hello this is bbc news. this is bbc news with the latest the headlines. headlines for viewers in the uk a member of the scientific group and around the world. advising the uk government says a member of the scientific group the country should've gone advising the uk government says into lockdown earlier. he wishes the country had gone the health secretary insists into lockdown earlier. the right decisions were made. i wish we had gone into lockdown thousands of people across the uk earlier. i think that has cost a lot have demonstrated in solidarity with anti—racism protests of lives, unfortunately. in the united states. the head of london's police federation said the protests shouldn't have happened amid the pandemic. i'm sure that taking into account huge protests against the death of george floyd have continued everything we knew at that moment, taking place across america — all of them peaceful. my view is, that we made the right in washington, thousands gathered around the white house decisions at the right time. in the biggest protest there for days. the coronavirus pandemic is a "devastating blow" for the world economy, according to the world bank. its president warned that billions of people would have their livelihoods thousands of people across the uk have demonstrated in solidarity with anti—racism protests in the united states. affected by the pandemic.

there's another rally later today. huge protests over the death of george floyd have continued in cities across america — all of them peaceful. in washington, thousands gathered in the biggest demonstrations there in 12 days. calls for a greater voice for english regions in deciding how the lockdown should be relaxed. the head of the world bank calls the current global economic crisis a "catastrophe" and appeals for debt relief for the poorer nations. and, in a week's time, places of worship in england will be reopened for individual prayer. 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. a senior scientist,

and a member of the group who advises the uk government on their coronavirus strategy, has said he wishes britain had locked down sooner, and the failure to do so cost lives. professorjohn edmunds, who sits on the sage committee, said the data scientists had at the time was poor, and meant it would have been difficult to impose restrictions then. britain's health secretary, matt hancock, denied that the timing of the lockdown had cost lives, and insisted the government made the "right decisions at the right time," "guided by the science." professor edmunds was asked on the bbc‘s andrew marr programme whether, as a scientist, he had any regrets about the advice given to ministers. yes, we should have gone into lockdown earlier. i think it would have been hard to do it and i think the data that we were dealing with in the early part of march and our situational awareness was really quite poor. and so, i think it would have

been very hard to pull the trigger at that point, but i wish we had. i wish we had gone into lockdown earlier. i think that has cost a lot of lives, unfortunately. our political correspondent helen catt is with me now. what is the significance of what this leading scientist has been saying? this feels quite reflective from professor edmunds. as you said, he was asked if he had any and as he said there, we did not enter the lock down sooner, but you also had say the data was not there to be able to do that easily. it is quite able to do that easily. it is quite a reflective look back at it, i think. this was put to the health secretary he wasn't speaking to andrew marr earlier and asked him if he agreed. he agreed. he said, may be that he felt that the government had acted correctly.

no, i think we took the right decisions at the right time and there is a broad range on sage of scientific opinion. we followed...we were guided by the science, which means guided by the balance of that opinion, as expressed to ministers through the chief medical officer and the chief scientific adviser, that is the right way for it to have been done. i'm not saying it was an easy decision, but he is absolutely clear that it cost lives, not locking earlier. well, there are others who equally make different scientific arguments and the way that this is done... is there anyone who thinks it did not cost lives? yes, if you listen to the balance of opinion on sage, approximately 100 people on sage, what we do as ministers is we take the scientific advice, channelled through the chief medical officer on the medical side, the chief scientific adviser on the broader science and as professor edmunds said, we have to make the balanced judgments based on that advice and that is the way it works.

you will always, in a body of 100 people, find differing voices. it is totally reasonable. of course, the discussion about the timing of when we went into lockdown has been a subject of debate for some time now, but that protests process you had matt hancock talk about about having to weigh the judgment is equally important now, arguably even more so because you don't want to risk a return of the second pick of the virus. we know that boris johnson second pick of the virus. we know that borisjohnson is going to set out a number of measures to come in from mid june and he will update to the cabinet on that on tuesday pulled up not expecting a brand unlocking here, if you think about some of the things we already know are scheduled for the 15th ofjune, opening nonessential retail, compulsory mask wearing on public transport and today, the gradual limited reopening of places of worship for individual pro, they're

quite small changes and we would expect more of that. lisa nandy is labour's foreign secretary —— like a shadow secretary and she was asked if labour supports lifting lockdown restrictions. well, we support the easing of the lockdown restrictions, but it has to be safe, so we want the government to take a cautious approach. there are a number of things that they should be doing now that are not currently working properly, the test, track and trace system needs to improve. one of the major problems with test, track and trace at the moment is that local gps, local public health directors, do not currently know who is testing positive for covid—19. given that, sorry tojump in, but given that, do you think it is safe to unlock at this rate at the moment or not? i think it is right to be followed by the science and right to do that cautiously. of course, we have not seen all of the science, because they won't release it, but we do want to see lockdown easing. there is a huge impact on people of being in lockdown come on people's mental health, people who live alone, on children,

but they have to be safe and cautious and at the moment the government has been far too slow about things like test, track and trace and are putting too little support in for people who are going need to self—isolate. we are keen to work with the government to help them get that right. cautious and a safety first were exactly the words that the health secretary used earlier. he also gave us secretary used earlier. he also gave usa secretary used earlier. he also gave us a bit of an insight into this idea of localised lockdown is that we have been hearing so much about because the government has said it could re—impose restrictions if it looks like infection rates are spreading too said he is... the government does not want to do that for a start and when he is talking about local lockdowns, the idea is they would be very small and localised, not necessarily this idea of looking down whole cities or regions. 0k, thank you very much. professor edmunds also said he would prefer to see the infection rate fall further before the lockdown was eased. he said the official tally of more

than 5,000 new cases a day did not include known hotspots such as hospitals and care homes. let's speak to professor john ashton, a former director of public health for the north—west of england. cani can i ask you first about what professor edmunds has been saying, that he wishes the lockdown had been carried out earlier and he includes himself in saying that, that that should have been, what the scientists were saying and the politicians were doing, do you agree? yes, but i wish they had said that earlier. i was calling for these measures are in february and march. i think what we are seeing there is the overdependence on weak data at that time and to academic and approach. there were no public health people on the original micro sage. there are four very experienced public health people now on the alternative sage. people like that should have been involved as an

early stage because there's kind of measures that should have been taken. but you have to remember that it is more than that. it was the failure to get a grip in february. we lost a month where we should have been ensuring adequate testing capacity and ppe and that is where we got into this mess. we are still overdependent now on weak data. the local directors of public health are still not getting the data they need to ta ke still not getting the data they need to take charge and what is happening isa to take charge and what is happening is a public health england and the national agencies are hoarding data and not sharing it with the local directors of public health and we have got this overdependence on private sector companies, delights and at circo, who are not doing what is needed to stop the local public health departments have been run down since 2013. they have not got enough capacity. we urgently need to rebuild local public health. you

cannot run this emergency from whitehall and i have been saying that from the beginning. andy in greater manchester and seve in the other side, and other political leaders around the country, chris steve in merseyside, have been calling for decentralisation of the responsibilities and the power to get a responsibilities and the power to geta grip responsibilities and the power to get a grip on this, that is what needs to happen. we are just repeating the errors again and what is happening now because of this premature slackening off is it is reckless and if we get out a way with this, we will be very lucky. when you say reckless, are you saying we should not be easily lockdown? we should not be easing the lockdown. last two weeks, we have had chaotic messaging and to all intents and purposes, the has ended. small measures like allowing people to worship individually in the churches and religious places is perfectly reasonable. i know that has been a problem from conversations i have had with the

rector at liverpool, but those aren't small measures, but this general thing which we see people congregating in parks, at the seaside, in public places, the shops all opening, this is a hostage to fortune. if we get away with this, we will be very lucky. but then, how long would you maintain the current lockdown for? until we have got the testing and tracing properly in place and we are still not on top of that, because the government has this ideological obsession with using centralised private sector bodies instead of working with the local public health directors and giving them the resources and the powers to take charge of their local areas. you talk about decentralisation, what about local lockdown? if the r rate and the transmission rate when you are is higher than one, which is what we

have been told, why not have a local lockdown in that area? yes, i think the city that will be later, to be honest. i have been calling for that from the beginning. if we had the testing and tracing in place, we would not have it needed to lockdown the whole country. it is the neglect of public health for seven years that has put us in this position. we need to build it urgently. i have just been reading and love overnight about an area in wales where the local authority did exactly this and they would not need to be locked down. there are places in the country that should never have needed to be locked down and there are places which ought to be able to open up earlier than others, if the testing and tracing is in place at the right level and we do not have all this strange massaging of the figures, where we have tests not done but with theoretical capacity. just explain to us how you would have, for example, if you wanted it

to lockdown at manchester, how do you do that? why do you draw the boundaries for that lockdown? the cities would be very difficult. —— where do you draw the boundaries. you think about what happened in the beginning where coastal margins, lincolnshire, east anglia and other places were very late into this epidemic. they were places that it could have been it contained if the government had stood to its guns and done the contact tracing. as we ease off, i think the cities are going to be the last to come out of it, but we really need to give the resources to local directors of public health. what you can do once you get the virus level down, we do not even know what the virus levels are still in the country come in different places, once you know what it is, then you can ease off and you can go in and get on top of local outbreaks. this is what they have donein outbreaks. this is what they have done in bahrain, where i have been working, from the beginning. they have had about 15 deaths altogether.

they have done testing and tracing from the beginning, they have some outbreaks in migrant camps and they got in and sorted them out and got on top of them. we still are not on top of test and trace. all right, we have got the message, thank you. we are the time. professorjohn ashton is the former director of public health for north west england. more anti—racism rallies are expected across the uk later, after the police killing of george floyd in the united states. british protests yesterday passed off largely peacefully. but in london, 14 people were arrested after clashes with police and 14 officers were injured. metropolitan police commissioner cressida dick has said she is "deeply saddened and depressed" that the officers were injured in what she called "shocking" assaults by a minority of protesters. in the united states, there've been some of the largest demonstrations against police violence since george floyd's death in minneapolis nearly two weeks ago. in los angeles a crowd marched from hollywood to beverly hills,

at one point kneeling down for five minutes and chanting: " peaceful protest" before breaking into applause. in san francisco, demonstrators briefly shut the golden gate bridge. and an estimated 30,000 people rallied in chicago to demand police reform. more on the protests in the united states in a moment, but first, let's look at the demonstration held in london yesterday. this report is from sean dilly. black lives matter! more than 4000 miles from the scene of george floyd's death, during an encounter with white police officers in minneapolis, the cries of injustice could be no clearer in the streets of britain. black lives matter! in central london, many thousands gathered in support of black lives matter. it's been our grandfather's fight, it's been our father's fight. we don't want it to be our children's fight, and that's why we want to make sure they're a part of this as well. nojustice, no peace! police say the day passed mostly without event, but as evening approached, the mood started to turn.

many had already left when fireworks, bikes and other missiles were launched towards police lines outside downing street. officers in public order riot gear replaced those in less protective uniforms to disperse those who remained. oh, my god, the horse has bolted! a mounted police officer hit her head on a traffic light when her panicked horse bolted. by then riderless, it ran into the crowd and trampled a person. both the protester and the officer received medical treatment. the horse made its own way back to police stables. the justice for george floyd protests went ahead in heavy rain, and despite the government strongly urging people not to break social distancing rules by gathering in massed crowds. more protests will take place outside the american embassy in london later. sean dilly, bbc news. we've had a statement from cressida dick, commissioner of the metropolitan police service about the protests in the uk and the injured officers.

this led to 11! officers being injured, in addition to 13 hurt in earlier protests this week. we have made a number of arrests and justice will follow. the number of assaults is shocking and completely unacceptable. . . risking yourself, your families and officers as we continue to face this deadly virus." meanwhile, the metropolitan police federation chairman ken marsh has expressed concern that the protests were allowed to go ahead amid the coronavirus pandemic. i am not happy at all with what i saw yesterday. my brave colleagues were put in a position that they should not be put in at all. i can't for the life of me understand why the mayor

isn't decrying this, why the home secretary isn't decrying this. we are in the middle of a pandemic, unless something has happened that i am not aware of. and here we have thousands of people, and i understand fully why they want to protest, but the circumstances are so different at the moment, they should not be there and this should not have been allowed. staying with those protests, in the united states, tens of thousands of people have marched in cities across the country, on the 12th day of demonstrations sparked by the death of george floyd. from washington, our north america correspondent aleem maqbool reports. no peace! nojustice! no peace! it was the biggest demonstration in washington had seen since the killing of george floyd. but with none of the confrontation with security forces we saw previously. they sent in the national guard, there was the national guard here on the streets, they were tear gassing people, shooting them with rubber bullets, you know, really, like, perpetuating police

brutality and violence in the streets of washington, dc, and still, people are still out here and showing up. we are not afraid, we are not backing down until we see change. we are still getting arrested, we are still being pulled over, we are still being discriminated in everything in american life, so we have got to fight, not for now, but for the future. well, we may bejust outside the white house, but the sense we get through speaking to people here is that this has now gone beyond just getting a message across to donald trump. what people are telling us is that they have now really given up on him doing the right thing. instead, the focus has become on changing the system, individuals and police departments. there are huge protests in london, in paris, in berlin, in sydney, in solidarity with african americans, how does that feel to you? i have cried every day since i have been seeing protests, out ofjust purejoy, that finally, finally

the voices are being heard. at the same time as the demonstration in washington, there was a memorial service for george floyd in north carolina, close to where he was born. these images associated with this will affect all of our lives for the rest of our lives. not only did we lose a family member, but y'all watched as well. george floyd's body will now continue its finaljourney but the reverberations of his death will be felt long beyond his funeral in texas on tuesday. aleem maqbool, bbc news, in washington. the headlines on bbc news... a member of the scientific group advising the uk government says he wishes the country had gone into lockdown earlier and that not doing so has cost lives.

thousands of people across the uk have demonstrated in solidarity with anti—racism protests in the united states. there's another rally later today. and huge protests over the death of george floyd have continued in cities across america — all of them peaceful. in washington, thousands gathered in the biggest demonstrations there in 12 days. the head of the world bank has described the global economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic as a "catastrophe." speaking to the bbc, david malpass predicted the economic fallout could last for a decade and would adversely affet the world's poorest. our global trade correspondent darshini david has more. from the shutdown of factories in wuhan at the start of the air, to the closure of major tourism spots in venice and beyond, covid—19 and to be measures are taken to curb its

spread have pushed the global economy sharply into reverse and those who can least afford it are paying the heaviest price. the poor around the world are in an unequal situation. they are getting hit harder. people the poorer countries are being not only unemployed but unable to get any work, even in the informal sector, and that is going to have consequences for a decade. as countries like india grapple with the fallout, the bank says that 60 million more people around the world could find themselves with less than $1 90 per day to live on could find themselves with less than $190 per day to live on on top of the 730 million who already do so. it is one reason why there has been a push to get back to business as usual in places like rio, despite concerns about rates of infection.

joining me is sarah hewin, chief economist for europe for standard chartered bank. thank you very much for being with us. we are hearing those predictions that this is going to be a catastrophe economically for the global economy. that is what the world bank is saying, do you agree? well, we are facing the worst recession for the global economy for decades and we do not know how serious it is going to be, but we know that already it has been a huge hit economies, notjust in the west but across the emerging and developing world as well. of course, that means that huge numbers of people, millions and millions of people, millions and millions of people who are without work, many of them are without incomes and it is uncertain how quickly they are going to be back injobs and back earning again. the predictions that this global recession could last up to a decade, is that realistic? the

recession, the immediate impact on the virus has been to take all economies into a deep recession in the first half of this year. some countries, that will linger on for the coming months. i think we are seeing some signs of economies, as they pull out of lockdown, starting to turn around again. the risk is that you have lost a lot of investment, businesses may be very cautious about investing over the coming years and i think that is where the real concern lies. we were also hearing there from the world bank about their concerns about the poorest nations in the world. what should the richer nations be doing to help? the richer nations had promised, about two point troop $5 trillion of funding —— trillion of the funding, but very little has been forthcoming. there is an

immediate need for support for health care, support for finding a vaccine and making sure that is rolled out in scale, but there is also a need to support businesses that can invest and also provide funding for governments so that they can ensure that they have adequate health care, but as importantly, that they are able to sustain education and broadly rebuild their economies after this devastating hit. just in a very few seconds, of course the temptation for the richer nations will be to look after themselves, because they are going to be struggling after this virus. yes, all countries of course have really ta ke n yes, all countries of course have really ta ken a yes, all countries of course have really taken a big hit and so the focus is very much domestic, but of course, everybody stands to gain if the whole world is doing well, both in terms of the economy, trade and also importantly the environment. thank you so much for being with us.

many thanks indeed for your analysis. you are watching bbc news. now it's time for a look at the weather with ben. after the wants and such end of last weekend, this weekend has been very different. it has been called, pretty windy. we have seen some rain at times and the winds will ease through the rest of today. still some rain to come for central and eastern parts of england. quite showery in nature, best of the bright weather as we enter the date to be found across western parts. there is a your temperatures are 7pm this evening and as we head into the night, any remaining wet weather in the east will continue to fizzle away. winds will continue to ease and as the cloud breaks up across scotla nd and as the cloud breaks up across scotland and north—east england, it will turn into a rather cool at night put up some parts of scotland could see a touch of frost. not as called for parts of wales and the

south—west where we keep more cloud and the odd shower. does micro not as cold. drier than it has been through the weekend. write to for many. this area of high pressure across the azores extend its influence across the british isles, you can see this ridge in the isobars which shows that pressure is building. that would kill off much of the shower activity but i think there will still be some across eastern scotland, eastern england, maybe the odd one for northern ireland and the chance for a heavy shower or thunderstorm across wales and the south of ingrid. otherwise it is right with patchy cloud and sunny spells and damages typically between 11 and 80 degrees for dot dash back to the south of england. a bit cooler for dash back to the south of england. a bit coolerfor some of dash back to the south of england. a bit cooler for some of these coasts. increasingly cloudy conditions developing into the afternoon, small chance for a shower just about wherever you are and then later in the day, we see a frontal system approaching an offer scotland and northern ireland with some outbreaks of rain and that front is going to journey south eastwards as we head into the middle part of the week. we

are expecting an area of low pressure to develop somewhere across the british isles. for wednesday, we will teach hours or longer spells of rain. some of the rain it could be on the heavy side. equally, some drier, brighter spells, not especially windy but temperatures area especially windy but temperatures are a little disappointing for the time of year, between 12 and 16, maybe 17 degrees. the winds are set to strengthen as we head towards the end of the week for top area of low pressure still with us but it drifts a little further south and more white lines, war isobars appearing on the chart. the breeze will pick up on the chart. the breeze will pick up as we head into friday, and there will be simmering at times, particularly the south. —— some rain 00:28:42,959 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 at times.