BBC Radio 5 Live

As well as parents, teachers got in touch with BBC Radio 5 Live this morning to have their say on plans to reopen primary schools in England to some pupils from 1 June. Listen again on BBC Sounds.

Gemma is a teaching assistant at a junior school in Hemel Hempstead. She's been going into school anyway, as have her children, and says she’s "probably more anxious for my own children than I am for myself because they’re going to be around more children… As a parent you just instinctively worry regardless of what science is telling us”.

School governor and teacher Matthew (not his real name) says that not knowing how many pupils will come back is proving challenging.

“Informally, from conversations with colleagues and parents, there are a lot of parents who would be reluctant to send their children back in,” he says, “so you’re looking at potential occupancy of between 40 – 70%. That will add to the workload of schools because we’re having to prepare as though we’ll receive 100% of the pupils on the roster”.

Jo is a teacher at a private school but also has two children at primary school, one with underlying health conditions.

She says she understands people’s concerns but: “We have to go with the science, and the science suggests it is low risk.

“Being in school is more than just learning, it’s their mental wellbeing, it’s their social and emotional development. It’s how they're going to be independent.

“It’s very important for vulnerable children, but it’s important for all children."

She says she feels “very cross” about some of the language being used around the debate. "I feel that is feeding into parents' fear. We have over a week still to get ready and we can do that."

A further 166 people in England who tested positive for Covid-19 have died, NHS England has announced. It brings the confirmed coronavirus deaths in English hospitals to 25,080.

Scotland reported another 50 deaths, bringing its total number of confirmed deaths to 2,184.

Five further deaths were recorded in Northern Ireland, while 14 more people in Wales died after testing positive for the virus.

The UK-wide total, due to be published later, may differ because it is calculated over a different time-frame and includes deaths in all settings.

Domestic flights in India will resume on Monday 25 May after a two-month break because of the coronavirus pandemic.

India suspended all international and local air travel on 25 March before it went into lockdown to curb Covid-19 infections.

There has been no announcement about when international flights could resume.

Image source, AFP

At Prime Minister's Questions today, Boris Johnson promised the UK would have in place a "world-beating" system to test and trace people who may have been exposed to coronavirus.

He said 24,000 out of 25,000 contact tracers had already been recruited, referring to teams of people who identify who has been in contact with a person who contracted coronavirus, to notify them so they don't infect others.

But Mr Johnson did not mention the contact-tracing mobile phone app trialled on the Isle of Wight, which uses Bluetooth to detect and record other app users and notifies you if you've been near someone who later develops symptoms.

BBC health correspondent Nick Triggle says that what launches on 1 June will effectively be a prototype track-and-trace system, not a fully functioning one. While contact tracers will be available, the app may not be ready on day one, he adds.

Read the full story.

Kerry Allen
BBC Monitoring, Chinese Media Analyst

Image source, Reuters

Experts in China say the Covid-19 patients they are seeing in the north-east of the country show “different symptoms" and require “longer incubation” than those in the central city of Wuhan at the beginning of the country's outbreak. Qiu Haibo, one of the country’s top critical care doctors in the National Health Commission’s top medical team, spoke on the national CCTV-13 news channel about the fresh observations his team were making. Dr Qiu said his team were seeing new cases in north-eastern Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces had a longer incubation period, and their clinical symptoms were not typical.

They don’t have a fever, he said, but are suffering from either fatigue or a sore throat. Some have no symptoms at all. He added that the new cases appeared to be carrying the virus for much longer.

According to the national Global Times newspaper, “tests on Wuhan patients normally came back negative within a week or at most two weeks” after a patient shows symptoms.

But now, even though the cases are more curable, people appear to be carrying the virus for “longer periods”. , external

According to the official Xinhua news agency, 25 people are currently receiving treatment in hospital in north-eastern Jilin.

Heilongjiang province discharged its last patient on Saturday.

Footballers at England's top clubs have been returning to training - and it's a whole different ball game.

They are taking part in non-contact sessions and must observe social distancing rules as teams work towards a potential resumption next month.

Image source, Liverpool FC/Twitter

Image source, Liverpool FC/Twitter

While manager Jurgen Klopp oversees leaders Liverpool at their Melwood base, many lower league players are training at home.

Jack Madelin, who plays for AFC Wimbledon, has been keeping fit in a specially converted outhouse at the bottom of his back garden.

Image source, Getty Images

Wearing masks is being made compulsory in public spaces in Spain, both indoors and out, if social distancing is not possible.

Only children under six and people with health issues are exempt from the law, which comes into force on Thursday.

Many European countries have now made wearing masks a requirement on public transport but the Spanish decree goes further.

Spain has seen one of the worst Covid-19 outbreaks in Europe - with almost 28,000 deaths - but is now easing the lockdown gradually.

Read more here.

BBC Radio 5 Live

This morning BBC Radio 5 Live asked listeners how they were feeling about plans to reopen primary schools in England to some pupils from 1 June.

At least 11 councils have expressed concerns over safety and timing and teaching union NASUWT has said it remains "unconvinced" reopening schools is "appropriate or practicable".

Listen again on BBC Sounds.

Parents across the country got in touch with their views, including Steve from Malton in North Yorkshire. His children are in Year 4 and Year 6. He is furloughed and says he will not sending his Year 6 child back on 1 June.

"We feel we can take the pressure off the school a bit by not sending him back in until the school is up and running," he says.

"Having 30 kids go back in and social distancing in a small rural school is going to put massive pressure on."

Grace in Lincolnshire, a GP currently on maternity leave, says she's seen "shaming of parents" who are just trying to make the right decision for their family. She is sending her five-year-old son back into reception.

“I am at home at the moment so home education has not been a problem but I’ve seen how he’s been affected by being at home for that long. He’s really struggling with it and it’s having quite a big impact," she says.

“Although school will be different…. I think that’s the best thing for him. It’s better for him to play alongside his friends than to continue being isolated."

Other parents highlight the differences in support from schools. James in Coventry is a HGV driver and his wife is working from home. Their son is seven.

“We’ve had no real contact off the school – we’ve had a couple of word searches and a couple of small puzzles.

"If it weren’t for BBC Bitesize then my son’s learning would have been non-existent."

Balram and his friend Naresh were working hard to give their children a chance of a better future.

They worked in the western state of Gujarat but when India went into lockdown in March, they decided to return home to their villages.

About 400km (248 miles) into their journey, they hitched a ride in a lorry, in which they precariously perched on top of cargo.

But the lorry ended up crashing, killing both Balram and Naresh.

"The accident took away my father and my dreams of getting an education. I wish there was another way,” Balram’s 17-year-old son Jaikrishna Kumar said.

In India, where the lockdown has left thousands of migrants jobless and struggling to get home, there are hundreds of tragic stories just like this one.

The BBC's Vikas Pandey has told a handful of them, which you can read here.

Image source, EPA

Iran’s president has said the country is “on the verge of curbing” its coronavirus outbreak, despite recording more than 2,000 new cases for the third consecutive day.

A further 64 deaths and 2,346 infections were confirmed on Wednesday, the country’s health ministry said.

In total, the country has reported 7,183 deaths and 126,949 cases since the outbreak began in February, but foreign experts believe the true figures could be higher.

New cases have been on the rise since the beginning of May, a trend the health ministry has attributed to a ramped-up testing regime.

But on Wednesday, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani told a cabinet meeting that the country had been “progressing at every step in the past three months”.

He said the country was “on the verge of curbing this disease” even if some provinces were in an “unfavourable situation”.

How an Iranian airline 'helped spread coronavirus'

It's not unheard of for ministers to subtly offer advice on their brief to the prime minister during questions.

But when the Health Secretary Matt Hancock was heard at Wednesday's Prime Minister's Questions offering his advice to Boris Johnson, he earned a ticking-off from the speaker of the house.

Caroline Hawley
BBC News

Image source, Free Nazanin Campaign

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is “clearly relieved” by the decision to extend her release from jail in Iran, according to her husband.

Richard Ratcliffe described her as “quite buoyant” when he spoke to her this morning after she had received the news.

“It’s better news than we were expecting," he said. "We can all breathe a little bit easier today. And she’ll sleep better tonight than she did last night. We’ve been pretty tense for the last couple of days.”

No date has been set for her return to jail, which Mr Ratcliffe described as a “better grade of uncertainty” than they were living with before. “We don’t know how long it will last but we’re more relaxed.”

Amnesty International’s UK director, Kate Allen said: “Another period of this ‘conditional liberty’ is far better than outright jail, but we’re worried that the Iranian authorities are still playing games with Nazanin and her family.

“Nazanin was convicted after a deeply unfair trial, and she should never have been behind bars at all.”

Both Amnesty International and the family’s MP, Tulip Siddiq, are calling for the UK government to step up efforts to secure her full release.

“Obviously, there should be no question of Nazanin ever being sent back to Evin Prison,” said Kate Allen. “There are numerous reports of COVID-19 in Iranian jails, with detainees pleading for basic things like soap to help combat the disease.”

Image source, Luke Shortland

Although the coronavirus pandemic has put campus life on hold, some students are still pulling all-nighters.

That's because they're trying to negotiate distant time zones as they complete a year abroad – remotely from lockdown in the UK.

Luke Shortland, a University of Warwick student currently finishing his year abroad in Australia at home in south London, said he had to deliver a presentation at 03:00 BST.

"I slammed back a coffee half an hour before and hoped that would do it for me," he says.

Read the full story here

Iain Watson
Political correspondent

It seemed that Boris Johnson was somewhat exasperated and frazzled by the persistent questioning from Keir Starmer.

Usually the tone is pretty restrained because of the scale of the crisis that the government, and indeed opposition, are dealing with. But this time he made quite a few pops at Starmer.

He variously accused him of feigning ignorance, he urged him to abandon a slightly negative tone, he accused him of not listening to the answers he was given and he criticised his questions for being well-rehearsed - although it’s been a measure of Starmer that he’s quite fleet of foot in responding to what the prime minister says rather than just sticking to a script.

Although the chamber is socially distanced with few MPs in there - a maximum of 50 - it seemed that from the Conservative benches more noise was also being made.

That may or may not have been intentional. Johnson tends to perform best when he’s got an audience.

And there were also some very withering looks across the Commons floor between Starmer - very stony-faced at times - and the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock. But Starmer seemed relatively unfazed throughout.

Image source, Getty Images

Up to 30,000 tests a day which were never intended to diagnose individuals with Covid-19 are distorting the UK’s figures on testing, according to BBC Radio 4's More or Less programme.

Producer Kate Lamble says these tests are carried out by universities and statisticians to study the spread of the disease across the country but the Department of Health and Social Care acknowledges they are not being used to diagnose cases.

With the government aiming to show it can keep daily testing above 100,000, our producer says the tests make it possible for the government to say the target has been hit.

On 15 May, for example, the government reported 136,486 tests but we can only be sure 69,900 were carried out if we discount these non-diagnostic tests and tests posted to people’s homes which were not necessarily returned.

Image source, EPA

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has asked parliament to extend the country's state of emergency for another two weeks, drawing fierce criticism from opposition parties.

Mr Sanchez told parliament the extension was necessary to protect communities because the threat from coronavirus had not gone away.

He defended his government’s response to the pandemic, but apologised to Spanish citizens for any mistakes his government had made.

The government wants to extend the state of alarm for a fifth time to 7 June when it expires on Saturday.

Spain’s main opposition party, the conservative People's Party, said it would not vote for the extension, putting its passage through parliament in doubt.

The party’s leader, Pablo Casado, delivered a withering assessment of Mr Sanchez’s handling of the epidemic.

In a speech to lawmakers, Mr Casado said coronavirus-related deaths in Spain were still equivalent to "a plane crash every day", calling Mr Sanchez’s plan a “failure”.

Spain recorded a further 83 deaths on Tuesday, bringing the total to 27,778, the fifth highest in the world.

Fast food chain McDonald's has opened 33 drive-through restaurants in the UK – but customers are being limited to spending £25 per car.

The branches, mostly in the south-east of England, have Perspex screens installed and staff have been given protective equipment, the company says. The number of workers on each site has also been reduced and temperature checks are being carried out before each shift, it adds.

McDonald's bosses hope to reopen all their drive-through sites over the next month.

Last week a drive-through Burger King in Scotland had to temporarily halt its reopening as police were called to deal with the build-up of traffic.

Image source, Getty Images

Local officials in Russia's Dagestan region have described the situation there as a "catastrophe", with reports of a rising death toll and serious shortages of equipment.

Officially, the region has recorded 36 deaths from the virus and more than 3,600 cases but health officials say hundreds more have died of pneumonia, including 40 medics.

The top cleric in the majority-Muslim region appealed directly to the Kremlin for aid, prompting President Vladimir Putin to personally promise help for the region on Monday. UFC fighter and Dagestan native Khabib Nurmagomedov has even spoken out about the problems there.

On Wednesday Russia's confirmed cases rose above 300,000 and the country reported a record daily rise in deaths of 135, bringing the total toll to 2,972.

Infections however are slowing, with the daily rise in cases the lowest since 1 May. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin - who has only just returned to work after contracting the virus - has said the country is entering a more stable phase of its outbreak, but warned of the need to lift restrictions with care.

BBC OS

For many of us, life under lockdown is presenting new challenges but what about for those with autism confined at home?

We spoke to a woman in Spain who - as well as having a four-year-old daughter with autism - is autistic herself.

Before the pandemic began, Regina Cortes was going to therapy to learn how to hug but lockdown stopped her progress.

She’s also finding it difficult seeing people wearing masks because she can’t read their faces.

House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, HoC

Keir Starmer says there has been "no effective tracing since 12 March".

"There were 10 weeks in a critical period without effective tracing," he says.

"That is a huge hole in our defences, isn't it prime minister?"

Boris Johnson accuses the Labour leader of "feigned ignorance".

He says 24,000 trackers have been recruited and that number will rise to 25,000 by 1 June. "They will be able to track 10,000 new cases a day," he says.

"We are making vast progress," he adds.