This live blog is now closed. For more coronavirus news from around the world, head to our global Covid blogPM urges Covid caution as hospitalisations could hit at least 1,000 a dayWhat Sage says about impact of PM’s plan to ease restrictions in EnglandBusinesses urged to check people’s Covid status as reopening confirmedWhitty says there is no ideal time to lift restrictionsJavid confirms...

After his rocket plane reached 53 miles above Earth on Sunday, the founder of Virgin Galactic is now officially an astronaut. But not everyone’s convincedName: Richard Branson.Age: 70. Continue reading...

Fundraising decision comes only a day after Richard Branson took a flight to the edge of spaceShares in Virgin Galactic have fallen back to earth with a bump after an announcement by the spaceflight firm of its plans to sell up to $500m (£360m) of stock – only a day after the company’s founder, Richard Branson, completed a flight to the edge of space.Virgin Galactic’s share price had risen...

The answers to today’s logical conundrumsEarlier today I set the following three puzzles, which have all been set during Oxford university admissions interviews for joint philosophy courses. In each case, there is an initial question, which almost all candidates answer correctly. The follow-up questions are more challenging.1. Stephanie’s surprise. Continue...

Average length of friendship before relationship turns romantic is 22 months, study saysWhen Harry first met Sally, he asserted men and women could not be friends because the “sex part always gets in the way”.But new research suggests roughly two-thirds of couples start out as friends and maintain a platonic relationship for long periods before sparking a romance. Continue...

When none of the usual people are around to have a conversation with, ‘private speech’ can be helpful as well as funCamille remembers the first time she noticed talking to herself out loud. “It was almost like, ‘Oh, that’s my voice’, in a way that I wouldn’t have thought of it if I’d been speaking in a meeting. I was usually reporting on what I was doing. I might say, ‘Go on,...

Covid-19 is a mainly airborne disease. So does our endless disinfecting and hand sanitising serve any purpose – or could it be worse than useless?Claudia, a 26-year-old beauty worker, dreads it when her clients ask to go to the toilet. “It’s a whole other thing to clean,” she says. “They could have touched anything in there. I have to wipe down the whole thing with antibacterial spray...

Brainteasers for budding philosophersDo you have what it takes to study philosophy at Oxford? Today’s three puzzles are ‘epistemic logic puzzles’, that is, puzzles concerned with reasoning about knowledge. But I know you know I know you know that.All three puzzles have been set in recent years during Oxford university admissions interviews for joint philosophy degrees. In each case, there is...

Derogatory use of the “L-word” has increased during Covid and is said to be further marginalising people with the curable diseaseHealth campaigners are calling for an end to the use of the word leper, saying the language frequently used by politicians and others during the pandemic has made people with leprosy even more marginalised.The metaphor of the socially outcast “leper” has been...

Test could be available from GPs within six months, as scientists warn of ‘a lot of damage to a lot of lives’Scientists have raised hopes of a blood test for long Covid after discovering distinctive patterns of rogue antibodies in patients whose symptoms persisted for months.Researchers at Imperial College London identified so-called “autoantibodies” in long Covid patients that were absent...

Analysis of 75,000 coronavirus patients found fewer major health problems among people with flu jabCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coveragePeople who are vaccinated against influenza may be partly protected against some of the severe effects of coronavirus, and be less likely to need emergency care, according to a major study.The analysis of nearly 75,000 Covid patients found...