this is outside source on bbc news for viewers in the uk and around the world. we're covering all the latest coronavirus developments here in britain and globally. germany has unveiled plans to reopen europe's biggest economy. restaurants, schools and professional football have all been given the green light to re start as lockdown restrictions are lifted. another grim milestone. the number of deaths in the uk has tipped past 30,000. the prime minister defends his handling of the pandemic but admits to some failings in care homes. there is an epidemic

going on in care homes, which is something i bitterly regret. president trump backtracks saying he won't now disband the coronavirus task force telling reporters he didn't realise how popular it was. one of the grandfathers of techno florian schneider has died. his band kraftwerk is credited with changing the sound of pop music. welcome. europe's biggest economy is getting back to business. germany has announced plans to get restaurants, shops and professional football back up and running. itjoins a raft of countries that have started easing lockdowns but germany is going further than most. germany is going further than most

and here's why. germany has around 167,000 confirmed cases. and the recorded death toll is under 7,000. that's much lower figure than the uk, italy, france and spain. and so now angela merkel is starting to navigate germany out of its lockdown. she's made a deal with regional leaders that means social distancing stays intojune, and face masks must be worn in shops and on public transport until then too. and there's a caveat if new outbreaks are identified, new local or regional lockdowns must be reimposed. here's the chancellor speaking earlier. translation: we are now at a point where we can say that we have achieved the aim of slowing the spread of the virus and protecting our health system from being overwhelmed. we could do this because the citizens have lived their lives responsibly throughout this virus. they are committed to the restrictions, thereby saving the lives of others.

next here's the bbc‘s jenny hill in berlin tweeting earlier about on one possible way for german restaurants to reopen. there's hospital capacity to spare but that's what angle a miracle under pressure. the leaders of the 16 states desperately want to restart their local economies. at that meeting today, we are told it was indeed very stormy. they agree they can open shops, restaurants, hotels, albeit with strict social distancing measures. and germany's professional lead the bundesliga must resume but they must be held behind closed doors. people can't just meet up with whoever they want to. they still have to wear face mask on public transport and in shops. the authorities will continue to test and contact trace aggressively. additionally, anglo merkel —— and the firm of an emergency brake. what that means is

should infections arrive above subscribe limit, the local authorities will be a required to immediately reimpose restrictions. 's immediately reimpose restrictions. '5 holds a suspect most germans have supported her approach so far. today she said germany put the first phase of the pandemic find it, but warned along battle with the virus still lies ahead. ros atkins has has been looking at this, and other developments in europe. hi ros. hi kasia. the european commission is warning that europe's is experiencing the worst economic shock since the great depression of the 1930s and that the eventual outcome could be even worse than that. so every country is mindful of the huge economic cost of lockdown but of course is also mindful of a possible new spike in virus infections

as restrictions ease. here's germany's economy minister. when you have to switch from liberalizing to shut down again, two 01’ liberalizing to shut down again, two or three times, then it would have disastrous consequences for the economy. here's aaron hestlehurst on why germany's economy will need more than this in the long term. it is expected to see economic activity and certain parts to rebound very quickly. but the expert i spoke to are very quick to remind us i spoke to are very quick to remind us of is that the economy is a manufacturing economy. they are more reliant on the rest of world that in particular, china and the us. germany needs a healthy chinese and us economy for it to rebound quickly. 0n the flip side, you've

got the likes of greece, spain and italy where the commission said they will struggle. they will struggle to regain growth. also the big hit, one of the most important industries, tourism. well, let's talk about tourism. italy's prime minister has been sounding positive about the possibility of people being able to take a summer holiday. evidently he's not the only one thinking about this. airbnb has reported a jump in bookings from europeans. and europe as a destination is hugely important to the national economies within it. the most recent figures show france had nearly 90 million international tourist arrivals in 2018. followed by spain with 82 million arrivals, and italy with 62 million. and these three are the worst hit in the european union. this is rory boland, the travel editor at the consumer advice organisation which.

the chances of international travel is quite low. what we are seeing happen is some countries where there has been a low number of infections and are talking to each other about almost exchanging holiday— makers, and are talking to each other about almost exchanging holiday—makers, so we saw that in estonia, latvia, talk about opening up. so that holiday— makers can travel. we've seen it with australia and new zealand as well. it does look like we may be able to, i suppose travel near neighbourhoods in those countries with a low number of infections. the bad news is like me, if you're in the uk, we are probably a long way down the list of citizens that countries want to accept in because of the high number of infections. i think what we will see isa kind infections. i think what we will see is a kind of slow unlocking between individual countries and of course, there is... this is onlyjust

starting now in the country. what we don't know is if there will be anotherflare—up of don't know is if there will be another flare—up of the coronavirus, which would induce another lockdown. so we really are only seeing the roots of the possibilities of travel returning to normal at the moment. finally, i want to update you on the lockdown in spain. it's set to continue for at least two more weeks after parliament voted to extend the country's state of emergency. this is what prime minister pedro sanchez said earlier. translation: the decision to come to parliament to ask for yet another extension of the state of emergency is based on science. those who oppose it and vote against the state of emergency and the extension are basing their decisions on the worst possible politics. and that is partisan politics. and that is partisan politics. different calculations being made by different european leaders.

so lots of different calculations for european leaders. and everyone is watching germany very closely both for how it's kept its number of fatalities relatively low and for how its infection rates react to the easing of restrictions. everyone will be watching very closely what happens next. thanks for that. let's turn to the us where president trump has backtracked and says he will no longer disband the white house coronavirus task force 2a hours after announcing that he would wind it down. donald trump has been telling reporters why he changed his mind in the past hour. i had no idea how popular the task force is. until actually yesterday when i started talking about winding it down. i got calls from very respected people, saying they think it would be better to keep it going. it's on such a good job. it's a respected task force. i knew it

myself. i didn't know whether or not it was appreciated by the public, but it is. katty kay is monitoring this from washington. had the president gotten ahead of himself and saying he would disband the task force 7 and saying he would disband the task force? i think what he didn't anticipate was the degree to which the disbanding of the task force would be met so negatively, notjust in the press but as he said from some of his own associates. you could argue that popularity should not be the guiding principle for whether you have a task force or not. it should be what stage the country is in and fighting the coronavirus. but it seems to be that the president has now decided yep, we still need this. it will be slightly re—shifted focus. we will be looking at the reopening of the economy, but we he has taken on board is that opinion polls in the united states show that the public on the whole trust the medical

health officials more than they trust the president, and they trust their own health officials and their own state officials more than they trust the white house. i think part of the reason the task force was disbanded was because the president himself was not doing so well in the opinion polls during those long briefings. therefore, he felt it wasn't popular any more and it wasn't popular any more and it wasn't serving a political purpose for him any more, but now having said he would shut it, he's gonna open it again. things change on a dime here. they certainly do. when it comes to the force excels, there we re it comes to the force excels, there were some really big names on it. some names that have become very popular throughout this crisis. yeah, doctor fauci kind of a household name in the united states. deborah brooks as well. people wa nted deborah brooks as well. people wanted to hear from those health officials —— deborah birx. sometimes to our long briefings where donald

trump does 75% of the talking, will he still hear from those public health officials or will itjust be the treasury director steve mnuchin that we hear from? the treasury director steve mnuchin that we hearfrom? is the treasury director steve mnuchin that we hear from? is clear from those public polls that people want to hear from the health officials. health officials will still be engaged and they will still be part of task force. the resident say he might add more people. presumably more business people. the american public have made it pretty clear that they still want to hear from those health officials. if there are those health officials. if there are those daily briefings, do they still getan those daily briefings, do they still get an opportunity to hear it from them? interesting. i'll watch and wait as always. thank you so much for talking to us. lest stay in the us, the secretary of state mike pompeo has again doubled down on his claim that he believes the coronavirus originated from a wuhan labotary. just listen to this. we don't have certainty. there is ace to a lack of significant evidence that came from laboratory.

i made them both. edge. they're all true. focus on the most important feast here. most important he's still my piece here is that the american people are remain at risk. we do not know. we don't have certainty about whether it began in the lab or whether it began someplace else. there is an easy way to find out the answer to that. transparency, openness. he also criticised the chinese government's handling of the pandemic, saying the lack of transparency has cost lives. here's our state department correspondent barbara plett—usher. other countries have also criticised the chinese and others are calling for accountabilities. americans in particular have really hit china ha rd really particular have really hit china hard really relentlessly. there is concern about china's behaviour and also as mr pompeo said, as long as

there is a lack of transparency, more people's life will be lost. critics do believe the ministration is trying to deflect attention away from its own slow responses to the virus by hitting beijing so hard on this issue. stay with us on outside source, still to come. one of the co founders of kraftwerk florian schneider has died at 73 we'll reflect on his life and music with a producer who worked with him. nearly 60% of covid—19 deaths in scotland are linked to care homes according to new statistics. however, the number of people dying in the country has now fallen for the first time. here's first minister, nicola sturgeon. tomorrow the scottish government must consider whether continuing the currents are restrictions for another three weeks. progress is still too fragile to immediately

ease restrictions in any significant way. but we are planning now for ways in which we can gradually do so as soon ways in which we can gradually do so as soon as possible. more detail and thatis as soon as possible. more detail and that is set in the paper published yesterday. for the moment, the message remains unclear. please stay home. state two metres from other people when you are out. don't meet up people when you are out. don't meet up with people from other households. where a face covering if you are in a shop or a public trust isolate completely if you or someone else in the household has symptoms. if we all stick with it for a bit longer, we will, i'm sure, see more progress and we will bring forward the moment when some of these restrictions can start to be eased. you're watching outside source live from the bbc. germany has unveiled plans to reopen europe's biggest economy. restaurants, schools and professional football have all been given the green light to re start as lockdown restrictions are lifted. in the uk the number

of people who have died from coronavirus has passed 30,000. in the last 2a hours, a further 649 people died in the uk, bringing the uk's covid—19 death toll to 30,076. this is currently the second largest in the world after the us, and the largest in europe. but at today's briefing, the director of public health england urged people to avoid international comparisons. international compare sids they measure this virus number of deaths in different ways. that is absolutely fine, so long as that is consistent in each country. it makes international comparisons very difficult because we are not comparing like with like. it's worth continuing to stress this, because over time, probably the right measures have been outlined by a

number of our experts, including our chief medical officer, which would be access deaths overall in a period of time. then we will know truly how we have been impacted. a key part of containing coronavirus is testing for it. today the prime minister, boris johnson, announced a new target of hitting a testing capacity of 200,000 by the end of may. but the government is still struggling to hit its previous target of 100,000, as hugh pym reports. a week ago, just over 20,000 tests we re a week ago, just over 20,000 tests were provided. the next day it went over the government's target. since the weekend, it's fallen back to below 70,000 yesterday. it's not clear why that happened. this is the entrance to fairfield residential home. it's vital to get residents tested if they have symptoms so they can be kept separate from others, but at this home, they tried several times to offer task to all unwell

and have had no response. i'm very angry. i'm so frustrated when i hear the ministers telling us that everybody in care homes can be tested. the government needs the testing to happen. it's such a big logistical proposal. people can't do it. deaths from covid—19 in care homes in england and wales have continued to rise week on week. this graph shows that deaths in care homes involving coronavirus increased by a third in the week ending 24th april, even as hospital deaths were falling. the leader of the opposition, sir keir starmer, today asked the prime minister how this had been allowed to continue. 12 weeks after we were declared in a health crisis, i have to ask the prime minister wife hasn't the government come to grip already —— why? he's quite right to look at the crisis in care homes and he actually right to say there's an epidemic going on in care homes, which is something i bitterly regret and will

be working very hard for weeks to come to get done. the prime minister from today's prime minister ‘s question. our uk political correspondent rob watson joins us live. testing and care homes were concerns early on in the outbreak, the government came under increasing pressure on its performance in these areas? that's right. i think i put it more broadly. when the crisis first erupted, i think as in other countries and every crisis, there some sort of initial shock phase where i think people turn to the government and authority hoping for the best and i think what you start to see is politicians, people and the media alike being more questioning of the government's strategy from the beginning up until this point. that of course includes this point. that of course includes this amount in death toll and in ca re this amount in death toll and in care homes, with half a million

elderly people. also this constant issue of providing protective equipment for anybody, not just health workers but anybody. don't go away because borisjohnson has repeatedly described the uk response to the coronavirus as a success story. so we've had a look at some coverage of the uk's response in the internatioanl press and they have a rather different take on it. the sydney morning herald describes the uk's coronavirus plan as the ‘biggest failure in a generation' asking ‘where did britain go wrong?‘ this article in the new yorker says ‘there has been a curious mixture of superiority and fatalism about britain's handling of the pandemic, which has been slow and calamitous.‘ rob, we heard earlier on, it's really ha rd to rob, we heard earlier on, it's really hard to make comparisons with different countries due to the differences in measuring numbers.

with the uk government facing so much criticism, can international comparisons really be avoided? it's a fascinating question. i would stay up a fascinating question. i would stay up until this point, i think british politicians, may be many british people and i dare say the media in my experience, have been very much and were looking. i think they've been rather oblivious to the way that the rest of the uk. there's been questioning whether the uk has handled things right from the start. asi handled things right from the start. as i said, i think that is changing because the uk is coming out of that initial sort of shock phase where people, politicians and media turn to their governments and hope. difficult questions have been asked. although it's clear drew that making international comparisons is dangerous, nobody disputes more people are dying now in the uk. compared to other european countries. i think that does make a

difference. i think that marks the point in which people will ask the government more and more questions. interestingly, the government's pull raisings have held up rather well. i think that's because people do turn to authority of the crisis. but it has been on the way down and of course, it's a sort of statement to the obvious, but i think what really matters for the government now is what happens next. on that note, what happens next. on that note, what happens next. on that note, what happens next, we are expecting to find out more detail on sunday? yes. we're already hearing from borisjohnson yes. we're already hearing from boris johnson that yes. we're already hearing from borisjohnson that perhaps the lockdown will be eased on some weight on monday because he said that's the reason why he wanted to announce it on sunday —— all in some way. all the other indications that we're getting from the government, nobody should think everything will go back to normal on monday, absolutely far from it. as always, really good to talk to you. rob watson there.

the electronic music pioneer and co founder of the german group kraftwerk, florian schneider has died aged 72. -- 73. schneider's revolutionary use of synthesisers in the 1970s helped define the sound of pop and dance music in the decades that followed. dan lacksman is a producer who worked with florian in 2015, warning about plastic pollution in sea. hejoins us live he joins us live now. hejoins us live now. dan, before working with florian, you knew him for a long time. what was he like? he really liked good beer, good

food, etc. not only electronic. he was not a robot. he was not a robot. even though he made his fame on this robotic centre is the size or sound. the robot pop ‘s the template for everything coming after it. did he realise how inspirational and how much impact he was making on the music world? i think so. but at the time, the synthesizers were new, so it was a discovery also for everybody. but of course, it was sort of a big inspiration for me and my band. when we heard the first kraftwerk song, we really wanted to make the same kind of music using synthesizers. you have to appreciate

what impact they made. they were described as the electronic beetles of their time. it's remarkable how they brought this new type of sound into the mainstream. yes. because they really used... we can see the sounds were really handcrafted. nothing preprogrammed. the sounds we re nothing preprogrammed. the sounds were really made with synthesizers and everything was really handmade. and new. dan, it's been an absolute pleasure to sleep to you and hear your recollections of florian snyder —— speakto your recollections of florian snyder —— speak to you. florian kraftwerk, one of the inspirational figures

with kraftwerk —— florian schneider. i'll be back shortly with the headline, bye—bye. the mormons will continue to bill for many but over the coming days, but when we get to the weekend. some changes. by the time we get to saturday afternoon, across the north of scotla nd saturday afternoon, across the north of scotland in particular, there will be a blast of market air —— arctic air moving across by sunday so it will feel very much like winter has returned. for the rest of the evening, it stays largely clear. quite chilly and further west we got cloud and a few showers to hold our temperature up. mist and fog will

clear quickly and once again and there'll be plenty of dry unsettled weather under this area of high pressure. however, those showers are making their way on this weather front so there will be an increased chance of showers over the coming few days. i would like to roll out the odd one. more likely to be across northern areas up the odd one. more likely to be across northern areas up into northern ireland and scotland. more cloud in these areas. not everyone will catch a shower by the afternoon, they could turn out to be heavy. temperatures are expected to be higher than those of today. notably i think an eastern coastal counties. friday very similar in that there will be a lot of dry, bright weather, hazy sunshine, but different in scotland. rather cloudy and damp at times here. there could be the odd sharp showerjust about anywhere. as we see temperatures rising into the low 20s in many parts of england and wales, the art shower elsewhere for scotland and northern ireland. —— all at a

shower. similarfor northern ireland. —— all at a shower. similar for saturday. northern ireland. —— all at a shower. similarfor saturday. at the same time in the north, we are getting that whole point of hearing so just seven getting that whole point of hearing sojust seven or getting that whole point of hearing so just seven or eight in the far north of scotland. whilst we hold onto that heat in the south. during saturday evening, that cold air will push our weather front right the way south and behind it, the chance of some snow. even at low levels for northern scotland. so it will feel much colder by day on sunday. a drop of some 10 degrees, feeling cold still when you add on the effect of that strong northerly wind.

this is bbc world news, the headlines germany has unveiled plans to reopen europe's biggest economy. restaurants, schools and professional football have all been given the greenlight to re—start as lockdown restrictions are lifted. the european commission says, europe is experiencing its biggest economic shock, since the great depression. it predicts a decline this year, of seven and a half percent due to the pandemic. another grim milestone. the number of deaths in the uk has tipped past 30,000 the prime minister defends his handling of the pandemic. president trump backtracks, saying he won't now disband the coronavirus task force telling reporters he didn't realise how popular it was. the us is the hardest hit country with 71,000 deaths. the us is the hardest hit country with 71,000 deaths. you are watching bbc news....