this is bbc news, with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. i'm james reynolds. the un says millions more children in yemen will suffer malnourishment unless it makes up a shortfall in aid caused by the covid—19 pandemic. texas and florida reimpose restrictions after a record number of americans are diagnosed with coronavirus in a day. mexico city's chief of police survives an assassination attempt, but three others die in a shooting blamed on a drugs gang. indonesian fisherman defy government orders to rescue dozens of rohingya refugees stuck at sea.

there's a stark warning that millions of children in yemen could be pushed to ‘the brink of starvation‘ unless international aid is dramatically stepped up. it comes from unicef, the united nations children's organisation. the country faces the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with the covid—19 pandemic compounding the effect of five years of civil war. houthi rebels backed by iran have been fighting yemen's government, itself backed by a saudi—led coalition which is supported by the us and the uk. two million of yemen's children are malnourished, and 1.7 million have been forced to flee their homes. with only half of the country's health facilities in operation, one child dies every ten minutes from a preventable disease. our middle east editorjeremy bowen sent this report, and i must warn you, there are distressing images right from the start.

selwa al—odabei is five, the same age as the war. selwa has cerebral atrophy — brain damage caused by malnutrition she's had since she was two months old. the vicious mixture that is destroying yemen is killing her. a man—made war, man—made hunger, and the coronavirus pandemic‘s grip on a broken country. selwa's parents are among the two million yemenis who have been forced to flee their homes because of the war. herfather, ibrahim, says they can't pay for any more medical treatment. selwa is not the only one. unicef says malnutrition has caused permanent mental

and physical damage to 45% of yemen's under—fives. this is aden — better supplied than most parts of yemen, but still living on the edge. there is food, if you can pay — many cannot. it's 20% more expensive than a fortnight ago, because the currency has crashed. yemen is an easy target for the virus. its citizens‘ immune systems are exhausted, their healthcare system is 50% destroyed by the war. some provinces have two hospital beds for every 10,000 people. this doctor filmed this for us in a covid—i9 ward at his better—off hospital in aden.

rich countries could buy thousands more ventilators. the doctor says they have to turn away most of the patients, whose families beg for them to be treated here. this woman had a chance — a bed in hospital run by the medical charity msf. they couldn't save her. in yemen, 25% of people with confirmed covid—i9 die — five times the global average. it's estimated yemen already has one million cases of covid—i9 — three times more than the uk in a population less than half the size. it feels like the end. it feels like a calamity. they think the world has forgotten them. and it's chaotic and anarchic and desperate. are they right to think that, that the world's forgotten

them? unless action‘s ta ken straightaway, we are going to see a tragedy of globally catastrophic proportions. making everything worse, separatists are fighting a new war to end south yemen's union with the north. it's on top of saudi arabia's intervention five years ago to fight houthi rebels aligned with iran. in the desert, saudi troops are with the southern separatists, trying to observe a ceasefire that so far does not exist. chanting the un is cutting its aid operation because donors have promised only half the funding they gave last year. unicef says that, in a single day, a child in yemen will suffer more injustice and hardship than most people face in a lifetime. when selwa al—0dabei was a baby, her parents had to escape with her from

a hospital bombed by the saudis in a raid that killed 19 civilians. now she's five, selwa's family have to try again to save her. they feed her with sugar and water, love and prayer. that's all they have. in this war, and this pandemic, it might not be enough. jeremy bowen, bbc news. hassan el—tayyab is legislative manager for middle east policy with the friends committee on national legislation. he told us why aid is not getting in yemen. right now there's funding shortages that are definitely happening on the international side. there's a blockade around the whole country supported by saudi arabia and the uae and the houthis in north yemen are also obstructing humanitarian assistance so all around, it's a terrible situation and what's needed right now is diplomacy to try to open up the country and to get critical assistance to the people that need it most.

this is of course a proxy conflict between saudi arabia and iran. do those two countries show any desire to end their own regional dispute which affects this third country of yemen? unfortunately, no. there was a brief moment of optimism when we saw earlier this year saudi arabia announce a unilateral ceasefire but during that time the air strikes just continued and continued on and the fighting has raged on. so unfortunately, yeah, this proxy war has just continued and what's needed is the international community to put pressure on the various players on the ground, and on the united states‘ part, we provide logistical support and weapon sales to the coalition, so, as my position at fcnl as a lobbyist, that‘s what we‘re trying to do is put pressure on the coalition so they stop theirair campaign and put

an end the violence. there‘s more about yemen on our website, including a breakdown on the causes of the civil war which has been raging since 2015 between a saudi—led coalition of countries fighting iranian—backed houthi rebels. just log on to bbc.com/news. the united states has recorded an all—time daily high of 40,000 coronavirus infections, according to figures from the johns hopkins university. the white house coronavirus taskforce issued a warning to younger people that they could be posing a risk to older people who may be more vulnerable to the coronavirus. 866,000 people aged between 18 and 44 have covid—19. that‘s 200,000 more than the next age range, 45—64. and four times more than those over 75, who are amongst the most vulnerable. the leading government advisor dr anthony fauci said

the overwhelming majority of people being infected were the young, who are more likely to be socialising, and in crowds. two of the country‘s biggest states, texas and florida, have reimposed some lockdown restrictions, with the governor of texas ordering all bars to close. here‘s our north america editor, jon sopel. florida seemed to be flourishing — beaches had reopened, bars were buzzing. the republican—controlled state was one of the first to lift the shutters, despite not meeting government guidelines. but now coronavirus cases are absolutely skyrocketing — up over 60% injust 2a hours, and the governor is hitting the pause button, urging people to maintain social distancing and wear masks. but it‘s not going to be an easy sell. i need you to tell me, how do i play saxophone

and sing with a mask on? listen to these people in palm beach. you literally cannot mandate somebody to wear a mask knowing that that mask is killing people. it literally is killing people. and they want to throw god's wonderful breathing system out the door. you're all turning your backs on it. and with the us yesterday recording more cases than at any time in the crisis, the pressure is on the president. i can name kung flu, ican name... cheering and applause ..19 different versions of name. particularly after holding a rally in oklahoma last weekend, which has resulted in dozens of campaign staff and dozens of secret service officers having to quarantine with covid symptoms. it does sound, though, like you‘re saying, "do as we say, not as we do." you‘re telling people to listen to local officials, but in tulsa you defied local health officials. well, i want to remind you again that the freedom of speech and the right to peacefully assemble

is enshrined in the constitution of the united states. and the vice—president played down the severity of the current surge in cases. as we see new cases rising, and we are tracking them very carefully, there may be a tendency among the american people to think that we are back to that place that we were two months ago, that we are in a time of great losses and great hardship on the american people. the reality is we're in a much better place. the president insists it‘s because so many more people are being tested, like here in san francisco, that more cases are being discovered. but it‘s only part of the story. public health officials, though, are far less sanguine about it. they say, unless urgent action is taken to deal with his current surge, then all the sacrifices of the past three months could have been for naught. far from flattening the curve, america seems to be fattening it. jon sopel, bbc news, washington.

for the first time in history, the us house of representatives has approved a measure to make washington, dc the country‘s 521st state. dc stands, of course, for district of columbia — and it has a population of over 700,000 people, larger than the populations of several states, but residents have no voting representation in congress. in the house of representatives, the district is represented by a delegate, who is not allowed to vote. and dc residents have no representation in the senate. despite the vote in the house, the proposal is almost certain to fail in the senate. facebook says it will now flag posts from us politicians that violate its rules, but won‘t delete them — because of their ‘news value‘. until now the company has been reluctant to take action against posts by figures such as president trump because it believed users had a right to hear unfiltered statements from political leaders. facebook‘s chief executive, mark zuckerberg, defended

the site‘s record in taking down hate speech but said the company would tighten its policies by labelling potentially harmful posts. in the last week, more than 100 companies stopped advertising on facebook, as part of a campaign which criticised the social media giant for not doing enough to tackle hate speech and false information. mexico city‘s security chief has been wounded in an attack that killed two of his body guards — the dramatic incident took place in a wealthy district of mexico city that has until now, seen little violence. reged ahmad reports. in this grainy cctv footage broadcast on mexican television, a group of heavily armed men, in an open—backed truck and an suv, drive up. blocking off a road, it is understood they were preparing to open fire on the vehicle of mexico city‘s security chief, garcia harfuch. the footage zooms in on some of them as one holds up what looks like an assault rifle. residents reported heavy gunfire ringing out for several minutes during the attack, as the security chief‘s car

was sprayed with bullets. translation: a group of men on board an suv attacked the vehicle, carrying mexico city public security chief, 0mar garcia harfuch. he has suffered minor injuries. he is out of danger at the moment and is receiving medical attention at a mexico city hospital. unfortunately, two security members of his team lost their lives. a woman passing by was also killed in the attack, which took place in one of mexico city‘s wealthy districts. known as a location of ambassadorial residences, this level of violence is unusual for the neighbourhood and has shocked residents. 0mar garcia harfuch has been in the jobs since last october and hours after the attack, apparently from his hospital bed, the security chief tweeted, blaming the jalisco new generation cartel, known as the cjng, for the attack. a gang led by a former police officer, is accused of fuelling

record levels of violence in the country as it seeks to eliminate rivals. mexico‘s president has linked the attack to attempts by authorities to establish order in the city. despite growing drug cartel violence over the decade, the capital has remained relatively calm compared to other parts of the country. officials say a number of arrests have been made and the involvement of the cjng is just one line of inquiry. reged ahmad, bbc news. this is bbc world news. the headlines: the un says aid to yemen must be "dramatically stepped up" to help save millions of children from the brink of starvation. texas and florida re—impose restrictions after the number of americans diagnosed with covid—19 reaches a new daily high. sticking with that subject. a little earlier, we spoke to dr craig spencer, who‘s director of global health

in emergency medicine at columbia university medical center. i began by asking him how he felt about young people ignoring covid—19 safety precautions after he has had to watch so many patients die in the emergency room. i held the hands of so many people who have passed from coronavirus, but it feels like so many people around the country have unfortunately not learned the lessons that we so painfully learned here in new york city, and it is really discouraging, it‘s really disheartening, and it is quite sad to know that others are going to have to learn these painful lessons themselves before many people take this seriously. why are people not taking precautions? is it that younger people feel invincible? i think that‘s part of that. we‘ve learned from early on that younger people are less likely to die from this which is, of course, good news. we see that more young people are going out to bars and a socialising more and less likely to wear masks. we do know that the median age of coronavirus positive tests have decreased, meaning that many infections are being picked up in a younger population.

today, that was pointed out as an encouraging sign by the vice president. i don‘t know that that is necessarily encouraging, unless those young people make sure to isolate themselves, prevent them from spreading this virus to their family, their grandmothers, others that may be around. and quite frankly, with this dramatic increase in the number of cases — as you pointed out, another record day after another record day — i have a lot of reason to be concerned that we are still on the upswing and we are going to see this pandemic continue to rage here in the us for quite some time. you are in new york, but if we suddenly transported you to florida and you stumbled across a group of young people going into an indoor bar, a packed bar, what would you say to them to get them to go away? it is really hard, this messaging has been really difficult — a lot of people feel like they are younger and they‘re invincible and the overwhelming likelihood is that if they get infected, they may not have symptoms or they may not have severe symptoms. but what we do know — and what i have been trying to stress — is it is notjust about cases and deaths.

a lot of people who have this disease and who survive it, even a mild case, end up having these longer—term symptoms — having chronic fatigue, having a lot of other things that are notjust you survive or you don‘t, and i think some of that nuance is being lost especially on younger people who think they might be invincible to this. are hospitals in the state able to cope with the surge of new patients? i think that remains to be seen. we‘ve seen an increase in hospitalisations in many parts of the country, we have seen icu capacity diminish, which means more of those beds are being taken up. what is going to be needed now is very swift and decisive action by governors of these states that are hotspots to clamp down and to increase the capacity of hospitals, of icus, of providers and all the others that we have done in new york city, a little bit belatedly, but that

has helped us flatten the curve, after a lot more deaths that we wanted, and that‘s why my concern is a lot of other governors are not taking this as seriously as it was taken in new york city and new jersey. we are seeing them very hesita ntly implementing the necessary steps to decrease cases, to do what is necessary, to minimise the impact, and that every day that you wait is just more infections, more deaths, and really, more sadness for people in their state. dr craig spencer. as coronavirus cases rise in the southern and western us, cases in new york are dropping rapidly. to keep it that way, the city government is ramping up contact tracing. from new york, laura trevelyan reports. maryama calls herself a "disease detective". she is one of 3000 contact tracers in new york city. so i‘m calling because you tested positive for covid—19... this work is important for maryama. she‘s watched the virus devastate her east harlem neighbourhood. i have seen that we‘ve still had to be exposed to the virus at a disproportionate rate, and that i‘ve also seen

the amount of businesses that are shut down in the past few weeks and months, so it has hurt a lot of people. a lot of them have lost loved ones, a lot of people have lost livelihoods. and is that part of what has motivated you to want to be a contact tracer? it is so important for it to actually be reduced, in terms of transmission. people need to know, like, what it is, how do we prevent it, otherwise it is just going to keep going on unchecked. "new york‘s contact tracing operation is only three weeks old, so are people co—ordinating? i asked the man in charge. we wanted this to be clearly new yorkers from our communities taking care of other new yorkers, and i believe that is why we have had an improvement since we‘ve started, in terms of new yorkers feeling comfortable to share their contacts and how we are already at a rate that i am proud of, which is that 86% of people that have finished their interviews have given us contacts. contact tracing has been used here in new york and around the world to track new coronavirus outbreaks, but juggling an individual‘s right to privacy with the public good is not easy. 4,000 miles from here in italy, the government there is trying a new approach.

search the application... paola pisano is the italian minister in charge of a new app which 4 million people have downloaded. italians with the app get an alert if they have been near an infected person who agreed to share their contacts. it is important to use this application, because the quicker you understand that the person is positive and the better you can track this person, and the faster you can identify the cluster of coronavirus in our country. back in new york, americans are wary of sharing their data with the government, even in a pandemic. and for people who will not answer the phone to contact tracers, here is what is coming next... we‘re going to have people that are field operatives, if you will, or are community engagement specialists that are going to go into our communities and knock on the door of anybody

that we were not able to get through to on the phone. the police are part of the effort to contain the virus, too, giving out supplies in the hardest—hit neighbourhoods. new yorkers fear the re—emergence of coronavirus and contact tracing is the key to tracking its transmission. laura trevelyan, bbc news, new york. fishermen in the indonesian province of aceh have rescued nearly 100 rohingya migrants from a boat stranded off the northern coast. officials had threatened to push them back out to sea but local villagers decided to take their own action, as simon jones reports. they had been at sea for months. the fate of the exhausted migrants on board this boat unclear after they‘d fled persecution in myanmar. the authorities in aceh initially said they would not be welcome there, but local fishermen had a different idea. they said if the government would not help them, then they would.

taking matters into their own hands, they bring the 94 men, women and children to shore, describing it as their moral duty. translation: we are really concerned about them. they are humans and so are we. the government had no solution for them, that is why we are very concerned about them. the authorities had been reluctant to accept the boat because of the coronavirus pandemic, and now, the new arrivals have been taken to his former immigration —— the new arrivals have been taken to this former immigration centre, where they will undergo testing. they say that not all of them survived the journey. translation: when i first got in the boat, i felt dizzy and sick because the boat was going up and down because of the waves. i do not know how many have died. amnesty international has described the rescue as a moment of optimism and solidarity, but the long—term future of these people is farfrom certain. simon jones, bbc news.

they‘ve become one of the most potent symbols of the coronavirus pandemic. i am, of course, talking about face masks. in some parts of the world, the wearing of them has become a source of political debate. for most, they are seen as a useful aid in combating covid—19. but injapan, the face mask can be so much more, as tim allman reports. even before the pandemic, they were a familiar sight on the streets and subway trains of japan. the face mask — a potential barrier against disease and perhaps a source of public reassurance. but this is a place where they never pass up the opportunity to innovate. let me introduce you to the c—mask, far more than just a bit of personal protective equipment. using bluetooth technology, along with a smartphone or tablet, it can transmit and amplify your voice,

making sure a face mask is a smart mask. translation: it is hard to hear what customers at the cash register of supermarkets and convenience stores are saying, because there are partitions to prevent droplets. by wearing this mask, it can improve these communications by transcribing the conversation or delivering the sounds of voices. it does not stop there. the c—mask, along with its downloadable app, can help you make phone calls, send text messages, and even translate your words into eight different languages. each one costs around $40 and the designers hope to export them to china, america and europe. a very smart mask, no matter what else you‘re wearing. tim allman, bbc news. does your face mask have any particular skills? does it do your taxes for you? let me

know. i‘m on twitter. i‘m @jamesbbcnews. please stay with bbc news. hello. we‘ve seen some fairly lively weather developing over the past 24 hours or so. the recent heat and humidity giving away to some heavy showers and some thunderstorms, too. and as we head into the weekend now, things are going to be turning increasingly cool and quite windy, with some rain around at times, too. all down to the fact that low pressure is moving its way in from the west, so lots of heavy showers rotating around that area of low pressure. still quite humid out there at he moment but cooler air moving in from the south—west. —— still quite humid out there at the moment but cooler air moving in from the south—west. so plenty of heavy showers through the day on saturday, making their way gradually northwards and eastwards across the uk. it may well dry up a bit across southern counties of england during the afternoon. some sunny spells developing there but, equally, still some showers for the midlands and wales. the showers for northern ireland and parts of northern england could be quite heavy and potentially

thundering later on. and for scotland, too, we are expecting torrential downpours at times with some thunderstorms, interspersed with some sunshine, but temperatures generally in the high teens, possibly the low 20s. you will notice, though, that those winds will be picking up the day, especially in the south — we could see those gusts winds up to about 40 miles per hour —— picking up through the day, especially in the south — we could see those gusts winds up to about 40 miles per hour for a time along the south coast. 0vernight into sunday, no great changes. we keep further heavy showers through the overnight period. it will not be quite as hot and as humid, though, as recent nights, with temperatures typically about 10 to 13 degrees overnight. heading on into sunday, and this area of low pressure sits just to the north of the uk, so most of the showery rain i think on sunday will be in the north and the north—west, particularly for northern ireland, north wales, northern england and scotland, too. further south across england and south wales, too, you should stay, i think, mostly dry. but wherever you are, you will notice the strength of the wind — gusts about 30 to 40 mph. certainly stronger than that around the coasts and the hills in the north. so temperatures, by the time

we get to sunday, quite a bit lower than recent days — about 14 to 20 degrees — and then as we move on into next week, then we‘ve still got this area of low pressure not far away. it will start to fill and move off towards the east but certainly for monday, another day of sunny spells and blustery showers. more of those showers once again on monday across northern and north—western parts of the uk. fewer showers reaching further south but much colder, certainly compared to recent days — around 14 to 18 degrees on monday. so we start next week on that showery, windy note but showers should ease through the week. bye— bye.

this is bbc news. the headlines: the un says millions more children in yemen could suffer malnourishment after a shortfall in funding caused by the covid—19 pandemic. the country is five years into a civil war that‘s already led to what‘s seen as the world‘s worst humanitarian crisis. the unicef agency‘s urgently appealing for aid. in the us, the states of florida and texas reimpose some restrictions as the number of coronavirus cases rises steeply. a record high of around 40,000 people were diagnosed with covid—19 in the last day. doctors say they‘re treating an increasing number of younger patients. mexico city‘s chief of police has survived an assassination attempt that he‘s blamed on a powerful drugs cartel. 0mar garcia harfuch was shot and injured when gunmen opened fire on his car. two bodyguards and a passerby died in the attack. 12 suspects are under arrest.