prevail in highlighting what he called a loss of progress being made. he did talk about the fact that a tough week with a loss of death is to come but we will move heaven and earth he said to safeguard american citizens. you are watching bbc news. the government urges people to stay at home, as the death toll from coronavirus in the uk rises by 700, including a five—year—old boy. 13 residents of a care home in scotland are feared to have died after becoming infected with the virus. spain records its lowest number of deaths this week, as the government says the crisis might be reaching its peak there. there's also been a downward turn in coronavirus deaths in italy, the country that's suffered the highest number of fatalities. new york — the epicentre of america's outbreak — suffers its worst day as 630 deaths are recorded in the past 2a hours.

and sir keir starmer becomes labour leader and promises to work with the government to tackle the coronavirus crisis. now on bbc news, it's time for dateline london. hello, and welcome to the programme which brings together some of the uk's leading specialist journalists with the foreign correspondents based here who file their stories with the dateline "london". joining us from home: stefanie bolzen is uk and ireland correspondent for germany's die welt. michael goldfarb presents the frdh podcast —

that's the first rough draft of history. and, boy, what history is he reporting on now. and with me again — at a safe distance — the bbc‘s chief international correspondent, lyse doucet. grounded she may be by covid—19, but her curiosity about the world remains undiminished. we'll begin here in the uk. it's week two of the "great stay at home," and the statistics suggest it's working — dramatic falls injourneys on public transport, little activity at airports, quieter roads. this, though, is the calm before the storm. because of the time lag between becoming infected and showing signs, those who are dying now were infected before the lockdown. epidemologists think we're two to three weeks behind italy and spain, which has seen more than 10,000 die. in the uk, so far, coronavirus has caused under 4,000 deaths — it's only after the event we'll know whether we did enough. stefanie, what have you been telling your readers about how the uk is handling this epidemic?

kind of a roller—coaster. i think as much emotionally for a person living in the uk and having a family here. but also from the continent, especially from germany, our readers have been very interested in looking at how the british government manages the crisis. generally, the impression was that borisjohnson has been very slow, he was a very slow to actually tell people they had to stay at home, you almost got the impression that he didn't want to tell people to do anything, he is not a person who likes to tell people to follow orders. but that has now risen to criticism, but actually, the british government has not taken advantage of being behind the curve and introducing very strong measures in terms of social distancing to actually stop the spread of the virus more quickly than countries such as italy and spain were able to do.

michael, you are obviously podcasting and trying to get a message out to the uk, focusing around the world notjust the us, what do you need or how things have been handled so far? the first thing i did was i avoided it because that isjust so much out there that is no more thanjust numbers are being bandied around and it is difficult to figure out where they come from, so i actually read william blake, springtime poetry. in other areas, i have been writing, and i'm very interested to know about how much... because the us and the uk have approached this crisis up to a point in the same way, initially saying, well, we are not going to lock down, we will not shut down our economies, possibly because most of the victims

initially were in their 80s. well, some people close to borisjohnson and the president said, well, this happens. i wonder how much coordination that actually was in messaging, even making policy up on the fly between the white house and downing street. i think that is a fruitful area for journalists to go out and explore. i suppose at least a borisjohnson is listening to his doctor's advice, it does not seem donald trump is not too keen to follow the advice about wearing a face mask. how do you feel about that? i am aware that the president is a law unto himself,

although he calls boris johnson britain trump. borisjohnson is not like that, let's be clear. he has tested positively, he is self—isolating, and number of people around the cabinet table have also tested positive. donald trump and a face mask, the latest news is this, there was a machine invented to turn them out quickly, this was done during the 0bama administration. when president trump came in, he cancelled the programme, so instead of being able to crank out hundreds of thousands of masks in a medical without too much problems, we are now in the situation well that are not enough mask for front line staff, for people living in major urban areas which is where the outbreak is more severe. as a journalist, we provide much is the first rough draft of history, but also a snapshot where we broadcast one part of the sentence

are not the other. i listened the full donald trump quote, but he says, i'm sitting behind it was this, i'm meeting kings, presidents, dictators, he actually used that word. i thought, who is visiting donald trump at this time? in these darkest of times, we do have to have a little bit of humour. this is something that most of us who cover real wars far away, people do you find humour, i have to commend stefanie and michael for their restraint in not entering the battle of the book shelves, none to distract our reviews this morning. 0n the face mask, i heard the chancellor of austria introducing earlier this week this requirement from wednesday of this week that people should have them, saying that, i know it seems strange for us to do in austria, we associated with people from the far east and tourists from china.

he said, culturally, it might be difficult but we have to do this. the whole question of covering your face and the politeness of seeing another person, it's a big issue, isn't it? we have had discussions, for example, of people wearing the hijab in the uk, people needing to see people's faces to see if they like them or trust them. there have been wry comments in france that after all these battles for people not to wear the hijab, we are now telling them to wear face max. some of the doctors have pointed out, because those who have lived in countries where there have been other pandemics, they are used to wearing these face sars and mars. it is not just you have to wear it, you have to wear it correctly. if it is not put on correctly, it defeats the purpose, so the whole point is that you should feel comfortable wearing it, therefore you actually protect yourselves.

but for the most part, i think, not only are we looking... when i came to work this morning, i thought, i wore one today because that's now the recommendation, almost no—one else on the street was wearing one. i thought they were looking at me when i was a bit extreme, i was reminded of foreign correspondents with their flak jackets when no—one else is wearing them but we have to do. the thing with face mask, everyone is looking over their border like when neighbours look over there washing line at the fence next door. people are asking, how come germany has all these tests? canadians are saying, why is donald trump preventing face masks being made for us? the president of the european commission was saying, it is all for me. everyone is conscious of what they don't have, vis—a—vis their neighbours both in terms

of their street but also in terms of countries. let's pause our discussion of coronavirus, and give some thought to other stories around the world that might otherwise have made the headlines. michael, do you want to kick off on this? the country with, i think, now the fourth largest outbreak of coronavirus, it may change, is iran. because over the last few years, reporting restrictions have made it virtually impossible for western journalists to remain in tehran and, the country, and it's a very important country. we have no idea what's going on. to me, that is something that is a lack, because iran sits in a very important strategic position, i'm able to follow news

from kurdistan via twitter. in baghdad, pilgrimage season is on, we don't know if people are sneaking in from iran to go to the pilgrimage sites. all of this is critical because, as we learned in china, when you have a dictatorial regime, you can argue whether china is a dictatorship or merely authoritarian, but the dictatorship in iran... what we need now more than anything is cleared open sharing of bags amongst medical professionals about what is happening, and we are not getting that. i would like to see more from iran. lyse, a little further east for your story, one which has relevance forjournalists around the world. yes, it throws us back to last time the world thought it was fighting a common war, that was the attacks of september 11th.

news came from pakistan that the high court overturned the death sentence for a british—born militant who was convicted of abducting and murdering the wall street journalist who was 58 at the time, daniel pearl. he said he could be released from jail because there was not enough evidence of him actually carrying out the act, he was just an accomplice. there was a huge outcry, including from the us state department, and the lower court who said, fine, we are arresting them and they cannot leave. it is a reminder of the unfinished business of other wars. there has been an investigation from georgetown university that actually 0mar sheikh was involved in it but actually didn't know that daniel pearl himself. and the real guy who did it is languishing in guantanamo bay.

a complicated tale but a reminder that these wars have a very long tail and the suffering and pain connected to them. daniel pearl was trying to find some of the people involved in the attacks of 9/11 in pakistan, and he paid a terrible price, it was a horrible story at the time and still is. stefanie, your interest in europe, there was one particular eu country you wanted to mention. i am maybe staying a bit closer to home, it is a story that has been reported in the uk and europe but i think it's an interesting story on a wider scale. on monday this week, the hungarian parliament with a two thirds majority allowed viktor 0rban from now on to rule by decree, this without any time limit. this is something we have seen, especially in hungary,

but also in poland, that these countries tend to really undermine the constitutional checks and balances of their countries, whether it be on the freedom of the press, also the independence of thejudiciary. we can really see that some governments now use the crisis to just simply for power grabs. on one hand, the question evolves from how well parliament, and therefore democracy, after the crisis get into the place it should be? on a wider scale, the question of civil liberties. if i look at germany, my own country, it is quite famous for data protection. because of our history, people are very wary of any intrusion of their privacy and private lives, of course because of the nazi story and the secret police, the stasi.

it is seen as a very good means at to track people with smartphones, where they were going, how they are moving. and once this is over, do we go back to civil liberties and the protection of the private person as we were before coronavirus? as a religious and political scientist said after the attacks of september 11th, they reminded us that it is often at the event itself that has the longest repercussions, it is our response to the event that could actually prove to be more catastrophic. we saw what happened after the september 11th attacks, two major international invasions, decline of civil liberties around the world. as stefanie mentioned, the human rights chief of the un yesterday spoke out about this and warned about the surveillance, which is quite effective in some countries, the tracing that south korea has used is quite effective. but some readers could take advantage of the situation

as stefanie has been talking about in hungary to take all powers, a law unto themselves, at this time because they can say, anything justifies it because i'm saving lives. as the pandemic ravages parts of europe, an old dispute has been revived under a new label. member states are debating corona bonds, a way of sharing ther cost around the eu to help the member countries whose economies are most affected. but as in the eurozone crisis, they're in the south, and countries like germany and the netherlands — prudent with their money — have already rejected a call from france, italy, spain, ireland and five other countries for a common debt instrument. one of the world's oldest unions is feeling the economic strain — 10 million people are nowjobless in the united states of america. michael, how is the us coping with that prospect? i don't think anyone can begin to have a policy for that.

when the economy is being shut down piecemeal, remember that the federal response from the white house, two weeks ago, they were saying that we will be in a church for easter. now finally the penny has dropped, and they are acknowledging that this will go on for quite some time. the us are shutting down new york city, now the epicentre of the global pandemic, effectively shut down. it was going to be a moment of increased unemployment, but 3.3 million people filed unemployment claims last week. 6.6 million people in the weekjust finished, that is 10 million people. to me, it seems to me that this is a moral equivalent of the 1929 stock market crash. the stock market crash did not immediately cause the depression. several years went by while the big ripples went throughout the economy,

ultimately with mass unemployment and banks collapsing. i think when you look at 10 million people filing for unemployment in a month, while we were all astonished when republican administration and a republican senate voted to give every american adult $1200 for a month. now that is not going to be nearly enough. once you start taking away jobs in this number, no—one knows how many come back, nobody knows at what level pay will be when you go back to work. and because it could be months yet before the economy as functioning, you are looking at a mass unemployment event with no way for the government to help because everybody is going to be to stay at home.

it is a impossible situation, and a very dangerous one. stefanie, this kind of tension in europe, how serious is it? you could argue it is quite hard to blame the southern european countries, because everybody is being affected by coronavirus, itjust happens that their economies are weaker to start with, which you could argue is a failure of the eurozone system anyway. it feels like deja vu, but the feeling is that it will be much worse than the eurozone crisis which started in 2009 and was never really solved. apart now from the financial question, i thought, at least at the very beginning of the crisis, europe was kind of all over the place. you saw countries shutting down their borders, which they can of course, because if a nation says

that there is a threat to public safety and public health, they can close their borders. poorly done that and caused that interruption tra ns—european traffic. germany decided for some days to put controls on the export of protective clothing, which was of course seen as a very selfish decision. this has now come down... for the european commission to be fair, it is very difficult to interfere there because things like health and borders our national sovereignty is. many brexiteers are saying, if course, it is seen now that the dialogue is even more difficult. the council meeting last week was a video council. next tuesday is the finance ministers council, also done via video link. it is going to be interesting what is going to come out of that meeting. all i'm hearing from brussels is

that they will postpone a decision, and countries like germany will argue that actually there are billions of euros help by the european central bank, by the european investment bank. the commission just announced a 100 billion package for workers who have lost theirjobs. i don't think there will be much of a difference to what we have seen in the eurozone crisis. if i could just add in, one of the interesting things about this crisis is that it has shown that many of the better in politicians around europe, and indeed around the world, have been overtaken idealogically. in the netherlands, for example, which has had the loudest voice in countering this idea of corona bond, the prime minister's coalition is under pressure, two of the parties have joined him in forming the government are more inclined to show fraternity

and solidarity with italy, spain and france. i think there will be a lot of pressure, and i would be interested to see what kind of pressure at the current ruling coalition in germany might come undone. in the end, the economy is so thoroughly intermingled, particularly on the continent, that you say, well, we are not going to help corona bonds, we are not going to help italy or spain. they could have an incredible knock—on effect on the northern countries. i think as the weeks go by, politicians are going to come under more pressure in the north than perhaps they are at the moment. lyse, it is interesting the example that michael gave,

the comparison with the 1920s and ‘30s, i suppose for any politician now, your reputation could be destroyed by how you don't answer these challenges. president hoover, a man who had helped to feed the starving masses after the first world war, a man who had quite a lot of good things in his political past, his reputation was destroyed by other things. the shanties set up for people withoutjobs and starving, and fdr came up with his message of hope. there are political opportunities, but also a huge risk for leaders around the world how they tackle this challenge. this is the kind of crisis we generally use phrases like defining moments. this defines citizens, states, the relationship between the citizen and the state. it brings it right down to the basic. people are elected or are in power to protect their people, and now their people need protection. this will sit long in the memory.

even in china. china has not been able to suppress the voices there, and that is a country which has huge control over means of communication. people are saying, you are not telling us the truth, you are not protecting us. as stefanie says, there was an impression that britain was slow, people said, what does that mean in terms of lives? individuals are asking, did i lose my grandfather because we were not quick enough? did i lose my mother who was a nurse because she didn't have the protective equipment? people, neighbourhoods, societies, countries — they will remember what their government did not do or did do at this hour of need. let me ask for a final thought you would like to leave us with at this time. lyse, you had a thought about the future of government? to use another phrase, there are also wars within wars. we are already hearing

about the battle of narratives. people still remember to this day those who came to us in our hour of need in the first world war, the second world war, who fought against us, who took too long to came to our aid. we have ceremonies and monuments to remember those who stood shoulder to shoulder with us. this is being discussed, we are focusing on europe. apparently in italy, 60% of italians say not enough aid was coming from europe and saying that the chinese and russian are helping us. factually, that is not the case. europe did do more for italy, but people believe that the chinese did more. one day this will be over, people will remember the heroes. the heroes on the street, the heroes in the country, but also the heroes who stood by each other.

which is why we are hearing from the un and other world organisations, let's work together, so that at the end of the day we can say that we all did whatever we could to keep all of us safe. stefanie, a brief last word from you. i was very moved yesterday by the nurse, the head of the royal college of nurses, who spoke at the government press c0 nfe re nce , talking about these two nurses that lyse just mentioned, two young women, three young children, and they died trying to save patients. they were pleading, please stay in. this weekend, there is going to be such nice weather, you have kids to pacify — but please, everybody has to stay indoors. michael? just to say to people viewing, read your papers with proper journalistic scepticism . the projections about what will happen next,

how many numbers, how many this. we simply can't know. the data collection on this disease have been very, very poor, so learn to read the numbers, it will help you with your anxiety. learn to read them with some scepticism. if you hear a hard facts, 5000 mask for 500,000 nhs workers, you can take that to the bank. someone said you can have 200,000 deaths, that is a meaningless extrapolation — ignore it. thank you all very much forjoining us on the programme. my thought before going — this virus is infectious, but a smile is much more so. from dateline london, until the same time next week, goodbye.

temperatures got up to 17 degrees today where we had the best of the sunshine. tomorrow, more of us will see the sunshine, and it will be even warmer. quite breezy and also some rain later in the day across the west. as we go through tonight, cloud that has been affecting the northern half of the uk today will tend to melt away to allow clearer skies overhead. despite that, not an especially cold night because the breeze will be picking up. this southerly wind quite a big feature of the weather tomorrow. parts of northern ireland in western scotland, there could be wind gusts of 50 mph or more. windy further east as well, but holding onto some sunshine and those temperatures in london up to 21 degrees. even further north seeing a high of 18. it does turn a bit cooler on monday

as some rain clears through, but that won't last. it warms up again later in the week.

it comes as people were once again urged to stay at home, amid another large rise in reported deaths and empassioned appeals from nhs workers. things are really difficult and we're all really struggling. so i'm just saying to you all to stay in. if you stay in and you don't spread it and you don't catch it, that takes the pressure off of us, because we're all on our knees at the moment. the queen will praise the country's self—discipline and quiet, good—humoured resolve in response to the crisis