tonight at ten, the uk is already in the depths of a significant recession, according to the chancellor. there was a record fall in economic output in march because of the lockdown, according to the office for national statistics. and the impact of the pandemic on economic activity is likely to be even more damaging in the coming months. it is now, yes, very likely that the uk economy will face a significant recession this year, and we are in the middle of that as we speak. we'll be looking at the state of the economy, as some experts are predicting the "recession to end all recessions". also tonight... care homes — the government is accused of being ‘too slow slow to protect people', as boris johnson is challenged by labour. until 12th march, the government's

own official advice was, and i'm quoting from it, "it remains very unlikely that people receiving care in a care home will become infected". it wasn't true that the advice said that and actually, we brought the lockdown in care homes ahead of the general lockdown. campaigners are calling for the visa scheme to be extended for all key workers in the nhs. and how is the lockdown relaxation working out in england? we talk to some of those taking advantage of the changes. and in the sport on bbc news, tennis, golf and other sports restart as lockdown restrictions are eased, but it is not the same picture across all of the uk.

good evening. the united kingdom is already in the depths of a significant recession according to the chancellor, rishi sunak, in the light of a record fall in economic output in march, according to the office for national statistics. the impact of the pandemic is likely to be even harder in the coming months, with one prominent expert saying the economy was in "freefall". the uk economy shrank by 2% in the first three months of this year, a period that includes just the beginning of the lockdown. the independent institute of fiscal studies warns that the real impact of the lockdown is yet to be felt, with household spending shrinking at the fastest rate in more than 11 years. our economics editor faisal islam has more details. at denroy plastics in bangor, northern ireland, they are happy to help the national effort on personal protective equipment. but what they really want to be making is aeroplanes.

and with empty industry order books, they now face further pressure from the threat of a travel quarantine. i think it would be naive to suggest that everyone will get through this. unfortunately, there will be casualties. the critical thing for the uk aerospace market is to get aircraft flying again. this quarantine will of course inhibit that and delay that. so what that means for the sector is that going forward, particularly in the second half of this year and as the sector resets in terms of the volumes that it's producing, that continued support from the government will be even more critical. it's the extreme situation in industries like this that have led to this economy—wide number — the british economy shrinking by 2% in the first three months of this year. the last time the economy performed that badly was the financial crash at the end of 2008. in fact, since modern records began, there have only been four other occasions where we've seen a worse

economic decline over three months. and economists forecast that the current quarter will see a hit much, much worse — off the historical scale, all but confirmed by the chancellor. as you know, recession is defined technically as two quarters of decline in gdp. we've seen one here with, you know, only a few days of impact from the virus. so it is now, yes, very likely that the uk economy will face a significant recession this year, and we are in the middle of that as we speak. the figures only reflect a week or so of shutdown in late march. the company planning how to reopen the uk's two biggest shopping centres next month has never seen anything like it. lockdown wasn't complete lockdown, because we do have essential services within our centres. so while footfall has diminished, they're still open. it's not a surprise. we've all been effectively locked in our homes for the best part of two months.

so of course the economy is going to take a hit. i think the bigger question will be, how do we recover? when you get, across the country, empty streets, empty offices, empty skies and empty shopping centres, you get a shrinking economy, the start of a recession that is down to the pandemic and the shutdowns. but the economy was already stagnant when the virus hit. and the idea that coming out of this, all the lights that were switched off in the economy to protect our health will suddenly be turned back on — that is looking rather hopeful now. it's not just mountains of unsold stock at shops. here, a former raf base in oxfordshire, now full of expensive unsold cars. sales in the industry fell 97% last month. the opposition says even more must be done. obviously, there's already been an increase in unemployment. we need to do what we can to try and stop that becoming even

bigger and above all, stop lots and lots of people becoming unemployed at the same time because clearly, then it's very, very difficult for them to get other forms of work. for now, the chancellor, too, focused on spending to support the economy out of recession rather than the eye—watering sums implied for government borrowing. deficits of hundreds of billions, half a trillion? well, i think it's completely too early to speculate on those things. that is a result of the coronavirus impacting us and every other economy as well, but also because of the measures we have put in place. and what is clear is that if we hadn't put those unprecedented measures in place, the outcome would be far worse. so i think that is the right thing to do to protectjobs and incomes at this time, support businesses to get through this. even in recovery, some business models will struggle. when you can be trained from home, will people want to pay for physical gyms? rich's studio spinning classes have become a subscription online exercise business. initially, i was extremely upset, of course, devastated. my initial thought

was, "what can i do?" i think there is a new normal here now and the new normal, we're adjusting to it as a society and certainly from a business perspective. the challenge now not just to beat the virus, but to turn around an extraordinary recession and leave the nation fighting fit for a different type of economy. faisal islam, bbc news. and faisaljoins me now. so the chancellor says we are probably in a deeper recession already and the measures they are taking are amounting to an enormous cost. where do they go? the amounts are racking up. in any recession, the spending goes up on the bridge between that is borrowing. this is a significant recession, so the borrowing is more significant as well. and against the backdrop of a viral pandemic, it requires frankly strange stuff like having to pay people to stay at home by the million. so yes, large sums, hundreds of billions. and yet in a

slightly anonymous office in the city, the government is quietly going about borrowing this money day m, going about borrowing this money day in, day out with no real problem from international lenders, a bit of help from the bank of england. and the reason is the perception that yes, these are large amounts, but not to spend them and tolerate unemployment levels of 5 million would cost even more. so that means that yes, there is a bill, but the consensus from the treasury, the government, the opposition and the bank of england, is that you are still looking at the menu of rescue options as we establish how big the hole in the economy is, and those figures today help us work that out. and the bill can wait. not today, not this year, maybe not even next year. faisal islam, our economics editor. the prime minister must account for official figures showing 10,000 "unexplained" deaths last month in care homes in england and wales. the challenge was made by the labour leader sir keir starmer, who said the uk government had been

"too slow to protect people in care homes". borisjohnson announced a further £600m to improve infection control in care homes in england. the latest official figures show that in the last 24—hour period, 494 deaths were recorded in care homes, in the community and in hospitals in the uk. that brings the overall total to 33,186 deaths linked to coronavirus. our political editor laura kuenssburg has the latest. were the places that provide homes for the vulnerable and elderly ready for this crisis? are they coping now? some managers fear they're being asked to take too much risk, hospitals requesting that they take in elderly people who have tested positive with the virus. we've refused them, and i know a lot of other homes have refused them. it's very hard to control, so why on earth would they ask us to take people who are positive with the virus in a care home?

the government says there isn't the evidence that that's happening on a widespread scale. but the prime minister is facing a simple accusation — the risk to care homes was seen too late. until the 12th of march, the government's own official advice was, and i'm quoting from it, "it remains very unlikely that people receiving care in a care home will become infected". does the prime minister accept that the government was too slow? it wasn't true that the advice said that and actually, we brought the lockdown in care homes ahead of the general lockdown. the advice till mid—march did say it was very unlikely, but number ten accused keir starmer of quoting it out of context. but is the true agony of care homes known, with so many lives lost? 10,000 additional and unexplained care home deaths this april. so can the prime minister give us the government's views on these unexplained deaths? we are seeing an appreciable and substantial reduction notjust

in the number of outbreaks, but also in the number of deaths. solving the problem in care homes is going to be absolutely critical. we must fix it, and we will. there is a promise of another £600 million to help in england. why is it that the government can't seem to get a grip on the crisis in care homes? i don't underestimate the challenge being faced by residents and staff of care homes. the package of support that we're giving today builds on the work that we've been doing for many weeks now. there is more that we can do, and our whole focus now needs to be on ensuring that care homes are guided through. as each day passes, though, the disease claims more lives. betty was 95 when she passed away in care in kidderminster. very, very hard. she'd had dementia for 15 years. she'd lived with it. we saw each other every day and suddenly for that to disappear

and the guilt for us, really, guilt for me at not being able to see her and support her. her daughter will lay betty to rest tomorrow, just one of so many families changed by this disease, the virus that is altering our country too. laura kuenssberg, bbc news, westminster. the number of tests being carried out for coronavirus is still below the government's target of 100,000 a day. yesterday, 87,063 tests were carried out. some key workers are also reporting difficulties and delays in getting test results. todayjeremy hunt, the former health secretary, said the priority should be to get test results back within 48 hours, as our health editor hugh pym reports. a drive—in coronavirus testing centre today, essential workers waiting to have nose and throat swabs taken. i called the gp and they said it's not possible to test us. so we're panicking now, and he had a

temperature yesterday. i booked it online. ijust did "do a test" on google and it took me to a government website where i got the link direct today. i booked it two hours ago. the process of booking tests and having swabs taken seems to be working relatively smoothly. the results should be back within 72 hours. but we are hearing some reports of people waiting quite a lot longer. as well as drive—in testing, there are home—test kits which can be booked online. one user told us she waited nine days before her family's results came back, but not hers. nobody could tell her what happened and she couldn't rebook. my anxiety levels were raised, i felt disappointed, because i felt that nobody... somebody had to be accountable. when you go on the direct.gov website and it recognises you have had a test already, so i couldn't do that. the government target for the end of april was 100,000 tests provided daily.

since then, the numbers have only occasionally been back above that. yesterday, it was only just over 87,000. the government says it wants laboratory capacity to handle 200,000 tests daily by the end of this month. but there's a warning that more needs to be done to ensure they are processed quickly. if you're trying to track down and quarantine anyone who has the virus, you really need to have the results of those tests back in 2a or 48 hours. if you have nhs staff who are going into work every day, again, you need those results back very quickly. that's the operational issue that now needs to be addressed. ministers have said that a testing and tracking system will be in place in the middle of this month. that's a big ask and there is clearly some work still to do. it is a crucial part of the plan to keep the virus in check. hugh pym, bbc news. new details have emerged tonight of a rare, inflammatory syndrome presenting in children which is linked to covid—19. it is believed that around

100 children in the uk have been affected. our health correspondent sophie hutchinson is here. what more do we know about the condition? in the last few weeks there has been growing concern among doctors about an extremely small number of children who are critically ill and have these unusual symptoms will stop its estimated there are around 100 in the uk who have needed hospital treatment. many of them in intensive care. it's believed one child has actually died. the new illness they seem to have is thought to be linked to covid—19. it's thought to be this massive overreaction by the body's immune system, which causes the children to be extremely ill after pat, 19. the new illness has been called paediatric inflammatory multi—set syndrome.

symptoms can include an extremely high fever or a rash all over their bodies. there are also believed to be cases in the communities that doctors don't yet know about. those cases with a rash or thought to be linked or very similar to a rare condition called kawasaki disease will stop there have been reports of similar cases in france, italy, spain, the netherlands and america. it's important to stress this is an exceptionally small number of children and for most children covid—19 is a very mild infection, if noticeable at all. but we will bring you more about this new syndrome in our reports tomorrow. sophie hutchinson, our health correspondent, thank you. more than seven weeks after the restrictions were imposed to stop the spread of coronavirus, some people in england were being encouraged to return to work today. the government guidelines say they should do so if it is safe. and the change highlights the difference between england

and the other nations of the united kingdom — scotland, wales and northern ireland — where the message remains to stay at home. so how are different businesses managing to reopen, and keep to the guidelines? our business correspondent emma simpson has been investigating. we are so excited to be open. two days ago, this was an empty shell where we'd had to give everything away. but this garden centre is now back in bloom and back in business. very different to the start of lockdown. it was probably early march when we ran the numbers one day and i think the next morning i woke up and i actually cried into my breakfast because, you know, we were going to lose staff and plants galore, and you just thought it was going off a cliff, but here we are. and here are his customers — lots of them. they're excited too. we're after hanging baskets, compost and some begonias. and i'm there to carry it.

it's a one—way system. some new rules, and the signs are everywhere — staff with headsets to monitor and control the shoppers. shelley had been furloughed, but didn't hesitate to come back. it's really good to just be normal, actually. it feels like it's normal again, even though it's not. it's all hands on deck here to salvage what's left of the season, but for other businesses, getting back to work will be far slower and gradual. they make concrete blocks at this factory in telford. like a lot of manufacturers, they've already been working with a skeleton staff. seven more came back today. there's plenty of this now in the fight against covid—19. it's all about being careful and keeping your distance. you can't see it, so i think you've got to be scared of it, haven't you? personally, i've got slight concerns, but not that i'm going to get anything through the lads here.

and for all employers now, some grey areas ahead. liability is the great thing. we don't know, because we are in uncharted territory. so, how do we know where they're going to contract it? we don't. we're trying our best to keep them as far apart as possible and to look after them with respect to covid—19, but how they do that themselves when they're not here, who they come into contact with, we don't know. he supplies to house—builders. this estate agent sells them. people in england can now move home. this office is open by appointment only. we are able to conduct viewings face—to—face. we'll be making sure doors are left open so that clients won't be touching certain surfaces. we will be distancing, obviously, two metres at least, as much as possible. employers are having to adapt

and they are keen not to rush it in what will be a slow unwinding of the lockdown. emma simpson, bbc news. the european commission has issued new guidelines on tourism and travel for eu member states to follow as they ease the coronavirus lockdown. a phased approach would begin with allowing in seasonal workers. restrictions would then be relaxed between regions where the virus was under a similar level of control. we'll hear from our correspondents in spain and italy injust a moment, but first to brussels and this report by our europe editor kayta adler. an overnight leap from lockdown to european beach party this certainly isn't. eu countries are onlyjust beginning to lift their lockdown measures. here in belgium they are opening the shops. next week, the schools. but with strict social distancing measures in place. so what does that mean for our holidays? well, ultimately, each eu country decides for itself when to open its beaches and borders to european visitors.

brussels can only advise. today the advice was, slowly, slowly. first, open your borders to workers and for goods you need to get your economies going again, then think of tourism. if there's enough testing and tracing capacity for covid—19, and if there are strict rules on accommodation, transport and leisure activities. and if there's a second big wave of infection, then travel restrictions could be reimposed. so basically, don't pack your summer swimsuit yet. while in brussels they are talking about plans for easing travel, here in spain they are moving in the opposite direction. from friday, a new quarantine will be in place for all arrivals from outside the country. two weeks in isolation. here in madrid, there is a bit more traffic in the centre and some businesses are starting to open, but we are under tight restrictions still. around the country, it's different. in some regions the easing is going ahead, bars and cafes opening outdoors, people able to gather in groups of up to ten.

here, that won't happen until tracing systems are in place to identify and shut down any new virus outbreaks. and hotels, well, they can open, but many say they are not going to until those new international arrivals start to happen again. grazie. last week, italy got this essential freedom back — the takeaway espresso. along with reopening parks and allowing family visits, it marked the initial easing of the world's longest lockdown. on monday, libraries and museums reopen and possibly restaurants and hairdressers too. they are deciding on that tomorrow. schools are shut until september. it's a relief, but it's also nerve—racking, as the first western country to be overwhelmed by the virus waits to see if this prompts another spike, especially if italy relaxes the two—week quarantine on entering and follows eu guidelines to ease travel.

mark lowen ending that report in italy. the education secretary for england — gavin williamson has defended the government's plans to try to re—open some primary school classes next month, insisting they were based on medical and scientific advice. but education unions argue the proposals don't take into account the dangers of spreading the coronavirus, and say staff will "not be protected" by social distancing in schools. campaigners representing migrants are calling for all foreign key workers to have their visas extended. the uk government's automatic visa extension scheme covers a number of roles — such as doctors, nurses and paramedics — but does not includejobs including porters and cleaners. they say it's wrong they're having to pay thousands of pounds for new visas, when they continue to play an essential role during the pandemic, as our home affairs correspondent june kelly reports.

chanting: pay them more! pay them more! it's our weekly way of saying thank—you to those who are fighting the coronavirus on the front line. applause. and the thousands of others who've worked to keep the country going. i feel happy when i see people clapping but the government doesn't recognise us so that makes me feel sad. we spoke to one nhs worker, a single mother from west africa who wants to remain anonymous. she has cleaned covid wards in a big london hospital throughout the pandemic. i am cleaning toilets, the coronavirus patient rooms. i feel scared. i see people die every day. michelle is on a low salary and now has an extra financial problem — her visa is due to expire on friday. she has to pay £2,000 to renew it. the government has said that, for the next few months, it will automatically extend for a year the visas of some staff in the nhs and social care sector. they won't have to pay.

but cleaners aren't on the list. charities representing migrants believe there are many front—line workers who won't benefit from the new system. there are tens or hundreds of thousands of people within the health system and outside it in other key roles, who just weeks ago this government was referring to as low—skilled, unskilled and unwelcome, but who've proven over the last few months that actually those roles, those people, are the backbone of our society. like the nhs, some employers in the social care sector rely on foreign labour. at this care home in norfolk —

and this is theirfilming — they've had a coronavirus outbreak. many of the front—line staff here are from india and the philippines. the owner of the home is sceptical when it comes to the visa—extension scheme. it really is a question of "we want to use you while this crisis is on, and then once we're finished with you, you can go back home". in a statement, a government spokesperson said that, right across the immigration system, it was working to support people, including in the nhs and social care sector. june kelly, bbc news. the former sinn fein leader, gerry adams, has had two convictions quashed by the supreme court. he was found guilty of trying to escape from jail in northern ireland twice in the 1970s, after he had been interned without trial. but seniorjudges have ruled his original detention was unlawful. the number of people killed in an attack on a maternity ward in the afghan capital kabul has risen to 24.

mothers, newborn babies and nurses were among the victims and at least 16 people were injured. the head of the world health organisation has condemned the attack in the strongest terms, as our chief international correspondent lyse doucet reports. delivered into a world of war. infants who escaped death in their first hours of life. their mothers shot dead just after giving birth. the doctor said 19 newborns were brought to his hospital by security forces, only two with mothers. babies who also don't have names, known by their mothers. zumira's baby is all alone.

the shots rang out on tuesday morning, three gunmen storming the hospital in a poor neighborhood of kabul. afghan special forces soon flooded the area, carrying guns and babies. today anxious relatives still search for loved ones at this hospital run by doctors without borders. a people who've lived with war all their lives, but not this. unthinkable mayhem in a maternity clinic and a cemetery as well. today they dug new graves for lives also lost on tuesday in a suicide blast at a funeral. victims of the islamic state, but no group said it had attacked the hospital. the taliban say it was not their work but they have intensified their operations in recent months and the afghan government blamed them, ordering its forces

on the offensive again, shattering hope there would soon be peace talks and a cease—fire to fight their common enemy, covid—19. the taliban fighting it in areas they control, while rejecting any truce. and the government battles the virus as well, worried a fragile health system will be overwhelmed as the disease spreads. but a vicious war still takes many more lives than the virus. when even babies are targets, fear grows of a war without end. lyse doucet, bbc news. more on the pandemic, and research into previous economic downturns has suggested that young people tend to be the hardest hit. our correspondent ben hunte has been to manchester to meet three people living together whose working lives have been affected by the lockdown. meet george, josh and james — three housemates, all in their 20s, living together in manchester. however, they each have

a different experience of employment during lockdown. first up, josh. he's out on the road, working as a delivery driver. he was in financial sales until he was furloughed, where the government pays some of his wages. josh says he was forced to find a second job during the lockdown. it's difficult. a lot of the people at my place, more than half their wage is commission—based, and that's not covered under the furlough scheme. if it was 80% of my salary and my commission, then that's probably affordable, but 80% of my basic salary is just not enough to get by on. got some parcels for you, mate... a decade ago, josh lost his job as a plumber in the last financial crash. lost myjob in the first financial crisis and now i've been furloughed in this, and hopefully i'll keep this job. lockdown a sitting young people hard, employees under 25 r 2.5 times more likely to be working in a

sector that is now shut down. next up, james.