COVID-19: How do lateral flow tests work and how will England's twice-weekly programme take place?

Everyone in England is being urged to take two rapid COVID-19 tests a week to prevent spreading the virus.

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  • Truck driver jailed for 22 years for killing four police officers in Melbourne crash

    A truck driver who was under the influence of drugs and sleep deprived when he drove into four police officers has been sentenced to 22 years in prison. The traffic officers - three policemen and a policewoman - had pulled over a speeding car when Mohinder Singh ploughed into them. Officers Lynette Taylor, Kevin King, Glen Humphris and Joshua Prestney all died at the scene.

  • Biden’s White House communications strategy is driving Republicans insane

    In the words of one House Republican campaign operative, ‘It’s a nightmare’

  • Prince Philip funeral: Duke's respect for Navy fliers to feature in adapted hymn

    The hymn Eternal Father, Strong To Save will feature in the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral on Saturday, with the possible addition of a little-known extra verse at his request. Better known as "For Those in Peril on the Sea" after the last line, the usually four-verse hymn is considered especially poignant by military sailors. Rarely heard outside military circles, however, are two verses written specifically for aviators. They are inserted between the second and third verses. The additional words are understood to feature occasionally at Fleet Air Arm funerals, the aviation branch of the Royal Navy. One such was sung at the funeral of the man who taught the Duke to fly, while he was a Royal Navy officer. Unexpectedly turning up to the funeral many years ago, the Duke further surprised the congregation by singing, along with just a couple of other attendees, the unfamiliar words, which are not included in standard hymn books.

  • Rate of people with Covid antibodies ‘levels off’ across most of UK

    ‘Clear pattern’ between Covid vaccinations and antibody positivity across UK, says Office for National Statistics

  • Denmark 'permanently stops' using AstraZeneca vaccine

    Denmark will become the first EU country to permanently discontinue use of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine, according to reports. The decision, which follows a Tuesday statement by the Danish Medicines Agency that there was a link between the jab and blood clots, will delay Denmark’s vaccination roll out by a few weeks, Broadcaster TV 2 reported. Denmark, which was the first country to suspend the use of the jab on March 11, has approved the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson vaccines. The Danish have suspended the J&J vaccine after the company halted its EU roll out on Wednesday, amid US reports it could cause blood clots. Copenhagen received about 1.5m vaccines under the EU’s joint procurement programme and used about 1.3m doses. 202,920 of those jabs were AstraZeneca with almost 1.2m being Pfizer. If the decision to stop using AstraZeneca completely is confirmed later today, Denmark will go further than any other EU country over the link between the jab and very rare blood clots.

  • Burkina Faso ex-president Compaoré to be tried for Thomas Sankara's 1987 murder

    In Burkina Faso, judges have ruled that exiled former president Blaise Compaoré must stand trial for his role in the assassination of Thomas Sankara, whom he overthrew in a coup d'état in 1987. Also, a Tuareg leader in Mali has been shot dead in the capital Bamako. Sidi Brahim Ould Sidati was a key figure in a 2015 peace accord. And in a major step forward for the protection of women and children in Gabon, customary marriages are finally recognised by the state.

  • Mark Cavendish wins third stage in a row in Tour of Turkey but sprint finish marred by huge crash

    Thirty-five-year-old won second and third stages earlier this week

  • Scottish Tory leader accused of ‘prejudiced’ comments about Gypsy Travellers

    Douglas Ross accused of building career on ‘divisive language’ during TV debate

  • 'We'll look after Granny for you': Princess Eugenie pays tribute to 'dearest grandpa' Prince Philip

    Princess Eugenie said he had taught her to cook in a sweet Instagram post.

  • UK asks for more time to respond to EU Brexit legal action - RTE TV

    DUBLIN (Reuters) -Britain has asked for more time to respond to legal action taken by the European Union over its unilateral decision to ease requirements of the Northern Ireland Protocol, Ireland's RTE television reported on Wednesday. The European Union launched legal action against Britain last month for unilaterally changing trading arrangements for Northern Ireland that Brussels says breach the Brexit divorce deal agreed with London last year. Brussels gave London, which has said it has not violated the agreement, a month to respond to the legal action, but the British government has requested an extension of one month, RTE reported.

  • Swedish region declares 'personal lockdown' as country suffers Europe's highest rate of new covid-19 cases

    One of Sweden's most populous regions has declared a "personal lockdown", as the country reported the highest daily rate of daily coronavirus cases in Europe, and more being treated in intensive care for the virus than at its second wave peak. In posters and an online campaign, the region centred on Uppsala, Sweden's fourth biggest city, called on everyone to "consider all human contacts as a potential risk" and avoid contact with anyone they do not live with, in the closest the country has come to a lockdown since the pandemic began. "We are reaching the point of the maximum capacity of what we can handle," Mikael Köhler, the region's health chief told Sweden's TT newswire. "It seems like the British variant has taken over and there's evidence that people are spreading the disease before they have any symptoms." Sweden on Tuesday had the highest rate of new coronavirus cases in Europe, with a seven-day average of 587 new infections per million people on Monday, more than France on 556 and Poland on 540, according to the latest figures on Our World in Data.

  • Hollyoaks' Summer Ranger makes surprising new move in battle with Sienna Blake

    Sienna is left unsettled by Summer's latest actions.

  • 'Rapping jihadi' who boasted about wanting to behead British soldiers sentenced to 19 years in prison

    A jihadist who plotted a lone-wolf knife attack has been jailed for life after a judge said he ought to have turned his back on extremism when two of his brothers were killed fighting for Islamic State in Syria. Sahayb Abu, an aspiring rapper, bought an 18-inch sword, a knife and combat clothing as he prepared to strike last summer. The 27-year-old, who is the fifth member of his family to be linked to extremism, also used a rap song to boast about wanting to behead British soldiers. Abu’s half-brothers, Wail and Suleyman Aweys, were killed in Syria after leaving the UK to fight for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (IS). His half-sister, Asma Aweys, 32, was jailed in January 2019, alongside her partner Abdulaziz Abu Munye, 29, and half brother Ahmed Aweys, 34, after she called Ariana Grande 'the devil' in the wake of the Manchester Arena attack in a family WhatsApp chat. Asma was imprisoned for 19 months for collecting terrorist information, while her partner received 15 months for dissemination. Ahmed was jailed for 25 months for also disseminating terrorist material. Last month an Old Bailey jury found Abu guilty of preparing to engage in terrorist acts and on Tuesday he was jailed for life and told he would have to spend a minimum of 19-years behind bars.

  • Britain's Princess Anne seen in public for first time since death of Philip

    Princess Anne, the daughter of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, was on Wednesday seen in public for the first time since the death of her father last week. Philip died at Windsor Castle on Friday, aged 99. "My father has been my teacher, my supporter and my critic, but mostly it is his example of a life well lived and service freely given that I most wanted to emulate," Anne, the Princess Royal, said in a statement on Sunday.

  • ‘If we don’t support them we’ll never get them back’: Punters brave Covid and the cold in return to the pub

    After months of disruption, Vincent Wood reports, a minority of the nation’s pubs are getting back to business – weather permitting

  • If Biden listens to Big Pharma on Covid vaccines, the world will suffer

    This is not the time to start worrying about profits

  • Quarter of Covid deaths not caused by virus, new figures show

    Almost a quarter of registered Covid deaths are people who are not dying from the disease, new official figures show, as the Government was urged to move faster with the roadmap in the light of increasingly positive data. The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that 23 per cent of coronavirus deaths registered are now people who have died "with" the virus rather than "from" an infection. This means that, while the person who died will have tested positive for Covid, that was not the primary cause of their death recorded on the death certificate. Other data also shows an increasingly positive picture of the state of the pandemic in the UK. Daily death figures by "date of death" reveal that Britain has had no more than 28 deaths a day since the beginning of April, even though the government-announced deaths have been as high as 60. This is because the Government gives a daily update on deaths based on the number reported that day, which can include deaths from days or weeks previously and therefore may not reflect the true decline in deaths. On Tuesday, the Government announced that there had been 23 further deaths.

  • ‘The fear is much worse is coming’: Loyalist leaders call for political action as Northern Ireland violence returns

    ‘The young people feel that violence has paid off for the republicans, so why shouldn’t it pay off for them?’ hears Kim Sengupta in Belfast

  • A gold nose pin, boxes of eggs, or a tax rebate: Covid vaccine incentives around the world

    A gold nose pin, boxes of eggs, or a tax rebate: Covid vaccine incentives around the worldMembers of the public are being offered gifts and discounts to encourage vaccine take-upSee all our coronavirus coverage A man receives a dose of Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine in Dhaka Photograph: Suvra Kanti Das/ZUMA Wire/REX/Shutterstock

  • English universities despair as in-person teaching ruled out before 17 May

    English universities despair as in-person teaching ruled out before 17 MayMove likely to fuel demands for compensation with students saying they have already missed outCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverage Students walk past Coventry University library. University leaders had hoped to persuade ministers to ease Covid restrictions in line with the lifting of other lockdown measures in England. Photograph: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images