welcome to 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. us federal officials repossess the chinese consulate in houston after president trump ordered its closure in the escalating diplomatic row. we will consider what next for us— china relations. 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.

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. 16,000 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. us federal officials have repossessed the chinese consulate in houston, texas, three days after president trump ordered its closure in an escalating diplomatic row. the officials were seen prising open a back door shortly after the us government's eviction deadline. chinese staff earlier cleared the consulate of documents and other material. washington says the building had been a hub for chinese espionage and intellectual property theft. in response to the closure, china has ordered the us consulate in chengdu to shut down. so where are relations between china, the us — and indeed the rest of the world headed? ian bremmer is founder and president of eurasia group. hejoins us now from massachusetts. they are deteriorating on almost every front that matters

between the two countries whether it is hong kong or taiwan, the south china she, diplomatic closure and is of consulates, throwing journalists out from both countries, technology, cold war, trademarks, intellectual property, that is a pretty long list not to mention the fact that the united states blames the chinese for the so—called wuhan the chinese for the so—called wu ha n flew the chinese for the so—called wuhan flew as secretary pompeo, trump and others have spoken about it. it is also accelerating that deterioration, it is broadly accepted between both democrats and republicans that there is almost no one you can find in washington who think we should have a softer reset of policy with the chinese and furthermore, increasingly, american allies around the world have their own set of issues with mainland china, was bad as this year has been for president trump and, of course, he is behind in the polls right now compared tojoe biden, it isa now compared tojoe biden, it is a lot worse for the chinese president. let's talk about him briefly. as you said, the us is

not the only country with which china is having difficulties right now. china, india, many of its neighbours in the dispute over the south china sea, what is the chinese strategy, do you think, when it comes to foreign policy, its overall objective, and do you think it is succeeding or failing? you have to mention the uk where i think that they relationship is deteriorating due to this national security law in hong kong rather than borisjohnson so profoundly following everything bar president trump on same to do. i think the chinese came out of this crisis more quickly than any other major economy in the world and they also were able to crush the carob of cases through surveillance and quarantine ina through surveillance and quarantine in a way that other countries were not able to, but still, it is a very difficult

situation for xi xinping before we speak internationally because of the cover—up inside china led to a much larger explosion of cases than otherwise would have occurred and a lot of people in china we re and a lot of people in china were upset about that. also flat growth in china this year, even with 6% stimulus of gdp is far worse than xi xinping ever thought he was going to have to deal with, so i think there is a level of insecurity in china's on leadership which has led them to become more reactive, more ethical tory and also more risk acceptance when it comes to other countries and foreign policies around the world and i think that has led to the escalation in hong kong, that has led the decision to send more troops to the contested territory with india in the himalayas and what led the chinese government to end up the chinese government to end up killing over 20 indian troops in that contested territory, so i think a lot has to do not so much with president trump, although the us election is coming up, but

actually more with what is going on in beijing. let's move away finally from the big, grand themes played out on the international themes and the role of presidents and leaders. for the average chinese citizen, the average european, the average american, what is the average american, what is the impact of these deteriorating relationships in their daily lives? how are people going to notice this big geopolitical tussle that is going on? if the phase one trade dealfalls going on? if the phase one trade deal falls apart, we will see more tariffs and the average american is going to spend a lot more on consumer goods. short of that, i think the big issue is that what we thought of as a world wide web where everyone has access pretty much the same sort of applications has basically broken into and the fact that united kingdom is not going to be using huawei means that information and consumer decisions that are being made by the us and the uk and canada and all the other wealthy democracies around the world is fundamentally different than those being made by the chinese

and some of the poorest country that are lying with china. it is not the globalisation we thought we were heading towards. ian bremner there. 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—i9 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. the headlines on bbc news. britain's prime minister, borisjohnson tells the bbc, his government didn't understand coronavirus at the start and could have handled things differently. us handled things differently. federal officials have re possess us federal officials have repossess the chinese consulate ordered shut by president trump as tensions in us — china relations continue to escalate.

president trump performed something of a u—turn this week and encouraged americans to wear masks. but he's stopped short of making them mandatory. 0ne place that wants to do that is the city of atlanta. but in a sign of how divisive the issue has become, georgia's state governor has launched a law suit to stop this happening. earlier i spoke to the medical journalist keren landman and asked her if it's important to see leaders adopting public health advice. i think it is critical. people take messages from the top and when we see our 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 aren't, there are stares, there is social pressure, a 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 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, we just can't really rely on people's internal intrinsic drive to do the right thing and place others' needs over their own. from your perspective working in public health and infectious 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 messages across? public health has been dealing with this question of how to message 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 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 condoms and hiv prevention as was pointed out in the atlantic not so long ago,

and i think we have to take that same approach here now, a harm reduction approach, a less judgmental approach, allowing people to feel like 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. 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. 0ur correspondent, katy watson sent this report from 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 americanopolis, 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 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 combination 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 mixed, and even black people in brazil sometimes have difficulty to see themselves as black because here it's 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 racism, 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 move 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. now — some dissappointing news for formula i fans. formula one 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. giselle zarur, a sports reporter for fox deportesjoined me earlier. as you know, the us is number one, brazil number two in positive cases, mexico in the top seven. canada, maybe a little bit further away from those numbers, but it is also a difficult moment for this country and, of course, for formula i to expose the drivers and teams, to make all that travelling and, of course, it is expensive to travel and have no spectators and, of course, the risk of getting the virus. can you just give us a sense of, obviously, it is a very big pa rt of, obviously, it is a very big part of the world and you will have to generalise, but a sense of just how important have to generalise, but a sense ofjust how important formula i is in the americas? well, to be honest, the four races are big moments. the weekends are

really heavy events for the cities, for example, in mexico city, 300,000 people attend the formula i grand prix weekend. they are sold—out events. the tickets are sold out before the event, so they are really massive event. actually, for example, the one in texas at the circuit of the americas and in mexico are the busiest events for formula i. in mexico are the busiest events for formula 1. there are a lot of fans, out—of—town visitors attending those races. it isa visitors attending those races. it is a big crush further tourism because, as i told you, during those weekends, mostly 95% of the occupancies of hotels, restaurants, so it is a big hit for those countries. and i wonder if it is a big hit

for formula i itself, for the industry and for the business, having to counsel these events and sort of reschedule over in other parts of the world. it's formula i going to be damaged by this? yes, it has been damaged already. they have last many races and, of course, without spectators, one of the biggest budgets that they have is from fans, so yes, formula i as an organisation has been losing with this virus. 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. it's the stuff dreams are made of. cheesy grins and a cheque for $22 million. it's not

everyday you win the lottery. it was quite an experience when i read the first two or three numbers andi i read the first two or three numbers and i handed them to her. and i said, are you jerking my chain? this friendship has lasted a lifetime, so that was no question when it came to upholding a gentleman's agreement made almost three decades ago. a handshake is a handshake, man. whenever the bigger winner comes, we're going to split it. so we buy every week. never really thinking it would happen. but it did. the odds of winning the powerball jackpot but it did. the odds of winning the powerballjackpot are estimated to be around one in 292 million and for these gracious joint 292 million and for these graciousjoint winners, it 292 million and for these gracious joint winners, it is not about grand plans but the opportunity to enjoy their retirement and make the most of precious time with their families. handshake is a handshake, that is certainly a motto to live

by. you can reach me on twitter — i'm @aaronsafir. i'll be back in a few moments with the headlines. thank for watching. hello again. i've been looking ahead to our weekend weather prospects and for saturday, i don't particularly like what i see. it will be a cloudy day for many of us without breaks of rain at times. looking at the satellite picture, to our west, you can see how extensive the cloud is and it is a complex area of low pressure which will bring different zones of rain across the country, a couple of weather fronts mixed in with this lot that will be pushing eastward. the first of those weather fronts is bringing rain at the moment to scotland, ireland and england, too. after that clears, we will be left with drizzle for northern ireland and some outbreaks of heavy rain and those murky conditions will extend to scotland. i human tonight with temperatures at 17 or 18 degrees for some.

tomorrow's forecast is a cloudy start with some drizzle around. i have mixed in thejet stream winds here and hopefully you can see a dip here which is responsible for the line of very heavy showers that will spread and across the republic and northern ireland saw heavy downpours around. as that dip in thejet downpours around. as that dip in the jet stream, a trough, hits the english channel, a wave will develop and there will be a bit of heavy rain across east anglia and southern england which could push into central or southern england, the midlands, ligature and yorkshire, there is some uncertainty about the exact zone of the heavy rain but some areas will get pretty wet in the east. as far as the cricket goes, i think we will see some interruptions to play for the third test on monday where it looks like a complete wash—out. one to watch as well. through saturday night, we will continue to see our bricks of rain clearing away from east anglia and south—east england. skies were clearfor a anglia and south—east england. skies were clear for a time and it will begin 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 although there will be some lengthy outbreaks of rain moving into north—west scotland and there will be a breezy kind of day but feeling significantly fresher, more lessons you might argue with more in the sunshine coming through. temperatures for most of us between 17 and 22 which will not feel too bad at all. into next week, for monday, a lot 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. the british by minister boris johnson has admitted his government didn't understand the nature of the coronavirus pandemic in its first few weeks and months. speaking to the bbc in an exclusive interview he said there were questions about whether loughton had been imposed today. us federal officials have repossessed the chinese consulate in houston days after president ordered its closure, as diplomatic relations between the world's two largest economies continue to deteriorate, china has retaliated by ordering the united states to alter one of its consulates in china. and authorities in iraq have created a city in the desert to bury the record number of people who have died from coronavirus. doctors have issued a stark warning that returning to normal life would be premature, as coronavirus cases continue to