a very warm welcome to bbc news. i'm mike embley, with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. rayshard brooks shot in the back as he fled police in atlanta, georgia. the officer who killed him is charged with murder and ten other offences. the possible sentences for a felony murder conviction would be life, life without parole, or the death penalty. as coronavirus cases rise again in china, we visit the wet markets blamed by some as the original source, and consider the latest theories. in exclusive analysis, we reveal the real global death toll from coronavirus is now over 500,000. a bombshell allegation from president trump's former national security adviser. he claims the president asked china's leader to help him win re—election.

a warning from a leading theatre producer that some of the biggest productions won't reopen in london's west end this year. a former police officer in the us state of georgia has been charged with murdering rayshard brooks, the african—american man shot twice in the back as he fled two white officers in atlanta. garrett rolfe, who was sacked from the force shortly after the killing, could face the death penalty if found guilty. he also faces ten other charges. this report from our north america correspondent nick bryant. it started out as a routine call — an african—american reported asleep in his vehicle in the car park of a fast food restaurant in atlanta, georgia. step out with me, please?

yes, sir. rayshard brooks was asked by police to take a sobriety test. then he suggested he walk to his sister's home nearby. i canjust go home. i have my daughters there right now. my daughter's birthday was yesterday. alright, mr brooks. blow, blow, blow, blow, blow. but, after he failed a breath test, the police decided to take him into custody. that is when a fight broke out in which he seized and fired one of the officers‘ tasers. stop fighting, stop fighting! you're going to get tased, you're going to get tased! during a brief chase, he pointed the taser at the officer, who responded by fatally shooting him in the back. tonight, prosecutors revealed shocking new details that garrett rolfe, the officer who killed rayshard brooks, had kicked him on the floor afterwards, and the other officer, devon brosnan, stood on his shoulders. neither offered any medical help for two minutes.

in announcing a felony murder charge against 0fficer rolfe, georgia's attorney—general showed a photograph of that kick, and stressed rayshard brooks did not pose a serious threat that justified the use of lethal force. the demeanour of the officers immediately after the shooting did not reflect any fear or danger of mr brooks, but their actions really reflected other kinds of emotions. faced with such massive and multiracial black lives matter protests, prosecutors are moving more swiftly to bring charges. what makes this case so especially alarming is that, even at a time of heightened racial tensions, a white police officer thought he could shoot an african—american in the back and then kick him on the ground afterwards. it will increase the already urgent demands for a major overhaul of american policing. nick bryant, bbc news, new york. tomika miller, widow of rayshard brooks, has been

speaking about how she felt hearing details of what happened to her husband. i was very hurt. i didn't imagine being there, because i don't know what i would have done if i had have seen that for myself. but i felt everything that he felt, just by hearing what he went through. and it hurt — it hurt really bad. at least 8 million people around the world have now been infected with coronavirus. almost 500,000 have died. millions in beijing are now living under renewed restrictions because of a spike in virus cases. 0ur correpondentjohn sudworth looks at the latest origin theories, and what is next for the authorities in beijing. wuhan — ground zero. a city of 11 million people, through the streets of which an unseen, silent killer took its first steps late last year, and where the cemeteries hold the first to fall victim

to its deadly effects. but, six months on, the origin of this virus is still unclear. most scientists believe china's wet markets should be the focus. the virus, known to come initially from bats, was likely passed to humans, they say, via another species. do people in wuhan eat wildlife? "we don't have customs like that", he says. across town though, this market, connected to some of the first virus cases, has been closed. wild animals were traded here, but the testing of samples has now ruled it out as the source. but there is another theory. for more than a decade, wuhan has been at the forefront of a major project to collect bat viruses from remote chinese caves.

as a result, there are few buildings in the world surrounded by as much controversy as this one right now, at the centre of the us president's accusation that the virus leaked from a lab. inside, researchers have been studying coronaviruses, and sometimes genetically altering them, to better understand, they say, how pandemics might arise. well, the lab leak theory is dismissed by the chinese government and by some scientists as an outlandish conspiracy. we are told to stop filming. 0n state tv, the lab has dismissed the allegations of a leak. translation: this is pure fabrication. we first received the sample on 30 december. before that, we didn't even know it existed. how could it have leaked from our lab, when we never had it?

scientists have looked at the structure of the virus itself, in particular its protein spikes, which are unusually good for a coronavirus of this type at binding to human cells. this analysis by five experts in the field finds that it was not purposefully manipulated. we do not believe that any type of laboratory—based scenario is plausible, it says, a conclusion now widely accepted. to deny a possibility, when a scientist should always keep an open mind... but some scientists say it is flawed, and based in part on accepting the labs denials. one of those possibilities has to be that this came out ofa lab. you know, it's a possibility. we can't say it's not. and for my colleagues to say it's not, i'm a bit astounded, because you can't say a negative, and certainly

nobody‘s proved a negative here. china has been developing an origin theory of its own, with state media and officials suggesting it may have come from elsewhere. it is an idea gaining traction in wuhan. "it came from the us", this man says. "they've tested the sequences. the us had it first." liu 0uqing, a former communist party official, died of coronavirus injanuary. 0n the banks of wuhan‘s east lake, i meet his son, liu pei'en. he is angry at china's handling of the outbreak, but says calls for an international inquiry offer little hope. translation: if china or the us investigate, the final result will come from a group of politicians. it will be a report infected by politics. the origin of the virus is now meaningless to me.

with wu han‘s lockdown receding into memory, the limits of science and the demands of politics may mean the biggest question is never answered — where did the virus come from? john sudworth, bbc news, wuhan. official figures show more than 400,000 people have died because of virus, but what is the real number? how many people died because they couldn't get treatment for other illnesses? a bbc investigation has looked at 27 different countries and has found that the total number of deaths caused by the virus, both directly and indirectly, is much higher than has been reported. this report by sofia bettiza starts in indonesia. a father buries his youngest son, a mother distraught. three—year—old rafa did not have coronavirus, but his parents say he died because of it.

he had leukaemia. when his condition got worse, his parents raced to hospital. translation: it was around midnight. the hospital said he would need to be tested for covid—i9 before he could be admitted anywhere. another hospital told us there wasn't a children's doctor on duty, and the quick covid tests they had were only being used for pregnant women. rafa's parents drove him to three more hospitals that night, with no success. the next day, they eventually found a hospital that would accept him, but he died before doctors could see him. translation: i still believe that, if my son was given prompt treatment, he would still be alive, but he was turned away and tossed from one hospital to another. i could do nothing.

rafa is one of tens of thousands of people whose deaths are not officially counted as being caused by coronavirus, but are still victims of this pandemic. since the outbreak of the virus, lots of countries are recording more deaths than usual. you can see a bump in the graph here. these are called excess deaths. now, many of these have officially been linked to coronavirus, as you can see here in red, but that still leaves a huge number of lives lost which are not accounted for in the covid statistics. the italian region of lombardy saw more than double the number of deaths expected. one of them was luca's mother. luciana had pancreatic cancer. when she tested positive for covid—i9, her chemotherapy was stopped immediately. but, when she got better, her

treatment was never resumed. translation: yes, i believe so, because her doctors said everything was under control, as the cancer hadn't spread to her liver. my mum was optimistic. we made plans for the future. but the virus accelerated her death. she could have been with me for many more months, or even years. in brazil, a similar story of grief. translation: my mother was a warrior who fought for her children all her life. andreia says that after her mum had a stroke, the hospital discharged her too soon, because they needed to free up beds for covid patients.

a few days after she came back home, her heart suddenly stopped beating. translation: my sister tried to beat her chest, but it didn't work. at the hospital, she would have been revived. she did not die from the disease, but she died because of the disease. and so many other people are dying in brazil and in the world, but they are not counting. it's scary, it's scary. professor ben cowling is head of epidemiology and biostatistics at the university of hong kong. professor, i know you also work with the world health 0rganization. thank you for talking to us. could you justify this concept of excess deaths, and what is the point, what is the benefit, in measuring them? so at this time last year there were a certain number of people dying at different places around the world. right now, there is more than that happening. some of it

is because of covid. some of those covid deaths are recorded as covid deaths, others are maybe not, and then there is additional impact, as you heard in the reportjust now. people with heart attacks, people with cancer, people with other conditions, that couldn't get treated properly because of covid. so it sounds as if, u nless we covid. so it sounds as if, unless we know the actual number of excess deaths, we can't really trust any official figures for the pandemic. certainly the official case cou nts certainly the official case counts of covid deaths will be an underestimate of the impact, and also, i mean, so farwe're just talking about the acute impact. i think there is going to be more easels, there's going to be more cancer deaths in the coming year, there's going to be lots of other knock—on effect that we haven't yet seen. how do you see these figures varying across the globe? in some parts of the world, where there is a lot of testing done, the uk, europe, us, ithink testing done, the uk, europe, us, i think the confirmed covid deaths will be a reasonably good representation of how many people have actually died from covid, but in other parts of the world we could see a big discrepancy. where there is a lot of excess deaths and very

few confirmed deaths, and we suspect that a lot of those access deaths are actually covid deaths. can that be fixed? covid deaths. can that be fixed ? can covid deaths. can that be fixed? can governments be forced to take into account the real numbers? i mean, ithink we will get a full accounting of the impact of covid in due course, but when there is not... sorry, when there is not a lot of testing being done, it is difficult to encourage governments to test the fatal cases, because they have got other priorities for their testing. you are very clear, are you, that tracking excess deaths would inform governments better about how to deal with such a pandemic? yes, definitely. i think it is really, really important. i think it is something we should be doing. i am glad the bbc has been looking at this. professor, thank you very much indeed. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: a warning from a leading theatre producer that some of the biggest productions won't reopen in london's west end this year.

there was a bomb in the city centre. a code word known to be one used by the ira was given. army bomb experts were examining a suspect van when there was a huge explosion. the south african parliament has destroyed the foundation of apartheid by abolishing the population registration act, which for 40 years, forcibly classified each citizen according to race. just a day old, and the royal baby is tonight sleeping in his cot at home. early this evening, the new prince was taken by his mother and father to their apartments in kensington palace. germany's parliament, the bundestag, has voted by a narrow majority to move the seat of government from bonn to berlin. berliners celebrated into the night, but the decision was greeted with shock in bonn. the real focus of attention today was valentina tereshkova, the world's first woman cosmonaut. what do you think of

the russian woman in space? i think it's a wonderful achievement and i think we might be able to persuade the wife it would be a good idea if i could to get her to go up there for a little while. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: a white police officer who fatally shot an african—american man in the state of georgia has been charged with murder. as a new outbreak sweeps through beijing, china's capital is being placed under another lockdown. donald trump tried to get china's leader, xijinping, to help him secure re—election, according to the president's former national security adviserjohn bolton in a new book. john bolton says mr trump pleaded with the chinese leader to buy more agricultural produce from american farmers. the trump administration is trying to prevent publication of the book, saying it contains classified information which will threaten national security. we can speak to amanda sloat, senior fellow in the center

on the united states and europe at the brookings institution. thank you for your time. you have to wonder whether there is a kind of fatigue around revelations about the president, whether this will really have that much impact. it certainly has been a long 3.5 years here in washington, and every day seems to be filled with new surprises. certainly for people that have been longtime opponents of the president, the group of never trump republicans, i don't think these surprises are anything new, and in many ways they end up confirming people's worst fears. i think the biggest challenge politically is going to be the president —— to the president's campaign message that he is tougher on china than vice presidentjoe biden has been, as these revelations show that that simply is not the case. john bolton does suggest that the president was pleading with the chinese leader. it does, it does, and the allegations are very similar to the types of things that we saw in the

ukraine case, which is the president seeking to manipulate foreign leaders to do things foreign leaders to do things for his own domestic political benefit. and in fact, there is also information on the book about ukraine that essentially validates the charges that were brought against the president during the impeachment hearing on ukraine. and yet it is surely that unusual, is it, for the united states president or any national leader to take foreign policy decisions that might help them get re—elected. i think this was pretty unprecedented. trump certainly was negotiating with the chinese to reach some sort of trade agreement, so wanting to negotiate for an agreement that would benefit the entire country is one thing, but in these cases, we have seen the president seek to encourage foreign leaders to take very specific actions that would benefit him politically. in the ukrainian case it was investigating debt on his democratic rivals, and in china, it is making purchases infarm china, it is making purchases in farm states that would benefit his re—election

campaign. soi benefit his re—election campaign. so i think that is a very different situation. it is a claim raising a lot of eyebrows, as well, that allegedly the president said to the chinese leader it was the right thing to do to detain about i right thing to do to detain abouti million right thing to do to detain about i million uighur muslims and other minorities in these detention camps for indoctrination, re—education and punishment. morally and in human rights terms that seems very questionable. absolutely. i think that revelation has been devastating here in washington, and ironically is coming on the same day that the president signed into law legislation coming out of congress to and deal with some of these uighur and human rights issues. secretary of state pompeo had been out calling this situation a stain on the conscience, using very strong language, and so the fa ct strong language, and so the fact the president was saying thatis fact the president was saying that is not only despicable in this particular case, but also significant the undermines the voice of the united states on human rights issues. thank you very much. thank you.

let's get some of the day's other news: angela merkel has announced that germany will extend a ban on large—scale events until at least the end of october. the move is part of efforts to try to avoid a new wave of coronavirus infections. ms merkel urged people to remain cautious and maintain social distancing. anti—racism campaigners appear to have won their fight to get a statue of the colonialist cecil rhodes removed from a college at oxford university. the governing body of 0riel college has voted in favour of taking it down. the monument has been the focus of a long—running campaign. the united states has pulled out of international talks aimed at finding a fair way to tax digital giants such as google, apple, facebook and amazon. the move increases the chances of washington imposing new tariffs on countries that were considering digital services taxes, including the uk. president trump has signed into law a congressional act that authorises sanctions against chinese officials over the mass incarceration of minority uighur muslims in china's xinjiang province. but the signing happened asjohn bolton's new book

alleged that mr trump told xi jinping that he approved of the vast uighur detention camps, and said that building them was exactly the right thing to do. one of the world's most successful figures in theatre, sir cameron mackintosh, the producer behind les miserables, mary poppins and hamilton, has said his productions will not return to the london west end this year. sir cameron said the decision was taken because of uncertainty about when the government would withdraw social distancing measures. 0ur arts correspondent david sillito considers what this means for theatres across the uk. # i love him, but when the night is over...# the lockdown may be lifting in some areas, but theatres are staying closed. so, too, the pubs and restaurants that depend on them. theatreland is a ghost town, and tough decisions are being made. les miserables, mary poppins, hamilton, phantom of the opera —

cameron mackintosh is the biggest name in british theatre, and he is considering laying off all his employees. and you can be certain that others will follow. the issue — thejob retention scheme that's kept these venues afloat is due to end in october, and the theatres will still be closed. what happens between the moment it winds down or disappears, and the moment that we can perform with revenue? and that is not possible while social distancing is in place. we don't think that will be possible until spring next year, very possibly. it will be a while before we see this again live. tamara rojo is part of the creative industries federation, which is today warning that 400,000 jobs in the cultural and creative sector are at risk. and some of the most vulnerable are here, the smaller venues in places like east anglia. if social distancing remains in place, and we aren't able

to, as a collective of venues, regain our full—scale operation, 50% of those venues currently say they will have to close permanently beyond i april. and at the sharp end are people like anna. everything has stopped. we can't plan. we're just sitting tight. and there's something about the solidarity of us all being in it together which means that perhaps we're not panicking in quite the way that we should. yeah. theatreland — it's only a part of our creative economy, but it's a vital part, and it's going dark. david sillito, bbc news. just for a moment, something fairly different, what is believed to be the world's largest reptile egg. a foot full—sized fossil 68 million yea rs full—sized fossil 68 million years old, it is thought. researchers believe it probably belonged to a giant sea reptile that lived alongside dinosaurs.

the soft shelled egg was discovered in antarctica nearly a decade ago, but for years scientists couldn't identify the fossil, so again, of course, a very sci—fi nickname thing. it was suggested the thing. it was suggested recently it may in fact be a deflated egg. and another piece of history, a letter written by vincent van gogh and paul gaugin toa vincent van gogh and paul gaugin to a friend has sold at auction. in it they describe living and working together in a french city in 1888. they also outline their visits to the city's brothels, all, it seems, in the interest of art. the letter will go on display at the van gogh museum in amsterdam later this year. just briefly, that main news, a former police officer in the us state of georgia has been charged with murdering raychard brooks in atlanta. he has been sacked from the force and faces

ten other charges. that's it for now. thank you so much for watching. hello there. it's been a very thundery week so far across the country, thanks to the warmth and the humidity. and the next few days also looks like we'll see more downpours. now, wednesday we saw some pretty intense thunderstorms across parts of england. this lightning strike was captured on one of our weather watchers in leicestershire there. we also had some slow—moving downpours which gave rise to lots of rainfall fall in a short space of time, giving rise to some surface water flooding. some subtle changes to thursday morning. we've got an area of more persistent rain which has been moving out to the near continent, and will push in to the midlands and south—east england to start thursday morning. it will be a muggy start for most, and we'll have further low cloud, mist and murk across some north sea coasts.

now, as we move through the course of today, it looks like that area of rain, some heavy bursts in it, will tend to move its way into northwards, into northern england, parts of wales. much of scotland and northern ireland should see a fine day with some sunshine, bar the odd heavy shower towards the south. but its southern wales and into central and southern england into the afternoon where we could see these further slow—moving, thundery downpours developing. these could be really heavy again, give rise to some flash flooding, and a lot of rainfall in a short space of time. now, it's going to be another warm and muggy day for most. temperatures reaching highs of 21 or 22 degrees, but always cooler along the north sea coast. so these thunderstorms across the south of the country, through the afternoon could cause some issues. stay tuned to your local radio, and to the latest weather forecast. as we move through thursday night, it looks like the thunderstorms will ease across the south. that rain will push its way westwards to parts of scotland and northern ireland by the end of the night, and we'll have quite a bit of low cloud, mist and murk across the northern

and eastern areas, so another muggy night to come. friday, quite a messy picture. looks like we'll start off with that rain across the west, a lot of cloud around, but sunshine will break through into the afternoon. that will spark off some heavy, thundery downpours, this time central northern and eastern areas perhaps look more favoured. again, it's going to be another warm and muggy day for most. then we see some big changes into the weekend. we lose the humidity and the thunderstorms into the continent, and this area of low pressure will sweep in to bring stronger winds across the board, also a band of rain which will move through saturday night into sunday. so windier, fresher conditions this weekend, with some rain at times. there'll also be some sunshine too.

this is bbc news, the headlines: a former police officer in the us state of georgia has been charged with murdering rayshard brooks, the african—american man shot twice in the back as he fled two white officers in atlanta. garrett rolfe has been sacked from the force. he faces ten other charges. after nearly two months with no coronavirus infections, the chinese capital is under another lockdown. restrictions on movements have been re—introduced in beijing, to try to contain a new outbreak which emerged a week ago. in a new book, donald trump's former national security adviser claims the president tried to get china's leader to help secure his re—election. john bolton also claims mr trump told xi jinping it was the right thing to do for china to detain about a million uighur muslims and other minorities in camps in xinjiang for punishment and indoctrination. the white house is trying to stop publication of the book.