welcome to bbc news — i'm mike embley. our top stories: the death toll in the united states from the pandemic has now officially passed 100,000. president trump says he's asked the fbi and department ofjustice to investigate the death of george floyd, in police custody, in minneapolis. this is the scene live in the city now where protests continue over the killing. and no luck with the weather for the launch of the first privately—owned spacecraft to the international space station.

the number of people who have died from covid—i9 in the united states has now officially exceeded 100,000. the actual numbers are likely to be higher than that, but it is clear that in the past three months, more americans have died from infection than during the korean war, the vietnam war and the conflict in iraq combined. but the number of new cases has slowed and more states are lifting their lockdowns, to ease the economic impact. 0ur north america correspondent, aleem maqbool, reports from washington. # happy birthday to you... friends and relatives of more than 100,000 people in america can nowjust cling to the memories of happier times before the coronavirus. my father was a really caring person. he just wanted to help people and he was really outgoing. he thought he was really funny. doug was one of the first confirmed deaths back on the first of march. as somebody who lost someone so close to them

and was someone obviously very, very dear to you so early on, when you saw the way this was going in the country, how has it made you feel over the last couple months? it's scary. it's sad. i feel angry. we should have been listening to the doctors and the scientists. we should not have been listening to people talking about the stock market. it's natural that people are reaching for answers, for someone to be accountable after scenes like mass graves being dug in new york and refrigerated trucks lining up to receive the dead once the morgues were full. i'll see you saturday. we now know that african—americans, like rhoda hatch, are still dying in disproportionate numbers. i think 100,000 is an extraordinary number. it means that there's a lot of pain and grief. some of us in the black community are very concerned

that as the narrative became that african—america ns were disproportionately impacted by the virus, that there was also a push to open up the country and many of us think prematurely that suggested the devaluation of black lives. those calls to reopen go on, even as the number of dead continues to mount and as the nation mourns. well, flags have been lowered here after tragedies like mass shootings, and even then, it's been difficult to grapple with the scale of loss after sometimes dozens of people have been killed. but how then does america even began to count the emotional cost of such a staggering number of deaths that have happened in fewer than 90 devastating days? to really do justice to the stories of those lost would take many lifetimes.

for people left behind, the question lingers, could more have been done so these americans and tens of thousands of others might still be around? aleem maqbool, bbc news, in washington. the bbc‘s david willis says the latest figures from the us could in fact be an underestimate. the united states now is firmly established as the epicentre of this global pandemic. and what this means is on average about 900 americans a day have been dying from the coronavirus and not a single state has been left unaffected by this. the situation has disproportionately affected african—americans, we know, and also about a third of those deaths have been in nursing homes. now unsurprisingly, perhaps, donald trump decided to go to florida today in search of a slightly better headline or a distractionary headline

from this rather grim news. but that launch of the first nasa astronauts into orbit in nearly a decade was postponed. so, he was denied that headline and he has made no comment so far anyway on that rather grim milestone of 100,000—plus deaths here. and it does seem, to be blunt about it, that a lot of people have reached the conclusion this disease that disproportionately affects black people, elderly people, people who are obese or people who are poor. and if you're not in that bracket, people decided not to be too worried about it? absolutely. and indeed there are some states, mike, that are saying they are still not able to fully test in the way they would like to. i mean, we've seen a decrease in some of the hardest—hit states such as new york, but there are still 20 others or so that last week were reporting a rise in the number of coronavirus cases. all that at a time when every state in this nation is slowly but surely starting to reopen its economy in line

with the president's wishes. and we were mentioning earlier on that anthony fauci, this country's top infectious diseases expert and others have contended that if prudent measures such as a continuation of the social distancing, the wearing of face masks and so on are not adhered to, there could a another spike, come the autumn, wintertime. david willis for us there. large protests are under way in minneapolis after the latest death of an unarmed black man in police custody. president trump has tweeted that he's asked the fbi and department of justice to investigate the incident. george floyd died in minneapolis. he'd been arrested and pinned down in the street, an officer kneeling on his neck. four officers have been sacked and george floyd's family have called for them to be charged with murder. that is the scene right now. there has been tear gas fired. things have slightly calmed

down since then, the confrontation slightly abated. i spoke just now to city councillor jeremiah ellison. he told me he was prompted to run for office by a similar incident involving the death of jamar clark in 2015. it's a tragic situation. i don't know if you have watched the video, if people are sparing themselves — i think that's ok. it's a pretty horrific video, it's hard to watch and he slowly dies over the course of those eight or nine minutes. so it feels senseless and infuriating. and chokeholds are in fact banned in minneapolis? but it is all right for officers to kneel on a suspect‘s neck? i'm not clear on whether we train our officers to use that manoeuvre. i was under the impression we didn't train officers to use that manoeuvre. but george floyd made it very clear he was under a tremendous amount of distress and

the fact his life was not taken seriously by the officers is just unforgivable. and that phrase of course, that is so well—known, "i can't breathe." was heard again many times. yeah, yeah, it was. what are you hearing from people on the streets? what are they hoping forfrom this? i think people are in disbelief of the manner of george floyd's death stop i think people want to know that the police are not some especially protected class. when the police participate in criminal actions, there should be criminal consequences but there is doubt about that happening. i think our response to the community that is grieving and hurt and frightened by the police doesn't really help matters either. i think we have taken the route

of inciting the crowd. i have called for the city to develop a different strategy but that has only fallen on deaf ears, to my frustration. and i think we can expect community members to continue to express themselves in this way. however unproductive we may deem it. if we don't rapidly change our approach and our response. it looks like from the pictures there is quite a confrontation going on there. what do you think of the way the police are dealing with the protest? we always, as a city, even before my time here, have responded to protest this way. you know, look, if our goal was to prevent property damage, we're not doing that. if our goal was to prevent the spread of infectious disease, we have no way of doing that. if our goal was to make sure protesters were not harmed, we are not doing that, and if our goal

was to make sure we are putting officers in harm's way, we aren't really doing that either. so someone is going to have to answer to me and tell me what are we trying to accomplish aside from chaos? because i'm not seeing it. that was city councillor, jeremiah allison there. boeing is cutting 12,000 jobs in the us as the pandemic continues to wreak havoc across the airline industry. the plane—maker says more than half of those are involuntary lay—offs. boeing announced in april that it would shed 10% of its workforce by the end of the year to cut costs. the chief financial officer of chinese tech company huawei has lost a key ruling in the trial over her extradition to the united states. meng wanzhou was arrested in canada in late 2018. the us wants her to stand trial on charges including fraud linked to the alleged violation of us sanctions against iran. ms meng denies any wrongdoing, as does huawei. the american playwright and aids activist larry kramer has died at the age of 8a. kramer wrote the landmark 1985 play the normal heart about the early days of the epidemic.

he helped found the gay men's health crisis after a meeting of about 80 people in his apartment in 1982. kramer himself tested hiv—positive in 1989, and suffered liver damage. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: no luck with the weather for the launch of the first privately owned spacecraft to the international space station. in the biggest international sporting spectacle ever seen, up to 30 million people have taken part in sponsored athletics events to aid famine relief in africa. the first of what the makers of star wars hope will be thousands of queues started forming at 7:00am. taunting which led to scuffles, scuffles to fighting, fighting to full—scale riot, as the liverpool fans broke out of their area and into the juve ntus enclosure. the belgian police

had lost control. the whole world will mourn the tragic death of mr nehru today. he was the father of the indian people from the day of independence. the oprah winfrey show comes to an end after 25 years and more than 4,500 episodes. the chat show has made her one of the richest people on the planet. geri halliwell, otherwise known as 'ginger spice,‘ has announced she has left the spice girls. argh, i don't believe it. she's the one with the bounce, the go, girl power. not geri, why? this is bbc news. the latest headlines: the death toll in the united states due to the coronavirus pandemic has now passed 100,000. president trump says he's asked the fbi and department ofjustice to investigate the death in minneapolis of a black man who died in police custody.

during the coronavirus pandemic, we have come across many extraordinary personal stories of key workers and volunteers amongst others. earlier, i spoke to one such person. eric duncan who is a military social worker who has been deployed to a new york hospital to deal with the coronavirus crisis. yeah, it's definitely a toughjob. the hospital staff and medical staff at jacobi medical center in new york, where we're currently helping out and integrated into the hospital, have been absolutely amazing to us. they've been very supportive. and then my unit, the 452, has been amazing. i am the new guy — i'm seven months in. so it's been tough, and we've seen a lot of things that are kind of like an overload on the brain. but it's an honour to be wearing this uniform and helping this city that's been ravaged in the spirit of new york. although definitely hit very hard, the city is amazing and the people are amazing here. a lot of people i think will have been touched by the story published recently about what your dealings

with and what you did for the second world war veteran, george crouch. can you tell us more about that? sergeant crouch is a world war ii veteran. he was in okinawa, where he was injured, and he also was called up to go to the korean war. he came to the hospital with his wife at the same time, they both were admitted at the same time, they shared a hospital room. unfortunately, gail passed and succumbed to the disease. mr crouch was definitely devastated by that news. i had gotten a mental health consult to him for the first time, i think it was may 1st. so i got to meet him to do a consult for mental health and we kind of felt from there a relationship and a friendship really, and i admire him. to me, he's a national treasure as a world war ii veteran, and he has proven that with hope, anything can happen. and i think he lost hope for a while. and i think the hospital staff and the military and all the visits he was getting helped him to get

the hope back and he found a reason to go towards the positive. he's in the rehab centre and i'm still in contact with him and he's doing great. that's wonderful to hear. but i guess for people who don't pull through, even tougher job for you. you're at the side of people who may well be dying, who may well be very lonely because their families can't get to them, may be very, very frightened. this is a grim, grim disease. it is, it is. it's a very grim disease and there are people and there have been many people that i've been with who have unfortunately passed. up until that point, i do my best as a clinical social worker representing jacobi medical center and the united states army, and the 452, to just be there for them.

i hate to see people suffering or scared and sometimes coming in and holding my hand or trying to do something to help distract the imminent situation, or, you know, just the fight they're going through, my goal is hopefully that it gets them on the other side with a positive and they can get through. unfortunately, you can't say you win everything, but you try your best because of the human spirit. you just believe in it and you believe in people. people are, to me, just amazing and i enjoy and feel so blessed that i get to try to help anybody in any situation. across europe, life for many is gradually returning to normal as countries ease restrictions on movement, which have been in place in some areas for almost three months. rich preston has this look at a continent coming out of lockdown. in italy, a visit to

an ice cream parlour after an intense lockdown. this simple pleasures stands for so much. translation: i missed it a lot, especially from this ice—cream shop. i think it's one of the best you can find in rome. just a few months ago, the world's focus was on italy of the centre of the coronavirus outbreak. now with its infection rate slowing by the day, the lives of italians are being allowed to return to normal. translation: we have been coming since day one of the reopening. we have been passing every day to check out if it was open. we have literally circled it. when coronavirus first hit switzerland, the country's military reserves were called to action, supporting hospitals and emergency services to contain the pandemic. now, a demobilisation ceremony. these soldiers are being stood down with the situation deemed under control, they can now return to civilian life. for many countries, the worry now is

over the long—term impact of the virus, particularly on essential tourism industries. cyprus has taken a novel approach to try and win back businesses. it's promised to cover the costs of the holiday, as well as the medical treatment of anyone who falls ill with the virus after visiting the island, a measure it hopes will reassure potential visitors that a trip to cyprus is safe from both a health and financial point of view. on tuesday, the european commission announced plans for an $825 billion fund to help countries whose economies had been hit by the pandemic. not all member states agree on the method of this kind of financial rescue, but few disagree with its motive. after asia, europe was the heart of the coronavirus pandemic. now, as other regions see their death tolls continue to rise at dramatic rates, the sights of italians eating ice cream or the swiss army standing down may provide a much—needed glimmer of hope for the future.

the governments around the world are clear the fight against the virus is still not over. rich preston, bbc news. the uk's health secretary, matt hancock, has stressed that it's everyone's civic duty to cooperate with the new test and trace scheme set to roll—out in england injust the coming hours. the strategy will help health authorities find people who come into close contact with those infected. anyone who tests positive will be contacted by the health service, the nhs, and asked to disclose where they have been and who they have been in contact with. the aim is to help facilitate a move from a nationwide lockdown, towards more targeted safety measures. it was a nail—biter of a decision. the launch of the spacex rocket from florida's famed cape canaveral was years in the making. if successful, it would be the first time a commercial aircraft put people into orbit, bound for the international space station. but mother nature had other plans as our science editor david shukman reports. heavy cloud over the launch pads, the weather ominous for this new era in space.

two astronauts, doug hurley and bob behnken, getting ready. veterans with nasa, but now in the flashier suits of a private company, spacex. wishing them well from a careful distance, the head of nasa and the founder of spacex, elon musk. he's worked for this moment for years. well, this is the culmination of a dream. this is a dream come true. in fact, it feels surreal. if you'd asked me when starting spacex if this would happen, i'd be, like, 1%, 0.1% chance. then, a farewell for two remarkable families. both men are married to fellow astronauts. they all know what's at stake. to get to the rocket, electric cars. teslas, also made by elon musk. a new look for everything. soon, both men were inside, getting connected to the high—tech controls. the weather, looking better. so the countdown began. but then came another forecast, and the whole thing

was brought to a dramatic halt. mission control: we continue to violate a couple of different weather rules that we now do not expect to clear in time to allow for launch today. the longful return to space flight from american soil will have to wait. for years, space shuttles took americans into orbit, but they became too expensive. mission control: and lift-off, the final lift—off of atlantis. so, russian rockets were used instead, and they were the only way for americans to reach space — until now. now, this is a prototype of the dragon capsule... back in 2011, i was allowed into a spacex capsule. it's all about finding cheaper ways of getting into orbit and freeing up nasa to go further. nasa said, basically, "we'll give you the money and you give us the space flight." and then that releases nasa to use its resources to do other things. and that's how we can start really thinking big. and instead of spending

all the time, the effort, resources on something that we've done now for many years, going into low earth orbit, doing experiments, let's look bigger, let's go further and, of course, the ultimate destination has to be mars. mission control: countdown, clear, go for launch. this is how it was meant to look. a smooth ride to the international space station, but the weather was against it this time, and the next chance is saturday. david shukman, bbc news. it's a small thing, but one of the worst things about lockdown, for many people — no haircuts. barbershops and hairdressers have been closed all around the world. in russia, those restrictions are being eased — not a moment too soon for one barber in particular. as the bbc‘s tim allman reports. this man lives to cut hair. but thanks to the pandemic, his scissors and clippers remained unused. 0nce scissors and clippers remained

unused. once the lockdown was lifted, he decided to make up for lost time, taking part in a haircut marathon on. two days non—stop, chop chop. translation: everything went well. i was a little worried thinking that something could happen given that he has not slept for 48 hours but i sat down and everything was fine. the main thing was to keep talking to him so he doesn't keep —— doesn't fall asleep or anything. safety measures remain in place. every customer has a temperature taken when they arrive. he would devote 14 minutes to each haircut, getting by on muesli bars and energy drinks. translation: gaya gives great haircuts from the first to the last. people were joking that they would like to be the last client because he will cut an ear. they were worried he wouldn't be able to take it but it turned out completely the opposite —— this guy.

it turned out completely the opposite -- this guy. finally, after 48 hours, the final head had been sean. never has a haircut receives such a rapturous welcome. translation: i didn't understand at all what was happening on the morning of the second day. i wasjust happening on the morning of the second day. i was just cutting and the pitfalls of my hands we re and the pitfalls of my hands were moving on their own and i was just watching. the salon manager says they plan to contact the guinness book of records. as for him, with the lockdown over, he will have plenty more haircuts to look forward to. most kids hope at some point they will find treasure hidden in the garden. so imagine how one group of surveyors felt about coming across a roman mosaic floor concealed under an italian vineya rd. after decades of searching, experts in verona finally unearthed the well—preserved tiles buried under tonnes of earth.

apparently, scholars first found evidence of a roman villa there more than a century ago. technicians are still excavating the site to see the full extent of the ancient building. a reminder of our top story: the number of people who have died from covid—19 in the united states has now officially exceeded 100,000. the numbers may well be higher than that, but it is clear that in about three months, more americans have now died from covid—19 than during the korean war, the vietnam war and the conflict in iraq combined. but the number of new infections has slowed and more states are lifting their lockdowns to ease the economic impact. there is much more on all the news, national and international for you anytime on the bbc website. you can reach me and most of the team on twitter. thank you very much for watching. take care.

hello again. wednesday brought us more sunshine across the country. the highest temperature was again around the greater london area, this time in heathrow, 26 degrees celsius. and a bit further north in suffolk, that's how we ended the day. now, over recent days, the warmth that has mainly been concentrated across south—east england has been spreading into wales, south—west england, and for thursday, the heat is more widespread across the uk. so most areas will have warmer weather, one exception really — east anglia and south—east england where it is going to get a little bit fresher and temperatures coming down just a few degrees, but still warm. we'll take a look at why. 0n the satellite picture, we've got this cloud working into northern scotland, bringing a bit of rain. and a very weak cold front diving southwards across the north sea —

that is introducing fresher air to east anglia and south—east england and, ultimately, will knock the temperatures down by a few degrees. this is how the weather looks at the moment, though. it's cloudy for northern scotland, still got some rain around at the moment, but that will tend to ease over the coming hours. elsewhere, it's a largely dry picture, a little bit of low cloud, a lot of mist and fog patches towards coastal areas of lincolnshire. but otherwise, clear spells for most and a fresher feel to the weather across some of these eastern areas of scotland, eastern areas of england as that cooler airworks in. now, for thursday, most of us will have sunshine from dawn till dusk. any low cloud and mist clearing away very quickly. and the rain also clearing from northern scotland. it should brighten up in the northern isles later in the day. a warmer day for most then. 23 degrees or so in edinburgh. probably about 23, 24 for western counties of northern ireland. but cooler in london — instead of around 26 or 27 it has been over recent days, it will be about 22. still warm in the sunshine and we've got more of the same to come on friday. most of us will have sunshine from dawn till dusk again with very little

in the way of cloud. the highest temperatures always likely across more northern and western areas of the uk. 25 or so in the glasgow area. how's the weekend shaping up? 0ur area of high pressure is still in charge, still keeping these atlantic weather fronts at bay, and that means we've got more of the same. that said, it will turn quite breezy for some of us, but nevertheless, we do have more of that warm sunshine to come. temperatures in glasgow peeking around 24 degrees celsius. enneskillen, 23, maybe a 24 through the weekend and further south, quite widely we'll see temperatures in the mid—20s. some of the warmest weather in cardiff, 27 on saturday. that's your weather.

this is bbc news. the headlines: more than 100,000 people have now died from coronavirus in the united states. those are the official figures, the actual number will be much higher. 100,000 is more than the combined total of deaths from the korean, vietnam and iraq conflicts. and europe after lockdown — life for many is gradually returning to normal as countries ease restrictions on movement, which have been in place in some areas for almost three months. we take the temperature of a continent which is relaxing its rules. and the first private sector mission to the international space station and the first crewed launch from us soil in nine years has been postponed due to bad weather. it's now thought that the spacex rocket will be launched on saturday.