Hello and welcome if youre watching in the uk or around the world. Its easter monday, april the 5th. Our top story. Everyone in england will be offered two free rapid covid tests each week from this friday, under the governments plans to expand its testing programme. The health secretary, matt hancock, says the additional tests will play a crucial role in curbing future outbreaks of the virus as life returns to normal. Our Health Correspondent jim reed reports. Rapid Lateral Flow Tests are already being used to test Secondary School pupils, families with children and those who cannot work from home. From the end of the week, they will be offered to everyone in england. These devices give a result in 30 minutes. They can be picked up from a local Testing Centre or pharmacy or ordered online and delivered in the post. Even when people have no symptoms, they may be infected and they may be infectious. And if we can catch those people early, then we can break transmission and that reduces the number of people who are infected, it reduces the likelihood of new variants and it helps keep everybody safer. The government says the twice weekly tests will be crucial to help prevent outbreaks in the future. But labour said the Mass Testing Programme must be backed by improved Financial Support so those told to isolate can afford it. And some scientists have questioned the accuracy of the tests, especially in people who dont have symptoms. The tests are not good at ruling out and saying you dont have covid. We have to be very careful to get a message to everybody that says if the test is negative, behave the same way, dont believe you havent got covid. Dont go and kiss and cuddle your granny or your grandad, because its not a test that tells us that. Its not a good enough test. The government claims the kits are extremely accurate, particularly when it comes to identifying the most infectious cases. In england, a new Publicity Drive will start this week to try to convince more people to make regular testing part of their weekly routine. In scotland, wales and Northern Ireland, mass testing is also being expanded in places like offices, factories and care homes. Jim reed, bbc news. The Health Minister edward argar has defended the accuracy of the Lateral Flow Tests which many feel give too many false positives. The latest test and trace analysis on this says of a thousand lateral flow device tests they found less than one false positive and i think that shows a high degree of reliability and it works because a the accuracy is there but b these tests are very easy to take so you get the combination of still a very high level of accuracy but they are very easy for people to take and get the results very quickly so it helps, it helps give people that knowledge of whether theyve got the disease asymptomatically. We know a third of people can carry it asymptomatically. A very simple way of them checking before they go into their workplace but before they go out and about. That level of accuracy is sufficiently accurate to make these tests a robust way of measuring whether someone has the disease or not. Oksana pyzik is a Global Health adviser and senior Teaching Fellow at University College London School of pharmacy. Thank you for being with us. Lets talk more about how accurate these Lateral Flow Tests or. Lateral flow tests or. What do you think . Its Lateral Flow Tests or. What do you think . Its certainly Lateral Flow Tests or. What do you think . Its certainly not Lateral Flow Tests or. What do you think . Its certainly not a Lateral Flow Tests or. What do you think . Its certainly not a perfect| think . Its certainly not a perfect tool but it is fast, it works within 30 minutes and it is cheap so if we look at it on a mass level, this sweep across society may help identify cases that we otherwise would not find so one in three people are asymptomatic or showed no symptoms at all. But the problem is this particular Rapid Lateralflow Testis this particular Rapid Lateralflow Test is actually best used in people who have a very high viral load, very infectious, that tends to correlate with people who actually are symptomatic so i think it has a place, can be one of the tools we use but it doesnt make sense to separate it from Contact Tracing or not to incentivise the test itself. Right now, its available twice weekly but voluntary and people are going to have to choose about feeding their families, going to have to choose about feeding theirfamilies, if going to have to choose about feeding their families, if they are self employed or dont get sick pay or taking up this test then its going to be quite frankly a very easy decision to make in terms of bypassing the test and what we also see is that if you are self administering this type of Rapid Lateral Flow test using the swab in the nose or throat, if not done correctly you could yield again a false negative quite easily. So it has to be joined false negative quite easily. So it has to bejoined up, married up with a financial incentive, its worked really well in other countries and i am surprised that hasnt been implemented here. So am surprised that hasnt been implemented here. Am surprised that hasnt been implemented here. So you think it should have implemented here. So you think it should have been implemented here. So you think it should have been done implemented here. So you think it should have been done sooner. I implemented here. So you think it i should have been done sooner. One implemented here. So you think it should have been done sooner. One of the things is in terms of its availability, we gather its going to be available in pharmacies. Quite easy to get hold of. This has been tried out in i think canada and the United States with some success . Absolutely. In pharmacies there is one on every street corner, very accessible, you could pick up a box of seven of these in addition to other, if you go to a Testing Centre or purchase it online so as we know, weve already been, its in schools as well as nhs workers, key workers, are already used to doing this so a sector of society will have been dutifully and regularly self testing and in other countries we have seen this pharmacy model has been highly effective and there has been uptake amongst the community for that and i think in terms of especially keeping one eye on europe, as a third wave and a surge of cases there, we need to ensure despite the very successful vaccine roll out, we dont make any slip ups as we start to reopen. So this testing will be part of that although i dont think it will be enough with the Current Border controls in place. I dont think thats going to be the be all and end all with regarding to protecting against the variance but if you have a positive test that will be backed up by a pcr test, which is more more accurate and we will have better surveillance and monitoring of the variance in the community and at a much wider level than necessarily operates now and thatis than necessarily operates now and that is an added benefit in terms of understanding where the variance are around us at a particular time, dangerous period, internationally, not just within the dangerous period, internationally, notjust within the uk borders. So i think these are all things to consider. Think these are all things to consider think these are all things to consider. ,. ,. , consider. They are cheap going, auoin to consider. They are cheap going, going to be consider. They are cheap going, going to be prettily consider. They are cheap going, going to be prettily easily going to be prettily easily available, reasonably accurate as weve discussed but the big question is, people going use them . We alread is, people going use them . Already talked about the fact there are disincentives for people may be not employed or receiving benefits. Its also, lets be honest, those of us who have been doing it regularly, not necessarily the most comfortable thing but i do suspect, my opinion is this might be a compromise between the government introducing these local vaccine passports. This may be viewed as more palatable as a solution of people sign up for this in enough numbers that that could be something boris invades because of resistance within his own government so i suspect there are also other reasons for this being also introduced in this way, despite the evidence of examples internationally for this is successful, but it also has to be and we need public buy in for it to work. I think there will probably be much more likely successful buy in for this type of testing than the Vaccine Passport Id at a local level, not in terms of International Travel. At a local level, not in terms of International Travel. Good to talk to ou, International Travel. Good to talk to you. Thank International Travel. Good to talk to you, thank you. Cabinet ministers are expected to approve today the next stage of the plan to ease englands lockdown. And this afternoon, the Prime Minister will also give details of a new Traffic Light System for restarting International Travel and his plans for a trial of so called Covid Passports at major Sporting Fixtures and other events. 0ur Political Correspondent, nick eardley, has more details. In a week, we should be seeing this again in england pubs and restaurants serving outside, Nonessential Shops opening their doors, hairdressers back open. Those Lockdown Haircuts finally brought back under control. The cabinet will meet to discuss the latest data On Coronavirus this morning. Borisjohnson will confirm his plans in a Press Conference this afternoon. He will also be talking about holidays. But dont expect firm dates or a list of where we will be allowed to go. There will in future, though, be a Traffic Light System. Green will mean you dont have to quarantine on return to england. Amber, you will have to quarantine at home and red will mean that it is in a government approved hotel. What we saw last year was obviously a lot of stop and start there will be more information about Covid Passports in england, too. They are designed to allow mass spectator events like the fa cup final. Under the plans, you will need to show either you have had the vaccine, a recent negative test, or that you have Natural Immunity based on having had the virus in the past six months. The passports wont be used on transport or in shops at all, and they are not being used in pubs, at the moment. But many mps are opposed to them, some devolved governments have concerns, and there is likely to be a big political battle over their use. Nick eardley, bbc news. Im joined now by our Political Correspondent chris mason. Chris, we are going to hearfrom chris, we are going to hear from the uk Prime Minister borisjohnson today. Whats he going to say, and not going to say . Today. Whats he going to say, and not going to say . Theres two things to look out for, not going to say . Theres two things to look out for, the not going to say . Theres two things to look out for, the scheduled to look out for, the scheduled notice, a week before and unlocking in england for the government has promised it will say yes or no so what we are going to get this afternoon as the Prime Minister saying yes, step two on the road map published earlier in the year will happen next monday, one week today in england. Thats the reopening of Nonessential Retail, that ludicrous phrase that we could use to sing in the last six months or so, essential for plenty of us, not least those of us wanting a haircut in england, one of the things opening in scotland today. Of the things opening in scotland toda. ,. , of the things opening in scotland toda. ,. ,. , today. You could pop up to scotland and net a today. You could pop up to scotland and get a haircut. Today. You could pop up to scotland and get a haircut. If today. You could pop up to scotland and get a haircut. If you today. You could pop up to scotland and get a haircut. If you were and get a haircut. If you were allowed to and get a haircut. If you were allowed to cross and get a haircut. If you were allowed to cross the and get a haircut. If you were allowed to cross the border l and get a haircut. If you were. Allowed to cross the border for and get a haircut. If you were allowed to cross the border for such allowed to cross the border for such a purpose which we are not Nonessential Retail opening up next week, gymnasiums, hairdressers, plenty of shops, zoos, pubs serving outside. So we will get confirmation thatis outside. So we will get confirmation that is going to happen. In addition to that, i suspect it will dominate quite a lot of the conversation today and coming days it is the government now talking publicly about some of the practicalities it is exploring around a more unlocked down world in the summer, as we were hearing from nick, The Business Around Travel and this is a Traffic Light System. The Crucial Detail we do not have and you can understand why not given that travel is currently not allowed, which countries will be in which tear up the lights, that will come much nearer, the earliest in mid may for an International Travel will be possible again. And then of course theres the ongoing conversation about the extent to which use technology and information to ease unlocking, in other words, this talk of these Covid Certification, vaccine passports. Will the nhs app be used as a tool to unlock, whether you had the jab, covid in the last six months, or whether youve been recently tested and cannot command sufficient public support and Political Support for it to happen . For sceptics on the conservative back benches on which there are a few it feels like an Identity Card and all but name, for others this is and all but name, for others this is an unprecedented situation. If it allows greater liberties in our day to day lives perhaps it is worth living with the results of the practicality of it, can you actually make it work and is a sufficiently robust, that even those who are comfortable with the idea are willing to trust it . Comfortable with the idea are willing to trust it . What about those not willing to trust it . What about those not comfortable willing to trust it . What about those not comfortable with i willing to trust it . What about | those not comfortable with the willing to trust it . What about those not comfortable with the idea on the Tory Backbenchers . There are uuite a on the Tory Backbenchers . There are quite a few on the Tory Backbenchers . There are quite a few its on the Tory Backbenchers . There are quite a few. Its perhaps on the Tory Backbenchers . There are quite a few. Its perhaps unfair on the Tory Backbenchers . There are quite a few. Its perhaps unfair to quite a few. Its perhaps unfair to label them the usual suspects because they would argue these are strongly held views around civil liberties. But they are those who are broadly speaking have been making similar arguments or arguments down a similar vein throughout much, certainly at the last six months. Are there enough of them to because the government great anxiety . Crucially, that will depend on for labour or if it comes to any kind of commons crunch point. Sir keir starmer said in kind of commons crunch point. Sir Keir Starmersaid in an kind of commons crunch point. Sir keir starmer said in an interview the other day he found the whole issue very difficult and he had significant reservations but he wasnt entirely ruling out supporting them in the end. Some parties like the Liberal Democrats are entirely opposed to them. I think the hope from plenty at westminster including plenty in government is by the time you get to the point where such a tool might be necessary, perhaps the numbers and the Vaccination Statistics are sufficiently good that perhaps its not necessary in a huge number of scenarios. There is an acceptance though that there will be some sort of scheme as far as the use of your actual passport is concerned, around International Travel and some sort of documentary proof that you are safe to travel as far as covid is concerned. Thats a separate discussion from the extent to which its deployed in a domestic setting. 0n its deployed in a domestic setting. On this Traffic Light System for foreign travel, we are going to hear more about that but probably not the actual countries that are red, amber and green. Actual countries that are red, amber and ureen. ,. ,. , and green. Exactly. The idea is that as ou and green. Exactly. The idea is that as you would and green. Exactly. The idea is that as you would expect and green. Exactly. The idea is that as you would expect from and green. Exactly. The idea is that as you would expect from traffic as you would expect from Traffic Lights, red countries, akin to the list we have at the moment, travel would remain highly restricted or you would be spending at your own expense quite a period of time in a hotel provided by the government near the airport. Much less stringent restrictions in amber and next to none other than testing for those categorised as green. And as you say, crucially, which countries, particularly for those people thinking about a Summer Holiday . The bottom line is, we dont know, the government says we cannot know because it is dependent on statistics nearer the time but we know International Travel isnt going to happen until the 17th of may at the absolute earliest. All of these things had the potential to slip. I think the best we can hope for is that a week prior to the 17th of may, about the 10th of may, when we are in the equivalent position before step three as we are at the moment for step two, government might then set out which countries are on and in which categories but we end up imagining a situation which the Travel Industry says this morning its desperate to avoid, akin to last summer, potentially because of the variance in different pictures in different countries, the countries attached to a particular colour vary throughout the summer, making any prospect of medium or long term planning pretty much impossible, i would long term planning pretty much impossible, iwould have long term planning pretty much impossible, i would have thought. Chris, good to see you, thank you. The israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appeared in court after his much delayed corruption trial resumed in jerusalem. Here he is arriving in the court a little earlier on monday. He began by speaking to his legal team. The first witness has begun giving evidence his testimony is expected to last for days. The veteran Political Leader is facing charges of fraud, Breach Of Trust and bribery in three cases. One of the charges involves accepting gifts from businessmen mainly cigars and champagne in exchange forfavours. Another charge alleges he helped the Controlling Shareholder of Telecoms Giant Bezeq in exchange for favourable coverage from a news website. He denies all charges. The resumption of his trial comes with talks due to begin as to whether his likud party can form a new government. 0ur Correspondent Yolande Knell Injerusalem said today was an extraordinary day both legally and politically. Members of the public are really watching two locations across different parts ofjerusalem at the same time. Here arejerusalem District Court the Prime Minister, israel � s longest serving Prime Minister was in court for the Opening Statement by the prosecutors in his trial. His trial really beginning in earnest now. And the first witness in the case has now taken to the stand and we are expecting that this court will continue to sit three times a week, going forward, to hear all the evidence in the case against Benjamin Netanyahu, he of course denies any wrongdoing. Meanwhile, just a couple of miles away, where the president has his office, he has begun Meeting Representatives of the 13 different Political Parties that all won seats in the last General Election, israel � s fourth General Election, israel � s fourth General Election in two years, that was two weeks ago and the task of the president is to decide out of all of these parties, members, who should be given the mandate to try to form a new coalition government, who could try to form the most stable government for israel. Because, of course, the reason israel keeps going back to the polls, previous elections have been inconclusive and the country really remains very divided. You can see how these processes going on today actually quite closely related because the country is split between those who broadly support Benjamin Netanyahu and those who are against him. And really, that is what has led the country into this long, unprecedented period of political stalemate. ,. ,. , stalemate. How much damage has this court case done stalemate. How much damage has this court case done to stalemate. How much damage has this court case done to his stalemate. How much damage has this court case done to his standing stalemate. How much damage has this court case done to his standing in court case done to his standing in the Opinion Polls and in terms of Popular Support across israel . Weill. Popular support across israel . Well, as i sa , Popular Support across israel . Well, as i say. The Popular Support across israel . Well, as i say, the country Popular Support across israel . Well, as i say, the country is Popular Support across israel . Well, as i say, the country isjust Popular Support across israel . Ii as i say, the country isjust really as i say, the country is just really very deeply split. If you speak to Benjamin Netanyahu � s supporters and there was a small group of them outside the court earlier, many of them supporting his likud party which did win a quarter of the total seats, the biggest number of any party in the latest General Election, they see all of these proceedings as a political witchhunt against him and they see him as a great leader, for israel, someone who has achieved a lot on the world stage, somebody who has done very well managing the Covid Vaccine roll out and somebody who also led the country into great prosperity prior to the pandemic. And then those who are the detractors of Benjamin Netanyahu, they are actually from across the political spectrum, they really want him to resign, they say he has been putting his personal interest, his political survival, before the best interests of the country. Lets get more on the news that the Prime Minister is expected to unveil a Traffic Light System for foreign travel when he gives an update on measures for Easing Restrictions. 0ur Correspondentjayne Mccubbin has been at Manchester Airport this morning. She says many people are hoping to get more information about whether they can go on holiday today. Some people are desperate to get away, arent they . Look behind me, normally the big easter getaway weekend, there is one line of people there, flying out to brussels this morning. Spin around, look how quiet it is over here. Normally, Manchester Airport, this bank holiday weekend, they have about 600 flights every day, because of covid, theyve only got 59. A huge amount of business lost, the business sector thats desperate to get back to normal as well as people who are looking for the week in the sun and the aim is that you will try and find that destination that will be green with this announcement from borisjohnson and stays green. Come and chat to richard slater, the north west chair of abta and thank you for chatting to us. What do people really need to worry about if they are desperate to get on holiday, to get it right and protect themselves . Not to go off and put the package together themselves. Because there is potential that the airlines may still continue to travel but the restrictions may apply and they may therefore lose money on their flights. They wont legally be entitled to get that money back or a new date . Thats correct. The all important question everyone is thinking about, where are the green areas going to be . Do you have any sense where they might be . We are thinking potentially they could be malta, the algarve, the united arab emirates, and hopefully the United States. It could change . It could. Its all dependent on how the Vaccination Rate is going and what the Infection Rate is doing. That is correct. It will change by the week and usually on the thursday, so we have to keep an eye on what happens but your travel agent will have all that information and is fed that information every single day of the week. Richard, thank you forjoining us, we really appreciate it, holidays used to be so simple, you bought your ticket, off you went, you sat in the sunshine for two weeks but now you have to think about paying for tests to leave the country, come back into the country, and the worst fear paying for super expensive Quarantine Hotels for a family of four, for most people, its not manageable. Earlier, i spoke to guy hedgecoe who is in valencia for us. He said the spanish authorities are hopeful that they can recover some of the numbers they lost last year. What they are saying is this is a transitional year. They are hoping for around half the usual number of tourists they would usually get, in a normal year they get around 80 million foreign visitors, last year, there was nothing like that, this year they want around half that number. They are saying as long as the countries can be safe regarding travelling and people coming, they can have safeguards, they will be welcome and certainly, theres been a great deal of pressure from the industry itself, to bring foreigners over to spain so the industry can resume where it left off back at the beginning of 2020. But the government is very keen forforeigners to come this summer so they can start to recover those numbers. If and when british tourists can go back to spain what awaits them . For example, i think i read you might have to wear a mask on the beach, for example, where you are . What is the latest . Yes, thats right, beaches like this, if you were here you would have to wear a mask if you are wandering around the beach. That is a new regulation. It depends on where you are in the country, there a great deal of variation in terms of the restrictions in place. Depending on where you are, you might be in madrid, things are much more relaxed although people are wearing masks, in the street, shops and businesses are operating more or less as normal. Whereas here in valencia, out on the mediterranean coast, things are much stricter, lots of bars and restaurants are closed. A lot more restrictions on movement and social activity as well. So it depends where you are going. Tourism destinations such as the balearics and the Canary Islands are trying to keep things relatively open. But i think we will find out more about that as the Summer Season begins sojune, going intojuly and i think those big Tourism Destinations are going to want to present an image that is open to foreign travellers. It looks very enticing where you are right now. Are there many people on the beach with you or is it just you by yourself . Just me and the cameraman, actually. I have to say, as i say, things are restricted but theres one or two sunbathers near me but it is very quiet at the moment. And i think we wont see people on this beach for at least a few weeks, i think. And just to say we will hear more about the uk government � s plans for Easing Restrictions on foreign travel with the Traffic Light System, the Prime Minister Boris Johnson will host a Press Conference this afternoon at five alongside the chris whitty and sir patrick vallance. India has recorded more than 100,000 coronavirus cases in one day the highest daily increase in the world as the country sees a surge in infections. In response, more restrictions are being introduced, particularly in maharashtra, which is home to the city of mumbai. Gail mcclellan has more. A crowded market in mumbai. Masks are on but social distancing is virtually impossible and coronavirus cases are rising rapidly. The warning is stark. Translation the number of covid19 cases reported in the last 2a hours is alarming and is a matter of concern. It could turn into a hazardous situation. Almost 15 days ago, there were about 23,000 cases which have increased four times now which is a very big thing. If the cases increase in this proportion, the impact of the pandemic will be as dreadful as last year. 165,000 have died of covid 19 in india. The country recording 12. 5 million infections. On sunday, the number of daily cases peaked at its highest level since september with more than 93,000 recorded. More than half of those are in maharashtra, the state facing tighter restrictions from monday. Including a night time curfew and full lockdown on weekends. Translation this is a very good decision by the government. As coronavirus cases are surging and the chain of transmission of the virus will break. Which will be very beneficialfor all of us. Stopping the spread of the virus is a mammoth task, particularly in a country with a population of 1. 3 billion. It may have the Worlds Largest inoculation drive, so far administering more than 68 million doses. But thats not yet been enough to halt transmission. Gail mcclellan, bbc news. For more on why there has been such a severe surge in cases in maharashtra, heres our south asia correspondent, rajini vaidyanathan. It was a hot spot last year, very densely populated state, home to the city of mumbai, the film and Financial Capital of india and it accounts for more than half of the daily cases. India has now breached the 100,000 mark in terms of daily case numbers, the first time its done that and more than half of those are in maharashtra, huge cause for concern, and thats why they brought in some lockdown restrictions there, shops, markets, shopping malls, they will be shot, there will be an Evening Curfew as well and a lockdown at weekends. There wont be a National Lockdown, its unlikely apple come in even if cases rise as they are in other parts the country as well. Because of the Economic Impact it would have on people here in india so what we are seeing, as we have seen in maharashtra, is case state by state restrictions that are being brought in. The headlines on bbc news an expansion of the coronavirus testing programme. Everyone in england will have access to two free rapid tests a week, from this friday. Borisjohnson will give more details about his plans to further ease the lockdown in england today, including a Traffic Light System for foreign travel. Hairdressers, Homeware Shops and Garden Centres are reopening in scotland, as Covid Restrictions are eased. Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Court On Trialfor Corruption as his party seeks to form the next government. Hairdressers and Garden Centres in scotland can reopen from today in the latest easing of coronavirus restrictions. Salons and barbers can welcome back customers with appointments only although most non essential shops will have to stay closed for at least three more weeks. Heres our scotland correspondent james shaw. The chance to finally tame out of control Lockdown Hair will be something that many people have been looking forward to for weeks, if not months. If this hair salon in glasgow is anything to go by, there is enormous pent up demand. When we got the first announcement, we opened our books and we had over 1000 bookings within 2a hours. We were expecting that, so it is crazy busy, but the staff are well rested and we are going to be open seven days, until eight at night, so long days ahead. We are ready. There are still restrictions such as face coverings and physical distancing. All cuts must be pre booked and mobile services are still not allowed. After your haircut you might want to visit a garden centre, homeware store or car showroom. Nonessential click and collect is also permitted. Garden centres in particular are likely to be busy. It will be good. We just need to get the social distancing measures back in place, get everyone to spread out, and it will be good to see all the customers back, because even since we have started working in the place again, there have been loads of customers down at the gate and stuff, ready to get back in the garden. So it isjust in the nick of time, i think. These are all relatively limited changes. The big date in scotland is the 26th of this month, when all Nonessential Shops will be allowed to open, travel throughout scotland will be permitted, up to six people from three households will be able to socialise outdoors, and Hospitality Venues will start to open up. All that is still three weeks away. Nonessential travel within local Authority Areas has been allowed since friday, but, until the end of the month, when all Travel Restrictions are lifted, scotlands major roads and other transport links are likely to stay relatively quiet. James shaw, bbc news, glasgow. Earlier i spoke to james shaw from a Hairdressing Salon in glasgow about this latest easing of restrictions in scotland. I think the hairstylists and the owner of the salon are delighted to be able to get some sense of normality, to see their old customers, the people that theyve wanted to help, whose hair theyve wanted to cut for the last three or four months, that is a great relief. And also the fact they can start making money, of course, a lot of the staff have been on furlough, the fact they can get people back through the doors, is really great news. Of course, it is still difficult, still challenging, everyone has to wear masks, aprons, all the sanitising measures that you expect to see and social distancing, there are dividers between the different sections of the salon. All of that makes things a little bit slower and more difficult but the key thing, i think, for the people here is there is a sense that they can get back to doing what they do best and what theyve been wanting to do for so long. What are people generally in scotland thinking about the easing of restrictions and the timetable for that . Are they happy with that, frustrated, do they think its too soon or premature or too late . Yes, i think theres a feeling in scotland, a kind of an awareness in some ways, that things have moved a bit more slowly, a bit more cautiously than they have in some other parts of the uk, particularly, in england. Although thats not the case in fact with haircuts. With haircuts, its possible here a week before you are able to get a haircut in england. There is that sense that things are happening more slowly but there is quite a level of trust in the scottish government, in particular the first minister nicola sturgeon. When it comes to the timing of these things. There is frustration when it comes to businesses, particularly people like, of course, hair salons in the past who now can open up but now its more about hospitality, hotels, pubs, restaurants, desperate to get back and try to start making money again. That is still some way in the future for scotland, we are talking about hospitality starting to open up in about three weeks time. So that cannot come soon enough for those thousands of businesses who have had to put everything on hold right across the first few months of the year. The government in greece is relaxing some coronavirus restrictions today, despite an increase in infections. Shops will reopen for customers to pick up online orders and to try on clothes and shoes in person. People are also now allowed to travel between municipalities. But with the economy so reliant on tourism, which employs one in five people, what plans are being made to open up for the Summer Season . Bethany bell reports from athens. The boats are in the dock waiting for tourists. This man and his team rent out catamarans and yachts for trips to the greek islands. Their clients come from the uk, the United States and south africa. April is normally the start of the season, but things are on hold because of the pandemic. Greece is hoping to open up to visitors in may, but its not clear which countries will be ready. A lot of nations need to agree on specific problems in order to allow people to travel. This uncertainty does not help anyone. On our end, we are doing the best effort possible in order to be ready. And we will be ready when the borders open and we can welcome all guests throughout the world. There are still tough Covid Restrictions in greece, which has seen a surge of infections. But people are becoming increasingly frustrated. About one in five workers has a job in tourism. They are worried about the summer. The acropolis is open again after months of lockdown. This place would normally be packed with people, but now its mainly those living locally. And no one is quite sure when the Foreign Tourists will be able to return. Greece is planning to vaccinate all Tourism Workers and is leading calls for Vaccination Certificates or passports to allow foreign visitors to travel. It is very important to have the passport, because everybody will feel really safe. And our model is safety first for the staff of the archaeological sites and the museums, and of course for the public. After the worst year for Global Tourism on record, greece is really hoping for a better summer. Bethany bell, bbc news, athens. A Strict Lockdown is coming into effect in the ukrainian capital kyiv as the country continues to struggle with coronavirus. Public transport will be restricted and schools will be closed until later in the month. Jonah fisher has been examining the deteriorating situation from kyiv. The figures are pretty dire at the minute. It is the worst it has ever been here in ukraine. There are now more than 20,000 cases every day which is the highest number throughout the whole of the pandemic, including previous waves, and now more than 400 people are dying every day. It should be said that those are the official statistics which are gathered by a pretty threadbare Health Service so they could well be much worse than that. It is in response to that, that in a sense things are really getting out of hand, that we have got these new measures being brought in today. It is not quite a National Lockdown but it will affect here the capital kyiv and ten other regions, effectively it is shutting everything down, so schools will be closed, restaurants and food places will be just delivery only, shops willjust be essentials. I think there is a sense here that the government is really trying, it is the last Roll Of The Dice really to try and stop those escalating numbers because the Vaccination Programme is really still stuck in first gear. When will we be able to go on holiday again . Its a question many of us would love to know the answer to. Under the governments routemap out of lockdown, the earliest we could be allowed to head abroad is may 17th. We now know that there will be a Traffic Light System in place, with countries sorted into three categories of risk. 0ur transport correspondent, caroline davies, has been looking at how airlines have been preparing. From the engine to the seats and every last screw, preparing for International Travel takes time. Ever since the Prime Minister mentioned the 17th of may as the first date when International Travel could start from england, many in the Travel Industry began gearing up ready for then. While work is under way here in a hangar at Luton Airport and across the uk, scotland, wales and Northern Ireland have yet to commit to a date. The industry is crossing its fingers that International Travel will restart soon. Its really important that we get a summer this year. Weve got the Broad Spectrum of engineers working in hangar 61. We are up to full capacity here in luton of our permanent employees. And we are working hard to ensure we meet those targets back into our operation. Today, the Prime Minister will announce that when International Travel does restart, there will be a Traffic Light System. Anyone from england will be able to travel from green countries without needing to quarantine, although they will still need a test before they travel back and more once they arrive in the uk. And the countries will need all of these tests and require people to quarantine at home on arrivalfor ten days, although if they pay for an extra test on the fifth day and it is negative, they can leave quarantine early. Only uk residents will be allowed in from red countries and they will need to pay for quarantine at a hotel, as well as taking the tests. This is a new Testing Centre set up at Luton Airport. The Company Behind it is expanding its capacity at other airports, too, ready for passengers. Tests will still need to be paid for by the passenger and they can be expensive. What we are hopeful for is we will start to see, as more countries get vaccinated, is that risk of infection reduces. That actually the number of tests you have to take will change, and the type of test will change. Obviously, the pcr test is the more complicated, the more expensive test. The lateral flow can be a much reduced cost. So our view is, hopefully, we can work with governments to enable it to be at a lower cost of testing. Exactly when International Travel will be allowed is still not confirmed. The 17th of may could get pushed back. The big question is where we will be able to go. Some countries around the world, like israel and the us, have a high Vaccination Rate, while others like france are lagging behind. It is likely that will be a big factor in deciding which countries we can travel to. And how will all this paperwork be processed . Even with a small number of travellers, there have been long queues at the border. The hope is this will be streamlined or put on an app, in time. There are still a lot of questions about when International Travel will get moving again. Caroline davies, bbc news. Allegations of Sexual Harassment against three famed maestros of Indian Classical Music the Gundecha Brothers Have sent shockwaves across much of india in recent months. A three month long investigation by the bbc heard multiple claims of a culture of systemic sexual abuse and intimidation. From mumbai Nikhil Inamdar has this report which contains disturbing accounts from the victims. For me, the music was most important. I really wanted to come to india and dedicate my life to music. I was really impressed with how Ramakant Gundecha was teaching. His teaching was mystical. He had a lot of charisma. He forced himself on me that morning. He pulled my pants off and forcefully had six with me. This student says one of indias most famous teachers of Traditional Indian Music sexually assaulted her. She left her home and family in europe and traveled to India Several years ago to learn dhrupad an ancient form of Indian Classical Music. It brought her to the Dhrupad Sansthan, an internationally recognised music academy, run by three siblings known as the Gundecha Brothers. Now shes one among several women from across the world who allege that one of the three brothers, the late Ramakant Gundecha, sexually assaulted her. There are also allegations of Sexual Misconduct against the other two, akhilesh and umakant gundecha, who now run the academy. Ramakant died in 2019. And akhilesh and umakant strongly deny all the allegations. The allegations against the Gundecha Brothers first came to light in a Facebook Post in september, Bringing Metoo right to the heart of north Indian Classical Music. Its since been reported by the indian media. At least five women whove made the allegations against the gundechas have shared their experience with the bbc, including rachel fairbanks, who says the late ramakant sexually molested her. She decided to speak publicly and give us permission to show her identity. He asked me to get in the back of the car with him. And i did that. And then he started kissing me. And he pulled my pants down and touched my vagina. And i left very soon after that had happened. I ended up not being able to even sit in ramakant� s presence any more. Rachels allegations and those of the other women sparked an investigation by an independent panel appointed by the school. But the law prevents us from disclosing details of the investigation and its results. We contacted umakant and akhilesh gundecha, the two surviving brothers. Through their lawyers, both men have strongly denied the allegations against them, stating that vested interests were used in this episode as a tool to further their agenda of causing damage to the art and reputation to the Dhrupad Sansthan and the Gundecha Brothers. Both men also declined to speak to us on camera. For some in the industry, such as prominent vocalist neela bhagwat, the allegations expose deep seated patriarchy and power imbalance entrenched in the guru shishya or teacher student relationship. The guru expects a complete submission and complete subservience. In the relationship with the guru, the female student is vulnerable. Bhagwat along with a Household Name in Indian Classical Music, are rare exceptions to have spoken out in support of the students. The male maestros have largely remained silent. Its not known when or if the results of the independent investigation will be made public. For the women, the trauma of what they went through lingers. I have my tambura in The Living Room right now, and its going to be sold, because, um, you know i, unfortunately, cant sing this music without having flashbacks. Nikhil inamdar, bbc news, mumbai. Emergency workers in florida are trying to prevent catastrophic flooding after a leak in a Toxic Wasterwater reservoir. More than 300 homes have been evacuated in floridas tampa bay, where the reservoir is located. Azadeh moshiri reports. Thousands of gallons of toxic waste water pumping out by the minute. This is what Emergency Workers in floridas tampa bay hoping will prevent an environmental catastrophe. This leak in Piney Point Reservoir is now a week old. Initially workers tried to plug the hole with rocks and other materials but that effort failed. It forced the governor to declare a State Of Emergency and evacuate 300 homes. What we are looking at now is trying to prevent and respond to if need be a real catastrophic flood situation. To be clear, the water being discharged in port manatee is not radioactive primarily saltwater from the dredge project mixed with Storm Water Run off. The dredge proect mixed with storm water munff. The dredge proect mixed with storm water unoff water runoff. Emergency operation is both ambitious water runoff. Emergency operation is both ambitious and water runoff. Emergency operation is both ambitious and urgent. Water runoff. Emergency operation is both ambitious and urgent. By. Is both ambitious and urgent. By flying in these pipes teams are hoping to pump out enough water to prevent a total collapse of the reservoir which would flood the area. The reservoir itself holds almost 2 billion litres of polluted water, the pipes are pumping out 89,000 litres per minute. That is close to 125 million litres a day. While the water being released is not radioactive experts say it is filled with nutrients that could devastate the local environment by creating algae blooms that could suffocate marine life. It is a man made disaster critics say could have been prevented. This manmade disaster critics say could have been prevented. Have been prevented. This was something have been prevented. This was something that have been prevented. This was something that back have been prevented. This was something that back in have been prevented. This was something that back in the have been prevented. This was| something that back in the late have been prevented. This was something that back in the late 90s something that back in the late 905 or early something that back in the late 905 or early 2000 was told to the governor or early 2000 was told to the governor of our states for over 20 plus years governor of our states for over 20 plus years they were made aware that this was plus years they were made aware that this was a plus years they were made aware that this was a Disaster Waiting to happen this was a Disaster Waiting to happen. This is something that should happen. This is something that should have been addressed 20 years ao should have been addressed 20 years ago but should have been addressed 20 years ago but unfortunately now we are hitting ago but unfortunately now we are hitting a ago but unfortunately now we are hitting a historic disaster because action hitting a historic disaster because action was hitting a historic disaster because action was not taken. Hitting a historic disaster because action was not taken. Workers are scrambling action was not taken. Workers are scrambling to action was not taken. Workers are scrambling to fix action was not taken. Workers are scrambling to fix the action was not taken. Workers are scrambling to fix the situation action was not taken. Workers are scrambling to fix the situation but j scrambling to fix the situation but evenif scrambling to fix the situation but even if they can prevent the contaminated water from crashing into the area, the long term consequences to the environment are still unknown. Driving licenses among people between aged 16 and 25 in britain have fallen to their lowest level since records began in 2012. The number of full licenses held by young people has dropped by more than 300,000 since march last year and is nowjust under 3 million. The aa has put the fall down to the coronavirus pandemic, which has prevented lessons and tests taking place. Riz ahmed has starred in some of the biggest films and tv shows of the last decade, but his most recent role sees him return to his roots in independent cinema. In Sound Of Metal he plays reuben, a Heavy Metal Drummer who loses his hearing. Its received widespread critical acclaim, with riz nominted for both a bafta and oscar for best actor. The film will also be shown with subtitles to ensure deaf audiences are able to experience to story fully. Colin paterson has been speaking to riz. Riz ahmed, welcome to bbc breakfast. 0scar nominee, how does that sound . Sounds kind of weird, i guess, you know. We made Sound Of Metal with a lot of love but as a small independent film, you cant have those crazy expectations but to see it get six nominations, and to have all this attention on it, is beautiful, really gratifying. And on the day of the nominations, one of the headlines was, first muslim ever to be nominated for best actor. Did that matter to you . I think what matters to me is that as many people as possible can find themselves in this moment. So if some people really connect with the idea that, you know, i was the first muslim nominated for lead actor, that is beautiful, and i support that. If there is some people that are really overjoyed to see that its a film that really focuses on deaf representation which is so, something which is so lacking in cinema, and they connect more with that, then thats beautiful. If, you know, some people are rooting for the fact that its you had to learn new skills for this. American Sign Language. How difficult was that . American Sign Language was a joy. Id say to any viewers thinking of learning any kind of Sign Language, american or british Sign Language, bsl, do it. Because it teaches you so much more than just the Sign Language itself. It teaches you about yourself, it teaches you about really what listening and communication is. Can you do a, hello, bbc breakfast, or would that be pushing it . Breakfast, off the top of my head, ive gone blank. Thats ok but this, obviously hello, and bbc in asl is, bbc. Did you have any metal albums in your Record Collection at all . 0ne iron maiden, sneaky def leppard . Sneak in a def leppard no, you know, i really did not. I guess the closest, there was a band i really loved growing up, my brothers really put me onto all the music that i loved, you know, was nirvana. Hello, hello with the lights out, its less dangerous here we are now, entertain us did dave grohl influence your drumming style, then, if you love nirvana . You know, i would love to say that my drumming was even a smidge on his. The best thing to happen to you during researching this film, stumbling upon your wife. This is a great story. A battle over a plug charger, i believe. I was in new york for a better part of the year, we happened to cross paths, and it was just one of those crazy things, it only happens in new york. Yeah, wejust happened to meet in a cafe. I was sat there writing, she came along to sit down and write as well. She was kind of fiddling with plug point that my laptop was plugged into, i was like, whats going on here . Someone is trying to unplug my charger, and looked up, and there she was, and we just got talking. So, yeah, it was a crazy story. But i later learned from the the internet that thats called a meet cute. So, yes. I should say this is Fatima Farheen mirza, who is a bestselling writer as well. And you and me have something in common, we both went for the covid quickie wedding. It keeps the numbers down, riz, doesnt it, it really does. Yeah, of course, youve got to be covid compliant. But i guess, yeah, theres silver linings, arent there . Because Planning Weddings can be a massive, massive headache from what i understand and a huge expense. So kind of doing a cut price low key version of it has its pros, i think. Was there an aunt going, riz, i cannot believe you did that . No, i think covid is the perfect cover, right . No one can be angry at you. Social distancing, sorry i think it might make a lot of musicians think differently about how they protect their own ears, and gig goers as well. It certainly made me realise i need to take earplugs with me, you know, into venues. Its something that i started doing a few years ago when i realised friends of mine, djs, had started kind of sadly losing bits of their hearing. Its very, very common within music and within the Live Entertainment industry. Riz ahmed, thank you very much to speaking to bbc breakfast. Thanks a lot, colin, cheers. Riz ahmed talking to our Entertain Correspondent colin paterson. You are watching bbc news. Now its time for a look at the weather with carol. Hello again. Last week we had a taste of summer but in the early part of this week we get a real taste of winter. Looking at cold days and nights, frost around, snow showers notjust in the hills, and blizzards in northern scotland. We do have a Weather Front which continues to sink southwards and clearing and that opens the gates to this arctic air. We have a northerly and north westerly wind. It is gusty and brings in a lot of snow showers. You can see the blue represents the colder air and moves right the way across the british isles, for some of us a good 10 degree drop to what we had on the weekend. Today, still all this cloud and patchy rain associated associated with the Weather Front to clear away to the south. Then we are back into sunshine and wintry showers. A lot of them coming and even at lower levels across the north of scotland but getting in across the coast and hills and these are the strengths of gusts. Blizzards across the far north of scotland and temperatures, 2 in aberdeen, five in 5 in norwich but when you add on the strong, gusty, cold winds it will feel like 4 in aberdeen and 1 in norwich. A cold day and one certainly for wrapping up warmly. Through this evening and overnight, temperatures will fall away lower and we see showers coming into scotland, Northern Ireland, wales, into east anglia. A few possible across the moors and the south west and these are the kind of temperatures. So widespread frost and the risk of ice on untreated surfaces. Many of us will start on a sunny note tomorrow but wintry coming in with sunshine in between. Tomorrow could be a bit colder than today with 3 the maximum temperature in aberdeen to about 8 in the south. As we move from tuesday into wednesday, we start to see a bit of a change. High pressure in the atlantic with this Weather Front coming in from the atlantic too. It is what we call a warm frot. It wont be warm but it will be less cold. We have this northerly wind down the east coast with patchy rain and these are our temperatures 6 to 9. This is bbc news. Im ben brown. The headlines at 11am. An expansion of the coronavirus testing programme. Everyone in england will have access to two free rapid tests a week, from this friday. Borisjohnson will give more details about his plans to further ease the lockdown in england today, including a Traffic Light System for foreign travel. Hairdressers, Homeware Shops and Garden Centres are reopening in scotland, as Covid Restrictions are eased. Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in court on trial for corruption as his party seeks to form the next government. Its easter monday, april the 5th. Our top story. Everyone in england will be offered two free rapid covid tests each week from this friday, under the governments plans to expand its testing programme. The health secretary, matt hancock, says the additional tests will play a crucial role in curbing future outbreaks of the virus as life returns to normal. 0ur Health Correspondent jim reed reports. Rapid Lateral Flow Tests are already being used to test Secondary School pupils, families with children and those who cannot work from home. From the end of the week, they will be offered to everyone in england. These devices give a result in 30 minutes. They can be picked up from a local Testing Centre or pharmacy or ordered online and delivered in the post. Even when people have no symptoms, they may be infected and they may be infectious. And if we can catch those people early, then we can break transmission, and that reduces the number of people who are infected, it reduces the likelihood of new variants and it helps keep everybody safer. The government says the twice weekly tests will be crucial to help prevent outbreaks in the future. But labour said the Mass Testing Programme must be backed by improved Financial Support so that those told to isolate can afford it. And some scientists have questioned the accuracy of the tests, especially in people who dont have symptoms. The tests are not good at ruling out and saying you dont have covid. We have to be very careful to get a message to everybody that says if the test is negative, behave the same way, dont believe you havent got covid. Dont go and kiss and cuddle your granny or your grandad, because its not a test that tells us that. Its not a good enough test. The government claims the kits are extremely accurate, particularly when it comes to identifying the most infectious cases. In england, a new Publicity Drive will start this week to try to convince more people to make regular testing part of their weekly routine. In scotland, wales and Northern Ireland, mass testing is also being expanded in places like offices, factories and care homes. Jim reed, bbc news. Cabinet ministers are expected to approve today the next stage of the plan to ease englands lockdown the twelth of 12th. And this afternoon, the Prime Minister will also give details of a new Traffic Light System for restarting International Travel and his plans for a trial of so called Covid Passports at major Sporting Fixtures and other events. 0ur Political Correspondent, nick eardley, has more details. In a week, we should be seeing this again in england pubs and restaurants serving outside, Nonessential Shops opening their doors, hairdressers back open. Those Lockdown Haircuts finally brought back under control. The cabinet will meet to discuss the latest data On Coronavirus and borisjohnson will confirm his plans in a Press Conference this afternoon. He will also be talking about holidays. But dont expect firm dates or a list of where we will be allowed to go. There will in future, though, be a Traffic Light System. Green will mean you dont have to quarantine on return to england. Amber, you will have to quarantine at home and red will mean that it is in a government approved hotel. There will be more information about Covid Passports in england, too. They are designed to allow mass spectator events like the fa cup final. Under the plans, you will need to show either you have had the vaccine, a recent negative test, or that you have Natural Immunity based on having had the virus in the past six months. The passports wont be used on transport or in shops at all, and they are not being used in pubs, at the moment. But many mps are opposed to them, some devolved governments have concerns, and there is likely to be a big political battle over their use. Nick eardley, bbc news. The Prime Minister will be unveiling the arrangements for the latest phase of lockdown lifting this afternoon. Earlier i spoke to our Political Correspondent chris mason and asked him what we can expect to hear. What we are going to get this afternoon is the Prime Minister saying yes, step two on the road map published earlier in the year will happen next monday, one week today in england. Thats the reopening of Nonessential Retail, that ludicrous phrase that weve got used to saying in the last six months or so, essential for plenty of us, not least those of us wanting a haircut in england, one of the things opening in scotland today. You could pop up to scotland and get a haircut. If you were allowed to cross the borderfor such a purpose, which we are not Nonessential Retail opening up next week, gymnasiums, hairdressers, plenty of shops, zoos, pubs serving outside. So we will get confirmation that is going to happen. In addition to that, i suspect it will dominate quite a lot of the conversation today and coming days, is the government now talking publicly about some of the practicalities it is exploring around a more unlocked down world in the summer, as we were hearing from nick, The Business Around Travel and this is a Traffic Light System. The Crucial Detail we do not have, and you can understand why not given that travel is currently not allowed, is which countries will be in which tier of those Traffic Lights, that will come much nearer, the earliest in mid may for an International Travel will be possible again. And then of course theres the ongoing conversation about the extent to which you use technology and information to ease unlocking, in other words, this talk of these Covid Certification certificates, vaccine passports. Will the nhs app be used as a tool to log whether you had the jab, covid in the last six months, or whether youve been recently tested, and can that command sufficient public support and Political Support for it to happen . For sceptics on the conservative back benches of which there are a few it feels like an Identity Card in all but name, for others this is an unprecedented situation. If it allows greater liberties in our day to day lives perhaps it is worth living with. The, the practicality of it, can you actually make it work in a sufficiently robust way, that even those who are comfortable with the idea are willing to trust it . What about those not comfortable with the idea on the Tory Backbenches . There are quite a few. Its perhaps unfair to label them the usual suspects because they would argue these are strongly held views around civil liberties. But they are those who, broadly speaking, have been making similar arguments or arguments down a similar vein throughout much of. Certainly in the last six months. Are there enough of them to because the government great anxiety . Crucially, that will depend on for labour are, if it comes to any kind of commons crunch point. Sir keir starmer said in an interview the other day he found the whole issue very difficult and he had significant reservations but he wasnt entirely ruling out supporting them in the end. Some parties like the Liberal Democrats are entirely opposed to them. I think the hope from plenty at westminster including plenty in government is by the time you get to the point where such a tool might be necessary, perhaps the numbers and the Vaccination Statistics are sufficiently good that perhaps its not necessary in a huge number of scenarios. There is an acceptance though that there will be some sort of scheme as far as the use of your actual passport is concerned, around International Travel and some sort of documentary proof that you are safe to travel as far as covid is concerned. Thats a separate discussion from the extent to which its deployed in a domestic setting. On this Traffic Light System for foreign travel, we are going to hear more about that but probably not the actual countries that are red, amber and green. Exactly right. The idea is that, as you would expect from Traffic Lights, red countries, akin to the list we have at the moment, travel would remain highly restricted or you would be spending at your own expense quite a period of time in a hotel provided by the government near the airport. Much less stringent restrictions in amber and next to none other than testing for those categorised as green. And as you say, crucially, which countries, particularly for those people thinking about a Summer Holiday . The bottom line is, we dont know, the government says we cannot know because it is dependent on statistics nearer the time but we know International Travel isnt going to happen until the 17th of may at the absolute earliest. All of these things have the potential to slip. I think the best we can hope for is that a week prior to the 17th of may, about the 10th of may, when we are in the equivalent position before step three as we are at the moment for step two, government might then set out which countries are on and in which categories but we end up imagining a situation which the Travel Industry says this morning its desperate to avoid, akin to last summer, potentially because of the variance and different pictures in different countries, the countries attached to a particular colour vary throughout the summer, making any prospect of medium or long term planning pretty much impossible, i would have thought. Lets get more on the news that the Prime Minister is expected to unveil a Traffic Light System for foreign travel when he gives an update on measures for Easing Restrictions. 0ur Correspondentjayne Mccubbin has been at Manchester Airport this morning. She says many people are hoping to get more information about whether they can go on holiday today. Some people are desperate to get away, arent they . Look behind me, normally the big easter getaway weekend, there is one line of people there, flying out to brussels this morning. Spin around, look how quiet it is over here. Normally, Manchester Airport, this bank holiday weekend, they have about 600 flights every day, because of covid, theyve only got 59. A huge amount of business lost, the business sector thats desperate to get back to normal as well as people who are looking for the week in the sun and the aim is that you will try and find that destination that will be green with this announcement from borisjohnson and stays green. Come and chat to richard slater, the north west chair of abta and thank you for chatting to us. What do people really need to worry about if they are desperate to get on holiday, to get it right and protect themselves . Not to go off and put the package together themselves. Because there is potential that the airlines may still continue to travel but the restrictions may apply and they may therefore lose money on their flights. They wont legally be entitled to get that money back or a new date . Thats correct. The all important question everyone is thinking about, where are the green areas going to be . Do you have any sense where they might be . We are thinking potentially they could be malta, the algarve, the united arab emirates, and hopefully the United States. It could change . It could. Its all dependent on how the Vaccination Rate is going and what the Infection Rate is doing. That is correct. It will change by the week and usually on the thursday, so we have to keep an eye on what happens but your travel agent will have all that information and is fed that information every single day of the week. Richard, thank you forjoining us, we really appreciate it, holidays used to be so simple, you bought your ticket, off you went, you sat in the sunshine for two weeks but now you have to think about paying for tests to leave the country, come back into the country, and the worst fear paying for super expensive Quarantine Hotels for a family of four, for most people, its not manageable. Earlier, i spoke to guy hedgecoe who is in valencia for us. He said the spanish authorities are hopeful that they can recover some of the numbers they lost last year. What they are saying is this is a transitional year. They are hoping for around half the usual number of tourists they would usually get, in a normal year they get around 80 million foreign visitors. Last year, there was nothing like that, this year they want around half that number. They are saying as long as the countries can be safe regarding travelling and people coming, they can have safeguards, they will be welcome and certainly, theres been a great deal of pressure from the industry itself, to bring foreigners over to spain so the industry can resume where it left off back at the beginning of 2020. But the government is very keen forforeigners to come this summer so they can start to recover those numbers. If and when british tourists can go back to spain what awaits them . For example, i think i read you might have to wear a mask on the beach, for example, where you are . What is the latest . Yes, thats right, beaches like this, if you were here you would have to wear a mask if you are wandering around the beach. That is a new regulation. It depends on where you are in the country, there a great deal of variation in terms of the restrictions in place. Depending on where you are, you might be in madrid, things are much more relaxed although people are wearing masks, in the street, shops and businesses are operating more or less as normal. Whereas here in valencia, out on the mediterranean coast, things are much stricter, lots of bars and restaurants are closed. A lot more restrictions on movement and social activity as well. So it depends where you are going. Tourism destinations such as the balearics and the Canary Islands are trying to keep things relatively open. But i think we will find out more about that as the Summer Season begins sojune, going intojuly and i think those big Tourism Destinations are going to want to present an image that is open to foreign travellers. It looks very enticing where you are right now. Are there many people on the beach with you or is it just you by yourself . Just me and the cameraman, actually. I have to say, as i say, things are restricted but theres one or two sunbathers near me but it is very quiet at the moment. And i think we wont see people on this beach for at least a few weeks, i think. This afternoon, the Prime Minister will lead todays downing street briefing. In hell bejoined by englands chief medical officer chris whitty and englands chief scientific advisor sir patrick vallance. Well have full coverage from 1l30pm on the bbc news channel and bbc one in england. The headlines on bbc news. An expansion of the coronavirus testing programme. Everyone in england will have access to two free rapid tests a week, from this friday. Borisjohnson will give more details about his plans to further ease the lockdown in england today, including a Traffic Light System for foreign travel. Hairdressers, Homeware Shops and Garden Centres are reopening in scotland, as Covid Restrictions are eased. Hairdressers and Garden Centres in scotland can reopen from today in the latest easing of coronavirus restrictions. Salons and barbers can welcome back customers with appointments only, although most Nonessential Shops will have to stay closed for at least three more weeks. Heres our scotland correspondent james shaw. The chance to finally tame out of control Lockdown Hair will be something that many people have been looking forward to for weeks, if not months. If this hair salon in glasgow is anything to go by, there is enormous pent up demand. When we got the first announcement, we opened our books and we had over 1000 bookings within 2a hours. We were expecting that, so it is crazy busy, but the staff are well rested and we are going to be open seven days, until eight at night, so long days ahead. We are ready. There are still restrictions such as face coverings and physical distancing. All cuts must be pre booked and mobile services are still not allowed. After your haircut you might want to visit a garden centre, homeware store or car showroom. Nonessential click and collect is also permitted. Garden centres in particular are likely to be busy. It will be good. We just need to get the social distancing measures back in place, get everyone to spread out, and it will be good to see all the customers back, because even since we have started working in the place again, there have been loads of customers down at the gate and stuff, ready to get back in the garden. So it isjust in the nick of time, i think. These are all relatively limited changes. The big date in scotland is the 26th of this month, when all Nonessential Shops will be allowed to open, travel throughout scotland will be permitted, up to six people from three households will be able to socialise outdoors, and Hospitality Venues will start to open up. All that is still three weeks away. Nonessential travel within local Authority Areas has been allowed since friday, but, until the end of the month, when all Travel Restrictions are lifted, scotlands major roads and other transport links are likely to stay relatively quiet. James shaw, bbc news, glasgow. Earlier i spoke to james shaw from a Hairdressing Salon in glasgow about this latest easing of restrictions in scotland. I think the hairstylists and the owner of the salon are delighted to be able to get some sense of normality, to see their old customers, the people that theyve wanted to help, whose hair theyve wanted to cut for the last three or four months, that is a great relief. And also the fact they can start making money, of course, a lot of the staff have been on furlough, the fact they can get people back through the doors, is really great news. Of course, it is still difficult, still challenging, everyone has to wear masks, aprons, all the sanitising measures that you expect to see in social distancing, there are dividers between the different sections of the salon. All of that makes things a little bit slower and more difficult but the key thing, i think, for the people here is there is a sense that they can get back to doing what they do best and what theyve been wanting to do for so long. What are people generally in scotland thinking about the easing of restrictions and the timetable for that . Are they happy with that, frustrated, do they think its too soon or premature or too late . Yes, i think theres a feeling in scotland, a kind of an awareness in some ways, that things have moved a bit more slowly, a bit more cautiously than they have in some other parts of the uk, particularly, in england. Although thats not the case in fact with haircuts. With haircuts, its possible here a week before you are able to get a haircut in england. There is that sense that things are happening more slowly but there is quite a level of trust in the scottish government, in particular the first minister nicola sturgeon. When it comes to the timing of these things. There is frustration when it comes to businesses, particularly people like, of course, hair salons in the past who now can open up but now its more about hospitality, hotels, pubs, restaurants, desperate to get back and try to start making money again. That is still some way in the future for scotland, we are talking about hospitality starting to open up in about three weeks time. So that cannot come soon enough for those thousands of businesses who have had to put everything on hold right across the first few months of the year. The israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appeared in court after his much delayed corruption trial resumed injerusalem. Here he is arriving in the court a little earlier on monday. He began by speaking to his legal team. The first witness has begun giving evidence his testimony is expected to last for days. Mr netanyahu didnt stay in the courtroom for long. Here he is leaving less than an hour after he arrived. The veteran Political Leader is facing charges of fraud, Breach Of Trust and bribery in three cases. One of the charges involves accepting gifts from businessmen mainly cigars and champagne in exchange forfavours. Another charge alleges he helped the Controlling Shareholder of Telecoms Giant Bezeq in exchange for favourable coverage from a news website. He denies all charges. The resumption of his trial comes with talks due to begin as to whether his likud party can form a new government. 0ur Correspondent Yolande Knell Injerusalem said today was an extraordinary day both legally and politically. Members of the public are really watching two locations across different parts ofjerusalem at the same time. Here atjerusalem District Court, the Prime Minister, israels longest serving Prime Minister, was in court for the Opening Statement by the prosecutors in his trial. His trial really beginning in earnest now. And the first witness in the case has now taken to the stand and we are expecting that this court will continue to sit three times a week, going forward, to hear all the evidence in the case against Benjamin Netanyahu, he, of course, denies any wrongdoing. Meanwhile, just a couple of miles away, where the president has his office, he has begun Meeting Representatives of the 13 different Political Parties that all won seats in the last General Election, israels fourth General Election in two years, that was two weeks ago and the task of the president is to decide out of all of these parties members, who should be given the mandate to try to form a new coalition government, who could try to form the most stable government for israel. Because, of course, the reason israel keeps going back to the polls, previous elections have been inconclusive and the country really remains very divided. You can see how these processes going on today actually quite closely related because the country is split between those who broadly support Benjamin Netanyahu and those who are against him. And really, that is what has led the country into this long, unprecedented period of political stalemate. How much damage has this court case done to his standing in the Opinion Polls and in terms of Popular Support across israel . Well, as i say, the country is just really very deeply split. If you speak to Benjamin Netanyahus supporters and there was a small group of them outside the court earlier, many of them supporting his likud party which did win a quarter of the total seats, the biggest number of any party in the latest General Election, they see all of these proceedings as a political witchhunt against him and they see him as a great leader, for israel, someone who has achieved a lot on the world stage, somebody who has done very well managing the Covid Vaccine roll out and somebody who also led the country into great prosperity prior to the pandemic. And then those who are the detractors of Benjamin Netanyahu, they are actually from across the political spectrum, they really want him to resign, they say he has been putting his personal interest, his political survival, before the best interests of the country. India has recorded more than 100,000 coronavirus cases in one day the highest daily increase in the world as the country sees a surge in infections. In response, more restrictions are being introduced, particularly in maharashtra, which is home to the city of mumbai. Gail mcclellan has more. A crowded market in mumbai. Masks are on but social distancing is virtually impossible and coronavirus cases are rising rapidly. The warning is stark. Translation the number of covid19 cases reported in the last 2a hours is alarming and is a matter of concern. It could turn into a hazardous situation. Almost 15 days ago, there were about 23,000 cases which have increased four times now which is a very big thing. If the cases increase in this proportion, the impact of the pandemic will be as dreadful as last year. 165,000 have died of covid 19 in india. The country recording 12. 5 million infections. On sunday, the number of daily cases peaked at its highest level since september with more than 93,000 recorded. More than half of those are in maharashtra, the state facing tighter restrictions from monday. Including a night time curfew and full lockdown on weekends. Translation this is a very good decision by the government. As coronavirus cases are surging and the chain of transmission of the virus will break. Which will be very beneficialfor all of us. Stopping the spread of the virus is a mammoth task, particularly in a country with a population of 1. 3 billion. It may have the Worlds Largest inoculation drive, so far administering more than 68 million doses. But thats not yet been enough to halt transmission. Gail mcclellan, bbc news. For more on why there has been such a severe surge in cases in maharashtra, heres our south asia correspondent, rajini vaidyanathan. It was a hot spot last year as well. It is a very densely populated state, home to the city of mumbai, the film and Financial Capital of india, and it accounts for more than half of the daily cases. India has now breached the 100,000 mark in terms of daily case numbers, the first time it has done that. More than half of those are in maharashtra. So, huge cause for concern there right now, and thats why they have brought in some restrictions there. So, shops, markets, malls will all be shut. There is going to be an Evening Curfew as well, and a lockdown at the weekend. Now, there wont be a National Lockdown. It is unlikely that that will come in, even if cases rise, as they are in other parts of the country as well. Because of the Economic Impact it would have on people here in india. What were seeing, as we are seeing in maharashtra is a case by case, state by state restrictions that are being brought in. A two week old baby boy has died after his pram was hit by a car in the west midlands. Police say the incident happened on the high street in brownhills near walsall at about 4pm yesterday. The driver fled the scene but a 34 year old man was arrested shortly afterwards. Hes being questioned on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving. Police divers have been deployed as part of the investigation into the disappearance of student, Richard 0korogheye. The 19 year old hasnt been seen since the 22nd of march, and was last seen walking towards epping forest. Aruna iyengar has this report. 19 year old Richard 0korogheye has been missing for two weeks. He has Sickle Cell Disease and has been Shielding Due to coronavirus since last march. He left home without his medication. He is described by his mother as focused, intelligent and loved, and his disappearance is completely out of character. Police say they are working round the clock to find richard. Police divers have been searching in areas of water in the woodland of Northeast London and in epping forest. These pictures released by the police show the last sighting of richard, around half past midnight on the 23rd of march. He got out of a taxi in loughton, east london. He is wearing all black and carrying a black satchel with an adidas white logo on it. He walks along a residential road called smarts lane. Police say they have records that he paid for that taxi. Earlier, he left his family home at 8 30 in the evening on the 22nd of march. 15 minutes later, he was seen boarding a number 23 Bus Southbound in ladbroke grove. Police say richards mobile phone hasnt been used since he disappeared. They are appealing to the public for any help in finding him anyone who saw him on the 23 bus or later in the loughton area. Aruna iyengar, bbc news. Now its time for a look at the weather. Hello again. The weather feels wintry today, a lot of snow showers coming in across the north of scotland, some of those getting into Northern Ireland, wales, the moors and eastern england. Between them, there is sunshine and for many, you will miss them all together and it will be dry and sunny but a windy one, gusty winds blowing snow across the north of scotland, and there will be blizzards. That wind will make it feel colder, for example in aberdeen it is going to be 2 degrees. We push down to birmingham at 6 degrees, you add on the wind chill it will feel more like 4 in aberdeen and plus two in birmingham. It is a day for wrapping up. Further snow showers tonight, temperatures falling away widely, going to be a widespread frost, the risk of ice on untreated surfaces and tomorrow again we start off on a sunny note with dry weather but more wintry showers coming in from the north, some of these getting well inland through the course of tomorrow, in between there will be sunshine, but its another cold day. Hello this is bbc news. The headlines an expansion of the coronavirus testing programme. Everyone in england will have access to two free rapid tests a week, from this friday. Borisjohnson will give more details about his plans to further ease the lockdown in england today, including a Traffic Light System for foreign travel. Hairdressers, Homeware Shops and Garden Centres are reopening in scotland, as Covid Restrictions are eased. Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in court on trial for corruption as his party seeks to form the next government. Sport, and for a full round up from the bbc sport centre, heres gavin. Nice to see you. Tottenham Managerjose Mourinho blamed his players for the draw at newcastle that kept them out of the top four. Leading and then dropping points has become a bit of a habit for spurs this season but mourinho insists its not his fault. After two harry kane goals put spurs ahead, joe willock scored a late equaliser for newcastle in a 2 2 draw and its fair to say mourinho was unimpressed with his side. It is a bad result. I am not being disrespectful with newcastle, but i think that is a match to win, so the result is not a good one. We had chances to kill the game, but we create instability to ourselves with the mistakes that we made defensively. Fulham manager scott parker was also left to rue a missed opportunity. They were on their way to escaping the relegation zone, leading at aston villa until the 78th minute, before villa scored three late goals. Parker said his side was sloppy but he believes they can still get out of trouble. We are in with a fighting chance. We need to improve, we need to understand where today we failed and where we went wrong, and understand, be brutally honest with ourselves, that was not good enough. Was not good enough individually, as a team, at times. There are seven games left, we have put ourselves in a great position, we will keep going from there. In spain, valencia Captainjose Gaya claims the referee gave them no choice but to resume their game against cadiz after they walked off the pitch in protest at an alleged racist comment. Mouktar diakhaby reacted furiously after a confrontation with cadiz defenderjuan cala, who denies any wrong doing. Diakhaby protested to the referee, and the entire valencia side left the pitch. They described what he had heard as a racial insult. Gaya said they were threatened with losing points, and diakhaby urged them to continue with the game, even though he was substituted. They returned to the field after 20 minutes, but they lost 2 1. Rookie Patty Tavatanakit has won the first womens golf major of the season the ana inspiration in california. She made a fantastic start to the final day an eagle here at the second hole and a closing 68 left tavatanakit two shots clear of a charging lydia ko for her first win on the american tour. Shes come a long way since she finished as top amateur in this event three years ago. It is a dream come true. Every time i play here, i remember exactly i was on the screen receiving my low am, low Amateur Award, and i saw that they were jumping, and i actually took a snapchat, and the caption was one day. And it has been crazy. Good for her. Heres a Blast From The Past for snooker fans. Seven time World Champion Stephen Hendry will play fellow legend jimmy white in World Championship qualifying later today. Hendry made his professional comeback last month. He is 52 years old, white is 58. Back in the late � 80s and � 90s hendry beat the whirlwind four times in the World Championship final. The scot knows he has a target on his back. People want to beat me, i will be, you know, i will be a scalp for somebody. But, yeah, it is going to be. I am going to try and approach it, find a way of approaching it and not put too much importance on it, because i think. You look atjimmy all these years, i thinkjimmy� s dying to play at the crucible again, and i think it has affected him in the qualifying. He is trying too hard almost. I have got to guard against that, i have got to be prepared mentally just to go there and experience it. Look forward to that later on. In darts, the world Number One Gerwyn price has been ruled out of the Premier League after Testing Positive for covid 19. The competition is set to get under way tonight, and all players and officials were tested yesterday, with Everyone Testing negative apart from price. Hell be replaced by 2009 champion james wade, who will play Gary Anderson this evening. Thats all the sport for now. Ill have more for you in the next hour. Thank you very much. See you later on. The Royal College of psychiatrists is warning that there could be a spike in the number of people suffering the effects of Alcohol Misuse and dependency as lockdown ends. Alcohol Charities Say that during the pandemic, more than double the number of people have sought help, compared with 2019. Ellie costello reports. This has become a familiar sight pubs and bars locked down. But, despite ourfavourite establishments having closed their doors, many of us are drinking more frequently than we did before. It became a way to punctuate the day. Lauren oneill is a journalist who has been writing about her changing relationship with alcohol. There kind of became not really a huge amount else to do other than shut the bedroom door, go into the kitchen and poura drink. I think that has been the case for a lot of people. I know that friends and family, anecdotally, have said the same thing to me. Pre pandemic, hugh described himself as a moderate drinker. It was his Adult Children living with him during lockdown who made him realise he was drinking too much. Every night, i was always having two bottles of fairly strong beer and then a whole bottle of red wine. Thats about over 100 units per week, at least. It is recommended that adults dont exceed more than 1a units of alcohol per week, which equates to six pints of beer or six medium glasses of wine. I had no discipline. I had no kind of power over myself at one point. It really depressed me. But i still could carry on that day. It was quite a vicious loop, really. An estimated quarter of uk adults, particularly those furloughed or working from home, reported drinking more during lockdown. 0f furloughed workers, one in ten said they were drinking in secret. And provisional data from 2020 shows a stark increase in alcohol specific deaths in england and wales during the first nine months of 2020, compared with the same time period in 2019. It can affect your mood. People get depressed quite quickly if they start drinking too much and that is a very easy trap to get into. Its easy, for instance, to start getting mild gastrointestinal problems if you are drinking too much and eventually for people to go on to get serious liver, kidney and heart problems. And increase their susceptibility to cancer. So ahead of beer gardens opening again in england next week, what is the advice for those who have noticed they are drinking too much . There are more and more really nice alcohol free drinks available. Make yourself a mocktail while youre having your zoom call. It doesnt have to be a large glass of wine. If you do find yourself getting into problems, drug and Alcohol Services are still here. If there are people around you, be open and honest with yourself, with them. Talk to those folks around you. They might have ideas about how you can moderate your drinking as much as yourself. Ellie costello, bbc news. Well, we can speak now to claire 0wen, who found herself drinking a lot after having children. She is now sober and coaches over 700 women on her facebook group. Thank you so much for being with us. Do you think Alcohol Consumption has got very high during the pandemic . I think it is not particularly that there is any reason people are wanting to drink more, it isjust the opportunity has been there. We have been led to believe that we need it in so many different areas of our lives. Just the idea of iugghng of our lives. Just the idea of juggling home and family life, and home schooling, we are pushing it on each other really. For a long time, we have used it in every situation. To socialise, when we are stressed, to have fun, to relax. This i to socialise, when we are stressed, to have fun, to relax. To have fun, to relax. As i said, ou to have fun, to relax. As i said, you coach to have fun, to relax. As i said, you coach a to have fun, to relax. As i said, you coach a lot to have fun, to relax. As i said, you coach a lot of to have fun, to relax. As i said, you coach a lot of people to have fun, to relax. As i said, you coach a lot of people on you coach a lot of people on facebook, what sort of advice are you giving to people . It is facebook, what sort of advice are you giving to people . You giving to people . It is about turninf it you giving to people . It is about turning it on you giving to people . It is about turning it on its you giving to people . It is about turning it on its head. You giving to people . It is about turning it on its head. I you giving to people . It is about turning it on its head. I am you giving to people . It is about turning it on its head. I am on i you giving to people . It is about turning it on its head. I am on a | turning it on its head. I am on a mission to support 10,000 women. I want to inspire them to invest in themselves, as an experiment for themselves, as an experiment for them to try life sober. I have found it to be energising and revitalising. People think sober is boring. It is about turning it on its head and running towards a healthier lifestyle. Women are waking up and realising that they do not need alcohol to have fun. By then, taking their lead, it is expiring their other half, inspiring communities. The Ripple Effect this is having is life changing. It sounds great the way you see it, but a lot of people would say it is easier said than done. How do you do it if you are either an alcoholic or a heavy drinker . It is it if you are either an alcoholic or a heavy drinker . A heavy drinker . It is about first of all finding a heavy drinker . It is about first of all finding somebody a heavy drinker . It is about first of all finding somebody who a heavy drinker . It is about first of all finding somebody who can a heavy drinker . It is about first of all finding somebody who can show you the way. For a lot of women, they think they need more willpower. A lot of people believe they need more willpower. What i think is you need to spend time with somebody who has a plan and who can show you the way. It is notjust about, you know, looking at what is in your glass, it is about the bigger picture. I have a complete system here that i have designed to show ladies exactly where they are on my sober process. It is designed to get you from stuck right through to rebalanced, with no fear of failure. This is completely different to every way we have looked at this before. Instead of biting your knuckles and wishing you could have a drink, instead you are feeling rewarded and confident because you have made a goal, you have made a plan and you have stuck to it. This have made a plan and you have stuck to it. � , f, have made a plan and you have stuck to it. � ,. ,. , have made a plan and you have stuck toit. A. , to it. As we start to see lockdown ease, it to it. As we start to see lockdown ease. It is to it. As we start to see lockdown ease. It is an to it. As we start to see lockdown ease, it is an interesting ease, it is an interesting situation, isnt it, because obviously people have been pretty down, frankly, during lockdown and may be drinking a lot more than they would usually as a result of that . That kind of lockdown is easing, but at the same time there is opportunity for drinking because the bars and pubs are going to be reopening very soon. But bars and pubs are going to be reopening very soon. Bars and pubs are going to be reopening very soon. But you can still no to reopening very soon. But you can still go to the reopening very soon. But you can still go to the parties, reopening very soon. But you can still go to the parties, you reopening very soon. But you can still go to the parties, you can. Still go to the parties, you can still go to the parties, you can still catch up with friends, you just do not have to have poison in your glass. This is not about removing fun, i am certainly not the fun police. I am really looking forward to getting back out there and getting back together, but i am going to have healthy alternatives. I will remember every single moment of it, instead of waking up the next day, feeling regret, feeling like death, letting myself down, overpromising and then under delivering. In overpromising and then under delivering overpromising and then under deliverinf. Delivering. In your last answer, you ust said delivering. In your last answer, you just said poison delivering. In your last answer, you just said poison in delivering. In your last answer, you just said poison in my delivering. In your last answer, you just said poison in my glass, delivering. In your last answer, you just said poison in my glass, is just said poison in my glass, is that how you say alcohol . Absolutely. I do. Just from my before and after photographs, it has been the first domino that i have needed to change my whole life. I feel like i have got my power back, i have increased my confidence, my whole family, i am enjoying the benefits of a healthier me. I do not feel im missing out on anything and i will not be drinking just because the pubs are open. I will not be drinking ust because the pubs are open. I will not be drinking ust because the pubs are open. Thank you so much for our the pubs are open. Thank you so much for yourtime the pubs are open. Thank you so much for your time. Thank the pubs are open. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you the pubs are open. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you the for your time. Thank you the opportunity Driving Licenses among people between aged 16 and 25 in britain have fallen to their lowest level since records began in 2012. The number of full licenses held by young people has dropped by more than 300,000 since march last year, and is nowjust under 3 million. The aa has put the fall down to the coronavirus pandemic, which has prevented lessons and tests taking place. Lets get more on the governments decision to make available two Lateral Flow Tests to everyone in england from this friday. 0ksana pyzik is a Global Health adviser and senior Teaching Fellow at University College London School of pharmacy. She believes the Lateral Flow Tests should just be one of the tools used to combat the spread of the virus. Certainly not a perfect tool, but it is fast, it works within 30 minutes, and it is cheap. So if we look at it on a mass level, this sweep across society may help identify cases that we otherwise would not find. So, one in three people are asymptomatic or show no symptoms at all. But the problem is that this particular Rapid Lateral Flow test is actually best used in people who have a very high viral load, who are very infectious, and that tends to correlate with people who actually are symptomatic. So i think it does have a place, it can be one of the tools that we use, but it does not make sense to separate it from Contact Tracing or not to incentivise the test itself. Right now, it is available twice weekly, but voluntary. And if people are going to have to choose between feeding their families if they are self employed, or they do not get sick pay or taking up this test, then it is going to be, quite frankly, a very easy decision to make in terms of bypassing the test. And what we also see is if you are self administering this type of Rapid Lateral Flow test using a swab in the nose or throat, if not done correctly you could yield, again, a false negative quite easily. So it has to bejoined up, it has to be married up with financial incentives. It has worked really well in other countries, and i am surprised that that has not been implemented here. Ok, so you think it should have been done sooner. One of the things is in terms of its availability, we gather it is going to be available in pharmacies, quite easy to get a hold of, and this has been tried out, i think, in canada and the United States with some success. Yes, absolutely. So, in pharmacies, one on every street corner, very accessible, you can pick up even a box of seven of these, in addition to other. If you go to a Testing Centre or purchase it online. So, as we know, we have already been in schools, as well as nhs workers, key workers, are already used to doing this. So sectors of society have been dutifully and regularly self testing. And in other countries we see that this pharmacy model has been highly effective and there has been uptake amongst the community for that. And i think in terms of especially keeping one eye on europe, with the third wave and a surge of cases there, we need to be ensuring that, despite the very successful vaccine roll out, that we do not make any slip ups as we start to reopen. So this testing will be part of that, although i do not think it will be enough with the Current Border controls in place. So i do not think that is going to be the be all and end all with regards to protecting from variants, but what it will do is if you have a positive test, that will be backed up by a pcr test, which is much more accurate, and then we will have better surveillance and monitoring of the variance in the community on a much wider level than necessarily we currently have right now. So i think that is another added benefit in terms of understanding where the variance are around us at a particularly, lets say, dangerous period internationally, notjust within the uk borders. So these are all things to consider. The headlines on bbc news an expansion of the coronavirus testing programme. Everyone in england will have access to two free rapid tests a week, from this friday. Borisjohnson will give more details about his plans to further ease the lockdown in england today, including a Traffic Light System for foreign travel. Hairdressers, Homeware Shops and Garden Centres are reopening in scotland, as Covid Restrictions are eased. More on the question of foreign travel now. When will we be able to go on holiday again . Its a question many of us would love to know the answer to. Under the governments routemap out of lockdown, the earliest we could be allowed to head abroad is may 17th. We now know that there will be a Traffic Light System in place, with countries sorted into three categories of risk. 0ur transport correspondent, caroline davies, has been looking at how airlines have been preparing. From the engine to the seats and every last screw, preparing for International Travel takes time. Ever since the Prime Minister mentioned the 17th of may as the first date when International Travel could start from england, many in the Travel Industry began gearing up ready for then. While work is under way here in a hangar at Luton Airport and across the uk, scotland, wales and Northern Ireland have yet to commit to a date. The industry is crossing its fingers that International Travel will restart soon. Its really important that we get a summer this year. Weve got the Broad Spectrum of engineers working in hangar 61. We are up to full capacity here in luton of our permanent employees. And we are working hard to ensure we meet those targets back into our operation. Today, the Prime Minister will announce that when International Travel does restart, there will be a Traffic Light System. Anyone from england will be able to travel from green countries without needing to quarantine, although they will still need a test before they travel back and more once they arrive in the uk. And the countries will need all of these tests and require people to quarantine at home on arrivalfor ten days, although if they pay for an extra test on the fifth day and it is negative, they can leave quarantine early. Only uk residents will be allowed in from red countries and they will need to pay for quarantine at a hotel, as well as taking the tests. This is a new Testing Centre set up at Luton Airport. The Company Behind it is expanding its capacity at other airports, too, ready for passengers. Tests will still need to be paid for by the passenger and they can be expensive. What we are hopeful for is we will start to see, as more countries get vaccinated, is that risk of infection reduces. That actually the number of tests you have to take will change, and the type of test will change. Obviously, the pcr test is the more complicated, the more expensive test. The lateral flow can be a much reduced cost. So our view is, hopefully, we can work with governments to enable it to be at a lower cost of testing. Exactly when International Travel will be allowed is still not confirmed. The 17th of may could get pushed back. The big question is where we will be able to go. Some countries around the world, like israel and the us, have a high Vaccination Rate, while others like france are lagging behind. It is likely that will be a big factor in deciding which countries we can travel to. And how will all this paperwork be processed . Even with a small number of travellers, there have been long queues at the border. The hope is this will be streamlined or put on an app, in time. There are still a lot of questions about when International Travel will get moving again. Caroline davies, bbc news. So what about those destinations desperate to welcome back holiday makers once again . Countries such as greece rely heavily on tourism, but surging coronavirus cases in many parts of europe means the situation is still uncertain. Bethany bell reports from athens. The boats are in the dock waiting for tourists. This man and his team rent out catamarans and yachts for trips to the greek islands. Their clients come from the uk, the United States and south africa. April is normally the start of the season, but things are on hold because of the pandemic. Greece is hoping to open up to visitors in may, but its not clear which countries will be ready. A lot of nations need to agree on specific problems in order to allow people to travel. This uncertainty does not help anyone. On our end, we are doing the best effort possible in order to be ready. And we will be ready when the borders open and we can welcome all guests throughout the world. There are still tough Covid Restrictions in greece, which has seen a surge of infections. But people are becoming increasingly frustrated. About one in five workers has a job in tourism. They are worried about the summer. The acropolis is open again after months of lockdown. This place would normally be packed with people, but now its mainly those living locally. And no one is quite sure when the Foreign Tourists will be able to return. Greece is planning to vaccinate all Tourism Workers and is leading calls for Vaccination Certificates or passports to allow foreign visitors to travel. It is very important to have the passport, because everybody will feel really safe. And our model is safety first for the staff of the archaeological sites and the museums, and of course for the public. After the worst year for Global Tourism on record, greece is really hoping for a better summer. Bethany bell, bbc news, athens. In 2018, heather teales daughter bethany died after unexpectedly falling ill with sepsis in one of scotlands most remote locations. Her home is so isolated that the air ambulance that rushed to her aid had to land in a pub car park. Three years on, heather, alongside her local community, is building a new helicopter landing pad as a Lasting Legacy for bethany, and in the hope of saving more lives in the future. Graham satchell reports. All i ever wanted was to have children, you know. Its just absolutely heartbreaking. Life changes and it changes a lot because of it, you know. Everything changes. Just having that one person missing. Its not what you sign up for. Heathers daughter bethany was just 18 when she died three years ago. She had flu that turned into sepsis. Heather lives in applecross. Its about as remote as it gets in the highlands of scotland. Everything is a long way away, including the nearest hospital. Its 85 miles and its mainly single track roads and they are very busy in the summer. An air ambulance was called for bethany, but it had to land in a pub car park. By the time she arrived at inverness hospital, it was too late. Bethany� s death had a profound impact on the community, and heather decided to do something. Together with a retired local gp, chris ward, she started raising money for a helicopter landing pad. They spoke to experts, found the land, and work started a couple of months ago. In such a remote location, in an emergency, every minute counts. The golden hour is vital for somebody who is desperately ill or critically injured. And if you can start treating people during that golden hour, then you give them a much better chance of surviving whatever the problem is. In recent weeks, the helipad has been taking shape. As well as local fundraising, heather has been given support by the charity the help appeal. Help stands for helicopter Emergency Landing pads. The charity has only been going for a decade, but has already installed a0 helipads, mainly on hospital roofs, all over the country and they have plans for a0 more. Its just such a sad story, but the need to for an air ambulance to be able to get into applecross within minutes, as opposed to hours across the mountain route, it was very simple. Its all about saving lives. And if we can do something that will help save lives, then we will do it. The helipad is almost finished. It will help locals and tourists in an emergency and it is hoped what heather and the residents of applecross have done here can be a template for other remote communities across the uk. It is certainly a fitting legacy for heathers daughter. To be able to put Something Like this in place in memory of bethany is just amazing. I cant thank people enough. She would be proud. Im sure she would be proud. As i am of her. Very much so. Now its time for a look at the weather. Hello again. The weather feels wintry today, a lot of snow showers coming in across the north of scotland, some of those getting into Northern Ireland, wales, the moors and eastern england. Between them, there is sunshine and for many, you will miss them all together and it will be dry and sunny but a windy one, gusty winds blowing snow across the north of scotland, and there will be blizzards. That wind will make it feel colder, for example in aberdeen it is going to be 2 degrees. We push down to birmingham at 6 degrees, you add on the wind chill it will feel more like 4 in aberdeen and plus two in birmingham. It is a day for wrapping up. Further snow showers tonight, temperatures falling away widely, going to be a widespread frost, the risk of ice on untreated surfaces and tomorrow again we start off on a sunny note with dry weather but more wintry showers coming in from the north, some of these getting well inland through the course of tomorrow, in between there will be sunshine, but its another cold day. This is bbc news. The headlines. An expansion of the coronavirus testing programme. Everyone in england will have access to two free rapid tests a week, from this friday. Borisjohnson will give more details about his plans to further ease the lockdown in england today, including a Traffic Light System for foreign travel. Hairdressers, Homeware Shops and Garden Centres are reopening in scotland, as Covid Restrictions are eased. Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Court On Trialfor Corruption as his party seeks to form the next government. Its easter monday, april the 5th. Our top story. Everyone in england will be offered two free rapid covid tests each week from this friday, under the governments plans to expand its testing programme. The health secretary, matt hancock, says the additional tests will play a crucial role in curbing future outbreaks of the virus as life returns to normal. 0ur Health Correspondent jim reed reports. Rapid Lateral Flow Tests are already being used to test Secondary School pupils, families with children and those who cannot work from home. From the end of the week, they will be offered to everyone in england. These devices give a result in 30 minutes. They can be picked up from a local Testing Centre or pharmacy or ordered online and delivered in the post. Even when people have no symptoms, they may be infected and they may be infectious. And if we can catch those people early, then we can break transmission and that reduces the number of people who are infected, it reduces the likelihood of new variants and it helps keep everybody safer. The government says the twice weekly tests will be crucial to help prevent outbreaks in the future. But labour said the Mass Testing Programme must be backed by improved Financial Support so that those told to isolate can afford it. And some scientists have questioned the accuracy of the tests, especially in people who dont have symptoms. The tests are not good at ruling out and saying you dont have covid. We have to be very careful to get a message to everybody that says if the test is negative, behave the same way, dont believe you havent got covid. Dont go and kiss and cuddle your granny or your grandad, because its not a test that tells us that. Its not a good enough test. The government claims the kits are extremely accurate, particularly when it comes to identifying the most infectious cases. In england, a new Publicity Drive will start this week to try to convince more people to make regular testing part of their weekly routine. In scotland, wales and Northern Ireland, mass testing is also being expanded in places like offices, factories and care homes. Jim reed, bbc news. The Prime Minister will be unveiling the arrangements for the latest phase of lockdown lifting this afternoon. Earlier i spoke to our Political Correspondent chris mason and asked him what we can expect to hear. What we are going to get this afternoon is the Prime Minister saying yes, step two on the road map published earlier in the year will happen next monday, one week today in england. Thats the reopening of Nonessential Retail, that ludicrous phrase that weve got used to saying in the last six months or so, essential for plenty of us, not least those of us wanting a haircut in england, one of the things opening in scotland today. You could pop up to scotland and get a haircut. If you were allowed to cross the borderfor such a purpose, which we are not Nonessential Retail opening up next week, gymnasiums, hairdressers, plenty of shops, zoos, pubs serving outside. So we will get confirmation that is going to happen. In addition to that, i suspect it will dominate quite a lot of the conversation today and coming days, is the government now talking publicly about some of the practicalities it is exploring around a more unlocked down world in the summer. As we were hearing from nick, The Business Around Travel and this Traffic Light System. The Crucial Detail we do not have, and you can understand why not given that travel is currently not allowed, is which countries will be in which tier of those Traffic Lights, that will come much nearer, the earliest date in mid may for when International Travel will be possible again. And then of course theres the ongoing conversation about the extent to which you use technology and information to ease unlocking, in other words, this talk of these Covid Certification certificates, vaccine passports. Will the nhs app be used as a tool to log whether you had the jab, covid in the last six months, or whether youve been recently tested, and can that command sufficient public support and Political Support for it to happen . For sceptics on the conservative back benches, of which there are a few, it feels like an Identity Card in all but name, for others this is an unprecedented situation. If it allows greater liberties in our day to day lives perhaps it is worth living with. Then, the practicality of it, can you actually make it work in a sufficiently robust way, that even those who are comfortable with the idea are willing to trust it . What about those not comfortable with the idea on the Tory Backbenches . There are quite a few. Its perhaps unfair to label them the usual suspects because they would argue these are strongly held views around civil liberties. But they are those who, broadly speaking, have been making similar arguments or arguments down a similar vein throughout much of. Certainly in the last six months. Are there enough of them to cause the government great anxiety . Crucially, that will depend on where labour are, if it comes to any kind of commons crunch point. Sir keir starmer said in an interview the other day he found the whole issue very difficult and he had significant reservations but he wasnt entirely ruling out supporting them in the end. Some parties like the Liberal Democrats are entirely opposed to them. I think the hope from plenty at westminster including plenty in government is by the time you get to the point where such a tool might be necessary, perhaps the numbers and the Vaccination Statistics are sufficiently good that perhaps its not necessary in a huge number of scenarios. There is an acceptance though that there will be some sort of scheme as far as the use of your actual passport is concerned, around International Travel and some sort of documentary proof that you are safe to travel as far as covid is concerned. Thats a separate discussion from the extent to which its deployed in a domestic setting. On this Traffic Light System for foreign travel, we are going to hear more about that but probably not the actual countries that are red, amber and green. Exactly right. The idea is that, as you would expect from Traffic Lights, red countries, akin to the list we have at the moment, travel would remain highly restricted or you would be spending at your own expense quite a period of time in a hotel provided by the government near the airport. Much less stringent restrictions in amber and next to none other than testing for those categorised as green. But as you say, crucially, which countries, particularly for those people thinking about a Summer Holiday . The bottom line is, we dont know, the government says we cannot know because it is dependent on statistics nearer the time but we know International Travel isnt going to happen until the 17th of may at the absolute earliest. All of these things have the potential to slip. I think the best we can hope for is that a week prior to the 17th of may, about the 10th of may, when we are in the equivalent position before step three as we are at the moment for step two, government might then set out which countries are on and in which categories but we end up imagining a situation which the Travel Industry says this morning its desperate to avoid, akin to last summer, where potentially because of the variants and different pictures in different countries, the countries attached to a particular colour vary throughout the summer, making any prospect of medium or long term planning pretty much impossible, i would have thought. Cabinet ministers are expected to approve today the next stage of the plan to ease englands lockdown on the 12th april. This afternoon, the Prime Minister will also give details of a new Traffic Light System for restarting International Travel and his plans for a trial of so called Covid Passports at major Sporting Fixtures and other events. 0ur Political Correspondent, nick eardley, has more details. In a week, we should be seeing this again in england. Pubs and restaurants serving outside. Nonessential shops opening their doors. Hairdressers back open. Those Lockdown Haircuts finally brought back under control. The cabinet will meet to discuss the latest data On Coronavirus this morning. Borisjohnson will confirm his plans in a Press Conference this afternoon. He will also be talking about holidays. But dont expect firm dates or a list of where we will be allowed to go. There will in future, though, be a Traffic Light System. Green will mean you dont have to quarantine on return to england. Amber, you will have to quarantine at home. Red will mean that it is in a government approved hotel. There will be more information about Covid Passports in england, too. They are designed to allow mass spectator events like the fa cup final. Under the plans, you will need to show either you have had the vaccine, a recent negative test, or that you have Natural Immunity based on having had the virus in the past six months. The passports wont be used on transport or in shops at all, and they are not being used in pubs, at the moment. But many mps are opposed to them, some devolved governments have concerns and there is likely to be a big political battle over their use. Nick eardley, bbc news. 0ur Correspondentjayne Mccubbin has been at Manchester Airport this morning. She says many people are hoping to get more information about whether they can go on holiday today. Some people are desperate to get away, arent they . Look behind me, normally the big easter getaway weekend, there is one line of people there, flying out to brussels this morning. Spin around, look how quiet it is over here. Normally, Manchester Airport, this bank holiday weekend, they have about 600 flights every day, because of covid, theyve only got 59. A huge amount of business lost, the business sector thats desperate to get back to normal as well as people who are looking for the week in the sun, and the aim is that you will try and find that destination that will be green with this announcement from borisjohnson and stays green. Come and chat to richard slater, the north west chair of abta and thank you for chatting to us. What do people really need to worry about if they are desperate to get on holiday, to get it right and protect themselves . Not to go off and put the package together themselves. Because there is potential that the airlines may still continue to travel but restrictions may apply and they may therefore lose money on their flights. They wont legally be entitled to get that money back or a new date . Thats correct. The all important question everyone is thinking about, where are the green areas going to be . Do you have any sense where they might be . We are thinking potentially they could be malta, the algarve, the united arab emirates, and hopefully the United States. It could change . It could. Its all dependent on how the Vaccination Rate is going and what the Infection Rate is doing. That is correct. It will change by the week and usually on the thursday, so we have to keep an eye on what happens but your travel agent will have all that information and is fed that information every single day of the week. Richard, thank you forjoining us, we really appreciate it, holidays used to be so simple, you bought your ticket, off you went, you sat in the sunshine for two weeks but now you have to think about paying for tests to leave the country, come back into the country, and the worst fear paying for super expensive Quarantine Hotels for a family of four, for most people, its not manageable. Earlier i spoke to guy hedgecoe who is in valencia for us. He said the spanish authorities are hopeful that they can recover some of the numbers they lost last year. What they are saying is this is a transitional year. They are hoping for around half the usual number of tourists they would usually get. In a normal year they get around 80 million foreign visitors. Last year, there was nothing like that, this year they want around half that number. They are saying as long as the countries can be safe regarding travelling and people coming, they can have safeguards, they will be welcome and certainly, theres been a great deal of pressure from the industry itself, to bring foreigners over to spain so the industry can resume where it left off back at the beginning of 2020. But the government is very keen forforeigners to come this summer so they can start to recover those numbers. If and when british tourists can go back to spain what awaits them . For example, i think i read you might have to wear a mask on the beach, for example, where you are . What is the latest . Yes, thats right, beaches like this, if you were here you would have to wear a mask if you are wandering around the beach. That is a new regulation. It depends on where you are in the country, there a great deal of variation in terms of the restrictions in place. Depending on where you are, you might be in madrid, things are much more relaxed although people are wearing masks, in the street, shops and businesses are operating more or less as normal. Whereas here in valencia, out on the mediterranean coast, things are much stricter, lots of bars and restaurants are closed. A lot more restrictions on movement and social activity as well. So it depends where you are going. Tourism destinations such as the balearics and the Canary Islands are trying to keep things relatively open. But i think we will find out more about that as the Summer Season begins sojune, going intojuly and i think those big Tourism Destinations are going to want to present an image that is open to foreign travellers. It looks very enticing where you are right now. Are there many people on the beach with you or is it just you by yourself . Just me and the cameraman, actually. I have to say, as i say, things are restricted but theres one or two sunbathers near me but it is very quiet at the moment. And i think we wont see people on this beach for at least a few weeks, i think. This afternoon, the Prime Minister will lead todays downing street briefing. Hell be joined by englands chief medical officer chris whitty and englands chief scientific advisor sir patrick vallance. Well have full coverage from 1l30pm on the bbc news channel and bbc one in england. The headlines on bbc news. An expansion of the coronavirus testing programme. Everyone in england will have access to two free rapid tests a week, from this friday. Borisjohnson will give more details about his plans to further ease the lockdown in england today, including a Traffic Light System for foreign travel. Hairdressers, Homeware Shops and Garden Centres are reopening in scotland, as Covid Restrictions are eased. Sport and for a full round up, from the bbc sport centre, heres gavin. Good afternoon. Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho blamed his players for the draw at newcastle that kept them out of the top four. Leading and then dropping points has become a bit of a habit for spurs this season but mourinho insists its not his fault. After two harry kane goals put spurs ahead, joe willock scored a late equaliser for newcastle in a 2 2 draw and its fair to say mourinho was unimpressed with his side. It was a bad result. Im not being disrespectful it was a bad result. Im not being disrespectful to it was a bad result. Im not being disrespectful to manchester it was a bad result. Im not being disrespectful to manchester but l it was a bad result. Im not being| disrespectful to manchester but it was a match to win. So the result is not a good one. We had chances all through the game but we create instability to ourselves. The mistakes that we made defensively. Fulham manager scott parker was also left to rue a missed opportunity they were on their way to escaping the relegation zone, leading at aston villa until the 78th minute, before villa scored three late goals. Parker said his side was sloppy but he believes they can still get out of trouble. We with a fighting chance. We need to improve, and we need to understand where we fail today and where we get where we went wrong. And understand ourselves it wasnt good enough. It wasnt good enough individually, oras good enough. It wasnt good enough individually, or as a team at times. We put ourselves in a great position and we will keep going from there. Rookie patty tava tana kit has won the first womens golf major of the season the ana inspiration in california. She made a fantastic start to the final day an eagle here at the second hole and a closing 68 left tava tana kit two shots clear of a charging lydia ko, for herfirst win on the american tour. Shes come a long way since she finished as top amateur in this event three years ago. Its a dream come true. Every time i play here. I remember exactly i was on this green receiving my low Amateur Award and i saw they were jumping, and i took a snapchat and the captain was one day. It has been crazy. Thats all the sport for now. Ill have more for you in the next hour. Hairdressers and Garden Centres in scotland can reopen from today in the latest easing of coronavirus restrictions. Salons and barbers can welcome back customers with appointments only although most Nonessential Shops will have to stay closed for at least three more weeks. Heres our scotland correspondent james shaw. The chance to finally tame out of control Lockdown Hair will be something that many people have been looking forward to for weeks, if not months. If this hair salon in glasgow is anything to go by, there is enormous pent up demand. When we got the first announcement, we opened our books and we had over 1000 bookings within 2a hours. We were expecting that, so it is crazy busy, but the staff are well rested and we are going to be open seven days, until eight at night, so long days ahead. We are ready. There are still restrictions such as face coverings and physical distancing. All cuts must be pre booked and mobile services are still not allowed. After your haircut you might want to visit a garden centre, homeware store or car showroom. Nonessential click and collect is also permitted. Garden centres in particular are likely to be busy. It will be good. We just need to get the social distancing measures back in place, get everything spread out, and it will be good to see all the customers back, because even since we have started working in the place again, there have been loads of customers down at the gate and stuff, ready to get back in the garden. So it isjust in the nick of time, i think. These are all relatively limited changes. The big date in scotland is the 26th of this month, when all Nonessential Shops will be allowed to open, travel throughout scotland will be permitted, up to six people from three households will be able to socialise outdoors, and Hospitality Venues will start to open up. All that is still three weeks away. Nonessential travel within local Authority Areas has been allowed since friday, but, until the end of the month, when all Travel Restrictions are lifted, scotlands major roads and other transport links are likely to stay relatively quiet. James shaw, bbc news, glasgow. A two week old baby boy has died after his pram was hit by a car in the west midlands. Police say the incident happened on the high street in brownhills near walsall at about 4pm yesterday. The driver fled the scene, but a 34 year old man was arrested shortly afterwards. Hes being questioned on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving. The israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appeared in court as his much delayed corruption trial resumes in jerusalem. The court was told he misused his power in his dealings with media bosses. Setting out the case against mr netanyahu, the prosecution said he had sought personal favours. It comes as talks are due to begin as to whether his likud party can form a new government after it emerged from last months election as the strongest party. 0ur Correspondent Yolande Knell Injerusalem said today was an extraordinary day both legally and politically. Members of the public are really watching two locations across different parts ofjerusalem at the same time. Here atjerusalem District Court, the Prime Minister, israels longest serving Prime Minister, was in court for the Opening Statement by the prosecutors in his trial. His trial really beginning in earnest now. And the first witness in the case has now taken to the stand and we are expecting that this court will continue to sit three times a week, going forward, to hear all the evidence in the case against Benjamin Netanyahu, he, of course, denies any wrongdoing. Meanwhile, just a couple of miles away, where the president has his office, he has begun Meeting Representatives of the 13 different Political Parties that all won seats in the last General Election, israels fourth General Election in two years, that was two weeks ago. And the task of the president is to decide out of all of these parties members, who should be given the mandate to try to form a new coalition government, who could try to form the most stable government for israel. Because, of course, the reason israel keeps going back to the polls, previous elections have been inconclusive and the country really remains very divided. You can see how these processes going on today actually quite closely related because the country is split between those who broadly support Benjamin Netanyahu and those who are against him. And really, that is what has led the country into this long, unprecedented period of political stalemate. How much damage has this court case done to his standing in the Opinion Polls and in terms of Popular Support across israel . Well, as i say, the country is just really very deeply split. If you speak to Benjamin Netanyahus supporters and there was a small group of them outside the court earlier, many of them supporting his likud party which did win a quarter of the total seats, the biggest number of any party in the latest General Election, they see all of these proceedings as a political witchhunt against him and they see him as a great leader, for israel, someone who has achieved a lot on the world stage, somebody who has done very well managing the Covid Vaccine roll out and somebody who also led the country into great prosperity prior to the pandemic. And then those who are the detractors of Benjamin Netanyahu, they are actually from across the political spectrum, they really want him to resign. They say he has been putting his personal interest, his political survival, before the best interests of the country. India has recorded more than 100,000 coronavirus cases in one day the highest daily increase in the world as the country sees a surge in infections. In response, more restrictions are being introduced, particularly in maharashtra, which is home to the city of mumbai. Gail mcclellan has more. A crowded market in mumbai. Masks are on but social distancing is virtually impossible and coronavirus cases are rising rapidly. The warning is stark. Translation the number of covid19 cases reported in the last 2a hours is alarming and is a matter of concern. It could turn into a hazardous situation. Almost 15 days ago, there were about 23,000 cases which have increased four times now which is a very big thing. If the cases increase in this proportion, the impact of the pandemic will be as dreadful as last year. 165,000 have died of covid 19 in india. The country recording 12. 5 million infections. On sunday, the number of daily cases peaked at its highest level since september with more than 93,000 recorded. More than half of those are in maharashtra, the state facing tighter restrictions from monday. Including a night time curfew and full lockdown on weekends. Translation this is a very good decision by the government. As coronavirus cases are surging and the chain of transmission of the virus will break. Which will be very beneficialfor all of us. Stopping the spread of the virus is a mammoth task, particularly in a country with a population of 1. 3 billion. It may have the Worlds Largest inoculation drive, so far administering more than 68 million doses. But thats not yet been enough to halt transmission. Gail mcclellan, bbc news. Driving licenses among people between aged 16 and 25 in britain have fallen to their lowest level since records began in 2012. The number of full licenses held by young people has dropped by more than 300,000 since march last year and is nowjust under 3 million. The aa has put the fall down to the coronavirus pandemic, which has prevented lessons and tests taking place. Now its time for a look at the weather with carole. Hello again. The weather feels wintry today, a lot of snow showers coming in across the north of scotland, some of those getting into Northern Ireland, wales, the moors and eastern england. Between them, there is sunshine and for many, you will miss them all together and it will be dry and sunny but a windy one, gusty winds blowing snow across the north of scotland, and there will be blizzards. That wind will make it feel colder, for example in aberdeen, it is going to be 2 degrees. We push down to birmingham at 6 degrees, you add on the wind chill it will feel more like 4 in aberdeen and plus two in birmingham. It is a day for wrapping up. Further snow showers tonight, temperatures falling away widely, going to be a widespread frost, the risk of ice on untreated surfaces and tomorrow again we start off on a sunny note with dry weather but more wintry showers coming in from the north, some of these getting well inland through the course of tomorrow, in between there will be sunshine, but its another cold day. Hello this is bbc news. The headlines an expansion of the coronavirus testing programme. Everyone in england will have access to two free rapid tests a week from this friday. Borisjohnson will give more details about his plans to further ease the lockdown in england today, including a Traffic Light System for foreign travel. Hairdressers, Homeware Shops and Garden Centres are reopening in scotland, as Covid Restrictions are eased. Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Court On Trialfor Corruption, as his party seeks to form the next government. Now on bbc news, the media show. A handful of tech entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley have become the editors in chief of the internet. Mark zuckerberg of facebook, jack dorsey of twitter, we talk about them and their companies all the time, but we very rarely hear from them. Well, today, we will. Because Steve Huffman is the ceo of reddit, a multibillion Dollar Company which is the seventh most visited website in america. So, what is reddit . Is this what the internet should look like, a free space for free speech . A News Platform where anything malicious orjust plain boring dwindles away . What can we learn from the companys battle against conspiracy theories and white supremacist content . And how did a social media site come to take on and humble wall street . Steve, welcome to the show. My pleasure. Im honoured to be here today. Lets start at the beginning of your illustrious career. Youre two roommates in uni on the American East Coast who came up with and coded a social media site that is today worth billions. Im not talking about facebook, im talking about you, steve. Take us back to 2025 spring break of your senior year, youre studying with a guy named alexis 0hanian, i dont know how you pronounce it, a lot of people would know him because he is now the husband of serena williams. You came up with the idea for a website that would be the front page of the internet. How would you explain reddit to someone whos never seen it before . So, reddit is complex. Depending on how long i have for this answer, ill start with the short version and maybe we can work our way into the longer version. Sure. But reddit is thousands of communities. Its a place where people can find a community for pretty much any interest and passion that they may have. So, our communities range from the familiar news, politics, sports to internet culture, communities that may not have representation off line at all. And to support. So, communities for people who are parents for the first time or are struggling with drug and alcohol addiction. Places where folks may not have a lot of places to turn to elsewhere online or off line. So, reddit, its a little bit of everything. But, at its core, its communities and its people. What was the question to which reddit was the answer in 2005 . What were you setting out to do that no one else was doing or no one else was doing as well . In 2005, our vision for reddit was different than what it is today. We only had a single community. So, in 2005, the way i would describe reddit is that its a place where you could find new and interesting content online. And i take a little exception to your opening, being described as editor in chief. Because we created reddit as a reaction against traditional media. We specifically did not want to be the gatekeepers. We believe that people, our users, were the people with the most haste or in the best position to determine whats interesting or not. When im selling these stories to people on high faluting news broadcasts, i often have to explain, not only the enormous influence and reach of reddit but also the demographics, and there might be an assumption by some people, particularly those who looked at what happened with gamestop, as were going to come on to, who think that reddit is a Young Persons pastime. What do you know about the demographics of those sub reddits, those thousands of communities that you have . Sure. Its interesting you frame it as what we know, because one of the things that i think is unique about reddit is that we dont insist that our users tell us their age or gender or location. Though we do know these things through surveys and things like that. So, ouraudience is, age wise, we call them emerging adults. We tend to pick people up towards the end of high school. When they are in their late teens, early 20s, when a young adult starts to develop their own opinions about the world. When they start to separate from their parents. And then we just keep them. So the age range, our sweet spot is basically somebody in their 20s, late teens, early 30s. Although that continues to grow and expand. And we skew male. But its becoming more balanced, roughly 60 40 in both the us and uk at this point. I mentioned game stop and i should explain for those who arent familiar. They may have seen headlines a few weeks earlier this year. Basically, a Reddit Community or sub reddit, as you have explained called wall street bets started to call on members to buy stock in a Company Called gamestop. This is a bricks and mortar high street game store in the us that was doing badly on the stock market. And so many reddit users started buying stocks that the share price went up. At one point it went from 20 to 400 and reddit users talked with glee, not just about the money they seemed to be making but about the hedge funds that had bet against gamestop. Thats where the anti establishment bit comes in. Some genuinely significant, established hedge funds find themselves in serious difficulty. Youve been very frank about this and you said that you were late to realise what was going on. When did you start paying attention, do you think . I was late, because i was in it. So, i was personally late to observe that the story had become a Mainstream Media story. But wall street bets is a community that specialises in high risk, high reward trading. Its among many financial and investing related communities on reddit. Many of which are more conservative than wall street bets. Wall street bets is one of my guilty pleasures on reddit. Ive been watching them go through their machinations over the last couple of years, get excited about particular stocks or not. And gamestop was one of those over the last year. So it was a little bit of a surprise to me when that conversation metastasized and became a national or even global conversation. Its always, i think, a little peculiar to me when reddit leaks out into the real world. Maybe it shouldnt because at this point were quite large, but i think i still have memories from when we were significantly smaller. Its an extraordinary moment for you as founder, ceo, at the centre of this enormous story of global significance about the nature of financial markets. I read reports that you came under some pressure from wall street figures to take this community down. Is that true and, if so, how did that pressure manifest . Because i can relate going back to how i opened the show as a newspaper editor when people dont like stuff, they ring you up and say stop. Is that what happened to you . Im sure the sentiment was there but it didnt make it directly to me. I know the hedge funds that were on the wrong side of those trades were having a bad day. And im sure that was the feeling they had. It wasnt something that made it directly to me and it was never something we seriously considered. Lets talk about your business model, which has been hugely successful, i read in the Financial Times that you raised another 250 million in february. Your basic model, i want to understand to what extent its similar to some of the other advertising driven models on the internet age that we have. Other social media websites, they are essentially advertising companies, they monitor what users do on their site, to some extent on other sites, too, and they sell that information on to third parties and they sell targeted advertising space on their platform. How does reddit make its money . So, we are in the advertising business. And so, our customers are advertisers, customers, brands that you would all be familiar with, for sure. In the uk right now, this is netflix, samsung, google, among others. We are different from the other platforms in that our business is not predicated on the harvesting of personal information. 0n reddit, we dont have a lot of personal information, and thats important to us. Privacy has long been one of our values. But as it relates to advertising, advertisers come to reddit where they can connect with their customers around common interests. So, for example, we have a Community Called makeup addiction. As the name implies, its for people who are really into makeup. If you are at a makeup company, by the way the people who work at Makeup Companies love makeup so much that they choose to work at a makeup company. Its a natural fit for them personally and professionally to be in that community. And so for most brands there is a community in their space, if not directly for them, where the advertiser can find their customer. So we dont have to play games around targeting like the other platforms might have to. We had an interesting bit of convivial friction i think its fair to say to talk about describing you as editor in chief. I will tell you what my thinking was. I think that you are making a. Im pleased to see you smiling as i say this, i was hoping you grab onto that phrase. Let me be honest, i cover Big Tech Companies for a living and this is a source of some beef among some of your illustrious peers, Mark Zuckerberg back in 2016 said facebook is not a media company. I would argue, a lot of people argue, that its having to make more and more editorial decisions. Lets look at some of the decisions that youve had to make around trade offs of free speech, and then we can talk about the semantics of editor in chief. Like wikipedia, reddit posts are monitored, as you said, and essentially regulated by volunteer moderators. Who are your moderators . Reddit has multiple layers of moderation. The word moderator means something on reddit. 0n reddit, moderators are users who create and moderate communities. They are users with some extra powers that they have inherited through being the creators of communities. 0n either side of the moderators are two other important groups. Above them is reddit inc. This is our centralised moderation team. These are the people who work at reddit who enforce our platform wide policies, who have access to tools and this and that to enforce our policies at scale. Then below the moderators are the communities themselves. So every post on reddit has an up and down arrow. And every post on reddit starts at zero and has to earn its visibility. 0r also could be rejected by the community. It either has to get enough up votes to become popular or may actually receive a whole bunch of down votes and not be seen by anybody. Actually, most content on reddit is downvoted by users long before the moderators see it. And then following there, the moderator actually remove quite a bit of content before we see it. So there are layers, yeah. Theres an ecosystem there. And i think this combination of users and employees and people and machines is the only way to scale moderation. Quite frankly, i think people, our users, are the only people with enough context and taste to make some of the difficult decisions that need to be made. Youve thought deeply about the limits of free speech. Youve spoken about it repeatedly. In 2015 you said, i quote, i dont think we should silence people just because their viewpoint is something we disagree with. There is value in the conversation and we as a society need to confront these issues was up possibly open racism on similar size with w gave a nuanced answer and its important to convey that this was nuanced. You said, the way it we think of speech is to separate behaviour from beliefs. This means on reddit there will be people with beliefs different from your own, sometimes extremely so. When users actions conflict with our policies we take action. At what point would a racial slur conflict with your policies . Ill answer your question directly and then ill provide context. Its easy for me to say it, when a racial slur is used with malice or as a hateful word. That would be in violation of our content policies, and indeed it is. Of course there are usages of such words that are not in violation of our policies. When people are talking about the words, when people are talking about speech. When they are used among certain groups as a term of endearment. When its a musical lyric and things like that. Talking about limiting free speech. For sure. And so the context is important. I think its important that one of the things that would be damaging is if we said, this word is not allowed. Regardless of the context. Because i think thats missing an opportunity for society to evolve and for us to even have these conversations about speech. And i think conversations about speech are really important to have because its among i think, not only the most complex topics that we as society need to wrestle with but its also one of the bedrock foundations of our society. As you quote me over the years, there is indeed i think an evolution to my thinking. One of our first values at reddit is evolve. I think we have to be honest with ourselves in that society changes, our thinking changes, our ability to articulate our thinking changes. And circumstances arise which you cant predict. You might get a president who challenges some of the limits of free speech, which donald trump very much did. Let me ask you another example, because it shows how your thinking has evolved. In 2017, you banned a Community Calling itself a support group for men that were posting misogynistic comments and even advocating rape. Why did that one go beyond the pale . Why was that when taken down . Are you personally the final arbiter on these decisions, as Mark Zuckerberg is on facebook . So, in that family of communities, wed seen actually a pattern that is i think fairly common online, which is a Community Starts off as one thing and evolves into another, worse and ultimately problematic or really troublesome thing. In this case, we had communities that were started for men. For lonely men trying to find their place in the world. Looking for support and that loneliness turns to bitterness, that bitterness turns into anger and then you know, at the point where we ban them, we saw that trending towards potentially real violence. I think this is one of the things thats important, is that much of the time, probably most of the time, a community that we ban was not something that we would ban on the day of its creation but evolved into that situation. I think it requires close monitoring and a lot of this context of having been through it a few times now. And so, our content policies at reddit prohibit violence and inciting violence and glorifying violence. And bullying and harassments. And so, often the communities we ban are violating those rules or are very close to doing so. I should say in the spirit of fullness and frankness that we are talking about a bunch of controversial examples. These examples are not at all representative of reddit on the whole. I looked an hour ago before talking to you and i saw a lovely video of a parrot plucking away at a cat. I should say for people who are listening, i dont want to give a false impression that this is all you see on reddit. Its very much a minority of what you see. But it is very interesting to talk to you about your thinking. Lastjune you took the decision to ban a Community Called the donald. It was one of your biggest communities. Three quarters of million users, much bigger than the circulation of most british newspapers, for comparison for people listening to us right now. For several years, it had originated many of the trump supported memes that had gone viral on facebook and twitter. Can you just talk me through your decision to ban that group . You must� ve known the press would see this as reddit censoring trump, and indeed Trump Supporters may have said that . Sure. Thank you for adding the context before. I will observe that reddit is people. And like people, reddit is overwhelmingly good. Its actually one of my favourite things in life that ive learned from reddit, is that people in the right context are funnier and more interesting and more supportive than i think we give them credit for. So, ultimately, were talking about a very small number of people, who we want to make sure, if they are in violation of our policies, are not on our platform. And if they are perhaps making trouble but not yet in violation of our policies, that their influence and voice is in proportion to their numbers. That is to say, fringe views should be fringe. So, the donald. The donald is a community dedicated to supporters of donald trump. It was formed, i believe, in 2016, maybe 2015. We did ultimately ban it in the spring of 2020. Though at that point it was a dead community. It was dormant and had been that way since the fall of 2019. But we had certainly had our challenges with the donald over the years. That community, among other things you mentioned, the memes, the news, that stuff by and large was within the bounds of our content policy. It was also a community of trolls, of people deliberately testing our boundaries, testing the rules, antagonizing the company or the greater Reddit Community. And those are often some of the most challenging communities to deal with because theyre savvy enough to know with the rules are. And much like a four year old testing boundaries, they try to find where the line is, they walk right up to it and they stick their nose over it. And they effectively are bating you to take action. And this was a challenge. Because this is also a community dedicated to the president of the United States. And as we talked about before, political speech is notjust sacred in the United States and in liberal democracies for top but its intertwined with reddit. And we believe political speech is extremely important. I have a four year old so i hear you loud and clear. Can i put to you that what you are really describing is your extraordinary power. I hear you, i understand what youre saying, you are not conventional media companies. Of course you dont commission content, you are Community Driven, but you have the power to through yourjudgment, through your, i humbly submit to you, your editorialjudgment, you have the power to allow communities of 750,000 people to either exist or not to exist. Thats a power which if youre a kind of romantic like me and you watch things like citizen kane, used or believed to newspaperman in the 20th century you are in a sense editors. Used to belong to newspapermen. You are in a sense making subjective decisions about what should and shouldnt be online albeit in a different context, albeit whilst being Community Driven as you are. I think if you are also a romantic like me you have a pathological, sometimes detrimental, dedication to the values behind our reasoning. And in this case, authenticity and openness and truthfulness. Its true, we do make decisions. And when we make decisions, in this case about a political community, we weigh those decisions very heavily. My preference, honestly, over the long term, as weve done in many areas of reddit, is to find a way for the Greater Community to make those decisions themselves. 0ur communities, they write the rules, they enforce those rules, they create the culture. They dont yet have the ability to make these really large decisions. 0k. A couple questions about the future of the web. To my mind there are a couple of very big and loud arguments about the future of the web. One is between what you might call the california and the western web, where youve been one of the pioneers and one of the leading entrepreneurs, and the chinese version of the web which is a much more authoritarian, frankly. And you have a system where the internet is much more used for surveillance and control. Do you worry looking at Chinese Investment in africa, parts of asia, do you worry that the californian web is losing some momentum to the chinese web . I do worry about that. I think shutting down the internet to protect and entrench power is, i think, probably the least democratic thing i can think of. The internet as we know it, the western internet grew up in the shadow of democracy. Reddit the platform grew up in the shadow of democracy. Theres an idealism that i have that runs through our company and runs through a lot of the internet platforms that we know today. About freedom and accessibility. And i do think that is at risk. And so i look at the situation very much as you describe. I think there is conflict about the future of the internet. Sorry to interrupt, go ahead. One of my dreams through reddit or other work is to fulfil the promise of the internet, which is to connect people around the world. And to connect, to share at first information and ideas which i think the internet is largely fulfilling that promise and hopefully down the road, economic opportunity. I do think that is a threat. Both reddit and i personally, and hopefully everybody who cares about the internet, will stand up and fight for these values. I think were perfectly capable of disagreeing on the details and how moderation works and how we should think about speech, we would need to work through all those things but the internet needs to be defended globally as well. There is another principal argument which is about the role of privacy in whatever future web we are going to have. They seems to me to be quite a big disagreement about tim cook of apple and Mark Zuckerberg about how much privacy matters and you know that tim cook is proposing changes which facebook deals compromises the openness of the web. Back facebook feels is compromising the openness of the webs. I just wonder what your fought two thoughts are on that where we are moving to a word in which privacy is pete something people care more about and something precious may be lost if we do that. I spent the last decade worried that people didnt care about privacy. As i watched these other platforms grow past reddit. We are 16 years old so we are as old as all of them and older than many of them. And we cared about privacy to such an extent that it probably hamstrung our business for a while. Probably stunted growth, to be fair. So, i watched these Companies Grow and these companies and i thought man, maybe we are just this weird corner of the internet that is too idealistic for our own good. Maybe these customers, users dont care. Because i see all the information theyre revealing on these other platforms, maybe they dont care. It turns out they do care, theyjust didnt know what they were doing. And when they learned what was happening with their data and who it was being sold to and how it was being used, they were very, very upset. And i among them was upset. To some extent i do feel vindicated now. I feel its entirely possible to succeed of it internet platform and respect users privacy put up we can even build successful ad space and respect peoples privacy. I have to admit, if facebook is going to fight for the open internet, great, although i dont know if they have a lot of credibility in that instance. I admire apples consistent stance on privacy. To be fair, i think apple can do better as well. We can all do better. Ill summarise by saying im happy that privacy is top of mind for consumers, for platforms and for our governments. Because it is supremely important. Steve huffman, reddit founder and ceo, thank you very much indeed for your time today. It was my pleasure, i really enjoyed chatting with you. And thank you to our studio engineer and our producer. Ill be back at the same time next week. See you then. The arctic blast has arrived now and it is going to be with us for the next few days, bringing sunshine, wintry showers and some strong winds. This band of wind here has been bringing wintry weather across more southern parts of the uk. That is moving through. You can see low sugar cloud streaming down from the north in that cold air that originates all the way from the arctic. It does feel cold today, but many places are still going to be dry this afternoon, with some sunshine. Temperatures here in cheshire lower than they were yesterday. Northern scotland really in the firing line, particularly up towards the Northern Ireland swear its a very windy, a covering of snow and it feels particularly cold. 39. But snow and it feels particularly cold. 3 9. But when you add on the strength of the wind, it is going to feel colder than that, even with some sunshine around. We have got strong northerly winds, gusting 5060 strong northerly winds, gusting 50 60 mph across northern parts of scotland. That will continue to feed on, snow showers to your right the way through the night. Snowshoers coming into Northern Ireland over the irish sea into parts of wales, even the south west of england. Many other parts will be dry with clear skies. Icy conditions where we have those snow showers overnight. A widespread frost, typical temperatures will be 12 3 c. It is still called on tuesday. More snow showers in the same sort of areas for a while, but as we head through the day, the cloud will increase across inland parts and almost anywhere could catch a passing snowshoers through the day. Driven on by those snow wins once again. We have got temperatures 3 9. But when you add on the strength of the wind, again, it will feel really cold. Probably going to feel a bit more like the middle of winter. Later on in the week, we start to see the weather changing a bit. It will not be as cold and it will not be as windy either. During wednesday, we see the cold arctic air and those northerly winds swept out into the north sea, take away most of the snow showers and insert our weather will start to come away from the atlantic. It will be a cold start to wednesday, with some frost. Still some snow showers in the north east of scotland. The winds will be lighter on wednesday. Cloud will increase through the day and we have got a bit of patchy rain coming into Northern Ireland, perhaps western parts of wales. Many places will be dry but it is still going to be called for the time of year. A little less gold on thursday. Called on thursday. Today borisjohnson will detail the next stage in the lifting of restrictions. Gyms, hairdressers, pubs with outdoor areas and non essential shops will learn this afternoon if they can reopen as planned in a weeks time. Holidays abroad a Traffic Light style system will set out how we can travel. In scotland, hairdressers, Garden Centres and car showrooms can re open from today. And in other news, israels Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, appears in court accused of corruption