this is bbc news, with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. i'm mike embley. america's coronavirus death toll tops 90,000, as president trump says he's been taking an unproven drug to prevent coronavirus. i happen to be taking it. hydroxychloroquine? the world health organization pledges an independent inquiry into the pandemic, but the us renews its criticism. the british government adds loss of smell or taste to its official list of symptoms. doctors say it should have

been done weeks ago. cyclone amphan powers towards india and bangladesh — two million people are fleeing the coast. hello and welcome to audiences in the uk and around the world. latest figures from the united states show that more than 90,000 people with coronavirus have now died. that's out of a total of more than 1.5 million cases. the figures were released on the day president trump said he is taking an antimalarial drug as a precaution against the virus. mr trump, who's tested negative several times, said he'd been taking hydroxychloroquine for a week and a half. the president has repeatedly promoted the anti malaria drug as a coronavirus treatment despite his own government's warning against its use. a lot of good things have come

out about the hydroxy. a lot of good things have come out and you would be surprised at how many people are taking it. especially the front—line workers before you catch it. the front—line workers, many, many are taking it. i happen to be taking it, i happen to be taking it. hydroxychloroquine? i'm taking it. hydroxychloroquine. right now, yeah. a couple of weeks ago i started taking it. i've heard a lot of good stories. and if it's not good, i'm not getting hurt by it. it's been around for a0 years for malaria, lupus, other things. front—line workers to get a lot of doctors take it. i take it. i hope to not be able to take it. i hope they come up with some answer. that is the president. although there are trials under way to see if the drug has any value in treating or preventing covid—i9, president trump's use of it, contradicts

us official advice. the food and drug administration cautions against its use saying it is "aware of reports of serious heart rhythm problems in patients with covid—i9 treated with hydroxychloroquine and hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine have not been shown to be safe and effective for treating or preventing covid—i9". even american cable network fox news, which often takes a supportive position towards the administration, was critical of the president's comments. if you are in a risky population here and you are taking this as a preventative treatment to ward off the virus or any worst—case scenario you are dealing with the virus and you are in this vulnerable population, it will kill you. i cannot stress enough. this will kill you. my colleague in washington, katty kay, gave her reaction to the president's remarks. he has dropped as at the end of this press availability and said the only reason you don't know i've been taking it is

because abby has ever asked me. i suppose gnabry has ever really thought to ask him are you taking a drug their own medical advisors say is a bad idea to take if you have the coronavirus? agassi may argue i don't have the coronavirus, as drug as he said there has been around for a long time, it is usually there to treat malaria, so usually there to treat malaria, so why not take it if they feel like it? then he had a slightly strange story about a doctor from upstate new york who had written to him and said he found great things with it and that seemed to be the reason that seemed to be the reason that he is taking it at the moment. i'd... ithink that he is taking it at the moment. i'd... i think there is quite a lot of scepticism that they have been looking at in they have been looking at in the last few minutes as to whether the president really is taking hydroxychloroquine. we may never know. we haven't seen a picture of him actually swallowing a hydroxychloroquine pill and it could be this is a way for him to say i'm taking it, this is fine, this drug guy was pushing for a long time, they believe all those negative stories. that is the bbc's katty kay there.

to talk more about hydroxychloroquine and whether is has any possible benefits is dr yogen kanthi, assistant professor in the division of cardiovascular medicine at the university of michigan. welcome, thank you very much for your time. it is an old drug and has been used in autoimmune diseases. thank you. is going to be. it is an old drug. 0riginally used to treat and prevent malaria. more recently for autoimmune disease like lupus. it has been used for quite a while for these reasons. it is used in —— is using coronavirus is much more controversial. there really was only studies that suggested perhaps the drug hydroxychloroquine could prevent coronavirus from replicating in a dish and there was hope that would translate over to people and u nfortu nately over to people and unfortunately the evidence really hasn't shown that to be the case and that treatment with hydroxychloroquine hasn't modified the course of disease in patients with covid—i9.

modified the course of disease in patients with covid-19. so the tests that suggested it might stop covid—i9 from spreading, that was in a lab, humans are more complex, that they would need to be proper trials and they have not been? there have been some observational studies done. these are studies in which they have looked at people in hospital with covid of france as those in new york, and those thatis, as those in new york, and those that is, when they looked back on them, they are not controlled, randomised trials donein controlled, randomised trials done in the traditional sense, but they did look back at the date on several thousand patients and didn't find any evidence that treatment with hydroxychloroquine could really change the course of patients with covid—i9 or, more importantly, it would not benefit them. could it be harmful? as a cardiologist, i've known, and our community has known for a while, that hydroxychloroquine has some effects on the heart muscle and it can cause a predilection to developing cardiac arrhythmias.

in most patients this isn't the case, it really doesn't cause a problem, but if you were vulnerable to this or you had a series of other medications like, for example, some antibiotics, which can cause the same thing, as these things get added on top of each other it could really increase the risk of a arrhythmia and u nfortu nately risk of a arrhythmia and unfortunately that is what we have seen in some patients, is that treatment with hydroxychloroquine at high doses plus the addition of an antibiotic can increase the risk of these heart arrhythmias and some of which can be fatal. let's leave aside the politics here, i know you are not a politician, the president has been known to say things to ta ke been known to say things to take the headline away from things he would prefer not to see me headlines. does the very fa ct see me headlines. does the very fact that the president claims to use it remote its use, is that a worry? i think will be worried most about is that patients people, the public is looking for hope. they're looking for hope. they're looking for hope. they're looking for something that will serve as a cure or prevent them from getting the disease. so

people will grasp at straws, at any opportunity to try and prevent themselves from getting sick stop so anything that has really pushed forward in the media or in the press is going to then start to grab people's attention and they are going to wa nt to attention and they are going to want to find something that might help stop and i think in that sense this drug, amongst many others, does catch people's attention and may increase the risk, the rate of prescriptions are then filled. doctor, thank you very much. pleasure. thank you. praise and fierce criticism have been heaped on the world health organization. the online meeting of its governing assembly was attended by more than 190 countries with china pledging $2 billion over two years to fight the coronavirus. leading the charge against the who was us health secretary alex azar. he accused the agency of failures that cost lives. imogen foulkes reports. applause . the coronavirus pandemic has,

in many ways, united us. neighbours have tried to support one another, communities around the world have expressed gratitude to their health workers. but it has also divided us. the us and china are in gauged in a war of words about the handling of the pandemic. the world health organization, viewed by washington as being too close to china, has had its funding cut. so, today, the un's chief spoke out. covid-19 must be a wake—up call. it is time for an end to this hubris. the who is irreplaceable. particularly to provide support to developing countries, which must be our greatest concern. we are as strong or as weak as our systems. it seems to work. member states dialled into this unprecedented virtual summit to pledge loyalty to the who.

china promised $2 billion of extra funding. francis said any vaccine must be a global public good available to all. south korea said the who should have more power to tackle future pandemics stop in return, the who promised an investigation into this one. i will initiate and independent evaluation at the earliest appropriate moments to review experience gained and lessons learned and to make recommendations to improve national and global pandemic preparedness and response. but it wasn't also friendly. the us, one of the last to speak, wouldn't let its criticism of the who rest. we saw that who failed at its core mission of information sharing and transparency when member states do not act in good faith. this cannot ever happen

again. the status quo is intolerable. who must change and it must become far more transparent and far more accountable. but at this meeting the us was in a clear minority and looks increasingly isolated. despite controversy around some of its actions, the who itself may emerge from this crisis not weaker, but stronger. imogen foulkes, bbc news. here in the uk, the government has changed its guidelines for symptoms of the coronavirus. a loss of taste or smell is now classed as a major sign that you have the virus, in addition to a high temperature and a new, continuous cough. some doctors say that these symptoms should have been added weeks ago and hundreds of thousands of cases may have been missed as a result. the daily toll of officially recorded deaths has risen by 160 to nearly 34,800. that is likely to be a minimum figure. our medical correspondent fergus walsh reports. we would spray some pepper spray into this hood,

and if we could smell it, then the mask wasn't fitted properly. surgeon sinan barazi realised he had lost his sense of smell when he was being fitted with personal protective equipment. he kept on working and it was only days later, when he'd developed a fever, that he was swabbed and found to have coronavirus. i couldn't smell it, after 20 or 25 sprays. clearly if you're walking around unaware that you're covid positive, then you're a potential source of spread of the virus. so, i could have infected colleagues, i could have infected patients without knowing it. until today, the only coronavirus symptoms people in the uk were told to self—isolate with were a high temperature or a new and continuous cough. now, loss of taste or smell have been added, but that's weeks after the world health organization included them as symptoms. the who also lists tiredness, aches and pains, sore throat, diarrhoea, conjunctivitis, headache and skin rash as other possible warning signs.

on the first of april, this symptoms app from king's college london found that six in ten users who tested positive for covid—i9 had reported a loss of smell or taste. researchers say the uk has been slow to act and so missed a huge number of cases. we're talking in excess of100,000, maybe 200,000 cases, would have been missed, would have been out there infecting other people, increasing the r value, and i think this hasjust made the problem worse, caused problems in care homes and hospitals, that we will regret we didn't act earlier. loss of smell — technical term anosmia — was added only after government scientists were sure it would help improve detection. how many cases of covid—i9 do you think have been missed as a result of not including this earlier on?

this the important thing was to work out if this would add any sensitivity to the diagnostic cluster we were using, and the answer is, it makes a small, very small, difference, and we have therefore decided to do it. former love island star rachel fenton was another whose loss of taste and smell was her main symptom. a nurse, she later tested positive for covid—i9. it was very difficult for me at the time because i didn't have anything to refer to, i didn't realise it was a symptom. it was so severe, i could have literally drunk a cup of vinegar, the loss of taste and smell was so strong. adding loss of sense of smell as a key symptom should ensure fewer positive cases fall through the net — crucial, if the epidemic is to be brought under control. fergus walsh, bbc news. the supreme court in el salvador has ordered the immediate suspension of the state of emergency declared by president nayib bukele.

the president, who has been accused of exceeding his powers, had ordered the state of emergency on saturday, when previous orders were set to expire, without congressional approval. our americas editor, candace piette, can tell us more. this is an odd one, is the president out of line? why has the supreme court done this? the court says the president ordered the extension to the emergency without congressional approval. now, the existing laws can arguably allow the president to declare emergency if the congress is not sitting, and with the risk of the virus spreading, he has attempted to justify his actions. are there serious protests about the restrictions? how much concern was that among the wider population? certainly the backgrounds to all of this is

that mr bukele has been accused of exceeding his powers and authoritarian tendencies. at the beginning of the lockdown in march he has started arresting so—called violators of the lockdown and putting them into containment centres where they were being held in very close and poor conditions. and earlier in the year, he marched into congress with a group of soldiers and demanded the congress find his security plans. a lot of people are concerned he is exceeding his remit and is governing by bullying. so the court fell it was necessary to start putting him back into line, perhaps. that one clearly developing, candace, iam that one clearly developing, candace, i am sure we will get back to it. stay with us on bbc news.

still to come: with economic activity shrinking across asia, we talk to an expert about what governments can do to help the workforce. this morning, an indian airforce plane carrying mr gandhi's body landed in delhi. the president of india walked to the plane to solemnly witness mr gandhi's final return from the political battlefield. ireland has voted overwhelmingly in favour of gay marriage. in doing so, it has become the first country in the world to approve the change in a national referendum. it was a remarkable climax to what was surely the most extraordinary funeral ever given to a pop singer. it has been a peaceful funeral demonstration so far, but suddenly the police are teargassing the crowd. we don't know why. the prelaunch ritual is well—established here. helen was said to be in good spirits, butjust a little apprehensive. in the last hour, east timor has become the world's newest nation.

it was a bloody start for a poor country, and the challenges ahead are daunting. but for now, at least, it is time to celebrate. welcome back. very glad to have you with us. this just in, welcome back. very glad to have you with us. thisjust in, a white house document has confirmed president trump has been prescribed and antimalarial drugs as an preventative for the coronavirus. the american government has strongly rebuked the world health organization, accusing it of costing many lives by failing to provide information at the start of the pandemic. as many asian governments start thinking about how to open up after the covid—i9 restrictions, the usually hectic streets are still generally quiet. measures to stop the spread of the virus have encouraged citizens to stay at home, but that threatens many

millions of people with financial hardship. and economies in china orjapan have shrunk for the first time in years. let's get more on the employment situation in asia with sara elder, a senior economist at the international labour organization. thank you very much for your time. how do you see economies in asia coming out of this? well, i... for every positive thing we're seeing we're seeing five negative signals. so i think this is going to be a long and slow recovery. we see for example, production in china are heating up, which is very good news. but if you dig a bit deeper, you will see that is actually a fulfilling of existing orders that were blocked during the time of the lockdown and now they are catching up but not exactly new orders coming in. the negative sign think we had yesterday that japan is now officially in recession, the first time since

2015. most negative is how harshly this is impacting the workers and the livelihood of workers and the livelihood of workers around the region. how would this region's recovery, when it comes, compare with the us and the uk? historically, there has been a great deal of resilience among the asian relation and economies, but i think this time it is going to bea think this time it is going to be a bit harsher. we know that there has been approximately a 10% reduction in working hours across the region, which if we put it in the equivalency of humanity, comes to 175 million for all time workers —— full—time workers losing their livelihood. so the big challenge will be to get these workers are back on their feet. how reliable are the figures? a lot of workers, i think, in asia are transitory, they don't

have contracts or necessarily full employment at all. and they reflected in the figures? they absolutely are reflected. these are not the unemployment figures, these are losses of working hours. the amount of this that will translate into unemployment has to do a lot with the policies that enterprises put in place to retain workers. and the ability of government to take care of those workers when they do lose theirjobs. sorry to interrupt. do you see particular countries recovering faster than others? we do, we do. and here we have the irony of those that will be best prepared to get back on their feet quickly best prepared to get back on theirfeet quickly are best prepared to get back on their feet quickly are those that had adequate social protection systems in place prior to the crisis. we find that the other countries are a

bit scrambling to help enterprises retain workers. they are doing so at unprecedented levels, heroic levels, i would say. we have good examples from vietnam, for example, that is doing quite well and innovating in areas of social protection, even where they didn't prior have a system in place to reach out to the vulnerable informal workers that they were able to innovate and do so quite quickly. this, i think it will help those workers get back on their feet more quickly. sara elder, many thanks. thank you very much. the first ‘super cyclone' in the bay of bengal since 1999 is bearing down on bangladesh and the north—east of india. forecasters say cyclone amphan has wind speeds in excess of 200km/h with even stronger gusts. it is expected to weaken slightly when making landfall on wednesday.

our correspondent yogita limaye in mumbai has the details. india's prime minister held a meeting with the national disaster authority and teams are on the ground preparing for evacuation of the western states. in bangladesh we are told the first batch of people will be evacuated north of the pseudo— barnes delta. both of these countries are very experienced when it comes to dealing with cyclones every year. from april to november we have storms developing in the bay of bengal. this year it isn't even difficult process because we are also dealing with the coronavirus outbreak. last year cyclone fani, which hit larissa, was a massive cyclone, but the loss of life was quite small compared to the devastation that was reached across it 16 people were killed, 1 million people were evacuated. imagine trying to

evacuated. imagine trying to evacuate that many people when also trying to maintain social distancing, making sure that this doesn't cause a massive coronavirus outbreak. india's national disaster response steve has talked about this, saying this is a jewel challenge that teams on the ground are facing. bangladesh, being told, is apart from the existing cyclone shelters, they are also trying to convert schools and other durable structures to housed people so not everyone is crammed into small places. a massive evacuation is expected to happen on tuesday, the cyclone is expected to make landfall on wednesday. according to india's weather department, they are expecting wind speeds were slightly reduced by the time and makes landfall, but even then, we're talking about very strong, gusty winds. heavy rainfall in coastal areas and of course storm surges as well.

yogita limaye for us in mumbai. as businesses across the us are slowly reopening their doors, many are having to get creative when it comes to maintaining social distancing rules. in spain, officials intend to launch a basic income programme of $500 a month. this fish restaurant in ocean city, maryland, is using bumper tables strapped to customers to keep them from getting within six feet of each other. who said social distancing couldn't also be fun? you could also jump you could alsojump in the river with that stop let's bring you this important update on that man's story. we are hearing confirmation the white house physician has written in a memo that president trump has indeed been taking hydroxychloroquine for two

weeks. the memo says the potential benefit from the drug out weighed the risks. but the food and drug administration still cautions against its use, reporting heart rhythm problems in the revision 19 patients —— in covid—19 patients using the drug. on monday, the temperature reached 25 celsius in suffolk and over the next couple of days the heat will continue to build. the bigger the temperatures is likely to be on wednesday. things start to break down a bit of that, chance of thunderstorms on thursday before we all turn good and windier by the end of the week. pretty mild out there at the moment, these other temperatures by the end of the night. as you can see, still a lot of cloud around. some outbreaks of rain, too. that ran continuing to affect northern half of the uk mainly during tuesday morning. slowly petering out, many bases become

dry during the afternoon, the cloud, the skies brightening. the rest of the sunshine likely to be across wales, the midlands, and southern england, picking a 25 degrees. on the whole that should be a woman day across the uk than it was on monday. those temperatures continue to claim for wednesday. that area of high pressure is sitting under the uk, pushing cloud and rain away. and we're going to be drawing upa away. and we're going to be drawing up a gentle, southerly breeze that will bring vicki northwards all the way from spain and france. and it will move its way across the uk. northern areas like cloud on wednesday, some range of the row from the northern isles, the cloud thins and breaks in sunshine develops more widely. and in the afternoon we are more likely to paint images at 23 degrees through the central scotla nd 23 degrees through the central scotland area, and for northern ireland, i temperatures across the midlands and south—east of england, 28 degrees or so. things began on thursday, some rain trying to come in from the west, that might not make it

too far. it could be heavy towards lincolnshire with those hours. that will knock temperatures down. it's still warm for many of us on thursday just not quite as warm as wednesday. then things that you change more widely, i think of the end of the week because we have this area of low pressure. it's winding itself up, the winds will be strengthening in this weather front will be bringing some rain. that will move its way eastwards across the uk during friday but there will not be much rain for england and wales. persistent rain will sweep away from mainland england and scotland, this is where we will see most of the showers. a cooler and fresher feel, cooler and 21 of the showers. a cooler and fresherfeel, cooler and 21 in eastern england.

this is bbc news. the headlines: latest figures from the us show at least 90,000 people have now died with coronavirus — almost a third of the global total. there have been more than one and a half million recorded cases of covid—19. it's now been confirmed by a white house physician that president trump has been taking an unproven antimalarial drug, in the hope of helping prevent infection, even though his own administration as a precaution. the trump administration has once again criticised the world health organization's response to the coronavirus pandemic, accusing it of costing many lives by failing to provide the information the world needed. in response, the agency's director—general said they had sounded the alarm early and often. india and bangladesh are preparing to evacuate more than two million people as cyclone amphan heads towards their coasts. it's expected to make landfall on wednesday. this would be the first super cyclone in the bay of bengal in 20 years. it is likely to trigger heavy rains and tidal surges.