this is bbc news. i'm rich preston. thanks for joining this is bbc news. i'm rich preston. thanks forjoining us. our top stories. coronavirus ta kes our top stories. coronavirus takes another 900 lives in the uk, bringing the national total to over 7000. they have now been over 1a,000 deaths in the united states and the virus appears to be at the young black americans more than other communities. how a cough in a supermarket helps to spread the virus. new evidence suggests masks to provide vital protection. and in russia, the show must go on line. despite the pandemic, dances from one of russia's oldest theatres are taking their performances to the web.

11 welcome to bbc news. the condition of the british prime minister, borisjohnson, condition of the british prime minister, boris johnson, is said to be improving as he prepares to spend a third night under intensive care battling covid—19. tim's chancellor of the exchequer rishi sunak, said he is sitting up in bed and engaging with the team around him. at the wider picture is less encouraging. britain recorded its worst figures to date or hospital patients who have died of coronavirus, 938. still the wait. the prime minister is still in intensive care. but borisjohnson‘s condition in hospital is improving. he's sitting up in bed. but dilemmas for government will still come. good afternoon. the chancellor taking the lead today. the latest from the hospital is that the prime minister remains in intensive care,

where his condition is improving. i can also tell you that he has been sitting up in bed and engaging positively with the clinical team. this is more than an immediate health emergency, though, for the prime minister and the many thousands of families around the country with loved ones at risk. shuttered shops, closed down commerce, the outward signs of a massive hit to the nation's wallet for as long as this lockdown goes on. do you accept, chancellor, that under the lockdown there is a trade—off between protecting people's health and protecting people's jobs? 0ur priority is to protect people's lives, their health and well—being. that is our absolute overriding priority. we have also put in place unprecedented and significant measures to protect people's jobs. we will all see a significant impact on the economy and i've also been very honest that in spite of what our unprecedented measures in scale and scope, you know, i can't stand here and say that i can save every singlejob, protect every single business or indeed every charity.

we are not far off three weeks since the original stay at home instruction, and by law, ministers have to say by next thursday if the rules should stay in place. but with saving lives the absolute priority, no one around here thinks the doors will suddenly be thrown open. but the longer the emptiness lasts, the more the financial hurt to the country. there are simply no easy choices ahead. we are still getting bad figures, and so therefore, it seems to me that saying that it is likely that the lockdown would be relaxed in any way, a decision taken next week, would be premature, not least because not only might that have public health implications, it would also have economic implications. some of the country's leaders, crystal clear already that the rules won't go next week. i must be plain with all members. these restrictions will not end then. we will not throw away the gains we have made and the lives we can save. with restrictions on all our lives

still in force, conversations that might have seemed fanciful taking place online. are you holding up pictures of your mummies and daddies? this is a picture of my mum and she works for the nhs as an admin for the health visitors and i'm really proud of her. a chat between the royal couple and kids of key workers still at school in burnley. life continues, even though it is not normal. hopes for patients in public life and everywhere, wanted soon at home. laura kuenssberg, bbc news, westminster. a short time ago, president trump gave his daily update on the coronavirus from the white house. the president doubled down in his pledge to reopen the nation sooner rather than later, once again promising that meetings on the issue would be taking place soon. but it would be nice to be able to open with a big bang and open up our country, or certainly most of our country andi certainly most of our country and i think we're going to do that soon. you look at what's

happening. i would say we are ahead of schedule. you don't wa nt to ahead of schedule. you don't want to say too loudly because all of a sudden, things don't happen but i think we will be sooner happen but i think we will be sooner rather than later, but we will be sitting down with the professionals, we will be sitting down with many different people, making the determination in those meetings will be taking place fairly soon. also the news conference, the president continued to criticise the world health organization. it came up to the who's organization. it came up to the who's director—general indicated the organisation should not be politicised. mr trump said the organisation needed to do a betterjob. everything was going to be fine, no human to human, keep the borders open. he wanted me to keep the borders open. i close the borders despite him, and that was a hard decision at the time. we were all together, we made a decision against the world health organization so when he says politicising, he is politicising, that shouldn't be. but we spent $450 billion, $452 billion, almost $500

billion last year, hundreds of billions in previous years and they got to do better than that, they've got to do better. when you talk about politics, i can't believe he is talking about politics when you look at the relationship they have to china. so china spends $42 million, we spent $450 million and everything seems to be china's way. that's not right, it's not fair to us and honestly it's not fair to the world. well let's go to david willis, our north america ‘s correspondent with more than that. lots of criticism of the who, some in president trump has previously accused of being china centric and threatened to reduce american funding. his rail against the world health organization, as he has over the last 48 hours, accusing it of getting things wrong as far as the coronavirus outbreak is concerned, being pro— china and pushing back on his travel ban

the president trump imposed at the president trump imposed at the end of january the president trump imposed at the end ofjanuary on the president trump imposed at the end of january on people coming here from china, later expanded to europe and the uk. the president again repeating to withdraw money or withhold money from the who and also saying that his government would be investigating how the organisation actually worked. you heard the quote they are from him that the united states contributed $450 million last year compared to china's $40 million plus so the president clearly believes this is money thatis clearly believes this is money that is not being well spent. he wouldn't be drawn on whether he thinks the director—general of the who should resign. the director—general, for his part, has said this is not the time to politicise events surrounding the coronavirus crisis. and david, as we heard, the president saying he wants the president saying he wants the country to open up sooner

rather than later but that's despite us numbers continuing to rise. yes, it is. the president clearly itching to get this country back to some sense of normality. he said it was getting closer to that point and that would happen sooner than many people thought. he also concurred with the estimates given by the new york governor andrew cuomo earlier today that the curve, as far as coronavirus cases in the united states is concerned, was starting to flatten and he once again talked about the light being at the end of the tunnel and you heard that quote about looking to get back to business with a big bang. it was put to him, i might add, that perhaps made the first might be the date at which people could look towards getting back to some sense of normality here. the president wouldn't be drawn on that. he knows the folly right now about talking about dates of this country to reopen and

previously said we would be back to normal by easter. david willis, thanks for joining back to normal by easter. david willis, thanks forjoining us. let's get some of the days of the news. the lockdown in the city of wuhan in china's hubei province has been lifted. anyone who has a green code on a special smartphone health app is allowed to lead the first time since the 23rd of january. drain, road and rail connections have been established. brazil's help ministry has reported the first coronavirus case, at the dean year old boy in the yanomami tribe in the northern amazon. it's reported that coronavirus could be caddick on tribes. a field hospital is to be built for indigenous communities. the united nations has reported a severe coronavirus outbreak in the south sudan could be disastrous for millions of vulnerable civilians and has asked the transitional government to step up of it.

facilities have been destroyed, 1.5 million are internally displaced and people already just —— suffering from disease and malnutrition. bernie sanders has dropped out of the democratic race for president. senator sanders said he could not in good conscience continue with the campaign but he couldn't win, which interfered with the important work required in this difficult hour. jane o'brien has more. for many months, bernie sanders topped the polls, winning in the early voting states are becoming the standard bearer of the progressive wing at the democratic party. but it was not to be. i wish i could give you better news but i think you know the truth. and that is, that we are now some 300 delegates behind vice president biden on the path toward victory is virtually impossible so victory is virtually impossible so while we are winning the

ideological battle and while we are winning the support of so many young people and working people throughout the country, i have concluded that this battle for the democratic nomination will not be successful. when you are sick, you have a right to go to the doctor! bernie sanders started his campaign is a revolution, a movement to end inequality which appeal particularly to young people. he tapped into a pervasive sense that the rich we re pervasive sense that the rich were getting richer while the american dream was becoming unobtainable for the working classes. it was not long ago that people considered these ideas radical and fringe. today, they are mainstream ideas and many of them are already being implemented in cities and states across the country. that is what we have accomplished together. but while his ideas gained momentum, not enough people in his party believed he could beat president trump. thatjob

now forced to joe biden beat president trump. thatjob now forced tojoe biden who, in a tweet, appealed the party unity. president trump, though, played on democratic divisions and urged sanders supporters to vote for him instead. although he now backsjoe biden, bernie sanders said he will remain on the ballot for the remaining primary is in order to win delegates and maintain his influence within the party. whether they like it or not, democrats will be feeling the bern for a long time yet. thank you all very much. jane o'brien, bbc news. stay with us on baby news, still to come. a 2— week ceasefire in yemen and new hope to an end to one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. 25 years of hatred and rage, as theyjump up on the statue...

this funeral became a massive demonstration of black power. the power to influence. today is about the promise of a bright future. a day when we hope a line can be drawn under the bloody past. i think that picasso's works were beautiful. they were intelligent and it's a sad loss to everybody who loves art.

it is the most significant step

by the saudi—led coalition. two and the blistering campaign unleashed against its neighbour, yemen, five years ago last month. we do know it has been many months trying to find a way out of this war. in a statement issued a short time ago by the saudi—led coalition they stopped of the need to stop the spread of the coronavirus and who could disagree with that in a country where the health system has been decimated by this conflict but they also spoke about creating conditions to support you when efforts towards a ceasefire. the saudis would love to see an end to this war which is costing them a great deal. there are a large number of civilian casualties. will

the houthis and saudis be able to agree on settlement. to make sure iran not have a launching pad in yemen so still a long way to go. 8% of the world population is in danger of being immediately plunged into poverty due to the fallout from corona virus according to the un university study which also wants a decade of progress on poverty could be lost. we speak to a professor from the australian national university. he modelled a number of scenarios, low medium and high drops in income. what do they show? what our report illustrated is under every

scenario, extreme poverty around the world will actually increase and this is the first time in over 30 years that we have seen in this occur. under the very, very conservative scenario we still expect there to be over 100 million people placed into extreme poverty anything short—term as a result of covid—19 and under the more extreme scenario, we estimate over half a million people could end up in extreme poverty asa could end up in extreme poverty as a result of covid—19. could end up in extreme poverty as a result of covid-19. many people only just above as a result of covid-19. many people onlyjust above the poverty line at the moment, what does it mean to them? when you are just above the poverty line, you are vulnerable when shocks occur in your economy to fall below that line and covid—19 is a tremendous shock to these economies and it would bea to these economies and it would be a terrible shock to a lot of

people's ourselves and pusher below the poverty line for many yea rs below the poverty line for many years to come. thank you for joining us. a key question emerging is whether the public should wear face masks. israel, indonesia and morocco as well as the us are now insisting if they are worn or encouraging people to do so. the advice of the who and in the uk is that they are only needed by healthcare workers and carers. a computer simulation of someone coughing in a supermarket. this is new research, still to be confirmed, that shows how coronavirus could spread and linger in the air infecting people nearby. the scientist involved so the obvious conclusion the scientist involved say the obvious conclusion is to avoid places that might be busy. first of all, don't go there if you don't need to go there. if you need to go there, go there only as seldom as possible, and number three, stay there as short a time as possible.

now, if someone is showing symptoms they shouldn't be going to a supermarket or anywhere else, but there is growing evidence that people can have the virus and not show symptoms, and that's one reason why the us government and many others are now urging people that if they do have to go out, they wear a mask. in morocco, for example, there is now a government order to wear masks. with the threat of prison or fines to back that up. but the world health organization and the british government believe that measures like this just aren't needed. here in the uk the guidance is that it's health care workers and carers who should wear masks, and the worry is that supplies might run out if the public are trying to buy them as well. there are different views about this among scientists. one is that if you wear a mask you might reduce the risk of passing virus to others. another is that once you put a mask on, you might get

a false sense of security. you might think you can get close to people again or stop washing your hands so often. and you might treat the mask too casually. wearing a mask must be consistent. it's not on to wear a mask and then decide to take it off to smoke a cigarette or to eat a meal. it must be worn full time. at the same time, when the mask is taken off, the outside surface may be contaminated as well, and has become contaminated, and then could serve as a source of infection. in any event, more and more countries are demanding that people wear masks. in indonesia they are handing them out. and the italian region of tuscany is scaling up deliveries because everyone will have to wear one. attitudes are changing fast. david shukman, bbc news. across the us there have been

more than 400,000 cases of coronavirus with more than 14,000 deaths. no official statistics demonstrating the demographic of the figures but it does seem the virus is infecting black americans at a disproportionate rate. coronavirus is totally indiscriminate in who it infects, but in the us it's highly discriminatory in who it's killing. at this intensive care unit in new york city nearly every patient is black. stephan flores is an emergency room doctor in the city. the people we are seeing most are african americans, are latinos, black and brown people who come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. these are the patients that are coming into my emergency room that i am taking care of, people who really need to be admitted, who we are seeing in icu and critically ill. this is also a story about inequality. the black community tends to be poorer and suffers from much higher rates of diabetes, obesity, heart disease and hypertension. the mayor of new york says

it's a source of shame. it made me angry to see that the disparities that have plagued this city, this nation, that are all about fundamental inequality, are once again causing such pain and causing people, innocent people, to lose their lives. the figures are startling. in milwaukee, nearly three quarters of those who have died are black, but they represent just a quarter of the residents. across in illinois, 42% of those who have lost their lives are african—american, but are only 14% of the population. and it's the same in the deep south. in louisiana, the black community accounts for 70% of the deaths but are a minority. the us surgeon general spoke about his own health issues. i shared myself personally that i have high blood pressure, that i have heart disease and spent a week in the icu because of a heart condition. i actually have asthma and i'm prediabetic.

so i represent that legacy of growing up poor and black in america, and i and many black americans are at higher risk for covid—19. that's why we need everyone to do their part. race has been the great dividing line in america since slavery. but coronavirus is shining a new and unexpected light on its legacy. there is nothing new in the recognition of the health disparities between black and white america, but covid—19 is showing how deadly they are. all americans are wracked with anxiety at the moment. african americans more so. jon sopel, bbc news, washington. in russia, and in so many other countries around the world, entertainment venues were among the first to shut and many performances are being streamed online, some free of charge. for one of the oldest dance

theatre ‘s, the show has been going on. music plays russians love ballet, and the mikhailovsky is one of the country's top troupes. they're in lockdown now, but the stars of this stage have found a creative way to keep performing. they're doing it at home and posting online. it's less classical, more kitchen, really. don quixote at dinner time. valeria normally uses a fan for this bit but, in quarantine, a plate will do. ah, the emotion of it all! a scene from the ballet giselle, with a saucepan of russian dumplings. there's clearly an appetite for this bizarre ballet. in russia, the video

has gone viral. "stay positive, that's the message," principal dancer ivan tells me. "life might be tough now, but a good mood and a sense of humour can save the world." a sense of humour... well, russians certainly have that. stuck at home, people across russia have been impersonating famous paintings and sharing online. very. . . creative! and they've penned a plethora of pop songs about this pandemic. as for the ballet dancers, in their homes and gardens, they're promising more uplifting performances to raise the spirits of the nation. steve rosenberg, bbc news, moscow. great stuff. thank you very much for being with us. do get in touch. you can reach me on twitter. stay with us here on

bbc news. wednesday was the warmest day of the year so far, 24 celsius in sussex. on thursday, we still have this week whether front moving slowly northwards. to the south, many parts of the uk in the warmer air once again and temperatures getting a boost in the sunshine but more cloud onto the weather front moving northwards and lingering in the north—east of england making it cooler. maybe some rain in it that as well. to the south, variable cloud. the sunniest weather probably to the south—west and this is where we will see the highest temperatures. cooler under the clouds in scotland and noticeably in the north—east of england with a north sea breeze

as well. the northern asked taking a bit of rain overnight. elsewhere some good clear spells, particularly further south across england and wales. after the warmth and sunshine, temperatures no lower than eight or nine degrees. into good friday. a few changes in the northern half. a chance of catching a few showers which could be heavy. very hit and miss. for much of england and wales probably dry. midlands and south with the sunniest skies. maybe reaching 24 degrees. milder across the north—east of england in many parts of scotland. as we move into the weekend, we will start to see some erosion of the area of high pressure. pressure starting to drop a bit. more cloud and maybe some showers particularly across scotland and perhaps into northern ireland and the chance of a shower in the south—west of

england. many parts of england and wales drive. any remaining warmth on easter day is in the south—east of england. moshe was developing with heavier ones across wales and the south—west. dry in scotland and northern ireland but temperatures beginning to enable way and it will turn cooler. monday, the showers into the south and south—west will fade away and instead around an area of high pressure we will see a northerly wind. dry but cooler.

headlines. the number of people have died in hospitalfrom coronavirus in the uk has risen 938 to more than 7000. however the director of the national health services the number of new infections in hospital admissions is showing signs of flattening. there is growing concern in the united states of the a p pa re ntly in the united states of the apparently disproportionate impact of the coronavirus on black americans. statistics from chicago alone showed its black population accounted for 70% of deaths from covid—19. there is similar evidence in new york in the city's mouth. in other news, the saudi—led coalition fighting in yemen is halting military operations for two weeks. itaims to military operations for two weeks. it aims to facilitate the aim the start of un brokered peace talks sending five years of war.