ayman alshikh became a highly—skilled trauma surgeon. now, ayman is in manchester, a friend of dr ahmad and studying for the exams that will allow him to practice in britain. this is bbc news with the latest headlines he wants to repay the welcome for viewers in the uk and peace he's found here. and around the world. i'm james reynolds. i imagined our colleagues britain's prime minister says here, that they are he regrets the "confusion suffering, they need help. and anger" caused by his special adviser‘s long journeys during the anti—virus lockdown. they need any hand they can have with them. i can understand their feeling now, and it's really exhausting no, i don't regret what i did. during these uncertain times. as i said, i think reasonable people may well disagree. meanwhile, the political battle over the adviser‘s future continues with mps lining up in support and opposition. the who suspends testing of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for covid—19, 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. saying the drug could damage doctor, what do you miss most? the health of some people. and from the siege of aleppo to the hospitals of britain, we talk to the syrian refugee my family, actually. yeah. doctors helping in the fight my friends. against the pandemic. 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 dominic cummings, the top to help his own country adviser to the british helps save lives here. prime minister boris johnson, has given a defiant defence of his behaviour after he was accused of flouting coronavirus lockdown rules. mr cummings says he doesn't may i see your hands, please? regret driving hundreds of miles from london to get our good fortune, syria's tragedy. fergal keane, family help with childcare. bbc news, manchester. spain has announced that foreign travellers will be able here's our political editor laura kuenssberg. to visit the country morning. from the beginning ofjuly the rule is unwritten, but it is real. without going into quarantine. opening up the holiday advisers aren't meant market is seen as crucial to be the story. to the spanish economy. when ordinary people the country normally were obeying the rules and staying home... attracts 80 million tourists already, this is day and the sector accounts for four of headlines i2% of the country's gdp. about dominic cummings. spain's foreign minister has said that the worst he's made a career out is already behind them. of trying to rewrite political convention. back to our top story now. even for him, this was astonishing. using the downing street and for many, the events in westminster would understandably be garden, normally reserved the last thing on their minds

on a sunny spring bank holiday for world leaders, to explain, monday here in the uk. or to apologise, or perhaps fight back. but much of the criticism sorry i'm late. of mr cummings in recent days i know that millions has come from the perception of people in this country have been suffering. that he was obeying his own set thousands have died. of rules, unlike tens many are angry about of millions of others staying what they have seen in the media about my actions. at home as instructed. our reporter fiona trott i want to clear up has been to whitley bay the confusions and in northumbria to test misunderstandings. opinion there. first, i was worried that if my wife and i were both lockdown on seriously ill, possibly the south—east coast. hospitalised, there was nobody hundreds of people enjoying the in london we could reasonably ask to look after our child sunshine at southend—on—sea. and expose themselves to covid. my wife had felt on the edge it looks like a bank holiday of not being able to before the pandemic. look after him safely in north wales, a few hours earlier. i was thinking, "what if the a very different scene. same, or worse, happens to me? there, people can only there is nobody here i can travel when necessary. reasonably ask to help." i thought the best thing to do this was aberdeen in the circumstances in scotland today. was to drive to an isolated and portrush in northern cottage on my father's farm. ireland, where people at this farm, my parents live are still being encouraged in one house, my sister and her two children live in a separate house, to stay at home. and there's a separate cottage 50 metres away from either of them. in the north east of england, this has been whitley bay's my tentative conclusion busiest day during lockdown. on friday was this. as you can see, if we were both unable most people on the beaches are social distancing. the local council says

to look after our child, dominic cummings's visit to the northeast has made it then my sister or nieces harder for them to enforce the rules. could look after him. i did not ask the prime minister about this decision. he was ill himself and he had we have to get their message huge problems to deal with. out that we are still on lockdown, we still have every day, i have to exercise social distancing judgment about things measures enforced. like this and decide boris needs to make quick actions now to get what to discuss with him. the public confidence back. i thought that i would speak to him when the situation clarified over the coming days. on sunday 12 april, 15 days after i first displayed symptoms, i decided to return to work. here on the promenade, my wife was very worried, many say their behaviour hasn't changed, but their trust particularly given that my in government has. eyesight seemed to have been it's not right, and there's rules that need to be in place, affected by the disease. so you should follow them. she did not want to risk but if he's doing it, a nearly 300—mile drive then i do think some people may with our child, given how ill look at that and think, i had been. "well, if somebody like him we agreed that we should go is doing it, then we'll for a short drive to see change what we are doing." but that's not right, if i could drive safely. i don't think. why don't they leave we drove for roughly the lad alone? halfan hourand he made a mistake. ended up on the outskirts he did do wrong. of barnard castle town. no, he hasn't made me i felt a bit sick. change my mind, my tactics. i'm still alert and careful. everyone has had childcare issues. everyone with small children. we walked about 10 to 15 metres from the car, it feels hypocritical, to the river bank nearby. it feels arrogant. we sat there for about 15 minutes. this ice cream shack we had no interactions is doing what it can

with anybody. to keep people apart, this is where it began. especially when the wait feels long. on the 27th of march, watch dominic cummings running out of work. luciano dimeo is eagerly awaiting the next steps. he'd just discovered responsible relaxation of the rules is vital his wife had fallen ill. for towns like whitley bay. worried about child care, we're fortunate enough they drove that night more to rely on takeaway. than 250 miles to the family farm in county durham. our business is geared up, mr cummings, the next day, as well, to be able to take developed severe symptoms, but his wife recovered away — obviously we're doing and was able to look takeaway ice creams, after their four—year—old. teas and coffees. at some point, he told but we're also well—known the prime minister he had gone north. for pizzas, so we'd like to get but it's not known when. the pizza oven back on, and on the 12th of april, get customers back having somewhat recovered into the shop so we can and taken medical advice, bring our chefs back in. the family went on that test drive, 30 miles away. it's time to get back to work. and on the 13th, the family many traders want drove back to london. a return to this. do you regret what you did? but during a pandemic, it feels uncomfortable for some. because many people in this country have made heartbreaking following government guidelines sacrifices in the last couple and following your instinct of months in order to stick on a sunny bank holiday is a difficult to the rules that you were part balance to strike. fiona trott, bbc news. of putting together. and many people may have listened to you and think you made your own interpretation. more on all of our stories on

and do you understand oui’ for some people, it seems more on all of our stories on our website. and do let me know as if there was one version what you have been up to on of the rules for you and one version of the rules for everyone else? no, i don't regret what i did. as i said, i think reasonable lockdown in corinth. —— in people may well disagree about how i thought about what to do in these circumstances. corentin tolisso but i think that... you can reach me on tolisso twitter — i'm @jamesbbcnews. i think that what i did was actually reasonable in these... in the circumstances. do stay with us. hello. if you're looking for rain through this week, there is not will the public tolerate his reliance on the small print? very much in the forecast. walking away, did he but what i can offer believe his explanations you is plenty of warmth. got him off the hook? in fact, during monday to the south—west of london, temperatures got very close his boss wanted to make to 27 degrees. announcements about the next we'll see more very warm stages of easing the lockdown. weather over the next few days. but while he might still have looked unfamiliar on the satellite picture, with the details, he had you can see this stripe to defend him still. of cloud that's been good evening. working its way in towards the north west. not bringing an awful you knew that your chief lot of rain, though. advisor had gone against this is a frontal system, the spirit of the lockdown but one which is weakening very quickly, so really wejust rules, whether driving 30 miles have a band of cloud sitting in place across parts of england and wales to a local beauty spot through tuesday morning. maybe the odd spot of drizzle in county durham supposedly around, but generally speaking it will be dry. to test his eyesight, a bit more in the way of cloud generally than we had during monday.

or not self—isolating conversely for northern ireland and scotland, here we see long spells of sunshine. straightaway when his still quite breezy in the far wife had symptoms. north, and a little bit dominic cummings would not on the cool side here, express any regret, will you? i suppose, but the further i didn't know about any of the arrangements in advance. south you are, top temperatures getting up to 25 degrees. we had a brief conversation now as we move through tuesday in which i think he mentioned where he was. i had a lot on my plate and really didn't i have to tell you, evening, our old front sitting at that particular stage, i had a lot on my plate and really didn't focus on the matter. and i do regret the confusion in place, butjust a band and the anger and the pain of cloud really at this stage. that people feel. could be a bit misty and murky i really did want people to understand exactly in some coastal spots what had happened. in the south and west and more and so that's why we had cloud starts to work in towards the statement and the very parts of northern ireland. extensive questions in general, it is a dry night that we did today. the prime minister is standing by his adviser. and not a particularly cold one famed and feared for believing with lows between 7—14 degrees. so during wednesday, high pressure still very rules are there to be broken. much in charge of this warm front here. it will be introducing more that has always come cloud and maybe just nosing for big political danger some rain into the western side for dominic cummings. of northern ireland now it couldn't be and potentially the west of scotland. closer to home. a bit of uncertainty about just how far east laura kuenssberg there. this rain will get. but to the south of this band our political correspondent of cloud and patchy rain, iain watson has the latest that is where we have the very details from westminster. warm air. i think people are actually temperatures down towards beginning to assess the south, cardiff, london what dominic cummings, boris johnson's adviser, in the mid—20s celsius and not was saying. quite as warm as that those who have been in touch, across the northern half

there's a variety of views. of the uk, but as we move there are those who wanted him towards the end of the week, to go who still want him as this area of high pressure to go and have said moves its way a little bit privately to boris johnson further east, more and more that he should go. of us get to feel the effects then there are those who were pretty hostile of some very warm air. yesterday and then now say and i think on thursday, a couple of things, really. we will see plentiful "let's wait and see sunshine across most areas, what the weekend opinion and a bit more cloud polls say" or "let's see what our constituents across scotland, maybe just are saying about this." 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 their constituents, james, cooler for some of those last night, they were saying they were getting very angry north sea coasts. comments from constituents that's a trend that will who felt there were double continue on into friday, standards here, downing street and as we head into doing one thing, they were the weekend, well, those temperatures stay pretty high required to do another. for the time of year and very some of them just want to see little sign of rain for most of us. how this is going to settle. and there are some others who are now being, how can i put this politely, encouraged, i think is the word to use, encouraged to come out and support dominic cummings

and boris johnson. and so members of the cabinet, for example, are now saying "it's time to move on" — that's their message — "it's time to rebuild the country" or "it's time to move forward", to try and give us the impression that there may have been four orfive bad days of headlines, but that's all behind us now. it's not clear if enough of their mps — and, indeed, crucially, enough of those mps' constituents — are ready to take thatjourney with them. it doesn't always end, does it, when a politician says it's time to move on? we remember the culture secretary saying "end of story." that was on saturday afternoon. do you think public behaviour will be influenced one way or another by this dominic cummings story? i think there are two things to say on that. he was saying he wasn't trying to change the guidance. he felt he was in exceptional circumstances. nonetheless, some ministers privately are still worried that, as the government try to ease the lockdown in the uk — to try and open up

some more shops, for example, next month — that if people are not currently following the guidance because they believe this is bbc news, the headlines that they don't have to because downing street did not, britain's prime minister, borisjohnson, has said he regrets if that is their perception, the "confusion and anger" caused whether the reality of that by his chief adviser‘s long or their perception, journeys across the uk then there may well be a risk during the anti—virus lockdown, that the spread of the infection goes back up again but reiterated his support. the comment came after the adviser, and makes these lockdown measures dominic cummings, held a news more difficult to achieve. conference insisting the other side of this, i think, is actually perhaps that he didn't violate the rules. just losing control of public the world health organization has trust on the whole issue. and certainly, there's been some warnings tonight from some suspended the testing people in the health profession that they're concerned by that, and that whatever of hydroxychloroquine as a possible justifications dominic cummings treatment for covid—i9 because of safety concerns. had for acting the way he did it comes after a study suggested the drug could increase the risk of death. hydroxychloroquine is traditionally on behalf of his family, used to prevent malaria and has been recently used by president trump. the us has imposed travel some of them are suggesting restrictions on foreign nationals there may well be public who have been to brazil health consequences. in the previous 14 days. iain watson there. a white house spokeswoman said the restrictions would help ensure new cases aren't brought into the country. the world health organization brazil is now the world's second has temporarily halted the testing of the drug hydroxychloroquine as a possible treatment for covid—i9 because of safety concerns. major hotspot for coronavirus cases. the drug, which has been 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. one 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 a round up of other coronavirus 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 us has imposed travel restrictions on foreign nationals who have been to brazil in the last 14 days. a white house spokeswoman said the restrictions would help ensure new cases are not brought into the us. the south american nation recently became the world's second major hotspot for coronavirus cases. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: how close is too close? we look at the science behind social distancing.

this is bbc news. the latest headlines: the top adviser to the british prime minister has given a defiant defence of his behaviour after he was accused of flouting coronavirus lockdown rules. the world health organization has suspended testing of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for covid—i9, after a study suggested the drug could cause serious health problems. as the lockdown in england starts to be relaxed, with the government setting out further plans to ease some of the restrictions, more people will be using public transport and returning to work. so, in this environment, what are the risks of being infected with coronavirus? our science editor david shukman has been looking at the latest research. as people think about getting back to work, going out to do more shopping again and travelling on public transport, what are the risks of becoming infected ? this animation simulates the inside of a train carriage.

marked in red, it shows someone who's got the virus, maybe without realising, and how, when they talk, they could release it all over a fellow passenger. a grim thought, but some scientists say the droplets containing the virus are very easily spread. if you are just breathing, talking, then obviously, the droplets don't travel as far, but they could travel far enough to infect your friend who's sitting opposite you, chatting to you, ok? so that is the key distance. how far do they have to travel to infect somebody else? so when someone's coughing or sneezing, it's vital to keep your distance, otherwise this is the easiest way to catch the virus. another way is when someone infected contaminates surfaces like in a kitchen and others then touch those areas. and the virus might be carried through the air for several metres. we don't know how far it can go

while remaining infectious. all of these risks are reduced out of doors. not eliminated, keeping apart is still important, but any virus should be dispersed in the air, and if it lands on a surface, it should be killed pretty quickly by ultraviolet light. but it's a very different story when you are inside. so what happens indoors when someone coughs? like in this scenario. what's crucial is how the ventilation works. here, an air—conditioning unit circulates the air, and that spreads the virus around. in another scenario, a window is opened, and the cough is carried by fresh air. the infection is still spread, but to fewer people. and the team behind this research say there are ways to reduce the risks when restaurants and other places come to reopen. you can open windows to help get more outside air coming into your space. you can talk to mechanical contractors to see if you can increase filtration or add humidification.

adding humidification helps to get the particles to drop out of the air more quickly, so they are less likely to swirl around and cause other infections. and new research keeps coming up with answers. in this experiment, a breath is seen travelling through the air. but when a mask is worn, the breath doesn't get so far. as the lockdown is relaxed, ideas for keeping people safe, which seemed unimaginable before covid, now seem to make more sense. david shukman, bbc news. here in the uk, some of the doctors on the front line of the nhs came to the country 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 ahmad alomar is a syrian refugee now working at royal oldham hospital in manchester. here, he's checking on a patient admitted with a severe cough. hello. my name's ahmad. 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, ahmad and his family found safety in britain, and he brought precious skills. where's my chocolates? 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 — the 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 00:20:15,692 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 in besieged aleppo.