this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the uk prime minister, boris johnson, sticks by his top aide over claims dominic cummings broke the lockdown rules by travelling across the country. i think he followed the instincts of every father and every parent, and i do not mark him down for that. durham police are asked to launch a fact finding inquiry to establish mr cummings‘ movements. mounting calls for mr cummings to resign could overshadow today's cabinet discussions on lifting coronavirus restrictions. a top german court rules volkswagen must pay compensation to motorists who purchased diesel cars that the company modified to appear less polluting. japan prepares to lift its state

of emergency in tokyo and surrounding areas after a fall in the rate of infections. and parents and teachers are told to prepare for the return of more pupils to schools in england from next monday, as planned. hello and welcome if you're watching in the uk or around the world — and stay with us for the latest news and analysis from here and across the globe. durham police have been asked to establish the facts about the movements of borisjohnson‘s senior adviser dominic cummings during lockdown. the uk prime minister is under mounting pressure to fire mr cummings for travelling 260 miles across the country after the restrictions were implemented.

some conservative backbenchers, the opposition labour party and some scientists have condemned his apparent flouting of the government guidance — with many accusing him of seriously undermining public confidence in measures to halt the spread of covid—19. borisjohnson says his adviser acted "responsibly, legally and with integrity". the cabinet meets this afternoon to discuss the latest moves to ease the lockdown in england. our correspondent, simonjones, reports. reporter: have you undermined the message, mr cummings? leaving downing street with the backing of the prime minister, but there are growing calls for dominic cummings to quit or be fired. he's accused of breaking lockdown rules by travelling to durham when his wife had coronavirus symptoms, so they could be close to other family members in case they needed help caring for their young son. i think he followed the instincts of every father and every parent, and i do not mark him down for that. i believe, that in every respect, he has acted

responsibly and legally and with integrity. the uk was placed into lockdown on the 23rd of march, with strict limitations on travel. the government guidelines stated you should not be visiting family members who do not live in your home. the last time dominic cummings was seen before developing coronavirus symptoms was in london on the 27th of march. four days later, durham police said it was made aware of reports that an individual had travelled from london to durham. on the 12th of april, newspaper reports suggested mr cummings was spotted in the town of barnard castle, 30 miles from his parents' home. two days later, he was photographed back in downing street. but on the 19th of april, it's alleged mr cummings again travelled to the north—east. number 10 this says this is false. number 10 says this is false. labour wants an enquiry. this was a huge test of the prime minister and he's just failed that test. he hasn't sacked dominic cummings, he hasn't called

for an investigation, and he's treating the british public with contempt. the former conservative minister, paul maynard, tweeted: the concern is shared by one scientist who's been advising the government. if we undermine the unity between the population and the government, if people lose trust and lose adherence, if they stop complying with the measures which have contained the infection, then all of us will lose out because the infection will spike again and many more people will die. hypocrite! resign! dominic cummings was heckled as he returned home, but as the cabinet meets today to discuss plans to further ease the lockdown, ministers are facing the accusation that it's one rule for downing street and one for the rest of us. simon jones, bbc news. our chief political correspondent, vicki young, is outside the prime minister's office at downing street in london.

this is just continuing and overshadowing everything, isn't it? yes and i think that a final point there are people thinking it is one rule for them and one for people here in downing street is a very damaging one. i think downing street will be aware of that, but they insist that dominic cummings has done nothing wrong. the danger, of course, is that it undermines the m essa 9 es course, is that it undermines the messages coming from the government. at the moment, the cabinet will be meeting at around 1pm to discuss more measures to ease the lockdown, maybe it doesn't matter as much at the moment, but it could come a time when there will need to be more instructions put out to people and they may have to reimpose in some areas. the danger is that it undermines all of that in this fight against coronavirus and for the prime minister too, he has decided to back his adviser and so, of course some questions are being asked about the prime minister pass my ownjudgment asked about the prime minister pass my own judgment and i think a lot of this, the survival of dominic

cummings in hisjob will rely on conservative mps. some of them have, publicly and said that they think that dominic cummings should resign. others, interestingly now saying that they think they should be an investigation, which is what some of them expected to hear from the investigation, which is what some of them expected to hearfrom the prime minister yesterday and were quite surprised that did not come because as you say, it is dominating. for any cabinet minister having to come out and do interviews about other situations —— issues. it was the same for the education minister, gavin williamson. the guidance is incredibly extensive and at the heart of that guidance is always the issue of safeguarding children. and making sure that children are always absolutely protected. and my understanding is, from what the prime minister said yesterday, and you saw it as i did, is that at every stage dominic cummings and his family followed the guidance. at no stage did dominic cummings

or his family break the law. so the clear message they are saying that dominic cummings and his family did not break the law. of course, some of this is guidelines, but i think there are lots of people watching those who will be very well aware around that time what the message was, it was to stay at home, it would seem to be an instruction. not a request. those were the words of the health secretary at the time. essential journeys of the health secretary at the time. essentialjourneys only. and people, lots of them were not looking for wriggle room when they obeyed those guidelines. nicola sturgeon, the first minister of scotland, she had some problems of her own with an advisor, the chief medical officer there, who was found to have gone to a second home during lockdown and she resigned. nicola sturgeon thinks that boris johnson she resigned. nicola sturgeon thinks that borisjohnson has made the wrong decision on this one. i think he's come to the wrong judgment. the reason why i think that matters is that the consequences are potentially so serious. as we go into the next phases of dealing with this crisis,

as we start to lift lockdown restrictions and rely less on the letter of the law and more on guidance and appeal to people's good judgment, then trust in the advice we are giving and the reasons why we are giving that advice is really important. and people, if they get any sense that it is one rule for them and another rule for people in positions of authority, then that will become very difficult. the sacrifices people have made over these past few weeks are immense. downing street will hope that this anger will subside. but of course, the point here is that these restrictions have affected absolutely everybody in the country. it really is all that anyone is talking about. and i think it will be quite difficult for them to move on here, but as i say, it depends on the cabinet. will any of them speak out today? we know that privately some of them are pretty anxious about all of this and the undermining of the message and also, will conservative mps continue to

make their feelings known publicly? thank you very much, vicky. let's get more on durham's acting police and crime commissioner steve white's request for the force to consider whether mr cummings broke the law by travelling from london to durham during the lockdown. joining me now is our home affairs correspondent, daniel sandford. does that mean that this investigation will definitely have to happen? essentially, if police and crime commission of an area asks for something to be looked into, it is highly likely that the first, the durham constabulary in this case will concur with that request. as long as they viewed as proportionate and appropriate. i think they would have to be a little bit careful about how far and to what depth they investigated it because in the end, this would be a possible breach of health regulations or, at the very outside of, a possible breach of the coronavirus act. that does not seem that likely, that part of it. it

looks like a possible breach of health regulations or the police will now want to put the appropriate amount of resources into it. there are certain things they could do quite easily and quite cheaply, for example they could check cameras, check the movement of dominic cummings's carand check the movement of dominic cummings's car and also talk to those witnesses who have already come forward and make a simple appealfor come forward and make a simple appeal for anybody else who believes they have may have seen him. there area they have may have seen him. there are a couple of things about this. first of all was the initial movement of dominic cummings a family from london to durham, whether or not that was appropriate and whether it was appropriate for them to go on self—isolate on dominic cummings's family's property. and second, whether any of these further sightings are possible sightings, of the cummings family over the coming weeks may have also been a breach of regulations. that is what steve white is wanting refers to get to the bottom of and i'm sure that they will put some resource into it. the key thing is that although this is something everybody is about, the breach of

the law would be a breach of a minor law and, therefore, the police would not be wanting to put any kind of resources into it that they would for a murder investigation or something like that. thank you very much. a number of church of england bishops have taken to twitter to accuse borisjohnson of treating people like "mugs" and having "no respect" after he backed his chief aide dominic cummings. the bishop of bristol vivienne faull said, "living differently in a nation where the prime minister has no respect for the people. the bonds of peace and our common life have been dangerously undermined this evening". the bishop of leeds nick baines said "the question is: do we accept being lied to, patronised and treated by a pm as mugs? the moral question is not for cummings — it is for the pm and ministers who find this behaviour acceptable". in sheffield, bishop pete wilcox tweeted, "tonight i must say: the pm and his cabinet are undermining the trust of the electorate and the risks to life are real". the bishop of reading olivia graham said "i find myself deeply worried

by the pm's judgement call on this one. not from a political perspective but a moral one. his response lacks both integrity and respect and he hasjust made his task of leading us through this crisis much, much harder". i spoke to the bishop of manchester earlier who began by explain what his take is on the current situation. i was stunned yesterday evening by the press conference from downing street. religions have had thousands of years of saying, acting on human instinct alone is not good enough. we need rules, we need virtues, we need values and guidelines. and then the prime minister says, actually, you can trust your instincts. if we all do that, then we are not going to get out of this crisis. are you comfortable that we know enough for...

for people to be piling in and saying these things as strongly as they are? dominic cummings obviously says he has done nothing wrong, the prime minister says he is confident he has done nothing wrong. don't you trust either of them? i think there is a role in public life that when a story —— there is a role in public life that when a story gets as big as this, what needs to happen is very quickly they get out there all the news, whether it is good, bad or whatever it is and then you have got a position you can defend. what we are struggling with at the moment is we are not being told. we are being told some of the things that have been said about dominic cummings are palpable lies, we are not being told which things are true and which are false and it is very hard to understand what is going on, and it is that sense of deception there, that we are either being lied to or at the very least that things are being hidden from us. we need to know, in order that we, the people of this country, can really understand that we are all in it together and that sense of being in it together is absolutely essential to cooperate coping with the crisis.

if we feel it is one rule for some and a different rule for others, then we will all go our own way and will find further unacceptable levels of death. the bishop of manchester. a hospital in somerset has temporarily stopped accepting new patients in order to stop the spread of coronavirus. weston general hopsital in weston—super—mare stopped all new admissions from this morning, including into its accident and emergency department. the hospital said the measure was temporary and solely in place to protect staff and patients following a high number of recorded cases on wards. greeks are once again able to travel freely to the country's islands, as part of measures to ease lockdown restrictions. the return of domestic travel is an important step towards restarting the wider tourism industry, which makes up at least a fifth of the greek economy. ferry services to the islands are operating with reduced capacity, to ensure social distancing, and passengers are having their temperatures checked. miltiadis varvitsiotis is greece's deputy foreign minister and joins me now from athens.

welcome, thank you very much for joining us. obviously, a big move which is going to be welcomed by those who rely on tourism, but how can you give those living on the islands and also visitors the confidence that they will all be safe ? confidence that they will all be safe? actually, greece has coped with covid—i9 crisis pretty well. we had 160 with covid—19 crisis pretty well. we had 160 people dead out of the virus and only 2000 incidents occurred in the country. actually, we believe that we have contained what has been the first wave of this crisis, of this pandemic and now it is time to start opening up. from today, we open up restaurants and bars, thank god we are living any country that has pretty much good weather so we

can use at the outdoor spaces in order to gather. since the inner places are still closed. and from june 15, we are going to open the international flights. june 15, we are going to open the internationalflights. from yesterday, we have started travel to the islands as well, but the hotels there are closed and they are going to open up from journey first and from the 1st ofjuly, they are going to open in the smaller islands where the biggest tourist weave is going to be welcome. until now, we have doubled all the seats available in order to cope with covid—19 in the hospitals and we have put together a plan in order to categorise the islands upon their capacity to deal

with quality and issues or any covid—19 victims or patients. we are going to see from the beginning how this is going to work and —— how this is going to work and —— how this is going to work and —— how this is going to work and now it is working smoothly the opening of the country and we are very optimistic that we're going to welcome thousands, even millions of tourists, this sum as well. one professor of epidemiology who is amongst the public health experts advising your government has said that if 9 million and just 1% fall ill that is 90,000 new cases. what you just described their is what is being done to ensure there is a way of treating any potential cases, but onceit of treating any potential cases, but once it is established, it is there. how are you going to try to just stop it coming in to those islands which have not been affected and suddenly people coming in large numbers might just change suddenly people coming in large

numbers mightjust change that? actually come from what we have seen until now only one person out of 3000 to 4000 people that came to greece in the last two weeks was a covid—19, was infected by the covid—19, was infected by the covid—19 virus, so it is pretty much also that they travelled abroad. they have to have their personal response to light as well. we are going to make checks at the airports in order to safeguard that there are no infected people coming or moving around. —— personal responsibility as well. and we are going to have a ha rd as well. and we are going to have a hard trace policy on any case. for greece, tourism is one of the big businesses. it accumulate more than 20% of our gdp. to say that we are going to stay closed forever while all the other mediterranean

countries are opening up, as they do in italy and elsewhere, this is not the case for us. we have shown that we can manage with this crisis and we can manage with this crisis and we hope that we are not going to get 196 we hope that we are not going to get 1% infected people coming into the country. after all, seeing the latest data, we are going to, although we are opening for everybody, we are going to exclude countries that we believe that the crisis is still on fire and it is a period that they still have to do a lot to deal with the crisis. where would britain be in that? part of the picture for the united kingdom is quarantine being introduced for 14 days at the beginning of next month, which is likely to deter british tourists even if they are

able to. british tourists coming to greece is an important part of your tourism market, so how do you see that? it is an important market and we also have more than 50,000 british living in greece so this is the decision of the british government and the british government and the british government said that they are going to contain their borders. we are not going to welcome your citizens coming back from potential visits to greece because of the 14 day quarantine, so because of this measure i think that there is not going to be any great interest on behalf of british coming to greece in the next, at least, next month. how united has the european union beenin how united has the european union been in terms of what should be happening and how united is its going forward? you are now chair of the eu committee of ministers, your tourism minister has mentioned bilateral agreements for travel with

other countries which would obviously go against the european union ethos of the same principles across all the nations, and there is also divergence on whether grants or loa ns also divergence on whether grants or loans should be given to countries that are in need of assistance, how critical moment is this for the future the eu? well, there are three different issues there. the first issue has to do with money. i think we are living in the right direction and the proposal that came from berlin and paris last week of 500 billion euros grants to the countries and to the areas that have suffered the major part of the covid—19 crisis is a step in the right direction and there is still room for discussion in order to find a compromise. the second is how we are dealing in terms with border control. i think that everybody reacts control. i think that everybody rea cts o n control. i think that everybody reacts on its own, even measures

taken by the british government i measure is that you're taking on your own. you are still members of the european union, i mean if your citizens are still members of the european union until the end of this year, so it was a unilateral act. and the third part is how we are dealing with and how we have dealt with so far the crisis at european level. i think at the beginning the response was poor, but now coordination has slowly but gradually moved out. when we said we are going to make the little agreements with third countries, that means that we are talking with countries outside the european union, like israel, in order to have a common protocol that is going to be applied on our bilateral movement of people. this is not a violation of people. this is not a violation of any of people. this is not a violation ofany eu of people. this is not a violation of any eu solidarity. the opposite. it shows a way that we should put in

order to welcome people from other parts of the world in the next months. thank you very much for joining us, months. thank you very much for 'oinin us greece's months. thank you very much for joining us, greece's deputy foreign minister. china's foreign ministry office in hong kong has said that some actions during last year's pro—democracy protests were "terrorist in nature" and posed a danger to national security. the ministry's commissioner made a speech in the the last couple of hours about chinese plans to impose a new security law in the city. this weekend saw a fresh surge of protests — police fired tear gas and water cannon at demonstrators. danny vincent has more. thousands of protesters, young and old gathered in the central shopping district area and that they planned to march across the city to show their opposition to a national security law that beijing has proposed. very quickly, the police sprung into action and they were there and waiting. they raise flags, later they fired tear gas into the

crowd. they marched, confronted the crowd. they marched, confronted the crowd and after that we saw somewhat ofa crowd and after that we saw somewhat of a cat and mouse game where the protesters would run down many of the narrow alleys in the centre of hong kong in protest and the police we re hong kong in protest and the police were chase after them. there have been many protests in hong kong over the last year, i would say this is probably the biggest one we have seen this year. it is certainly the biggest one we have seen since the outbreak of the coronavirus. so this proposed law, it has managed to unite hong kong people willing to break the law, essentially, and many we re break the law, essentially, and many were arrested, up to 180, the police say. people were also willing to break the social distancing measures that the government had put into place to try to stop the spread of the coronavirus. the united states has suspended travel from brazil for non—americans, because of the high number of coronavirus cases there.

the country now has more than 360,000 cases — and 22,000 people have died with the virus. the spike in numbers comes amid deep divisions in brazil — as kathryn armstrong reports. they chant. flanked by security guards wearing masks, a barefaced president jair bolsonaro greets a crowd of adoring fans. a young girl is passed through for an embrace with the far—right leader, who has repeatedly dismissed warnings about social distancing. they sing. this spontaneous gathering is one of several held over the last two months. the crowd represents those who support the president and his plan to keep brazil open instead of locking down. siren wails. but the south american country has the second—highest rate of coronavirus in the world. field hospitals are inundated. these girls say their father is one of many in intensive care.

translation: psychologically, he's very upset. one moment, one person dies and another is discharged. he gets very angry. he's very afraid of dying, because a lot of people are dying. more than 22,000 people have now died of the virus and the numbers are on the rise. lockdown measures vary from state to state, but the country's leader is demanding restrictions ease in favour of the economy. katheryn armstrong, bbc news. you're watching bbc news. now it's time for a look at the weather with carol. hello again. some parts of the uk have not seen much rain at all during the course of may. and as we enter the last week of may, the situation isn't going to change too drastically either. today, mostly warm and sunny is the forecast. we do have a couple of weather fronts out to the west

and they are introducing thicker cloud, some patchy rain and drizzle across northern ireland and also western scotland. but with high pressure in charge for most of england and wales, it's going to be fine and settled. so a lot of sunshine as we go through the course of the afternoon. a bit more cloud coming in from the west across scotland through the afternoon, as this weather front bringing its rain approaches. it's going to be gusty this afternoon, not as gusty as the weekend, but the western isles could have gusts of 40 mph. whereas further south, we are looking at gentle breezes and highs of 25 degrees. through this evening and overnight here is our weather front continuing to move slowly southwards and eastwards, bumping into the high pressure and weakening, so it's more likely to be a band of cloud with some spots of rain, clear skies ahead of it and behind it and not a cold night. so, we picked that weather front up tomorrow, still moving into that high pressure, continuing to weaken all the time. and although we might start with some spots of rain across parts of northern england, possibly into the midlands, the south—west, it won't last.

it will dry up and as this cloud sinks south it will turn the sunshine hazy. but behind it we are back into sunny skies for northern ireland, northern england and also scotland. temperature wise, average temperatures more or less for scotland and northern ireland, but high temperatures in the south, up to 26. tuesday into wednesday, the high pressure establishes itself right the way across the land. a front coming in across northern ireland and western scotland, once again introducing thicker cloud, patchy rain and drizzle, and we will have an onshore breeze coming in along the north sea. but that aside, there will be a lot of warm or very warm sunshine with highs of 25 or 26 in england and wales, 16, 17 and 18 in scotland and northern ireland. as we head towards the end of the week, though, the high pressure moves further east allowing this flow of warm, or very warm air, across all of our shores. so, as we head through thursday and into friday the temperatures are going to continue to rise. and by saturday for some it will be into the high 20s.

scotland's first minister nicola sturgeon is giving her daily meeting. and that is a decrease of

four since yesterday. i am also able to confirm today that since the 5th of march, a total of 3572 patients who had tested positive for the virus and hospitalised have now recovered and have been able to leave hospital. unfortunately, i also have to report that in the past 24 hours, three deaths have been registered of patients confirmed through a test as having covid—19, and that takes the total number of deaths in scotland under that measurement to 2273. that figure of course should be treated with some caution, although deaths now can be registered at weekends, registration numbers on both saturdays and sundays are usually relatively low, so bear that in mind when considering today's figures. i once again wants to make the important point that these numbers represent unique and irreplaceable individuals whose loss right now is being grieved by many, and i want to send my condolences to everyone who has

lost a loved one as a result of this virus. let me also thank, as i a lwa ys virus. let me also thank, as i always do and always will, our health and care workers. they continue to do an extraordinaryjob in the most difficult of circumstances, and i give my gratitude of myself and the scottish government. the main focus of today's statement is really to give you some advance notice of announcements and developments that you can expect in the week ahead. and also to emphasise very strongly why sticking to the current rules for now it matters so much. on thursday, as you know, the scottish government will formally review as the law requires us to do the current lockdown restrictions, and as we indicated last week when i set out to the four phase route mapped out to the four phase route mapped out of lockdown, our current expectation is that we will be able to announce a relaxation of some of those restrictions. initially any

relaxation will focus mainly on outdoor activities, and i would expect any new rules to start to come into force from friday of this week. tomorrow, we will also set out more detailed information about how our test and protect the system will work. that is test, trace and isolate. and tomorrow, we will also publish our transport transition plan which will provide detail about how public transport can operate safely while the virus is still in circulation, and that will include a clear expectation that people using public transport will wear face coverings. both of those areas are of course very important and increasingly crucial as we start to ease some of the lockdown restrictions. throughout the week, we will also be publishing guidance which is currently being finalised with industry bodies, trade unions and public health expect for different sectors of our economy. of

course, in advance of the rules on social interaction changing in any way, we will publish clear guidance on what that means for you and how you interact with each other from a safe physical distance. in summary, on thursday there will be a clear decision on whether or not we are lifting some restrictions and entering phase one of our path out of lockdown. and we will give you careful information as we go through this week about rules that are changing and the measures in place to help you and what you should be considering as you decide what you can and cannot do in the days ahead, and let me be clear that any change to these rules is not yet in place, andi to these rules is not yet in place, and i do not want people to wake up on thursday morning and assuming they are in place straightaway. if we assess we are able to make this change and start to ease some of these restrictions, then any changes will start to take effect from friday, and i will set out more

details of exactly what that timescale is on thursday. regardless of what those changes are, our basic message for the next while it will be to stay—at—home as much as possible. although you will be able to interact outside and at a safe distance with other household is a bit more, we will still want you to think carefully, very carefully, about the number of people you come into co nta ct about the number of people you come into contact with. many of the current lockdown rules will still be in place, and it will be vital, just as vital, that everybody sticks to those. it is essentially important —— especially important to emphasise that today. i know many of you will be feeling angry and frustrated about stories you have heard of the last couple of days and perhaps wondering why bother. i understand that, but i want to stress that as far as that, but i want to stress that as farasi that, but i want to stress that as faras i am that, but i want to stress that as far as i am concerned, the restrictions and rules we put in place really matter. it is vital that all of us stick to these rules and not just because that all of us stick to these rules and notjust because people like me

tell you to or ask you to. the reason we ask you to stick to these rules is because they are held to protect you and your loved ones, they help to protect our national health service and they do help us to save lives. in fact, it has been, i think, incredibly heartening in recent weeks to see that people across our country have overwhelmingly done the right thing. ido overwhelmingly done the right thing. i do not underestimate for a single moment how difficult that has been for many, many people. in this crisis, the way in which we have all shown love for and solidarity with each other is by staying apart from each other is by staying apart from each other. i know that many people, pa rents each other. i know that many people, parents perhaps in particular, will have made very difficult decisions. grandparents will not have seen a new grand children, parents will have struggled with childcare and no access to friends and family to support them, and many people have been denied the opportunity to say a final farewell to loved ones. the sacrifices have been tough, and many

people will live with the pain of them for a long time to come. these sacrifices have been for a purpose, because so many people have stuck to these rules, the number of deaths from covid in scotland has finally fallen over the past three weeks. the individual decisions that so many have made, which i know have very often been heartbreaking, have helped to prevent even more heartbreak, and i want to yet again thank all of you for that. i also wa nt to thank all of you for that. i also want to stress that even as we glimpse a possible end to some lockdown restrictions, following the rules that are still in place will continue to be essential. in fact, in many ways, that will be more important than ever. after all, as we started to lift these restrictions, there is a genuine danger that the virus will start to spread again a bit more quickly. the way in which we ensure that it does not happen and the way in which we enable even more restrictions to be lifted in future is to continue to follow whatever public health guidance is in place at the time. an

absolutely crucial part of the reels now and for the foreseeable future is about what we do if we have symptoms of covid—19 or if members of household have symptoms. if you think you have the virus, if you have a persistent cough, fever or a loss of taste and smell, you should self—isolate at home for a period of seven days. in that time, you should get tested if you can. testing is now open to anyone with symptoms. on the eighth day, if you do not any longer have symptoms, you can go back out, but anyone in your household should self—isolate for 14 days. that is to allow time to see if they develop the virus, and if they do, they should then isolate for seven days from that point. it is worth stressing, again, that self isolation is not the same ad lockdown. when you are self isolating, you should not go out to the shops orfor isolating, you should not go out to the shops or for exercise or for work at all. you should not leave your home for any reason. if you need anything, you should have it delivered to you, for example by

family, friends, local volunteers or supermarket delivery services, and if you need to, you can call the national helpline that is in place to provide help, and the number of thatis to provide help, and the number of that is oh 8001118000. if you are concerned about vulnerable people with you or that you care for, you can call that helpline. self isolation is crucial. it is one of the ways in which we can stop the virus from spreading. as we gradually emerge from lockdown, it will become more important than ever. particularly as we introduce, as we will at the end of this week, our test and protect... we are going to introduce the wrapped that briefing from nicola sturgeon because there is a development in the situation with dominic cummings, and whether he broke the rules by travelling from london to durham when his wife had tested, was suspected of having coronavirus. let us go straight to our political correspondent for the young. what can you tell us? the bbc understands

that dominic cummings, the prime minister's chief adviser will make a statement, a public statement this afternoon, and he will also take questions. he is of course facing calls to resign, borisjohnson has been under pressure to sack him over at the suggestion that he broke the rules by travelling to durham. he says he self isolated for two weeks. downing street has not denied that he also took a trip somewhere else after he have completed these 14 daysin after he have completed these 14 days in quarantine. i think this is recognition that they have not done enough to deal with the anger that there has been, lots of conservative mps publicly saying they are extremely unhappy about this because theyin extremely unhappy about this because they in turn are coming under pressure from constituents who said eve ryo ne pressure from constituents who said everyone has made huge sacrifices, lots of people totally understood the guidelines and the rules which we re the guidelines and the rules which were to stay—at—home, essential travel only, but i think yesterday borisjohnson travel only, but i think yesterday boris johnson obviously travel only, but i think yesterday borisjohnson obviously hoped to draw a line under it when he unexpectedly took that press conference and tried to answer questions. that has not been enough.

really unusual step here that dominic cummings, the chief adviser to the prime minister, will himself, we understand, make a public statement and take questions on his actions. i think the other thing coming through from some conservative mps, they do not think there has been enough humility actually in all of this to accept that this did not look good, this is not the right thing to do. they want more of that, i think, and some are also calling for an investigation into exactly what went on. what time is the expected? i'm afraid we do not know that. we know the cabinet will take place at one o'clock, and thatis will take place at one o'clock, and that is obviously a virtual cabinet with ministers phoning in to speak to the prime minister, but we do not know. press conferences have been at five o'clock in bank holidays in the past, but we have no confirmation of that. thank you very much, so dominic cummings expected to give a public statement and take questions himself. we will give you that live when it happens. let us go back to the first minister of scotland,

nicola sturgeon, weather update on coronavirus. you nicola sturgeon, weather update on coronavirus. you can nicola sturgeon, weather update on coronavirus. you can exercise outside as often as you which, this can be an activity such as a walk, run or cycle. exercise should be undertaken locally, and of course you should observe physical distancing rules, staying within two metres from others. exercise alone or only with your household grip. i'm afraid this advice does not include those who are in the high clinical risk groups or in houses where someone has symptoms of coronavirus. if you are in a household where someone has a symptoms, you should continue to isolate. as you get older, it becomes even more important to remain active, to help to stay healthy and maintain your independence. here, low—impact exercises focusing on strength and balance are most beneficial. walking, or if you are feeling more ambitious, may some yoga are also good low—impact options. break up the period of not moving by changing where you are sitting, moving about, doing some chores, going outside if

you can, but do not get stuck in one place. if you are self isolating because you or someone in your household has symptoms or you are defined as extremely vulnerable on medical grounds, you should not leave home. but that does not mean you should stop moving. it is really important to use movement and activity as a way of breaking up your routine. only if you feel well enough. if you are unwell, use your energy to get better and do not try and be active. if you can get out of bed, do so, but do not try to do too much. for those recovering from feeling unwell with covid—19, avoid strenuous activity as you recover. sta rt slowly strenuous activity as you recover. start slowly and build up what you do overtime. there is lots of exercise that can be done at home whilst you are waiting onjim is reopening. i know lots of you are feeling the absence of these. we are all adapting, and the internet is full of helpful guides, hints and tips to keep active indoors was up for example, the free daily online pe lessons are provided byjoe wicks

and his body coach youtube channel which have been incredibly popular. sports governing bodies in scotland have reacted to the covid—19 at right by creating really good quality online content that can help people stay active indoors and in their gardens. the nhs website also provides advice for fitness studio work—out videos are suitable for all ages and abilities. the benefits of physical exercise are very clear. many of you will have begun new patterns of exercise over the last few weeks. i want to encourage you today to keep it up as an investment in yourself for the future. thank you very much, and i am sure many of us, myself included, would benefit from listening to his advice. going to go straight to questions now. lindsay from bbc scotland is the first question. first minister, thank you. you initially defended your chief medical officer doctor catherine calderwood, and she went

after sustained pressure. would you admit you initially miss read the public mood, and as a prime minister making the same mistake when it comes to his defence of the dominic cummings? i have set out many times, as recently as this morning, my decision making process there and i am happy to do so again before commenting on the prime minister was make decisions, and of course i have some insight into the situation he is dealing with right now. with the situation around catherine calderwood, i did not defend what she had done. i made very clear, standing at this very podium, that i thought she had made a mistake in breaching those guidelines, and to be fed to her, she stood at that podium and also said she had made a mistake and apologised profusely for that. i think that perhaps is the first difference in we are seeing in these situations. i did make an argument that day, and i do not think it was an unreasonable argument, but the one that did not

prevail, yes she had made a mistake, she apologised for that, but given the pandemic that we were dealing with and the importance and centrality of her advice, and remember she was not a political adviser. she was the chief medical officer of scotland then. she should maintain her post in order to make that contribution continually, i made that argument, and i do still regret the way we lost the advice she was giving, but when i realised that the public did not agree with that the public did not agree with that and that if we had continued with that, we would have risked undermining the public health advice, i came to a different conclusion later that night. to her great credit, catherine calderwood came to the same conclusion. the conversation she and i had that led to her resignation, in that conversation she did not try and save her own skin at the expense of the public health advice she knew as a doctor how important that advice was, andi a doctor how important that advice was, and i think that was to her credit. i think she acted with great

integrity there, so that is the process that we went through, and i am very happy to set that out, as i have done many times. in terms of the prime minister and dominic cummings, my view is they should come to the same conclusion. i do not say this with any relish. people who have listened to me standing here day in and day out will have heard i have tried, because i do not think party politics has any place in dealing with this crisis was that i have tried very hard not to indulge in that at all, yet i have been provoked or asked to do so in some of the questionings from time to time. but i do think there is a risk that political interest is taking priority over the public interest, and in a situation like this, it is so important that a trust in the public health advice is maintained. actually, it becomes more important as we go into later phases of this, because we will move from a situation where it is less the letter of the law that is telling people what to do and more

guidance and appeal to people's judgment, and therefore to have that trust in what we are asking people to do and why we are asking them to do it is really important, so the decision around dominic cummings is not for me. i have faced these decisions and i have set out clearly the considerations that were in my mind then, but i hope that the prime minister does reflect again on the situation and comes to a different conclusion to the one he did yesterday. susan ripley from stv. thank you. if 2000 contact tracers are not in place by the end ofjune, can you be sure that it is safe for lockdown to start to be used in these conditions? misses something myself and the health secretary have set out. we will have access to 2000 contact tracers by the end of the month, that is what we are working towards. we do not think we will need all 2000 of those at the end of the month, given the level of the virus right now, but it is really

important that we have the capacity in place and also that we have the ability to increase that capacity in future it should we need it. i understand why people, you know, consider specific figures, whether 2000 contact tracers or the 15 and a half thousand testing capacity we have set. that is important, but one of the most important thing here is to have a capacity that is capable of being flexed and potentially increase in the future. we will set out more later this week about the test and protected system, the capacity we have in place for that, but also how it will work from the public point of view. this system will only work if all of us as citizens, know what is expected of us, both in terms of coming forward with symptoms and isolating, we were advised to do so, and if we are prepared to do it. building the knowledge and understanding of that system is going to be really important. neil from pa.

system is going to be really important. neilfrom pa. thank you. we spoke earlier today about the decision to discharge hospital patients into care homes before they had been tested and said that with hindsight, you would have come to a different decision. can you confirm if the scottish government will be having a formal review into this? and how big an impact it had on the price is? what i said in general terms this morning was with hindsight, we may come to different decisions on a range of things, and i think that is true of anything, particularly of avarice that we did not know very much about and we learn more about with every day that passes. i have no doubt there will be inquiries and reviews into every aspect of this crisis and how governments had handled it, and i think that is right and proper, both for scrutiny and accountability, but also so we learn for the future. ca re also so we learn for the future. care homes will be part of that. the point i was making is this one. it is very easy to apply hindsight right now and to say what we did

then was completely wrong, but if you think back to them, we perhaps did not have many good choices, but we we re did not have many good choices, but we were in a situation where we had all people who are not medically required to be in hospital, where in the delayed discharge category, and at that time, we were preparing for an influx of coronavirus cases into our hospitals. take ourselves back there and you realise that it would have been putting all people at a significant risk not to have tried to get them out of hospital, and people talk about testing, and there are legitimate issues there, but back then, there was a different view regarding the efficacy of testing people, not just view regarding the efficacy of testing people, notjust care home residents, the people without symptoms as well. we are applying a lot of knowledge now that we did not have them, which is fine, but i do think we have got to accept that. what we did do at the time was put

in place a risk assessment process for patients who were being discharged and issued guidance very strong guidance to care homes about isolation and infection prevention and control there. what i take really down like a real exception to is anybody who suggests we did not ask for real thought —— with real thought or care for older people being discharged into care homes. you may apply hindsight and say we could have done differently and it is privately legitimate for people to do that, but at every stage, we have sought to take the right decision based on what we thought was the right thing to do, to keep people safe, and we will continue to do that, adapting our responses as our knowledge of this virus continues to increase. from the record. i know you are going to talk about transport tomorrow, but if i could just tell me if i could just focus on one part of it. he said the

other day that people would be confined to five miles to go and visit family and friends and do exercise strictly, but if travelling those five miles restricted to people with cars or will they be allowed to use public transport? at the moment, public transport is only for essentialjourneys. will that then become an essentialjourney?” think what we are going to do tomorrow is set out the plan for public transport, how public transport can operate safely, so i know these things are all connected absolutely, but that is separate to what we will set out on thursday, as we decide what restrictions are being eased and what the parameters around that will be. we are considering all of these things and will set that out very clearly when we get to the formal review point on thursday, so it is important we do think these things methodically. we need to continue to ask people to stay at home as much as possible, to continue to limit the number of people they interact with, but we also want to be a bit more flexible

to allow people more social interaction and set logical para meters interaction and set logical parameters for that which will inevitably ask people to apply some morejudgment, but inevitably ask people to apply some more judgment, but we will set that out clearly with guidance around it when we come to that formal review point on thursday. from this and? you have repeatedly refused to release figures on hospital figures around coronavirus infections and how many people have died after catching in hospitals? if it is robust enough in the nhs, why can it not be made public with the relevant caveats? i have not reviews that, but what i have said all along as we will release as much data as we can, and when we do, we want to make sure it is robust and reliable, and that applies across the board. nicola sturgeon, scotland's first minister,

to back interesting things emerging from that. one they will be looking again at the rules on and on thursday, and it is likely changes will be brought in on friday and there will be some relaxation coming. she said it is likely people will be able to interact with other households more, but she said please think carefully about how it is done, making clear it is not coming in until this friday. it is a case of wait and listen for now. she also spoke about dominic comics and drew a comparison between the situation she had faced with her chief medical officer who resigned after travelling to her second home. she said at the time she supported her, while acknowledging she had done something wrong, but when it was clear that public opinion was against that, she changed her view and she thinks it is the same situation now for dominic cummings. the latest coming about one. time for a look at the weather with chris. we have lots of dry weather to come this week, a lot of sunshine, and it's getting warmer. over recent days, we will be seeing

some warm air moving northwards from the subtropics, and that is moving over the uk, where it is getting incorporated into this area of high pressure. the high pressure will recirculate that warm air and tend to drift it northwards as the week goes by, many of us, it will become increasingly warm. today we have seen plenty of sunshine for most of us, and for most of us we will keep the sunshine well into the evening time as well. one exception, across the far north—west, we have seen this figure cloud edge in. this is a weather front which is this figure cloud edge in. this is a weatherfront which is bringing some rain, particularly into the far north—west of scotland, the hebrides, the highlands, the northern isles all seeing a bit of rain, between five and ten millimetres. as the front drifts southwards, just an odd bit of rain into northern england, northern ireland and northern wales. a mild night for all of us, but particularly in london, with temperatures falling no lower than 40 degrees. a mild start to the day on tuesday, and that when a friend continuing to weaken, pushing

southwards. the clouds thickening and breaking as we head into the afternoon, but overall, at slightly cloudier picture for england and wales, with some sunny spells coming through, highs of 25 degrees, some fresh air getting into scotland and the far north of england and northern ireland, and here we will have spells of sunshine developing through the afternoon. wednesday high pressure is still with us, that warm air starting to get pushed back northwards, so we should see those temperatures rising across ireland and then northern ireland as well. wednesday, plenty of sunshine in england and wales was a cloudy start in northern ireland, we will see the brighter conditions working in through the afternoon. patchy cloud for scotland. some of that will be quite high, so should still be on the bright side for most areas. in the bright side for most areas. in the south, temperatures building, highs of 25 degrees in both london and cardiff, and toward the end of the week, that warmer air will be working northwards. for scotland, temperatures pushing well on into the 20s, 23 degrees glasgow. for the

south, the highest temperatures there, and in the warmest spot, we will see ten bridges pushing on into the high 20s at times toward the end of the week. that is your latest weather. goodbye for now.

facing a revolt — boris johnson holds a cabinet meeting as he come under increasing pressure to sack his top adviser dominic cummings. mps in his own party and across the political spectrum criticise the prime minister's decision to back mr cummings — who has just said he will make a statement in the next few hours. borisjohnson is putting his political interest ahead of the public interest and when trust in a public health message and public health advice is as important as it is right now, the consequences of that could be very serious. we'll be getting the latest from downing street, where the cabinet is discussing further easing of restrictions. also this lunchtime... the price some children pay in lockdown — as social services warn of an increase in abuse, neglect or harm going on behind closed doors.