we've got a good chance, a good chance, of being able to dispense with the one metre plus from zistjune. but what are the prospects forforeign holidays? the eu says it wants tourists back. also tonight... together in person — the foreign secretary holds talks with his us counterpart, saying they stand shoulder to shoulder against rivals like russia and china. warnings of a sharp rise in hate crime during the pandemic against people with east asian backgrounds.

in hard hit brazil, rolling out the covid vaccine in the remotest parts of the amazon. during and a capacity crowd watches on as the world snooker championships snooker championships conclude in sheffield. good evening. borisjohnson says there's a "good chance" that social distancing rules can end in england, onjune 21st, the final date of the government's roadmap out of lockdown. but the prime minister says it depends on coronavirus case numbers remaining low, with no spikes caused by variants from other countries. that fear clouds the debate on whether people should be booking foreign holidays. but the eu says it's easing covid travel restrictions next month, to allow more tourists in.

here's our political correspondent, iain watson. for so long now the message has been to stay apart, but today the prime minister was sounding optimistic that we could be able to move closer next month. it looks to me as thouthune 21st we'll be able to say social distancing as we currently have to do it, the one metre plus, i think we have got a good chance, a good chance, of being able to dispense with the one metre plus. that would make entertainment venues more viable, but the government's review on social distancing in england has yet to report and it's possible we might still be advised to wear masks in cinemas and theatres and on public transport. but the prospect of spring and summer sun seems to be moving closer. later this week, the government is expected to confirm it is lifting the ban on holidays abroad from england on may 17th. and today the eu raised the prospect of allowing nonessential travel

from countries with good rates of vaccination, such as the uk. but the government will impose a range of restrictions on travellers when they return home. a traffic light system of restrictions will be introduced in england from may 17th. if you come back from a country on the red list you need to book expensive hotel quarantine. if you are returning from a country on a new amber list, you will have to self—isolate at home. initially a small group of countries with high vaccination rates or low levels of virus will be on a green list. if you visited any of these, you will not need to quarantine, so long as you have proof of a negative test. but here at westminster a cross—party group of mps is rather cross about the prospect of reopening foreign travel in just a couple of weeks�* time. they are accusing the prime minister or potentially snatching defeat from the jaws of a victorious vaccination programme. they say the way in which you'd allow foreign travel to go ahead could be seriously flawed. when you've got surges happening

across the world which are likely going to be countries ending up on a red list, the people coming in from those countries will be mixing relatively freely with people from green countries and amber countries in those arrival halls. we are urging extreme caution and are actually asking the government to discourage leisure travel at this time. the labour leader also urged the government to proceed with caution. it's clear that the virus is increasing in some countries around the world, so we will have to be very careful. what we can't have is a repeat of last summer where the lists were chopping and changing on a daily or even weekly basis. in india, and some other parts of the world, covid is far from being under control, so there are politicians here who are concerned about making foreign travel any easier. and iainjoins me now. the prime minister and the government have been keen to emphasise the positives, after numerous days of pretty poor headlines.

numerous days of pretty poor headlines-_ numerous days of pretty poor headline— numerous days of pretty poor headlines. , ., ., , headlines. they have not entirely eliminated the _ headlines. they have not entirely eliminated the negative - headlines. they have not entirely eliminated the negative as - headlines. they have not entirely eliminated the negative as well. eliminated the negative as well because of the various enquiries going into how the downing street flat was funded and refurbished but the prime minister was keen to avoid any questions on that topic, a few days ahead of a crucial local election in england, and he wanted a straight forward optimistic tone. he said he did not want to deviate from the road map and that social restrictions could become a thing of the past in just seven weeks, and the past in just seven weeks, and the opposition would say he often promises more than he delivers but what is more interesting, as normality approaches, there is also great nervousness amongst some mps, as well, so we had concerns raised about foreign travel. the prime minister is keen to say that he is being cautious and does not want an influx of deceit so when the experts pronounce on foreign travel later this week, it is likely there will be very few countries on the green list which might infuriate some of boris johnson's own

list which might infuriate some of borisjohnson�*s own mps who say that the data suggests we should return to normal life more swiftly.- to normal life more swiftly. thanks for “oininu to normal life more swiftly. thanks forjoining us- _ well, as iain mentioned in his report, the eu is looking to welcome tourists from next month. let's get more from our europe correspondent, jean mackenzie, who's in brussels. what are they saying where you are? the plan here is to allow anyone who can prove they have been fully vaccinated for at least two weeks to come on holiday here this summer, people who haven't been vaccinated will still be allowed in, as long as they are coming from countries with relatively low infection rates. as it stands at the moment that would include visitors from the uk, but all this looked impossible just a couple of months ago with the eu's vaccination programme off to a stuttering start, but rates have picked up significantly over the last few weeks and this is why the eu believes it is time to open its doors. these are still proposals and

they need to be signed off by the member states, they need to be signed off by the memberstates, but they need to be signed off by the member states, but they are offering a massive lifeline to europe's battered tourist industry which is terribly hoping that this summer is not as bleak as the last. but this is notjust about holidays, of course, at the president of the european commission, ursula von der leyen said earlier on twitter it was time to rekindle cross—border friendships, a reminder that so many of us are still separated from family and people we love. indeed. thanks forjoining _ family and people we love. indeed. thanks forjoining us. _ the latest government figures show there were 1,649 new coronavirus infections, recorded in the latest 24—hour period, which means on average, 2,129 new cases were reported per day in the last week. there was a single death recorded in the latest 2a hour period, that's of someone who died within 28 days of a positive covid—19 test,

and that's the lowest number since august, but the figures are often down after the weekend. on average in the past week, 15 deaths were announced every day. the total number is now 127,539. on vaccinations, more than 34.5 million people have now had their first dose of a covid vaccine, and more than 15.5 million people have had two doses. the foreign secretary, dominic raab, and his american counterpart, antony blinken, have been holding talks in london, saying they stand "shoulder to shoulder," on how best to tackle rivals likes china, russia and iran. mr blinken said the us has "no closer ally and no closer partner" than the uk ,and mr raab added that likeminded nations around the world needed to work together. their meeting comes ahead of the ministerial gathering of the g7 group of industrialised countries tomorrow. our diplomatic correspondent, james landale reports. this is antony blinken, america's

new top diplomat, in london to meet the foreign secretary and reaffirm the transatlantic relationship. with both sides hoping their only disagreement will be who stands where. after four years of early—morning tweets and diplomatic tensions, mr blinken laid it on thick. there was, he said, no closer ally, no closer partner. that special relationship is enduring, its effective, its dynamic and it is close to the hearts of the american people. we are connected by ties of friendship, family, history, shared values and shared sacrifice. and crucially during their talks, both sides agreed on the need for members of the g7 and other like—minded nations to do more to defend open societies and international rules from authoritarian countries like russia and china. i do see the increasing demand and need for agile clusters

of like—minded countries that share the same values and want to protect the multilateral system. and i think you can see that in the guests that we brought into the 67, korea, south korea, india, australia and south africa. the pandemic, of course, will overshadow this meeting, with delegates talking through masks and screens after daily on—site tests. their focus, not only india, but also new ways of getting vaccines to poor countries. they'll also agree measures to tackle famine and encourage millions more girls into school. just as the british government cuts funding for both, prompting accusations of hypocrisy from cross—party critics. how can britain claim to show global leadership at the g7 when it is cutting so much foreign aid? even after the cuts that we have had to make, not only because of the pressing covid situation, the biggest contraction of our economy for 300 years, double the budget deficit we faced after the financial crash,

we are still putting £10 billion in as a proportion of gdp, still the third biggest g7 donor. so begins three days of crucial diplomacy. as the foreign secretary plays host to the uk's allies, and his global britain foreign policy is put to the test. james landale, bbc news. let's take a look at some of today's other news. billionaires bill and melinda gates have said they will end their marriage after 27 years. thejoint statement said the decision came after "a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship". for over 20 years, the couple have run the gates foundation together, which is committed to fighting poverty, disease and inequality in the world. sirjeffrey donaldson has officially launched his bid to become the next leader of the democratic unionist party. he says he's convinced northern ireland's "best days are ahead". he'll be taking on the dup agriculture minister edwin poots for the leadership. arlene foster steps down,

at the end of the month. premier league clubs will be required to sign up to a new owners' charter, with "significant sanctions" for breaches of rules, in the wake of the proposed breakaway european super league. liverpool, manchester united, manchester city, arsenal, chelsea and tottenham, all sparked outrage from fans with plans to join the new competition. this weekend, football clubs and their players have been boycotting social media in protest over online abuse and racism. the stand comes as police in london say the number of hate crimes against people of east asian descent has tripled since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, but it's thought many incidents across the uk go unreported. our special correspondent, fergal keane, has been meeting some of the victims. one old white lady, she uses herfinger, points out to me and screams at me, saying, "yol- chinese, - you have the chinese virus,

just go back to your country". translation: when the train - was approaching camden road station, the tall, young white man who was sat next to me started making a noise, trying to get phlegm up from his throat. and when the train stopped at the station, he spat at me. i was on my way home and this kid shouted "coronavirus" at me. - there was no one else in the street and it was directed at me, - and this happened at the start of the pandemic. _ anti—asian racism didn't begin with the pandemic, but victims say it has escalated dramatically. this has exploded since the beginning of the virus. this really affects both the emotions and mental health and the whole atmosphere in the community. dr pong wang was jogging near his home in southampton when racist comments were shouted from a car. they punched me on my face and my nose was badly hit.

the physical injury can be healed very easily, but most importantly, it is the inner side. how do you restore yourfaith in humans? the fear around coronavirus has helped inflame xenophobic attitudes around the world. conspiracy theories have spread online. and victims told us the rhetoric of some leaders caused enduring harm. donald trump: the chinese virus. ..kung flu. the nation which unleashed this plague onto the world, china. the issues in america transfer themselves over to the uk quite regularly, and obviously, that is in the media regularly as well. so it gives a voice to people and somebody as powerful as trump, with his views,

emboldened the racists. it's an atmosphere in which older prejudices have revived. dan su's supermarket symbolises a korean family that is fully integrated into british society. but recently, his wife and baby daughter were racially abused in an affluent west london suburb. i remember very clearly feeling how sad i was. it was my first reaction. because this is the country that i was born in and i grew up in, and i love... ..everything about this country. communities long established in britain, part of the country's culturalfabric, are being targeted. the sense of belonging, reflected in london's chinese new year celebrations, is challenged by racism. now, an opposition mp of chinese descent wants tougher policing of hate crime. we've got to get really tough with social media sites that allow and spread hatred online,

and as well as that dehumanising kind of rhetoric and racism, there is, on the other hand as well, this racism that is a conspiracy theory, that we are trying to take over the world. in these and many other lives, the politics of the pandemic and superpower rivalries have unleashed fear. but also, a determination to confront prejudice. translation: i am not a virus. why did he spit at me and discriminate against me? just because i look asian, it doesn't mean i'm a virus. fergal keane, bbc news. brazil continues to struggle with high coronavirus infection rates and deaths. it's one of the hardest hit countries with more than 400,000 people who've died. the government there is now trying to speed up its vaccination programme, following criticism it is too slow. our correspondent mark lowen has

been looking at the vaccination roll out in one of the most remote areas of the country, the islands of bailique, in the amazon. as day breaks over the amazon, it's a race to protect its people. we are on a journey to one a brazil's most remote corners, the archipelago of bailique, following health care workers as they deliver covid vaccines to the isolated communities overcoming every obstacle. here, close to the equator, dominique oliveira says temperature gauges keep the astrazeneca jabs inside at minus eight degrees. once opened they must be used within 48 was. be used within 48 hours. if you thought rolling out vaccines in cities was tough, this is brazil's logistical challenge. the government is way behind where it should be but reaching vulnerable communities

is a priority. it feels like brazil is trying to go to the ends of the earth to inoculate everybody in this enormous country. the medics land with treasure for the islands. it's house—to—house to deliver it. translation: | got| the virus a year ago. and i saw death. i drank lemon and ginger tea. we are far from the city and people can't afford to go there so it's a blessing from god that they came to our homes. with no hospitals here, this is literally a lifeline to islands already under threat from erosion. translation: the transmission rate is very high here with poor hygiene. i if one gets infected it can bring down the whole island. they are abandoned by the government so when we brought the first doses we all cried because we were bringing hope here. the fact is that brazil has the experience of inoculating these

cut off communities. past national vaccine campaigns against flu, polio, rubella and swine flu have been quick and successful. the problem this time is that it was just too slow to buy covid vaccines, meaning that deaths have soared and communities were left unprotected. on one island they call residents to the school to receive jabs. traditional villages learning new methods. but it's all too late for the over 400,000 brazilians who have died, including the brother of this man. translation: i am so sad. i still can't believe that he's dead. if he'd been vaccinated in time he would have been saved. the government did not care about the pandemic at the start. they called it just a little flu. the fact we are getting the vaccine here is an honourfor us. as the last of the day get their doses, it becomes quite a show. there's vaccine hesitancy in these isolated areas.

maybe the snaps will inspire others. and so a virus shield has now arrived for those here, brought along the mighty amazon, a source of life. mark lowen, bbc news, bailique, northern brazil. in the last few moments the world snooker championships in sheffield, have been won by mark selby. he beat shaun murphy by 18 frames to 15, and watched for the first time in more than a year at a major sporting event, by a capacity crowd. here's our sports correspondent, joe lynskey in front of a capacity crucible crowd... the seats were full, the sound is real. this was sport in the uk with a capacity crowd, the first we've seen since last march. a step out of lockdown and a platform for two snooker players. shaun murphy feeds off the crowd but he came into this last session three frames behind. every time he crept back in,

mark selby found a way. selby�*s won the world championship three times before. through this year's tournament he's been consistent and clinical. the crucible holds 980 people. the players hear every gasp and groan on the table. crowd groans. ooh, so close! one mistake is often enough for mark selby. his snooker�*s been unforgiving. this final, though, is about more thanjust the trophy. sport has spent a year in the silence. now, for nearly 1000 fans, it's good to be back. joe lynskey, bbc news. it was a ratings winner for line of duty on bbc one last night with almost 13 million people tuning in to watch the finale of the sixth series. it's the biggest tv drama audience, not including soaps, for more than 20 years.

viewers wanted to learn the identity of the mysterious "",h finally revealed in the police corruption drama, created by jed mecurio. that's it. there's more throughout the evening on the bbc news channel, but now on bbc one time for the news where you are. have a very good night.

hello. this is bbc news. we're just a few days away from the local elections, with different polls taking place depending on where you live. our correspondent lewis goodall has been taking a look at what's happening where. there is a bumper crop of elections coming up, the biggest set of elections, the biggest democratic test for the three major parties this side of the next general election. let's look at some of the contests across the country. we have 143 english councils, 5000 seats. some places half of the chamber, some places, two thirds because some of those seats have councillors that

should have been elected in 2020 but weren't. 109 msps should have been elected in 2020 but weren't.109 msps in should have been elected in 2020 but weren't. 109 msps in holyrood up for election. all of the welsh assembly. we've seen the power those bodies have during the pandemic. in england as well, police and crime commissioners. 25 seats for the london assembly and the london mail —— the london mayor as well. what do you have to do when you get in the voting booth? it may be more complicated than you think, it depends where you live. in scotland and wales, you get two votes. one for your local constituency member and then another vote for the regional list. this vote, effectively, helps parties which don't do so well in the local constituencies, but do still score well overall in the election, tops their representation up, gives them extra seats, makes the overall system more proportionate.

but that is different, of course, if you're in england and voting on english local councils. there, it's our old friend, welcome its first past the post. it's one voter, one candidate, one vote, whichever candidate gets one more vote than all of the other candidates, they are elected, whichever party controls more than 50% of the seats in the local chamber, they control the local council. and if they are not able to get more than 50% of the seats, then they have to form a coalition with another party. and then it's different again if you're voting in the english mayoral elections or the police and crime commissioners. there, there's something called the supplementary vote system. voters get two preferences. if no candidate gets over 50% of the vote, then the other candidates are eliminated one by one and the preferences of those voters are redistributed until you get over 50% of the vote for one candidate and, hey presto, you've got a mayor, you've got an english local police and crime commissioner. but of course, the one thing that

unites all of these elections is the fact that they are taking place in very, very different circumstances than we might expect, certainly compared to the halcyon days in the 1950s here, this is taking place in a global pandemic. very different sets of elections. covid secure voting stations. asked to vote by post. and you just can't know what effect all of that is going to have on turnout. could be much lower, could be much higher, if lots of people choose to vote by post who wouldn't normally do so. and therefore, this is very unpredictable set of elections and we can't know what power they are going to have in order to give us wider insights into the trend going on in our politics more generally. last month, two menjumped into the river thames to save a woman who had fallen in.

one of the rescuers, folajimi olubunmi—adewole, died. the other man, joaquin garcia, managed to reach the woman and keep her afloat until the police arrived. graham satchell has been to meet him. bell tolls. at one end of london bridge, a collection of flowers to remember folajimi olubunmi—adewole, known to his friends asjimi. just over a week ago, jimi was on his way home from work, when he tried to rescue a woman who'd fallen into the thames. it was a remarkable act of bravery. also on the bridge that night wasjoaquin garcia. he heardjimi shouting, and ran over to help. he started to point to the river saying, "she's there, she's there." so i saw on the river, the girl. well, i actually saw two hands and one face just splashing, trying to keep on float. he told me, "are you going tojump? are you jumping?" and i said, "yes". jimi started to count like, "ok, let's do it. three, two..." and i couldn't think

on it, so ijustjumped. and that's the last time i sanimi. it was cold, dark, dangerous. joaquin swam out towards the woman and eventually found her. she was not very conscious. i couldn't see her eyes at any moment. she was just blinking and splashing. and i started to swallow water. and i remember turning to the right, like, i'm looking for help. i don't know if i was looking forjimi, i was looking for anyone at that moment that i started to swallow water. isaid, "ok, listen, listen to me, listen to me. keep calm. do the plank, let's do the plank, ok?" so i think she heard me, luckily, and she managed to do the plank. the coastguard and the police found the woman, and continued to search forjimi, but couldn't find him. his body was eventually discovered in the early hours of the morning. joaquin was taken to hospital.

early the next day, he contacted his parents back home in spain. i think my father was the first time to call me back, and he told me... .."i didn't understand really well, but did you save someone's life?" and i said... .."yes". and he started to say... .."thank you, you are... "..you're very good, thank you for being like you are." and he told me to don't do it again. and when i called my mother, i think she was just reading it,

because i called her and i couldn't hear nothing but crying. a park in south london and a vigil to honourjimi's selfless act of heroism. jimi has been nominated for a bravery award by the city of london police. but there is a campaign now for him to get the highest civilian award for courage, the george cross. i have been lucky, because we are more or less the same age. and i just want to say that i totally... ..support the campaign that there is forjimi to take a medalfor his honour and his braveness. crowd cheers.