Why is British Airways not receiving help from the UK government like other flag carriers? - a question the pilots’ union Balpa is asking.

BA is set to cut up to 12,000 jobs from its 42,000-strong workforce due to a collapse in business because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The airline's parent company IAG, which also owns Spanish airline Iberia and Ireland's Aer Lingus, said it would take several years for air travel to return to pre-virus levels.

“Why is the French government bailing out Air France, why is the German government bailing out Lufthansa, why is IAG itself not doing anything with other flag carrier airlines, only BA?” Balpa general secretary Brian Strutton said on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“Why in the UK is our aviation industry getting hammered? Other countries are supporting theirs.

“I’d like the chancellor to keep his promise of a bespoke package to help the aviation industry. We haven’t seen it yet.”

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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said it will be difficult to host the Olympics next year unless the pandemic is contained.

The Olympics were originally set to be held this year but were postponed until July 2021.

There has been doubt as to whether the games will go ahead.

"We've been saying that the Olympic and Paralympic Games must be held in a complete form, in that athletes and spectators can all participate safely," Abe said.

"It would be impossible to hold the games in such a complete form unless the pandemic is contained."

He added that the Olympics "must be held in a way that shows the world has won its battle against the coronavirus pandemic. Otherwise it will be hard to hold the games."

On Tuesday Games chief Yoshiro Mori said the Olympics would be "scrapped" if they could not take place in 2021.

Japan has confirmed 13,895 infections and more than 413 deaths.

Norman Smith
Assistant political editor

I think there will be a focus on care homes again in Prime Minister’s Questions.

Care home bosses broadly welcomed Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s aspiration to provide testing for all care home residents and staff, regardless of whether or not they have symptoms. But the view of many of them is that the government has failed to deliver in terms of testing.

Part of the problem has been capacity, part of the problem has been - to put it bluntly - confusion.

Care home bosses find themselves lost in a bureaucratic black hole trying to secure testing, passed around between Public Health England, the Department of Health, local authorities, the Care Quality Commission and local resilience forums.

That might be about to change because capacity is being dramatically increased.

Prof John Newton, the UK Government's testing co-ordinator, said so far only 25,000 tests have been done at care homes. That is out of a total of 760,000 which gives you some indication care homes have not been at the front of the queue.

Norman Smith
Assistant political editor

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The short answer is we don't know. It is all very odd. I've tried to contact Downing Street this morning to get clarification - and no answer.

I can only surmise that it is a health issue and they are calculating whether Mr Johnson is up to it.

Although we saw him give that statement on Monday, it was only six minutes and Prime Minister's Questions is an entirely different occasion. It is not the bear pit it normally is because it is a virtual Prime Minister's Questions.

Nevertheless, it is an hour long and to remain on your feet answering questions for an hour is a significant physical ordeal.

I imagine Number 10 is calculating whether to risk it because it will be broadcast and they would not want the PM to be seen having difficulties.

Australia and Singapore have contact-tracing apps - and the UK might get one within weeks.

They work by tracking a user's location and then alerting them if they come into contact with an infected person.

In Australia, the government's telling residents that downloading its tracing app is the ticket out of lockdown - so far almost three million people have done so.

But one expert from the National University of Singapore says these apps aren't without their problems - privacy for one, is an issue.

"There is a broader question of how data will be protected, where it will be stored and how long will it be used for? The idea is that it is used only for contact tracing," said Prof James Crabtree. "[But] the temptation will be to keep it and use it for other things."

He also adds that there are limitations to such apps.

"Imagine sitting in a cafe, you leave some virus on the table and an hour later someone else comes in and picks it up. The app won't tell you that," he told the BBC.

"The risk is the app gives people a false sense of confidence. It is not a magic bullet."

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Next has warned that sales will suffer this year with shoppers kept away amid coronavirus.

The British fashion retailer said on Wednesday that full-price sales in-store and online could drop by up to 40%.

The company said that it was hard to think of a time when sales and profit had "been more difficult to predict".

Read the full story here.

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To those of you just joining us, welcome to our coronavirus coverage.

Here are the latest headlines from around the world:

• The number of virus cases in the US has now passed one million, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. More than 57,000 people have died

• China has announced it will hold its delayed parliamentary gathering at the end of next month after it was delayed due to the virus
• France is the latest country to set out plans for easing its lockdown. Many shops will reopen from 11 May but bars and restaurants will remain closed
• Australia has marked the 250th anniversary of Captain Cook's voyage, but under lockdown. The government was forced to shelve its A$48.7m (£25.5m; $31.7m) commemorations due to the pandemic

In April, the Trentham Estate, in Stoke-on-Trent, normally receives around 80,000 visitors to its gardens.

Annually, visitor numbers top three million, but for now the garden gates are shut due to the lockdown.

That also meant the 12 members of staff who planted 200,000 bulbs for the Spring Bulb Festival were unable to see the end result.

So the Trentham Estate commissioned a series of videos and photographs to post on its website, and now flower lovers can see the colourful blooms online instead. Take a look here:

Mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, has criticised some Hasidic Jews in the city after hundreds gathered for the funeral of a rabbi who had died with the virus.

De Blasio went to the scene to disperse the crowds.

Writing on Twitter, he described such gatherings as unacceptable and warned it would only lead to more deaths.

The city has been hit hard by coronavirus. More than 17,000 people have died.

De Blasio said he had instructed police to summons or arrest people gathering in large groups.

His comments about the gathering have been criticised online , externalfor singling out one group of people.

Many people noted that earlier in the day crowds had gathered to watch a flypast by the Navy’s Blue Angels and the Air Force’s Thunderbirds aerobatics teams.

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All of the UK newspapers today chose to lead with the news that millions more people in the UK can be tested for the virus.

They also reflected on the minute's silence held on Tuesday for key workers who have died with coronavirus.

The Guardian and Daily Express also chose to put the British Airways development on their front pages. The airline announced late on Tuesday that it would be cutting more than 12,000 jobs.

See our roundup of today's newspaper front pages here, external.

Image source, The Sun

John Sudworth
China Correspondent, Beijing

China has announced that it will hold its delayed annual parliamentary gathering at the end of next month after it was postponed due to the virus.

The National People's Congress is, largely, a rubber stamp parliament - but it still matters, not just as a showcase of Communist Party authority, but as a forum for outlining major policy changes.

If the announcement of its postponement, back in February, was a sign of just how serious the virus was, its rescheduling is a clear signal that the authorities believe they now have it under control.

But the event - which normally sees 3,000 delegates traveling to Beijing from all over China - poses an infection risk in itself, and there's speculation that some may be asked to join via video link.

China has faced allegations that it downplayed and covered up the initial outbreak in the city of Wuhan. But its subsequent strict quarantine measures and widespread enforcement of social distancing do appear to have dramatically reduced the number of infections.

David Pittam
BBC News

Thousands of British citizens, many of them elderly, are still stuck in India a month after the country went in to lockdown, the UK's Foreign Office has admitted.

Some have been running out of medicine or have been scared to go outside amid reports of violence against foreigners.

Relatives and MPs have called for more urgency in getting people home, asking for more flights to be organised.

British authorities said they were working hard to get people back.

You can read the full story here.

Image source, Amanpal Mann

Nick Triggle
Health Correspondent

Image source, AFP

This represents a massive expansion of who is eligible for testing in the UK - and means we are now one step away from allowing everyone to access a test if they have symptoms.

That will be crucial when lockdown restrictions are eased as part of the "test, track and trace" strategy to keep coronavirus at bay.

It is being made possible by the roll-out of home-testing kits and mobile units staffed by the armed forces.

The problems already experienced in getting more people tested have - to some extent - been because the network of drive-through testing centres have not always been in convenient locations.

There is plenty of lab capacity to process the tests now the three mega labs are up-and-running in Milton Keynes, Glasgow and Cheshire.

The expansion has also allowed the government to do something that could prove crucial in tackling the epidemic in care homes - the testing of residents and staff without symptoms.

A big concern is that the virus has been able to get a foothold in care homes via people transmitting it before they develop symptoms or if they are asymptomatic.

But promising something is one thing - delivering it is another.

While the capacity looks like it will be there to test 100,000 a day by the end of the month, the numbers actually getting tested are currently less than half that.

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Sports should return from the "bottom-up not the top-down" when the coronavirus lockdown lifts, according to a public health adviser to the World Health Organization.

Dr Brian McCloskey, former public health director for London 2012, said community sport could be the first type of sport to return.

That comes after:

• The chief doctor at football's world governing body Fifa warned against restarting the interrupted 2019-20 campaign
• France's top two football divisions were ended when Prime Minister Edouard Philippe banned all sporting events until September
• Tokyo 2020 President Yoshiro Mori said the Games would be "scrapped" if they could not go ahead in their new dates starting in July 2021

As we mentioned in our UK roundup, millions more people in England can now get tested for the virus.

The government had previously said all essential workers showing symptoms could be tested.

Under the new rules, these people are also eligible for tests:

• All NHS and social care staff, whether they are showing symptoms or not
• Care home residents
• Symptomatic workers who cannot work from home
• Everyone over the age of 65 with symptoms - and other members of their household also showing symptoms

If you're eligible, then you can book a test on the government's website here., external

A UK student nurse who spent weeks in a coma after contracting Covid-19 said there were tears of joy when she finally went home and saw her children.

Natasha Jenkins, 35, spent 22 days on a ventilator after falling sick just before Mother's Day in March.

On Saturday, she finally got to hug her children at home in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan in Wales. Watch their emotional reunion here:

High Street fashion stores around the world have closed their doors - and this has had a particularly devastating impact in Bangladesh.

Global retail brands have cancelled orders worth more than $3bn from the country, putting the jobs of around two million at risk, says the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.

The government has announced a $588m stimulus package, but this would roughly cover wages for only a month.

You can read more on what's at stake for the sector here.

Here's more news from the rest of South Asia:

• With 20 fatalities on Tuesday, Pakistan registered its highest number of daily deaths, taking the total to 301. The nation has just over 14,000 infections so far
• Sri Lanka's cricket board has said it will provide money to the country's cricketing community to help them maintain stadiums and other infrastructure. The island country has confirmed nearly 600 cases and seven deaths
• Nepali workers stranded in India are trying to return home by swimming across the Mahakali River, external, which runs along the border. At least three people crossed it this week as infections in the country rose to 54

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Argentine football legend Maradona says he hopes the "Hand of God" can beat the coronavirus pandemic after fate helped the club he coaches avoid relegation.

Maradona's La Plata-based Gimnasia side were saved from dropping out of the Argentine top-flight after the league was restructured because of the pandemic.

The 59-year-old famously used his hand to score against England in the 1986 World Cup, labelling the act as the Hand of God.

"This happened to us [Gimnasia] and many people are calling it a new Hand of God," he said.

"I am asking for that hand to do away with the pandemic so people can get back to living their lives, with health and happiness."

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Good morning to those of you just joining us. Here are some of the latest headlines from the UK.

• Testing has opened for millions more people in England from today. The government has loosened rules on who can apply as it aims to hit its target of 100,000 tests per day by Thursday
• Thousands of cancer patients will be operated on at new centres designed to be kept clear of the virus, external. NHS trusts have been told urgent cancer care must continue despite the focus on Covid-19
• The Queen will address the nation on 8 May to mark the 75th anniversary of VE Day, external. But large ceremonies to commemorate the day have been cancelled
• Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to speak to Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer today as part of the government's commitment to keeping opposition parties informed about its response

It's been about a week since Vietnam eased a nationwide lockdown, and life has slowly but surely started to go back to normal - kind of.

Plastic partitions in between diners, social distancing at street markets, and mandatory face masks have become the "new normal".

Image source, Get

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Vietnam has been lauded for its success in dealing with the virus.

Despite sharing a land border with China and having a population of 97 million people, it's only recorded only about 270 cases, and not a single death.

It closed its borders as early as January, aggressively contact traced, and also had a nationwide information campaign.

Some of their measures weren't quite so positive - like people being encouraged to keep watch over their neighbours.

And being an authoritarian one-party state means other countries might find it hard to replicate certain facets of Vietnam's success.

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