this is bbc news. the headlines: barack obama has delivered another attack on the trump administration's handling of the pandemic. in an online address to graduating students from historically black colleges and universities, mr obama said many officials didn't even pretend to be in charge. italy's prime minister has said coronavirus cases could rise as travel restrictions are set to ease from the beginning ofjune. guiseppe conte said italy must accept the risk otherwise the country will never be able to start again. the uk government has defended its plan to reopen schools in england and warned that the longer they're closed, the more children will miss out. teaching unions say they're not convinced that it's safe for more pupils to return byjune. the uk education secretary has insisted he's following the best scientific advice. it's the first weekend since some lockdown restrictions

were eased in england. local councils urged people today to stay away from beauty spots and beaches — and although some national parks have reported areas being busy, many people do seem to have heeded the warning — as andy gill reports. in normal times, more than 3 million day visitors come to the dales every year, and it's not hard to see why. the national park and local authorities, though, think it is too early to loosen the coronavirus lockdown. the big fear was that the car park would be full all week, and the river bank was going to be like blackpool when blackpool was busy and open — nobody social distancing. but as it is, we have a slow increase in the amount of people that are coming, that feel safe to come. but in grassington today, some people were taking advantage of the new guidelines, some travelling from harrogate and leeds.

if you follow the guidance and you socially distance, you make sure that you are not touching anything. we have not seen anybody, really, but everyone we have seen has been friendly and kept to a safe distance. we feel fine. they reopened the car park here so visitors don't park in the centre of the village or on verges, and the idea is that that will reduce contact and possible infections between tourists and locals. tourism is vital for this part of yorkshire, and they do want visitors back here once it is safe. one estimate is that the economy in this part of the yorkshire dales has taken a 30% hit because of the lockdown. striking the balance between saving lives and saving livelihoods is the challenge here as everywhere else. andy gill, the yorkshire dales, bbc news. now on bbc news, our world.

ireland. a place long associated with religion and conservative values. but over the last few years, the country has reinvented itself as a new and progressive ireland. in 2017, the irish government extended this spirit of inclusivity to its traveller population. as taoiseach i now wish to formally recognise travellers as a distinct ethnic group within the irish nation. but three years on, has anything changed 7 that's 2017. but 2020 is still the same way. discrimination is getting more worser than before that was brought out. we are not animals, we're not criminals, we are not trying to do anything bad.

we are not the people that people are trying to portray us as. the fact that there is so much adversity faced by travellers in ireland today is a shame upon us all. the o'reilly family have lived near enniscorthy for the past four years. they currently live on family—owned land in a makeshift halting site with no toilet nor shower. this is a new little filly. double bred doncaster. she is number one on the planet. she's 2—year—old, there's nothing out there like her. she is mine now.

there is me sister margaret, her husband, my brother, his wife, then there's my family — my mother and my four younger brothers and sisters. two girls and two boys actually living here at the moment. this is the new baby margaret. currently there are no men on the site. noreen‘s father and eldest brother are both in prison. they are well known in the traveller community as the rubber gang. it is a nickname to call us the robbers. it's like mine. i have it printed here. that's my husband, patric ‘rubber‘ rogue. the family say that police attention has always been intense. when the guards were here earlier, that is a big deal like

the rubber gang is back and when they hear the o'reilly's in town, the off—duty guards are told to come back on because the criminals are back in town. if something goes missing, like if it's downtown and a shop gets broken into, they're the first target. it is all down to gang name, the rubbers. the name's been on my family for years, it is down to them. my father is locked up, my brother is locked up so for that reason, everything is just based around my family. it is notjust one, it is all the travelling community. and no matter how much they fight or they try to get out there, to accept people, it will never happen because in 50 years' time, i think my daughters or my granddaughters will be here telling the same story. it is hard to get them heavy and hard to get fat in them. it's hard to get a filly like this. it keeps you occupied. it keeps you all from going out on the towns. getting messed up and fighting. i have a fear that the kids get it in their heads that the guards keep picking at their fathers and their brothers, "here, it is hard to get them heavy and hard to get fat in them. it's hard to get a filly like this.

it keeps you occupied. it keeps you all from going out on the towns. getting messed up and fighting. i have a fear that the kids get it in their heads that the guards keep picking at their fathers and their brothers, "here, we're getting blamed for things, here, we'll do it!" "if we're getting blame for it, we'll do it." if the travelling community could get work, if they could getjobs, there would not be as much crime probably going ahead. unemployment within the travelling community in ireland currently stands at 80%. 18—year—old noreen would like to get a job but fears it is not possible. every girl would like a job. i would love to be a beautician but i know even if i start courses and do things, you're not getting no further because i will get no job and get married. even if she got the qualifications,

she thinks she'd only be able to offer her from home to other travellers because she believes people would not hire a traveller woman. working from home is only one thing you will be doing. you'll still be cooking, you'll still be cleaning while you're at home. because you are not going to be doing things every day. it is not nice for travelling girls to have a dream, and all it is is a dream that's never gonna come true. i heard this knock and i stood up and looked out the window here and there was two guards down there at the front. straight away this panic came over me and i screamed.

"chris! " no, it was a lot louder than that. and there were two detectives at the door and i was genuinely waiting for them to tell me one of me children was dead, god forbid. 0r someone belonging to me was dead, orthere had been a terrible accident. and i looked and said "are ye guards? " they said they were from kilkenny city council and they were here to serve you an eviction notice. star stokes and her husband chris purchased their first home in october last year and moved in with their eight children. but less than two months later they were given an eviction notice from the local council who claimed they were in breach of a planning condition. they believe it is only being enforced because they are travellers. i like it because it is bigger and we can do our own thing here and there is loads of space. there will be a time to come when one of them gets married and gets a wife, there is loads for room for them to pull in a caravan.

you can have yourfamily around you at all times and that is what travellers like. my main dream growing up was owning a house in the country and having a big large family. that is what my dream was and i never thought i'd have it, to be honest. two of their eight children have disabilities and the house has been life changing for the eldest son paddy. it feels more comfortable because, obviously, i have a wheelchair because i only have one leg. but the doors of the house of the last house, they were too small and not wide enough. this is perfect because everything is downstairs for me. the kitchen, even my bedroom is downstairs and the toilet, everything. the family purchased the property from a local auctioneer

who was happy to sell to the stokes family. but when people in the local area found out, they tried to stop the sale. we were not aware of how bad the neighbours were carrying on. it was the auctioneer who went through complete and utter hell, stopped on the street, "is it true? "are there travellers moving in? "you didn't sell them the house, did you, michael?" he said he did. a family needed it. in parts of ireland, planning rules have a requirement for local connection to the area, which they say helps conserve and protect agricultural land. he said there is a bit of a clause, the previous owner apply for planning on the front entrance and she was granted planning to make it wider.

she was meant to hold onto the house for seven years but she only held onto it for two years. the bbc spoke to several locals who preferred not to go on camera. they confirmed complaint letters had been sent to the council and while they acknowledged they knew nothing about the stokes family, they spoke of travellers having a reputation for criminality and their fears that the area would become unsafe. others mentioned that the planning rules were made to protect the area and travellers should not expect to get around these rules. you are in a trailer off the side of the road, they will come along and send you on your way because they don't want you there. ok, no problem. but we went and brought our own property and we are still not allowed to live in peace. that is me and chris

about three years ago now. family friend noel murphy, who is not a traveller but lives in the local area, has been horrified at the level of complaints due to the family moving in. the area where they lived, they were involved with people in the community and all that kind of stuff so they don't lead that traveller life that we think travellers do. chris and star don't. they are settled people but they have that heritage. i think country people are a lot less likely to give travellers a chance, rather than city people, because city people are used to them now. they have been integrated with travellers for an awful long time. country people are not. they can be snobbish about their area and they don't want outsiders, least of all travellers. we are used to our life

and it is something we learn to accept but when it hits home like that, with an eviction notice, it threatens where you live and where you want to live... you have to to fight back and that is what we are doing. fighting back. my biggest fear is that they board up the house and make us leave. that is my biggest fear. ireland's relationship with its traveller population has never been an easy one. for years, the government worked on a policy of assimilation and enacted laws to try and bring travellers into the general community. three years ago, the irish government changed position and recognised travellers

to be an indigenous and distinct ethnic minority. since then, there have been moves to educate the population on traveller history. speaker: senator colette kelleher up to speak, and you have 12 minutes to outline your case, please. senator colette kelleher is behind a government bill that is still in its early stages 7 to teach traveller culture and history in schools. today i'm presenting the traveller culture and history and education bill, which is a bill seeking to right some of the wrongs in our education system that particularly affect people from the travelling community. as hannah mcginley. .. when you look at the hard facts and statistics about travellers‘ healths, mental healths, employment, accommodation, education, i mean, when you look at those hard facts, really the situation travellers find themselves in in ireland today is nothing short of a scandal.

there's a group of people living in our republic who are being treated very, very badly. it's the last acceptable form of racism. there's a gaping hole in our history around our only recognised ethnic minority. when we know better, when we're better informed, then i think the chances are of that prejudice and of that discrimination and that, kind of, stigmatising and othering of people would diminish. 19—year—old temera is a student at maynooth university. so many different people from, like, all over the place. all different accents. this college does absolutely everything, there's, like, 60 subjects to pick from.

last year, she was on a course designed to prepare students from marginalised communities to become teachers. this year, she's embarking on a degree in the hope of making her dream of becoming a teacher a reality. if i was asked, i wouldn't say i wasn't, but i'd never really bring it up unless i knew the person, kind of thing. so it's not like something — "hi, nice to meet you, i'm a traveller", no. it's not something you say. well, i wouldn't say it. tamira up in bray, a town just outside dublin. most of her family are settled travellers. not all travellers are exactly the same. i'm a traveller, i'm a young traveller in college wanting to be a primary school teacher. i knew it was possible but then after talking to her i thought, "she knows it all...

i know it all! who knows it all? tamira was aborted on the teaching course by director and mentor katrina. they've stayed in touch since. you have to get connected with the access office because i know you text me in the middle of the night and all, but they're the people that can link you and get the information you need much quicker than i can. i met tamira actually in an interview and it was probably the funniest. don't embarrass me, katrina! it's not embarrassing. she came in, she had fake tan on her hands, which i can relate to, because i have fake tan stains myself. it was the summer! and i just remember clearly in the interview, obviously i know the stereotypical information about travellers, young traveller women get married, don't go to education, blah, blah, blah, and you're not

about to ask about that stuff in interviews but i wanted to explore with tamira if she had family support. so, i remember saying to tamera, "what do your family think about you being here?" and i remember she said off—the—cuff, "well, me nanny and my mammy are supporting me here, and i'm17 now anyway, so i'm too old to be married, so i may as well become a teacher." i would get married but there's no rush. do you think you'd marry a traveller? no, i don't think so. why? i don't know. it's not like i'm saying i wouldn't but it depends on the person. it's not like i'd be going out specifically looking for a traveller husband. do you know that kind of way? like, if i found him and then he was a traveller, right, but if i found him and he wasn't a traveller, it's not a big deal either, do you know what i mean? woooh! come on, you have to have a go now. can you flip pancakes? no. you to me you can cook and clean.

i'd burn an egg if you let me, i would! only 13% of traveller women stay in school past the age of 16 compared to 69% of the general population. but this hasn't put tamera off pursuing her dream as a teacher. you got the course because you're, like, a young, vibrant female who demonstrated the ability to speak and you had motivation. it wasn't about you being a traveller, that's was just an added box to tick for the course. i'm pressuring you to be a teacher because i know little girls like you need to see people like you. i was on the course last year and there was one traveller, me. and i was going to say, in the space of me graduating, in the space of three months, four more travellers are on that course. my sister, she's only 12 now, so she's a good, like, eight years to go. hopefully by the time she gets to it, hopefully there isn't something, a barrier,

she will have to put up with. by then there will be a good few travellers in education where it's literally a normal thing, like, you shouldn't have to be standing up in a class and say, like, "my name's tamira, i'm a traveller." two weeks have passed and the stokes family have heard back from the council. this was an eyesore in the community for the last 11! year. but it's not good news. and the minute a traveller buys the house — it's disgraceful. very bad news really. the response we got two days ago, we're no further on. basically what he said in the letter and the e—mail is we don't fit the criteria, we have no links to the area. it's not fair in this modern world that we have

to highlight our children's disabilities, explain to you that we live in caravans and tents in and out of this place. we're all married a mile away from this place. it's not fair that we have to do that. the family have been told to either apply for new planning, despite already being told they don't fit the local criteria, or sell the house. am i meant to look for another local in the area? i don't know. because that's the only market we're allowed to obviously sell to, if that's the case — if you're only allowed to live here if you're from the area — so only someone from the area can buy it, so we're already restricted to how many we can sell it to, but that's not even an option. we are not animals, we are not criminals, we're not trying to do anything bad... you know, we're not these people that people are trying to portray us as. the typical traveller way, that everything we do is illegal and how we do things is illegal, but we're trying

to do the right thing and we're not let. i thought by buying our own house, moving into it, that everything will be fine. never in a million years... i knew there would be a bit of an uproar, i knew there would be an uproar — "oh my god, the traveller has moved in the side me, what's going to happen?" fairenough! after a couple of months i thought it would be fine, everything will be fine... that we're human! it has started to affect us more now because we are sick of the rejection after rejection. it's looking to me that they want us to just throw in the towel and back off. she's meant to turn around and say, "ah, chris, i don't want to live in that area and bring up my kids in that area," but it's not working for me. i'm going to stay here as long as i can, i'll fight it as long as i can because no matter where we go, we'll deal with that. just looking at him, i'm genuinely afraid. i have said it to him ? "you're going to have a mental breakdown".

this case is going nowhere in court, and we need to put it to an end for the family's sake. will you do that? probably sounds a bit too far—fetched, but i'm afraid in me life that the best part of our years — the next ten years, 20 years — the important years for the children to set them up as people for the future, it'sjust going to be consumed with all the racism, the house thing, all these things that shouldn't be happening to us. kilkenny county council's planning department has told the bbc that it deals with all complaints impartially and entirely rejects any suggestion that it has acted in a discriminatory manner. they say it considered all necessary information in the categories set out in the local area plan that doesn't allow for consideration of exceptional health circumstances or disabilities. since filming, kilkenny county council has agreed with the stokes that there will be no legal proceedings, including action towards eviction, until all possible non—legal solutions have been

explored and exhausted. three weeks after filming, noreen surprised everyone — she got married. hello. temperatures are set to climb over the next few days, peaking around the middle of the week with highs of 26 or 27 degrees in the south. a lot of dry weather as well, but the further north and west you are across the uk, the greater the chance

of seeing some outbreaks of rain. that's certainly the case on sunday — this frontal system passing across the northern half of the country, but that front running up against this area of high pressure, which will be keeping things dry down to the south, and the squeeze between that high pressure area and the frontal systems pushing in from the west will drive the air up from the south — an increasingly warm feel over the coming days. so, for sunday, we see some rain across the northern half of the uk. parts of north wales, northern england, just the odd spot of drizzle, which should tend to peter out during the day, and the rain across northern ireland and northern scotland will tend to fizzle around lunchtime but we expect more wet weather from the west into the late afternoon. further south, we'll see some spells of hazy sunshine, light winds here, more of a breeze further north you are and those temperatures, well, 17 degrees in aberdeen, 20, maybe 21 towards the south—east of england. just nine degrees there in lerwick, but shetland will spend much of the day under sunny skies. now, as we head through sunday night, we'll see these outbreaks of rain once again pushing across northern areas. further south, it stays predominantly dry with some clear spells, and certainly not a cold night — actually quite a mild one, nine to 11 degrees as we begin monday morning. and monday's weather

setup is a similar one. high pressure to the south, frontal systems to the north. notice, though, there is a bit of a gap between these two frontal systems, so even across northern areas, there will be a fair amount of dry weather. we see these outbreaks of rain drifting away from mainland scotland and up across the northern isles, then something a little bit drier, still with a fair amount of cloud. similar story for northern ireland, northern england — the odd spot of rain. further south, it's dry with some spells of sunshine and slightly warmer. again, 23 degrees in london. as we go into tuesday, it's another fine, dry, largely sunny day for much of england and wales, but for northern ireland and scotland, again we see cloud, we see some splashes of rain at times but not all the time. temperatures here, well, between about 1k and 18 degrees, but the further south and east you are, highs of 25 or 26. and we could touch 27 in the south on wednesday. by thursday, the increasing chance that we'll see rain spreading from the west, and it will start to turn

a bit cooler.

this is bbc news — welcome if you're watching here in the uk, on pbs in america or around the globe. i'm samantha simmonds. our top stories: italy's prime minister admits coronavirus cases could rise as the country is set to ease travel restrictions from early june. the uk education secretary warns the longer england's schools are closed, the more children will miss out as the government presses on with plans to re—open them. it's game on: germany's bundesliga becomes the first major european football league to restart — playing to an empty stadium. # waterloo, couldn't

escape if i wanted to...#