this is bbc news. i'm mike embley with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the united kingdom becomes the first country in europe to record more than 30,000 linked to coronavirus. president trump keeps up his attack on china as he changes course on disbanding the coronavirus task force, saying he never knew it was so popular. i had no idea how popular the task for is until actually yesterday. when i started talking about winding it down, i get calls from very respected people, saying, "i think it would be better to keep it going, it's done such a wonderfuljob". germany announces the way out of lockdown.

more shops will reopen and children will begin returning to school. a public sign of appreciation for hospital staff from the world's most private artist. hello and welcome. we're covering all the latest coronavirus developments here in britain and globally. first britain's prime minister has faced tough questioning in parliament over his government's handling of the pandemic. the uk is the first country in europe to record more than 30,000 deaths related to covid—i9. borisjohnson also said he bitterly regrets the coronavirus crisis in uk care homes — figures show these deaths are still rising. angela merkel has declared an end to the first phase of the outbreak in germany. schools and shops are to re—open, and top—level football matches will resume behind closed doors. president trump has described the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on the us as worse than the attacks on pearl harbour.

he again criticised china for failing to warn the world about the virus in time to prevent a global catastrophe. those are the main developments, but first, laura kuenssberg reports. small clusters of commuters. westminster quiet, masks sometimes. but not lonely any more. one new normal has begun. weeks after keir starmer became the labour leader, the first of his weekly chance to put the prime minister under pressure. i'm looking forward to it and i'm glad to see he's back in parliament. how are you going to handle the new labour leader? with boris johnson back at work, back at the despatch box, too. i would like to welcome the prime minister back to his rightful place in the chamber. but no hiding place from the rising coronavirus toll, now tipping 30,000. that's now the highest number in europe. it's the second highest in the world. that's not success or apparent success,

so can the prime minister tell us how on earth did it come to this? he is right to draw attention to the appalling statistics not just in this country, but of course around the world. at this stage, i don't think that international comparisons and the data is yet there to draw all the conclusions that we want. comparing different countries' statistics is difficult, but it's not irrelevant. and every number is another heartbreak. just nine members of ron beard's family bade farewell to him at a tiny funeral this afternoon. he passed away in hospital last week after contracting the virus in his care home, where his family had been told there was no infection and they say staff had no protective kit. my mum, sadly, had to go to the car park and say goodbye to her dad through the window, which was pretty heartbreaking for her after having been by his bedside for so long.

i think that's been one of the hardest things for the family to deal with, not being able to hold his hand in times when he needed it, and i know especially from my mum and her sisters, knowing that he died alone after they had been at his side for so long was the particularly heartbreaking thing to come to terms with. the priest did an amazing job and it was a wonderful sendoff, albeit slightly strange. his last song as the curtains closed was you'll never walk alone. what was happening behind closed doors in care homes, now very much in public and political view. deaths in care homes continue to go up, 12 weeks after the health secretary declared that we're in a health crisis. i have to ask the prime minister, why hasn't the government got to grips with this already? there's an epidemic going on in care homes which is something i bitterly regret, and we've been working very hard for weeks to get it down.

in the last few days, there has been a palpable improvement. there's no consistent evidence that situation is improving. but the prime minister suggested some lockdown measures could ease from monday. we will want, if we possibly can, to get going with some of these measures on monday. in a sparse chamber, mrjohnson sometimes looked around for cheerleaders who were not there. in this new contest of opposites, in the end, it's one—on—one. laura kuenssberg reporting there. president trump has described the coronavirus pandemic as the worst attack ever on the united states, saying the global outbreak would not have happened if china had acted quicker. mr trump said the fallout from the pandemic had hit the country harder than the japanese bombing of pearl harbor in world war ii, or the september the 11th attacks two decades ago. he added that it should have been stopped at source in china, but wasn't. let's speak to our north america correspondent, david willis.

david, nobody would dispute china has very serious questions to answer but there are also people saying perhaps the trump administration is trying to deflect attention from its own shortcomings? well, that's understandable, mike, and there's been no fiercer critic of china than the secretary of state, mike pompeo, of course, and he has really got stuck in since the coronavirus crisis began and he is not letting up. today he said china could have spared the world this descent into the global pandemic, instead it chose to cover up and he also reiterated his view that this virus may well not have come from a wet market in the city of wuhan in china, but indeed he said from a laboratory there. that is something donald trump has also been playing up, he said he had evidence from

intelligence officials that supported that view last week. evidence he said he would make available shortly. i have to say, even the president's leading medical adviser, doctor anthony fauci, has poured some doubt onto the possibility that this was a virus that originated in a laboratory. doctor fauci was quoted as saying that it was bold in nature, in his view, and then itjumped nature, in his view, and then it jumped species, mike. nature, in his view, and then itjumped species, mike. david, the president saying he won't be disbanding the coronavirus task force because he hadn't realised it was so popular. really? it is amazing, isn't it? what measurement does he use for popularity? maybe he's talking about viewing figures, and they have sought certainly been very healthy, but the president himself has stepped away from the podium and hasn't

been giving many briefings since the gaffe around disinfectant and other household cleaners got him into a lot of trouble, and he's been a lot of trouble, and he's been a lot of trouble, and he's been a lot more low—key ever since, but he said today the focus would be on safety and rebuilding the economy, that his topic at the moment, mike, we are expecting some very grim jobless figures to come out on friday, possibly the worst since 1945. david, thank you for that. let's get some of the day's other news. china says international experts will not be allowed into the country to investigate the origins of the coronavirus until the pandemic is over. china is coming under increasing pressure to allow an independent inquiry into the outbreak. officials have said that the priority at the moment was fighting the virus. in russia, president vladimir putin has cautioned against relaxing restrictions on movement too quickly.

10,000 he issued the warning after the country reported 10,000 new infections for the fourth consecutive day. spain's prime minister, pedro sanchez, has secured the backing of the country's parliament to extend the state of emergency there for two more weeks. the support of the basque nationalists and the centre—right party gave his coalition government the votes it needed to continue with the lockdown. mexico is facing a beer shortage. the country's brewing industry is warning supplies could run out in the next few days after the government failed to include production on a list of essential activities several weeks ago. the beer brewers' association is calling for factories to be allowed to reopen. the german chancellor, angela merkel, has come to an agreement with regional leaders on relaxing the country's lockdown. shops, hotels, and restaurants will re—open and football matches will re—start, although social distancing will remain. but restrictions could be re—imposed, if new outbreaks of the virus occur. 0ur correspondent, jenny hill, reports from berlin. the country is in a good place, with infection rates falling steadily. there's good hospital capacity. but that's meant

angela merkel has been under pressure from the leaders of germany's 16 states, who are desperate to restart their local economies. after a meeting today — a reportedly rather stormy one they came up with a plan, which includes, among many other things, the reopening of shops, hotels and restaurants, albeit with very strict social distancing measures. they're also letting the bundesliga, germany's professional football league, start up again. the matches will be played behind closed doors. now, it's not quite life back to normal just yet. people here will have to wear masks on public transport and in shops. the authorities will continue to test and contact trace as aggressively as they can and, additionally, angela merkel‘s got those regional leaders to agree to an emergency break. that means if an infection emerges a prescribed target set for the whole country anywhere in the country, local authorities will have to re—impose restrictions immediately. jenny hill in berlin for us.

this week, hong kong further eased social distancing restrictions with gatherings of up to eight people now permitted and many bars and gyms opening up again. but as normality returns, all eyes will turn to the city's pro—democracy movement, recently stifled by the pandemic, but one which saw huge and often for more wen can speak to antony dapiran, author of city on fire: the fight for hong kong. thank you for your time. relatively low infection rate in hong kong but it seems enough to dampen the protests, but the police have been busy. bring us up to speed. hong kong never had the kind of lockdowns we saw in other countries but they were restricting public gatherings of more than four people, so that meant the very large protests and rallies we had in hong kong were prevented over the last several months and in particular last weekend, ora and in particular last weekend, or a couple of weekends ago, when people tried to gather, police were very aggressive in.

halting those gatherings and finding people and dispersing those gatherings but as restrictions ease, people will probably gather and resume the protest movement again. the leadership in beijing this week said the protest movement was a political virus, not the first time they have used that language, what do you think they are likely to do? a remarkable statement, calling the protests a political virus that wanted to drag hong kong offa that wanted to drag hong kong off a cliff. beijing's said they did not want to sit idly by and see the chaos we saw last year, so we will see aggressive policing and aggressive policing and aggressive moves from beijing and they are very concerned to do everything they can to stop the protest movement breaking out as it did last year. all eyes on september this year when we have important elections for the hong kong

legislature and beijing's will do their best to make sure the pro—beijing parties win a majority in that election and the pro—democracy parties don't get a further foothold, so baiting will be very tough on hong kong in the next few months. in the absence of mass protests, how has the movement managed to keep momentum? there's been interesting things happening at grassroots or community level, one has been the so—called yellow circle economy, yellow represents the protest movement, and local businesses, restaurants, cafes and shops have been consciously aligning themselves with the democracy movement, calling themselves yellow businesses, and protesters and activists have been encouraging supporters to give their custom to those businesses. it's been an interesting way of showing support for the protest. protests are active online, as always. there have been smaller gatherings going on. the other interesting thing is

unionisation. last year there we re unionisation. last year there were a couple of attempts at general strikes during the protest, because the level of unionisation in hong kong is quite low, and recently we've seen many attempts to establish new unions and they have been trying to recruit new members not just for workers' rights but also for a political agenda, so that's another angle the protesters have been using. antony dapiran, thank you very much. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: a special report on testing for coronavirus. what options are available, how they differ and why it matters. i, nelson rolihlahla mandela, do hereby swear to be faithful to the republic of south africa. after six years of construction and numerous delays, the channel tunnel has been formally opened by the queen and president mitterrand. but the tunnel is still not yet

ready for passengers and freight services to begin. for centuries, christianity and islam struggled for supremacy. now, the pope's visit symbolises their willingness to coexist. roger bannister became the first man in the world to run a mile in underfour minutes. memories of victory as the ve celebrations reach their climax. this night is dedicated to everyone who believes in a future of peace and freedom. this is bbc news, the latest headlines: the uk becomes the first country in europe to record more than 30,000 coronavirus deaths. president trump reverses a decision to disband the white house coronavirus taskforce saying

he didn't realise how popular it was. let's return to the continuing tensions between the us and china over the origns of covid—19. us secretary of state pompeo has repeated the claim that virus began in a chinese laboratory near wuhan. a claim that dr fauci, one of his senior advisers, has rubbished in the past. for more on this let's get the thoughts of dan blumenthal. dan served in the pentagon under george w bush, and is now the director of asian studies at the american enterprise institute. thank you for your time. the trump administration seems to be pushing strongly a narrative that china is solely responsible for the outbreak. there are obvious political reasons but it is also understandable that the us would be pushing for recompense from china and china has questions to answer. it is not just the trump administration,

bipartisan groups in congress, thejoe biden bipartisan groups in congress, the joe biden campaign, bipartisan groups in congress, thejoe biden campaign, a strong bipartisan anger and frustration at china, really.|j know from reading what you have been writing on this that there are practical reasons that the us should tread more carefully with china, particularly with this issue. despite the rhetoric, the us is treading quite carefully. it has not taken any action against china to counter, really, the spread of the virus and the irresponsibility, transparency and lack thereof, they getting medical supplies from china and we are still cooperating. we are talking about retaliatory measures but none of those are happening. the us relies on medical supplies from china?

yes it does and that is something that will change over the next few years because there is a strong bipartisanship to change that. china relies heavily on the us as well and any talk of decoupling, disentanglement, diversifying the us— china trade act, stops in its tracks. any administration in the us is going to have to come clean with american consumers. things are going to be more costly if there is no china? without a doubt. people who started the engagement policy with china 40 yea rs engagement policy with china 40 years ago were not stupid. the economic deal, beside the geopolitical reasons to engage with china and bringing it in to an international system, was that it has provided low—cost consumer ship for americans for a long period of time. to change would be more costly for

consumers. thank you very much. thank you very much. countries across the world are approaching testing for coronavirus differently. reality check‘s chris morris breaks down the different types of test and why they matter. to beat the coronavirus, we have to know how many people are becoming infected — where, when and how. that's what testing for the virus is one of the most important things we can do. it can tell us who might be infected with the virus, who might have been infected in the past and who might need to be in stricter isolation to stop the virus spreading. there are two types of tests. the first type — usually a nasal swab — tests for the presence of the virus, to find out if you're infected right now, even if you're not displaying any symptoms and you're feeling perfectly well. if you are infected, you need to be isolated and treated if necessary, and people you've been in contact with can be traced and tested as well. that way, we can stop covid—19 from spreading so fast.

countries like south korea and germany tested lots of people early on in the pandemic and they seem to have been the most successful in keeping their death rates relatively low. other countries, including the uk, are scrambling to catch up. but you need to be able to get hold of the right chemicals, have the right expertise and make sure you have enough laboratories to be able to process tens of thousands of tests every day. the second type of test looks at whether you've been infected in the past, and whether you might now have some immunity. it does this by searching for antibodies in the blood, which your immune system uses to fight off bacteria and viruses. sadly, reliable antibody tests are not yet widely available. while they are being trialed in various places and there are some pretty ineffective products on the market, scientists are cautious. not having a test is better than having a bad test that gives false results. it will be a huge help if a reliable antibody test that can be mass—produced can be developed soon.

if we know someone has some immunity, it should be easier for them to get back to work. if we know that lots of people have some immunity, it should be easier for us to start lifting lockdowns in safer and more sustainable ways. but there is a problem. the presence of antibodies may provide some immunity but not necessarily complete immunity. and it's still unclear how long any immunity might last. so testing can help us put other data, like the number of confirmed cases or the number of deaths, into context. but we are going to have to wait some time before a vaccine for covid—19 provides immunity. until scientists crack that, testing is key to help us deal with this pandemic. chris morris, bbc news. the cruise ship at the centre of an public inquiry about the spread of covid—19 in australia has entered philippine waters. the ruby princess willjoin a growing number of cruise ships anchored in manila bay in order to repatriate filipino crew. howard johnson in manila.

the once broad blue expanse of manila bay now resembling a small city of towering cruise ships. more are arriving by the day because of the large number of returning filipinos who work in the cruise ship industry. but after 14 days of quarantine and testing on board these ships, they're slowly being able to disembark. but for thousands of foreigners still on board these ships, they don't know how or when they'll be able to return home. so this is my cabin. this is where i spend about 22 hours of the day in. one of them is briton cassandra snowden. she's a children's entertainer on the royal caribbean ship voyager of the seas. she hasn't set foot on land for two months and has spent most of that time in self—isolation in her cabin. we've just been floating around the ocean — like, turned away from ports, ordered to ger out of waters. we are still doing strict social distancing. considering we disembarked our

guests seven weeks ago, we haven't got off since. the philippine government had been allowing foreign nationals to leave through the country's main airport but, at the weekend, suspended all flights into the country for a week to reduce numbers in their quarantine centres. cassandra says the not knowing when they will be allowed home is taking its toll on her health. i think it's getting to a point where our basic human rights are forgotten about. you know, we talk about this virus and how it kills people, but mental health does — and people want to go back to their mothers, their fathers, their husbands, wives, children. just... something needs to be done. and it needs to be done fast. we contacted royal caribbean, who told us they have already helped more than 12,000 crewmembers to return home. they say for those still on board ships in manila bay, charter repatriations will be put on as soon the philippine authorities clear the way. the philippine government says it will lift the ban on flights this weekend, offering a potential way

out for foreign crew. howard johnson, bbc news, manila. we will let you know how that one develops. a new painting by the street artist banksy has been revealed at a hospital in southern england. it's called game changer, and the work will be auctioned later, with the money going to the nhs. 0ur arts editor, will gompertz, has been to see it. could this be a rare sighting of the elusive street artist, banksy? undercover, making a special delivery to university hospital southampton. wow. it's certainly his handiwork. it was hung late last night and unveiled this morning. it depicts a young boy kneeling down, wearing dungarees and a white t—shirt. the waste—paper basket in front of him has two discarded old superheroes. instead, he's playing with his new model figure, a new superhero, an nhs nurse with a flying cape and arm pointing forwards like superman. she is on a mission. the idea of the hospital's management and banksy was to thank the staff of the nhs generally for everything they are doing. so, did it go down well?

just the proudness of it. the actual realising that we are thought of and respected. for years now, we've not, but now, with everything that's going on in this current climate, people are seeing us where we should be. we're superheroes. it's such a nice reward for all the staff that have been working really hard throughout this. we've had members of staff be unwell themselves, and obviously all our patients, and we've just pulled together and got on with our work. why, then, did the hospital want to work with banksy? he's really captured the emotion behind the way that the country's recognising the nhs at the moment. certainly since we've been talking about it this morning, people recognise him, they understand where he's coming from, and they're really appreciative that he's made southampton the place to recognise the nhs. the plan is to sell the artwork at an auction after the lockdown, with the proceeds going to the nhs, some of which will come to this hospital. it could fetch over £1 million. will gompertz, bbc news, southampton.

that's it for now, much more on the bbc website. thank you for watching. hello there. over the next few days, it looks like the temperatures are going to creep upwards. we could be looking at the mid—20s celsius across some southern parts of the uk, but we'll also have building humidity as well and that could increase the chance of some showers, some of which will be heavy and thundery. now, the pressure chart for thursday shows high—pressure largely dominating the scene, particularly towards the eastern half of the uk. further west, we'll have these weather fronts, but it will introduce more cloud and outbreaks of rain. so it could be fairly wet in one or two places during thursday morning, the patchy rain spreading northwards into scotland. and then further south, we should see some sunshine developing but a few heavy showers on into the afternoon. central—eastern parts of the country seeing the best of the drier and the sunnier weather. we could see highs reaching 23 degrees in the south,

but up to 19 or 20 in the north too. now, there could be some evening showers or thunderstorms across england and wales — into the midlands, certainly. these will tend to die off through the night. most places will be dry, but it will stay rather cloudy and damp across the north and the west of scotland. and a milder night to come as well, temperatures in double figures across central and southern areas. so, for friday, it starts off milder. so it's going to be a warmer day. bit more cloud around generally. certainly across the north and the west, we'll have further outbreaks of rain. certainly for northern scotland. elsewhere, some thundershowers will develop into the afternoon once again, particularly northern ireland, england and wales. look at those temperatures — up to 25 degrees across the south. now into the weekend, as we start to see some changes. for saturday, a cold front begins to push southwards across scotland. much colder air behind it, as the name suggests. some rain on it too. further south, it'll be another warm day with sunny spells but increasing chance of showers and thunderstorms. those temperatures, again, reaching the low to mid 20s in the south. much colder in the north,

as that cold front begins to slip southwards. and then during saturday night, it'll advance its way southwards right across the country, so by sunday, it's going to feel very different. unusually cold air for the time of year will make it feel very chilly indeed and we'll see some wintry showers across northern and eastern parts of the country, maybe even some settling snow across the north in scotland, even down to lower levels. that said, apart from a few showers, there will be some sunshine around. but look at these temperatures compared to what they expect for the next few days — ranging from 6 to 12 degrees.

this is bbc news, the headlines:

the number of deaths here in the uk has passed 30,000 people. the prime minister defended his handling of the pandemic during his first appearance in parliament, opposite the new labour leader, kier starmer. the government said it intends to outline its plans for coming out of lockdown this weekend. president trump says the fall—out from the pandemic has hit the us harder than the japanese bombing of pearl harbour. he was speaking shortly after his secretary of state, mike pompeo, again criticised china for failing to warn the world about the virus in time to prevent a global catastrophe. the german chancellor, angela merkel, has come to an agreement with regional leaders on relaxing the country's lockdown. shops, hotels, and restaurants will re—open and football matches will re—start, although social distancing will remain, but restrictions could be re—imposed if new outbreaks of the virus occur.

and now on bbc news,