this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the uk government insists that it continues to be led by science over the next stages of the easing of lockdown measures after concerns were raised by some leading scientists. we need to proceed in a very cautious way. so we have set out a road map, but at each stage we are saying we are not going to proceed with that unless we are confident that we can do so in a safe way. the return of competitive sport is announced for the uk from monday, starting with horse racing. other sports given the go—ahead to resume behind closed doors include football, rugby and cricket. appeals for calm after a fourth night of violence in the us city of minneapolis following the death of george floyd, an african—american in police custody.

a former police officer is charged with murder and the pentagon puts the us military on high alert. you are disgracing our city! you are disgracing the life of george floyd! and every other person who has been killed in this country! india's daily total of new coronavirus cases hit another record high today with nearly 8,000 new infections. nasa astronauts prepare to launch into space from the us within the next half an hour for the first time in nearly a decade. president trump has arrived at the kennedy space center for the historic launch. we will bring you that live this hour. 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. the uk is at a dangerous moment and the easing of lockdown has to go slowly, england's deputy chief medical officer has said. professor jonathan van—tam said the consensus among scientists was that new easing measures being introduced were not expected to push the rate of infection above 1.0. the uk government insists that it continues to be led by science over the next stages of the easing of lockdown measures after concerns were raised by some leading scientists. several members of the sage advisory group have spoken out against the pace of change. from monday in england, up to six people from different households can meet outside, including in private gardens. 215 deaths have been recorded in the uk in the last 2a hours. it brings the total number of deaths to 38,376. 0ur political correspondent,

chris mason, has this report. york in the sunshine has always proved popular. a socially distant queue. a spot of refreshments. in scotland and northern ireland, groups are already allowed to gather outside. england and wales will follow on monday but the number of coronavirus cases falling, ministers say the time is right. but some of those advising the government have concerns. if we make multiple releases of the lockdown at the same time, we won't know what is causing the inevitablejump in cases. and we don't have an established test, track and isolate process to follow these people up. so we're at a very risky point where we could take the lid off a pot that is still bubbling in places and it risks overflowing in places. he's one of several members of the scientific advisory group

for emergencies to speak out. the labour mayors of london and greater manchester are also worried this loosening of the rules has come to soon. so, at this afternoon's government news conference, i asked... what you say to those scientists and others who say that you're easing the lockdown in england too quickly? we haven't got that much headroom. that's why the prime minister has been clear we need to proceed in a very cautious way. so we set out a road map that at each stage we are saying we will not proceed with that unless we are confident that we can do so in a safe way. i believe and you will recall i was at the podium when the disease activity was very high in the uk, and i said it's a very dangerous moment. i believe this is also a very dangerous moment. we have to get this right. the public in general to actually follow the guidance. don't tear the pants out of it and don't go further than the guidance actually says.

professor van—tam knows how to turn a phrase and make a point. he was also asked directly about dominic cummings. the prime minister's most senior adviser who among other things drove 50 miles to test his eyesight during the lockdown. the rules are clear and they have always been clear. in my opinion, they are for the benefit of all. and in my opinion, they apply to all. questions about mr cummings keep coming. questions about easing the lockdown will too. the government has published new guidelines to allow the return of competitive sport from monday. athletes will still have to maintain social distancing where possible. the announcement was made by the minister for culture, media and sport, 0liver dowden. i'm delighted to announce today that the government has published guidance which allows competitive sport to resume behind closed doors from monday

at the earliest and, crucially, only when it's safe to do so. it's up to each individual sport to decide exactly when to resume competition. they know their sports best. but football, tennis, horse racing, formula i, cricket, golf, rugby, snooker and others are all set to return to our screens shortly with horse racing first out of the gate in the north east next week. violent protests over the death of an unarmed african—american man at the hands of police officers in minnesota are no longer in any way about his killing, the state's governor has said. tim walz spoke after a night of unrest in several us cities over the death of george floyd in minneapolis. he said that as a result he was taking the unprecedented step of mobilising the state's entire national guard. the pentagon has also moved to put military units on a four—hour recall status if needed. 0ur correspondent,

barbara plett usher, is in minneapolis, and her report contains some distressing images. america is rising up in anger over the killing of another black man in police custody. in minneapolis, protesters defied a curfew taking over the streets for the fourth night in a row, turning them into a smoky battle ground. security forces were overwhelmed. the governor has now announced the largest mobilisation of the national guard in the state's history. he blames outsiders for spearheading the violence. the situation in minneapolis is no longer in any way about the murder of george floyd. it is about attacking civil society, instilling fear and disrupting our great cities. here in minneapolis, this is the damage after another night of chaos. authorities thought they had calmed things down after they moved swiftly to charge a police officer for the death of george floyd. and they were shocked when the virus escalated instead.

i cannot breathe! a widely publicised video shows the officer kneeling on mr floyd's neck as he begged for air. in footage that emerged today, you can see two other policemen were also holding him down. ignoring his cries to let him stand. the graphic images have ignited protests across a country already grappling with a deadly pandemic. and suffering its worst economic crisis since the great depression. in seattle, washington, demonstrators hurled a rock at an amazon store. they chanted "i can't breathe" and "black lives matter". in charlotte, north carolina, police fired tear gas. a city council member was among several people arrested. and in atlanta, georgia, protesters threw rocks and smoke grenades at police. trashed cars and smashed windows at cnn headquarters. the governor issued a state

of emergency and the mayor pleaded for the riots to stop. you are disgracing our city. you are disgracing the life of george floyd and every other person who has been killed in this country. we are better than this. we are better than this as a city, we are better than this as a country. i am duty—bound to be here to simply say that it is your duty not to burn your own house down for anger with an enemy. accountability is what the protesters are demanding. the lack of it so many times before has stoked the smouldering anger that is exploding now with such force. donald trump has again condemned the violence that erupted in minnesota on friday night. boarding an aircraft to travel to cape canaveral, mr trump urged the authorities there to be tough on those he said were bent on violence and added that

federal reinforcements could be despatched if necessary. they've got to be tough, they've got to be smart. we have our military ready, willing and able today if they ever want to call our military. but we can have troops on the ground very quickly if they ever want our military. they're using their national guard right now, as you know, they have their national guard out. we can have our military there very quickly. they've got to be tough, they've got to be strong, they've got to be respected. because these people, it's antifa, it's a lot of radical left, bad people. and they've got to be taught that you can't do this. so i'm going now to watch a great launch and we'll see how we do. thank you very much. professor kaye whitehead is an educator, author and media host who is known as the #blackmommyactivist. she teaches african and african—american studies

at loyola university in baltimore, maryland, from where she told me that the violence had a clear context. i think it's important to recognise that the murder of george floyd comes on top of so much injustice and so many unarmed black men, women and children who have been killed ever since we have been protesting black lives matter. we can go back and look at the modern civil rights movement, the history of how we got here, but if we just focus on black lives matter, i can easily go through a litany of names of black men, women and black men women and children and most recently we had a black woman shot and keld in her own home in kentucky. a man shot and killed in georgia, and now george floyd, watch it in real time

and you can hear him struggling, yelling out that he cannot breathe, calling for his mother, it is the injustice that we are dealing with as black and brown people in this country when we see this happening to people that could be part of our families and then we don't see people being held accountable so there is a lot of pent—up frustration that got us to this moment. you can change policy, but that does not necessarily change attitudes, not least within the police. so how do you bring about meaningful change? it's interesting that we have been wrestling with this question around change for quite a while. what would it look like if we were to do something different? we talk about police officers, that's kind of a point blank. to do an intensive training with police officers so that we can build a bridge between the police force and the community. there is predatory policing that is happening in economically challenged black communities where they are overpoliced,

herded and controlled, rather than protected and served so that needs to happen. we need to have more accountability for police officers so when they do what these police officers participated in it's not just that they are arrested, not just that they are fired, not just that they are charged, but they are found guilty and they serve time so that people understand there is a price to pay. there is accountability. a second thing is to think about reparations. right now we're looking at how we are economically challenged in this community, we see how the income of black people is steadily dropping by the year 2053, the estimate of income will be zero in comparison to our white counterparts. so a way of redistributing funds we hope will turn around decades upon decades of economic injustice in our community and third which i think is the hardest piece is how do we change the hearts and minds of people? there is a large community of people not of colour in this country

of white people who really believe that black folks are inferior. they are groups of white nationalism and supremacy and they are pushing that age—old agenda that race is a determining factor. we are fighting against the hearts and minds of those individuals as well. the chair of the senate health committee in the united states has warned that president trump's withdrawal from the world health organisation could interfere with clinical trials to develop a vaccine against covid—i9. lamar alexander, who's a republican, also said it could make it harder to work with other countries to stop viruses reaching the us. on friday, president trump announced he was terminating america's relationship with the who. he's accused it of failing to hold beijing to account over the pandemic. india has recorded its biggest single dayjump in coronavirus cases with nearly 8,000

new infections and 265 deaths. these latest figures bring the total numbers to over 170,000 cases of infection and close to 5000 deaths. more than a third of all cases are in maharashtra, one of india's richest states. but despite the rising number of covid—nineteen cases, the government has been easing restrictions. the return of competitive sport is announced for the uk — from monday — starting with horse racing — other sports given the go ahead to resume behind closed doors include football, rugby and cricket. the uk government insists that it continues to be led by science over the next stages of the easing of lockdown measures — after concerns were raised by some leading scientists. appeals for calm after a fourth night of violence in the us city of minneapolis — following the death of george floyd — an african—american in police custody. a former police officer is charged with murder and the pentagon puts

the us military on high alert. spacex says it is pressing ahead with the launch of a rocket taking two nasa astronauts to the international space station. the first attempt was called off on wednesday. nasa says there is a 50% chance of cancellation because of the weather in florida. it's the first manned us mission to space in nearly a decade. president trump is due to attend. nasa has relied on russian rockets to send astronauts into space since scrapping its shuttle programme in 2011. let's bring you some live pictures now from the kennedy space center in florida, where the rocket is due to take off in around an hour's time.

i'm joined now by our correspondent in washington, jane 0'brien, libbyjackson, who manages the uk space agency's human exploration programme, and laura forczyk, who founded the space analysis and consulting group astralytica and joins us from atlanta, georgia. let's start with jane. 60% chance that the weather would be against them again and it would have been potentially cancelled like it would have on wednesday. i'm keeping everything crossed that at the moment it looks really good. they have been cleared in terms of whether. it is marginal but exceptional but blue skies, no clouds or thunderstorms or any signs of tornadoes we were experiencing in terms of a tornado warning on wednesday. and we are alreadyjust five minutes to go before liftoff.

we are well ahead of where we were this time on wednesday so things are looking really good. the astronauts are strapped in, the hatch is closed, they are finishing off feeling right now, and we will know inafew feeling right now, and we will know in a few minutes whether or not we are about to make history here at the kennedy space center. let's speak to laura and libby. laura, remind us why this is so significant a launch. this is the first time that nasa has been able to launch their astronauts from america since their astronauts from america since the space shuttle retired in 2011. since then they have been purchasing from russia. it is also the first time that spacex has attempted to launch people and the first time for any commercial company has ever attempted to launch a nasa astronaut to the space station to orbit so it's a very exciting time not only for nasa but the commercial space

industry. how much will it change people's perception of who gets involved in space? this has always been backed by the american government. and notjust the american government but governments around the world, russia and china have all launched astronauts but this time it could be commercial companies that take that roll over or at least supplement it with government that can help launch people and more inexpensively than has been in the past. libby, with how much envy will the uk and our european partners be watching what is happening in florida? we are not watching with mv but with excitement and support because this mission is the first of many and later ones will fly european space station astronauts. we are part of that global cooperation. the european space agency as a partner in the

international space agency and its programme so international space agency and its programme so we are international space agency and its programme so we are really excited. libby, how much pressure as everyone under? not that you can do anything about the weather but you do not wa nt about the weather but you do not want too many failed attempts! they will go when it is safe, that is the weather and many other things they are looking at. no one is under pressure to go today, we will go today if we can. everybody is really trained. doug hurley has flown in space on the last space shuttle mission. they know what to expect. right now, they will work through their check list. it is three minutes until we launch. this looks like it will go. let's go back to jane who we managed to get. to this fantastic deployment. these things are difficult enough at the best of

times, launching people into space, but this has been done in an era where they are having to content with covid—19 as well. where they are having to content with covid-19 as well. i have to tell you though that covid—19 is not on anybody‘s mind right now. we are looking at history about to be made here at the kennedy space center. i don't know if you can see but we have people moving out of the buildings, moving down towards that countdown clock which is now saying one minute 30 seconds. this is absolutely nail—biting and everybody just wants to get a glimpse of this. i've never experienced a rocket launch before, i don't know what to expect, but already we are getting some semblance of cheering, and i can tell you that driving into the centre this morning, there were people lined up either side of the road, binoculars trained on this spot, waiting to see what will happen, whether or not they can actually take off after that

nail—biting disappointment on wednesday where it was just 17 minutes until launch and they had to call it off because of an excess of electricity in the air ie thunderstorms which have been incredibly dangerous. we have no weather problems right now but don't forget this is an incredibly small window of opportunity. we are talking barely a minute for this rocket to take off so everything just depends on the next 36 seconds and counting, and what those two astronauts must be thinking, i don't know. they have trained for this, they are calm, they will come when they are calm, they will come when they had to leave the spaceship just on wednesday. they were very philosophical about it. but we are now down to 19 seconds, and i think we should just watch and wait to see what happens because the countdown is now well under way.

ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, zero. liftoff! go, nasser, go spacex! america has launched! a new era of american space flight, a new generation continuing the dream, 20 seconds into flight stage when propulsion is nominal. t plus 30 seconds of this historic mission, flying through on board. —— flying

crew. we are throttling down to get ready for the period of maximum dynamic pressure. reports say all systems a re dynamic pressure. reports say all systems are go. we have exceeded lock one on the falcon nine. we are throttling back up to full power. we heard that bravo pull out. —— call out. at this .2 .3 gs, 2.3 times the earth's gravity, 1500 mph. we have

called the call for engine chill getting the engine ready to light. right now everything continuing to look good. next major event coming up look good. next major event coming up is going to be the triple, we will have main engine cut—off, stage separation, and then ignition of the second stage engine to continue to carry astronauts into orbit. coming up carry astronauts into orbit. coming up and about 20 seconds. we are throttling down the engines on the first stage.

falcon stage separation confirmed. we have a stage separation confirmed, the stage beginning, the second stage being powered by that single engine has ignited and is now carrying bob into orbit. they will continue under the power of the second stage. propulsion is nominal. which will cut off in about eight minutes and 44 seconds into today's flight minutes and 44 seconds into today's flight so another five minutes to go on the second stage. you heard the call out to alpha so the longer stubble zone that carries them all the way from north carolina of the eastern seaboard almost to canada. things looking good though, get a good call—outs, nominal propulsion on the second stage, continuing to

make their way into orbit. dragon spacex, nominaltrajectory. nominal trajectory. hearing nominal trajectory. hearing nominal trajectory so dragon pointed in the right direction, continuing to make theirflight right direction, continuing to make their flight uphill. stage two propulsion are still nominal. there were grins all round when we watched that launch. let's speak to

jane who had the view from the ground. describe what it was like, jane. ground. describe what it was like, jane. that was incredible! i have never seen jane. that was incredible! i have never seen anything like it. that suspension build—up and then to actually see, hear and feel at take—off, my whole body was vibrating with the sound, absolutely incredible, you could actually feel it through your entire skeleton, it was extraordinary, and then to see that bright light just suddenly exploding and moving upwards, i have never seen exploding and moving upwards, i have never seen anything like it, what an incredible privilege, and for those two men on board, what a privilege for them and for spacex and nasser to pull this thing off in spite of all the way the problem they have had. it's tremendous. a day in history for america and the world. laura and libby, they are still with us. laura and libby, they are still with us. laura, as much as it is

exciting, there is a moment of anxiety too for everyone watching this. absolutely. i have seen several shuttle launches in person and even from a distance you are cheering them on and praying and hoping for them that nothing goes wrong and at this point itjust looks amazing but you never know what could happen in the future, something could still go wrong, but from the centre looks beautiful.m does, and libby you never tire of seeing the earth from that perspective, do you? never indeed. i have been looking at the pictures and it's amazing what technology allows us to see with his launchers. we will see in a little while the landing of the first stage in florida, and you can see the pictures of the earth coming back towards it, it's all beautiful, but there are still about four or five minutes until they reach all britain until they get them safely in orbit and on theirway

until they get them safely in orbit and on their way to the international space station, i am still watching everything closely, so we still watching everything closely, so we keep seeing if it all goes 0k. i think that president trump is speaking, we might be able to listen then, we knew he was heading down to florida. real talent, real genius nobody doesn't like us. it's great to have this programme back and it'sjust the beginning, it'sjust the beginning. we have many more things to come. that's a lot ofjobs, it's a lot of technology. we has space for us now. and thank you very much for us now. and thank you very much for being here. we appreciate it very much. number one. one of the things we've done is created the space for us, first programme, if you look 70 for years now over 72 now at 74th. time flies. since the air force now we have eight major branch of the military, joint chiefs

of staff. full honors. it's called the space for us. we did