The Government has missed its testing target of 100,000 coronavirus tests a day by the end of April for the sixth day running.

A father has been charged with murdering his two young children who had their throats cut at the Ilford family home.

Deputy Irish Premier Simon Coveney has said the Covid-19 pandemic has made the timeline for a UK-EU trade deal "virtually impossible".

Drive-thru restaurants such as McDonald's are "made for social distancing", Environment Secretary George Eustice has said.

Garden centres in England will be allowed to reopen next week as part of the Government's first-step measures to ease the coronavirus lockdown.

UK arrivals could be told to self-isolate for 14-days PM will reportedly recommend face masks while at work or on public transport More money will be set aside for cycle lanes to limit rush hour travel

Downing Street has said JustGiving will want to "reflect" on fees taken for processing Captain Tom Moore's £32 million fundraiser for NHS charities.

Boris Johnson has asked Vladimir Putin if Russia would help play a more integrated role in global efforts to develop a coronavirus vaccine.

A group of VE Day revellers have sparked fury by performing a conga dance in an apparent breach of social distancing rules.

Some 140 people were found making their way to Britain by the Border Force and brought ashore at Dover, according to Sky News.

The UK's official coronavirus death toll has risen by 346 to 31,587.

Sourdough has exploded in popularity during lockdown, but focaccia is experiencing its own modest rise

It's not hard-hitting journalism, says Chris Knight, but it gives fans lots of what they want

Not enough plot to stop viewers asking: 'Is that all?'

The 'Biospherians' in Biosphere 2 tried to recreate in miniature everything needed to survive on Earth

Comedian takes on air travel, restaurants, ball games and other pastimes of the distant past that was 2019

NPR's reporter in Nairobi finds his parents connecting with his kids through TikTok. Formerly the realm of Gen Z, the app's now a family board game where Grandma and Grandpa reveal their silly selves.

The Supreme Court, for the first time, livestreamed its oral argument on Monday. It has discussed whether generic terms can become protected trademarks by the addition of a dot-com domain.

The Supreme Court is now holding hearings over a teleconference, making the audio publicly available. Jerry Goldman, the founder of the Oyez Project, offers some guidance on how to listen to it.

"Deepfakes" have received a lot of attention as a way to potentially spread misleading or false information and influence public opinion. But two specialists say that might not be a huge concern.

We're used to thinking of DNA as a rigid blueprint. Karissa Sanbonmatsu researches how our environment affects the way DNA expresses itself—especially when it comes to sex and gender.

The world music duo on reinventing their 2011 track ‘Karpur Gauram’ with 17 musicians from nine countries

The post Maati Baani: ‘Music is A Powerful Medium for Peace’ appeared first on My Site.

Twin sisters Nishita and Atisha Lulla talk about recording a previous single in Mumbai, the country-folk influence and more

The post Indo-American Sister Duo LULLANAS Drop Debut EP ‘Before Everything Got Real’ appeared first on My Site.

The Bengaluru turn up on dissonance and retain prog flavors on their latest song

The post Exclusive Stream: Tangents Bring Twisted Metal on ‘IGOR’ appeared first on My Site.

Peer review moves to Twitter, muddling public health information.

Ex-official alleges cronyism, says warnings about supply shortages were ignored.

Just 1,000 light years from Earth, its two companion stars are visible to the naked eye.

Posts from high-profile accounts tout questionable virus therapies and cures.

YouTube, Facebook crack down on two viral videos for spreading medical misinformation.

Caddis fly larvae typically construct protective cases out of sand grains and silk.

The travel writer Pico Iyer has known Tokyo - Guardian readers' favourite non-European city - for decades but is still captivated by its curiosities and contradictions

It makes perfect sense that Tokyo is Guardian readers' favourite overseas city. Now that Shanghai looks in parts like Beverly Hills and Delhi is lighting up with Thai restaurants, there are few cities on the planet that are less western than Tokyo – even if it's not necessarily a part of any east that you might recognise. The abiding allure of Japan's huge network of tiny details is that, like something in a Salman Rushdie novel, it seems to blur all notions of high and low, east and west, old and new into one state-of-the-art global amusement park that is wildly fresh and novel in its best incarnations, and at least zany in its worst.

I've lived at a safe distance from Japan's capital for 23 years now, in Kyoto and Nara, three or four hours away by train and several centuries away in terms of their antique pasts. But if I were going to Tokyo tomorrow, I would, on arrival, hold off on the "maid cafes" in the nerds' electronic hive of Akihabara, on the Hysteric Glamour fashions around Harajuku, even on the gleaming shops of the Ginza that have long made Tokyo seem an early visitor from the 23rd century. Instead I'd begin by looking for the old.

The author of The Miniaturist on the beguiling blend of tradition and modernity (and pancakes) in a city that provided the inspiration for her 17th-century-set debut novel and Waterstones Book of the Year 2014

• Top 10 free things to do in Amsterdam
  
• A new Amsterdam – and a new Rijksmuseum

Amsterdam is classically romantic but is also funky, forward-thinking and citizen-friendly. In the old centre, around the southern canal belt, there are these beautiful 17th-century merchants’ houses that 21st-century Amsterdammers still live in. I’ve always thought it wears its historical cloak quite casually and doesn’t just dwell in the past.

The Rijksmuseum is stunning and I love it as a fascinating, cool, accessible museum, as well as for the part it played in inspiring The Miniaturist. I came across Petronella Oortman’s doll’s house there by chance. It’s an exact scale replica of her real home, and Oortman spent a fortune having it created. I thought at the time it was an interesting story, but I didn’t think I was going to write a novel about it. I’m in its debt, really.

From Tashkent to Samarkand and Bukhara, travel writer Caroline Eden believes Uzbekistan offers a dazzling mix of traditional style and a modern outlook

Twenty five years after the fall of the USSR, it’s interesting how the Soviet-era hangover lingers in Uzbekistan. Hulking apartment blocks are gradually being upgraded, and while you won’t spot statues of Lenin (they’ve been replaced by the nomadic conqueror Tamerlane and celebrated medic Ibn-Sina) you will see plenty of samovars (Russian kettles) and Soviet military medals for sale in the markets. But you will also see master ikat weavers reviving weaving traditions, and many musicians and artists are now turning to their Islamic heritage for influence. This mix of Soviet legacy and Uzbek Islam is one of the things that makes the country so fascinating.

Despite much change, the Nepalese capital’s staggering views and warm memories are as vivid as ever for the veteran mountaineer and leader of 19 Himalayan expeditions

My first sight of Kathmandu and the Himalayas was in 1960 as part of Lt Col Jimmy Roberts’s expedition – we made the first successful ascent of Annapurna II. At 7,937 metres, it’s a superb peak that’s just short of what mountaineers see as the magical height: 8,000 metres.

Arriving in Kathmandu was extraordinary. There was only one hotel, the Royal, an old palace run by a wonderful, eccentric Russian called Boris. There was also just one guesthouse, and practically no tourists.

The 89-year-old naturalist and broadcaster is brimming with enthusiasm for his latest TV series, Great Barrier Reef, and the wonder of filming underwater in a submarine. The first of three shows starts on BBC1 on 30 December

The first time I visited the Great Barrier Reef was in 1957 when I was on my way to New Guinea. In those days, television didn’t have a lot of money so, when you got to the other side of the world, you took advantage of it as you never knew when you were going to get back again, and so I took in the Barrier Reef on the way.

It was right at the beginning of the era of underwater swimming. There had been a Viennese pair, Han and Lotte Hass, who had a show underwater called Diving to Adventure. Those of us who had television sets – our jaws dropped! This wonderful girl in this white costume just knocking sharks on the head with the camera. Amazing!

Amid the historic quarter’s busy streets, a thousand workshops maintain centuries-old craftmaking traditions. These workers’ ancient skills are celebrated in a new exhibition at London’s Royal Geographical Society

“Whatever manufactured items there are in the world,” wrote the Ottoman traveller Evliya Çelebi in 1671, “the poor of Cairo get hold of them, set them out and trade in them.” Nearly 350 years later, this tradition lives on in al-Darb al-Ahmar. This neighbourhood of 100,000 people, south-east of central Cairo, is said to be home to a thousand workshops. The place teems with artisans crafting everything from tents, books, boxes and brass lanterns to glass bowls and silk carpets.

This centuries-old teahouse in Sichuan province and its regulars are a world away from China’s modern megacities

Out in the western suburbs of Sichuan’s capital, Chengdu, the town of Pengzhen is home to what’s said to be the oldest teahouse in China. About 300 years old, the Guanyin Pavilion is at the heart of a tiny community of historic streets where, against a tide of rapid modernisation, the local population proudly preserves its heritage and traditional way of life.