hello and welcome to audiences in the uk and around the world. we're covering all the latest coronavirus developments, both here and globally. president trump says he and the democrats are closer to agreeing at least $300 billion in a stimulus deal to help small businesses in the us hit hard by the pandemic. mr trump also said he would use the defense production act to compel one us facility to produce at least 20 million test swabs per month. new york's governor, andrew cuomo, says he'll launch an aggressive antibody testing campaign next week, to see how many people have had the virus. he also said the coronavirus outbreak there is on the descent. 40,000 people have now died of the virus in the us. and in the uk a delivery of vital protective equipment for healthcare workers, which was delayed, is now due to arrrive in the next 2a hours. the government said it was working to ensure the shipment from turkey, which includes 400,000 gowns, would reach frontline staff in the coming days. we'll have more on that in a moment but first here's president trump speaking earlier. america continues to make steady progress in our war against the virus. as of today, we have tested 4.18 million americans — that's a record anywhere in the world. the united states has now conducted more total tests than all of the following nations combined — france, the united kingdom, south korea, japan, singapore, india, austria, australia, sweden and canada. the governor of new york says the state is continuing to see a reduction in both covid—19 hospitalisations and deaths. andrew cuomo said that all indications are that infections have passed their high point. he added that the state would now begin "aggressive" antibody testing to identify people who've had the virus. we're going to sample people in this state, thousands of people in this state, across the state, to find out if they have the antibodies. that will tell us, for the first time, what percent of the population actually has had the coronavirus and is now, at least short—term, immune to the virus. 0ur north america correspondent peter bowes says the president is keen on ramping up the us testing programme. he wants more and governors around the country want more and, over the last couple of days, the president has come in for a lot of criticism from both republican and democratic governors that they simply do not have enough tests, specifically to move towards the first phase — as outlined by the president himself last week — the first phase of reopening their individual states and getting people out of their homes, and we have been hearing quite a different story from both the president and the vice president, and what some of the governors around the country are saying. well, we've just heard from the president, his response to that, saying in fact that many, many more tests are on the way, that more than 4 million americans have indeed been tested and also saying that the vice president, mike pence, will be speaking on a conference call on monday to those governors around the country. it remains to be seen whether they are satisfied with what the federal government is now saying about testing but clearly, as we move forward, this is the crucial issue and also hearing what the governor of new york has been saying about the antibody test which is a step further to the diagnostic test that president trump has been talking about. antibody tests which will show what percentage of the new york population is immune to the virus because they've already had the disease are ready. yeah, peter, yesterday a very political press c0 nfe re nce from donald trump. today much friendlier towards the democrats, especially the governor of california. well, it was a fascinating, almost bizarre press conference because a lot of the time was taken up with the president reading some positive press coverage about himself, playing video clips. one video clip of andew cuomo from new york praising the federal government, praising president trump's response and the help that he's given new york and also, as you say, praising the governor of california for the relationship that they seem to have developed over the last few weeks, and he's done this before and, of course, generally they are political rivals, they've argued about issues like dealing with wildfires in california, but they do seem to be on the same page as far as especially getting equipment out to california that the governor in this state requested and the president agreeing to that request, so they do seem to be getting on. the latest official figures for the uk show there were 596 deaths reported in hospitals in the last 24—hour period. that takes the overall number who've died in hospitals to 16,060. on sunday the british government was again under pressure over the supply of personal protective equipment for healthcare staff, particularly the gowns used in intensive care. a delivery from turkey that was due to arrive in the uk on sunday, is now expected on monday. here's our health editor, hugh pym. a vital consignment of masks and other personal protective equipment arrives from china at prestwick airport near glasgow this weekend. it's ready for distribution to health and care workers around scotland at a time when the kit, known as ppe, is in short supply in different parts of the uk. some hospitals in england have warned they're down to their last few days of supplies of gowns used in intensive care. a plane—load of equipment due in from turkey didn't arrive as expected today. shortages of ppe have been reported by frontline staff for several weeks now. i raised the issue at the downing street media briefing. can you comment on reports today that stocks of ppe were allowed to run down in the couple of years before the pandemic, and why was more not done to get hold of more ppe in march and early february, including using british companies? it is important to remember that, although there may be elements of distribution problems across the uk at different times and in different places, this is a huge pull on services which we have never seen before. and we have managed, actually, despite signalling many potential shortfalls, to continue to supply going forward. ministers said they were doing everything they could to bring in ppe from across the globe, but labour said more should be done to find supplies in the uk. every mp‘s inbox, certainly my inbox, is awash with small firms across the country saying they've tried to help the government with ppe, they've tried to tell the government they can manufacture ppe, and they've hit a brick wall — they don't get anything back from the government whatsoever. stephen was a community mental health nurse who'd worked for the nhs for 30 years. he died with coronavirus last weekend. other members of the family were infected. his daughter made this plea to the public. please stay at home while you can. i mean, my dad couldn't, and he lost his life. so, if you can. i know it's horrible, no—one wants to be stuck at home 24 hours of the day every day, but it is what we need to do right now, and if it saves one life by staying in the house, then it's absolutely worth it. with social distancing in force and empty streets, speculation and debate about when the lockdown will be eased intensifies. there've been reports today that some schools might reopen in the middle of may. i want nothing more than to see schools back. get them back to normal, make sure that children are sat around, learning and experiencing the joy of being at school. but i can't give you a date. and at the new temporary nightingale hospital in london's docklands, their first patient to be successfully treated for covid—19 was moved to another hospital to continue his recovery. applause there was applause from the staff who volunteered to move to work there. hugh pym, bbc news. turkey has now more cases of coronavirus than china — the origin of the pandemic. turkish officials registered nearly 4,000 new cases in 24 hours, bringing the total to more than 86000. turkey is now the most affected country in asia. the president of zimbabwe has announced the lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic will be extended by two weeks. in a live broadcast, the president said the conditions for lifting the restrictions had not been met russia has registered another sharp rise in new coronavirus cases — more than 6,000, bringing the total to nearly 43,000. more than 300 people have died. officials say the increase in confirmed cases reflects a rise in testing, with more than 100,000 people being tested each day. moscow is the hardest—hit area. while much of the global death toll has come from western western nations, concern is growing about the rise of cases elsewhere. developing nations, with massive urban populations and under—resourced health systems, is could be particularly vulnerable. we'll be taking the view fromjapan, india, south africa, and brazil. first we'll hear from rupert wingfield—hayes injapan — a developed nation which believed it had dealt with the virus but is now facing a second wave. japan looks like it is now in the early stages of a major outbreak of covid—19. there are more than 10,000 confirmed cases and that's growing by around 500 a day. the whole of japan is now under a state of emergency, that began in tokyo and other big cities to weeks ago, that began in tokyo and other big cities two weeks ago, then it was extended to the whole of japan last week but it's important to notice, this is not the same as the sort of lockdowns seeing in the uk, in europe and in the united states. people are still going to work, shops are still open, the transport network is still open and indeed, over the weekend, we saw large numbers of people still going out to parks and public places recreation and not doing the sort of social distancing we are seeing elsewhere. for the last two months it had looked like japan was going to escape worst of this pandemic, but it's now looking like that has changed dramatically and the failure of the government to take really tough measures to suppress the virus looks like it may have a high price. india has more than 16,000 coronavirus cases so far, and around 530 people have died of the infection. we are now in our fourth week of lockdown and it will continue until the third of may. doctors and health experts i've been speaking to have told me that the shutdown has reduced the burden on hospitals to some extent, but some of these front—line workers have also told us it's not possible to assess the real scale of the outbreak in the country because it's not testing enough. from what i'm hearing on the ground, this is down to a shortage of testing kits but also the departments responsible for the testing really have their hands. responsible for the testing really have their hands full. in the indian government insists it has enough supplies of testing kits to last for a few more weeks at least. mumbai is a coronavirus hotspot in india, it has the highest number of cases and deaths so far. from what i'm hearing from hospitals here, some of them are getting full up and are now having to turn patients away. for several weeks now, south africa has managed to accomplish the extraordinary feat of holding down the rate of infection. the graph here really unique compared to many around the world. right now 54 confirmed deaths in total nationwide in south africa, but here and across the continent, a growing concern that crunch time, if you like, is fast approaching and within the next few weeks, certainly within the next month or so, the numbers are going to start to rise, that perhaps fragile health systems in many poorer countries across the continent will soon be overwhelmed. but what is very striking right now is quite how much conversation there is across africa is the economic impact, and the trade—offs between trying to tackle the disease and trying to protect industries and particularly jobs in the informal sector, in countries where governments simply don't have the money to offer grants, to offer welfare, to bailout small companies. doctors in latin america are warning without widespread testing, the official figures could massively underestimate the true problem in the region. meanwhile here in brazil, the worst affected country, presidentjair bolsonaro continues to downplay the severity of covid—19. he has in the past called it "the sniffles." now, last week, he fired his health minister, essentially because he disagreed over the importance of social distancing. he would rather brazil gets back to work to try to save the economy. brazilians here are increasingly angry about the way he has handled the crisis, and it's a crisis that could see the collapse of the health system by the end of the month. and that was katy watson in sao paulo, andrew harding injohannesburg, yogita limaye in delhi and rupert wingfield—hayes in tokyo. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: # to get my fair shares of abuse...# how some of music's biggest names have celebrated healthcare workers around the world. the stars and stripes at half—mast outside columbine high. the school sealed off, the bodies of the dead still inside. i never thought that they would actually go through with it. one of the most successful singer songwriters of all time, the american pop star prince has died at the age of 57. ijust couldn't believe it, i did't believe it. he was just here on saturday. for millions of americans, the death of richard nixon in a new york hospital has meant conflicting emotions. a national day of mourning next wednesday sitting somehow uneasily with the abiding memories of the shame of watergate. mission control: and lift-off of the space shuttle discovery with the hubble space telescope, our window on the universe. this is bbc world news, the latest headlines: president trump has said more than four million americans have been tested for the coronavirus and many more testing kits are being made available. as the uk hospital death toll passes 16,000, the government says it's doing all it can to get as much personal protective equipment for healthworkers. in other news, at least 16 people have been killed by a gunman in the canadian province of nova scotia. the canadian prime minister justin trudeau described it as a terrible situation. matt graveling reports. dressed as a police officer, he posed as a protector. even driving around in a marked car. but instead, 51—year—old gabriel wortman took a gun and started killing innocent people. his 12—hour rampage began on saturday night, leaving bodies at a number of different locations across nova scotia. police first became aware of the shootings after reports of firearms being used. tragically, one of those sent to help became a victim of the attack. it's with tremendous sadness that i share with you that we've lost constable heidi stevenson, a 23—year veteran of the force, who was killed this morning while responding to an active shooter incident. heidi answered the call of duty and lost her life while protecting those she served. police were first called to a residence in the rural town of portapique. they located several casualties but not the suspect gabriel wortman. an overnight search for wortman led police to a number of areas, including some where structures were on fire. they asked people to stay indoors, posted the gunman‘s believed location online and said he may be wearing a royal canadian mounted police uniform, despite not being employed by the service. the canadian prime minister began his regular briefing on coronavirus to focus on the shooting. before we get started, i want to touch briefly on the unfolding events in portapique, nova scotia. i know we've been watching this on the news. my hearts go out to everyone affected in what is a terrible situation. i want to thank the police for their hard work and people for cooperating with authorities. police said the suspect was driving what appeared to be a police car before changing to another vehicle. on twitter, they notified people of the car's registration. and then, just before midday on sunday, police informed people that following a car chase, gabriel wortman was dead. they added, as his victims were killed across nova scotia, authorities were still trying to establish the final death toll. matt graveling, bbc news, britain is to join other countries in looking into weather the blood of coronavirus survivors can be used to treat people who are ill in hospital with the disease. nhs blood and transplant has started asking some people who've recovered from the infection, to donate their blood for a trial. science correspondent rebecca morelle has more. it's a race to save lives. and in the hunt for new treatments, blood may hold the key. the nhs is reaching out to people who have recovered from covid—19. their blood contains antibodies, which are produced by the immune system and destroy the virus. the hope is to start a clinical trial to see if these antibodies can help patients who are currently ill. scientists have welcomed the move, but say the uk has been too slow. in terms of the uk, i think there are many aspects of this pandemic we will look back on and say, i wonder why we didn't move a little bit faster? my hope would be that, within two weeks, we would see the first patients in the uk treated with convalescent plasma, having jumped over the various hurdles that need to bejumped in order to clear the path to do this. the technology for this treatment is straightforward. someone who's had coronavirus needs to have fully recovered. their blood is then collected and the red blood and white blood cells are removed. what's left behind is called plasma, and this contains the antibodies they've built up while fighting the virus. this is then given to someone who has covid—19. the hope is that the donor's antibodies could help the patient to attack the virus. 0ne person's plasma can be given to up to three other people. in the united states, doctors have been collecting plasma. injust three weeks, a nationwide project has been organised, involving 1,500 hospitals, and more than 600 patients have now been treated. it's very early days, but doctors say they are not seeing any safety issues, and some patients seem to be responding. we are going to learn more about what's in the plasma, the components, the antibody levels and other factors that are there as the weeks go on but sometimes, as a physician, you just have to try and take a shot on goal when you have a shot. plasma therapy isn't new. it was used more than 100 years ago to treat spanish flu, and more recently for ebola and sars, but it relies on people offering to donate. in new york though, which has been the epicentre of the pandemic in the states, there's no shortage of volunteers. people have been amazingly keen, coming out in droves. we've had hundreds and hundreds of donors, and we've been able to collect over 1,000 units already. it's really heart—warming to see the people who have gone through the infection in various degrees and now their main concern is, how can i now help others? plasma therapy won't be a magic bullet, and scientists still need to assess how effective it is. but, with no current treatments for covid—19, this could help until a vaccine is found. rebecca morelle, bbc news. some of the biggest names in music have joined forces in a global televised concert to celebrate healthcare workers. lady gaga, sir paul mccartney and billie eilish were among those who performed from their homes, while the rolling stones managed to play from four separate locations. 0ur entertainment correspondent, colin paterson, was watching. # well, i saw her today at the reception # a glass of wine in her hand... one world: together at home has already been dubbed the living room live aid. the rolling stones filmed their parts individually on mobile phones. # ..was a footloose man # so i went down to the demonstration... charlie watts clearly didn't have a proper drum kit to hand. # my fair shares of abuse... # who finds the money... there was a beatle via broadband, sir paul mccartney. let's tell our leaders that we need them to strengthen the health care systems all around the world so that a crisis like this never happens again. # i'm still standing betterthan i everdid... and sir eltonjohn‘s piano had been wheeled into the garden. # smile though your heart is breaking # smile even though it's aching... the event was curated by lady gaga, who opened the show with a charlie chaplin classic. # you'll get by... # i know delusion when i see it in the mirror... while taylor swift showed off some very natty wallpaper. hello and welcome to the show. the uk version was shown on bbc one this evening. for an event encouraging people to stay at home, many on social media questioned the decision to have three presenters in the studio. # you've got to laugh a little # cry a little... the extra british performers included sir tom jones. # your touch alone is enough to knock me off my feet... and little mix, who chose a song with a title that no—one should obey — touch. calling it the wi—fi woodstock may be a bit of a stretch, but there won't be many more occasions when a beatle and the stones appear on the same bill. colin paterson, bbc news, his living room. great stuff. finally harry and meghan have told tim's tabloid papers they are to end all forms of briefing and cooperation with them. the former royal couple have sent a letter to the sun, the mail, the mirror and express newspapers and saying they will no longer engage with them because of what they feel is unfairand because of what they feel is unfair and inaccurate treatment. it comes days before a scheduled hearing in the duchess of sussex‘s ongoing hearing against associated newspapers. that's it from me. you can reach me on twitter — i'm @sipusey. stay tuned on bbc news. hello. although monday gets off to a fairly chilly start, temperatures are going to rebound. garden time by the afternoon. quite pleasant with plenty of sunshine out there, although you'll need to take some shelter from a brisk easterly breeze. and there is a lot of fine, dry weather to come this week. high pressure centred close to scandinavia — its influence being felt across the british isles, blocking any weather systems from coming our way. and these are your starting numbers for monday morning, then. most of us above freezing, but there will be a frost again across parts of highland scotland, but again, those temperatures are going to rebound. and while most are sunny, there is a bit more cloud around the channel islands, perhaps parts of cornwall, the isles of scilly, a shower can't be ruled out but most places will stay dry. this is a brisk easterly wind, though, especially in england and wales, average speeds gust 30—40mph, and it's coming in from quite a chilly north sea at this time of year, where temperatures are around 7—9 degrees. so the air is cooled closer to that temperature, and you'll notice that right along north sea coasts if you are outside here, we're around 10—14 degrees, whereas elsewhere, although there's still a breeze to notice, temperatures will be rising mid—to—high teens and close to 20 degrees celsius in the warm spots here. now, as we go on through monday night, that breeze stays with us. we're mainly clear, that will prevent much of the uk from seeing a frost again. a frost is possible across parts of scotland. and the rain and showers mayjust pep up towards the channel islands, parts of cornwall, south devon and into to the isles of scilly. uncertainty about who gets what but the potential is there for something wet, anyway, overnight into first thing on tuesday. and then on tuesday, it's for most of us another day of sunshine with an easterly wind and those temperatures contrasting between the north sea coasts and those elsewhere that could see temperatures rising close to 20 degrees celsius. taking a look at the big picture wednesday into thursday. the isobars open up, the winds turn lighter and it looks to be turning warmer as well. in fact, by thursday, some spots will be around the mid—20s. friday into the weekend, temperatures start to come down a few degrees. more cloud around, there is a chance of seeing some showers. but until then, it's another dry april week to come with plenty of sunshine — a brisk easterly breeze, especially along north sea coasts. this is bbc news. the headlines: president trump has said more than four million americans have been tested for the coronavirus and many more testing kits are being made available. the governor of new york says he'll launch an aggressive antibody testing campaign next week, to see how many people have had the virus. the british government says a shipment of 84 tonnes of personal protective equipment which should already have arrived from turkey had been delayed till later on monday. more than 16,000 people have now died in the uk from coronavirus—related conditions. in other news: police in canada say a man has shot dead 16 people in a rural community in nova scotia. reports say one police officer was killed and that the 51—year—old suspect is also dead, after going on the run for hours.

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