this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. i'm maryam moshiri. the calm before the storm — millions are moved from coastal areas — as a huge cyclone bears down on the bay of bengal. agreement for an international inquiry into how the who — and its member states —have handled the pandemic pollution and the pandemic — the world sees a dramatic a sombre warning for the uk economy as unemployment rises to its highest level for 20 years. — in the wake of the pandemic.

india and bangladesh are on high alert as we come on air. they're evacuating milions of people from the bay of bengal — as one of the biggest cyclones in 20 years, powers towards them. cyclone umpun is expected to make landfall later on wednesday. with winds of up to 185 kilometres an hour set to wreak havok on the region, as it still grapples with the coronavirus outbreak. there are fears that those fleeing the cyclone could end up spreading covid—19. louise lear has been tracking its progess from the bbc‘s weather centre. it's still an extremely severe cyclonic storm, and it has the potential to cause devastating impacts across parts of northeastern states of india and also bangladesh. notjust due to the strength of the winds and the huge storm surge across low—lying areas of 4—5 metres high, but it's the flooding rain.

now, if we take a look at the latest on the satellite picture, this storm has been forming and growing across the bay of bengal for nearly a week now. it looks likely to make landfall sometime during the latter stages of wednesday across northeastern states of india and into bangladesh. and then it is going to grind to a halt as it comes up to those huge mountainous himalayas in bhutan. that could have devastating impacts here, because the volume of the rain is going to cause significant flooding. now, the bright yellows and greens denoting the intensity of that rainfall, and the storm is going to be with us for the next few days. earlier, i spoke to debraj mitra, a reporter covering the cyclone for west bengal‘s widely read english daily, the telegraph. he is monitoring the situation from the ground in kolkatta. the cyclone, this is a live system that has a diameter of almost 700 km, so the entire

landfall process is going to take at least 5—6 hours. that is what the weather office is saying. so tentatively, it is expected to start hitting land around two o'clock and by the time the entire system hits land it is going to be i think 9:00pm , that is what the weather to permit is saying. and reporters are saying that millions of people are being evacuated from coast and low—lying areas, what preparations are being made right now? see, the storm is the second strongest storm in two decades in the bay of bengal. so while the area is not entirely... cyclones are not new to this place, but a cyclone of this scale is happening for the first time since 1999. from three districts of bengal, three low—lying districts of bengal, the cyclone is likely to cause maximum damage.

already, i think three people are being evaluated, also people are moving to some cyclone shelters and also some schools that have been set up as temporary shelters. 0bviously, everything is made so much more difficult by covid—i9 and the danger that that poses as well. well, this could not have come at a worse time, you know? a country already grappling with a global pandemic, so it's a challenge for the administration to try to maintain social distancing in these cyclones shelters. so what they have done, east bengal as a district where the cyclone is expected to make landfall in a series, so there are existing

cyclone shelters, but what the government has done is they have set up at least 600 additional cyclone shelters, mostly in schools. so they add more options and they will at least try to maintain social distancing protocols if there are more options, if there are more places that people can go to. debraj mitra, a reporter for the west bengal newspaper, the telegraph. member states of the world health organisation have adopted an eu resolution, calling for an "independent probe" into the global handling of coronavirus. it comes, after president trump and the chinese government traded barbs, over each other‘s management of the pandemic. the head of the european commission, ursula von der leyen, said the most courageous approach to the crisis, was to play as a team. the head of the who said, he welcomed an independent evaluation. here's his response. i thank member states for adopting the resolution which calls for an independent and comprehensive evaluation of the international response,

including but not limited to who's performance. as i said yesterday, i will initiate such an evaluation at the earliest appropriate moment. well earlier — i spoke to our global health correspondent tulip mazumdar. i asked how china will be impacted by the resolution. china wasn't specifically mentioned in this resolution, but if you are looking at how this pandemic started, what happened in those early days — and there has been criticism not just from the world health organisation, notjust from the us, i should say towards the world health organisation, but australian and other countries as well saying saying they were too close to china, that china wasn't transparent at the beginning, and get the who did continue to praise it. i think there will be some investigation into that as well, and certainly the us will be lobbying behind the scenes very hard for that to be part of this investigation. but broadly speaking,

all the countries that were speaking at the world health assembly over the last couple of days have talked about the importance of solidarity. it's been said again and again that one country alone cannot beat this. countries have to come together and work together to beat this, otherwise it's simply not going to go away. so that is something that will be reinforced, i think, as part of this investigation, that, you know, blaming, pointing fingers, it doesn't actually help the pandemic now. clearly what needs to happen is to look at how this pandemic was dealt with at the beginning to make sure that lessons can be learned so it doesn't happen again when a virus like this does hit again — which it inevitably will. let's get some of the day's other news. president donald trump has defended his controversial use of the drug hydroxychloroquine to ward off coronavirus. mr trump told reporters at a cabinet meeting that he thought it was "appropriate" for him to take it because two people who work in the white house had tested positive for covid—i9.

the syrian government has stepped up its attack on a cousin and former key member of president assad's inner circle. billionaire businessman rami makhlouf has gone public about his rift with president assad. a document apparently signed by the syrian finance minister is circulating online, ordering the seizure of the assets of mr makhlouf, his wife and his children. hungary's parliament has voted to ban transsexual people from altering their gender on official documents in a move activists say pushes the country back towards the dark ages. individuals will now have to register sex at birth on marriage and death certificates, as well as identity cards. 0ne rare positive effect of the past few months has been on the environment. the biggest ever reduction in the volume of carbon dioxide released into the world's atmosphere has been recorded since march. at the height of the lockdown, scientists discovered that daily emissions around the world dropped

by more than i7%. the biggest fall was in china — which saw a drop in emissions of 24%. but scientists are warning that this "extreme" reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is likely to be temporary — as our science editor david shukman explains. all over the world, some stunning transformations — from choked streets in india becoming calmer and easier to breathe in, to the most famous landmark in china suddenly looking clearer. to the centre of paris, often polluted, now quieter and cleaner. the fight against the virus has slowed down many economies, at huge cost. but it's also done wonders for the air and for the carbon emissions that are heating up the planet. the drop in traffic is a major part of that, here in the uk and globally. lower demand for electricity has also made a difference. along with the grounding of planes. fewer flights means less carbon

released into the air. it's a pattern seen around the world. the lighter the shade here, the bigger the decline in emissions — in some countries, up again, but still a huge change. the fall in emissions we're seeing, i7% per day, is enormous. we haven't experienced something like this before, as far as we can tell. it's driven by changes in road transport. now that china's out of lockdown, traffic there is building up, so emissions are rising once again. the carbon cut is not permanent. on some key roads, the traffic is starting to come back a bit as the lockdown is eased, but the impact of the different restrictions on the environment has been really striking. not only are those carbon emissions down, the quality of the air has got a lot better. different types of pollution have fallen dramatically. so, as the economy recovers, will we see a return to the toxic haze hanging

over our cities? experts in air pollution hope the crisis has shown what's possible. a very unfortunate natural experiment, but it does really show us that by changing the vehicles on our road, or reducing the vehicles on our road, and changing over to electric vehicles, we can immediately reduce air pollution — which is a very, very important message. many cities are now trying to encourage more cycling and walking, to help keep people safe from the disease and also to reduce pollution. their hope is that amid the nightmare of the virus, a greenerfuture can be created. david shukman, bbc news. here in britain a sombre warning about the prospects for the uk economy. the chancellor of the exchequer rishi sunak says it's "not obvious there will be an immediate bounceback" once lockdown restrictions are eased more fully. latest figures showed the number of people claiming benefits for being out of work have soared to the highest

level since the i990s as the official death toll roseto over 35,000. 0ur economics editor faisal islam reports they aren't cutting jobs at this west midlands fittings factory for shops and libraries, just like the officialjobs numbers, but only 12 workers — a third of employees — are manufacturing the now in—demand protective screens. the other 26 workers remain on the payroll — officially employed, but at home, with wages paid by the taxpayer. when you look at the alternatives, which is like redundancy or being laid off, then being furloughed is, erm, is a really good thing. it gives business an opportunity to carry on with its workforce. the boss is grateful, and unemployment has been kept down. the furlough scheme has really worked well for us. and if it wasn't for that, i don't know where we would be. the government's crisis job schemes have concentrated tens of billions into controlling

unemployment, but official jobs numbers will soon catch up with the pandemic crisis reality all around us. and other figures today did show how hard the jobs market has been hit. the 865,000 extra people claiming jobless benefits in april was a record monthly increase, taking the claimant count for jobseeker‘s allowance and universal credit to 2.1 million — the highest for 2h years. in some regions, nearly doubling. emma had been furloughed, but last week was told she'd lost herjob as an office worker at an essex construction firm and is finding getting a new one difficult. to be receiving a letter to say that i've been selected to be redundant, erm, is awful. petrifying. .. sorry, i can't help but get emotional about that, thinking about it. the number of job vacancies tumbled by a quarterly record to 637,000, so it will be harder to get a job too. i tried searching forjobs.

i've applied for tens, if not hundreds, of positions online, but due to being an office worker, there's no offices open, there's no interviews being taken at the moment. it's... it's a struggle to try and find something. across the economy, thousands of jobs that were furloughed — for example, at the cafe rouge restaurant chain — are now under threat. hundreds have been lost at retailer debenhams, and also in the transport sector, at british airways and at the ferry company p&0. benefit numbers are surging and vacancies are tumbling. just how far unemployment will shoot up is, for now, being limited by the government paying the wages of one in three workers. that is a bridge for the livelihoods of ten million people that will not last. and now, the chancellor whose schemes are built around the idea of a rapid bounceback in the economy says that it's not obvious

that that will occur. so, a significant rise in unemployment can't now be avoided, says the government. i certainly won't be able to protect every job and every business. we're already seeing that in the data. and no doubt, there will be more hardship to come. this lockdown is having a very significant impact on our economy. we're likely to face a severe recession, the likes of which we haven't seen. but the opposition said more is needed, especially for younger workers. we still have to be aware that the costs tend to fall on younger people, notjust because people who have lost theirjobs, but because they haven't been able to move into the workforce to begin with. the pandemic has caused a globaljobs catastrophe. even when lockdowns are lifted, it's when the support is withdrawn that the real picture will emerge. faisal islam, bbc news. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: we meet the somali boxer who's determined to be the first to punch her way to the top.

this is bbc news, the latest headlines india and bangladesh evacuate millions of people from coastal areas — as a huge cyclone bears down on the bay of bengal. unity as all member states of the world health organization back an independent evaluation into the handling of the coronavirus pandemic. in a normal year in the uk — local authorities step in and arrange some four thousand funerals — in cases where there are no family or friends — or if there's no money to pay for one. they‘ re called public health funerals. now undertakers are warning there'll be more this year because of the pandemic. 0ur correspondent angus crawford has this report. a finaljourney... there is a very visceral fear i think in everyone about ending up alone. ..for albert roy sadler.

links to family and friends, long broken, so no—one to follow the hearse. it causes you to look back and think, "well, why, how did things end his way?" only one mourner today — christina, from the council. people who might otherwise have been with us here today, roy's family and friends, are absent, and so it falls to us few here to pay our respects and to bid farewell to him. relatives, out of touch for years, care home staff in isolation. so, it's left to strangers to say goodbye. he was born in october 1937, shortly before the second world war, but roy's was a tough childhood, and in fact he never got to know his mum, who passed away... the actualjob is to arrange the funeral, but a funeral is a farewell and it is a summing up.

we have to have something to say — it would be too sad not to. so, christina set to work trying to find loved ones, building a picture of the man and his life. they do come into your affection, little snapshots of their personality, that you think, oh, i would have liked them. you know, and so, you're not going along just with a lanyard on as a council worker, tapping your hand, going, "when is this finishing so i can go to lunch?" you're going to a funeral of someone you kind of know. i have at every single funeral, i have to say, cried. emotions do get hard when you walk into the chapel and you notice very briefly that no one's there. the funeral director, too. grief may touch her work every day, but these services are especially difficult. we're all human. i would like to think that if any of my family members or friends was in these circumstances, that a funeral director looking after their funeral would feel as passionately as we do. these are real people.

they all had a life, or have a life, have a history, have a story. there is great poignancy in the fact that he has no friends or family here to mourn him. if relatives are untraceable, or simply can't afford to pay, often, the local council will step in. in fact, across the uk, last year, there were more than 4,000 public health funerals. but the warning is that the devastating impact of covid may mean many more in the months to come. on a personal level, i suppose there is almost sometimes a warning that, you know, don't take things for granted. things can go wrong, so, treasure those people who mean a lot to you, keep them close, and make sure your life doesn't go that way. would you please stand for the words of commendation and committal? it's nice to have got to know you — sadly not when you were alive,

but you seem like a nice man and i hope we did you proud at the end. "amazing grace" plays. for albert roy sadler, the journey ends. but thanks to christina, it doesn't end alone. # was blind, but now i see #. angus crawford reporting. the decision to postpone the 2020 tokyo 0lympics brought years of hard work and preparation to a temporary halt for hundreds of athletes. but the dream remains. ramla ali is hoping to be the first boxer to represent somalia, and is determined to make the games in 2021. she's continued her training from home in london. the bbc‘s rhodri davies went to meet her. somali boxer ramla ali didn't think her road to the olympics would lead here. she should be competing in qualifiers this month, but the coronavirus lockdown

means she's only practising from home, and having just finished a training camp in the caribbean cayman islands, she found out that the games were postponed. i understand completely why the decision was made, you know, to protect the safety of the athletes. 100% the right decision to be made, but, you know, it doesn't stop the fact that it's quite heartbreaking. last year, ramla ali became africans own featherweight champion and she was aiming to be the first boxer to represent somalia at the olympics in tokyo this summer. but now there are no boxing bags, no dumbbells, no athletics track. ramla does altitude cycling from the elevation of her balcony. she continues with two sessions a day but with crucial changes. the main difference between pre—lockdown training and lockdown training is missing out on that sparring, which is key in boxing. yet ramla aims to stay in peak condition, so she can start

fighting just six weeks after whenever lockdown ends. now that it's going to be postponed for a year, i'm still definitely going to try and qualify next year. ramla is also a model and pre—lockdown used endorsement incomes for her 0lympic outgoings — costing hundreds of thousands of pounds. during lockdown, potential deals have stopped, post lockdown, she will be forced financially to launch her professional career whilst also training for the amateur 0lympics. meanwhile, ramla's project as a unicef ambassadore and teaching self—defense classes are suspended. we've all become used to making changes amid we have all become used to making changes amid lockdowns, and for ramla ali, while she is training here in this car park for the olympics, she is also now doing her charity work virtually. back hand, you're going to throw a left hook. which means a weekly zoom boxing class, for primarily somali muslim females. and as a child, ramla ali fled were in some elliott

to refuge in london, so whether or not pandemic excludes her from the olympics, the first muslim woman to win boxing title will still strive to represent people from similar backgrounds. rhodri davies, bbc news. what an amazing woman. best of luck to her in 2021. now, a remarkable story from china — where a couple have been reunited with their son, 32 years after he was abducted as a toddler. the disappearance of two—year—old mao yin in 1988 became one of china's most notorious child abduction cases, in part because his parents refused to give up looking for him. rich preston has the story. this was the moment his parents we re this was the moment his parents were able to hug their son. for the first time in 32 years. he was just two years old when he was just two years old when he was taken in northwest china.

thousands of children go missing in china every year, but his parents never gave up hope. his mother, leigh, devoted her life to finding her son, giving up herjob, crossing the country handing out flyers and joining teams of volu nteers out flyers and joining teams of volunteers investigating other abduction cases. in her search for her own son, she helped 29 otherfamilies find for her own son, she helped 29 other families find their missing children. then, earlier this year, police got a tip—off about a man in southwest china and a suspicious adoption in the late 80s. it led them to a man named mrgoo, the late 80s. it led them to a man named mr goo, the used facial recognition technology and dna testing to confirm that mrgoo and dna testing to confirm that mr goo was and dna testing to confirm that mrgoo was in and dna testing to confirm that mr goo was in fact xxx. leading to money's emotional reunion. at the signs verified too many can be seen just by looking. the family resemblance is almost unmistakable. rich preston, bbc news.

an absolutely unbelievable story. you can reach me on twitter — i'm @ maryambbc thank you so much for your company. bye—bye. hello there. tuesday was very sunny and very warm for some of us but not for all. in fact, it was the warmest day of the year so far — with 26 degrees recorded in stjames' park in london. but i suspect wednesday will be warmer still and a little more widespread across the country. however, it's going to be a chance of a few thunderstorms on thursday, then as we head into the weekend, fresherfor all of us. but for the time being, high—pressure, the dominant feature, and it's keeping these weather fronts out in the atlantic for the moment. that's allowing ahead of it a southerly feed of very warm air coming up from the very near continent. so despite a little bit of early morning mist and fog around, it will be a mild start, as you can see, widespread double digits. now, any murkiness close to the coast will lift quite readily away, and there will be lots of sunshine coming through the day.

just a little bit of fairweather cloud into the north, and maybe some showery outbreaks of rain into the northern isles. here, a little disappointing, but the warmth will be quite widespread — low 20s into central scotland, as high as 27 perhaps in the southeast, that's 81 fahrenheit. it's worth bearing in mind if you are going to be spending a little more time outside, where we've got the sunshine, we are looking at high uv levels throughout the day. now, as we move out of wednesday into thursday, that whether front will start to push and from the atlantic, and it's going to bring some outbreaks of light showery ring to scotland. so starting off pretty grey and wet to the west, that will drift its way steadily east, allowing for an improvement. at the same time, it stays pretty hot and humid in the southeast corner, and that could trigger off a few sharp, thundery downpours. dodged the showers, keep the sunshine, again, we could see highs of 27 degrees. but the real change arrives on friday. you can see quite clearly,

more of a significant area of low pressure, tightly squeezed isobars around that centre of the low — that means the strongest of the winds look likely through northern ireland and western scotland. gales not out of the question. there will be some sharp showers or longer spells of rain as we go through the day. a little more cloud generally on friday, and as a result, not quite as warm — top temperatures of around 11—20 degrees. that's 68 fahrenheit. so a fresher start to the weekend, but book at this. for england and wales, as we go into next week, the heat is set to build yet again.

this is bbc news, the headlines...

brazil has become the country with the third—highest number of confirmed coronavirus infections. the country has now recorded more than 263,000 cases, placing it behind only the united states and russia. more than 1,000 people have died. millions of people are evacuated from the coastal areas of india and bangladesh, as a huge storm bears down on the bay of bengal. cyclone umpun is expected to make landfall later on wednesday. the world health organisation has defended its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, following criticism from the united states. it comes as the who's member states agreed to an independent evaluation of its response. global carbon emissions fell by more than a sixth at the height of the coronavirus lockdown, according to a new study. the reduction was partly due to a fall in the number of cars on the road.