applause it's eight o'clock on thursday evening, the time of the week when, for the seventh week in a row, across the uk, we show our support and appreciation for nhs staff, for key workers and for carers. joining in tonight these key workers at the royal mail distribution centre in nottingham.

cheering and applause keep going steady, guys!

car horns bagpipes play cheering and applause this might be the seventh week of national applause but here in port talbot it feels there is as much enthusiasm as ever. plenty of people i have spoken to here have friends, relatives, working on the front line, but there is a special reason why people here want to applaud. a

person living here for 14 years was struck very high bike run about and put into intensive care. but tonight danny egan, after eight days in a coma, has been brought back thanks to the work of the nhs and wants to show his gratitude by coming out with his wife and son this evening. welcome to antrim in northern ireland, we are at the bus station tonight where lots of bus drivers have come out to show their appreciation. of course lots of transport services have been scaled back at this time but still everyday a core team of transit staff had been coming out to help the public and to keep essential bus and rail services going. just to show off their parking skills tonight, they have lined the buses up in a special formation. can you see what it is?

it out nhs. you can see those letters emblazoned across the top. people's windows and painted walls all over the place. another moment of shared recognition for the heroics of our health workers. good evening from central leeds and the general infirmary in the centre of the city. one of two men hospitals, this and saintjames‘ as well. the staff have been clapping away for a good few minutes now and you can see some of the ambulances over there with their lights on. it is not just down over there with their lights on. it is notjust down here. it is up there are also on the helipad, where they have been clapping as well. that is where the helicopters come in here to the lgi. standing up there too. a wonderful atmosphere

here in leeds. a national round of applause for the tireless efforts of all the health workers and carers looking after the sick and saving lives plans are also being drawn up to relax the lockdown in england. today we heard the foreign minister dominic raab that the kroll total coronavirus death toll in the uk and all settings has risen to 30,615. this is after a further 5039 people died having tested positive. our political correspondent iain watson has been looking at what relaxing the lockdown in england might look like. this is a message from the government... one familiar feature of lockdown will change as we can. stay home slogan will be changed to. to help save lives, stay home.

ministers are stressing that any move to lift the lockdown will be gradual. i'd really urge caution. the safest thing to do at the moment with this virus in the way it has spread is to stay at home. get out and get that daily exercise, and if you can't work from home, you... but we've got to continue on the process that we've had, we are doing everything we can to ensure people's safety. the prime minister told the commons that there could be some changes to the restrictions in england for monday. one of the most likely alterations is to expand the range of outdoor activities that are allowed. so instead of simply exercising, you might be able to lounge around in the sunshine. but the key message from the government is this — keep your distance, stay two metres apart, otherwise your new found freedom could be short—lived. not only are there health concerns around relaxing the uk lockdown, there are economic ones as well. today the bank of england warned of an "unprecedented" recession that hasn't been seen before.

the bank predicts the uk economy will fall by 30% in the first half of this year due to the impact of coronavirus. but the bank thinks the economy will bounce back. our economics editor faisal islam has been speaking to the governor. i think it is unprecedented in the history of this institution. i would say it is different in two respects. it is a much sharper downturn. so the initialfall is much more — the economy literally went into shut down very quickly. the recovery is actually much faster, because we believe that with the right measures in place on the public health side, and the fact that it is supported by the very sensible things that the government has done, that economic activity can resume much more quickly. the bank of england sees unemployment more than doubling up a million—and—a—half to rates not seen since the mid—1990s, and taking and taking two years to then fall back.

people at home — they see that chart, and it looks quite scary. the chart reflects the reality that we've been in now since march. where i think they should be reassured is that i can tell you both the government and the bank of england have put in place a very big package of measures. and we will go on utterly focused on that. our uk political correspondent rob watson joins us live. what's behind the government relaxing the lockdown, is it for health or economic reasons? i think the first thing to say is that this won't be some dramatic change in the lockdown. the government has been incredibly careful to signal to lower expectations, i think the phrase that the first secretary of state at the downing street press conference was that any changes would be small and incremental. as to what they're doing, is driving this — in many ways it is the same ways that every country faces, the absence of a

vaccine or cure, how do you stop the health system being utterly overwhelmed? we were just hearing the prospect of economic collapse, i would say that the government in the uk are stillairing would say that the government in the uk are still airing more on the side of worrying about the threat to the uk's national health care system. but also seeing what it can do to somewhat ease restrictions. rob, stay with us, because i want to look at another coronavirus related development. a new study has revealed that men from an afro—caribbean background are four times more likely to die with covid—19 in england and wales, than white people. there are similar disparities with women, as the head of health analysis for the ons explains. the black ethnic group is now about 90% — or 1.9 times — more likely to die from covid—related issues. bangladeshi and pakistani males are about 80% more likely, females about 60% more likely. and indian females are about 40%

more likely, and males about 30% more likely — once we've adjusted for all those factors. one possible reason for the disparity is the large number of ethnic minorities working in the health sector. here's the chair of the association of pakistani physicians and surgeons in the uk, dr abdul hafeez. obviously we are quite concerned in terms of the figures which specifically are showing the health staff. obviously the bame staff makes about 44% of the nhs total workforce, and 72% of the people who actually died, the medical staff, are actually from the bame communities. this is a startling, you know, discrepancy between the asians, the black ethnic populations, compared to white local population. lets go back to rob. so an extremely worrying finding, it was touched upon during today's daily briefing. what's the government

doing to counter bame vulnerability to covid ? and is it a socioeconomic rather than health issue? right, let me do that briefly. the first thing to note is that the figure is four times more likely to die if you are black, but if you ta ke die if you are black, but if you take in or notice the socioeconomic factors, like thejob take in or notice the socioeconomic factors, like the job you're doing 01’ factors, like the job you're doing or the housing you live in if you are poorer, than that number goes down to about half. in other words, your half as likely to die of all those factors set aside. the government doesn't know why. so when you ask what the government is doing, it is helpfulfor us to have discovered this, beyond issues of poverty poverty, what on earth is the explanation for a higher risk rate amongst black and ethnic

minorities? at the moment the government simply does not have an answer. rob watson, our political correspondent joining answer. rob watson, our political correspondentjoining us life, thank you. the toll of coronavirus on the world's biggest economy has been immense. latestjob figures out of the us show another 3.2 million americans have filed for unemployment benefit this week. this means 33 million people, or one in five workers in america, have lost their jobs since the lockdown brought the us economy to a standstill, seven weeks ago. it's a massive turn in events. two months ago, america was boasting an unemployment rate of only 3.5%, its lowest in 50 years. -- 30 —— 30 years. economists fear that figure could reach 15% or even higher. the question has turned to this — top us economist mohamed a el—erian tweets... "how quickly do the unemployed get jobs? how many drop out of the labour force? what happens to hourly earnings?"

katty kay is in washington. katty, despite recent moves to start re—opening the us, the number of people collecting benefits continues to rise, suggesting few people are being recalled to work. yes, tomorrow we will get the unemployment figures for the month of april, and the speculation is that it will be up to 14—15%. similarto that it will be up to 14—15%. similar to the great depression of the 1920s, which is a huge blow to the 1920s, which is a huge blow to the american economy. what is happening is you are right, states are opening around the country, about half of american countries are —— states are opening for business. all the indication so far from state to open a couple weeks ago is that consumers aren't going back to businesses. so the government in those states is saying they think it is safe to start opening with all the restrictions, but consumers are saying, "we don't feel safe going to

restau ra nts saying, "we don't feel safe going to restaurants or hairdressers, or nail salons." so people are not starting to generate income, therefore people are not being employed again. what is interesting is that a paul has come out in the last couple days suggesting that most american workers who have been laid off do feel that they have a strong chance of being rehired once the country is fully open again. the idea of, is this a v—shaped recovery? was there a precipitous drop, then a precipitate climb up again? that is what the white house is hoping for, but quite a lot of health experts and economists and business leaders i've been speaking for the are a bit more sceptical about that. stay right there, katty, because i want to touch on another development in the us. new research has linked infections in new york city, before social distancing began, to outbreaks across america. experts at yale tracked mutations of the virus, the history of infected people and models of the outbreak and came up with this. new york was the primary source of new infections taking the virus from the city to the southern states

and as far as the west coast. these new york times graphics has more detail. infections linked to new york city are highlighted in red, while viruses that spread from washington are highlighted in yellow. here are the outbreaks in the southern states. as you can see, every sample ta ken from louisiana was related to new york. and here you have the northeastern states, most linked to new york. lets get katty back. this research suggests a wave of infections swept from new york city through much of the country before the city began setting social distancing limits. yes, and also about how this virus spread from big cities. we've seen this around the world, wuhan in china, milan in italy became the focus point from which the rest of the country got infected. we thought

initially this was going to be a virus that came into the us from china via washington state, and then spread around the country. what this new york times reporting shows us is that actually, it came from china originally, but then through europe, then european flights that came into new york city during the months of january through march, and then those people travelled all around the country from new york city, taking the virus with them. in the application of this reporting is that by the time donald trump stopped those flights and people coming from europe by 13 march, the report says it was already too late, the virus was already in new york city and travelling around the country. i think it is an interesting report also for policymakers to look at as the country policymakers to look at as the cou ntry starts policymakers to look at as the country starts reopening because it isa country starts reopening because it is a reminder that this is a country of 50 states, people can move freely from one state to the next. they took the virus freely from new york state to other states around the country. if we reopen in some places

become a hot spot, there is a risk that people can travel from one state or across the border into another state quite freely without a passport or restrictions. and again, they'll take the virus around the country again. yes, the invocations are huge. moving away from coronavirus — the usjustice department has just announced its dropping the case against donald trump's former security adviser, michael flynn. mr trump said he is very happy for him. katty, remind us of this case. unlawful contacts with russia during the 2016 election campaign. michael flynn had been having contacts with the russian ambassador to the united states and with other russian officials, and he didn't tell the white house about it, and he also lied to the fbi about it. in 2017, mr flynn actually admitted lying to the fbi. he had been donald trump's

national security adviser, he was fired from that position, he was caught up in the molar investigation, he admitted in 2017 that he lied to the fbi about his contacts with russians during the campaign debts robert muller, and pleaded guilty to that. even so, the justice department is saying that they feel mr flynn didn't really fully understand what the fbi was asking him, and that's why they've decided to drop this case. it seems quite political, general flynn was a favourite of donald trump's, and donald trump describing him today as a warrior, saying he felt he had been wrongly charged in the first place. so a big win for the white house and for donald trump. more of the politics of the molar investigation, which are still rippling through the election process here in the states dashed muller investigation. it feels like a different world there. stay with us on oustide source. still to come: we'll tell you why

pakistan is lifting its lockdown — even though infections there are rising. the government in the indian state of andhra pradesh has threatened to launch criminal proceedings against a south korean chemical company after a disastrous gas leak from its local factory. 13 people died and hundreds have received hospital treatment after the incident. woken up by toxic gas in the air, people stumbled out onto the streets in panic. some waited for help to arrive. some rushed those seriously ill at the hospital any way they could. among those affected, children. more than 1,000 families live near the factory where the leak occurred in the dead of night. hundreds are in hospital, some in critical condition. rescue personnel went door—to—door looking for anyone who had fallen unconscious at home.

authorities also worked to contain the leak. south korea's lg chem says it is looking into how the leak occurred. its factory was just opening up after the lockdown for the coronavirus crisis. this is outside source, live from the bbc newsroom. france is emerging from its lockdown on monday, although the capital paris will still face heavy restrictions. every country is responding to covid—19 in a different way — and so we are seeing a range of approaches playing out in parallel. let's focus on three now. ros atkins is with us. so it's so its three countries have you chosen? hi, kasia. one of the most important factors in this pandemic is that that while all countries are facing the virus — they are all handling it in quite different ways. we're going to look at brazil, india and first pakistan which is

easing its lockdown this weekend. most countries are only doing this once infection rates are falling. not so pakistan — the number of cases continue to go up there. but prime minister imran khan says the lockdown has to ease because of large number of people who just can't afford to live like this any longer. here's the bbc‘s pakistan correspondent secunder kermani. initially, in the country, there were fairly strict restrictions in place. then, last month, a number of industries and some small businesses were allowed to open up again and now, pretty much all small shops and businesses will be allowed to reopen, although shopping malls will remain closed, as will schools and universities, and there remains a ban on public transport. now, i think this was done for a couple of reasons. one of which is that when these lockdown restrictions were initially

partially eased last month, it caused a little bit of confusion in some areas, and some shops that weren't technically meant to be opening up again just opened up again anyway and it seemed a little tricky for the authorities to force these other businesses to remain closed. but also it ties in with an issue that imran khan has been talking about from the outset of this crisis, which is that he says that the poorest sections of pakistani society, around 25% of the country living below the poverty line, simply cannot afford not to work. from pakistan to india, which has started repatriating hundreds of thousands of its citizens who've been stranded. india has been stopping incoming passenger flights — but it's now organising planes and ships to get these people home. the first planes left dubai today. sameer hashmi is there.

they will be carrying 350 immune citizens back home. now this is the first flight, the first evacuation of the first repatriation that is happening from this part of the world. and if you talk about the uae, 200,000 indians alone have registered to get repatriated. now the government has said they will be flying out 15,000 people across the globe in the next week, and they're looking at 200,000 indians spread across the world, stranded in different parts in different countries, over the next few days. in the huge section of those indians are actually stranded here in this country. now brazil — its number of cases is rising fast — it's now reached over 125,000 confirmed cases and over 8,000 deaths. but president bolsonaro is refusing to introduce a lockdown. state governors aren't waiting for him — they've started to close businesses, schools and public spaces anyway.

the bbc‘s south america correspondent katy watson has spoken to the governor in charge of the country's wealthiest state, sao paulo. he's a former ally of the president, but has imposed restrictions. here's why. it's amazing when you have two viruses to combat — the coronavirus and bolsonaro virus. this is that moment for politics. this is the moment to protect people and to give to these people the opportunity to survive. he would argue that he is looking after the economy, that people die of hunger, people die misery, people die with no jobs. to have a good economy, we have to have people in life. we cannot put economy first and the health as the second decision. so that's the latest across those countries. as we're seeing across each

edition of outside source, while historians will no doubt be able to draw broad conclusions about this pandemic, at the moment we need to keep looking at it country by country as each experience is very different. if you want more evidence of that, you will find extensive global coverage on the bbc news website, or people can download the bbc news app straight to their smartphone. and if they want to find out more about the clock that is behind you, they should check out your twitter thread on social media, because a fascinating insight into exactly what that is about. but i won't spoil that. as always, thank you so much. before we go, here are people all across the uk showing their appreciation for health workers. let's have a listen. applause. cheering.

for the seventh week in a row, millions of people up and down the country showing their support for nhs staff, key workers and carers across the country. hello. well, it was a fine, sunny day across most of the uk today. a couple of showers popped up here and there, but on the whole a clear evening and a clear night, and more on the way tomorrow. another warm and sunny day in store for the majority of the country. now, here's the satellite picture. it's not completely clear out there because low pressure is parked just to the west of us and it is meandering out there, with clouds circling around its centre. and some of these clouds are sort of brushing western parts of the uk, so that does mean that, through the night and then early into friday morning, there will be some clouds affecting coastlines around the west here, perhaps some rain from time to time — one or two locations, for example, cornwall, maybe devon, perhaps western parts of scotland. but on the whole, many central and eastern parts of the country

are in for a clear start to friday and a mild one, too. temperatures will be around ten degrees in some of the bigger towns and cities. on friday, it will be cloudy from time to time across western areas. there will be a few showers around, and some of those showers that are around might actually develop a little bit further east, around central areas of the uk. a very warm day on friday, july temperatures in the south east, 2a degrees. but in the north of the country, a little bit fresher, around 18 degrees. pleasant enough. the weekend is going to bring some big changes, particularly to northern britain. or initially, at least. this is saturday's weather forecast. a cold front is expected to sweep in from the north. cold northerly winds setting in, a spell of rain there are scotland. to the south, sunny spells with a few showers. but it's the temperature contrast that will be the story on saturday. ten degrees in aberdeen, 18 in newcastle and 2a in london, so quite a contrast. and then that cold, dense air from the north sweeps in through the course of saturday night into sunday.

and you can see by sunday, the cold air has reached southern parts of the uk. i say cold air relatively speaking, because after all, it is may. it does tend to be a little bit warmer. this is going to feel a lot colder than normal because we'll have screaming winds blowing out of the north sea. it will feel particularly chilly on the coast of yorkshire, east anglia, windy in the south east as well. really strong, cold, gusty winds and a really big temperature drop as well, and it looks as though it will stay chilly into monday, tuesday and wednesday.

this is bbc world news, the headlines france will begin reopening from monday — bringing to an end two months of confinement. but strict restricitons will continue to apply in paris and its surrounding areas. in the us, more than 33 million people have now lost theirjobs, since the middle of march. a further 3.2 million claimed benefits in the last week alone. meanwhile, the usjustice department is dropping the criminal case against michael flynn the former national security adviser to president donald trump. mr flynn was charged with lying to the fbi about his contact with russia. and the bank of england has warned that the uk is heading for its worst recession in history. that the uk is heading for its worst the impact of coronavirus would see the economy shrink 14% this year based on the lockdown being relaxed injune. earlier this evening we heard from the first secretary of state,