all of that makes footballers much more prone to developing infection. it only takes one case for this to blow up. amid talk of facemasks at training and a spitting ban, premier league clubs were told today that 40,000 tests and ten neutral stadia could be used if the season resumes. there'd be no fans. so what do they think of project restart? play the season, that is what i would like to happen. obviously, it's got to be done in a safe manner and a different way. i think it would give the country a big morale boost. with all sports suspended since march, clubs and leagues face a mounting financial crisis. today, the government handing rugby league a £16 million emergency cash injection. no matches have been played here at champions st helens for almost two months, and the owner told me the bailout is a huge relief. the sport was in real and genuine danger of going out of existence.

and what we have here is a bridge loan for the sport to put us into a position where we can really rationalise, reorganise ourselves and save ourselves. the government views rugby league as a special case because of a home world cup next year and the social value that clubs bring to northern communities like this and which have taken on new political importance since the general election. but elsewhere, other sports are having to find their own way through this crisis. not a ball‘s been bowled this season here at emirates old trafford, home of lancashire county cricket club, where they've spent years developing a successful hotel and conferencing business. our biggest strength became our biggest weakness overnight because, literally, the phones stopped ringing, you've still got all of the costs, the heavy payroll, but you've no revenue. we are in genuinely uncharted waters. if fans needed hope that sport will be back, in germany this afternoon, an exhibition tennis match took place — with facemasks, no contact and robotic cameras.

a glimpse perhaps into sport's unfamiliar future. dan roan, bbc news. over the past month, we've heard from many people who've pulled through after contracting covid—19. this week, stephen parker, a former member of the armed forces, left critical care at poole hospital to a round of applause from staff after 35 days with coronavirus. he's been speaking to duncan kennedy about his ordeal. we clap for them, but they also clap for us. hard not to, when it is this man, steve parker, who hasjust come out of intensive care, after five weeks. there can't be many people who have survived 35 days in intensive care and in a coma. i don't know. i think they were probably happy that i was asleep! when steve finally woke up, he had no idea where he was. i actually thought i was

in new zealand when i woke up. one of the nurses came in and i said, what time did the boat arrive? they said you are in poole harbour! he fought in the first gulf war and knows his is a remarkable story of recovery. i'm just one of the lucky ones, i'm a survivor. apparently, i died three times. don't care, i'm alive. i've been shot at, blown up, all kinds of things, but that that's scary. steve was poole hospital's first ever covid patient, no wonder they are proud. it has been an unbelievably busy time, both in preparation and in treating the patients and actually, to see our first patient survive and come out in good spirits, has been a huge morale boost for the whole team. steve's gratitude for the nhs is now matched only by the love for his favourite beverage.

the nhs, it gets knocked, it gets hit, it is probably the best thing we have in this country. i'm not a student, i'm nothing like that, i'm just a normal bloke, i want to see people be happy, people do well. bloke, i want to see people be happy, people do well. that's it. now on bbc one, time for the news where you are. have a very good night. welcome to bbc news.

we will be bringing you the latest briefing from the white house when that gets under way, but, first of all, it's time for the papers. hello and welcome to our look ahead to the latest front pages on news papers around the world. with me arejohn stevens, deputy political editor of the daily mail and sienna rodgers, editor of labourlist. let's begin with the international edition of the financial times, which reports on the fall of global markets on friday as a new flare up developed in us—china relations — adding to worries over the economic impact of the pandemic. the telegraph talks about lockdown measures easing suggesting the "two—metre" rule could be relaxed in order to get people back to work and children back to schools. it also reports on the uk government reaching it's testing targets. and in singapore the straits times reports they are moving to their "next stage in their battle

to fight the virus" with recovered workers being housed separately in foreign worker dormitories to help stem the spread of the virus. and finally the japan times asks how do we make sense of the covid—i9 data, with a wealth of information — what figures matter? so let's begin... in the papers, all figures matter. so, let's begin. we do so with the daily telegraph. we are going to look, john, sienna, at the main story here. the two metre rule could be relaxed in an exit planjohn, —— john stevens, that has sort of been burrowed into everyone‘s dna over the last, watch? 6—7 weeks. to imagine it would change, what is the telegraph saying? yeah, welll imagine it would change, what is the telegraph saying? yeah, well i think every time you are around people come you are constantly kind of monitoring, are you within that two metres are not? but the problem with

thatis that is they want people to get back to work, and they want... boris johnson is going to announce what happens on thursday, he will announce his road map to getting people back to work. the problem with that is if you do have this, for a lot of our cases, that is actually quite make it difficult. it means that a lot of places are unable to get back to work. so, ministers, according to the telegraph, has asked the scientific experts —— experts to look at this again, and doesn't actually need to be two metres, or could we make it a bit shorter, and simply let more people go to work? sienna, it's worth finding this one sentence in the piece. the world health organisation only recommends one metre apart. we have been going with two metres, it's quite hard. mike britton coming down to one metre. this is what ministers asjohn said are asking them to look at again. i think that isa them to look at again. i think that is a key fa ct fact that the world health organisation recommends only staying one metre apart, and it does highlight that there has been these

discrepancies, and it doesn'tjust go one way. i mean, the world health organisation, for instance, was recommending that people self—isolate for 14 days after they've had symptoms of coronavirus, whereas, here, it was seven days, and that's what matt hancock did come and that's with the prime ministerdid. come and that's with the prime minister did. although, he obviously had symptoms past about seven day period, so he had to isolate for a bit longer, but it really does highlight this issue of, well, it's the same virus, and maybe we should have more international cooperation to make sure that the advice is the same across a broad range of countries stop that's a fascinating point. john stevens, are we then going to go back to that sort of tendayi window? to remember that in early march, when we were told that you cannot shake hands, but you don't actually have to avoid people as if they are an incarnation of the plague itself. i think it's too soon to say... i think it's quite likely that the rule does stay as it is, people are used to it. i've kind of just got used to doing it. so i think it would be a bit strange if

it did change from all the permits obviously possible, one of the problems with getting people back to this country are nervous about going back to her, that's one of the problems that ministers realise that they have to overcome, but they were quite encouraged by supermarkets have kept working, they have taken steps such as putting up screens to stop cashiers getting infected, and they have not seen a noticeable increase in the number of supermarket work workers who have coronavirus, so supermarket work workers who have coronavirus, so we supermarket work workers who have coronavirus, so we will see things like that replicated in other workplaces. they will have to make adjustments. so i thank you are seeing the rush hour in the same way as it is now. you know, you are not going to have people to cramming onto trains or underground trains, because people are really willing to do that. sienna, two months ago, the apparent fear was that we might all be too rowdy or too boisterous to go into lockdown. now, i wonder if you agree withjohn stevens, when he was mentioning that we might now be too nervous to get out of lockdown.

mentioning that we might now be too nervous to get out of lockdownlj think this is what government ministers really didn't expect, actually. they still talk about how these distance rules are in depending on oui’ distance rules are in depending on our freedom, and i distance rules are in depending on ourfreedom, and i think distance rules are in depending on our freedom, and i think the feeling across most of the country is that people are really, really worried about going to work. i think it's important to remember with the story that a lot of people, those construction sites, those nonessential work, has actually been going on. so that two metre distance role has not been followed. so, i think that tuc has made quite an important demand in that trade union federation body has been talking about how they want the government to compel every uk employer to put in place some really stringent measures and have a risk assessment specifically for coronavirus before they open up again, and i think that's quite important. let's look at one of the big stories which matt hancock was talking about at length in his news conference. the tests we know he said that the target of 100,000 tests a day. he announced

that 122,000 tests had been achieved. now, there is now a debate about what does he mean by that? it includes of course 40,000 tests, which were sent to homes and satellite sites, that's the main story in the telegraph. john stevens, a very simple question, did he hit 100,000? well, their whole purpose of having the target was looking back a month ago, the uk was training the world when it came to testing. we are actually doing fewer and fewer tests rather than building the number. so, the whole point of having this big bold target was to massively have this step change to the number of tests being done, and we have seen that. you know, last week and then last saturday, just 29,000 tests were done. today, more than 120 tests —— 120,000 tests. the government's defending the home testing kits which were sent out, but the government says that's a lwa ys but the government says that's always the way they counted is when they send up the kids, because that's what they are responsible

for. people are needing to return it, that's their response ability. soi it, that's their response ability. so i think the government has done well matt hancock would be criticised, only he should be praised for actually meeting it. 1000 tests, sienna, the opposition had been saying the government had been behind with your links to the labour party, they must be satisfied with the. well, you might be surprised to find out labour has been quite critical, as have other people the health science journal have highlighted the story of the fa ct have highlighted the story of the fact that can actually commit this tally includes swab kit sent to private homes and satellite testing sites. i mean, we saw earlier as well the conservative party did actually send out an e—mail to supporters of the party, saying you know, order a test now! really, supporters of the party, saying you know, ordera test now! really, it's obviously incredibly impressive that they have ramped up testing so quickly, but a skier starmer points out, it is going to have to be around even more and very quickly if they do want to list any of these

social —— they do want to list any of these social — — lift they do want to list any of these social —— lift any of the social distancing measures anytime soon stop at the next age, according to the government, is keep everything low, keep infection low. to go into contact tracing. john, do we know what contact tracing really is? the government here is recruiting him i think it's about 18,000 people. it would be a combination of people working in core essentials, and also clinicians, so if people do get testing and they find that they've got coronavirus, then they will get in contact with them and find out who they'd been in contact with and make sure all of those people also isolate and get tested. also using technology. i think the big thing with these tests and targets that we've achieved is whether the government manages to sustain these numbers. so we see this number today at 120,000 commits a massive number, but we have to see, do they manage to keep this up for the long—term, because we need lots of tests to be done to make contract tracing work. in terms of contract tracing from a

got to be someone either phones around if someone gets infected, or we are all meant to use this app. we've got to get about up to 80% of smartphone users to use an app for contact tracing to work, technologically. do you expect that we will get that? well, i think there are difficulties are there? older people, obviously one of the most as mac at risk groups, and they're also the people who are most unlikely to have a smartphone and download this nhs app, so matt hancock has committed to this finalised nhs app within three weeks, so by mid may, we are going to get these 18,000 contract traces in terms of the people hired, but also that app finished and ready to go, whether that will happen, and income it will be very impressive if that works out very well. i think there are some doubts over how the app there are some doubts over how the app is going to work at the moment, but, i mean, obviously, i hope they are successful, because it is absolutely crucial, and there are effects to having this lockdown in

place, particularly, for instance, domestic abuse. so it's something that really needs to be looked at carefully. we are going to have a look at the japan times now as part of this international press review. it's obviously very interesting to follow japan, because they are several weeks ahead of britain in terms of the spread of the virus. the main headline in the japan times, "the virus panel back staying the course." the government must continue to keep restrictive measures in place. so that's a cautious movejohn, measures in place. so that's a cautious move john, from japan, which is ahead of the uk in terms of transmission of the virus. yes, so here, the paper is suggesting that abbey, the japanese prime minister on monday will extend their lockdown for another month. obviously, on monday will extend their lockdown foranother month. obviously, here, in the uk, we will take that decision on thursday, whether he extends it for another three weeks or whether we choose to do something different. two more people get back to where? is a kind of a day where people can go back to schools? i think it's going to be a tricky one

for the government. they obviously wa nt to for the government. they obviously want to kind of