this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the queen is to make a rare special broadcast to the uk and the commonwealth — stressing the value of self—discipline and resolve. the uk government warns it could step up limits on outdoor exercise if people continue to flout social distancing rules. i say this to the small minority of people who are breaking the rules or pushing the boundaries — you are risking your own life and the lives of others and you're making it harder us all. making it harder for us all. scotland's chief medical officer withdraws from media briefings after breaking her own advice and travelling to her holiday home. spain reports a fall in its daily death toll for a third consecutive day. hundreds of millions of people

across india are told to switch off their electricity in the fight against coronavirus. and president trump warns americans to prepare for a big increase in the number of coronavirus deaths. new york state records its biggest one—dayjump in deaths so far. welcome to bbc news. let's bring you a round up of all the latest developments in the coronavirus pandemic in the uk and around the world. in an hour's time, her majesty the queen will deliver what's described as a "deeply personal" television address. she'll thank front line nhs staff and care workers, while recognising the "grief", "financial difficulties" and "enormous changes" the country is facing. it comes as the health secretary

for england, matt hancock, warned that the government could ban outdoor exercise in public, if people continue to ignore the rules about social distancing aimed at preventing the spread of coronavirus. he accused a small minority of flouting the restrictions — which he said were "mission critical" to protecting the nhs and saving people's lives. a further 621 people have died in the uk after testing positive for coronavirus. it brings the total to 4,934. in scotland, the chief medical officer dr catherine calderwood, has apologised after receiving a police warning for flouting social distancing guidelines for visiting her second home. the first minister nicola sturgeon has removed dr calderwood from the daily government briefings. meanwhile, in spain — there is hope the country has passed its peak after deaths from coronavirus fell for a third day in a row. the number of deaths from covid—i9 in italy is at its lowest level in two weeks with 525 recorded

deaths in the last 2a hours. and in new york — the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak in the united states — another 594 have died, but the number of new cases has fallen. we'll have the latest developments from the around the world, but first with a look ahead to tonight's special broadcast here's our royal correspondent, nicholas witchell. recorded at windsor castle on thursday, the queen's broadcast will, according to officials, be a deeply personal message, which will reflect her experience in other difficult times. broadcasts such as this by the queen are rare. they're reserved for moments of particular national significance. speaking about the situation facing the nation, the queen will say...

she will pay tribute to all those on the nhs front line, to care workers, and those carrying out essential roles, and recognise the pain already felt by many families, as well as thanking those following the government guidelines by staying at home. she will say... it is a message intended both to reassure and to rally the nation's resolve. it will be transmitted at 8:00pm tonight. nicholas witchell, bbc news. joining me now to discuss more about the queen's address, is the associate editor of the telegraph, camilla. what would have been the thinking,

as far as you can tell, but having an address by the queen tonight, of all nights? i think it was a case of when, not if she would give a special broadcast. it had been talked about for some days. the timing, of course, had to be carefully worked out because, in one hand, both the palace and the government wanted her to speak at a time when, perhaps, people would be questioning their behaviour, questioning their behaviour, questioning some of the lockdown advice as easter fast approaches and people are separated from their loved ones that is clearly going to bea loved ones that is clearly going to be a sense of frustration. equally, i think that next weekend is forecast to be when the nhs capacity hits its peak so, perhaps, there is the sense of her trying to bring comfort and reassurance before we hit event horizon with this. and there is, by account, would only be there is, by account, would only be the fifth special address she has delivered in her reign which gives us an delivered in her reign which gives us an indication of its importance. in the way you could call it her

fourth. she's her diamond jubilee, but that i was a case of celebration. the other examples where the gulf war, talking in the aftermath of princess diana's death in 1997 aftermath of princess diana's death ini997 and aftermath of princess diana's death in 1997 and the queen mother's death in 2002 and they were responses to current affairs and changing events. in that regard, this is very rare. i think also the paris is clear that it -- think also the paris is clear that it —— the palace is clear that it is going to be deeply personal. there is this idea that the monarchy has been reserved and not want to wear her heart on her sleeve, but in times of crisis she is there to bring continuity. she is uniquely placed to do it because she is nonpartisan, she does not have a political point to score and, equally, she is not like the scientific or scientist that might dispute some of the evidence coming their way and cannot give that many clear predictions about when they locked and will end. this is really demonic speaking as head of nation,

as well as head of state, —— this is really the monarch speaking. if she plans to evoke the second max spirit, and we have so that, evocative of the wartime spirit and almost churchillian in tone. she has lifted the war and saw tough times there are 16 years on the throne. she is well qualified to bring that reassurance “— she is well qualified to bring that reassurance —— through her 68 years on the throne. and you can watch the queen's message here at eight o'clock this evening. at the uk government's daily briefing — the health secretary, matt hancock said he was alarmed by reports that public parks in london and elsewhere have been packed during the sunny weather. with the latest developments, here's our health editor, hugh pym. groups of people in london today, some sunbathing — it's not acceptable, says the health secretary. the official rule is that people should stay at home

unless they are taking one burst of exercise or going for essential shopping, and he warned that if the public didn't act in the spirit of the guidelines, then firm action would need to be taken. my message is really clear — if you don't want us to have to take the step to ban exercise of all forms outside of your own home, then you've got to follow the rules, and the vast majority of people are following the rules, and let's not have a minority spoiling it for everybody. "stay at home and stop the spread of the virus" has been the consistent message at downing street news briefings, and today a chart was displayed showing an upturn in london and the north west of england for covid—19 hospital admissions, along with all other areas of england. officials said the nhs did have the capacity to manage that caseload. we still, as the secretary of state has said, have capacity in all of our hospitals to manage these cases, and we are hoping, in due course, if everybody

continues to practise social distancing, that those cases will start to fall. there have been recent urgent appeals for more ventilators for critical care beds. ministers have called on manufacturers to step up production. the health secretary said there werejust over 9000 in the system and the aim was to get to 18,000. how many will there be there next week at a time when experts say the nhs will be close to or at the peak of demand? i haven't got an exact figure for how many extra we will deliver next week, not least because when we bring them in from abroad, there are risks to the timing there, and challenges to the timing, but i would expect many more over the next week, and the goal continues to be to keep ramping it up to the 18,000 target that we have set. on the front line, many doctors and nurses are anxious about what the next few

weeks will bring. obviously, the fear is whether you will personally contract it, whether you will get seriously ill from it, whether you might give it to members of your own family or colleagues and, of course, we are telling the rest of the population to isolate and avoid personal contact, but we are going into work every day in places where cases concentrate. many different preparations are being made, including this temporary mortuary in essex which health leaders hope will not be needed. lives will be saved, say ministers, if people follow the guidelines. hugh pym, bbc news. scotland's chief medical officer has made a public apology and received a police warning after repeatedly flouting her own guidance for people not visiting second homes during the coronavirus outbreak. dr catherine calderwood travelled from edinburgh to a holiday home more than a0 miles away in fife for two consecutive weekends. scotland's first minister nicola sturgeon announced dr calderwood would be withdrawing from media briefings in the foreseeable future to maintain public "trust".

alexandra mackenzie reports. this is a vital update about coronavirus. to help save lives, stay at home... day after day, scotland's chief medical officer has told millions of people to stay at home to help save lives. but after pictures were published in the scottish sun, catherine calderwood was supposed to admit she had travelled —— was forced to admit she had travelled from where she lives in edinburgh to her second home in fife — this weekend and last weekend. i've already issued a statement this morning, apologising unreservedly for travelling away from my home while restrictions were in place. as well as this weekend, it's important to be clear that i also was there last weekend with my husband. i did not follow the advice i'm giving to others. i'm truly sorry for that. there have been calls for dr calderwood to resign, but nicola sturgeon said she will continue in her role advising the scottish government.

her advice and expertise has been invaluable to me, and it continues to be so. if i am to do what i need to do to steer this country through the crisis to the very best of my ability, i need her to be able to focus on the job that she is doing. many have expressed their anger and disbelief at catherine calderwood's actions. police scotland say that they have spoken to her and emphasised that the stay at home rules apply to everyone. as we go into a third week of lockdown, which has been observed by most, chief medical officer said she wants to focus on herjob. but some are adamant this is a massive error ofjudgment and she needs to step down. alexandra mackenzie, bbc news, glasgow. let's take a look a few other stories around the world. 674 people have died in spain in the last 2a hours, but the daily decline of deaths in the county has continued.

president trump warns american to prepare for "the toughest week" with many deaths to be expected. worldwide cases have passed 1.2 million, with at least 65,000 deaths. in italy, there is also hope that the crisis has passed its peak. our europe correspondent jean mackenzie is in rome for us we had some encouraging signs yesterday that not only has italy reached the peak of the epidemic but things are turning round. we had fewer deaths than the day before, 681, the first time the number of deaths has been in the 600s for over a week and the number of patients in intensive key has fallen for the first time. hospitals seeing some progress finally. the lockdown at the moment is to ta ke the lockdown at the moment is to take place until the 13th of april, so that is after easter. there was some suggestion from italy's emergency response team the other day that this could well be extended until may. i think it is too early

to say yet how long this lockdown is going to go on for. it is going to depend on what happens to the infection rates over the coming weeks and the death rates because the authorities here are desperate to prevent the likelihood of a second outbreak or a resurgence in infections. they are saying that it is too early to restrict —— ease restrictions and restrictions will be tightly on palm sunday, roadblocks are being stepped up, police telling people to play stay at home, not to do what they would usuallyjump at home, not to do what they would usually jump answered here, at home, not to do what they would usuallyjump answered here, which is visit friends and family and take that traditional gift of an olive branch round each other. in the vatican, pope francis led a solemn palm sunday service a solemn palm sunday service at an unusually quiet st peter's basilica. for the first time ever the service has not included any public participation, due to the coronavirus outbreak. instead, it is taking place behind closed doors as part of various isolation measures in place. in germany, experts say measures taken to slow the spread

of the coronavirus there have also started to show an effect. our correspondent in berlin, damien mcguinness explained why germany had such a large capacity for testing. firstly, political will, angela merkel‘s government recognised very early that testing was key. government unity was there, all opposition factors thrown aside. straightaway the government threw itself into testing widely. also the federal structure really helped because of the way the health system and government administrative structures are organised, it means lots of things are done locally. because local authorities have a lot of power, they have budgets they control and they are decent budgets as well, this means you know where to locate the testing and where to set up the constructions. —— where to set up these structures. down the street from here, there is a testing centre which has opened a week ago. they are springing up all over the place. it's not perfect, there are big

queues, and you have to wait a long time, and there is pressure to increase the testing even more, but it is leading the way for european countries looking how to do the testing more widely. this is seen as one way to get out of this lockdown that europe is going through at the moment. president trump has warned americans to prepare for a big increase in the number of coronavirus deaths. he told a white house briefing that the us faced the toughest two weeks of the pandemic. new york state has suffered its biggest one—day rise in the number of deaths so far, 630 people. there have been more than 300,000 cases and 8,000 deaths in the us in total, with new york accounting for more than 3,500 fatalities. to help with the situation in new york mr trump announced the deployment of a thousand military medical staff. we are going to be adding a tremendous amount of military

to help supplement the states. thousands of soldiers, thousands of medical workers, professionals, nurses and doctors. it will be a large number. we will be telling them over the next short period where they are going. they are going into a battle that they have never really trained for, nobody has trained for this, nobody has seen this. i would say since 1917 which was the greatest of them all. the greatest of this type of battle, probably the greatest of them all, right? 1917. now, many of us have spent the majority of the last fortnight in lockdown, with millions restricted to their own homes. but, how can we prepare for weeks and possibly months in self—confinement. researchers at dartmouth college in the united states are using a series of self—help guides that help astronauts prepare for extended periods in small places to help people struggling with staying indoors. jay buckley is professor of medicine at dartmouth college and a former us astronaut. he joins us from hanover

in new hampshire. what are the coping techniques you practised as an astronaut and can we learn them, please? ithink practised as an astronaut and can we learn them, please? i think for astronauts we are fortunate in the sense that if you're going on a long duration mission you have an opportunity to train together beforehand and plan for it, but this came on people very suddenly. and so, people all of a sudden find themselves in a situation where they are isolated, confined and have a situation they do not have a lot of control over. so they need some tools to help. what we built were some online tools that help people get better at conflict resolution, stress management and improving their mood. they are designed to be done by people on their own when they are in a situation like this when they need some strategies that they can use that they can learn on their own using the computer. there isa

their own using the computer. there is a famous french play that has the plot as the people trapped in a room together. the most famous line from that play is hell is other people. did you ever feel this that play is hell is other people. did you everfeel this is an astronaut? my mission was 16 days long and we had a really... a that worked really well and we were busy the whole time. for that duration, focused on a mission like that, there wasn't really enough time to worry about these of issues. but for longer missions, things that are months or years in length, it is a really serious issue. it is the same people who are in antarctica or other deployments. once your together with a small group of people, confined for a long period, thatis people, confined for a long period, that is tough thing to do. how should households which are trapped together which normally get on very well deal with those kind of small arguments which might escalate because they are all trapped together? any suggestions? one thing

is it is important to value the relationships. because there are some interactions, negotiations you can have if you are negotiating over the years car. you're not necessarily going to see that person again and if things end with bad feelings, well, that isjust again and if things end with bad feelings, well, that is just the way it goes. but with people that you really care about and you're going to be with the long time, that relationship matters. what the programme considers teacher strategies where you can come to good solutions while maintaining the relationship. it gives you better negotiation skills, you have to come toa negotiation skills, you have to come to a solution that everybody is to buy into and it gives you better tips on communication so that you're not aggravating the situation when you don't mean to. there was a fantastic tips. thank you so much for joining fantastic tips. thank you so much forjoining us. thank you. to india, where prime minister narenda modi has asked people across the nation to switch off their lights this evening. he asked them to light candles

instead, in a show of solidarity. but electricity boards expressed concern — worried about sudden demand after the the vigil had been observed. millions of indians, have been left wrong—footed by the lockdown, unable to continue theirjobs. our correspondent in delhi, divya arya, is following developments. prime minister modi's message through the symbolic gesture was of unity and strength in the fight against coronavirus. he said, not one person in the country of 1.3 billion people should feel alone in the three—week lockdown that we are going through right now. he also talked about the victory of light over darkness. many people have, in fact, been linking this call of lighting oil lamps in the houses by switching off electric light to the festival of diwali. but there have also been critics who have called this a gimmick and a photo opportunity that takes away the spotlight from the real challenges that india is facing in its fight against covid—19, especially regarding the state of health infrastructure. now remember, india has one

public sector hospital for every 55,000 people. there have also been concerns about the lack of personal protective equipment for health care workers — many of whom have now started testing positive for coronavirus. the other issue that has been spoken about a lot is the plight of poor, unorganised labour. these are people who move from villages and smaller cities to bigger cities within the country in search of work. now they are daily wage earners and with the sudden announcement of the lockdown, with no savings in hand, they are nowjobless and completely dependent on government aid. the government has announced a $22 billion financial package, also promised food and shelter to these people so that they do not move back to their villages, but stay in the cities they working, but the big issue is that with the lockdown in place, how will all these benefits really reach the people they are intended for?

the religious festivals of easter, ramadan and passover are all taking place in the coming days and weeks and it might seem unthinkable to mark the events without family gatherings and public ceremonies. our middle east correspondent, yolande knell, has been speaking to religious leaders to find out how the faithful can get the most out of each holiday whilst observing coronavirus rules. jerusalem is shut, like cities around the world, although its holy sites should be at the heart of celebrations for the coming holidays. so i'm asking religious leaders here how people can worship safely. they need to follow all the regulations of safety and to pray at home, especially as a family. and what do you say to your parishioners who are really worried at this time? we are celebrating the holy week, meaning the passion and the death meaning the passion and the death

and resurrection of christ, which is a message in itself, a message of hope that the darkness will not last. cleaning is going on as usual as families prepare to remember the jewish exodus from egypt at passover. but there'll be no big seder meals with distant relatives and friends. in a certain sense, this is going back to the passover that we had originally in egypt, because the way that scripture plays it out is that each person was in his own home when god took us from this bondage and i think this year, we're all staying at home and awaiting redemption in a very similar sense. the holy month of ramadan will also be more austere, but islamic leaders say that may leave muslims able to pray more and deepen their faith. it's going to be back to basics, and it might be also a reminder for all of us that what we take for granted is not going to be always there. this contested holy city has seen many conflicts over the centuries,

often between people of different religions, but now a common threat could be an opportunity. there's a certain willingness to put conflict on hold and collaborate during these difficult times and i would say, why not? those days showed us clearly that we are one big human family. this challenge is a challenge that affects everyone so universally, so equally, that i think it's a real opportunity to unite. amid inevitable fears at a time of crisis, such sentiments offer a much—needed spark of hope. yolande knell, bbc news, jerusalem. you're watching bbc news. now on bbc news — it's time for dateline london.

hello, and a warm 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 right now! welcome to you both. and with me again — at a safe distance — the bbc‘s chief international correspondent, lyse doucet. good to have you again. 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. epidemiologists 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 of what's happening in the uk and as someone who's experienced it, what do you make of the british response? it's been kind of a roller—coaster. i think as much emotionally for a person living in the uk and having a family here. but also i think from the continent, especially from germany, our readers and users 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 very slow to actually tell people that 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, of course, has now risen to criticism, that actually, that 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 as ever and trying to call a message out to the uk, to folks notjust the united states but around the world, what do you make of how things have been handled so far here? the first thing i did is 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 poetry, william blake, springtime poetry. but in other areas, i have been writing, and i'm very interested to know about how much... because the united states and the united kingdom have approached this crisis up to a point in the same way, initially saying, well, we're 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 there actually was in messaging, and even in making policy up on the fly between the white house and downing street. i think that's a fruitful area for journalists who've got dailyjobs to go out and explore.

i suppose at least borisjohnson is listening to his doctor's advice, it does not seem donald trump is too keen to follow the advice about wearing a face mask. how do you feel about that, michael? about waiting a face mask? mm. i am aware that the president is a law unto himself, although he calls borisjohnson britain trump. i mean, borisjohnson is not like that, let's be clear. he has tested positively, he's self—isolating, a number of people around the cabinet table have also tested positively. donald trump and face masks, the latest news is this, there was a machine invented to turn them out quickly and this was done under the ages of the obama administration. when president trump came in, this was just reported in the washington post, he cancelled the programme.