this is outside 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. the coronavirus pandemic has driven the us economy into its most severe contraction in more than a decade — with warnings of worse to come. the number of people who've died in the uk hasjumped past 26—000 — in the uk hasjumped past 26,000 — as the government starts adding deaths in care homes and in the wider community to the official death toll. a stark warning from the international labour 0rganisation. half of the global workforce‘s

livelihoods are at risk because of the pandemic. after weeks of separation, why switzerland now thinks its safe once again, for their elderly to hug their grandchildren. welcome. the us is the world's largest economy. today we learnt that in the first three months of this year, it shrank at an annual rate of 4.8%. the country has introduced lockdown measures to slow the spread of coronavirus, which has killed more than 58,000 people there. as you can see from this graph, the us economy has suffered the sharpest drop since the financial crisis more than a decade ago. it ends the longest expansion in us history as coronavirus virtually shut down the country. but the figures don't reflect the full crisis, since the country did not begin its lockdown measures until march. as the economist mohammed el—erian points out on twitter, the next quarter could see the us

economony contract as much as a0%. here he is outlining what this will mean. it's a battle against global depression. and what today's number tells you is two things. one is the urgency of containing the damage so that short—term hits don't become long—term hits. and that's — and the second issue tells you that we've got to build a runway for medical advances to be able to sort out the lives versus livelihood equation. and importantly, notjust to win the war against the depression, but to secure the peace. we failed to do that in 2008. we won the war against the depression then, but we didn't secure peace of high, sustainable, inclusive growth. today's number tells you that even now, we have to think about winning the war and securing the peace. despite the threats to economic growth, in the past hour the us

federal reserve said it will keep interest rates between zero and 0.25%. former treasury secretary larry summers says that containing the coronavirus outbreak is still america's primary concern. we do know that economic downturns cast a substantial shadow forward. and the people who are going to be the victims of this in many cases are the people coming out of school into a very weak economy. and studies show that people who come out of school during very difficult times — the impact of that is there 20 years later on their wages and the quality of the jobs that they have. so it is a very big deal to do what we can — everything we can to support the economy through this period. but we need to remember that it all starts with the virus. people are terrified to work with others, terrified to go into a store.

you can do whatever you want with interest rates and you can have whatever fiscal policy you want, but you'll still have an economy that is weakened. the decision over how and when to reopen the us economy has caused new divides amongst americans. nick bryant has been speaking to some of them in new york. can't even wrap my head around it. it's incredible. steve owns a road—building firm in staten island, which he fears will be bankrupt byjune. he's a trump supporter who believes the democrats who run new york are being too cautious. if i'm not working and this economy's not opened up, and these fear mongers don't back off — they've got everybody scared to death — we'll all go out of business. steve, it's a vicious virus, i've had it myself. do you accept that? and i'm sorry to hear that. the reality of it is, people are going to continue to get sick. i don't think they're going to continue to get sick at any alarming rate. we are seeing more beggars

on new york streets. this is harlem, a mainly african american community, severely hit by this health and economic contagion. and this is upscale soho, the home of high—end retail — boarded up like a hurricane is about to rip through, which economically it has. every single shut down day. don't open up too soon... but public health officials such as danielle, who live in these communities, warn against the rush to reopen. people are hurting financially, they're struggling to feed their families. but we really need to take this slow because i would hate for us to have to shut down the economy again if we get more cases. here's samira hussain with more on the tug of war in the us over public health and economic growth. we are seeing lots of different state—level governments are really trying to grapple with, which is why you are seeing in parts of the country, and places like georgia, for example — you're seeing some slow reopening.

but of course, the great fear is that if you start to reopen parts of the economy too quickly, are you going to spark yet another coronavirus wave? and will that be even more serious? but there's no way to discount the kinds of severe economic numbers that we are seeing. and when you want to talk about these economic disparities, it certainly is being evidenced here in new york. again, we saw a part of that in nick's package. the economic disparities that exist in new york in this pandemic, there is no doubt that it will exacerbate those. and that is one of the challenges, how do you try and protect all of the citizens again while trying to reopen the economy, knowing full well the economic tsunami that is coming through this country? the head of america's insitute for infectious diseases has expressed optimism about an anti—viral drug to help fight the coronavirus more quickly.

remdesivir, which was originally developed to treat ebola, has shown that on average four days less time was needed to shake off the effects of coronavirus. here's dr anthony fauci speaking at the white house. if you look at the time to recovery being shorter in the remdesivir arm, it was 11 days compared to 15 days. so that is something that, although a 31% improvement doesn't seem like a knockout 100%, it is a very important proof of concept, because what it is proven is that a drug can block this virus. here's our health correspondent james gallagher explaining the history of the drug. it has been developed by a company called gilead and their original plan

was to develop an ebola treatment. they tested it against ebola and had some effects but there were other drugs that were better, so it was these hugely promising drug that never quite delivered. but it is shown to be effective against a lot of other viruses, so they tried against sars in the labs, they have tried it against this virus in labs, they have worked against that. so they started trialing it in patients. it was the drug the who, when on its mission to china if you can remember, it feels like an eternity ago, when this outbreak was confined to china, they sent their mission there, said that remdesivir is the most promising drug, but now we are getting the real data coming out and showing that, yes, it can change the course of this disease. for the first time in the uk, the latest official figures include all deaths linked to the virus, including those in care homes and other community settings. and they show that the pandemic has so far claimed nearly 4,000 more lives than were being recorded under the previous system. in the past 2a—hours, there have been 765 deaths across the uk, taking the total number of deaths in the uk to over 26,000.

here's our health editor hugh pym. happier times for betty, celebrating her 97th birthday. she is now in critical care in hospital with coronavirus. her daughter andrea says she picked up the virus in a nursing home and testing at an earlier stage for residents and staff might have kept her safe. i think it is a bit late. coronavirus, if truth be known, i think, is endemic in our nursing homes and the people who will suffer the most are the elderly and vulnerable, not to mention the staff. testing for all care home residents and staff, including those without symptoms, has been made available either with kits sent to the homes or mobile units visiting them. but there have been warnings that carrying out the tests will not be easy. it is the physicality of some of these people, they are so frail that doing the test itself, it takes a lot of time, it takes time

to sit and explain it, time to reassure them, time afterwards to explain again. i asked about the new care home testing plan at the downing street media briefing. couldn't testing, really, have started sooner than now? the scale and speed of this epidemic is really in the last couple of weeks and there is a huge national and local endeavour to not just test, which is very important, but understand the measures that would make a difference in care homes and to look at that in a very rapid way, looking at the evidence so that we can put in place measures to protect people. drive through testing or home kits have been made available to millions of others with symptoms, including heather, who did her swab test at taunton today. because i am a private carer, i work for myself, i could not get tested before today. it is really important not for me but also for my clients.

over 65s qualify for testing, like mac and anthea. we both had symptoms for a few days and therefore we really wanted to be checked, but the symptoms had not increased so we did not need to phone 111, but as soon as tests for over 65s, which we are, became available, we were happy to have it. home test kits can be ordered online but only by those with symptoms. we have not opened the packaging of this one so it is safe for future use. there are a couple of types of home testing kit, this is one. you need to register online before you do anything and book the free courier collection service to pick it up. then you take the swab sample from your nose and throat, put it in the plastic container and then the packaging and it is ready to be collected. slots for drive—through tests have been in high demand, home test kits ran out earlier today, but with new supplies they are bookable again this evening.

health secretary matt hancock has set a target of 100,000 tests a day by the end of this month, and that is tomorrow. hugh pym, bbc news. the government is keen to stress it's not a surge in cases, but a new way of counting, as iain watson explains. what happened before is we got daily numbers. for those who died of the virus in hospital but not those on a daily basis who care homes or the community. — who died and care homes or in the community. the figures were really separately in use and sometime leg. we would see or expect to see an increase in the numbers in total and indeed we did. almost 4000 more in fact because the numbers now incorporate those who died in care homes and the total figures now in 26,091 people who have died of coronavirus in the united kingdom. that takes on board yesterday's

numbers of death in hospitals but also the community that go back to march the 2nd. we would not expect to see such a big increase in the figures tomorrow but there has been criticism of the government simply concentrating on hospital deaths and perhaps that trajectory in britain was very similar to italy and france but they have pressure on them to make sure they at the same time announce that's outside of hospitals. and that according to the labour opposition suggests that we are on course for one of the worst totals in europe, so they have been expecting some concern about that and that the numbers are still being underreported because these are people who have been tested for coronavirus and who have died and again it was made clear at the downing street press conference today that it is possible and care homes as well with the infection spreading very rapidly that people may well it

very rapidly that people may well die before they are tested and also they may be a subsidiary reason for death on a death certificate and the figures can be even higher than the 26, nearly 27,000 announce today. another big story in the uk today — the prime minister borisjohnson and his partner carrie simonds have spent their first day as parents after the birth of their baby boy. downing street says the prime minister won't be taking paternity leave at the moment. the prime minister is known to have fathered five children but as dan bloom from the daily mirror points out... well here's what the foreign secretary dominic raab told parliament. both mother and baby are doing well, and i'm sure the whole house will want to join me in sending congratulations and our very best wishes to them. stay with us on 0ustide source, still to come: we'll explain how

the coronavirus pandemic has worsened the plight of palestinian workers in israel. new figures from scotland show more than half of the coronavirus deaths recorded last week were in care homes. the figures bring the total number of people to have died with confirmed or suspected cases of the virus to more than 2000. the deaths included six members of nhs staff and five social care workers. here's the scotland first minister nicola sturgeon. the proportion of deaths in scotland in care homes whilst obviously deeply distressing is, however, broadly in line with the proportions being reported now from many other countries. that demonstrates again how crucial it is to make care homes as safe as they can possibly be during a pandemic of this nature. care homes have had strict guidance to follow since 13 march,

and it is incumbent on care home providers, whether they are in the public or the private sector, to follow and to implement that guidance. this is 0utside source live from the bbc newsroom. the us economy has shrunk at its fastest rate in a decade as the lockdown virtually shut down the world's biggest economy. the us federal reserve has announced that interest rates will be kept at near zero. when the pandemic first hit israel and the palestinian territories, the united nations praised their cooperation in dealing with a common threat. however, as palestinians working in israel have brought coronavirus back to the occupied west bank, a political row has broken out that threatens to hit the economies on both sides and undermine efforts to stop

the spread of covid—i9. here's our middle east correspondent, yolande knell. before dawn, their watch begins. palestinian security forces trying to stop workers going to israel. they wouldn't do this normally, but these are not normal times. "we are doing this to protect our mothers, wives and children," the officer says. "we have to control the spread of the virus." these men claim they are doing nothing wrong. but an inspection turns up israeli work permits. the officers take their belongings and tell them they can collect them later. then, they try to catch up with three more men. but they're too late. they can't go any further, the path ahead is under full israeli control.

these workers are vital to the weak west bank economy, so a deal was struck to allow tens of thousands to go to israel, also on a strict lockdown, and to stay there. in this israeli settlement, factory workers are sleeping in tents. they will spend the holy month of ramadan here to protect theirjobs. translation: i want to keep my family, friends and my town safe. that is why i chose to stay in my workplace. if i don't work, nobody will help me with even the basics. i can't express how hard this is. god help us, god help the workers. but they workers have not been able to avoid politics. most coronavirus cases in the west bank have been linked to those returning home. the palestinian authority has sharply criticised israel for that,

which israel says is unfair. senior officials that are giving these remarks, they are just misleading. even encouraging incitement, i would say. the palestinian people, we have been doing really a joint effort together to cope with this virus. it's a common enemy. some palestinians have stayed in israel but others are coming home for ramadan. they are checked for signs of the coronavirus. zahid has a fever, so he is tested on the spot. he is worried about infection. "what can i do? "my financial situation is really bad, i need to work to earn money," he says. ten relatives rely on him. now he is told to self—isolate for two weeks. the desperation of the workers to return to theirjobs,

even during a pandemic, has underlined the economic reliance of the palestinians on israel. and in their decades—old conflict — that's a sore point. yolande knell, bbc news. well lets stay in the region, this time focussing on arab doctors working in isreal and who've become the foot soldiers in the fight against coronavirus. even though arabs make up only 20% of israel's population — they are disproportionately represented in the medical community. arabs make up half of israel's pharmacists. a quarter of its nurses. and just under a fifth of its doctors. the country's leading virologist is also arab. in this article the financial times reported that education is often seen as a way of pushing back against political marginalisation, and that's why many arabs have chosen a career in medicine. the washington post calls israel's hospitals one of the few cultural crossroads in israel,

where anyone, from jewish settlers to palestinian activists, can receive treatment without discrimination. there's evidence the pandemic has brought about a greater sense of caring. this video has gone viral showing doctors and nurses in isreal removing their masks to reveal arab faces and head coverings. it was put together by a jewish human rights activist. that's one narrative. another is playing out — have a look at the headline in the israeli newspaper haaretz—arab "israelis fight coronavirus as first—class doctors but second—class citizens". well we can speak to a palestinian paediatrician in who works in israel. doctor 0sama tanous, you work in a hospital in haifa. what are you finding and what your experiences? hello. iwork what are you finding and what your experiences? hello. i work in what are you finding and what your experiences? hello. iwork in a clinic in outpatient clinic as a

paediatrician. and the children are not that much affected, likely from the coronavirus. in that sense, my personal experience has been fine. asa personal experience has been fine. as a palestinian working in a clinical practice in israel, what is your experience? there has been many campaigns tackling how the palestinians working inside the israeli hospitals will affect racism towards them or towards the palestinian community inside israel in general. here, i think it is important to remember that israel is defined as a jewish democratic state by law. it is just past a nation lot two years ago. so that automatically excludes full equality of palestinian citizens by 20% of the population. so having that large number of palestinian working within the hospitals as nurses or doctors and clinics, it is quite irrelevant to the issue of racism and

inequality. and just as we know, any system of racism or oppression doesn't just pass for a system of racism or oppression doesn'tjust pass for a moment, to think about the subject of racism saying you have done a very good job, so now i will grant you equality. that doesn't function the way it is. and of video you have just shown is actually having palestinian doctors asking for their fairshare of palestinian doctors asking for their fair share of governance committee said having questioning of what it means to be equality in israel for people or are not dues, and so on, opening up for a greater discussion, they are asking for permission to participate in the government, so i will compare that to women asking for access to men's only close rather than saying why do men only clu b rather than saying why do men only club exists. so there is no broader discussion regarding racism equality and so on. the monks wanted the

situations bright and by this nation state law which you mentioned which was passed in 2018, it is putting hebrew above arabic as the official language. is information about covid—19 being provided in arabic in israel? yes. it is a very good question. actually, all the health policies towards from the beginning of the covert pandemic has been a very much racialized and israel has in the beginning only targeted jewish citizens. —— covid—19 pandemic. in hebrew and antacid points on mostly for the jewish population. and then have a lot of local initiatives, independent initiatives, translating material into arabic and it took a huge effort to have the government start testing arabs and palestinians inside israel. so the whole chain of events inside israel. so the whole chain of eve nts fro m inside israel. so the whole chain of events from the publication of material to the testing points to updating the local maps has been

hugely racialized. as a dr, do you find politics entering into the work that you do? yes. we need to look at, as into medicine and health care in general, and a more broad away then the interaction between a dr in a patient. 0ur health is affected by the economic situations, land distribution, equality, resources commit accessibility to health and everything and whatnot. and this is the case for every marginalised community, indigenous communities anywhere on the planet. and we are no different. the health of palestinians is very much inside israel is a way worse in every aspect. heart disease, anything that exposes us aspect. heart disease, anything that exposes us to mortality from the coronavirus. so oui’ exposes us to mortality from the coronavirus. so our overall health situation is much worse. in the life expectancy is lower. it does not

reach 80 and that might protect us stopbeck we are at a time. thank you so stopbeck we are at a time. thank you so much forjoining us. thank you to oui’ so much forjoining us. thank you to our viewers. hello. we've gone from weather they did it change for days on end to weather that now seems to change every hour or so. this afternoon sunshine came after a spell of rain. much of the uk will see rain and some stage of the night and heavy showers on their way tomorrow. all because low—pressure is now in control around these bands what when they come again and welcome rain for many of us in the gaps between the weather front fleet you see something drier and sunnier. 0vernight we will see another spell of heavy downpour is pushing north and east across england and wales into northern ireland and reaching said the most parts of scotland later in the night, separate area of rain pushing northwards across the rest of scotland. what all of that going on, temperatures holding up mid to high single figures as we start the day tomorrow, and sunny

spells and showers and a lot of it find weather to start the day across the eastern side of england but this ban of rain affecting northern england and parts of southern scotla nd england and parts of southern scotland and northern ireland will turn more salary and further heavy showers and wales in weston england will push across the rest of england during the day. some sunny spells in northern scotland. the rain moving northern scotland. the rain moving north across the northern isles. showers could be heavy, than to read and help possible and gusty winds and help possible and gusty winds and the wind gust along the english channel and coast into the channel islands, a0 to 50 miles an hour. it will be windiest and temperatures in the mid to low teens. not far from average for the time of the year. as we go through the evening into the night, that is the showers are still around. they just become night, that is the showers are still around. theyjust become further between but likely will be further showers affecting us as we go through the night. not too many around to start on friday but the heating of the day will get going again. parts of western and northern ireland, wales, midland, not too

many on friday, the first day of may come here with more in the way as any spells and temperatures mayjust bea any spells and temperatures mayjust be a little bit higher. the picture for the weekend. a gap between weather system on saturday. low— pressure weather system on saturday. low—pressure is going to come in with more rain on sunday. not dry for everybody. still a chance of a few showers and northern parts of the uk but more of us will be dry on saturday before that rain gets in on sunday so a selection of locations to show you here, pretty much all in the same vote, temperatures pretty similar, but it will most of us see more what weather for a time on sunday. —— more what weather for a time.

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. the coronavirus pandemic has driven the us economy into its most severe contraction in more than a decade — with warnings of worse to come. the number of people who've died in the uk has jumped past 26—000 — as the government starts adding deaths in care homes and in the wider community to the official death toll. the us secretary of state mike pompeo has weighed

into a row between australia and china — after canberra joined international calls for an investigation into how the pandemic started. who in the road would not want an investigation of how this happened to the world? i would assume the people of china, they're good people, those doctors and scientists, imagine if they were working in our system where you could... a stark warning from the international labour 0rganisation. half of the global workforce's livelihoods are at risk because of the pandemic. welcome. well, our top story is that us economy contraction. if you want a more direct measure of how it's affecting people — more than 26 million people in the us have filed for unemployment since the coronavirus pandemic began. and of course this is a global phenomenon ros atkins has been looking into this for us. let us begin the stark warning that

we heard from the international labour organisation. it is not saying that half the world's workers are in danger of having their livelihoods destroyed by this pandemic. the folks on workers in the economy, workers were not regulated or protected by the state. here is the head. for1.6 billion workers, their livelihood has been massively impacted by what is going on and these are people who earn very little on a good day and their incomes are going down by an average of 60% in the first month of the pandemic effect. these are people in desperate straits and they need our help. that is of a look at this through the experiences of different countries. in india, the figures are staggering. the ilo has warned around a00 million people who work in the informal economy are at risk of falling deeper into poverty

directly because of this crisis. and you can look at bangladesh, this article from bbc bengali and high streets all around the world are putting 2 million bangladeshjobs at risk because clothing ordering from shops of the world have dried up. that is one example of a globalised trade means the experience in one country can impact on the experiences elsewhere and here is another. in africa, many family rely on remittances. 0n the scale of this, the world bank in 2019, just over $17 billion in paid in remittances around the world and it is predicting that remittance tra nsfers is predicting that remittance transfers will be around 20% in 2020, so that is a loss of over $250 billion forfamilies 2020, so that is a loss of over $250 billion for families who rely on them. bbc africa has been investigating this issue. this is a

popular service in somalia's capital. there waiting to us receive a payment from their family living in the united states and that helps cover her rent and buy food. coronavirus had a huge impact on us not that relatives are under quarantine. we will have the celebration soon. the money that we we re celebration soon. the money that we were getting has reduced. the horn is estimated to have one and a half and 2 million people living in the diaspora. the sin back home a concert 20% of the country's gdp.

for the western senegal, a taxi driver worries that if the situation remains the same, he may be unable to send money back home. before the outbreak between 30000 and 35,000, but since then, my income has gone to about 2000 and less and also a curfew. i used to work at 6am and finish at about ten p:m., i work from 7am to just five finish at about ten p:m., i work from 7am tojust five p:m., the clientele is really gone down. it's a safety net for millions of vulnerable households in africa who depend on money sent home to afford basic necessities such as food, shelter, health care and education. when a migrant worker in south africa would normally send money to his ageing parents and allow me to

cover their medical insurance, now with the partial locked in malawi and strict stay at in south africa, he is unable to use the traditional tra nsfer he is unable to use the traditional transfer services as they are temporarily closed for not being essential business. he has had to find other ways to send money to his pa rents. find other ways to send money to his parents. i have got friends work with businesses in malawi, so it was about asking for a favour from them to give my parents money for this month but, you cannot go on continuously like that because they have also cut their own cash issues. they say it is temporary but already forecasting a slight recovery in 2021. but the road to recovery is an uncertain one as the world continues to fight the pandemic. it is being

felt around the world, including in europe were countries are wealthy by global standards. but let's focus next on spain in the bbc has this report from there. in spain, the daily tally of the dead may be falling, but the lines of the hungry are filling. cueing for hand—outs to fill empty stomachs. a new wave of suffering brought by the virus is gathering force. losing all of her work, 300 euros a month is what she is left with. the poorest being hit ha rd est. is left with. the poorest being hit hardest. the people whose house i was working at told me, do not come any more and to this is finished. now i don't know if i can even afford to pay my rent. belushi get

she shares with her brothers. —— which ever she gets. even in the worst of spain possible economic crisis, those of the margins could find odd jobs but not now. assista nce find odd jobs but not now. assistance from others is all that is left. every day we pray for help. the miracle is what businesses need and businesses will start to reopen next month and the customers numbers must be limited. cafes can only serve outdoors. businesses sheltered for weeks may struggle to survive. coming back to find the bills piling up, more than he thinks he will be able to pay. if his restaurant fails, the five staff he kept on will be jobless too. even

when we open, i do not think people will go out like before. there will be scared. no one knows what is going to happen. we are all scared. those fears are filled right across spain even in the smallest places. this was it exactly a year ago. the annualfee people crowded from far and wide. now, nobody. these events help sustain the economies and towns like this, for how to restart them. events will be the last thing to open, this a00 spectators allowed or spaced apart. it is that they were in the small village like this, many thousand come. restaurants, hotels, shops, everyone will feel the impact. it is said. spain health emergency may be waning but the economic one isjust emergency may be waning but the economic one is just beginning to

bite. a row is deepening between australia and china, with the australian prime minister repeating calls for an investigation into the start of the pandemic, despite anger from beijing. across the world, chinese diplomats are attempting to counter criticism of the country's conduct during the outbreak. but scott morrison said the world wants to understand how the coronavirus spread from its starting point in wuhan. australia will continue to of course, pursue what is a very reasonable and sensible course of action. this is a virus that has taken more than 200,000 lives across the world. it has shut down the global economy. the implications and impacts of this are extraordinary. it would seem entirely reasonable insensible that the world would want an assessment of both how this all occurred so we can learn lessons and prevented from happening again.

it's worth remembering that china is australia's largest trading partner and the business community is keen to maintain its close ties with beijing. around the same time as the prime minister was holding his press conference, another government press conference was underway, announcing new testing kits. but it was taken off track when mining magnate andrew forrest, you can see him on the left there, invited china's consul—general, long zhou to speak, he's on the right. he spoke about the important ties between the two nations and defended beijing's record. while australia's health minister, on the left, was reportedly caught off guard... and simply watched on. china has continued to deflect blame using state—controlled media take this opinion piece in the global times which suggests the virus has multiple origins and quotes a source at wuhan university, who says, "asserting that wuhan is the origin of the virus

is baseless" and criticising those who he said were trying to make china "a scapegoat for the pandemic for political purposes". well this is the latest from the us secretary of state. 0vernight, i saw comments from the chinese foreign ministry talking about the course of activity where respect to australia that had the temerity to ask for an investigation. who in the world would not one investigation of how this happened to the world? i assume the people of china, they're good people. the doctors and scientists, much of the scientists and doctors working in our system, and a free system we put hypothesis forward and challenge you have the freedom to talk and publish papers and others could comment and this is what democracies do best. the solution to this crisis would come from freedom loving people around the world and i'm very confident of that. authoritarian regimes are poorly designed to deal with the kind of

crisis that this pandemic is engendered. let's go to washington now to speak to zhaoyin feng from bbc chinese. so important for china? who are china's allies in the war of narrative? it matters a lot to do the chain of the's international reputation if the's international reputation if the road continues to blame the pandemic on china, it is not going to look good for the country and especially at this time since it seems to be a golden chance for beijing to compete with washington over international performance and embracing these so—called american first doctrine. so tried to fill that void and be the international metre in china has done a lot to help other countries deal with the pandemic, to generously share medical supplies and experience to

combat the virus. it even when the pandemic eventually subsides, the world will continue to ask questions about the origin of the virus in order to prevent future outbreaks. and based on the international blame game we are seeing right now, it seems unlikely that any independent investigation of china's consent and transparent participation is possible. we saw the united states point the finger when it comes to supporters of china, what kind of allies does china have when it comes to the narrative of this virus? china is under fire from to the narrative of this virus? china is underfire from a lot to the narrative of this virus? china is under fire from a lot of western country, but in the east, pakistan has expressed solidarity and china has donated medical supplies to pakistan and in europe,

serbia also publicly said that european solidarity is only fairy tales on paper and china is the only country that can help. and also notably it will help organisations that have been on china's side and have been praising beijing's response in combating the coronavirus since the very beginning of the outbreak. stay with us on 0ustide source, still to come: after weeks of separation, we'll tell you why switzerland now thinks its safe once again, for the elderly to hug their grandchildren. more evidence today of the devastating impact the pandemic is having on business. here's consumer affairs correspondent sarah corker reports from county durham.

should ijust stop now or have the keys back to the landlord? putting his life savings into this new cafe, a high street were almost 25% of shops were empty before the pandemic hit. the week before he was due to open, britain went to lockdown. how long do you think you can last without being open? another month, possibly, before it dries up, but for the money drives up. in it's there with thinking, i'm actually going to go bust before i even get a chance to open. clothing retailer next says the impact had been much faster and steeper than expected. in—store sales plunged 52% in its first quarter to april the 25th and homeland sales are down 22% while barclay says reported it that he

could cost them £2.1 billion, largely due to customers being unable to repay their loans. from banking to aviation, it could take several years for air travel to return to pre—virus levels and british airways is restructuring now with plans to lay off a quarter of its workforce in the proposals remain subject to consultation. we think there are alternative solutions and we can't understand why the start of the clock ticking on the consultation for situation that, if we sit on the table of discussion, it could be avoided. new business is immune from this economic shock but the high streets are already in trouble in the longer the lockdown, the more permanent these closures could become. this is 0utside source live from the bbc newsroom

the us economy has shrunk at its fastest rate in a decade as the lockdown virtually shut down the world's biggest economy. in the past hour the us federal reserve has announced that interest rates will be kept at near zero. coronavirus lockdown has impacted our lives in so many ways, not least in our human relationships. take this for example from the uk's virus briefing, on monday. now were going to go to the first question which is from lynn in skipton. i'm going to read out the question and i'm reading it for the first time. and then we will endeavour to enter. i'm missing my grand children so much. please can you let me know if after the five criteria are met is being able to hug her closest family one of the first steps out of lockdown? since covid—19 began elderly people have been shielded from social contact even from members of their own family

this care home in austria is one of many across europe which introduced social distancing rules so that when relatives visit, the elderly residents can see them from a balcony, but no closer than that. neighbouring switzerland however has struck out on a different path as it begins to lift its lockdown measures. here's imogen foulkes, in bern. 0ne one of the things that suppress switzerland's neighbours is the advice this week from the swiss federal help office that grandparents can now hug their grandchildren after lots of advice by elderly people being advised to stay home and not have contact with their children and grandchildren but also with the children are saying this it is very complicated as very little signs, fractional minuscule that children under ten can actually

spread the disease and the experts that was looked, one of the things elderly people really need his contact, social contact. the danger is actually from other adults. not from young children and if you want, asa from young children and if you want, as a grandparent to give your toddler, grandchild a hug. do that. you should, a bit of contact, a little bit of contact, quick squeeze, little bit of contact, quick squeeze, that is ok. switzerland's decision highlights just how important human touch is to us and how much its missed, when we're denied it. here's professor tiffany field, director of the touch research institute at the university of miami. i think it is wonderful that children can hug their grandparents and vice versa because hugging does and vice versa because hugging does a lot for immune function to start out with, may a lot for immune function to start outwith, may they might want to wear his masks so the don't run the risk and there will be fun for the kids, especially for the grandparents. but we know from

studies that we have done on elderly people that touching children lowers their stress hormones when you lower stress hormones, you save natural killer cells that kill viral cells and ironically in this pandemic, but we are not allowed to touch is more important for saving the natural killer cells and killing the viral cells. all you do is move the skin because we move the skin, your stimulating pressure receptors under the skin and that sends a message to the skin and that sends a message to the vagus nerve and the rain and the vagus nerve slows down the nervous system when the nervous system is slowed down by the slowing of heart rate, blood pressure, then you have the saving of the natural killer cells which if people simply walk around their rooms, simply lay on the floor and stretched, simply wash

their hands, simply sit with her legs crossed and swing their legs, there stimulating the skin, they're moving their skin, so there is a lot of physical things that you can do. scientists have identified a new mammal, that lived alongside dinosaurs around 70 million years ago. the creature was about the size of a domestic cat and weighed about three kilogrammes. until now, experts had thought mammals had to be very small mammals around the size of mice to co—exist with dinosaurs. but this one somehow got along with them. identifying it took years, after it was dug up. in madagascar an island paradise for weird and wonderful creatures, where animals evolved different traits to those across the sea. doctor david krows is a pale—eontologist at the denver museum of nature & science,

who made the discovery. telus a bit more about this particular animal. very special indeed. it does look a little bit like a badger, but its looks are only superficial. underneath the skin and the for, it is a very weird beast. he has so many unique features and as you said, madagascar is full of weird and wonderful animals today, but those also the case 70 million years ago and this animal has a number of features that are not found in any other memo, either living or extinct in parts of it seem like they come out of outer space. describes some of those features to us. very odd, it is feeding on a plant with, it has holes in its skull that is not seen

in any other mammals, it has a front end of the skeleton and it is a com plete end of the skeleton and it is a complete skeleton, it is exquisitely preserved, but the front end of the skeleton is almost like he did not know at the back end was doing. the front end is built on a mammalian plan and the back end is a sprawling reptilian plan. and it is particularly special because it is large compared to the mammals that would have lived amongst the dinosaurs. most mammals that lived in the age of dinosaurs are very small, around right size. this one is extraordinarily large and that relates to the fact perhaps that it involved on an island, many mammals that give marooned on islands, a rather larger or smaller because the food resources are different, the

competitors are different, the predators are different and the parasites are different. thank you so much for your discovery, thank you for watching and do not forget you for watching and do not forget you can get in touch with me via social media. goodbye for now. hello. we have gone from whether they did not change from days gone into whether that seems to change every hour or so. this afternoon sunshine came after a spell of rain. much of the uk will see rain at some stage of the night to maybe showers and with tomorrow. topic of the pressure is now in control and expensive but whether communion and welcomed rain for many of us and in the gaps between the weather we could see something drier and sunday are out there. 0vernight, lucius range of heavy downpours, southern parts of scotland later in the night, pushing northwards across the rest of scotland. with all of that going on, temperatures holding up needed to high single figures is to

start the day tomorrow, density spells and showers. a lot of fine start the day across the eastern side of england but a band of rain affecting more than england and parts of southern scotland and northern ireland were are more salary and more heavy showers ahead of western england that will push further east across the west of england during the day. some sunny spells in the north of scotland with one or two shelves around the moving more towards the northern aisles. the wind gusts along the english channel coast around a0 to 50 mph this word is going to be windiest and temperatures in the mid to low teens, not far from average for the time of year. and into the night, the showers are still around it will just be further and further between but they will likely be for the showers affecting us as we go to the night and showers affecting us as we go to the nightand a showers affecting us as we go to the night and a lot, not too many rounds to start on friday but with the heat of the day, some of these will be going again and lots of western and

southern scotland, northern england and wales, on the first day of may to southern england, keir with one than the way of sunny spells and temperatures may just be than the way of sunny spells and temperatures mayjust be a little bit higher. picture for the weekend is the gap between the weather systems on saturday and that the low pressure is going to continue with more rain on sunday. still the chance of a few showers in northern and eastern parts but most will be dry on saturday before that hits in on sunday. so a selection of locations to show you care that you're locations to show you care that you' re pretty locations to show you care that you're pretty much all in the same boat, temperatures pretty similar but most of us was a some wet weather on sunday. —— will see some wet weather on sunday.

tonight at 10:00pm, a new way of counting the human cost of coronavirus. the number of deaths reaches 26,000 across the uk. the figure for the first time, includes deaths in care homes and the community since early march, as well as hospital deaths. 0nly people who've died after testing positive for coronavirus are included in the figures. care home providers say they're in a full—blown crisis. there is a tsunami of deaths that we probably... that we may have been able to avoid should we have had this testing an awful lot earlier. and a senior government adviser says that an ‘epidemic‘ of deaths in care homes is one of her main concerns. also tonight... the search for a cure. we report on the world's biggest study of potential treatments,