Scientists say failure to follow advice raises questions over test-and-trace policy

When they first started in March the No 10 daily briefings helped people understand the pandemic. Now they are being used to browbeat the publicBoris Johnson’s government began daily Downing Street briefings about the Covid-19 pandemic in the second half of March. Back then, the briefings tried to do two things at once. They addressed an urgent public need for reliable information about the advance of the coronavirus. They also tried to shape the way the public should respond to the health, lifestyle and economic threats that it carried. The structure of the briefings evolved on the hoof. They were far from perfect in a number of ways. Nevertheless, in the absence of parliament, which went into recess until 21 April, the briefings performed a useful public information and advice function for an anxious nation in lockdown.Ten weeks on, that is quite simply no longer true. The gap between the public’s caution and the government’s desire to lift lockdown restrictions is stark. Mr Johnson has also been badly damaged by the Cummings affair. The daily updates have become increasingly tendentious and uninformative. Objectivity has fought a losing battle against the government’s increasingly beleaguered mishandling of the pandemic. It is therefore now time to end the briefings in their current form. Continue reading...

Owner of Britons Protection says city centre pub needs 70% of usual patrons to break evenTwo months after the Britons Protection pub in Manchester city centre had to close its doors, the business’s owner, Mark West, doesn’t know when it will reopen, a source of frustration for him and his furloughed staff.The specialist ale and whisky pub, which has been serving the city’s drinkers including artists and musicians for more than 200 years, is currently “haemorrhaging” money says West, who is using money from his property development business to support the pub. Continue reading...

Scientist says 8,000 daily infections in England makes relaxing restrictions too risky

Testing and tracing is the answer to protecting our most vulnerable – not trying in vain to ‘cocoon’ them away

My father, Cyril Dix, who has died aged 97, was a research physicist who led the team of scientists that, in the early 1980s, established the international definition of how long a metre actually is.The metre had, since 1791, been defined only by the length of a brass rod kept in a cellar in Paris. But in 1983 Cyril led a team at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in Teddington, Middlesex, which came up with a new, more precise international measurement that is now independent of any physical artefact and so gives an absolutely standard definition of the length of a metre anywhere in the world. Continue reading...

Matt Hancock may want to make a joke out it, but if the new measures are to be taken seriously, the health secretary has to act accordinglyHas there ever been a more unsettling sight than Matt Hancock, laughing? Nominally, it was because Kay Burley had asked him why test and trace was being rolled out so fast, when it didn’t appear to be ready. One minute we were calling him too slow, he wheezed. And the next we were calling him too fast! HAHAHAHA. Oh, my sides.Whatever it was coursing through his noisy face, it definitely wasn’t mirth. He looked as if he had been taught to laugh by the goats that had unaccountably raised him, and was trying it out for the first time. But that isn’t the question. “Will test and trace be ready?” isn’t even the question, since given any opportunity to outsource a complex and vital process to a monolithic and incompetent services company, the government will take it, and we have to make our peace with that. Continue reading...

Data since start of Covid-19 crisis shows almost 60,000 additional deaths, a fifth higher than usual

Unfunny, nowhere near as bonkers as the real thing and saved only by John Malkovich, who knows what planet the makers of this Trump-adjacent satire were onThe real Space Force – that is, the newest branch of the US military and Trumpian fever dream made flesh and launched last year to the disbelief both silent and vocal of many – broadcast its first recruitment commercial a few days ago. It invited volunteers “to plan for the possible while it’s still impossible”.Where, you might quite reasonably ask, could a comedy about Space Force – were a comedy about Space Force to be made – be expected to go from there? Continue reading...

Latest figures from public health authorities on the spread of Covid-19 in the United Kingdom. Find out how many confirmed cases have been reported in each local authority

We have learned a lot about coronavirus, but UK hospitals face huge challenges ahead

Surgisphere issues public statement defending integrity of coronavirus study published in the Lancet

It is Italy’s richest province yet Covid-19 spread lethally through Lombardy and residents want answers

Malfunction caused rocket to shut down about five seconds after ignitionThe first launch demonstration of Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit LauncherOne rocket ended in failure this week.The California-based company aims to place small satellites into space using LauncherOne, which is carried under the wing of a converted 747 jumbo-jet aircraft. Continue reading...

Johnson unveils lockdown relaxation measures; Durham police say they won’t take further against against Cummings; UK death toll rises by 377 to 37,837

Boris Johnson announces further easing of coronavirus lockdown measures including reopening of dentists

PM gags Vallance and Whitty when they are asked if Cummings breached lockdown

State Department-backed Armenian project to promote democracy instead features false information

Snapshot survey suggests about 133,000 people infected in England in last two weeks

Governments warn of threat of second wave of cases amid local spikes in infections

Analysis of rate of transmission, NHS 111 calls and Google location data will inform next steps

Latest figures from public health authorities on the spread of Covid-19 in the United Kingdom. Find out how many confirmed cases have been reported in each of England’s local authorities

All hospital patients with coronavirus in England to be eligible for convalescent plasma

World’s largest vaccine maker in talks with governments over manufacturing expansion

From social media addiction to the discovery of musical genius – is the alleviation of boredom what really drives the world?According to the great proto-existentialist philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, the life of a human or other beast “swings like a pendulum back and forth between pain and boredom”. Indeed, pain (or want) and boredom are the two main constituents of existence, and not only during the lockdown phase of a pandemic – a thought that might (or might not) afford some gloomy relief to many right now.Schopenhauer was arguably the first western philosopher to take boredom seriously as one of the primary miseries of humankind, defining it lucidly as “a tame longing without any particular object”. Boredom was, moreover, more likely to afflict the more intelligent person, unfortunately for geniuses such as himself. Continue reading...

A summary of the biggest developments in the global coronavirus outbreak

Test and tracing is launching today but, as the lockdown eases, it will need to be massively stepped up to have a significant impact

Senior scientists say published data on testing doesn’t adhere to basic rules of statistics

New archaeological discoveries in the Bacho Kiro cave in Bulgaria have revealed that modern humans co-existed with Neanderthals for several thousand years. Nicola Davis speaks to Prof Jean-Jacques Hublin about the excavations, and what their findings tell us about when modern humans first arrived in Europe Continue reading...

Study finds 89% of people working from home want to stay there, at least part time, when workplaces reopen

Qatar Covid-19 app ‘exposed 1m people’s personal details’; WHO sounds alarm over surge of Covid-19 cases in Latin America. This blog is now closed

Thunder and lightning in the area may have contributed to the mission scrub which will have another opportunity on Saturday9.47pm BSTPS: the crew will now return to pre-flight quarantine for the safety of the International Space Station and its onboard crew.9.44pm BSTThank you very much for following along even if that was, possibly, a record short Guardian US live blog, in the circumstances. Tricky things, rocket launches.Do join us again on Saturday afternoon if, as expected, Nasa makes its second attempt at this mission then. Continue reading...

Government will enforce compliance if advice to stay at home for 14 days fails, says health secretary

Dinosaur-on-dinosaur dining habit revealed by scrutiny of fossil bones from Colorado siteAbout nine metres long, with grasping claws and a skull it used like a hatchet, Allosaurus was among the most fearsome dinosaurs of the Jurassic period. Now, it seems, the animal could also have been a cannibal.Fossil researchers have revealed that bite marks found in a cache of dinosaur bones from the Mygatt-Moore quarry, western Colorado, were made by dinosaur-on-dinosaur dining. And the marks on Allosaurus bones had potentially been made by dinosaurs of their own kind. Continue reading...

The first crewed flight from US soil since 2011 was called off 16 minutes before lift off; the next opportunity is on SaturdayThe United States’ long-anticipated return to human spaceflight will have to wait a few more days after poor weather forced mission managers to scrub Wednesday’s planned launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Florida.The first crewed flight from US soil since 2011 was called off 16min 53sec before the scheduled 4.33pm lift-off time, with SpaceX and Nasa officials blaming “strength of electric fields in the atmosphere”, translating to lightning near the launchpad. Continue reading...

John Magufuli has repeatedly played down the threat from the pandemicOpposition politicians in Tanzania have accused president John Magufuli of covering up a major outbreak of Covid-19 in the east African country.Magufuli has repeatedly played down the threat from the pandemic and refused to impose a strict lockdown as many other leaders on the continent have. Continue reading...

NHS system relies upon an increase in testing and for people to be required to self-isolate

UN research shows strong systems can reduce public fear and minimise workplace disruption

Hackers allowed access to names, national ID, health status and location data of users, says Amnesty

The Cummings saga has made it plain that scientific advisers are shielding the government’s collapsing reputation on coronavirus

Study raises hope of immunity even for those without severe symptoms

Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance have been regulars at Downing Street daily updates

Your questions answered based on current knowledge and the latest research from scientists

Pristine ‘archaeological treasure’ near Verona may date to 3rd century AD, say expertsA perfectly preserved ancient Roman mosaic floor has been discovered near the northern Italian city of Verona.Archaeologists were astonished by the find as it came almost a century after the remains of a villa, believed to date to the 3rd century AD, were unearthed in a hilly area above the town of Negrar di Valpolicella. Continue reading...

Doug Liman on board as director of film be shot aboard International Space Station, backed by Nasa and Elon MuskThe projected Tom Cruise space movie that became headline news after both Nasa and Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted about it in early May appears to be becoming closer to reality after film-maker Doug Liman was reported to be on board as director.Deadline reported that Liman, who has worked with Cruise on action thrillers Edge of Tomorrow and American Made, has written a script and is on the production team as well as directing. Continue reading...

Your questions answered on what type of mask to wear to cut the risk of getting Covid-19

If the public is no longer reassured by the government’s social distancing measures, I fear a second wave of coronavirus

Latest figures from public health authorities on the spread of Covid-19 in the United Kingdom. Find out how many confirmed cases have been reported in each of England’s local authorities

This week, Musk’s SpaceX will launch the first US astronauts into space in nine years. We’re meant to be inspired, but back on the ground the workers are struggling