this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. i am joanna gosling. india's prime minister narendra modi says the surge in coronavirus cases has shaken the nation — his comments come as the country hits a record number of new cases for the fourth day in a row. a fire sweeps through a hospital treating coronavirus patients in baghdad, killing at least 82 people according to iraqi officials. labour calls for the government to face mps over the refurbishment of the prime minister's downing street flat. but the government denies claims that borisjohnson broke the rules. the government has to answer to why they had given out billions of pounds of money to their cronies and their friends and they won't even declare it through

the current rules. the costs are being covered by the prime minister and everything is being fully declared, in line with the rules. england's biggest football teams and the sport's governing bodies will stage a four—day boycott of social media from next friday, to campaign for social media companies to crack down on online abuse. hello and welcome if you're watching in the uk or around the world. india's prime minister says the surge in coronavirus cases across the country has shaken the nation. narendra modi was speaking after india registered a world record number of new coronavirus cases for the fourth day in a row. nearly 350,000 infections were reported in the latest daily figures, as well as more than 2,700 deaths.

across the country, hospitals are being overwhelmed by the new cases and running out of oxygen to help them breathe. simonjones reports. patients continue to arrive at hospital struggling to breathe, needing urgent treatment. but the health system is close to collapse. almost 350,000 new cases in the latest daily figures, another record. this man is desperate to find help for his sister in delhi. translation: i've been trying nonstop for three days from one hospital to another. i've never seen anything so terrible ever in my life. what's needed above all is oxygen. patients are dying because it is running out. but these are the scenes inside many hospitals, pushed to their limits. the world health organization says the situation in india is a devastating reminder of what coronavirus can do and doctors are feeling the strain. it's been 20 years or so i've been

doing this profession and i've never seen this kind of crisis situation. i hope that nobody else sees it, and we never see it again because the kind of numbers are there, the lack of infrastructure we are facing, these supplies and the physical stress, because it is a highly contagious illness, the health care workers are also getting infected. it is acting as a double whammy, as well as having problems from manpower as well as supplies. it is a very, very difficult scenario. at this plant in the state of uttah pradesh, hospital staff are among those queueing up, trying to get supplies of oxygen. the government says it is distributing it to some of the hardest—hit areas, using the train and also the plane. the air force has been called in to help. customs duties on imports of medical grade oxygen had been axed to try to boost availability.

but critics say it is too little, too late. earlier this year, the government thought it had beaten the virus — with cases falling, vaccines were being exported. the health minister said india was in the endgame of the pandemic but the emergence of new variants, as well as mass gatherings has completely changed the picture. the us is promising additional support for india, to tackle what it is calling an horrific outbreak with record numbers of new cases and deaths, there will be many tough days ahead. simon jones, bbc news. devinda gupta is our correspondent in delhi and earlier she gave us this update on the measures being take to improve oxygen supplies. right now, it is justlike a drop in an ocean. the need far outweighs what is being done currently. the city where i am, delhi, which has reported over 300 deaths for the third straight day. it needs at least i33% more oxygen than the normal days.

even by establishing the transport corridors simon talked about, by airlifting or running special oxygen trains from neighbouring states, to bring oxygen here to delhi, experts say only 12%—15% of demand will be met, which will leave a high shortfall. i was speaking to a doctor in a city hospital who said they are fast running out of oxygen and will be stopping admissions of pressure patients and critical patients because they are stretched for resources. a lockdown announced in delhi a week back has been extended just this morning, so it gives time for public health workers to ramp up the resources and try to break the cycle. we also heard india'a prime minister talking about the need to ramp up the vaccination drive. he says it is one sure shot immunity against the mass spread we're seeing. as other cities are grappling with similar situations, india has reached out for global aid. the united states is one of the countries offering help. we saw singapore and hong kong yesterday sending in

additional supplies to india. in fact india's neighbour, pakistan, where tensions have been historically high with that neighbour, they have offered support in these times and says they can send additional ventilators. the time is quite limited. we are talking notjust about tens but hundreds of thousands of cases emerging in different parts of the country. we can speak now to barkha dutt, a journalist and columnist for the washington post who is based in delhi and covering the coronavirus situation on the ground. thank you very much forjoining us. what is the latest in terms of where this is going? because the figures arejust extraordinary, this is going? because the figures are just extraordinary, aren't they? joanna, i would say this country is facing an unprecedented crisis. i've been a journalist for 25 years and i have never seen the country in this level of despair. i have been to multiple hospitals, multiple

cremation grounds and graveyards across cities, and across states, and what is happening is that hospitals are putting up notices at their gates saying they will no longer take any patients, because the oxygen supply is that limited. in the capital city alone, the last two days, i visited two hospitals were 25 patients each, 50 deaths, just like that, have taken place because there was no oxygen. there are questions that are being raised about whether we are even accurately counting our dad, and whether we are even accurately counting how many cases there are. and the reason for thatis cases there are. and the reason for that is because when we tabulate and compare, the funeral players, for example, that i have personally counted at a cremation ground, and i tally it with the official data coming out of that district, we see a grave and enormous mitch marsh. similarly with testing, there is an unprecedented pressure on testing

centres. you can give a swap today and it could be four days until you get the result. we do not actually know if the horrific figures are even telling us the scale of the crisis, and one doctor says he feels like he has been sent into a nuclear war and been asked to fight it wielding a stick. what i am sensing on the ground is that the heartbreak of a nation is now turning into fury. we have met patients lashing out, unfairly, at doctors and hospitals who have been betrayed by governance and administrations that will not give them the necessary infrastructure. finally, let me share with you something i found really chilling. i met a 21—year—old boy he was asked to sign a consent form to get his father admitted into a public hospital, the consent form had to say that if his father died from the absence of oxygen or a ventilator, it would be no one's fault. i then discovered that hospitals across the country are making people sign similar consent forms. it's not theirfault, they don't have the equipment, they don't

have the oxygen, they don't have the ventilators. but to me, it seemed like a modern day death warrant. imagine having to sign a piece of paper that basically says, you know, if your father, daughter, paper that basically says, you know, if yourfather, daughter, husband or brother dies, it is no one�*s. it’s brother dies, it is no one's. it's “ust brother dies, it is no one's. it's just unbelievable, and how to get our heads around the scale of what happening there. in terms of managing it, getting a grip on it, improving the medical supplies, how much is being done? is there a clear strategy? i much is being done? is there a clear strate: ? ~ �* , much is being done? is there a clear strate: ? ~' �* , ., , ., strategy? i think there's finally a realisation of _ strategy? i think there's finally a realisation of the _ strategy? i think there's finally a realisation of the highest - strategy? i think there's finally a realisation of the highest levels l strategy? i think there's finally a l realisation of the highest levels of government that this is a national emergency, that this is a country in mourning. but until we got to this point, i would say until four or five days ago, some were enraged that we continue to have mammoth political rallies in the eastern state, the top leaders, both regional opposition leaders as well as the prime minister and her minister, continued to address major election rallies that could sometime see crowds of hundreds of thousands.

we continue to have religious congregations, the largest and the most popular in the state of uttar pradesh. it is absolutely insane that there was this kind of mixed messaging, where you are telling individual citizens to go into lockdown, to follow covid appropriate behaviour, but you had your politicians basically address gatherings, and gatherings in the hundreds of thousands. and questions will still be asked as the big vaccine roll—out begins on the 1st of may, why this roll—out was delayed, why we were gifting and exporting vaccines to other countries when we were looking at this crisis, and why contingency measures were not put in place. now, we finally have an emergency response system, but there is a fear that it might be too late for the second wave and measures that are being taken are actually looking at what epidemiologists are warning could be a third wave. at the moment, we have people dying on the streets of the capital, outside hospitals that do not have space for them. it is that bad. there are mass cremation is mass deaths that are

taking place across india.- taking place across india. barkha, thank ou taking place across india. barkha, thank you for— taking place across india. barkha, thank you forjoining _ taking place across india. barkha, thank you forjoining us. - three days of mourning has been declared in iraq following a fire in which at least 82 people have died, and over 100 injured and many missing in a hospital in the capital baghdad. the fire — reportedly caused by an exploding oxygen tank — tore through an intensive care ward with patients on ventilators, unable to move. 0ur middle—east correspondent in beirut, lina sinjab gave us the latest. it's really horrific news. as you said, the prime minister has called for three days of mourning and called for an investigation into this negligence, as he describes it. this hospital was dedicated for covid—i9 cases. imagine this situation with lots of people trying to recover on ventilators. the fire broke and they were out of breath. many accounts came in to say people were running out, jumping out of windows, trying to escape from

the fire, the smoke. sadly at least 27 are confirmed dead with dozens of others injured because of this. there were many ambulances rushing into the hospital. iraq has known there were at least i million coronavirus cases and lots of death as well. it is a really bad situation in iraq at the moment. on top of that, to have a fire where people had nowhere to escape, to take some breath, to be able to survive. the uk's international trade secretary liz truss has denied claims that borisjohnson broke the rules over refurbishing his downing street flat. it follows allegations made by the prime minister's former chief advisor. dominic cummings claimed mrjohnson considered what he called "possibly illegal" plans to have party donors fund the work. downing street says borisjohnson paid for it himself, and that nothing improper took place. this report from iain watson contains flashing images from the start.

out, but not down. boris johnson's closest advisor left downing street in november but now, dominic cummings has not only denied that he leaked some of the prime minister's text messages, he has also opened a pandora's box of accusations against his former boss. the most serious is that the funding of last year's renovation of the downing street flat where the prime minister lives with his fiancee, carrie symonds, was not above board amid to reports that cost was spiralling out of control. in a blog, dominic cummings says: the government says the prime minister is paying for the works himself and that no codes of conduct nor electoral law were broken. the electoral commission is looking into whether there were any undeclared donations. number 10 says all donations that needed to be reported have been,

but labour is accusing the government of not playing fair. they want to know if any conservative donor was initially involved in the funding and are calling for more transparency and an inquiry. publish the details, have the full inquiry. if there is nothing to see here, whether it is the refurb of number 10, whether it is the dodgy contracts, whether the privileged access, if there is nothing to see, publish everything, have a full inquiry because that — you know, sunlight is the best disinfectant. but a former adviser on standards in government thinks that more information, rather than a new inquiry, is what is needed. we've probably got enough inquiries going on. it's actual concrete, hard evidence which demonstrate where things have gone wrong that is critical now, and cummings might be able tojust provide some of that. and dominic cummings has a means of communicating what he knows. next month, he will be able to give evidence publicly to a joint committee of mps on the government's handling of the pandemic. the prime minister's former advisor

clearly believes that the best form of defence is attack. he is now questioning borisjohnson�*s competence and his integrity, and dominic cummings says he is happy to have every e—mail that he has sent and received during his time here at number 10 published. dominic cummings is showing no signs of getting back in his box, and that could be bad news for his former boss. iain watson, bbc news. let's get more on this from our political correspondent, damian grammaticas yes, this morning, the question that has arisen from all of this, and that the talk show has been focusing on this morning, downing street saying, well, no rules were broken, codes were followed, the prime minister paid himself. but the question then, as dominic cummings alleges, did the prime minister discuss or want to have some plan for tory donors to pay for it, and did he actually get help with that?

remember, liz truss was saying that the costs, she was saying, are being covered. so the question was repeatedly put to her by andrew marr, this is less —— liz truss, the question is did borisjohnson get help from a donor to pay for this. my understanding is the costs have been covered by the prime minister, and everything is being fully declared, in line with the rules. did a tory party donor lend him the money beforehand? as i said, he is covering the costs, and it's being complied with fully... did a donor provide the money beforehand? andrew... i am spending my time in an intense trade negotiations, getting a good deal for the united kingdom. i'm not spending my time thinking about the downing street flat refurbishment. that question was put again, you can see she had a carefulformulation and did not deny. labour saying they believe there needs to be

investigations, transparency, not just about this but about many questions. they say minister interests, that has not been published the register of that. it had not been published since the middle of last year. one is due, or overdue, some would say. also the question of the government's contracts in the covid crisis, the vip list, where they say people were bumped up the list for huge contracts with huge amounts of money, the issue of the cost of the refurbishment. labour's adaptive leader, angela rayner, says these are all questions that they want answered in the inquiry. well, they should do. not just because the - labour party demands it, because the public deserve it. it's taxpayer's money, i at a time of a pandemic where 3 million self—employed are without support, _ and many of our businesses - are worried about what they are going to be able to do over| the next couple of months, and what support they'll get, - they demand it and they deserve it. the government have to answer to why they have given out billions _ of pounds of money to their cronies and theirfriends, _ and they won't even declare it through the current rules. - publish the members interests i

of ministers interests and publish who is on that vip list, i tell us about where you're getting this money from, boris, to do up your flat. | labour have turned this tory sleaze, they know that was damaging 20 years ago. the government says that in this case the rules have been followed. at the questions are still there and being asked. let s get some of the day's other news. presidentjair bolsonaro has threatened to deploy the armed forces on the streets of brazilian cities if lockdown measures imposed by state governors generate chaos. he's described the restrictions as cruelty against those who need to earn a living, saying they could cause widespread hunger and riots. the president of indonesia has announced that the submarine that had been missing since wednesday had been found sunken in the bali sea by the navy. joko widodo sent his condolences to the families of the 53 crew members who were on board. the hunt for the submarine has now turned into a salvage effort.

the world health organisation is calling for renewed efforts to eliminate malaria. it's making the appeal to mark world malaria day. the disease kills more than 400,000 people a year — most of them children. the who says at least 25 countries, including botswana, thailand, and south africa — have the potential to eradicate malaria within the next five years. the headlines on bbc news... india's prime minister narendra modi says the surge in coronavirus cases has shaken the nation — his comments come as the country hits a record number of new cases for the fourth day in a row. a fire sweeps through a hospital treating coronavirus patients in baghdad, killing at least 82 people according to iraqi officials. labour calls for the government to face mps over the refurbishment of the prime minister's downing street flat. but the government denies claims that borisjohnson broke the rules.

england's biggest football teams and the sport's governing bodies are staging a four—day boycott of social media from next friday. clubs across the premier league, english football league, women's super league and women's championship will switch off their facebook, twitter and instagram accounts to emphasise that social media companies must do more to eradicate online hate. helping to lead the boycott is anti—discrimination charity kick it out. i spoke with the organisation's chair, sanjay bhandari. the reason we are doing this, i suppose, is threefold. first to signal our collective anger at the damage that online abuse causes to people who play, watch and love the game. the second is to show unity with those victims and the third is that this is a symbolic gesture, we accept it is a symbolic gesture, but it is a gesture to those with power saying you need to act, you need to do more and create change. those with power in this situation

are two sets of people, social media companies and the government. we want both of them to do more. we have seen some high—profile football star speaking out about this. tell us more about the damage, from your perception, that online abuse has to those who are getting it. it can impact performance as a player and can impact on mental health and physical health of anyone on the receiving end of this. if you are a keyboard warrior, it might feel like it is an anonymous and victimless crime. it's not. there are real people at the end of this who are receiving torrents of abuse, directly into their eyeballs. i defy anyone to be unaffected by that. 0ne footballer on the end of receiving abuse said if he posts any footage breaching rights, it will get taken down immediately.

but things that are offensive get left up. his point is the technology is there for companies to tackle this if they want to. what are your thoughts on that? that is the feeling we all have in football. these organisations are massive organisations. facebook is the fifth biggest company on the planet, worth three—quarters of a trillion dollars. these are organisations with the resources of a nation state. they make their money out of contextual analytics. they know exactly what we are doing when we are doing it and when to sell us stuff, when we had been looking at something five minutes before on a different website. they have the technology, we want them to use it against hate and notjust selling us stuff.

it will be an 0scars like no other. part of the oscars will be broadcast live from a train station, honouring films few saw in movie theatres or cinemas, and reuniting hollywood's a—listers for the first time in more than a year due to covid—i9. what than a year due to covid—i9. a year. it should be at parties what a year. it should be about parties and champagne. this year, there is few added extras, like covid tests, vaccines and quarantine, and the ceremonial itself is being held on a train station. notjust any train station! union station — an iconic landmark in the movie capital of the world. union station is a life—breath in so many ways, it's a story of los angeles — in so many ways. and, it's featured in more than 200 hollywood movies. the list is huge, but a few stand out. union station, where union station played a train station, they played it in chicago, but nonetheless, it's our station.

when you come to something as recent as the dark knight rises, the batman trilogy, the way we were — you look for union station in that movie, you will find it. supporting roles, or leading lady, she fills the bill. so, this is where the magic will happen. the vast majority of the ceremony will take place right here, in—person, there'll be no zoom calls, and there's a dress code, there's been a very clear no—thanks to sweat pants. it will be smaller, only nominees and one guest have been invited. the producer of aardman�*s shaun the sheep: farmageddon will be among them. i'm slightly nervous, if i'm really honest! i think it's kind of weird — for a lot of us, we've spent over i2—plus months sitting in our houses, not really going out and socialising. and suddenly we're going to be at this event. so, it's a bit exciting, nervous, kind of unsure what to expect, but you know, to have

the opportunity to go is fantastic. composer and director chris bowers has been nominated for �*a concerto is a conversation�*, a short documentary about his family. do you know what it's going to be like? yeah, they did tell us that its going to be something where they only have a certain amount of seats and the audience will be rotated in and out, so people are controlled in how many people are in a space at one time, i guess. people had to get tested and most people are vaccinated. once you are on the premises, i think it is like masks—off and it will definitely feel like, as normal as they can make it, which would be pretty wild, definitely the biggest event i've been to since covid started. so, finally, the oscars buzz is building. oh, the finale is going to be sensational and we're building to it now. you can feel it. when you — when you see the transformation, of what is happening inside the station, and the wild anticipation you feel, your heart quickens. because it's so good. sophie long, bbc news —

not in hollywood, but downtown la. now it's time for a look at the weather with ben rich, hello. for the vast majority it is turning into yet another dry and mostly sunny day. but with cool easterly winds developing, especially across england and wales, it is feeling cooler, compared with yesterday. high pressure in charge of the scene giving dry and settled area. winds around high pressure flow in a clockwise direction which is pulling some rather cool air in across some parts of england and wales. the easterly wind is also pulling in some cloud, rolling in across eastern parts of england, some of it getting across into the midlands and east wales, tending to break up as it goes. there will still be sunny spells. the odd shower popping up across high ground in highland scotland. any showers which do develop, quite slow—moving. the winds will be light,

stronger winds further south. quite gusty in the south—west of england and the channel islands. the lowest temperatures will be on the east coast, the highest temperatures will be in shelter further west. 16 for cardiff, 17 for liverpool and glasgow, maybe 17 in the western counties of northern ireland as well. this evening and overnight it will stay dry for the majority. but we will bring more of this cloud in across england, getting into wales. at the other end of the uk more cloud into north—west scotland. in this clear slot, here, southern scotland, the far north of england, northern ireland, that is where we are most likely to see a touch of frost. if you are waiting for rain, this weather feature is going to bring some over the next few days, bringing some rain on monday across scotland. quite heavy bursts of rain, actually. could see the odd shower breaking out in northern ireland and maybe the north of england. further south, another predominantly sunny day. still quite windy through the channel islands, but the wind using a touch for southern england, the south of wales. highest temperatures, for parts of england and wales, 16 degrees.

turning a bit chillier to the north—west. if you are waiting for rain down in the south, on tuesday, some of the wet weather will migrate southwards. it will break up into showers. quite hit and miss. some places will fall through the gaps and stay completely dry. warmer in the south—east, turning chillier to the north. the cooler air will spread southwards through the middle of the week. one or two showers but still quite a lot of dry weather around. a similar story in the north. any showers on the high ground in scotland could start to turn wintry.

hello, this is bbc news. the headlines... india's prime minister, narendra modi, says the surge in coronavirus cases has shaken the nation —

his comments come as the country hits a record number of new cases for the fourth day in a row. a fire sweeps through a hospital treating coronavirus patients in baghdad, killing at least 82 people according to iraqi officials. labour calls for the government to face mps over the refurbishment of the prime minister's downing street flat. but the government denies claims that borisjohnson broke the rules. the government has to answer to why they had given out billions of pounds of money to their cronies and their friends, and they won't even declare it through the current rules. the costs are being covered by the prime minister and everything is being fully declared, in line with the rules. england's biggest football teams and the sport's governing bodies will stage a four—day boycott of social media from next friday to campaign for social media companies to crack down on online abuse.