welcome to bbc news — i'm mike embley. our top stories: needless deaths and suffering — the warning from the leading white house adviser on infectious diseases, if controls are relaxed too soon. if that occurs, there is a real risk that you will trigger an outbreak that you might not be able to control. afg hanistan‘s president orders security forces to resume offensive operations against islamist groups — after a horrific attack on a maternity hospital. keeping up the financial support for seven and a half million people — the government in the uk extends itsjobs furlough scheme until october. after the lockdown, china's economy is bouncing back — and the communist party

is claiming the credit. the top us health advisor, a key member of the white house's coronavirus taskforce, has warned that lifting restrictions too soon could lead to further spikes in cases. dr anthony fauci said the country did not have total control of the outbreak, and that there are probably more cases, and deaths, than the official figures suggest. his message is at odds with that of president trump who has been emphasising the need to get the economy going again. nick bryant reports from new york. washington continues to look like a scene from some dystopian drama. this, the still surreal sight of senators donning face masks for a hearing on covid—19. one senior democrat resembling a bandit from the wild west.

the key voice was america's top pandemic official, anthony fauci, who strongly warned about the dangers of reopening too quickly — a message for the country, a message for his boss, donald trump. if that occurs, there is a real risk that you will trigger an outbreak that you may not be able to control which, infact, paradoxically, will set you back, not only leading to some suffering and death that could be avoided, but could even set you back on the road to trying to get economic recovery. we don't want your shutdown any more! the pandemic has demonstrated the polarisation of america. this, a liberty rally in boston, massachusetts, a tea pa rty—style protest demanding the immediate reopening of the economy. donald trump continues to hold press conferences where he often lavishes himself with praise, this time boasting about american testing. but though the reporters are masked, they are impossible to muzzle. this, a chinese—american

correspondent from the us network cbs. why is this a global competition to you if every day americans are still losing their lives and we are still seeing more cases every day? well, they are losing their lives everywhere in the world and maybe that's the question you should ask china. sir, why are you saying that to me, specifically? i'm telling you, i'm not saying it specifically to anybody, i'm saying it to anybody who would ask a nasty question... that's not a nasty question. please go ahead. can i ask... ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much, appreciate it, thank you very much. but he left without taking any more questions, an abrupt exit from a president looking for a quick escape from this crisis. nick bryant, bbc news, new york. we'rejoined from washington by lev facher who is washington correspondent for stat, an online health website. good to talk to you. what should we make of these different realities coming from

dr fauci, the president. good morning, mike, thank you for having me. hearing we saw in the united states senate was the united states senate was the first chance for several high—ranking officials in the administration to talk to congress about the response over the last two months and as we've heard, dr fauci in particular was not sugarcoating the realities of what would happen if america rushes to reopen and it was worth open —— noting there was a fundamental irony with this hearing is that many senators were testifying remotely, for trump administration officials had to do so by videoconference because they'd recently been exposed to someone who tested positive for covid—19, the same for the chairman who oversees healthcare issues. they held a hearing about whether the country more broadly can be up and running and there was some conversations which were diverted as you would expect members of different political parties in terms of testing capacity, what benchmarks the

country in various states need to all we can refer ——go back to all we can refer ——go back to what life was like for. as i understand it, the economy is very important, innocence, the economy may have to take priority and you would say that lockdown itself is killing people through depression, through suicide, people's lack of earning money. and there is actually evidence to support that. the mental health toll, the broader health toll that the broader health toll that the isolation and social distancing measures are going to cause a substantial and that's worth factoring into the conversation but resident trump is often said we can't let the cure be worse than the disease and there certainly is a push to reopen many of the basic functions of this country, that's what we heard dr fauci push back on today. in that pushes an understated assumption that more people

actually are going to die if we do this. absolutely, and that's what dr fauci said, any level of relaxation of these mitigation measures we have seen is going to result in new infections, new infection spread, they will result in some degree of death and it's a conversation that's been had across america, surreal as it may seem , across america, surreal as it may seem, to what degree that is tolerable and what we are willing to sacrifice as a country to go back to work, to go back to school, to go back to sporting events, it really didn't hit. in terms of the contact tracing. things smiled in the united states. the death toll has just passed 80,000 and u nfortu nately, toll has just passed 80,000 and unfortunately, there are fewer new infections and a lot of cities but the death rate is still substantial. well over

1000, close to 2000 deaths per day. thank you very much. here in the uk, which now has officially recorded nearly 33 thousand deaths from coronavirus, the government has announced the furlough scheme designed to avert mass unemployment will now be extended till the end of october. our business editor simon jack has more. holiday season beckons and with international travel in disarray, you would think holiday hotspots like this campsite in cornwall would be set fair but it is currently closed and, even as the lockdown is lifted, social distancing rules will mean communal areas like showers and toilets are unusable. half of the 16 workers here have been furloughed and not all of them will return. well, we are delighted that the furlough scheme has been extended in its current form until the end ofjuly. very worried about how we, as employers, are going to make contributions through august, september and october.

the reason for that is, we have had zero income so far this year. my feeling is, there are already many staff that are furloughed whose jobs actually no longer exist. and that is very sad but it is also very real. patrick's furloughed office manager, single mum lindsay, accepts that the future is uncertain. i just don't think there is any job security in our industry. if the business is hit hard, we are responsible for lots of people, but if the business is not secure, the jobs aren't there. mine might not be there. this brewery in buckinghamshire has furloughed ten workers who will now be able to come back part—time afterjuly whilst still having wages subsidised. good news for this mum of three trasna. i think it's great that it's going to be extended and being able to have a flexible return to work will be terrific while we are still in doubt about children going back to school.

the furlough scheme is the most significant and expensive government response to the crisis. 1 million businesses are using the scheme, with 7.5 million workers having 80% of their wages paid by the government, and it is costing £14 billion a month. that is roughly what we spend on the nhs and social care every month. from july, employers will be asked to help foot that bill, but many will not be able to. the question is, what happens then? do you acknowledge that there are hundreds of thousands, potentially over a million people who are effectively now unemployed but just don't realise it yet? well, i think it will depend on the support we are providing overall and how quickly we can come out of this particular situation. we are not going to be able to protect every single job but i think, by any international comparison, the fact that we are supporting

7.5 million people with the furlough scheme should be something that, you know, should be universally welcomed. when employers have to start paying, tough choices will have to be made. i think the big elephant in the room is going to be what the new employer contribution is going to look like that the chancellor referred to. the scheme has helped this cornish holiday park and a million other businesses hang on to staff, but many will be exposed as this flood of government cash eventually, inevitably, begins to recede. simon jack, bbc news. "an act of sheer evil." that's how the us secretary of state has described attacks in afghanistan that have killed dozens of people. mike pompeo called on the government of afghanistan and the taliban to cooperate and bring to justice the perpetrators to justice. in one assault, gunmen stormed a maternity hospital leaving 16 dead, including newborn babies.

ismael saadat reports from kabul. people in kabul take cover as violence erupts in the city. government target hospital in the afghan capital. the attack by several men began with a series of blasts followed by gunfire. the hospital's maternity ward is run by the international charity medecins sans frontieres and employ some foreigners. local residents with list violence. translation: a man wearing a police uniform arrived and started shooting at guards and some women in the hospital entrance. i saw around 4— five people were wounded. translation: the attackers were shooting at anyone in the hospital without reason. it is a government hospital and a lot of the people who come in for treatment of women and children. security forces rushed to the scene, eventually

seeing several people, including children. the taliban who signed a withdrawal agreement with united states over two months ago are involvement. similar attacks on foreign and other civilians in this mostly shia area of the capital have been attributed to the islamic state group and this was not the only violence in the country on tuesday. in the east, a member of the provincial council was one of those killed on the attack on the funeral possession of a local police commander. despite the continued hopes of peace, violence continues to impact the people of this country, including in the heart of this country itself. ismail saadat, bbc news, kabul. china's handling of the pandemic in its initial stages continues to be questioned internationally. but at home, the chinese authorities say it's been a triumph. there have been no recorded deaths from the virus for over two weeks, but a few new cases

in wuhan over the weekend prompted plans to test each of the city's 11 million residents. from beijing our china correspondentjohn sudworth reports. for two months, they had no work. but now these hairdressers are once again doing their usual morning team—building routine, bouncing back just like the wider chinese economy. they have no doubt who they have to thank for their salons reopening. "we all trust the communist party", the owner tells me, "and we have faith in china." accused of covering up the early outbreak and facing accusations that the virus came from the illegal wildlife trade or even an accidental leak from this lab, china knows it's under pressure internationally. but you wouldn't know it from state—run media, showing china triumphing over the virus at home

and as a powerful provider of medical aid to a world in disarray. nothing says returning normality in beijing quite like a trafficjam. and while the world grapples with the big questions over china's involvement in the crisis, it would be wrong of course to dismiss everything it's done as authoritarian folly. for others hoping to get out of lockdown, there may be lessons here too. might masks be one of those lessons? some scientists believe they may have been the key to china's success in reducing infection rates so dramatically. in china, it is almost compulsory to go out with a mask. and perhaps it really made a big difference because we know that many covid—19 patients are asymptomatic or very mildly symptomatic. so they won't go for testing

at all, so you will never detect these sort of people. masking is a continuous process which can actually protect you and others from getting infected as a result. in wuhan, the city where the outbreak began, the authorities are now planning to test all 11 million residents, the result of a small new cluster of cases, according to state—run media. there are other aspects of china's approach that may be hard to emulate, like forcing people to download apps that track their movements. but whether by coercion or common sense, few can doubt that this country appears to have turned the corner, seemingly against the odds, and it's celebrating. john sudworth, bbc news, beijing. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: with motor racing largely furloughed by the coronavirus —

one man has turned to his wheelbarrow to satisfy his need for speed. the pope was shot, the pope will live — that's the essence of the appalling news from rome this afternoon, that, as an italian television commentator put it, terrorism had come to the vatican. the man they called the ‘butcher of lyon,‘ klaus barbie, went on trial today in the french town where he was the gestapo chief in the second world war. winnie mandela never looked like a woman just sentenced to six years injail. the judge told mrs mandela there was no indication she felt even the slightest remorse. the chinese government has called for an all—out effort to help the victims of a powerful earthquake, the worst to hit the country for 30 years. the computer deep blue has tonight triumphed over the world chess champion, garry kasparov. it's the first time a machine has defeated a reigning world champion in a classical chess match. america's first legal same—sex marriages have been taking place in massachusetts. god bless america! cheering

this is bbc news. the main story this hour: the american expert advising on the country's coronavirus response, has told a senate committee that easing the current restrictions too soon will lead to needless death and suffering. let's stay in the us, where the centers for disease control and prevention has warned healthcare professionals not to allow racial bias to influence their treatment of patients during the pandemic. stark statistics from chicago have underscored the heavy toll of coronavirus on african—americans. figures released in april showed that black people accounted for half of all cases in the city and more than 70% of deaths, despite making up 30% of the population. that picture is replicated in many other cities with large black populations.

doctor oliver brooks is president of the national medical association. very glad to talk to you. what is going on here? , so, there are three main determinants. things like health and income, health conditions like hypertension and obesity, but the third one is a race. when you factor income, education, you factor income, education, you still find black americans have worse outcomes. the explanation for that is in this country, it has a 400 year history of racism and that has affected the health and life outcomes of black americans. so coronavirus is a disease of poverty and deprivation, like so poverty and deprivation, like so many other diseases, but usually exacerbated in this case by the way health professionals deal with black people when they present with

it? so, there is extreme concern and there is documentation of this, there is racism or implicit buyers when someone racism or implicit buyers when someone like a black person goes to see a doctor —— implicit bias, there are anecdotal studies already that her showing that this is happening in chicago and detroit, for example. so when a black man goes to the hospital they see he is a black man, but ifa they see he is a black man, but if a majority person comes in it's ok. so, it'sjust like that and it all comes down to race. there seems to be an assumption somewhere in the arguments put forward by people campaigning against lockdown, resting for states to open up you hear it from white people, particularly. there is some sort of assumption that we won't get it, and that it hits black people harder.

historically, it's a white supremacist argument, that black people were more predisposed to disease, trying to convince black people who we re to convince black people who were enslaved that they were safer on plantations? enslaved people had poor diets and they worked hard, so it was likely that they had a shorter life expectancy. however, the perception of it being a race oriented phenomenon on is incorrect and goes back to social determinism that goes back 400 years ago and even occurs now. so the white supremacist movement concept is just about, a white supremacist movement with no basis in fact. doctor brooks, this is a long—standing programme that goes back a long way. but the cdc is saying something very similarto cdc is saying something very similar to what you are saying

about the present day. it is to be done about it? there are actions that can be taken to mitigate this. first of all, implicit bias training. a lot of the racism is unconscious. there are those who swear they are not racist, that they will not do racist art acts —— racist acts. but we need more culturally sensitive messaging to be done. and importantly, we need race and ethnic data for testing and treatment and fatalities. it is being done piecemeal by states and counties but we don't have a national system or registry for race and ethnic data related to covid—19. race and ethnic data related to covid-19. doctor oliver brooks, thank you so much for talking to us. thank you very much for

having me. the world health organization says the americas are currently at the centre of the coronavirus pandemic. the who has criticised leaders it says failed to listen to its initial warnings. rich preston has this report. brazil is latin america's largest country with a population of more than 209 million people. and it has struggled to cope with coronavirus, with over 177,000 cases, more than 12,000 people have died. figures the who says could have been avoided if certain leaders hadn't ignored its warnings. brazil's president dismissed the virus earlier on isjust a little cold. but jair bolsonaro earlier on isjust a little cold. butjair bolsonaro isn't only at odds with the world health organization but his own state governors, too, criticising varying lockdowns across the country which he says are unnecessarily damaging the economy. he even fired his own health minister after he recommended social distancing.

and there are fears brazil will not reach its peak for several weeks. in south america, health systems in large urban sectors like lima and rio dejaneiro are quickly becoming overwhelmed. we are also witnessing a similar impact of covid—19 on big cities across the amazon basin. elsewhere in the amazon basin. elsewhere in the region, a deadly virus is killing thousands of people, not coronavirus, dinky fever, endemic across much of latin america —— dengue feve fever. the resources usually dedicated to fighting dengue fever have been dedicated to tackling coronavirus. translation: (avid-19 is coronavirus. translation: covid-19 is the star right now so all of the attention is on covid, but there are still problems with dengue and hospital capacity.

in paraguay, infections have exploded with nearly 42,000 cases and 60 deaths in the first 18 weeks of this year. here and believe you, officials say they will hit a record high of this year. translation: is -- it is possible we will surpass 2009. while efforts continue to tackle the coronavirus global pandemic, countries across latin america are focusing on not winning one fight only to lose another. preston, bbc news. and a reminder, if you can take more there is more alongside all of the fact and statistics about the pandemic, our website has facts and analysis from reporters around the globe who have been very busy. including what has happened in those lost six weeks when the american

government failed to contain the outbreak. motor racing, like pretty much all professional sport, has been put on hold because of the coronavirus outbreak. it's unclear when it'll resume, although officials from formula 1 say they're aiming for the start ofjuly. we are trying to dig up pictures but the system is not being very helpful to us. i just point out if from formula 1 say they are aiming for the start ofjuly. as you can see, this gentleman is not waiting for that. formula 1, we think will resume from the beginning ofjuly but of course of professional sports were put on a hold because of the outbreak. we will have more details about what the gentleman is doing when i can. but the pictures we re when i can. but the pictures were worth it, weren't they? there is more news for you any time on the bbc news website. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter, i'm @bbcmikeembley. thank you very much for watching. they are safe as you

can. “— watching. they are safe as you can. —— stay as safe as you can. hello there. well, we may well be heading towards the middle part of may, but i'm sure yesterday felt more like winter for some. take sennybridge in wales for example, with a temperature to start the day at —4.7. it was the coldest may night for 25 years in wales. further north, the wintery fun didn't stop there because in shetland we had some snow falling, and down south, relatively, in orkney, we had a bit of snow covering the grassy surfaces as well with that colder air arriving behind this cold front. now, as we go through the next few hours, that is pushing southwards. it's weakening all the while, but it's still going to be enough just enough to knock down the temperatures a few degrees across eastern parts of england. so it is going to feel a little bit cooler as we head into wednesday. as i say, though, the front itself is going to disintegrate, so any rain will tend to die away over the next few hours.

and in many ways, it's a reversal of fortunes compared with last night. england and wales, quite a lot of places frost—free. scotland, a sharp frost developing here. so, wednesday, a cold start to the day. scotland, northern england with some sunshine, a few showers across northern and eastern areas. and after a cloudy start across wales, parts of the midlands, east anglia, southern england, that cloud will probably tend to break up with some spells of sunshine coming through. and as for the wind, may sunshine is quite strong, so it probably will feel ok. but underneath those cloudier moments, and particularly where it's breezy with the onshore winds, it will feel quite chilly. now for thursday, we've got the winds turning more to a north—westerly direction, not the warmest of directions, but it will be bringing some slightly less cold air in across scotland and northern ireland, with temperatures popping back up to around 12—14 degrees or so. it will be cloudy, there'll be some patches of rain at times across the north—west. bright skies further south. and then for friday, again, we've got another weak weather front working into the

north—west of scotland, bringing a few patches of rain here. otherwise, it's a dry picture with cloud thinning and breaking at times to give some sunny spells. temperatures rising, highs of 17 degrees in both london and cardiff. now, into the weekend, our area of high pressure that's been influencing the weather for a few days now begins to slip its way a little bit further southward whilst weakening. and that will allow these atlantic fronts to move in across northern areas of the uk. so, it will turn quite cloudy across northern parts, with the threat of some rain scotland, maybe northern ireland, too. england and wales, largely dry and bright and a bit milder for most as well.

this is bbc news, the headlines: one of america's top infectious disease experts has warned a us senate hearing that reopening the economy too quickly could lead to needless death and suffering. dr anthony fauci — who advises president trump — said the sitution was improving but the country did not yet have the outbreak under control. britain is extending until the end of october its scheme to subsidise the salaries of employees laid off by the coronavirus crisis. the government said employers would be asked to share more of the burden after august. the furlough arrangement has supported 7.5 millionjobs. brazil has seen a record rise in the number of deaths from coronavirus — 881. however, president bolsonaro has said the spread of the virus is inevitable and businesses must remain open to prevent a major economic crisis. over 12,000 people are known to have died.