Sony PlayStation is giving players some free video games as part of its "Play At Home" initiative to encourage staying at home during the pandemic.

On Thursday night, popular video game Fortnite hosted rapper Travis Scott as part of the Astronomical musical experience.

Sony announced it will release The Last of Us Part II in June after development studio Naughty Dog confirmed parts of the game were leaked online.

Google is launching a series of Doodles starting Monday celebrating some of their most popular interactive games available on its main search page.

Microsoft plans to release its new Xbox Series X video game console for the 2020 holiday season. On May 7, we will get a look at games in the works.

Coronavirus lockdowns and extended social distancing has more people playing video games to stay connected and pass the time.

Epic Games, the creators of Fortnite, announced Monday the musician will premiere a brand new track as part of an "Astronomical" tour within the game.

Medics reflect on the stress and strain they have been under, and what might happen next

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More people have died of coronavirus in the UK than in any other country in Europe, and details about the true scale of the pandemic continue to emerge as the extreme pressure on the NHS begins to ease.

We have been speaking to frontline workers since the crisis began about how they are coping. They have told us how they were resigned to contracting Covid-19 because of shortages of protective equipment and a lack of testing as hospitals were inundated with coronavirus patients. Here, they recall the pandemic reaching its peak and begin to make plans for where the health service will go from here.

Handing out contracts out to firms like Serco and G4S is now second nature to those in power. We need to rebuild state capacity

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The coronavirus pandemic has revealed a lot about British society – the fragility of the economy, the insecure situation so many workers find themselves in – but it has also shone a light on the state itself. Many comparisons have been made between the current mobilisation of state resources and the second world war. But while that crisis involved a ramping up of public sector capacity, this one is being managed by a state that believes itself to be utterly dependent on the private sector.

First, there are the outsourcing giants, shadowy corporations who have been handed numerous contracts over the past 20 years. Matt Hancock has put Serco in charge of the phonelines for contact tracing, a vital part of the government’s public health strategy. This is a company that mismanaged data at a GP surgery, and failed to train staff properly for a breast cancer hotline service. Along with G4S, it claimed money from the government for tracking prisoners who were later found to be dead.

Coronavirus is much more likely to claim the lives of black people than white. Socio-economic factors are a significant contributor

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A universal experience is highlighting the sharp divides in our society. Few are as stark and shocking as those revealed by Thursday’s news that black people in England and Wales are more than four times as likely to die from Covid-19 as white people. Bangladeshi and Pakistani people were about three and a half times more likely, and those of Indian origin two and a half times as likely, the Office for National Statistics reported.

The disproportionately high toll of BAME people was already evident, notably among medical staff: a review of just over a hundred NHS staff who died found that almost two-thirds were black or Asian, though those groups account for less than one in seven workers in the health service. It is all the more striking, given that age is one of the biggest risk factors and the over-65s comprise only one in 20 of the BAME population, compared with almost one in five of the white population.

Exclusive: Data suggests that sick may be avoiding hospital because of coronavirus fears

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About 8,000 more people have died in their own homes since the start of the coronavirus pandemic than in normal times, a Guardian analysis has found, as concerns grow over the number avoiding going to hospital.

Of that total, 80% died of conditions unrelated to Covid-19, according to their death certificates. Doctors’ leaders have warned that fears and deprioritisation of non-coronavirus patients are taking a deadly toll.

Vietnam Airlines pilot one of only two serious cases in country with mass testing regime

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A 43-year-old British man may undergo a lung transplant in Vietnam, where he is critically ill with Covid-19.

The man, a Vietnam Airlines pilot, developed a fever and cough on 17 March, and was later admitted to Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases.

The government must be cautious in both the decisions it takes and the messages it sends

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The end is not in sight. With an estimated 20,000 new infections a day, and with experts warning that the reproduction rate of coronavirus may be rising again, any premature loosening of the lockdown will only prolong the crisis. When the prime minister speaks on Sunday evening, it is essential that he makes it clear that people should still be staying at home, not relaxing their guard.

Though so many other countries had been hit, the government did not act soon enough to either contain the threat or prepare for it. Those failures have made a longer and tougher lockdown necessary. It was slow to take the pandemic seriously, slow to impose stringent social distancing, and slow to pursue equipment, testing and tracing, as the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, noted this week.

The Guardian’s data journalists in the UK, US and Australia explain how they have shone a light on the statistical narrative behind the pandemic, and what they have helped to reveal

It was intended as an interim measure to protect people during the pandemic, but now that doctors across Canada have embraced virtual care, some clinicians and patients would like to see it continue.

A U of S researcher says there is no evidence that COVID-19 jumped to humans from bats.

A European coalition is forming around an approach to using smartphone technology to trace coronavirus infections that, its backers hope, could help to reopen borders without unleashing a second wave of the pandemic.

Alberta's use of a smartphone app to help slow the spread of the coronavirus may provide other provinces with insight on what to do — and what to avoid — as Canada begins easing restrictions, heightening the need for effective contact tracing.

WeChat is one of the world’s most popular apps, but researchers at the University of Toronto caution it is surveilling international users and using their information to broaden censorship on the app in China.

Health experts agree contact tracing is a key measure to contain a pandemic. But is the answer a contact tracing app?

Sidewalk Labs, a Google-affiliated company, is abandoning its plan to build a high-tech neighbourhood on Toronto’s waterfront, citing what it calls unprecedented economic uncertainty.

As New Brunswick and other provincial governments contemplate launching COVID-19 contact-tracing apps, privacy watchdogs from across the country have issued joint guidelines on what they are describing as an "extraordinary" measure, urging transparency and accountability.

Whale and iceberg season has come early, but the local tourism industry has been forced to press pause.

Quebec provincial police are investigating whether at least two cellphone tower fires north of Montreal could be linked to conspiracy theories that 5G wireless technology caused the coronavirus pandemic.

- With its season cut short by the coronavirus pandemic, one of Austria's most popular glacial ski resorts covered its glacier in protective fabric earlier than usual this year to help preserve it for a still uncertain reopening.

In this week's issue of our environment newsletter, we look at the sustainability of different types of face masks and how orphan oil and gas wells in Alberta could be converted into green energy projects.

'Weekend Update' among segments returning

Presenter reveals homemade remedy that helped him through

Handful of stars will be interviewed live from their living rooms

The smash serial killer comedy returns to the BBC with an 'exasperatingly average' third series, leaving our arts columnist Fiona Sturges wishing it would bite the dust

'If I'm not acting, I'm not sure who I am,' the True Blood star said

The tone of this half-hour comedy is part odd-couple, part hipster satire and part gross-out – but it stops short of taking any risks

Coronavirus pandemic has caused production shutdowns and delays

Show's expert called it 'by far the most expensive thing [he's] ever seen in 25 years'

'This has made the lockdown worthwhile'

Specialist London hospital receives working medical equipment used in BBC drama

'I'm not going to just abandon him when he needs support'

'Watching everyone's reaction to Joe Exotic was far better than the series itself,' one viewer wrote

'I'm very hurt and angry that she had to go through all that pain alone'

Actos said he's 'been more like America's dad than ever before​' following diagnosis

Zoo owner also accuses Netflix of sensationalising' story to make him 'villain' in new aftershow

She accused hit Netflix show of 'betrayal' in first interview since it began

New head writer Suzanne Heathcote's zombie-writing experience might come in handy. Where 'Killing Eve' had a vitality, it now feels tired to the point of lifelessness

Saturday's instalment of 'SNL at home' brilliantly acknowledged the gravity of our times while poking fun at quarantine culture

This article contains major spoilers for the first episode of 'Killing Eve' series three

This dramatisation of the 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?' coughing scandal is superbly entertaining and well constructed, and will likely make viewers rethink a story they thought they knew well

New TV drama charts story of infamous 2001 coughing scandal

The 'Embarrassing Bodies' star criticised Dr Joseph Mercola for sharing 'dangerous bulls***"

Star also selling Instagram follow-backs for $250

The actress played Yara Greyjoy on the HBO fantasy series