it's 8pm on thursday evening and, for the ninth week in succession, people right across the uk are showing their support and appreciation for nhs staff, for key workers and for carers. and we start with this remarkable gentleman, centre of the screen, dabirul islam choudhury, with friends and family in east london. he's raised over £175,000 by walking laps of his garden during the month of ramadan. and all to help those affected by the pandemic here in the uk and in bangladesh.

cheering banging of pots and pans good evening from 0ldham in greater manchester, where this is a typical scene in residential streets across the uk, where people have come on to their doorsteps to clap for carers. you can see by the yellow heart in the window of this home that this is a particularly poignant moment for this family, who have lost a much loved father and grandfather to coronavirus last month. but the sentiment in the street, you can see everybody has come out, is one that they really want to show their appreciation for key workers and carers a cross appreciation for key workers and carers across the uk, because several of them live in this very street and they have been doing this

every thursday for the last nine weeks and they are prepared to keep on doing it for as many weeks as it ta kes on doing it for as many weeks as it takes from now on. welcome to st george's hospital in south london, we are on the helipad, joined by 60 front line staff, nurses, doctors, including support staff as well, porters, all have been working in challenging conditions. 300 people have sadly died here at the hospital with the virus, but a real milestone for staff here. by the end of this week, 900 patients will have been successfully treated and to leave you with the thoughts of one nurse, hannah bailey, she says every week, this means so much to them. she knows that people can't clap forever but she says she will enjoy it while it lasts. yes, welcome to winchester, the ancient capital of england, tonight and the rather more

modern setting of the royal hampshire county hospital, you can see the professionals are out clapping the professionals once again. and a remarkable thing to come out of this hospital. in the la st come out of this hospital. in the last nine weeks, they have managed to discharge 141 patients who have had coronavirus. that is more than two patients every day for the past nine weeks. i am going to ask the chief medical officer here just how proud that makes you feel, to get those people back home. incredibly proud and it is an absolute credit to our amazing staff and the really ha rd to our amazing staff and the really hard work they have been doing in difficult circumstances. we've been working with carers throughout the community, community hospitals, in people's homes and in care homes to achieve this and the support of the community tonight is absolutely fantastic. thank you. thank you very much indeed. well, the hospital still has something like 20 patients with coronavirus but they too will get the care and professionalism

that everyone who comes here has got over the last nine weeks. horns blaring cheering singing opera so, once again on a thursday evening, so many people across the uk applauding the tireless efforts of all the healthworkers and carers who've put their own lives at risk to help others during this pandemic.

we enjoyed the singing in cardiff, too. we'll have more on the bbc news at ten, but, for now, goodbye. welcome to viewers are joining us in the uk. china is proposing to introduce new security laws in hong kong. the issue is on the agenda for the national peoples' congress session which starts in beijing on friday. the npc is china's parliament, though it's seen as little more than a rubber stamp for communist party decisions. 0pponents say the new laws essentially amount to a power grab by china. beijing says the law will bring hong kong into line with the mainland. here's a government spokesperson. translation: national security is the bedrock of the country's stability. safeguarding national security is the common interest of all people,

including hong kong compatriots. now, hong kong's mini constitution, called the basic law, does require its government to bring in a security law. and beijing has always had the power to enact the national security law into the basic law. that's not how many in hong kong see this move, though. have a listen. this is the end of hong kong. this is the end of one country, two systems. make no mistake about it that beijing, the central people's government has completely breached its promise to the hong kong people, a promise that was enshrined in the sino—british joint declaration and the basic law, and they are now completely walking back on their obligation owed to the hong kong people. there are fears that these proposed laws are actually aimed at suppressing scenes like these. you'll remember these pictures — violent clashes between authorities and pro—democracy protestors in 2019 and earlier this year.

this was in response to a bill that would allow beijing to extradite people to mainland china to face trial. here's martin yip in hong kong with more on this. we might not know any formal details until they actually pass the resolution, but what we can tell from those leaks on local media, multiple media outlets in hong kong, includes subversion, separatism, terror activities and foreign intervention. it's set to be a decision to be passed by the national people's congress. so it's more likely to be like a decree, rather than like a full piece of law, with jail time and all that. but these are the four areas that will be covered in this law at this moment. you might remember that there used to be a proposed legislation on national security legislation in hong kong back in 2003 which ended up with such a backlash and almost 500,000 people

going onto the streets in protest. the only point that is new on top of that being which was demanded by beijing is terrorism. this is a tweet from gina anne tam, a historian specialising in china. next — let's hearfrom martin lee, a veteran politician in hong kong. he played a leading role in drafting the law that specified the constitutional rights and freedoms of hong kong citizens when the uk handed it back to china in 1997. here's his reaction to the news. well, china is going to break even more promises made to hong kong

people and to the british government in the sino—british joint declaration by keeping on doing these things. it's notjust the law which they intend to pass in beijing, for hong kong, which is clearly in breach of thejoint declaration in beijing's law because it is up to the hong kong legislature, our legislative council, to enact laws for hong kong. the standing committee of the npc cannot do it under our constitution, the basic law, but they are going to do it, so quite apart from that draconian law which is going to be passed, it will be passed in beijing instead of in hong kong. now, i think they are afraid that they may lose control of the hong kong legislative council at the next election a few months later in september, so they want to start a precedent so that they can legislate for hong kong, bypassing the hong kong legislative council, so it is a double disasterfor hong kong.

we still haven't had any reaction from the united kingdom to this news. as for other international reaction — here's president trump. i don't know what it is because nobody knows yet. if it happens, we'll address that issue very strongly. lord chris patten was hong kong's last governor before the 1997 handover. here's what he said the international community should be doing in response to this announcement from beijing. well, i can tell you what it should be. led by the united kingdom, who signed the joint declaration with china, and it's an international treaty lodged at the un. we should make it clear to the chinese that this is outrageous and the prime minister and the foreign secretary should make that absolutely clear. we should talk to our allies, our friends around the world, all of whom have a stake in two things.

first of all, the continuance of hong kong as a great international city in asia. and secondly, in whether or not china can be trusted to keep its word. they are all too many examples of that not being the case. the way it has actually used the preoccupation, which everybody rightly has with fighting this awful epidemic, they have used that preoccupation in order to bully and harass in other areas and one of them is in hong kong. to wrap up this developing story, here's robin brant in shanghai. this is the first significant move by beijing since almost a year of protests on the streets of hong kong and it will be incendiary on two levels. firstly, the protesters there will see this as yet further evidence that the communist—led government in beijing is increasingly eroding the autonomy that hong kong has, particularly when it comes to its legal system, its education system and its police. secondly, it is the manner

in which beijing may be able to simply impose these changes without having to seek the approval of hong kong's elected officials. it has the ability to do that, it could go ahead and try to do that. if this national security law were to change it may have an impact on hong kong's trading relationship, particularly with the united states. it has special trading rights and that may change if this national security law is indeed imposed. more details are likely to come on friday. it's likely to cause further protests as well on the streets of the territory. china's leader, president xijinping, has spoken in the past of crushing the protesters who he blames, as some others in the territory and on the mainland do as well, for bringing parts of hong kong to near paralysis over

the past year with at times millions of people on the streets. when we get more details of that on friday when that debate takes place, we will bring them to you. at least 84 people are now known to have died in one of the most powerful cyclones to hit india and bangladesh for years. cyclone amphan uprooted trees, brought down electricity and telephone lines and flattened houses in states along india's coast and south—west bangladesh. yogita limaye reports from mumbai. it hit west bengal on wednesday evening, and then plundered through the state for hours. in the morning, this is what the region's biggest city looked like. kolkata ravaged by what many residents say is the worst storm they have experienced. it started being really scary when these trees started cracking.

they fell and we understood something big was happening. parts of the city are underwater from, including the airport. everything gone. across the border in bangladesh, more destruction. both countries have a lot of experience dealing with cyclones, that develop each year in the bay of bengal, and evacuation measures save thousands of people. but it will be a while before they can build back their lives. the damage has been devastating. the scale of devastation is quite big, so i would say about 50% of the people in our working areas are not going to be back home tonight. bit by bit, relief teams are working to restore and rebuild — cyclone season has just begun. many are hoping it doesn't get any worse. stay with us on 0ustide source, still to come: the uk government

buys ten million coronavirus antibody tests — with nhs workers and care staff the first to be tested. scotland's first minister nicola sturgeon has outlined a plan for exiting lockdown. from next week restrictions around some outdoor activities will be relaxed, although she emphasized there was no risk—free way to do this because the virus had not gone away 0ur scotland correspondent lorna gordon has more details. she set out this roots map, if you like, for how she sees life going back to some sort of normal in the weeks and months ahead. the first phase, from next thursday, will involve primarily outdoor activities, people being able to see others from another household as long as it is outside and social

distancing is maintained, some outdoor sports resuming such as tennis, bowling, fishing and golf, and outdoor businesses like agriculture and forestry able to resume as well. garden centres will be able to reopen, as will recycling facilities. this is 0utside source live from the bbc newsroom. the white house is under pressure as the number of americans to have sought unemployment benefits since march nears 40 million. here in the uk, nhs workers, carers, hospital patients and care home residents will be among the first to be tested for coronavirus antibodies from next week. the government has agreed a deal with the pharmaceutical company roche and abbott labs to buy the tests, which will show if

someone has already had the virus. it comes as the number of deaths reported in the last 24 hours has gone up by 338, bringing the official death toll in the uk to just over 36,000. here's our health editor hugh pym. it's a test which can tell you if you've already had coronavirus, and whether you might have immunity, and that's important for someone needing to know whether it's relatively safe to go into work. the test, which looks for antibodies in the bloodstream, is going to be made available from next week to tens of thousands of nhs and care workers and patients every day. we're developing this critical science to know the impact of a positive antibody test, and to develop the systems of certification to ensure people who have positive antibodies can be given assurance about what they can safely do. lower the window and i will pass the test through. the other form of testing shows whether someone currently has the virus. nasal and throat swabs are taken

and sent off to labs. it was frustrating... some key workers, like ludmila, who works in a care home, say they are struggling to get tested. she had to get a lift for a long drive to a test centre after she couldn't book a home test kit. it would always come up that home testing kits are unavailable. there was also no mobile testing — when people come to you to your home to test you. so the only option is to drive. so if you don't drive then you are basically stuck. widespread testing and then tracing people who might have been infected by those who tested positive is seen as essential if any future spread of the virus is to be curbed but it's a complex process. here's how contact tracing should work. if i test positive for the virus i would be contacted by officials by phone or e—mail and asked who i had met up with in recent days, and that means meetings at less than two metres, face—to—face, not someone i might

have bumped into in a shop. that might include, for example, friends i had spent time with and work colleagues i might have been in meetings with, or a wider circle of recent contacts. all that would then be assessed by a clinical team and those people might be contacted and told to self—isolate for 14 days. there will also be a mobile phone app to help the tracing process. the prime minister says the full system will be in place by early june but some health leaders are sceptical. i am less concerned about a june 1st date. the question is, have we actually got an effective system in place and we don't introduce further lockdown measures until we are absolutely sure that the system works effectively. as brazil approaches 20,000 deaths from coronavirus, its government is under ever more scrutiny, in particular its controversial presidentjair bolsonaro.

ros atkins has been looking at how brazil became central to the global pandemic. in april president bolsonaro was asked about the rapid spread of covid—19 in brazil. by may, brazil's number of cases was the third highest in the world. this virus that the president dismissed as a little flu had killed 17,000 people and he was being held responsible. the leading medicaljournal the lancet put it bluntly, perhaps the biggest threat to brazil's covid—19 response is its president. this is the mayor of sao paulo. when you have two virus to combat — the coronavirus and bolsonaro virus. but can we explain brazil's plight through jair bolsonaro alone? certainly the government's initial assessment of the threat raises questions. we paid attention to the united states and the united states was very comfortable on saying

he would take care of that, we really felt he had some kind of science that would be released soon. donald trump's boasts turned out to be hollow. that was the former health minister luis henrique mendetta. he advocated social distancing and was fired. next into the job was nelson teich. when asked about mr bolsonaro's decision to reopen gyms he replied, was this announced today? it did not go through the ministry. days later he resigned. according to 0 globo he objected to the president's promotion of an antimalarial drug, chloroquine. and in march president bolsonaro told his supporters the cure is right there. it isn't. but at the third time of asking he does now have a health minister who is happy to proceed. chloroquine has been cleared for covid—19 treatment in brazil despite not being proven to work and nasty side—effects. being guided by donald trump, undermining the health ministry, using dismissive language, preoccupation with an unproven drug. these are all relevant

to understand what's happening, but argubly the lack of a nationwide lockdown has mattered even more. the president has sought to undermine that idea wherever possible. this is an anti—lockdown rally in brasilia. as you can see, these are not advocates of social distancing. but it is brazil's states, not the president, that have the power to impose restrictions. and they have done so but to very differing degrees and there appear limits to what they are willing to try. around 40% of the labour force is in the informal economy, only partially assisted by the social safety net. a lot of those live from hand to mouth, so for them it is hard to stay inside the house when you don't have brazil's currency is the worst performing in the world, its main stock exchange index has plummeted, manufacturing is slumping and unemployment is rising. a brazilian economist has written of his country, my investment advice would be not to run into a burning building.

but how best to put out that fire? the president believes lockdowns will make matters worse. and in purely economic terms he is right. ecuador‘s president has defended its lockdown but says it's as if a family has lost half of what it needs to live. of course, this delicate balance between saving lives and saving incomes is universal in this pandemic. but the bitter political row over whether brazil can afford lockdown has had consequences. at the end of the day he is the president, people take advice from him as the leader and that is what has been so confusing. do people listen to jair bolsonaro or do they take the advice of their state governors? around the world, covid—19 has delivered a deadly lesson that while human beings are influenced by passion, politics and prejudice, viruses aren't. to explain brazil's failure to build an urgent, coherent national response we must start with a president who hasn't always appeared to want one. as europe approaches its summer holiday season, several european nations are gradually opening up,

while maintaining a safe environment. at the moment france is allowing only essential travel from abroad. it hasn't said when its foreign tourist ban will be lifted. spain has started loosening its restrictions, the beaches will be open to tourists but strict restrictions remain in madrid and barcelona. italy eased its lockdown this week, with bars and restaurants open again, and st peter's basilica in rome letting in visitors. meanwhile greece plans to kick off its tourist season next month, with international charter flights to popular locations resuming in july. the bbc‘s quentin sommerville has just arrived in athens. when you arrive here at athens airport, this is one of the first things you see. you get a swab test for covid—19. they've been doing this since march the 20th. everybody who has the test — me included — then has to go into isolation for 24 hours. in fact, there's been a two—week quarantine for everybody arriving in this country. but that's about to end because greece is ready to welcome back tourists.

this airport now is seeing about 400, 500 passengers a day. last year greece saw something like 30 million passengers — three times the population of the country. it depends on that money. this is a country that's gone through 10 years of terrible economic crisis. the last thing it needed was a pandemic on top of that. so i'm now in my isolation hotel room, courtesy of the greek government. i have to stay here for 24 hours and i will be staying here because the fine for breaking that quarantine is 5000 euros. greece has done relatively well compared to other countries in coping with this pandemic. fewer than 170 deaths. and the rest of europe now is looking towards this country to see how it manages that next phase. if it can continue with this success

while opening up the country, then that might get us all a bit closer to the lives that we used to lead. don't forget, you can get in touch with me and some of the team on twitter — i'm @bbckasiamadera. hello. warm today, not quite as warm as yesterday mind you, and over the next few days things are going to cool down a little bit. we're also going to find a spell of windy weather for the next few days, unusually windy, and there will be some rain, although not necessarily where it's needed most of all. and this band of cloud here didn't bring very much rain today. this cloud looks much more threatening, it's a deepening area of low pressure with some wet and windy weather to come. and that rain starts to push into the western side of the uk later this evening and overnight. as the winds pick up, that rain gets blown northwards into scotland as well. still dry though overnight for east anglia and the south—east, and particularly warm here as well. in these areas you're probably hoping to see some rain. the problem is that the weather front driving that front is weakening as it runs its way

eastwards, so most of the wet weather and indeed the windy weather is going to be closer to that deep area of low pressure. so this is the rainfall accumulations over the course of friday, saturday and into sunday. little or no rain towards the south—east, much wetter further north—west, with the focus for the heavier rain in the highlands of scotland. over a month's rain here. also going to be very windy for a while as well. we start on friday with the wettest weather in scotland, it's a narrowing line of rain running across eastern england. once that clears in the morning, the sunshine returns, there'll be some blustery showers blown in mainly for scotland and northern ireland and it's here we have the strongest winds, gusts of 50 or 60 mph. and of course that will make it feel quite a bit cooler than it has done of late. but still we're looking at temperatures of 16 or 17 celsius. the higher temperatures across eastern england, 22 or 23 celsius on friday. now we've got more windy weather and wet weather to come closer to that area of low pressure overnight and into the start of the weekend. some wet weather continuing across the north west of scotland and other parts of scotland seeing

some rain too, and there will be some blustery showers blown in across england and wales and northern ireland. a few may get through to eastern areas but still generally dry here, those temperatures continuing to take a bit of a dip to around 18 or 19 celsius, much cooler where it is wetter further north. there will be some more rain to come during saturday night and into sunday morning. during sunday, the rain does tend to ease off. it probably won't be quite as windy and for many parts of the uk away from scotland it may well be dry with some sunshine. those temperatures starting to get a bit of a boost, up to 22 or 23.

hello, welcome. this is bbc world news, the headlines: another 2.4 million americans sought unemployment benefits last week. the new claims brought the total since mid—march to nearly 40 million, almost a quarter of the workforce. china says it will introduce a new national security law in hong kong that looks set to limit freedoms in the territory. there are already calls in hong kong for protests against the planned legislation. at least 84 people across india and bangladesh have been killed by a powerful cyclone. amphan made landfall on wednesday, lashing coastal areas with ferocious wind and rain. researchers in the uk have begun a trial to see whether anti—malarial drugs — chloroquine and hydroxy—chloroquine — could prevent covid—19. the drugs will be given to more than 40,000 health care workers around the world.