this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. as usjob claims leap again, a special report on new york's poor and vulnerable. they are trying to figure how to make ends meet, so part of how they are doing that is to stand at this line in the mission and pick up to go meal, and make ends that way. the bank of england has warned coronavirus will push the uk economy towards its deepest recession on record. france announces limited measures to ease its lockdown from monday. and marking 75 years since the second world war ended in europe.

hello and welcome to audiences in the uk and around the world. we're covering all the latest coronavirus developments here in britain and globally. first, just two months ago, the jobless rate in the united states was at a 50 year low. but that was before the coronavirus pandemic ripped through the nation's economy. last week three million more people applied for unemployment benefits. that means more than 33 million americans have lost theirjobs over the last seven weeks. nick bryant, who's in new york, has spent the night on the city's subway — a refuge for the poor and the vulnerable. midnight on the new york subway, and many of the city's homeless are bedding down for the night aboard its empty carriages.

by day, the subway has become a virtual ghost train. by night, it's become a mobile shelter. in the first five carriages we went in, we found people in search of refuge and sleep. many are newly unemployed. some of them labourers who rent rooms by the week, unable now to pay their landlords. the covid dispossessed. a lot of homeless people are afraid to go to the shelters because there are so many people there in such confined spaces. they're worried about catching the coronavirus. instead, they're taking their chances on the subway. the subway could hardly be described as safe. more than 100 members of staff on new york's mass transit system have been killed by the coronavirus. this week, new york did something it's never done before — conducted a planned overnight

shutdown of a subway system that's always operated around the clock. the aim is to disinfect the carriages, and so the nypd has been evicting the homeless. do you know they're closing the subway tonight? we're going to be asking you to get off the train. charity workers and city officials were on hand to offer help and shelter. but this woman had no idea where in the city she was. where are you staying tonight? do you have a shelter? the confusion and anxiety written across her face. the destitute have been amongst new york's most vulnerable. over the weekend, two homeless people were found dead on the subway. homeless people right now in new york city have a 50% higher mortality rate from covid—19 than do housed new yorkers, so by not offering people something as simple as a hotel room where they can go and be safe and self—isolate, we're really relegating them to die.

it can feel like we're living in another time of buddy can you spare me a dime? and just as the face mask has become the global symbol of this viral contagion, queues have become the marker of this economic catastrophe. here, the wait was for lunch at a shelter in lower manhattan. but it's notjust the homeless any more who are hungry. it's the newlyjobless, as well. i have spoken with folks on this line who, at the beginning of march, were employed and now they're unemployed. they're trying to figure out how to make ends meet. part of how they're doing that is to stand on this line at the bowery mission, pick up a to—go meal and make ends meet that way. back on the subway, the woman we saw turned down the offer of emergency shelter and took the last train back into manhattan. others headed out into the night. poverty has been a propagator of this pandemic, hardship has been a super—spreader. and for many, the phrase that best describes new york's life abundant,

the city that never sleeps, must now sound like a taunt. nick bryant, bbc news, new york. aaron sojourner is a former senior labour economist for the white house's council of economic advisers. hejoins me from minneapolis, where he's associate professor at the university of minnesota: thank you forjoining us on bbc news. the numbers are horrific at the moment, the survey in the washington post though today suggested that 77% of americans currently out of work thought that they would return to the same jobs eventually, is that wildly optimistic? it's optimistic, i hope it works out. the speed in which we can confront this public health challenge and get widescale testing capacity up, contact tracing, all of

the public health resources that we need to make sure that people can work safely. that's what's going to make the difference, and that's what's going to govern the speed in the recovery in the time of recovery. but congress has already passed four large pay—out bills. realistically, what's more can be done? so there is a lot more. one thing is those bills that they pastor a time—limited. a lot of the components were, oi’ pastor a time—limited. a lot of the components were, or money limited, and you know, it's starting to run out. we really need to support families, and we need to support small businesses that don't have deep access to credit markets, so that they can bridge through this time when the income is down, and you know commencement anyone's fault that this is happening. everyone would like to be working and productive. talk us through that.

does that mean more helicopter cash as it's known, 1200 bucks being delivered to families, because a lot of people, 1200 bucks isn't going to go very far, is it? no. look, we are requiring people to pull back from their usual activity because there isa their usual activity because there is a real public health threat, and we need to make sure that people can survive through this, and that families can come out of this on the other side with their health intact, and their financial lives intact. you know, you will reporting now is doing a good job talking about the leading edge of desperation that's creeping into a lot of families lives. so the government, the federal government is really the only entity in our society with the borrowing capacity that we need to match the scale of this challenge. interest rates are very low, investors all over the world and at home are throwing money at the federal government, saying "please

borrow! please use these resources to get us through this." and that's exactly what the federal government needs to do. ok, just a quick question. is it going to get worse? some of the data i've been looking at suggests that it's already peaked. i think that we've done a good job suppressing the public health threat, the spread through social distancing and shelter in place, but if we let it go prematurely, and we don't make workplaces safe, then we risk it researching. so we might be creeping back, but we have to keep our guard up, and we have to keep productive measures in place, make sure we are investing in making workplaces safe to have both public and vibrant economic activity. ok. this could well continue in until a vaccine has been discovered. erin, thank you very much indeed forjoining us here

on bbc world news. here in the uk, the bank of england has spelt outjust how deep the coming recession is. we are heading for what the governor of the bank, andrew bailey, called an "unprecedented" downturn. here's 0ur economics editor faisal islam. at east midlands airport there may be no passenger planes right now, but cargo carries on. the pandemic means new patterns in the goods being traded back and forth as the world's major economies face recession. coronavirus per se hasn't taken shipments out of our network, but the quarantine and lockdown and people working at home and factories being closed has. i can't predict the future but what i would say is that business heals. and it will have to be resilient, the bank of england today sketching out that the pandemic and the shutdown have plunged the uk economy into the sharpest downturn in history, a far worse start to a recession than the financial crisis over a decade ago, than any recession

ever, but with the hope of a rapid rebound. morning, governor. so quite different in shape to that last recession says the governor of the bank of england. i think it is unprecedented in the history of this institution. i would say it's different in two respects. it's a much sharper downturn, so the initialfall is much more because the economy literally went into shutdown 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. given the uncertainty, this is not a formal forecast, there may be more than a glint of optimism here. never in the history of this institution have we seen it anticipate a recession quite so sharp. the hope is that the rebound will be almost as sharp into next year,

but that is as much a matter for doctors and politicians as economists. but despite the economic damage, there is no pressure here for instantaneous lifting of the lockdown. a second wave of the pandemic would notjust be deadly, it would imperil the much hoped for economic rebound. a recession this sharp hits workers hard. there are not much job opportunities at the moment. jamalfrom hertfordshire just one example of how tough it is to find a job after losing his at an online retailer. i've been applying to pretty much anywhere, anywhere that i qualify for. salary, doesn't really matter. previously my wage wasn't too bad, but i've been applying for minimum wage jobs. indeed, the bank of england sees unemployment more than doubling, up 1.5 million, rates not seen since the mid—1990s, and taking two years to then fall back. people at home, they see that chart, it looks quite scary. the chart reflects the reality that we have been in now since march.

where i think they should be reassured is that i can tell you that 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. the wheels of the world economy are still turning, but they happen to be turning more slowly than we've seen in our lifetimes as a result of this pandemic crisis. the question is whether some of the changes we are seeing will last far longer, perhaps be permanent. it may yet take some time for the economy to get to this new normal. countries across europe are starting to take steps to get out of lockdowns — france will begin reopening from monday — that brings to an end two months of confinement. the country will be divided into red and green zones; the capital, paris and its surrounding areas, where infection rates are still too high — will be classified as part of a "red

zone", and in fact stricter conditions will continue to apply there. the french prime minister called the plan "a progressive unwinding" of the lockdown. translation: in light of the data from our health services gathered over the last few days, the gradual lifting of the lockdown can commence from next monday 11th may. it's a new stage in the fight against the epidemic. it's good news for france and the french people. from monday, we will introduce a highly progressive process, lasting for several weeks at least, which will allow the country to exit smoothly and with certainty from the lockdown which we have experienced along with large parts of the world since march 17th. 0ur paris correspondent lucy williamson has more on the announcement. here in paris and the regions of the north, south and east, it's going to be red. that's where the viruses circulating. it's where the hospitals have seen more than 80%

of their intensive care beds filled with the coronavirus patients. now, on monday, when the lockdown starts to lift, you won't see many big differences between the two zones. primary schools and shops will open across the country, or at least they will start to, and people will be able @
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