but some smaller charities are struggling to survive and are worried they are not getting the money they need at this time. the 2.6 challenge encourages people to do any form of activity related to the numbers 2.6 or 26, whether it is running 2.6 miles, walking for 26 minutes or something quirky yet like flipping pancakes or hopping around the house 26 times. olympians have already signed up to take part. there won't be the crowds in london on the 26th of april but the hope is that millions will still come together, albeit apart, to help uk charities. and that was laura scott reporting. time for a look at the weather. let's cross to tomasz schafernaker. good afternoon. since the lockdown we haven't had a lot of rain, there

have been a few showers but some parts of the country haven't had a single drop of rain so far this month. this will change because in the next 2a hours we expect some rain but primarily across southern parts of the uk and if you look at the satellite picture you can see where the weather fronts are coming from, to the west of spain and portugal you can see a low pressure brewing and then these weather fronts will drift in our direction in the next 2a hours. but let's get the forecast for the rest of this afternoon and for many of us it's mostly sunny, 20 degrees in the heart of the uk but much cooler in the north and north—east, newcastle at 12, the lowlands of scotland around 13 and today there could be one 01’ around 13 and today there could be one or two light showers across the south. this evening we could see one 01’ south. this evening we could see one or two showers south. this evening we could see one 01’ two showers gci’oss south. this evening we could see one or two showers across southern south. this evening we could see one or two showers across southern areas or two showers across southern areas but the or two showers across southern areas but the main bulk of the rain or whatever that will come our way is way to the south, just approaching the channel islands. through the

course of the day we will see that weather fronts approach the south—west of the country, some rain on the way for plymouth and southampton, by the time it gets to lunchtime it will start to rain around parts of the midlands, southern areas of wales are not a huge area of rainfall but a lot more substantial than we have had for some time. further it now a lot more bright weather around and that rain might not reach the north—west of the country until the evening hours on friday and scotland and northern ireland all the while staying dry. through the weekend this low pressure keeps moving over us, very fla bby pressure keeps moving over us, very fla b by area pressure keeps moving over us, very flabby area of low pressure that means winds aren't particularly strong, weather fronts are means winds aren't particularly strong, weatherfronts are not bringing a lot of rainfall, just meandering north south more than anything it's overcast skies for many of us on saturday across england, wales and parts of northern ireland with rain here and there but scotland, there will be sunshine

here so this is sunday, what's left of that low pressure is more or less out of the way and then from sunday onwards we start to see a shift in the weather pattern, easterly winds are quite often dry when so they will push the clouds away and things will push the clouds away and things will dry out again so there was a speu will dry out again so there was a spell of rain on the wait for tomorrow and then after a couple of days it will turn dry and warm again. jane, back to you. a reminder of our top story: social distancing may have to be maintained until a coronavirus vaccine is available, according to a senior scientist advising the government. that's all from the bbc news at one, so it's goodbye from me, and on bbc one we nowjoin the bbc‘s news teams where you are.

good afternoon. i'm gavin ramjaun, it's 1.30pm and here's your latest sports news... the rangers manager steven gerrard says the scottish football league is in "an absolute mess" and there should be an investigation into the decision to bring an early end to the leagues below the top tier. rangers had already raised concerns about the vote process and the abrupt finish to the season now means dundee united have won the championship — the crucial vote coming from their neighbours dundee, who did a u—turn and backed the proposal. but partick thistle plan to take legal action, after being relegated. amnesty international have reacted strongly to the prospect of newcastle united being taken over by a consortium including a large saudi arabia interest. they say the reputation of the club — and the city — could be brought into question, given saudi arabia's appalling human rights record. they're concerned that the deal may not be given the appropriate level of scrutiny, with attention diverted by the coronavirus crisis. we know that the saudi arabian

government has been attempting to use the glamour and prestige of sport for over a year now to distract and detract from their terrible humans write record, and thatis terrible humans write record, and that is what we call a sport washing, so a reflected glow of high profile events shining the light away from the kind of things they get uppity in their country. we would call an app slightly everybody involved in this deal, the premier league, newcastle fans and the current owners to be completely aware of who they're going into business with, and what saudi arabia represent at what this takeover represents, which is a sports washing, and simple. anthonyjoshua has reiterated his desire to unify the world heavyweight division and urged tyson fury to fight him. joshua holds three belts, fury the other and whilst there have been no agreements for the two to meet, joshua says they both need each other to prove themselves as number one. the international olympic committee and the organisers of the delayed 2020 games in tokyo have been setting out their plans, and talking about the difficulties they expect to encounter. they admit it will be complicated

to make sure all 43 venues are able to host the events one year later than scheduled, and they're looking at opportunities to cut the additional costs involved by the postponement. chair of the coordination commission john coates said they'd be looking and he suggested the "live at the "must haves" and the "nice to haves", and he suggested the "live zones" around japan could be cut, as well as hospitality forsponsors, broadcasters, etc. he was keen to stress that there would be no negative impact on the sports or the athletes. 0rganisers of the london marathon, along with the uk's other mass—participation events, have launched a campaign to raise money for charities expected to suffer during the coronavirus lockdown. it will begin on the 26th of april, the original date for the marathon, which has been postponed until october. it's likely that charities will see a shortfall of around £4 billion due to the cancellation of events. the idea is for the public to come up with fundraising challenges, using the numbers 2.6 or 26 — the number of miles run in the marathon.

for example, to walk 2.6 miles. they're hoping to beat the £66 million the london marathon raised for charity last year. manchester united have been tinkering with their stadium sign, to honour the nhs. they've turned out some of the lights at old trafford, so it reads nhs united. that was posted on social medial by ian stirling, vice—chair of the supporters‘ trust, adding the words "a touch of class". that's all the sport for now. you can find more on all those stories on the bbc sport website. that's bbc.co.uk/sport. very good afternoon. you are watching bbc news, i amjane, and very good afternoon. you are watching bbc news, iamjane, and i will take you through all of the afternoon's developments as we keep you up—to—date with everything regarding coronavirus. let us talk about the new hospital facility which has been built in birmingham. it has been opened officially this

morning. the new hospital facility, built in record time in birmingham to mark its opening the duke of cambridge made a speech by video link, in which he praised nhs workers selfless commitment". prince william said the temporary field hospital — built inside the nec exhibition centre in just eight days — demonstrated how the uk was working together amid the covid—19 outbreak. the building you are standing in is another example of how people across the country have risen to this unprecedented challenge. and nightingale hospitals will rightly go down as landmarks in the history of the nhs. the nhs nightingale hospital birmingham is a wonderful example of britain pulling together. having spoken to some of the people who helped to build it, hospitals are about the people and not bricks. nhs staff, armed forces, local people and the private sector, they have electively stepped up to turn this exhibition centre into

hospital. you all deserve our huge thanks, and you should all be hugely proud of what you have achieved in such a small space of time for top i know that the nightingale birmingham will provide invaluable resources for hospitals for miles and miles around. this will reassure people across the midlands if their local hospital has reached capacity, there will be extra beds available for their loved ones here. ifind that very comforting, and i know many other people will as well. i wanted to thank you all so much for what you are doing to ensure we give the best possible care to those affected at this most challenging of times. finally, i am delighted to declare the nhs nightingale hospital birmingham officially open. prince william their opening remotely the new hospital in birmingham at the nec centre. let's get more now on those retail figures which show the devastating impact of lockdown on the high street.

sales suffered the sharpest decline in march since records began, with a drop of 4.3%. our business correspondent emma simpson explained. so this is the first snapshot if you like about what happened in retail last month. it is from the retail industry body, the british retail consortium, and it shows the total sales in march fell by 4.3% compared to the previous year, and you might think, wow, that does not sound too much, but actually it is the worst rate of decline on record. if you look at the month in particular, it was a bit of a roller—coaster, because first of all we saw that tremendous surge in food sales. we all piled into the supermarkets, there was a lot of panic buying and stockpiling, then the final two weeks of the month, which actually extends into the first week of april, when that lockdown happened, much of the high street shut down because of the government—imposed restrictions on nonessential retail, so for the final two

weeks of this survey, sales collapsed by 27%. i mean, fashion went into hibernation. as the boss of one retailer said, "you don't want a new dress to stay at home." but sales in office equipment like computers, games and fitness equipment did see a bit of a spike, so of course families are adapting to life under lockdown. 0nline picked up, but it was not enough to offset this tremendous decline in sales. 0ur our business correspondent there. new figures from the office for national statistics — they have published analysis of deaths involving covid—19 in march including rates of mortality, age and sex breakdowns and pre—existing health conditions. nick stripe is the head of health analysis for the office of national statistics and he gave

us a summary. what we can see is that of all deaths that occurred in march, the actual rate of death in march, over 3912 involving covered. 0f actual rate of death in march, over 3912 involving covered. of those, 86% of them had an underlying cause of death of covid—19, so that was the cause of death. 86%. that makes it the third most common cause of death in march as a whole, 7% of all deaths, and you need to remember that the number of deaths from covid was relatively low until the start of march, so until the 1st of march, 28% of all deaths occurring on that day were due to covid. 91% of people dying with covid had at least one pre—existing health condition. now let us put that into context, so between 30—a0% of all adults had one

existing pre—existing condition, and about two thirds of adults over the age of 65 had at least one, so on average, people dying with covid had between two or three existing health conditions. of the most common pre—existing health conditions, heart disease was the highest, so 1496 heart disease was the highest, so 14% of people dying with covid haddon underlying condition of heart disease. 0thers included pulmonary disease, dementia, asthma, diabetes. now, other things that are interesting that we can start to see by looking at the whole of march and all deaths in march, the overall mortality rate in march from heart disease itself as a cause of death has gone down very significantly by 2596. has gone down very significantly by 25%. the cause of death of cerebrovascular disease, strokes, aneurysm, they have gone down by about 18%. these are common conditions in those that are dying

of covid, so that helps to explain some of that drop. but these are very difficult and challenging things to understand and analyse. it is crucial that we do, but it is very difficult to do, so we are presenting this analysis as it develops a further expert to debate and further research in this field. the headlines on bbc news. ministers in the uk are expected to announce a three—week extension to the coronavirus lockdown. europe owes italy an apology, according to the president of the eu commission for not helping enough at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. social care officials in the uk deliver a scathing assessment of the government's handling of the pandemic. in a leaked letter, they describe the distribution of protective kit for carers as "shambolic".

let's take a closer look now at what leading politicians have said about coronavirus. do their claims stand up to scrutiny? reality check‘s chris morris has been taking a close look. we know coronavirus has spawned a whole new industry of dodgy claims, and some of them have come from leading politicalfigures. here's a few that might raise eyebrows. let's start with the world's most powerful man. within a few weeks, president trump went from playing down coronavirus to calling it a pandemic. he's also implied that surgical masks have been stolen in huge numbers from hospitals in new york as a way of explaining the rise in their demand. where are the masks going? are they going out of the back door? but there is no evidence of widespread theft and if patients are flooding in and intensive care

units are full because of a new infectious disease with no vaccine, then you are going to need a lot more protective equipment to have any chance of being able to cope. various chinese officials have been keen to spread the idea that the virus didn't originate in china. the foreign ministry spokesman zhao lijian has done so repeatedly. chinese state media have amplified all sorts of false claims that covid—19 might have been created by the us military, or that it was present in italy long before it appeared in china. there is nothing to suggest that any of this is true. the scientific consensus is clear — the virus firstjumped from animals to humans in wuhan in china, towards the end of 2019. at the other end of the spectrum,

the italian nationalist leader matteo salvini has been telling his supporters that china created the coronavirus in a laboratory. it's another false claim, but it has been widely shared on social media. again, scientists are convinced that this is not a man—made virus. the brazilian president jair bolsonaro was censored by facebook, instagram, twitter and youtube for spreading false information. they removed posts of a video in which he claimed that the anti—malaria drug hydroxychloroquine was totally effective in treating covid—19. in fact, there are lots of trials and it is being used experimentally. but the overall impact of the drug is really unproven. a senior indian politician, subramanian swamy, reported that the covid—19 strain in india

is a less virulent mutation which the human body's defence mechanisms are able to resist more effectively. that's not what the experts are saying. all viruses mutate, but scientists have yet to find any variation in how lethal covid—19 can be. if the virus mutates slowly, that is good news. it means that when a vaccine comes, it should be effective for longer. there's a lot we still don't know, but the emergence of a coronavirus that threatens all of us hasn't stopped the virus of dodgy claims from spreading around the world. now, more on the 99—year—old war veteran has been making headlines and lifting spirits. captain tom moore set out to raise £1,000 for the national health service, by walking 100 laps of his garden. this morning he managed

to complete his task, but, he has now raised nearly £13 million. here he comes, captain tom moore, approaching his 100th birthday. 100 laps of his garden during lockdown, all the money going to nhs charities. a guard of honour from the 1st battalion, the yorkshire regiment. inches to go. and there he is. congratulations! well done! absolutely amazing, amazing achievement. captain tom, how do you feel this morning? fine! i mean, i'm surrounded by the right sort of people. so yes, ifeelfine, and i hope you're all feeling fine, too! doesn't matter how many times you hear from doesn't matter how many times you hearfrom him, it brings a tear to

the eye. captain tom waited to do this challenge to say thank you to the nhs after he was treated for a broken hip and skin cancer. claire baxter—mcgriesh is a nurse and claire alazjooz is a physician associate at tom's local surgery. they spoke to the bbc earlier about his achievement. very teary. very proud of him. we adore him, and we arejust honoured to be able to look after him, because he always had a smile on his face, always asks how you are. he is a true, true gentleman. it means the world... that something. you know, even before he did this, you would have said he was lovely anyway, wouldn't you ? i do truly love him. he is a popular man at our surgery anyway. what is he like as a patient? you can tell us now. so every time he comes in, he sees me since about may twice a week for dressings and things, and he comes and always with a smile on his face,

always asks how i am, how my family are, and what we've been up to. we both enjoy formula 1, so we sit there and talk about things like that as well. he is just a complete joy to see. we miss him very, very much but we are very happy he is safe and well, but we are missing him very much. we are. we should explain your relationship with captain tom harris and how it all started. so claire baxter, claire baxter raise your hand, because you spotted some skin changes in captain tom's head in his scalp, and then you referred him to claire next to you, so how did that work, how was the process for him? because obviously he is recovering from that treatment as well. so he was seeing me for another element, and when he was coming in, i sort of noticed some changes in the skin on his head. i asked claire to come down

and have a look at it because she is a dermatology specialist. we agreed we needed to do a referral to hospital, which we did, and it was confirmed as a skin cancer. he had some surgery and, as i say, i have been dressing it twice a week ever since about may time. this is to get the wound healed, and it has now healed, so it is wonderful. we have just been following him up, and we are looking forward to having him back so we can have him back with his smiley face in our surgery. well, i think, everyone has got so much from watching tom and his achievement this morning, and now i think we can get you guys to have a chat with hannah, who is with tom. is there anything you would like to say to the family or tom directly this morning? just that we are all behind you, tom. we are immensely proud. what an extraordinary achievement. we remember when you are setting it up for £1000, and the number, i mean, we are running out of ways to describe how amazing it is, so the whole surgery, the whole nhs,

the whole country is behind you, and we are so looking forward to seeing you complete your last length of the garden. we are so proud. well, he has done it. he's done it. he has done the last length, he had a guard of honour. tom, hannah. how lovely is it that you've been watched those nurses that were treating you, tom? how amazing was it for you to be watched by your lovely... the claire and the claire, as they watched you complete the lab? they were saying how extraordinary it was for you to complete this challenge and raise as much money. what would you like to say? thank you very much to both of you, you have both done so well for me and i look forward to seeing you again soon. 0h, tom, if you could only see their reaction, i'm sure you can, on their faces as they both listen to you. they both put their hands on their hearts and did that. i think you're going to be teary for the rest of the day,

claire and claire, but he just wants to say thank you to you as well. thanks so much. i'm so glad. hopefully this has made part of your day today. the remarkable captain tom merritt, more than £30 million raised so far. and for the fourth consecutive week, millions of us will ‘clap for carers‘ at 8pm tonight. it's to show appreciation to all the nhs staff and key workers who are keeping the country running and saving lives. with many of us spending more time at home during the lockdown, there's perhaps never been a better opportunity to start a new hobby. bird—watching seems to be a particular favourite, with charities reporting that thousands of us are now getting involved. fiona trott reports.

enjoying the spotlight. this little wren may not have been noticed weeks ago but now, thousands of families are attracting birdsjust like him into the garden. during lockdown, it's a welcome distraction and children are learning more about them. cut round that neatly, and then you get a hole like this. 8—year—old marie from surrey is making bird feeders. the results are good. the birds that i've seen so far around my garden are a robin, long—tailed tit, magpie, blue tit, wren, sparrowhawk and a wood pigeon that apparently is sitting on the roof. this one is occupied by a blue tit at the moment and there is a mini television camera inside. for the more experienced, lockdown is a chance to be able to witness something you'd normally not be able to see.

it was only in the morning on saturday that it was empty now, it's full, she'd been going backwards and forwards. she is incredibly fussy. she stockpiled a huge amount of nesting material, bringing in moss, rabbit fur, feathers, straws and for some reason decided she didn't like half of it and took half of it back out again. normally i'd be away at 8:30 in the morning, if not earlier, back at 6 o'clock at night and i'd get no chance to see what was going on during the day and it's been fascinating. from the regular visitor to something quite rare — a common crane wandering through a garden in wales. thousands of images from houses and flats across the uk have been sent to the royal society for the protection of birds. during the pandemic, it's organised a breakfast birdwatch. in normal times, what would be happening was between 8:00 and 9:00 in the morning, people would be going off to school or they would be commuting to work and now actually it's an opportunity to be together as a family and we've been encouraging people to look out

into their gardens to see what they're finding. for these birds, lockdown doesn't exist but while we're staying at home, their busy lives are keeping us all entertained. fiona trott, bbc news. for quite a lot of people, i think it might be quite a nice day for weather watching —— bird—watching. now it's time for a look at the weather with tomasz. hello. it has been very dry for a few weeks. if you remember when the lockdown started, that was when the weather really started to settle down. we haven't had any substantial rainfall since then, really, but that is about to change, and we are in for a few hours worth of rainfall, potentially heavy rainfall across some southern parts of the uk. this will happen tomorrow. this is the earlier satellite picture, and you can see the weather to the west of spain and portugal here. these are weather fronts, low—pressure brewing, and these weather fronts are gradually moving in our direction, they will be responsible for the rain which will affect us tomorrow.

but not today, today it is still relatively sunny and warm for many of us, and temperatures hitting widely 20 degrees, but much fresher on the north—east coast of england and newcastle, for example. 0nly around ten or 11 degrees, because of the cloud and the breeze coming out of the north, but we start to see the changes in the air through the course of the night across southern parts of the uk. the thinking is around five or six or seven in the morning, the rain should reach the channel islands, and then spread northwards through the morning, so there is the band of rain. you can see it is not an enormous area of rain, but certainly more substantial than we have had for quite some time, so there you go. spreading into the west country, central—southern england, part of the midlands and southern wales by the mid—part of the afternoon, but obviously a large chunk of the country has the fine weather, and there is plenty of sunshine are certainly on the way for northern ireland and for scotland, and certainly the northern isles. through the course of friday night, that band of rain, very showery rain.

hit and miss, it will continue to drift northwards. through the course of saturday, the weather fronts are right across the country here. not expecting lashings of rain, more like hit and miss rain across parts of england, wales, possibly reaching northern ireland as well. at the same time, it does look as though it is going to stay dry and even sunny across much of scotland, but call here. temperatures only 12 degrees in the south, at times overcast with those showers. around 16 celsius for the major towns and cities. it does change on sunday, more of an easterly wind, and that is drying, so that will push the cloud towards the west. it will dry out by sunday, with more sunshine but feeling cool on the north sea coast.

this is bbc news. i'm jane hill. the headlines. ministers are expected to announce a three—week extension to the coronavirus lockdown. we would expect the lockdown to continue. we would support that. i actually called for a lockdown before the government introduced one. but we also want more detail from government about what happens next. social distancing may have to be maintained until a coronavirus vaccine is available — that's according to a senior scientist advising the government. senior social care officials criticise the government's handling of the pandemic — they say the provision of protective equipment has been shambolic. europe owes italy an apology, says the president of the eu commission —