we couldn't believe they were leaving the island at last. the british flag was raised again injersey 75 years on, but this time above a silent square. guernsey's bailiff, the islands' civic leader, walks learn to lay a wreath at the alan's war memorial. and yet the community spirit which saw the island to the occupation is still there, in streets and in gardens. in this street, everybody looks after each other. we all know each other, so we are just celebrating a very special event together. liberation 75 years and will be remembered, but for very different reasons. robert hall, abc news, in the channel islands. the self—proclaimed "architect of rock and roll" richard penniman, better known as little richard, has died. david sillito looks back at his life. # wop—bop—a—loo—mop alop—bom—bom. little richard was a wild, fitting

ball of rock and roll energy and he wasn't shy about telling the world about his place in history. one of 12 children, richard penniman grew up 12 children, richard penniman grew up in 12 children, richard penniman grew upina 12 children, richard penniman grew up in a house overlooking the railway tracks in macon, georgia. he was badly behaved, a show—off, and began to perform in clubs and strip joints. i wanted to sound different. me and the young kids, we were tired of that slow music. we want to boogie! # tutti frutti, oh rutti. the clothes, make—up. no one looked or sounded like a little richard. sex, drugs, rock and roll, he embraced it all and then... rejected it to become the reverend richard penniman. # baby, penniman. # ba by, satisfy penniman. # baby, satisfy my heart. but he was lured back. he played on the same bill as the beatles, even taught, currently the little richard scream.

his life a seesaw between god and the devil's music. james brown, jimi hendrix, mickjagger, the devil's music. james brown, jimi hendrix, mick jagger, paul mccartney, elvis, all of them owe a debt to the quasar of rock and roll, little richard. little richard — richard penniman — who has died at the age of 87. that's it. we're back with the late news at ten. now on bbc one, it's time for the news where you are. something you're watching the bbc news — with me, reeta chakrabarti. now on bbc news — zeinab badawi explores how the crisis has affected our health, our economy, our politics, our society and ourfuture — in global questions. hello, welcome to london for the latest in a special series of global questions,

with me, zeinab badawi. it seems that, so far, africa has been spared the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, and it's not clear why. will this continue? or could africa become the next epicentre of covid—i9? plenty of questions — we will bring you some of the answers. that's coronavirus crisis: focus on africa. i am now in bbc‘s headquarters here in central london, and to bring you this edition of global questions because of lockdown, i have to bring you our two panellists and our audience members, who are going to be posing questions, they are coming to you from all over the world, and we are going to be bringing them via video link.

let me tell you who is in the hot seat this week. doctor ngozi okonjo—iweala is an economist, and has served as finance minister in her native nigeria. she's been a managing director world bank, and is now chair of gavi, that's the global alliance for vaccines and immunisation. she is also a special covid—i9 envoy for africa, charged with mobilising international economical support for the point today. we are also joined by doctor tshidi moeti. she is a medical doctor from botswana, where she worked extensively in public health, including in programmes to tackle tuberculosis and hiv infections. five years ago, she became the first woman to be elected as the regional director for africa in the world health organization, the who. welcome to you both, ladies, and also to our audience. i'm going to give you a round of applause. you can't hear it maybe, but anyway, there we go. remember you, too, can join the conversation —

it's #bbcglobalquestions. let's go to our first question. benedict, from the democratic republic of congo butjoins us from coventry in england. benedict, what's your question, please? my question to the panel is just wanting to know, is it true that the covid—i9 cannot spread in hot temperature countries? we had so many questions on social media asking about this. do hot temperatures perhaps slow down the spread of the virus? i'm going to go to the medical doctorfirst, from the who — tshidi? yes, thank you for that question. unfortunately, there is no definitive evidence for this. unfortunately for us africa, we are seeing, for example, that we have community spread, quite intense community spread, in some very hot

countries in west africa. we are very concerned about west africa, countries like burkina faso, cote d'ivoire, senegal, nigeria. we are seeing, after the virus has arrived and got into the community, community spread happening. unfortunately, we cannot get protection from hot temperatures. that is why we are emphasising very much some of the physical distancing, public health interventions, even in hot contexts like our continent. the answer is no, then, from you, tshidi. ngozi? i'm not a medical doctor but it appears that there is no definitive evidence on that. let me just ask you some of the other questions that we have had on social media. i will come back to you on that, tshidi, as the medic. will affect those countries in africa as badly as it has affected other parts of the world because they have a younger population? that's one thing that you hear a lot. somebody else was saying, we are led to believe that it affects people from an ethnic background more — is this false news?

we have also had the other side of that — is there any evidence that africa ns' immune system is stronger than others? address those two points for us please, tshidi, briefly. what we have seen in some of the developed countries, for example, where people of ethnic minorities might be more ill because of their social economical status is that they might be more affected. but there is no evidence that by race, there is any difference in the way people are affected per se. what about a youthful population? does that make them more resilient? we have seen that, again, people across a range of ages get infected. in fact, the other age of infection in africa is in people's 40s, young people also do get infected. what is at higher risk for older people is the fact that they are more likely to have underlying conditions, like hypertension. in africa, we also have to be cautious about the fact that we have hiv infection among our young population. so far, we have not made a direct

correlation with infection in terms of outcomes, but we are studying the data and trying to make sure that we take care of people with underlying conditions, like hiv, who are also young. ngozi, as an economist, we have also had a lot of people asking this on social media — is africa less affected by covid—i9 because it is less in touch with other parts of the world? so, globalisation there. because we have seen in these statistics that it the more globalised countries in africa, like south africa, north africa, which seem to have the highest rates of infection. youranswerto that, please, ngozi? you would have thought that because people think africa is less connected that it won't happen, but unfortunately, this is not so. they world are so interconnected now that many people travel around to different countries. of course, many african countries have gotten by people who travel outside or who came into visit. thank you. time for our next question,

and it's all the way from jakarta, indonesia. what do you want to ask our two panellists? my question is, we can see the devastation created by the coronavirus pandemic across developed and emerging economies. the buzzword is testing, testing and testing. is africa prepared for this elaborate infrastructure of testing, isolating and contact tracing — knowing serious infections are not at all alien to africa? ngozi? africa is not as prepared in the sense that we do not have the test kits required. we are looking for test kits and other supplies that could help us to test, test, test as you have said. so we are not prepared in that sense. i will tell you, there is one sense in which we have a bit of an advantage in some countries.

because we have had ebola, polio and some other diseases — we do have the ability to do contact tracing and some of that follow—up that is needed to protect people who have the disease and those that is needed to detect people who have the disease and those who have had contact with them. tshidi, we have had countries like senegal, for instance, in west africa, which has done very well on testing. what is the overall picture like with testing in africa? i willjust follow up on what ngozi said. african countries are used to dealing with outbreaks and epidemics, so they are used to having to ramp up a response very quickly. this is what countries have done, for example, the testing capacity... in february, we only had two countries that could test — south africa and senegal. within a month and a bit, we had a0 countries that could test — they very quickly deployed their capacities for testing.

it is true that the global shortage of test kits has made this very challenging. i am very pleased that senegal is working now on developing a test kit that could be affordable, we are talking to them about testing its performance and then working together to make it available. so we are very glad about this innovation, as well, from an african country. just give us some figures. are you saying there are about 50,000 cases in africa, 2000 people dead so far. is that a reliable figure or is there undertesting, which means it could be much worse? yes, we recognise at the moment that the epidemic was landing in africa and taking off. the global shortage of test kits made it quite a challenge for african countries to test. we know that this number is an underestimate of the actual number of people that are infected in africa. we are tracking through some means including our surveillance for influenza, which has similar

symptoms to covid—i9, to see if there are clusters of large numbers of deaths. we are not seeing that yet. we recognise there's some degree of underestimation. we do not think this is extremely severe. we know where the virus is arriving, more or less, even if the number of cases there might be undercounting. let's go to monrovia, the capital of liberia in west africa, and tojohn. what do you want to ask our panellists? now the who has warned that africa could be the next epicentre — what can we do to avoid this? ngozi? i think that... unfortunately, yes, we cannot be complacent in africa, and i think we have to practice all the advice given to us by who and by the africa cdc.

which is to practice social distancing, don't gather in crowds because of the way it spread very quickly. wash your hands constantly and practice good hygiene. make sure that older people are kept away from crowds as well. these are some of these simple steps we just have to follow in order to protect ourselves and to contain the spread. ngozi, you say these are some of these simple steps, we have had a question on social media — how do african governments slow the spread of covid—i9 in slums and crowded places? you're from nigeria, we know that lagos is a mega—city with around 2a million people who live there, they are all living cheek byjowl — how do you manage to practice distancing there? it's completely a challenge, i agree with the question. not only are we crowded in many places in our cities, but we also don't have water in some

of these slums. i strongly believe that with regard to water, our government should try to track water into those communities who don't have them and put in hand washing stands. many african countries are practising this and we should try to do that. tshidi, who are saintly figures could be something like 300,000 dead from coronavirus in africa with 3 million infections, how confident are you at that scenario will not come to pass? we are hopeful. we made these projections using a modelling tool of what could happen if nothing is done. something is being done, we are seeing people being done, we are seeing people being tested, contacts being traced and isolated. the biggest thing that

countries need to do now is to expand the capacity to put in these interventions beyond capital cities where the virus first entered. we are seeing counties mobilising retired health workers, young people, community health workers. we need depth in terms of those interviewing to reach people quickly and to be able to help them to take leave preventative measures necessary. john, what does it look like from monro vr? are people practising social distancing, are you happy with the government's response? yes, actually, the citizens themselves are trying to... it is difficult for somebody who cannot really feed themselves... and these are some of the challenges that we have. let's go to nairobi to

robert. what he ought to find out today? what will be the economic impact post—covid on africa, especially on economics and trade?! lot of worried heads already in africa, how worried as your head, ngozi? i am quite worried because i think the economic impact will be severe. the imf has estimated that the african economies will contract by about 2% this year. if this pandemic continues and the global economy itself contract by 3% as expected, it means the impact on us will be very severe. we have seen

supply chains disrupted for some of the things we import from abroad, some foods and medicines. therefore i think that africa has to prepare for a very difficult time as we move forward and we need to get up to be able to deal with this. lastly, let me just say that one of the reasons that the impact of this is severe is because we do not have the fiscal space, we because we do not have the fiscal space, we do not have enough resources to be able to stimulate our economy is. just see what has happened in the rich countries. they have been able to spend trillions of dollars, 10% of gdp, to get the economy is working — we do not have those resources. staying with the economics. i would like to go to derek stan to ageing.|j economics. i would like to go to derek stan to ageing. i am worried about hunger in africa and how

people are dealing with the situation. we have had that kind of thought on social media, people saying, we are already feeling the effects of lockdown, we might survive coronavirus but we are going to die of hunger. how would you a nswer to die of hunger. how would you answer that question?” to die of hunger. how would you answer that question? i know people are saying that the hunger virus might kill as before the coronavirus. that is the challenge we coronavirus. that is the challenge we face. when you practice of the techniques of social distancing and lockdowns, you have the impact that those of us, on a daily basis, cannot earn enough to find food for their families. therefore, governments have to take steps to assist. this is where social safety nets put together by governments aren't vital, they have got to find aren't vital, they have got to find a way to distribute food to people, to get some money into their hands.

—— are vital. they can open markets are periodically during the day, i know that some governments are doing this, so that people can purchase 30. let's go to somalia. how currently dial spider will be more involved in helping africa to combat the virus? —— their diaspora. involved in helping africa to combat the virus? —— their diasporalj think the african diaspora can play an important role. numbered one, on the immediate health challenge, i can see the immediate health challenge, i can see that it can help to pull together resources that can also help african governments to acquire some help african governments to acquire some of the needed supplies and equipment. some of our diets borrow are very clued into logistics and the supply chain. they can help the countries to break the lock down and

get some of these supplies together. secondly, please send remittances to the countries. do not stop because this is a very important source for your families and for the government. lastly, a lot of people in the diaspora are health care personnel. if you have the ability to go home and help and your own country, kindly do so because we need all the hands — nurses, health ca re need all the hands — nurses, health care workers, doctors that we can get. 0k, tshidi? iwould care workers, doctors that we can get. 0k, tshidi? i would very much second what ngozi has said. we have very much seen the african diaspora get engaged. for example, some of the virtual training we have been doing in the w for clinicians since we could not organise face—to—face training, we have the ball some experts from the african diaspora. we have had another example in

business and medical people from zambia getting together with the international partners and zambian experts and thought about solutions on how the country can scale up the production of oxygen, for example. so people in the diaspora sometimes have had experiences and connections that can be extremely valuable to what countries are doing so we would very much like to encourage that and benefit from let knowledge and networks and resources. the lack of equipment and materials is a big worry, i think there are about 2000 ventilators across 41 african countries, you need about 30,000, that shows you the huge gap. what you think about what our panellist said? ngozi said please go back to your countries of origin to help, do your countries of origin to help, do you go back to somalia for instance to help? i think in terms of the individual contributions, i think

everybody, the people i know is doing their best in their remittance and no money going back to their families. i didn't get what i wanted from the answer is because i was hoping to see some sort of named campaign that would help us to mobilise the diaspora communities. it's a very difficult for an individual to start a new campaign to launch a project, we wanted to hear names and examples of projects we hear names and examples of projects we could contribute to. briefly on that, why not start a campaign?” will thank our questionnaire for the inspiration and the great idea. we know the diaspora is organising in many countries so we will endeavour to reach out and provide information

on how people can get together. i think, start locally and your association and people from your country. from outside, let me say that we will then reach out to the diaspora associations that we are aware of and in contact with and ask them to mobilise their members and see how they can contribute their knowledge, expertise, connections, any resources, so that they can be linked to their country. thank you for that idea. mallya you start a campaign, ngozi? it is a good idea, we campaign, ngozi? it is a good idea, we have a big resort on a civil society on our country. we just spoke to a coalition of civic african civil society. they want to do something, they want to act. one suggestion i have is that since we already have experts in mobilising

and our civil society, we can connect the diaspora to the civil society and then they can do at the campaign together. there you go, abdul, you have your answer there. let's go to daniel, who is actually from malawi but is currently based in myanmar. my question is, what can be done to ensure that if and when vaccines become available, they are also available in africa as early as possible? tshidi? great question. first of all, we are very aware that sometimes when new tools come out, low income countries do not have access in it the way that those with more money do. who and partners recently launched the access to covid—i9 roles with partners who have worked in the past, like gavi

and sepi, i collision for access to tools in an equitable way. a few days ago, the european unit launch an appeal for funding for a vaccine, with the idea that once a vaccine is developed, there will be an absolute focus on equity and access, including targeting african countries and making sure they are not disadvantaged. it is this kind of global solidarity, working across boundaries by governments, the private sector, technical partners, organisations like who, that will make sure africans are not disadvantage when our vaccine becomes available. if! disadvantage when our vaccine becomes available. if i could just go back to daniel, are you happy with what you heard there about that? it sounds good. i think they should also be sprays for african scientist and virologist to

participate in the efforts to develop some of these tools. ngozi, well a vaccine be made widely available and why not engage with african expertise? the idea of engaging with an axe african expertise is absolutely spot on. we have our own scientists and researchers, and it would be very good if they could get in with the global consortium of people working on these issues. let me mention and add to what tshidi said. for us to get the vaccine everywhere, it has to be treated like a global public good, meaning that those who developed the vaccine, within the consortium, should be able to allow the intellectual property to be a global good that can be used so that the vaccine can be manufactured in great quantity, and then can be

afforded to everyone all over the world, including on the continent. if we don't get that, if people do this for profit, then it will not work. that is when people are left out. so, audience members from all over the world there, you have listened to what i want to make panellist, two people literally on the front line fighting coronavirus in africa. put your thumbs up for me please if you are confident that africa is going to really aware the storm in the light of what you have heard them say. oh, my. that is a full house there. excellent, thank you. all our audience members have said they are relatively confident after hearing what you have said, tshidi and ngozi. what about you? thumbs up from you? excellent, well, there we go. thank you very much to

our two panels and audience members. that's all from this edition of global questions. remember that we are the programme eventually global trend lines behind the headlines. thank you to you from wherever you are watching. if you would like to be part of this programme or submit a question, please do e—mail us. from now, from me and the panel — goodbye and thank you. after another largely warm date day we will notice a real difference tomorrow. we will hold onto much colder air tomorrow. a few showers around through the rest of the day

and overnight into tomorrow. the main thing you will notice is cold air arriving from the north and blue collar spilling across the british isles and some cold northerly winds to contend with as well. we have some shelves around for the rest of the day, but thickly across wales, some in scotland and northern england. cold and frosty today north of that but we will hold onto that mild airfirst thing of that but we will hold onto that mild air first thing tomorrow across the southern half of the uk. through the southern half of the uk. through the day the cold front pushes cloud and patchy rain sell for many areas. cold, wintry showers return to parts of scotland, strong and gusty winds down the east coast, temperatures here will be down into single figures. one must wear that was the south—west.

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