this is bbc news. i'm aaron safir. our top stories: britain's prime minister borisjohnson tells the bbc his government didn't understand coronavirus at the start and could have handled things differently. when you look back at this crisis, everybody can see that this was something that was new, that we didn't understand in the way that we would've liked in the first few weeks and months. huge crowds attend friday prayers at hagia sophia iraq creates a city in the desert to bury its coronavirus dead. we report on the scale of the outbreak there. black lives matter in brazil. we have a special report from the country where police killed nearly six times as many people as in the us last year. and formula 1 cancelsraces

blaming high first make rates in the americas. —— high covid—19 rates. hello and welcome. borisjohnson has conceded that the way the uk government responded to the coronavirus pandemic might have been different, if the nature of the virus had been better understood. in a bbc interview to mark the end of his first year in office, the british prime minister also admitted there were "very open questions" about the timing of the lockdown back in march. he was speaking exclusively to our political editor laura kuenssberg. 366 days in number ten. hi, laura. hello. welcome, welcome. he won an election... sanitiser? we left the eu... you walked through this door as prime minister... but the days have been dominated by a crisis no—one could have imagined — covid—19.

what have you got wrong so that you get it right next time? i think, laura, when you look back at this crisis, everybody can see that this was something that was new, that we didn't understand in the way that we would have liked in the first few weeks and months, and i think probably, you know, the single thing that we didn't see at the beginning was the extent to which it was being transmitted asymptomatically from person—to—person, but i am very proud of many of the things that people in our public services did, that members of the public did, to deal with coronavirus. what you are saying today now is that the response was too slow because the disease wasn't understood? i think it's fair to say there are things we need to learn about how we handled it in the early stages. i think what people really want to focus on now, is what are we doing to prepare for the next phase? but, prime minister, people also want to know what happened though, prime minister... you're talking about this

as though it is in the past, laura, and it's not, it's the present. hindsight isn'tjust a wonderful thing, it is also a useful thing. sure. and people want to know what happened. 115,000 people died, who have tested positive, what do you think the mistakes were? we mourn every one of those who lost their lives, and our thoughts are very much with their families, and... were you taking it... and i take full responsibility for everything that government did. your health secretary claimed a prospective ring had been thrown round care homes, you know that's not the case. well, we have done a huge amount. it was too late, wasn't it? i mentioned the difficulty of testing, but actually, thanks to the fantastic work of our care home sector, if you look at what is happening now, the number of new outbreaks in care homes is massively down, and we're testing every care home worker weekly... so it'll be different next time? testing every care home worker weekly, every care home

resident every 28 days, we will increase testing... what is your priority now? i mean, you have had this roller coaster year. the priorities are exactly what they always have been. except more so. we are doubling down. covid has taught me that for too long this country has moved too slowly sometimes, so we need to go faster. yes, the country has been going through a very tough time, and psychologically it has been an extraordinary time for the country. but i also know this is a nation of incredible natural resilience, and fortitude, and imagination, and i think we will bounce back really much stronger than ever before. optimism, his familiar trademark. do you see yourself being here for the very long—term ? well, we are working very hard, laura. i thought i'd got through this interview already, folks! but borisjohnson has already discovered the real challenge of life in power

is perhaps surprise. laura kuenssberg, bbc news, downing street. you can see the full interview on the bbc news website. let s get some of the day's other news. french citizens have been advised not to travel to catalonia in spain, because of a spike in coronavirus cases. the border between the countries remains open but the french prime minister has urged residents not to travel until the situation improves. the top infectious disease expert in the united states, doctor anthony fauci, has said he doesn't think a return to universal lockdown is necessary — despite surging coronavirus cases in many parts of the country. doctor fauci said americans hadn't yet given more basic measures a chance to work. let's stay in the us because it's been a week in which centre—mac president trump has signed executive orders that allow prescription drugs from canada

and other countries where prices are cheaper, to be imported into the us. the president says this affects insulin and epi—pens, and that the move would "completely restructure" the prescription drug market in the us. with the presidential election little more thab 100 days away, our north america editor, jon sopel analyzes the white house strategy. it's as though donald trump was given this shiny brand—new car injanuary 2017 and injuly 2020, he suddenly discovered that it's got a reverse gear. he slammed it into reverse and now he can't get it out and we are seeing reversals on all manner of different things. or as the british prime minister borisjohnson put it this week, more flip—flops than bournemouth beach. he's had to say that masks, far from being politically correct, are an act of patriotism. he said that the coronavirus, farfrom being a bad case of the sniffles, is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. he's had to perform a bit of a u—turn on schools going back, and, of course, he's abandon his plans to hold a huge event for his convention injacksonville, florida. now, what has changed?

the medical advice has remained consistent. what's changed is donald trump's position in the polls which, to say the least, are precarious. and i think his new campaign manager has gone to him, sat him down, given him a bucket of ice cold water and said, "this is serious. you have to change direction on these things." a lot of people are guffawing, or laughing at donald trump having to perform u—turns. i'm sure there are some people who are writing, "this could be the worst week ever of donald trump's "presidency," because he's had to do humiliating things that show weakness. but if he wins in november, i think the campaign strategist will say, "this was his best week ever." as we heard, one of the shifts in tone from president trump was asking americans to wear facemasks.

but in georgia the issue of masks is still contentious. it's a week since georgia's governor — brian kemp — started a lawsuit against atlanta authories to stop the city from enforcing its requirements to wear masks. joining me from atlanta is dr keren landman, who is an infectious disease specialist and medical and medicaljournalist. thank you forjoining us. how important is it in terms of public health for leaders to kind of model appropriate behaviour? i think it is critical. people take messages from the top and when we cr leadership doing the right thing and talking about doing the right thing and persistently doing the right thing, we tend to feel better about doing the right thing, especially in environments like we are in right now. when i have been out and about in situations where you are required to wear a mask, where people are rent, there are stairs, there is social pressure, bit of social pressure, bit of social pressure, why is that not enough? why do some governors, state mayors want to enforce people wearing masks and is

there any evidence that that is more effective? i think whatever you have experienced is not a universal experience, not in my city, not in my state and not in my country, certainly not in the world. in different parts of atlanta, different parts of atlanta, different parts of the state, the norms are very different from other parts of the city or state and i think it is very... it is tempting to try to put faith in people's desire to do the right thing by each other, but i think in the environment we are in right now, wejust can't really rely on people's internal intrinsic drive to do the right thing and place others' it needs over their own. from your perspective working in public health and public diseases, i wonder if you want to tear your hair out because if something is basic as medical advice for people has become politicised, how can you actually get effective

m essa 9 es you actually get effective messages across? public health has been dealing with this question of how the to message really simple public health m essa 9 es really simple public health messages for a while and we run into problems when the advice we give to people becomes a symbol of something else and thatis symbol of something else and that is really what has happened here is wearing a mask has become a symbol of something, a symbol of alignment with some kind of political ideology in many cases, of being weak or a sheep in many cases, so i think that really disrupts the ability of a public health apparatus to help people see the altruism of wearing masks because they have already received this message that wearing a mask is something else altogether, but we got through that. public health figured out how to message around condom is and hiv prevention as was pointed out in the atlantic not so long ago, andi out in the atlantic not so long ago, and i think we have to ta ke ago, and i think we have to take that same approach here

now, harm reduction approach, a lessjudgmental now, harm reduction approach, a less judgmental approach, allowing people to feel like they have control over whether they have control over whether they wear a mask and make the choice to do it out of a sense of human dignity rather than being forced to do it. thank you very much for your time, thank you forjoining us from atla nta o n thank you forjoining us from atlanta on that story. iraq's health system has been worn down by years of war and poor investment — and now it's being overwhelmed by a surge in coronavirus infections, which were up by 600% last month. fighters from the armed popular mobilisation units, which were formed to fight is, are now being mobilised to bury baghdad's dead, in a new cemetery in the desert. reda el mawy reports. 0n the cusp of life and death, like many iraqis, jamileh saadoun has endured much in her lifetime. her son has been by her side

for the last ten days. he is risking his own life to care for her. and he will stay until she recovers, or until she passes. in this battle, the doctors are heavily outnumbered. drjafar nassir says he only has half the medics he needs. they are dealing with the double trauma of nursing the sick and putting their families in danger.

0utside, safir el mehdi is helping someone find the remains of a loved one. before the outbreak, safir was a taxi driver. now, he drives bodies to the cemetery. none of the usual burial sites will accept the bodies of covid—19 patients. so, safir drives the bodies to the desert, south of the capital, where a vast new city for the dead has risen from the sands. all 3,000 graves are for victims of the virus.

sadly, jamileh, who we filmed with her son a few days ago, did not survive. workers try their best to provide some dignity in death. the government has been overwhelmed. it has turned to groups who fought so—called islamic state to bury the dead. iraqis are used to conflict, and this fight will get worse before it gets better. reda el mawy, bbc news. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: borisjohnson boris johnson tells borisjohnson tells the bbc has government did not understand the coronavirus at the start and could have handled things

differently. iraq creates a city in the desert to bury a dead as the number of confirmed covid—19 cases reaches record levels. the death of george floyd in police custody in minneapolis had a profound impact across the world, not least in brazil, where last year police killed nearly six times as many people as in the us. brazil has a long history of racism and slavery. more than five million people were enslaved there. 0ur correspondent katy watson reports from sao paulo. a week before the death of george floyd, brazilians were mourning one of their own. 14—year—old joao pedro matos pinto was killed while playing with friends. a botched police operation in a rio favela. two deaths thousands of kilometres apart, and millions united in grief and anger. "black lives matter here, too", they said. but history keeps

repeating itself. and in the sao paulo favela of paraisopolis, people here are hardly living the american dream. guilherme was a 15—year—old with his whole life ahead of him. but a few weeks ago, he disappeared. his body found dumped on the outskirts of the city. 0ne policeman has since been arrested, the other is still on the run. translation: guilherme was such a good son. he helped me so much with his younger siblings. i'm afraid for my children now, not for me. i don't even have the will to live any more. friends and neighbours have come together but so much has changed. "the police should be protecting us," this woman tells me, "but they don't because of the cover

because of the colour of our skin." guilherme's death devastated this community but is a reality lived by so many, they're not the first community to suffer and sadly, they won't be the last. the culmination of racism, violence and poverty means it's also a reality that few people here think will ever change. brazilians were taught to believe that racism didn't exist, that everybody got along without being discriminated against. it's what the president jair bolsonaro still believes. due to this myth that everybody is equal, and even black people in brazil sometimes have difficulty to see themselves as black because here is not only about where you came from, it's the way you look like. so if you look like white, you are going to be treated as white even if your parents are black. that is slowly evolving. unlike the us, black people are the majority in brazil and there is more pride in being black than ever before but change is slow in the pandemic

complicates progress. translation: black people are dying from gunshots, from hunger, and now from covid. as long as there's racists, there's no democracy. and fighting for democracy is fighting against the bolsonaro government. these are hard times. despite the challenges, these past few months have offered a chance for reflection. this in a country where violence and exclusion are so often normalised. racism is being more openly discussed. people here can't ignore it any longer. so, could the winds of change finally moved brazil in a new direction? katy watson, bbc news, in sao paulo. malaysia says the us bank goldman sachs has agreed to pay out nearly four billion dollars to settle a dispute over the troubled state investment fund, one mdb. the finance ministry says that goldman sachs has recognised

the misconduct of two of its former employees — claims that they deny. prosecutors allege that malaysia's former prime minister, najib razak spent much of the money on luxury goods. he's also denied wrongdoing. thousands of hungarians have joined protests against alleged government interference in media freedom. it followed the resignations of dozens ofjournalists from hungary's leading independent news website, index, after their plea to resinstate their sacked editor was dismissed. he was sacked on tuesday — a decision he believes was related to his warnings of outside interference in the website's operations. nick thorpe — our budapest correspondent — sent this report. this march for the independence of the media in hungary is winding its way through the streets of budapest from the offices of index to the prime minister's headquarters up on the hill. the people taking part in this march blamed the prime minister

personally for the pressure on index and its potential disappearance now. there were emotional scenes earlier today as more than 80 of the staff of index handed in their mass resignations. that happened just a few days after the editor in chief was fired by the management. the staff are very clear in their own minds, that this amounts to an attempt by the right—wing government of the prime minister to either takeover or close—down index. index was by far the most popular critical or independent voice in the whole hungarian media landscape with more than a million daily page views on its site. therefore, its disappearance would seem to represent a pretty major victory the prime minister, whose government already enjoys a considerable dominance of the hungarian media.

on another level, it could also harm him as his claima that hungary still has a diverse and free media will be severely damaged by the disappearance of index. nick thorpe, bbc news, budapest. now some dissappointing news for formula 1 fans. it has scrapped this season's races in the united states, canada, mexico and brazil because of the coronavirus pandemic. the organisers believe it would be irresponsible to go ahead with the events, as infection rates in the americas remain high. let's speak to a sports reporter who joins let's speak to a sports reporter whojoins me now. disappointing news, but probably not very surprising given the rates of coronavirus infections and some of those countries. yes, you are right. here in america, we have a lot

of cases. as you know, the us is number one, brazil number two with positive cases, mexico in the top seven, canada may be a little bit far away from those numbers, but it is also a difficult moment for that country and, of course, for eve ryo ne country and, of course, for everyone to expose the drivers and teams to make all that travelling and, of course, it's expensive to travel and have no spectators and, of course, the risk of getting the virus. can you just give us an sense, obviously it is a very big part of the world and you will have to generalise, but her sense of how important formula 1 is in the americas? to be honest, the four races are big stopping moments. the weekends are real events for the cities, for example, in mexico city, 300,000 people attend the

formulaic grand prix on the weekend former. weekend they formulaic grand prix on the weekend they are sold out events, the tickets are sold out before the event, so they are out before the event, so they a re really out before the event, so they are really massive events. actually, for example, the one in texas, the circuit of the americas and in mexico, either busiest events for formula 1. there are a lot of fans, a lot of also out—of—town visitors attending those races. it is a big crash for tourism because, asi big crash for tourism because, as i told you, during those weekends, mostly 95% of the occupancy in hotels, restau ra nts, occupancy in hotels, restaurants, so it is a big hit for the countries. i wonder if it isa for the countries. i wonder if it is a big hit for formula 1 itself, for the industry and

for the business, having to cancel these events and sort of reschedule in other parts of the world. is formula 1 going to be damaged by this? yes, it has been damaged already. have lost many, many races and, of course, without spectators, one of the biggest budgets that they have is from fans, so as organisation, it has been losing with this virus. we are going to leave it there, thank you very much for your time. long—time friends joe feeney and tom cook who live in the us state of wisconsin, made a pact many years ago — that if one of them won the us powerball lottery they would share it. and now, decades later, tom's numbers came up and he's honoured the deal. joe — who you can see here in the blue shirt with tom and their wives — said he was stunned when his friend called to say they were sharing the jackpot

worth 22 million us dollars. let's hear what they plan to do with the money and how the pact came about. whenever the bigger winner comes, we're going to split it. so we buy every week. never really thinking it would happen. that happened many years ago, and itjust kind of continued. almost 20, i think. a handshake is a handshake, man. i can think of a better way to retire. i but to tickets and i won the powerball. what can i lose, a few bucks? they laugh. just before we go, question, what do you do if you have only laundry for nearly 70 years and have hundreds of items of clothing that customers haven't bothered to pick up? here is your answer, these women from taiwan have gained internet fame for modelling all the left behind pieces of clothing. i am not going to comment on their

sartorial choices there, but they are making the best of it. you can reach me they are making the best of it. you can reach me on they are making the best of it. you can reach me on twitter and i will be back in a few moments with the headlines. i have been looking ahead to our weekend weather prospects. on saturday, i do not particularly like what i see. a cloudy day for many of us with outbreaks of rain at times. looking at the satellite picture, just to our west you can see how extensive the cloud is and it is a complex area of low pressure that will bring different zones of rain across the country. a couple of weather fronts mixed in the country. a couple of weatherfronts mixed in with this lot pushing eastwards. the festival is whether france is bringing rain at the moment to scotland, across wales and england to. as that rain clears, we will be left with no cloud, drizzle for northern ireland to a real mixture of weather and murky conditions will extend to scotland. humid night with temperatures around 17 or 18 degrees for some.

tomorrow's forecast is a cloudy start with drizzle around. i have mixed in thejet start with drizzle around. i have mixed in the jet stream winds here and hopefully you can see a bitjust here which is responsible for this line of very heavy showers that will extend across the republic and northern ireland, saw heavy downpours around. as the dip in the jet stream, a trough hits the jet stream, a trough hits the english channel, a way for the english channel, a way for the developer and there will be easily of heavy rain across east anglia and south—east england, but this wave could push into central or southern england, the midlands, lincolnshire and yorkshire. there is some uncertainty about the zone of the wettest weather through the afternoon, but some areas will get pretty went through the afternoon and as for the cricket, we will see some interruptions for play on the third test on monday where it looks like a complete wash—out, someone to watch as well. through saturday night, well. through saturday night, we will continue to see rain clearing away from south—east england. the skies were clear for a time england. the skies were clear fora time and england. the skies were clear for a time and it will begin to start to turn a little bit less humid, but temperatures still around 12 or 13 degrees or so.

for sunday, the better half of the weekend for many of us, broadly speaking a day of sunshine and showers of other will be some lengthier bricks of rain moving into north—western scotland and a breezy kind of day but feeling fresher, more pleasant you might say particularly with more sunshine coming through. temperatures for most of us between 17 and 22 which will not feel too bad at all. into next week, from monday, lots of cloud, so not exactly triple—a rated weather, cloud and rain on monday, heavy rain as well, but turning drier and warmer as the week goes on.

this is bbc news,

the headlines: britain's prime minister boris johnson has admitted that his government didn't understand the nature of the coronavirus pandemic in its first few weeks and months. speaking exclusively to the bbc mr johnson also said there were open questions about whether the lockdown had been imposed too late. authorities in iraq have created a city in the desert to bury the record number of people who have died from coronavirus there. doctors haveissued from coronavirus there. doctors have issued a stark warning that returning to normal life would be premature, as covid cases continue to soar. and daily black lives matter protest in brazil are continuing in the wake of george floyd's death in police custody in the us city of many applets. demonstrators say they wa nt to applets. demonstrators say they want to see changes there in policing, deployment and housing. those are the latest headlines from bbc news.