welcome to bbc news, i'm lewis vaughan jones. our top stories: virus deaths surge in brazil. it now has the second—highest toll in the world. fears of a second wave of infections start to rise as cases increase in china and india. britain's central bank says it is ready to act after figures show the country's economy shrank by a fifth. an easy life for the army's horses. why they won't be on parade for queen elizabeth's official birthday on saturday.

hello and welcome to bbc news. brazil has overtaken the uk to become the country with the second—highest number of coronavirus deaths. only the us has recorded more. the total number of deaths in brazil now stands at 41,828. the world health organization says the situation is concerning, with some intensive care units close to reaching capacity. katy watson sent this report from sao paolo. siren. another covid call—out in brazil's biggest city, and the epicentre of the pandemic. the traffic is lighter these days because of quarantine, but this is still a city of 22 million, and the roads are as bad as ever. the team is attending a woman in her 90s with covid—19. 70% of their callouts are now related to the virus. she had been unconscious and struggling to breathe, so the family made the call. in these uncertain times, people just don't know if this

might be the final goodbye. the patients who make it to hospital are, in a sense, the lucky ones. the team says three times as many people are dying at home compared to life before the pandemic. translation: when the pandemic started, all we were doing was registering deaths at home. people went to sleep and never woke up. they didn't even have a chance. putting on protective gear and the continuous cleaning of their ambulance slows them down, but they're not taking any risks. a colleague many in the force looked up to passed away from covid—i9 in april. they know many won't survive this pandemic. in this poor neighbourhood in eastern sao paulo,

one of the worst—hit areas of the city, the virus is all too visible. antonio and kelly are two of the faces behind the numbers — dad and daughter. they lived together, and last week died together. admitted to hospital the same day, together in intensive care, then passed away within a day of each other. "we think he knew", says marcos, his grandson. "he told us he'd rather die than bury his daughter." while the family mourns antonio and kelly, cities like sao paulo and rio are starting to reopen. this despite the ever—rising death toll. brazil has hit yet another grim milestone. but these deaths aren't serving as a wake—up call — far from it. jair bolsonaro continues to downplay the virus, and for a man who has never respected social distancing or isolation, ironically,

he is becoming more and more isolated every single day. francis also feels isolated. he has not hugged his son artur for more than two months, such is his fear of passing the virus on. this has to make do, for now. as various countries around the world gradually ease coronavirus lockdown restrictions, fears over a potential resurgence in cases have intensified. that is after several countries which had started to allow greater freedom of movement started to see the number of infections rise, prompting authorities to reimpose some restrictions. rich preston has this report. in china, where the coronavirus was first officially reported last december, authorities have closed down six markets in the capital, beijing, after new cases were reported

for a second day running. the first reported cases in the capital for nearly two months. translation: i am a little worried, because this has happened somewhere very close to me. translation: i'm slightly worried, but if we carry out proper prevention during this outbreak, then things shouldn't be too bad. officials say restaurants which may have received food from the markets will be inspected, and plans to reopen schools in beijing have been put on hold. india has seen record daily increases in cases after relaxing lockdown measures this week in an effort to boost the economy. hospitals are struggling to cope. critical care for the very sickest patients is particularly hard to come by. the number of coronavirus cases have doubled in recent weeks, and is still surging. south korea, which was widely praised for its relatively successful containment of coronavirus, is indefinitely extending new preventative measures until the daily number of new cases drops

to single digits. when students in the capital, seoul, started to return to school last month, authorities quickly shut some of them back down after a sudden rise in infections. officials say they are extending strict sanitation guidelines. translation: these guidelines are aimed at cutting the number of infections in seoul, while minimising damage to schools and business. and in russia, which has the third—highest infection rate in the world, there are fears that lockdown restrictions have been lifted too early. restrictions were eased this week, ending six weeks of lockdown. president putin says people can go back to work as of tuesday. but with the increased movement of people has come a rise in the number of daily infections. it is five months since the first reported death of a man from a mysterious new disease in central china. since then, coronavirus has spread across the world, killing hundreds of thousands of people and changing the way society functions. as many hope to see things

return to some semblance of normality as soon as possible, this news out of china, india and russia may pour cold water over that, and prove a stark warning to governments everywhere that easing lockdown restrictions can't be a one—way street. here in the uk, the devastating economic impact of coronavirus lockdown is becoming clear. the economy just suffered its biggest ever monthly drop. gdp fell more than 20% in april. it is three times bigger than the fall during the whole of the 2008—2009 financial crisis 12 years ago. in the last 24—hour period, the number of virus related deaths reported in the uk was 202. that takes the overall figure up that takes the overall figure up to nearly 41,500. our economics editor faisal islam explains. a massive hit to the economy is no surprise when streets are silent, shops are closed,

factories idle, and tens of billions of sales don't happen because they cannot. but such a slump on this scale in one month isn'tjust a record. it was unimaginable, and way beyond any normal scale. marwell zoo one example of a leisure attraction whose shutdown during this pandemic is seen in these numbers. april had easter this year, so we were expecting about 70,000 guests to come here to marwell to enjoy the zoo, and in the end we got nobody at all. so, whilst we were expecting about £1.8 million in terms of visitor income for the month, we didn't receive anything at all. so disastrous, really, april, for us. in april, the first full month of lockdown, the economy fell by just over 20%, losing a fifth of its total value. it means, since the pandemic and lockdown began in march, the uk economy has lost a quarter of its value. that is the cliff in this chart, making the financial crisis in 2008 resemble a small blip.

the question — where do things go from here? for a dynamic, creative economy, we depend so much on human contact. we have been very badly hit by this, but we're also amazingly resilient and creative. we will bounce back. there was a report that came out a couple of days ago from the oecd, that group of industrialised nations, and it suggested that the drop in gdp for this year for the uk would actually be worse than for every other industrialised nation. so we're in a very, very difficult situation as a country. in oxfordshire, an airfield with tens of millions worth of vehicles waiting for the showrooms to sell again, and in turn meaning the car factories will be far from full tilt. so this is what those grim numbers look like in reality. up and down the country, storage areas, airfields, ports, full of unsold cars. in april, a 99.7% fall in car sales. the challenge now, as lockdown

just starts to ease, is will it actually return to normal? will these cars actually sell, or is the economy fundamentally damaged? in germany, they funded thousands of euros for new purchases of green cars and slashed vat as part of a massive second rescue package. here, more support on its way, signalled by the bank of england. we have to be, you know, ready and ready to take action, not just the bank of england, but more broadly on what we can do to offset those longer—term damaging effects. for the moment, the government is focusing on a gradual reopening, for example, of the housing market. we're just starting to recover. i do believe it will take at least until the end of the year to come close, whether we'll even get there. but i feel positive that there is enough people who want to move, and if there's enough people who want to move, then people

will sell and people will buy. and there is much lost ground to make up in gyms, too, with the added challenge of whether people will use gyms in a new normal. the fitness sector has proved before that it is particularly resilient in a recession, and i think we will benefit greatly from the tailwind provided by the pandemic, actually. we've never seen a weaker month, the economy far from fighting fit. the question — just how long the process of rehabilitation will take. faisal islam, bbc news. let's get some of the day's other news: protestors have clashed with police in lebanon for a second night, furious at the economic plight of the country, where the currency has crashed. demonstrators in the capital, beirut, and in the northern city of tripoli threw stones and fireworks at police, who used tear gas and rubber bullets. the lebanese pound, which has plunged 70% since october, held steady on friday after an emergency cabinet meeting. the government in chile has expanded its mandatory quarantine to include two more cities. the army has drafted in reinforcements to help enforce the coronavirus lockdown. 222 deaths have been recorded over the past 2a hours, the worst daily figures so far.

france says the decision by the united states to impose sanctions on some employees of the international criminal court is an attack on countries that established the icc. the french foreign minister has called on the united states to withdraw the measures. in seattle, protesters have set up a police—free area of the city. they are calling it an autonomous zone across four blocks of the city. president trump has threatened to end the demonstrations with military force. the governor there says the president should stay out of the state's business. there are still growing calls for police reforms across the us in the wake of george floyd's death. jane o'brien has more. woman: black lives matter! the capitol hill autonomous zone, or chaz, as seattle's

artsy neighbourhood has been rechristened, has the vibe of a block party according to the city's mayor. there is a "no cop co—op" offering free food and other supplies, and shrines to george floyd, whose death in minneapolis at the hands of a white police officer sparked global protests and reenergised the black lives matter movement. but seattle's police chief, in a video to her department, painted a darker picture of general lawlessness. leaving the precinct was not my decision. we fought for days to protect it. i asked you to stand on that line, day in and day out, to be pelted with projectiles, to be screamed at, threatened, and in some cases hurt. then, to have a change of course nearly two weeks in, it seems like an insult to you and our community. president trump has told mayorjenny durkan to take back the city, tweeting "if you don't, i will."

she said his threats were unwelcome, and any such action would be illegal. but, in an interview with fox news, he renewed his criticism. i saw her break down, i saw her leave, i saw her have absolutely no control, and i saw her make a lot of bad decisions, including don't do anything that's going to affect anybody. toughness sometimes is the most compassionate. protesters say they have no intention of leaving, and are reportedly limiting access to the area. i would love to see the seattle police department be turned into a youth centre. what happens when no—one's here and theyjust clear the road and then it goes back to normal? and it defeats the purpose, and they win, they can come back and get into the precinct that theyjust closed down. you know, we want it to stay closed down forever, so we're going to stand out here forever. supporters call the protesters patriots. critics, including the president, say they

are anarchists and terrorists, language that shows just how divided america remains over police reform, and how to achieve it. the governor of new york, andrew cuomo, has signed an executive order requiring hundreds of the state's police departments to implement reforms. phillip hamilton is a lawyer and legal analyst who has taken civil and criminal cases against the new york police department. he explained the possible impact of the reforms. it will have a significant impact. as you noted, as of at least yesterday those records with respects to a lot of corrections officers police officers and the like were essentially secret. they were unable to be accessed by the public at large, by the press, the by those who would otherwise wish to hold police accountable. it was difficult to get into the records when we spoke about some of the officers who had allegations of misconduct were substantiated, or excessive force that were substantiated, and some of the underlying issues, it was difficult in new york to figure out who the bad officers

were on who the good ones were. just on that. what about the argument that these need to be kept restricted, not completely private but they need to be restricted to protect from matters of privacy, due process? i mean, no different than a lot of the other records which protect city government employees. personal information will never be released, with respect to their phone numbers home address, personal information such as that. however, with to respect to disciplinary findings and issues they have had on the job, that is separate from personal information and that is what the governor has now allow the public to have access to. not the personal information of an individual officer. talk to us about the money, this idea of buying finances to reforms. the saying money talks, i think in that respect

that's what the governor was aiming for with this new legislation enacted today. police departments in the united states and particularly new york are funded by local government that then subsidised by the larger coffer, the state government. so what the governor was saying in these reforms is that if your local municipality once additional police funding to keep your community safe then that needs to be done with effective police activity, you need to fall in line with pharaoh policing and just policing and things along those lines. outside of that, the state will hold back funds and that makes it more difficult to police. this is about fairness accountability and better policing moving forward so that we in the states do not have the issues to what the world has seen over the course of the last two weeks. our thanks to philip hamilton

there. you're watching bbc news. a reminder of our mian story this hour. brazil has overtaken the uk to become the country with the second—highest number of coronavirus deaths. only the us has recorded a higher toll. let's get more on that. marcia castro is a professor of demography at the department of global health and population at harvard university. she joins us from boston. thanks for coming on the programme. thanks for having me. so what is going wrong in brazil right now? well, let me first start by saying brazil could have provided a lesson to the world on how to respond to a pandemic by using its universal health system and by using one of the largest networks of primary care in the world, however what we see is very different and i want to raise two issues that i think helps us to understand what's going on. so the first one is brazil has a leadership that downplay the importance of the

virus, is against any form of social distancing on the grounds of preventing economic loss, and ignores scientific evidence. this brings challenges to mayors and governors who adopt responses not favoured by the president and suffered a loss of pressure from business groups that are concerned with financial losses. and it also makes almost impossible to achieve full compliance of the population to those measures as supporters of the president concur with his message. the second thing is, by not leveraging its health system, the country failed to guide local health officials on how to engage community health workers to conduct active search but above all to do contact tracing. most importantly, the country failed to provide locally adapted responses. one response that addresses inequalities and inequality is extremely high in

brazil stop so it's really hard to imagine how social distancing measures can work in brazil without being locally adapted to the levels of informal labour, poor housing, people that don't have access to water, and the very low supply of physicians and hospital beds in some localities. 0k, hospital beds in some localities. ok, so given that, things like social distancing, actually very difficult in some of those very poor areas of brazil, given where we are right now, what would you like to see happen to try to turn this around? so some places we re this around? so some places were able to have some socially distance measures, but i think every single city had three types of population, the ones that were following the recommendations, they understand that they are based on evidence, on science, there was a group that wanted to

follow the recommendations but they are the most vulnerable and they cannot stop working, they have to provide food for they have to provide food for the houses. and then as a third group, unfortunately, those are the ones that choose not to follow the recommendations and we saw many different times of people just gathering on the streets to support the president and when this happened in the capital of the country, the president would join the crowd, shake hands, not wear a mask, and basically violate all the recommendations. what we're really missing is, for example, testing. brazil is not testing enough stop in effect, we have a very large number of the respiratory syndrome, the acute respiratory syndrome, the acute respiratory syndrome, the acute respiratory syndrome that are not related to covid but way above what we would expect at this time of the year. so most likely some of those cases are most likely covid. and we're not doing contact tracing. so if we can't identify the cases

immediately when they happen, when people have symptoms, and you do this with good surveillance and, again, the primary care, community health workers could help, and if you don't do contact tracing to stop more people being infected from this one infection, then, imean, from this one infection, then, i mean, even with social distancing you are not going to be able to basically flatten the curve as much as you should to avoid them you know, the hospitals that we are seeing. 0k, hospitals that we are seeing. ok, we have delivered there. thank you very much professor, thatis thank you very much professor, that is marcia castro. you are very welcome. queen elizabeth's official birthday celebrations this weekend will look different, because of the coronavirus outbreak. instead of the usual fly—past at buckingham palace, there's going to be a smaller ceremony at windsor castle. our royal correspondent sarah campbell reports. pulling the first world war guns into position. in normal times, state and ceremonial occasions are punctuated by the king's troop, but with all such events cancelled since march,

most of the regiment‘s horses have been enjoying a quieter life, locked down in leicestershire. the decision has been taken to get them back to the barracks. one of the first to return is ten—year—old equinox. he has just been eating grass and chilling out. he needs to do some exercise. in common with many others, he needs a haircut. we take off the manes off for safety reasons because when they are in harness it can get entangled. back to work means getting the correct footwear. hundreds of hours of practice would have been put in to make sure no mistakes are made on parade, not least because the commander—in—chief, the queen, will be watching. for new recruits like emma it is disappointing to be missing out this year. she joined the unit just

as lockdown began and has stayed on—site throughout. it has been different because we are used to having so many more horses here so i am looking forward when it goes back to normal to experience what it is really like with the shows and parades, so i am itching to do all of that. at the barracks they are champing at the bit to get back on parade. with humans and horses getting ready to resume normal duties as soon as it is safe to do so. there's been a baby boom at a palestinian zoo, which staff are attributing to the recent lack of visitors. 15 animals were born in the west bank zoo during the two months it was shut down due to covid—i9. that's three times more than usual. staff say the lack of excursions by school children provided a more comfortable environment for some animals to breed. the zoo says it missed out on around 200,000 visitors

during lockdown, but have started to see people return since it was reopened late last month. a reminder of our top story. brazil has overtaken the uk to become the country with the second highest number of coronavirus deaths — only the us has recorded more. the total number of deaths in brazil now stands at 41,828. the world health organization says the situation is concerning — with some intensive care units close to reaching capacity. that is it from me. i will be back with the headlines in a moment. you can reach me on twitter. i'm @lvaughanjones. i'm lewis vaughan jones i'm lewis vaughanjones and you are watching bbc news. bye—bye.

hello. there are some big thunderstorms in the forecast for this weekend. but it is not going to be raining everywhere all the time, in fact, there will be some sunny spells. in any sunshine, it will feel quite warm and pretty humid. but some thundery downpours are likely, all driven by an area of low pressure. you can see this swirl of cloud on the satellite picture. our area of low pressure has been spinning around across the bay of biscay. it's been throwing lumps of cloud and rain in our direction, a process which continues on through saturday. we can follow the different lumps of wet weather. this area of rain moving across northeast england through the morning and then up into scotland. i think it's going to stay quite grey and murky for some of these northern and eastern coasts. northern ireland should brighten up a little bit with some sunshine, but some showers. and then down across england and wales, we will see some sunny spells developing, but some very heavy downpours and thunderstorms breaking out here. a more persistent area of wet weather likely to push

towards the southwest of england as we head through the afternoon. and then you can see these scattered downpours and thunderstorms across parts of the midlands, wales and up into northwest england particularly. but it will be warm temperatures there for liverpool, for example, 23 degrees. the odd shower for northern ireland and some outbreaks of rain continuing across some parts of scotland, although i think northwest scotland will see a decent amount of sunshine. northeast scotland holding onto some of that coastal cloud, mist and murk. so, as we go into saturday night, we continue to push our various lumps of wet weather northwards and westwards across the british isles. there will be some clear spells, equally, some fog patches, i think it's likely to stay very murky for some of those eastern coasts of scotland and england. but a very mild night. temperatures as we start sunday morning between 11—14 degrees. then for sunday, well, really, it is more of the same. a lot of the cloud for these eastern and northern parts. elsewhere, some spells of sunshine, yes, but a scattering of showers, they will be quite hit and miss, but where they do prop up, they could well be heavy with some hail and thunder thrown

in for good measure. and it's another warm day as well with temperatures widely 21—24 degrees. a little bit cooler though where we keep the cloud close to some of those north sea coasts. now, our area of low pressure will still be with us as we head into monday, but it does weaken. it becomes quite flabby. not many white lines on the chart, you'll notice. not many isobars, so not much of a wind, but any showers that do crop up will be heavy and slow moving. and it stays unsettled, showery and rather humid throughout next week.

this is bbc news. the headlines: brazil has now recorded the second—highest number of deaths from covid—i9 of any country. president jair bolsonaro has consistently downplayed the severity of the crisis. some densely populated cities have begun lifting restrictions, even though many brazilians fear the worst of the epidemic is yet to come. there are growing fears in several countries of a possible second wave of covid—i9 infections. beijing has shut down six wholesale food markets after new cases were reported for a second day running. india, which opened up this week, has seen record daily increases in cases. britain's central bank says that it is ready to take action to help the country's economy to recover after official figures showed that output shrank by a record 20% in april. the effect of the anti—virus lockdown is already far bigger than that of the 2008 global financial crisis. you're up to date

with the headlines.