Children in England may soon be able to visit a zoo - but not school.

Plans to further open primary schools were scaled back this week, after head teachers warned there was not enough room to do so while observing social distancing rules.

Asked on BBC Radio 4's Today programme why there were no emergency plans to help schools increase their capacity, business minister Nadhim Zahawi said it was still the government's "ambition" that schools would open up for at least a month before September.

"Some will make it happen because they have local facilities, others can't," he said.

"What we're saying is [that] we're not going to compel them to [open], but what we are going to do is invest in the most vulnerable".

A £100m fund has been announced to help the most disadvantaged pupils get equipment such as laptops to help homeschooling. So far only about half of the 230,000 laptops have been handed out.

Zahawi also accused critics of "flip-flopping" over whether schools were being opened too fast, or not fast enough.

Boris Johnson is expected to face further questions over schools during Prime Minister's Questions later.

Image source, Getty Images

Hundreds of thousands of UK children are doing no schoolwork at home and will need urgent help after missing six months of lessons, MP Robert Halfon told the Commons on Tuesday.

Halfon, who is chairman of the education select committee, said that about 700,000 disadvantaged children were not doing homework and did not have proper access to computers or the internet.

He asked Gavin Williamson, the education secretary: “Why is it that we can turn a blind eye to thousands of demonstrators and campaign for pubs and garden centres to reopen, yet it is so hard to reopen our schools?”

In the 1950s, English coastal resorts throbbed with holidaymakers. Nowadays, seaside towns are more commonly associated with decay and poverty than popularity and prosperity.

Image source, BBc

Will the effects of the coronavirus lockdown tip these places into a terminal decline - or will the government's aim of a further easing of lockdown rules next month will save the vital summer season?

BBC News went to three seaside towns to find out.

Street sex workers are at a greater risk of violent assaults and rape during the coronavirus pandemic, a charity has said.

The Amber Chaplains, who work in Southampton, say sex workers are finding it harder to earn money during lockdown so have been taking more risks.

They say that many have been too scared to report violent assaults because they fear being arrested.

Read more about how sex workers have been affected by the pandemic.

Image source, Getty Images

Top-flight Spanish football returns on Thursday and there is plenty at stake in La Liga with the title race, European places and the battle to avoid relegation all wide open.

Games will be played behind closed doors every single day, beginning with the Seville derby between Sevilla and Real Betis (21:00 BST), so the pace will be frantic.

Click here for more on the most compelling storylines as the La Liga season resumes, such as the return of Uruguay's Luis Suarez for leaders Barcelona, who are two points ahead of Real Madrid.

A Russian plant has recalled a model of ventilators linked to two hospital fires in Moscow and St Petersburg last month that killed eight people.

The Urals Instrument Engineering Plant (UPZ) where the Aventa-M ventilators were made said it would conduct additional inspections and tests.

Russia suspended the use of some Aventa-M ventilators last month. A batch of the ventilators sent to the US was also recalled by US officials.

There have been persistent reports of a shortage of ventilators in Russia especially in the provinces.

Production has increased rapidly, but research by the Reuters news agency found that outside Moscow many ventilators were old - made in the 1990s.

Image source, Getty Images

It looks like more Indians have been snacking on the country's infamous Parle-G biscuits during lockdown than in decades before.

The Indian company Parle Products saw a "record" surge in sales of its beloved biscuits when India was under a strict lockdown, which began in March.

As more people worked from home than ever before, it seems many stocked up on extra packs of the biscuit.

"The growth was phenomenal and as a result, Parle was able to increase its market share by 4.5% to 5% during the lockdown,” Mayank Shah, category head at Parle, told local media.

“At least in the last 30 to 40 years, we have not seen this kind of growth.”

He added that Parle-G had become "comfort food for many" amid the lockdown, external. "This is the common man's biscuit; people who cannot afford bread, buy Parle-G," Shah told the Economic Times newspaper.

One of India's most recognisable brands, the company was founded in 1929 and its biscuits continue to be a favourite today.

Image source, Getty Images

Most people entering the UK from overseas are now expected to self-isolate for 14 days.

But there are still questions about how the quarantine rule will be enforced and why it has been implemented now.

Click here to read answers to some of those questions, such as is the policy enforceable, is it supported by science and why don't people have to say where they are staying?

Asylum applications in Europe fell to the lowest level in April for over a decade, European Union figures show.

The European Union shut its external borders in March and members of the EU closed their own borders to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

The number of asylum applications fell to 8,730, an 86% drop from 61,421 in February, according to figures obtained by Reuters news agency from the European Asylum Support Office (EASO).

EASO figures also recorded a 44% drop in asylum applications from February to March when countries started to impose lockdowns.

Most applications during 2020 until April came from Syrians followed by Afghans, Venezuelans and Colombians.

Image source, EPA

Cases are spiking in parts of California and the southwest of the US, with 21 states reporting weekly increases in new cases.

It could lead authorities to reimpose or tighten public health restrictions, with Arizona having already reactivated its emergency plan for medical facilities while California has placed counties where half of its 39 million residents live on a watch list.

"Many of the cases that are showing up in hospitals are linked to gatherings that are taking place in homes - birthday parties and funerals," said Olivia Kasirye, public health director of Sacramento County, one of the nine counties on California's watch list.

Arizona, Utah and New Mexico all posted rises of 40% or higher for the week ending on Sunday, compared with the prior seven days.

For 10 weeks in lockdown, Richard Wakefield has been capturing the quiet streets and countryside in and around Oxford in the UK.

Taking inspiration from the pandemic, the photographer, who lives in nearby Witney, added CGI viruses to create something "beautiful and cinematic".

He also composed the music to accompany Airborne: A Covid-19 Journey - and said he hopes people can "remember what it was like to be so calm and peaceful".

Image source, AFP

The US is set to resume operations at its consulate in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

Terry Branstad, US ambassador to China, "intends to resume operations in Wuhan in the near future," Frank Whitaker, minister counsellor for public affairs at the embassy, said in an email to Reuters news agency.

The coronavirus outbreak began in Wuhan late last year.

The US State Department withdrew its consulate staff and their families in late January after the Chinese government put the city under a strict lockdown.

The entire NHS is under "huge pressure" because of the combined effects of keeping up social distancing, the backlog of treatments and challenges around staffing, NHS Confederation chief executive Niall Dickson has said.

It comes as the NHS Confederation warns that the number of people on waiting lists could double to 10 million by the end of the year.

Dickson told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "There is going to be huge pressure to get waiting lists down.

"There's also going to be huge pressure in other parts of the service - we shouldn't just concentrate on waiting lists or hospitals but also look at what's happening in community services and primary care."

Dickson added: "We certainly want to see the government renew their agreement with the independent sector because frankly we need all the capacity we can get to try and build up services going forward."

The Department of Health has said it will continue to provide the resources, funding and support the NHS needs.

Image source, Reuters

In our series of letters from African journalists, Joseph Warungu captures the frustrations of Kenyans who have been pleading with the government to ease the measures taken to curb the spread of Covid-19.

"Mr President, we beg you - please, please set us free!"

These are not the words of people held in detention or mandatory quarantine.

Instead, it is the cry of many Kenyans who cannot stand the lockdown measures anymore.

• Click here to read our full story

The general secretary of the head teachers union, the NAHT, has said that schools would have been better equipped to cope with the current crisis if they had not been neglected before the pandemic.

Paul Whiteman told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that lack of recruitment and investment was "being brought to bear now".

"It's all about capacity," he said. "There simply isn't the capacity in the system in terms of numbers of teachers or numbers of classrooms available to do more, if observing those [social distancing measures] that the Department for Education are recommending."

Whiteman added that careful planning was now needed to mitigate the lasting effect of coronavirus on children's education.

"Crucially, we're not going to catch children up over a very short period over the summer, this is going to be a longer-term catch up that's going to be needed and we need to plan that right now."

The first part of a £60m consignment of personal protective equipment (PPE) has been delivered to Northern Ireland from China.

The Department of Health said 1.5 million Type 11R masks reached Belfast in recent days.

The Department of Health said a total of just over 63 million masks had been ordered alongside almost 55 million pairs of gloves, to be delivered in phases, over the coming weeks.

Health Minster Robin Swann said there is intense global demand for PPE products and the achievement in securing the order "should not be underestimated".

He said PPE products would be issued to frontline staff after the equipment had been assessed.

• Click here to read more

Image source, PA Media

World Health Organisation (WHO) experts said on Tuesday that studies show people with coronavirus are most infectious just at the point they begin to feel unwell.

Dr Mike Ryan, WHO's top emergencies expert, said the novel coronavirus lodges in the upper respiratory tract, making it easier to transmit by droplets than related viruses such as Sars or Mers, which are in the lower tract.

"That means you could be in the restaurant feeling perfectly well and start to get a fever, you are feeling okay, you didn't think to stay home, but that's the moment at which your viral load could be actually quite high," he said.

Image source, PA Media

Zoos, safari parks and drive-in cinemas are set to reopen in England from Monday, the prime minister is due to announce.

Boris Johnson is expected to make the announcement during Wednesday's daily briefing.

The outdoor attractions can open as long as they observe social distancing rules, he is expected to say.

Some zoos, including Chester Zoo and London Zoo, have reported financial struggles during the pandemic.

Non-essential shops are also able to reopen from 15 June.

Read more here.

Image source, Getty Images

Another sport has returned to action, as the first major fight card in boxing took place since the start of the coronavirus outbreak.

There were no fans at the event in Las Vegas, with undefeated American Shakur Stevenson beating Felix Caraballo in the main event.

"It's a different atmosphere," said Stevenson. "Losing the weight was different. Training in the gym was different. I couldn't be around anybody.

"Even when fighting and there was no crowd was different. I would catch him with mean shots and there would be no 'Ooohs' or 'Aaahs.'"

After his win, Stevenson and Jared Anderson, who beat Johnnie Langston in a heavyweight bout, wore t-shirts reading "Black Lives Matter".

There is widespread criticism in Wednesday's papers of the government's decision to drop plans for all primary school children in England to return to class before the end of the school year in July.

The Daily Mirror is concerned about what it calls "The Lost Generation", while the Guardian says PM Boris Johnson has been urged to draw up an "urgent national plan" to get all pupils back to school from September, or risk an "epidemic of educational poverty".

You can read a full review of the UK's morning papers here.