Image source, PA Media

After this morning's confirmation that the UK is suffering its worst recession on record, business groups are urging the government to do more to support an economic recovery.

The chancellor must take further action before the autumn statement to help prevent a disaster for jobs and businesses, said the Institute of Directors (IoD) and the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC).

"The battle now is to prevent longer-term scarring from this plunge in economic activity," said IoD chief economist Tej Parikh. "By the autumn, it might be too late to have greatest effect."

Suren Thiru, head of economics at the BCC, is concerned the prospect of a swift recovery is remote, saying: "Bold action is needed to immediately inject confidence back into the UK economy."

Alpesh Paleja, an economist at the Confederation of British Industry, said a sustained recovery was "by no means assured", adding: "The dual threats of a second wave and slow progress over Brexit negotiations are also particularly concerning."

Read more here.

Lucy Williamson
Paris correspondent, BBC News

Image source, EPA

As the figures have swelled over the past few weeks here in France, the warnings have hardened.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Jean Castex said the situation was going “in the wrong direction” and warned that the epidemic could become harder to control.

New daily cases have risen from a few hundred per day last month to an average of 1,600 now. The number of new clusters each day has risen five-fold.

And as cases mount, so too does the response. The prime minister is now pushing local authorities to extend “as much as possible” the mandatory wearing of face masks on busy streets.

More than 300 places including Paris have already put these restrictions in place.

He’s also promised more policing of social-distancing rules and a ban on large gatherings has been extended.

The government is desperate to avoid another lockdown, which would place unimaginable pressure on France’s economy.

It is already reeling from the impact of the last one. But as restrictions tighten and anxiety mounts, it’s a shadow that looms over France’s new prime minister. “No one,” he said, “wants to live through that again”.

Nomsa Maseko
BBC News, Johannesburg

Image source, Reuters

Coronavirus infections appear to be stabilising in South Africa.

The country's coronavirus recovery rate (the proportion of confirmed cases that have recovered) has also increased to 75% - its highest level to date and well above the global average of 62%.

New Covid-19 cases have declined from a peak of around 15,000 daily infections to just over 2,500 in the past 24 hours.

There’s also been a decrease in the number of daily coronavirus-related fatalities.

The province of Kwa-Zulu Natal has become the latest hotspot, and now has the second-highest number of cases in the country.

Close to 200 students and staff have tested positive for Covid-19 in different universities in the province.

Lobbyists have called on the government to ease lockdown restrictions as businesses and jobs have come under pressure.

The ban on the sale of alcohol and tobacco products has also been the subject of numerous legal challenges - as both industries want the ban to be lifted.

UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak says there's no "playbook" for handling the "unprecedented" coronavirus pandemic, as the UK falls into the worst recession on record.

"I've been prepared to put aside ideology and dogma at the beginning of this crisis and do what I believed was right to protect people's jobs," he tells the BBC.

See his reaction to the grim economic news below.

Image source, Getty Images

Shoppers have flocked to supermarkets in New Zealand's largest city after four new coronavirus cases prompted the return of strict lockdown measures.

Local media said, external police were called to reports of disorder at supermarkets across the city on Tuesday night, as people rushed to stock up before restrictions came into effect.

Police visited a number of supermarkets but no arrests were made.

Image source, Getty Images

Announcing the lockdown on Tuesday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern urged people to remain calm, saying there was no need for panic buying as shops would remain open.

But large crowds of shoppers defied her pleas.

A three-day lockdown started in Auckland at midday on Wednesday, after the small number of new Covid-19 infections ended New Zealand’s 102-day run without a locally-transmitted case.

Sean Coughlan
BBC News, education correspondent

Image source, PA Media

It's A-level results day tomorrow in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and head teachers have attacked a last-minute change to the way some exam grades will be calculated as "panicked and chaotic".

The government has now said students in England and Northern Ireland can accept their estimated grade, take a written exam in the autumn or take their mark gained in a mock exam earlier this year.

The results are a huge deal for many students as they play a major part in determining which universities they can get into.

Students in England are now being promised their final grades will be no lower than their mock exams.

But head teachers' leader Geoff Barton said the marking of mock exams was not consistent enough between schools to be used to decide A-level results.

The decision came after fierce criticism of the way Scotland determined its students grades, which saw accusations that high-achieving pupils in low-performing schools would be unfairly marked down.

Get all the details here.

Image source, Reuters

Spain - one of the worst-affected countries in Europe - is once again in the grip of a worrying coronavirus outbreak.

Analysis of official figures by the AFP news agency showed the country reported an average of 4,923 new daily Covid-19 cases during the last seven days.

The average daily caseload for that period was higher than that of Britain, France, Germany and Italy combined.

"It's a critical moment, we are right at a point where things can get better or worse," said Salvador Macip, an expert in health sciences at Catalonia's Open University.

Read more: What are the quarantine rules for Spain and its islands?

The UK has reported a record economic recession this morning. And although it has taken a particularly bad economic hit, it's not alone.

Many, many countries around the world are also seeing their economies shrink.

But what causes recessions? And how do they affect normal people? Watch this video for all you need to know.

Image source, Reuters

Scepticism of Russia’s fast-track effort to develop a vaccine against the coronavirus is growing, with senior health officials abroad casting doubt on the country’s claims of success.

Russian President Vladimir Putin surprised the medical community on Tuesday by announcing the regulatory approval of a vaccine after less than two months of testing.

Putin touted the vaccine as a world first, but US Health Secretary Alex Azar poured scorn on Russia’s claims. He said vaccine development was “not a race”, and that safety and effectiveness were more important than speed.

Meanwhile Dr Anthony Fauci, the US's top infectious diseases expert, said he had serious doubts about Russia’s vaccine.

“I hope that the Russians have actually, definitively proven that the vaccine is safe and effective,” he told ABC News.

The US's own Covid-19 vaccine programme - Operation Warp Speed - aims to deliver 300 million doses "of a safe, effective vaccine" by January 2021.

Criticism of Russia's move has also come from Europe. German Health Minister Jens Spahn warned that it would be “dangerous to start vaccinating millions” if the vaccine had not been sufficiently tested.

Image source, EPA

Australia has seen its deadliest day of the pandemic yet with 21 new deaths linked to Covid-19 reported on Wednesday. It's a sobering moment for a country once hailed as a pandemic success story.

The new deaths were all recorded in the state of Victoria, where a state of disaster was declared earlier this month after a spike in new infections.

The previous highest daily death toll was 19, recorded a day earlier. On Wednesday, a further 410 cases of coronavirus were recorded by health authorities in Victoria.

Despite Wednesday’s rise, Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said there were signs that new infections were starting to level off.

"If you look at the average over the last seven days we are seeing the line come down," he said.

Image source, EPA

We're still picking through this morning's economic figures and although the UK is now in the largest recession on record, the economy bounced back slightly in June.

It picked up by a better-than-expected 8.7%, after some growth in May, suggesting a recovery could start quite quickly.

However, there's plenty of concern about how firmly that recovery will be able to take hold within the confines of social distancing and local lockdowns.

And as Prime Minister Boris Johnson said yesterday, there's a long, long way to go before the economy gets back to pre-pandemic levels.

The Office for National Statistics has a similar assessment - its deputy national statistician Jonathan Athow said: "The economy began to bounce back in June, with shops reopening, factories beginning to ramp up production and house-building continuing to recover.

"Despite this, [gross domestic product] in June still remains a sixth below its level in February, before the virus struck."

Image source, EPA

As we reported earlier, France is among the European countries reporting recent spikes in new coronavirus infections, fuelling fears of larger outbreaks.

On Tuesday, French Prime Minister Jean Castex appeared to be acutely aware of the resurgence of Covid-19 in the country.

"The epidemiological situation, which we are following very closely, is deteriorating: 2,000 new cases per day compared to 1,000 three weeks ago," Mr Castex said at a news conference in Montpellier.

On Tuesday, 1,397 new infections and 14 deaths were reported in France.

Those increases brought France’s total infections to 239,355 and deaths to 30,328, both among the highest figures in the world.

Like other countries, France is tightening hygiene regulations in an attempt to curb the spread of coronavirus, but officials do not want to bring back the full lockdowns that unleashed so much economic pain.

Read more: Cases surge as France goes 'wrong way'

Image source, PA Media

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has been commenting on this morning's figures showing the record economic slump in the UK wrought by the coronavirus and lockdown measures.

"I've said before that hard times were ahead, and today's figures confirm that hard times are here," he said.

"Hundreds of thousands of people have already lost their jobs, and sadly in the coming months many more will.

"But while there are difficult choices to be made ahead, we will get through this, and I can assure people that nobody will be left without hope or opportunity."

Giving her reaction, Labour's shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds said a downturn was "inevitable after lockdown" but added: "[Boris] Johnson's jobs crisis wasn't.

"We've already got the worst excess death rate in Europe - now we're on course for the worst recession too," she said. "That's a tragedy for our country and it's happening on the PM's watch."

Most of us will remember the last recession in the UK, caused by the global financial crisis in 2008.

That recession lasted over a year - for five quarters (or five three-month chunks).

Coronavirus hasn't even been in our minds that long, but so far we've seen two quarters where the economy has shrank, massively.

In the last recession over a decade ago, GDP fell by an estimated 7.2% over the whole period. This morning, we heard GDP fell by a record 20.4% over the second quarter of 2020, compared with the first three months of the year.

The chart above makes it pretty clear how large this quarterly drop is compared to any of those during the financial crisis.

Image source, EPA

The leader of New Zealand’s parliamentary opposition has called on the prime minister to delay September’s election after new coronavirus cases saw lockdown restrictions return.

Four new infections were found in Auckland on Tuesday, ending the country’s remarkable 102-day streak without a locally transmitted case.

A three-day lockdown has swiftly been imposed in the city and the country’s Covid-19 alert level has been raised.

On Wednesday National Party leader Judith Collins said it was not possible to hold a free and fair election in the circumstances.

"It's very hard to have any democratic vote if people can't vote, that is the problem,” she said, suggesting a delay until at least November.

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she needed “time to fully consider” the impact of the new outbreak before making a decision about the election.

Faisal Islam
BBC Economics Editor

Image source, Reuters

The UK economy shrank an unprecedented 20.4% in the second quarter of this year between April and June, confirming an official technical recession, as the economy shutdown during the first wave peak of the coronavirus pandemic.

The first official GDP numbers for this period show over a fifth of the value of the economy lost since the beginning of the year, mainly driven by the severe shutdown in April.

The six-month fall is on course to be the worst in the G7 (the group of the world's seven largest so-called advanced economies). However, within Europe, the Spanish economy has so far fallen a little more.

The sheer extent and speed of the contraction, though not surprising, reflects an economic hit that has affected every high street and town and city in the country.

The economy is now growing again, but not all the lights that were dimmed in order to protect public health in the spring, will be turned back on.

Get all the latest details in our main story.

Image source, Reuters

If you’re just joining us, hello and welcome to our live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. As usual, we’ll be bringing you the latest developments from the UK and around the world.

Here are the stories we are watching:

• The UK has plunged into recession for the first time in 11 years, after GDP plummeted by a record 20.4% during the height of lockdown
• Coronavirus infections have risen markedly in Spain, France, Germany and other European countries, sparking warnings from officials
• Australia has once again reported a new record in the number of virus-related deaths in one day. Twenty-one people died, all in the state of Victoria
• The announcement that Russia has granted regulatory approval for a vaccine against the coronavirus has been met with scepticism by experts and US health officials

• Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand, has gone into lockdown after recording the country’s first locally transmitted Covid-19 cases in 102 days
• As it stands, there have been 20.2 million infections and 741,000 deaths globally, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University, external

Ben King
Business reporter, BBC News

Image source, PA Media

While economic figures may feel far removed from your day-to-day life, the announcement of the UK entering a recession has real consequences.

As we've been seeing already during the pandemic, in a recession many people can lose their jobs, or find it harder to get promotions, or a pay rise.

Graduates and school leavers could also find it harder to get a first job.

The pain of a recession is typically not felt equally across society, and inequality can increase.

For instance, many UK homeowners who kept their jobs during the last recession just over a decade ago did OK. Mortgage interest payments for many fell considerably, leaving them with more spending money.

Others, such as benefit recipients or public sector workers, were hit harder.

Read more here.

Image source, EPA

A rash of new coronavirus outbreaks across Europe has prompted warnings against complacency, as officials in Spain, France, Germany and other countries fear a major resurgence of infections.

European countries are scrambling to curb coronavirus outbreaks that have sprung up since lockdown restrictions that damaged their economies were lifted.

In France, Prime Minister Jean Castex warned that the country had been going "the wrong way" for two weeks. The health ministry reported 1,397 new infections of Covid-19 on Tuesday, nearly double the previous day’s rise.

Meanwhile in Germany, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases increased by 1,226 to 218,519 on Wednesday, data showed. Health Minister Jens Spahn said “we must be very alert about the rise”.

Figures released by Spain's health ministry on Tuesday showed 326,612 infections have now been confirmed, an increase of 3,632. Most of those new cases were detected in Catalonia, Madrid and Aragón, where fresh lockdowns were imposed last month.

We’ve just heard the UK is now in the largest recession on record - so what does that mean in straightforward language?

In normal times, a country's economy grows. Its citizens, on average, become slightly richer as the value of the goods and services it produces - its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - increases.

But sometimes the value of goods and services produced falls.

A recession is usually defined as when this happens for two three-month periods - or quarters - in a row.

Why does it matter? For most people, economic growth is a good thing - it usually means there are more jobs, companies are more profitable and can pay employees and shareholders more.

A growing economy also means the government receives more money in taxes. So it can choose to cut taxes, or to spend more on benefits, public services and government workers' wages.