this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. i'm tim willcox. workers in england can go to work again from today, but not in the rest of the uk. france is also easing restrictions on its lockdown, despite the rising toll from the virus. the world health organisation says some latin american leaders have made the virus crisis worse by ignoring advice. and denmark was the first european country to resume teaching for its youngest pupils. what can other countries learn from the

experience? hello, and welcome to bbc news. it should be back to work for tens of thousands of people in england today, as the government starts to ease lockdown restrictions. in his latest address, the prime minister said he was "actively encouraging" people in england who couldn't work from home, to return to theirjobs from today. but in in wales, scotland and northern ireland, the message remains "stay at home". charlotte rose reports. laying the foundations for the easing of some lockdown measures. it is back to work for thumb measures. it is back to work forthumb in measures. it is back to work for thumb in england today. in wales, scotland, and northern ireland, the message remains stay—at—home. but on sunday night the prime minister said he was actively encouraging people in england who couldn't work from home to return to theirjobs from

work from home to return to their jobs from today. work from home to return to theirjobs from today. it means employers have had a short time to prepare work bases for a new world of social distancing. that includes those who work in food production, construction, manufacturing, logistics, scientific research and laboratories as well as nannies and childcare providers. although people are being encouraged to cycle, walk or use their own cars to get to work there are fears of high demands for public transport which could lead to long queues stop leaders of all the major rail unions wrote to the government early this month saying they had severe concerns about attempt to increase the frequency and capacity of services. but despite this limited reopening and england, the doors of many businesses will remain firmly closed. yesterday the chancellor announced he was extending the fellow scheme. it means the government will continue to pay 80% of the wages of 7.5 million britons until the end ofjuly,

and then pay a reduced portion of wages until the end of october. this is an expensive scheme and i have said that point before but they also believe it is absolutely the right thing to do and what is very clear to me is that the cost of not doing this for society, for our economy, our country, would be far higher. yesterday 627 people died from covid—i9, in hospitals, care homes or at home. although it is an increase on the previous day's figure, overall but the number of deaths and new infections as falling across the uk. and there is some positive news for those who aren't at work. from today and england, garden centres will reopen and people will be allowed to do outdoor sports like golf or tennis, as long as they keep apart. were also allowed to meet from one person from outside your house in an open space, as long as you maintain two metre distance. for homebuyers or renters looking to move, house viewings can now restart. and for all

the nations, once daily exercise has been expanded to unlimited daily exercise. today marks a small, cautious step for some people on the road to reopening the country. france is now officially the fourth worst—affected country in the world when it comes to coronavirus deaths. a place that had previously been held by spain. the united states tops the list, followed by the uk and italy. france has confirmed just under 27,000 fatalities from covid—i9. but despite the high death toll, the country is slowly easing restrictions on its lockdown. rich preston has this report. after eight weeks in lockdown, france is slowly getting back to business. the liber tei at the heart of french life is returning stopping the open air markets are back but with measures in place to try to keep people apart translation:

after two months doing nothing, not out of choice, i am super happy to be working but i hope it will continue, and a bit anxious. translation: i am very happy to be back with my stallholders, my cheesemakers, my favourite shopkeepers, after two months, here we are. we missed it a lot but with this nice weather we are happy. as long as people respect the distances. and on the city's famous strip, shoppers can browse the isles. translation: my wife is pregnant, none of her clothes fit her anymore so we felt she at least needed to buy something. translation: it has been a while since i've had a little walk and for me it is not only about buying, it is also a pleasure, and it is good to see that everything is back to normal. translation: i think what customers are also looking for

is to treat themselves, to take ca re of is to treat themselves, to take care of themselves. we noticed a lot of purchases of care products but also make up, with the desire to getting back to their habits that they may have lost these last two months. the city's famous moulin rouge nightclub is gearing up for a summer reopening after several weeks of forced closure, and air france is making its preparations, hopefulfor a swift return to something resembling business as normal, though the wearing of masks is nonmandatory, both in the terminal and on the plane. but in the air, on the streets and on the waterways of france, social distancing guidelines are still in place, with police patrolling and breaking up large crowds. and amongst the positive pictures and the final feeling of liberty once more, there will be a darker thought at the back of many minds, with now the fourth highest death toll in the world, many will be asking why a country which routinely ranks as having one of the best health systems in the world suffered so badly.

india's prime minister has announced a 266 billion dollar financial package to help india's economy recover from the coronavirus crisis. he's said the money will help many sectors of the country, including some of india's poorest. millions of daily wage earners stranded in cities around the country, are struggling to get by in the seventh week of lockdown, and some have given up on government help to get home. from mumbai, yogita limaye reports. they've packed the little bay have and set off. a few with theirfamilies, but have and set off. a few with their families, but mostly, these are men who came to mumbai to earn a better life for their loved ones. in the cities, they've helped build, stuck amidst the lockdown, many have been left to fend for themselves. translation: at least we get food in our village. if we stay here, we will die of hunger. on just one

morning and one city, we have seen hundreds on the road, under the summer sun. this 60—year—old worked as a labourer with his nephew. ar then why they aren't waiting since the government has said it would provide transport. translation: we have been hearing these assurances for a long time but nothing has been done. everything is for the wealthy. no—one thinks about us so we have no option but to walk. many have been thrown out of the rooms they lived in, because they can't afford rent. these are people who have already walked miles to the outskirts of the city, hoping they would find some means of transport back to their villages, homes that are more than 1000 kilometres away. after more than 50 days of

lockdown, their tolerance is broken. india has always struggled with inequality, but in our memory, it has never been as starkly visible as it is right now. thejourney been as starkly visible as it is right now. the journey home is right now. the journey home is often perilous. doesn't have died along the way. among them, this 12—year—old. she worked on chilly farms. not far from her home in this tribal village in central india, she collapsed after walking for three days. translation: i think of her so much, especially when they see the girls she used to play with. she was my favourite. last week, the government started special trains for migrant labourers. so far, more than 650,000 have gone back home. but there are at least 1a million such workers in india,

and many feel they simply cannot wait any longer. in some parts of the country, tensions are rising. this is the right in western india. the prime minister has announced an aid package which he says will help the poor. for those waiting and walking on india's roads, few details yet of what that means for them. the governor of california has announced an easing of lockdown restrictions in america's most populous state. gavin newsom said offices and some restaurants could now open, provided they follow certain precautions. it follows a warning from one of the country's top infectious disease experts that reopening the economy too quickly could lead to needless death and suffering. speaking remotely to a senate committee hearing dr anthony fauci said the us did not yet have total control over the coronavirus outbreak. our north america correspondent peter bowes

reports from los angeles. beaches, shops, and restau ra nts. beaches, shops, and restaurants. it's beginning to feel like california again. there are still restrictions, beaches are open and los angeles county but only for exercise. surfing and swimming are allowed, but no sitting, surfing or volleyball. social distancing will be enforced and masks must be worn. i'm excited, with the two kids we are getting antsy in the house but we are making it work.|j wa nt but we are making it work.|j want to feel the ocean, this is our backyard. the governor of california says the state is moving into the second phase of reopening, relaxing restrictions for its a0 million residents. today we are announcing additional modifications statewide for our stay order, that include officers, if you cannot telework, we will allow for office modification and office openings on a statewide basis. he also said restaurants in

parts of the state will open for sitdown dining, and customers can pick up items from outside some stores and shopping malls. but the governor insisted it is not a return to normal life just yet. i'm not naive and no—one should be, andi i'm not naive and no—one should be, and i think one of the biggest mistakes we can make in this pandemic as we start to move into a reopening phase and somehow overpromise what it means. it means relief for many but never stays ahead for officials who are well aware the virus hasn't gone away. it has killed about 500 people every week in california for the past month. around the country, most states have begun to ease restrictions, but the us government's leading pandemic expert has warned the states not to move too quickly. our concern is that if states or cities or regions attempted to get back to some form of

normality, and disregard the checkpoints we put in our guidelines about when it is safe to proceed and pulling back on mitigation, because i feel if that occurs, there is a real risk that you will trigger an up break which you may not be able to control. a sobering warning for a nation struggling with its priorities. here in the uk, as in other countries, tentative timetables are being set out for the re—opening of primary schools. but in one european country children have already been back in class for a month. denmark was the first country in europe to resume teaching for its youngest pupils. our correspodnentjean mackenzie's been there to see if there's anything other countries can learn. it's been hard to not hug each other. you can't hug each other so you have two hug yourself.

keeping kids apart requires some imagination. when they came back we had lots of activities to try to make them not worry, but they did worry. so we had to give up on that. it wasn't needed. the school has been cleverly redrawn so each child only comes into contact with a very small number of other children. normally, they set two and two. we have a class of 20 that has been cut down to two groups of ten, that is why we have the plastic. because those two groups aren't allowed to mix? exactly. when they are going outside in the breaks, we have to divide those groups into even smaller groups. so the kids just have four other children they are allowed to play with and they are only given one part of the playground they are allowed to be an. my name is sky, i am seven be an. my name is sky, i am seve n yea rs be an. my name is sky, i am seven years old. we keep our

distance when we place. we can't play catch. what do you play instead? hula hoop. they are finally a little bit boring, but they are also good at telling each other, remember you are not supposed to go there. how many times you wash your hands a day now? five or six times. denmark reopen primary schools very early on. it was feared the infection rate would rise and initially entered but it is back down again. and with so many parents and work here, this was a targeted risk. blue if we had to get the economy moving again then we had to get the kids back into not only schools but also daycare, to try to enhance productivity for those forced, still, to work at home. it was a challenge to do yourjob while having them home. it is much more easy for me to concentrate. i have hours where ican concentrate. i have hours where i canjust concentrate. i have hours where

i can just work. a lot of parents wrote to me that they had some kind of concerns, a few parents had some concerns that they wouldn't let their child come in the first week. after two weeks they have rejoined and it has been no problem. actually it was the kids at home who said, why can't i go? this, they said was possible. children social distancing. now, it might not be school as they know it, but they are making it work. the direct translation is, when the light returns. it is back. the light returns. it is back. the light is back. you are watching bbc news — the headlines this hour: moves to begin easing the lockdown in england are coming into force. but in scotland, wales and northern ireland the stay—home message remains the same. and france is also easing its lockdown measures, despite becoming officially the fourth—worst virus—affected

country in the world. the world health organization says the americas are currently at the centre of the coronavirus pandemic. the w—h—o has criticised leaders it says failed to listen to its initial warnings. tanya dendrinos 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 more than 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 early on as just a little cold, but jair bolsonaro isn't just at odds little cold, but jair bolsonaro isn'tjust at odds with the world health organization but

with his own state governors, too, criticising the very lockdowns implemented 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 that brazil won't reach its peak for several more weeks. and south america, health systems in the large urban centres like lima and rio de janeiro large urban centres 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 region, a deadly virus is killing thousands of people, not coronavirus, dengue fever. across much of latin america is seeing a surge in cases, colombia resources have been

diverted to tackling the coronavirus. translation: covid—19 is the star right now so all of the attention is on covid—19, but there are still problems with dengue fever and there are problems with hospital capacity. in bolivia, officials say they think they will hit a record high this year. translation: it is possible we will surpass a historical record of 2009, the year of the worst epidemic bolivia experienced of any disease. while efforts continue to tackle the coronavirus, global pandemic, countries across latin america are focusing on not winning one fight, only to lose another.

an australian team has won a competition to write a hit eurovision song using artificial intelligence. the netherlands organisers got the idea after the eurovision song contest it was supposed to host was put on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic. the public voted and the winning song, beautiful world' beat off 12 others for the top spot. let's have a listen. # flying love, keeps coming. just live under the wings of happiness. keep steel! it has gone apart. open up the heart. iam not gone apart. open up the heart. i am not scared anymore.

welcome home. welcome home. the world is beautiful. welcome home. welcome home. welcome home. welcome home. welcome home. welcome home. the world is beautiful. # the winners from uncanny valley join me now from sydney. justin shave is the music producer, caroline pegram leads innovation and strategic partnerships and charlton hill is head of music and innovation. it sounds great but composing a song normally is quite difficult. when it comes to using ai, doesn't make it more so? starting with you justin? ina sense, so? starting with you justin? in a sense, no. the wayward normally approach production, the body of the song, and

artists will come to us, to me asa artists will come to us, to me as a producer and say can you ta ke as a producer and say can you take my idea as a song and turn it into something that is amazing. that people love. in the same way,.... caroline, talk us through it. how do you do that? what sort of sounds you put in because we all know that even with traditional music, composes use technology and the science of music to get the effects they want. what did you put into the computer to achieve what we just had a bit of? so, we will given a outline by the organisers and were given data by the organisers of the eurovision song contest, hundreds of eurovision tracks, the lyrics from the same number of tracks. we had a similar idea ourselves a few years ago so we had already collected all the lyrics of the eurovision

songs ever and we used three different neural networks, one for lyrics, one for music and then we had the idea off the back of a project we have been working with people 's creativity to feed the neural network, the third neural network, the third neural network with the sounds of australians wildlife, kookaburras, koalas, tasmanian devils, we wanted to pay homage to the devastating loss of wildlife during the bushfire. to the devastating loss of wildlife during the bushfirelj could wildlife during the bushfire.” could not pick out the koalas. what sort of noise do they make? were about to get to that. don't make much of a sound, it is more of a grunting when they run along the ground but finally the way that it informs the ai process we then feed and melody back into it and it utilises these sound and we call it the koala synthesiser because it generates a sound that does not exist. the kookaburras to make

a good noise though. do you have a kookaburra roof as part of the chorus? in the bit we just stop the song, the next little bit of that is exactly the mixture of the wildlife sounds —— riff. the mixture of the wildlife sounds -- riff. such a shame. we miss the kookaburras! i cannot believe it! i will ask them to play a bit more on a second. justin, does it take anything away from the satisfaction though of creating a hit if you are using machine learning? just for you, or all three of you as individuals?” think the satisfaction is more. i like happy accidents. i like ideas thrown at me and the computer came up with these bonkers lyrics and melodies! increase my level of satisfaction that we are moulding into something that was quite catchy. give us an

idea of the bonkers lyrics, caroline? open the door, it won't open the door, open the door. a lot of repetition that would be in your average lyrics but it starts off with some pretty, poignant lyrics, like "flying from this world that has gone apart" and many of these things.... quite profound! it is. it is interesting and perhaps some would say it would make eurovision even better than in previous years! listen, guys, really well done and i think we will hear a clip. i am told not, the kookaburras have escaped! that is for the next time. well done to all of you. for winning the eurovision ai eurovision. that is it from us

as well. plenty more online. you can reach me on twitter, i'm @ bbc tim willcox. 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 —a.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—1a 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 with the latest business headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. hundreds of thousands of workers across england return to work today, as downing street attempts to restart the nation's economy. qatar airways offers cathay pacific a financial lifeline, after a turbulent 12 months for the hong kong carrier. and india unveils a historic $266 billion package, to support its economy against the covid—19 pandemic.

hello, and welcome to bbc news. let's start here in the uk, where hundreds of thousands of workers across england will be returning to work today. downing street is keen to re—start the country's economy and this is the first move in the government's three step plan. prime minister boris johnson said those who work in construction, manufacturing, distribution and food production should return to theirjobs, with social distancing in place. joining us now from telford is andrew huxley, who's the managing director of besblock, which is one of the uk's biggest concrete block manufacturers. thanks forjoining us. how many people are you expecting back to day. there will be another seven going back today, we've had a skeleton staff there since the outbreak and since the shutdown, but now in the last couple of days i saw probably a doubling of my order

book, just as some of these building sites get back to work, they can see that the demand is back there and we are going to start producing blocks again. fantastic, and what sort of changes have you had to make inside the factory in terms of social distancing, putting up screens and partitions and things? i think it is more a case of trying to get everybody to work on their own rather than having teams of people together, so we have shut our canteens, we don't allow them to ta ke canteens, we don't allow them to take meals together or make drinks for each other, they just do it individually. they have their break in their car, for instance. that would be one major change. are people apprehensive, do you think, about coming back? and if they are, what about your liability for protecting them, that would be bad news if they developed coronavirus while at work if they wanted to claim that?

sure, and we are putting everything in place that we can to keep the social distancing, make ppe available for them at work, if they want to wear face coverings they can. we do a lot of our work individually, we don't have anybody in any office with anybody else, for instance, in our office block. everyone has got their own office, and liability wise, we are trying to do the best we can at the moment, i am not quite sure how the liability will sit with us, but this is just us going forward with covid—19 at the moment. just us going forward with covid-19 at the moment. is that your order book has doubled which is fantastic news, is this now the time you think you will be able to survive? had this lockdown gone on for a lot longer, would that have threatened your business, do you think? i am sure it would. i can't tell you the figures of the profitability of the business at the moment, all they can say is we have

probably been doing one third of the work we should have been, so to go back over 50% is great news and will hopefully get us profitable again but i have got 63 employees in 30 of those at least afterload at the moment, so getting them back into work will be a difference and getting the manufacturing pla nts and getting the manufacturing plants up and running again. of course, best of luck. thank you for getting up so early to speak to us. staying in the uk, trade unions and businesses across the country have welcomed the news the government's furlough scheme has been extended by four months to october. chancellor rishi sunak confirmed that employees will continue to receive 80% of their monthly wages up to £2,500. elsewhere, injust over an hour from now, data revealing the country's gdp performance for the first quarter will be announced. joining us now from london is chris beauchamp, who's the chief market analyst at ig. what are we expecting in terms

of those figures? we are expecting to see a 2.5% decline in gdp forthe expecting to see a 2.5% decline in gdp for the quarter on quarter figure in gdp for the quarter on quarterfigure for the in gdp for the quarter on quarter figure for the first three months of the year, although it is notable that the rolling three month figure should see a 7.5% weight of the uk economy, these are the worst figures we have seen since at least the 70s and it is expected to get a lot worse later in the year, certainly. something the bank of england has been warning about over the past couple of months. as you say, we expect the second and third quarters to be worth, bank of england of course is quite bullish, about one year from now, are you? i think, the bank is right in saying that we expect a strong rebound, but that won't get us anywhere near to where we were before and what we expected actually that will be a strong recovery but it will be much smaller than it was a year ago, so while 2021 will be better than 2020, that isn't saying very much, it is a very low bar. it is going to be

a long, hard recovery. you can't shut down a developed economy and expected to rebound immediately, and that is what we expect. the cost of this fellow scheme, i think it is 1a billion per month? he wanted to avoid a cliff edge, he had no option, did he? no, and this is the point. countries around the world face the same question, either you shutdown the economy and pay workers or you risk having no economy to go back to. the cost is now surpassing the monthly cost of the nhs but there is little alternative, there is little alternative, the government has to keep doing this, it is important that workers do continue to receive money to maintain any standard of living at or. we expect this cost to keep rising, this will be a long—term repayment plan. rising, this will be a long-term repayment plan. just on that point, the long—term repayment plan, we have got no idea what this is going to mean

in terms of taxation and things, have we? are, at this point the treasury is trying to produce scenarios but it is a very long—term view that will require borrowing for decades. there is nothing comparable other than perhaps the two world wars and the time it ta kes to world wars and the time it takes to repay this borrowing. 0k, takes to repay this borrowing. ok, chris, chief market analyst to ig. thank you very much indeed. let's take a quick look at how the markets are faring today. asian stocks have fallen during wednesday's trading session, on renewed fears about a second wave of the coronavirus. oil is also down, as trade tensions between the us and china are also causing investors some worries. qatar airways, the third—largest shareholder of cathay pacific airways, has confirmed to the bbc it is willing to provide an cash injection into hong kong's financially battered carrier if approached. qatar said it was in a position

to help, despite being hit hard by the global pandemic itself. let's get more on this from shara njit leyl, who nowjoins us from our asia business hub in singapore. i think they have only got about 10% in cathay. their own fleet is going to have to shrink, is this because they think cargo is the way ahead? that is exactly that, you pretty much said at. obviously they have got just pretty much said at. obviously they have gotjust under 10% sta ke they have gotjust under 10% stake in fact and also really unusual but this offer of help is coming from a middle eastern airline, not from cathay‘s to largest shareholders, so essentially it was cathay confirming the report which is citing the ceo of qatar airways who said nothing is off the table when it comes to ensuring its airline business will come up its airline business will come up from this crisis stronger and more competitive, and qatar

ceo had been talking to the south china morning post, his report saying that the airline could help cathay who had already been suffering before the coronavirus pandemic, its travel restrictions around the world which essentially led them to cut more than 90% of their flights both in them to cut more than 90% of theirflights both in april and may. they were already struggling from those massive protests we were reporting about from hong kong last year. the offer comes even as qatar is shrinking its own workforce, but it is viewing cargo traffic, especially to and from china as a reliable source of revenue for the next year or so andindeed revenue for the next year or so and indeed they previously expressed an interest in trying to raise their stake in cathay but they have been really restricted by the limited volume of publicly traded shares in cathay. qatar has also been in the news this week for offering complimentary tickets for 100,000 medical professionals, 5000 of those tickets, we have been told,

have already been taken and of course, as we say, it has decided to forgo future revenue for that purpose, and already seeking to delay the delivery of some aircraft for several yea rs. of some aircraft for several years. good to speak to you, thanks very much indeed. let's take a look at india now, where the country's prime minister narendra modi announced $266 billion support package on tuesday, to boost india's economy against the coronavirus pandemic. the funds are likely to be used to help the country's struggling agriculture sector and provide financial support for the working class. let's get more on this from our india business correspondent, nikhil inamdar, who now joins us from mumbai. so who precisely is going to get this and is everyone covered ? get this and is everyone covered? what the prime minister yesterday as saying is that this money would actually be used anything from small and medium—sized businesses to

infrastructure spending, as well as the very distressed migrant labour who have really been seeing the biggest blow of this lockdown, but the granular details of this package rarely are awaited and they would be coming through over the course of the next few days, with the finance minister holding press conferences, but industry expecting that there would be some sort of support for small and medium—sized businesses. there would be loan guarantees orany there would be loan guarantees or any measures to product demand given that india's gdp forecast now anywhere from between —5.2% to 0%. just to say, though, that this package, it was pretty much unexpected at $266 billion, it has up to about 10% of gdp which is pretty much equivalent to the kinds of fiscal programmes that you have seen in the us and other major developed economies. the markets, clearly, at this point move up about 2% but the devil, as they

say, lies in the details. let's get some of the day's other news. the uk government has set out plans to re—start england's housing market, which has been in deep freeze since the coronavirus lockdown. from today, estate agents can open, viewings can be carried out, and removalfirms can re—start operations. it's estimated that there are a50,000 buyers and renters with plans on hold. twitter has became the first major tech company to allow employees to work from home ‘permanently‘. in email sent to staff on tuesday, the firm's chief executive officerjack dorsey said, "employees who prefer to work remotely can now do so indefinitely." dorsey added staff that wanted to return to the office, will probably need to wait until at least september. new zealand's prime minister jacinda ardern said that thursday's annual budget will aim to create more jobs and get the economy going, but warned the country was about to enter

a very tough winter. however, with debt levels below the global average and unemployment hovering around a%, ardern believes the country is in a strong position to cushion the economic fallout from the coronavirus. bjorn ulvaeus is one of the singer—songwriters for the legendary swedish pop group abba. he co—wrote the songs for the hit musical mamma mia!, which has been playing in london's theatreland for two decades but bjorn predicts a slow recovery for live performances, saying it will be a long time before people will want to sit in packed auditoriums. its difficult times now, because live entertainment is one of the sectors that has been the hardest hit.

the actors are on furlough, we don't know anything about when we can open again. it is going to be very difficult, because having an auditorium that is restricted to social distancing, that means that it could be one third full, perhaps, and people are spaced out all over the auditorium, and that is not something, you know, which will enhance the experience. neitherfor the artist nor for the audience. i am quite pessimistic about the west end theatre and live entertainment. it will take a long, long time before people even dare to go out to sit beside other people, because

95% of the world's population hasn't been infected, and are they ready to sit beside someone who could be? not in a long time, i think. with more than 1.3 million cases, the us has the highest number of confirmed infections in the world. it has also recorded more than 81,000 deaths. having watched asian and european countries struggle against covid—19, the us was slow to scale up testing and to issue stay at home orders. we look at this crucial time period, the so—called lost six weeks, and what exactly was done, and when, to prevent the outbreak. as the world tries to find and enter the lockdowns, it is important to go back to the beginning. president trump did ta ke ste ps

beginning. president trump did take steps to keep the virus out. when i learned about the gravity of it, sometimes enclosing the country to china. but there were holes in his travel bans and it took x weeks before he ended travel from europe, the other hot spot. one day it will be like a miracle, it would disappear. during this time, the virus spread largely undetected within american borders. why was it more done to stop it? let's start by looking at the big picture. the main strategy for mitigating spread has been to lockdown communities. china did in wuhan and then the whole of hubei province. then they did in italy, in the north and is in the whole of the country. some of compared response times in relation to first cases or first deaths to factor in population size, we actually wa nt to population size, we actually want to find the date that the

country had one death per million residents due to covid—19 and those points we reached at different times in various countries. we can compare how countries reacted by putting those dates as day one on a timeline. germany, france and the uk lockdown within days, learning their lessons from italy, which took six days to lockdown the entire country. the us, however, still hasn't declared a national lockdown. more than a5 days later. if you look at what is going on in the country, i don't understand why we're not doing that. we really be. so why didn't the us act sooner? in the end, most states did issue stay—at—home orders, covering 92% of the us population but, as this chart shows, some states took action much faster than others. we will look at that in more detail ina

will look at that in more detail in a moment. there are practical reasons for the different approaches. it is a big country, with some places it much harder by the outbreak than others. thus, power is not as centralised in the us away national lockdown is not as easy to do. but the main reason the us missed out on opportunity to get ahead of the rye rest was a lack of information on how the outbreak was “— information on how the outbreak was —— virus. onjanuary 20 and zist, was —— virus. onjanuary 20 and 21st, south korea and the us confirmed their first case. we have a totally under control. it is one person coming in from china and we have it under control. it will be just fine. four days later, the cdc had developed a test kit and sought fda approval while south korea was already shipping kits to laboratories across the country. 12 days after that, the cdc finally followed suit while south korea was already developing a faster test and

deploying that. looks like by april, in theory when it gets warmer, miraculously goes away, i hope that is true. two days later, the cdc acknowledged the test with floor and labs had to send results back to atlanta's. when you have 15 people and the 15 within a few days will be down too close to zero, it is a pretty good job we have done. february, more than three of the more than 100 public labs had a working cdc tout —— test. we are there, we have the tests and they are beautiful. anyone who needs one will get a test. by who needs one will get a test. by early march and six weeks since the first case was detected, just 3000 americans had been tested, one in 100,000 residents, compared to 3a2 in south korea. i call it the unseen, the unseen enemy. there are 1000 different terms for it

but it snuck up on us. in mid—march, the us had tested 31 people per 100,000 residents and while the us caught up and surpassed south korea's rate of testing on april 15, those initial delays, combined with the message coming from the president, had serious consequences for the us response. without good data from testing, the us states we re from testing, the us states were essentially flying blind throughout february and early march. if i get throughout february and early march. ifi get corona i get corona, i will not let it stop me from partying. as life went on largely as normal, the virus was spreading throughout the us. we are in good shape. people think it goes away in april. people are getting better. we are going down. we will essentially have a flu shot for this are in a quicktime. if you have the flu you will recover. 33,000 people each year on average die. maybe

we have to step up workup on this when you lose that many people. have you regularly downplayed the threat, president trump declared a national emergency much 13. we are urging every state to set up are urging every state to set up emergency and centres immediately. three days later, the white house issued social distancing guidelines. on march 22, new york reported 100 deaths due to covert. how did the us states respond to the worsening situation here? using the one death in a million measure again, so we can compare states with different populations, you can see that new york, the epicentre of the outbreak, shut down after four days. newjersey could see what was happening to its neighbour and brought in restrictions after two days. louisiana, a hotspot thanks to mardi gras, six days. these states reacted quickly, going into lockdown several days before reaching

that grim milestone in a bid to contain the outbreak. there are other areas that are not affected or affected very little and why would be closed down 100% of the country? yet, these down 10096 of the country? yet, these southern states did have deaths from covid—19 and still waited much longer to order statewide shutdowns. it took georgia and south carolina to four weeks before they ordered residents to stay at home —— two weeks. while democratic governors shut down the states after 2.5 days after seeing their first after 2.5 days after seeing theirfirst in1 after 2.5 days after seeing theirfirst in! million deaths, republican governors waited more than a week longer. nowhere in the world has responded perfectly to this pandemic but other countries have succeeded in keeping their death toll down. in contrast, more americans have died from covid—19 then were killed in the vietnam, afghanistan and iraqi wars combined. in those

early weeks, the us missed opportunities to contain the spread and save more lives. 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 but one british man wasn't prepared to wait and has created his own, unusual, racing machine. the bbc‘s tim allman explains. upbeat song. kevin nicks lives for speed. he is a self—confessed petrol head. a car connoisseur. a motorsport maniac. but he does notjust make do with any old vehicles, oh no. he thinks a little out of the box. engine roaring. song. # i'm going to heaven in a wheelbarrow...# # i'm going to heaven, yes, sir...# he calls it the "barrow of speed", the nippiest bit of gardening equipment you are ever likely to see.

somebody donated their moped which was not running, i got it running, and everything else was scraps and bits and pieces ihad around. now, i built this amazing machine and it has actually turned out far better than what i thought. it is such fun! # i'm going to heaven in a wheelbarrow...# kevin already holds the record for the world's fastest shed. now he aims to do the same with this deluxe wheelbarrow. to a0mph, that's 65km/h, but he wants to be an inspiration to others. get yourself busy and try to take your mind off what is going on in the world, you know, because it isn't all bad. there's gonna be a lot of good that comes out of this and that is what you have to focus on. no record attempt will be made until the lockdown is over. in the meantime, kevin is happy to indulge in some high—speed horticulture! # i'm going to heaven in a wheelbarrow...# # so, won't you take me there?#

tim allman, bbc news. and great for shopping i imagine as well! 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 —a.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—1a 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.

good morning. welcome to breakfast with dan walker and louise minchin. our headlines today at 6am: the easing of lockdown begins in england as people are encouraged to go back to work. but the advice in scotland, wales and northern ireland is to stay at home. there is new government guidance on workplace safety, but will you feel safe going in to work? i'll speak to the union body the tuc. people who are travelling to work are urged to avoid public transport. those who need to use it should wear face coverings and keep their distance

from other passengers. the english housing market is being restarted —