this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the chief aide to the uk prime minister denies breaking the government's own lockdown rules. dominic cummings insists he won't resign. no, i have not offered to resign. did you ever consider it? no, i have not considered it. the prime minister, borisjohnson, says he regrets the confusion and the anger, but once again stands by his adviser. the who suspends testing of the drug hydroxychloroquine as a possible treatment for covid—19, as a precautionary measure. and the holiday from social distancing — america's memorial day sun—seekers thatjust couldn't keep apart.

hello and welcome to viewers here in the uk and around the world. the uk prime minister's top adviser dominic cummings has denied doing anything wrong when he drove to his parents‘ home during england's lockdown last month. at a news conference in downing street, mr cummings said he did not regret his decision to travel 260 miles — that's a18 kilometres — from london to durham with his wife who was ill and their four—year—old son. he claimed none of their usual childcare options were available. the prime minister, borisjohnson, reaffirmed his support for mr cummings but said he did regret the "confusion and anger" that many people felt. elsewhere, spain has revised down the total number of people with coronavirus who've died in the country by nearly 2,000. the country has also announced that it's lifting the two—week coronavirus quarantine requirement for foreign travellers from july 1. and the world health organization has suspended testing of the drug

hydroxychloroquine as a possible treatment for covid—19 because of safety concerns. firstly, let's get more on developments from here in the uk. and at a news conference in downing street, mr cummings said he felt he'd taken the best option in his situation. it's notjust a simple matter of the regulations. the regulations describe various exceptional circumstances where it may not be possible to follow the rules. it doesn't say you must stay at home in all circumstances. it says that there are some circumstances in which you won't be able to follow these rules, and it seemed to me that i was in such an exceptional circumstance and i was trying to balance all of these very complicated things. if you've got a child that's four years old and neither of you can look after him, the guidance doesn't say you've just got to sit there. as i said, i think i behaved reasonably given all the circumstances and the different

things i had to try to weigh up. that was dominic cummings. the uk prime minister has also been answering questions from the media at the downing street briefing. here's the answer to a question from the bbc‘s political editor, laura kuenssberg. do i regret what has happened? yes, of course, i do regret the confusion and the anger and the pain that people feel because, as yvonne has just been saying, this is a country that's been going through the most tremendous difficulties and suffering in the course of the last ten weeks. and that's why i really did want people to understand exactly what had happened, and that's why... you mentioned openness and transparency, laura. i thought it was important that, you know, i tried yesterday to explain my version of what i heard from dominic cummings, but obviously i couldn't go into it in all the detail that i know that

you all want to hear and i think that the public actually needed to hear, and so that's why we had the statement and the very extensive questions that we did today. let's go to iain watson in westminster. iain, when you and i spoke about when he four hours ago, you said that your phone was buzzing off the hook with people calling you, plenty of them from the conservative party, as this story was developing. 2a hours on, how is your phone and if people are calling, what are they saying? the phone is quieter for a start. people have assessed what dominic cummings, boris johnson's adviser, was saying. those who have been touched, a variety of views. there are some who still wanting to go and have said probably to boris johnson that he should go. then there are those who were pretty hostile yesterday and then now say a

couple of things, really. let's wait and see with the beacon opinion polls say or let's see what our constituents are saying about this. their constituents, last night, saying they were getting very angry comments from constituents who felt there were double standards here, down a tree doing one thing, they we re down a tree doing one thing, they were required to another. —— downing street doing one thing. some of them wa nt to street doing one thing. some of them want to see how this settles. and there are some others who have been, how can i put this politely, encouraged to come out and support dominic cummings and borisjohnson, and so members of the cabinet, for example, are now saying it is time to move on — that is their message — it is time to move forward, give the impression to her been for five bad days of headlines but that is all

over now. it is not clear if enough of their mps or enough of the constituents are ready to take that journey with them. and it doesn't a lwa ys journey with them. and it doesn't always and when a politician says it is time to move on. we remember the culture secretary saying and of story. that was on saturday afternoon. do you think public behaviour will be influenced one way oi’ behaviour will be influenced one way or another by this dominic thomas story? —— dominic cummings story. there were two things on that. because of the guidance, he said he felt he was in exceptional circumstances. nonetheless, some are worried privately that is the government try to ease the lockdown in the uk to try and open up more shops, for example, next month, if people are not currently following the guidance because they believe that they don't have to because downing street did not, if that is their perception, whether the reality of that or their perception, there may be a risk of spreading the

infection because it makes these lockdown measures difficult to achieve. the other side of this is actually perhaps just losing control of public trust on the whole issue, and certainly there's been some warning straight from some people in the health profession that they're concerned by that, and that whatever justifications dominic cummings had for acting the way he did on behalf of his family, some of them are suggesting there may well be public health consequences. iain watson, in westminster, thank you very much. let's get an international perspective. simon hunter is in madrid, where he edits the english language edition of el pais. he told me the story has been getting a lot of attention there. the press have been following it very closely because there's been such a contrast between the lockdown conditions in the uk and in spain. in spain, we've been under a state of emergency since march 14 was that we we re of emergency since march 14 was that we were under one of the strictest lockdowns in the world. he could not go to exercise for many weeks,

children couldn't leave their flats, and in much of spain, people are flat dwellers, quite often living in conditions are that are not the best if you are shut in your home all the time, so through this whole crisis, there have been, especially among there have been, especially among the buddhist community in spain, quite a lot of looking with horror at what's been happening in the uk in terms of the conditions of the lockdown and, of course, the high—profile cases of people trying to get around it, as has been the case with dominic cummings. there have not been any high—profile cases of either politicians or other high—profile people in spain trying to get around the lockdown. the blood bin taking it very seriously. i think there's probably an element within such a strict lockdown that no one wants to go back to the conditions that we were in just a couple of weeks ago. the world health organization has temporarily halted the testing of the drug hydroxychloroquine as a possible treatment for covid—i9

because of safety concerns. the drug, traditionally used to treat malaria, has been described by president donald trump as a game—changer in the battle against the virus. last week, the president admitted he was taking the drug himself. imogen foulkes reports from geneva. there are so far no known treatments or vaccines for covid—i9, but there are many clinical trials of many different drugs to try to find them. 0ne drug, hydroxychloroquine, is already in use as a treatment for malaria. some, among them president donald trump, think it could work against covid—i9 too. he's even taking it himself. i'm taking it, hydroxychloroquine. right now, yeah. couple of weeks ago, i started taking it, because i think it's good. i've heard a lot of good stories. the world health organization has repeatedly said there is no scientific evidence so far that hydroxychloroquine

can treat covid—i9, let alone prevent infection with it. the who had been running clinical trials to test anecdotal reports that it might be beneficial. now, those trials have been stopped after a study suggested the drug could cause heart problems and might even increase deaths among covid—i9 patients. the executive group has implemented a temporary pause of the hydroxychloroquine arm within the solidarity trial while the data, the safety data, is reviewed by the data safety monitoring board. the who said the decision to suspend trials was a precautionary measure. now, it will gather more data on safety before deciding whether to continue testing. however, it said patients taking hydroxychloroquine for established reasons, such as malaria,

should continue to do so. imogen foulkes, bbc news, geneva. let's get some of the day's other news. lufthansa has agreed a rescue deal worth 9 billion euros with the german government that saves it from collapse. the german airline has been severely affected by a decline in travel due to the coronavirus and closed its budget airline germanwings in april. the german government will take a 20% stake in the firm, which it intends to sell by the end of 2023. the czech republic is due to ease its border controls with austria and germany on tuesday. all border crossings will be reopened and cars will only be stopped at random. however, tourists are still barred from entering the country, and travel for czechs wishing to visit poland and slovakia is still heavily restricted. americans have marked memorial day, a chance for the nation to honour who died serving in the us military. those who died serving in the us military. but the public holiday also saw huge crowds flock to beaches and lakes for the weekend.

these pictures from missouri at the lake of the ozarks raised concerns over social distancing. the mayor of missouri said the scenes were "deeply disturbing". beaches in florida and california were also filled with sunseekers. with me now is bill morgan, manager of the robins resort in missouri. great to have you with us. have there been crimes where you are? not at our resort. -- have there been people where you are. people are here setting out rules, and as far as coming in here, we have a com plete as coming in here, we have a complete kitchen in all our units so we did not see this type of crowds here. tell me the kind of social dissing measures you put in place in your resort. with our resort, all our hot tubs are closed. we had our pools open. he only had the families here together at the pools. we had all her tables spread six put apart

down there so they could sit next to each other if they were six feet apart. how about your staff? how are they getting on? they are checking in. if they are above 101.9 come ice and then home. -- i send them home. do you do that with guests as well as temperatures coachella no, i do not. it is not required. as temperatures coachella no, i do not. it is not requiredlj as temperatures coachella no, i do not. it is not required. i put the literature out on the front door, along with the cdc. we keep it with along with the cdc. we keep it with a large guests. we have hansen as heiser throughout the whole resort. it is at our front desk for the staff and guests to use. and i don't know if you have seen pictures of crowded resorts, when you see this kind of pictures, do you understand why people would want to get out... let me start again. i don't know if

you have seen videos of people getting out to resorts, they are crowded places... you did not hear. iamso crowded places... you did not hear. i am so sorry. i can hear you now. 0ne i am so sorry. i can hear you now. one more time. when you see pictures of people in crowded resorts, what is your reaction? i did not see any pictures of crowded resorts. all the resorts are pre—much like ours. the pictures you are seeing are at the local waterfront bars. that's pretty well the norm for around here, and i did not see anything that i have not seen before, so i don't really have a reaction to that. 0k, and is your business surviving financially, economically? we are. we are moving along. we are looking for a great summer. we wish you a great summer, bill morgan. thank you so much. thank you. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: they fled conflict

in their home countries to fight a new battle against covid—19. we meet the syrian doctors on britain's hospitalfront lines.

this is bbc news. the latest headlines: a top aide to the uk prime minister has defendend his actions in bending stay—at—home measures. dominic cummings said he wouldn't step down. the who has suspended testing of the drug hydroxychloroquine as a possible treatment for covid—19, after a study here in the uk, some of the doctors on the front line of the nhs came to the uk as refugees. they fled conflict in one country to help save people in another. the bbc‘s fergal keane has met syrian doctors in manchester, who say they're working in hospitals there to repay some of the generosity they've received

since arriving in britain. some nightmares never end. years of killing stretch into more years. it's created a vast refugee crisis, forcing millions to flee. dr ahmed al—ammar is a syrian refugee now working at royal 0ldham hospital in manchester. here he is checking on a patient admitted with a severe cough. hello. my name's ahmed. yeah. i have checked your chest x—ray, yeah? yeah. it doesn't look like covid. meanwhile, it looks like a bacterial—type infection. 0k. arriving in 2014, ahmed and his family found safety in britain, and he brought precious skills. where's my chocolates?

laughter he has a presence that puts other staff at their ease. i've only had one day off! having struggled with mass casualties in besieged aleppo, he is well placed to offer emotional support to colleagues. during this difficult time in syria, i learned how to cope with stress, i learned how to manage. and when the covid pandemic started here, i realised that it would be a very difficult time, because nobody had ever had a similar experience. here, you're struck by this connectedness of our world — a syrian doctor fighting covid in britain. but i think it's also a place to reflect on the differences, between societies with functioning health services and political freedom and those, like syria, that are ravaged by war and labour under tyranny.

more than half syria's health facilities have been destroyed or damaged. hospitals have been targeted by the regime and its russian allies. the british surgeon david nott, here wearing the colourful cap, trained syrian doctors in emergency surgery in besieged aleppo. it's left me with a broken heart because there are so many millions of people as refugees now, and they need to go home but they're too scared to go home. and it is a dreadful situation that they are still unfortunately having to cope with. there is an irony in this, of course, in that you went there to help them. they're now here helping you. yes, it's true, absolutely true. and it's wonderful. here in aleppo, working under siege conditions, one of the young doctors he trained.

he became a highly—skilled trauma surgeon. now he is in manchester, a friend of dr ahmad and studying for the exams that will allow him to practice in britain. he wants to repay the welcome and peace he's found here. i imagined our colleagues here, that they are suffering, they need help. they need any hand they can have with them. i can understand their feeling now, and it's really exhausting during these uncertain times. ahmad has found security here and what he loves. but he yearns for home. a return he knows is impossible while the regime is in power. doctor, what do you miss most? my family, actually. yeah. my friends. my city. do you believe you will go back?

i can go back there, but there is no—one there to see, you know? so... but sometimes i think in this way. a doctor no longer able to help his own country helps save lives here. may i see your hands, please? 0ur good fortune, syria's tragedy. fergal keane, bbc news, manchester. when tour guide mark fay flew home to australia from the uk in march, he faced two weeks of strict quarantine in a hotel room. to overcome the boredom, he started recreating famous movie scenes and music videos with the help of makeshift props, including toilet paper and shoelaces. take a look. # just take those old records off the shelf... # music: radio ga ga by queen

# if you like it, then you should've put a ring on it. # ah! show me the money! i see dead people. # a whole new world. # # it's the circle of life. # i am joined by mark now from his hotel room in perth. mark, i don't know what i make of your beyonce, but you're tom cruise is actually fantastic. yet. a lot of people say i have these hollywood looks, and that does make sense. the differences probably look a bit more like brad pitt than tom cruise.|j hope that's helped your life. tell me, when you went into quarantine, did you spec you would be doing this? no, i had my really good friend tell me, you're good to be a pa rt friend tell me, you're good to be a part of history, you need to record

this! when i went to my hotel room, i was just recording silly videos and sending them to my friends, and one of my good friends said, send me these videos, i'll make a little video compilation. we put it together and put it online as soon asi together and put it online as soon as i got out and it kind of blew up, soi as i got out and it kind of blew up, so i put it on my instagram. i've never been so popular in all my life, so please follow me! how did you work out those props? when you we re you work out those props? when you were tom cruise, you needed a prop, when you are freddie mercury, you need a microphone. when you are a big hollywood superstar, itjust comes natural to you. no, i was literally looking around the hotel room, oh, there is a bathrobe, i will use that for aladdin! even the tom cruise video, i used socks to make it a long sleeve shirt. and you we re make it a long sleeve shirt. and you were quite good, if anyone remembers, jumping on the couch like

with 0prah remembers, jumping on the couch like with oprah winfrey. here's the thing. i have bad knees! iwas grimacing. if you look closely, i am like... i survived, grimacing. if you look closely, i am like... isurvived, i'm here to grimacing. if you look closely, i am like... i survived, i'm here to tell the tale, and i'm happy. like... i survived, i'm here to tell the tale, and i'm happylj like... i survived, i'm here to tell the tale, and i'm happy. i try to write it down, you... which was the ha rd est write it down, you... which was the hardest one to do? the hardest one to do was probably home alone because i needed the world to see my topless body, so i apologise for that. we did not show that, by the way! you didn't? your viewers a very lucky! probably the hardest one to do was was beyonce because i needed to make it nice and tight, i needed to make it nice and tight, i needed to make it nice and tight, i needed to make it... you notjust have beyonce close hang around your suitcase? not this time. probably next time, i will be better prepared! and after this, you are a

tour guide prepared! and after this, you are a tourguide in prepared! and after this, you are a tour guide in europe. after this, are you going to come back to europe and the a tour guide again and you videos? what is your plan? the plan is to come back to europe, do tours, which is what i love it. i do mc, things for weddings, but i'm also a teacherfor things for weddings, but i'm also a teacher for my would be a bit of school teaching temporarily, so sorry to those kids who are going to have me in the future! they might look forward to that. mark fay, karin teen video man, we call you —— quarantine video man. thank you so much. a reminder of our top story... the uk prime minister's top adviser dominic cummings has denied doing anything wrong, when he drove to his parents' home during england's lockdown last month. at a news conference in downing street, mr cummings said he did not regret his decision to travel 260 miles — that's a18 kilometres — from london to durham 0n on our website... you can reach me on twitter —

i'm @jamesbbcnews. please stay with us. hello. if you're looking for rain through this week, there is not very much in the forecast. but what i can offer you is plenty of warmth. in fact, during monday to the south—west of london, temperatures got very close to 27 degrees. we'll see more very warm weather over the next few days. 0n the satellite picture, you can see this stripe of cloud that's been working its way in towards the north west. not bringing an awful lot of rain, though. this is a frontal system, but one which is weakening very quickly, so really we just have a band of cloud sitting in place across parts of england and wales through tuesday morning. maybe the odd spot of drizzle around, but generally speaking, it will be dry. a bit more in the way of cloud generally than we had during monday. conversely for northern ireland and scotland, here, we see long spells of sunshine.

still quite breezy in the far north, and a little bit on the cool side here, i suppose, but the further south you are, top temperatures getting up to 25 degrees. now as we move through tuesday evening, our old front sitting in place, butjust a band of cloud really at this stage. could be a bit misty and murky in some coastal spots in the south and west and more cloud starts to work in towards parts of northern ireland. in general, it is a dry night and not a particularly cold one with lows between 7—14 degrees. so during wednesday, high pressure still very much in charge of this warm front here. it will be introducing more cloud and maybejust nosing some rain into the western side of northern ireland and potentially the west of scotland. a bit of uncertainty aboutjust how far east this rain will get. but to the south of this band of cloud and patchy rain, that is where we have the very warm air. temperatures down towards the south, cardiff, london in the mid—20s celsius and not quite as warm as that across the northern half of the uk, but as we move

towards the end of the week, as this area of high pressure moves its way a little bit further east, more and more of us get to feel the effects of some very warm air. and i think on thursday, we will see plentiful sunshine across most areas, and a bit more cloud across scotland, maybe just the odd shower across northern half of the country, but the vast majority will be dry. but those temperatures up to 26 degrees there in cardiff, 22 in glasgow, but a little bit cooler for some of those north sea coasts. that's a trend that will continue on into friday, and as we head into the weekend, well, those temperatures stay pretty high for the time of year and very little sign of rain for most of us.

this is bbc world news, the headlines. the uk prime minister's top adviser has denied doing anything wrong when he drove hundreds of miles to his parents' home during lockdown. he said he was seeking help with childcare when he believed he was going down with coronavirus. prime minister borisjohnson once again gave his support — despite protests from many of those who say it's one rule foercummings — and another for tens of millions of others. the world health organisation has suspended testing of the drug hydroxychloroquine as a possible treatment for covid—19. it comes after a study suggested the drug could cause heart problems, and might even increase deaths among patients with the disease. lufthansa has agreed a rescue deal worth 9—billion—euros with the german government, that saves it from collapse. the german airline has been severely affected by a decline in travel due to the coronavirus