this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. easing the lockdown: the uk's government signals

proposals ahead of an announcement. but there's a warning — restrictions could return in a "specific and localised way" if coronavirus cases go up again. the worst thing to do would be to prematurely relax the current measures to see a second spark caused by the risk overwhelmingly of the nhs and would introduce lockdown measures all over again. the phone app to track and trace people with covid—19 will be piloted this week on the isle of wight and rolled out nationally across the uk later this month. russia reports a record one—day rise in coronavirus infections with more than 10,000 people testing positive. is there a coronavirus crisis in iraq? 100 have died, but few believe the official figures. the race to find a treatment: a trialfor a promising new drug to treat coronavirus is under way in the uk. and leaping in lockdown: three of the world's top male pole vaulters compete from their own back gardens.

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. first, the uk government says it's looking at ways to lift the lockdown ahead of an announcement next sunday, which will set out the how the country will get back to school and work. the number of daily tests has fallen to 76,000 after hitting the government target of more than 100,000 a day on thursday. another 315 people have died with the virus across the uk. it brings the total number of recorded deaths here to 28,416. a new nhs contact tracing app is being trialled on the isle

of wight this week before being rolled out more widely later this month. russia has recorded its biggest one—day rise in new coronavirus cases since the start of the outbreak with more than 10,000 people testing positive on sunday. however, the mortality rate remains relatively low with 68 deaths recorded in the past 2a hours. and in the us, the secretary of state says there is enormous evidence that the coronavirus pandemic originated in a laboratory in the chinese city of wuhan. mike pompeo did not present any facts to support his claim. first, with more on the situation here in the uk, here's chris mason. a portrait of the uk in lockdown. for well over a month, streets have been quiet, most shops have been closed. a pause button pressed on normal life. but if imposing these restrictions felt like a massive moment, easing them could prove much, much more fraught.

at this afternoon's government news briefing, one of the prime minister's most senior colleagues told me local lockdowns might have to be reimposed. a phased approach is one which allows us to monitor the impact that those changes are having on public health and if necessary, in a specific and localised way, that means we can pause or even reintroduce there's restrictions that might be required in order to deal with localised outbreaks. trains won't look like this again for some time. but if we are to return to work, they won't be able to look like this either. i am working with the train companies, unions and all of the above, and there are a series of different things that we can do, including, for example, staggering work times, working with businesses to do that. there is a similar

challenge in schools. empty or near empty classrooms in lockdown, and now tentative plans being sketched for them reopening. wales's first minister said today it would take three weeks to get schools back open from the moment the decision to do so was taken. if we bring particular age groups back in first, that will allow us to spread them out through the school as a whole, enabling us to observe social distancing and, therefore, giving confidence to parents and teachers. mr drakeford said it will be a decision for his government as to when this happens. scotland's first minister nicola sturgeon said the same today too. but this was leeds this afternoon. getting the country going again could involve more thanjust changing the rules. it is likely to require persuasion too. we have got very used to the mantra plastered across the lecterns you are stood behind. can we expect a more subtle message to come in the next phase to mirror

what could be a more subtle and nuanced set of rules? what we need to do isjust to make sure the underground advice that we give is sufficiently reassuring. i think it's about making sure that people feel the point is we are giving about how a workplace can be safe, sensible, reliable, supported by employers and trade unions. getting back from this to normality is going to be a long and difficult slog. the government is promising to set out the next steps next sunday. chris mason, bbc news. easing the lockdown will require striking a balance between a gradual resumption of normal life and keeping the virus at bay. 0ur science editor david shukman examines now what scientists will be looking for as the restrictions are relaxed. across the uk, the numbers needing hospital treatment are generally falling. that's a key indicator that the spread of the disease is slowing down, that the restrictions have made a difference. but the virus has not gone

away. the latest estimate of the infection rate, the so—called r number, is 0.7. what matters is that it's below the threshold of one where one person infected only passes the virus to one other. now, reopening schools might add something like 0.2, so we could still stay below the critical line. but lifting the lockdown entirely could add 2 to the r number, which would see the outbreak accelerate once more. so scientists are warning that there isn't much opportunity to relax any of the measures. singapore has rushed to install 4,000 new hospital beds because infections, which were thought to be under control, suddenly started to rise. what we're seeing in countries like singapore, where they have seen almost seen a second wave, essentially what it is is actually outbreaks that are happening in expat dormitories. so the virus has found a place where it can take hold and it can resurge again. so all countries must remain on alert for the possibility

of additional transmission. whenever measures do come to be relaxed, testing will be crucial on a bigger scale than now to track the virus and spot any new outbreaks. with that comes the job of tracing all the contacts of anyone infected. 18,000 people are being recruited to do this, but the system is not yet up and running. and vital to all this is isolating people who are infected, or think they may be. this whole process is going to be needed for months to come. however the next steps unfold, they will take us into what could be a more complicated phase of the crisis. that's because the lockdown currently affects pretty well everybody the same way. but once you start relaxing measures, some people will be at home while others are out and about, which could be confusing and probably harder for the government to explain. different people will be doing different things differently, and i think that can undermine both solidarity, but also trust and possibly adherence, and could engender a degree of

resentment. and all the time, there's the challenge of keeping people safe. in spain, masks will have to be worn on public transport from tomorrow. many countries believe this can reduce the rate of infection. the uk government is still considering the option as a way of leaving the lockdown. david shukman, bbc news. an app for mobile phones aimed at tracing the spread of coronavirus is to be tried out on the isle of wight this week before being rolled out more widely across the uk later this month. between 50 and 60% of the population will have to use the software for it to be effective. duncan kennedy reports from the isle of wight. surrounded by water and isolated enough for a credible experiment to take place, the isle of wight trial is set to begin. the island is home to 140,000 residents. nearly 30 people have died with the coronavirus. the new app uses a phone's

bluetooth connection to work. once you've installed the app, every time you come into contact with someone else who has it, your phones record that fact. then if you tell the app you have symptoms of coronavirus, that will alert the phones of those other people. they will then need to self—isolate. so, what do those on the isle of wight think? the more people that get involved, the better. the only problem is that probably a lot of people don't have a smartphone. that could be a problem, ifear. i think it's a good idea and i think if it's going to work, it's a good place to try it. i feel that the island is essentially being used as a testing ground, and i don't like the thought of us being used as guinea pigs. the app should help automate the whole process of finding out who has the virus, but getting it to enough people won't be easy. for the app to work properly, it needs something like 50—60%

of the population to take part in it. here on the isle of wight, that's about 70,000 or 80,000 people. anything less than that, and the experiment won't be valid and the virus won't be traceable. the government says if the app works on the island, it will get a national roll—out. we will be asking the whole country where possible to download this mobile phone app, which will help automatically to remove the need for people, individuals to be involved. the government will also recruit 18,000 people to help with the tracking of individuals once the app is in place. like social distancing, this is another enormous national endeavour to try to rein in covid—19 with technology and science. duncan kennedy, bbc news, on the isle of wight. iran has had the highest number of coronavirus cases in the middle east, but its neighbour iraq is now also trying to come to grips with the outbreak.

shame and stigma mean that people are wary to admit they're sick or to get tested. in a country of 38 million people, over 2,000 have tested positive, with nearly 100 deaths. but there is little confidence in the government and few believe the official figures. 0ur middle east correspondent quentin sommerville reports. siren wails iraq thought it had nothing to learn from death and then came coronavirus. in this ambulance is the body of hassoun rassan. the 72—year—old died of covid—19. they've been turned away at checkpoint after checkpoint. fear of infection has made him untouchable. funeral rites are sacred here and covid—19 is upending centuries of tradition and ritual. there is no last goodbye for hassoun rassan.

his family are denied the right to wash the old man's body and wrap him in a simple cloth. for the most devout, this is a fate worse than death. instead, his funeral is left to strangers in the desert night. praying the stigma of illness, quarantine, runs deep here. baghdad is in partial lockdown. it's ramadan. the city is quiet, but hardly at peace. few here want to admit having the disease or even get a test. at baghdad's ibn al—khatib hospital, this doctor hasn't been home to his family since the end of february.

few of his patients came willingly. this 72—year—old is now recovering from the disease, but she is still fragile. the doctor's workload is heavy, but iraq's official covid count is low, fewer than 100 deaths in a country of 38 million people. but few trust those figures. hassoun rassan is finally laid to rest, buried in a pit five metres deep. farfrom generations of his ancestors and without his descendants

at his graveside. for years, iraq has been ravaged by death, but with coronavirus, nothing is sacred. few families want an end like this. quentin sommerville, bbc news. let's take a look at some of today's other stories in brief. figures for coronavirus infections in saudi arabia increasingly suggest that the overwhelming number of confirmed cases are among male expatriate workers. the saudi health ministry said that foreigners accounted for more than 80% of the 1,550 cases newly detected in the past 2a hours. the un has expressed concern over the plight of millions of migrant workers across the gulf as the pandemic has spread through the region. italy has registered the lowest daily number of coronavirus—related deaths since just after its lockdown started two months ago. it comes as the country prepares to relax some restrictions on people's movements, including exercise. 174 more people have died.

but the numbers of those currently infected with the virus continues to fall. spain has recorded its lowest daily number of deaths linked to coronavirus since its lockdown was declared in mid—march. another 164 people have died. there have been 838 new infections, the first time the number of cases has been under 1,000 in a similar period despite higher rates of testing. the afghan health ministry says 500 random coronavirus tests carried out in the capital kabul revealed that more than 150 people had been infected. a spokesman said the results — in a city of more than four million people — were a cause for concern. russia has recorded its biggest daily increase in confirmed coronavirus cases. there have been more than 10,000 new cases reported over the past day, bringing the total number to around 135,000. more than 1,200 people have died from covid—19 so far. more than half of all cases and deaths have been reported in moscow from where

sarah rainsford sent this report. moscow's hospital wards are filling up. the number of coronavirus cases is still rising. around 1,700 patients are admitted now every day. this week, the prime minister was one of them. after loud assurances that early action would help russia sidestep the worst of this pandemic, it's now in the top ten countries worldwide for cases. 0fficials here say they are detecting covid—19 because they are actively looking for it, running 170,000 tests a day. the official death rate is low. up to half of the new cases are said to be in people with no symptoms. some are front—line medics, who get screened every week. in moscow, many are now sleeping in hotels between exhausting shifts, to keep their families safe. yevgeni was a plastic surgeon before the outbreak. now, he says, beauty will have to

wait. like many, he switched to treat coronavirus. it's the start of the long may holidays here, and moscow's streets would usually be crowded. this year, even outside exercise is banned. cities across russia are in lockdown to try to slow the spread of this virus. hospital facilities in the regions are a far cry from those in the capital. russians are getting restless with all the restrictions, but moscow's preparing thousands of extra temporary hospital beds and warning that the worst still lies ahead. the us secretary of state says there is "enormous evidence" that the coronavirus pandemic originated in a chinese lab in the city of wuhan. mike pompeo made the claim in an interview on american television, but did not provide any information to back up his statement. on thursday us intelligence said it concurred with "the widespread scientific consensus

that the virus was not manmade or genetically modified". but it also said it would "continue to rigorously examine whether the outbreak was the result of an accident at a laboratory in wuhan". mr pompeo says he's giving the intelligence community time to verify the theory. here's some of his interview. do you think they intentionally released that virus, or was it an accident in the lab? i don't have anything to say about that, i think there's a lot to know. but i can say this, we've done our best to try and answer all of those questions. we tried to get a team in there, the world health organization tried to get a team in there and they have failed, no one has been allowed to go to this lab or any of the other laboratories. there are many labs inside of china, martha. this risk remains, this is an ongoing challenge, we still need to get in there, we still don't have the virus samples we need. this is an ongoing threat, an ongoing pandemic and the chinese communist party continues to block access to the western world, the world's best scientists, to figure out exactly what happened. so i can't answer your question

about that because the chinese communist party has refused to co—operate with world health experts. with more, here's our correspondent peter bowes taking a closer look at mr pompeo's claims. well, that's the thing, he hasn't provided any evidence. he didn't talk about any facts to back up those statements that we have just heard. they do echo what president trump has been saying over the last couple of weeks, that he believes there is evidence that the virus originated from the wuhan institute of virology. what seems to be in question, at least in their minds, is whether this was a virus that was released deliberately or it was released as a result of sloppy laboratory work. either way, the us administration, the trump administration would say that china is to blame for this and it clearly is a legitimate question to ask, how this virus managed to get out of china, where it originated.

but was it deliberate, was it accidental? the us administration saying china is not cooperating with its investigators and with investigators from the world health organization in terms of getting into that institute to establish the facts. he also said, i understand, in the interview, that those responsible in china should be held to account. what might he mean by that? well, the president talked about this as well. he framed it in terms of possible sanctions against china. of course china and the us have been engaging a lot over recent months, before this viral outbreak, in terms of trade, reaching a trade agreement. and that was always the tool that president trump used against china, in terms of imposing restrictions on the importing of goods from china. and it's likely that if there is any retaliation in terms of the blame for this virus, it could come in terms of more sanctions against

china. with so few drugs available to help our bodies fight coronavirus, scientists around the world are racing to find new treatments. a promising experimental medicine developed by researchers here in the uk recently started clinical trials. 0ur correspondent, justin rowlatt, was invited to university hospital southampton, where the first volunteers have been receiving the new drug. the trial is taking place in the hospital's coronavirus wards. it has been given urgent research status by the government. before i see how it works... there we go... ..i have to put on the protective equipment we've brought. the only way to test these drugs is to give them to people who have the illness, so that's why we need to go onto the ward. here we go. 0k. so how has your breathing been? very, very shallow. so it's like your lungs are sort of blocked? yes, it was. 67—year—old kay flitney was diagnosed with covid—19

last week and admitted to hospital. she is one of 75 patients in uk hospitals who've volunteered to help test the new drug. so this is the machine i showed you the other day. yeah. nurse sandy aitken shows her how to operate the nebuliser, which will help get the drug deep into kay's lungs. do you want to try that for me? it uses a protein called interferon beta, which is part of our body's first line of defence against viruses. professor tom wilkinson is heading up the trial. interferon beta is a naturally occurring protein that many of the cells in our body produce on a daily basis so, when the lungs experience a viral attack, the cells in the lining of the lung produce this protein naturally, and it helps the immune system coordinate a response to that virus. hundreds of new drugs

are being tested for covid—19 around the world. the southampton—based biotech company that developed this one has already shown it can stimulate an immune response in patients with other lung diseases. so what would you hope would be the results of your drug trial? well, if we get good results from this trial, we will scale up the clinical trial effort and, hopefully, have enough patients in to show that we can reduce mortality and we can get people out of hospital sooner. he says it won't be some kind of miracle cure for patients like kay, but thinks it could save lives by helping our bodies fight the virus. of course, he will only know if it does when he gets the results of the trial injune. justin rowlatt, bbc news, southampton. and you can see more on this story on panorama, tomorrow night on bbc one at 7:30pm.

three of the world's top male pole vaulters leapt at the chance to compete against each other today from their own back gardens. the men competed via video link and the event was streamed live by world athletics. 0ur sports correspondent joe wilson watched the action. these days are testing sporting imagination to the limit. in three back gardens of the world, that limit was specifically five metres...up. former olympic champion renaud lavillenie was at home in france. two—time world champion sam kendricks competed from oxford, mississippi. and what a backdrop for kendricks. while the gloriously named mondo duplantis was in louisiana — although he competes for sweden. mondo is absolutely on fire! and he's the world record—holder. five metres is nothing to these men. the challenge was to do the most clearances in

half an hour. don't try this at home is in this warning. leave it to the experts. well, the clock stopped with lavillenie and dupla ntis level on 36. they agreed for a tie, we just want something to watch. a california—based photographer has filmed sensational footage of surfers gliding through bioluminescent waves illuminating the san diego shoreline. shades of blue, red and browns can be seen against the backdrop of a dark night sky. the phenomenon occurs when algae bloom fills the water with phytoplankton. you're watching bbc news. and we'll be taking an in—depth look at the papers with our reviewers, the former conservative adviser

mo hussein and the political writer and academic maya goodfellow. that's coming up after the headlines at 11:30. now it's time for a look at the weather with nick miller. bellwether looks like warming up for a time in the week ahead before doing a complete u—turn next weekend as we will see in a moment. it will be pleasant weather are sunny spells during monday, still the chance of catching a showers a particularly across parts of these in england whereas elsewhere it is high—pressure in control so it does look dry. showers for south—east scotla nd look dry. showers for south—east scotland to start the day, they will clear, a few spots in northern ireland, scotland and northern ireland, scotland and northern ireland will see the london afternoon sunshine. you can see the showers, merging for longer spells of rain across yorkshire and lincolnshire, showers in east and glaring parts of the midnight that make midland into the afternoon. 0ther make midland into the afternoon. other areas staying dry, warm day

was sunny skies compared with to sunday fourth the breeze starts to pick up across southern parts during the day and turns windy overnight on tuesday morning across south south—west england with heavy rain moving in across the channel islands whereas elsewhere it stays dry and chilly as we start tuesday morning. a lot of fine weather on the way on tuesday but not for everyone. still some rain in south—west england reaching south was, may push in across parts of south—east england as well, a little uncertainty how far north and east this will spread before easing. strength of the wind is breezy and cool with temperatures in the mid— low teens in some spots for us. elsewhere a pleasant day and 17 and in glasgow shall breeze a crop along the north sea coast. the weather system to the self, those isobars there into wednesday shows high—pressure reasserting dominance. a slim chance of a shower of the closer you are taught

south—west england and north—east wealth, most places will have a fine wednesday and the wind will be like with temperatures creeping up a bit, widely dropping to the high teens, a few in the low 20s from cardiff into parts of north—west scotland. a few showers later in the week warmth and sun is out to look at the changes we go through the weekend. happens to all of us, the temperatures will ta ke all of us, the temperatures will take a significant drop, increasingly likely that it turns much colder in the north next weekend in the frost and wintry showers for many.

hello. this is bbc news. we'll be taking a look at tomorrow morning's papers in a moment. first, the headlines. easing the lockdown: the

uk's government signals proposals ahead of an announcement. but there's a warning restrictions could return in a "specific and localised way" if coronavirus cases go up again. the phone app to track and trace people with covid—19 will be piloted this week on the isle of wight and rolled out nationally across the uk later this month. russia reports a record one—day rise in coronavirus infections with more than 10,000 people testing positive. is people testing positive. there a coronavirus crisis i iraq? is there a coronavirus crisis in iraq? hundreds of people have died. the race to find a treatment: a trialfor a promising new drug to treat coronavirus is under way in southampton. hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the papers will be bringing us tomorrow.