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The bleakest fortnight lies ahead, with the number of victims expected to keep rising. Ministers must answer for the decisions that led here

Shadow foreign secretary wants to know why thousands remain stranded a fortnight after £75m rescue mission was announced

What are the symptoms caused by the Covid-19 virus, how does it spread, and should you call a doctor?

There’s a freedom that comes with realising you have more influence over your life than you thoughtRecently – oh, no particular reason – I’ve found myself returning to the ancient philosophical idea known as “the dichotomy of control”. “Some things are within our power, while others are not,” wrote Epictetus, the Greek Stoic, in a line you’d be justified in dismissing as obvious, if it weren’t for the fact that we ignore its ramifications every day, and suffer as a result. In every situation, there are things we can control and things we can’t, and struggling to control the latter is a recipe for anxiety and stress. “Partial control”, like the kind I have over my three-year-old’s behaviour, can be broken down into the two: I usually have total control over what I say or do; and none, technically, over how he reacts.It’s an idea that’s echoed widely elsewhere, for example in the Serenity Prayer, associated with Alcoholics Anonymous, and in an observation with Buddhist origins: if a problem can be fixed, there’s no need to worry about it; and if it can’t be fixed, well, why bother worrying? Continue reading...

University of Oxford study looking at mental health finds young people worry about food scarcity and family and friends catching the disease

Unprecedented efforts and diverted resources mean we are fast learning about human defences against this new threat

It’s convenient for leaders to say they are following the science, but technical evidence can only take us so far

Antonio Guterres says Covid-19 represents ‘fight of a generation’ as China wades into row between WHO and Taiwan

New Zealand’s drive against Covid-19 is showing promise and it is not too late for other countries to followEpidemiologists love to evoke the memory of John Snow, who famously advocated removing the handle from the Broad Street pump in London, an action that helped to end a severe outbreak of cholera. In the face of the Covid-19 pandemic we need to take the same kind of decisive action, yet western countries have appeared remarkably slow to do so, despite the advantages of immense scientific knowledge and modern tools of pandemic control.New Zealand now appears to be the only “western” nation following an articulated elimination strategy with the goal of completely ending transmission of Covid-19 within its borders. The strategy appears to be working, with new case numbers falling. Most cases are now returning travellers, who are safely quarantined at the borders, and the few remaining case clusters in the community are being traced and further spread stamped out. But it is far too soon to claim victory, and the country is remaining under an intense lockdown to support the elimination effort. Continue reading...

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Residential homes have emerged as key breeding ground for infections from Madrid to New York

None of 3.5m home tests ordered have so far been accurate enough to detect coronavirus immunity

They are volunteering with a trust in south-west England and are being invited to apply for jobs in Hampshire

The warnings of doctors and scientists were ignored, with fatal results

Covid-19 hits the old hardest, but young people are dying too. Scientists say it may be down to genes or ‘viral load’

Research on Massospondylus carinatus embryos sheds new light on animals’ developmentThe fossilised skulls of dinosaur embryos that died within their eggs about 200m years ago, have been digitally reconstructed by scientists, shedding new light on the animals’ development, and how close they were to hatching.The rare clutch of seven eggs, some of which contain embryos, was discovered in South Africa in 1976, with the developing young found to be a species of dinosaur called Massospondylus carinatus. Continue reading...

Southern hemisphere neighbours have developed different strategies but both are working – for now

Court application warns ‘many lives will be lost’ without urgent action to provide face masksThe Zimbabwean government has been taken to court over its failure to provide doctors working on the frontline of the Covid-19 pandemic with masks.The Zimbabwe Association for Doctors for Human Rights (ZADHR) is seeking to compel the authorities urgently to provide personal protective equipment (PPE) for medical practitioners, warning that medics in the country’s troubled health sector will otherwise die. Continue reading...

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

What are the symptoms caused by the Covid-19 virus, how does it spread, and should you call a doctor?

It’s likely Covid-19 originated in bats, scientists say. But did it then spread to pangolins and humans?

A supermoon happens when the moon reaches the closest point to Earth in its 27-day orbit and it happens to be full, which usually occurs once a year. We asked you to share your shots of April’s lunar spectacular. Here’s a selection of our favourites Continue reading...

Following the decision to end Wuhan’s lockdown this week, Hannah Devlin speaks to Dr Adam Kurcharski about the various aspects of lifting restrictive measures, including the importance of the timing and the role that testing could play Continue reading...

Speculation rife about an impending baby boom, but experts say uncertain times mean this is unlikely

Scientists predict UK will be worst-hit country in Europe; Trump threatens to stop WHO funding; global cases pass 1.4 million. This blog is now closed.

Experts reexamine eggs – some dating back to bronze age – to understand origins and designsThey are about the same size as a standard Easter egg, but are rather older – with some specimens dating back five millennia to the early bronze age.A collection of decorated ostrich eggs belonging to the British Museum in London has been reexamined by experts in an effort to understand where they originated, and how their often elaborately painted or engraved designs were created. Continue reading...

China’s restrictions have brought the first wave to an end but the danger of a second is very real

Exclusive: Easter weekend will be major test of compliance, say forces as they encourage public to report breaches

NHS has 10,000 available but needs 18,000 to deal with rising number of cases

After an initially slow reaction to the virus, the UK is now firmly in its grip. Here are key moments so far

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Debes Christiansen adapted his salmon-testing lab to test for disease among humans

Not enough people yet known to have recovered from virus to provide sufficient blood

Findings from Bolivia show plants were domesticated in region shortly after last ice ageThe Amazon basin was a hotspot for the early cultivation of plants, with inhabitants having munched on squash and cassava more than 10,000 years ago, researchers have revealed.The team say the new findings from Bolivia offer direct evidence such plants were grown in south-west Amazonia, meaning the region has a claim to join the Middle East, China, south-west Mexico and north-west South America as locations where wild plants were domesticated shortly after the last ice age. The team say the discovery chimes with other clues. Continue reading...

Radiocarbon test of early Neolithic remains can pinpoint dates to a human life span 5,500 years agoIt is perhaps best-known for its hipsters, but long before Shoreditch became avant garde, it was a place of agriculture and farmers according to evidence from a radiocarbon dating technique that has revealed details about Neolithic London.The technique proved that the most significant early Neolithic pottery discovered in London is 5,500 years old. It reveals for the first time that the city’s prehistoric inhabitants led a less mobile, farming-based lifestyle than their hunter-gathering forebears. Continue reading...

Brussels agency accuses Mauro Ferrari of being ‘at best economical with truth’ in resignation statement

Global cooperation, intermittent lockdowns and contact-tracing could all play a role in the race to stop the pandemic

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

What are the symptoms caused by the Covid-19 virus, how does it spread, and should you call a doctor?

The largest, brightest full moon in nearly seven decades started to show on Tuesday evening over Europe, Latin America, the US and the Middle East. This year, the supermoon was expected to come nearer to Earth than at any time since 1948, astronomers have said. A supermoon occurs when the timing of a full moon overlaps with the point in the moon's 28-day orbit that is closest to Earth, and about every 14th full moon is a supermoon. If skies are clear, this time the full moon will appear up to 14% bigger and 30% brighter than usual, according to Nasa Continue reading...

Full moon to be around 40,000km closer to Earth than usual, but it won’t actually be pinkOn Wednesday night Australians will be able to see the biggest and brightest moon of the year.It has been called the “pink supermoon”, but Monash University astronomer Michael Brown says it won’t be pink, and in fact, it might not be that super but, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t look. Continue reading...

It’s likely Covid-19 originated in bats, scientists say. But did it then jump to pangolins?In the public mind, the origin story of coronavirus seems well fixed: in late 2019 someone at the now world-famous Huanan seafood market in Wuhan was infected with a virus from an animal.The rest is part of an awful history still in the making, with Covid-19 spreading from that first cluster in the capital of China’s Hubei province to a pandemic that has killed about 80,000 people so far. Continue reading...

Acting compassionately isn’t just about kindness, but about wanting to halt suffering. Right now, we must be wise – and set a template for the future

Sarah Boseley speaks to Prof Trudie Lang about the outbreak on the continent and explores how a history of responding to Ebola and other public health emergencies could help Continue reading...

President Joko Widodo had resisted lockdown measures, but an increase in burials has sparked concerns about undetected cases

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Analysis depends on data – so predictions for Italy and Spain, where peak has passed, are more reliable than for UK

Research indicates virus has disproportionate impact on non-white critically ill patients

Cancer Research UK and Macmillan to lose hundreds of millions in funding amid crisis

From muscle wastage to PTSD, patients discharged from critical care face tough convalescence