this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. a junior minister has resigned over the handling of borisjohnson top adviser‘s travels during lockdown. it comes as other uk government ministers rally to support dominic cummings — they say they understand public concern but insist he acted reasonably when making trips during lockdown. on the whole, as a man of integrity, he thinks that he did do the right thing. but he also recognises, as a fair—minded man, that there are many other people who may take a different view, and i understand that. almost all shops in england will be able to reopen from 15thjune, as part of plans to further ease the lockdown. the world health organization halts trials of an anti—malarial drug as a potential treatment for covid—19, as it's found it

could cause heart problems. hong kong's leader has rejected suggestions that china's proposed new security laws could erode freedoms in the territory. as greece reopens for tourism, we travel with a team of doctors who will set up coronavirus testing where the virus has not yet been reported. newsreel: they are on their way home, home from the hell that is dunkirk. and we remember the heroes of dunkirk — 80 years on. 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.

borisjohnson may have been hoping to put the controversy surrounding his senior adviser dominic cummings behind him, but it continues to bedevil his government. in the last hour, douglas ross — a junior minister for scotland — announced his resignation from the government over the affair. in a written statement, mr ross said that dominic cummings‘ interpretation of the government's lockdown guidelines "was not shared by the vast majority of the people who have done as the government asked". he pointed out that he had constituents who hadn't been able to visit sick families or say goodbye to those they loved and said, "i cannot in good faith tell them that they are all wrong and one senior government adviser was right." he went on to say... this all follows an extraordinary press conference held by mr cummings yesterday afternoon, in which he replied to allegations that he had breached the government's lockdown rules by driving his family to london to durham in late march.

we'll be getting the latest on this morning's resignation, and the reaction to that press conference, from westminster in a moment. first this report from our political correspondent iain watson on the background to the controversy. something you don't see every day. government advisers usually defend their political masters. this one had come to defend himself. dominic cummings took his family 250 miles from london to durham during lockdown, when his wife was already ill. yesterday, he was asked if he now regretted his actions. no, i don't regret what i did. as i said, i think reasonable people may well disagree about how i thought about what to do in the circumstances but i think that... i think what i did was reasonable in. . . in these circumstances. at the socially—distanced impromptu press conference, he insisted that isolating close

to his extended family was the best option in case he needed childcare. but why had he then also gone on a 30—mile trip from durham to barnard castle on easter sunday? apparently he was giving himself an unconventional eye test. my wife was very worried, particularly given my eyesight seemed to have been affected by the disease. she did not want to risk a nearly 300—mile drive with our child, given how ill i had been. we agreed that we should go for a short drive to see if i could drive safely. at his press conference last night, the prime minister sounded a bit more contrite than his adviser. i do regret the confusion and the anger and pain that people feel. i really did want people to understand exactly what had happened. but he wasn't going to sack his adviser, and he insisted that no—one at number ten had undermined the government's message on health. and a range of cabinet ministers have taken to social media with a remarkably similar message —

time to move on. opposition parties will meet today, and are pressing for an enquiry into dominic cummings‘ actions. many of the papers are less ready to move on than government ministers, and some conservative mps are waiting to see if angry constituents have been soothed or riled by dominic cummings before deciding whether to renew calls for him to go. iain watson, bbc news. our political correspondent nick eardley is at downing street. nick, fill us in on this resignation bya nick, fill us in on this resignation by a junior minister. the government we re by a junior minister. the government were hoping that mr cummings explaining his situation yesterday would put this to bed and that he was acting in the interests of his family. quite the opposite seems to have happened this morning. douglas rossis have happened this morning. douglas ross is a junior minister at the scotla nd ross is a junior minister at the scotland office and he has looked at

mrcummings' scotland office and he has looked at mr cummings' explanation yesterday and decided it just mr cummings' explanation yesterday and decided itjust isn't good enough. and he can't tell his constituents that they were wrong to miss family funerals, or not go and visit sick loved ones and that mr cummings was right to drive from london up to durham, to self—isolate, himself. what is really interesting about this tweet by douglas ross, i think it could be on screen now, but what is interesting about his letter is that he is doing this because of the feedback he has had from his constituents, and the danger for borisjohnson is that many other tory mps are getting similar m essa 9 es tory mps are getting similar messages from their constituents. we have heard over the last few days of a number of mps who are worried that they are being accused of hypocrisy by their constituents. harriett baldwin, another tory mp, said that because of that she has been getting, she thinks mr cummings should quit. i suppose that number

ten will be looking now at whether potentially more of these criticisms and resignations to come later today. thank you very much, nick. let's speak now to anthony browne, conservative mp and a former adviser to borisjohnson when he was mayor of london. good morning. first your reaction to the resignation of your colleague is junior minister, douglas ross. there are junior minister, douglas ross. there a re pressures junior minister, douglas ross. there are pressures in the conservative party and amongst the public on the spot when dominic cummings gave his explanation yesterday he covered a lot of detail and answered a lot of questions and reasonable people can be on both sides of this. as it happens, i think he acted reasonably. we continue to get so many messages from people who are telling me things like this, this is from laurie. my sister is a single pa rent from laurie. my sister is a single parent with three kids, two of them autistic with severe adhd. she had

covid early only look down and had to rely on her eldest child to look after them all. we live three hours away and we would have gone to her ina away and we would have gone to her in a heartbeat if we had been allowed to, by the government. we know that this lockdown has been extremely difficult for a lot of people, really for the whole country, and more difficult for some than others. people have lost their lives, loved ones, livelihoods. i have been spent lockdown talking to constituents in really difficult situations and helping them try to get out of them, and i must say that ifi get out of them, and i must say that if i had someone come to me with the unique situation of dominic cummings, where he was coming down sick with his wife, and a four—year—old child that didn't have any ca re four—year—old child that didn't have any care provision nearby, then in exceptional circumstances, and it is covered by the guidance, you are allowed to do what will most reduce

harm and this is a principle in law. what matter the problem is, no one knew about it. there are thousands of m essa g es knew about it. there are thousands of messages from parents who found themselves in exactly the same situation as mr and mrs cummings and in worse situations and did not leave their home, because we were told by the government to stay at her had symptoms. i totally get why people are angry. this has been really difficult. also, just the sense that there is one rule for some people and one for others. it is important we all live by the same rules. but we haven't. in dominic cummings' case, you listen to the details of it, i think he acted reasonably and within the law. did you know about this clause that allowed people to travel across the country if they had worries about childcare? what the clause does say is that, if you can't look after small children, they do act within

the guidance, only if you can but otherwise in exceptional circumstances, you can do what you need to come harm. i'm really sorry, it doesn't say that. i'm just going to read exactly what it does say. you have been reporting it on your website so i know that it is there. the government could have made more about the exceptional circumstances close but it is a fundamental principle in law, that actually, law doesn't cover all circumstances. if there are exceptional circumstances and people are acting reasonably, then the courts are usually fine, behind that. if the rules allowed forjudgment, as behind that. if the rules allowed for judgment, as mr cummings behind that. if the rules allowed forjudgment, as mr cummings claim, why did almost nobody else do what he did? i don't know what everyone else did. i haven't spoken to eve i’yo ne else did. i haven't spoken to everyone in the country. it is because the government told us to stay at home, and most people did that. he went through everything in

great detail yesterday and people have to make up their own minds looking at that whether he acted reasonably or not reasonably, and i think he acted reasonably and within the law. what matters now as a whole is moving to the next stage of easing the lockdown, and the government has announced measures on opening up shops. some people would say that what matters now is trust, and whether people can trust what your government and the prime minister says, when it comes to future advice, and a number of people are suggesting that they absolutely will not do what the prime minister says in future because of this example from mr cummings. i, and many mps, regret the anger and cummings. i, and many mps, regret the angerand pain cummings. i, and many mps, regret the anger and pain this episode has caused. if there is a loss of trust thatis caused. if there is a loss of trust that is to be regretted, there is no doubt about that. in the particular case of dominic cummings, we have gone through it endlessly over the past two days and i think he acted reasonably. what are you going to do

about that loss of trust, all of those people who said that they lent you their vote back in december, what are you going to do about it? if there has been a loss of trust in the government has to earn it again to get us through the rest of this pandemic, to ease the lockdown, make sure that there isn't as much economic damage, there is as little of it as possible, get the country going again, make sure that as few lives are lost as possible, to do that with integrity, doing it a b in the same rules as anyone else and being seen to obey the same rules as eve ryo ne being seen to obey the same rules as everyone else. what did you think when mrjohnson said mr cummings did "what any parent would do"?|j when mrjohnson said mr cummings did "what any parent would do"? i don't think many parents where in the same situation as dominic cummings. no, many were in much worse circumstances. he had death threats in protest at home, he was coming down sick, he was worried about his wife also coming down sick and about being able to look after his child,

and most people who are reasonable listening to that would think that what he did was reasonable.” listening to that would think that what he did was reasonable. i will read a couple more. georgie says, my husband and i got sick for a0 days whilst caring for a nine—month—old and a three—year—old got ill, we didn't see us all, i was breast—feeding and getting around a-s breast—feeding and getting around a—5 hours sleep a night. we have this e—mailfrom a—5 hours sleep a night. we have this e—mail from patricia. a—5 hours sleep a night. we have this e—mailfrom patricia. she a—5 hours sleep a night. we have this e—mail from patricia. she says isa this e—mail from patricia. she says is a conservative supporter i am totally disgusted. this came in to us just before 10am today. why does mrcummings have us just before 10am today. why does mr cummings have such power, why does he have so much hold over our prime minister? that is no conservative supporter, mr brown. you are talking about douglas ross. i've had e—mails from constituents from across the political spectrum. there is no doubt that the public are upset about this. and mrjohnson has said that he regrets the pain and anger that this has caused. but not enough to sack mr cummings. that

isa not enough to sack mr cummings. that is a decision for the prime minister and he has decided not to. i don't think that he needs to, because he has acted, going through it, i think he acted within the guidelines. thank you for talking to us, anthony brown, conservative mp. in a moment we'll be speaking to another mp who earlier criticised the prime ministerfor his handling of the dominic cummings controversy. but first, all non—essential retailers in england will be able to reopen from isthjune, as part of plans to further ease the lockdown. retailers will have to adhere to new guidelines around social distancing and hygiene standards, in order to protect shoppers and staff. outdoor markets and car showrooms in england will also be able to reopen from istjune. the world health organisation 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. 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. when? right now, yeah. couple of weeks ago, i started taking it. why, sir? 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.

the scientist leading the uk's largest coronavirus tracking project says that people will have probably died prematurely, as a result of attending two major sporting events that took place in march. professor tim spector, from king's college london, has analysed data from millions of volunteers across the uk. he identified covid—i9 hotspots following the cheltenham festival, and liverpool's champions league match against atletico madrid. countries across europe are beginning to open themselves up to foreign visitors, as infection rates continue to fall. spain says foreign travellers will be able to visit the country from the beginning ofjuly — without going into quarantine. the spanish foreign minister said the country was looking forward to welcoming tourists back now the worst of the coronavirus pandemic was behind it. 80 million visitors travel to spain each year — 20 million from the uk. meanwhile, greece has taken another major step

towards re—starting its tourism industry, opening its islands to domestic visitors for the first time in months. a team of doctors from mainland greece were among the first visitors to the remote island of sikinos, in the aegean sea. our correspondent quentin sommerville accompanied them on theirjourney. on a 100—mile—plus journey, these athens doctors are the first visitors to sikinos in months. the greek islands are accepting visitors again. the mayor of the island welcomes them ashore. we're greeted with elbow bumps instead of handshakes. there are enough coronavirus tests for whoever wants them. we do know that, so far, there haven't been any cases on the remote islands, but there hasn't been any testing also. there are only 250 people on this island, and none of them have been tested for covid—i9 until today. the village was built on a hilltop

to safeguard it from pirates. they're hoping its isolation continues to offer protection. greece has only had 172 deaths from covid—i9, and is leaving lockdown faster than expected. foreign tourists still have to undergo quarantine. terry harris has been living here for a0 years. i came here and i isolated myself for two weeks in my house and the lady from the supermarket — flora — she delivers everything, so they brought up, on a donkey, water and any supplies i wanted. at the temporary test centre, father theodorus leads the way. these tests are essential as greece prepares to welcome back foreign tourists in the coming months. today is the first day that everything comes back to normal, including restaurants and all the borders and ships, so we are concerned

about everything being planned in the best possible way. greece is emerging from the pandemic earlier than others — not unscathed, but in better shape than most. isolation is a way of life here, but so, too, is tourism. the health of the islanders depends on both. let's return to the controversy over uk prime minister borisjohnson's senior advisor dominic cummings and the allegations that he breached coronavirus lockdown rules by driving his family from london to his parents' home in north—east england when his wife fell ill. this morning — as we've been reporting — there's been a ministerial resignation over the affair. joining me now from his constituency in kent is sir roger gale —

i would like your reactions to the resignation of douglas ross, the junior minister. he is a decent man and a good minister. we cannot afford to lose people like douglas, from government. he said the reasons he resigned was because it did appear that a government adviser had done something different to many of his constituents, and he couldn't tell his constituents that they were wrong, and the government adviser was right. i have great sympathy with that point of view. during the technical problems, i was listening —— listening to your conversations with dan hodges. i had great sympathy with what you are seeing in terms of human compassion because any parent would like to look after their child, we understand that but this is a man at the top of the government, who had devised and was trying to enforce rules upon one set of people, that he doesn't appear to

have wa nted of people, that he doesn't appear to have wanted to obey himself. he had the opportunity, had he chosen to do so, to go to his line manager, the chief of the civil service, sir marc sedwill, and say to him, that i got a real problem, but i'm quite certain that wouldn't have been sorted and the family would have been got out of harms way, and he would have been given approval to do what he did. by saying i'm going to do what i like, but you can't do what you like, i'm afraid, and this is the bottom line on this, he sent out a very damaging and dangerous message. why dangerous? over the weekend, scores and scores of people we re weekend, scores and scores of people were in my constituency of margate and in herne bay. i wasn't there myself but i have seen the pictures. the place was heaving with people. and i am told that a lot of those people were saying, well, it is now a right to be here, because if one

person can travel, everybody can travel. what none of us wants is another spike. the nation has been through two months of absolute hell with people dying, with terrible things happening to families, businesses and we want to come out of this on the sunny side, we want a summer season, we want of this on the sunny side, we want a summer season, we want everything to be open in july, summer season, we want everything to be open injuly, for the school summer be open injuly, for the school summer holidays. and the danger in this, i pray that it doesn't happen, but the danger is that we will now get, as a result of this lack of social distancing, another spike. nobody wants that.|j social distancing, another spike. nobody wants that. i don't want to be pedantic but we are in england allowed to drive to beaches as long as we observe social distancing.” know we are, that was a message sent out a fortnight ago, i said at the time that it was the wrong message andi time that it was the wrong message and i have been begging people not to come to herne bay, having spent

37 years begging them to come, trying to get them not to come, but the weather as it was and with the brake on, it was inevitable there was going to be a flood of people, and those people were not social distancing. that is the problem. the rules were not being adhered to. and now i am getting floods of e—mails this morning saying, if it is ok for them, it is ok for me. it is the wrong message. why were you not satisfied with mr cummings' explanation yesterday? he said he had not broken the rules, he had exceptional circumstances, he did what he thought was right for his family. i listen to what he said with great care, and i have nothing but sympathy for someone with a sick wife and a child they got to look after, but had he gone about it the right way, everybody would have understood that and the right way would have been to have gone to the head of the civil service, i got a problem, and that could have been taken care problem, and that could have been

ta ken care of. problem, and that could have been taken care of. as it was, he did his own thing, he didn't apologise to the nation for what he'd done, something he was telling everyone else not to do, and he has sent out yet another message, clearly, saying, will effectively i can do what i like, and this is the man who is advising the prime minister. he is advising the prime minister. he is not elected. we didn't elect dominic cummings. we elected a conservative government led by boris johnson. and those of us in parliament as well as outside of it expect him to run the country. and you can't have a maverick going off and doing what he likes, whether it is over this or anything else. but you can because borisjohnson is keeping him in hisjob. you can because borisjohnson is keeping him in his job. boris johnson is keeping him in hisjob, for the moment. people like me i think now have to shut up. i feel i have said too much on the subject already, probably. there is no

conspiracy. nobody is trying, as far as i'm aware, to bring cummings down. apart from my whip who i spoke to, i rang him as a courtesy, to tell them what i was doing and why. apart from him i have spoken to no other conservative member of parliament about this so i have no idea what my colleagues in the house are saying, but i think time has come for those of us who have expressed real concern is to take a step back and take it to the 1922 committee, and i hope the 1922 committee, and i hope the 1922 committee will take a very clear message to the prime minister. the 1922 committee is the backbench committee of conservative mps, and the message you want them to take to the message you want them to take to the prime minister is what, sir roger? i think they have to say that this has gone too far. there is a huge public backlash against what has happened and the way in which it has happened and the way in which it has been handled. it has become a distraction from thejob has been handled. it has become a distraction from the job of getting people back to work, back to school,

protecting health and rebuilding the economy. that is what we are here to do and what we ought to be doing. and the time, i think, has come for mrcummings even at and the time, i think, has come for mr cummings even at this stage to resign, orfor the mr cummings even at this stage to resign, or for the prime mr cummings even at this stage to resign, orfor the prime minister to say i am terribly sorry, but we have dispensed with your services. thank you very much for talking to us and again, apologies for the technical problems and thank you very much for your patience. sir roger gale, the conservative mp for north thanet. in hong kong, carrie lam, the chief executive, has been defending china's new controversial security law — calling it a safeguard against violent political protests. and she criticised international leaders who've supported protesters resisting the legislation. translation: national security legislation is a matterfor a country. it is the case in any country. it doesn't matter if the country has a unitary system or multiparty system or a federal system. now legislation on national security is always a matter for the central authorities.

so for overseas politicians making such comments, they probably, you know, practising double standard. now i think there is no one country that will allow an important matter like national security to be flawed in any way or to have a void in any way. our correspondent in hong kong, danny vincent explains how, after months of protests seen in the semi—autonomous territory last year, trust in the city's chief executive has eroded. carrie lam this morning has been attempting to reassure the hong kong public that the city will remain a free and open society, regardless of when this law is enacted. in some ways, carrie lam has lost the trust of at least a portion of society — definitely the protesters. the protesters took to the streets

last year for back—to—back protests that lasted for many months. they were calling for carrie lam to resign simply because they felt that she no longer held the interests of the hong kong people, instead, she was simply relaying the message from beijing. i think today she technically almost is doing that this time because this law actually was proposed by beijing, not by carrie lam herself. so some protesters i have spoken to, they feel the message from carrie lam is now somewhat irrelevant because they now want they're protesting showing their anger towards the central government. now protesters have planned more protests over the next few days. we are expecting protests tomorrow. it will be a real test to see how many hong kong people actually go to the streets. of course they will be breaking not only the law — there is a law here that says that

if more than four people "cause a public nuisance", that is technically illegal — but also they will be breaking the social—distancing rules that were put into place to try to stop the spread of the coronavirus. so i think hong kong is bracing for more protests, and i think it will be interesting to see what happens in the next 2a hours. we will get a better sense of how hong kong residents respond to beijing and the hong kong governments' recent messages about this law. hello, this is bbc news with me, victoria derbyshire. the headlines. a junior minister has resigned over the handling of the borisjohnson top adviser‘s travels during lockdown. it comes as other uk government ministers rally to support dominic cummings — they say they understand public concern but insist he acted reasonably when making trips during lockdown. almost all shops in england will be able to reopen from 15thjune,

as part of plans to further ease the lockdown. the world health organisation halts trials of an anti—malarial drug as a potential treatment for covid—19 — as it's found it could cause heart problems. hong kong's leader has rejected suggestions that china's proposed new security laws could erode freedoms in the territory. as greece reopens for tourism, we travel with a team of doctors who will set up coronavirus testing — where the virus has not yet been reported. more british retailers have been given the go—ahead to reopen in england next month, if they can meet the coronavirus guidelines to protect shoppers and workers. outdoor markets and car showrooms will be allowed to resume trading next monday, the 1st ofjune. but the main rollout is planned for the 15th — with everything from department stores to small independent shops opening their doors once again. so how will that work, and what covid secure guidelines

will businesses have to follow? i'm joined by stephen norman, the the managing director of vauxhall motors. hello, good morning. good morning. festival, your reaction that car showrooms will be able to open from next monday. absolutely delighted. it is the very beginning. it will aid production through the factories, so it is great news for the industry and great news for the uk economy. what will it mean for car showrooms who have to be over to secure car showrooms who have to be over to secure “— car showrooms who have to be over to secure —— covid secure? car showrooms who have to be over to secure -- covid secure? car showrooms tend to be large, airy, bright open spaces. in a way we are lucky compared with the rest of the retail sector insofar as it is not difficult to make them covid safe and secure. of course we will find social distancing guidelines in terms of areas, ways to walk around

the showroom, to look at the vehicles that are on display, and so on. and of course they will have to be disinfection between test drives and inspections of the vehicles. but all of those things, to meet government guidelines and even go round, because of course every manufacturer tends to go beyond guidelines, and to be doubly and triply secure. we have been ready for two weeks. have you? do you think you could have opened earlier? well, i don't want to get involved ina well, i don't want to get involved in a political discussion but across continental europe, showrooms are now open, so, yes, we are perhaps one or two or three weeks behind the rest of europe in being able to reopen. the essential thing is the government has announced that from the 1st ofjune, government has announced that from the 1st of june, next government has announced that from the 1st ofjune, next monday, and we are very thankful for that. as i said, we are ready to support the demand. you know there will be an increased demand for small personal

transport, inevitably, with the guidelines being to avoid, at least for the time being, public transport. that may be true, but nobody has any money, do they? well, when 80% of motor vehicles bought in the uk i purchased on a finance plan, and with interest rates at the way they have been in recent months, andindeed way they have been in recent months, and indeed years, i think people, if they only need to go online and start looking they will be very pleasa ntly start looking they will be very pleasantly surprised. the monthly rates that are available, but also at employment insurance and even deferred payments. yes, the industry is absolutely ready to support the customer, as i said, for the last two weeks and especially from monday to. a broad final thought. how much has your industry been damaged by this crisis and the lockdown that ensued? well, if it had not been for

furlough, we wouldn't be able to have this conversation today. the industry is incredibly grateful to the government for furlough. we are not used to shutdowns in summer holiday periods, but nobody would have expected the industry to close down for two months in one of the most important selling periods of the year. when you talk of damage to the year. when you talk of damage to the industry, it is damage to the sales and indeed damage that will have to be caught back in coming months and possibly more than months to get back to the proper rate of the market. thank you very much for talking to us, mr norman. pleasure. all the best. as the world awaits a coronavirus vaccine, doctors and scientists in england have been looking at different ways to treat those who are severely affected by the disease. it's hoped plasma therapy could offer a solution. it's a process which sees recovered patients donate their blood which contains antibodies. our health correspondent laura foster has been finding out more. when alessandro contracted

coronavirus and ended up on a hospital ventilator, he feared he'd never get to see his family again. it's why, when he recovered, he wanted to help others by donating plasma in his blood. instinctively, the last thing you want to do is go in a hospital environment again and have a needle put, but then i thought actually that i had been given so much and literally, like, you know, those people saved my life. and you feel so hopeless and you feel so unable to help others, and that was the only way i could figure at that point to give some of this back. when alessandro was sick, his immune system produced antibodies to help fight the virus. these antibodies are found in the gold—coloured part of our blood known as plasma. the idea is that this plasma can be given to other people, whose immune systems are struggling, to help them fight coronavirus. the nhs wants more people who've had covid—19 to donate their plasma. it's making its donations centres

bigger and creating pop—up ones so they can take up to 8,000 donations a week. it can be very, very emotional and it does actually get you quite upset sometimes, but then you see these people have come out from the other side and they're so... like i said, they're so enthusiastic and so willing. the researchers have found that men, those over 35, and anyone who was hospitalised with coronavirus produce the most antibodies. in fact, alessandro's blood contains a0 times more antibodies than the average donor. so that means i can give a lot of them away, which i'm very pleased to do, and suddenly, as my friends knew about that, they all become very nice to me in case they ever need it in the future! they're particularly asking for people to come forward in manchester, birmingham and london, where there have been a lot of cases of covid—19. laura foster, bbc news.

a british couple is coordinating efforts to help a hospital in haiti prepare for a spike in coronavirus cases — which they believe could overwhelm the country's healthcare system. the country has just 60 ventilators for a population of 11 million and is ill—prepared for the pandemic. the bbc‘sjon hunt has more. while in britain we may be past the peak of the pandemic, in haiti cases are rising sharply. at this hospital set up by a uk charity, they're having to improvise — making ppe out of raincoats and diy masks. this is actually made out of a ladder. rob dalton is an a&e nurse from surrey volunteering for the charity. i've been working six days a week. sometimes too busy to get to eat and things. there's so much to do here. they need all the help they can get. the preparation at the hope health action hospital is being coordinated from crawley in west sussex. the charity's founders say one

of their biggest challenges is access to oxygen. there is no access to a ventilator at our hospital, there's only 15—20 icu beds for the whole country. so we are focusing on provision of oxygen but that can be a struggle. we've invested to get a number of oxygen concentrators out to the country in the last couple of weeks which arrived over the weekend. the charity is also doing community outreach work to teach social distancing and promote good hand washing. you can have ten people living in a one—bed house, which means that self—isolating is just nearly impossible. and communities all function really closely together. with donations from the uk, they have been able to set up an isolation ward for covid—19 patients and a triage system. the peak of the pandemic is due in haiti in the next two weeks. john hunt, bbc news. pressure is being put on governments across europe to allow businesses and shops to re—open. rich preston reports now

on the massive economic impact of the virus. spain once had some of europe's toughest lockdown measures. now the bars and restaurants of barcelona are serving customers once again. here, as well as in the capital, madrid, people can now meet in groups of up to ten. translation: i am so moved. i'm shaking from feeling so happy after staying home for such a long time. this is phenomenal. it is really, really good. in popular resorts like majorca, people can once again visit the beach. spain has urged foreign holiday—makers to come back to visit the country in july, when it will stop quarantining new arrivals. once at the heart of the pandemic, italians can go to the gym again, but with strict hygiene rules in place. you must keep your hands clean and keep apart from others enjoying a work—out.

people in the czech republic can get back to one of their favourite pastimes again — this is the country that drinks more beer per capita than any other. but masks must be worn — unless, of course, you're taking a sip. the czech republic wasn't hit as badly as some other countries by coronavirus and — perhapsjust a coincidence — was the first to make the wearing of masks in public compulsory. as well as bars, breweries and restaurants, popular tourist sites are reopening, too. cultural attractions like theatres and museums can now organise events for up to 300 people. and in the uk — europe's worst—hit country — a plan to ease out of the lockdown. on 1stjune, outdoor markets and car showrooms can open up. two weeks later, all other nonessential shops, like department stores, can open their doors — provided they are covid—secure and have measures in place to keep people apart and protect both staff and customers.

europe's first official case of coronavirus was recorded at the end of january. since then, life on the continent has been turned upside down, affecting lives and livelihoods. after four months of restrictions on everyday life — and tens of thousands of deaths — europeans hope for a return to some semblance of normality, however gradual it may be. rich preston, bbc news. seafronts across england were busy over the weekend, as sun—seekers tried to make the most of the bank holiday weather. with travel restrictions eased earlier this month, crowds flocked to beaches in bournemouth and southend, but in other parts of the uk — where stricter lockdown is still in place — many tourist destinations remained quiet. adam mcclean has more. in scotland, beaches were largely empty. and in northern ireland and wales, people are still told to stay home. this was southend—on—sea.

in what looks like any normal bank holiday — but this was yesterday. a scene repeated in other english beauty spots in the middle of a global pandemic. thousands enjoying the sun and the sand. in seaside towns, there are concerns about what visitors may bring and take away. people living near the beaches depend on everybody who does come to behave responsibly, and it's better if you live a long way away not to come to the beach yet. you can do that another day, in good weather, when this crisis is over. there were concerns about shifting attitudes towards coronavirus rules after senior government advisor dominic cummings said he didn't regret taking his family to county durham. i've barely left my house on lockdown. this is the first sort of time getting back out, and then we find out these sort of stories. and when they do get caught out,

there's always some sort of excuse. he says one thing but does another. i don't think it should be one rule for the elite and one rule for sort of everyone else. we have not seen family, and obviously, with a young baby, people are missing. people are missing seeing her, as well, like grandparents. but others here in merseyside feel it's an issue that's gone too far. like, we were told that we couldn't go and do this and that, and he went and did — went out. but personally, i feel like we just all need to get over it a bit. one advisor or individual has got, you know, a personal decision, and he's made it. and i wouldn't imagine we need to, you know, just spend time, money, to dig out why he's gone. here on formby beach, groups were happy to spread out across the miles of sand and keep their distance, as many headed out for fresh air and sunshine, after nine weeks of lockdown. adam mcclean, bbc news.

the headlines on bbc news. a junior minister has resigned over the handling of the borisjohnson top adviser‘s travels during lockdown. it comes as other uk government ministers rally to support dominic cummings — they say they understand public concern but insist he acted reasonably when making trips during lockdown. the world health organisation halts trials of an anti—malarial drug as a potential treatment for covid—19 — as it's found it could cause heart problems. a0 million tourists flocked to thailand last year, but because of the coronavirus pandemic the industry there has collapsed. among those affected are elephant keepers who rely on the income they get from elephant experience camps and shows. keepers and their elephants are now migrating across thailand, from the country's tourist centres to the remote villages where they grew up. bbc thai correspondent

chaiyot yongcharoenchai joined one group making thejourney home. hundreds of elephants are on the move in thailand. translation: we are taking the elephants back home because of covid—19. there are no more tourists. we have been waiting for several months to see if it would get better, but it's not. so she is taking the elephants to her village, where she can feed them. it's more than 100 miles away in the mountains. it will be a difficultjourney. translation: we expect it to take three days and two nights, but we have a young elephant and an old one. the baby elephant is four months old. if they are tired, they can rest.

elephants are synonymous with tourism in thailand, but it's an industry accused of cruelty. the 3,000 elephants that rely on tourism are at risk of starvation, and for some elephants, the pandemic has meant more suffering. translation: if it doesn't get better in three months, i will contact people i know along the myanmar border. i will take my elephant to work in the business there. after two days of travel, the convoy is chased out of village. locals think the keepers may have coronavirus. tired, the team stops at a river to rest. translation: the elephants got very thirsty and it seemed the little one had no energy to walk.

theirjourney home has been funded by a local charity owner. she thinks this is a chance to transform the industry. translation: if there was no pandemic today, elephants would still be in the same state. tourists would be swarming here in thailand. but after covid—19 we will think, and tourists will have time to think, too. after three days of travelling, the keepers and their elephants have arrived safely. and they are having a buffet right now that the villagers prepared for them to welcome them home. translation: i felt relief! my elephants were not fainting. no—one died on the way!

but their arrival is only the beginning of a longer struggle. translation: we didn't expect to become rich, just not to have debts, orjust to be able to support our family. chaiyot yongcharoenchai, bbc news, thailand. back in march the uk government instructed councils in england to find emergency accommodation for all those who were sleeping rough on the streets. it now says nearly 15,000 of them have been given a roof over their heads. what will happen to those people when the corona crisis is over? earlier i spoke to louise casey a former deputy director of shelter and formerly the anti social behaviour czar it was very clear that covid—19 would disproportionately affect rough sleepers, people stuck on the streets, and people in communal night shelters where the spread of the disease would be much faster than anywhere else, so the job was to literally unrelentingly get any accommodation we could opened up

using commercial hotels, universities, anything. disused buildings that could be brought back into use really quickly. so, so far we have managed to bring 15,000 people both in off the streets and also people who were at risk of homelessness during that time. and i think what i don't want to happen is that those people, particularly the vulnerable rough sleepers, some of whom have come off the streets for the first time, that those people then end up going back to the streets. so i want a national effort, everybody wants a national effort, everybody wants a national effort about everything at the moment, i accept that, but this is possibly sort of a tiny silver lining in an otherwise horrific period in the country, where actually some good is going on to try to help some very vulnerable people, and i don't want them to go back to the streets. initially we had figures from local authorities at 5a00 people who had been sleeping rough had been brought into this emergency accommodation. you now say it is 15,000. are you sure about

that number? can you break it down for us? essentially, this was all done very much on the hoof, so at easter, i think it was, we were pretty sure, by doing an analysis of every local authority in the country, and also obviously in london where the voluntary sector, the charities have been running many of the hotels, notjust st mungo's, but others, we were pretty sure there were 5a00 people. now in mid—may, as we are, or it mid—to—late may, we are now at the numbers around 15,000. i think it is 1a,600 at the last census of that. those numbers are not people that we re those numbers are not people that were long—term rough sleepers and had been on the streets for a long time. that was between five and seven. time. that was between five and seven. there are time. that was between five and seven. there are over time. that was between five and seven. there are over 2000 that have come in from communal night shelters where they were living in dormitories and on the floors and things like that. again, not the right place to be during this

covid—19 crisis. then there have been... local authorities, covid—19 crisis. then there have been... localauthorities, like many organisations, have been trying to keep the show on the road during this period and actually i think one of the things they have done is taken in people who were at risk of rough sleeping, and during covid—19, victoria, that is completely the right thing to do. why i have asked the prince's trust and authority is backed by comic relief and backed by cardinal nichols, justin welby, the archbishop of canterbury, is that i think although the government have made a good start by bringing forward money and adding money to it, to bring 6000 new homes, 3300 of which will be in this financial year, that is a great start. but i think the government needs to do more, i think that we all need to do more, i think that we all need to do more and we need to do it in partnership. the government can't do it on its own. ok. louise casey. the evacuation of more than 300,000 allied soldiers

from the beaches of dunkirk in 19a0 is still regarded as one of the most successful rescue missions in history. a fleet of little ships, including sailboats, trawlers and lifeboats were used to ferry soldiers off the beaches and onto waiting royal navy and merchant ships. 80 years on, robin gibson has been looking back at the miracle of dunkirk. archive: all along the rivers and creeks of britain, yachtsmen and part—time sailors are kissing their wives farewell and making the knots for dover. a true story that became a legend — arguably the greatest escape of world war ii. i wish i could meet the people, the chaps who came over and picked us up, because they were very brave blokes. because there were mines, and there was a good chance of being machine—gunned, as well. our cameraman is on a tiny merchant ship. he is risking his life to bring you the pictures. he is on his way to dunkirk. crossing the channel on a trawler or a pleasure boat in 19a0 to face

the killing fields of the dunkirk beaches was a test of bravery bordering on madness. they were in the thick of it for several days, some of them. so i have huge admiration for them, and i have huge admiration for the little boats. because they are tiny little boats that were used to go up to the beaches, to get the boys off the beaches, and then ferry them to the larger vessels standing offshore. so they stayed. our ideas today come largely from recreations, dramas and films. home. at 100 years old, john port is one of the last left to describe what it was to spend days on that beach, then to be rescued by a scheme which the german generals could barely believe. it was a horrendous experience. we were just lying on the beach,

hands on the back of the head. there was... a brighton paddle boat was there — that was burning from end to end. and another transport was loaded with our chaps, and a bomb dropped right amongst them, in the stern. that was pretty awful. sadly, the still—surviving wooden boats aren't able to mark their 80th anniversary. but they do send a message from the past, symbolising a moment when people with their backs to the wall came together to face down disaster. that was robin gibson reporting. you're watching bbc news. now it's time for a look at the weather with carol. hello again. if you're hoping for some rain in the forecast today, there isn't much to offer at all, and in fact for the next few days that's going to be the case.

it will remain dry for most of us. it's going to be sunny and warm and by the weekend, for some, it will be very warm as temperatures climb from the mid to the high 20s in celsius. today, high pressure's in charge, we've got a weak weather front sinking south, producing all of this cloud. so the sunshine across parts of england and wales today will be hazier than it has been, but it won't make it down towards the south, so we'll hang on to brighter skies here. now behind this weather front it will brighten up in north wales, northern england, northern ireland and scotland. still quite breezy across the north west of scotland, and temperatures here 12 to 1a degrees, 20 in newcastle, 25 as we move down towards london. now through this evening and overnight, our weather front will continue its descent southwards, getting into southern england. there'll be some fog patches forming across south wales and south—west england. a lot of clear skies, and then by the end of the night for northern ireland and also scotland, we'll see cloud building as a weather front comes our way, and it's also going to bring some patchy rain into parts

of northern ireland by the end of the night. cooler in the north than the nightjust gone. tomorrow, then, we pick up this weather front. still coming in across northern ireland — we could see some spots of rain getting into western scotland, as well. the fog in south wales and south—west england lifting, and a lot of sunshine. but at times there'll be a bit more cloud just hugging the coastline in parts of eastern england. temperatures 12 in the north to 25 in the south. wednesday into thursday, we see that weather front cross us and then clear off into the north sea. high pressure still very much in charge of our weather, so things still very settled. so a lot of dry weather, a lot of sunshine, the weather front moves towards the east, taking its cloud with it. we could see the odd spot of rain in southern scotland, north—east england, but there won't be much to talk of. and temperatures — 11 in the north, 21 in glasgow, 26 in cardiff. on friday, there will be a lot of dry weather. we're starting to pull in all this warm air from the near continent across the board.

gentle breezes and temperatures by then — well, we're looking at 25 in london and liverpool, 2a in glasgow.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. a junior minister has resigned over the handling of borisjohnson's top adviser‘s travels during lockdown. it comes as other uk government ministers rally to support dominic cummings. they say they understand public concern but insist he acted reasonably when making trips during lockdown on the whole, as a man of integrity, he thinks that he did do the right thing. though he also recognises, as a fair—minded man, that there are many other people who... who may take a different view, and i understand that. almost all shops in england will be able to reopen from 15thjune, as part of plans to further ease the lockdown. the world health organisation halts trials of an anti—malarial drug as a potential treatment

for covid—19 — as it's found it could cause heart problems. hong kong's leader has rejected suggestions that china's proposed new security laws could erode freedoms in the territory. as greece reopens for tourism, we travel with a team of doctors who will set up coronavirus testing where the virus has not yet been reported. they are on their way home. home from the hell that is dunkirk. and we remember the heroes of dunkirk — 80 years on. 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. borisjohnson may have been hoping to put the controversy surrounding his senior advisor dominic cummings behind him, but it continues to bedevil his government. this morning, douglas ross — a junior minister for scotland — announced his resignation from the government over the affair. in a written statement, mr ross said that dominic cummings' interpretation of the government's lockdown guidelines "was not shared by the vast majority of the people who have done as the government asked". he pointed out that he had constituents who hadn't been able to visit sick families or say goodbye to those they loved, and said "i cannot in good faith tell them that they are all wrong and one senior government advisor was right." he went on to say he realised "both the immediate and long—term implications of my decision to resign

from government". this all follows an extraordinary press conference held by mr cummings yesterday afternoon, in which he replied to allegations that he had breached the government's lockdown rules by driving his family to london to durham in late march. we'll be getting the latest on this morning's resignation, and the reaction to that press conference, from westminster in a moment. conference, from first this report from our political correspondent iain watson on the background to the controversy. something you don't see every day. government advisers usually defend their political masters. this one had come to defend himself. dominic cummings took his family 250 miles from london to durham during lockdown, when his wife was already ill. yesterday, he was asked if he now regretted his actions. no, i don't regret what i did. as i said, i think reasonable people

may well disagree about how i thought about what to do in the circumstances but i think that... i think what i did was reasonable in. . . in these circumstances. at the socially distanced impromptu press conference, he insisted that isolating close to his extended family was the best option in case he needed childcare. but why had he then also gone on a 30—mile trip from durham to barnard castle on easter sunday? apparently he was giving himself an unconventional eye test. my wife was very worried, particularly given my eyesight seemed to have been affected by the disease. she did not want to risk a nearly 300—mile drive with our child, given how ill i had been. we agreed that we should go for a short drive to see if i could drive safely. at his press conference last night, the prime minister sounded a bit more contrite than his advisor. i do regret the confusion and

the anger and pain that people feel. i really did want people to understand exactly what had happened. but he wasn't going to sack his advisor, and he insisted that no—one at number 10 had undermined the government's message on health. and a range of cabinet ministers have taken to social media with a remarkably similar message — time to move on. opposition parties will meet today, and are pressing for an enquiry into dominic cummings' actions. many of the papers are less ready to move on than government ministers, and some conservative mps are waiting to see if angry constituents have been soothed or riled by dominic cummings before deciding whether to renew calls for him to go. iain watson, bbc news. conservative mp william wragg has written, "we cannot throw away valuable public and political good will any longer.

it's humiliating and degrading to their office to see ministers put out agreed lines in defence of an advisor. this is a time of national emergency and our focus must be unrelenting. we owe it to the nation." our political correspondent alex forsyth is in westminster. that tweet and the letter from douglas ross, this is all rather uncomfortable for the government, isn't it? undoubtedly so and the hope had been that by dominic cummings giving that very rare press conference in the garden of downing street yesterday that they would draw something of a line under it and it did seem initially that in giving that explanation of his actions, that defence of what he had done that it had taken some of the heat out of the anger circulated amongst some sections of the conservative party but clearly not all of it because as you say we had that stark tweet from william wragg

calling it humiliating that the government is using up a public goodwill and we've also have the first resignation from douglas ross, who was a junior minister in the scottish office. so this has by no means gone away. nonetheless, we have had some mps and senior cabinet minister michael gove on the airwaves this morning defending once again the actions of dominic cummings, which is a strange phenomenon to have a senior cabinet minister defending the actions of an aid but it is happening. and some conservative mps see —— say they can see the justification for what dominic cummings did. anthony brown isa dominic cummings did. anthony brown is a conservative mp and former aide to borisjohnson when he was in the mayor of london office. this is what he had to say. clearly there are strong passions in the conservative party and amongst the public about this but i think when dominic cummings gave his explanation yesterday he covered a lot of detail, answered a lot of questions people can be on both sides of this. as it happens, i think he acted reasonably and certainly legally. i

must say that if i had somebody come to me with the unique situation of dominic cummings where he was coming down sick with his wife worried about it, and he had a four—year—old child that didn't have any care provision nearby, then in exceptional circumstances, covered by the guidance, you are allowed to do what is most likely to reduce harm. so you see there is some defence of dominic cummings's actions and people say they can understand his thinking around it that there are two aspects here. there are the specifics of what dominic cummings did or didn't do when there are still some questions over the choices he made about where he drove and when, but there is the broader point of principle and when you speak to conservative mps a lot of them say they are still getting a lot of anger from their constituents who perceive this as being one rule for one and one rule for them. in fa ct for one and one rule for them. in fact you heard from douglas ross in his letter earlier and he was talking about the idea of the sacrifices some of his constituents have made because they simply thought that they were following

government guidelines which were in pa rt government guidelines which were in part drawn up by dominic cummings and that is the bit that's increasingly hard for some conservative mps to reconcile, certainly sir roger gale, one conservative mp who still does not remain convinced dominic cummings did the right thing and this is what he had to say earlier. this is a man at the top of the government who had devised and was trying to enforce rules upon one set of people that he does not appear to have wanted to obey himself. by saying i'm going to do what i like, but you can't do what you like, i'm afraid, and this is the bottom line of this, he has sent out a very damaging, very dangerous message. as you say, alex, there are clearly supporters of dominic cummings and those who are critical of him. more broadly speaking, how much damage is this whole thing doing to borisjohnson as the prime minister though?” think that is the key thing to this whole situation. dominic cummings has largely been a controversial

figure and that's not something he's really backed away from. these accepted that is part and parcel of his role and he sometimes perhaps even courted that controversy but he is often believed that that kind of controversy remains here in what they call the westminster bubble and it's only people who operate in and around parliament that care around these issues. the difference now you hear from conservative mps in particular is they say this has got cut through, that is that their constituents are angry about this because what they see as a double standard and there are others who are genuinely concerned that this could in some way undermine the government's public health message, particularly at a time when we are going to a more nuanced phase in the lockdown where there will be questions around people using their ownjudgment more questions around people using their own judgment more than there have been with the clear black—and—white message of the past, so we've had people express concerns about this. that's not to say it is universal. there are some people who believe dominic cummings did right but the question now is whether the prime minister can retain his authority because crucial to this whole pandemic has been whether people believe in what the government is

saying and are willing to follow their advice. that has been crucial in the early stages of lockdown and perhaps would be more so as we move on and that is why this row really does matter. alex, for now, in westminster, thanks. countries across europe are beginning to open themselves up to foreign visitors, as infection rates continue to fall. spain says foreign travellers will be able to visit the country from the beginning ofjuly — without going into quarantine. the spanish foreign minister said the country was looking forward to welcoming tourists back now the worst of the coronavirus pandemic was behind it. 80 million visitors travel to spain each year, 20 million from the uk. meanwhile, greece has taken another major step towards re—starting its tourism industry, opening its islands to domestic visitors for the first time in months. a team of doctors from mainland greece were among the first visitors to the remote island of sikinos, in the aegean sea.

our correspondent quentin sommerville accompanied them on their trip. on our 100—mile—plus journey, these athens doctors are the first visitors to sikinos in months. the greek islands are accepting visitors again. the mayor of the island welcomes them ashore. we're greeted with elbow bumps instead of handshakes. there are enough coronavirus tests for whoever wants them. we do know that, so far, there haven't been any cases on the remote islands, but there hasn't been any testing also. there are only 250 people on this island, and none of them have been tested for covid—19 until today. the village was built on a hilltop to safeguard it from pirates. they're hoping its isolation continues to offer protection. greece has only had 172 deaths from covid—19, and is leaving lockdown faster than expected.

foreign tourists still have to undergo quarantine. terry harris has been living here for a0 years. i came here and i isolated myself for two weeks in my house and the lady from the supermarket — flora — she delivers everything, so they brought up, on a donkey, water and any supplies i wanted. at the temporary test centre, father theodorus leads the way. these tests are essential as greece prepares to welcome back foreign tourists in the coming months. today is the first day that everything comes back to normal, including restaurants and all the borders and ships, so we are concerned about everything being planned in the best possible way. greece is emerging from the pandemic earlier than others — not unscathed, but in better shape than most.

isolation is a way of life here, but so, too, is tourism. the health of the islanders depends on both. earlier this morning quentin sommerville explained the situation in greece. greece is accelerating the lockdown and the results from the pandemic have been better than expected, and injuly and have been better than expected, and in july and august have been better than expected, and injuly and august is when the island really makes its bread—and—butter for the rest of the year, so bread—and—butter for the rest of the year, so we bread—and—butter for the rest of the year, so we got here yesterday for the first reopening to domestic tourists and the island was hardly overwhelmed. there were a few people who arrived on the ferry, those doctors you saw in my report, but they are hoping that these initial first steps will get them back on the road to the tourist industry that they so much rely on. let me just show you a bit more of the

island, if you can bear it. these tavernas, for the last couple of months, everything has been closed, bars and months, everything has been closed, bars a nd restau ra nts months, everything has been closed, bars and restaurants were only open for takeaway business. as of yesterday, they opened for business properly stop you can sit down, have a retsina, some moussaka and enjoy the spectacular view as well. these restrictions are being lifted all across greece and a whole new bunch of rules have come in for hotel owners. they are beginning to reopen as well but we won't see foreign tourists start to arrive here until july the 15th, sorry, june 15, then onjuly the 1st, july the 15th, sorry, june 15, then on july the 1st, all the july the 15th, sorry, june 15, then onjuly the 1st, all the airports across greece will reopen. that was quentin somerville on the situation in greece. the number of deaths involving coronavirus in england and wales reached its lowest weekly level for six weeks in may —

according to figures released by the office for national statistics today. the figures cover the period up to the 15th may. our head of statistics robert cuffe has been looking at the figures and joins me now. what are the figures first of all telling us about deaths from the virus? if you look at the death certificates that mention covid—19, slightly different to the figures we here in the press conference from the government every day, they show the government every day, they show the numbers of covid—19 deaths have been falling for a few weeks and have now reached the lowest level since the start of april so there are about 3800 covert deaths last week, well below the previous weeks, and if you add in scotland and northern ireland, it adds about a00 to the total, but the trend is the same. coming down and lower than we've seen in a long time. there is a slight glitch in the figures because the total number of deaths in the week registered to the 15th

of may increase slightly but that's because there was a bank holiday on friday the 8th of may so there were no registrations made and they come in following week. despite the slew of extra registrations, we still see week on week falls in the number of covid—19 registered deaths. we are a long way off normal but the trend is going on the right direction. who has been the hardest hit? it's been clear in the epidemic that it's been the oldest two are the hardest hit. if you look at the over 75 is, and we can see the total number of deaths we have seen in that age group and that is the red line on the chart and you can see it has shot up since the middle of march, and the grey line going along the middle is what you would expect to see each week and you can see we have seen many see each week and you can see we have seen many more see each week and you can see we have seen many more deaths than we would expect at this time of year, well over 50% more, so that the total number of deaths we would expect to see since the middle of march and we have seen all of those plus half again. that is the effect

of the over 75 is, but as you go down the age groups, it's a different picture. if you look at those aged between a5 up to 6a,, sorry between 55 and 6a, you would expect less deaths because the group is younger but the bump is less sharp and doesn't bump so high and the all extra deaths we have seen is far lower, even lower when you get younger and younger and you cannot even draw the graph once you get to school age kids, they have been four deaths of under 15 is that mention covid—19 out of the more than a0,000 registered across the whole uk. so there is a massive difference in this between the very young and the very old where you go from four deaths in the under 15 is to tens of thousands over 75. that raises the question about care homes. what is the situation there? the situation is moving in the right direction. it's a little bit behind the population in general but we have

seen a population in general but we have seen a slight fall in the number of deaths in care homes, kind of mirroring the population pattern at large. a slight uptick in overall deaths caused by the registration lag on bank holiday friday and care home deaths down slightly, it has to be said, 1600 deaths, down by six, and not a big increase, but deaths in care homes are still running well above the long—term average so care homes are bearing half of the coded registered deaths and they don't account for half of the population so account for half of the population so it is a hard pocket of the population but moving in the right direction. robert, thanks for coming to explain the figures. in hong kong carrie lam, the chief executive, has been defending china's new controversial security law — calling it a safeguard against violent political protests. and she criticised international leaders who've supported protesters resisting the legislation. translation: national security legislation is a matterfor a country.

it is the case in any country. it doesn't matter if the country has a unitary system or multiparty system or a federal system. now legislation on national security is always a matter for the central authorities. so for overseas politicians making such comments, they probably, you know, practising double standard. now i think there is no one country that will allow an important matter like national security to be flawed in any way or to have a void in any way. our correspondent in hong kong, danny vincent, explains how, after months of protests seen in the semi—autonomous territory last year, trust in the city's chief executive has eroded. carrie lam this morning has been attempting to reassure the hong kong public that the city will remain a free and open society, regardless

of when this law is enacted. in some ways, carrie lam has lost the trust of at least a portion of society — definitely the protesters. the protesters took to the streets last year for back—to—back protests that lasted for many months. they were calling for carrie lam to resign simply because they felt that she no longer held the interests of the hong kong people, and said she was simply relaying the message from beijing. i think today she technically almost is doing that this time because this law actually was proposed by beijing, not by carrie lam herself. so some protesters i have spoken to, they feel the message from carrie lam is now somewhat irrelevant because they now want that protesting showing their anger towards the central government.

now protesters have planned more protests over the next few days. we are expecting protests tomorrow. it will be a real test to see how many hong kong people actually go to the streets. of course they will be breaking not only the law — there is a law here that says that if more than four people cause a public nuisance, that is technically illegal — but also they will be breaking the social—distancing rules that were put into place to try to stop the spread of the coronavirus. so i think hong kong is bracing for more protests, and i think it will be interesting to see what happens in the next 2a hours. we will get a better sense of how hong kong residents respond to beijing and the hong kong governments' recent messages about this law. a report into the death of 1a—year—old jaden moodie, who was knocked off his moped and stabbed to death in east london, says the authorities

could have intervened when he was being exploited by criminal gangs. a serious case review by waltham forest safeguarding children board said jaden should have been more closely supervised in the two years before his murder in january last year. i'm joined by our home affairs correspondent daniel sandford. daniel, first tell us what we now know from the report about jaden moodie's life. first of all it's worth reiterating that he was murdered at the age of 14, that he was murdered at the age of 1a, run down on a stolen motorbike and then stabbed to death. he was born in 200a in leicester to parents who were quickly separated afterwards. then he moved to nottingham had a largely uneventful primary school but then in secondary school got into trouble with bullying and some suggestion he threatened a child with an imitation firearm and his mum, spotting he was getting into trouble, decided to

ta ke getting into trouble, decided to take him out of school and home—school him which seems to have been reasonably successful at first but then she went back to work and he was getting less and less supervision at home, getting into more and more trouble and his mum ended up being threatened by local gangs about money her son owned and she decided to move him from nottingham to london and there he stayed in the living room of his grandmother's house while his mother was sofa surfing on other friends houses and went on getting into more trouble and ended up in bournemouth ina trouble and ended up in bournemouth in a cuckoo house with 39 wraps of crack cocaine and two packets of crack cocaine and two packets of crack cocaine and seems to have been exploited into selling drugs in bournemouth. his mother was struggling to find a house. he got excluded from school for pictures on social media which showed him with a gun in his school uniform and slowly, he was drifting inexorably into this kind of drugs, county lines world and ended up being killed aged 1a on the streets of

london. what did the report tell us about the way his case was handled by the authorities? first of all it highlights the home—schooling and how little monitoring was going on of his home—schooling and how when his mum went back to work, those responsible for home—schooling in nottinghamshire had no idea it had happened and he wasn't any longer getting properly supervised. secondly, there is quite a lot of criticism around the fact that his mother struggled to get housing in london even though her reasons for moving to london were quite sensible in terms of trying to get her son out of trouble, and how long it took for her to get allocated a house. thirdly, a lot of concentration in the report on the missed opportunity when he was caught drug dealing in bournemouth, aged 1a, the police officers in dorset just bournemouth, aged 1a, the police officers in dorsetjust drive him home and there doesn't seem to be any great huge crisis meeting in waltham forest, the council who are responsible, to say, what are we going to do with this 1a—year—old who has been found drug dealing on a

cuckoo house in bournemouth? has the report made recommendations, and what might they be? it has and it focused on the home—schooling issue. there needs to be much better monitoring of who is being home—schooled, what is going on in those homes while the home—schooling is going on and the other focus is on the idea of communication between agencies around these kids that are being drawn into county lines drug dealing. there needs to be much better communication around saying, right, this is a young child who's been caught drug dealing so let's get everyone together, police, housing, social workers, the youth justice system, and sit down and try and sort that individual child out. there needs to be national standards around how that is done. daniel, thank you for that. let's get more on the resignation ofjunior minister douglas ross now. in a statement, he said he doesn't believe dominic cumming's interpretation of the government advice was shared by the vast

majority of people and therefore, this morning, has tended his resignation as under secretary of state for scotland. i'm joined now by shadow secretary of state for scotland and labour mp for edinburgh south, ian murray. thanks so much forjoining us, mr murray. are you surprised by the resignation of douglas ross? the only thing i'm surprised at is there hasn't been more government resignations to this debacle and douglas ross is the only person in government at the moment that seems to have any integrity and i think his resignation letter speaks for itself when he talks of his own constituents who have had to make huge sacrifices and he cannot in good conscious tell them they are wrong and the special adviser to the government is correct. that is the way he has put it in his own resignation letter and i think that is what the country has been saying for the last 72 hours. of course, dominic cummings did not breach any regulations. he said he behaved

reasonably and legally. he did, didn't he? i don't think you did. i don't think anybody would think it is reasonable when you have a suspected case of coronavirus to leave your home. the government instruction north and south of the border were very clear and to drive 260 miles there and 260 miles back when you could be carrying the virus is really not the right thing to be doing, and indeed, even the additional driving of a 16 mile round trip to barnard castle to test your eyesight, the public are shaking their head in disbelief that even decided to try and make an excuse for that. the special adviser has broken the rules and the prime minister should have done the right thing in order to maintain the very rules that the special adviser put in place for the rest of the country. the rules did say though that if there was a reasonable excuse to leave home, you could do and a reasonable excuse to leave home would be to provide care and assistance including personal care toa assistance including personal care to a vulnerable person, so as i say, he didn't actually break the rules,

did he? i think he has broken the rules and douglas ross in his own resignation letter has said quite clearly that douglas being a father he would put his family first but in saying that, if anybody in his family had coronavirus, including his wife or son, he would have abided by the government rules to stay at home. those of the rules so you don't infect others or make the position worse for your own family, and to travel 260 miles would not be seen and to travel 260 miles would not be seen to be reasonable in any sense andindeed seen to be reasonable in any sense and indeed durham constabulary themselves have an investigation going to see if he did actually break the law, so rather than us listening to dominic cummings in that most remarkable, arrogant press conference yesterday, perhaps cabinet secretary should do a full enquiry as has been asked by the labour party for the last 72 hours, get to the bottom of all of these questions decide whether or not what dominic cummings did was indeed legal because i think most of the population in terms of their anger in the last 72 hours would say it is

not. you mention what you call the arrogant news conference yesterday. would it have made any difference to you had he apologise?” would it have made any difference to you had he apologise? i think the vast majority of the country yesterday expected an apology, maybe saying he mustjudge what he did, apologise to the public and then say it is incredibly important for the majority of the public, all of the public, to abide by the rules from government. we heard a whole list of excuses, no contrition, no apology. that alone should have said to the prime minister that his position in government is untenable. for the prime minister not to have acted, then to have had an extraordinary press co nfe re nce then to have had an extraordinary press conference yesterday was really just sent to the general public that it is one rule for the prime minister and his advisers and one rule for the rest of the country. that is incredibly dangerous at this moment when everybody is trying to work incredibly hard to suppress this

crisis. can you also understand what some members of the public are also saying, that at the minute we are in the middle of a global pandemic, he is not a minister, he is an unelected adviser, and why does all this matter? why are we even talking about it? because he writes the rules. he wrote the rules for the prime minister. this goes right to the heart of the integrity of the prime minister and the integrity of the government. thankfully, douglas ross has shown some integrity in the last 72 hours. you can't ask for the public to abide by strict rules while at the same time allowing the special adviser who helped write those rules to flight them. the anchorin those rules to flight them. the anchor in the general public shows quite clearly it is one rule for them and one rule for government advisers. that is a dangerous position for the public to be in during a time of crisis when we need the entirety of the population to be

working together. the government has decided that they have doubled down on this. for michael gove to be on the media this morning and sank a 60 mile round trip to castle —— barnard castle was to prepare him to see if he could go to work... borisjohnson should seek to remove dominic cummings from his position, try to draw a line under this and emphasise again to the public that it is necessary for everybody to abide by the rules. perhaps what this is about is that his actions drew attention to flaws in the original rules. what do you say to that? well, if there were any flaws in the original rules the vast majority of the general public have inflated them and he has used those rules to flight them and he has used those rules to flight them himself rather than closing any problems. to be fair to

the government, they are all rooting for governments to do well in this, we wa nt for governments to do well in this, we want the crisis to pass as quickly as possible. keir starmer has been very clear that we will support the government. if there are loopholes in the regulations it is not for a special adviser to then exploit them. it is for that special adviser to close those loopholes and make the communications to the public clearer. one feature to this government is a complete lack of clarity from the government and what they can and can't do, but the public has abide by them, one person he hasn't is the person who helped write them. good to talk to you. thank you for your time. hello this is bbc news. the headlines: a junior minister has resigned over the handling

of the borisjohnson top adviser‘s travels during lockdown. it comes as other uk government ministers rally to support dominic cummings — they say they understand public concern, but insist he acted reasonably when making trips during lockdown. almost all shops in england will be able to reopen from 15thjune as part of plans to further ease the lockdown. the world health organisation halts trials of an anti—malarial drug as a potential treatment for covid—19 — as it's found it could cause heart problems. hong kong's leader has rejected suggestions that china's proposed new security laws could erode freedoms in the territory. as greece reopens for tourism, we travel with a team of doctors who will set up coronavirus testing where the virus has not yet been reported.

the world health organisation has temporarily halted the testing of the drug hydroxychloroquine as a possible treatment for covid—19 because of safety concerns. of the drug hydroxychloroquine as a possible treatment for covid—19 the drug, traditionally used to treat malaria, has been described by president donald trump as a game changer in the battle against the virus. imogen foulkes reports from geneva. there are so far no known treatments or vaccines for covid—19, 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—19, too. he's even taking it himself. i'm taking it, hydroxychloroquine. when? right now, yeah.

couple of weeks ago, i started taking it. why, sir? 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—19, 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—19 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 return to the news that hong kong's chief executive, carrie lam, has been defending china's new security law, calling it a safeguard against violent political protests. she has criticised international leaders who've supported protesters resisting the legislation. let's go live to hong kong and speak to lo kin hey. he's the vice—chairman of the democratic party, the third largest in the legislative council of the territory. thank you so much forjoining us here on bbc news. how reassured

where you buy what carrie lam had to say? what carrie lam hasjust said is very lame to hong kong people. for the past many years in hong kong the hong kong government and the chinese government have been lying to the people. a lot of people are arrested for fighting for their own rights on the mainland. they arrest them using those national security laws. this so—called reassurance is just some lame explanation and excuse and trying to lie to the whole world. i believe that hong kong people will not be lied to by her. you paint a bleak picture. china insist this new security law won't affect hong kong? high degree of autonomy or the liberties of hong kong residents. are you saying china is not to be believed?”

kong residents. are you saying china is not to be believed? i think china can never be trusted, especially on so—called national security issues and on the promises of the rights of the people and freedom of the people. those national security laws, no matter if you are doing some sort of political activity or doing some human rights activities, we are quite sure that those kind of things will be affected. if you are a human rights organisation in hong kong and they decide because you are an international organisation and you are affecting the national security of the country, they can expel you or arrest you. it is very dangerous for international human rights groups and for local political activities to be held in the future. this kind of national security law make very serious harm to hong kong liberty and hong kong?

people's rights. a senior manager -- member of the legislature in hong kong should —— said she should not be feeling the peers that you are. he said that hong kong courts would still have the final say on what happens to people. does that not assuage your fears in any way? no, because the hong kong courts can onlyjudge by what is written into the legislation. at this point in time we don't have the ability to know what exactly will be written into law, but we can expect it to be written in a very vague way and in a way that will not protect human rights. if those things are written into the law, the court would have no power to protect the people from

human rights or freedom violations. really good to talk to you. thanks for joining really good to talk to you. thanks forjoining us on bbc news. thanks forjoining us on bbc news. as the world awaits a coronavirus vaccine, doctors and scientists around the world have been looking at different ways to treat those who are severely affected by the disease. it is hoped plasma therapy could offer a solution. it is a process which sees recovered patients donate their blood which contains anti—bodies. our health correspondent laura foster has been finding out more. when alessandro contracted coronavirus and ended up on a hospital ventilator, he feared he'd never get to see his family again. it's why, when he recovered, he wanted to help others by donating plasma in his blood. instinctively, the last thing you want to do is go in a hospital environment again and have a needle put, but then i thought actually that i had been given so much and literally, like, you know, those people saved my life.

and you feel so hopeless and you feel so unable to help others, and that was the only way i could figure at that point to give some of this back. when alessandro was sick, his immune system produced antibodies to help fight the virus. these antibodies are found in the gold—coloured part of our blood known as plasma. the idea is that this plasma can be given to other people, whose immune systems are struggling, to help them fight coronavirus. the nhs wants more people who've had covid—19 to donate their plasma. it's making its donations centres bigger and creating pop—up ones so they can take up to 8,000 donations a week. it can be very, very emotional and it does actually get you quite upset sometimes, but then you see these people have come out from the other side and they're so... like i said, they're so enthusiastic and so willing. the researchers have found that men, those over 35, and anyone who was hospitalised with coronavirus produce

the most antibodies. in fact, alessandro's blood contains a0 times more antibodies than the average donor. so that means i can give a lot of them away, which i'm very pleased to do, and suddenly, as my friends knew about that, they all become very nice to me in case they ever need it in the future! they're particularly asking for people to come forward in manchester, birmingham and london, where there have been a lot of cases of covid—19. laura foster, bbc news. more retailers have been given the go—ahead to reopen in england next month, if they can meet the coronavirus guidelines to protect shoppers and workers. outdoor markets and car showrooms will be allowed to resume trading next monday, 1stjune. but the main rollout is planned for the 15th, with everything from department stores to small independent shops

opening their doors once again. stephen norman, the managing director of vauxhall motors ssays it's great news for the industry and the uk economy. car showrooms, with one or two very rare exceptions, tend to be large, airy, bright open spaces, so in the way we are lucky compared to the rest of the retail sector is insofar as it is not difficult to make them covid safe and secure. of course we will find social distancing guidelines in terms of ways to walk around the showrooms to look at the vehicles that are on display and so on, but of course there will have to be disinfection between test drives and inspections of the vehicles, but all of those things to meet government guidelines and even go beyond, because every manufacturer tends to go beyond guidelines to be doubly secure, all of those things, we are ready now. in fact, we have

been ready for two weeks. we are not used to shutdowns, for example in summer used to shutdowns, for example in summer holiday periods, but of course nobody would have expected the industry to close down for two months and one of the most important selling periods of the year, so when you talk about damage to the industry, it is damage to the sales and damage that we will have to club in coming months and possibly more than once to get back to the proper rate of the markets. simon gompertz and joins us now from central london. tell us more about these nonessential shops that could open on the 15th. you mentioned the outdoor markets in the car dealerships. it is obvious with them there is a bit more space if you're outdoors there is less risk, but the crucial thing is the 15th ofjune because then it is shops in general that will be able to open. these are

the standard stores you will see in high streets and shopping centres. it will be much easier for the it will be much easierfor the big shopping malls. they have large areas for people to walk in and stay separate, but it will be more challenging for your typical high street. we are likely to see more queues outside because the shops will be responsible for maintaining social distancing inside. that is what shoppers will see, spaces between them, those perspex greens probably seen and more shops, encouraged to use contactless payment rather than cash and some smaller rules like things that dated back to the shop, they will be able to be put on display immediately, they would have to wait 72 hours before being put back on display. and the ability to be hygienic, so

washing facilities available, hand sanitiser is, for instance. those will be the sort of things that people will see. it is not all the shops there will be open at that stage, there will still be exceptions and things being kept from us until later. tell us more about those exceptions. one of the kind of shops i was wandering about, will charity shops be reopening? i expect quite a few households will have gathered a few bags to donate during lockdown. well, they are on the high street, that is fine. i have heard of people looking into ingenious ways of making things like charity shops, which are quite small, being available to the public. for example, a door at the front and an exit door in the back so front and an exit door in the back so you get a flow of people and not going ina so you get a flow of people and not going in a circle and meeting each other again on the way out. it will be very much up to the shops to be clear that they are abiding by quite

strict guidelines. there will be spot checks, as well. the things that are being kept for later, crucial areas, what is broadly called hospitality, but we are talking about pubs, cafe is, hotels, they are being told to wait until they are being told to wait until the ath ofjuly at the earliest. i know pubs are in negotiation with the government. they want to get pubs that have gardens to be opened first. they would like to see a restriction on the two metre rule, bringing it down to one metre to make it more feasible for drinks and bars to operate. that is being kept until later. of course, dentists, they are still heavily restricted. that sort of thing we will keep to much later. touchy parlours, beauty salons, hairdressers. that is quite a big part of the high street, they are being kept close still for the

moment. thank you, simon. pressure is being put on governments across europe to allow businesses and shops to re—open. rich preston reports now on the massive economic impact of the virus. spain once had some of europe's toughest lockdown measures. now the bars and restaurants of barcelona are serving customers once again. here, as well as in the capital, madrid, people can now meet in groups of up to ten. translation: i am so moved. i'm shaking from feeling so happy after staying home for such a long time. this is phenomenal. it is really, really good. in popular resorts like majorca, people can once again visit the beach. spain has urged foreign holiday—makers to come back to visit the country in july, when it will stop quarantining new arrivals. once at the heart of the pandemic,

italians can go to the gym again, but with strict hygiene rules in place. you must keep your hands clean and keep apart from others enjoying a work—out. people in the czech republic can get back to one of their favourite pastimes again — this is the country that drinks more beer per capita than any other. but masks must be worn — unless, of course, you're taking a sip. the czech republic wasn't hit as badly as some other countries by coronavirus and — perhapsjust a coincidence — was the first to make the wearing of masks in public compulsory. as well as bars, breweries and restaurants, popular tourist sites are reopening, too. cultural attractions like theatres and museums can now organise events for up to 300 people. and in the uk — europe's worst—hit country — a plan to ease out of the lockdown. on 1stjune, outdoor markets and car showrooms can open up. two weeks later, all other nonessential shops, like department stores,

can open their doors — provided they are covid—secure and have measures in place to keep people apart and protect both staff and customers. europe's first official case of coronavirus was recorded at the end of january. since then, life on the continent has been turned upside down, affecting lives and livelihoods. after four months of restrictions on everyday life — and tens of thousands of deaths — europeans hope for a return to some semblance of normality, however gradual it may be. rich preston, bbc news. a pakistani man who lost five members of his family on board friday's deadly plane crash in karachi has told the bbc about the pain of learning of their deaths after initial reports saying they had survived. the airbus a320 travelling from lahore crashed into a residential area shortly

after attempting to land. of the 99 people on board, only two passengers survived. umer nangiana reports from karachi. after a year of study in london with her three young sons, sara was desperate to return home to karachi and her husband, in time for the holy festival of eid. but rather than celebrate, relatives now mourn the young family. the coronavirus pandemic meant sara and her children had to meet her husband in lahore before they all boarded friday's ill—fated flight pk 8303 for the final leg of theirjourney home. when the plane crashed, it was thought they had survived. but soon the reality that all — including four—year—old siddique — had died, was made painfully clear. my nephew... the news came — he survived, he survived. but actually this type of incident,

any time it happens, you will not get a clear picture. this incident, we will neverforget. never. the five bodies of the family are yet to be recovered. authorities say it will require a painstaking process of matching their dna. some bodies have been returned to their families and are starting to be laid to rest. after the difficult part of identifying the bodies, the focus now shifts to investigations. investigators from the aviation industry are busy collecting evidence from the site, and they hope that this will help them determine the cause of the crash. key to piecing together the final moments of flight pk 8303 will be understanding why warnings from a control tower were ignored shortly before the crash. the government has promised to quickly deliver the findings from what they say will be

a transparent investigation. pakistan has a chequered history when it comes to air safety. in 2016, a pakistan international airlines flight crashed, killing all a7 on board. but the findings from that incident have never been made public. the ongoing demand for information from that disaster will nowjoin the growing public pressure for answers from this latest tragedy. a man and a teenage girl died in separate incidents along the cornish coastline on bank holiday monday. the girl had become trapped beneath a capsized boat while the man was pulled from the water by a member of the public. despite warnings not to go into the water, volunteer and off duty lifeguards rescued dozens of people in a spate of incidents yesterday. police said it had been "a very tough day for local emergency services".

a young italian boy has been praised for his courage after an encounter with a wild bear. tim allman has the details. never have the words "don't panic" seemed more appropriate. looking back over his shoulder to see what's behind him, a young boy moves slowly — ever so slowly — down the side of this hill. ambling along in his wake, a giant brown bear — just a little bit curious about this small visitor, perhaps. alessandro and his family were enjoying a picnic when the boy went off for a stroll. it turns out he had made a new friend. his mother's partner tried to reassure him, explaining that the bear was just minding its own business. mamma! alessandro can then be heard calling out to his mother. mamma! shh!

if you think alessandro was scared, think again. he told the italian media he'd been really excited, and this was the best day of his life. the bear, on the other hand, was unavailable for comment. tim allman, bbc news. now it's time for a look at the weather. hello, again. if you're hoping for some rain in the forecast today, there isn't much to offer at all, and in fact for the next few days that's going to be the case. it will remain dry for most of us. it's going to be sunny and warm and by the weekend, for some, it will be very warm as temperatures climb from the mid to the high 20s in celsius. today, high pressure's in charge, we've got a weak weather front sinking south, producing all of this cloud. so the sunshine across parts of england and wales today will be hazier than it has been, but it won't make it down towards the south, so we'll hang on to brighter skies here. now behind this weather

front it will brighten up in north wales, northern england, northern ireland and scotland. still quite breezy across the north west of scotland, and temperatures here 12 to 1a degrees, 20 in newcastle, 25 as we move down towards london. now through this evening and overnight, our weather front will continue its descent southwards, getting into southern england. there'll be some fog patches forming across south wales and south—west england. a lot of clear skies, and then by the end of the night for northern ireland and also scotland, we'll see cloud building as a weather front comes our way, and it's also going to bring some patchy rain into parts of northern ireland by the end of the night. cooler in the north than the nightjust gone. tomorrow, then, we pick up this weather front. still coming in across northern ireland — we could see some spots of rain getting into western scotland, as well. the fog in south wales and south—west england lifting, and a lot of sunshine. but at times there'll be a bit more cloud just hugging the coastline in parts of eastern england. temperatures 12 in the north to 25 in the south.

wednesday into thursday, we see that weather front cross us and then clear off into the north sea. high pressure still very much in charge of our weather, so things still very settled. so a lot of dry weather, a lot of sunshine, the weather front moves towards the east, taking its cloud with it. we could see the odd spot of rain in southern scotland, north—east england, but there won't be much to talk of. and temperatures — 11 in the north, 21 in glasgow, 26 in cardiff. on friday, there will be a lot of dry weather. we're starting to pull in all this warm air from the near continent across the board. gentle breezes and temperatures by then — well, we're looking at 25 in london and liverpool, 2a in glasgow.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. a junior minister has resigned over the handling of borisjohnson's top adviser‘s travels during lockdown. it comes as other uk government ministers rally to support dominic cummings — they say they understand public concern but insist he acted reasonably when making trips during lockdown. on the whole, as a man of integrity, he thinks that he did do the right thing. though he also recognises, as a fair—minded man, that there are many other people who... who may take a different view, and i understand that. almost all shops in england will be able to reopen from 15thjune, as part of plans to further ease the lockdown. the world health organisation halts trials of an anti—malarial drug as a potential treatment for covid—19 — as it's found it

could cause heart problems. hong kong's leader has rejected suggestions that china's proposed new security laws could erode freedoms in the territory. as greece reopens for tourism, we travel with a team of doctors who will set up coronavirus testing where the virus has not yet been reported they are on their way home. home from the hell that is dunkirk. and we remember the heroes of dunkirk — 80 years on. 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.

borisjohnson may have been hoping to put the controversy surrounding his senior advisor dominic cummings behind him, but it continues to bedevil his government. this morning, douglas ross — a junior minister for scotland — announced his resignation from the government over the affair. in a written statement, mr ross said that dominic cummings' interpretation of the government's lockdown guidelines "was not shared by the vast majority of the people who have done as the government asked". he pointed out that he had constituents who hadn't been able to visit sick families or say goodbye to those they loved, and said, "i cannot in good faith tell them that they are all wrong and one senior government advisor was right." he went on to say he realised "both the immediate and long—term implications of my decision to resign from government". this all follows an extraordinary news

conference held by mr cummings yesterday afternoon, in which he replied to allegations that he had breached the government's lockdown rules by driving his family from london to durham in late march. we'll be getting the latest on this morning's resignation, and the reaction to that news conference, from westminster in a moment. first this report from our political correspondent iain watson on the background to the controversy. something you don't see every day. government advisers usually defend their political masters. this one had come to defend himself. dominic cummings took his family 250 miles from london to durham during lockdown, when his wife was already ill. yesterday, he was asked if he now regretted his actions. no, i don't regret what i did. as i said, i think reasonable people may well disagree about how i thought about what to do in the circumstances but i think that...

i think what i did was reasonable in. . . in these circumstances. at the socially distanced impromptu press conference, he insisted that isolating close to his extended family was the best option in case he needed childcare. but why had he then also gone on a 30—mile trip from durham to barnard castle on easter sunday? apparently he was giving himself an unconventional eye test. my wife was very worried, particularly given my eyesight seemed to have been affected by the disease. she did not want to risk a nearly 300—mile drive with our child, given how ill i had been. we agreed that we should go for a short drive to see if i could drive safely. at his press conference last night, the prime minister sounded a bit more contrite than his advisor. i do regret the confusion and the anger and pain that people feel. i really did want people to understand exactly what had happened.

but he wasn't going to sack his advisor, and he insisted that no—one at number 10 had undermined the government's message on health. and a range of cabinet ministers have taken to social media with a remarkably similar message — time to move on. opposition parties will meet today, and are pressing for an enquiry into dominic cummings' actions. many of the papers are less ready to move on than government ministers, and some conservative mps are waiting to see if angry constituents have been soothed or riled by dominic cummings before deciding whether to renew calls for him to go. iain watson, bbc news. our political correspondent alex forsyth is at westminster. here we had a government hoping to draw a line under this whole episode dominic cummings and then the resignation of a junior government minister, and his letter made pretty

painful reading, didn't it? yes. i think there was a sense perhaps after yesterday afternoons news conference with dominic cummings where he took questions from journalists and went through his actions in detail and his justification for those actions, i think there was the hope, certainly from downing street, that it might have taken some of the heat out of the anger being circulated by some conservative mps but as you say, we had that resignation this morning of a junior ministerfrom had that resignation this morning of a junior minister from the scotland office and we had several conservative mps either reaffirming their anger at this through the day and a handful of new ones adding to it as well. that's not to say it's universal. we did hearfrom michael gove this morning, defending dominic cummings saying he did not break any rules and regulations and some other conservative mps have said something similar, obviously wanting to draw a line under it but also suggesting that they can understand dominic cummings explanation for his actions. among them was anthony brown, a former aide to boris johnson when he was mayor of london.

this is what he had to say about it this morning. clearly there are strong passions in the conservative party and amongst the public about this, but i think when dominic cummings gave his explanation yesterday he covered a lot of detail and answered a lot of questions and reasonable people can be on both sides of this. as it happens, i think he acted reasonably uncertainly legally. and i must say, that if had somebody come to me with the unique situation of dominic cummings where he was coming down sick with his wife, and worried about it and had a four—year—old child that didn't have any care provision nearby, then in exceptional circumstances, and it's cove red exceptional circumstances, and it's covered by the guidance, you are allowed to do would most reduce harm. there are still some questions over the specifics of what dominic cummings did ordidn't over the specifics of what dominic cummings did or didn't do through that period, where he travelled and when and the reasons for it and there are also questions over the broader principle and that is what we are hearing from some conservative mps who have continued to express their anger this morning,

suggesting that they are hearing from their constituents that the way this looks is there is one rule for those in downing street and one rule for them, and that is hard for some conservative mps to reconcile and thatis conservative mps to reconcile and that is why we have had douglas ross this morning suggesting he had heard personal stories about the sacrifices people made and he did not feel he could justify dominic cummings's actions to them and he isn't the only one that has expressed that view. we heard from sir roger gale, one of the first critics of dominic cummings over the weekend and he today again said that he thinks he should now be sacked or resign. this is what sir roger gale said earlier. this is a man at the top of government who had devised and was trying to enforce rules upon one set of people that he does not appear to have wanted to obey himself. by saying i'm going to do what i like, but you can't do what you like, i'm afraid, this is the bottom line in this, he has sent out a very damaging, very dangerous message. the time i think is, either

for message. the time i think is, either foercummings, even at message. the time i think is, either for mr cummings, even at this stage, to resign or for the prime minister to resign or for the prime minister to say, look, i'm terribly sorry, but we have to dispense with your services. clearly dominic cummings has his supporters and he has his detractors, as you've been telling us. where does all this leave boris johnson though? that is of course at the heart of all this because this isa the heart of all this because this is a prime minister who is managing, or attempting to manage a global pandemic and this is at the very least a very unwelcome distraction which is why i think there was a hope inside downing street at the press co nfe re nce hope inside downing street at the press conference yesterday that it would have drawn a line under it but that simply doesn't seem to have happened. at the heart of all this is, of course, the public health messaging because the government has been asking people to follow its advice on the basis of what it says is scientific evidence and i think now there is some questions from conservative mps and opposition leaders who met this morning about whether or not that public health message has been undermined by this. people thinking, why should i follow the rules if others aren't? as we've

heard, dominic cummings and his supporters, including michael gove, suggesting never break the rules or regulations but the question is whether the public are convinced they should still follow the rules and regulations of government, particularly as we enter the next phase of this lockdown where things could become more nuanced and people might be asked to use, as the government suggested, common sense as we move forward and we see shop starting to open. that of course was meant to be the focus of government messaging now and instead the focus at the moment is still on the actions of this aid, and that is certainly not what the government would want right now. alex, thanks for that. in hong kong carrie lam, the chief executive, has been defending china's new controversial security law — calling it a safeguard against violent political protests. and she criticised international leaders who've supported protesters resisting the legislation. translation: national security legislation is a matterfor a country. it is the case in any country. it doesn't matter if the country has

a unitary system or multiparty system or a federal system. now legislation on national security is always a matter for the central authorities. so for overseas politicians making such comments, they probably, you know, practising double standard. now i think there is no one country that will allow an important matter like national security to be flawed in any way or to have a void in any way. let's talk to anthony dapiran, he's a hong kong based writer and lawyer. thanks so much forjoining us here on bbc news. i'd be very interested in your views as a lawyer as to what this new national security laws will actually do. well, we haven't yet

seen a actually do. well, we haven't yet seen a draft of the law as such. what we've seen is a decision from the parliament in beijing for all of china and the national people's congress, saying they will go ahead and draft the law which will outlaw sedition, secession, terrorism and the interference by foreign governments orforeign the interference by foreign governments or foreign forces inside hong kong and they again are going to d raft hong kong and they again are going to draft that law and impose it directly on hong kong above the heads of the hong kong duly elected legislature. so how concerned are you and other lawyers? there is a great deal of concern about two things. firstly, the way the law is being imposed on hong kong. hong kong, in its basic law, its constitution, says very clearly that the hong kong legislative council will on its own enact national security laws but that hasn't happened for various reasons. it's been a political hot potato in hong kong for the 23 years since the hangover —— handover, beijing having lost its patience for hong kong to

enact the laws is going ahead to do it over the head of the hong kong legislature, which is inconsistent with what the basic law says at its face, and that is the position the hong kong bar association made in a strongly worded statement last night, but the second concern is exactly how this law is going to be drafted and how it will be applied. one very concerning paragraph in the decision from friday says that chinese central government state security, national security, effectively china is giving the ability to set up their own branches in hong kong and operate to police national security on the ground in hong kong. and i think they have been very concerned to have the prospect of china's secret police effectively operating on the ground openly and with some legality in hong kong. on the other hand, a senior member of the legislature in hong kong has said, and you mentioned the application of the law, and this is exactly what he was talking about, he said the

imposition of the laws will still be taken in hong kong, and the hong kong courts would still have the final say in what happens to people. does that assuage your fears in any way? it frankly doesn't. firstly because we were already aware of cases where people were subject to intense political pressure whether in the media, directly or indirectly by the blazing politicians or government and you can see national security agents from beijing and hong kong. the beige and government have already of the hong kong constitution that say that central government agency should not interfere in hong kong in fact does not apply to them when those agencies are here carrying out the work of supervising hong kong, so it appears they intend to be operating effectively outside the law. so i'm not really reassured by those sorts of statements and neither are many here in hong kong. anthony, thank

you for sharing your thoughts and insight. good to talk to you. thank you. more retailers have been given the go—ahead to reopen in england next month, if they can meet the coronavirus guidelines to protect shoppers and workers. outdoor markets and car showrooms will be allowed to resume trading next monday, the 1st ofjune. but the main rollout is planned for the 15th — with everything from department stores to small independent shops opening their doors once again. so how will that work? and what covid secure guidelines will businesses have to follow? let's speak to kyle monk, head of retail insights and analytics at the british retail consortium. very good to have you with us. can you just before we go into the easing of lockdown. can you tell us a bit more about the impact that the pandemic has had on retail? yes, so this news is really incredibly welcomed by the industry and

obviously april was the worst month on record for retail sales, down 19.196 on record for retail sales, down 19.1% and that cost the industry an estimated 5.5 billion, almost 1.5 billion a week was being lost due to the close years, so 83% of stores we think were closed over this period, in the nonessential category, and a lot of the lost sales revenue is not revenue that will be made up later. it isa revenue that will be made up later. it is a foregone revenue, so it's very important and we're very glad the government have given some clear guidance on when stores will be able to open back up again and begin serving the british public again. so you paint a stark picture and clearly you welcome the government's decision, but how is it actually going to work and how are you going to persuade shoppers that it is safe to persuade shoppers that it is safe to shop and indeed, those people who work in the shops that it is safe to be inside them? safety is paramount by the shop workers on the british public. we are taking the learning we have got from the food sector and we have got from the food sector and

we will apply that as best we can do non—food categories. we are also looking to other countries within europe, so austria, germany, who are a bit further ahead in the cycle to see what measures they are taking there and watch can be applied to british retail. so that might be the closure of changing rooms, plexiglass at points of sale, it might be fewer shoppers in store and control over how many shoppers can enter a store, so it will take some time before we get back to normal, but as we say, safety really is the most important thing in the short term. it's interesting you say it will take some time to get back to normal and we've all seen the large queues outside supermarkets and food shops and you do wonder, are people going to be prepared to queue in that way to get inside to perhaps go and buy a pair of trousers? there are some green shoots in other countries. we've seen in austria where a number of fashion retailers open several weeks ago that actually they sold better than anticipated

numbers in their in—store sales in the weeks following that relaxation of limitations, so those high hopes the same will happen in the uk and asa the same will happen in the uk and as a nation we have been penned up for some time now and before this all happened 70% of retail sales we re all happened 70% of retail sales were made in stores, so although it won't return to that in the next three or six months, we hope that people will go out and support the high street once they are allowed to. clearly as you say, safety is a worry. what other concerns do you have? the pandemic hasn't affected all categories equally, so it will be how brands adapt to this coming crisis, sorry, to the relaxation of the rules, so safety is the main factor, and the other will be how different kinds of retail adapt, so we've talked about fashion retailers not opening the changing rooms, but how does that apply to cosmetics and

how does that apply to cosmetics and how does that apply to cosmetics and how does it apply to others? we are working with the industry to make sure there is consistent guidance across all retail so they are ready to reopen injune. across all retail so they are ready to reopen in june. good to talk to you and thanks forjoining us on bbc news. thank you very much. countries across europe are beginning to open themselves up to foreign visitors, as infection rates continue to fall. spain says foreign travellers will be able to visit the country from the beginning ofjuly — without going into quarantine. the spanish foreign minister said the country was looking forward to welcoming tourists back now the worst of the coronavirus pandemic was behind it. 80 million visitors travel to spain each year, 20 million from the uk. meanwhile, greece has taken another major step towards re—starting its tourism industry, opening its islands to domestic visitors for the first time in months. a team of doctors from mainland greece were among the first visitors

to the remote island of sikinos, in the aegean sea. our correspondent quentin sommerville accompanied them on their trip. on our 100—mile—plus journey, these athens doctors are the first visitors to sikinos in months. the greek islands are accepting visitors again. the mayor of the island welcomes them ashore. we're greeted with elbow bumps instead of handshakes. there are enough coronavirus tests for whoever wants them. we do know that, so far, there haven't been any cases on the remote islands, but there hasn't been any testing also. there are only 250 people on this island, and none of them have been tested for covid—19 until today. the village was built on a hilltop to safeguard it from pirates. they're hoping its isolation continues to offer protection. greece has only had 172 deaths from covid—19, and is leaving lockdown

faster than expected. foreign tourists still have to undergo quarantine. terry harris has been living here for a0 years. i came here and i isolated myself for two weeks in my house and the lady from the supermarket — flora — she delivers everything, so they brought up, on a donkey, water and any supplies i wanted. at the temporary test centre, father theodorus leads the way. these tests are essential as greece prepares to welcome back foreign tourists in the coming months. today is the first day that everything comes back to normal, including restaurants and all the borders and ships, so we are concerned about everything being planned in the best possible way. greece is emerging from the pandemic earlier than others — not unscathed, but in better shape than most.

isolation is a way of life here, but so, too, is tourism. the health of the islanders depends on both. quentin sommerville, bbc news, the southern aegean. earlier this morning quentin sommerville explained the situation in greece. (sot) greece is accelerating its efforts coming out of the lockdown because its efforts in the pandemic have been better than expected and that all—important been better than expected and that all—importa nt tourism season, been better than expected and that all—important tourism season, in july and august, that is when this island really makes its bread and butter for the rest of the year, so we got here yesterday for the first reopening to domestic tourists. the island was hardly overwhelmed. a few people arrived on the ferry, those doctors you saw in my report, but they are hoping that these initial first steps will get them back on

the road to the tourist industry that they so rely on. let me show you a bit more of the island, if you can bear it. these tavernas, for the last couple of months, everything has been closed. bars and restau ra nts has been closed. bars and restaurants were only open for ta keaway restaurants were only open for takeaway business and as of yesterday they opened for business properly and you can sit down and have a retsi na properly and you can sit down and have a retsina and some moussaka

the world health organization has said there is no scientific evidence so said there is no scientific evidence so far but that it can treat covid—19 or be effective against it. anecdotal reports were that it might be beneficial. but those trials have been stopped, suggesting the drug could cause heart problems and might even increase deaths among covid—19 patients. the executive group has implemented a temporary pause of the hydroxychloroquine arm within the solidarity trial while the data is reviewed by the data monitoring board. the who says the decision to suspend trials was precautionary measure. . however, it said patients

taking hydroxychloroquine for establish reasons such as malaria should continue to do so. in england, two people have died in separate incidents along the cornish coast on bank holiday monday. a teenage girl died after a boat overturned at wadebridge. a man was pulled from the water at padstow by a member of the public but was pronounced dead at the scene. the royal national lifeboats institution said it had its busiest weekend so far this year — despite warnings that there were no lifeguards on patrol — and is calling for the government to restrict access to the coast until lifeguard patrols are back on beaches. the rnli chief executive mark dowiejoins me now from salcolmbe in devon. before we come onto what you want to

happen, give us a sense of how busy you have been across the coast? over the weekend, we had about 120 lifeboat launches. that is way more than a normal weekend. certainly along the strip of coast you just referred to, all four lifeboats near those incidents were out during the course of yesterday, so a very busy weekend indeed. so you have written to the public, not only do you want them to heed your safety advice, but i may write you're also calling for people to stay away from beaches? the situation we find ourselves in is very unusual. normally we would have trained something like 1600 lifeguards for our 2a0 beaches that we lifeguards use around the coast, and those lifeguards would be being

rolled out across the beaches as the season start, and several of the beachesin season start, and several of the beaches in cornwall would have had lifeguards by now in the normal course. but because of the restrictions, we were unable to train any lifeguards throughout the period of lockdown and we are now having to deal with a situation where we are training lifeguards in new protocols, to make sure that they themselves are safe on beaches when they go on to provide the essential lifeguard cover. it is what we are able to do now, right now, is bring a service onto roughly 70 of the 2a0 beaches that we cover and that will happen over the course of the next couple of weeks. we hope 15 beaches, and we are certain 15 beaches will open over the course of the next few days, or will begin to be being life guarded, including eight in cornwall. and as the situation, depending on whether we see a second viral spike or if the

local authorities are comfortable with lifeguards being back on the beaches, is the situation develops we will look to add to that service through the course of the summer. but i'm looking at your letter, and you are saying that we are asking the government to restrict access to the government to restrict access to the coast until we have lifeguard patrol is back on beaches, as you just explain, and i suppose the difficulty is you have got fine weather and they are desperate to enjoy freedom after weeks of lockdown. clearly people have been cooped up for a long time and live by the coast and they have been able to go to the coast through this period because they not have the same difficulties with travel restrictions. what we are really keen to see is there is strong government support for getting the water safety messages to people, to really make sure that people are super really make sure that people are super aware really make sure that people are super aware of the dangers that they

put themselves in when they go to the sea to see to have that experience and that people just generally use common sense, keep theirfamilies safe generally use common sense, keep their families safe and don't use things like inflatables and follow all of our water safety messaging. the government hopes that giving all of those messages would be giving —— very helpful. mark dowie, rnli chief executive, thanks for talking to us on bbc news and joining us from devon. hello this is bbc news with rebecca jones. the headlines: a junior minister has resigned over the handling of the borisjohnson top adviser‘s travels during lockdown. it comes as other uk government ministers rally to support dominic cummings — they say they understand public concern, but insist he acted reasonably when making trips during lockdown. almost all shops in england will be

able to reopen from 15thjune as part of plans to further ease the lockdown. the world health organization halts trials of an anti—malarial drug as a potential treatment for covid—19 as it's found it could cause heart problems. hong kong's leader has rejected suggestions that china's proposed new security laws could erode freedoms in the territory. we travelled to greece with a team of doctors who are setting up virus testing were no coronavirus insta nces testing were no coronavirus instances have been reported. we're going to edinburgh for the daily coronavirus briefing from scotland's first minister,

nicola sturgeon. a total of 1200 patients are in hospital with confirmed or suspected covid—19 —— covid—19. that is a decrease of 69 from yesterday, and 16 in the number of confirmed cases. a total of 36 people last night were in intensive care with confirmed or suspected covid—19, that is a decrease of a cents yesterday. i am to confirm today that since the arch, a total of 3589 patients who had tested positive and required hospitalisation have been able not to leave hospital. unfortunately, in the last day, 18 deaths have been registered of patients who had been confirmed through a test of having the virus. they take the total number of deaths in scotland under that measurement to 2291. yesterday was a bank holiday and registration may have been lower, so that should be taken into account when

considering today? figures. each one of these is notjust a figure. each one is an individual whose loss is being grieved by many. i want to send my condolences to everyone who has lost a loved one to this virus. let me also express my gratitude as they always do to your health and ca re they always do to your health and care workers who continue to do an incredible, exceptionaljob in the most difficult of circumstances. today, i want to take a little bit of time to focus on the launch later this week of nhs scotland's test, trace and isolate programme, which is called test and protect in scotland, you will see the logo for it on the screen behind me. from the end of this week, through test and protect, anyone who suspects that they have covid—19, anyone who has they have covid—19, anyone who has the symptoms that we advise you to be aware of, will be tested. if you

test positive, your close contacts will be traced and advised to isolate for 1a days. the aim of test and protect is to quickly identify cases of the virus and then act to break the chains of transmission. you may recall that on the ath of may we published our initial plans for this programme and i can confirm today that the system will go live in every single one of scotland's 1a health board areas on thursday of this week. test and protect will be an extremely important tool for us in the months ahead. it will help us suppress the virus while we slowly ease lockdown restrictions. i need to stress today that it will only be effective if we all play our part. today, i want to briefly set out with a capacity of the new system will be at the point of launch and how this will develop. i will set out how you, as an individual, your workplace and your employer can

support us in making it work. firstly, we said that to lunch test and protect nationally we needed the ability to conduct more than 15,000 tests a day. i can confirm that this capacity is now in place. that capacity is now in place. that capacity is now in place. that capacity is being delivered through a combination of nhs labs, academic partners, the scottish national blood transfusion service, and the lycos lab in glasgow. secondly, we said we would enhance and extend use of the software that public health already useful contact tracing in relation other infectious diseases. that software has been piloted in fife, lanarkshire and highland over the past week and i can confirm it will be operational in every health board by thursday. thirdly, we said that we would aim to have 2,000 contact tracers are available by the end of this month. i should say, based on our current demand estimates, we assess that around 700 will actually be needed in the early

phase. however, ican will actually be needed in the early phase. however, i can confirm that by the end of the month we will have a pool of around 2,000 to draw on if necessary. this is a system that will operate at a scale not seen before in scotland. of course, we have had testing and contact tracing before, but it is substantially increasing the scale. therefore, over the first couple of weeks it will need to betterjoin, but introducing it at the same time as we ta ke introducing it at the same time as we take the first very cautious steps out of lockdown gives us the opportunity to address any operational issues ahead of a potentially more substantial easing of restrictions at the next review date in three weeks. over the next few weeks, we will also add enhancements to the system. the technology used by contact tracers will be in place from the start, but we will also add a digital platform to allow people who test positive to enter details of their contacts

online. we will also continue to build testing capacity because we need more than the 15,500 in future, and we will work over the next few weeks to make access to testing more locally accessible. we will keep you updated on all of that. let me outline what we are asking you, the public, to do. let me stress that just like lockdown itself, really, this is something that will only have the desired effect if we all do what is required. it cannot be seen as optional. to make sure we all understand what is required of us, i can tell you that a public awareness campaign will start later on this week. during june information will be delivered to every household across the country. i want today to set out some of the basics. firstly, as of thursday, we are asking that if you have any of the symptoms of covid—19, that is a calf, temperature, or loss of taste or

smell, that you take immediate steps to book a test. please don't wait to see if you feel better after a day or two. time really is of the essence, so or two. time really is of the essence, so get in touch as soon as you experience symptoms. how do you do that? you can go to nhs informed doctor scott, or if you can get online, you can call nhs 2a on 0800 0282816. online, you can ask for a test for yourself or someone else do you live with and took it at one of the drive through testing centres or mobile testing units. for some there will be the option of a home testing kits. as i said earlier, we will be working in the coming weeks to further expand local access to testing. if you can go online, call nhs 2a. 08000282816. we will speak to an adviser who will go through questions with you and booking in

for a test. while you wait for your test and the result, it is essential that you and your household self—isolate, which is what we advise you to do already if you have symptoms. that means staying at home at all times with the exception of going out for the test. you should not go to the shops come out for exercise or see anybody else. in line with current guidance, the person with symptoms should isolate for seven days from the start of the symptoms. other members of the household should isolate for 1a days. if any of them start to display symptoms during that time they will also go through the testing process. if your test come back negative, you and your household can enter a solution at that point. however, if you are contacted that point. however, if you are co nta cted to that point. however, if you are contacted to be told that you have tested positive, you will be asked at that stage for details of people that you have been in contact with. the definition of a contact as people within your household, people you have had face—to—face contact

with and people you have been within two metres of for a period of 15 minutes or more. the contact tracers who take the details will then guide you through that. i want to take the opportunity now to assure you that your privacy will be respected at all times during this process. the information you provide will be held securely within the nhs and it will be used only for the purposes of tracing your contacts. let me be clear, it will not be used by the scottish government. we will not have access to the information. all of the work of identifying and tracing contacts will be done within scotland? nhs. tracing contacts will be done within scotland ? nhs. let tracing contacts will be done within scotland? nhs. let me turn briefly to what you do if you receive a call from a contact address to say you have been in contact with someone who has tested positive. it is no exaggeration to say that how any of us respond at that point will be vital in breaking the chains of transmission of the virus and

stopping spread. if you get that call, you will be asked to self—isolate immediately. our success of test and protect will depend on all of us trusting this advice and, for the sake of ourselves and each other, agreeing to abide by it. if you are at work, the advice will be to immediately head home. we are publishing guidance today for employers, making clear that they should support any member of staff who is asked to self—isolate through test and protect. if you are well, don't have symptoms yourself, and you are able to work from home, then your employer may well expect you to do that, but they should not ask you to go into work. the scottish government is also in contact with the uk government to ensure that employment rights and entitlement to benefits, including statutory sick pay, take account of the fact that people might be off work or unable to attend appointments through no

fault of their own. we have published today general advice for anyone who is asked to self—isolate. this is something that over the months ahead could happen to any of us are more than one occasion. this guidance includes hygiene advice for your home, advice for other people in your household, what to do if you ca re in your household, what to do if you care for somebody, and what to do if you need help accessing food and medicine, or even accommodation. it also suggests how all of us can make some preparations in advance. i will run “ some preparations in advance. i will run -- i some preparations in advance. i will run —— i know! some preparations in advance. i will run —— i know i havejust run through a lot of information there, but don't worry, there will be a public awareness campaign starting later this week and we will take steps to ensure that everyone knows what we are asking you to do. this isa what we are asking you to do. this is a big thing, it really matters, therefore we will be careful in making sure that the different steps are well understood. for now, let me

leave you with these points. test unprotected is a really important tool for us in the period ahead. the more effective it is, the more of the lockdown restrictions we will be able to left. however, and this is an important point, although it is vital, it can't do all of the work of suppressing the virus on its own. all of us will continue to have a vital role to play in our everyday lives. that means, even as we is locked on, physical distance and, good hygiene and following appropriate advice will continue to be essential. so too will all of us doing what is asked to fast. testing protect will only be effective if we all come forward for testing when we have symptoms, and if we all agree to self—isolate when we are asked to do so. it will only work if the government steps up to give you the support you need to do so. in short, test and protect will require

exactly the same spirit of solidarity and care for each other as lockdown has done. it will be our collective national endeavour. people will need the help of family, friends, colleagues, employers, volu nteers friends, colleagues, employers, volunteers will have a part to play in supporting people through test and protect. government will have to ensure the right capacity, resources and support is in place. all of us will have to agree to make sacrifices for the common good, just as we have been doing in these past weeks. in short, and i guess this is the nub of what test unprotected is intending to do, by agreeing that some of us will have to stay—at—home at times when we have symptoms, test positive will have been in contact with someone who test positive, we will gradually be able to move away from a situation that we have now where everybody is being asked to stay at home all of the time. as i

said earlier, we will make much more information available in the days and weeks to come, but i wanted to give you a preview of what is a significant initiative. let me leave you with the most important message. if you have symptoms of covid—19 used to go online to nhs in form or call nhs 2a and book a test straightaway. for now, all of us must continue to stick with the lockdown measures. please let stay—at—home for now except for essential purposes. when you delete a more than two metres away from others and to meet up with people from households other than your own. you should wear a face covering if you are in alnwick —— an enclosed place, such as a shopper public transport. that will be covered in the transport transition plan that will be outlined in the scottish parliament later this afternoon. we should continue to wash your hands thoroughly and regularly and if you

or someone thoroughly and regularly and if you or someone else in your household has symptoms of covid—19, right now, even before test and protect, you should stay home completely. these actions are vital to slow the spread of the virus even more, to continue to protect the nhs and save lives. my to protect the nhs and save lives. my thanks once again to all of you for your patience, forbearance and willingness to make the sacrifices for the good of all of us. i have taken a bit of time today to go through that, such as the importance of test and protect. i will not go straight to questions from journalists. i am joined straight to questions from journalists. iam joined by straight to questions from journalists. i am joined by the chief medical officer and the chief nursing officer who will help me to a nswer nursing officer who will help me to answer questions. first up, i will go to lan campbell from the bbc. the bbc poll today suggests that 70% of people think we went into lockdown too late. there is probably much end

up too late. there is probably much end up all that you agree with, but i wonder do you agree with the majority who think we went into lockdown too late? i think it is a perfectly legitimate and understandable question. in the fullness of time we will want to look back and take a very hard look at what we did right and what might have differently had we known then what we know now about the virus. i don't shy away from that. what i do say is that we took the decisions we thought were best at the time based on the knowledge and information we had. we will have made mistakes. every government in the world will have made mistakes and it is important for the future that we are candid about that when the time comes to look at that properly. all i would say in addition to that, is over the weeks i have stood here taken questions, i have been asked questions about her past approach that come from both ends of the

spectrum. i have been asked a question did we go into lockdown too late, and equally is there any point of lockdown at all? we had the swedish expert opinion put to you saying that lockdown is pointless. we ta ke saying that lockdown is pointless. we take the best decisions we can at the time and try to learn as we go. in the fullness of time there will be scrutiny and enquiry into what went right and what we could have done better. i am absolutely in agreement that that is important and will welcome that. hopefully, we will welcome that. hopefully, we will not have another pandemic for a long time to come, but we may well have them in the future so it is important that we learned lessons as we come out of this one. is it possible to say why, whilst it is important to have the r number blow one on the way out of lockdown, why

it was allowed to get between four and six on the way in?” it was allowed to get between four and six on the way in? i will hand over to greco there. you say i like to, we got to a situation where we had widespread community transmission of the virus. if we go back to the press updates at that time, you would have heard me and the chief medical officer talking about that at the time and that guided our move from the four stage plan, that planted all four nations of the uk published at the outset, the tickets from content into a delay of the virus. that was about community transmission. these are judgments we made. all of the steps we have taken all along have been about trying to slow down, firstly contain, then slow down the spread of the virus and that will continue to be the case. i have talked for

more than two months here about the importance of slowing the spread of the virus. that has driven us. it is hardly surprising that the r number was much higher in those early stages because there was much more in the population susceptible to the virus at that point. when you look at the way the virus was introduced to the uk with multiple introductions across the country into communities, some of which were easily detected, some of which were not detected, just because there wasn't the knowledge about the type of symptoms at that point in time that people made experience. it is no surprise to me or anybody that at that point in time the r number was very much greater in the united kingdom. the important thing is, with the measures we are taking, it has with the measures we are taking, it ha s a llowe d with the measures we are taking, it has allowed that r number to be greatly reduced, so we got a sense of control over the way the were

spreading. as i sat in parliament last week, the handling of this virus is not a popularity contest, it is trying to do the right things based on the information we have got. there is strong support for the government? phased and careful and cautious approach coming out of lockdown. i don't take that for granted. it is why i think it is so important that at every stage of the process i here and explain to you why i am acting asking you to do these things. i never take that support for granted because we are asking everybody to do really difficult things and it is important that we continue to have that open conversation about it. colin white from stv? is there any improvement in the speed at which test results come back? secondly, what is your reaction to the resignation today of

douglas ross? on the turnaround time for testing, we are seeing reductions in the turnaround time for tests, but we are trying to get that even lower than it is, because asi that even lower than it is, because as i said, speeders of the essence. from the point somebody. phones up goes online with symptoms, that is why a sad don't wait, we all know what we can be like when we feel a bit unwell. you might decide to wait a few hours or a day to see if you feel better but it is important you don't do that. you book a test straightaway, get tested as quickly as possible, then the processing of that test is done really quickly so the contact tracing process can also be done quickly. we are trying to reduce that as much as possible. looking at the turnaround times for tests from the beginning when we started testing compared to now, we have been able to make a huge impact on the duration of reporting for our

test results to be given back to a patient. we are still exploring ways we can improve that further and i expect over the coming weeks and months we will refine new techniques in terms of how we can do that, techno samples through the processes ina techno samples through the processes in a safe and efficient way so that we can further reduce the amount of time it takes for the whole testing process from beginning to end. the lab part of the process is only one aspect, it is also how you sample it, how you get it to the lab and how you return the result back to the patient. that all has to be factored into the whole duration of these tests. fair play to douglas ross, on the second part of question. the majority of the population, i expect, got that the

actions of dominic cummings were not a cce pta ble actions of dominic cummings were not acceptable under retrospective rewriting of the rules to somehow justify that is not acceptable either. he has taken the principal position of resigning from the uk government and we will see whether others decide to follow suit. i have had my say on dominic cummings and i don't intend to say very much more about it. my views are well known. my about it. my views are well known. my focus right now, as it has been for the last couple of months, is to continue to tackle this crisis and things like test and protect our massive pieces of work for any government and my job massive pieces of work for any government and myjob is to stay focused on all of that. james matthews from sky? thanks, first minister. scotland ? matthews from sky? thanks, first minister. scotland? universities and places of higher education speak of their economic troubles, economic armageddon, they say they are in a serious state and they stress the importance of tuition fees. would

you guarantee you will not scrap tuition fees? i will guarantee that i will not introduce tuition fees. we have free tuition in scotland and i don't want to see students having to pay tuition and i don't think transferring the real financial challenges that universities face onto the shoulders of students or graduates is the way to do it. university graduates, who often earn more, pay more through income tax... we believe that news conference there from nicola sturgeon, scotland's first minister. a comprehensive update from her, including a significant announcement about the launch of the test and protect programme in scotland. basically, anyone who suspects that they have covert 19 —— covid—19, are being advised to take a test. if you

test positive, your close contacts will be contacted and advised to isolate. nicola sturgeon sang the system will go live on thursday and there will be more details announced before then. i also just want to bring you a spot of breaking news from mclaren. it has announced it will cut 1200 jobs from its operations. that represents around a quarter of its workforce of more than a,000. mclaren, one of formula 1's most historic names, thejobs will be spread across all its operations. let's catch up with the weather. yesterday, temperatures reached 27 degrees in teddington in greater london. i expect london will also see the highest temperatures today. more cloud in the sky than in recent

days, particularly so across wales and northern england. this line of cloud is just what is left of a very wea k cloud is just what is left of a very weak all front. no rain left on it, just a little bit of patchy cloud drifting southwards. overnight, we could well see some low cloud form across the hills and coast of south—west england weather could be a few mist and fog patches developing. it is a mild lie, particularly in the south of england and wales, 1a degrees in cardiff at the end of the night. fresher air for northern england, northern ireland and scotland. over the next few days, that warmer air in the south will push northwards, so there will be a warming trend over the next few days. wednesday, most of england and wales will have a sunny start. more in the way of cloud for northern ireland and scotland. it could be an odd spot of rain in northern ireland, but not amounting to much. in the best of the sunshine in england and wales, temperatures could reach the high 20s in a few

areas. whereas, for scotland, northern ireland and the far north of scotland, the high teens. the warmer areas on its of scotland, the high teens. the warmer areas on its way and on thursday, this rain moves out of the way and the warm air will push n in the afternoon. sun chang for england and wales, sunny day for northern ireland. a small amount of ram for the farnworth of scotland. temperature is 20 degrees in belfast, 22 and edinburgh. the heat is really concentrated across england and we are is, where we are likely to see up to 27 degrees in the warmest areas. for friday, we are all in the warmer air. the onshore wind will keep our eastern coastal areas a little bit fresher. the warmest weather and lands. in edinburgh, up to 2a degrees as we finished the week. i find one that we care. on into the weekend, the fine weather is set to continue.

temperatures widely into the loo or mid 20s. that is your weather.

following the actions of the prime minister's chief aide. junior minister douglas ross says he's stepping down because of the government's defence of dominic cummings and his family trip during lockdown. we'll be getting the latest reaction from westminster. also this lunchtime — weeks before they're back at work, retailers say they're worried about how they'll cope with stringent new restrictions, if shoppers do come back. before this all happened, 70% of retail sales were made in stores, so although it won't return to that in the next sort of three to six months, we're hoping that people will go out and support their high street. heading in the right direction — the trend in deaths from coronavirus continues downward, with the lowest rate for six weeks.