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Virgin Atlantic is to cut 3,000 jobs in the UK and stop its operations at London Gatwick Airport as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

The airline, which employs around 10,000 people, suspended its Gatwick services during the pandemic and says they will not restart.

Virgin Atlantic is in the process of applying for emergency loans from the UK government.

The company says it also plans to reduce the size of its fleet of aircraft from 45 to 35 by the summer of 2022.

The company says it plans to restore about 60% of its pre-pandemic flying capacity by the end of 2020.

Read more

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About 30 miles (50km) of some of Paris's busiest roads will be open only to cyclists when the lockdown is eased next week in an effort to limit crowds on public transport.

Rue de Rivoli, which goes through the French capital, and the express tunnel under the Arc de Triomphe roundabout are two of the streets in question.

Another 30 streets will be made pedestrian-only.

Mayor Anne Hidalgo says some of the street closures could become permanent. "I know that the majority of Parisians do not want to see a return of cars and pollution," she said.

The French government has unveiled a €20m ($22m; £19m) package to boost cycling, including a €50 subsidy for bicycle repairs or maintenance.

While many countries are starting to see drops in the number of coronavirus deaths per day, the death tolls are still on the rise in plenty of places including Brazil, Russia, Mexico and Peru.

See more charts and graphs on the global coronavirus pandemic here.

The pandemic may have put a stop to the Netherlands' usual 5 May celebrations to mark freedom from Nazi occupation in World War Two.

But the message of Liberation Day sounds louder than ever, according to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte - because "security, solidarity and freedom are at the core of our lives".

The freedom flame was lit as usual in the town of Wageningen, but there are no freedom festivals because of the Dutch so-called "intelligent lockdown". But that hasn't stopped Dutch military medic Mohan Verstegen giving this rousing explanation of what freedom means on social media:

Hours before Liberation Day began, King Willem-Alexander made a sombre remembrance speech, external in Amsterdam's Dam Square, addressing the role of Dutch Queen Wilhelmina during the occupation. The queen spoke to her nation by radio from London but rarely mentioned the Nazi deportation and murder of the Dutch Jewish population.

"Fellow human beings, fellow citizens in need, felt abandoned, unheard, and unsupported, if only by words. Also from London, and by my great-grandmother, despite her unwavering and fierce opposition. This is something that won’t let go of me," said the king.

Naomi Grimley, BBC News

According to documents released today, Sage - the government’s scientific advisory body - is worried that antibody tests may not be accurate enough to be used to clear some of the population to return to work. Here is a summary of their concerns on the potential use of antibody testing:

• Some people may go back to work thinking they have immunity when they do not (due to false positives)
• People may stop washing their hands as much ("There is some evidence from previous public health crises that misunderstanding test results can affect adherence to risk-reducing behaviours," the body said)
• Those who a test showed were not immune might try to hide away and perhaps "seek to avoid attendance at work entirely"
• The potential for discrimination by employers on the basis of antibody status, for example only taking on new staff if they had confirmed antibodies
• This might prompt some people to try to seek out infection in order to fully integrate back into the workplace

Image source, Getty Images

The UK economy is set for its deepest downturn "in living memory" as businesses suffer from lockdown, a survey warned.

The IHS Markit/CIPS found the UK's dominant services sector contracted at a record pace last month.

Around 79% of services, such as cafes and hairdressers, reported a fall in business activity amid mass shutdowns in response to the coronavirus.

IHS Markit warned UK GDP could fall by 7% and its economics director Tim Moore said the data highlighted that the downturn in the UK economy during the second quarter of 2020 "will be far deeper and more widespread than anything seen in living memory".

A very warm welcome to those just joining us in the UK and globally. Here are some of the latest coronavirus news stories from around the world today:

• A patient in France had coronavirus on 27 December, a recent testing of a swab taken at the time has shown. That would mean coronavirus came to Europe almost a month earlier than previously thought

• New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the country will not have open borders with the rest of the world for "a long time to come" - although discussed a possible arragement to keep travel going to Australia

• Chinese state media have accused US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of lying, after he said there was "enormous evidence" the coronavirus emanated from a laboratory in Wuhan

• The US has said it wants to borrow a record $3tn (£2.4tn) in the second quarter, as coronavirus-related rescue packages blow up the budget
• There are concerns about privacy issues relating to the app to track the spread of coronavirus in the UK, which is being rolled out as part of a trial on the Isle of Wight
• Workers who have developed Covid-19 antibodies could be given risky frontline roles in "adverse discrimination" by employers, according to a paper being considered by behavioural scientists advising the UK government
• A trial is under way in South Africa to test if the BCG vaccine against tuberculosis is also effective against coronavirus - something unproven at the moment

The UK switched from community testing and tracing to only focusing on testing hospital patients for coronavirus on 12 March.

Giving evidence to the Commons Health Select Committee, the deputy chief medical officer for England said the change in policy was partly due to a lack of capacity.

Dr Jenny Harries told MPs, “if we had unlimited capacity we would have done [it] differently”.

In Germany and South Korea mass testing continued and was seen to be a factor in controlling the spread of the virus.

Plans to expand testing capacity in the UK to 100,000 tests a day were adopted in early April, with Health Secretary Matt Hancock meeting his target on the last day of the month. However, the opposition Labour party said the government should not have counted tests which had been posted out but not yet taken among its figures.

In his evidence, the government’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said “it would have been better to have ramped up testing quicker” - although he added testing on its own was not a solution to controlling the virus.

Read more: Mass testing earlier 'would have been beneficial'

Damien McGuinness
BBC News, Berlin

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Germany has become the latest country to relax its coronavirus quarantine rules, which means salons can open for the first time since lockdown began on 23 March.

So how do most people's hairstyles look at the moment? I asked Reno Harms, co-owner of Harms hairdressing salon in the leafy Berlin district of Prenzlauer Berg.

"Pretty funny. Lots of people have cut their own hair. Some have been colouring it themselves. We're doing mostly repair work today," he laughed.

During the six-week closure his regular customers bought vouchers to be redeemed later, which helped keep his business afloat. But it also means Reno has mostly been working for free today.

The new regulations mean he can only take about half his usual number of customers. Everything also needs to be disinfected between clients, and there are strict social distancing rules.

There's certainly no shortage of business though. In many salons in Berlin it can be difficult to get an appointment. "Vanity is definitely greater than fear," he joked.

You can read more here.

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England's Health Secretary Matt Hancock has dismissed warnings by civil liberties campaigners that a coronavirus contact tracing app could open the door to widespread "state surveillance".

Ministers have urged the public to sign up to the app - which is beginning trials on the Isle of Wight - as a way to exit the current lockdown and re-start the economy.

But they have run into opposition from some Tory MPs and campaign groups concerned about the potential for the state to monitor individuals' movements and contacts.

Matt Hancock insisted it is "completely wrong" to suggest the app is a threat to civil liberties.

Amnesty International UK has questioned why - unlike other European countries - Britain is establishing a central database to store information.

Read more about how the app works.

Image source, Sean Mallon

Aer Lingus says it is reviewing procedures on its Belfast to London flights following a claim it was not observing social distancing.

Passenger Sean Mallon took photos on a flight to Heathrow on Monday, showing most passengers sitting close together.

He told the BBC that about 95% of seats were filled, and said passengers queued and boarded the plane just as they would have before the pandemic.

Mallon, who was travelling to England for work, said staff did not offer any guidance or advice other than telling passengers to wash their hands after landing - and no hand sanitiser was offered.

It is one of only two routes flying from Northern Ireland to London.

Aer Lingus said safety was its "top priority" and any necessary changes would be implemented urgently.

Read more here.

Image source, AFP

The World Health Organization has warned that more early cases of coronavirus are likely to be uncovered in countries around the globe.

It comes after a French doctor said he had tested a sample from a patient diagnosed with pneumonia on 27 December last year, and found it was positive for coronavirus.

The development means Covid-19 may have arrived in Europe almost a month earlier than previously thought.

Speaking in Geneva, WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said he was "not surprised" by the news.

He called on other countries to reassess their medical records from late 2019 to help to build a "newer and clearer picture" of the pandemic.

Germany has been praised for the way it has handled the virus outbreak, and has lifted a number of lockdown restrictions already.

But a group of dancers gathered in Munich, Bavaria over the weekend to demonstrate against the ongoing measures.

People were shocked at the gathering, with local Green politician Katharina Schulze replying to the video with "OMG" and a number of emojis.

However, local police said that while meetings are "basically prohibited" due to the restrictions, there are exceptions - such as if it's outdoors, up to 50 people, only an hour long, and participants maintain social distancing.

Bavaria's state premier Markus Söder revealed how the state would ease its tight lockdown at a press conference on Tuesday. From Wednesday, people will be able to see family members and playgrounds will reopen.

And from next Monday, shops of any size can reopen - including nail salons and beauty salons - though face mask use and social distancing measures remain in place.

Image source, Getty Images

Australia and New Zealand are planning a "travel bubble", or corridor, that will allow the quarantine-free flow of people between the two neighbours.

Both countries have severely restricted international travel to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

However, if successful, the "bubble" could grow to include more countries that have a low number of cases.

A wider scheme is planned with Canada and other Asian economies to help supply chains and business travel.

The governments of Australia and New Zealand revealed their plans on Tuesday to set up a "trans-Tasman travel bubble", although no timeframe was given.

This quarantine-free travel zone could provide huge advantages to both nations, which have shown strong records in containing the virus.

You can read more details here.

The UK's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance has been giving evidence to the Health and Social Care Committee.

He told the meeting that we are still "quite early" in the epidemic.

Although most countries are getting on top of the first peak in some ways it doesn't mean the whole thing's gone away," he said.

Sir Patrick also said:

• The R number - the reproduction rate of the virus - needed to be below one as this means the epidemic is reducing. It is currently between 0.6 and 0.9, with "a little bit of regional variation"
• R is thought to be lower in the community than in care homes and hospitals but it is hard to tell due to three routes of infection making it hard to tell the source
• On immunity, the evidence suggests the vast majority of people who have had the infection have "some form of antibody response" but that we do not know what degree of protection that gives

Read more about the R value here

Jonathan Marcus
BBC Diplomatic and defence correspondent

The Trump administration’s absence from Monday's vaccine "pledging conference" was notable, and emblematic of a wider failure by the US to assume the mantle of global leadership since the outset of this crisis.

The US was not the only major absentee. Russia was not present either, and China’s EU ambassador attended but made no direct pledge to fund vaccine development and treatment research.

US officials stress that huge quantities of government and private funding is going into finding a vaccine. But the "go solo" approach of two giants of global pharmaceutical power – the US and China – sends a worrying signal.

The European view – backed by many other countries around the world – is that any vaccine must be treated as global public property. There is concern that what is developing is a kind of vaccine race.

The fear is not so much that China and the US will deny a vaccine to others.

It's more that the scale of providing the almost unbelievable number of doses required for the global population means concerted action is essential across research, manufacturing and distribution.

Donald Trump's approach is consistent with his "America First" credo – an outlook that is accentuated as his re-election battle moves into higher gear.

Resty Woro Yuniar
BBC News, Jakarta

Hugely popular Indonesian singer Didi Kempot passed away on Tuesday morning, a few weeks after he raised more than US$500,000 to help combat the pandemic.

The 53-year-old was a famous singer of a folk genre called campur sari - a blend of Javanese and modern music. He had been making music for three decades, but last year was catapulted back to fame after a video of young men looking sad while listening to his songs went viral on Instagram.

He held a concert on 11 April from his house, which was broadcast through a national TV channel and attended virtually by Indonesia's President Joko Widodo. The concert raised 7.6 billion rupiah ($500,000, £400,000) to help those who had lost their jobs to the crisis.

Kempot was dubbed the "godfather of the broken-hearted" by his fans, who in turn were dubbed sobat ambyar, friends of the scattered heart. They flocked to the internet today to express their mourning, with "Didi Kempot" and "Sobat Ambyar Berduka", or "mourning friends of the scattered heart", becoming worldwide trending topics on Twitter.

New car registrations almost ground to a halt in April after coronavirus lockdown measures were introduced, the UK motor industry has said.

Figures from industry body the SMMT show only 4,321 cars were registered, the lowest monthly level since 1946.

April's figure marked a 97% plunge in sales from the same month last year.

The closure of car dealerships as part of measures to try to combat the disease has hit consumer registrations.

Read the full piece here

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Parliament TV

The UK government's chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, is giving evidence to the Health and Social Care Committee this morning.

He told the virtual meeting that wearing face masks had a "marginal but positive" impact on the spread of infection and there may be times when it could be beneficial for people to do so.

"Where masks may have a role is where distancing isn’t possible, where there might be undue crowding," he said. "There may be times when wearing masks can therefore be beneficial to stop the spread."

Sir Patrick made it clear that social distancing and hand washing were vital and that wearing a mask should not replace either.

He added this advice has been given to ministers and he says it is "up to them to decide what to do".

A couple from West Yorkshire who drove more than 60 miles (100km) so they could "smell the sea" have been fined for flouting coronavirus lockdown restrictions.

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Whitby Neighbourhood Policing Team said the couple were stopped on Monday evening after driving from Boston Spa, near Leeds, to the North Yorkshire coast.

Writing on Facebook, external the force said: "This is not a reasonable excuse to travel into our area and they were told to return home immediately."

It comes a day after two bikers rode from Rochdale to Whitby on a 200-mile round trip to buy fish and chips.

Police said they'll continue to work hard with residents to keep the town safe.