this is bbc news, the headlines: more than half a million people worldwide have now lost their lives as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. by far the worst affected country is the united states, with more than 125,000 deaths — the governor of texas warns infections have taken a "swift and very dangerous turn". exit polls in poland's presidential election show incumbent andrzej duda is in the lead but doesn't have the votes to win outright. mr duda, a socially conservative right—winger, is projected to have won just under 42% of the ballots. a second round will be held in two weeks‘ time. police in hong kong have arrested 53 people who were taking part in a protest against national security legislation that will soon be imposed on the territory. beijing is preparing to pass new laws following a year of protests. activists fear the laws will destroy long held freedoms.

in the fa cup, manchester united will face chelsea, while arsenal take on manchester city. they knocked out newcastle united with the help of a brilliant goal from raheem sterling, as katie gornall reports. st james‘ park empty, it stands eerily silent. without its passionate tsunami behind them, newcastle's challenge felt even greater. manchester city's grip on the premier league may have ended but they remain fa cup holders, and seemed in no mood to linger on the disappointment. in such a one—sided half, city really didn't need any help but fabian schar‘s push brought kevin de bruyne to the spot and a goal their dominance deserved. while it remained 1—0, newcastle were in with a chance, theyjust had to take it. commentator: pulls across! oh, that had to go in. dwight gayle making even an empty stadium sigh in disbelief. minutes later, they were reeling at the other end as city through sterling sauntered to a second.

commentator: and that is raheem sterling all over! newcastle's best cup run in m years was coming to an end. city now have a wembley date with arsenal. they may have let one trophy slip from their grasp but they can still win everything else. katie gornall, bbc news. now on bbc news, our world looks at the worst invasion of desert locusts east africa has seen for decades. just an average swarm can eat the same in a day as 2,500 people ina year. in december last year, locusts started swarming across east africa. now, hundreds of billions of these tiny creatures have invaded the region from somalia to uganda.

it's the worst locust outbreak that kenya has seen in 70 years... ..threatening to destroy the livelihoods of millions. if nothing is done, each generation of locusts multiplies by 20, so the race is on to stop them breeding again. i'm anne soy, the bbc‘s senior africa correspondent, and i've spent the past few months stuck in nairobi, covering the impact of the covid—i9 pandemic.

today, i'm leaving the city to find out about another crisis which has the potential to be even more destructive than covid—i9 for some areas of my country. nairobi is one of the hotspot areas for covid—i9, and so movement in and out of the metropolitan area is forbidden, except for essential services — that includes journalists like us — but we still had to get this letter from the media council of kenya, just to certify that we are allowed to travel outside the metropolitan area. and we also have our press cards, to show the security officers who are making sure that there's no movement in and out of that area. we are travelling to northern kenya, where they reported a swarm of locusts almost the size of moscow at the beginning of the year.

albert lemasulani's family have lived on this land for generations. they are samburu nomadic herders, who rely almost entirely on their animals. taking care of their livestock is not only their way of life, but crucial for their survival. but these vast swarms of desert locusts threaten the vegetation they rely on to feed their animals.

albert took an extraordinary decision. he has spent the last five months and much of his personal savings tracking the locust swarms and sending coordinates to the teams working to prevent a plague. now they call him ‘the locust man'.

the original migrant locust swarms came to kenya from the southern arabian peninsula. extreme weather conditions there allowed at least three generations of locusts to breed undetected. despite international efforts, months later, a new generation of kenyan—born locusts hatched. now it's a race against time to stop them breeding another larger and more destructive generation. it's early morning and albert is with a government surveillance team tracking the latest swarm.

swarms of desert locusts can contain tens of billions of individuals and travel up to 150 kilometres a day. they need to pinpoint the current swarms so the spray planes can cover the area with pesticides. they've found the swarm. albert's firstjob is to enter all the information in an app designed specifically for people to input data and track the swarms.

a member of the grasshopper family, these normally shy, solitary insects become gregarious mini—beasts when vegetation starts to dry up and they are crowded together. each locust can eat its own body weight daily. even just an average swarm can destroy crops sufficient to feed 2,500 people for a year injust a day. hello! the team has called in their location to the spray planes. but if it doesn't get here soon, the locusts will start moving again.

they didn't manage to spray the swarm in time. albert now relies on motorbike scouts to do much of the ground tracking. it's all rough roads here, and hard to access.

when he started out, albert was doing this work alone. but with the support of an international ngo, he's trained a group of young men who shared the geo coordinates and information on the swarms on the app tracking desert locusts, so now, they know where to spray. albert has asked one of his spotters to go and check a site that was sprayed last month.

luckily, it appears to have been a success. that swarm was destroyed. it's a new day and albert has found the biggest swarm he's ever come across. all across north of kenya, trees that look burnt but when you get closer, you realise they're just full of locusts. when locusts hatch, they first form hopper bands, a stage where they are unable

to fly, that lasts about six weeks. then, they turn pink in colour, start flying and form swarms. when they mature, they turn yellow and they are ready to lay eggs. the whole process takes about three months. this is what albert fears most — this swarm is almost ready to breed. an average female lays 150 eggs in her lifetime. if a second kenyan generation

hatches, it could be devastating. so, captain... yes. this is captain neepe. he flies one of the surveillance helicopters for the un food and agriculture organization.

the year as we are filming, they get more bad news. heavy rain means the spray planes further south cannot take off. this enormous swarm of mature locusts is able to fly again and they are one day closer to breeding the next generation. albert is going home to see his family for the first time in two weeks. but the threat of covid—19 means family reunions are difficult.

albert has not spent more than one week at home since his youngest son was born. albert's wife angeline is looking after their four children and albert's101—year—old grandmother.

despite the sacrifice, albert is determined to help his people. it is dawn in lewa conservancy, in laikipia, northern kenya. this is one of the operation‘s bases for tackling the locusts. the un food and agriculture organization works with the kenyan government to manage aerial and ground spraying.

but kenya only has five spray planes, and it's one of the most equipped countries in the region battling locusts. this is the only way the locust swarms can be controlled, using these pesticides. kenya has stockpiled them but because of the covid—19 pandemic, the global supply chains have been disrupted and that means it's becoming increasingly difficult to import more chemicals, and that's the big fear now. with chemicals scarce, it's crucial that they are accurate where they spray. and it's albert and the surveillance team's job to get the information to the pilots.

today, spraying has been a success. but to stop the devastation, they need to destroy the majority of the swarms before they breed a new generation.

over the next two weeks, albert keeps tracking the swarms as they travel north. he sent us his reports. when they are mature, the locusts dig holes to lay eggs in the earth. they are hard to spot and even harder to destroy. then, the moment they had all been dreading — the next generation hatching. enormous hopper bands are discovered all across the desert areas of marsabit, northern samburu and into turkana.

we join albert again and travel north to the county of turkana. it's the end of the rainy season here and the crops are almost ready to harvest.

to5 to 5 year it doesn't take long. to 5 year you 0ur drive up to turkana is interrupted by a massive band you of hoppers crossing the road, taking over everything they can. rebecca and her eight children grow maize and beans on their farm, just a few kilometres from the border with uganda. heavy rains meant they were expecting a good crop.

it doesn't take long. the only hope now for rebecca is that pesticides will work, if they get here in time. while we were with rebecca, we heard of anotherfarm in turkana that had already been taken over by hopper bands.

albert and the teams are fighting as hard as they can to prevent a plague of locusts through the region.

but with this generation likely to be the biggest of all, the future looks very uncertain for millions. it certainly feels like summer has come to an abrupt end, hasn't it? notjust the outbreaks of rain and fresh air but also the blustery winds and more of the same to come on monday and then through the course of the week perhaps more thundery showers on the way. this is what it looks like on the satellite picture. a big low pressure sitting top of us, there for a little while and it will stick around through most of monday and the weather front spiralling into the centre of that low

pressure, a lot of isobars there, a big pressure gradient that means the wind races into the centre of that low hence it is gusty out there. and this is what looks through the early hours of monday. the heaviest of the rain has been around the north—west of england, cumbria, lancashire and parts of the pennines they got a real dose of rain, a flood warning in place around keswick. 0ver monday we will see further heavy spells of rain in the north but in the afternoon it looks as if that will give way to sunshine and showers and another blustery day as gusts of wind in some places will reach a0 miles an hour, near gale force for the time of the year. temperature is below the average. around 15 degrees there for glasgow and possibly reaching 19 in london. on tuesday, the jet stream pushes another system in our direction, an area of low pressure not quite as developed as the one we have across right now but it will bring cloud and outbreaks of rain in the morning in the south and to the north i think this is where the focus will be as far as weather goes,

heavy showers, some of them thundery across parts of scotland and maybe the north of england. temperatures again for many of us around the mid—high teens. that was tuesday and this is wednesday. outbreaks of rain in the morning and the south clearing away giving way to sunshine and then showers will start to develop quite widely across the uk during the course of wednesday afternoon. temperatures around 17—20 celsius with the wind a little lighter from tuesday onwards. this is the summary for the week ahead. a mixed bag across the uk. sometimes brightness and showers and the temperatures may gently creep up towards the end of the week. bye— bye.

this is bbc news — welcome if you're watching here in the uk, on pbs in america or around the globe. our top stories: the covid—19 global death toll passes 500,000 — in the us, the governor of texas warns infections have taken a "swift and very dangerous turn". exit polls show polish president andrzej duda finishes first in the election but doesn't have the votes for an outright victory. beijing asserts its authority over hong kong as it's expected to pass a new security law. the pride parade goes ahead in taiwan — most other countries have cancelled their events because of coronavirus.