welcome to bbc news. my name's mike embley. our top stories: president trump says the us is passing the peak of new coronavirus infections despite the number of deaths doubling in a week. the emerging crisis of the hidden pandemic deaths in care homes. the uk government pledges a new coronavirus testing regime. brazil's senior doctors warn their hospitals are unprepared, whilst the government and the president are in dispute over how best tohandle the crisis. back to school for danish children as more european countries relax their lockdowns. and hejust keeps on going — the 99 year—old military veteran who's raising millions for medical staff on the front line.

hello to you. president trump has said the us has passed the peak of new coronavirus infections. at his daily briefing he claimed that this put american states in a strong position to re—open the economy. before we hearfrom mr trump, here's a quick look at some of the other developments around the world: in the uk, new government advice will allow close family members to say their final goodbyes to dying relatives. in denmark, there are some positive signs as primary schools are allowed to open again, and germany has announced plans to slowly ease some social distancing measures. but in the us the number of deaths has risen past 30,000 — doubling in a week. yet president trump insisted the situation was improving and under control. the battle continues, but the data suggests that nationwide we have passed the peak on new cases.

hopefully that will continue and we will continue to make great progress. these encouraging developments have put us in a very strong position to finalise guidelines for states on reopening the country, which we'll be announcing — we're going to be talking about that tomorrow. we'll be having a news conference tomorrow, sometime during the afternoon. we're going to be announcing guidelines and we'll be talking about various states and it's very exciting. 0ur north america correspondent, david willis, has been looking at the data given by mrtrump. earlier i asked him if what the president is saying is true. it does appear to be and certainly the health officials support the president in this regard. they say they are past

the peak and he says that data was, as he put it, very encouraging. they will meet tomorrow, thursday, remotely at least, with the governors of some of the 50 states to consider reopening the united states. he said in some cases that will be before the trump's administration's deadline of the first of may. some are urging caution. it is notjust the president's own health advisors. he was in conference with business leaders and ceos today and it has been reported that a lot of them also urged the president to err on the side of caution, saying as well that there should be a lot more virus testing undertaken here in the us before a reopening of the american economy takes place. david willis for us.

elsewhere, the governor of new york state, andrew cuomo, has said the healthcare situation there has stabilised. officials have recorded another 752 deaths related to coronavirus but there's been another fall in the number of hospital and intensive care admissions. 0ur correspondent in new york nick bryant sent this report. to a city known for its energy and life, the coronavirus has brought an overriding sense of fear. new york's number of dead has soared past 10,000. more victims than all but a few countries and three times as many people as were killed in the attacks of september 11th. sirens still we wake to the sound of sirens, still new yorkers worry that the ambulances outside their windows might soon end up outside their doors. but hospital admissions are down and after one of the most awful months in the city's history, the spread of

the virus has slowed. almost everybody is on oxygen and almost everybody is a covid patient. at a hospital in brooklyn, dr melanie malloy has been keeping a video diary of life and of death. the wards are crowded still with patients dependent on ventilators. medics and nurses are physically and emotionally exhausted, but they're witnessing signs of hope. today we have 43 people in the department. that's pretty much full, but i have to say, it's doing a lot better than a couple of weeks ago when we had 86 to 96 in the department, a0 people boarding. it was really tough, it was really a bad, bad week. but things are getting a lot better. this is still very much a city at half—mast. more than 750 new yorkers have lost their lives in the past 2a hours. but fears that the health care system here would be overwhelmed have not been realised and the governor of new york believes the worst is over.

the coronavirus hasn't managed to crush the charismatic personality of this city. here outside a hospital in manhattan, the heroes of 9/11 were saluting the new superheroes of covid—19. applause and in new york, every night at 7, the same wave of gratitude for medical workers that's swept across the planet. an active civic communion, maybe even a global coming together... ..in this season of social and national isolation. at times square, we thought these people were tourists, something we haven't seen here for weeks. but they're medics who travel here from all over america to help new york at its time of maximum peril. hopefully that moment has passed. nick bryant, bbc news, new york.

the bbc has seen a leaked letter sent by leading social care officials which is highly criticial of the government's handling of the pandemic. the association of directors of adult social services tells ministers they have presided over a "shambolic" supply chain for personal protective equipment and says it's "shameful" that three quarters of a million nhs volunteers have been left with nothing to do. britain's death toll of nearly 13,000 fatalities doesn't include those who have passed away in care homes. now the government has promised action including a new testing regime for both residents and staff. 0ur health editor, hugh pym, reports it was his lifetime ambition, and graham achieved it last november. co—piloting a plane — a gift from his family. at 77, he was still very active. he recently went to hospital with cancer. the family assumed graham would come back home, but he never returned, having contracted covid—19. his grandson's wife emma, who herself now has

coronavirus, spoke of their sadness and frustration. no—one was there to hold his hand, and it's not a way you want to go. 0nly ten people can go to the funeral, and we have a big family, so we can't go. and he can't get the send—off he truly deserves. finding a way out of the coronavirus crisis will depend largely on a big increase in testing. ministers have called on academic and business laboratories to join a national effort to boost capacity. some big companies have said they will help out, but one business manager with laboratories told us how he felt that his offer hadn't been taken up. understandably frustrated, a little unhappy. i mean, it would be very easy to sit and enjoy the sunshine and wait until things open up again, but i feel like i have a duty to the country, and my team, to keep them busy, to do something worthwhile.

the number of tests carried out each day hasn't gone up a lot, though there has been a bank holiday weekend. it stands atjust under 16,000. but that still a long way short of the 100,000 a day target set by the government by the end of this month, just two weeks away. nhs workers will be tested if they need it, including drive—through centres like this, letting them get back to work quickly if they test negative. that will now apply to social care staff in measures for england announced today, following wales a few weeks ago, including testing of care home residents and those returning from hospitals. we will now ensure that everybody who has symptoms gets tested, and the critical other change is that those leaving hospital will now be tested, and they will be put to isolation until those test results come through. how are you actually going to cover this large number of social care staff and nhs staff and hospital patients? how is it going to be achieved? so now we have testing available right across the nhs and social care for

all those who need it. and i'm very pleased we've been able to expand capacity so that can happen. and as we build capacity further, over this month and then beyond to that 100,000 a day target by the end of this month, we'll expand further. he also said that relatives should be allowed to visit loved ones who are seriously ill with coronavirus for final farewells. the peak of pressure on the nhs was expected about now, with a surge in covid—19 patients. health leaders say there are still critical care beds to spare and most hospitals appear to be coping, but the peak could last some time. we think we can say with increasing confidence that the nhs should be able to cope with this initial peak. the interesting thing, though, is there is now a load of new challenges the nhs faces, of which the very obvious one is if we are going to have this demand spread over a long period of time, how are we going to support our staff? and there was uplifting news when connie, aged 106, left hospital in birmingham.

she said she felt very lucky to have shaken off the virus. hugh pym, bbc news. let's get the latest now on the situation in brazil, where the handling of the coronavirus epidemic has also opened a dispute within the government. the country became the first in the southern hemisphere to record 1,000 deaths. more than 1,700 have now died and there have been over 28,000 confirmed cases, but numbers are expected to be higher. for weeks president bolsonaro and his health minister have been at odds over the country's coronavirus response. let's get more on this with journalist gustavo ribeiro. he's the co—founder of the english—language news site the brazilian report. welcome. thank you very much for your time. it does sound almost inevitable that the president will sack the health minister. why and what are the implications of that? well, the

health minister and the president had not seen eye to eye on how to tackle the covid—19 pandemic. the health minister wants brazil to follow who recommendations. he is in favour of social isolation, though the president says that brazil's first and foremost worries should be saving jobs and that he says that putting the economy to a halt would cause a human toll much worse than the coronavirus itself. and the problem is right now we should discuss how to increase testing or how to avoid having oui’ testing or how to avoid having our healthcare system collapse, 01’ even our healthcare system collapse, or even how to avoid economic catastrophe, but we are discussing whether or not the health minister is going to have a job tomorrow, which at this point it appears more a question of when he will be fired rather than if he will be

fired. as you say it seems clear the presidentjust doesn't accept that coronavirus is as serious as other countries have found it to be and he thinks the threat to the economy is greater than the threat to life. there is a political problem for the president, though, ithink political problem for the president, though, i think the polls suggest the health minister is more popular than the president. yes, he is twice as popular as the president and now the health minister and the president are playing a game of chicken because bolsonaro wants him out of the cabinet but he does not want to pay the political cost of firing such a popular figure political cost of firing such a popularfigure and political cost of firing such a popular figure and the health minister in turn is willing to make bolsonaro pay the price and make bolsonaro fire him. he has said time and again that he will not resign, so at this point we are in a situation where a lot of people in brazil just don't know whether or not they should follow the recommendations of the health minister and stay home or if they should listen to the president and just go about

their business as usual. it sounds like we will be back with you on this. thank you very much indeed for that. thank you. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: the impersonator in isolation whose impressions of new zealand's prime minister are entertaining the world. pol pot, one of the century's greatest mass murderers, is reported to have died of natural causes. he and the khmer rouge movement he led were responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million cambodians. there have been violent protests in indonesia, where playboy has gone on sale for the first time. traditionalist muslim leaders have expressed disgust. the magazine's offices have been attacked, and its editorial staff have gone into hiding. it was clear that paula's only contest was with the clock,

and as for her sporting legacy, paula radcliffe's competitors will be chasing her new world—best time for years to come. quite quietly, but quicker and quicker, she seemed just to slide away under the surface and disappear. this is bbc news. very glad to have you with us. the latest headline: president trump says the us is passing the peak of new coronavirus infections. the us death toll has now passed the 30,000 mark, doubling in a week. let's stay with that now. janet napolitano is the president of the university of california and the former secretary of homeland security under president 0bama.

she gave me her assessment to the trump administration's handling of the crisis. well, i think it's certainly improved in the united states and i do think that, hopefully, we have surmounted this latest peak, but i think we have to be looking forward. this virus is going to come in waves and we need to be cautious in reopening the economy. if we do it too aggressively and too quickly, we could see a bounceback and yet another surge. and to be fair, to everyone trying to deal with this, including the president, it is an unprecedented situation. it's unprecedented and it's very complicated. i think shutting down the economy was much easier than reopening it. there are lots of questions. and all of the states are not in the same position. so just by the nature of how the united states is organised, there is undoubtedly going to have to be some regional variations.

yes, and there are real questions about who has the power to do what, between the states and the president, also in what the president wants to do with the who. well, there's no real question in terms of the relationship of the states to the president. it is the governors of the states who have the actual authority to shut down or reopen facilities within their borders. the president can provide guidance. he can provide suggestions and, of course, being the president, that carries a certain amount of persuasive weight, but it is the governors of the united states who actually hold the power. there is an interesting question about whether the west coast of the us has dealt better with this, certainly differently, from the rest of the country. what do you make of that? well, i think the west coast,

and by that, we mean the states of washington, oregon, and the huge state of california certainly moved a bit more quickly than states in the east coast or in the midwest did. they have experienced, as a result of that, and perhaps some other factors, a lower incidence rate, a lower mortality experience. so i do think the governors of the western states deserve some credit for that. germany has announced the first easing of the measures imposed to contain the spread of covid—19. chancellor merkel said that some schools would reopen from may 4. the european union has been discussing how to co—ordinate strategy among member states for relaxing restrictions as our europe editor katya adler reports from brussels.

three days into spain's partial lifting of its coronavirus lockdown and there's still a lot of confusion. police say people are unsure if they're allowed back to work or not. in fact, spain has only lifted restrictions forfactory and construction workers — an attempt to kick—start this covid—19 battered economy. many are scared. translation: i feel bad, like i'm in danger, but what are you going to do? i need to provide for my family, i need to go back to work. spain's prime minister hit back at his critics today. he only made decisions after taking scientific advice, he said. applause juggling economic, social and health risks is daunting for every government in this pandemic. it's a big challenge for the eu too. remember its messy initial response to the crisis? today, brussels called for a co—ordinated exit strategy

from lockdown measures, but only if... there is a significant decrease in the spread of the virus over a sustained period of time. sufficient health system capacity is needed. there needs to be a reserve and you need sufficient surveillance and monitoring capacity in form of large—scale testing. with 27 different health care systems and 27 different economic priorities, the european commission admits that, in the end, each eu country will decide for itself when to lift restrictions. but it's worth noting that no—one here or in eu capitals is talking about getting back to normal — lifting lockdown altogether. this is a targeted, gradual lifting of the restrictions, which would be reintroduced again if there is another big second wave of infection. today, the eu's biggest economy said shops in germany would start opening as of monday.

schools as of 4 may. but angela merkel insisted... translation: this isn't a race, however well—intentioned. we have to understand we'll be living with this virus until we have the medication or a vaccine to deal with it. delighted to see friends, unaware of their parents‘ nervousness, danish children streamed back to primary and nursery school today. these are nail—biting moments for the eu as well. the lid is lifting on europe's lockdown, but no—one knows for how long. katya adler, bbc news, brussels. when comedian melanie bracewell found herself facing weeks of self—isolation as new zealand went into a coronavirus lockdown, she decided to make videos of herself doing impressions of the country's prime minister. take a look.

an update on the quite remarkable fundraising achievement of 99—year—old captain tom moore, which has made headlines worldwide. he's now raised almost £12 million — or $15 million — for the charities that support the work of britain's national health service. he intends to walk 100 laps of his garden before his 100th birthday. 0ur correspondent david sillito has the latest. captain tom moore, 99 years old and counting down the days to his 100th birthday with 100 laps around his garden. the original plan was to try to raise £1,000 for nhs charities. today, he was told the total had already gone past £5 million. completely out of this world. thank you so much for all you people who subscribe to the national health

service because for every penny that we get, they deserve every one of it. a couple of hours later, another million had been added. then another, and on it went. tomorrow, he'll complete his 100th lap and no—one is predicting how much he will have raised then but he's not planning on stopping. if the money keeps coming, he's going to keep on walking. david sillito, bbc news. just amazing stuff. a reminder of the events of a year ago in paris when notre—dame, one of the most iconic buildings, was engulfed in flames and almost destroyed. to mark the anniversary, the great bell was rung earlier tonight. bell tolls as you would expect, work on restoring the cathedral to its former glory has been badly delayed. the bell was also wrong to thank the medical staff in france working to

contain the pandemic. that is it for now. thank you so much for being with us. hello there. yesterday was a warmer kind of day. again, plenty of sunshine for most of us, with just a little bit of high cloud crossing the skies. we had some rather dramatic skylines, for example, in the shropshire area. now, it was the north—east of the uk that had the day's highest temperatures. durham and parts of aberdeenshire seeing highs up to 21 degrees, but look at this drop in temperatures on the way through thursday. for some, it's going to be around 10 or 11 degrees cooler. the cooler weather is arriving with a cold front. it's this stripe of cloud that's sinking its way southwards across scotland right now, leaving the clearest of the skies and the lowest temperatures further south across england and wales, where there could just be a few patches of frost in the countryside. for thursday, well, it gets a little warmer across england and wales, but across the far north of scotland

and increasingly into eastern scotland and north—east england, we've got the colder air setting its way in. now, into the afternoon, we may well see a few brighter spells for 0rkney and shetland, but otherwise, for much of scotland, it's a cloudy day. the cloud could be thick enough for an occasional spot of rain. not amounting to too much, mind you. for most, it will stay just about dry. it's going to feel a lot colder, though. temperatures 9 to 11 degrees, 11 degrees the high in durham rather than the 21 we had on wednesday. further southward across england and wales, again, most areas will have lots of dry weather and sunshine. there'll be a little bit more in the way of higher cloud moving in, and, yes, we could see just a few isolated showers across south—west england, southern wales, but even here, the majority will probably stay dry. a little warmer, temperatures into the low 20s more widely. for friday, an area of low pressure that's been affecting spain and portugal wobbles a little bit close to our shores, and it looks increasingly likely that we'll see some rain arriving. although the amount of rain you see from place to place

across parts of england and wales is going to vary significantly. still mild, but those temperatures are falling back a little bit. highs of 17 in london, the cold air in scotland tending to seep down some of these eastern areas of england, knocking the temperatures back in norwich to just 12 degrees. now, the weekend, scotland stays fine and dry throughout, but it looks like we could see a little bit of patchy rain still left over across parts of england, wales and maybe northern ireland on saturday. sunday, for all of us, looks like the driest day of the weekend. that's your latest weather.

this is bbc news. the headlines: president trump says the us is passing the peak of new coronavirus infections, and that many parts of the country were in a strong position to re—open the economy. he's been at odds with state governors about the timing for easing restrictions. the bbc has seen a leaked letter which is highly criticial of the government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. the association of directors of adult social services tells ministers they have presided over a "shambolic" supply chain for personal protective equipment, and for the thousands of nhs volunteers who've been left with nothing to do. school children up to 11 years old are returning to their classrooms in denmark as more european countries relax their lockdowns. germany says some schools would re—open from may the fourth. the european union has been discussing how to co—ordinate strategy among member states for relaxing restrictions.