tonight at ten the devastating effects of coronavirus on the economy. it shrank by over 20% in the first full month of lockdown, april. empty gyms, offices, restaurants, and shops large swathes of the economy ground to a halt, in the sharpest contraction on record. it is going to be tough for a few months but we will get through it and we will bounce back very strongly indeed. but the governor of the bank of england does see signs of a gradual recovery, and says he s ready to take action to limit the long term damage. also tonight. the government rules out prolonging trade talks with the eu beyond december, but checks on goods coming to the uk will be phased in next year. coronavirus has hit deprived areas twice as hard as wealthier ones, according to new figures. the prime minister says it s absurd and shameful that a statue of churchill has had to be boxed up to protect it from anti racism protesters. and the ancient treasures of persia. we get rare access to the culturaljewels of iran. and coming up on bbc news, the premier league allows players to wear the words black lives matter on the back of their shirts when the season restarts next week. good evening. the dramatic economic effect of the lockdown was laid bare today, with figures showing that the uk economy shrank by more than a fifth in april. that s the largest monthly contraction ever recorded, in our first full month in lockdown. the slump of 20.4% in economic growth is three times larger than that seen during the whole of the financial crisis 12 years ago. the office for national statistics says it s affected almost all areas of economic activity, with house building and car manufacturing particularly badly hit. the uk is now on course for a recession, which is two consecutive quarters of negative growth. but analysts say that april was likely to have been the worst month. our economics editor faisal islam has this report. a massive hit to the economy is no surprise when streets are silent, shops are closed, factories idle and tens of billions in sales don t happen because they cannot. but such a slump on this scale in one month isn tjust a record, it was unimaginable and way beyond any normal scale. marlow zoo is one example of a leisure attraction whose shutdown during this pandemic is seen in these numbers. april had easter this year, so we were expecting about 70,000 guests to come here to enjoy the zoo and in the end we got nobody at all. whilst we were expecting £1.8 million in terms of visitor income for the month, we didn t receive anything at all, so disastrous really, april, for us. in april, the first full month of lockdown, the economy fell byjust over 20%, losing a fifth of its total value. it means since the pandemic and lockdown began in march, the uk economy has lost a quarter of its value, that is the cliff on this chart, making the financial crisis in 2008 resemble a small blip. the question where do things go from here? for a dynamic, creative economy, we depend so much on human contact and we have been badly hit by this, but we are also amazingly resilient and creative. we will bounce back. there was a report that came out a couple of days ago from the 0ecd, that group of industrialised nations, and it suggested that the drop in gdp for this year for the uk would actually be worse than for every other industrialised nation so we are in a very difficult situation as a country. in 0xfordshire, an airfield with tens of millions worth of vehicles waiting for the showrooms to sell again. and in turn meaning the car factories will be far from full tilt. so this is what those grim numbers look like in reality. up and down the country, storage areas, airfields, ports, full of unsold cars. in april, a 99.7% fall in car sales. the challenge now, as lockdown just starts to ease, is will it actually return to normal? will these cars actually sell or is the economy fundamentally damaged 7 in germany, they funded thousands of euros for new purchases of green cars, and slashed vat as part of a massive second rescue package. here, more support on its way, signalled by the bank of england. we have to be ready and ready to take action, notjust the bank but more broadly on what we can do and offset those longer term damaging effects. for the moment, the government is focusing on a gradual reopening, for example, of the housing market. we are just starting to recover. i believe it will take until the end of the year to come close, whether we will even get there, but i feel positive that there is enough people who want to move, and if there s enough people who want to move then people will sell and people will buy. and there is much lost ground to make up in gyms too with the added challenge of whether people will use them in a new normal. the fitness sector has proved before that it is particularly resilient in a recession, and i think we will benefit greatly from the tailwind provided by the pandemic, actually. we have never seen a weaker month, the economy far from fighting fit. the question isjust how long the process of rehabilitation will take. faisal islam, bbc news. well, the economic uncertainty has led to calls for trade talks with the eu following brexit to be extended beyond the end of this year. but the government has ruled that out, with cabinet minister michael gove saying he d formally confirmed to the eu that there will be no delay. but checks on goods coming here from the eu will be phased in next year, to give businesses time to adjust. 0ur political correspondent alex forsyth reports. it s not been business like this for months. many firms disrupted because of the virus and at the end of this year, another big change could be brewing. our current trade terms with the eu end and there ll be no extension whether there s a new deal or not. we would not be extending. that s it. we are leaving the transition period on december 31st. that provides clarity and certainty to business and our announcement today allows business to plan in an appropriate and flexible way. the uk left the eu onjanuary 31st, allowing a year where not much changed to work out future relations. those talks haven t made huge progress, so on monday, the prime minister will meet eu figures to try to get things moving because december 31st is the deadline for a new trade deal to be agreed, and that won t be extended. although some still think it should be, and why? to take away the risk of a no deal outcome and also to make sure that all of us remain focused on supporting business through the post covid recovery and not making the challenges that the economy and our businesses face any worse than it already is. for some businesses, though, some relief today. this fashion firm imports from and exports to the eu and today, the government said from january, it would relax new rules on some goods coming in. six months‘ grace for customs paperwork and payments, which was welcomed here. setting up a whole new border control system in seven and eight months wouldn t be realistic, and i think the uk consumer will benefit from that. the government insists it s not backtracking on previous plans, arguing that a phased approach to new customs checks is pragmatic in the current economic climate. but the eu is not reciprocating, saying it will be ready for controls on imports come january. brexit may not have dominated here of late, but that doesn t mean the political pressure‘s eased. the government was re elected with a significant majority, with a strong mandate to get on with brexit. if the government s going to fulfil the commitments on which it s elected, we need to have those customs processes and our borders fully operational as soon as we can. for businesses, certainty, as ever, is key, even more so given the turmoil of coronavirus. while a slower approach to new border checks might be welcomed by some, it s whether a trade deal can be done which remains crucial to many. alex forsyth is in westminster. coronavirus and brexit, two huge issues in the government s in tray. yes, i think that s right and on brexit, the fact that government is relaxing the timetable for those new customs checks is something of an acknowledgement of the disruption that businesses are currently facing but the big question of causes whether a trade deal can be agreed in the timetable the government has now committed to. both the eu and uk state is possible and they have agreed to accelerate talks in the coming weeks but there are still big gaps between the two sides so it will require significant compromise. of course, the backdrop to all of thatis of course, the backdrop to all of that is the economic picture that was painted so starkly by those figures released today. it may not bea figures released today. it may not be a surprise, of course, that the economy took such a hit during the lockdown period but what is key now is whether the recovery is fairly, relatively quick or whether there is lasting and deep damage. remember, this was a government that was elected on a platform of getting brexit resolved but also to tackle some of the regional, societal and economic inequalities in this country and i think what is clear now on both fronts is simply the scale of the challenge the government is now facing. alex, many thanks. alex forsyth westminster, there. coronavirus has hit the most deprived parts of england and wales twice as hard as wealthier areas, according to official figures. urban regions, which are more densely populated, were worse affected than rural areas. meanwhile, in the last 24 hour period, the number of deaths reported in the uk in hospitals, care homes and the wider community related to coronavirus were up by 202, bringing the total number of deaths to 41,481. 0ur health editor hugh pym reports. big cities with big populations the virus spread fast with a higher risk of deaths. 0ne message underlined by today s new data. richard musa worked as a nurse in london for 26 years. he died in hospital with covid i9 and his family couldn t give him a final farewell. covid and the rules around it made it extremely difficult for us, as a family, and it added to our grief. so, it felt like grief upon grief that we couldn t see him, we couldn t be near him, we couldn t see him before he was buried. all of the things that we would have wanted to do, that proper goodbye, we were denied that opportunity and it s really, really difficult. the north east of england has been hit hard by coronavirus. following the peak in april, the number of deaths fell across the country last month, but slower in this region than elsewhere. and local health experts say there were a number of factors. as a gp in inner city newcastle, we have large numbers of people living with long term conditions or chronic diseases, and the ones that we see a lot of include chest diseases. chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is very common. and that clearly puts you at greater risk if you were to catch the virus. figures out today for england and wales show a range of death rates linked to covid i9 between march and may. they re adjusted for differing age profiles in each area. in england, in the north east, the figure was just over 97 per 100,000 of population. in london, the highest, it was 137 per 100,000 of population. and the lowest in england was the south west, with just over 41. in wales, the highest area, once again a big city, was cardiff, at 125 per 100,000 deaths. wales as a whole, at 67, was below england. the figures show death rates in the most deprived areas were a lot higher than in the wealthiest parts of the country. in england, more than twice as high. there is a higher death rate from covid amongst people who, for example, work in unskilled labour, and it s quite likely that there are higher proportions of people in that nature of work in deprived areas. similarly, we know that if you re in an area of high population density, it s harder to do your social distancing effectively. many of the deprived areas we are looking at are areas of high population density. the medical director for nhs england acknowledged these were challenging issues. those things that mean you are more likely to do badly when you get the infection, like diabetes, like obesity, like heart and lung disease, we see more frequently in more deprived areas of the country. in scotland and northern ireland, there are no comparable figures for death rates adjusted for age demographics. there will be a lot more research on health inequalities, prevalence among bame communities, and underlying conditions. today s figures do add a bit more to an understanding of the impact of coronavirus. hugh pym, bbc news. from monday, face coverings will be mandatory on public transport in england. transport operators will be able to refuse permission to travel to those who are not wearing a face covering, and it could lead to fines. the transport secretary grant shapps confirmed that new volunteers called journey makers will be deployed to remind people. scotland s first minister nicola sturgeon has insisted that a programme to test care workers for coronavirus is accelerating. so far, just over a third have been tested that s despite a promise last month that all care home staff would get a weekly test. 0ur scotland editor sarah smith reports. right, i m just going to take yourobs, darlin‘. all staff working in every care home in scotland are supposed to be tested for coronavirus every week. a big promise. the big problem is that nearly four weeks after that commitment, only around a third of staff have been tested even once. at this home in dumfries and galloway, they ve had no confirmed cases but they ve also been unable to get hold of the tests. i think it would ve been beneficial for us to have been tested earlier. it would have kind of put us all maybe a bit more at ease. we re further down the line now, having been closed since march, it s quite scary thinking that if somebody comes back with a positive test, that ll have a huge impact on the home. across the whole of dumfries and galloway, only four care home staff were tested in the first week of this month. of all the people in scotland who have died of covid 19, 47% of them have been in care homes, that s more than have died in hospital. and the government know that without visitors, it s staff who pose the greatest risk for bringing the virus into homes that s why they want to test them all every week. but it s a target they ve yet to meet. the charity that runs this home say they have only been able to get 5% of their scottish staff tested compared to 90% in their homes in england. i welcome the commitment to weekly testing because that is a commitment that has ‘t happened in england, but the reality has to catch up with the government position. the first minister will not set a date for when the government might reach the testing goal. why is a commitment to test all care home staff not being met even though it s over three weeks since it was first made and when will that promise be fulfilled? it does take time to put in place a programme of testing that number of people in place and health boards have been doing that. the health secretary and i have, i think, given a fairly direct indication over the last week or so that we think that progress should be accelerating and that s why the health secretary has made that very clear to health boards. 0n the other side of that is that we ve made clear to health boards that the scottish government is there if they need additional resources and support. the scottish government is working on a deal to cover sick pay for any care home workers who do test positive and have to isolate. figures for staff testing will now be published every week, intensifying pressure to increase the tests. sarah smith, bbc news, glasgow. a report by the national audit office says it is not known how many of the 25,000 people in england discharged from hospitals into care homes at the height of the pandemic were infected with coronavirus. it says that due to government policy, priority for testing was given to patients with respiratory illness or flu like symptoms. the prime minister says it s absurd and shameful that a statue of winston churchill has had to be boarded up because of fears it may be vandalised. last weekend, protesters daubed it with graffiti saying that churchill was a racist. borisjohnson also warned people to stay away from protests because of coronavirus. tonight, the metropolitan police has imposed conditions on those intending to protest tomorrow, as chi chi izundu reports. take it down, take it down! it s been a week of anger. peaceful anti racism protests marred by violence. 99 police officers reported injuries over all the protests so far. today does not protest had fewer people but a heavier police presence and tonight, a change in tactics. london s metropolitan police say its imposing conditions on a stricter route and a definite five o clock finish for the black lives matter, right wing and left wing affiliated protest tomorrow. we will try to prevent protest tomorrow. we will try to p reve nt a ny protest tomorrow. we will try to prevent any confrontation and any violence and, indeed, damage to buildings, to memorials and to statues. last weekend, this is how the churchill statue outside parliament was left. this is how it stands now. 0ver fears today s march would result in more damage. the prime minister calling it shameful the monument had to be secured. the statue of winston churchill, who is a national hero, has had to be boarded up for fear of violent attack. i think it shameful we have a lot of these statues in the first place. a lot of these statues shouldn t be put up in the first place. it no longer serves us put up in the first place. it no longer serves us to have statues of men that don t represent the society we live in today. even though it s pa rt we live in today. even though it s part of the british history, i don t think it should be celebrated and memorialised by statues. tearing them down doesn t mean tearing all them down doesn t mean tearing all the pages out of the history books. a demonstration planned for tomorrow was cancelled and brought forward to today because of concerns there could be trouble between people determined to defend the monuments and those who may have wanted to deface them. this is now a second week where people have taken to the streets are anti racism marches and the protest organisers have said again and again that these marches should remain peaceful and they said again and again that this won t be the last one. but the debate around statues continues. police are now investigating after this bust to black playwright and poet was attacked with bleach earlier this week, while the thomas guy statue outside the hospital in london he founded has been boarded up because of his links to slavery. but not all the protests have ended like today s and its organisers are concerned that the discussion about whether statues should remain up or a is
suppress the story, they trying to suppress the story, they are trying to silence doctors who spoke out about the outbreak in wuhan. and i think if there had been more transparency, than other countries would have been able to respond more appropriately, and that this crisis would not have killed so many people around the world. the question is will it ever be really possible to get to the bottom of that? i think the idea that there should be reparations, that china should be reparations, that china should somehow pay the bill for the economic devastation around the world has a certain appeal to its come about, you know, if we are going to get into the business of reparations, than you know, there are plenty of crimes of colonial expansion by the united kingdom or by the united states. you would never get to the bottom of whatever country never get to the bottom of whatever cou ntry owes never get to the bottom of whatever country owes to every other. i think inevitably it comes down to basic politics. if the chinese feel under pressure, they will see some access, but you know, every sovereign nation wa nts to but you know, every sovereign nation wants to defend its own interests. will that be a full investigation that will satisfy the most anti chinese rapid debt people in the united states, and the united kingdom, i m not sure that it ever can. let s talk about countries wanting to defend their own interests and moved to that financial times. at the beginning of the outbreak, there was real anger in southern european countries, italy and spain about what they perceived as the complete lack of solidarity shown by northern european countries and real anger particularly in italy growing euro skepticism, sebastian pain, a slight report on a slight turnaround, journey in france germany and france. indeed. this has so many reflections of what happened to of the financial crisis on the euro zone crisis as well, because of person everything oi i well, because of person everything on the eu pivots on that crucial relationship between france and germany here, and so far, there has beena germany here, and so far, there has been a lot of dispute between those two countries about what kind of package should be offered, should be grants, should it be loans, what period is a need to be repaid, and how should it be open here when you look at those southern european countries those same ones that struggle during the euro zone crisis, italy being the obvious example here, there has been this growing stands that they have been able to bring a package together and bring those back neck of their economies of the most fragile, they have some of the biggest debt piles, and they are in the most trouble. but again, it s come back to that crucial france germany relationship, it looks as if they are close to agreeing some kind of deal here, that will be granted based not loan based, and this is something that will be paid for over a very long period of time, so it s not going to add to the big debt piles of these countries, and i think of those southern european countries, they will be delighted, particularly leaders of those countries come as a rigid sink and are concerned about going euro skepticism and blaming with their economy and their coronavirus crisis, but again commencement to be details of how europe as a whole is going to pay for this, because of course, it s going to require more money somewhere. it s going to require taxes to be increased, more contributions to the european project, and terry mention it, from the beginning of next year, the uk is going to be missing from that budget at a big contributor and hold up budget at a big contributor and hold up already having to be filled for the eu, and now that hole hasjust gotten off a lot bigger there, but generally, this is a very good thing for europe, because those southern countries really need it, particularly those economies that depend on tourism, so it s good to see that france and germany abashed heads together and got to some kind of detail, as with all these things, let s see exactly what it is over the next couple of days. polly mackenzie, it was a real crisis point potentially for that you at the start of this crisis that spain and italy were so angry, and there was talk about the point of the year you. now it seems this plan might address some of those issues. yeah, i think because it started as a public health crisis, and of course every country has its own health system, that the eu has got its own way of thinking about things, oh, that s devolved, that is nothing to do with us, and was far too slow to recognise the extraordinary economic impact that this was going to have and recognise the importance of a kind of solidarity fund between the nations. it s interesting that greece, which was of course so devastated by the financial crisis and the economic impact of that has actually done incredibly well at suppressing coronavirus. italy, as sebastian payne says suffered enormously, as well as spain. so looking forward, it does seem that the eu is starting to find its feet. there is still some hostility. eft is reporting that the austrian and dutch governments are still very sceptical about doing anything that is grand based rather than loan based, but, again, in france and germany united as a general rule, smaller countries will come into it. we will go back to the uk now and look at the eye newspaper. uk mr critical moment to stop virus. sebastian pain from the financial times sebastian payne it from the financial times, i ve been wondering about inquiries from future use who might leader, who might be on it, what might say, how compare to the frank s report it seems like inquiries are happening already. this is a commons inquiry, the common science and technology committee i believe, let s look, they want to have answers about testing in particular, white testing stopped on the 12th of march? this is one of the big questions, and we do come to that big inquiry which will be quite something, anything we can all get our popcorn and tv sets ready to watch that over a period of many months, if not years when we get to the other side of this crisis, but as you income of the house of commons have already started digging into that particular area, and this very acute area of testing, because one thing that has baffled a lot of mps come a lot of onlookers as well as that when coronavirus started in the uk, when cases were in the tens, people were doing exactly what later happens, which as they were isolated for 14 daysin which as they were isolated for 14 days in centres are at their homes, and alltheir days in centres are at their homes, and all their contacts were traced from everybody that came into contact with had to provide their details and they went into isolation as well. then for whatever reason, about the 12th of march, the governmentjust stop about the 12th of march, the government just stop doing that, about the 12th of march, the governmentjust stop doing that, and that s when we moved from this containment strategy to a suppressant strategy, and of course, i iow suppressant strategy, and of course, now that we are now back to exactly where we were almost two months ago, people are saying, well, why did we stop doing that? and obviously, going back to our earlier question about the scientists versus the politicians, it s a question of what s their political decision made at that point to say, look, we don t have the resources to test that many people, we don t have the capacity to do that contact tracing, therefore, we need to move with a very different strategy, the herd immunity strategy, where you acknowledging it s going to spread widely before it was then modelled by imperial college london, and that could lead to have a million deaths, so we could lead to have a million deaths, so we then had another u turn and we nt so we then had another u turn and went back to where we were originally. but those three weeks of the being of march are going to be absolutely crucial for that inquiry, because that is the point at which most people that i speak to say that we really lost control of this and we really lost control of this and we could be under much different trajectory free had continued testing, really built up our contact tracing capability, but now having to do it, essentially our strategy is where it was months ago. so it s rather perplexing, but this report from mps does raise some very problematic questions for governments, which they want to answer how, governments, which they want to answer now, but one day, they will eventually have to. talking about problems for the government, looking at the next two newspapers numb from the daily mirror, first of all, talking about schools, new schools. how secretary says it s up to had teachers to decide if staff should wear face masks. teachers to decide if staff should wearface masks. in the daily telegraph says children who do not return to school may receive less online teaching because teachers would be occupied with students in their classes. polly mackenzie come on the 1st ofjune from a primary school some classes may reopen it, from your read of the paper estimates that likely to happen?” think it is certainly very unlikely that there will be a kind of full blind kids opening with every child turning up, you know, freshfaced and ready to learn. a lot of parents who just don t want to send their kids back. i gotta call for my children s school today asking, do you thank you will send your children back, and the teacher was clearly going around calling every parent with a healthy degree of skepticism that many people would be back in at all because it s not just many people would be back in at all because it s notjust teachers who are worried about whether it s safe, it s also parents. i don t think the government has handled this very well. they have been much more moderate in their language in the last couple of days, but they started out accusing the unions of scaremongering, briefing the newspapers to be incredibly aggressive and hostile instead of recognising. this is just aggressive and hostile instead of recognising. this isjust difficult. of course, there is no risk free environment for any of us, given this disease. but this, and children must learn, it is obviously affecting poor kids much worse than richer kids, to be stuck away from school, but they haven t shown flexibility. you know, we should be looking at cancelling summer holidays, not trench rush kids back to school. let s move on to our final papers now, let s look quickly at the sun, clean hit by £18 million losses. although, i did a quick look on the sunday times rich list, she still is worth £350 million, and now oui’ still is worth £350 million, and now our final still is worth £350 million, and now ourfinal paperagain, we still is worth £350 million, and now ourfinal paper again, we go to the times, very interesting picture on the front page of two having brea kfast. the front page of two having breakfast. opposite the cathedral, fascinated by this, because it looks like the woman on the right is eating chairman sue for breakfast, which i have never seen in italy. and think when we get out of the locked on from a we are allowed to go back out to cafes and pups, there will be all manner of interesting things people will do because during out things people will do because during our period in lockdown, people i ve been thinking about those they want to see in the things they want to the experiences they want to have. italy think having coffee and chairman sue at 9am in the morning is completely acceptable, given that it s had one of the most stringent lockdowns and sourcing chairman sue from inside your house has been no doubt very difficult for those people. so they look very happy. but it does show sort of what life is going to look like on that picture oi i going to look like on that picture on the times, you can see you ve got people with masks and with gloves on, and it s a reminderthat even when things open up again and we can go back to cafes ncr family and friends, that it s not going back to normal for quite some time. mass virtue from the financial times and polly mackenzie, chief executive, thank you for now. that s it for the papers this hour. polly and sebastian will be back at 11:30 for another look at the papers. goodbye for now. hello there. on monday, the temperature reached 25 celsius in suffolk and over the next couple of days, the heat will continue to build. the peak of the temperatures is likely to be on wednesday. things start to break down a bit after that. chance of thunderstorms on thursday before we all turned cooler and windier by the end of the week. pretty mild out there at the moment away from northern most parts of scotland. these are the temperatures by the end of the night, and as you can see, still a lot of cloud around. some are bricks of rain to come of that rain continuing to affect the northern half of the uk mainly during tuesday morning. slowly petering out, many places becoming dry during the afternoon. the cloud thinning and skies brightening. the best of the sunshine likely to be across wales, midlands and southern england, where temperatures will peak at 25 26d. on the whole, it should be a slightly warmer day across the uk then it was on monday. those chapters continue to climb for wednesday. that area of high pressure is sitting over the uk. it s pushing the cloud and rain away, and we are going to be drying up away, and we are going to be drying upa away, and we are going to be drying up a gentle southerly breeze, it will bring the heat northwards all the way from spain and france and move its way across the uk. northern areas start quite cloudy on wednesday, some rain to clear away from the northern isles, the cloud thins and breaks, and sunshine develops more widely stop into the afternoon, we are likely to find temperatures of 23 degrees through the central scotland, 20 or so for northern ireland, the highest temperatures across the midlands to the southeast of england, 27 28d. things start to break down a bit on thursday, a bit of rain trying to come in from the west. that may not make it too far. these showers are likely to break out. from the southeast of them and heading towards the midlands, lincolnshire and east anglia, and they could be heavy infantry. that will knock the temperatures down. for many of us, still quite a warm day on thursday, just not quite as warm as wednesday. and then things start to change more widely, i think, for the end of the week, because we have got this area of low pressure, it s winding itself up, the winds will be strengthening come in this weather front will be bringing some rain. that s going to move its way eastwards across the uk for friday, but not much rain for england and wales, and the more persistent rain soon sweeps away from mainland scotland. the winds with will be stronger, gales likely in the northwest, and this is where we will see most of the showers. otherwise, some sunshine, cooler and fresher feel, still 21 in otherwise, some sunshine, cooler and fresherfeel, still 21 in eastern england.
this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. president trump reveals he s been taking the drug hydrox y chloroquine as a preventative measure he claims it can help coronavirus patients, though that isn t backed up by the science. the front line workers many many are taking it. i happen to be taking it. i happen to be taking it. hydroxy corcoran? right now, yeah. the us renews its attack on the world health organization and china, over their response to the coronavirus pandemic. new symptoms to look for if you think you may have coronavirus in the uk a loss of smell or taste. but doctors say they should have been included weeks ago. india and bangladesh are on high alert as super
this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. a fifth night of protests in minneapolis, following the death of george floyd, a black man, in police custody. protestors and officers clash again despite a curfew. the governor urges people to stay at home. it is very clear on this, this is a very simple order, there is a curfew issued by the mayors and backed by the state that you should not be on the state that you should not be on the streets tonight and i will leave it at that and if you decide to make the decision to go out tonight, the assumption is you are out to join the decision to go out tonight, the assumption is you are out tojoin in the destruction. protests spread to at least 30 other us cities including tampa in florida, where tear gas has been fired. president trump blames looters, and left wing radicals for the unrest. after 10 weeks at home, more than two million people in england who ve been shielding during lockdown are told they can go outdoors. how dutch classrooms have been managing coronavirus, but governors of english primary schools say all children shouldn t have to return before summer holidays. three, two, one, zero. ignition. lift off of the falcon 9 and cruise dragon. and, a new era for space travel as the first ever commercial rocket carrying humans into space is successfully launched. hello and welcome to audiences in the uk and around the world. across the united states curfews are now in place in at least 13 cities, but they haven t stopped more and more protestors taking to the streets for the fifth night in a row. they are angry after the death on monday of george floyd, an african american man from minneapolis, who died after a police officer knelt on his neck. president trump has blamed far left groups and anarchists for the violence. our north america correspondent david willis reports. this was the night america rose up in protest. angry, destructive protest aimed at the police and their treatment of racial minorities. curfews were imposed in more than a dozen american cities, but they were ignored. many of those protests had started peacefully. we can t breathe the mantra of a movement that has taken george floyd s final words and turned them into a rallying cry. i cannot breathe. mr floyd was captured on video gasping for breath and pleading for his life. the police officer seen with his knee on mr floyd s neck is now facing murder and manslaughter charges but that s done little to abate the anger and calls are growing for the three other officers involved in his arrest to also be brought tojustice. in minneapolis, the state s governor had promised a muscular, no nonsense response after five days of rioting that left burned out buildings and ransacked stores. but despite activating thousands more national guard officers and firing tear gas grenades, the demonstrations continued, along with the violence. it was a similar story in the country s second largest city, los angeles, where some likened these scenes of unrest to the rodney king riots which razed part of the city to the ground nearly 30 years ago. like george floyd, rodney king was a victim of police brutality caught on camera. police fired rubber bullets after protesters ignored the mayor s desperate plea for calm. president trump said the us military was ready, willing, and able to deploy if the unrest continued. as he hunkered down in the white house, protesters rallied for a second nightjust outside the gates. a potent cocktail of factors are at play here. the coronavirus pandemic has thrown a0 million americans out of work and trashed a once buoyant economy. people have been cooped up indoors for months as a result. some knowing it may be months if not years before they get theirjobs back. david willis, bbc news, los angeles. lucy sherriff is a journalist on the scene in downtown la in the last hour, she spoke to my colleague karin giannone about how the situation is unfolding there. during the peaceful protest, there were still some individuals who were throwing rocks and glass bottles a nd other missiles at the police, but they very much where in the minority. unfortunately, around, i would say, 6pm, there was a curfew announced for 8pm and after that, things definitely started to go downhill. there was a huge fire that was started on an intersection near here and i witnessed three orfour small, here and i witnessed three or four small, three or four small, independent stores being trashed, looted. i actually spoke to a woman who owned one of the stores, she is an african american woman and she was shouting at them, you are stealing from black people and it was quite an upsetting sight to watch, actually, because she was just in absolute bits over the fact that a protest that is supposed to be aboutjustice for african america ns has turned into something like this. lucy, i do not know if you are able to flip the phone around and give us a sense of the street you are on and what has been going on? yes, so in front of me, i do not know if you can make out but i cannot unfortunately get that close, but there are about ten men lined up against a building being arrested. i do not know if you can see that. yes, we can see that very clearly. the building has been completely graffitied and then there is a burnt out carjust next to those police cars and over the street over here there are a few people the other side of the street putting up wooden boards and you can see here as well, these wooden boards have been put up in anticipation of what, i assume, is going to be more of the same tomorrow. you showed us what was going on behind you. a number of people who have been arrested, lined up. just describe the area, this is right by beverly hills, you say? this is an upmarket area with affluent businesses? yes, it is indeed. and actually, i saw, i did not see it myself, but i saw. a video posted. yes, sorry they are just telling me i am going to be arrested if i do not go home. lucy, if you do need to get out of the way of anyone. i showed them my press badge, so they re 0k. earlier i saw a video of a mercedes car showroom being looted and people were driving mercedes off the lots. so, that is kind of where it has got to today. right, and we have been looking at pictures of a bank on fire, we saw a store being looted, if you are ok to continue talking, is there any sense you can get from where you are, how widespread this is or how it restricted to certain areas?” widespread this is or how it restricted to certain areas? i have heard, so i know downtown has been a bad today as well, especially in the evening. the whole of melrose, i was there earlier, there was a huge fire, there were maybe five or six fire, there were maybe five or six fire trucks and i was there for about an hour watching the fire and they were trying to put that out. there is a big shopping mall called beverly centre and that has been looted. all around this area, that i would say, if you miles, it is being looted at the moment. more than two million medically vulnerable people in england, who have been shielding at home since the start of lockdown, will be allowed to spend time outdoors from tomorrow. the updated government guidance means they can go outside with someone they live with, or meet a person from another household if they live alone. our political correspondent chris mason reports. this is what the beach in bournemouth looked like yesterday and, in london, this was regent s park and this was primrose hill. but not everyone s been able to take advantage of some of the restrictions easing in recent weeks. the clinically most vulnerable to the virus, who were asked to shield, have been stuck at home all day every day for around ten weeks. this morning, for the more than 2 million people in england in this situation, big news. from tomorrow you can head out with others in your household or, if you live on your own, with one other person from another household. why, though, is this now deemed safe? ministers say it s because fewer people have the virus, meaning the average chance of catching it is down from one in a0 to one in 1000. the big challenge for the government and for all of us is managing the risk posed by the virus alongside tentatively tiptoeing back towards normality. what do you say to those scientists and others who say that you re easing the lockdown in england too quickly? i believe and you ll recall i was at the podium when the disease activity was very high in the uk and i said it was a very dangerous moment. i believe this is also a very dangerous moment. professor van tam knows how to turn a phrase and make a point. he was also asked directly about dominic cummings, the prime minister s most senior adviser who, among other things, drove 50 miles to test his eyesight during the lockdown. the rules are clear and they have always been clear. in my opinion they are for the benefit of all and in my opinion they apply to all. 0uch. the prime minister s team had nothing to say when i asked for their response to this. instead, theirfocus is on how more people in england can slowly edge out of the lockdown. chris mason, bbc news. let s get more on this now with phil anderson, who s head of policy at the ms society. hejoins me from north london. many people suffering from ms are amongst those 2 million people who have been shielding. will this news that restrictions are being eased on them, will that come as a relief?|j them, will that come as a relief?” think it will come as a relief to some but we are hearing a lot of confusion. people have spent in many cases over two months being told not to leave the house because of the very severe risk of coronavirus and this is. a lot of people wanting to know about the evidence behind this decision for doctor they would wa nt to this decision for doctor they would want to hear more about the scientific guidance behind this, guidance? you only have to imagine living at home without being able to go out for 60, 70 days fearing for your life from an infection knowing. your life from an infection knowing that you can go outside, it will be ready for some people but others will be worried about the idea. how ha rd will be worried about the idea. how hard has it been for those people psychologically to live like that? i think the prime minister was saying pretty much in captivity? we know about one in three people with ms have said their mental health is suffering during the pandemic for that there is another 130,000 living with ms in the uk and many were suffering with loneliness before the pandemic so what we are seeing is that the current situation is exasperating what was already a very serious problem for our community. in some ways, everybody who has been shielding will welcome this, but at the same time, they are going to be understandably nervous. yes, understandably nervous. yes, understand be nervous and i think also really looking to see this as a first step in a wider step of support for people who are shielding. it is great to go outside but we need people who are shielding prioritised for nhs services, especially mental health services, and to have safe ways to get other health care that by definition they need by being in the extremely vulnerable group in the first place. thank you for talking to us. thousands of children in england will return to school tomorrow for the first time since march. nurseries, pre school and reception classes are allowed to restart as well as years one and six. but there are fears that letting children return to class could result in a surge of new cases. the exact rules will vary, but there are examples to follow in europe. the netherlands was one of the first countries to send pupils back and anna holligan has been to see what the impact has been at one school in north brabant, one of the country s worst hit regions. can you guess what it is yet? six months ago we had never heard of it. now six year olds can sketch coronavirus molecules from memory. translation: little bacteria bugs that make you sick. that s corona. translation: i know about it from the news, my girlfriends, and the teacher. for these pupil at springboard primary going back to school comes with five new rules. 0nly pupils and teachers are allowed inside. scrub every time you enter the building. there s one of these pumps at every entrance. use shields designed to reduce the spread of germs. year groups must attend on different days. in some schools they ve split the classes to reduce the number of children in the building. 0lder pupils from age six must stay 1.5 metres away from their teachers. these are lessons they hope will save lives. for the younger ones, practically nothing s changed. but teachers like miss daisy are working behind the scenes. i think it s very important for the children that everything is as normal as possible. we have some new things, new rules into the schools, but the most important is that they are happy and they get comfort and they can be a child. this feels unusually relaxed, especially compared to elsewhere in europe. in belgium where the teachers are wearing visors. in denmark where the children can t hug their best friends. but here in the netherlands, they believe the benefits of giving children this freedom outweigh the risks. at least 99 dutch primary school teachers have tested positive for covid 19 so far this month. they re still monitoring the infection rates. so there s hospital admissions, there s icu admission. the issue with these two measurements is that it s quite late in the chain of, you know, events after an infection occurs, so we d rather look at things like the number of gp visits, the number of positive tests, because that s a little bit earlier in that same chain. but in all these different sources we don t see an effect of the school opening. every one of these pupils told us they re happy to be back in class. something to celebrate. they re starting to find a way to live and learn through the pandemic. anna holligan, bbc news, den bosch. here in the uk, rachel tomlinson is the head teacher of barrowford primary in nelson, lancashire. a decision has been made for her school not to open tomorrow. thanks for being with us. why are you not opening tomorrow? lancashire cou nty you not opening tomorrow? lancashire county council and director of public have issued a statement on wednesday to say that the five tests had not been met locally in anxious and it was not safe for schools to open from monday in lancashire does micro not been met locally in lancashire. do you think that is the right decision? in terms of making decisions about public how that should be public health experts and not head teachers, so i m quite happy to be informed about public health decisions by public health experts. what are your thoughts on how hard it is going to be, if and when children do come back to your school, let s hope it is not too long, but how will they maintain that social distancing? do you worry about the dangers of having kids backin about the dangers of having kids back in your school? we have always been open for children of the key workers and other children, so we have had up to 20 children in every day since the 23rd of march. in some senses, we are not worried about expanding that more children because it will just be expanding that more children because it willjust be the same process, children will be in small bubbles and we have got lots of things in place, as in the clip from the netherlands really, hand sanitiser is, stations are to clean hands, desks, to do all of those things. so ina sense, desks, to do all of those things. so in a sense, i think it isjust about trying to keep the school as normal within those measures to keep eve ryo ne within those measures to keep everyone safe and hygienic. but there have been quite a lot of concerns expressed by teachers and by teaching unions. yes, and i think those are public health concerns and i think once the public health concerns, once we know that we can operate in a controlled environment where it is safe for children and staff to be together with those extra measures in place, then i think teachers will be really excited to get back and starts teaching again. for the children, having missed this huge chunk of the education, albeit at quite an early stage of their education, how important do you think that will be, how disruptive will that be to their education? i think the most important thing when they come back to school it to really focus on mental health and well being and make sure they are ok. make sure that they feel safe enough to learn again. children are very resilient and ina again. children are very resilient and in a context where they feel safe, they will learn, that is what children do best. they learned that thatis children do best. they learned that that is what they are made for really. good to talk to you and good luck. the third holiest site of islam, the al aqsa mosque injerusalem has re opened after being closed for two months because of the coronavirus. worshippers are now required to wear face masks and have to follow social distancing rules. the mosque, located in occupied eastjerusalem, closed its doors in late march as the epidemic took hold. two us astronauts are due to arrive at the international space station later today, after being launched into orbit on the first manned mission by a private company spacex. the rocket is the first to carry a crew from american soil in nearly a decade. jane 0 brien watched the launch at cape canaveral in florida. three, two, one, zero. ignition. liftoff of the falcon 9 and cruise dragon. go nasa, go spacex. godspeed! as the countdown reached single digits, the clouds broke, the sky cleared and the first commercial rocket to carry humans into space finally took off. astronauts bob behnken and doug hurley are now in orbit, heading for the international space station. travelling at 17,000 miles an hour, they should arrive in as much time as it takes to fly from new york to sydney. right now, everything continuing to look good. the astronauts are the first to launch from us soil in almost a decade, after nasa retired its shuttle programme. since then, russia has provided transport to the international space station. the multibillion dollar deal with spacex is intended to reduce the cost of human space flight, including landing on the moon and eventually taking people to mars. i think this is something that should really get people, i mean, right in the heart of anyone who has any spirit of exploration. yeah, really quite overcome with emotion this day. it s kind of hard to talk, frankly. been 18 years working towards this goal, so. it s hard to believe that it s happened. those of us who saw the spectacular and unforgettable lift off this afternoon watched more than an act of history, we watched an act of heroism. we wish them godspeed on theirjourney and as one proud nation, we salute their fearless service, thank you, thank you. applause. thank you. the shuttle s reusable falcon 9 rocket has already been retrieved at sea by a drone ship. radio: i m going to kind of do a side spin. when the capsule returns to earth, splashing down off the coast of florida, it too will be recovered and reused. after all the nail biting excitement of the launch itself, it s easy to forget that the astronauts still have some work to do, but spacex mission control says everything s going well so far and they ve already carried out their first manual flight tests. jane 0 brien, bbc news, at the kennedy space center. garrett reisman is a veteran of several space shuttle and international space station missions and the only astronaut who s acted as a consultant to spacex to help build the new rocket. he told us why this mission is so special. first and foremost, this is the first time in nine years that we have launched our american astronauts, nasa astronauts, on our own vehicle. we have been paying for rides from the russians to get our astronauts up to the space station, so having the capability domestically again is huge. 0n so having the capability domestically again is huge. on one hand, we want to keep them there to do work but on the other hand we wa nt to do work but on the other hand we want to bring them back, because until they come back, we get all the data back and complete the mission, the certification process is not complete. the thing about this is, we can use the same vehicle, the rocket, the spacecraft, to take ordinary citizens into space as well and the next present to ride it could well be a non nasa astronaut, so it is really the beginning of a commercial space rocket that has been long coming but is finally here. a belgian prince has contracted coronavirus after attending a party during lockdown in spain. the country s royal palace says prince joachim went to the party in the city of cordoba, while visiting spain last week. spanish reports suggest the prince, a nephew of belgium s king philippe, was among 27 people attending. under cordoba s lockdown rules, a party of this size would be a breach of regulations, as gatherings of no more than 15 people are currently permitted. a reminder of our top story. more than a dozen cities in the united states are under curfew as violent protests have continued for a fifth night over the killing of george floyd, an african american man killed by police. at least 30 cities across the united states have been hit by the unrest. demonstrators have clashed with police in many places, setting alight police vehicles and throwing stones at officers. that is the latest from the united states, you are watching bbc news. it has been a very sunny spring and a pretty dry may for many. the final day of the month brings more warmth, more sunshine and more dry weather across the country. as we go through this afternoon, we are going to see some areas of patchy fair weather cloud developing across england and wales, perhaps some high clouds turning sunshine hazy in scotland and northern ireland. you will notice the strength of this easterly breeze, just like yesterday, that will make it feel a little bit cool close to some north sea coasts. aberdeen, 18 degrees, not bad for this time of year, but with some shelter in inverness, more like 25 degrees. warmest weather in northern ireland will be across western counties and the east coast of england on the cool side, exposed to those breezes, but come to the west, some spots will get up to 26 or 27 degrees. strong sunshine with high uv levels and high pollen levels for most. through tonight, clear skies overhead except for this lump of low cloud and fog which i think it is likely to work into some coasts of eastern scotland and north east england. temperatures at between seven and 13 degrees for most. tomorrow, we could start with some mist and tomorrow, we could start with some mistand murk tomorrow, we could start with some mist and murk for these eastern coasts but it tend to retreat as the day goes on and then patchy cloud and sunny spells butjust day goes on and then patchy cloud and sunny spells but just the day goes on and then patchy cloud and sunny spells butjust the small chance of a afternoon shower across scotla nd chance of a afternoon shower across scotland or northern ireland. this temperatures again at 19 to 25 across temperatures again at 19 to 25 a cross m ost temperatures again at 19 to 25 across most parts of the uk. things are changed moving from monday to tuesday as this frontal system sinks in across scotland which will bring some outbreaks of rain southwards. that could turn a fairly heavy for a time and behind the rain band, the winds are coming from the north and that will introduce some air, temperatures in the north west highlands, much lower than they have been over the last few days. further south, more sunshine and more warmth, 27, maybe 28 degrees it was the south east. however, as we head deeper into the week, we see cooler air sweeping southwards across all parts of the uk and with that there will be some outbreaks of rain, perhaps not an awful lot of rain down towards the south, but still there will be some and we really could do with it.
this is bbc news, the headlines: a fifth night of protests in minneapolis following the death of george floyd, a black man, in police custody. protesters and officers clash again despite a curfew. protests spread to at least 30 other us cities including tampa in florida where tear gas has been fired. president trump blames looters and left wing radicals for the unrest. after ten weeks at home, more than two million people in england who ve been shielding during lockdown are told they can go outdoors. how dutch classrooms have been managing coronavirus but governors of english primary schools say all children shouldn t have to return before summer holidays.
gitit: ‘ur 51th; “u thousand cars that are sitting in sales rooms that would ve been bought in this period that have not been bought. so there s a lot of catch up. those not be electric cars and if these electric cars of their investing again, will not be coming toa car investing again, will not be coming to a car show in the eu anytime soon, but is very interesting that american politicians are talking about this as well as how one of the side effects is going to have to be a greener economy and how do we achieve that? and all of those ideas historically about national governments not being able to bail out their own individual industries and it looks like the eu as a whole is going to have to look back and retrospectively come up with some rules to explain away some of the things that have happened over the past few weeks, but he said the sums are eye watering in from the uk to the us, we arejust are eye watering in from the uk to the us, we are just dealing with sums that are a different scale than we have ever had to look at before. we talk about what is going on green cards, that is peanuts compared to the furlough schemes across europe. and actually, what i think an awful lot of people in the city want to see, and speak to you lot of people in the city want to see, and speakto you in lot of people in the city want to see, and speak to you in the city and people who are looking at the markets want to see is actually governments planning not just markets want to see is actually governments planning notjust for the recovery but start to get finances and state funds to some degree of a sustainable level because right now, you can print money for an awfully long time but at some point, that party is going to be over in this very few european governments right now. the markets though, are bullish but alongside the picture of him there. they are pricing in the lifting of travel restrictions, the opening up of commerce and i m pretty sure this is going to be a v shaped recovery. personally, i would not read into thatis personally, i would not read into that is one good day, one swallow doesn t make a summer. but in terms ofa doesn t make a summer. but in terms of a speedy economy and recovery stocks yesterday show that the s&p 500 rose more than 2% which is significant and on the other front page, we see the story of soaring public debt to keep pressure on the euro and the deficit had for 8% of gdp and then at the bottom interest, the top rated company for the battle against by raising a tree and we are talking about figures that are mind boggling and impossible to put your head around and the story in the ft saying that companies like disney, apple have borrowed $1 trillion in the past five months to try to give themselves a nest egg graph at the nest that they can weather the storm. feathered nest, so we talk about public borrowing and it is absolutely unprecedented. it is a cliche, but it is true. let usjust crack on with the papers. the philippine star, single face to face classes, saying that he really does not want to risk getting face to face tuition backin to risk getting face to face tuition back in august until a vaccine has been developed but that could be months away. it does seem strange especially for a leader that for better or for worse, talks about strength of will and strength of policy. it is a question that governments across the world are facing, at what point do you accept people expect people to accept a certain level of risk. in the fluids around in january certain level of risk. in the fluids around injanuary and february, except that there is a level of risk involved. but i think of covid 19, as we move away from this first tremendous spike, we are trying to avoid a second spike, i will point we become comfortable enough with the risks to get back to something like normal. clearly, in some countries that is going to be different, there are internal politics and internal political bouts in each and every country that will shape the responsibility, but you mention that of the who, there s some countries that don t seem to think that this is in the past were some think it is going to be months, if not years in the future before we are over this. which takes us onto the japan times. because when you look at how japan has tackled the pandemic, they were very slow, what they and the initial stages to get on top of this. but it really does look as though it is been an incredible success story. the fourth largest economy in the world opening up largest economy in the world opening up now for business. really, comparatively few deaths considering how slow they were in the beginning. it does say reducing the spread of infection for more than 700 cases a day at the peak, and keeping the number of deaths from covid 19 to a relatively low level and at the number of deaths to a low level and also stressing at the same time, how important it is to continue doing the right thing, presumably she the who emergency, saying that it is still in the middle of the first wave of infection just as we were saying, the one thing we do know is that there is a path ahead. the personal poll ratings have slumped as well for the japanese prime minister but only to 29%, sweat a lot further to go. pretty much every leader that has coronavirus in their country experienced a spike in popularity at the beginning and many more of those of come tumbling down in the morning about stocks and shares as well. and it is very interesting to see that who has done well and many people are saying that i don t necessarily agree with this and many people say that female leaders are doing very well coronavirus, men less so. they expect that some of a coincidence but it is something to look at. now looking at the culture. how much thatis looking at the culture. how much that is to play here. people are used to wearing masks there. they are used to having apps. they are not as frightened by that as some of us are not as frightened by that as some of us are in the west. an interesting that they could not enforce a lockdown constitutionally, so they had to request this, didn t they, in terms of what people could and could not do? so it wasn t a government wide locked down the way that we understand it. yes, absolutely. but as you mentioned, there is a culture. but let s not forget is if the japanese people wanted this to happen they were just waiting for orders from them. tokyo has lost the olympics, the system the year after the world cup was disrupted by a typhoon. it is been a good friend few months for japan. typhoon. it is been a good friend few months forjapan. so the who is saying that they have made a success of this, rather than a sort of ingrained. we talk about success and people give credit to new zealand and sweden and others turned to look at britain as examples of places who have may be slop the ball. dropped the ball. there may be a second and third wave and will be an awfully long time before we able to make judgements about who has actually knelt this response to coronavirus versus those who may be even today were hailing this is a success, even today were hailing this is a success, maybe in a few years time may be looking back and sing over confidence early on and not opening up confidence early on and not opening up quick enough, not realising that the risk was more limited than we thought it might be. in countries like sweden bits have gone their own way not meeting the targets of the anticipated certainly by june. way not meeting the targets of the anticipated certainly byjune. let us anticipated certainly byjune. let us look at the new york times just before we stop now for this first of the papers. artifacts that illustrate the pandemic wanted. how societies are going to remember this first wave and certainly of the pandemic. although i keep telling my children, not with any sense of excitement, but how significant this is and this is the time that you will remember for the rest of your lives, like your grandparents living to the war and they just look at your grandparents living to the war and theyjust look at me totally bored by the idea that this is a significant thing were going to go back to school. but this is a sense of what they re talking about the new york times and museums are considering which items best depict this moment and the story about the frustration of being a student in los angeles when classes were cancelled in this remote learning is simple with us, i did not go anywhere and he added an unhappy face in red crayon and that is the kind of thing that may be will help historians in the future understand that the diaries of people, what it was really like at this time. and all this is carried on working. do you have like younger children or friends of yours that have been marking this period in a special way? downstairs, there are two kids who have been building chance in the garden and coming out for the british terrors but yes, they re going to be talking about this for a very long time. i have to say that if we send them into museums terrors. and empty bottles of wine. and spears. birthdays and we still got a rainbow in ourfront rainbow birthdays and we still got a rainbow in our front rainbow over the kids that how long will we have to keep this up was what there is nothing, like that. we are going to be back in an hour. that s it for the papers. if you re in the uk, daisy and andy will be back in just over half an hour to look at more of the stories being covered by newspapers and websites here. goodbye for now. hello there. it s been another sunny afternoon for the vast majority of us, plenty of dry and warm weather for the past few days but into stay, the highest temperatures across eastern and southern parts that the uk, 27 degrees to the west of london, was a bit cooler further north but not enough a lot cooler, but it s a go to the next few days, were going to see this area of high pressure which is dominating the scene, shifting a little further eastwards now with the winds on high pressure flowing clockwise and so eastwards, that will allows to get some warm air across all parts of the uk. we start wednesday morning with the milder conditions across the south, 1315 across cardiff and london. not quite as mild for the north and we are expecting spells of sunshine a bit of patchy cloud towards the east of england and certainly towards northern ireland and scotland and that may start to french some parts of ran across the far west and temperatures across 17 degrees there in glasgow, once again, 2425 and parts of south wales central and southern parts of england and is it going to wednesday into thursday, we will see some outbreaks of rain pushing across the northern half of scotland, the frontal system pushing through further south drives them clear spells on what will be a mount that for most, six to 12 degrees. any early rain across scotland to north east england, very quickly on thursday and as you see, increasing amounts of sunshine with a bit of patchy cloud and largely sunny skies it at this stage the highest temperatures will be across western areas liverpool, cardiff, glasgow up to 20, but cooler from some north sea coast. and remember when we look at the maps, they don t see cloud and that s what were expecting some sun shines in a little blue skies of her head falling friday and again that temperature 24 to 25 and 26 degrees, parts of south west scotla nd degrees, parts of south west scotland getting into the mid 20s, still coolers for some of the north sea coast of the flow of air of the sea, but as we enter the weekend, high pressure dust remained dominant and it should fend off this frontal system. yes, we may feel a bit of rain in the far northwest of scotla nd rain in the far northwest of scotland at times, but generally speaking, it is a dry weekend and widely it will be very warm at those temperatures into the 20s.
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now on bbc news, panorama. tonight on panorama shocking new evidence about a national scandal. i ve never heard of anything like it at all. it s a quite extraordinary story. we reveal how the post office ruined hundreds of lives. they ve been lying, not just to the postmaster, to everybody. they ve been lying from day one. the post office knew its computer system could make money go missing, but they accused staff of stealing anyway. it s chilling. i mean, my blood ran cold. ..and postmasters were jailed because bosses kept the truth from coming out. you can t create this kind of injustice on people, and then just walk away with it scot free. for ten years, i ve been investigating a scandal at one of our most loved institutions. it may turn out to be one of the biggest miscarriages ofjustice in british history. the post office prosecuted hundreds of postmasters over missing money. postmasters like janet skinner. here. this blue bit. yeah, it is a police station. still a police station. yep. yeah, they read me my rights, and then theyjust repeatedly ask you the same questions. did you steal the money? have you taken the money? have you borrowed the money? have you lent the money to somebody? the evidence against the postmasters came from the post office s computer system, horizon. in 2006, it showed £21,000 missing from janet s till. she panicked, and hid the shortfall in her accounts while she tried to work out what had happened. i knew that i hadn t done anything wrong, and i just thought, it s their problem, it ll come back. so what happened next week? it just doubled, and then itjust got beyond the point where. it was like i d just buried my head in the sand, and i didn t know what to do, to be honest. when auditors arrived at janet s branch, horizon showed £59,000 was missing. the post office charged her with theft and false accounting, then they offered her lawyer a deal. he said, if you will accept the guilty plea for false accounting, they ll drop the theft charge. so, and then i said, well, what does that mean? so he said, well, it means you probably won t be looking at a custodial sentence. so i said, well, i ll do that, then, because i didn t want to go to jail. butjanet did go to jail. she got a nine month sentence. on herfirst night inside, she was allowed to call home. i remember phoning the kids. erm. that was hard. what were they saying to you? just how they love me. and i was just telling them that i love them, that i was going to miss them. she said, i ll come and see you. i said, no, you won t. you re not coming to see me. i said, i don t want my kids growing up with that memory of me. postmasters were told they had total control of their horizon accounts. so when money went missing, the post office said it was their fault. but what if the computer made mistakes? there s a very early one of me in 2000. a lot younger in those days. i think that was the first time we ever had anything in print, which was december 2003. 2003, wow! yeah. former postmaster alan bates has spent 20 years trying to prove horizon made money vanish from his post office. there s a lovely quote from you here. i m going to fight this for as long as it takes because of the grave injustice i feel has been done to myself and the people of craig y don in the way my contract was terminated. very true. fight this for as long as it takes, alan. yeah. i unfortunately seem to be living up to my word. well, exactly! two decades on. alan was sacked after refusing to pay back money horizon said was missing. he was one of the first to argue that computer bugs were responsible. but the post office wouldn t listen. i ve always felt that they ve been trying to keep it covered up, the whole thing covered up, about the condition of the system. how many people are sitting on the truth of what they knew at the time? it has to come out, nick. there are so many people who have suffered over the years with all of this, and there are probably so many more out there that we haven t heard from yet. more postmasters joined alan s campaign. i ve met dozens of them over the years. ..like sue knight, who was a respected member of her church and local community. the king of glory. she lost her home. post office have no idea what they ve done. no idea. or noel thomas. he was accused of stealing £50,000. i waited for a suspended sentence, and they said, take him down. i spent my 60th birthday in prison. orjo hamilton, whose customers raised thousands to pay off the money she was accused of stealing. we re not going to stop until they actually address what they ve done, and be held to account for what they ve done. 557 postmasters took the post office to court. some had beenjailed, and some had been forced to pay back large sums of money the computer said was missing. horizon was put on trial, and the postmasters were proved right. cheering bugs in the computer system could make it look like money had disappeared. thejudge has found that, on numerous occasions over the years, bugs, errors, and defects in the horizon system caused discrepancies in postmasters‘ branch accounts. the judge criticised the post office for insisting horizon was robust when the evidence proved it wasn t. the judge found that there was an excessive culture of secrecy within post office, and that definitely reflected our experience of dealing with them. it was very difficult to get things out. they held all the cards, and they weren t exactly putting them down on the table face up. the post office has agreed to pay £58 million in compensation and legal fees. but that mayjust be the start. the court of appeal will now review the convictions of 47 postmasters, including all the convicted postmasters featured in this programme. the post office is also assessing 900 prosecutions that may involve horizon evidence. this is potentially a huge miscarriage ofjustice, and i support fully the demands of people who are affected by it to get answers, and now finally, i hope, we are on the verge of getting justice and closure for the people affected by this miscarriage ofjustice. the post office says the court found the risk of bugs affecting balances in older versions of horizon was greater than post office believed. it does not mean every shortfall was caused by a bug and each case would need to be determined on the full evidence . the post office should have done more.to investigate the risk, and provide more help to postmasters. that is something we deeply regret. the high court case has given me the chance to finally get to the truth. i got access to dozens of internal documents. they show problems with horizon coming up time and time again. these documents show the post office knew there were serious problems with horizon. so when they said the system was robust, that wasn t true, and people s lives have been destroyed because of that. they show error after error logged by the it firm running the system. some bugs made it look as if money had gone missing. these messages show the post office, known as pol, was told. but they carried on prosecuting postmasters anyway. there were bugs that affected horizon before janet skinner was accused of stealing. we ve uncovered further stuff that demonstrates the post office knew about bugs in horizon well before they prosecuted you. we should have been aware, made aware of the system failing that was going on, and they just didn t, they didn t tell anybody. do you think the department that prosecuted you were aware. yes. ..that horizon had bugs and faults? yes. yeah, i do, yeah. and theyjust obviously just ignored it. the lawyer who advised janet to plead guilty is now a labour mp. he says they should never have been put in that position by the post office. that realisation that janet skinner perhaps shouldn t have been in the situation that she was in, how did you react personally? well, it s chilling. i mean, my blood run cold. we now know she should never have been prosecuted in the first place. she went to prison, her life was absolutely categorically ruined. there was problems that they knew about then, they were not disclosing any of that at the time, and we now know, we certainly suspect strongly, that there was corporate cover up. this is the woman who ran the post office for almost a decade. paula vennells always insisted she wanted to get to the truth about horizon. we are a business that does genuinely care about the people that work for us, and if there had been any miscarriages of justice, it would have been really important to me and the post office that we actually surfaced those. politicians have tried to hold her to account. i.went along to the post office headquarters and met paula vennells, the chief executive of the post office, and we said, we can t go on like this, this has got to be sorted out, there s a real problem here. the response we got was actually very encouraging. they said, we ll do this properly, we ll get to the bottom of it. in 2012, the post office appointed independent investigators called second sight to look at the postmasters‘ complaints about horizon. they were promised full cooperation. i made it completely clear to the chairman and chief exec. ..that this was not an investigation that i was remotely interested in carrying out unless they were committed to the search for the truth. that s the only way we operate. well, there was the famous phrase, seek the truth at all costs. but the post office s independent investigators soon suspected there was a problem with the convictions. out of all of the cases that we looked at, i don t think we ever came across a single example where, um. the proceeds of crime, so to speak, had ever been identified in any form of satisfactory way. i might have expected to hear about an expensive holiday or a flash car or something like that. we saw nothing to indicate that, if money had been stolen, that it had been used to benefit the sub postmaster or their immediate family. second sight were initially given access to internal legal files, but then the post office stopped handing them over. the investigators told mps. we, unsurprisingly, asked for full access to those legal files. paula, why don t you give those files over? what s the problem? so i think the point i wanted to pick up first, if i may. no, just answer my question first. why won t you give ian henderson those files? why? we have. as far as i m aware, mr zahawi, we have shared whatever information was appropriate on. that s not what ian henderson s saying. most of the legal files were never released. the investigators, paid by the post office, think there s been a cover up. if there was a decision taken to deliberately try and put obstacles in the way of your investigation, why? well, i think that s pretty screamingly obvious. it s the consequences of. ..a loss of confidence in the underlying core system, horizon. so it is existential for the post office to. ..to maintain the position that horizon is completely reliable and that the people and the processes surrounding horizon are completely reliable. the post office says it cooperated with second sight as appropriate , second sight were not experts in criminal law , and it was therefore not appropriate for them to have access to the privileged prosecution files. it says it s seen no evidence of a cover up. those legal files are critical to the first case i ever encountered in this scandal. it s the story of a postmaster called seema misra. there is no evidence that i ve taken any money, and then the jury came back with the word guilty . what i had in front of me, my husband, my children, and i m pregnant that time. seema was jailed for stealing £74,000 after she covered up the fact cash was missing. key evidence came from the horizon computer system. in the summing up, thejudge said there s no direct evidence of theft, you have to infer it. how can somebody listening properly come back with the verdict guilty ? so there was.it was shocking. and you then had to go to prison. yeah. i asked one of the officers if i can borrow his jacket so they can.cover my handcuffs, i didn t want anybody to see like that. seema might not have been convicted of theft had her trial heard the truth about horizon. we found crucial evidence in her legalfile that was never seen by the jury. these documents are shocking. they show post office prosecutors refusing to hand over information which could have helped seema prove her innocence. this isjust one example an e mail from the post office security team to the criminal law team. it s about a bug in horizon that makes money simply disappear. the security team are worried it may have repercussions in future prosecution cases. the attachment says that any branch encountering the problem will have corrupted accounts . in one case, more than £30,000 went missing in another, almost £5,000. the document was printed out by the post office legal department just three days before seema misra s trial, but it was never disclosed to her defence. we showed our evidence to a leading expert on criminal law. what do you think of the behaviour of the post office throughout the misra trial? it seems to me, and it goes to the heart of this, that quite clearly the post office had material which they should have disclosed which they did not, and in my view, resulted in the wrongful conviction of miss misra. there should be a thorough examination of all the evidence in respect of any person who might have committed misconduct in the course of these prosecutions by the post office. the post office says it has always accepted its legal obligations and has taken advice throughout . it s conducting a further review about disclosure. it wasn tjust computer bugs that the post office was keeping to itself. there was another way money could disappear from the horizon system. in 2015, we discovered postmasters‘ accounts could be changed without them knowing. we made a panorama which uncovered vital new evidence, but it was bitterly contested by the post office. the horizon computer system is run from this office in bracknell by fujitsu. a whistle blower told us that financial records were sometimes changed remotely by fujitsu s staff. he knew because he was one of them. we went in through the back door and made changes. sometimes you d be putting several lines of code in at a time. if we hadn t done that, then the counters would have stopped working. it was an explosive revelation. if the accounts could be altered remotely, then missing money could be down to human error or, worse still, theft by those with secret access to the system. the post office said we were wrong. senior managers flatly denied remote access was possible without the postmaster knowing. one meeting was recorded. it wasn t for broadcast, so we ve re voiced their words. can the system be accessed remotely and without anybody‘s knowledge in terms of, it doesn t leave a footprint, then no, it would leave a footprint. so in sum, it is not now and never has been possible for anybody from post office or fujitsu to interfere with transactions without the clear knowledge of the sub postmaster? it is 100% true to say we can t change, alter, modify existing transaction data, so the integrity is 100% preserved. and that s true now and has been. yes. ..for the duration of the system? ok. despite these denials, our evidence of remote access was crucial to the postmasters‘ victory in their high court case. the bbc panorama programme that you did in 2015 was very important in that. in fact, i m not sure that this litigation would ve happened as it did had panorama not made that programme. thejudge decided our whistle blower was right. remote access was possible without the postmaster knowing. why was that so important? because it made a fundamental difference to the reliability of the accounts and a fundamental difference to the credibility of post office in what it had been saying to a number of people, including in response to your programme. the post office told the court it had inadvertently misled panorama. the post office s barrister said it was a matter of enormous regret that the senior managers who dealt with panorama were not aware that remote access to horizon was possible. the post office claimed that that was just an honest mistake. but our documents suggest that isn t true. this ernst & young report was sent to post office directors back in 2011. it says it has again identified weaknesses in the horizon system and it warned that fujitsu s staff have unrestricted access to postmasters‘ accounts, that may lead to the processing of unauthorised or erroneous transactions. so the post office knew all along that remote access was possible. we showed our evidence to the then chair of the business select committee. what does that say to you about their attitude towards the truth? hmm. they were either mistaken or they were misleading the courts. but this document suggests that they couldn t be mistaken because the truth is here in black and white. just spell out to us how serious that is. look, i think this is very serious. it is very serious that the post office was sitting on information that told them and could have told the courts and their sub postmasters that other people could access their systems. fujitsu was also sitting on information. the judge was so worried about the evidence fujitsu witnesses had given in other post office cases, he referred the matter to the director of public prosecutions. fujitsu says it takes the judgment very seriously and is conducting a thorough process to review the court s statements. the post office has launched a scheme it says offers redress for those who may have experienced shortfalls. its new leadership is promising fundamental change and greater tra nsparency . so what about the woman who was in charge of the post office for so long? paula vennells left the organization last year and was given a cbe by the government, and two newjobs, but the government has now turned against her. there s no question that the post office management at the time behaved disgracefully. none of them are now in position. officials were misled by the post office and the information provided was not correct. paula vennells declined to be interviewed, but said it was and remains a source of great regret that colleagues and their families were affected over so many years . she s truly sorry we were unable to find a solution or resolution and for the distress this caused . but she hasn t answered any of our questions. phone rings hello? hello, miss vennells. it s nick wallis from the panorama programme. this conversation is being filmed. i d like to ask you some questions about your tenure as chief executive of the post office. nick, i m sorry, i ve already given a statement to the programme. thank you. no, i would like to ask you why the post office knew about remote access. call ends ..to the horizon system. this is one of the biggest frustrations about covering this story for so long the consistent refusal of the chief executive and the people at the top to answer serious questions about what s been happening. i think the postmasters deserve better than that. mps have demanded answers from paula vennells. and politicians on both sides of the house want a public inquiry. people went to prison. people s livelihoods were lost and some of the victims ended their lives. that is enough for a judge led public inquiry. i ve never heard of anything like it at all, where a government owned organisation attacked, on the basis of false evidence. ..the integrity of so many pillars of the community. it s, it s. a quite extraordinary story. has there been a cover up? i believe that there has been. and it s probably still going on. the postmasters won t stop until they get to the truth. they ve been lying, notjust to the sub postmaster, to everybody. they ve been lying from day one. i want to see somebody be held accountable for what s happened because you can t go. you can t create this kind of injustice on people and then just walk away with it scot free. a much loved national institution has become a national disgrace. and hundreds of lives have been shattered by the scandal at the post office.
this is bbc news. welcome if you re watching here in the uk, on pbs in america or around the globe. i m lewis vaughan jones. our top stories: america s top general apologises for appearing alongside president trump at the height of the anti racism protests. as many of you saw, the results of the photograph of me at lafayette square last week sparked a national debate about the role of the military in civil society. i should not have been there. us stock markets suffer their sharpest fall for three months as fears grow over a second spike in coronavirus cases. is it a brexit u turn? the uk abandons plans to introduce full border checks with the european union in january. spanish football is back, behind closed doors