services fully available. they are fully working in all public institutions. it is only on hand held mobile devices that 4g is not available. so calling it inhuman is far fetched. you should not do that. having said that, the kashmiri healthcare establishment is doing a phenomenal job. they are taking care of the covid 19 patients effectively. they have all services available. broadband is fully available in every public institution in kashmir. and full service will be restored very soon. and full service will be restored very soon. right now because of coronavirus your economy is facing contraction this year, you have rising tensions on your border, not just with pakistan but also now with china, where you have got a military stand off in ladak with chinese forces on the disputed border. suddenly the bjp s programme for india is running into serious trouble. would you agree? the economy is a global challenge. as far as economy is a global challenge. as faras india is economy is a global challenge. as far as india is concerned, we have allotted plans and we have decisions to make. hopefully in two or three quarters time we will come back to a better gdp growth rate. having said that, other issues, like the issues happening on the borders, are clearly not finished, and the government is aware of these matters. let me tell you, in the past we have had problems on the indo tibetan border with china, and we have relationships to tackle them. diplomatically and through the ground, we have taken a firm stance, but we are practically engaged with the chinese leadership. mr madhav, we must and they are, but i thank you forjoining me from delhi. thank you. my pleasure. hello again. sunday was another very warm day nationwide, and capping off a very sunny weekend was a beautiful sunset to end the day in the herefordshire area. the top temperature was 28 degrees in porthmadog, making it wales s hottest day of the year so far, and only three tenths from the highest temperature we ve seen in the uk this year. at the moment we ve got clear, starry skies out and about. a few mist and fog patches possible later on across coastal parts of scotland and north east england, but probably not too many of these. temperatures first thing, eight to 13 degrees in towns and cities and cooler than that in the countryside first thing, but what you will notice early on monday is we ve got plenty of sunshine. into the afternoon, a bit of fair weather cloud popping up into the sky, so some sunny spells, the cloud not spoiling the sunshine at all, really, and another day when we will see the temperatures climbing widely into the low to mid 20s, probably peaking at around 27 celsius in some western areas. so more very warm and sunny weather on the way for monday. looking at the weather charts for tuesday now, we have something of a change on the way. that change, as this cold front approaches northern scotland, bringing some thicker cloud here, and yes, outbreaks of rain on the way. i know some of you have wanted rain for a while. that rain will be accompanied by cool northerly winds, so temperatures for northern scotland significantly lower on tuesday with highs of 13 in stornoway. for northern ireland, southern scotland, england and wales, this is the last of the very warm days and plenty of sunshine again with temperatures widely low to mid 20s, but into the middle part of the week, it set to turn much cooler, and there is the prospect of seeing some rain. on wednesday, we ve got a trough crossing the uk, bringing a mixture of rain and showers. as that moves through, the northerly winds that follow will be dragging on some much cooler air as we enter the week, so temperatures progressively will be dropping. many areas will see outbreaks of rain. closest to that area of low pressure the rain will be heaviest across parts of northern scotland, maybe northern ireland too. the amount of rain we see further south will vary from place to place but most places will see some rain towards the end of the week.
this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. i m aaron safir. protests against police brutality continue right across the us following the killing of an unarmed black man a week ago. curfews have been imposed in more than 20 cities. in the capital activists gather outside the white house, calling for justice for all the victims of police attacks. this is the situation in new york, where protesters are making their way through lower manhattan towards times square. packed beaches at sunny british resorts. ministers announce an easing of the english lockdown, starting on monday. brazil overtakes france as the country with the fourth highest death toll from coronavirus.
following riots over the killing of george floyd. a police officer sacked for his death has been charged with murder. clashes have also taken place between demonstrators and police in boston and atlanta. president trump has called on people to obey the law. brazil has reported nearly 27,000 cases of covid 19 in the past 2a hours a new daily record. it s now surpassed spain in the total number of virus deaths, with the fifth highest figure in the world. president jair bolsonaro says the spread of the virus is inevitable and the economy should be reopened immediately. the uk government has announced changes to the scheme that covers the wages of furloughed workers affected by the coronavirus lockdown businesses will have to start paying contributions, from august. wales‘ first minister has announced plans for relaxing restrictions there. hywel griffith reports from cardiff. too fast or too slow? the journey out of lockdown can feel exhausting. from monday, louise and her family will be able to meet relatives here in pontypridd with no limit on the head count, but they can t travel more than five miles, so family in the midlands will have to wait. i think they re making changes according to people s behaviour. as we can see, people are getting lockdown fatigue and i think people are breaking the rules and being maybe irresponsible, so i think it kind of makes sense in a way to be pragmatic. the changes in wales are meant to depend on data rather than a set of dates. the number of new coronavirus cases has gone down, but the rate at which the virus is spreading hasn t. staying local and not sharing facilities with other people we think remain sensible, precautionary steps when the r rate in wales is no better today than it was three weeks ago. shops have been told they may be able to reopen in three weeks, but some feel left in the dark. sian has several businesses here. she is anxious for pontypridd to recover after flooding earlier this year, but she s frustrated. i think the longer we are dragging ourfeet and we re not given any kind of clarity, it s going to harm. it s going to harm businesses, it s going to harm people s mental health. we are behind and it s causing issues. the welsh approach is unapologetically cautious. no plans have been announced for schools, as change comes one step at a time. hywel griffith, bbc news, pontypridd. now on bbc news our world. new york has been the epicentre of america s coronavirus outbreak, with nearly 30,000 deaths in the state so far. as the virus took hold in march, doctors and nurses from across the us answered new york s call for help. this is the story of four of those on the frontline, told through their video diaries as the crisis unfolds. a warning this programme contains scenes some viewers may find may find distressing. new york city has been the global epicentre of coronavirus. the president said this is a war, i agree with that. this is a war. people have died here than in any other city in the world. there has been times when i have walked out of the er and said to myself, what in the er and said to myself, what in the world has just happened? the er and said to myself, what in the world hasjust happened? things got so bad that the governor of new york pleaded for help. got so bad that the governor of new york pleaded for helplj got so bad that the governor of new york pleaded for help. i am asking healthcare professionals across the country, please, come help us in new york now. this is the story of some of the nurses who answered the call. and the besieged new york doctors fighting to stop their city being overwhelmed. i saw the row of ambulance stretches waiting to be triaged and empathy to myself, we re losing, we re losing. come here! come here. i come here! come here. lam christina ferguson and in a week, i will be heading out to new york to help in the bronx at one of their hospitals. i m travelling with a coworker of mine and having the skills, critical ca re mine and having the skills, critical care for me, er for him. we decided let s do it! this is the first time i have ever gone on an assignment such as this. it is a little bit different going into the epicentre ofa different going into the epicentre of a pandemic. this is one of my suitcases. i was therefore september 11 so naturally it feels like i should go back. to be a part of this and to help out in any way i can stop i have seven bags, there is the insta pot. i was thinking about some of the things i was backing up. as a nurse, this is we went to school for. this is what we do. going to new york for the sole crisis is basically like that, it s like throwing yourself into this situation. you don t think twice about it, you re just going. situation. you don t think twice about it, you rejust going. here situation. you don t think twice about it, you re just going. here we are at our favourite lake, my daughter and i do a lot of out your staff, and it is something really going to miss. but i would like to ta ke going to miss. but i would like to take these moments to think about the things i can come back to. take these moments to think about the things i can come back tolj take these moments to think about the things i can come back to. i do have my trunk packed, all of the medical supplies that we were donated to, ready to hit the road. so today has come, it is a five hour drive, and reality is sinking in that we are on our way. drive, and reality is sinking in that we are on our waylj drive, and reality is sinking in that we are on our way. i have my sleeping beauty and her best friend. i have some conflict about bringing her along but i don t want fear to steer me away from what i want to do and men who have had many conversations. we willjust take it one day at a time. some gorgeous views, it s kind of serene all of the same time knowing that once you get out of these mountains and into the city, there is no telling what is going to be waiting there for us. there is always some fear going into such a traumatic environment but the moment i walked into the er, it s go time. 0n on march the 13th, new york city recorded its first covid i9 at f. i m not sure how big this can be. within a month, or had died from the virus than at 9/11. i never really ever imagined in my life i would see the density of human suffering stop we will never think about healthcare in the same way. new yorker doctor eric is working at an emergency covert hospital that has been set up on staten island. an emergency covert hospital that has been set up on staten islandlj go has been set up on staten island.” go to people that i don t remember the days of the week anymore, i don t remember how many days i ve been doing this. ijust count it like coronavirus day 67, or something. new york has been through a lot and this is certainly testing us a lot and this is certainly testing us to our limits. i think we are well hopeful this is going to get better. it s been a marathon. we have been acting like it is a sprint. it s as if we were immediately post hurricane. except the problem is, it was like the hurricanejust the problem is, it was like the hurricane just came, hit the coast and then moved away. then we could start recovering. imagine a hurricane sitting over your city for 50 days. vacations have been deferred, birthdays have been deferred. we re doing is basically sleeping and coming work and dealing with the coronavirus. so, i have finally made it to my hotel room. a cute little kitchen. there is my famous insta pot. nancy isa there is my famous insta pot. nancy is a critical care nurse who will be working in the same hospital as doctor choi pena. working in the same hospital as doctor choi-pena. i let my daughter this morning but i m sad to leave her but i know she is in good hands. here is the bathroom, this is where the action is. make up, hair, i don t know what. a shower. it looks kind of cosy to me and i think i m going to be very happy here over the next eight weeks. christina and derek will be working in the bronx. there is our hospital. the borrower with the highest death rate in new york. we came two days early to get a tour. a lot of sick people. they are coming in quick. that right there is exactly what you think it is. they are about to take a truck away from the hospital. by early april, the situation in new york is so april, the situation in new york is so bad that refrigerated trucks are being used as makeshift bogs, and mass graves dug to deal with the number of bodies. so, it s the morning of my first shift. didn t really sleep very well last night. i m working a 12 hour shift today and tomorrow. so, i m just keeping my fingers crossed for the best. alrighty, wish me luck. this is my first shift and all day today we have been going through testing and honestly everywhere is just go time. we are doing the best we can. i heard the other day that if you can work in the bronx er, you can work anywhere. so, hopefully we get through these 13 weeks with my sanity intact. so wejust get through these 13 weeks with my sanity intact. so we just finished oui’ sanity intact. so we just finished our shift today, trying to decontaminate and disinfect everything. she is already taking off her shoes. laughs don t lose this now. we keep everything in a bag separate. don t lose this now. we keep everything in a bag separatem don t lose this now. we keep everything in a bag separate. it is unlike anything i have ever seen before. to see so many critical patients coming in at one time. the ambulances were non stop. it seems like every two or three minutes, there was an amulet coming in. there are other cases where you know the situation is not going to end well. whenever i see it to this degree, it is almost as though death is sitting on some of these patient‘s soldiers whispering in their ears. there s been times when i walked out the door and said to myself, what in the world has just happened? time to get out of here. nancy has been assigned to work in want of her hospital s pop up intensive care units. so firstly. which have been created to do with the overflow of covid 19 patients. created to do with the overflow of covid-19 patients. time to go back. no rest for the weary. with the pep-up no rest for the weary. with the pop up icus, the issue is the lack of access to equipment we need to ta ke of access to equipment we need to take care of the patients. the nurses are spending a good majority of their time running around hospital trying to find supplies. i think all of the nurses are doing the best that they can but it definitely stressful. it was busy, it was definitely an experience today. i got in there and they were so today. i got in there and they were so shortstaffed that they tried to give me four icu patients, which is kind of unheard of. usually two is the norm, three is a lot. but four, there was no way. so we will see how it goes. i am on for another 12 hour shifts tomorrow. i m just going to ta ke shifts tomorrow. i m just going to take some strength to get myself upstairs. it has become all consuming. i m getting reminded by my family to ta ke getting reminded by my family to take small breaks, especially when i m my kids. when i m at home, there is almost like this guilt that i am not still there. there is much more fighting to do. there has been a lots of absentee fathering unfortunately. i got up early to put my son to bed last night and the thing he was sad about yesterday was that he doesn t get to see me, which breaks my heart. he s going to remember me not being that more than the pandemic and the virus and that hurts. it s definitely something that leans on me and affects me, and affects them. after i get my scrubs on and my compression socks, every nurse should wear compression socks. we are at high risk, the virus is everywhere. no matter how many times we wash our hands, honey times we sanitise, the risk is very high. i have a scrub. right now, we have 40 people from our agency picking up the work for the nurses that are out sick. there are more of us working in the er right now than the regular employees. it is extremely busy, it isjust a employees. it is extremely busy, it is just a constant flow stop one after the other after the other. an ambulance brought in an elderly person, about 15 minutes, 20 minutes later, they were out in a body bag. they come in alert, and then it is mind blowing how fast theyjust go. after this is over and the healthcare workers don t get the therapy they need to process the stuff, i think the statistics are going to be high with suicide attempts. with healthcare workers, so attempts. with healthcare workers, so there is something we really have to watch out for. as somebody who works in psychology, i know that it isa works in psychology, i know that it is a possibility. well, we just finished our first three days in a i’ow. finished our first three days in a row. i am wiped out, i am tired. you don t realise how much it takes, wearing all of this ppe. my head feels like it is £100 heavier on my neck. it has been a long night, it is after midnight, we have been here since noon and it is time to hit the road, decompress and. shower! shower. nancy hasjust finished a shift on a covid unit. where all of the patients are dependent on a ventilator. generally, just people that are in that unit are not likely to survive. since this whole virus situation started, there has only been two patients who have made it out of the unit and survived. that is very, very little. the age range was pretty great. there was a patient there who was 26. which i thought was really eye opening because it just further thought was really eye opening because itjust further reiterates how the covid back virus affects everyone. but this young girl, she is still there and still fighting for her life and it is sad. home, sweet home! time to get these scrubs off. my feet are killing me! it has beena off. my feet are killing me! it has been a long day. pants, they are going to go into the basket. i think now people are exhausted and i think people just want respite. i think the nurses want to get back to what they were doing, you know, before this happened. with the units have been turned so upside down. but i think at this point people are just ready to quit. quit the covid crisis, i mean, not theirjob. you know, as a nurse, we give all of our energy to others and keep none for ourselves. i think that is why we are always tired. across the city in the bronx, the virus is highlighting stark inequalities. you have the projects, lower income housing, a large immigrant population. we are seeing mostly impoverished individuals, you see the black latina community as well. these are essential workers, you know? they are bus drivers, theyjanitors, they are bus drivers, theyjanitors, they are those that deliver food, deliver mail. and so, while many people are able to quarantine themselves or they have the luxury of working at home, essential workers don t have that opportunity. so it gives them an increased chance of being exposed to the virus. black and latina new yorkers are dying at twice the rate of white residents of the city. after developing symptoms of fatigue and a headache, christina has been sent home from the hospital.” and a headache, christina has been sent home from the hospital. i was crying. i was just more scared because i didn t want to be, like some of the patients that we ve seen, i mean, i get really, really sick. and today, she is going for a test. if it is positive ijust hope that i have built up some type of immunity. i m pretty nervous. i m hoping it s not but ijust feel like a truck hit me and my muscles hurt. any symptoms right now? just fatigue and a headache still. and my stomach. tilt your head back. all the way back, as far as you can. i will! all right, you re all done. the way back, as far as you can. i will! all right, you re all donem ta kes 24 will! all right, you re all donem takes 24 hours to know the results so takes 24 hours to know the results so that is going to be really hard to sit and wait on the results. so if things for me get really bad, to where i have to go in the hospital, derek has graciously told me he will ta ke derek has graciously told me he will take care of chloe and the dog. if it gets really bad and i don t make it gets really bad and i don t make it out of the hospital, then chloe andi it out of the hospital, then chloe and i have had the discussions about, you know, where she would go and who she would go with. and who she would go withm christine attests positive she will be one of the growing number of infected nurses. and some are becoming gravely ill. if christine attests positive. when i was training in brooklyn there was a nurse there who worked the night shift and she kind of hazardous reputation of being a battleaxe and obviously i grew to love her and knew that she had the biggest heart in the world. and i was told today bya in the world. and i was told today by a colleague that she is in critical care in the icu on a ventilator with coronavirus. and this is. symbolic of a lot of the banks and the hurt that happens with healthcare workers because we are not only watching patients die but you re also hearing about colleagues that are suffering and so, it feels like an attack on all fronts and it feels like it is a personal attack and a professional attack and it is ha rd and a professional attack and it is hard sometimes i think to see past that and to get through that because it is really acute stress and it feels like it is unravelling a lot of our lives as healthcare workers. that is the most challenging part is that these patients are kind of a loa n that these patients are kind of a loan and the families are not able to be there. kind of loan. there was a gentleman that i was caring for and he was just was a gentleman that i was caring for and he wasjust not in a good way and i was holding his hand and i was like i am going to get some coffee and i will come back and i came back with a coffee and he was dead. yeah. he died. so, iwas gone maybe 15 minutes. and there was nobody with him. so it was sad. and i felt, to some extent, like i did a disservice because i was not there andl disservice because i was not there and i went to get coffee. so, um, i hate that. um, i hate that more than anything. and then after that experience, you just flip back into nurse mode, you know? now you have tojust do what nurse mode, you know? now you have to just do what you have to do. well known er doctor here in to just do what you have to do. well known er doctor here in new york a battle to save the lives of so york a battle to save the lives of so many others. took her own life after weeks of treating patients with covid 19. she died in virginia sunday. when i heard about doctor breen, i wasn t surprised, it is tragic and in the same day we heard about an ems technician who also killed himself and ijust think it is the tip of the iceberg. the other day i was talking to a tech who was responsible for putting the bodies and the bags and he said that is all idid, day and the bags and he said that is all i did, day after day. i would put a body in a bag, take it downstairs and then there was no room downstairs, they were just everywhere. that is when the trucks came. they would fill it up with 55 bodies and it would leave and then another truck would be right there and they would fill it up and he said it was horrible. i said you have to talk to somebody about it. it will never go away. the end of a really long and hard week. ijust finished the zoom memorial service for a colleague, doctor lorna breen. lorna was a former colleague and friend. and last sunday took her own life. you know, her family says that it was related to the stress of coronavirus and that really hurt. in addition, the head nurse but i think i mentioned in one of my previous diaries passed away last week as well. a nurse manager that i know also passed away. and an intensivist downstate where i trained also passed away. so last week really, for me, was the worst week of this. it really did feel like a war. and any other event you would stop, you would be with people. tough week. i hope next week is a little bit better. by early may, hospitals are finally starting to see fewer admissions and fewer deaths. and new york is beginning to ease lockdown restrictions. it has been a crisis and a painful one. but we are coming out of the other side. christina s coronavirus test was negative but she and her daughter chloe have returned to missouri.” she and her daughter chloe have returned to missouri. i will talk to you guys tomorrow. nancy is about to head back to marilyn. to see her daughter and mum head back to marilyn. to see her daughterand mum maryland. and derek is continuing in the bronx. daughterand mum maryland. and derek is continuing in the bronxm has been a great adventure, it is challenging, but the whole thing has been great. over challenging, but the whole thing has been great. 0ver100,000 people have died from coronavirus in the us since march. just under 30,000 of those are in new york state. it has survived what its governor called a war. now, it has to come to terms with how life has changed. we tickled the break in new york. the system was about to collapse. it com pletely system was about to collapse. it completely disrupted normal in every sense of that word. there is no normal there is no longer that and we honestly will never be the same again. well, friday was a very warm day across the uk. in fact, the hot spot was scotland temperatures got up to 28 degrees. and saturday, in most parts of the uk, will be every bit as warm at least the low to mid 20s in most major towns and cities. it s been so reliable during the lockdown that the spring has ended up being the sunniest one on record, so this has been confirmed by the met office. now, high pressure is in charge of the weather across a large chunk of europe. it s centred across scandinavia and it s clearing the skies across the uk, ireland, much of western and central europe. these are the 6am temperatures. a little fresh in parts of east anglia. maybe in the rural spots, temperatures could be around 6 degrees, but elsewhere, not quite as nippy. very quickly, the temperatures will rocket during the course of the morning and into the afternoon. let s take a closer look. so on friday, we had temperatures up to around about 28 in some parts of western scotland. probably not quite so hot on saturday more like the low to mid 20s. very warm there in glasgow, 24 celsius. we ll match that in liverpool, in birmingham, and probably the hot spot will be somewhere in the south of england temperatures will get up to around 25 degrees celsius. now, the sun will be very strong as well you can see high uv levels pretty much right across the country so take note if you re planning to enjoy that fine weather outdoors. saturday night s looking absolutely fine and then sunday, we do it all over again the winds are light, the skies are clear, the temperatures are going to rise. in fact, in one or two spots, it could reach around 26 or 27 celsius, so a hot day on the way, especially across western parts of england on sunday. and over the next few days so this is including the weekend and into next week that warm plume of air from the southern climes continues to spread across the uk, as far north as scandinavia and even pushing to the arctic circle, so those temperatures are expected to, in fact, peak across the south of the uk come tuesday. we could see temperatures getting up to around 28 degrees celsius. but after that, a big change on the way. look at that back into the teens by the time we get to the weekend. in fact, next weekend, we re expecting colder air coming in from the north. that s it for me. bye.
welcome to bbc news i m lewis vaughanjones our top stories: teargas and troops, protesters ignore the curfew in minneapolis as demonstrators and buyers continue over the killing of george floyd. a police officer sacked over his death has been charged with murder. clashes in atlanta continue where hundreds of activists and police have held running confrontations on the main roads of the city. the mayor makes a passionate plea for the rioters to stop. you are disgracing our city, you are disgracing the life of george floyd and every other person who has been killed in this country. this was the scene in boston earlier where hundreds of activists and police clashed at protests over police brutality. in other news: coronavirus deaths in brazil pass 27,000
black man call was made, just a black man walking around. and it comes after many murders and in the missive covid 19 whereby we know they re in the us and here the uk, it is disproportionately affecting the black community. this deep, deep pain that is coming out. i watched a bit of the moral service and george floyd and what happened to him and the pain that his family feels has come to represent something much wider about racism, structural racism. yes about police battalion and there are demands but defunded the police and moving that money towards more new services, etc. but a wider stance of we have had enough and we need real structural change. asa what is so striking after years after segregation is just how segregated blacks and whites are in the united states in terms of poverty, education, even geographically down to where they live and how few white police officers, in this case the four who are facing charges, did not even live in the areas they were policing. and you are seeing the tensions writ large right now and how america is digesting this. this is why this is reaching new heights. and it is because we have footage of the awful killing. as we saw, that is why his last words, i can t breathe was what have become almost mythic about the crime among processors. and beside this memorial service it was very powerful when al sharpton invited the audience to sort of pause for eight minutes 43 seconds, the time in which there was a knee on mr floyd s. and this was an attempt to capture that moment of such pain that they could all be feeling and so the community was coming together as one for that there is very little mention, almost an undertone that president trump by contrast has abuses whole response to try to bang the drum about wall and orderand to try to bang the drum about wall and order and point the finger at the few violent protesters but in the few violent protesters but in the meantime there are communities that have been very deep pain right how. that have been very deep pain right i iow. “ that have been very deep pain right now. vaughn and order. his former defensive terryjim matus and also he has had criticism from his current one mark esper. in the independent, the uk please must tackle racism in its own ranks, this has overtones of the stephen lawrence merv and her when much boston police was described as institutionally racist. but what i wa nt to institutionally racist. but what i want to when do much about the police was described as institutionally racist. it is interesting german but that the transport secretary grant shapps criticise the london mayor back in april the ist adjusting mask should be worn. and now he is recommending, effective will be mandatory that they are in public transport. and michael gove also set i think it was in march or early april that the government was not telling people to wear masks. this is somewhat of a u turn and it seems eminently sensible for people to be wearing masks on public transport. and it s something that many other countries have put in place a long time ago. the question then is why is this only happening now just like the question then is why is this only happening nowjust like how slow we have been to put the track and trace programme in place for instance? why has it taken so long for them to come to this conclusion? and also for them to change their mind, what is going on with the science here and what advice are they getting? it is frustrating because we could have been doing this months ago. asa do you know why now? is interesting because i suppose it was tracking there, the advice initially was don t bother with facemasks because they do more harm than good because perhaps they would almost act as a placebo effect and people would go around and ignore social distancing and stick their faces far too close to people when they re in the shops. and then after much robbing from people like sadiq khan about the necessities of having it on one to transport. much lobbying from people exited co nfe re nce much lobbying from people exited conference up now much lobbying from people exited conference up now they want it. they could find you £80 under current guidelines in the same way that you can excite fines now for facemask. i think it is certainly quite striking how far it has left and changed the subject in the early days it was you are free to wear masks if you want but we are not going to recommend it, they hummed in hot, they wondered about whether they were going to have checks and people arriving in airports and now it is hard when toughened up but nobody s business. travel quarantine, almost compulsory. they hemmed and hawed. but for exceptions for the elderly, for children and for those with breathing difficulties. that is going to slow things down when people are getting on the tube or bus as well. let s go on to the guardian and go back to the guardian because we see that frontpage pursed of all but we now look at the during oui’ of all but we now look at the during our field of all but we now look at the during ourfield nhs of all but we now look at the during our field nhs test and trace on fully operational until september. fa iza fully operational until september. faiza quizzed about this is a very troubling read and it has taken. from a couple of sources. one estimate zoom call and some kind of meeting with the chief operating officer. another leaked e-mail from circo were involved in delivering this. and what we are hearing is despite borisjohnson saying that we would have a world beating service by ist ofjune which he said in pmo to the opposition leader keir starmer a couple of weeks ago, that there are bumps in the road, it is not working smoothly, and the operating officer himself saying do not expected to be world class until september, october and another very worrying aspect. circo is a private company operating saying and the quote is, they want to cement the position of the private sector. they do not expected to run smoothly in the first few months but our focus on cementing the position of the private sector and that will concern a lot of people. asa this goes against a lot of medical advice. do not release and ease the lock on until this test and tracing system is absolutely ready to go. chris whitty did say the other day that we are in dangerof whitty did say the other day that we are in danger of confusing the biased security over its, the covid of words and there are a number of those and all this. what we re seeing is nonetheless the government taking the decision, political decision granted, to really start using the lockdown in parallel with trying to get this track and trace up trying to get this track and trace up and running. i will make two quick points on the guardian report. one, we shouldn t instantly have our eye brows one, we shouldn t instantly have our eyebrows raised about the private sector helping and being a positive force because an example on testing if public health engman and not try to centralise if public health engman and not try to ce ntralise everything if public health engman and not try to centralise everything to such a great extent early on and shutout treaties and offers from the wax, then they would be doing so much more test earlier on by having these private webs of band running helping the system and national efforts was a private the system and national efforts was a private labs up and ready. and will destroy not in these reports is the advice citing drawing on the private assume normal conversations in which officials are saying is going to take time to reach maximum efficiency. and you expect that. private exuma calls. there have been hundreds of e mails we to the wrong addresses, it is not started off as well, and the chief executive rupert sims saying that he realises that there will be some teething problems but it has i got off to best start. also to remind you about matt hancock laughing when he was questioned a few disco about bringing this for about test and trace trying to hide the dominic cummings story what you thought was laughable at the time. but that s one side. how to hotspots, the ft. faiza, have you book your trip to greece, turkey, or spain yetand book your trip to greece, turkey, or spain yet and are you company you are going to get there? no, i have not and it was interesting reading this because a lot of the discussions about who will be able to go where in the summer is of course one about the infection rate and obviously we have had particularly bad infection rate in this country and the death toll in this country and the death toll in this country. and secondly about this country. and secondly about this quarantine. now the discussion in this piece is effectively about the kind of holiday corridor between certain countries. the problem is that priti patel the home secretary early on this week and very much emphasised this to be quarantine if you come back to this country saying that the rest now and i m not sure but the size. 20 seconds, asa. what do you think on this because the states are different?” what do you think on this because the states are different? i have been much keener to visit my own family around the country rather thanjetting off family around the country rather than jetting off elsewhere. family around the country rather thanjetting off elsewhere. this is the subtlety between social distancing and the easing of economic easing. all right, asa thank you very much. and faiza we will be looking at those papers in about 45 minutes time. again with fa iza about 45 minutes time. again with faiza and asa for our reviewers here on bbc news channel, not for our reviewers on bbc world. but he of those stories are covered on the website and for viewers watching in the uk. as i have been saying a lot of the british papers have come out and named this prime suspect in the madeleine mccann disappearance but because of privacy, very strict privacy rules in germany where we are broadcasting at the moment, we have not been able to do that. we will be back in a few minutes time with more news and as i say in 40 minutes another paper review. bye bye. hello there. after just experiencing afterjust experiencing the sunniest spring on record, it s rainfall most of us is going for. will be get some over the weekend? yes for some but not for all. many was he cloudy skies, windy and cool at times but the rainfall will be very hit and miss. last week and was about high pressure into the south of scandinavia influencing the story. this weekend it s low pressure in southern scandinavia. that low will arrive later on my ahead of its sunny spells and scattered showers but not all of us are going to see those showers and if you do dodge them you will have cloudier skies with the wind strengthening through the afternoon, 30 40 mile an hour gusts. scattering showers in the northern ireland and england but more widespread into the north east of scotla nd more widespread into the north east of scotland and the winds here will strengthen in excess of 50 mph, that is going to make it feel quite cool by the middle of the afternoon. just highs of 9 13 degrees, we could see temperatures peaking at 17, 60 three fahrenheit. that low pressure will sink its way steadily southwards along the east coast. strongest of the winds to the west and the southern flank of that well. dustin went potentially around the 60 mph mark which is quite unusual for earlyjune and mark which is quite unusual for early june and with mark which is quite unusual for earlyjune and with summer trees in full leaf, that could have an impact for some it will be windy across the northern half of the uk, went to for some. likely to include sudden scotla nd some. likely to include sudden scotland down through northern and eastern england for a time. brightening up into the far north of scotland, not seeing much notable rain at all across southern england but a disappointingly cool day with temperatures around the mid teens. now, the low tens to ees, the isobars will open up for the second half of the weekend. sunday later winds, still rain clinging onto that east coast and it will be an issue that the day for some elsewhere is where all the cloudy skies with the later winds should feel just that little bit warmer, high spec up to 18 degrees. but if we look at the rainfall accumulations, after nothing notable rain at all, over the weekend, the darker blues are suggesting that we could have as much as 20 mm may be more. around one inch of rain except onto the far south where rain will be very minimalat south where rain will be very minimal at all.
this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. remembering george floyd. the first memorial service is held for the man whose death in police custody launched a global movement. america, this is the time of dealing with accountability in the criminal justice system! in hong kong, thousands of people commemorate the tiananmen square crackdown defying a ban and challenging china s rule. german prosecutors say madeleine mccann, is presumed dead, as a convicted sex offender, is investigated on suspicion of murder. face coverings will be compulsory on public transport
madeleine mccann is presumed dead, say german prosecutors, as a man is investigated on suspicion of her murder. the three year old vanished from a holiday resort in portugal wbr id wbr120 13 years ago while her parents were having dinner. this is the camper van used by a 43 year old german, identified as christian b, who was in portugal at the time. he s currently serving a prison sentence in germany. translation: we are assuming that the girl is dead. and the suspect, we are talking about a multiple sexual predator who has already been convicted of crimes against little girls. madeleine s parents say they feel the development is potentially very significant. also tonight. face coverings will be compulsory for anyone using public transport in england from 15thjune. if you don t wear one, you won t be allowed to travel and could be fined. /b a memorial is about to get under way in minneapolis for george floyd as the police officers charged in connection with his wbr-id wbr720 murder are expected to make their first appearance in court. and the fields across britain crying out for tens of thousands of pickers to harvest their crops. and coming up on bbc news, premier league teams will be able to make five substitutions in a game as clubs approve new rules ahead of the planned restart later this month. good evening and welcome to the bbc news at six. the disappearance of madeleine mccann has been one of the longest running mysteries of recent times. 13 years after she vanished, german prosecutors today said they believe that madeleine mccann is dead. a 43 year old german has been identified as a murder suspect. known only as christian b, he s currently in prison for sex offences. he was living in portugal and was thought to be near the resort of praia de luz in the summer of 2007, which was when the three year old disappeared while holidaying with her family. our correspondentjenny hilljoins us from the city of braunschweig, in north eastern germany. yes, it s a case which has baffled detectives for years. there have been searches and supposed sightings all over the world. right now, the focus is on this german city were today, prosecutors said they have a suspect, a man who lived right here in braunschweig, but who also spent a considerable amount of time in portugal. it has been described as a significant development. they have looked everywhere for madeleine mccann. it is 13 years since she went missing during a family holiday in praia da luz. her family holiday in praia da luz. her family have never given up hope that they would find her. but today, investigators in germany announced that they had opened a murder inquiry. they believe a german man killed madeleine mccann. translation: we are assuming the girl is dead, and the suspect, we are talking about a multiple sexual predator who has already been convicted of crimes against little girls and is serving a long sentence. the suspect has been named, though not officially, as christian b. his full surname has been withheld in line with german privacy law. in 1995 he left germany for portugal, where he lived until 2007. for some of that time, use the house between lagos and praia da luz. police say he was in the result and made a call from his mobile on the night madeleine mccann disappeared. he is now serving time ina german disappeared. he is now serving time in a german prison for drugs offences and what police describe as a sex crime. that report suggests was the rate of 72 year old american woman attacked in praia da luz two yea rs before woman attacked in praia da luz two years before madeleine s disappearance. so what you have now is an individual with a history of sexual offending that spans girls through to older women, extremely dangerous. he is not a preferential offender, he is someone who will offender, he is someone who will offend across a range of ages, also with a history, we are told, of burglary. so he fits the profile. the man is believed to have driven around the algarve in his camper van. police have released the picture, as well as that of the man sj picture, as well as that of the man s jaguar, in the hope that someone, man s jaguar, in the hope that someone, somewhere, will remember something. they are also focusing on two houses. he is known to have spent time in both of them. one is close to a site which attracted the interest of detectives six years ago. they scoured this area of wasteland in 2014. it is just inland from praia da luz. there have been so from praia da luz. there have been so many from praia da luz. there have been so many searches, so many from praia da luz. there have been so many searches, so many sightings, so so many searches, so many sightings, so much disappointment. for madeleine s family, the weight, they hope, the longing, unimaginable. madeleine s family, the weight, they hope, the longing, unimaginablem all the thousands of leads and potential suspects that have been mentioned in the past or discussed in the media, there has never been something as clear cut as that from not just something as clear cut as that from notjust one, something as clear cut as that from not just one, now something as clear cut as that from notjust one, now three police forces. so it does appear to be significant. still, so many questions, so much anguish. jenny hill, bbc news, braunschweig. 0ur europe correspondent gavin lee joins us from praia da luz in portugal. you have been talking to people over there today. what are they saying? there are no police on the streets of praia da luz today and no visible sign ofany of praia da luz today and no visible sign of any appeal. we understand portuguese police say they are supporting their german counterparts, but they say their focus now is to attract the attention of thousands of tourists who came here in may 2007 who may by chance have ta ken who came here in may 2007 who may by chance have taken photos or video footage with the suspect in the background, or video of the vehicles he was driving, including a jaguar carand he was driving, including a jaguar car and this camper than he was living out of from 1995 to 2007. this building behind me in the background, which is half hidden by palm trees and bamboo, is a site where a local media report said was used as storage for drug dealings which was frequented by the suspect, christian b, and one of two sites that the police are trying to appeal for more detail about. the pattern of living that we get during these 12 years is one of criminality that largely went under the radar. we don t know for certain whether police in portugal knew of his background and convictions for child sex offences. but german police have been working quietly on this case for a number of years. been working quietly on this case fora number of years. it been working quietly on this case for a number of years. it is clear at this point that they don t believe they have enough information and they need the public to try to work out if they have clear evidence on this man. gavin lee, thank you. from june 15th, face coverings will be made compulsory for anyone using public transport in england. if you don t wear a mask or something to cover your face you won t be allowed to travel and you could be fined. the government says people should start wearing them now, but the rules will be enforced from the week after next. here s our transport correspondent tom burridge. please remember to use a face covering while travelling on tfl services. it is advice now. it will be an order soon. covering your face is to become compulsory on public transport in england. the move is popularfor transport in england. the move is popular for those travelling around in warrington this afternoon. you don t want to catch anything or be ill. you don t want anyone in your family to get anything. so i think it isa family to get anything. so i think it is a great idea. you are in a closed space on a bus or on a train oi closed space on a bus or on a train or anywhere like that. so i think it probably should be compulsory. throughout the pandemic, most services have been pretty empty. but at certain times in certain places, social distancing hasn t been possible as restrictions to control the virus ease, scenes like this could become more common. major stations now have crowd control measures in place as a precaution. they are, for now at least, still generally deserted. but they expect more people to be travelling to work oi’ more people to be travelling to work or school in the coming weeks. so when it gets busier, you will have to cover up. enforcing the measure could be tricky. is it possible that people will be fined if they do not cover their face people will be fined if they do not cover theirface on people will be fined if they do not cover their face on public transport? it is a condition of travel, so you cannot travel unless you are wearing the face covering. there will be posted to remind you, it will be quite a visual thing. there will also be other powers. so ultimately, it could lead to fines. i hope we will not be in that situation. train companies say covering your face will become increasingly important. wearing a face covering in either a train or a station should give customers that confidence that they can make that journey safely. but obviously, this policy has just been announced and we have to work with government to ensure that it is implement it properly. face coverings are recommended on public transport in scotla nd recommended on public transport in scotland and northern ireland. the scottish government is thinking about making them compulsory. but the broad message is, please wear any type of face covering if you have to travel. on the wearing of face dozens of countries already have rules in place on the wearing of face masks in public places. 0ur science editor david shukman explains the thinking behind the new guidance. inside a train, we can t see for real how the coronavirus could be spread, so this animation simulates what might happen. how someone who s infected but maybe doesn t realise can pass it on just by talking to the passenger sitting close to them. it s in confined crowded situations like this that face coverings could make a difference. scientists have studied how a cough travels through the air and could carry the virus with it, and how wearing some kind of mask can reduce that flow. the science is clear that being out of doors is safest of all because of all the fresh air and how it s easy to keep two metres apart, but indoors, of course you can t do that, especially on a train or bus. in which case, if everyone wears some kind of mask, even something that s home made, that will reduce the chances of them passing the virus to you and of you passing it to others. for several weeks now, masks have been mandatory on the paris metro. more and more governments have looked at the evidence and they have decided that, although face coverings are no guarantee against infection, they can help reduce it. many scientists say the benefits are clear. if you put your hand in front of yourface and cough, you can feel that it gets wet, you can feel that something in front of your face will stop those droplets, and i think the other thing that has changed is what we call natural experiments. country after country which has introduced face coverings has seen a subsequent decline in the transmission of this terrible virus. 0n face masks, we are guided by the science and the government position hasn t changed. so we are now seeing a big change. for months, the uk government had been against the public wearing any kind of masks. not least because the most important thing people can do is the social distancing, as opposed to the weak science on face masks. but the contrast with countries like germany became more striking. for some time there, on public transport, masks have had to be worn. the big worry here was that medical staff would lose out. that s why home made face coverings were suggested to help the public without harming the hospitals. david shukman, bbc news. let s join our chief political correspondent vicki young, who s in westminster. vicki, there s a question as to why the government is making this announcement now. the government has never really standard enthusiastic about this. it does partly go against every natural conservative instincts, including those of borisjohnson himself, to force people to do this kind of thing. but you can see some parallels here with those measures, for example, to quarantine people travelling into the uk, some criticism that the government is against it and then they slowly start to move towards it. but remember, the mayor of london sadiq khan has been calling for compulsory face coverings in the capital for several weeks. the government s response to that is to say the timing now is because things are going to start to get busier. restrictions on england are starting to be lifted. there is also an element of trying to give people the confidence to get back onto public transport as they start to get back to some kind of normality. it is another reminder that everything to do with this crisis is notjust about the science. these are political decisions as well. vicki young, thank you. the uk s death toll from coronavirus rose again today to almost 40,000. in the past 24 hours, the deaths of another 176 people have been registered. since the beginning of march, 39,904 have now died. with me now is our health editor, hugh pym. i remember sitting here with you two months ago, and 20,000 was going to bea months ago, and 20,000 was going to be a good figure. it is now almost double that. yes, it was sir patrick vallance, the government s chief scientific adviser, who said early on that 20,000 deaths would be a good outcome, although still horrible. that 20,000 mark was passed in late april. here we are in earlyjune on the verge of getting to 40,000, although not quite yet. let s look at the detailed data presented at the downing street media briefing on the number of deaths confirmed for those with a positive test around the uk. you can see the number coming down fairly steadily. the seven day rolling average, that line, has started falling again. the number of new delhi reported deaths, 176, is relatively low. but moving on to hospital data, you get a slightly more ominous picture. the top graph is the estimated new daily admissions with covid 19 in english hospitals. and it has ticked up a bit. that figure of 505 new delhi admissions, the highest since the end of may new daily admissions. so in conclusion, what we see here, things are pointing tentatively in the right direction, but you can see why health officials and scientific advisers are extremely cautious about saying where things go from here. hugh pym, thank you. let s take a look at some of today s other news. the business secretary, alok sharma, who appeared in the commons yesterday looking ill, is today said to be doing well working from home, as he awaits his result of a coronavirus test. mr sharma went into self isolation after his appearance at the dispatch box. new figures from the office for budget responsibility suggest the cost of the uk s emergency spending and tax cuts, intended to soften the economic hit from coronavirus, will add up to £133 billion. this is a £10 billion increase on its previous estimate. there s also been a further collapse in car sales. borisjohnson has told a global vaccine some of that finding a coronavirus inoculation will provide cooperation on a scale not anything we ve ever seen before. a summit of more than 50 countries and donors is aiming to raise a £6 billion for the vaccination of children. in scotland, the coronavirus infection rate has reduced slightly in the past week. the first minister, nicola sturgeon said the r number, which estimates how many people an individual will infect, is now 0.7 to 0.9, down from 0.7 to one. the new figures do not reflect the situation since the lockdown was eased last friday. ms sturgeon said the progress being made to control the spread of the virus was encouraging but still fragile. a memorial service is about to get under way in the us city of minneapolis for george floyd, the african american killed there last week, while being held by police. three police officers, sacked after his death, will appear in court shortly for the first time charged in connection with his murder. the former us defence secretary james mattis has condemned donald trump s response to the protests over george floyd s death. he said the president was wrong to say the military should be used to end the demonstrations, and accused him of trying to divide the country. 0ur corresopondent, aleem maqbool reports. justice now! they haven t stopped taking to the streets even though there are now charges against all four officers involved in the incident where george floyd was killed. the cause has become much broader including protest against the way the state has often crossed peaceful demonstrations. even some of the most respected ex military leaders in the us have condemned donald trump s response including his former defence secretary james mattis. donald trump is the first president in my lifetime who doesn t try to unite the american people, doesn t even pretend to try, instead he tries to divide us, he said. militarising our response as we witnessed in washington, dc sets up a false conflict between the military and civilian society. predictably, the president responded on social media with insults. good afternoon, everybody. in a virtual town hall meeting, former president barack 0bama said this was a moment to, in his words, make people in power uncomfortable. as tragic as these past few weeks have been, as difficult and scary and uncertain as they have been, they ve also been an incredible opportunity for people to be awakened to some of these underlying trends. and the duchess of sussex gave an impassioned address to students graduating from her old high school in la. i realised the only wrong thing to say it is to say nothing. because george floyd s life mattered and breonna taylor s life mattered and philando castile s life mattered and tamir rice s life mattered. and so did so many other people whose names we know and whose names we do not know. protesters continue to remind us of those agonising minutes george floyd laid down under a policeman s knee. they are yet to hear what s being done to make sure nothing like it ever happens again. aleem maqbool, bbc news, in washington. 0ur correspondent barbara plett usher is in minneapolis, where george floyd s memorial service is about to take place. give us a sense of the mood there tonight. yes, sophie, so many pauses of breath taken after ten days of turmoil after this memorial. it ll be the first of three which will be held over six in three different states and the reverend al sharpton, a well known civil rights leader, will lead the service. he will be remembering george floyd the man who meant a lot to his family when he was alive but also what is death a means to the country. i think he will be starting to try to shape that meaning because, as we saw, it triggered this movement for racial justice beyond any expectation. the service is going to be livestreamed but by invitation only so those who didn t getan but by invitation only so those who didn t get an invitation will still be coming here to the memorial site where george floyd drew his last breath. and just before the service, yesterday, it was announced that new charges had been filed against three officers involved in that arrest and charges had been increased against one of those officers. those three will be appearing in court later today and the family is welcome that, they have called this a significant step on the road to justice, but they ve also said this isa justice, but they ve also said this is a bittersweet moment. and it s a bittersweet moment for the family, for those who have been protesting for those who have been protesting for the last ten days, but also a time of community drawing together and we ve really seen this here at this memorial site. so many people, black, white, asian, joining together to say they don t want to put up with this, giving out food, solidarity, music, as well, so this isa solidarity, music, as well, so this is a positive thing which has come out of these terrible events of the past ten days. barbara, in minneapolis, thank you. several thousand people have gathered in the centre of birmingham for a black lives matter demonstration over the death of george floyd in america. authorities said the event s location had to be moved to accommodate the number of people expected to attend. 0rganisers asked people to socially distance. the charity, crisis, is warning of a growing homelessness problem around the country in the wake of the pandemic. it has contacted scores of charities and organisations in england, wales and scotland and found that more than half of these front line services reported a rise in people seeking help during the lockdown. and councils are warning they need more money to cope with the growing problem. june kelly reports from birmingham. hello. you all right? they form part of birmingham is front line team in dealing with the homeless. are you ok? do dealing with the homeless. are you 0k? do you need any help with accommodation? the gentlemen, i ve seen accommodation? the gentlemen, i ve seen him before. he doesn t want to go in. with these outreach workers into organisations, councillor sharon thompson. normally you would see them in doorways, and. she is the homelessness lead in birmingham and she knows what she s talking about. she was homeless herself in the city at 16. homelessness is more thana the city at 16. homelessness is more than a house, it s a whole life and creating a home, more thanjust simply giving them a key to a door. like other councils, birmingham has worked with the government from the start of a lockdown to try to get people off the streets. they are among those who have been housed in among those who have been housed in a city centre hotel. because i m sleeping ina a city centre hotel. because i m sleeping in a nice bed, with nice things around me, looking at a nice tv, things that make you feel good. you feel like you are a different race on the streets. you do feel like that. it s horrible to feel like that. it s horrible to feel like that. it s horrible to feel like that because you feel invisible as well. if it can be done as go, why hasn t it been done before? why is it touched so many people, dying from a horrible disease, for people to believe. to be. the street. money is one reason and birmingham is now looking at its budget and all its new post pandemic demands. looking at its budget and all its new post-pandemic demands. for birmingham, we have spent £272 million responding to covid 19. 0f that money, the government only given us back £70 million. i was in that one up there. back at the place where she was housed, sharon thomson knows there is a particular concern about young people as the city experiences a rise in numbers. about young people as the city experiences a rise in numbersm allowed me to apply for uni. this man was homeless. because you don t think you have any support or help, you d think what are you going to do in the future, how will you survive when you are 30,40? in the future, how will you survive when you are 30, 40? can salida say they need to know what practical support they will get as a lockdown eases. “ support they will get as a lockdown eases. council leaders. the government says it s committed to ending rough sleeping and is planning 6000 new homes. june kelly, news, birmingham. south korea is using technology to track down people infected with coronavirus in less than an hour as it tries to clamp down on those breaking quarantine rules. south korea has had one of the most successful strategies in the world for dealing with the virus. fewer than 300 people have died. 0ur seoul correspondent laura bicker has more details each gasp for breath. each drop of blood painted an alarming picture. do you have any cough? no cough. headache? wan yu from wuhan, china, was south korea s first coronavirus patient. her scans revealed she had been ill for days before showing symptoms. doctors realised then that carriers could infect others without knowing they were sick. at the peak of the outbreak, hundreds of contract tracers were mobilised, lessons south korea learned from previous epidemics. she is allowed to ask personal questions and record private details because of special laws brought in to combat infectious diseases. tracers then hit the streets to seek out cctv footage. they will look at phone and bank records to get the most accurate information. the details are sent out as emergency messages across the country. this was my team and i in daegu in february. alarm sounds. that s the kind of thing. are we getting another one coming? tracking down covid 19 carriers once took days. after gaining access to even more data, it now takes less than an hour. how are you feeling? pretty tired, actually. i ve come from south carolina. technology is used at the border too. and you have no symptoms? luckily not. this woman has told how to download a quarantine app on her phone. she won t be allowed to switch her phone off or moved from a quarantine address for 14 days. this foreigner is told he will be deported if he doesn t comply. but she feels this is right. i m so grateful that i can beyond this territory. nothing i can describe better. i m just so glad. few have complained about any intrusion in privacy. it s been seen as a price worth paying. track and trace has kept this country out of lockdown. meanwhile, hugs from dad at the arrival gate are replaced by hosing down with hand sanitiser, an act of love in itself in these extraordinary times. laura becker, bbc news, seoul. britain s fields are crying out for tens of thousands of people to help harvest their crops. the usual flow of labour from europe has ground to a halt because of coronavirus so the government launched a pick for britain initiative hoping that britons would step in and help. but 70,000 workers are still needed to deliver this season s harvest. claire marshall reports from worcestershire. a plea has been made for a land army to help pick british crops. on one of the largest farms in england, there s one already at work. everyone in it is from eastern europe. during the pandemic, it s not been easy to get here. evelyn is from bulgaria. were you worried that you couldn t make it at one point? man translates. the government has recognised how crucial migrants are. now they don t have to follow the two week quarantine rule. so what about home grown labour? british workers, to date we ve taken on 31 and we ve lost 31. it s a great shame, really. why have they left? they ve left because it s not for them. we don t see them again, they don t give us a reason. theyjust take their ppe and go. there are many different languages spoken here, bulgarian, polish, russian, romanian, but not english. migrant workers have been key to the farming economy for the last 20 or 30 years here, and that can t change overnight. being out in the fresh air. many thousands of british people have answered this appeal. but so far, fewer than 10% have ended up injobs. pick for britain. we had a fantastic response across the sector, and then we ve seen furlough payments stop and workers having the opportunity to go back to their previous employment, and they ve taken those opportunities. and the farms understand that, but that s difficult and costly for them. still, more brits are needed. teresa brooks was a professional japanese drummer. now she is working on this family run farm. with the pandemic going on, i think people are becoming more aware of where their food is coming from and the importance of british growers and british farmers. however, this kind of spirit is not enough on its own. growers say migrants are as vital to farming as they are to the nhs. claire marshall, bbc news, worcestershire. time for a look at the weather here s louise lear. hi there. summer is on hold as we head into the weekend. a showery weekend with a cool wind for all of us weekend with a cool wind for all of us because of this area of low pressure that s going dominate to the south of scandinavia and it s going to interact with the uk for the next three days. that means we start off
tonight at ten, president trump facing widespread condemnation for his handling of the unrest in dozens of american cities. as the president poses for the cameras, bible in hand, he s being accused of stoking divisions instead of promoting unity. on the streets of some cities, more protests following the death of a black man being detained by police, but the president issued this warning. if a city or state refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents, then i will deploy the united states military and quickly solve the problem for them. as the protests grow outside the white house, mr trump s democratic rival called for a different kind of presidency. the country is crying out for leadership. leadership that can unite us, leadership that brings us together. leadership that can recognise pain and deep grief of communities that have had a knee on their neck for a long time. we ll have the latest from washington, and we ll be asking how these events are likely to affect the race for the presidency later this year. also tonight. an empty coronavirus testing facility, as the uk government is criticised for the way it presents testing data to the public. we report on the higher likelihood of death from covid 19 among black, asian and other ethnic minority groups. and memories of last year at silverstone, on the day formula one announced its comeback after the lockdown. and later on, sport state will have all the latest reports, interviews and features from the bbc sports centre. good evening. president trump is facing widespread condemnation for his handling of the unrest in dozens of american cities. it follows the killing of george floyd, an african american who died last week in minneapolis while being detained by police. his death has now been declared a homicide following an official post mortem. on the streets of some cities there s been more violence and looting, prompting mr trump to say he ll send in the military. the president s democratic rival for the white house, joe biden, accused mr trump of using racist language and of failing in his presidential duty to unite the nation. for the lates, let s join our correspondent aleem maqbool in washington. hundreds of people are outside the white house again this evening, right now with their hands up with the hands up, don t shoot charmed of recent nights. but at the same time over the last hour what we have seen isa over the last hour what we have seen is a huge convoys of military personnel fanning out across that city and donald trump has promised an even tougher response on people on the streets tonight. that is when he is already receiving heavy criticism for coming down hard on legal, peaceful protesters. lock him up! undeterred, they are outside the white house again. but the focus of their anger now is notjust violent police officers who kill unarmed black men, but the president as well. it is terrible that people can t protest, which, by the way, is their first amendment right. president trump likes to talk a lot about the second amendment, owning guns and everything, but will not even comment when we come to do what we are literally raised to do, born to do, as americans. donald trump himself has appeared quite pleased with the way he has, in his words, dominated with overwhelming force. but those subjected to that force here late yesterday were peaceful protesters out in the memory of george floyd. as we speak, i am dispatching thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel, and law enforcement officers. and with that, demonstrators were gassed and shoved and pushed back from the historic church outside which they had been protesting, though it was well before any curfew. i feel like i m not even feeling one eighth of what black people feel every single day and i m terrified. and what was it all for, particularly outside the church? well, this. the president took a short walk to saintjohn‘s to show he is in control and apparently to pose with a bible. donald trump s democratic presidential rival has been critical of his handling of this crisis. the country is crying out for leadership. leadership that can unite us, leadership that brings us together. leadership that can recognise pain and deep grief of communities that have had a knee on their neck for a long time. but the security forces continued to force back demonstrators on the orders of a president who has claimed to be a champion of free speech. but there is a sense that this will go on. we have been martin luther king for ages, for generations. generations on end. it s time for malcolm x and marcus garvey. like, nojustice, no peace. like, that s notjust a mantra any more. that s got to be a way of life. although the military and the police have fairly successfully shut down a lot of zones across the american capital, there are still large pockets of protest travelling throughout the city determined to continue to demonstrate. black lives matter! the president may have disrupted the protests in washington and with it, dealt with some of the looting, but his critics feel his actions compare to those of authoritarian leaders around the world the us would previously have condemned. aleem maqbool, bbc news, in washington. within the past hour, the family of george floyd took part in a march in his home city of houston, texas. and there ve been protests across the united states, including in minneapolis, the city where mr floyd was killed. our correspondent barbara plett usher is there with the latest. there have been a number of protests here today including one that involved faith leaders who marched right up to this memorial site. the situation has largely stabilised but attention is still very much focused on accountability. is one of the officers was charged and the attorney general is saying prosecutors are working as quickly as they can to see if the other three who were involved in the arrest should be charged as well. but the unrest that began here is still rolling across the country. minneapolis is reclaiming the place that sent the city into spasms of anger and unrest, smothering with flowers at the spot where george floyd stopped breathing, pinned down by the knee of a police officer on his neck. become a pilgrimage site for those demanding justice for george. at the state capital, a sit in echoing the civil rights movement. 60 years later, still demanding equaljustice movement. 60 years later, still demanding equal justice for african americans, especially an end to police brutality against black people. them minnesota government has announced it will investigate the conduct of the state s largest police department stretching back ten years. in houston, texas, it seemed like the whole city had turned out to much for mr floyd pandit members of his familyjoined them. to march. this is where he grew up and where he will be buried. pa ct street grew up and where he will be buried. pact street in new york city, emptied in recent months to contain the coronavirus pandemic, now full again with protesters. the anger has taken a destructive turn here as it has elsewhere. unfortunately, there are people looting but you can t tell angry people how they can t be angry. that is like telling slaves not to burn down master s house. but this looks like more than protest about racial injustice pinned up in manhattan bans young people dressed mostly in black took advantage of the unrest to pillage stores that have been shattered because of coronavirus. police struggled to respond and the mayor imposed a cu rfew, respond and the mayor imposed a curfew, double quarantine. the vast majority of protests are peaceful. but it doesn t take much for the mood to change. police have been responding with more and more force. and they have been attacked. in several cities last night, and four we re several cities last night, and four were shot and injured in st louis. some coward fired shots at officers and now we have four in the hospital but thank god they are alive. they are alive. but. can we make some sense out of this? can we make some sense out of this? can we make some sense out of this? can we make some sense out of this? police are struggling to make sense of their role to restore law and order and also respond to the tragedy of minneapolis. we are appalled at what happened in minneapolis. period. that we have got to be better. in that city, faith leaders made clear they were siding with those calling forjustice. they were siding with those calling for justice. people are they were siding with those calling forjustice. people are demanding that all of the officers involved in mr floyd s arrest to be charged. accountability in this case might be the beginning of an answer, but only the beginning of an answer, but only the beginning. barbara plett usher, bbc news, minneapolis. artists, record labels and radio stations today suspended business on what s been called blackout tuesday in response to the killing of george floyd. celebrities and social media users across the world joined them in solidarity to show their support for the black community. the oscar winning film director spike lee has long been an outspoken critic of police brutality and racism suffered by america s black community. he said scenes witnessed in the united states over the past week were not new, and had been going on in various ways since the advent of slavery in america four centuries ago. spike lee was speaking to will gompertz ahead of the release of his latest film. black gi, is it fair to serve more than the white americans that sent you here? in the broad sense, is the vietnam war through the viewpoint of black vietnam vets. i see.ghosts. happens to all of us, man! you are more than a film maker. you re an intellectual, an activist, and you are very eloquent on the situation of racism. how do you bring about change? we have to talk about how the united states of america was founded, the foundation. the foundation of this country is immoral. the land was stolen from the native people. genocide was committed against the native people. and my ancestor was stolen from africa, and brought here to work. so the foundation of the united states of america is genocide, stealing the land and slavery! and so any architect will tell you that if you don t have a strong foundation, the building s going to be shaky. and it s been shaky from day one. the whole music business has come out in solidarity for george floyd. this seems to have resonated beyond america. yes, and i think that s a good point that you re bringing it up because united states of america, racism, they do it better than anybody else! but it s not just. .. racism is all over the world. this is a global pandemic before corona. we ve been dying for this country from the very beginning. i shall resign the presidency. what did you think of president trump s suggestion that he d put military on the streets if the protests didn t cease? well, i was watching this last night with my family, and we were all screaming in disbelief. that this thing was staged, the show of force, gassing innocent, peaceful bystanders, so you could clear the street? he s a gangster, you know? he s trying to be, you know, a dictator. mookie, they killed him! they killed radio raheem! it s murder. they did it again, just like michael stewart. murder. talking about the young spike lee, young film maker, enraged, angry. does this apply to spike lee today? let s take a step behind that. why are people angry? people are angry because black people are being killed left and right, cops walk away free. they are angry for a reason. you re angry because you live every day in this world where the system is not set up for you to win. the director spike lee, talking to will gompertz. our north america editor, jon sopel, joins me now. let s ta ke let s take stock on where we are, and do think we have reached the position where it is impossible to separate what is going on in the us from the politics of this year? you would think it was a grave enough politics would not intrude but they happened at the light bulb morning permit was yesterday morning when donald trump tweeted, after a night of terrible writing, how good his poll numbers were. in the last hour he has tweeted about sleepyjoe biden again, saying he thinks he knows the answer is, he doesn t even knows the answer is, he doesn t even know the questions. that follows joe biden breaking cover, coming out from the basement where he had been for the past three months and taking off his face mask and launching a scathing attack on donald trump for his handling of the race riots we are seeing across america. donald trump does not want to back down, he wa nts to trump does not want to back down, he wants to say, look, i m the guy that will bring law and order back to the streets. that will be his pitch. i think it is notable how few republicans have come out and back to what happened yesterday when he went to that church and held up a bible, leading to thousands of peaceful demonstrators tear gassed in the protests process. one prominent support of the president said, oh, is that what happened? i didn t see it. no one can say in november there will not be a clear choice between donald trump, mr law and order, mr tough guy, and joe biden, mr unity, mr empathy project the only thing i think they have in common is both are in their 70s. many thanks. jon sopel, our north american editor. let s turn to the day s other main story the latest on the number of deaths from coronavirus, the effect of the pandemic, especially on ethnic minority groups, and the criticism of the way the uk government has presented data on testing. so these are the latest government figures. the uk recorded 324 deaths in the past 24 hour period. and that brings the official uk total so far to 39,369 deaths. experts have pointed to one hopeful sign the number of weekly deaths linked to covid i9 in england and wales fell to 2872 its lowest level for seven weeks according to the office for national statistics. but on a separate measure called excess deaths, from march to late may across the uk there were almost 62,000 more deaths than might have been expected based on previous years. the elderly have suffered most from the pandemic and care homes, as we have often reported, have been particularly affected. one care home in county durham has lost 25 residents from the disease. our social affairs correspondent michael buchanan reports. a survivor of covid i9 in a care home where many have perished. her family gather outside, in part to clap the carers who have had much to deal with. no one blames them for what has happened, so we have an anonymized them, but we have discovered at least 25 people have died at melbury court, thought to be the highest single death toll in a care home in britain. samuel wilson became a victim of coronavirus in early may. his family believe he became infected after the home insisted he go to hospital for day treatment. in a statement they told us. the home was relentless for a family member to take my grandad into hospital for a non essential procedure in the middle of full lockdown. in my opinion, they took an unnecessary risk, a risk that cost grandad his life. the owners of the care home say their sympathies are with all of the families who have lost a loved one and say that the place is now in recovery and that many of the residents have returned to good health. but locally, the sense is that this is yet another consequence of a decision that put the nhs above the care homes. coronavirus has killed more people in care homes in county durham than anywhere else in england. local providers told council and health officials in march not to discharge untested or covid positive patients into care homes from hospitals. they were ignored. instead, financial funding was, at one point, explicitly linked to them taking people with the virus. cup of tea and a slice of cake? the owner of this care home, which has not had covid, is appalled by what has happened. we do feel that this was neglect. they knew how vulnerable this sector was and i thinkjust with a little bit of forethought, collaborative working, we could have easily gone through this without the number of deaths we have had. more than half of the care homes in county durham have had coronavirus, a consequence of both nationwide problems on testing and ppe, for instance, and local decisions. in a letter seen by the bbc, the county durham care home association said that the council has pursued a policy which has caused and/or increased covid i9 infections and deaths within care homes in county durham. 96 year old barbara wells died of coronavirus in april. immensely sociable, her family says she was thriving at the stanley park care home but the place has been hit hard by the pandemic at least 16 residents have died. barbara s family blame the government, not the care home, for her death. most of europe was locking down before us, so why didn t we do it? if we did do it, i m certain my grandma would still be with us and all the other poor people who have died in that home. durham county council vehemently deny that anything they did added to the problems in care homes. we followed national guidance and put in place support for our care homes. we ve put in additional financial support and have provided ppe, we provided training and support, and psychological support for our care home staff as well. give me an example of where the care sector was put ahead of the nhs. hard to think of an example off the top of my head. sorry. that s the problem, isn t it? the nhs was prioritised. and the result of it is all these deaths in care homes. the uk government insist that they threw a protective ring around care homes. michael buchanan, bbc news, durham. a report by public health england has found that although age is the biggest risk factor when it comes to covid i9, black, asian and other ethnic minority communities in the uk are more likely than others to die from the disease. our correspondent rianna croxford reports. one family, one household, with the odds stacked against them. abdullah used to collect passengers to his taxi but now only picks up groceries. he is black, male, aged 59, and was born outside of the uk, putting him at high risk to catching covid i9. he lives with three generations in milton keynes. feeling unsafe, he chose to stop working at the start of the pandemic and has no income. the government is supposed to really help them but they have been ignored because there is no ppe, there s no help, there s no even proper advices. his daughter khadijah is a nurse, a key worker, and says she has been unprotected on the front line. the ppe, to be frank, is very, very selective, very, very selective. but it depends on where you are working. if you are working in a low risk area, it s fine, but if you are working in an area where you are in contact with those with coronavirus, i think it is right for you to have the right ppe. but khadijah‘s concerns have not been addressed in the government review released today confirming that people from black and asian backgrounds are disproportionately dying from this disease. i put those concerns to the health secretary, matt hancock. many people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds will be confused why it has taken six weeks for the government to simply confirm what studies have already shown, that they are dying with covid i9 at significantly higher rates. why haven t you done more to protect and support these communities? you are absolutely right that there is much more work that needs to be done and this report shows that. so we are asking. i have asked the equalities minister, kemi badenoch, to take this forward and to look into the causes and what further can be done. divina is a nurse from birmingham looking for an answer. yeah, it makes you even more anxious, thinking how can you sort of minimise the risk slightly. but i can t, because of the colour lam, and i can t change it. it makes me really angry and the government is supposed there are many factors driving these figures and they point towards socioeconomic inequalities an existing problem the pandemic has only further exposed. rianna croxford, bbc news. under scrutiny today has been the government s 5 level alert system for coronavirus, which was introduced last month. it s become clear that boris johnson s ambition to reduce the alert level at the same as easing the lockdown was blocked by all four of the uk s chief medical officers. our economics editor, faisal islam, has the story and joins me now. we are used to the phrase that ministers are following the science. is that still the case? the government has the delicate balancing act of trying to get the economy out of an historic hole and at the same time keep a lid on a deeply contentious pandemic. the way it did this while trying to communicate clearly to the public was with this traffic light system, which i think we can see, the covid alert level system. remember we are now at four on that level. and if the prime minister said last week he wa nted the prime minister said last week he wanted to get that down to three at a meeting on thursday. also, when that was launched, addressed to the nation and in the document that followed, some connection was made between the alert level and the loosening of the lockdown. now, it didn t happen. it stayed at four. my understanding is because the chief medical officers of all four uk nations didn t agree it should be lowered from four, which is quite interesting. you ask the question if we are still following the science and the government will argue it agreed with leaving it at four eventually, even though it wanted to come down to three and the loosening of the lockdown was modest. but it does show how delicate this is, the loosening, and how it could be reversed if necessary and that scientists and medics were worried and the balancing act is there and playing down that alert system. faisal islam, economics editor, thank you. the health secretary for england, matt hancock, has been sharply criticised by the government s leading statistician for the way key data relating to coronavirus testing is presented to the public. in a letter, the head of the uk statistics authority, sir david norgrove, said testing statistics were incomplete, difficult to understand and of limited value to public understanding. our health editor hugh pym has the details. a drive in test centre today but with very little activity as a new debate on precisely how many virus tests have been carried out has flared up. health secretary matt hancock made great play in recent weeks of the plans to boost testing. lam now weeks of the plans to boost testing. i am now setting the goal of 100,000 tests per day. currently just i am now setting the goal of 100,000 tests per day. currentlyjust over 50,000 tests available will stop i can announce that we have met our goal. but today he has been criticised by the head of the uk statistics watchdog over the numbers, who cast doubt over how many numbers, who cast doubt over how ma ny tests numbers, who cast doubt over how many tests have actually been carried out and on how many people. in his letter sir david norgrove welcomes the addition of some new data but adds. i m afraid though that the figures are still far from com plete that the figures are still far from complete and comprehensible. the way the data are analysed and presented currently gives them a limited value. the aim seems to be to show the largest possible number of tests even at the expense of understanding. the health secretary was challenged by labour in the commons. the uk statistics authority have written to him today saying that his figures are still far from complete and comprehensive, that the testing statistics still fall far short of standards in the code. and that it is not surprising that testing data is mistrusted. this is quite damning, i have to say to the secretary of state. we will work with the uk statistics authority to make sure that they are happy with how we are publishing that data, to make sure that we get the data published in a reasonable and sensible way. the daily figures show tests for whether people currently have the virus. in one recent day over 128,000 tests were provided. 27,500 were for hospital staff and patients. around 29,400 were for the public at testing sites. around 43,700 were test kits sent out though not yet returned. and nearly 28,000 were for research and antibody tests, finding out whether someone has already had the virus. the number of people tested isn t currently published. officials say it will be restored soon after data checks. i didn t feel i was connecting to the system. some, like michael, have reported delays getting results. they said don t call back for five days. i then phoned back five days later. they said, no, it s actually now seven days. i phoned back seven days later, then it was nine days. i would just perhaps get some form of confirmation or not, and i haven t since, and that was nearly two weeks ago. the government wants to extend testing and tracing of people who might be infected in england, but today s developments confirm there are still many questions about how the system is working. hugh pym, bbc news. ministers at westminster are said to be examining ways of relaxing the planned i4 day quarantine for people entering the uk over the coming months. from next monday, most people arriving by plane, ferry or train including british citizens must go into isolation. but many mps and businesses have expressed concern at the plan, warning it will damage the travel industry and the wider economy. the government is expected to publish more details of its plans tomorrow. our transport correspondent tom burridge is at heathrow airport. a blanket travel quarantine will ta ke a blanket travel quarantine will take effect on monday. the home office insisting tonight it is necessary to help control the virus. but the government insists it is also working hard to secure these air bridges, agreements with countries with low infection rates so people don t have to self isolate. the portugal foreign minister has confirmed to me tonight that talks are ongoing and he hopes an air bridge between portugal and the uk can be in place by the end of this month. he says british tourists will be welcome in the algarve this summer as long as they follow rules on social distancing and heed warning systems to avoid crowded beaches. but spain on the other hand says british tourists will not be welcome there until the infection rate here in the uk falls more significantly. the government has confirmed tonight it is looking at testing and tracing people arriving in the uk is another possible way of getting rid of quarantine but the government is under huge pressure on the policy from business and within its own conservative ranks. tom burridge, thank you for the update from heathrow. mps returned to westminster today, forming long queues in line with social distancing rules as they prepared to decide how they should hold hold votes in the house of commons from now on. the government wanted to end the virtual, or online system which was introduced in april and to return to voting in person, but critics say such a move would exclude vulnerable mps and those with caring responsibilities. our chief political correspondent vicki young has the latest. mps had been told to set an example and get back to work. for some it s a round trip of almost 1500 miles. a journey in excess of 18 hours for something that frankly is of questionable necessity. others say it s their duty to return to parliament rather than take part via video link. my home is here on the island of anglesey, and i m going to westminster to do the job that i was democratically