the pandemic has driven the us economy into its most severe contraction for more than a decade. it shrank nearly 5% in the first quarter, the first three months of 2020. but the lockdown only came in towards the end of that quarter, so the head of the us central bank has warned there'll be much more economic pain in the figures for april through june. the death toll from coronavirus in the uk has now passed 26,000. for the first time, the official figures count all deaths linked than were being recorded previously. the white house health advisor, dr anthony fauci, has expressed optimism about an experimental anti—viral drug. he said trial data shows remdesivir had a clear—cut and positive effect in reducing recovery time. it's still unclear whether the drug actually saves lives.

now on bbc news, coronavirus: life in lockdown. hello, i'm victoria derbyshire. welcome to the latest in our special programme of the world in lockdown, as billion around the world adapt to life at home because of coronavirus. we'll start in brazil. ana terra athayde is a video journalist who lives in copacabana. her ancestors are from the amazon, where hundreds of thousands of indigenous people have closed access to their lands against the threat of covid—19. she's been following their plight.

the united states currently has more than four times as many confirmed cases of coronavirus

as any other country. to understand the impact lockdown is having on the lives of people across the country, the bbc‘s online team have young american photographers to document their story. here's maddie, a university student in ohio. hi, my name is madeleine hordinski. i'm 22 and right now i'm living in cincinnati with my little sister, sabina, and my parents. i have been thinking a lot this week about where ohio is in all of this. we have new rules in our house. as soon as i get home, i wash my clothes and i take a shower. i am a student at ohio university, but i am taking all my classes. my dad is a professional musician. he writes and plays guitar for people and he also teachers at the university of cincinnati. right now, obviously, all that is on line. he also has a recording studio across the street from our house, where he works. my mom is an outreach co—ordinator at a local high school in cincinnati. this is probably the most time that i have ever spent with my sister before.

we have been doing so much together, like running, cooking — so many things. we drove around the city with our windows down, listening to music. we've been really good at giving each other space during the day. and then at the end of the day, we all get together and we eat dinner and sometimes we play games, hang out with our neighbours from afar or watch a movie. so that is kind of the silver lining in all of this is that i get to spend more time with my family. the distance between me and my friends, and me and my boyfriend right now, has definitely been really tough. my boyfriend and i have actually been in a long—distance relationship for almost four years now. we go to school three hours apart and, now that i'm home in cincinnati, where he goes to school, we're kind of in this weird, like close—distance relationship where we see each other more often but it's outside, and its‘ from a distance. and it's from a distance. it's been really difficult not knowing when we're going to be able to actually hang out together again.

doing a sort of long—distance relationship with my college best friends is also really tough. we do not get to celebrate our senior year together either. and you know, everything is different now. it is, like, really scary to see how many people are getting it, around the us, because obviously it is a lot different state by state and city by city. there is a teacher at my mom's school who died suddenly last week and the school community kind of came together, and made this really special ceremony for the teacher's family. around 100 people gathered in their cars and they parked in a line and then they went in front of the teacher's family's house and they made special notes for the family and posted it on the car window. this is kind of like a collective traumatic experience for everyone and i think it has been incredible to see how kind people have been to each other. people need more support during this time, now more than ever. everything is changing really quickly, as it has in the last month. so, yeah, i think that is it. long before recorded pandemics, an ancient civilisation in nepal used a little—known

system of quarantine. long before recorded pandemics, an ancient civilisation in nepal used a little—known system of quarantine. for 1,000 years merchant conducted trade along the silk road. many would contract diseases due to the harsh conditions, and would go into isolation from their families on their return. a retired merchant who is part of that tradition.

being in lockdown seems to be having an effect on people's sleep. there's quite a lot of people on social media reporting unusually vivid dreams. but why is it happening and what can you do to make your sleep more peaceful? out of nowhere there is a whole in the wall. suddenly, a bunch of people encircled. there was no talking, they were expressionless and then they deliberately started to cough on me. i had a dream that i kept entering the wrong zoom meeting. they were very confused and i felt very embarrassed. and this kept happening multiple times. i was at the top of the hill

and my husband was at the bottom. and a big wolf, like, a game of thrones—sized wolf, came out and latched onto his arm. ticking you know, typically when you have dreams like that you can brush it off or laugh it off, but this was just way more intense. people are dreaming about catching the virus themselves, about their children or parents catching the virus. they're dreaming metaphors for the virus, swarms of bugs coming at them is the most common, i think because 'bugs' is a term for infections. they are dreaming about tidal waves,

tornadoes, 0prah winfreys coming after people with a chainsaw. i think there are several reasons. first, most people are sleep—deprived most of the time. but during this lockdown i think that many more people are catching up on sleep. and that is the single strongest correlate with dream recall. and another thing isjust waking up without an alarm makes dream recall likelier. and then thirdly is the psychological effect, there is a lot of research that shows that any big life change or period where you're more emotional tends to result in more dreams, more vivid dreams. nightmares have a strong correlation with daytime anxiety. the best way to change your dream content is not 'don't have a nightmare', but to suggest to yourself what kind of dream you want to have.

you want to dream about a particular person or place, to think of your ideal dream and be thinking about that as you fall asleep. covid—i9 has upended life across the world, but for many, reading is a refuge and a diversion. bbc arts editor will gompertz spoke to five authors, including margaret atwood and adam kay, to ask them what books they would recommend for weathering the lockdown. if you were to pick three books, what would they be? let's pick three that are quite long and will keep you occupied. i've never read the brothers karamazov, a long russian novel with lots of bad behaviour in it, so i understand books with bad behaviour are always comforting because the things they do are usually worse than what you've done. how are you? i'm very good. if you've not read david sedaris before, then me talk pretty one day

is just amazing. it's funny enough to extract anyone, albeit briefly, from the current crisis. um, well, i think you couldn't go wrong with philip roth's novel nemesis. which is one of his little—known books, i think, but it describes a pandemic of polio in newark in the 19505. and it is an astonishing book because it's very, very short but incredibly powerful. i've chosen a classic, their eyes were watching god by zora neale hurston. she was one of the first writers in world literature to write from a black female perspective. suppose we could do it again, but let's hope to get it right. i think pepys is great for now, because he survived and talked about a lot of intense stuff that happened in the 1660s. so the fire of london, the plague, all those dramatic events that i think — history, i find very comforting right now.

a classic? um, how about — how about the secret diary of adrian mole? my second choice is rainbow milk, which is a novel by a british writer called paul mendez. it's about a young man who escapes a very repressive religious community and finds a life for himself in london and becomes a sex worker. the books that i really love are the short stories by amy bloom, and whenever i sort of reread them, i must have read them like five orsix times, and ifind a huge comfort in the repetition of rereading. i'm a great eltonjohn fan, i saw him live last year. and every paragraph in that book contains some incredible, incredibly honest account of a scandal. i've also been some reading murder mysteries. always comforting, because there's a solution. at the end. almost always there's a solution. elderly people are some of the most vulnerable to the risks associated with coronavirus, but many have a unique spectre to offer.

bbc news has been in touch with a group of people over the age of 90 from around the world to get their tips, their guidance, on how to stay positive and get do it all. it's a weird world at the moment, isn't it? my name is jonah, also known as granny. my name is anna. that's my husband, mateo. hello. they call me moe moe or grandma moe moe. i'm 102. my name is granny bridie. this is a difficult time

and you have to keep your spirits up. i spend the day when i've got nothing good to do, doing crochet or knit. i keep myself occupied by writing to my friends, phoning. i confess to being a shocker, i love my armchair, netflix, and i read my paper cover to cover. reading and having bath. find something to occupy yourself. eight, nine, ten! ready or not, here i come! oh, my god! you tricked me! oh, there you are! i sang a little song.

keep up your exercises like me. people are important. people of the most important thing in my life. we've been married for 71 years. we argue like every couple, but we make up. my children and my grandchildren and they are suffering and that is very sad. you can speak to them on the phone, skype, you can skype. my great—grandchildren are people i value. the doctors are risking their lives, you know? they're doing all for us, aren't they? and we're very lucky. keep safe.

follow what the government says and stay in your own home. in fact, it is largely common—sense. i love you very much. stay home and stay safe. be cheerful! bye! that's it for now. you can always keep up—to—date on the bbc news website or follow me on twitter — i'm @vicderbyshire. thanks for watching. hello. it wasn't so much a case of april showers on wednesday, this was the scene for a time across birmingham, but give it a wee bit of time and eventually that rain cleared away and out came the sun. the reason for it all? well, we had not one but two weather fronts to contend with. and thursday again is a real mishmash of weather, low pressure very much the dominant feature,

the isobars squeezing together on its southern flank. so, it isn't going to be a particularly cold start to the day given all the breeze and the cloud as well, but for some it may be a wet one. we're just pushing wednesday's rain if you you like, away from the north of england up into central and southern parts of scotland. right from the word go, there are showers to be had across wales and the south—west of england. these will rush their way ever further towards the east as we get on through the afternoon. we may even hear the odd rumble of thunder and those winds too, quite noticeable through the channel areas, 40—45 miles an hour or so in the highest of the gusts. for northern ireland, the best and the brightest perhaps later in the day, out towards the west. stuck underneath the cloud, the eastern side of scotland, nine only, a high in the day of about 13 or 14. 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 centre of gravity out into the north sea. but it's still the dominant influence across the northern half of the british isles.

and come the afternoon again, i think we'll see some pretty heavy downpours towards the eastern side of the pennines. perhaps the driest of the weather further towards the south and west where we could well see a high in the day of 15 or 16. that low pressure is still the dominant feature as i take you out friday and move you into the first part of the weekend. but you just get the sense that it is drifting a little bit further towards the east and out allows it to start picking up the north and north—westerly wind. so the northern areas fully exposed to that wind, we will probably see the bulk of the showers there. elsewhere, saturday is shaping up to be a pretty reasonable day. quite a lot of sunshine around and the temperatures responding as a consequence. a high in the day of about 16 or 17. but it doesn't last. now, there is some uncertainty about sunday, it could well be the rain i'm showing you here working its way into the south actually moves a little bit further north. we will keep you posted on that one. take care, bye—bye.

a very warm welcome to bbc news, if you're watching here in the uk, on pbs in america or around the globe. my name's mike embley. our top stories: the us economy slumps and worse is still to come. spending nosedived in the last quarter, as the 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 wider community. hope for a treatment — one of the most senior health advisers in the us says there's clear—cut evidence an antiviral 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 the british prime minister and his partner