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this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. a junior minister has resigned over the handling of borisjohnson top adviser‘s travels during lockdown. it comes as other uk government ministers rally to support dominic cummings they say they understand public concern but insist he acted reasonably when making trips during lockdown. on the whole, as a man of integrity, he thinks that he did do the right thing. but he also recognises, as a fair minded man, that there are many other people who may take a different view, and i understand that. almost all shops in england will be able to reopen from 15thjune, as part of plans to further ease the lockdown. the world health organization halts trials of an anti malarial drug as a potential treatment for covid 19, as it s found it
could cause heart problems. hong kong s leader has rejected suggestions that china s proposed new security laws could erode freedoms in the territory. as greece reopens for tourism, we travel with a team of doctors who will set up coronavirus testing where the virus has not yet been reported. newsreel: they are on their way home, home from the hell that is dunkirk. and we remember the heroes of dunkirk 80 years on. hello and welcome if you re watching in the uk or around the world and stay with us for the latest news and analysis from here and across the globe.
borisjohnson may have been hoping to put the controversy surrounding his senior adviser dominic cummings behind him, but it continues to bedevil his government. in the last hour, douglas ross a junior minister for scotland announced his resignation from the government over the affair. in a written statement, mr ross said that dominic cummings‘ interpretation of the government s lockdown guidelines was not shared by the vast majority of the people who have done as the government asked . he pointed out that he had constituents who hadn t been able to visit sick families or say goodbye to those they loved and said, i cannot in good faith tell them that they are all wrong and one senior government adviser was right. he went on to say. this all follows an extraordinary press conference held by mr cummings yesterday afternoon, in which he replied to allegations that he had breached the government s lockdown rules by driving his family to london to durham in late march.
we ll be getting the latest on this morning s resignation, and the reaction to that press conference, from westminster in a moment. first this report from our political correspondent iain watson on the background to the controversy. something you don t see every day. government advisers usually defend their political masters. this one had come to defend himself. dominic cummings took his family 250 miles from london to durham during lockdown, when his wife was already ill. yesterday, he was asked if he now regretted his actions. no, i don t regret what i did. as i said, i think reasonable people may well disagree about how i thought about what to do in the circumstances but i think that. i think what i did was reasonable in. . . in these circumstances. at the socially distanced impromptu press conference, he insisted that isolating close
to his extended family was the best option in case he needed childcare. but why had he then also gone on a 30 mile trip from durham to barnard castle on easter sunday? apparently he was giving himself an unconventional eye test. my wife was very worried, particularly given my eyesight seemed to have been affected by the disease. she did not want to risk a nearly 300 mile drive with our child, given how ill i had been. we agreed that we should go for a short drive to see if i could drive safely. at his press conference last night, the prime minister sounded a bit more contrite than his adviser. i do regret the confusion and the anger and pain that people feel. i really did want people to understand exactly what had happened. but he wasn t going to sack his adviser, and he insisted that no one at number ten had undermined the government s message on health. and a range of cabinet ministers have taken to social media with a remarkably similar message
time to move on. opposition parties will meet today, and are pressing for an enquiry into dominic cummings‘ actions. many of the papers are less ready to move on than government ministers, and some conservative mps are waiting to see if angry constituents have been soothed or riled by dominic cummings before deciding whether to renew calls for him to go. iain watson, bbc news. our political correspondent nick eardley is at downing street. nick, fill us in on this resignation bya nick, fill us in on this resignation by a junior minister. the government we re by a junior minister. the government were hoping that mr cummings explaining his situation yesterday would put this to bed and that he was acting in the interests of his family. quite the opposite seems to have happened this morning. douglas rossis have happened this morning. douglas ross is a junior minister at the scotla nd ross is a junior minister at the scotland office and he has looked at
mrcummings scotland office and he has looked at mr cummings explanation yesterday and decided it just mr cummings explanation yesterday and decided itjust isn t good enough. and he can t tell his constituents that they were wrong to miss family funerals, or not go and visit sick loved ones and that mr cummings was right to drive from london up to durham, to self isolate, himself. what is really interesting about this tweet by douglas ross, i think it could be on screen now, but what is interesting about his letter is that he is doing this because of the feedback he has had from his constituents, and the danger for borisjohnson is that many other tory mps are getting similar m essa 9 es tory mps are getting similar messages from their constituents. we have heard over the last few days of a number of mps who are worried that they are being accused of hypocrisy by their constituents. harriett baldwin, another tory mp, said that because of that she has been getting, she thinks mr cummings should quit. i suppose that number
ten will be looking now at whether potentially more of these criticisms and resignations to come later today. thank you very much, nick. let s speak now to anthony browne, conservative mp and a former adviser to borisjohnson when he was mayor of london. good morning. first your reaction to the resignation of your colleague is junior minister, douglas ross. there are junior minister, douglas ross. there a re pressures junior minister, douglas ross. there are pressures in the conservative party and amongst the public on the spot when dominic cummings gave his explanation yesterday he covered a lot of detail and answered a lot of questions and reasonable people can be on both sides of this. as it happens, i think he acted reasonably. we continue to get so many messages from people who are telling me things like this, this is from laurie. my sister is a single pa rent from laurie. my sister is a single parent with three kids, two of them autistic with severe adhd. she had
covid early only look down and had to rely on her eldest child to look after them all. we live three hours away and we would have gone to her ina away and we would have gone to her in a heartbeat if we had been allowed to, by the government. we know that this lockdown has been extremely difficult for a lot of people, really for the whole country, and more difficult for some than others. people have lost their lives, loved ones, livelihoods. i have been spent lockdown talking to constituents in really difficult situations and helping them try to get out of them, and i must say that ifi get out of them, and i must say that if i had someone come to me with the unique situation of dominic cummings, where he was coming down sick with his wife, and a four year old child that didn t have any ca re four year old child that didn t have any care provision nearby, then in exceptional circumstances, and it is covered by the guidance, you are allowed to do what will most reduce
harm and this is a principle in law. what matter the problem is, no one knew about it. there are thousands of m essa g es knew about it. there are thousands of messages from parents who found themselves in exactly the same situation as mr and mrs cummings and in worse situations and did not leave their home, because we were told by the government to stay at her had symptoms. i totally get why people are angry. this has been really difficult. also, just the sense that there is one rule for some people and one for others. it is important we all live by the same rules. but we haven t. in dominic cummings case, you listen to the details of it, i think he acted reasonably and within the law. did you know about this clause that allowed people to travel across the country if they had worries about childcare? what the clause does say is that, if you can t look after small children, they do act within
the guidance, only if you can but otherwise in exceptional circumstances, you can do what you need to come harm. i m really sorry, it doesn t say that. i m just going to read exactly what it does say. you have been reporting it on your website so i know that it is there. the government could have made more about the exceptional circumstances close but it is a fundamental principle in law, that actually, law doesn t cover all circumstances. if there are exceptional circumstances and people are acting reasonably, then the courts are usually fine, behind that. if the rules allowed forjudgment, as behind that. if the rules allowed for judgment, as mr cummings behind that. if the rules allowed forjudgment, as mr cummings claim, why did almost nobody else do what he did? i don t know what everyone else did. i haven t spoken to eve i’yo ne else did. i haven t spoken to everyone in the country. it is because the government told us to stay at home, and most people did that. he went through everything in
great detail yesterday and people have to make up their own minds looking at that whether he acted reasonably or not reasonably, and i think he acted reasonably and within the law. what matters now as a whole is moving to the next stage of easing the lockdown, and the government has announced measures on opening up shops. some people would say that what matters now is trust, and whether people can trust what your government and the prime minister says, when it comes to future advice, and a number of people are suggesting that they absolutely will not do what the prime minister says in future because of this example from mr cummings. i, and many mps, regret the anger and cummings. i, and many mps, regret the angerand pain cummings. i, and many mps, regret the anger and pain this episode has caused. if there is a loss of trust thatis caused. if there is a loss of trust that is to be regretted, there is no doubt about that. in the particular case of dominic cummings, we have gone through it endlessly over the past two days and i think he acted reasonably. what are you going to do
about that loss of trust, all of those people who said that they lent you their vote back in december, what are you going to do about it? if there has been a loss of trust in the government has to earn it again to get us through the rest of this pandemic, to ease the lockdown, make sure that there isn t as much economic damage, there is as little of it as possible, get the country going again, make sure that as few lives are lost as possible, to do that with integrity, doing it a b in the same rules as anyone else and being seen to obey the same rules as eve ryo ne being seen to obey the same rules as everyone else. what did you think when mrjohnson said mr cummings did what any parent would do ?|j when mrjohnson said mr cummings did what any parent would do ? i don t think many parents where in the same situation as dominic cummings. no, many were in much worse circumstances. he had death threats in protest at home, he was coming down sick, he was worried about his wife also coming down sick and about being able to look after his child,
and most people who are reasonable listening to that would think that what he did was reasonable.” listening to that would think that what he did was reasonable. i will read a couple more. georgie says, my husband and i got sick for a0 days whilst caring for a nine month old and a three year old got ill, we didn t see us all, i was breast feeding and getting around a-s breast feeding and getting around a 5 hours sleep a night. we have this e mailfrom a 5 hours sleep a night. we have this e mail from patricia. a 5 hours sleep a night. we have this e mailfrom patricia. she a 5 hours sleep a night. we have this e mail from patricia. she says isa this e mail from patricia. she says is a conservative supporter i am totally disgusted. this came in to us just before 10am today. why does mrcummings have us just before 10am today. why does mr cummings have such power, why does he have so much hold over our prime minister? that is no conservative supporter, mr brown. you are talking about douglas ross. i ve had e mails from constituents from across the political spectrum. there is no doubt that the public are upset about this. and mrjohnson has said that he regrets the pain and anger that this has caused. but not enough to sack mr cummings. that
isa not enough to sack mr cummings. that is a decision for the prime minister and he has decided not to. i don t think that he needs to, because he has acted, going through it, i think he acted within the guidelines. thank you for talking to us, anthony brown, conservative mp. in a moment we ll be speaking to another mp who earlier criticised the prime ministerfor his handling of the dominic cummings controversy. but first, all non essential retailers in england will be able to reopen from isthjune, as part of plans to further ease the lockdown. retailers will have to adhere to new guidelines around social distancing and hygiene standards, in order to protect shoppers and staff. outdoor markets and car showrooms in england will also be able to reopen from istjune. the world health organisation has temporarily halted the testing of the drug hydroxychloroquine as a possible treatment for covid i9 because of safety concerns. the drug, traditionally used
to treat malaria, has been described by president donald trump as a game changer in the battle against the virus. imogen foulkes reports from geneva. there are so far no known treatments or vaccines for covid i9, but there are many clinical trials of many different drugs to try to find them. one drug hydroxychloroquine is already in use as a treatment for malaria. some among them, president donald trump think it could work against covid i9, too. he s even taking it himself. i m taking it, hydroxychloroquine. when? right now, yeah. couple of weeks ago, i started taking it. why, sir? because i think it s good. i ve heard a lot of good stories. the world health organization has repeatedly said there is no scientific evidence so far that hydroxychloroquine can treat covid i9, let alone prevent infection with it.
the who had been running clinical trials to test anecdotal reports that it might be beneficial. now those trials have been stopped after a study suggested the drug could cause heart problems, and might even increase deaths among covid i9 patients. the executive group has implemented a temporary pause of the hydroxychloroquine arm within the solidarity trial while the data the safety data is reviewed by the data safety monitoring board. the who said the decision to suspend trials was a precautionary measure. now it will gather more data on safety before deciding whether to continue testing. however, it said patients taking hydroxychloroquine for established reasons such as malaria should continue to do so. imogen foulkes, bbc news, geneva.
the scientist leading the uk s largest coronavirus tracking project says that people will have probably died prematurely, as a result of attending two major sporting events that took place in march. professor tim spector, from king s college london, has analysed data from millions of volunteers across the uk. he identified covid i9 hotspots following the cheltenham festival, and liverpool s champions league match against atletico madrid. countries across europe are beginning to open themselves up to foreign visitors, as infection rates continue to fall. spain says foreign travellers will be able to visit the country from the beginning ofjuly without going into quarantine. the spanish foreign minister said the country was looking forward to welcoming tourists back now the worst of the coronavirus pandemic was behind it. 80 million visitors travel to spain each year 20 million from the uk. meanwhile, greece has taken another major step
towards re starting its tourism industry, opening its islands to domestic visitors for the first time in months. a team of doctors from mainland greece were among the first visitors to the remote island of sikinos, in the aegean sea. our correspondent quentin sommerville accompanied them on theirjourney. on a 100 mile plus journey, these athens doctors are the first visitors to sikinos in months. the greek islands are accepting visitors again. the mayor of the island welcomes them ashore. we re greeted with elbow bumps instead of handshakes. there are enough coronavirus tests for whoever wants them. we do know that, so far, there haven t been any cases on the remote islands, but there hasn t been any testing also. there are only 250 people on this island, and none of them have been tested for covid i9 until today. the village was built on a hilltop
to safeguard it from pirates. they re hoping its isolation continues to offer protection. greece has only had 172 deaths from covid i9, and is leaving lockdown faster than expected. foreign tourists still have to undergo quarantine. terry harris has been living here for a0 years. i came here and i isolated myself for two weeks in my house and the lady from the supermarket flora she delivers everything, so they brought up, on a donkey, water and any supplies i wanted. at the temporary test centre, father theodorus leads the way. these tests are essential as greece prepares to welcome back foreign tourists in the coming months. today is the first day that everything comes back to normal, including restaurants and all the borders and ships, so we are concerned
about everything being planned in the best possible way. greece is emerging from the pandemic earlier than others not unscathed, but in better shape than most. isolation is a way of life here, but so, too, is tourism. the health of the islanders depends on both. let s return to the controversy over uk prime minister borisjohnson s senior advisor dominic cummings and the allegations that he breached coronavirus lockdown rules by driving his family from london to his parents home in north east england when his wife fell ill. this morning as we ve been reporting there s been a ministerial resignation over the affair. joining me now from his constituency in kent is sir roger gale
i would like your reactions to the resignation of douglas ross, the junior minister. he is a decent man and a good minister. we cannot afford to lose people like douglas, from government. he said the reasons he resigned was because it did appear that a government adviser had done something different to many of his constituents, and he couldn t tell his constituents that they were wrong, and the government adviser was right. i have great sympathy with that point of view. during the technical problems, i was listening listening to your conversations with dan hodges. i had great sympathy with what you are seeing in terms of human compassion because any parent would like to look after their child, we understand that but this is a man at the top of the government, who had devised and was trying to enforce rules upon one set of people, that he doesn t appear to
have wa nted of people, that he doesn t appear to have wanted to obey himself. he had the opportunity, had he chosen to do so, to go to his line manager, the chief of the civil service, sir marc sedwill, and say to him, that i got a real problem, but i m quite certain that wouldn t have been sorted and the family would have been got out of harms way, and he would have been given approval to do what he did. by saying i m going to do what i like, but you can t do what you like, i m afraid, and this is the bottom line on this, he sent out a very damaging and dangerous message. why dangerous? over the weekend, scores and scores of people we re weekend, scores and scores of people were in my constituency of margate and in herne bay. i wasn t there myself but i have seen the pictures. the place was heaving with people. and i am told that a lot of those people were saying, well, it is now a right to be here, because if one
person can travel, everybody can travel. what none of us wants is another spike. the nation has been through two months of absolute hell with people dying, with terrible things happening to families, businesses and we want to come out of this on the sunny side, we want a summer season, we want of this on the sunny side, we want a summer season, we want everything to be open in july, summer season, we want everything to be open injuly, for the school summer be open injuly, for the school summer holidays. and the danger in this, i pray that it doesn t happen, but the danger is that we will now get, as a result of this lack of social distancing, another spike. nobody wants that.|j social distancing, another spike. nobody wants that. i don t want to be pedantic but we are in england allowed to drive to beaches as long as we observe social distancing.” know we are, that was a message sent out a fortnight ago, i said at the time that it was the wrong message andi time that it was the wrong message and i have been begging people not to come to herne bay, having spent
37 years begging them to come, trying to get them not to come, but the weather as it was and with the brake on, it was inevitable there was going to be a flood of people, and those people were not social distancing. that is the problem. the rules were not being adhered to. and now i am getting floods of e mails this morning saying, if it is ok for them, it is ok for me. it is the wrong message. why were you not satisfied with mr cummings explanation yesterday? he said he had not broken the rules, he had exceptional circumstances, he did what he thought was right for his family. i listen to what he said with great care, and i have nothing but sympathy for someone with a sick wife and a child they got to look after, but had he gone about it the right way, everybody would have understood that and the right way would have been to have gone to the head of the civil service, i got a problem, and that could have been taken care problem, and that could have been
ta ken care of. problem, and that could have been taken care of. as it was, he did his own thing, he didn t apologise to the nation for what he d done, something he was telling everyone else not to do, and he has sent out yet another message, clearly, saying, will effectively i can do what i like, and this is the man who is advising the prime minister. he is advising the prime minister. he is not elected. we didn t elect dominic cummings. we elected a conservative government led by boris johnson. and those of us in parliament as well as outside of it expect him to run the country. and you can t have a maverick going off and doing what he likes, whether it is over this or anything else. but you can because borisjohnson is keeping him in hisjob. you can because borisjohnson is keeping him in his job. boris johnson is keeping him in hisjob, for the moment. people like me i think now have to shut up. i feel i have said too much on the subject already, probably. there is no
conspiracy. nobody is trying, as far as i m aware, to bring cummings down. apart from my whip who i spoke to, i rang him as a courtesy, to tell them what i was doing and why. apart from him i have spoken to no other conservative member of parliament about this so i have no idea what my colleagues in the house are saying, but i think time has come for those of us who have expressed real concern is to take a step back and take it to the 1922 committee, and i hope the 1922 committee, and i hope the 1922 committee will take a very clear message to the prime minister. the 1922 committee is the backbench committee of conservative mps, and the message you want them to take to the message you want them to take to the prime minister is what, sir roger? i think they have to say that this has gone too far. there is a huge public backlash against what has happened and the way in which it has happened and the way in which it has been handled. it has become a distraction from thejob has been handled. it has become a distraction from the job of getting people back to work, back to school,
protecting health and rebuilding the economy. that is what we are here to do and what we ought to be doing. and the time, i think, has come for mrcummings even at and the time, i think, has come for mr cummings even at this stage to resign, orfor the mr cummings even at this stage to resign, or for the prime mr cummings even at this stage to resign, orfor the prime minister to say i am terribly sorry, but we have dispensed with your services. thank you very much for talking to us and again, apologies for the technical problems and thank you very much for your patience. sir roger gale, the conservative mp for north thanet. in hong kong, carrie lam, the chief executive, has been defending china s new controversial security law calling it a safeguard against violent political protests. and she criticised international leaders who ve supported protesters resisting the legislation. translation: national security legislation is a matterfor a country. it is the case in any country. it doesn t matter if the country has a unitary system or multiparty system or a federal system. now legislation on national security is always a matter for the central authorities.
so for overseas politicians making such comments, they probably, you know, practising double standard. now i think there is no one country that will allow an important matter like national security to be flawed in any way or to have a void in any way. our correspondent in hong kong, danny vincent explains how, after months of protests seen in the semi autonomous territory last year, trust in the city s chief executive has eroded. carrie lam this morning has been attempting to reassure the hong kong public that the city will remain a free and open society, regardless of when this law is enacted. in some ways, carrie lam has lost the trust of at least a portion of society definitely the protesters. the protesters took to the streets
last year for back to back protests that lasted for many months. they were calling for carrie lam to resign simply because they felt that she no longer held the interests of the hong kong people, instead, she was simply relaying the message from beijing. i think today she technically almost is doing that this time because this law actually was proposed by beijing, not by carrie lam herself. so some protesters i have spoken to, they feel the message from carrie lam is now somewhat irrelevant because they now want they re protesting showing their anger towards the central government. now protesters have planned more protests over the next few days. we are expecting protests tomorrow. it will be a real test to see how many hong kong people actually go to the streets. of course they will be breaking not only the law there is a law here that says that
if more than four people cause a public nuisance , that is technically illegal but also they will be breaking the social distancing rules that were put into place to try to stop the spread of the coronavirus. so i think hong kong is bracing for more protests, and i think it will be interesting to see what happens in the next 2a hours. we will get a better sense of how hong kong residents respond to beijing and the hong kong governments recent messages about this law. hello, this is bbc news with me, victoria derbyshire. the headlines. a junior minister has resigned over the handling of the borisjohnson top adviser‘s travels during lockdown. it comes as other uk government ministers rally to support dominic cummings they say they understand public concern but insist he acted reasonably when making trips during lockdown. almost all shops in england will be able to reopen from 15thjune,
as part of plans to further ease the lockdown. the world health organisation halts trials of an anti malarial drug as a potential treatment for covid 19 as it s found it could cause heart problems. hong kong s leader has rejected suggestions that china s proposed new security laws could erode freedoms in the territory. as greece reopens for tourism, we travel with a team of doctors who will set up coronavirus testing where the virus has not yet been reported. more british retailers have been given the go ahead to reopen in england next month, if they can meet the coronavirus guidelines to protect shoppers and workers. outdoor markets and car showrooms will be allowed to resume trading next monday, the 1st ofjune. but the main rollout is planned for the 15th with everything from department stores to small independent shops opening their doors once again. so how will that work, and what covid secure guidelines
will businesses have to follow? i m joined by stephen norman, the the managing director of vauxhall motors. hello, good morning. good morning. festival, your reaction that car showrooms will be able to open from next monday. absolutely delighted. it is the very beginning. it will aid production through the factories, so it is great news for the industry and great news for the uk economy. what will it mean for car showrooms who have to be over to secure car showrooms who have to be over to secure “ car showrooms who have to be over to secure covid secure? car showrooms who have to be over to secure covid secure? car showrooms tend to be large, airy, bright open spaces. in a way we are lucky compared with the rest of the retail sector insofar as it is not difficult to make them covid safe and secure. of course we will find social distancing guidelines in terms of areas, ways to walk around
the showroom, to look at the vehicles that are on display, and so on. and of course they will have to be disinfection between test drives and inspections of the vehicles. but all of those things, to meet government guidelines and even go round, because of course every manufacturer tends to go beyond guidelines, and to be doubly and triply secure. we have been ready for two weeks. have you? do you think you could have opened earlier? well, i don t want to get involved ina well, i don t want to get involved in a political discussion but across continental europe, showrooms are now open, so, yes, we are perhaps one or two or three weeks behind the rest of europe in being able to reopen. the essential thing is the government has announced that from the 1st ofjune, government has announced that from the 1st of june, next government has announced that from the 1st ofjune, next monday, and we are very thankful for that. as i said, we are ready to support the demand. you know there will be an increased demand for small personal
transport, inevitably, with the guidelines being to avoid, at least for the time being, public transport. that may be true, but nobody has any money, do they? well, when 80% of motor vehicles bought in the uk i purchased on a finance plan, and with interest rates at the way they have been in recent months, andindeed way they have been in recent months, and indeed years, i think people, if they only need to go online and start looking they will be very pleasa ntly start looking they will be very pleasantly surprised. the monthly rates that are available, but also at employment insurance and even deferred payments. yes, the industry is absolutely ready to support the customer, as i said, for the last two weeks and especially from monday to. a broad final thought. how much has your industry been damaged by this crisis and the lockdown that ensued? well, if it had not been for
furlough, we wouldn t be able to have this conversation today. the industry is incredibly grateful to the government for furlough. we are not used to shutdowns in summer holiday periods, but nobody would have expected the industry to close down for two months in one of the most important selling periods of the year. when you talk of damage to the year. when you talk of damage to the industry, it is damage to the sales and indeed damage that will have to be caught back in coming months and possibly more than months to get back to the proper rate of the market. thank you very much for talking to us, mr norman. pleasure. all the best. as the world awaits a coronavirus vaccine, doctors and scientists in england have been looking at different ways to treat those who are severely affected by the disease. it s hoped plasma therapy could offer a solution. it s a process which sees recovered patients donate their blood which contains antibodies. our health correspondent laura foster has been finding out more. when alessandro contracted
coronavirus and ended up on a hospital ventilator, he feared he d never get to see his family again. it s why, when he recovered, he wanted to help others by donating plasma in his blood. instinctively, the last thing you want to do is go in a hospital environment again and have a needle put, but then i thought actually that i had been given so much and literally, like, you know, those people saved my life. and you feel so hopeless and you feel so unable to help others, and that was the only way i could figure at that point to give some of this back. when alessandro was sick, his immune system produced antibodies to help fight the virus. these antibodies are found in the gold coloured part of our blood known as plasma. the idea is that this plasma can be given to other people, whose immune systems are struggling, to help them fight coronavirus. the nhs wants more people who ve had covid 19 to donate their plasma. it s making its donations centres
bigger and creating pop up ones so they can take up to 8,000 donations a week. it can be very, very emotional and it does actually get you quite upset sometimes, but then you see these people have come out from the other side and they re so. like i said, they re so enthusiastic and so willing. the researchers have found that men, those over 35, and anyone who was hospitalised with coronavirus produce the most antibodies. in fact, alessandro s blood contains a0 times more antibodies than the average donor. so that means i can give a lot of them away, which i m very pleased to do, and suddenly, as my friends knew about that, they all become very nice to me in case they ever need it in the future! they re particularly asking for people to come forward in manchester, birmingham and london, where there have been a lot of cases of covid 19. laura foster, bbc news.
a british couple is coordinating efforts to help a hospital in haiti prepare for a spike in coronavirus cases which they believe could overwhelm the country s healthcare system. the country has just 60 ventilators for a population of 11 million and is ill prepared for the pandemic. the bbc‘sjon hunt has more. while in britain we may be past the peak of the pandemic, in haiti cases are rising sharply. at this hospital set up by a uk charity, they re having to improvise making ppe out of raincoats and diy masks. this is actually made out of a ladder. rob dalton is an a&e nurse from surrey volunteering for the charity. i ve been working six days a week. sometimes too busy to get to eat and things. there s so much to do here. they need all the help they can get. the preparation at the hope health action hospital is being coordinated from crawley in west sussex. the charity s founders say one
of their biggest challenges is access to oxygen. there is no access to a ventilator at our hospital, there s only 15 20 icu beds for the whole country. so we are focusing on provision of oxygen but that can be a struggle. we ve invested to get a number of oxygen concentrators out to the country in the last couple of weeks which arrived over the weekend. the charity is also doing community outreach work to teach social distancing and promote good hand washing. you can have ten people living in a one bed house, which means that self isolating is just nearly impossible. and communities all function really closely together. with donations from the uk, they have been able to set up an isolation ward for covid 19 patients and a triage system. the peak of the pandemic is due in haiti in the next two weeks. john hunt, bbc news. pressure is being put on governments across europe to allow businesses and shops to re open. rich preston reports now
on the massive economic impact of the virus. spain once had some of europe s toughest lockdown measures. now the bars and restaurants of barcelona are serving customers once again. here, as well as in the capital, madrid, people can now meet in groups of up to ten. translation: i am so moved. i m shaking from feeling so happy after staying home for such a long time. this is phenomenal. it is really, really good. in popular resorts like majorca, people can once again visit the beach. spain has urged foreign holiday makers to come back to visit the country in july, when it will stop quarantining new arrivals. once at the heart of the pandemic, italians can go to the gym again, but with strict hygiene rules in place. you must keep your hands clean and keep apart from others enjoying a work out.
people in the czech republic can get back to one of their favourite pastimes again this is the country that drinks more beer per capita than any other. but masks must be worn unless, of course, you re taking a sip. the czech republic wasn t hit as badly as some other countries by coronavirus and perhapsjust a coincidence was the first to make the wearing of masks in public compulsory. as well as bars, breweries and restaurants, popular tourist sites are reopening, too. cultural attractions like theatres and museums can now organise events for up to 300 people. and in the uk europe s worst hit country a plan to ease out of the lockdown. on 1stjune, outdoor markets and car showrooms can open up. two weeks later, all other nonessential shops, like department stores, can open their doors provided they are covid secure and have measures in place to keep people apart and protect both staff and customers.
europe s first official case of coronavirus was recorded at the end of january. since then, life on the continent has been turned upside down, affecting lives and livelihoods. after four months of restrictions on everyday life and tens of thousands of deaths europeans hope for a return to some semblance of normality, however gradual it may be. rich preston, bbc news. seafronts across england were busy over the weekend, as sun seekers tried to make the most of the bank holiday weather. with travel restrictions eased earlier this month, crowds flocked to beaches in bournemouth and southend, but in other parts of the uk where stricter lockdown is still in place many tourist destinations remained quiet. adam mcclean has more. in scotland, beaches were largely empty. and in northern ireland and wales, people are still told to stay home. this was southend on sea.
in what looks like any normal bank holiday but this was yesterday. a scene repeated in other english beauty spots in the middle of a global pandemic. thousands enjoying the sun and the sand. in seaside towns, there are concerns about what visitors may bring and take away. people living near the beaches depend on everybody who does come to behave responsibly, and it s better if you live a long way away not to come to the beach yet. you can do that another day, in good weather, when this crisis is over. there were concerns about shifting attitudes towards coronavirus rules after senior government advisor dominic cummings said he didn t regret taking his family to county durham. i ve barely left my house on lockdown. this is the first sort of time getting back out, and then we find out these sort of stories. and when they do get caught out,
there s always some sort of excuse. he says one thing but does another. i don t think it should be one rule for the elite and one rule for sort of everyone else. we have not seen family, and obviously, with a young baby, people are missing. people are missing seeing her, as well, like grandparents. but others here in merseyside feel it s an issue that s gone too far. like, we were told that we couldn t go and do this and that, and he went and did went out. but personally, i feel like we just all need to get over it a bit. one advisor or individual has got, you know, a personal decision, and he s made it. and i wouldn t imagine we need to, you know, just spend time, money, to dig out why he s gone. here on formby beach, groups were happy to spread out across the miles of sand and keep their distance, as many headed out for fresh air and sunshine, after nine weeks of lockdown. adam mcclean, bbc news.
the headlines on bbc news. a junior minister has resigned over the handling of the borisjohnson top adviser‘s travels during lockdown. it comes as other uk government ministers rally to support dominic cummings they say they understand public concern but insist he acted reasonably when making trips during lockdown. the world health organisation halts trials of an anti malarial drug as a potential treatment for covid 19 as it s found it could cause heart problems. a0 million tourists flocked to thailand last year, but because of the coronavirus pandemic the industry there has collapsed. among those affected are elephant keepers who rely on the income they get from elephant experience camps and shows. keepers and their elephants are now migrating across thailand, from the country s tourist centres to the remote villages where they grew up. bbc thai correspondent
chaiyot yongcharoenchai joined one group making thejourney home. hundreds of elephants are on the move in thailand. translation: we are taking the elephants back home because of covid 19. there are no more tourists. we have been waiting for several months to see if it would get better, but it s not. so she is taking the elephants to her village, where she can feed them. it s more than 100 miles away in the mountains. it will be a difficultjourney. translation: we expect it to take three days and two nights, but we have a young elephant and an old one. the baby elephant is four months old. if they are tired, they can rest.
elephants are synonymous with tourism in thailand, but it s an industry accused of cruelty. the 3,000 elephants that rely on tourism are at risk of starvation, and for some elephants, the pandemic has meant more suffering. translation: if it doesn t get better in three months, i will contact people i know along the myanmar border. i will take my elephant to work in the business there. after two days of travel, the convoy is chased out of village. locals think the keepers may have coronavirus. tired, the team stops at a river to rest. translation: the elephants got very thirsty and it seemed the little one had no energy to walk.
theirjourney home has been funded by a local charity owner. she thinks this is a chance to transform the industry. translation: if there was no pandemic today, elephants would still be in the same state. tourists would be swarming here in thailand. but after covid 19 we will think, and tourists will have time to think, too. after three days of travelling, the keepers and their elephants have arrived safely. and they are having a buffet right now that the villagers prepared for them to welcome them home. translation: i felt relief! my elephants were not fainting. no one died on the way!
but their arrival is only the beginning of a longer struggle. translation: we didn t expect to become rich, just not to have debts, orjust to be able to support our family. chaiyot yongcharoenchai, bbc news, thailand. back in march the uk government instructed councils in england to find emergency accommodation for all those who were sleeping rough on the streets. it now says nearly 15,000 of them have been given a roof over their heads. what will happen to those people when the corona crisis is over? earlier i spoke to louise casey a former deputy director of shelter and formerly the anti social behaviour czar it was very clear that covid 19 would disproportionately affect rough sleepers, people stuck on the streets, and people in communal night shelters where the spread of the disease would be much faster than anywhere else, so the job was to literally unrelentingly get any accommodation we could opened up
using commercial hotels, universities, anything. disused buildings that could be brought back into use really quickly. so, so far we have managed to bring 15,000 people both in off the streets and also people who were at risk of homelessness during that time. and i think what i don t want to happen is that those people, particularly the vulnerable rough sleepers, some of whom have come off the streets for the first time, that those people then end up going back to the streets. so i want a national effort, everybody wants a national effort, everybody wants a national effort about everything at the moment, i accept that, but this is possibly sort of a tiny silver lining in an otherwise horrific period in the country, where actually some good is going on to try to help some very vulnerable people, and i don t want them to go back to the streets. initially we had figures from local authorities at 5a00 people who had been sleeping rough had been brought into this emergency accommodation. you now say it is 15,000. are you sure about
that number? can you break it down for us? essentially, this was all done very much on the hoof, so at easter, i think it was, we were pretty sure, by doing an analysis of every local authority in the country, and also obviously in london where the voluntary sector, the charities have been running many of the hotels, notjust st mungo s, but others, we were pretty sure there were 5a00 people. now in mid may, as we are, or it mid to late may, we are now at the numbers around 15,000. i think it is 1a,600 at the last census of that. those numbers are not people that we re those numbers are not people that were long term rough sleepers and had been on the streets for a long time. that was between five and seven. time. that was between five and seven. there are time. that was between five and seven. there are over time. that was between five and seven. there are over 2000 that have come in from communal night shelters where they were living in dormitories and on the floors and things like that. again, not the right place to be during this
covid 19 crisis. then there have been. local authorities, covid 19 crisis. then there have been. localauthorities, like many organisations, have been trying to keep the show on the road during this period and actually i think one of the things they have done is taken in people who were at risk of rough sleeping, and during covid 19, victoria, that is completely the right thing to do. why i have asked the prince s trust and authority is backed by comic relief and backed by cardinal nichols, justin welby, the archbishop of canterbury, is that i think although the government have made a good start by bringing forward money and adding money to it, to bring 6000 new homes, 3300 of which will be in this financial year, that is a great start. but i think the government needs to do more, i think that we all need to do more, i think that we all need to do more and we need to do it in partnership. the government can t do it on its own. ok. louise casey. the evacuation of more than 300,000 allied soldiers
from the beaches of dunkirk in 19a0 is still regarded as one of the most successful rescue missions in history. a fleet of little ships, including sailboats, trawlers and lifeboats were used to ferry soldiers off the beaches and onto waiting royal navy and merchant ships. 80 years on, robin gibson has been looking back at the miracle of dunkirk. archive: all along the rivers and creeks of britain, yachtsmen and part time sailors are kissing their wives farewell and making the knots for dover. a true story that became a legend arguably the greatest escape of world war ii. i wish i could meet the people, the chaps who came over and picked us up, because they were very brave blokes. because there were mines, and there was a good chance of being machine gunned, as well. our cameraman is on a tiny merchant ship. he is risking his life to bring you the pictures. he is on his way to dunkirk. crossing the channel on a trawler or a pleasure boat in 19a0 to face
the killing fields of the dunkirk beaches was a test of bravery bordering on madness. they were in the thick of it for several days, some of them. so i have huge admiration for them, and i have huge admiration for the little boats. because they are tiny little boats that were used to go up to the beaches, to get the boys off the beaches, and then ferry them to the larger vessels standing offshore. so they stayed. our ideas today come largely from recreations, dramas and films. home. at 100 years old, john port is one of the last left to describe what it was to spend days on that beach, then to be rescued by a scheme which the german generals could barely believe. it was a horrendous experience. we were just lying on the beach,
hands on the back of the head. there was. a brighton paddle boat was there that was burning from end to end. and another transport was loaded with our chaps, and a bomb dropped right amongst them, in the stern. that was pretty awful. sadly, the still surviving wooden boats aren t able to mark their 80th anniversary. but they do send a message from the past, symbolising a moment when people with their backs to the wall came together to face down disaster. that was robin gibson reporting. you re watching bbc news. now it s time for a look at the weather with carol. hello again. if you re hoping for some rain in the forecast today, there isn t much to offer at all, and in fact for the next few days that s going to be the case.
it will remain dry for most of us. it s going to be sunny and warm and by the weekend, for some, it will be very warm as temperatures climb from the mid to the high 20s in celsius. today, high pressure s in charge, we ve got a weak weather front sinking south, producing all of this cloud. so the sunshine across parts of england and wales today will be hazier than it has been, but it won t make it down towards the south, so we ll hang on to brighter skies here. now behind this weather front it will brighten up in north wales, northern england, northern ireland and scotland. still quite breezy across the north west of scotland, and temperatures here 12 to 1a degrees, 20 in newcastle, 25 as we move down towards london. now through this evening and overnight, our weather front will continue its descent southwards, getting into southern england. there ll be some fog patches forming across south wales and south west england. a lot of clear skies, and then by the end of the night for northern ireland and also scotland, we ll see cloud building as a weather front comes our way, and it s also going to bring some patchy rain into parts
of northern ireland by the end of the night. cooler in the north than the nightjust gone. tomorrow, then, we pick up this weather front. still coming in across northern ireland we could see some spots of rain getting into western scotland, as well. the fog in south wales and south west england lifting, and a lot of sunshine. but at times there ll be a bit more cloud just hugging the coastline in parts of eastern england. temperatures 12 in the north to 25 in the south. wednesday into thursday, we see that weather front cross us and then clear off into the north sea. high pressure still very much in charge of our weather, so things still very settled. so a lot of dry weather, a lot of sunshine, the weather front moves towards the east, taking its cloud with it. we could see the odd spot of rain in southern scotland, north east england, but there won t be much to talk of. and temperatures 11 in the north, 21 in glasgow, 26 in cardiff. on friday, there will be a lot of dry weather. we re starting to pull in all this warm air from the near continent across the board.
gentle breezes and temperatures by then well, we re looking at 25 in london and liverpool, 2a in glasgow.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. a junior minister has resigned over the handling of borisjohnson s top adviser‘s travels during lockdown. it comes as other uk government ministers rally to support dominic cummings. they say they understand public concern but insist he acted reasonably when making trips during lockdown on the whole, as a man of integrity, he thinks that he did do the right thing. though he also recognises, as a fair minded man, that there are many other people who. who may take a different view, and i understand that. almost all shops in england will be able to reopen from 15thjune, as part of plans to further ease the lockdown. the world health organisation halts trials of an anti malarial drug as a potential treatment
for covid 19 as it s found it could cause heart problems. hong kong s leader has rejected suggestions that china s proposed new security laws could erode freedoms in the territory. as greece reopens for tourism, we travel with a team of doctors who will set up coronavirus testing where the virus has not yet been reported. they are on their way home. home from the hell that is dunkirk. and we remember the heroes of dunkirk 80 years on. hello and welcome if you re watching in the uk or around
the world, and stay with us for the latest news and analysis from here and across the globe. borisjohnson may have been hoping to put the controversy surrounding his senior advisor dominic cummings behind him, but it continues to bedevil his government. this morning, douglas ross a junior minister for scotland announced his resignation from the government over the affair. in a written statement, mr ross said that dominic cummings interpretation of the government s lockdown guidelines was not shared by the vast majority of the people who have done as the government asked . he pointed out that he had constituents who hadn t been able to visit sick families or say goodbye to those they loved, and said i cannot in good faith tell them that they are all wrong and one senior government advisor was right. he went on to say he realised both the immediate and long term implications of my decision to resign
from government . this all follows an extraordinary press conference held by mr cummings yesterday afternoon, in which he replied to allegations that he had breached the government s lockdown rules by driving his family to london to durham in late march. we ll be getting the latest on this morning s resignation, and the reaction to that press conference, from westminster in a moment. conference, from first this report from our political correspondent iain watson on the background to the controversy. something you don t see every day. government advisers usually defend their political masters. this one had come to defend himself. dominic cummings took his family 250 miles from london to durham during lockdown, when his wife was already ill. yesterday, he was asked if he now regretted his actions. no, i don t regret what i did. as i said, i think reasonable people
may well disagree about how i thought about what to do in the circumstances but i think that. i think what i did was reasonable in. . . in these circumstances. at the socially distanced impromptu press conference, he insisted that isolating close to his extended family was the best option in case he needed childcare. but why had he then also gone on a 30 mile trip from durham to barnard castle on easter sunday? apparently he was giving himself an unconventional eye test. my wife was very worried, particularly given my eyesight seemed to have been affected by the disease. she did not want to risk a nearly 300 mile drive with our child, given how ill i had been. we agreed that we should go for a short drive to see if i could drive safely. at his press conference last night, the prime minister sounded a bit more contrite than his advisor. i do regret the confusion and
the anger and pain that people feel. i really did want people to understand exactly what had happened. but he wasn t going to sack his advisor, and he insisted that no one at number 10 had undermined the government s message on health. and a range of cabinet ministers have taken to social media with a remarkably similar message time to move on. opposition parties will meet today, and are pressing for an enquiry into dominic cummings actions. many of the papers are less ready to move on than government ministers, and some conservative mps are waiting to see if angry constituents have been soothed or riled by dominic cummings before deciding whether to renew calls for him to go. iain watson, bbc news. conservative mp william wragg has written, we cannot throw away valuable public and political good will any longer.
it s humiliating and degrading to their office to see ministers put out agreed lines in defence of an advisor. this is a time of national emergency and our focus must be unrelenting. we owe it to the nation. our political correspondent alex forsyth is in westminster. that tweet and the letter from douglas ross, this is all rather uncomfortable for the government, isn t it? undoubtedly so and the hope had been that by dominic cummings giving that very rare press conference in the garden of downing street yesterday that they would draw something of a line under it and it did seem initially that in giving that explanation of his actions, that defence of what he had done that it had taken some of the heat out of the anger circulated amongst some sections of the conservative party but clearly not all of it because as you say we had that stark tweet from william wragg
calling it humiliating that the government is using up a public goodwill and we ve also have the first resignation from douglas ross, who was a junior minister in the scottish office. so this has by no means gone away. nonetheless, we have had some mps and senior cabinet minister michael gove on the airwaves this morning defending once again the actions of dominic cummings, which is a strange phenomenon to have a senior cabinet minister defending the actions of an aid but it is happening. and some conservative mps see say they can see the justification for what dominic cummings did. anthony brown isa dominic cummings did. anthony brown is a conservative mp and former aide to borisjohnson when he was in the mayor of london office. this is what he had to say. clearly there are strong passions in the conservative party and amongst the public about this but i think when dominic cummings gave his explanation yesterday he covered a lot of detail, answered a lot of questions people can be on both sides of this. as it happens, i think he acted reasonably and certainly legally. i
must say that if i had somebody come to me with the unique situation of dominic cummings where he was coming down sick with his wife worried about it, and he had a four year old child that didn t have any care provision nearby, then in exceptional circumstances, covered by the guidance, you are allowed to do what is most likely to reduce harm. so you see there is some defence of dominic cummings s actions and people say they can understand his thinking around it that there are two aspects here. there are the specifics of what dominic cummings did or didn t do when there are still some questions over the choices he made about where he drove and when, but there is the broader point of principle and when you speak to conservative mps a lot of them say they are still getting a lot of anger from their constituents who perceive this as being one rule for one and one rule for them. in fa ct for one and one rule for them. in fact you heard from douglas ross in his letter earlier and he was talking about the idea of the sacrifices some of his constituents have made because they simply thought that they were following
government guidelines which were in pa rt government guidelines which were in part drawn up by dominic cummings and that is the bit that s increasingly hard for some conservative mps to reconcile, certainly sir roger gale, one conservative mp who still does not remain convinced dominic cummings did the right thing and this is what he had to say earlier. this is a man at the top of the government who had devised and was trying to enforce rules upon one set of people that he does not appear to have wanted to obey himself. by saying i m going to do what i like, but you can t do what you like, i m afraid, and this is the bottom line of this, he has sent out a very damaging, very dangerous message. as you say, alex, there are clearly supporters of dominic cummings and those who are critical of him. more broadly speaking, how much damage is this whole thing doing to borisjohnson as the prime minister though?” think that is the key thing to this whole situation. dominic cummings has largely been a controversial
figure and that s not something he s really backed away from. these accepted that is part and parcel of his role and he sometimes perhaps even courted that controversy but he is often believed that that kind of controversy remains here in what they call the westminster bubble and it s only people who operate in and around parliament that care around these issues. the difference now you hear from conservative mps in particular is they say this has got cut through, that is that their constituents are angry about this because what they see as a double standard and there are others who are genuinely concerned that this could in some way undermine the government s public health message, particularly at a time when we are going to a more nuanced phase in the lockdown where there will be questions around people using their ownjudgment more questions around people using their own judgment more than there have been with the clear black and white message of the past, so we ve had people express concerns about this. that s not to say it is universal. there are some people who believe dominic cummings did right but the question now is whether the prime minister can retain his authority because crucial to this whole pandemic has been whether people believe in what the government is
saying and are willing to follow their advice. that has been crucial in the early stages of lockdown and perhaps would be more so as we move on and that is why this row really does matter. alex, for now, in westminster, thanks. countries across europe are beginning to open themselves up to foreign visitors, as infection rates continue to fall. spain says foreign travellers will be able to visit the country from the beginning ofjuly without going into quarantine. the spanish foreign minister said the country was looking forward to welcoming tourists back now the worst of the coronavirus pandemic was behind it. 80 million visitors travel to spain each year, 20 million from the uk. meanwhile, greece has taken another major step towards re starting its tourism industry, opening its islands to domestic visitors for the first time in months. a team of doctors from mainland greece were among the first visitors to the remote island of sikinos, in the aegean sea.
our correspondent quentin sommerville accompanied them on their trip. on our 100 mile plus journey, these athens doctors are the first visitors to sikinos in months. the greek islands are accepting visitors again. the mayor of the island welcomes them ashore. we re greeted with elbow bumps instead of handshakes. there are enough coronavirus tests for whoever wants them. we do know that, so far, there haven t been any cases on the remote islands, but there hasn t been any testing also. there are only 250 people on this island, and none of them have been tested for covid 19 until today. the village was built on a hilltop to safeguard it from pirates. they re hoping its isolation continues to offer protection. greece has only had 172 deaths from covid 19, and is leaving lockdown faster than expected.
foreign tourists still have to undergo quarantine. terry harris has been living here for a0 years. i came here and i isolated myself for two weeks in my house and the lady from the supermarket flora she delivers everything, so they brought up, on a donkey, water and any supplies i wanted. at the temporary test centre, father theodorus leads the way. these tests are essential as greece prepares to welcome back foreign tourists in the coming months. today is the first day that everything comes back to normal, including restaurants and all the borders and ships, so we are concerned about everything being planned in the best possible way. greece is emerging from the pandemic earlier than others not unscathed, but in better shape than most.
isolation is a way of life here, but so, too, is tourism. the health of the islanders depends on both. earlier this morning quentin sommerville explained the situation in greece. greece is accelerating the lockdown and the results from the pandemic have been better than expected, and injuly and have been better than expected, and in july and august have been better than expected, and injuly and august is when the island really makes its bread and butter for the rest of the year, so bread and butter for the rest of the year, so we bread and butter for the rest of the year, so we got here yesterday for the first reopening to domestic tourists and the island was hardly overwhelmed. there were a few people who arrived on the ferry, those doctors you saw in my report, but they are hoping that these initial first steps will get them back on the road to the tourist industry that they so much rely on. let me just show you a bit more of the
island, if you can bear it. these tavernas, for the last couple of months, everything has been closed, bars and months, everything has been closed, bars a nd restau ra nts months, everything has been closed, bars and restaurants were only open for takeaway business. as of yesterday, they opened for business properly stop you can sit down, have a retsina, some moussaka and enjoy the spectacular view as well. these restrictions are being lifted all across greece and a whole new bunch of rules have come in for hotel owners. they are beginning to reopen as well but we won t see foreign tourists start to arrive here until july the 15th, sorry, june 15, then onjuly the 1st, july the 15th, sorry, june 15, then on july the 1st, all the july the 15th, sorry, june 15, then onjuly the 1st, all the airports across greece will reopen. that was quentin somerville on the situation in greece. the number of deaths involving coronavirus in england and wales reached its lowest weekly level for six weeks in may
according to figures released by the office for national statistics today. the figures cover the period up to the 15th may. our head of statistics robert cuffe has been looking at the figures and joins me now. what are the figures first of all telling us about deaths from the virus? if you look at the death certificates that mention covid 19, slightly different to the figures we here in the press conference from the government every day, they show the government every day, they show the numbers of covid 19 deaths have been falling for a few weeks and have now reached the lowest level since the start of april so there are about 3800 covert deaths last week, well below the previous weeks, and if you add in scotland and northern ireland, it adds about a00 to the total, but the trend is the same. coming down and lower than we ve seen in a long time. there is a slight glitch in the figures because the total number of deaths in the week registered to the 15th
of may increase slightly but that s because there was a bank holiday on friday the 8th of may so there were no registrations made and they come in following week. despite the slew of extra registrations, we still see week on week falls in the number of covid 19 registered deaths. we are a long way off normal but the trend is going on the right direction. who has been the hardest hit? it s been clear in the epidemic that it s been the oldest two are the hardest hit. if you look at the over 75 is, and we can see the total number of deaths we have seen in that age group and that is the red line on the chart and you can see it has shot up since the middle of march, and the grey line going along the middle is what you would expect to see each week and you can see we have seen many see each week and you can see we have seen many more see each week and you can see we have seen many more deaths than we would expect at this time of year, well over 50% more, so that the total number of deaths we would expect to see since the middle of march and we have seen all of those plus half again. that is the effect
of the over 75 is, but as you go down the age groups, it s a different picture. if you look at those aged between a5 up to 6a,, sorry between 55 and 6a, you would expect less deaths because the group is younger but the bump is less sharp and doesn t bump so high and the all extra deaths we have seen is far lower, even lower when you get younger and younger and you cannot even draw the graph once you get to school age kids, they have been four deaths of under 15 is that mention covid 19 out of the more than a0,000 registered across the whole uk. so there is a massive difference in this between the very young and the very old where you go from four deaths in the under 15 is to tens of thousands over 75. that raises the question about care homes. what is the situation there? the situation is moving in the right direction. it s a little bit behind the population in general but we have
seen a population in general but we have seen a slight fall in the number of deaths in care homes, kind of mirroring the population pattern at large. a slight uptick in overall deaths caused by the registration lag on bank holiday friday and care home deaths down slightly, it has to be said, 1600 deaths, down by six, and not a big increase, but deaths in care homes are still running well above the long term average so care homes are bearing half of the coded registered deaths and they don t account for half of the population so account for half of the population so it is a hard pocket of the population but moving in the right direction. robert, thanks for coming to explain the figures. in hong kong carrie lam, the chief executive, has been defending china s new controversial security law calling it a safeguard against violent political protests. and she criticised international leaders who ve supported protesters resisting the legislation. translation: national security legislation is a matterfor a country.
it is the case in any country. it doesn t matter if the country has a unitary system or multiparty system or a federal system. now legislation on national security is always a matter for the central authorities. so for overseas politicians making such comments, they probably, you know, practising double standard. now i think there is no one country that will allow an important matter like national security to be flawed in any way or to have a void in any way. our correspondent in hong kong, danny vincent, explains how, after months of protests seen in the semi autonomous territory last year, trust in the city s chief executive has eroded. carrie lam this morning has been attempting to reassure the hong kong public that the city will remain a free and open society, regardless
of when this law is enacted. in some ways, carrie lam has lost the trust of at least a portion of society definitely the protesters. the protesters took to the streets last year for back to back protests that lasted for many months. they were calling for carrie lam to resign simply because they felt that she no longer held the interests of the hong kong people, and said she was simply relaying the message from beijing. i think today she technically almost is doing that this time because this law actually was proposed by beijing, not by carrie lam herself. so some protesters i have spoken to, they feel the message from carrie lam is now somewhat irrelevant because they now want that protesting showing their anger towards the central government.
now protesters have planned more protests over the next few days. we are expecting protests tomorrow. it will be a real test to see how many hong kong people actually go to the streets. of course they will be breaking not only the law there is a law here that says that if more than four people cause a public nuisance, that is technically illegal but also they will be breaking the social distancing rules that were put into place to try to stop the spread of the coronavirus. so i think hong kong is bracing for more protests, and i think it will be interesting to see what happens in the next 2a hours. we will get a better sense of how hong kong residents respond to beijing and the hong kong governments recent messages about this law. a report into the death of 1a year old jaden moodie, who was knocked off his moped and stabbed to death in east london, says the authorities
could have intervened when he was being exploited by criminal gangs. a serious case review by waltham forest safeguarding children board said jaden should have been more closely supervised in the two years before his murder in january last year. i m joined by our home affairs correspondent daniel sandford. daniel, first tell us what we now know from the report about jaden moodie s life. first of all it s worth reiterating that he was murdered at the age of 14, that he was murdered at the age of 1a, run down on a stolen motorbike and then stabbed to death. he was born in 200a in leicester to parents who were quickly separated afterwards. then he moved to nottingham had a largely uneventful primary school but then in secondary school got into trouble with bullying and some suggestion he threatened a child with an imitation firearm and his mum, spotting he was getting into trouble, decided to
ta ke getting into trouble, decided to take him out of school and home school him which seems to have been reasonably successful at first but then she went back to work and he was getting less and less supervision at home, getting into more and more trouble and his mum ended up being threatened by local gangs about money her son owned and she decided to move him from nottingham to london and there he stayed in the living room of his grandmother s house while his mother was sofa surfing on other friends houses and went on getting into more trouble and ended up in bournemouth ina trouble and ended up in bournemouth in a cuckoo house with 39 wraps of crack cocaine and two packets of crack cocaine and two packets of crack cocaine and seems to have been exploited into selling drugs in bournemouth. his mother was struggling to find a house. he got excluded from school for pictures on social media which showed him with a gun in his school uniform and slowly, he was drifting inexorably into this kind of drugs, county lines world and ended up being killed aged 1a on the streets of
london. what did the report tell us about the way his case was handled by the authorities? first of all it highlights the home schooling and how little monitoring was going on of his home schooling and how when his mum went back to work, those responsible for home schooling in nottinghamshire had no idea it had happened and he wasn t any longer getting properly supervised. secondly, there is quite a lot of criticism around the fact that his mother struggled to get housing in london even though her reasons for moving to london were quite sensible in terms of trying to get her son out of trouble, and how long it took for her to get allocated a house. thirdly, a lot of concentration in the report on the missed opportunity when he was caught drug dealing in bournemouth, aged 1a, the police officers in dorset just bournemouth, aged 1a, the police officers in dorsetjust drive him home and there doesn t seem to be any great huge crisis meeting in waltham forest, the council who are responsible, to say, what are we going to do with this 1a year old who has been found drug dealing on a
cuckoo house in bournemouth? has the report made recommendations, and what might they be? it has and it focused on the home schooling issue. there needs to be much better monitoring of who is being home schooled, what is going on in those homes while the home schooling is going on and the other focus is on the idea of communication between agencies around these kids that are being drawn into county lines drug dealing. there needs to be much better communication around saying, right, this is a young child who s been caught drug dealing so let s get everyone together, police, housing, social workers, the youth justice system, and sit down and try and sort that individual child out. there needs to be national standards around how that is done. daniel, thank you for that. let s get more on the resignation ofjunior minister douglas ross now. in a statement, he said he doesn t believe dominic cumming s interpretation of the government advice was shared by the vast
majority of people and therefore, this morning, has tended his resignation as under secretary of state for scotland. i m joined now by shadow secretary of state for scotland and labour mp for edinburgh south, ian murray. thanks so much forjoining us, mr murray. are you surprised by the resignation of douglas ross? the only thing i m surprised at is there hasn t been more government resignations to this debacle and douglas ross is the only person in government at the moment that seems to have any integrity and i think his resignation letter speaks for itself when he talks of his own constituents who have had to make huge sacrifices and he cannot in good conscious tell them they are wrong and the special adviser to the government is correct. that is the way he has put it in his own resignation letter and i think that is what the country has been saying for the last 72 hours. of course, dominic cummings did not breach any regulations. he said he behaved
reasonably and legally. he did, didn t he? i don t think you did. i don t think anybody would think it is reasonable when you have a suspected case of coronavirus to leave your home. the government instruction north and south of the border were very clear and to drive 260 miles there and 260 miles back when you could be carrying the virus is really not the right thing to be doing, and indeed, even the additional driving of a 16 mile round trip to barnard castle to test your eyesight, the public are shaking their head in disbelief that even decided to try and make an excuse for that. the special adviser has broken the rules and the prime minister should have done the right thing in order to maintain the very rules that the special adviser put in place for the rest of the country. the rules did say though that if there was a reasonable excuse to leave home, you could do and a reasonable excuse to leave home would be to provide care and assistance including personal care toa assistance including personal care to a vulnerable person, so as i say, he didn t actually break the rules,
did he? i think he has broken the rules and douglas ross in his own resignation letter has said quite clearly that douglas being a father he would put his family first but in saying that, if anybody in his family had coronavirus, including his wife or son, he would have abided by the government rules to stay at home. those of the rules so you don t infect others or make the position worse for your own family, and to travel 260 miles would not be seen and to travel 260 miles would not be seen to be reasonable in any sense andindeed seen to be reasonable in any sense and indeed durham constabulary themselves have an investigation going to see if he did actually break the law, so rather than us listening to dominic cummings in that most remarkable, arrogant press conference yesterday, perhaps cabinet secretary should do a full enquiry as has been asked by the labour party for the last 72 hours, get to the bottom of all of these questions decide whether or not what dominic cummings did was indeed legal because i think most of the population in terms of their anger in the last 72 hours would say it is
not. you mention what you call the arrogant news conference yesterday. would it have made any difference to you had he apologise?” would it have made any difference to you had he apologise? i think the vast majority of the country yesterday expected an apology, maybe saying he mustjudge what he did, apologise to the public and then say it is incredibly important for the majority of the public, all of the public, to abide by the rules from government. we heard a whole list of excuses, no contrition, no apology. that alone should have said to the prime minister that his position in government is untenable. for the prime minister not to have acted, then to have had an extraordinary press co nfe re nce then to have had an extraordinary press conference yesterday was really just sent to the general public that it is one rule for the prime minister and his advisers and one rule for the rest of the country. that is incredibly dangerous at this moment when everybody is trying to work incredibly hard to suppress this
crisis. can you also understand what some members of the public are also saying, that at the minute we are in the middle of a global pandemic, he is not a minister, he is an unelected adviser, and why does all this matter? why are we even talking about it? because he writes the rules. he wrote the rules for the prime minister. this goes right to the heart of the integrity of the prime minister and the integrity of the government. thankfully, douglas ross has shown some integrity in the last 72 hours. you can t ask for the public to abide by strict rules while at the same time allowing the special adviser who helped write those rules to flight them. the anchorin those rules to flight them. the anchor in the general public shows quite clearly it is one rule for them and one rule for government advisers. that is a dangerous position for the public to be in during a time of crisis when we need the entirety of the population to be
working together. the government has decided that they have doubled down on this. for michael gove to be on the media this morning and sank a 60 mile round trip to castle barnard castle was to prepare him to see if he could go to work. borisjohnson should seek to remove dominic cummings from his position, try to draw a line under this and emphasise again to the public that it is necessary for everybody to abide by the rules. perhaps what this is about is that his actions drew attention to flaws in the original rules. what do you say to that? well, if there were any flaws in the original rules the vast majority of the general public have inflated them and he has used those rules to flight them and he has used those rules to flight them himself rather than closing any problems. to be fair to
the government, they are all rooting for governments to do well in this, we wa nt for governments to do well in this, we want the crisis to pass as quickly as possible. keir starmer has been very clear that we will support the government. if there are loopholes in the regulations it is not for a special adviser to then exploit them. it is for that special adviser to close those loopholes and make the communications to the public clearer. one feature to this government is a complete lack of clarity from the government and what they can and can t do, but the public has abide by them, one person he hasn t is the person who helped write them. good to talk to you. thank you for your time. hello this is bbc news. the headlines: a junior minister has resigned over the handling
of the borisjohnson top adviser‘s travels during lockdown. it comes as other uk government ministers rally to support dominic cummings they say they understand public concern, but insist he acted reasonably when making trips during lockdown. almost all shops in england will be able to reopen from 15thjune as part of plans to further ease the lockdown. the world health organisation halts trials of an anti malarial drug as a potential treatment for covid 19 as it s found it could cause heart problems. hong kong s leader has rejected suggestions that china s proposed new security laws could erode freedoms in the territory. as greece reopens for tourism, we travel with a team of doctors who will set up coronavirus testing where the virus has not yet been reported.
the world health organisation has temporarily halted the testing of the drug hydroxychloroquine as a possible treatment for covid 19 because of safety concerns. of the drug hydroxychloroquine as a possible treatment for covid 19 the drug, traditionally used to treat malaria, has been described by president donald trump as a game changer in the battle against the virus. imogen foulkes reports from geneva. there are so far no known treatments or vaccines for covid 19, but there are many clinical trials of many different drugs to try to find them. one drug hydroxychloroquine is already in use as a treatment for malaria. some, among them president donald trump, think it could work against covid 19, too. he s even taking it himself. i m taking it, hydroxychloroquine. when? right now, yeah.
couple of weeks ago, i started taking it. why, sir? because i think it s good. i ve heard a lot of good stories. the world health organization has repeatedly said there is no scientific evidence so far that hydroxychloroquine can treat covid 19, let alone prevent infection with it. the who had been running clinical trials to test anecdotal reports that it might be beneficial. now those trials have been stopped after a study suggested the drug could cause heart problems, and might even increase deaths among covid 19 patients. the executive group has implemented a temporary pause of the hydroxychloroquine arm within the solidarity trial while the data the safety data is reviewed by the data safety monitoring board. the who said the decision to suspend
trials was a precautionary measure. now it will gather more data on safety before deciding whether to continue testing. however, it said patients taking hydroxychloroquine for established reasons such as malaria should continue to do so. imogen foulkes, bbc news, geneva. let s return to the news that hong kong s chief executive, carrie lam, has been defending china s new security law, calling it a safeguard against violent political protests. she has criticised international leaders who ve supported protesters resisting the legislation. let s go live to hong kong and speak to lo kin hey. he s the vice chairman of the democratic party, the third largest in the legislative council of the territory. thank you so much forjoining us here on bbc news. how reassured
where you buy what carrie lam had to say? what carrie lam hasjust said is very lame to hong kong people. for the past many years in hong kong the hong kong government and the chinese government have been lying to the people. a lot of people are arrested for fighting for their own rights on the mainland. they arrest them using those national security laws. this so called reassurance is just some lame explanation and excuse and trying to lie to the whole world. i believe that hong kong people will not be lied to by her. you paint a bleak picture. china insist this new security law won t affect hong kong? high degree of autonomy or the liberties of hong kong residents. are you saying china is not to be believed?”
kong residents. are you saying china is not to be believed? i think china can never be trusted, especially on so called national security issues and on the promises of the rights of the people and freedom of the people. those national security laws, no matter if you are doing some sort of political activity or doing some human rights activities, we are quite sure that those kind of things will be affected. if you are a human rights organisation in hong kong and they decide because you are an international organisation and you are affecting the national security of the country, they can expel you or arrest you. it is very dangerous for international human rights groups and for local political activities to be held in the future. this kind of national security law make very serious harm to hong kong liberty and hong kong?
people s rights. a senior manager member of the legislature in hong kong should said she should not be feeling the peers that you are. he said that hong kong courts would still have the final say on what happens to people. does that not assuage your fears in any way? no, because the hong kong courts can onlyjudge by what is written into the legislation. at this point in time we don t have the ability to know what exactly will be written into law, but we can expect it to be written in a very vague way and in a way that will not protect human rights. if those things are written into the law, the court would have no power to protect the people from
human rights or freedom violations. really good to talk to you. thanks for joining really good to talk to you. thanks forjoining us on bbc news. thanks forjoining us on bbc news. as the world awaits a coronavirus vaccine, doctors and scientists around the world have been looking at different ways to treat those who are severely affected by the disease. it is hoped plasma therapy could offer a solution. it is a process which sees recovered patients donate their blood which contains anti bodies. our health correspondent laura foster has been finding out more. when alessandro contracted coronavirus and ended up on a hospital ventilator, he feared he d never get to see his family again. it s why, when he recovered, he wanted to help others by donating plasma in his blood. instinctively, the last thing you want to do is go in a hospital environment again and have a needle put, but then i thought actually that i had been given so much and literally, like, you know, those people saved my life.
and you feel so hopeless and you feel so unable to help others, and that was the only way i could figure at that point to give some of this back. when alessandro was sick, his immune system produced antibodies to help fight the virus. these antibodies are found in the gold coloured part of our blood known as plasma. the idea is that this plasma can be given to other people, whose immune systems are struggling, to help them fight coronavirus. the nhs wants more people who ve had covid 19 to donate their plasma. it s making its donations centres bigger and creating pop up ones so they can take up to 8,000 donations a week. it can be very, very emotional and it does actually get you quite upset sometimes, but then you see these people have come out from the other side and they re so. like i said, they re so enthusiastic and so willing. the researchers have found that men, those over 35, and anyone who was hospitalised with coronavirus produce
the most antibodies. in fact, alessandro s blood contains a0 times more antibodies than the average donor. so that means i can give a lot of them away, which i m very pleased to do, and suddenly, as my friends knew about that, they all become very nice to me in case they ever need it in the future! they re particularly asking for people to come forward in manchester, birmingham and london, where there have been a lot of cases of covid 19. laura foster, bbc news. more retailers have been given the go ahead to reopen in england next month, if they can meet the coronavirus guidelines to protect shoppers and workers. outdoor markets and car showrooms will be allowed to resume trading next monday, 1stjune. but the main rollout is planned for the 15th, with everything from department stores to small independent shops
opening their doors once again. stephen norman, the managing director of vauxhall motors ssays it s great news for the industry and the uk economy. car showrooms, with one or two very rare exceptions, tend to be large, airy, bright open spaces, so in the way we are lucky compared to the rest of the retail sector is insofar as it is not difficult to make them covid safe and secure. of course we will find social distancing guidelines in terms of ways to walk around the showrooms to look at the vehicles that are on display and so on, but of course there will have to be disinfection between test drives and inspections of the vehicles, but all of those things to meet government guidelines and even go beyond, because every manufacturer tends to go beyond guidelines to be doubly secure, all of those things, we are ready now. in fact, we have
been ready for two weeks. we are not used to shutdowns, for example in summer used to shutdowns, for example in summer holiday periods, but of course nobody would have expected the industry to close down for two months and one of the most important selling periods of the year, so when you talk about damage to the industry, it is damage to the sales and damage that we will have to club in coming months and possibly more than once to get back to the proper rate of the markets. simon gompertz and joins us now from central london. tell us more about these nonessential shops that could open on the 15th. you mentioned the outdoor markets in the car dealerships. it is obvious with them there is a bit more space if you re outdoors there is less risk, but the crucial thing is the 15th ofjune because then it is shops in general that will be able to open. these are
the standard stores you will see in high streets and shopping centres. it will be much easier for the it will be much easierfor the big shopping malls. they have large areas for people to walk in and stay separate, but it will be more challenging for your typical high street. we are likely to see more queues outside because the shops will be responsible for maintaining social distancing inside. that is what shoppers will see, spaces between them, those perspex greens probably seen and more shops, encouraged to use contactless payment rather than cash and some smaller rules like things that dated back to the shop, they will be able to be put on display immediately, they would have to wait 72 hours before being put back on display. and the ability to be hygienic, so
washing facilities available, hand sanitiser is, for instance. those will be the sort of things that people will see. it is not all the shops there will be open at that stage, there will still be exceptions and things being kept from us until later. tell us more about those exceptions. one of the kind of shops i was wandering about, will charity shops be reopening? i expect quite a few households will have gathered a few bags to donate during lockdown. well, they are on the high street, that is fine. i have heard of people looking into ingenious ways of making things like charity shops, which are quite small, being available to the public. for example, a door at the front and an exit door in the back so front and an exit door in the back so you get a flow of people and not going ina so you get a flow of people and not going in a circle and meeting each other again on the way out. it will be very much up to the shops to be clear that they are abiding by quite
strict guidelines. there will be spot checks, as well. the things that are being kept for later, crucial areas, what is broadly called hospitality, but we are talking about pubs, cafe is, hotels, they are being told to wait until they are being told to wait until the ath ofjuly at the earliest. i know pubs are in negotiation with the government. they want to get pubs that have gardens to be opened first. they would like to see a restriction on the two metre rule, bringing it down to one metre to make it more feasible for drinks and bars to operate. that is being kept until later. of course, dentists, they are still heavily restricted. that sort of thing we will keep to much later. touchy parlours, beauty salons, hairdressers. that is quite a big part of the high street, they are being kept close still for the
moment. thank you, simon. pressure is being put on governments across europe to allow businesses and shops to re open. rich preston reports now on the massive economic impact of the virus. spain once had some of europe s toughest lockdown measures. now the bars and restaurants of barcelona are serving customers once again. here, as well as in the capital, madrid, people can now meet in groups of up to ten. translation: i am so moved. i m shaking from feeling so happy after staying home for such a long time. this is phenomenal. it is really, really good. in popular resorts like majorca, people can once again visit the beach. spain has urged foreign holiday makers to come back to visit the country in july, when it will stop quarantining new arrivals. once at the heart of the pandemic,
italians can go to the gym again, but with strict hygiene rules in place. you must keep your hands clean and keep apart from others enjoying a work out. people in the czech republic can get back to one of their favourite pastimes again this is the country that drinks more beer per capita than any other. but masks must be worn unless, of course, you re taking a sip. the czech republic wasn t hit as badly as some other countries by coronavirus and perhapsjust a coincidence was the first to make the wearing of masks in public compulsory. as well as bars, breweries and restaurants, popular tourist sites are reopening, too. cultural attractions like theatres and museums can now organise events for up to 300 people. and in the uk europe s worst hit country a plan to ease out of the lockdown. on 1stjune, outdoor markets and car showrooms can open up. two weeks later, all other nonessential shops, like department stores,
can open their doors provided they are covid secure and have measures in place to keep people apart and protect both staff and customers. europe s first official case of coronavirus was recorded at the end of january. since then, life on the continent has been turned upside down, affecting lives and livelihoods. after four months of restrictions on everyday life and tens of thousands of deaths europeans hope for a return to some semblance of normality, however gradual it may be. rich preston, bbc news. a pakistani man who lost five members of his family on board friday s deadly plane crash in karachi has told the bbc about the pain of learning of their deaths after initial reports saying they had survived. the airbus a320 travelling from lahore crashed into a residential area shortly
after attempting to land. of the 99 people on board, only two passengers survived. umer nangiana reports from karachi. after a year of study in london with her three young sons, sara was desperate to return home to karachi and her husband, in time for the holy festival of eid. but rather than celebrate, relatives now mourn the young family. the coronavirus pandemic meant sara and her children had to meet her husband in lahore before they all boarded friday s ill fated flight pk 8303 for the final leg of theirjourney home. when the plane crashed, it was thought they had survived. but soon the reality that all including four year old siddique had died, was made painfully clear. my nephew. the news came he survived, he survived. but actually this type of incident,
any time it happens, you will not get a clear picture. this incident, we will neverforget. never. the five bodies of the family are yet to be recovered. authorities say it will require a painstaking process of matching their dna. some bodies have been returned to their families and are starting to be laid to rest. after the difficult part of identifying the bodies, the focus now shifts to investigations. investigators from the aviation industry are busy collecting evidence from the site, and they hope that this will help them determine the cause of the crash. key to piecing together the final moments of flight pk 8303 will be understanding why warnings from a control tower were ignored shortly before the crash. the government has promised to quickly deliver the findings from what they say will be
a transparent investigation. pakistan has a chequered history when it comes to air safety. in 2016, a pakistan international airlines flight crashed, killing all a7 on board. but the findings from that incident have never been made public. the ongoing demand for information from that disaster will nowjoin the growing public pressure for answers from this latest tragedy. a man and a teenage girl died in separate incidents along the cornish coastline on bank holiday monday. the girl had become trapped beneath a capsized boat while the man was pulled from the water by a member of the public. despite warnings not to go into the water, volunteer and off duty lifeguards rescued dozens of people in a spate of incidents yesterday. police said it had been a very tough day for local emergency services .
a young italian boy has been praised for his courage after an encounter with a wild bear. tim allman has the details. never have the words don t panic seemed more appropriate. looking back over his shoulder to see what s behind him, a young boy moves slowly ever so slowly down the side of this hill. ambling along in his wake, a giant brown bear just a little bit curious about this small visitor, perhaps. alessandro and his family were enjoying a picnic when the boy went off for a stroll. it turns out he had made a new friend. his mother s partner tried to reassure him, explaining that the bear was just minding its own business. mamma! alessandro can then be heard calling out to his mother. mamma! shh!
if you think alessandro was scared, think again. he told the italian media he d been really excited, and this was the best day of his life. the bear, on the other hand, was unavailable for comment. tim allman, bbc news. now it s time for a look at the weather. hello, again. if you re hoping for some rain in the forecast today, there isn t much to offer at all, and in fact for the next few days that s going to be the case. it will remain dry for most of us. it s going to be sunny and warm and by the weekend, for some, it will be very warm as temperatures climb from the mid to the high 20s in celsius. today, high pressure s in charge, we ve got a weak weather front sinking south, producing all of this cloud. so the sunshine across parts of england and wales today will be hazier than it has been, but it won t make it down towards the south, so we ll hang on to brighter skies here. now behind this weather
front it will brighten up in north wales, northern england, northern ireland and scotland. still quite breezy across the north west of scotland, and temperatures here 12 to 1a degrees, 20 in newcastle, 25 as we move down towards london. now through this evening and overnight, our weather front will continue its descent southwards, getting into southern england. there ll be some fog patches forming across south wales and south west england. a lot of clear skies, and then by the end of the night for northern ireland and also scotland, we ll see cloud building as a weather front comes our way, and it s also going to bring some patchy rain into parts of northern ireland by the end of the night. cooler in the north than the nightjust gone. tomorrow, then, we pick up this weather front. still coming in across northern ireland we could see some spots of rain getting into western scotland, as well. the fog in south wales and south west england lifting, and a lot of sunshine. but at times there ll be a bit more cloud just hugging the coastline in parts of eastern england. temperatures 12 in the north to 25 in the south.
wednesday into thursday, we see that weather front cross us and then clear off into the north sea. high pressure still very much in charge of our weather, so things still very settled. so a lot of dry weather, a lot of sunshine, the weather front moves towards the east, taking its cloud with it. we could see the odd spot of rain in southern scotland, north east england, but there won t be much to talk of. and temperatures 11 in the north, 21 in glasgow, 26 in cardiff. on friday, there will be a lot of dry weather. we re starting to pull in all this warm air from the near continent across the board. gentle breezes and temperatures by then well, we re looking at 25 in london and liverpool, 2a in glasgow.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. a junior minister has resigned over the handling of borisjohnson s top adviser‘s travels during lockdown. it comes as other uk government ministers rally to support dominic cummings they say they understand public concern but insist he acted reasonably when making trips during lockdown. on the whole, as a man of integrity, he thinks that he did do the right thing. though he also recognises, as a fair minded man, that there are many other people who. who may take a different view, and i understand that. almost all shops in england will be able to reopen from 15thjune, as part of plans to further ease the lockdown. the world health organisation halts trials of an anti malarial drug as a potential treatment for covid 19 as it s found it
could cause heart problems. hong kong s leader has rejected suggestions that china s proposed new security laws could erode freedoms in the territory. as greece reopens for tourism, we travel with a team of doctors who will set up coronavirus testing where the virus has not yet been reported they are on their way home. home from the hell that is dunkirk. and we remember the heroes of dunkirk 80 years on. hello and welcome if you re watching in the uk or around the world, and stay with us for the latest news and analysis from here and across the globe.
borisjohnson may have been hoping to put the controversy surrounding his senior advisor dominic cummings behind him, but it continues to bedevil his government. this morning, douglas ross a junior minister for scotland announced his resignation from the government over the affair. in a written statement, mr ross said that dominic cummings interpretation of the government s lockdown guidelines was not shared by the vast majority of the people who have done as the government asked . he pointed out that he had constituents who hadn t been able to visit sick families or say goodbye to those they loved, and said, i cannot in good faith tell them that they are all wrong and one senior government advisor was right. he went on to say he realised both the immediate and long term implications of my decision to resign from government . this all follows an extraordinary news
conference held by mr cummings yesterday afternoon, in which he replied to allegations that he had breached the government s lockdown rules by driving his family from london to durham in late march. we ll be getting the latest on this morning s resignation, and the reaction to that news conference, from westminster in a moment. first this report from our political correspondent iain watson on the background to the controversy. something you don t see every day. government advisers usually defend their political masters. this one had come to defend himself. dominic cummings took his family 250 miles from london to durham during lockdown, when his wife was already ill. yesterday, he was asked if he now regretted his actions. no, i don t regret what i did. as i said, i think reasonable people may well disagree about how i thought about what to do in the circumstances but i think that.
i think what i did was reasonable in. . . in these circumstances. at the socially distanced impromptu press conference, he insisted that isolating close to his extended family was the best option in case he needed childcare. but why had he then also gone on a 30 mile trip from durham to barnard castle on easter sunday? apparently he was giving himself an unconventional eye test. my wife was very worried, particularly given my eyesight seemed to have been affected by the disease. she did not want to risk a nearly 300 mile drive with our child, given how ill i had been. we agreed that we should go for a short drive to see if i could drive safely. at his press conference last night, the prime minister sounded a bit more contrite than his advisor. i do regret the confusion and the anger and pain that people feel. i really did want people to understand exactly what had happened.
but he wasn t going to sack his advisor, and he insisted that no one at number 10 had undermined the government s message on health. and a range of cabinet ministers have taken to social media with a remarkably similar message time to move on. opposition parties will meet today, and are pressing for an enquiry into dominic cummings actions. many of the papers are less ready to move on than government ministers, and some conservative mps are waiting to see if angry constituents have been soothed or riled by dominic cummings before deciding whether to renew calls for him to go. iain watson, bbc news. our political correspondent alex forsyth is at westminster. here we had a government hoping to draw a line under this whole episode dominic cummings and then the resignation of a junior government minister, and his letter made pretty
painful reading, didn t it? yes. i think there was a sense perhaps after yesterday afternoons news conference with dominic cummings where he took questions from journalists and went through his actions in detail and his justification for those actions, i think there was the hope, certainly from downing street, that it might have taken some of the heat out of the anger being circulated by some conservative mps but as you say, we had that resignation this morning of a junior ministerfrom had that resignation this morning of a junior minister from the scotland office and we had several conservative mps either reaffirming their anger at this through the day and a handful of new ones adding to it as well. that s not to say it s universal. we did hearfrom michael gove this morning, defending dominic cummings saying he did not break any rules and regulations and some other conservative mps have said something similar, obviously wanting to draw a line under it but also suggesting that they can understand dominic cummings explanation for his actions. among them was anthony brown, a former aide to boris johnson when he was mayor of london.
this is what he had to say about it this morning. clearly there are strong passions in the conservative party and amongst the public about this, but i think when dominic cummings gave his explanation yesterday he covered a lot of detail and answered a lot of questions and reasonable people can be on both sides of this. as it happens, i think he acted reasonably uncertainly legally. and i must say, that if had somebody come to me with the unique situation of dominic cummings where he was coming down sick with his wife, and worried about it and had a four year old child that didn t have any care provision nearby, then in exceptional circumstances, and it s cove red exceptional circumstances, and it s covered by the guidance, you are allowed to do would most reduce harm. there are still some questions over the specifics of what dominic cummings did ordidn t over the specifics of what dominic cummings did or didn t do through that period, where he travelled and when and the reasons for it and there are also questions over the broader principle and that is what we are hearing from some conservative mps who have continued to express their anger this morning,
suggesting that they are hearing from their constituents that the way this looks is there is one rule for those in downing street and one rule for them, and that is hard for some conservative mps to reconcile and thatis conservative mps to reconcile and that is why we have had douglas ross this morning suggesting he had heard personal stories about the sacrifices people made and he did not feel he could justify dominic cummings s actions to them and he isn t the only one that has expressed that view. we heard from sir roger gale, one of the first critics of dominic cummings over the weekend and he today again said that he thinks he should now be sacked or resign. this is what sir roger gale said earlier. this is a man at the top of government who had devised and was trying to enforce rules upon one set of people that he does not appear to have wanted to obey himself. by saying i m going to do what i like, but you can t do what you like, i m afraid, this is the bottom line in this, he has sent out a very damaging, very dangerous message. the time i think is, either
for message. the time i think is, either foercummings, even at message. the time i think is, either for mr cummings, even at this stage, to resign or for the prime minister to resign or for the prime minister to say, look, i m terribly sorry, but we have to dispense with your services. clearly dominic cummings has his supporters and he has his detractors, as you ve been telling us. where does all this leave boris johnson though? that is of course at the heart of all this because this isa the heart of all this because this is a prime minister who is managing, or attempting to manage a global pandemic and this is at the very least a very unwelcome distraction which is why i think there was a hope inside downing street at the press co nfe re nce hope inside downing street at the press conference yesterday that it would have drawn a line under it but that simply doesn t seem to have happened. at the heart of all this is, of course, the public health messaging because the government has been asking people to follow its advice on the basis of what it says is scientific evidence and i think now there is some questions from conservative mps and opposition leaders who met this morning about whether or not that public health message has been undermined by this. people thinking, why should i follow the rules if others aren t? as we ve
heard, dominic cummings and his supporters, including michael gove, suggesting never break the rules or regulations but the question is whether the public are convinced they should still follow the rules and regulations of government, particularly as we enter the next phase of this lockdown where things could become more nuanced and people might be asked to use, as the government suggested, common sense as we move forward and we see shop starting to open. that of course was meant to be the focus of government messaging now and instead the focus at the moment is still on the actions of this aid, and that is certainly not what the government would want right now. alex, thanks for that. in hong kong carrie lam, the chief executive, has been defending china s new controversial security law calling it a safeguard against violent political protests. and she criticised international leaders who ve supported protesters resisting the legislation. translation: national security legislation is a matterfor a country. it is the case in any country. it doesn t matter if the country has
a unitary system or multiparty system or a federal system. now legislation on national security is always a matter for the central authorities. so for overseas politicians making such comments, they probably, you know, practising double standard. now i think there is no one country that will allow an important matter like national security to be flawed in any way or to have a void in any way. let s talk to anthony dapiran, he s a hong kong based writer and lawyer. thanks so much forjoining us here on bbc news. i d be very interested in your views as a lawyer as to what this new national security laws will actually do. well, we haven t yet
seen a actually do. well, we haven t yet seen a draft of the law as such. what we ve seen is a decision from the parliament in beijing for all of china and the national people s congress, saying they will go ahead and draft the law which will outlaw sedition, secession, terrorism and the interference by foreign governments orforeign the interference by foreign governments or foreign forces inside hong kong and they again are going to d raft hong kong and they again are going to draft that law and impose it directly on hong kong above the heads of the hong kong duly elected legislature. so how concerned are you and other lawyers? there is a great deal of concern about two things. firstly, the way the law is being imposed on hong kong. hong kong, in its basic law, its constitution, says very clearly that the hong kong legislative council will on its own enact national security laws but that hasn t happened for various reasons. it s been a political hot potato in hong kong for the 23 years since the hangover handover, beijing having lost its patience for hong kong to
enact the laws is going ahead to do it over the head of the hong kong legislature, which is inconsistent with what the basic law says at its face, and that is the position the hong kong bar association made in a strongly worded statement last night, but the second concern is exactly how this law is going to be drafted and how it will be applied. one very concerning paragraph in the decision from friday says that chinese central government state security, national security, effectively china is giving the ability to set up their own branches in hong kong and operate to police national security on the ground in hong kong. and i think they have been very concerned to have the prospect of china s secret police effectively operating on the ground openly and with some legality in hong kong. on the other hand, a senior member of the legislature in hong kong has said, and you mentioned the application of the law, and this is exactly what he was talking about, he said the
imposition of the laws will still be taken in hong kong, and the hong kong courts would still have the final say in what happens to people. does that assuage your fears in any way? it frankly doesn t. firstly because we were already aware of cases where people were subject to intense political pressure whether in the media, directly or indirectly by the blazing politicians or government and you can see national security agents from beijing and hong kong. the beige and government have already of the hong kong constitution that say that central government agency should not interfere in hong kong in fact does not apply to them when those agencies are here carrying out the work of supervising hong kong, so it appears they intend to be operating effectively outside the law. so i m not really reassured by those sorts of statements and neither are many here in hong kong. anthony, thank
you for sharing your thoughts and insight. good to talk to you. thank you. more retailers have been given the go ahead to reopen in england next month, if they can meet the coronavirus guidelines to protect shoppers and workers. outdoor markets and car showrooms will be allowed to resume trading next monday, the 1st ofjune. but the main rollout is planned for the 15th with everything from department stores to small independent shops opening their doors once again. so how will that work? and what covid secure guidelines will businesses have to follow? let s speak to kyle monk, head of retail insights and analytics at the british retail consortium. very good to have you with us. can you just before we go into the easing of lockdown. can you tell us a bit more about the impact that the pandemic has had on retail? yes, so this news is really incredibly welcomed by the industry and
obviously april was the worst month on record for retail sales, down 19.196 on record for retail sales, down 19.1% and that cost the industry an estimated 5.5 billion, almost 1.5 billion a week was being lost due to the close years, so 83% of stores we think were closed over this period, in the nonessential category, and a lot of the lost sales revenue is not revenue that will be made up later. it isa revenue that will be made up later. it is a foregone revenue, so it s very important and we re very glad the government have given some clear guidance on when stores will be able to open back up again and begin serving the british public again. so you paint a stark picture and clearly you welcome the government s decision, but how is it actually going to work and how are you going to persuade shoppers that it is safe to persuade shoppers that it is safe to shop and indeed, those people who work in the shops that it is safe to be inside them? safety is paramount by the shop workers on the british public. we are taking the learning we have got from the food sector and we have got from the food sector and
we will apply that as best we can do non food categories. we are also looking to other countries within europe, so austria, germany, who are a bit further ahead in the cycle to see what measures they are taking there and watch can be applied to british retail. so that might be the closure of changing rooms, plexiglass at points of sale, it might be fewer shoppers in store and control over how many shoppers can enter a store, so it will take some time before we get back to normal, but as we say, safety really is the most important thing in the short term. it s interesting you say it will take some time to get back to normal and we ve all seen the large queues outside supermarkets and food shops and you do wonder, are people going to be prepared to queue in that way to get inside to perhaps go and buy a pair of trousers? there are some green shoots in other countries. we ve seen in austria where a number of fashion retailers open several weeks ago that actually they sold better than anticipated
numbers in their in store sales in the weeks following that relaxation of limitations, so those high hopes the same will happen in the uk and asa the same will happen in the uk and as a nation we have been penned up for some time now and before this all happened 70% of retail sales we re all happened 70% of retail sales were made in stores, so although it won t return to that in the next three or six months, we hope that people will go out and support the high street once they are allowed to. clearly as you say, safety is a worry. what other concerns do you have? the pandemic hasn t affected all categories equally, so it will be how brands adapt to this coming crisis, sorry, to the relaxation of the rules, so safety is the main factor, and the other will be how different kinds of retail adapt, so we ve talked about fashion retailers not opening the changing rooms, but how does that apply to cosmetics and
how does that apply to cosmetics and how does that apply to cosmetics and how does it apply to others? we are working with the industry to make sure there is consistent guidance across all retail so they are ready to reopen injune. across all retail so they are ready to reopen in june. good to talk to you and thanks forjoining us on bbc news. thank you very much. countries across europe are beginning to open themselves up to foreign visitors, as infection rates continue to fall. spain says foreign travellers will be able to visit the country from the beginning ofjuly without going into quarantine. the spanish foreign minister said the country was looking forward to welcoming tourists back now the worst of the coronavirus pandemic was behind it. 80 million visitors travel to spain each year, 20 million from the uk. meanwhile, greece has taken another major step towards re starting its tourism industry, opening its islands to domestic visitors for the first time in months. a team of doctors from mainland greece were among the first visitors
to the remote island of sikinos, in the aegean sea. our correspondent quentin sommerville accompanied them on their trip. on our 100 mile plus journey, these athens doctors are the first visitors to sikinos in months. the greek islands are accepting visitors again. the mayor of the island welcomes them ashore. we re greeted with elbow bumps instead of handshakes. there are enough coronavirus tests for whoever wants them. we do know that, so far, there haven t been any cases on the remote islands, but there hasn t been any testing also. there are only 250 people on this island, and none of them have been tested for covid 19 until today. the village was built on a hilltop to safeguard it from pirates. they re hoping its isolation continues to offer protection. greece has only had 172 deaths from covid 19, and is leaving lockdown
faster than expected. foreign tourists still have to undergo quarantine. terry harris has been living here for a0 years. i came here and i isolated myself for two weeks in my house and the lady from the supermarket flora she delivers everything, so they brought up, on a donkey, water and any supplies i wanted. at the temporary test centre, father theodorus leads the way. these tests are essential as greece prepares to welcome back foreign tourists in the coming months. today is the first day that everything comes back to normal, including restaurants and all the borders and ships, so we are concerned about everything being planned in the best possible way. greece is emerging from the pandemic earlier than others not unscathed, but in better shape than most.
isolation is a way of life here, but so, too, is tourism. the health of the islanders depends on both. quentin sommerville, bbc news, the southern aegean. earlier this morning quentin sommerville explained the situation in greece. (sot) greece is accelerating its efforts coming out of the lockdown because its efforts in the pandemic have been better than expected and that all important been better than expected and that all importa nt tourism season, been better than expected and that all important tourism season, in july and august, that is when this island really makes its bread and butter for the rest of the year, so we got here yesterday for the first reopening to domestic tourists. the island was hardly overwhelmed. a few people arrived on the ferry, those doctors you saw in my report, but they are hoping that these initial first steps will get them back on
the road to the tourist industry that they so rely on. let me show you a bit more of the island, if you can bear it. these tavernas, for the last couple of months, everything has been closed. bars and restau ra nts has been closed. bars and restaurants were only open for ta keaway restaurants were only open for takeaway business and as of yesterday they opened for business properly and you can sit down and have a retsi na properly and you can sit down and have a retsina and some moussaka

the world health organization has said there is no scientific evidence so said there is no scientific evidence so far but that it can treat covid 19 or be effective against it. anecdotal reports were that it might be beneficial. but those trials have been stopped, suggesting the drug could cause heart problems and might even increase deaths among covid 19 patients. the executive group has implemented a temporary pause of the hydroxychloroquine arm within the solidarity trial while the data is reviewed by the data monitoring board. the who says the decision to suspend trials was precautionary measure. . however, it said patients
taking hydroxychloroquine for establish reasons such as malaria should continue to do so. in england, two people have died in separate incidents along the cornish coast on bank holiday monday. a teenage girl died after a boat overturned at wadebridge. a man was pulled from the water at padstow by a member of the public but was pronounced dead at the scene. the royal national lifeboats institution said it had its busiest weekend so far this year despite warnings that there were no lifeguards on patrol and is calling for the government to restrict access to the coast until lifeguard patrols are back on beaches. the rnli chief executive mark dowiejoins me now from salcolmbe in devon. before we come onto what you want to
happen, give us a sense of how busy you have been across the coast? over the weekend, we had about 120 lifeboat launches. that is way more than a normal weekend. certainly along the strip of coast you just referred to, all four lifeboats near those incidents were out during the course of yesterday, so a very busy weekend indeed. so you have written to the public, not only do you want them to heed your safety advice, but i may write you re also calling for people to stay away from beaches? the situation we find ourselves in is very unusual. normally we would have trained something like 1600 lifeguards for our 2a0 beaches that we lifeguards use around the coast, and those lifeguards would be being
rolled out across the beaches as the season start, and several of the beachesin season start, and several of the beaches in cornwall would have had lifeguards by now in the normal course. but because of the restrictions, we were unable to train any lifeguards throughout the period of lockdown and we are now having to deal with a situation where we are training lifeguards in new protocols, to make sure that they themselves are safe on beaches when they go on to provide the essential lifeguard cover. it is what we are able to do now, right now, is bring a service onto roughly 70 of the 2a0 beaches that we cover and that will happen over the course of the next couple of weeks. we hope 15 beaches, and we are certain 15 beaches will open over the course of the next few days, or will begin to be being life guarded, including eight in cornwall. and as the situation, depending on whether we see a second viral spike or if the
local authorities are comfortable with lifeguards being back on the beaches, is the situation develops we will look to add to that service through the course of the summer. but i m looking at your letter, and you are saying that we are asking the government to restrict access to the government to restrict access to the coast until we have lifeguard patrol is back on beaches, as you just explain, and i suppose the difficulty is you have got fine weather and they are desperate to enjoy freedom after weeks of lockdown. clearly people have been cooped up for a long time and live by the coast and they have been able to go to the coast through this period because they not have the same difficulties with travel restrictions. what we are really keen to see is there is strong government support for getting the water safety messages to people, to really make sure that people are super really make sure that people are super aware really make sure that people are super aware of the dangers that they
put themselves in when they go to the sea to see to have that experience and that people just generally use common sense, keep theirfamilies safe generally use common sense, keep their families safe and don t use things like inflatables and follow all of our water safety messaging. the government hopes that giving all of those messages would be giving very helpful. mark dowie, rnli chief executive, thanks for talking to us on bbc news and joining us from devon. hello this is bbc news with rebecca jones. the headlines: a junior minister has resigned over the handling of the borisjohnson top adviser‘s travels during lockdown. it comes as other uk government ministers rally to support dominic cummings they say they understand public concern, but insist he acted reasonably when making trips during lockdown. almost all shops in england will be
able to reopen from 15thjune as part of plans to further ease the lockdown. the world health organization halts trials of an anti malarial drug as a potential treatment for covid 19 as it s found it could cause heart problems. hong kong s leader has rejected suggestions that china s proposed new security laws could erode freedoms in the territory. we travelled to greece with a team of doctors who are setting up virus testing were no coronavirus insta nces testing were no coronavirus instances have been reported. we re going to edinburgh for the daily coronavirus briefing from scotland s first minister,
nicola sturgeon. a total of 1200 patients are in hospital with confirmed or suspected covid 19 covid 19. that is a decrease of 69 from yesterday, and 16 in the number of confirmed cases. a total of 36 people last night were in intensive care with confirmed or suspected covid 19, that is a decrease of a cents yesterday. i am to confirm today that since the arch, a total of 3589 patients who had tested positive and required hospitalisation have been able not to leave hospital. unfortunately, in the last day, 18 deaths have been registered of patients who had been confirmed through a test of having the virus. they take the total number of deaths in scotland under that measurement to 2291. yesterday was a bank holiday and registration may have been lower, so that should be taken into account when
considering today? figures. each one of these is notjust a figure. each one is an individual whose loss is being grieved by many. i want to send my condolences to everyone who has lost a loved one to this virus. let me also express my gratitude as they always do to your health and ca re they always do to your health and care workers who continue to do an incredible, exceptionaljob in the most difficult of circumstances. today, i want to take a little bit of time to focus on the launch later this week of nhs scotland s test, trace and isolate programme, which is called test and protect in scotland, you will see the logo for it on the screen behind me. from the end of this week, through test and protect, anyone who suspects that they have covid 19, anyone who has they have covid 19, anyone who has the symptoms that we advise you to be aware of, will be tested. if you
test positive, your close contacts will be traced and advised to isolate for 1a days. the aim of test and protect is to quickly identify cases of the virus and then act to break the chains of transmission. you may recall that on the ath of may we published our initial plans for this programme and i can confirm today that the system will go live in every single one of scotland s 1a health board areas on thursday of this week. test and protect will be an extremely important tool for us in the months ahead. it will help us suppress the virus while we slowly ease lockdown restrictions. i need to stress today that it will only be effective if we all play our part. today, i want to briefly set out with a capacity of the new system will be at the point of launch and how this will develop. i will set out how you, as an individual, your workplace and your employer can
support us in making it work. firstly, we said that to lunch test and protect nationally we needed the ability to conduct more than 15,000 tests a day. i can confirm that this capacity is now in place. that capacity is now in place. that capacity is now in place. that capacity is being delivered through a combination of nhs labs, academic partners, the scottish national blood transfusion service, and the lycos lab in glasgow. secondly, we said we would enhance and extend use of the software that public health already useful contact tracing in relation other infectious diseases. that software has been piloted in fife, lanarkshire and highland over the past week and i can confirm it will be operational in every health board by thursday. thirdly, we said that we would aim to have 2,000 contact tracers are available by the end of this month. i should say, based on our current demand estimates, we assess that around 700 will actually be needed in the early
phase. however, ican will actually be needed in the early phase. however, i can confirm that by the end of the month we will have a pool of around 2,000 to draw on if necessary. this is a system that will operate at a scale not seen before in scotland. of course, we have had testing and contact tracing before, but it is substantially increasing the scale. therefore, over the first couple of weeks it will need to betterjoin, but introducing it at the same time as we ta ke introducing it at the same time as we take the first very cautious steps out of lockdown gives us the opportunity to address any operational issues ahead of a potentially more substantial easing of restrictions at the next review date in three weeks. over the next few weeks, we will also add enhancements to the system. the technology used by contact tracers will be in place from the start, but we will also add a digital platform to allow people who test positive to enter details of their contacts
online. we will also continue to build testing capacity because we need more than the 15,500 in future, and we will work over the next few weeks to make access to testing more locally accessible. we will keep you updated on all of that. let me outline what we are asking you, the public, to do. let me stress that just like lockdown itself, really, this is something that will only have the desired effect if we all do what is required. it cannot be seen as optional. to make sure we all understand what is required of us, i can tell you that a public awareness campaign will start later on this week. during june information will be delivered to every household across the country. i want today to set out some of the basics. firstly, as of thursday, we are asking that if you have any of the symptoms of covid 19, that is a calf, temperature, or loss of taste or
smell, that you take immediate steps to book a test. please don t wait to see if you feel better after a day or two. time really is of the essence, so or two. time really is of the essence, so get in touch as soon as you experience symptoms. how do you do that? you can go to nhs informed doctor scott, or if you can get online, you can call nhs 2a on 0800 0282816. online, you can ask for a test for yourself or someone else do you live with and took it at one of the drive through testing centres or mobile testing units. for some there will be the option of a home testing kits. as i said earlier, we will be working in the coming weeks to further expand local access to testing. if you can go online, call nhs 2a. 08000282816. we will speak to an adviser who will go through questions with you and booking in
for a test. while you wait for your test and the result, it is essential that you and your household self isolate, which is what we advise you to do already if you have symptoms. that means staying at home at all times with the exception of going out for the test. you should not go to the shops come out for exercise or see anybody else. in line with current guidance, the person with symptoms should isolate for seven days from the start of the symptoms. other members of the household should isolate for 1a days. if any of them start to display symptoms during that time they will also go through the testing process. if your test come back negative, you and your household can enter a solution at that point. however, if you are contacted that point. however, if you are co nta cted to that point. however, if you are contacted to be told that you have tested positive, you will be asked at that stage for details of people that you have been in contact with. the definition of a contact as people within your household, people you have had face to face contact
with and people you have been within two metres of for a period of 15 minutes or more. the contact tracers who take the details will then guide you through that. i want to take the opportunity now to assure you that your privacy will be respected at all times during this process. the information you provide will be held securely within the nhs and it will be used only for the purposes of tracing your contacts. let me be clear, it will not be used by the scottish government. we will not have access to the information. all of the work of identifying and tracing contacts will be done within scotland? nhs. tracing contacts will be done within scotland ? nhs. let tracing contacts will be done within scotland? nhs. let me turn briefly to what you do if you receive a call from a contact address to say you have been in contact with someone who has tested positive. it is no exaggeration to say that how any of us respond at that point will be vital in breaking the chains of transmission of the virus and
stopping spread. if you get that call, you will be asked to self isolate immediately. our success of test and protect will depend on all of us trusting this advice and, for the sake of ourselves and each other, agreeing to abide by it. if you are at work, the advice will be to immediately head home. we are publishing guidance today for employers, making clear that they should support any member of staff who is asked to self isolate through test and protect. if you are well, don t have symptoms yourself, and you are able to work from home, then your employer may well expect you to do that, but they should not ask you to go into work. the scottish government is also in contact with the uk government to ensure that employment rights and entitlement to benefits, including statutory sick pay, take account of the fact that people might be off work or unable to attend appointments through no
fault of their own. we have published today general advice for anyone who is asked to self isolate. this is something that over the months ahead could happen to any of us are more than one occasion. this guidance includes hygiene advice for your home, advice for other people in your household, what to do if you ca re in your household, what to do if you care for somebody, and what to do if you need help accessing food and medicine, or even accommodation. it also suggests how all of us can make some preparations in advance. i will run “ some preparations in advance. i will run i some preparations in advance. i will run i know! some preparations in advance. i will run i know i havejust run through a lot of information there, but don t worry, there will be a public awareness campaign starting later this week and we will take steps to ensure that everyone knows what we are asking you to do. this isa what we are asking you to do. this is a big thing, it really matters, therefore we will be careful in making sure that the different steps are well understood. for now, let me
leave you with these points. test unprotected is a really important tool for us in the period ahead. the more effective it is, the more of the lockdown restrictions we will be able to left. however, and this is an important point, although it is vital, it can t do all of the work of suppressing the virus on its own. all of us will continue to have a vital role to play in our everyday lives. that means, even as we is locked on, physical distance and, good hygiene and following appropriate advice will continue to be essential. so too will all of us doing what is asked to fast. testing protect will only be effective if we all come forward for testing when we have symptoms, and if we all agree to self isolate when we are asked to do so. it will only work if the government steps up to give you the support you need to do so. in short, test and protect will require
exactly the same spirit of solidarity and care for each other as lockdown has done. it will be our collective national endeavour. people will need the help of family, friends, colleagues, employers, volu nteers friends, colleagues, employers, volunteers will have a part to play in supporting people through test and protect. government will have to ensure the right capacity, resources and support is in place. all of us will have to agree to make sacrifices for the common good, just as we have been doing in these past weeks. in short, and i guess this is the nub of what test unprotected is intending to do, by agreeing that some of us will have to stay at home at times when we have symptoms, test positive will have been in contact with someone who test positive, we will gradually be able to move away from a situation that we have now where everybody is being asked to stay at home all of the time. as i
said earlier, we will make much more information available in the days and weeks to come, but i wanted to give you a preview of what is a significant initiative. let me leave you with the most important message. if you have symptoms of covid 19 used to go online to nhs in form or call nhs 2a and book a test straightaway. for now, all of us must continue to stick with the lockdown measures. please let stay at home for now except for essential purposes. when you delete a more than two metres away from others and to meet up with people from households other than your own. you should wear a face covering if you are in alnwick an enclosed place, such as a shopper public transport. that will be covered in the transport transition plan that will be outlined in the scottish parliament later this afternoon. we should continue to wash your hands thoroughly and regularly and if you
or someone thoroughly and regularly and if you or someone else in your household has symptoms of covid 19, right now, even before test and protect, you should stay home completely. these actions are vital to slow the spread of the virus even more, to continue to protect the nhs and save lives. my to protect the nhs and save lives. my thanks once again to all of you for your patience, forbearance and willingness to make the sacrifices for the good of all of us. i have taken a bit of time today to go through that, such as the importance of test and protect. i will not go straight to questions from journalists. i am joined straight to questions from journalists. iam joined by straight to questions from journalists. i am joined by the chief medical officer and the chief nursing officer who will help me to a nswer nursing officer who will help me to answer questions. first up, i will go to lan campbell from the bbc. the bbc poll today suggests that 70% of people think we went into lockdown too late. there is probably much end
up too late. there is probably much end up all that you agree with, but i wonder do you agree with the majority who think we went into lockdown too late? i think it is a perfectly legitimate and understandable question. in the fullness of time we will want to look back and take a very hard look at what we did right and what might have differently had we known then what we know now about the virus. i don t shy away from that. what i do say is that we took the decisions we thought were best at the time based on the knowledge and information we had. we will have made mistakes. every government in the world will have made mistakes and it is important for the future that we are candid about that when the time comes to look at that properly. all i would say in addition to that, is over the weeks i have stood here taken questions, i have been asked questions about her past approach that come from both ends of the
spectrum. i have been asked a question did we go into lockdown too late, and equally is there any point of lockdown at all? we had the swedish expert opinion put to you saying that lockdown is pointless. we ta ke saying that lockdown is pointless. we take the best decisions we can at the time and try to learn as we go. in the fullness of time there will be scrutiny and enquiry into what went right and what we could have done better. i am absolutely in agreement that that is important and will welcome that. hopefully, we will welcome that. hopefully, we will not have another pandemic for a long time to come, but we may well have them in the future so it is important that we learned lessons as we come out of this one. is it possible to say why, whilst it is important to have the r number blow one on the way out of lockdown, why
it was allowed to get between four and six on the way in?” it was allowed to get between four and six on the way in? i will hand over to greco there. you say i like to, we got to a situation where we had widespread community transmission of the virus. if we go back to the press updates at that time, you would have heard me and the chief medical officer talking about that at the time and that guided our move from the four stage plan, that planted all four nations of the uk published at the outset, the tickets from content into a delay of the virus. that was about community transmission. these are judgments we made. all of the steps we have taken all along have been about trying to slow down, firstly contain, then slow down the spread of the virus and that will continue to be the case. i have talked for
more than two months here about the importance of slowing the spread of the virus. that has driven us. it is hardly surprising that the r number was much higher in those early stages because there was much more in the population susceptible to the virus at that point. when you look at the way the virus was introduced to the uk with multiple introductions across the country into communities, some of which were easily detected, some of which were not detected, just because there wasn t the knowledge about the type of symptoms at that point in time that people made experience. it is no surprise to me or anybody that at that point in time the r number was very much greater in the united kingdom. the important thing is, with the measures we are taking, it has with the measures we are taking, it ha s a llowe d with the measures we are taking, it has allowed that r number to be greatly reduced, so we got a sense of control over the way the were
spreading. as i sat in parliament last week, the handling of this virus is not a popularity contest, it is trying to do the right things based on the information we have got. there is strong support for the government? phased and careful and cautious approach coming out of lockdown. i don t take that for granted. it is why i think it is so important that at every stage of the process i here and explain to you why i am acting asking you to do these things. i never take that support for granted because we are asking everybody to do really difficult things and it is important that we continue to have that open conversation about it. colin white from stv? is there any improvement in the speed at which test results come back? secondly, what is your reaction to the resignation today of
douglas ross? on the turnaround time for testing, we are seeing reductions in the turnaround time for tests, but we are trying to get that even lower than it is, because asi that even lower than it is, because as i said, speeders of the essence. from the point somebody. phones up goes online with symptoms, that is why a sad don t wait, we all know what we can be like when we feel a bit unwell. you might decide to wait a few hours or a day to see if you feel better but it is important you don t do that. you book a test straightaway, get tested as quickly as possible, then the processing of that test is done really quickly so the contact tracing process can also be done quickly. we are trying to reduce that as much as possible. looking at the turnaround times for tests from the beginning when we started testing compared to now, we have been able to make a huge impact on the duration of reporting for our
test results to be given back to a patient. we are still exploring ways we can improve that further and i expect over the coming weeks and months we will refine new techniques in terms of how we can do that, techno samples through the processes ina techno samples through the processes in a safe and efficient way so that we can further reduce the amount of time it takes for the whole testing process from beginning to end. the lab part of the process is only one aspect, it is also how you sample it, how you get it to the lab and how you return the result back to the patient. that all has to be factored into the whole duration of these tests. fair play to douglas ross, on the second part of question. the majority of the population, i expect, got that the
actions of dominic cummings were not a cce pta ble actions of dominic cummings were not acceptable under retrospective rewriting of the rules to somehow justify that is not acceptable either. he has taken the principal position of resigning from the uk government and we will see whether others decide to follow suit. i have had my say on dominic cummings and i don t intend to say very much more about it. my views are well known. my about it. my views are well known. my focus right now, as it has been for the last couple of months, is to continue to tackle this crisis and things like test and protect our massive pieces of work for any government and my job massive pieces of work for any government and myjob is to stay focused on all of that. james matthews from sky? thanks, first minister. scotland ? matthews from sky? thanks, first minister. scotland? universities and places of higher education speak of their economic troubles, economic armageddon, they say they are in a serious state and they stress the importance of tuition fees. would
you guarantee you will not scrap tuition fees? i will guarantee that i will not introduce tuition fees. we have free tuition in scotland and i don t want to see students having to pay tuition and i don t think transferring the real financial challenges that universities face onto the shoulders of students or graduates is the way to do it. university graduates, who often earn more, pay more through income tax. we believe that news conference there from nicola sturgeon, scotland s first minister. a comprehensive update from her, including a significant announcement about the launch of the test and protect programme in scotland. basically, anyone who suspects that they have covert 19 covid 19, are being advised to take a test. if you
test positive, your close contacts will be contacted and advised to isolate. nicola sturgeon sang the system will go live on thursday and there will be more details announced before then. i also just want to bring you a spot of breaking news from mclaren. it has announced it will cut 1200 jobs from its operations. that represents around a quarter of its workforce of more than a,000. mclaren, one of formula 1 s most historic names, thejobs will be spread across all its operations. let s catch up with the weather. yesterday, temperatures reached 27 degrees in teddington in greater london. i expect london will also see the highest temperatures today. more cloud in the sky than in recent
days, particularly so across wales and northern england. this line of cloud is just what is left of a very wea k cloud is just what is left of a very weak all front. no rain left on it, just a little bit of patchy cloud drifting southwards. overnight, we could well see some low cloud form across the hills and coast of south west england weather could be a few mist and fog patches developing. it is a mild lie, particularly in the south of england and wales, 1a degrees in cardiff at the end of the night. fresher air for northern england, northern ireland and scotland. over the next few days, that warmer air in the south will push northwards, so there will be a warming trend over the next few days. wednesday, most of england and wales will have a sunny start. more in the way of cloud for northern ireland and scotland. it could be an odd spot of rain in northern ireland, but not amounting to much. in the best of the sunshine in england and wales, temperatures could reach the high 20s in a few
areas. whereas, for scotland, northern ireland and the far north of scotland, the high teens. the warmer areas on its of scotland, the high teens. the warmer areas on its way and on thursday, this rain moves out of the way and the warm air will push n in the afternoon. sun chang for england and wales, sunny day for northern ireland. a small amount of ram for the farnworth of scotland. temperature is 20 degrees in belfast, 22 and edinburgh. the heat is really concentrated across england and we are is, where we are likely to see up to 27 degrees in the warmest areas. for friday, we are all in the warmer air. the onshore wind will keep our eastern coastal areas a little bit fresher. the warmest weather and lands. in edinburgh, up to 2a degrees as we finished the week. i find one that we care. on into the weekend, the fine weather is set to continue.
temperatures widely into the loo or mid 20s. that is your weather.
following the actions of the prime minister s chief aide. junior minister douglas ross says he s stepping down because of the government s defence of dominic cummings and his family trip during lockdown. we ll be getting the latest reaction from westminster. also this lunchtime weeks before they re back at work, retailers say they re worried about how they ll cope with stringent new restrictions, if shoppers do come back. before this all happened, 70% of retail sales were made in stores, so although it won t return to that in the next sort of three to six months, we re hoping that people will go out and support their high street. heading in the right direction the trend in deaths from coronavirus continues downward, with the lowest rate for six weeks.

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Transcripts For BBCNEWS BBC News At Ten 20200612 21:00:00


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











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Transcripts For BBCNEWS BBC News 20200605 12:30:00


while elsewhere the lockdown is now easing, they ll still remain confined to base, but the pensioners too are looking forward to better times ahead. the upside is i ve been in damn sight worse places than this and i ve been in trenches and i ve been in sangers up in the hills of south arabia. at least here i get three meals a day and go to my bed at night, and best of all, nobody is shooting at me. have no fear, don t worry about it, we will meet again. # i know we ll meet again some sunny day.#. bravo, bravo. that takes us to the weather prospects, wherever you are in the country. helen willetts has those.
not a great deal of sunshine for the next few days. this is a picture taken off the coast in conway, north wales, large whales already building due to low pressure and a blast of northerly winds large waves already building. so there is concern with the trees in full leaf now that gusts of wind up to 50 or 60 miles an hour today and tomorrow will cause a few problems. notjust wind though. we ve got this band of rain coming into northern scotland. we ve got a real rash of showers elsewhere. you can see there is some thunder and lightning as well. so it is an unsettled picture if you are out and about and it s cool as well. this time last week, 28 degrees, the warmest day of the year so far in scotland, barely eight or nine today, a drop of 20 degrees. there will of course be some sunshine between the showers, particularly gci’oss between the showers, particularly across england and wales and the south but gathering rain cloud for scotla nd south but gathering rain cloud for scotland as you can see, and here,
the winds busting 50, 60 miles an hour and those strong winds will continue through the night carrying that longer spell of rain if you like further southwards as the showers ease away in the south. we could see 5 6dc but generally because of the strength of the wind it won t be a particularly cold night. temperature wise. clearly, it will feel chilly. that same area of low pressure stays with us throughout the weekend actually pushing the stronger winds further south was across england and wales although they ll continue to blow at gale force potentially in northern scotla nd gale force potentially in northern scotland and ireland. rain edging southwards probably breaking into quite heavy showers with hail and thunder again and more to come behind. again, they could be some sunshine around between there and at this time of year, it sjune, we are not far from the longest day, the sunnis are strong so it will allow the temperatures at the sunny spots to get into the high teens. as you can see the potentially red lowlands potentially. the devil is in the detail with the showers this weekend. what we do think it is by
sunday the azores high will start to build back in from the west, so that will effectively lighten the amount of showers and the intensity of the showers, ease the winds a bit in these areas but there will still be a lot of cool, cloudy weather on sunday, still some showery rain and eastern areas, but where we do see the sunshine with lighter winds it will start to feel a bit warmer once again. a reminder of our top story. a study to estimate the number of people with coronavirus in england suggests infections in households have fallen, with one in a thousand people with the illness in the last two weeks of may. that s all from the bbc news at one. 0n bbc one we nowjoin the bbc‘s news teams where you are. good afternoon, it s 1.30pm and here s your latest sports news.
rugby union s premiership season will resume on the 15th august, assuming it is safe to do so. no matches in england s top flight have been played since the 8th of march, due to the coronavirus shutdown. but clubs have now been cleared to start non contact training. 0ur rugby union correspondent chrisjonesjoins me. what effect will this clarity have for teams and players? it s a step in the right direction, we have been and something of a limbo in rugby union for the past few months, players not knowing when it was safe to return to training and no date and the diary for the premiership but the 22nd of august is the target from 14 and the premiership has the target of the 15th so players can now return to the early stages of training and can look forward to the assumption. there are still a few questions to answer, how are rugby players going to be able to do contact training safely, is that a testing programme
in place like we have seen in the premier league? we have not had a nswe i’s premier league? we have not had answers on that yet so a few more steps to take before rugby union is safe to resume but certainly some positive noises at last. what impact would the prolonged campaign have on internationals, and the start of the next season? good question, at one point it looked like we were heading for an almighty fixture logjam and that might be the case but the noises and getting load done about this ground breaking historic new rugby calendar and if that can get sorted out and it is a big if with so many stakeholders involved and plenty of hurdles to jump but if it can get sorted out the plan would be to finish this campaign then take a break andi finish this campaign then take a break and i should a whole new global calendar with the new season perhaps starting sometime in the new year and rugby being played through the summer months and they complete the summer months and they complete the different international setup including a different six nations that will be played later in the spring. it is an exciting and
fascinating time for the sport at the moment and it might be come 2021 we have rugby union like we have never seen it before. thank you. chelsea women have been officially named as champions for this season. the women s super league was cancelled last month. now league positions have been decided on average points, which means chelsea, who were second, go above manchester city. both teams qualify for next season s champions league. liverpool are relegated and replaced by aston villa from the championship. a number of american football players have called on their sport s governing body, the nfl, to speak out against racism. in a video posted on social media, the players say the organisation, has failed them since the death of george floyd. this this what we the players were like to hear you say. we the nfl condemn of this is and the systematic oppression of black people. we have been wrong in
silence when our players are peacefully protesting. black lives matter. black lives matter. the nfl have responded, pointing to the milions of dollars they donate to help address systemic racism. for the first time this century, test cricket will be back on the bbc. the highlights of all three tests and one day internationals against the west indies will be on bbc two, as the game tries to attract new and old audiences. there will be a lot of eyes on cricket that perhaps might not have seen it in the past and at as about how do we help people understand what the game is about and relate to people. that is what i am really excited about. that is all from no.
the first minister of scotland has said turnover is down in almost every sector of the scottish economy, and that output will not return to pre coronavirus levels for a number of years. nicola sturgeon also urged people not to attend protests following the death of george floyd in the united states, because of the risk of spreading coronavirus. she was speaking at the daily scottish government daily briefing. in the
first half of may almost one fifth of businesses and stuff are temporarily closed and that contributed to more than 750,000 people being followed on unable to work as normal. the report shows tolerable is down in almost every sector of the economy and it contains new modelling which takes account of the different phases for easing lockdown. on that basis the report forecast in more gradual economic recovery which may not see it return to precrisis levels fully it return to precrisis levels for a number of years. the publication confirms the scale of the economic crisis we face and in doing that further underlines why government action is so important and continue to be so. the scottish government has allocated £2.3 billion to help businesses and protectjobs and that is before me protectjobs and that is before we consider uk wide measures such as the job retention scheme. that support is helping to mitigate some of the economic impact and will continue to be vital as businesses seek to rebuild. i want to again give an assurance that the scottish government is determined to do everything we can to support that process of rebuilding and recovery. we will continue to do everything possible to protect your livelihood, that is important in the short term but also vital to help lay the groundwork for a sustainable
economic recovery. that recovery will be helped by continued progress against this virus. if we have a setback in tackling the virus that will make the reopening of our economy all the more difficult for the second item i want to cover today is related to the first and it concerns becomes lockdown restrictions and particularly how i hope people will comply with them over this weekend and beyond. we are at the close of the first full week since we moved into phase one of our route map out of lockdown and eased some of the restrictions. so far the vast majority of people have stuck by the new rules and i want to take the opportunity again to thank all of you who have continued to do the right thing. it is also clear that over the past week not absolutely everyone has done that. the chief constable
may say more about compliance and how they will be enforced at necessary but i want to set out very clearly again today to do that to focus on what we are asking everyone not to do because it is that is by not doing the things we know allows the virus to spread that will keep under control. to start you must not people from other households indoors. i know that may be a a particular temptation. we know this virus transmits much more easily between people inside than outside. if you are not willing to meet outdoors in all likelihood the rain then please do not meet up with
people from other households at all and i cannot emphasise that strongly enough. i am not exaggerating when i say that if you do meet with people from other households indoors you are putting yourself and you are putting them at risk of getting the virus and becoming ill with it and potentially dying from it. i would ask you not please to take that risk. the risk of meeting outdoors is lower it is not absolutely zero that means if you do meet outdoors you must again within two metres are members of another household. you should certainly not be shaking their hands are hugging them difficult though that is and should not shout food utensils with people from other households or touch surfaces they may also have touched because these are ways in which we know the virus spreads relatively easily. we are asking that when two households do meet up there should be no more than eight
in total in a group. in addition you should not go more than five miles for recreation and should not leave your face uncovered if you are in an enclosed space like a shop and public transport. wearing a face covering helps you protect others and having others wear a face covering means they protect you. i want to make the general point that you should still be seen far fewer people than normal and still trying to stay at home as much as possible. basically if you start to feel your social life is returning to normal that is not a good sign now. that message applies to everyone but it is perhaps particularly relevant to young people so i want today to make a special plea to all of you young people of scotland. many of you will be desperate to spend more time with pals after weeks of being apart and made even think that as young and may even think that as young
people you are less likely to become seriously slow as a result of the seriously ill as a result of the virus and i know this from speaking to young people in my own life. but i want to be very clear, you are not immune from this virus, you can get it and it can be very harmful very harmful to you. the first minister of wales has announced an extension to the £500 bonus scheme for care home workers. the scheme will now include kitchen and other staff along with agency workers. mark drakeford made the announcement at his daily briefing. over a month ago i announced we would be making a special one off payment of £500 to all social care workers and recognition of the vital contribution they have made in helping wheels made in helping wales during this pandemic. this is a complex sector with hundreds of employers in both the private, public and independent spheres. we have had detailed discussions with the trades unions, employers and local authorities over the last few weeks to finalise
the details of this payment so we can get the money to those who have made that vital contribution. we have also been discussing with the uk government tax and national insurance implications because we wanted to make sure that every penny reaches the pockets of our dedicated social care workforce. 0n the first point i am pleased to say that we have finalised this phase of the work so that we can begin to start making these £500 payments this month. they will be made to all social care staff giving direct personal care, in care homes and in people s homes themselves by domiciled it care workers and that will include personal assistance as well, employed by people under the direct payment scheme.
we know that inside care homes, work goes on as a large household where a range of staff members developed close and valued relationships with residents and contribute to their care and well being. during this pandemic many kitchen and domestic staff have taken on a wider caring role to ensure continue to care at the time they have spent with residents is vital as visiting with families has been restricted. i am pleased to say that in recognition of the extended role they have played and all the detailed work which has on over the past few weeks we are now able to extend this payment to those ancillary staff working in care homes.
to confirm that nursing staff employed by care homes will also be eligible for this grant. the european union s chief negotiator, michel barnier, has said there has been no significant progress in talks with the uk about a future trade deal. speaking after the latest round of negotiations, he accused the government of backtracking from undertakings in the political declaration agreed by both sides. are like of progress in this negotiation is not due to our method but to the systems. we must stick to our commitments if we want to move forward. we engaged this negotiation ona forward. we engaged this negotiation on a joint political declaration that sets out the terms of a future
partnership. this document is available in all languages including english. it is not difficult to read, good weekend reading if i may say. the declaration was negotiated with prime minister borisjohnson himself and approved by the leaders of the 27 member states at the european council in october 2019 and has the backing of the european parliament also. it is for us and will remain for us the only valid reference, the only relevant precedent in these negotiations. it was agreed by both sides. yet around
after round our british counterparts seek to distance themselves from this common basis. let me give you four concrete examples. referring precisely to the text of the political declaration. first the premise that agreed in paragraph 77 that i quote given our geographical proximity and economic interdependence, ourfuture agreement must encompass robust commitments to prevent distortions of trade and unfair competitive advantages. this is what together we chose to call the level playing field. in this paragraph the prime minister borisjohnson agreed to
uphold the common high standards applicable and the union and the uk and at the end of the transition period these areas stated competition social and employment standards, environment climate change and relevant tax methods. we are today very far from this objective. britain s chief negotiator, david frost, agreed that progress remains limited but said the talks were positive in tone but that any agreement would have to accommodate london s current position on all issues. both sides stressed that work should be intensified for an agreement to be reached by the deadline in october. in pakistan, doctors are warning the already weak healthcare system could soon be overwhelmed by coronavirus patients. with fewer than 2,000 known deaths so far, the outbreak has not been as bad
as some feared but the rate of new cases is at its highest level so far. secunder kermani reports. in karachi s hospitals, intensive care units for coronavirus patients are under pressure. there are only a handful of dedicated icu beds still free in a city of 15 million people. they are racing to build new facilities, but local officials and doctors have been frustrated by the central government s decision to lift nearly all lockdown restrictions. these were shoppers in the capital,
islamabad, shortly before the eid festival two weeks ago. since then, the rate of new cases has increased. the government is now introducing fines for those not socially distancing, or wearing masks. but enforcement is likely to be difficult. prime minister imran khan, however, has been clear. with recorded deaths comparatively low he believes poverty is a greater threat than coronavirus. there are 50 million people here who can t even afford two meals a day, he says. if we impose a lockdown like they did in wuhan or europe, what will happen to them? but critics say the government is sending out mixed messages, while conspiracy theories are spreading. a number of hospitals have been attacked by angry relatives, as rumours circulate medics
are being paid by the world health 0rganization to wrongly declare patients covid positive. here, a mob try to take a patient‘s dead body away, furious at the prospect of not being able to hold a traditional funeral insisting coronavirus is a hoax. tensions are aggravated by a lack of resources. i spoke to one doctor, aggressively confronted by a crowd of relatives of a critically ill woman who died with no icu bed available. she is calling for more security and increased awareness. when they were attacking us, they were shouting and saying if covid 19 is real, why is it not happening to the doctors? terrible is a small word for what i felt that day. my husband, who is also a doctor, he was pushed inside the ward without ppe to see the patient, and he had to do the cpr
on the patient without ppe, while i was outside trying to control the mob. health care workers face other threats, too. at least 30 have died so far from coronavirus. doctors have warned of a lack of protective equipment for some staff, and the dangers of undiagnosed patients spreading the infection. 0fficials insist that while certain hospitals might be filling up, there is still plenty of capacity across the country, and equipment for staff has improved. but, for now, the number of new cases looks set to continue rising. secunder kermani, bbc news. the family of a pensioner who was raped in her home have told the bbc they only discovered her attacker was cleared for release from prison when they were contacted by a newspaper. hazel backwell, who was 66, was attacked in east london in 1997 by wendell baker. the parole board announced
last month that baker was suitable for release following a hearing in april. the ministry ofjustice has apologised for failing to inform the family. the luxury carmaker bentley is cutting one thousand jobs in the uk, about a quarter of its workforce. the company, which manufactures its cars in crewe, has offered all staff the chance to take voluntary redundancy. the move comes as the car industry faces a sharp drop in sales because of coronavirus. take a look at these pictures from norway. this is the moment a powerful landslide caused a house to topple over and others to be swept into the sea in the town of alta. it happened after hours of heavy rain. nobody is reported to have been hurt, but a dog had to be rescued by helicopter and is said to be ok.
now it s time for a look at the weather with helen wiletts it was a fairly cool start to the day. windy weather, unusual for this time of year but about by the deep area of year but about by the deep area of repression and weather fronts around sort far the showers and spells of rain but we may have early summer gales and those gusts of wind and already starting to escalate. they could build each 60 most for northern and western parts through the art of part of today, with that wet weather and snow on the tops of the mountains. further south sunshine and between showers but they are heavy, already a fan that i lightning and could also be hail as well and gusty winds, 35 40, the
strongest through the domain that on friday across the northern half of the uk but gradually through the night those stronger winds will meander south as low pressure pushes a band of rain and wet weather further south as well. a blustery night as a result, temperatures holding 7 8 but if you are out it is going to feel chilly given the strength of the wind which will still be with us through saturday, the strongest winds slowly engine south into england and wales as low pressure m oves south into england and wales as low pressure moves to the east dangling coast and those longer spells rain which turn showery and could spark heavy thundery showers. more rain potential and scotland and northern ireland, scattered showers and sunny spells, blustery and chilly wind easing a little across the north but againa easing a little across the north but again a cool day, temperatures below where they should be fun this time of year and it will feel even that
could not further south with more cloud and outbreaks of rain. gradually through saturday into sunday receive the low pressure pulling away from western areas, high pressure building so a drier day, still cool and cloudy and still showing outbreaks for many eastern areas and still feeling cool, temperatures below average but left ina temperatures below average but left in a little across scotland and northern ireland and the west as things quietened and that continues into the early part of next week.

this is bbc news. the headlines. ministers defend making face coverings compulsory on public transport in england, from next week. on balance, we are convinced it certainly cannot do any harm. we think it will do some good and that is why we think it is a good idea to introduce. no signficant progress in talks about a post brexit trade deal. the eu s michel barnier accuses the uk government of backtracking from the agreed political declaration. this document. is available in all languages. including english. it is not difficult to read. more details emerge about the disappearance of madeleine mccann 13 years ago
an image of the suspect,

Person , Uniform , Tradition , Outerwear , Formal-wear , Event , Suit , Headgear , Ceremony , Team , Coat , Jacket

Transcripts For BBCNEWS BBC News 20200531 08:00:00


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.

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Transcripts For BBCNEWS BBC News 20200526 21:45:00


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.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. on the frontline of a covid 19 intensive care ward in london and the doctors who fear a second peak, we ve a special report. once the lockdown is relaxed, people of course are going to have more contact with each other, so that s the way this is going to spread. the political fallout continues over the actions on coronavirus lockdown rules of a top aide to british prime minister borisjohnson. as europe looks to relax border restrictions ahead of the vital tourist season greece allows domestic travel to its islands.
and the girl who cycled 1,200 kilometres across india,

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