the headlines: the uk has recorded its highest number of deaths linked to the coronavirus in a single day. 260 people have died in the past 2a hours, bringing the total to more than 1,000. this as officials warn that social distancing restrictions must be kept in place. the number of coronavirus—related deaths in the us has surged past 2,000, doubling within just two days. a quarter of the deaths are in new york state. president trump has said he is no longer considering a quarantine on new york state, newjersey and parts of connecticut. italy has become the first country in which more than 10,000 people have died of the coronavirus. the country's economy minister says europe will need a great marshall plan to relaunch its economy after the pandemic similar to the scheme that funded rebuilding after the second world war.

now on bbc news, dateline london. hello and welcome to the programme, which brings together leading uk journalists with the foreign correspondents who file their stories for the folks back home with the dateline london. that is normally what we do, but you don't need telling that these are not normal times, so for the next weeks we'll be bringing our guests together virtually. joining us today — annalisa piras, an italian writer and film maker and henry chu, europe editor for the the los angeles times. and here, sitting two metres away, the social distancing we're practising in the uk, is lyse doucet, the bbc‘s chief international correspondent. lyse, very good to have you with us.

even at a distance, shaun! however far or close you are, it's always good to have you. the uk government's mantra as it imposed restrictions to try to contain the covid—19 virus — "we're all in this together". the government was as good as its word. on friday, we learnt that borisjohnson, the prime minister, and his health secretary had been infected, and the chief medical officer for england is isolating himself because he has the symptoms. that's three people leading the uk's response to pandemic. convention centres in london, birmingham and manchester are being converted into hospitals as the national health service attempts to deal with the most serious cases. 0n the same day, the uk announced the highest number of deaths, so far, in 2a hours at 759. the number of people dying from coronavirus is doubling every three to four days. over 100,000 people have tested positive.

let's talk first of all about the implications of this in the uk. annalisa and henry, you are both forced as foreign correspondents to be here, to go through this crisis with us. what are your impressions so far of how the uk is coping? annalisa, do you want to kick us off? yes, well, there was a bit of disconcertion in the rest of europe about the choices that britain had taken in the early days of the outbreak. it looks like now things are going more in the same direction of the other countries. let's not forget that italy is two weeks ahead of britain in the spreading of the virus, so we have a clear sense that what is happening in britain is what has happened in italy, so it's very important that we compare notes in europe. there has been a bit of surprise

that britain did not do that, is doing it now, but of course that delay might have consequences. henry, one of the striking things, i suppose, is because of the news we got at the end of the week about the prime minister and others, that it looks like some people have been saying, "do as i say, not as i do." it seems that some of the instructions to the rest of us have not been observed by those who are telling us what to do. that's right. i mean, when you have borisjohnson saying just a couple of weeks ago that he was still happily shaking hands with people still, as politicians do as glad—handers, but now actually coming down with the virus, we now see perhaps the consequences of that. i am encouraged, though, certainly here in london when i look around and see deserted streets, that people are now starting to follow the guidance that is being put out by officials such as chris whitty, the chief medical officer of england where there seemed to be spotty compliance before,

i feel like people are now getting the message and realising that this phrase that none of us knew even a month ago, "flattening the curve, " is so important. i feel like that is happening. annalisa was referring to what's happened in italy. when you make a comparison to what is happening in the united states, what is your observation? you are talking to people back home a lot about the situation there. yeah, and i wish i could say that the us was mounting a coordinated and coherent response, but because of our federal system and because we have an administration, and, unfortunately, a president whose message has been all over the map about this, we also see really disparate responses in different parts of the country. so, where i'm from, southern california, los angeles has now enacted a fairly stringent 'shelter—in—place' directive, as has new york, which is now the epicentre. but we are beginning to see that the virus is now also moving into the centre of the country, to less populated areas in the middle, and spots where i think the state officials

have not been so stringent. unfortunately, we've also had a case where the president himself has almost pitted states against one another, saying duke it out for the ventilators, whoever can bid the highest for these, it ought to go to them. 0r underplaying the real dangers they face in terms of lack of equipment. i think the us response has been spotty at best. annalisa, when you compare with the uk and italy, you're making the point that italy are a couple of weeks ahead and, therefore, in the uk people should expect some of the things that italy has experienced. what lessons do you draw from the italian experience that would be worth applying in the uk? first and foremost, take seriously the instructions. don't think that it's not going to happen to you because that is what happened in italy and we know that it was devastating, especially in lombardy, the epicentre of the outbreak, because people at the beginning

kept going out, they didn't take it seriously. so that's the first lesson. it is somehow, if we consider it a war, it is quite an extraordinary advantage for britain to be able to see two weeks ahead of what the enemy, this invisible killer, is doing. i would urge everybody to follow very, very closely what is happening in italy, try to make up their mind up about what are the steps ahead and be alert and be informed all the time. so stay at home and keep vigilant and just prepare yourself to a kind of wartime experience, but with a positive attitude, because that's also what we've seen in italy, which is so encouraging. at a certain point, despair kind of was replaced by a sense of unity and collective solidarity.

this is what we need to see in britain, in my mind, if we look at italy. and, lyse, we saw it on thursday night with that moment where, at 8:00 uk time, people came out on their doorsteps and applauded those who were fighting the illness, in particular the health workers. kind of real moments in which, as annalisa was saying, we had seen in italy and some other european countries, people wanted to demonstrate solidarity in moments of isolation. it is quite extraordinary that these moments, because we do talk about moments now, when you're isolated at home, and isolated by so many people you hold dear, the clock ticks by very slowly. those moments matter, whether it was singing from the balconies in italy or in france and now in britain, it matters because we send a message that perhaps, more than ever before, we value those who are,

to use the analogies of war, the language of war, on the front line. also, what was so palpable that we all needed it. people wanted to know that while they were inside their homes their whole street was together. their neighbourhood was together. the cities were together. the world was together. in a moment where we feel enveloped, overwhelmed even by this darkness, we need this light, and it is of course in those pitch black moments when the light burns, it burns so brightly. and that's what — it was a moment to cheer. everyone went inside their homes feeling better. and that is so important now, to hold onto the moments where we feel better. we are going to have to come up with a few more moments as this crisis stretches for weeks and months ahead. we will talk more about the pandemic a little later in the programme. but i want to pause at this point, if i may, everyone, and just seize an opportunity, perhaps, to remind us that other things are happening in the world. maybe to get each of you to point

out something that you would like to draw attention to in the course of this. because i think it's easy when we all chase the same story to forget that life goes on and other things and other problems exist in the world simultaneously. henry, let's kick off with you. is there a story you think that perhaps we've taken our eye off the ball in recent weeks as we've become obsessed by coronavirus? there is, and i wish i could say it was a nice one, but unfortunately it is something else that is presenting humanity with a grave challenge, and that of course is climate change. but particularly, the news that we got just in the last week or so that there was a catastrophic loss in the greenland ice sheet. we're talking about 600 billion tonnes of ice that have melted, broken away and actually caused the seas to rise by 2mm within the space ofjust two months. i think that in the best of times, people are getting a little bit weary perhaps of hearing

about these environmental catastrophes, but this is quite a grave one and we need to meet that challenge and keep our sense that, although we hope this pandemic would be a more short—term crisis, we have a long—term one brewing up before us. annalisa, what about you? what kind of is still catching your attention whilst you are also having to kind of keep across all the developments on coronavirus? well, i've been struck by something that is not really in the news, but i think it should be, which is the possibility of change. so, in relation to climate change, this is very, very relevant, just to follow up on the story of climate change. things are getting worse on climate change, but coronavirus to showing us that something that we thought could never happen can happen — the possibility

of extraordinary change. this has happened because coronavirus faces us with the most fundamental question that every government should face — how do we protect citizens in a moment of life and death? we have seen that when that choice, imminent death, imminent threat is posed to governments, everybody knows that you need to act and change and take extraordinary measures. so i think that the good story that we should look at and really stop and think, is that we thought that we couldn't stop cars, we thought we couldn't stop factories, but look at the financial times‘ satellite view over china and see how pollution has gone down overnight. yes, of course, this isn't something we can do forever, but change is possible. so i think that we should really think that coronavirus is creating

a watershed in what we thought could be possible and would could not. and we should think — how do we use what we are understanding now to make real change in climate crisis, in the austerity about with the hospitals. we are seeing that we can do things, so we should be positive about it. henry, do you want to pick up on that thought? do you think it may be that we will change or will we just revert back in relief to the world as we knew it? i agree with annalisa that this is showing us another way. also demonstrating that human beings are extremely adaptable, which is good. i also feel like i have covered other stories, perhaps not on a global scale like this, where societies have thought to themselves we will never be the same after this, whether it was the riots

here in britain about ten years ago, and other events where the idea was that there was going to be a sea change in both behaviour and outlook. i think although human beings can adapt quickly, they also revert back to being creatures of routine. and when you have, for example, unfortunately again, an administration in the us that is talking about trying to get economic activity exactly back to where it was before, if not better, china relaxing environmental supervision of factories so they can get back to industrial activity, that doesn't bode well, unfortunately, from my point of view for the future. lyse, is there a new story you think that just hasn't popped into the headlines that you think maybe should have done, or maybe appeared only briefly and then was passed almost without. .. so many stories are flickering, but don't make enough of a signal to penetrate the noise of this pandemic. one of them which caught my eye, because i do cover conflicts around the world, is an attack on a sikh temple in the afghan capital, kabul, which killed 25 people of all

ages while they were worshipping. this was particularly dreadful, because it comes at a time where there was talk of possible possible peace talks between the taliban and the republic of afghanistan, this was committed by islamic state. remember that one? that was also a moment, to pick up on henry's point, where we understood palpably that threats cross borders, that we have to work together because the threat is truly global. also, it took us back to the 9/11 moment, remember that? when british, american and afghan leaders stood together saying, we are with you for the long run, we are standing shoulder to shoulder. news on afghanistan doesn't pierce through as much as it should, so we were reminded of a really old war at a time when we are all confronting a new war. that sort of profound sense that we don't learn from history, we don't take lessons to say can live differently and live together with collective solutions.

you mentioned 9/11 and one of the striking things in new york this week of course is the return of those trucks in which bodies will be placed because there is expected to be such a demand as a result of the coronavirus outbreak — something we saw last on the street at the time of 9/11. it is the story of the week, the month and probably the year. globally, the world health organization says covid—19 has infected more than 500,000 people and killed more than 20,000. the united states now has more people infected than any other country. it also gave the most striking statistic on the economic impact of the pandemic — three million people registered jobless in the space ofjust one week. i mean, henry, we have this more than trillion dollar aid package that the president signed into law on friday evening, negotiated by congress, but the scale of the economic damage potentially to the united states is enormous, isn't it? yes. it looks like it could

indeed be disastrous. you mentioned the three million unemployed figure within a week applying for unemployment benefits. there are some economists now predicting we could have 40 million people out of work by the end of april because of these restrictions that are being imposed on businesses, but rightfully so, in order to stop the spread of this virus. the $2 trillion stimulus package i think is at least a start in recognising that government does have a role to play in terms of helping individuals get through the crisis. businesses, as well. of course, a lot of money has been set aside to rescue very large businesses, including, for example, boeing, which has been deemed to be of national importance. and the fear, though, i think also is that because money is being given directly to americans who are in need, which is a good thing for their day—to—day expenses, employers are not having any incentive to keep their workers on their payroll,

unlike what is happening for example here in the uk or denmark, where the government has stepped in to guarantee portions of people's salaries, as long as they are kept on the payroll, and that encourages businesses to keep their employees. that's not the approach that the us has taken and it remains to be seen whether that will really be a hindrance or not. annalisa, do you think has there been much sign of european solidarity in the way particularly continental european countries have responded to the coronavirus outbreak? yes, there is, and it is part of the great positive news about this extraordinary tragedy. it is bringing back some fundamental questions, and european solidarity is one of them. so the virus doesn't stop at borders. we have seen that overnight, european countries have locked their borders, but we know that this is not working. and so it has become increasingly obvious to everybody

that the continent has the force and the energy to fight this war better if it works together. so we've seen at the beginning a bit of closures and nationalism creeping back, but very, very, very soon, the kind of fundamental solidarity mechanism at the foundation of the single market has kicked in. so we have seen special measures to keep the goods going through borders that were locked. we have seen extraordinary help coming from the european union, first to italy — that was the first hit — but is now going to other countries. the european central bank has been supporting the euro extraordinarily, with extraordinary determination. we have seen a coming back of the very famous "whatever it takes" — the european central bank will do whatever it takes to support euro. mario draghi, the governor of the central bank,

said that in 2012 when it was the height of the eurozone crisis and rescue of the euro. we have seen this coming back very strongly in the words of christine lagarde, saying almost the same message — the european central bank will do whatever is necessary and for as long as it is necessary to support the eurozone. more than one billion euros have already been allocated. so, very, very quickly we see that solidarity and the awareness that united we stand and divided we fall is becoming obvious to most countries. there is still a bit of resistance to go for the real thing that everybody says we need right now, which is a form of euro bond, a coronavirus bond, some formal obligation that will help the eurozone be stronger.

but again, the voices that are against that, that come from some extreme hardliners in germany and the netherlands, are becoming weaker and weaker because there is this sense that our building, our condominium, is in fire and we need to call the fireman. her points are all well taken but this is happening in the part of the world that is best resourced, best equipped, has the institutions and the networks to survive best if they pull together. spare a thought for the rest of the world. why hasn't there been a meeting of the united nations security council? why, when the g7 met virtually, weren't able to issue they a common statement? because the united states insisted on calling it the 'wuhan virus'? why are we fighting over words? i know words matter, but unless the world pulls

together... this week, the un secretary—general launched a $2 billion appeal for those countries of the world. here we are, sitting in britain with the nhs, for all of its imperfections — and now deficiencies, as we see in protective equipment, tests and so on — it is one of the best health systems in the world. spare a thought for afghanistan. spare a thought for yemen, you know, which was already going through the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, where less than half of the country's health facilities were functioning. there are global solutions but if countries pursue a 'my country first' attitude, we will all be last. yes, beggar thy neighbour is a very dangerous precedent, isn't it, at any time, particularly at a time like this? i wonder, before we finish, if i could ask you all to address a thought for people watching, or maybe the people who are trying to deal with this crisis, whether they are viewers, whether they're not, is there a message you would

like them to take away from what is happening at the moment? annalisa first. well, again, i would like to stress that sometimes in crisis there is an opportunity for change. and in this crisis, i think the role that citizens, civic societies can play all over the world is very, very important because we will need to be informed properly from trustworthy sources, know what is going on, and hold accountable our leaders. because in too many places in the world, we are seeing leaders trying to politicise the crisis, trying to score political points. we need really to come together across borders, compare notes, compare information and say we understand what is going on, so it's a chance for civic societies to wake up and play a better role. so please be informed, stay informed and let's kind of connect information across borders. annalisa, thank you.

henry? for the many of us who are in lockdown around the world, and that is a significant portion of the global population now, i think of the english phrase that we have 'killing with kindness', which actually is the opposite of what we need to think about. kindness is what will make us survive. in an atmosphere where easily tempers can fray, suspicions can rise, i think we need to have the mutual kindness that will get us through as a society and as a world. and then, actually, i do have a message to those who are leading us in the charge against the coronavirus, and that is, just as you believe your own personal doctor and accept his or her advice for yourself, believe the doctors and the experts on this who tell us the best way to fight the coronavirus. it's not about faith. it's about on—the—ground experience and science that will get us through. henry, thank you very much.

lyse, in the studio? well, i have long been a big believer that good can come out of bad, even though we don't want the bad to happen. and i think this has been a consistent thread through all of our conversation today. and i think in this darkness, we are looking at our world in a new way. that i've been hearing on the radio this morning how people are looking out for their binman, their garbage collector. they are looking at the traffic police, they're looking at the person at the checkout counter. we are starting to appreciate the people who make our lives go round. who are the key workers? what are the essentialjobs? what value do we place on those professions? rememberthat, remember that, years ago? there were arguments years ago about what junior doctors should be paid in britain, and now they are the ones keeping all of us safe. do you remember that poetic expression from many, many years ago that when a butterfly flaps its wings deep in the amazon forest of brazil, it can cause a storm in texas?

well, the new version is that when a bat in a wet market in wuhan flaps its wings, we feel it all around the world. for better, for worse, we are in this together. for better or worse, we will only get out of this together. lyse doucet, henry chu and annalisa piras, thank you all very much forjoining us on this, the first of many unusual editions of dateline. i have only one message. it's one that used to be said by a late presenter on british television after he told some terrible stories about crimes committed around the uk — please, don't have nightmares. we'll be back with dateline at the same time next week. have a good week. goodbye. good evening, it has started to feel

colder today and we take factually feel with us into the second half of the weekend, particularly where we factor in the strength of the wind, quite significant windchill, some wintry showers but a lot of dry weather around as well but you can see the brisk north and north—easterly wind blowing across the uk through tonight. large areas of cloud, some clear spells, allowing temperatures to drop down to about freezing, some spots in the countryside will get a few degrees below freezing and there will be one 01’ below freezing and there will be one or two wintry showers which will continue at times during tomorrow, particularly for northern and eastern parts of the uk. as we go through the day, a lot of dry weather though and some sunny spells, quite a lot of cloud but it will be windy, optical across england and wales, gusts of a0 miles an hourfor many but we england and wales, gusts of a0 miles an hour for many but we the 50 mile for eastern and southern coast so it temperatures on the thermometer not too impressive and factor in the strength of the wind in some places it will feel like it is freezing. 0ne it will feel like it is freezing. one or two showers on monday and most one or two showers on monday and m ost pla ces one or two showers on monday and most places will be dry but not quite as windy by then.

this is bbc news. i'm simon pusey with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the uk records its highest number of deaths from coronavirus bringing the total to more than 1,000 as officials warn that social distancing restrictions must be kept in place. if we can keep down to below 20,000, we will have done very well in this epidemic. as the death toll doubles in the us, president trump decides against imposing a quarantine on new york. in italy, more than 10,000 people have now died from covid—19, more than any other country. russia imposes a partial shutdown in an effort to contain the spread of coronavirus. singing and millions of people tune in as spain's biggest stars