the headlines: the emerging crisis of the hidden pandemic deaths in care homes. the uk government pledges a new coronavirus testing regime. the virus blame game. president trump's decision to cut us funding for the world health organisation gets international pushback. back to school for children up to 11 years old in denmark as more european countries relax their lockdowns. elmo, i think i have figured out my phone finally. how do i look now? plus, social distancing sesame street—style. the us tv show is helping kids adapt to these unsettling times. those are the latest headlines here.

hello, and welcome to our look ahead to what the the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. joining me are the whitehall correspondent for the financial times, sebastian payne, and the chief leader writer for the observer, sonia sodha. the front pages, starting with... the times leads with comments from england's chief medical officer, who says he believes that the number of new cases of coronavirus reported is beginning to flatten out, with 761 deaths reported today. the heartbreaking news of the death of a pregnant nurse leads the front of the metro. doctors managed to save her baby, who is said to be doing well.

the health secretary, matt hancock, comes underfire in the daily mirror as he is criticised for offering care workers a badge of honour, with the gmb union telling the paper they need more than a badge. fears from paramedics that more people are dying at home because they are relucant to call foran ambulance, according to the guardian. the telegraph reports that ministers will make a decision on how long an extension to lockdown measures should last during a cobra meeting tomorrow afternoon. and the daily express celebrates the achievement of 99—year—old veteran captain tom moore, who has raised almost £10 million for the nhs by doing laps of his garden. so, let's begin.

good to speak to you both again. sorry to interrupt that with the briefing from president trump. but let's start with the times. and reaching the peak if not the peak itself. what did you make of that briefing today? i thought the experts, the chief medical officer for england was quite cautious actually. the good news over the weekend was even though people are still dying, every death is a tragedy, that number has appeared to level off to about 800 deaths a day of the bank holiday weekend. there area of the bank holiday weekend. there are a couple of caveats to that. one is that asked the professor said that there may be a bit of a lag in the reporting of deaths over the bank holiday weekend. so it is too early to say for sure that the uk

has reached its peak. the other big caveat i think is that in england, ca re caveat i think is that in england, care home deaths which you know are significant and not being reported in the official daily figures that we are getting most of on the front page of the guardian today, there is the new story about seeing an increase the number of people who dying at home. and again those are not captured in the official figures at the moment. so there are some caveats. the good news is however that it does appear that infection rates may be leveling off and suggesting that social distancing is working. at the press conference, the government was very cautious about speaking yet about exactly what the strategies for relaxing distancing full so they said that is too early to do so yet. but we can a p pa re ntly too early to do so yet. but we can apparently expect to hear more about that in the coming days. sebastian, good news it seems it certainly on the horizon. the government say it will listen to medical advice before

the lockdown is lifted. the first secretary says it should be another three weeks or is excepted to say that. the number of intensive care beds are still available, does it seem and one does not want to tempt fate that we have dodged the worst case scenario? i think that was a general feeling from the press co nfe re nce general feeling from the press conference today that we have never really been exactly sure when the uk would reach the peak of its coronavirus outbreak. there was some talk about the easter weekend and others said it could be as far away as may. but the worst from professor whitty said that we are nearing if not quite at the peak so far. and the whole and the government strategy has been to keep demand on the nhs for intensive care beds for below the capacity of the nhs and we have had horrific stories and papers from individual incidents in a couple of hospitals have declared some major incidents but generally

the uk's health service has held up throughout this crisis. in august of the government have struggled on testing in on ppe and equipment but general the speed and ability to which the health service has coped to produce these new beds is quite astounding and we have seen these p0p astounding and we have seen these pop up astounding and we have seen these pop up nightingale hospitals across significant parts of the uk. and a lot of reports in the past couple of days and they have not been fully needed. now we should caveat all this that we are not at the peak yeah and it could still increase and it could be significant with more demand on the health service but when this crisis began in ministers we re very concerned when this crisis began in ministers were very concerned about the total collapse within the health service with the doctors, nurses, hospital, gps all being overwhelmed. so far, that has not been the story of this in the story seems to be that the health service is coping but there are certificate deficiencies on some of those areas of care which are across the paper. so tomorrow authors of the government will

formally make the decision to extend the lockdown for another three weeks and that will take us into may but it is all a given that they will announce that although they have not formally made that decision. when we get to that next date, the first week of may, the government is probably going to have to at that point set out its timetable for leaving the lockdown and we seen a lot of other european countries with their basis for leaving the lockdown and the government is very aware that the british people have been very effective at following and adhering to those measures but patients will eventually run out, especially if we are past the peak and it feels as if we are over the worst of it and people will want to get out and get back to work to get school going and get going again. so difficult for the government in three weeks' time if not tomorrow. and it might be affecting different generations at different times. the ca re generations at different times. the care homes was the focus today in the press briefing with matt hancock but both feet times and the metro putting a picture of very young

victim. a nurse who died on sunday at luton dunstable hospital and really just showing that this virus when we thought it was going to affect the elderly with underlying health conditions but it can still strike for such young people and pregnant as well and still working in the nhs. this isjust such a devastating story i think. a 28—year—old nurse who was heavily pregnant came down with covid—i9 symptoms and tested positive for covid—i9 a few days ago. she was able to give birth to her daughter through an emergency cesarean section but very sadly just passed away and that is going to be a little baby daughter growing up without her mum. and nhs nurse, it is just so devastating and i think it will also raise concerns about

the pretty women who are incredibly anxious at the moment was the government guidance is 28 weeks of pregnancy, they don't need to be shielding but after that, they should not be at work for example. there are organisations that represent pregnant women who say that women are being sort of pressured to work. it is all very much feeling like a decision for individual women and they don't necessarily feel protected. so i think the fact that a 28—year—old with no processing health conditions who was heavily pregnant has lost her life to covid—i9 will be really worrying to print women of another country. i don't think it is clear yet how she contracted the virus was up yet how she contracted the virus was upi yet how she contracted the virus was up i don't think it seems that she contracted it through her work but it might‘ve come from out of the hospital but your point is valid though that she was still working

and heavily pregnant. sebastian, onto the daily mirror, listen to mass hancock today, lots of warm words for the care homes sector workers who are paid very little and often minimum wage adult of the get the recognition they deserve. and the recognition they deserve. and the offer of a badge, it is not cut much ice with the daily mirror, does it? no, it does it and the secretary was leaving the briefing today and as you said about care homes of the government is really struggling with the care workers who don't feel is if they have got enough support from the government in terms of testing and the government announcing it would make sure test could get to those care homes for the staff working it to make sure they can look after the elderly patients. but there has alsojust been look after the elderly patients. but there has also just been this consta nt there has also just been this constant banter about personal putative equipment that the government has not got it quickly enough to the places it needs to go.

and it response to that today, the health of your terry was saying how much the government values care workers to the extent they have got a badge that says care to go on the lapel much like nhs workers have similar badges for sort of get what mr hancock was doing that he was trying to express them the government does care about care workers and he is doing it with a possible in terms of equipment and testing but when you see these tragic stories like the one we were just talking about, the ever rising death toll from care homes, it struck as something flippant because they were not taking the situation totally seriously and really acting on what those care homes need so it was good intentions for matt hancock but i think generally the care homes with much less have a badge and much rather have ppe they need to stay safe and look after their patients and the test for the staff and patients... we are way behind in terms of the daily number of tests. we are not even up to 25,000 midway

through april. the guardian, your sister paper warning the virus leads to surge in home death. more people dying at home because they are relu cta nt to dying at home because they are reluctant to call for an ambulance and several appeals by medics outside the coronavirus pandemic field saying if you are experiencing chest pains or whatever, for goodness' sake do come to hospital because we can actually cure you or treat you there but if you come in time. do not leave it too late. that is right. what this story reveals is there are dozens more deaths than usual every day at this moment in time due to cardiac arrest. now some of those may be coronavirus related and some will be people who perhaps don't have symptoms of coronavirus but are either worried about contracting covid—i9 if they are going to hospital or they don't want to bea going to hospital or they don't want to be a burden on the nhs. and it is

argued that some of those are coronavirus related and some are not but these are not deaths that are getting added onto the daily death toll but you know it also illustrates that there are people who need urgent cancer treatment and that has been cancelled to allow lot of stuff is been put on hold. people are waiting longer to go in so there will be deaths that are caused indirectly by this pandemic as well as directly. so i think it is really important from that perspective and it really highlights that the official death toll we have got is around 12,000 deaths but that is a shocking terrible number in and of itself. but by the end of this pandemic, there will be many more deaths both from coronavirus they are not included in that toll but also people dying of other causes that were not able to get treatment that were not able to get treatment that they otherwise would have done.

the other story in the guardian was amazon working in a pandemic bonanza. 11,000 dollars being spent a second on amazon products. geoff ba eza a second on amazon products. geoff baeza is increasing his personal wealth by 100 38 billion dollars. —— 138 billion. let's go back though if i may to the telegraph because care homes saying they cannot take patients from hospitals. now why is that it was met because the risk of infection? yes, very much so because of testing and lack of equipment into their homes has been so far behind what is going on elsewhere in the health service and with the telegraph reports tomorrow that again the key to the government is trying to get to hear is to cut off transmission of coronavirus from one place to another and hospitals are

so place to another and hospitals are so carefully controlling what they can and cannot do with patients who have got coronavirus. it is clearly a real issue here and one thing we did hear from matt hancock today again about the press conference was that those who have elderly relatives who are dying of coronavirus in care homes will be able to visit them were asked those in hospital will not be able to visit them so it is the stories that art tragic situations of people young and old who are passing away from this virus who were not able to see it speak to their families. the relief of those elderly patients in ca re relief of those elderly patients in care homes was a little bit of respite i guess in that but clearly the care home site has been one of the care home site has been one of the things it will bite back on the government in this crisis. and just interesting with the national records of scotland statistics showing 237 out of 952 fatalities and if that was extrapolated and put into the uk figures, that was

suggest 4000 care home residents have so far died from the virus. this really is the hidden story and seems to be emerging. it issues and if you speak to some of the larger ca re if you speak to some of the larger care home chains, they are reporting deaths in the hundreds. one large ca re deaths in the hundreds. one large care home provider has said it thinks it about half its care home settings have got covid—19 and the other thing people might forget about if you've got the care home sector but you also have got thousands of older people being looked after in their own homes by professional carers and some of those little people have been very silly passing away at home and they will not be counted in the official statistics yet either. so it is absolutely huge and it is really important and absolutely huge and it is really importantandi absolutely huge and it is really important and i know that care workers feel that they are very much kind of second fiddle as it were to the nhs in terms of access to personal but it of equipment and in terms of access to testing but care how managers are facing terrible

dilemmas at the moment. they are being asked for government to take people who are discharged from hospital but he may have covid—19 symptoms. the care home wants to help the local hospital out but they also don't want to put the residents who were already there at risk and there is no if you of guidance from there is no if you of guidance from the government. so really tough ethical challenges that care homes are facing without much guidance from government. good news story on the daily express in the midst of all this horror really. britain salutes our £10 million hero, $12 million. this isjust amazing. only began on april the 9th. indeed in the crisis breach of the best and the crisis breach of the best and the worst in some people and which in the country when i think everybody was rushing off to markets and stockpiling ridiculously but we have since seen some of the best in the charity and voluntary action we have seen over the past couple of

weeks, all of which has been surpassed by captain tom who is we have heard over the past couple of days served in what two and is 100 very shortly and he is care home of average or has been doing laps in his garden to raise money for the nhs and began it £100 and when up to 1000 and is now up to £10 million. this 99—year—old man with his little walker is going backwards and forwards and giving it in the laps of ten —— 102 dry get there... forwards and giving it in the laps of ten --102 dry get there... a brief comment but a lot of very small donations and it really has ca ptu re small donations and it really has capture the national spirit. that is an incredible story. and a huge credit to him for doing it but at the end of the day we actually should not want an nhs it relies on charity. we know the nhs is facing its tightest funding settlement over the last decade and it has been

underfunded and that has left it without excess capacity which for the government has had to work really ha rd to the government has had to work really hard to increase it so you cannot have a resilient health service if you are operating at or beyond capacity. but salute to captain tom. that is shared by all of us. thank you both very much indeed for taking us through some of the first editions of the papers. that's it for the papers for tonight. next, though, it's the day's sports news. hello there, i'm olly foster at the bbc sport centre. the scottish football season below the premiership has been brought to an end with immediate effect. a chaotic ballot of all clubs last friday left the championship side dundee with the deciding vote, and they've opted in favour of

bringing those leagues to a close. the top tier could follow next week. here's our scotland sports news correspondent chris mclaughlin. i think it's safe to say that this has been one of the most controversial votes in scottish football history. essentially what it means is that the lower league season here in scotland is over and clubs can now be paid their end of season cash pots. but it's been controversial because, on friday, clubs were asked to vote. dundee held back their vote both. it looked like they were going to be voting against this, which meant it was going to fail. then they changed their mind. that caused some clubs to cry foul, including rangers, who called for an investigation into the process. dundee said nothing up until today, and then they decided that they were voting yes. what does it mean for the top—flight in scotland? for celtic, for example,

who are sitting at the top? well, what this means is that next week after there's clarity from uefa, the league here in scotland may well be called as well if they believe they can't find a time to finish the season. celtic would be crowned champions. as it stands, technically, hearts would be relegated. but there is that lifeline of league reconstruction, and it appears that that has been the crux of dundee's vote and their change of mind here. well, staying with football, the protracted sale of newcastle united could soon be over. owner mike ashley has reached a deal to sell the club for £300 million. the prospective buyers are a saudi arabian—led consortium of investors headed by the english businesswoman amanda stavely. she previously tried to buy the club in 2017. the premier league has begun the process of carrying out its owners and directors test. i spoke to greg tomlinson, who's on the board of the newcastle united supporters' trust. definitely strange timing given we're all on lockdown

for very good reason. but, yeah, it certainly feels like we're closer than we've been before. but ultimately the proof of the pudding is in the eating. until it's done, i will have some degree of scepticism despite it looking more progressed than ever before. we've been here before. how many times has mike ashley tried to sell newcastle united and it not occurred? but, yeah, it certainly does disappear from what we see and what we read closer than ever. the tour de france that was due to start at the end ofjune has been pushed back until august the 29th. i've spoken to geraint thomas about the two—month postponement. the 2018 champion joined me from his garage in cardiff, where he's embarking on a three—day fundraising effort for the nhs. he found out about the new date for the tour whilst on his turbo trainer. if it can still go ahead, that's fantastic for the sport. you know, for us the riders obviously, but then the teams, the sponsors because that's

what we heavily rely on to do ourjobs, really. and also the fans, you know? ithink me, myself, you know, i've really missed watching, like, rugby and football games, so i think if it can return and we can all get back to racing, i think it's great all around. but what we've got now, then, is possibly this fixture pile—up of the three grand tours back to back with the world championships sort of sandwiched in between the tour and the giro as well. that's going to be really tricky for all the teams, isn't it? yeah, that's definitely a big dilemma. i think, you know, once we get clarity and we know that racing can actually go ahead, then obviously there will be a process of negotiating between, you know, the governing body of the sport, the race organisers and teams and trying to get the best programme that works for everyone. but from my point of view, and a lot of riders i've spoken to, i think the main thing

is if the tour can go ahead, that's sort of like the pinnacle of the sport and that's why sponsors come into the sport is cos of that race. so, if that can go ahead first and foremost, and then obviously if we can get all the other major races in around that, it would be amazing. some amazing fundraising there as well. that's all the sport for now. hello there. april has not really lived up to its reputation of sunny spells and scattered showers. there's been a fair bit of cloud to the north of the great glen in the last couple of days, and you can see this was wednesday, but most of us, blue sky and sunshine. if you're lucky enough to have an allotment, you're probably starting to ask yourself the question, when will we see some rain? some parts of england and wales have not seen any usable rain for over four weeks now. but it does look as though this area of low pressure may well bring some

sharper showers over the next few days. ahead of it, though, a southeasterly wind will drive in some warmth. so, as we go through the day on thursday, temperatures could get into the low 30s. the only exception is the far northeast, where a weather front... a cold front behind it. stays cool and cloudy across northern ireland. best of the sunshine for england and wales, some potentially sharp showers arriving later in the day into the south west. temperatures peaking at 21 celsius, 70 fahrenheit, thursday the warmest day of the week, cooler where that frontal system sits into scotland. through thursday and friday, that front eases away and high pressure will build keeping things quiet to the north. but yet again, there's the potential for more showery outbreaks of rain to arrive late in the day. so, some of those showers could be heavy and thundery across the channel coast, stretching through the midlands into wales. a northeasterly breeze will keep things on the cool side across eastern scotland, temperatures a bit more subdued generally through the friday afternoon.

so, some usable rain out there, and it looks as though spiralling like a catherine wheel around that low we'll see further fronts through friday and into the start of the weekend across england and wales. further north, that high pressure certainly the dominant future. so, as we move into saturday, still outbreaks of rain perhaps into northern ireland, perhaps across northern england, the midlands and into the london area as well. to the east of the pennines up into scotland, it should stay largely fine and dry with some spells of sunshine, but that easterly feed always keeping it cool on the east coasts. the best of the warmth in scotland further west. highest values on saturday of 16 celsius, not as warm as it has been. still could be a few showers lingering around as we move into sunday, drifting a bit further north, but there is a level of uncertainty just how far north those showers go. but as we move into sunday, a slightly quieter day. on sunday, some of the showers will ease away.

by monday, seeing a dry and settled, sunny story continue. further ahead, it looks as though we come back under the influence of high pressure, which is always likely to sit up to the north. it will drift its way steadily westwards across the country, meaning it will always potentially keep a feed of wind coming in off the north sea, never a warm source. so, a lot of dry weather looking into next week. temperatures around average or just above for most, but always along that east coast could see that sea breeze keeping it on the cool side. so, all in all, the quiet april theme is set to continue for those of you who want to know the details. as we go into the weekend, some showery rain for england and wales, but the dry weather is set to return, but certainly worth bearing in mind there's always that a cool breeze across the east coast. that's it, take care.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. i'm tim willcox. the virus blame game. president trump says the us is passing the peak of new coronavirus infections. earlier his plans to suspend funding for the world health organization were heavily criticised. 2 million people around the world are now infected with coronavirus, as new york city's death toll reaches 10,000. the emerging crisis of the hidden pandemic deaths in care homes. the uk government pledges a new coronavirus testing regime china's racism row — as africans report being evicted from their apartments and forcefully held under quarantine. back to school for children up to 11 years

old in denmark as more european countries relax