1a years ago, edward shryane was too weak to cry. listen to him now. # whoa—oh—oh, on the radio what does the sound of the choir mean to you? incredible. it's changed my life, i think. i'm just lost for words. can i ask you a very hello and welcome along to sportsday fundamental question? what does he mean to you? with me, sarah mulkerrins. let's start with the dire warnings for the future of sport as we know it. today, key figures from the likes you mean everything, eds. of football, cricket and rugby union oh, my god! thank you! spelled out the extent that's the right answer. of the challenge ahead i mean, thanks. drives me insane. to a government committee. cricket — the chief executive of the ecb says the pandemic could cost the sport up to 380—million pounds. thank you, that is the right answer. tom harrison saying it was the "most but there is another significant financial challenge" reason for laughter. using a video conference, the choir they have faced. overcomes isolation and reunites. and matthew hears the sound warnings from the rfu that they will lose around £107 million if england's autumn internationals are cancelled —

of his mother's laughter. and even if they do go ahead — but without fans — they will have an £85 # matthew, hope you million black hole. have a really good week and finally to the football league — lily bartlett, blind, the 71 clubs are facing a "£200 million black hole" by september according with special educational needs, to chairman rick parry, who also insists the current season needs to be concluded before the end ofjuly. taught herself piano and leads the choir‘s version of an anthem for our times. grave concerns across the board. and i've been speaking to one man well versed in the governance of sport. former director of the efl, # when you got what you want... and also former head of the scottish fa and yorkshire # lights will guide you home county cricket club. when the plans have been put # and ignite your bones together they have to look notjust at the game of football in itself, the safety aspect that goes with it # i will try to fix you. but also what it means for a business and these two things are really intertwined because the game of football drives tv revenue, and applause it drives the sponsorship and fergal keane, advertising revenue and obviously

bbc news, oxford. further down the line. without these reve nu es further down the line. without these revenues coming in, any business time for a look at the weather. here's ben rich. health check that is taken will look pretty sick so we are in a difficult place with a desire to get the game thank you, george and good evening, some big ups and downs in the going to drive those revenues but temperatures through the rest of the also a fearfor the week, and initially those going to drive those revenues but also a fear for the safety of everybody concerned in the game and temperatures are heading upwards, because of this weather set up. no thatis everybody concerned in the game and that is why it is going to need some pressure to the west, high—pressure careful planning and any talk in my to the east, bringing a flow of wind from the south where it has been opinion on trying to start again in very warm this week across spain on may or even early jan the south of france. some of that opinion on trying to start again in may or even earlyjan and i think it is not going to happen. there is too warm air is heading our way but by the weekend we flipped the weather much to do and too much at stake set up with high pressure to the from a health point of view to rash west, low—pressure to the east and that will feed the wind is heading this and it needs careful oui’ that will feed the wind is heading our way but by the weekend we consideration and my opinion. this and it needs careful consideration and my opinionm this the biggest crisis support will flipped the weather set up with high pressure to the west, low—pressure to the east and that will feed the be facing? undoubtedly. to use a winds down from the north as you can see from the blue colours, something much colder on the way. having said that, we have a chilly night in cliche, but paul has to put its foot prospect tonight where the skies are on the ball and take time and clear we will keep cloud in the consider the issues from both the south—west of england and some cloud rolling into the coasts of lincolnshire, maybe norfolk. we will game perspective and business get close to freezing, may be below perspective. think through the freezing for parts of northern england and scotland summer frost

likely, but tomorrow, after the detail on how that plan will be chilly start, a fine, dry and bright implemented and all of the minutia day with good spells of sunshine. always more clout plaguing orkney about social distancing and keeping and shetland on the odd shower players safe and about what if a players safe and about what if a dipping into cornwall or player says i do not want to play, i pembrokeshire later in the afternoon am afraid, what do you do then? what but temperatures generally a bit higher than they were today, 1a about contracts because at the end between 19 degrees, someplace is ofjune and end ofjuly and others likely to get to 20 and into and it will clearly be on the minds thursday we will see a few showers scraping into western areas and those will be heavy and thundery. of footballers and what happens when further east, driver spells of their contracts expire. what about sunshine and temperatures climbing, issues like promotion and 22 degrees in climbing, 18 for relegation, how do you deal with glasgow and aberdeen and it could be those for the future? in my own warmer still in the south on friday with highs of 25. more cloud for opinion football has to take second priority right now to the safety and northern ireland and scotland and well—being. priority right now to the safety and some patchy rain across the far well-being. we know many clubs could north of scotland where it will be cooler, and as we head into the be facing the wall and do you sense weekend, the cool air will sink south, chile and the north on saturday, noticeably colder for all there is an air of collaboration across the ball and all the sport in on sunday with the chance of some 00:03:54,636 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 wintry showers. the uk to make sure that the scenario doesn't happen? absolutely

right. collaboration is one of my five key steps to get this plan in place for football and sport to actually resume. there is an indication right from fifa, uefa and the leagues as well and the governing bodies that they cannot do this on their own. everyone needs to work together and come up with a plan that is workable. well as stewart spoke about — there are real concerns over the football season resuming. that's despite the foreign minister dominic raab saying in the last hour the governement are looking at how to restart leagues. well the chief executive of league one's rochdale — david bottomley — has been speaking to our sports editor dan roan about what could happen to the rest of the season. it is maybe unlikely the season will finish on the 31st ofjuly which is the day you have to work backwards from. morally i did not think any

football organisation can put at risk anyone in the national health 01’ risk anyone in the national health ora risk anyone in the national health or a front—line worker at this moment in time. that date at the sist moment in time. that date at the 31st ofjuly needs players going back to training on the 18th of may and personally and from a club point of view we do not see it. it would be better not to carry on playing if it was to be behind closed doors because behind closed doors we had the associated costs of putting the game on but not the revenue streams. a club like this is planning right now no revenue coming in until the early months of 2021 because we think the ball alongside pierre, cinemas and restaurants will be the last place that the government will unlock from a social distancing point of view so we are planning very carefully now for us to get to a point next year we are still in business. the premier league is also grappling with conversations around a possible return to action.

several clubs having reopened their training grounds and manchester united boss ole gunnar solskjaer has told all his squad to return to england over the next week. well crystal palace chairman steve parish has told the bbc today that public and player safety is paramount, but they do have a duty to get the game started again. nobody wants to put anyone's safety at risk at all. it is a very difficult situation and we are in a terrible situation as everyone knows that as a business because we have employees and other things to safeguard after the public health crisis, which is the most important thing, it would be a dereliction of duty if we were planning to get our business up and running but absolutely the player safety has to come first. we know probably there is no hospitality money, no gate money, no sponsor market. we are and uncharted waters into a great we

would be at the mercy of our broadcast partners, really trying to work out the best way forward and i believe they will be supported, i believe they will be supported, i believe they will definitely want the game on the other side of that. but what does that look like then, subscribers are suspending counsel and we are and an uncertain place. there are definitely kinks but there are teams in every season and there is an element of fortune good and bad that happens to teams and teams had a lot of time for their players to recover. i understand it is not a perfect solution. and if we can play ina stadium perfect solution. and if we can play in a stadium with crowds we would be happy to do so. it does not look like a real possibility right now. let's take a quick look at some other stories making the news

there's no guarantee that cycling's biggest event of the year — the tour de france — will take place, according to the french sports minister roxana maracineau. it has been delayed from june until the end of august — with the giro d'italia and vuelta now overlapping during october. maracineau also warned the french open tennis — which rafael nadal won last year for a 12th time — may need to take place behind closed doors at roland garos. it has been delayed until the 20th of september. nadal however believes the sport may not return again this year. and in football — the scotland men and women sides plus england mens team have made a "significant donation" to the nhs. last month england women announced they had donated to the fund too. well, we know that there will be no professional cricket in the uk until at least the first ofjuly — and even then it's likely take place without fans. however, england's ben stokes says that won't effect the players and that they're desperate for the sport to return. we are walking out to represent our country and we have a three line and our shift and there was a game that

we wa nted our shift and there was a game that we wanted to win. whether it is in front of anybody or nobody, it will not take the competitive side away, it will be a different scenario for us it will be a different scenario for us to get her head around that. we would do anything to get cricket back on the tvs and for people to follow and watch and if that means we have to play in front of nobody, then so be it. and finally — we've all become used to the videos of athletes training at home — so now it takes something quite special to get our attention. i think it's fair to say — this is! this is fabio wibmerfrom austria — a pro mountain bike rider. this is amazing isn't it? scale, balance and employees. built these trick features inside and outside his house. that was his girlfriend i believe — she's ok — not sure how long that relationship will last with tricks like that! iam not

i am not sure... that's all the sport for now. you can find more on all those stories on the bbc sport website. by by watching bbc news. —— you are watching bbc news. let's just remind you of some of the main points from that downing street briefing a little earlier. it was led by the foreign secretary, dominic raab and the deputy chief scientific adviser angela mclean. the uk is now the worst affected country in europe. the daily total number of uk deaths has risen by 693 in all settings. that brings the total number of deaths to 29,427 — which means the uk has now surpassed the number of deaths in italy, which today reported 29,316 deaths from coronavirus.

dominic raab says that 84,806 coronavirus tests were provided in some form on monday, that's below the government's 100,000 tests—a—day target. let's talk through some of those figures. that is that i had learned today that the british death toll now appears to be worse than italy. there are lots of caveats we need to put on that. heaps of them really. i think politicians will say that but they are right to say you cannot make a proper comparison until the pandemic is over. what we have seen is the uk passing italy and a number of people dying after contracting

coronavirus. we also know the uk is behind the curve in the pandemic said the next few days and weeks we can expect the uk number to rise faster than italy's does but in terms of the caveats and the things that you have to be careful on where to start, italy's population is smaller than the uk so per head of population, italy is still ahead of the uk and how old is your population? we know older people are affected by coronavirus in and italy's population is slightly older and how many tests have you done and are so many things you have to take into account. it is an important and sad and symbolic moment. i think it will rise faster than the thailand number but the comparisons have to be taken with a pinch of salt. at

the italian number. the belgians record anyone suspected as having died with coronavirus and their numbers are very died with coronavirus and their numbers are very high. that is right. if you look at what happened today, confusion in the uk because there were two separate figures announced. rather like belgium, it includes cases where covid—19 has been put on a death certificate as a possible cause which is about 3000 higher than the subsequent figure that came out in the press briefing which is the number of positive cases so people who died after testing positive for coronavirus. another layer of complexity if you like and something that needs to be borne in mind when you are trying to compare like with like. what has been a real concern in the last three days in particular has been the situation in care homes so let

me tell viewers we are hearing now from our ireland correspondent and the 14 residents of the care homes have died and northern ireland and 14 residents have died with covid—19 at glen abbey naida dominic manor —— glen abbey manner. the deaths i carried and the care home and some in hospital. that is the latest from northern island and that underlines the situation that was raised again during the daily briefing which is the situation and care homes. the latest numbers we got from the office of national statistics for the week ending the 24th of april, the week ending the 24th of april, the number of care home deaths were continuing to rise and rising faster than the overall deaths and number in hospital so there was so much focus in the beginning and understandably so on deaths in hospital but there has been a staggering number of deaths in care home and figures are shockingly

high. the overall number of deaths from all causes in that week to the 24th of april with slightly lower, only a little dead but slightly lower than the previous week which adds to the evidence suggesting the peak of the pandemic has probably passed. certainly not over it but a high number of deaths announced every day for some time to come sadly but it is more evident at the peak has been passed. statistics can be confusing that you were saying earlier to me that the best way to look at it is in terms of excess deaths in each country. one of the difficulties in the absence of universal testing and testing everyone, it is hard to know how many people really died with covid—19. they like to look at access deaths and in other words looking at how many people have died this year over a fixed amount of time and then comparing that to the average over the previous five years

andi average over the previous five years and i gives an idea of how many additional deaths there are from all causes and we looked at that today from comparing the uk and italy and the first six weeks after italy recorded its first covid—19 deaths this year, there were more than 25,000 access deaths in italy. and a six weeks after the uk, recorded its first covid—19 deaths, it was under 17,000 said the number of excess deaths in italy was higher. which suggests when all the balance is done at the end of the italian number could still be higher than the uk's number not the least of which because there are relatively less ca re which because there are relatively less care home deaths included an italian statistics. another warning, it is hard to compare at this stage. thank you.

i'm joined now by labour's shadow transport secretary, jim mcmahon. as we were discussing very grim statistics which have emerged today, where the total number of deaths in the uk has now exceeded it alize and what is your reaction to that? the only reaction can be behind those numbers are people morning that family communities who they loved and who they will never see again. we are talking about the situation in care homes in particular are a social affairs correspondent has said the government will set out plans for more intensive support for ca re plans for more intensive support for care homes and how worried are you about the situation in care homes at the moment? extremely worried because the number of deaths that have taken place in care homes is significant and i hearfrom the

staff all the time that they not been provided with ppe early enough and clear direction from the government was not provided anywhere near as early and so we need to ask the question of the government's response was adequate early enough to reduce the number of deaths in ca re to reduce the number of deaths in care homes. the government is assessing a lot of story by an app on the trial of the isle of wight and you think that could be a game changer? there are number of concerns on the app but the fundamental message has to be in the national interest people have to use it, that they can track and trace and make sure those who are impacted are isolated and treated in the most appropriate way so it is really important that it works and the national interest of people willing to engage with it and to ensure that data is protected. i know your brief is the transport and how are we

going to get the transport system back up and running. we have been hearing about proposals for increased services but the problem for especially trains on busy routes is how to maintain social distancing while running a rail service. rails, buses, the airline industry are all really worried about what it means in practice. notjust in terms of passengers on the bus for incense but also the protection of the driver, how do you make sure people keep social distancing when they are queuing to get on the bus for incense? how do you deal with the handling of cash so many clear items from the government and the potential of passengers on the front line. and we heard from virgin atla ntic line. and we heard from virgin atlantic that they are proposing to shed as many as 30,000 jobs to pull out of gatwick airport. what should the government be doing to help the airline industry? for a number of

weeks we have been waiting and the industry has been waiting and the aviation rescue package has had a deal that was the spoke for the circumstances and because the aviation will be critical to the recovery but also might be able to recovery but also might be able to recover it to any historian to make sense of normality. it is notjust about passengers on a plane but about passengers on a plane but about the goods that are imported or exported and making sure that our economy is supported to recover in the best possible ways the government should have acted a lot similar. the government can blame of course for a business that decides they do not want to take the support thatis they do not want to take the support that is there instead make people redundant, there could be issues predating covid—19 and they are accelerating redundancies as a result but the government had a package of support and place to make sure that operators had no reason to say the government did not do enough

when it is needed. are using the airlines area when it is needed. are using the airlines are a special that they need special help? absolutely not just for the airlines that we need to remember airlines employ people, there are british people and work who are desperately fearful for the future and what it brings and it is far better we keep people and work and support the industry to recover and support the industry to recover and get through this. aviation may not be an the same farm in the past but evidence behind that means that there could be far more transition in different industries and green decarbonization type industries and what we can do is to say that it is all about the market and the private sector... all about the market and the private sector. . . the all about the market and the private sector... the government cannot be seen, sector... the government cannot be seen, can sector... the government cannot be seen, can it to be unfair in a sense of getting more help to airlines and to other locations around the

country. they just to other locations around the country. theyjust need support and so when we unlock and accept a lockdown that they can hit the ground running and reopen and hopefully rebuild, to the critical industries that are essential for our economy. not just say for passengers and how we get goods in and out of this country and if that does not work it will be british jobs hit by that. i need to have of you —— the government needs to have a deal on how to deal with that and we need to talk about our regions being supported. at the airport closest it would be devastating for many of the regional economies and put back decades potentially in terms of recovery and so we need to have a strategy in place to make sure that we have a view on recovery but medium and long—term as well. thank you for your time.

thank you for being on bbc news this evening. now it's time for a look at the weather with ben rich temperatures will be heading upwards over the next few days and if this does not last that weekend will bring us something much colder. chilly out tonight with clear skies and down to the southwest and any re m na nts of and down to the southwest and any remnants of the rain will continue to ease away. a lot of cloud across the northern aisles and may norfolk as well and we are dropping close to freezing and parts of northern england and scotland and for the most pa rt england and scotland and for the most part it is another fine, dry and predominately sunny day. patchy cloud around and the odd shower clipping into caught him cornwall later in the day and jerry's matching operates. a few spots at the 19 or 20 and temperatures continue to climb through thursday

and friday can bring highs of 25 degrees in the south but more u nsettled degrees in the south but more unsettled further north and turns much colderfor all of us unsettled further north and turns much colder for all of us through the weekend.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the latest figures show britain has overtaken italy, another country hit hard by the coronavirus. ministers say it's too early to compare. we want to ensure that the international comparison works unless you reliably know that all countries are measuring the same way. it also depends on how good, frankly, countries are in gathering their statistics. coronavirus in care homes. the number of deaths registered in england and wales was nearly three thousand in one week in april. a draft government report warns the us deathtoll could reach three thousand a day injune, double the current rate. now it's virgin atlantic that announces plans to cutjobs. three thousand to go and no more flights out of gatwick.