welcome to bbc news. our top stories: brazil's daily death toll passes 1,000. it's now the third worst—hit country for infections in the world. taiwan's president, tsai ing—wen, is inaugurated for a second term after an election dominated by the island's relations with china. pollution and the pandemic: the world sees a dramatic improvement in air quality. the pharmaceutical giant johnson &johnson to stop selling talcum powder in north america over allegations it contains cancer—causing asbestos.

brazil has, for the first time, registered a daily death toll of over 1,000 in one day. the overall death toll is now 17,971 and the total number of infections isjust over 271,000. it is notjust by far the worst—hit country in south america, it's also the third highest death toll in the world. this shows the trajectory of the daily total of recorded deaths going up and up. the bbc‘s katy watson in sao paulo has more. well, brazil passed two grim milestones, actually, not only was it the highest number of deaths in the past 2a hours, but it also posted the highest number of confirmed infections — more than 17,000 confirmed cases in the last 2a hours. now, tuesdays often peak because of the last few days over the weekend in terms of collecting data, but, nevertheless, thisjust

shows what a lot of people have been fearing here in brazil — that the numbers of deaths and the virus is certainly not under control here in brazil. and the whole picture complicated by the attitude of the president. absolutely. he continues to downplay the severity of the virus. in fact, this evening, he has, in facebook live, said that on wednesday he's going to bring in new rules over the use of chloroquine for early stages of covid—19. so that's been a very contentious issue and that is what is believed to have pushed the former health minister out. he didn't agree with the view that bolsonaro had on the use of the anti—malaria drug. so jair bolsonaro's continuing with his way of doing things, but of course the concern is that this has been a chaotic approach to dealing with the virus, with the state governors being much stricter

on regulations at the same time that the president is clearly taking a very different approach to trying to tackle or, as many people would say, failing to tackle the virus here in brazil. it does seem clear, katy, that what president trump has been saying and doing has fed into this. absolutely. trump is seen as... ..is certainly an inspiration forjair bolsonaro. the two men are often on the same page certainly with the use of chloroquine, talking about the severity of the virus. that said, we've heard trump concerned about the numbers in brazil and concerned about the entry of brazilians. so i think it's even hitting the us in terms of the concern and what we're seeing here in brazil impacting the rest of the world. after yesterday's announcement

by president trump that he'd —— dr amir qaseem is from the american college of physicians and has been looking at the effects of hydroxychloroquine in the prevention or treatment of covid—19. earlier, iasked him what he made of the president's comments. i can't really comment on the decision of any individual patient, because that is a decision that happens in consultation with their own physician and they decide how to proceed. but i can tell you that the american college of physicians, we wanted to find the answer, we did our rapid systematic review to see the efficacy of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine alone or in combination with azithromycin to prevent covid—19 after infection with sars—cov—2 or to treat patients with covid—19. and then what we found is that at this point, based on the best available evidence, that there is no benefit of evidence to use it as prophylaxis in general population. both chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine alone or in combination with azithromycin. no known benefits, you say,

also possible hazardous side—effects. correct. there absolutely are known harms that are associated with medications. and when it comes to prophylaxis, there is actually no available evidence. and we looked at both randomised controlled trial data, as well as observational studies. is it possible that someone — i understand you don't want to talk about individual people and you certainly don't want to talk about politics — is it possible that someone of president trump's age and, as nancy pelosi would say, his weight profile is putting themselves at severe risk by taking it? again, i think it comes down to i don't know the details at a patient level, but they can tell you even beyond prophylaxis level that there is no certainty of evidence when it comes to the benefits even treating patients who may have covid—19

and there are known harms. can i also ask you, obviously this is a drug that does have known benefits for other diseases. if people start chasing it because they hear it being recommended at high levels, is there going to be a risk to people who need it for those other diseases? will they still be able to get it? absolutely. i think the biggest problem is that there are known harms for this disease, even in other disease conditions. but the issue is that we know there are known benefits and many of these patients actually need these medications just to live, and there is absolutely a shortage of these medications brewing. but aside from that fact, many of the patients, if they're going to end up taking this medication to look for benefits for covid—19, there is no available evidence at this point that supports that and something to keep in mind. and, again, that's a message that we are trying to send with the american college of physicians had on the internal

medicine speciality society here in the united states. the global pharmaceutical giant johnson &johnson is to stop selling talcum—based baby powder in the united states and in canada. the company has denied allegations that the powder it uses contains cancer—causing asbestos, but has been taken to court thousands of times over the allegations. 0ur north america business correspondent, michelle fleury, has more. johnson &johnson says it will stop selling its talc based baby powder in north america, along with a range of other items as it focuses on other items it considers a higher priority during the coronavirus pandemic. the pharmaceutical giant also continued to defend the safety of its talc baby powder. once a household staple, sales have really fallen over the last few years as users alleged that it caused cancer. and last october, the company voluntarily recalled a batch of its baby powder after the us food and drug regulator found that it contained asbestos. now, the recall came amid thousands of lawsuits

saying thatjohnson & johnson knew that its baby powder contained asbestos, a carcinogen, the company has strenuously denied all of these claims. it is worth pointing out that talc based baby powder from johnson & johnson will still be sold in the rest of the world and here in north america you can buy the cornstarch based version. let's show you some live pictures from taiwan where president tsai ing—wen has been sworn in for a second term as president after winning the elections back injanuary. we'll bring you more on that in a moment with our correspondent in taipei. 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 17%. but they are warning

that this extreme reduction in 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 forthe 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, 17% 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 or 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 greener future can be created. david shukman, bbc news. for more on the drop in emissions and what needs to be done as cities move out of lockdown, i've been speaking to brent toderian, city planning consultant and former vancouver chief planner. i've think it's going to be a huge challenge for cities to make sure that the drop in emissions we've seen during the pandemic, at least a big chunk of that drop stays with us. and that's why so many cities are already thinking about how to make the changes, many of the changes that they've made in reaction to the pandemic permanent. to not only address the climate

crisis, but to make our cities more liveable and address air pollution and make them more healthy and resilient just ongoing. there's many reason to want to make these improvements to our cities, but we have to keep those emissions that we've dropped, we have to make them, to a certain extent, permanent. you say we have to, but what's the dynamic here? because there's a tension, of course — governments, cities want to do that, but they also want to get their economies moving and there's a whole bunch of people where there's a pent—up demand, isn't there, people wanting to get back to work, get back in theircars, get back to flying. well, i think the way we get back to work and get back to our cities is being rethought as we speak. and certainly there's going to be a big interest in spending money on reactivating the economy and if we spend that money stupidly, frankly, in doubling down on putting our foot on the gas, if you will, towards more driving by building more roads and wider roads, we're going to end up getting more emissions, even more

than we had during this pandemic, which is a recipe for complete disaster. 0n the other hand, if we invest that stimulus money, that economic recovery money, in walking and biking infrastructure and public transport, in retrofitting existing buildings and making new buildings greener and better, we can get better outcomes for our cities and for all of us while also activating the economy. it's not an either/or. if we spend our monies dumbly, we're going to have bad outcomes and put our foot on the gas towards an even worse future. do you think the little bit of cleanliness we have seen, the bit of greenness we have seen is persuasive enough in itself for individuals? because at the moment there's a fair element, isn't there? what happens when that goes? well, fear and opportunity can, i think, be both great motivators for education, for learning. but we badly need an honest conversation about the consequences of getting this recovery wrong. of not only returning to the old normal,

which wasn't working for us, but even making things worse, because it's entirely possible that we could end up driving even more, emitting even more once we recover. so i think there's an opportunity, a necessity, a responsibility to make sure we're discussing, really bluntly, the consequences of getting this wrong. because if we double down on a car—based, fossil fuel—based infrastructure, the consequences of climate change include even more and was pandemics. so there's a staggering consequence of getting this wrong if we're not smart about it. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: the mum and dad who never gave up looking for their 2—year—old child are finally reunited with him 32 years later. 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 tear gassing the crowd. we don't know why. the prelaunch ritual is well—established here. helen was said to be in good spirits, but just 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. good to have you with us on bbc news. 0ne welcome back. good to have you with us on bbc news. one of main story this hour. brazil's daily death toll passes 1,000. it's now the third worst—hit country in the world. taiwanese president tsai ing—wen has been inaugurated for a second term in office after sweeping to victory in january's vote. ms tsai secured over 75% of the ballot in an election dominated by the island's relationship with china. she opposes closer ties with china that claims sovereignty over the island since the end of the chinese civil war in 19119. 0ur taipei correspondent cindy sui is following the ceremony for us. what is the message coming from the speech, cindy, something very miller, i guess? as we are speaking right now she is actually making her speech in the type against us nearby. which is focusing on is the economy, which is what most people are concerned about. it is expected to also talk about cross street relations, relations with mainland china.

what is expected to propose is to maintain peace and stability across the two sides of the taiwan strait. also she is asking for dialogue with beijing, but on the basis of equality and democracy. and she is expected to flatly reject the one country, two systems formula under which baiting hopes to reunify with beating one day and under which it took back control of hong kong in 1997. so she is pledging to have good relations with china. she would be offering that olive branch to beijing, at the same time she is standing very firm on her policy that taiwan's democracy and independence must be safeguarded and its freedoms must be protected. cindy, how has the pandemic impacted on relations. in just the has the pandemic impacted on relations. injust the past couple of days we've seen china blocking taiwan taking part in the annual gathering, virtually, of course, of the world health organization. the

pandemic has made relations worse. as we know, the coronavirus was first discovered in mainland china and taiwan has been one of the key places in the world that have joined key places in the world that havejoined up key places in the world that have joined up with the us to insist that there should be a clear accounting for how this virus came to be and how it was spread and we should search for the origin of the virus and taiwan was one of the places that also advocated that, china to ta ke that also advocated that, china to take responsibility for what happened and have transparency and how it tells the world about this virus. at the same time, taiwan has done very well in controlling the spread of the virus and in that way it has been a sort of a dawn in china's side, it has shown that ina china's side, it has shown that in a democracy located very close to mainland china you can still have very good policies, transparency, and you can control the virus to a point where there has never been a lockdown here in the number of cases has flattened to about 400. with no new cases, no new

domestically transmitted cases for more than a month and no new cases of imported or domestic cases for more than a week stop basically it is a sharp contrast to what we have seenin sharp contrast to what we have seen in mainland china. more generally, cindy, china formally claims taiwan as its own to be brought under beijing's control, by force if necessary , beijing's control, by force if necessary, is that still seen there is a real possibility? well, tensions have worsened in the past four years under the present, mainly because she does not accept the concept that the two sides about one china, which are predecessor accepted. analyst they have spoken to its attention to increasingly worsen in the next four years, increasingly worsen in the next fouryears, in her increasingly worsen in the next four years, in her second term. neither side is willing to compromise. china still considers taiwan as its province to be reunified one day and the president is not expected to change her policy at all in this regard. cindy, thank you very much for that. mass evacuations are under way

in bangladesh and india ahead of a major storm there. cyclone amphan is due to make landfall near the border of the two countries later on wednesday. forecasters are warning of winds above 115mph. the coronavirus outbreak is making it harder to protect those in the line of the storm as our south asia correspondent rajini vaidya nathan reports. the bay of bengal, one of the most vulnerable coastlines in the world. now bracing itself for a powerful storm. 0fficials fear it could be the worst to hit the region since cyclone sidr in 2007, which claimed at least 3,000 lives. now, in the middle of a pandemic, they're moving thousands to safer ground. fears too for hundreds of rohingya refugees stranded at sea. they'd escaped hardship from the camps in bangladesh for a new life in malaysia.

beaten and starved by the smugglers they paid, they're now adrift after malaysian authorities turned them away for fears of covid—19. last month, hundreds of rohingyas were rescued and returned to bangladesh. but the country says it won't accept any more on the mainland. it sent more than 300 to a silt island in the bay of bengal. aid agencies fear it's flood prone and are calling for the refugees to be moved as the storm approaches. this 17—year—old is one of those on the island. we talked to his mother, fatima, before the cyclone warning. "i just want my son alive on any sure, in any country," she says. but for fatima and other rohingyas, living in the world's largest refugee

camp the risks are many. if the cyclone hits these settlements don't stand a chance. and last week coronavirus finally reached the camps. one of the most densely populated places on the planet, were social distancing is tough, cases are already rising rapidly. healthcare facilities are basic. isolation wards have been set up for coronavirus patients, but in a camp of close to a million people there isn't a single ventilator. rohingya refugees fled genocide in the myanmar. they live in poverty in bangladesh. now with coronavirus and a cyclone to content with their resilience is once again being tested. rajini vaidyanathan, bbc news. let's get some of the day's other news. some south korean high school students are the first to return to school on wednesday as educational establishments started

reopening after a coronavirus delay of more than two months. reopening plans have been postponed five times. thousands of extra staff have been hired to help schools cope with the new requirements. 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. 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 2—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 mao yin‘s parents were able to hug their son for the first time in 32 years. mao yin was just two years old when he was taken in shanxi province in north—west china. thousands of children go missing in china every year, but his parents never gave up hope. his mother, li, devoted her life to finding her son, giving up herjob, crossing the country handing out flyers and joining teams of volunteers investigating other abduction cases. in her search 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 south—west china and a suspicious adoption in the late ‘80s.

it led them to a man named mrgu. they used facial recognition technology and dna testing to confirm that mr gu was in fact mao yin — leading to monday's emotional reunion. and what the signs verified to many can be seen just by looking. the family resemblance is almost unmistakable. rich preston, bbc news. what a story. now, with much of humanity in lockdown, the natural world has been stretching its legs a bit. or in this case, fins. a tour group off laguna beach in california enjoyed seeing a superpod of dolphins this past weekend — there were at least 1,000 of the creatures. experts say dolphins live like that to avoid predators like sharks. usually, dolphins form pods of a few dozen, but occasionally you see one with hundreds or even thousands of the graceful mammals. so for the record, social distancing is important for us humans, but for dolphins...well, they're exempt.

you can reach me on twitter. i'm @bbcmikeembley. thank you very much for watching. 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, fresher for 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 fair

weather 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 south—east — 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 rain 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 south—east corner, and that could trigger off a few sharp, thundery downpours. dodge 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 look 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: more than 1,000 virus—related daily deaths have now been recorded in brazil, making it the worst—hit country in south america. more than 270,000 infections have also been recorded, placing it behind only the united states and russia. the global pharmaceutical giantjohnson & johnson is to stop selling talcum—based baby powder in the us and canada. the company has denied allegations that the powder it uses contains cancer—causing asbestos, but has been taken to court thousands of times over the allegations. the taiwanese president is making

her inauguration address and she opposes closer ties with beijing which claim sovereignty over taiwan. she says taiwan will not accept the countries one system to policy system and will highlight how she has dealt with the pandemic. —— how china has dealt with the pandemic. now on bbc news, panorama. my name is reza. i'm an afghan journalist, and one of thousands of refugees locked down in europe's migrant camps. i saw many people who are worried, they are so terrified. they don't know what to do. what not to do. for two months, i've been investigating camp conditions, where fear of the virus spread like wildfire.