UK investigates 'Covid passports'

The British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced an easing of coronavirus restrictions in England from next week. The big conversation since is the idea of proving your Covid status to access certain events or foreign travel through Covid certificates or passports. But for some the idea is controversial. More than 70 MPs, including 40 from the Prime Minister's own Conservative party, have signed a pledge to oppose the idea, calling it '“divisive and discriminatory'. We hear the differing views from across the UK.

And we hear from our reporter in Dar es Salaam about major changes in the country's approach to the Covid-19 pandemic. The new Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan is to set up a taskforce of experts to advise the government in a significant departure to the approach of late President Magufuli.

Also we learn about the BBC’s audience event Crossing Divides that this year has brought together people in Lebanon to exchange views on issues they feel passionately about. Participants explain why they wanted to have conversations about whether young people can make a greater contribution to the future of Lebanon by staying in the country. They were trying out a “deep listening” method and explain how it helped them to understand someone else’s point of view.

(Photo: Prime Minister Boris Johnson during a coronavirus media briefing in Downing Street, London, April 5, 2021. Credit: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire)