welcome to bbc news. i'm lewis vaughan jones with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. president trump says china will be held accountable for the pandemic as soon as us intelligence reports confirm what went wrong. they could have stopped it. they are a very brilliant nation, scientifically and otherwise. it got loose, let's say, and they could have it, they could have stopped it, but they could have stopped it, but they did not. borisjohnson says the uk is finally past the peak of the coronavirus outbreak but warns against lifting the lock down too soon. we can now see the sunlight and the pasture ahead of us and so it is vital that we do not now lose control

and run slap into a second and even bigger mountain. measuring the reinfection rate to keep us safe — we take a look at the science behind lifting the lockdown. coping with a pandemic in the middle of a war — yemen's health workers fear a major outbreak is imminent. and, he saw them fly in anger, now, on his 100th birthday, honorary colonel tom saw them fly in celebration. hello. we're covering all the latest coronavirus developments here in britain and globally. the pandemic is contining to have a dramtic impact on the world's health and economic prospects. worldwide there have now been

230,000 coronavirus deaths, and over 3.2 million infections. the uk recorded another 674 deaths in the past 2a hours, taking the total number in care homes and hospitals to 26,771 — the third highest in europe. borisjohnson wouldn't give a date for the country's lockdown to end or be eased, but did say there'd be a "menu of options" next week. the us intelligence community has advised the govenment the us intelligence community has advised the government that the covid—19 virus was not man made or genetically modified. they say they're still investigating the origins of the virus. and the reduced demands for energy caused by the pandemic will lead to a decline of almost 8% in co2 emissions — the largest decrease ever recorded. those are the the main developments. this is what president trump had to say about china, a little earlier. and then we signed a trade deal

where they're supposed to buy — and they have been buying a lot, actually — but that now becomes secondary to what took place with the virus. the virus situation is just not acceptable. and it's not acceptable what happened. it came out of china, and it's not acceptable what happened. and now what we're doing, jim, is we are finding out how it came out. different forms, you know, you've heard different things, you've heard three or four different concepts as to how it came out. we should have the answer to that in the not—too—distant future and that will determine a lot how i feel about china. 0ur north america correspondent, david willis, has more on trump's suggestion that the virus may have originated in a laboratory in wuhan. he says he has seen evidence, as he put it, intelligent estimates that this virus may have originated in that wuhan laboratory, the wuhan institute of virology. president trump said he had a high degree of confidence, as he put it, that that

had been the origin of the coronavirus but he would not be drawn on precise details of that. he said that the virus could either have spilled out accidentally or the chinese may have been content to allow it to slip out and spread. us intelligence, of course, earlier today issued a statement today that they had concluded this was not genetically modified or man—made, the virus, therefore ruling out that it was a potential biological weapon, but those same intelligence officials have not ruled out the possibility that it could indeed have originated in a laboratory, such as the wuhan institute for virology, president trump has said that, if that is found to be the case and that china was negligent in this regard, then there would be consequences, possibly they could be in the form of sanctions but the chinese are very vigorously denying suggestions that this originated in the lab. is this a conscious pivot

now from donald trump? the british prime minister, borisjohnson, has said that the uk has passed the peak of the coronavirus outbreak. but those hoping for an early easing of a nationwide lockdown will have been disappointed. mrjohnson was speaking at his first downing street daily briefing since recovering from covid—19. 0ur political editor, laura kuenssberg, reports. 0ur doors have been closed for 38 days. in city, country, life hidden away, our streets fell silent. behind this door now, decisions must be taken about what's next, with perhaps the worst behind us. good afternoon. i can confirm today that for the first time we are past the peak of this disease. we're past the peak and we're on the downward slope. but on his own return to these now routine press appearances, the prime minister was

plain there was no easy or quick way out. we've come under what could have been a vast peak, as though we've been going through some huge alpine tunnel and we can now see the sunlight and the pasture ahead of us. and so it is vital that we do not now lose control and run slap into a second and even bigger mountain. he'll set out an exit route, but next week, and it won't happen fast, guided by the crucial r infection rate, how quickly the disease passes from person to person. it's gone down but must stay below one to control the infection. keeping the r down is going to be absolutely vital to our recovery. keeping the reproduction rate of the disease down. and we can only do it by our collective discipline and working together. like the prime minister himself, debbie clifford in cheltenham

struggled with the virus in intensive care. she feared she'd lose her life. i can't tell you how i feel about the loss of, well, friends, the four people who died on my ward the day i got well, the fact i had to mentally say goodbye to people that i potentially thought i'd never see again. the lockdown can't stop. there's been huge suffering to people's health, but also to the country's wealth, many people are worried about making ends meet. by continuing with lockdown, are you telling the public that the economy just has to wait? we mourn for every life lost, and we mourn for the economic damage as well that the country is sustaining, and the dreams that people are seeing shattered in their businesses, their anxieties about theirjobs. we totally understand that. if we're to bounce back as strongly as i think we can, that we don't have a

second bout of this, a second bad spike, because that would really do the economic damage. there was a promise, though, of a plan next week, and a hint of how a new normal might look. face coverings will be useful, both for epidemiological reasons but also for giving people confidence that they can go back to work. some jobs, though, have already gone for good. billy hunt lost his plumbing job on tuesday. he's looking for work now in bury st edmunds where he lives, to support his partner and little girl. this past month, i've been furloughed, and then made redundant. the position that this has put me in has made me feel completely worthless. it's made me worry about every little thing, where i'm going to get money from. i really don't have any avenues to turn down, in that sense. i don't really know what to do, to be honest.

economic distress is one of the reasons why the opposition is pushing for answers. well, up until now the government's reply to me has been, "we're not going to produce a plan", so i am glad they have changed their mind. i'm glad our challenge has borne fruit. we will see a plan. we'll look at it in good faith next week to see what the plan is and have discussions with the government. lockdown‘s already changed so many lives. andy gower in milton keynes has three kids... i'll sit next to you, princess. ..and stage three cancer. his treatment is on hold, although the nhs is meant to be opening up. coronavirus has taken away the resources, and if i don't get the operation, it means that i might die. i don't see why the nhs saving my life is less important than somebody with coronavirus. the rate of infection may be fading for now, but a disease that emerged thousands of miles away is, in one way or another, for each of us,

already close to home. laura kuenssberg there. let's round—up some of the other main developments: health officials in new york have launched an investigation after police discovered dozens of decomposing bodies in rented trucks, outside a funeral parlour. the mayor of new york city, bill de blasio, said the treatment of the dead was absolutely unacceptable. russia's prime minister, mikhail mishustin, has tested positive for coronavirus. he's placed himself in quarantine. president putin has appointed an interim prime minister to deputise for him. russia has so far recorded almost 107,000 cases, with just over 1,000 deaths linked to the covid—19. the eurozone's economy shrank at its fastest pace on record in the first quarter, due to the covid—19 outbreak. gdp contracted 3.8% from january to march. that's even worse than during the financial crisis. separate data showed a steep fall in economic activity

in france and spain over the same period. amazon says its profits for the first three months of this year plunged by 29% compared to 2019, despite a surge in revenue. while more people have turned to online shopping and entertainment during the pandemic, the company says it is spending more on hiring, wages and safety measures for employees. us airline delta says it will require passengers to wear face coverings on us flights from monday. young children will be exempted. other major airlines like united and american are providing masks to travellers, but not requiring their use. america's social distancing guidelines expire on friday. georgia was one of the first states to look at ending lockdown, with the governor planning to reopen fitness centres, hairdressers, and spas. but there are concerns it could lead to a spike in infections and deaths in the state. joining me now from atlanta is dr keren landman,

a journalist and specialist in infectious diseases. thank you for talking to us. what are your concerns? 0ur concern is that this is a premature move and that we are not ina premature move and that we are not in a place where we have the data that demonstrates that and that even if we have a downward trend that we have the infrastructure in place to maintain that downward trend, mainly widespread testing, at the beck and call of a business owner, and ppe for workers of those businesses, things that need to be there to maintain a downward trend, if there is one that at all. why do you think the decision has been made to open up the state again? people are ina open up the state again? people are in a huge amount of

economic pain as a result of this shutdown and our governor is particularly sympathetic to the economic interests in this state and has prioritise those. what do you predict will be the outcome? look, if anybody paid me for my predictions than i would be in a different business. i think... would be in a different business. ithink... every other example that we have seen ofa other example that we have seen of a country or region opening up of a country or region opening up at this stage in their outbreak has shown that cases simply go up. we are ready project to have increasing cases under the social distancing measures we had in place until now so i think we can expect for cases to go up even more than expected. even in places where there is a collectivist approach to social distancing and people really trust the government, it has been a bumpy ride reopening after being closed for so wrong

and it has not been easy even in places with lots of resources and where people trust and understand the media so trust and understand the media soi trust and understand the media so i think unfortunately we are infora bumpy so i think unfortunately we are in for a bumpy ride in georgia as well. i would love to be wrong about that. lots of people in the us and around the world will be watching. thank you very much for your stay with us on bbc news. still to come: an raf fly past for colonel tom, fundraiser extraordinaire, who's a hundred years old today. nothing, it seemed, was too big to withstand the force of the tornado. the extent of the devastation will lead to renewed calls for government help to build better housing. internationally, there have already been protests. sweden says it received no warning of the accident.

indeed, the russians at first denied anything had gone wrong. only when radioactivity levels began to increase outside russia were they forced to admit the accident. for the mujahideen, the mood here is of great celebration. this is the end of a 12—year war for them, they've taken the capital, which they've been fighting for for so long. it was 7:00 in the morning, the day when power began to pass on the minority to the majority, when africa, after 300 years, reclaimed its last white colony. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: president trump says china will be held accountable for the pandemic as soon as us intelligence reports confirm what went wrong. britain's prime minister boris johnson says the country is past the peak of the coronavirus but it's too soon to lift the lockdown.

the european union has denied bowing down to chinese pressure regarding a report on coronavirus disinformation. the report was published last weekend and refers to significant evidence of covert chinese operations and social media. but the new york times is reporting an earlier draft was much tougher and referred to china running a global disinformation campaign to deflect blame for the outbreak. there are also reports beijing complained three times to the european union about the text. the eu insist it did not bow to any kind of external pressure. well, let's speak now to victor gale, vice president of the centre for china and globalisation in beijing. thanks for being with us. what do you make then, that this

text wording was changed? do you believe that? first of all, the changing in the text of any document should be expected to be normal and logical, especially in light of the fast changing circumstances. i think the world does need to know the truth, but you cannot impose truth, but you cannot impose truth by one country onto another country. and, as for the origin of the virus, of course scientists and urologists of all the countries are doing a lot of work —— via religious —— virologists are doing the work and people will have a bigger picture of what happened. this is a difficult time for countries to impose their version of the truth onto their version of the truth onto the world and i think we need to allow the state of california and the state of new york to do their process to com plete york to do their process to complete their autopsies,

because they have discovered and realised some of the deaths originally diagnosed as deaths caused by flu were actually caused by flu were actually caused by flu were actually caused by covid—19. caused by flu were actually caused by covid-19. i haven't seen any evidence of that. we will leave that to one side at the moment, because what we wa nt to the moment, because what we want to talk about is this covert chinese operations on social media. that was in the watered—down version of the text, the allegations from the new york times. what about that? do you think there are covert chinese operations on social media? for the covid-19 pandemic, i personally believe there is no skeleton in the chinese closet. china has been transparent from the beginning, notifying the who as early as december 31, 2019, and ever since then china has been in co nsta nt since then china has been in constant contact with the who.

china invited who delegations which included members from the united states visiting china, visiting behind —— wto delegates, and such starlets have played a popular role in alerting the world about the danger of the outbreak. victor, no—one is squabbling with those dates, that level of transparency certainly did take place. but we still don't know what the origin is? donald trump today says he has seen evidence that it came from this laboratory in wuhan? i'm talking about the wuhan library, that was a china— francejoiner to library, that was a china— france joiner to start with library, that was a china— francejoiner to start with —— wuhan laboratory, which had very good cooperation with cou nterpa rts very good cooperation with counterparts in the united states as well, including doctor fauci's united states

national institute, niaid, basically, and i think their cooperation lasted all the way until very recently. that's a fa ct. until very recently. that's a fact. and the china cdc had, doctor gao, talked to doctor redfield, the head of the us cdc, all the time since the beginning of this year. do you think, do you think any will emerge that donald trump seems to be suggesting that there is evidence that this virus did emerge from this laboratory? no, ithink emerge from this laboratory? no, i think president donald trump is probably blaming anything, anyone, any country that you can think of if that blame could help save his presidential election. let's focus on what president donald trump is really up to, that is his political game. politicising intelligence,

politicising science, it should be avoided and avoided. president trump asks people to drink disinfectant to cure the coronavirus, does anyone really wa nt to coronavirus, does anyone really want to try that? does anyone really wa nt want to try that? does anyone really want to put his or her family members to risk by trying disinfectant, injecting it? finally, victor gao, let's go back to china and transparency. you so you don't believe china has anything to hide in this scenario. so, do you think we will shortly get to know the origin of this coronavirus? i think it's really going to require a lot of extensive scientific work by the scientists and urologists throughout the world —— virology —— virologists around the world. the vaping

investigation in the united states is important, we need to do all of the homework by scientists in many countries really get to the real origin of this coronavirus. 0k, victor gao, thank you very much for your time. thank you for having me. next. there's a simple, but crucial number at the heart of understanding the threat posed by the coronavirus. it is guiding governments around the world on the actions needed to save lives, and it gives us clues to the extent that lockdown can be lifted. it's called the reproduction number — or simply the r—value. 0ur science editor, david shukman explains. what is called the r—number is a way of measuring how easily the virus spreads. if the rate is one, that means anyone infected is only passing it to one another so things are stable. but get to a rate of two and people infected are passing it to two others. so the outbreak accelerates and that's what potentially could overwhelm the nhs. get to a rate of three, and things are even worse, it is what we had about a month

ago and only drastic action of the kind we are seeing now could bring it under control. right now its estimated the rate is between 0.6 and 0.9 crucially below the line of one person infecting only one other. it is thought that reopening schools could possibly at about 0.2, although no one can be sure. allowing for public gatherings again might add 0.5. that would take us above the line of one. and scientists reckon that relaxing the lockdown entirely would add two to the rate, taking us back to the worst of the outbreak which is why it is likely that will only happen in careful stages. estimates for the r—number are based on people needing hospital treatment. so they are not exact and the infection rate varies across the uk. one of the government's own advisers says the r—number is not the whole story.

it oversimplifies matters. the problem is the message could be well every thing is under control is get back to normal. it's not like that for stuff you can still have a problem in newcastle and liverpool and that problem would be quite severe. with so much about the virus uncertain, every government is being cautious. germany has about small shops being open but the authorities are watching to see if that raises the infection rate. they will review the measures next week. and all the time, there is the risk of unexpected spikes in infections. singapore is rushing to create 4000 more hospital beds tackling the virus means remaining constantly on the lookout. david shukman, bbc news.

the indian prime minister called him a powerhouse of talent, multifaceted, endearing and lively. captain tom moore, the british war veteran whose coronavirus fundraising efforts inspired a country in lockdown, is celebrating his one hundredth birthday. captain tom has raised a staggering £30 million for health charities and was also honured with a special miltiary flypast by spitfire and hurricane planes from the second world war. he's been sent more than 130,000 birthday cards from around the world and told the bbc he's so thankfulfor everyone's wishes. that's it. you can reach me on

social media any time. i'm @lvaughanjones. this is bbc news. i buy. —— bye— bye. hello there. well, we may have had to wait right till end of april, but yesterday's storms were quite impressive. the radar picture shows just how widespread those showers were, nowhere immune from seeing several downpours through the day. but some of the showers were particularly impressive. from this mammatus cloud — the sign of very active convection in wiltshire — to pea—sized hail falling from those thunderclouds in buckinghamshire, and further north in scotland, we had this funnel cloud dropping from stormclouds in dumfries and galloway. now, over the next few hours there are still a few showers dotted around in northern england, wales, northern ireland and northern scotland, too. it's not too cold, though, for most of us. we are looking at temperatures around 4—7 celsius.

low pressure, then, still in charge of our weather and as we head into friday and it's another day where nowhere's immune from seeing a shower or two. even across parts of southern england there will be some further showers driven along by a fairly brisk wind here, but the heaviest showers throughout the day will be across northern ireland, into northern scotland and england. it's across these areas through the afternoon you are most likely to see some flashes of lightning, rumbles of thunder and a bit of hail mixed in. there will be some sunshine around but some of the showers across the north of the uk will be slow—moving, so, some fairly lengthy downpours as well. now, this weekend the winds will tend to fall much lighter and there will still be some showers around — particularly across the north and east. some sunshine but it will be quite cloudy at times, too. on saturday we start with some morning sunshine but clouds will develop and it will turn quite cloudy towards the middle part of the day and early afternoon. there will be some showers

around northern and eastern scotland, some running into parts of northern and east england as well. temperatures, looking at highs for many of us about 14—17 celsius. we start again fine on sunday but cloud builds across the sky into the early part of the afternoon and again there are still some showers to come, particularly across northern and eastern scotland again and running into parts of north—east england. temperatures very similar to most of us, highs between 14—17 celsius, so it is going to be relatively mild. now, the forecast into next week, the weather is going to settle down more. there will be a bit more sunshine to look forward to and temperatures rising a few degrees as well.

this is bbc news, the headlines: president trump says china will be held accountable for the pandemic as soon as us intelligence reports confirm what went wrong. agencies have concluded that the covid—19 virus was not manmade. they're still examining if its spread was due to a possible accident at a chinese laboratory. britain's prime minister says the uk has passed the peak of the outbreak. speaking at his first briefing since recovering from covid—19, borisjohnson warned it was too soon to lift the lockdown. he said he would set out a "comprehensive plan" next week, for eventually easing restrictions. the eurozone's economy shrank at its fastest pace on record in the first quarter. gdp contracted 3.8% from january to march. that's even worse than during the financial crisis. separate data showed a steep fall in economic activity in france and spain over the same period.