Prof Peter Piot nearly died of coronavirus and says he now wears one wherever he goes

ONS data shows number of deaths below five-year average for first time since March

I have to inject myself with needles just to stay alive. Still, Bayer will continue to sell Roundup, and refused to label it as carcinogenicLast Wednesday was my 71st birthday, a low-key celebration in these Covid-19 times. Then I heard the news that the pharmaceutical conglomerate Bayer has offered a settlement to resolve several massive class-action lawsuits alleging that the company’s herbicide, Roundup, is dangerous and causes cancer.I’m one of the thousands of people who filed suit. The news of the settlement ruined my birthday. Continue reading...

Couples planning to marry given new guidance as lockdown rules ease from 4 July

The city is on a 10-day suburban testing blitz after premier Daniel Andrews revealed hotspots in suburbs were largely caused by extended families

The city is on a 10-day suburban testing blitz after premier Daniel Andrews revealed hotspots were largely caused by extended families

Over the last few months, we’ve all had to come to terms with R, the ‘effective reproduction number’, as a measure of how well we are dealing with the coronavirus outbreak. But, as Nicola Davis finds out from Dr Adam Kucharski, R is a complicated statistical concept that relies on many factors and, under some conditions, can be misleading Continue reading...

This Saturday, lockdown measures in England will ease further, with people able to get a pint in a pub, have a haircut and see another household indoors. The Guardian’s heath editor, Sarah Boseley, looks at whether another lifting of restrictions might result in a second wave, and if it does, why we are better prepared this time roundFrom this Saturday, the government has said that in England, pubs, restaurants and hairdressers will be able to reopen, two households will be able to meet in any setting with physical distancing measures, and people can enjoy staycations with the reopening of accommodation sites. But with the loosening of restrictions comes fears of a second wave. Sir Jeremy Farrar, the director of the Wellcome Trust, has said that the UK is on a “knife edge”, with the next few months set to be “critical” in managing the risk of a second peak of Covid-19.The Guardian’s health editor, Sarah Boseley, tells Rachel Humpheys why if there is another wave of the virus, or even localised spikes across the nation, drug research, well-practised NHS staff and greater awareness of dangers mean the health service is better prepared this time round. Continue reading...

G4 strain has already infected 10% of industry’s workers in China but no evidence yet that it can be passed from human to humanResearchers in China have discovered a new type of swine flu that is capable of triggering a pandemic, according to a study in the US science journal PNAS, although experts said there is no imminent threat.Named G4, it is genetically descended from the H1N1 strain that caused a pandemic in 2009. Continue reading...

Dramatic change in Antarctica’s interior in past three decades a result of effects from tropical variability working together with increasing greenhouse gasesClimate scientists long thought Antarctica’s interior may not be very sensitive to warming, but our research, published this week, shows a dramatic change.Over the past 30 years, the south pole has been one of the fastest-changing places on Earth, warming more than three times more rapidly than the rest of the world. Continue reading...

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says pandemic is ‘speeding up’; India records 19,459 new cases; Iran records highest daily death toll; China’s military approves vaccine for use on its soldiers. This blog is now closed

Study says surge in volcanic activity could not have caused Cretaceous/Paleogene extinction eventA 66m-year-old murder mystery has finally been solved, researchers say, revealing an enormous asteroid struck the killer blow for the dinosaurs.The Cretaceous/Paleogene extinction event resulted in about 75% of plants and animals – including non-avian dinosaurs – being wiped out. But the driving cause of the catastrophe has been a topic of hot debate. Continue reading...

Around the world men and women are responding differently to Covid-19 yet few countries are taking note of these differences. This isn’t unique to this pandemic but typical of how female biology has been largely ignored when it comes to medical research. Gabrielle Jackson examines the resulting knowledge gap and the repercussions for how women and gender diverse people are treated in our medical system Continue reading...

The shattering solutions to today’s puzzlesEarlier today I set the following three puzzles:1. With two straight line cuts, divide the vase into three pieces that can be reassembled to form a square. Continue reading...

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

Smashed it!My puzzle book So You Think You’ve Got Problems is out in paperback this week. Here are three problems from it. The first is about a vase, the second is about a leg, and third is about a set of keys.1. With two straight line cuts, divide the vase into three pieces that can be reassembled to form a square. Continue reading...

Global death toll passes 500,000; Infections pass milestone; Iran makes masks compulsory; global cases exceed 10m. This blog is now closed

Now is the time for stargazers in the northern hemisphere to get their best view of the southern zodiacal constellation ScorpiusAs we head into summer in the northern hemisphere, we reach the time of the scorpion. The southern zodiacal constellation of Scorpius, the scorpion, reaches its peak visibility in the northern hemisphere. Even so, from the UK, the constellation never rises fully into the sky; half of it always remains hidden below the horizon. Continue reading...

British neoliberalism, social inequality and arrogance have left us trailing in Germany’s wake in the fight against coronavirus, argue John Green and Glyn Turton, while Jinty Nelson says the UK has been losing ground in other areas for yearsMartin Kettle is absolutely right in his comparison between Germany’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic and that of the UK (On different planets: how Germany tackled the pandemic, and Britain flailed, 24 June). But one big factor is the fact that Germany is not, as he writes, just “a bit more prosperous” than Britain. Its standard of living is much higher than ours and there is certainly less of a divide between the rich and poor than there is here. The much higher standards of hygiene in Germany and of health care have also been an important contributing factor to the country’s much lower Covid-19 infection and death rates.Our government of Little Englanders and fanatical privateers will never admit that we could learn something from another nation, let alone from Germany. Angela Merkel has pursued a politics of consensus and moderation, whereas our Conservatives have consistently followed the discredited neoliberalism of the US and the chaotic response to this pandemic is a direct result.

The handling of those highly vulnerable to coronavirus speaks volumes about attitudes towards chronic illness and disability

As I reflect on the deaths of earlier Sutherlands, and the writers I’ve written books about, I find myself thinking of Prospero

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

My Covid-19 symptoms lasted for months. As an infectious disease specialist, I know the importance of widespread testing

Scientists think a planet larger than Earth lurks in the far reaches of the solar system. Now a new telescope could confirm their belief and change solar system scienceYou’d think that if you found the first evidence that a planet larger than the Earth was lurking unseen in the furthest reaches of our solar system, it would be a big moment. It would make you one of only a small handful of people in all of history to have discovered such a thing.But for astronomer Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington DC, it was a much quieter affair. “It wasn’t like there was a eureka moment,” he says. “The evidence just built up slowly.” Continue reading...

The writer Simon Stephenson looks forward to the days when he can eat popcorn in the dark againAs a writer who works from home, my lockdown life has not been so different from my previous existence. Perhaps the biggest change is that I have not gone three months without visiting a cinema since I was a child. It seems a shameful thing to admit when others have been suffering so profoundly, but I have missed those movies on the big screen. They have been my lifelong companions, and I have lamented them like vanished friends.The relationship began for me in the long-ago Easter of 1981 with the release of Superman II. My yearning to see it was elemental: my dad was taking my older brother and I wanted everything he got. When it was broken to me that at three years old I was too young to go to the cinema, I screamed for days, thus confirming that I indeed could not yet be trusted anywhere near one. Continue reading...

New South Wales makes Covid-19 tests mandatory for returned travellers and reports six new cases

A new report by Research Australia details more than 200 ongoing Covid-19 studies that extend far beyond the search for a vaccine

Scientists are currently pushing on an ethical boundary. Will out of body gestation ever replace the experience of human birth?The lamb is sleeping. It lies on its side, eyes shut, ears folded back and twitching. It swallows, wriggles and shuffles its gangly legs. Its crooked half-smile makes it look content, as if dreaming about gambolling in a grassy field. But this lamb is too tiny to venture out. Its eyes cannot open. It is hairless; its skin gathers in pink rolls at its neck. It hasn’t been born yet, but here it is, at 111 days’ gestation, totally separate from its mother, alive and kicking in a research lab in Philadelphia. It is submerged in fluid, floating inside a transparent plastic bag, its umbilical cord connected to a nexus of bright blood-filled tubes. This is a foetus growing inside an artificial womb. In another four weeks, the bag will be unzipped and the lamb will be born.When I first see images of the Philadelphia lambs on my laptop, I think of the foetus fields in The Matrix, where motherless babies are farmed in pods on an industrial scale. But this is not a substitute for full gestation. The lambs didn’t grow in the bags from conception; they were taken from their mothers’ wombs by caesarean section, then submerged in the Biobag, at a gestational age equivalent to 23-24 weeks in humans. This isn’t a replacement for pregnancy yet, but it is certainly the beginning. Continue reading...

Brazil records nearly 47,000 new cases: while the UK announces easing of quarantining for holidaymakers. This blog has now closed. Follow our live news coverage below

Royal College of Nursing welcomed the clarity following a period of ‘confusion and distress’

Kelly Fairhurst found out about uterus condition when she went for 12-week scanThe case of a woman who discovered she had two wombs and was pregnant with a twin in each has been described as “one in 50m” by doctors.Kelly Fairhurst, 28, only learned she had uterus didelphys, a condition where a woman has two wombs, when she went for her 12-week scan. She was also told she was carrying twins, one in each womb. Continue reading...

I miss the joy of random events, of not knowing what will happen between the hours of 2pm and 4pm. Right now our lives are Groundhog Day, retold as tragedy

Rapid transformation needed, Kevin Anderson says, particularly in lifestyles of richKevin Anderson, one of the world’s leading climate scientists, had a familiar reaction to the latest report from the government’s climate advisers, which was published this week.The 196-page document by the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) delivered a stinging rebuke of the government’s record and said ministers must urgently up their game if the UK is to avoid a significant rebound in carbon emissions after the coronavirus crisis and meet its 2050 net zero carbon target. Continue reading...

Some British people reluctant to hand over details of others, says Dr David Nabarro

It has taken a shocking Covid-19 death toll to dent the national self-image of moral superiority. But dented it has been“Haverist” is a Swedish word meaning “shipwrecked person”. During the course of Sweden’s shambolic response to Covid-19, dissent – whether from epidemiologists or journalists – has often been met with this insult, which implies the critics are fighting a losing battle. It’s telling of the way Sweden has handled its failure.Through a uniquely slack approach (seen by many as the largely debunked “herd immunity” approach, even if the government denies this), Sweden reached the highest Covid-19 deaths per capita in the world in May. It still circles around the top, with more than 5,200 deaths – five times as many as in Norway, Finland and Denmark combined. After months of a mainly one-sided debate, critical voices are mounting. Even Sweden’s state epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell, admits to fault. But this has not been enough to change his agency’s strategy, which a majority of Swedes still have confidence in – although that support has waned. Continue reading...

PM and chancellor back purchase of 20% stake in troubled US operator OneWebThe UK has begun the process of purchasing its own satellite navigation system for defence and critical national infrastructure purposes, according to reports.The Times says Boris Johnson and the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, signed off on the purchase of a 20% stake in satellite operator OneWeb on Thursday night, after the UK was unable to access the EU’s Galileo satellite navigation system because of Brexit. Continue reading...

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

Stroke and psychosis found in small study of patients highlight need for research

Teachers say Covid-19 closures have put vulnerable pupils at greater risk of exploitation

Meeting up with friends, going to restaurants and shops – it’s the thrill of a lifetime. For a bitThe first day we went to the playground it was empty. It was a sweltering Sunday afternoon in the city, and although it was the day before playgrounds in New York officially reopened, someone kind had unbolted the gate. After almost four months of being locked out, my children stood still, staring at the swings as if they’d never seen them before, and eventually ran off to play. This particular playground, surrounded by 30-storey apartment blocks and abutting a school, was latterly one of the busiest in my neighbourhood and if there was something chilling about being the only ones there, it also permitted a delusion: that we, and the city, had changed.The phrase I keep hearing and using myself this week, is, “We can’t go on like this for ever.” It’s one of those statements, like “it is what it is”, and “what are you going to do?” that seeks, in the absence of external causes for cheer, nonetheless to make us feel better. In this case, it is also exculpatory. Continue reading...

This nuanced study argues that far from being an unwelcome threat to global stability, migration and mixing are essential to human survival“A wild exodus has begun,” writes Sonia Shah early on in The Next Great Migration. “It is happening on every continent and in every ocean.” In response to the climate crisis, plants and animals that until recently scientists thought were fixed to a particular habitat have been seeking out different surroundings. Butterflies and birds have been edging their way towards the Earth’s poles; frogs and fungi are slowly climbing mountain ranges – while in the oceans, even some coral reefs are moving at the rate of a few kilometres per year. And where wild species go, humans may follow, Shah suggests, noting that more people already live outside their countries of birth than ever before, some of them pushed by war, floods, rising seas and creeping deserts.It sounds apocalyptic. But are we wrong to think so? Shah, a US science journalist, argues in a deeply researched and counterintuitive history that much received wisdom about migration – human or otherwise – rests on a series of misconceptions. We tend to see migration as unwelcome and rare, a flight from hardship or a burden for the place of arrival. But techniques including genetic history, navigational mapping and climatology have revealed that migration and mixing are far more central to life on Earth than previously thought. They may, in fact, “be our best shot at preserving biodiversity and resilient human societies”. Continue reading...

National cabinet decides to ease distancing requirements for small venues and continue 14-day hotel quarantine for returned travellers

Northern Territory to block Victorians who live in or who have passed through hotspots from entry

World should build ‘new normal’ post-pandemic – WHO chief; World Cup worker dies from Covid-19; Europe sees increase in weekly cases for first time in months. This blog is now closed

Third iteration hoisted into space offers alternative to US, EU and Russian navigation systemsChina launched the final satellite of its BeiDou navigation satellite system (BDS) from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province at 9.43am local time (0243 BST) on 23 June 2020.Developed by the China Academy of Space Technology, the satellite is the 30th in the constellation, and was carried into space by a Long March 3B rocket. Continue reading...

Shadow education secretary told to step down from shadow cabinet after sharing article on Twitter that included antisemitic conspiracy theory

Agency hopes to attract novel solutions for its Artemis mission to the moon in 2024“It certainly isn’t the prime focus of the mission,” said Nasa’s Mike Interbartolo. “We’re not going back to the moon so we can say we pooped on the moon, but we don’t want an Apollo situation either.”Interbartolo, is project manager for the Lunar Loo Challenge, a Nasa competition launched on Thursday that hopes to attract new and innovative solutions to the problem of capturing and containing human waste in space. Continue reading...

It’s 38C in Siberia. The science may be complicated – but the need for action now couldn’t be clearer

Mukupirna, discovered in the Lake Eyre basin in 1973, was probably five times the size of living wombatsFossils of a huge, hairy creature with shovel-shaped hands and unusual teeth could hold clues to the evolution of today’s wombats, researchers say.They say the fossils belong to a new member of a group of marsupials called vombatiforms, and one of the earliest such creatures yet discovered. Continue reading...

First optical observation made of phenomenon previously thought to occur in darknessWhen black holes collide, the ensuing cosmic drama was assumed to play out under the cloak of darkness, given that both objects are invisible. But now astronomers believe they have made the first optical observations of such a merger, marked by a blaze of light a trillion times brighter than the sun.The flare was linked to a known black hole merger detected last year by the gravitational wave observatory, Ligo, which picked up ripples sent out through the fabric of space. The latest observations suggest that when these cataclysmic events occur within the accretion disk of an even more gigantic black hole, they are brilliantly illuminated by the surrounding dust and gas, making them also visible to optical telescopes. Continue reading...