the mayor of brazil's largest city, sao paulo, says the health system is close to collapse as demand grows for emergency hospital beds to deal with covid—19. he said the city's public hospitals had reached 90% capacity. almost 3,000 people have died in the region from coronavirus. official figures from japan show that the world's third largest economy has gone into recession. as a result of the coronavirus crisis, the country is on course for its worst economic slump since the second world war as a result. the government has already announced a trillion dollar stimulus package. a canadian military displayjet has crashed in a residential area in british columbia. one person has died and another is severely injured. the plane was part of the snowbirds demonstration team. it was taking part in a cross—country tour now on bbc news,

it's dateline london. hello and welcome to the programme, which normally hosts a roundtable discussion, debate and argument between some of the uk's leading columnists and the foreign correspondence who filed their stories for the folks back home with the dateline "london". well, we've kept the table and two of my guests are imagining their knees jammed under it even as we speak. eunice goes is a portuguese journalist and academic. and jeffrey kofman is an emmy award—winning broadcaster who was the us network abc's man in london. and our woman of the world is lyse doucet, the bbc‘s chief international correspondent. welcome, lyse. good to see you again. i think it's woman of w1 now.

grounded in london she may be, but always alert to the world beyond. now, the week in uk, boris johnson changed the government's coronavirus tune: "stay at home" is now "stay alert". according to pollsters, only a third of people in the uk think they know what it means. the first ministers in scotland and wales say whatever mrjohnson means, they prefer the old message, thank you very much, and are sticking with it. so, for now at least, it's the "disunited kingdom". let me ask you all first of all, how different has this week been for you? eunice, did you notice anything? did it feel different midweek when these restrictions were eased just ever so slightly? well, not really. i am lucky enough to be able to work from home, so i've stayed in my little haven of north london, and so i might go out...

i go out a little bit more than i used to, so i'm taking, when i can, two walks, and i continue to see my tube station is shut and few people in the streets. a little bit more in the parks, but my life has changed very little. jeffrey? well, i don't know that my life has changed but i know that a lot of life on the street has changed. construction sites around where i live are starting to come alive, more people on the streets, some of the fast food outlets are opening for take—out, but i think what's really changed is people don't really know what to do. the mixed messages from the prime minister and government... "stay alert", how do you stay alert to a virus you can't see? it's not like bombs being left in packages on the tube. i think this confusing message has forced people to make up their own rules. lyse, how's it been for you? as eunice said, she used the word "lucky". i think we are among the privileged, we have food in ourfridge, we have jobs and work to keep us busy, but i think all of us would embrace the slogan "in it together".

when you see that the restrictions have been eased, you think of those who are living in crowded apartments, trying to work at home with children, or really, really desperately need to get back to work. nothing like a breath of fresh air, and now we have more breaths of fresh air, it is wonderful. it means we linger a bit longer. iran into an opera singer singing outside her door this week and i thought, "maybe it's ok, i'll just stay a little while." as you started by saying we are all grounded, i used to travel a lot, and now i've become, to use the french word, a "flaneur" in london strolling the streets, and it's an absolute delight. i think all of us, all of us are listening to nature more, and i'm discovering bits of london as i walked home from work that i've never seen before. so there's light in the dark, but i think the easing of the lockdown means an easing of darkness for so many people. yeah, and it's a great thing in a city like london, it's safer at the moment to look up. you don't necessarily always have to look ahead of you. and you suddenly realise the history of buildings as you look further and further up, you see

the age of the buildings, never mind the modern signs, but you see what's up and beyond. jeffrey... what about you ? well, i've been moving around a bit more. i might be moving a bit further. the hope i might be socially distanced and be able to wave at my mum through the window down in devon perhaps this week for the first time in weeks. jeffery, you mentioned that mixed message, what do you make of how the prime minister is doing? i don't think this was a good week. i think he came out of his illness and there was a huge amount of empathy and he showed some humility in his first words. but the lack of clarity and this sloganeering are not what people are looking for. to say you can go back to work but you shouldn't really take the tube, public transport is now overcrowded, it's not meant to be but there are no directives, how do i behave at work? i think that this is borisjohnson exposing his weakest side, which is decisiveness, which is depth. there's a kind of superficiality

coming through from him. how that slogan, "stay alert" even got past him. you know, what were his advisers thinking when they came up with it, and when he looked at it, why didn't he say, "well, what will people do with this? what exactly is that meant to do to shape behaviour? " so i think this has been an extremely bad week for him in the sense of bringing the country together, helping us ease lockdown. as lyse says, people are living... this is really tough for so many millions of people in this country, and what they're looking for is clarity and leadership and direction. —— direction and honesty. i do not think that there is a sense that we are seeing that and the polling numbers would suggest that the confidence in borisjohnson is slipping. what do you make of the open discord we've seen between the prime minister of the uk and the first ministers in scotland and in wales? is itjust a bit of party

politics re—emerging? i think it's more than that, i think there are reall disagreements about the way ahead and the way to address this crisis. i think in scotland and wales the governments seem far more worried with the impact of easing the lockdown. let's say that britain has the highest rate of deaths in europe, so the situation isn't completely under control. the r numbers are not where they should be. it's far more than ideology, this old party politics, it is about worrying about livelihoods and there might be an issue of ideological approaches to this and the british government, the government of borisjohnson, has been trying to push forward and approach that allegedly tries to save the economy or prioritise the economy or livelihoods, so there's almost

this false dichotomy with either opening the lockdown a little bit in order to save the economy or you keep the restrictive measures for a little longer and you stifle the economy. this is a bit of a false dichotomy because actually we've seen from the countries that had not imposed lockdowns, sweden, for instance, and the other countries with a more laissez faire approach, while their economies have been as badly hit as the economies of spain or italy or france who have imposed really tough lockdowns. so i think it has to do with, on the one hand, there are different ideological approaches. this is a government that does not really believed in the power of the state, it is immensely preoccupied with the economic impact of the lockdown, and it is trying to... it's trying to address the concerns and anxiety of the population, but at the same time, still going to the default position of not believing in the power

of the state to actually do good. the question we're all learning more about science now... yes, eunice mentioned the r number — the re—infection rate. for the instructions to... citizens are sacrificing a lot and by and large observing and making the sacrifices, but there has to be sacrificed and common sense in it and the r rate, the figures released yesterday, the r rate, the reproduction of one infected person giving to how many other people, it's higher in scotland, it's higher in wales, it's higher in the north—east of england, it's falling in london, so there was an emphasis on the four nations approach, we should have common guidance, but if the r rate is different, then of course leaders, who have to be responsible to the people, they have to take different decisions about how fast and how far they want to open up. and it's very appropriate to talk about the uk and the potential divisions here, because british eurosceptics used to grumble that whenever the european union encountered a new problem, the solution was always

said to be more europe. well, if that was the brussels disease, perhaps the pandemic will cure it. 27 countries have pursued 27 different policies, with the closure of borders removing one of the continent's main selling points — borderless trade and borderless travel. covid—i9 has exposed yet again a deep fault line that became apparent a decade ago — the wealthier north doesn't want to share the cost of the poorer south. eunice, this is something you've been worried about this week, why? well, very much, because if europe does not get its act together, and by this i mean solidarity, have a european vision on how to address this crisis, the whole european project might as well unravel. we witnessed last week, or about 10 days ago, a ruling a week ago by the german constitutional court questioning the judgement of the european court ofjustice

on the bond—buying scheme of the ecb, so this is quite technical, but the long and short of this is that we have a national constitution court questioning the authority of the european court ofjustice. and in the european union, the rulings of the european court ofjustice, they have to be implemented by the member states, the buck stops with that court. the national courts have no say. so the ruling of the german constitutional court can set a really dangerous precedent in european practice. it can lead, for instance, to countries like hungary, which is already in a state of emergency, and practically a non—democracy in europe, or poland, or even the countries of greece, the governments of greece, italy, portugal, questioning rulings of the ecb on the grounds that they violate the remit of the european institutions.

the ecb being the european central bank? european central bank. so if you start to have many member states questioning the legitimacy of european institutions, that's pretty much the beginning of the end. now, on the other point you made about the lack of solidarity between the north and south, and so the divisions between the alleged saints of the north and the alleged sinners of the south, this essentially can have profound consequences because so far, the european union has tried to come up with a comprehensive response to the coronavirus, and so the not exactly 27 different solutions, the approaches of each member state, are actually extremely similar, but europe will need to come up with a marshall plan for europe because the economic consequences of covid—19 will be very, very dire. we're going to see the impact, for instance, of the closure of the tourism industry in southern europe.

this is going to be completely catastrophic. it's predicted a doubling of unemployment in europe until the end of the year. this is extremely concerning. and so if the european union does not come up with a comprehensive solution, that is about solidarity, about burden—sharing, as opposed to loans, and those loans then have attached to it a lot of austerity measures that will make the solution even worse, then this will lead to very ugly politics and pretty much the unravelling of the european project. jeffery, are you as worried about this, because unlike saying the financial crisis of a decade or ago, when the northern european countries in part were blaming the southern europeans that their behaviour, as eunice was saying, they were somehow sinners, they hadn't been good europeans, they hadn't saved, they spent,

and all the rest of it, the reality of this isn't to do with whether you're a good or bad country, everyone gets this, you are a victim of this virus, and therefore that argument that some of the northern european countries were making then, that should be a lot weaker this time, shouldn't it? what worries me and what scares me more than the virus itself is the political virus that seems to have taken hold in the world where it makes it impossible... the agendas of different countries, of different leaders, have so divided the world at a time when the world needs to come together. it's notjust the european union. where is the united nations in this? look at the world health organization and the issues of the politicisation of it by president trump. instead of seeing leaders come together in this, as we saw after the second world war when the world was obviously ruined and ravaged, we're not seeing that now, and as big a threat as the science is, the inability of leaders to come together and say, "we need to work together, we need to pool our scientific knowledge and we need to create

plans to support economies so this doesn't destroy people's lives for a generation and lead to instability and fracture in ways we can only begin to imagine". and globally, lyse, do you think there is evidence of this fracture? what is really heart—warming is that the scientists keep telling us that we are working together as never before, and we are all now focused as individuals and societies and as the world on this race for a vaccine. once it is found, how will it be produced and how will we get it? that will become the political question. there has to be a global response to that, but the fact is that the united nations security council, the premier political body of the world, created out of the ashes of the second world war, has been missing in action and largely because of the tussling

between the united states and china over the who and other issues which are driving an even greater wedge between them. it is really shameful. the acting president of the security council used that. it is shameful. if there ever was a moment to stand together — well, two metres apart — it is now. one for one and one for all. all for one and one for all. we will rise and we will die together. thus far, i haven't seen anyone suggest that the latest anti—trump song doing the rounds on social media, ‘the liar tweets tonight', a skit on the lion sleeps tonight, first covered by the doo—wop group the tokens in the early 60s, is anti—trump propaganda made in china. in what he hopes is his re—election year, mr trump wants quite a bit less of everything made there. so the us president will doubtless approve of the taiwanese manufacturer tsmc, which announced friday plans to build a factory producing computer chips in arizona, in the usa, hours before the trump

administration outlined plans which would require companies supplying the chinese telecom giant huawei, a great bogeyman of the us, to get permission from the us department of commerce. huawei relies on tsmc for all its high—end chips. the taiwanese firm wants that to continue, and building in the us gives it a strategic hedge against the deterioratinfg relationship between china and the united states. geoffrey, that is something that we were talking about there. what is happening in the china and us relationship? how bad is that, how much worse is it going to get, and what are the consequences? it is really bad and, the odd thing is, because of the mercurial nature of president trump — it seemed to be getting better a month ago, they were friends, but in his... donald trump's very clear priority is to position himself for re—election — let's not

kid ourselves there. he sees this pandemic through a partisan lens and he is searching for ways to rally his base and he is neutralising his ability to hold those mass rallies. where does he look? he looks for some kind of enemy to point to. the virus came from china — as he reminds reporters. for him there is an opportunity to vilify china, he says they inflicted it on america, they are america's mortal enemy. what is worrisome is, one, we need to work together. china had this virus first, they have science that is advancing faster than anywhere, and we need to be pooling resources and not creating animosities. the long—term consequence is that this new form of cold war could break out and undermine a world of global cooperation

and this detente that we have lived with for the last couple of generations. there is a lot at stake here, but what is really worrisome when you look at the united states — we have seen it and talked about it around this table before, but it is getting amplified week by week — the injection of partisan politics into everything that happens in the white house. it is undermining the need for a coordinated effort to control and ultimately solve this pandemic middle. china is very particular about the control it exercises aver china is very particular about the control it exercises over the messages that are expressed about it. i mentioned taiwan — that is a notorious example of something that china insists is a part of china and woe betide any academic institution or country

would insist that taiwan is a separate nation. an eu ambassador got into trouble in china a few weeks ago for allowing a statement about the vaccine to be altered at the chinese government's behest. it is a really difficult thing for a lot of countries to deal with, how they handle china? absolutely. in europe there is a lot of concerns about the ambitions, the economic ambitions of china, because over the last decade beijing and many chinese state and chinese companies have been buying quite a lot of imported assets over europe. they are praying on the fragile economies that were battered by the eurozone crisis to buy electricity countries to anything else, and now they are supplying medical equipments to those european countries. we are seeing a much more robust diplomacy coming from beijing,

so there is a bit of a charm offensive but a little bit more showing of the teeth in the links with europe, so there are reasons to be concerned, but going back to the question of donald trump's dealings with china, it is clear that this is done for electoral reasons and it was something that was explored and was a winning formula in 2016. he is doing it again. president trump is worried about what is going to happen in novemberwhen there is a presidential election. he signed a law this week which mentioned the possibility of cancelling the presidential election, which of course the white house cannot cancel, but this statement can be seen as a sign of how worried trump is with the impact of covid—19 over his personal ratings and also the whole effect on the us economy. the last thing that america needs

at the moment is a trade war with china. europe will eventually need to tread carefully, but i do not think we can expect any careful statements coming out over from the united states at the moment. another group in his sights at the moment are inspectors—general, the people who oversee the federal government and make sure it is behaving itself. another one got news late on friday evening that he was going to be fired? yes, reports are coming in so far that someone in the state department who initiated an investigation into the secretary of state, mike pompeo, has been removed. president trump says, "he lost our confidence." it is another alarm bell. there is lots of reports in american including editorials, saying that this is a time when there needs to be a regulatory framework when such eye—watering sums of money are being spent, when the nation is at stake, we need

to hold authorities responsible. do not get rid of that oversight, because it helps keep our officials on their toes, so this is yet another example. we have seen it in the navy during this pandemic and in other parts of the us government, so yet again it is a worrying sign. geoffrey, the news was on friday night that steve linnock would be fired and he got 30 days notice. last month we had the removal of one of the government's financial relief operations, and they lost chrissy grimm, who was fired from the health general. the intelligence community inspector general, michael atkinson, was also fired. what is his problem

with these people? he does not like to be accountable. the whole principle of the inspectors general is their oversight. they are looking after the taxpayer's interest when it comes to the billions and trillions being spent routinely and hastily. the need for this kind of oversight is massive, and trump does not like to be questioned and we know this. this is one of those characteristics. he hates being challenged, and he wants to be able to deal as he wants to deal, whether it is above board or not. we need to know but he doesn't want us to. ithink... i don't want to sound apocalyptic here, but i think that the virus of politics is as menacing to the world right now as the pandemic. the great american experiment of 250 years is really tested in a way that civil rights and world wars have not tested it.

the resilience and independence of its political institutions are being undermined daily by this, and they have consequences. we are not simply get through if people and politicians do not stand up and hold the president and the republicans around him, who are just blindly endorsing him, accountable. this is a really serious challenge of the fundamentals of democracy, and it is ultimately about positioning him to hold onto power for another four years. this is our last few moments. the weather is warming up over the uk this weekend. the beaches of greece have opened. what one thing are you most looking forward to do when the restrictions in england are eased so much more? eunice. going to the theatre. that is one of the things i miss the most. geoffrey. seeing friends face—to—face.

i am so over staring at a computer screen to talk to people. lise. i want to see friends face—to—face at a safe distance, just have a good laugh and have a good discussion — you just feel it through your whole body when you see someone because it reminds you that human contact via skype is not the same thing. reminds you that human contact via zoom is not the same thing. thank you, and i look forward to hugging you when it is safe to do so. that's it for dateline london for this week. we're back next week at the same time. goodbye.

hello. there is some wet weather and some warm weather in this weather forecast. first, most of the wet weather will be found across the northern half of the uk. further south, it'll be largely dry, and quite widely it'll become very warm for a time around the middle of the week. the end of the week will feel a bit different. it'll be cooler, windier and more unsettled for all of us. now, you can see frontal systems which will be pushing across northern areas over the next few days, bringing cloud. yes, this cloud producing some outbreaks of rain, but it is to the south of those frontal systems that things will turn increasingly warm and increasingly sunny for just about all of us by wednesday. but, as far as monday goes, some rain to start off across northern scotland. that will increasingly become confined to the northern isles. the north of the mainland will brighten up, with some sunshine. we will see quite a lot of cloud persisting across southern scotland, north—west england and northern ireland. patchy rain here, which could become heavier from the west into the afternoon. further south, some spells of hazy sunshine. it will be a breezy day,

quite a windy one, actually, across northern scotland. but as far as the temperatures go, well, 18 degrees in aberdeen, 17 in belfast, but a high of 2a across some parts of south—east england. now, as we go through monday night into the early part of tuesday, we'll see more splashes of rain at times across northern ireland, northern england and scotland. some clear spells further south, but look at those overnight temperatures — 11,12 degrees the minimum values for some. so a very mild start to tuesday morning. again we see a lot of cloud across northern areas, with some patchy rain at times. it's likely to be quite misty and murky for some of these western coasts, as well. further south and further east, that's where we see the best of the sunshine and, once again, the highest of the temperatures. 25 degrees looks likely in london by this stage. now, as we move into wednesday, high pressure firmly in charge for the middle of the week, these frontal systems being held at bay for the time being. so i think wednesday is going to be the sunniest day of the week, even northern ireland and scotland brightening up by this stage. the exception — shetland here.

here, you'll hold onto a lot of cloud, some splashes of rain, temperatures topping out at around 9 degrees. further south, though, a high of 27 degrees is possible. now, things do change for the end of the week. we could see some thunderstorms breaking out on thursday. it turns windy for all of us on friday, with some rain at times, and by this stage it'll feel 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 lewis vaughan—jones. our top stories: protests in brazil's largest city — opposing the state's lockdown — but the mayor warns the health system is about to collapse. japan's economy slides into recession for the first quarter — the country's on course for its worst slump since the war. an aerial display to salute health workers in canada goes terribly wrong — with a militaryjet crashing into a residential area. and, world health ministers meet online on monday to discuss coronavirus.