this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the start of the first human trials of a coronavirus vaccine in europe, hundreds of volunteers will get the vaccine, two of them were injected today in oxford. plans in the uk to step up the testing programme for coronavirus — by extending it to all essential workers. in the us, another 4.4 million people have applied for unemployment benefits in the past week. and here in the uk government is to borrow 225 billion pounds — taking the budget deficit to its highest level in peacetime history. and eu leaders discuss a massive coronavirus bailout, as the european central bank warns economic growth could fall by 15%.

hello and welcome to audiences in the uk and around the world. we're covering all the latest coronavirus developments here in britain and globally. first 7 the first human trial of a coronavirus vaccine in europe has begun here in the uk. with a simple injection in a laboratory in oxford this afternoon, a highly significant moment in the scientific response to the pandemic. we will talk more about that in a second. among the other main developments this evening: the uk government has reported another 616 more coronavirus deaths in hospital, bringing the total to 18,738 — that does not include deaths in care homes or in the community. matt hancock — the health secretary for england — pledged 18,000 people will be hired

as contact tracers and will be ready to begin work in a matter of weeks in the us, the house of representatives is about to vote on another massive coronavirus bailout package, as new figures today show another 4.4 million americans lost their jobs last week. in europe, 27 leaders have meeting meeting by video—conference to discuss a financial aid package for those countries hardest hit. the world health organisation is warning that almost half of all victims in europe may have been care home residents. the vaccine, then, all is important thought experts are sceptical that anything will be widely available beforethe end of the year. nonetheless mannufacturers are cautiously optimistic about the progress and companies are already being lined up to make millions of doses if and when it comes through the testing. 0ur medical correspondent fergus walsh has this special report. this could change everything. a vaccine against coronavirus,

a way out for all of us. 0k, needle scratch. the first volunteer to receive it was a microbiologist. she is 32 today. i am a scientist so of course i want to try and support the scientific process whenever i can. as i don't study viruses i felt a bit useless these days so i felt this was a very easy way for me to support the cause. i am excited. half of those on the trial will get the vaccine and half in a different injection. the volunteers don't know which one they have received. i am going to sit here and incubate this thing and hopefully give some good follow up data and see how it works. what would normally take years has been done in three months by scientists at oxford university. around 80 groups worldwide are developing coronavirus vaccines. a few others in the us and china have also started human trials.

there is no guarantee any of them will succeed. personally, i am very optimistic it is going to work. formally, we are testing it in an efficacy study. there is no suggestion we are going to start using this vaccine in the wider population before he have demonstrated it works and stops people getting infected with coronavirus. so how does the vaccine work? scientists have taken the genes from the spike protein on the surface of coronavirus and put them into a harmless virus. this forms the vaccine. after it is injected, the vaccine enters cells which starts to produce the coronavirus spike protein. this prompts the immune system to produce antibodies and activate killer t cells which had recognised the coronavirus in future and destroy it, preventing infection. the scientists will only know how effective the vaccine

is if lots of volunteers are exposed to coronavirus. at this moment we are chasing the end of this current epidemic wave. of course, if we don't catch that we won't be able to tell whether the vaccine works in the next few months. but we do expect there will be more cases in the future because this virus has not gone away. why not simply infect people with coronavirus after they have had the vaccine, then you would know? at this moment it would be very difficult to do that with a disease which potentially has quite a high fatality. so i think if we reached a point where we had some treatments for the disease and we could guarantee the safety of volunteers, that would be a very good way of testing the vaccine. the vaccine is stored in this freezer at —80 degrees. rarely has a medical trial had so much riding on it for so many people. it is hard to overstate

just how important this vaccine could be if, and it is a big if, it proved to be safe and effective. it would represent science giving us the solution to the coronavirus pandemic. i think everybody agrees it is the only way we are going to get out of the lockdown, the social distancing and really be able to still have people protected as they go about their daily lives. edward, a cancer researcher was next up. the vaccine could make a coronavirus infection worse, but the team think that is highly unlikely and the volunteers will be carefully monitored. it seems like the right thing to do to ensure that we can combat this disease and get over it a lot faster. your family, do they know what you are up to? yes, my wife is fully aware. my son just thought daddy was going to work today.

i guess i was going to work for a different thing than normal. local health care workers are being recruited to the trial as they have a higher chance than most of getting exposed to coronavirus. the oxford team are hoping to have one million doses of vaccine ready by september with a huge scale of the manufacturing after that. it is not clear though, he would be prioritised to get the vaccine first. and for now, we have to wait and see if it works. any hopes for lifting the lockdown will be dependent on being able to test for who has the infection. this afternoon the health secretary matt hancock said essential workers will be able to book coronavirus tests online from friday. the army will be helping with mobile testing facilities. as our health editor hugh pym reports, the government remains under pressure to meet its target of a hundred thousand tests a day by the end of the month.

home testing for coronavirus, kits are sent out and people take their own swabs and send them back to be tested. it will be rolled out gradually, along with the expansion of drive—through centres currently available for key workers and their mobile testing facility is going to work places. we are also currently working with the army on a new pop—up mobile testing option, which was developed for us by the army and is really working very well. so we are going to have 48 of these pop—up facilities which can travel around the country to where they are needed most, for example, in care homes. key workers with symptoms will be able to put tests online but a government target for testing still looks difficult to meet. the number of tests on hospital patients and key workers is not moved up much in the last couple of weeks, it's now about 23,000 a day, but ministers have set a target of 100,000 by the end of this month. just a week away. three so—called mega labs,

staffed partly by volunteers have been set up to handle the big expansion in virus testing, including this one in glasgow which opened this week. it hopes soon to be doing thousands of tests each day. at the moment there are a large number of manual processes we are doing. we are going to bring in automation and a further scale of our capacity to meet, what will inevitably be significant demand. but a survey of one group of doctors found nearly 40% of respondents said they were struggling to get access to testing. we want to be able to go to work and if we have symptoms and we cannot access a test, then we are required to stay at home. we are also, we are nervous of infecting others, particularly family and loved ones. the measures set out today for england, including more drive—through facilities like this one in gateshead are four key workers, but there is a plan soon for testing to be made available to the public. hugh pym, bbc news.

joining me now from sheffield is dr andrew lee, a public health specialist from the university of sheffield. to help you with us. so many questions this evening. let's talk about testing because in the last 24 hours there were a further 23,000 tests but clearly much more capacity. why are we still failing to test as many people as we can possibly test for? i think initially that tests we have got now are dedicated for essential workers. so thatis dedicated for essential workers. so that is one reason, it depends where the demand is. certainly i milk front line primary care doctors with certain value the test being rolled out to patients as well. do you envisage the nights we have had tonight from the health secretary of rolling this out to essential workers, very quickly that capacity will be filled? yes. potentially. but he also said today was he was

going to recruit and train an army of these contact traces, 18,000 of them, 3000 of them will be clinicians. what sort of powers did they have? how are they going to work? contact tracing is a good, old—fashioned work? contact tracing is a good, old —fashioned public health work? contact tracing is a good, old—fashioned public health method for tracking disease and controlling diseases. the logic is pretty simple. it is about tracking who that the infected person has been in contact with during that infectious period and for diseases like coronavirus you want to do it quickly. speed is of the accents to cut the fact that you find it contact, that i can get them to isolate and therefore break the chain of transmission and protect the public. it is going out that advice as quick as we can to targeted people who need to quarantine eventually. walk me through it. i am quarantine eventually. walk me through it. iam in quarantine eventually. walk me through it. i am in an office, i come into contact with a doctor who has coronavirus, and i go home and

as tracer calls me and says christian, you probably need to isolate because you have been married as doctor and i might say i don't think i was. what sort of power it is the contact tracer me to home? so, at this point in time it depends on the public corporation to stay home. there are emergency powers that can be invoked, if necessary , powers that can be invoked, if necessary, to isolate people for the protection of the public. do you think we need to be talking about those powers being hand—in—hand with the training of the workforce to do this? not necessarily. let me explain why. this contact tracing thing, we use it and a lot of different circumstances already. we have got environmental health officers who will do it as part of food outbreak investigation, we have got to be nurses who will contact rates for tuberculosis, we have got

sexual health advisers who will contact tracer people with sexually transmitted infections and on the other side we have large teams and public health england who have many yea rs of public health england who have many years of experience and skill doing this very task, often without the need to invoke draconian measures. so if we can inform, explain to the public and get them on site as to why we need to contact trace and why we need to isolate them, most times members of the public are quite amenable to this, way they understand and will co—operate. amenable to this, way they understand and will co-operate. and of course, when you look at the polling it shows the british public are very much on board. i am keen to know, when a contact tracer gets in touch with you, he is only as valuable as the information you are able to give him or her so if you are in it ( office, what is the contact tracer demand? what will

happen as they will follow an algorithm and there is a risk assessment process here. at this stage of the process, we don't know 100% for sure whether you have picked up the virus or not and the whole point of the isolation as a precautionary principle to put that person and taken out of circulation in the community until we know who they have infected. it's a degree of risk assessment here, you will be considering items like how long was your exposure, let's just say in that ( office, what was the degree of co nta ct? that ( office, what was the degree of contact? how infectious they be think the index case in this case it was me “— think the index case in this case it was me —— how infectious with that person? there are different considerations that contact traces will take into account when doing that risk assessment and on that basis we can advise the person bearing contact with. it sounds like it would be an important part of eating the lockdown. 0ne

it would be an important part of eating the lockdown. one other suggestion we have been reading about today is the idea of staggering a rush hour. do you think thatis staggering a rush hour. do you think that is something the governmental have to look at? i think when they looked at trying to confer mass control coronavirus, we should not just focus on single interventions, we need a package of interventions right across the board. you are right, staggering rush hour might be a sensible way but one of the tools in the tool box for reducing the amount of coding that takes place and therefore that contact people we have, i can imagine this being really important in urban centres like london and birmingham for example and probably less important in smaller towns. when i look at that whole plan that you are talking about and scratching my head as to why public health england thought we did not need to be his contact traces and we did not need to do this testing and the outset because it seems to me what matt hancock has set out tonight moves very much towards what south korea had right

in the beginning? let me start by saying a lot of people may not realise that public health and good health protection teams as well as support staff are working really ha rd support staff are working really hard right up till mid march with a lots of contact tracing happening in the background. they were swamped. and at the time comes when there is just way too many cases out in the community and you just get overwhelmed and the ability to carry out effective contact tracing in a timely way gets compromised and that's why the government made the decision to do lockdown which is sensible. because you are trying to bring down those community members to the point where it's feasible again to start doing the contact tracing. just to be clear, they're saying we could not have rolled out this plan at that point we went into lockdown because it was too far gone? yes. it would have been difficult. the only caveat i would

add as please bear in mind that not every pa rt add as please bear in mind that not every part of the country is at the same point of the epidemic. an epidemic is made up of many, many outbreaks so you will have parts of the country where there are very few cases of infection and in those areas i would argue it's probably still possible to do containment contact tracing in those areas and as he moved towards and hopefully exit from the lockdown stage in the coming weeks and months that perhaps the standard approach could be used depending on the level of risk as judged for these different areas perhaps we could allow certain areas to emerge sooner and mitigate the social and app —— economic impacts of the lockdown. really important, thank you for being with us this evening. as the government has said any

attempt to ease the lockdown will not happen until ministers and their scientific advisers are convinced that the spread of the coronavirus is under control. 0ur science editor david shukman has been looking at how that might be achieved. everything hinges on how rapidly the coronavirus spreads, and on how we try to stop it. that is what all the restrictions are designed to do. as we keep hearing from the scientist tracking the pandemic and now from the scottish government as well, the key factor is the rate of infection. at the height of the outbreak it was running at about one to three, meaning if one person is infected they could pass it on to up to three others. since then that rate has been driven right down below one to one and may now stand at something like 0.7. no one is entirely sure. if you ease any of the restrictions, for example opening schools, you nudge the rate up a bit. if you get above one to one, you run the risk of the virus taking off again. keep it low and the outbreak

is contained, so how do we move forward from this? essential in any strategy is mass testing to discover where the virus is spreading. there are different ways of doing this. researchers in munich are checking people for antibodies. it's a blood test to see if they have had the virus. a similar project is starting here. then there is testing for the virus itself with a swab. 20,000 households are being asked to take part, a crucial way of tracking the outbreak. alongside the testing there is the job of tracing contacts. in wuhan, 18,000 people checked everyone infected and followed everyone they were close to, and a similar number will now do the same in the uk. that is how environmental health inspectors work. when they track down infections from contaminated food, it is vital for a quick response. it is detective work. actually it sounds as though covering a country like ours would be an enormous feat and impossible,

but actually our first cases of coronavirus were picked up by our flu surveillance team, so this is a routine that goes on. it is obviously on a much larger scale. another strategy could be encouraging the public to wear face coverings. this animation shows how far a cough can linger in a supermarket. wearing some kind of mask could limit the spread. government advisers think there could be benefits. for people who are coming into contact with a large number of people during the day, such as shop workers or people working on public transport, there probably on balance would be a case for them to wear a cloth mask. 0n the other hand those of us working round the streets and the parks with every day business, the balance of probability goes the other way. but for the moment the lockdown remains the central strategy. a crude but reliable way of reducing infections,

and that will continue until the virus itself is brought under much firmer control. david shukman, bbc news. let us start in the united states with this economic data. they have been publishing my figures today. is affecting the us economy — 4.4 million new claims for unemployment benefits in the last week. the total now stands at 26.4 million jobless claims since mid—march — that's more than one in seven of the american workforce. let's bring in our business correspondent samira hussain who's in new york. every week we start with the same question, unbelievable figures and perhaps not the whole picture? that is true although i will say this, economists are actually feeling somewhat upbeat about these numbers. yes, it is a staggering figure, 4.4

million people claiming unemployment insurance in the last week alone. but, it is less than the week before at 5.2 million and even less than what we saw in previous weeks. at 6.6 million. so, what that is indicating is perhaps we are seeing, we have already reached the top and we have already reached the top and we are actually starting to see less and less people file for unemployment. so that is some positive news to take away. the other thing that this is really telling economists is that if you look at what the unemployment rate may be for the month of april, it seems it could be around 15%. to give you a little bit of context, during the 2008, 2009 financial crisis, the height of a crisis we saw that the unemployment rate hit 10%. just a few months ago, we saw that the unemployment rate in the united states was about three and a half percent. the house as sitting

as we speak to pass another relief bill, who will that money go to? what is on the table? the biggest portion of that money is supposed to go to small businesses. it is part of that ppp, the payroll protection programme. the idea of course was to get money to small businesses to try and keep people on their payroll so they don't have to go to unemployment. in that massive to the trillion dollar stimulus package that was passed a few weeks ago, there was about $350 billion allotted for small businesses. that was evaporated within just a few weeks. so now congress wants to put my money back into that programme but there's a lot of concern about how quickly that money can get to the people that need it, and that actually the demand for that money far outweighs what is actually available. thank you very much. government borrowing could jump to its highest level

in peacetime history because of the coronavirus lockdown. 0ur economics correspondent andy verity has been looking at the figures issued by the office for national statistics. what you have got here as spending marketing because fmh is to support the economy, pay peoples wages, supporting individuals incomes, and on the other hand, the government's reve nu es on the other hand, the government's revenues are panicking because they shut down means there's not much coming in by way of vat or national insurance, i'm looking at how much the government is going to borrow over the next four months, the figures are ready start —— startling. by the end of april we would have borrowed £45 billionjust to give you an idea, that is more than me spending a whole year on the police and safety or primary schools. then if you look at may throughjuly, schools. then if you look at may through july, another three months, they'll to borrow another £180 billion. 0ver months, that is £225 billion. 0ver months, that is £225 billion which is about an eighth of the size of our whole entire

economy. it is far faster borrowing than the labour government did in the financial crisis for example. and a resolution foundation has calculated a fixed shutdown goes down and next, current project —— projected to it the last six months. the governmental have to borrow 500 billion, that is half £1 trillion. a sort of debt that you don't pay off for decades. eu leaders have been meeting by videoconference to discuss a massive coronavirus recovery fund. that money is to pay for lost wages, prop up firms and fund health care but there is no doubt more will be needed. briefing the media after the summit, the french president said disagreements remainend among eu states. countries including france, italy and spain are pushing for the eu to raise money throughjoint debt, something opposed by nations such as germany, the netherlands and austria. 0ne tentative solution coming up as may be the european commission borrows the money that is only one

of the organisations being offered. you are watching bbc news. it has been yet another dry and mostly sunny day across the uk. the view from space, and a satellite picture shows there is been high cloud here and there and lower crowd plagues the northern islands but otherwise plenty of blue sky overhead. we keep long clear spells as we had to tonight. i think we will see below cloud willing from the dead sea, yorkshire, lincolnshire, into the midlands containments the and murky through the early hours of friday in these areas. temperature wise generally between two and 9 degrees, some spots in scotland mightjust get below freezing allowing a touch of frost to develop. into tomorrow, we will see this area of cloud with mist and mark named in the midlands

and it will break up very quickly and it will break up very quickly and any mist will tend to lift and then we will again see plenty of sunshine to take us through the day. still the potential for extra crowd close to the chapmans and on the cooler side across the far north and east of the uk. generally speaking it's another warm day with temperatures getting up into the 20s. as we had to friday evening, wa nted 20s. as we had to friday evening, wanted to two showers breaking out over the hills and mountains of wales most will remain dry. that chance for showers does tend to increase at that as we head through the weekend. it will feel cooler as well. a very slack pressure pattern, what do i mean by that? not many white lines, the winds are light, nothing much to push the weather along, changes will be very slow and very subtle. still a lot of dry weather on saturday. perhaps a bit more in the way of crowd and the odd showerfor more in the way of crowd and the odd shower for wales more in the way of crowd and the odd showerfor wales and more in the way of crowd and the odd shower for wales and the southwest. temperatures it's another warm day for the time of year but you can see

this band of cloud up to the far northwest that is consistent which will make some progress southeast of it as we move through saturday night and into sunday. this area of low pressure starts to develop and sta rts pressure starts to develop and starts to push its way south and that will turn the leatherjust starts to push its way south and that will turn the leather just a bit more unsettled. we will see rain sinking into the northern parts of scotla nd sinking into the northern parts of scotland and our band of cloud down into england and wales we will see the shower is breaking out but there will still be a lot of sunshine and warm in the south but turning cooler across northern parts of the uk.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the start of the first human trials of a coronavirus vaccine in europe have begun — hundreds of volunteers will get the vaccine — two of them were injected today in oxford. new plans in the uk to step up the testing programme for coronavirus have been announced — by extending it to all essential workers. in the us, anotherfour—point—four million people have applied for unemployment benefits in the past week and — eu leaders have discussed a massive coronavirus bailout, as the european central bank warns economic growth could fall by 15%.

hello and welcome to audiences in the uk and around the world. we're covering all the latest coronavirus developments here in britain and globally. a vaccine against covid—19 will not be ready for many months. before that politicians in all countries are going to have find a way of easing the lockdown — without risking a second wave of infections. today scotland's first minister nicola sturgeon proposed some options for the way forward in scotland. classrooms may have to re—designed. businesses would have to ensure that staff could work two metres away from colleagues. but as our political editor laura kuenssberg reports — her willingness to set out possible options is in contrast to what the westminster government has done so far. that was then and this is now. busy streets now empty avenues. traffic

lights strange statues on roads with hardly any cars. what might be the long route out of lockdown. the sketch of the beginning. to start a grown up sketch of the beginning. to start a grown up conversation with you, the public. lifting the lock down as if it is the switch is misguided. 0ur steps when we take them, will need to be careful, gradual, incremental and probably quite small to start with. schools and some forms could start to open up in limited ways, with different days for different staff and children perhaps, so eve ryo ne staff and children perhaps, so everyone can keep their distance. some kinds of outdoor pursuits can return, but forget anything like a normal match day where thousands crammed together. and for the most vulnerable, those in ill health or very elderly, the instruction is likely to remain for a long time. stay at home. it is only right that

you treat people like grown—ups. do you treat people like grown—ups. do you think they risk treating the public like children if they do not share their thinking in the way that you have today? these are horrendously difficult decisions for all governments across the uk and the world. there are no absolute rights or wrongs in this and it is incumbent in all of us to try to involve the public and that is much as possible and that is what the scottish government would do every step of the way and i believe that as with other governments will seek to do as well and i would encourage governments everywhere to do that. ministers are reluctant to give much away for now all that they have set out tests, but they're being pushed bya out tests, but they're being pushed by a labour out tests, but they're being pushed bya labourand out tests, but they're being pushed by a labour and some of their mps to give much away for now all that they have set out tests, but they're being pushed by the labour and some of the impeached open up. connect there is some support lockdown but there is some support lockdown but the opposition and some of your own mps think you should be more transparent with what might come next. of they all wrong? transparent with what might come next. of they all wrong? the texts that we have set out which are the

basis from which others can't tell the scottish government have made their plans, these are the critical plans for when changes can be made. we have not made them yet and we must keep the social distance measures in place. on the weight and, towns and institutions stuck together. seeing the same data and sharing the same scientific advice, but on the way out... you can see different parts of the united kingdom move in a different time to other parts because will be having criteria led. but that does the wind and that the how as limits on our lives have slowed the loss of life everywhere, the economy is in jeopardy in every corner of the country to. all parts of the uk could look different on the other side. many are getting their information about coronavirus on social media.

but not everything that is being shared online can be trusted. here's our reality check correspondent chris morris with the latest health claims that you should ignore. countries around the world are in lockdown, but dodgy claims about coronavirus are still spreading fast across the internet. so here are a few more that are worth checking. claim number one: 5g mobile networks transmit coronavirus. well, 5g was a favourite target of conspiracy theorists long before the new coronavirus appeared. now the myths have just been tweaked a bit. some claim 5g can suppress the immune system. others, that the mobile technology somehow transmits the virus. for the avoidance of doubt, scientists have told the bbc that both claims are absolute rubbish. 5g radio waves are nowhere near strong enough to affect immunity. the idea that technology can transmit the virus is biologically impossible. claim number two:

steam inhalation can cure coronavirus. a social media post about a doctor who allegedly recovered from covid—19 after inhaling steam has been widely shared. now, people do inhale steam to deal with things like a blocked nose. but there is no evidence that it works as a treatment for coronavirus. high—temperature steam cleaning of surfaces is used to kill viruses in places like hospitals, but any attempt to inhale industrial steam that hot would be incredibly dangerous. claim number three: skin colour can protect you from covid—19. there have been persistent suggestions on social media about skin colour and the resistance it might give you to falling ill with covid—19. there have been rumours in africa that people with black skin can't catch coronavirus. but itjust isn't true. medical professionals are adamant that skin colour makes no difference. black people have been catching

the virus and dying from it. claim number four: vaccines to combat covid—19 are already available. no, they aren't. loads of scientists are working on a vaccine, but it will take a long time to develop, test and distribute them. at the moment, there is no vaccine to prevent covid—19 and the world health 0rganization says products claiming to be a vaccine, often found on unregulated websites, should be considered fake, and they may pose a significant risk to public health. so beware claims that offer quick fixes or remedies for coronavirus. many of them are probably too good to be true. and think twice before you share them. the national society for the prevention of cruelty to children here in the uk has warned the coronavirus lockdown creates a risk of the "highest

period of risk for online child abuse" it has ever seen. the children's charity has warned they are preparing for a surge in online abuse. they say an increase in the loneliness of young people stuck at home paired with more time spent online is a "perfect storm". with me is andy burrows, head of child safety 0nline policy at the nspcc. and also i'm joined by conservative mp damian hinds, the former conservative secretary for education. select committee. what sort of evidence are you seeing that there has been this growth in online abuse? we are concerned about the potential for a online abuse? we are concerned about the potentialfor a perfect storm when it comes to online child abuse and there are three factors that are driving that. first of all, we know that the tech firms, many of them have fewer human moderators and they've had to suspend a lot of their existing moderation activity and that is precisely because so

many of us at home, there a real surgeon to demand for using social networks and gaming sites and children are at home and released new figures which demonstrate real concern about a particular group of children, children were filling lower and obviously right now as children are not at school, they are away from the friendship networks and those children are twice as likely to have sent, received or sent sexual content to an adult and u nfortu nately, we sent sexual content to an adult and unfortunately, we are seeing the current crisis as an opportunity to exploit, a national crime agency have both warned that they are seeing organised as vendors looking to exploit the situation to grandchildren and have a real spike in demand for child abuse and injury. great cause for concern there and many parents, myself included, as they try to entertain your children for as long as you can

but eventually they want to talk to their friends but eventually they want to talk to theirfriends and but eventually they want to talk to their friends and they will return to their phones and things to do it. children spend longer time online for legitimate reasons like online learning and the internet is process in this crisis. this research that they're talking about reminds us of they're talking about reminds us of the dangers of the internet as well. and organised criminal child abuses are planning on using this, the time that we are not down to protect —— are in lockdown, it is saddened is sickening but not surprising because these people will do anything, take advantage of any opportunity they can find to carry out these terrible things. and it is incumbent on all of us to be aware of where children doing. and we have to help them understand what those threats are,

they feel uncomfortable or if they know somebody who they selves that themselves may feel incredible. how are you prepared to respond? first of all, we are working with government and tech firms to step up to the plate and unfortunately, we know that years of tech firms failing to get on top of safety risks to their site mean they're not as prepared as they could be right now. but they're also working to support parents. so we have great resources so if you're a parent, you can learn more about a lot of the most popular apps and games that your children will be using right now and using more of. but our child who has had something bad or uncomfortable happened to them online with their phone, and online to support any child who is struggling right now. it is an issue

the bbc is focused on four several yea rs. the bbc is focused on four several years. that they're not doing enough to protect children. i want social media to do more in terms of online hubs were child abuse is that the worst and but there are other things as well. i think in this particular crisis, the message of social media platforms must be clear that if you have a shortage of moderators working on the some of the need to redeploy people and add revenues and so forth will be lower, but this is the absolute top priority to make sure that these platforms are doing everything they can to try and help keep our children enter young people safe. parents have a role in this, what sort of advice you have for them? our advice would be to have regular conversations, with their

children. you know the tech is going to bea children. you know the tech is going to be a lifeline. it is a lifeline for all of us as adults, a lifeline for all of us as adults, a lifeline for children of the stay in touch with their friends and it's just to try to have conversations and ask about which games your child is using, just try to take regular interests. recommend that as opposed to something like overly supervising, overtly monitoring them because that actually might make us feel better, very often they can be counterproductive. it's distraught have regular conversations in make clear that if something bad does come to your child and they know that you're there for them. my thing about my children, the schools have directed them to certain resources and steering them away from prep some of the more malicious content online. i'm trying to help them to be resilient. their multiple aspects ofa be resilient. their multiple aspects of a need to reduce the flow of

online harm and stop the perpetrator doing what they do and we also need to help children to be resilient and to help children to be resilient and to be able to protect themselves and feel comfortable and report something in it that there are services that they can turn to. schools of been doing amazing work actually and in a very child friendly way, helping children understand that the internet is both good and bad and not everybody is who they seem to be come up pretend to be in making sure they do know what to do if something is wrong. get advice. before i let you go, how is this such an important charity for children and dealing with very difficult circumstances? we have adapted. you have done a real sterling effort in our essential services, our child services for children and young people, for health lines and they were less concerned over vulnerable children

now that the services can continue to function but it is a really difficult time is really difficult time for everyone in the charity sector with the funding pressures obviously that are there. in our message is that our mission is to be there for every child in right now thatis there for every child in right now that is more important than ever. there for every child in right now that is more important than evenm is good to have you in the programme. thank you very much. thank you both. it's probably stating the obvious to say the disruption caused by coronavirus to the world of sport has been major. to give you a snapshot of whats changed — nearly fifty—thousand major sporting events were scheduled for 2020. but covid—19 — and measures like social distancing and travel bans — mean only around half of them are likely to take place by the end of the year. the olympics and european football championships — the euros — are some of the major live sporting events that have been postponed until at least next year. whilst others like wimbledon have been cancelled completely. lord sebastian coe is the president

of world athletics, and former chair of the london 2012 olympic organising committee. he says perspective is needed by people in sport. there are occasions and we had to sit through gritted teeth those, we have to take a back—seat and we are trying to get competitions up and running again for our competitors and that's what they want and i speak to them of the time, but we also know that we have to do so in an environment where judgements are going to be made by public health authorities, governments and we do not want the athletes to be put into a difficult, dangerous position. and particularly not just for themselves, but the risk of infecting their loved ones and families. so this is a complicated landscape and i have to say, we all hope that the viruses contained in

that we are able to get athletes backin that we are able to get athletes back in the competition, but only when it is safe and sound to do so and we perhaps had some very ingenious efforts, including something that we are going to announce later in the week without having athletes compete in the competition but they will be behind closed doors and press being able to engage in the same time with athletes in other parts of the world and competitions. so, look, nothing is ideal at the moment. but we live in an extraordinarily challenging environment. questions are being asked again about the reliability of china's account of its coronavirus pandemic. beijing has already revised numbers it says died in wuhan, the centre of the outbreak. but now researchers at the university of hong kong estimate china had four times more covid19 cases than it first admitted to. speaking on a video news conference, the chinese ambassador to the uk denied there had been a cover up and said china had been open and transparent.

discriminating between blaming and scouting are futile. arrogance and insolence will only poison the relationship between countries. 0ur diplomatic correspondent james landale attended that virtual conference. he challenged the ambassador on whether beijing would cooperate with international investigatiors and notes what mr. xiaoming did not speak about that please make this whole issue about the data coming out of china is one thatis the data coming out of china is one that is what information is getting out and whether it is accurate. and the latest study today raises questions about the death toll in the cases in the way they were defined and there will be a debate amongst the scientists about that but it does mean that policymakers

and the west are looking for answers. and when politicians are asked in the west, is there going to be an investigation? many of them are leaving in that direction. the china ambassador is resisting this but i asked him during this video co nfe re nce but i asked him during this video conference early this morning. ambassador, you put great stock in international cooperation, will china as a result, co—operate with any independent international investigations into the origins of this pandemic? will china provide any investigation with full access to all the relevant data, locations and witnesses? we have been transparent. we have been straightforward with all the data. in talking about independent investigations. it is up to the world health organisation. that is

where we support the world health organisation. we have to play by the international rules. not by some other countries rules. like some other countries rules. like some other country local court, suits china. it is absurd. and we have american courts trying to sue the chinese republic. we have this issue becoming a key dividing line between this years presidential election in the united states. i think at the moment that they're going to be positive and constructive relationships between the united states and china, i think, is a long shot. my my maximum chimney schools or begin to

german chancellor angela merkel says her country must remain "clever and cautious" in handling the coronavirus crisis, amid the easing of some lockdown restrictions there. some of germany's schools have begun to re—open, including this secondary school near the city of dusseldorf, but only students sitting leaving exams are allowed to attend, and strick social distancing rules are in place. the country has flattened the curve of new infections, but strict social distancing rules remain. angela merkel has warned that europe is still at the beginning of the coronavirus crisis. she's known on the small screen, the big screen — and now, your phone screen. damejudi dench has been using lockdown to get to grips with technology, and regularly posts on tiktok with her grandson, sam. and regularly posts on tiktok she's not the only one using her time indoors to learn new skills and keep in touch with the younger generation, as john maguire reports. why do you tell an actor to break a leg? because every play has to have a cast. from m to various hms, damejudi dench is one of ourfinest and best loved actors. star of the stage, the small and the screen, she is now taking to the tiny screen making short

tiktok videos with her grandson. i thought it would be a good laugh to get us both involved as we are so close but we are not together. it's really, really hard. and it's just something both of us didn't know anything about and so we both chucked ourselves in it at the deep end. dame judi is learning new skills and loving the time spent although, at a distance, with herfamily. we are living through such a strange and unprecedented time and it's difficult to know how to approach each day, i think. i have found, and i'm not at all technically—minded, but i have found that the laptop when you can get your family on facetime, it makes an enormous difference and then you see them and you feel as if you've actually had a quick visit,

which is wonderful. and i've also learned from my grandson about tiktok, which is something i didn't know about, so i've been having to rehearse my so—called dance with him and we recorded it and i enjoyed it enormously, enormously. i'd be terrified to direct her or tell her what to do. i mean, she's game for anything so i'm like, if i come to her one day with one trend, she tries to do that trend. like, we try to film it. i try to teach her dances on facetime. it's really, really difficult. but she likes a bit of a challenge. at the moment, i don't think she's got any scripts that she is learning or anything, so she can kind of chuck herself in as much as she wants, which is lovely. i'm absolutely loving doing it with her and kind of seeing the response from people. it's great. and theo, as well? nice to see him. is he behaving himself? he's very good.

we were lucky, really. when theo was born a month ago, he came home from hospital to a very different world, one where his parents, natasha and scott, were cut off from family support at least physically anyway. for me, it's been absolute torture, really. i'm very close to my mum. on a usual week i would see her most days. and when you do something as big as this, the first thing you want to do is show your mum. of course. so we decided to have a family reunion with natasha's parents and sister and, after the gremlins that are such large part of daily life now, we were joined by scott's mum. you've seen him. not had a chance to touch him yet. what's that been like? horrible. very heartbreaking. absolutely. ijust can't wait. it's very frustrating. it is, isn't it? yeah. we can be thankful of the modern technology that we can watch him develop over the last month on whatsapp.

without that, we would be lost. not only that, he's long—awaited, this young man. it's hell for both families. our first great—grandchild. nephew. all the family. can't wait to meet the little man. gosh, he's not going to want for cuddles when this is all over. so who have we got now, scott? great grandad jeff and great grandma pat. and theo's great—grandparents join in. for many, lockdown would have been much harder without this technology so we may not be able to touch, to kiss, to hug, but in the meantime, we are able to smile and to laugh and to share.

hello. it has been yet another try and mostly sunny day across the uk. the view from space, the select picture has shunned a bit of patchy high cloud there in some lower cloud that plagues the northern isles for the northern part of the day but the blue overhead and keeps the long clear spells through tonight and i think we'll see some low clouds rolling its way and from the north seas apart from yorkshire, lincolnshire, east anglia and press into the midlands a turn misty and berkey through the later hours of the day. generally between two and 9 degrees, some spots made to below freezing along a touch of frost to develop. enter tomorrow, we can see an area of cloud with some nist across the midlands and eastern anglia, it will break up very quickly and missed will turn and we

will again see plenty of sunshine to ta ke will again see plenty of sunshine to take us through the day. some extra cloud close to the area and a bit of cool side across the far north and east of the uk, generally speaking it is another very warm day with temperatures getting up to the 20s. as we have through friday evening, pretty one or two showers of the hills of mountains in southwest england. mostly remaining dry. the chance of showers destined to increase a little bit as we head through the weekend. it will feel a little bit cooler as well and a very slight pressure pattern and what do we mean by that, not many white lines or isobars, the wind is very light and not much to push in things to be very slow and very subtle. so still a lot of dry weather around on saturday, perhaps a bit more the way of cloud and again, the odd shower for parts of wales in the southwest, temperature —wise, another fairly warm day for the time of year, but he can see this band of cloud up to the far northwest of scotland and thatis the far northwest of scotland and that is a system that is going to make some progress southeast with is

removed or saturday night and into sunday. this little area of low pressure starts to develop and sta rts pressure starts to develop and starts to push its way southwards and that is going to turn the weather a little bit more unsettled and we will see some sherry rain sinking into the northern parts of scotla nd sinking into the northern parts of scotland and our weather front, sinking into the northern parts of scotland and our weatherfront, prop band will see the odd shower breaking out ahead of it. there will still be a lot of fun weather and spells of sunshine, still very warm the south but turning noticeably cooler across northern parts of the uk.

this is 0utside source on bbc news for viewers in the uk and around the world. we're covering all the latest coronavirus developments here in britain and globally. welcome. welcome to bbc 0utside source. it's just after 8 o'clock in the evening here in the uk. it's thursday which means that once again across the country people are at their windows and front doors, applauding all those key