this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the us economy slumps, and the worst is yet to come. spending nosedived in the last quarter, as the coronavirus lockdown began. the number of coronavirus deaths in the uk passes 26,000. for the first time, the figure includes deaths in care homes and the community as well as hospital deaths. hope for a coronavirus treatment — the us says there's "clear—cut" evidence that a drug can help people recover. it is a very important proof of concept, because what it has proven is that a drug can block this virus.

and tributes are paid to the bollywood actor irrfan khan, who starred in slumdog millionaire and life of pi, who has died at the age of 53. 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. we start in the us where the economy is shrinking at the fastest rate in more than a decade, as figures from the last quarter show the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on economic activity. there was a 4.8% contraction, but economists warn that the worst is yet to come, because the data only covered the first few weeks of the us lockdown.

here in the uk, the number of dead has passed 26,000 as official figures include deaths in the community, such as in care homes, for the first time. but as the impact on human life and the global economy continues to grow, there's been some hope. the white house health advisor dr anthony fauci says there's been positive data from the trial of an existing antiviral drug to treat coronavirus. of an existing antiviral drug more on that shortly, but first let's return to the us, and the impact of the coronavirus on the world's biggest economy. nick bryant reports from new york. new york is a city caught between dread and desire. desperate to open up after six weeks in lockdown, but fearful of the fatal consequences of doing so too soon. a new york without new yorkers has hammered the economy, its tourism and hospitality sectors have also been decimated.

wall street, america's financial hub, fears the onset of another great depression. but even though the city has passed the peak of its outbreak, the density of its population makes it especially hazardous to quickly open up. that covid conundrum. it's... i 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 is 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, where they've got everybody scared to death, we all go out of business. steve, it's a vicious virus, i've had it myself, 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. horns honk. we are seeing more beggars

on new york's 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 shutdown day. don't open up too soon. the public health officials such as danielle, who live in these communities, warn against the rush to reopen. people are hurting financially, they are 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. don't open up too soon. this is one of the most impatient cities in the world. they talk about the new york minute — it means right now, immediately, without hesitation. but although some parts of this state could start the gradual process of reopening in mid—may, here in new york city, the tough restrictions will remain in place certainly for weeks

and maybe for many months. every night at nine o'clock the empire state building is illuminated in a red—and—white siren light to honour the emergency workers providing care. it is a ritual that will continue until this crisis is over. but that's the unanswerable question — when will new york return to being new york? nick bryant, bbc news, new york. our us correspondent gary 0'donoghue joins us from washington. terrible first quarter, but an even worse second and third potentially. yeah, that's certainly the expectation when you look at the time period which these numbers covered. really, things are only starting to shut down in march. so the expectation would be the second quarter, an awful loss worse than

that —— bought works. the president was my economic advisers are hopeful that the fourth quarter will be marvellous. it's interesting looking at the drop in personal consumption, seven and a half percent, health ca re seven and a half percent, health care is a big drag as well because hospitals have stopped their elective procedures. president trump has mentioned that. will there be a call for more cash you think to be passed by congress? 3 trillion directly since committed by congress. if you look at the total support that the fed and the treasury have given, you are looking ata treasury have given, you are looking at a total recipe package of this government underwriting. around $9 trillion. you get on to 45% of us gdp at that rate. but yes, there

will be more pressure, particularly for another congressional fund. but the difficulty at the moment is the sticking point, and that sticking point is the democrats want the next round of funding to hand out money to states, particularly to places like new york. republicans say they don't want to bail out the states. so there is no meeting of minds on a next package. as far as interest rates, nowhere else to go? no. we learned in the last couple weeks you can get negative oil prices. so who knows? the effect doesn't really have anywhere to move on interest rates at this kind of stage. the levers of macro economics are really available —— aren't really available at the moment to the government. what they'll be hoping is that i half of states are now starting to

loosen up and drop some of their restrictions. some people don't like that, some people do, but with that happening, that might start to alleviate some of the drain on unemployment. 26 million people lost theirjobs in the four weeks up to this week's. gary, thank you. let's return to the uk, where for the first time, the official death toll from the coronavirus is including all deaths linked to the virus, including those in care homes and other community settings. the death toll has now passed 26,000, and the new method of counting show that the pandemic has claimed nearly four thousand more lives than were being recorded previously. 0ur health editor hugh pym has been studying the new figures, and explains the implications. happier times for betty, celebrating her 97th birthday. she's 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's a bit late. i think that coronavirus, if the truth be known, is endemic in our nursing homes, and the people that are going to suffer the most are the elderly and the vulnerable. not to mention the staff. testing for all care home residents and staff, including those without symptoms, has now been made available, either with kits sent to the homes, or mobile units visiting them. managers say they need help running the testing and it's urgently needed. i do think that 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. because the elderly do not... they don't present in the classic way. they don't normally have rip—roaring temperatures. it can be quite insidious,

they are just a bit off colour. i asked about the new care home testing plan at the downing street media briefing. couldn't testing really have started sooner than that? the scale and the speed of this epidemic is really in the last couple of weeks. and there is a huge national and local endeavour to both notjust test, which is very important, but to also 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 we can put in place measures that 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'm a private carer, i work for myself, so i couldn't get tested before today. and it is really important, not for me, but also for my clients. over 65s qualify for testing as well, like mac and anthea. well, we both had the

symptoms for a few days. and so therefore we really wanted to get checked, but the symptoms hadn't increased, so we didn't need to phone 111, but as soon as the tests for over 65s, which we are, came available, we were quite happy to come and have a test. home test kits can be ordered online but only by those with symptoms. we haven't opened the packaging on this one, so it is safe for future use. there are a couple of different types of home testing kit. this is one of them. before you do anything, you need to register online and book the free courier collection service to come and pick it up. then you take the swab sample from your nose and throat, put it in the plastic container, and in the packaging, and then it's 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, are bookable again this evening. the health secretary, matt hancock, has set a target of 100,000 tests a day by the end of this

month. and that's tomorrow. hugh pym, bbc news. the white house health advisor, dr anthony fauci, has expressed optimism about an experimental antiviral drug to treat the coronavirus, remdesiveer. he said data from a clinical trial showed the drug had a clear—cut and positive effect in reducing the time to recovery. if you look at the time to recovery being shorter with remdesivir, it was 11 days compared to 15 days. so that's something that, although a 30 month percent improvement doesn't seem like a knockout 100%, it is very important proof of concept because what it is proving is that a drug can block this virus. here's our health correspondent james gallagher explaining the history of the drug. it's been developed by a pharmaceutical company called gilead, and their original name

was to develop an ebola treatment. now they tested it against ebola. it had some affect, but there were other drugs that were better, so it was this usually promising drug that never quite delivered. —— usually promising. it's shown to be affected against other viruses. they tried it against sars, they try to get this virus, they worked against that, so they started trialing inpatients. it was a drug the world health organisation sent its mission to china. when this outbreak was confined to china, they sent their mission there. they said remdesivir is the most promising drug, but now we get the real data coming out and showing that yes, it can change the course of this disease. doctor fauci's comments come as the world's biggest study is taking place here in the uk, where thousand of patients are involved in the search for potential coronavirus treatments. here's our medical correspondent fergus walsh. what would the world

give for a cure for coronavirus? it has turned hospital wards into alien landscapes. staff at addenbrooke's in cambridge must be shielded from the highly infectious virus. patients like peter, who is 89, must rely on oxygen, the one thing known to help. i was fighting for breath. it's very bad. that was on about day three. iwas... i was just, i couldn't breathe. the toll on individuals and their families has been enormous. did you feel that it might at one point take you away? yes. at my age, everybody said it would. you're doing so well. peter is part of a national trial, which is examining five drugs used for other conditions to see if they work for coronavirus. not in any pain, but i'm just so weak.

until they get results, doctors have limited options. it's extraordinarily difficult to watch a large number of patients get so incredibly unwell and know we have no therapies anywhere in the world that are proven to be efficacious. it means that there is an urgent health need to do research in this space so we can understand what treatments work and what don't. drugs for hiv and malaria are being tried to see if they can help stop the virus replicating in the body. other patients are being given treatments to reduce inflammation and dampen the immune system, which can go haywire. jeff, who is 60, has had cancer. he can't shake off coronavirus after being infected six weeks ago. twice i've been treated with chemo. twice i've had full remissions. and the last one was only at the end of last year. and then, wham, you get

this. he's signed up for two clinical trials. what's the point? what's the point in coming into hospital to be pumped full of all sorts of things, and nobody really knows what there is? 0k, it probably won't help me, but it might help the people that follow behind me. the first results of the trials could come as early asjune. it'll be here at the big data institute in oxford that the trial results will be analysed. in a little over a month, around 8,000 patients from nearly 170 hospitals throughout the uk have been enrolled in what is the biggest clinical study in the world into covid—i9 treatments. at the peak we were enrolling 400 patients per day. lessons have been learned from the swine flu pandemic, when experimental treatments were not properly assessed. the best example is the 2009 pandemic where tens of thousands of patients were treated with drugs

outside of clinical trials and we didn't get any results. we can't afford to do that again. we need to know what works for covid—i9, and so these trials, i think, are critically important. have you got everything you need? don't expect a cure, but even a treatment that is partially effective could save thousands of lives and pave the way for other, better medicines. let's get some of the day's other news. boris johnson and his fiancee have announced the birth of a "healthy baby boy". a spokeswoman for the uk prime minister said both mother carrie symonds and baby are "doing very well". mrjohnson only returned to work on monday after suffering from coronavirus. some emergency lockdown measures in cyprus will ease from monday. the construction sector will re—open, as will retailers and markets.

an evening curfew will remain in place, but people will be allowed to leave their homes three times a day, up from one time a day. cyprus has seen fewer than 1,000 cases of coronavirus, and only 15 deaths. switzerland is also announcing a loosening of its lockdown. shops, restaurants, bars and museums will be allowed to to re—open on the eleventh of may because the number of coronavirus cases has fallen faster than expected. but there'll be a limit of four people around restaurant tables with a distance of two metres between tables, and a ban on large gatherings remains in place. stay with us on bbc news, still to come... african—america ns have been disproportionately affected by coronavirus. we'll look at how one community in georgia has been trying to stay safe.

this is bbc news, the latest headlines... the us economy has suffered its biggest downturn in more than a decade — and the head of federal reserve has warned of worse to come. the number of people who have died with coronavirus in the uk has passed 26,000 — as settings like care homes are included in official figures for the first time. as the coronavirus outbreak sweeps across the us, it's killed black americans at a disproportionate rate. in albany, georgia, decades of poverty and economic inequality are threatening an entire generation of african americans. chelsea bailey from the bbc‘s 0nline team has this report. music. when america catches a cold, black america gets

pneumonia. if this virus was an actual walking person, it would be a villain that picked the right place, the right time, and the right circumstances to just do utter devastation. across the us, predominantly—black communities like this rural county in georgia are bearing the brunt of the pandemic. with more than 11100 infections and at least 100 deaths, the virus is nearly twice as deadly here compared to the national average. there are a lot of crucial elders in this world that feel that god don't love them... this really is a forgotten out—of—sight, out—of—mind part of town. people on this side of town don't have family doctors. so, days go by, they go to buy over—the—counter medication, they try to fix it themselves. well, by that time, the symptoms get worse. and so when you mix that covid—19

with high blood pressure, sugar diabetes, and all those health issues, it is like gas on a fire. as the coronavirus ravages the us, similar disparities have played out in other virus hotspots like new york, detroit, and chicago. decades of poverty, inequality, and the lingering impact of racial discrimination have made african—americans particularly vulnerable. there are a lot of diseases that disproportionately affect the african—american community such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity, and other illnesses. and those illnesses are also things that we think are predisposing factors that people have in the worst outcome when it comes to coronavirus. i don't think it's a factor of the disease itself. i think it has more to do with other health disparities, and those socioeconomic disparities that make it more likely to happen in an african—american community here.

you know, once we tally up the losses, look at the elders that we've lost, and there are people behind these numbers. we didn't ask for this to happen. we need to understand that if we're going to do anything, we have to make this right, we have to make the african—american communities healthy, and whole. the situation in the us state of georgia. one of india's best—known actors irrfan khan, known to millions around the world for his starring roles in slumdog millionaire and jurassic world, has died at the age of 53. the actor had revealed two years ago that he'd been diagnosed with a very rare form of cancer. 0ur correspondent in mumbai, yogita limaye, looks back at his life and career. let's see, then.

where to begin? irrfan khan in life of pi, one of the several english—language movies he starred in. amongst his biggest hits overseas was slumdog millionaire, directed by danny boyle. it's a sad day, to think of his passing, but it's also a day when you can remember everything that he gave us, all the lovely roles that he played. and an actor who effortlessly bridged two cultures. abroad, he was india's best—known international actor. here in his home country, he was the unlikely leading man, who broke the stereotype of what it takes to be the protagonist in hindi—language movies. he's a big star in india... on a bbc programme seven years ago, he was asked if he sees himself as bollywood, or hollywood. i just see myself as an actor and i just want to engage the whole world. so, it can be bollywood, hollywood, dollywood, collywood, whatever—wood.

over a career that spanned 30 years, irrfan khan acted in more than 100 films. his last movie, angrezi medium, hit cinemas in india just as they had to close down because of the coronavirus crisis. many are hoping that when we all go back to the movies, perhaps they'll re—release it, so they get to watch him on the big screen one more time. two years ago, he'd shared a note about his battle with cancer. "little had i known that my search for rare stories would make me find a rare disease," he wrote. indian superstar shah rukh khan called him "the greatest actor of our times". he leaves behind heartbroken fans — in india and around the world. today's tributes to the indian actor irrfan khan — who's died at the age of

53. much more on our website — including this look at how the us economy has suffered during the lockdown. from me on the team, see you soon. hello. it wasn't so much a cage of april showers on wednesday. this was the scene across birmingham, but give it a wee bit of time and eventually that rain cleared away. the reason for it all, we had not one but two weather fronts to contend with. thursday again, it's a real mishmash of weather. low pressure the dominant figure. it isn't going to be a particularly cold start today, given all the breeze and the cloud as well. but for some, it may well be a wet one. just pushing wednesday's rain away from the north of england up in central and southern parts of scotland. there are showers to be

had across wales on the southwest of england. these will rush their way ever further towards the east as we get the afternoon. maybe the honourable of thunderbird —— audit rumble of thunder. the best of the brightness towards the west. these eastern side of scotland nine only, 13 or 1a. those showers keep going for those eastern areas during the course of the evening. gradually filtering away as the low pressure tries to move its essential... the north sea. it still the dominant influence across the northern half of the british isles. i think we will see some heavy pride —— pretty heavy down floors. perhaps the drives weathered further towards the south and west. we could see a high in the way a 15—16d. at low pressure still the dominant feature going out a friday and moving into the first

pa rt a friday and moving into the first part of the weekend. you just get the sense that it is drifting a little bit further towards the east. that allows us to pick up on northwesterly wind, so is the northern areas fully exposed to that wind that will probably see the bull of the showers. elsewhere, saturday is shady shaping up to be —— but temperatures responding to a consequence. highs around or 17. it doesn't last. there is some uncertainty about sunday. it could be the rainjust uncertainty about sunday. it could be the rain just working its way into the south actually moves a little bit further north. we will get you posted on that one. take care, bye—bye.

you are watching bbc news. our headlines. the us economy has been hit by its biggest downturn for more than a decade, shrinking a rate of 5% in the first three months of 2020. economists are warning there'll be further economic pain ahead. the uk death toll from coronavirus deaths has passed 26,000. the official figures are now including deaths in the community, such as in care homes, for the first time. the actor irrfan khan has died at the age of 53. he was known internationally for roles in slumdog millionaire and jurassic world. the bollywood star was diagnosed with a rare form of tumour two years ago. those are the main headlines here on bbc world news.

hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. —— the papers will be bringing us. with me are george eaton, senior 0nline editor at the new statesman and emily ashton, senior political correspondent at buzzfeed. welcome back to both of you. let us look at the papers that we have gotten already. the times says an antiviral drug, originally designed to combat ebola, has been shown to treat coronavirus for the first time, cutting the number of days patients take to leave hospital by almost a third. that was being talked about by anthony fauci in the states in the past few hours. the financial times reports on plans by the uk government to issue