Dr Alex Aldren has returned to the NHS after leaving to become an opera singer

'It's inevitable many desperate patients will resort to 'DIY dentistry'

It is feared that daily drinkers could be most at risk

'Nurses are constantly in contact and unwittingly the virus can be spread to other parts of the hospital due to this appalling lack of PPE'

Less than a third say government is doing enough to help healthcare workers

A lack of PPE is concern among nurses

'I'm in awe of the work that has taken place across our community over the last month, says Tony Ryan

The poll also found Britons are working 28 hours of overtime per month

UK population is suffering from 'high levels of psychological distress', according to the research

Directing a new Black Mirror film gives Jodie Foster the chance to look back at her own upbringing. The Hollywood titan talks to Tim Adams

Last week Charlie Brooker was recalling for me the moment he learned Jodie Foster would direct an episode of Black Mirror, his inspired series of one-off dramas about the ways our gadgets are colonising the idea of “human”. Brooker had written a script for the new series in which a neurotic single mother uses technology to spy on her young daughter and keep her safe from the world. The Netflix people suggested they tried the script out on the two-time Oscar-winning actor.

Brooker has had considerable global success with Black Mirror but still, the thought of working with Foster, “an actual icon”, made him come over, he says, “all British and starstruck”. He turned to his co-showrunner for the series, Annabel Jones. “We were like: ‘You’re kidding, right? You are going to try Jodie bloody Foster? Yeah right, of course you are.’”

One of the most photographed British women of the 1980s talks about feminism, her abusive father and how she battled her fears to come out as gay

In a small, unloved hotel, the receptionist greets me and Samantha Fox with pursed lips: “There will be no interview here,” she says. I feel as if I’ve wandered into the pages of Fox’s new autobiography, Forever, which is littered with bizarre anecdotes of best-laid plans going awry. From her ill-fated presenting partnership with a spaced-out Mick Fleetwood at the 1989 Brit awards, to a secret naked horseback photo shoot in Antigua – during which her steed galloped off with her to a busy tourist beach – not much has gone as expected in Fox’s life. Not least the day she worked with her childhood idol David Cassidy, who died earlier this month, which she says culminated in being sexually assaulted by him. Despite these, and many other setbacks, she says she is a “lucky girl”.

Fox was just 16 when her mother entered her for the Sunday People’s Face and Shape of 1983 competition – her wholesome, girl-next-door image made her the most popular Page 3 girl ever, and one of the most photographed women of the 1980s, alongside Princess Diana and Margaret Thatcher. By 21, she had made her first pop record and retired from modelling, going on to break the US and sell 30m records worldwide.

The hit of fresh air in your nostrils? The beauty of the countryside? Hiking is amazing

What is it? Just a nice long walk.

How much does it cost? Probably an initial outlay of about £50 for some decent gear, and then free for ever.

If I was ever going to ‘come out’, I should have done it when I was younger

If anyone ever offers me a cigarette, I always reply: “No thanks, I don’t smoke.” But I’m lying.

I started smoking at 16. I thought it made me look grown-up, but I was shy so I’d do it on my own. I would go into the woods near my home, or occasionally “bravely” have one in the house if nobody was else in.

‘I take comfort in the knowledge that, even though you are not here, your work continues to make children happy’

I was so worried about handing my little boy over during his first week of school, but you made it easier. You smiled at him like a mother would at her own child. You radiated warmth and your hugs were always on offer.

After a day in class with you, C would come home singing. Whenever I hear Do Your Ears Hang Low or see him stretching to the sky when singing about the days of the week, I will think of you. I didn’t tell you at the time, but I loved your morning song so much that I implemented it in my own class (I’m a teacher too). The first time we sang it after losing you was hard but, as time passes, I take comfort in the knowledge that, even though you are not here, your work continues to make children happy.

The future royal wore a trouser suit for her first official evening engagement with Prince Harry, ushering in a new kind of sartorial diplomacy

Last night, for her first official evening engagement with Prince Harry, Meghan Markle wore an Alexander McQueen trouser suit. It was slim-fitting, with cropped cigarette trousers, worn with very high stiletto heels and a cream dishabille blouse. The outfit was many things: very Saint Laurent’s Le Smoking, a bit Princess Diana, with a soupçon of Marlene Dietrich, even a hint of Carine Roitfeld (although Roitfeld probably wouldn’t have worn a blouse underneath the tux). What it was not was a Sandringham-appropriate boxy Catherine Walker skirt suit. It was notable because it didn’t feel like standard royal family dressing at all.

The royal family wrote the rule book on sartorial diplomacy. Usually, their approach is unambiguous. It is a gown embroidered with 2,091 shamrocks in Ireland; a Chanel tweed coat in Paris in the middle of Brexit; a dress by Polish designer Gosia Baczyńska at a garden party in Warsaw. It is the opposite of wearing a cult band T-shirt that only fellow devotees will recognise. The clothes are designed to speak of decency and propriety; the visual messages are clear enough to charm heads of state and reach the rest of us in the cheap seats as well.

Coronavirus crisis has forced musicians and others to adapt, says founder of platform

Musicians, artists and writers have turned to crowdfunding sites to make up for lost opportunities in lockdown, and their audiences have followed them, leading to a rise in contributions through platforms such as Patreon.

Since mid-March more than 70,000 extra creators have joined Patreon, which allows fans to give monthly payments to artists in exchange for exclusive content or simply out of a desire to support someone whose work they appreciate.

Tinned food is an invaluable back-up, and can be transformed into a nutritious meal at the drop of a hat

Tinned food has a best-before date of about three years, but is still likely to be good to eat decades later, making it an invaluable back-up. It also helps you prevent food waste by letting you be more sparing with perishable purchases – though, as with fresh food, it’s a good idea to rotate the cans in your cupboard, bringing short-date items to the fore, so you can build them into the week’s meals.

As well as helping to reduce food waste, tinned food is a good choice compared with other packaged food, because cans are made from a relatively low-impact material that actually gets recycled, unlike most plastics and Tetrapak. It’s also worth noting that, no matter how new it is, if a tin has a dent or is rusty, it is safest to compost the contents to avoid the deadly bacteria Clostridium botulinum.

Memories of beaches – in the UK or further afield – as well as village bars, sunrise views and days out with tea and cake are sustaining readers during lockdown

A day out in Whitby. Morning tea and fruit cake with Wensleydale at Bothams. Walk to the sea, and out onto the pier. Walk up the beach, climb up the cliff and then back to the town past the whale’s jaw. Fresh crab sandwiches for lunch, then climb the 199 steps to the Priory. Back down, just enough time for afternoon tea and cake before crossing back over the river for a fish supper at the Magpie. Drive back over the beautiful North Yorkshire moors; the end of a perfect day, in perfect weather every time.
Nigel Goddard

We’re interacting less with the outside world – and the societal pressures that come with it. Are some women still wearing makeup every day?

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The shutdown feels like a good opportunity to examine an age-old feminist question: when women put makeup on, can they ever truly be doing it for themselves?

We will probably never have an answer. The pressure imposed on women to look good is such a part of our existence that we might never get rid of it – even “dressing up for oneself” can be traced back to self-hatred fueled by a beauty-obsessed culture.

The actor on walking the red carpet while having an allergic reaction, her controversial Calvin Klein campaign and dressing like Michael Jackson

I’m not known for wearing outfits that are as completely covered up as this. Often, you are uncomfortable on the red carpet, worried that something is going to pop out, unzip or break. There was something about this look that felt like protection and armour to me. I wore it to the 2018 CFDA fashion awards and I loved how extreme it felt: chic and strong, slightly androgynous but with a femininity to it. It came together nicely with no stress – until I was in the car, when I realised I was having some kind of allergic reaction to my makeup! One of my eyes swelled up right before I was stepping out on to the red carpet. I panicked and put on my reading glasses to camouflage the fact that one eye was almost completely shut!

As a teenager, my relationship with apparel was fraught because I never cultivated my own style. My mom and I bought everything from thrift shops – I would wear the same jeans all year and then cut them into shorts – but every time I would go on a set I would be decked out in designer clothes. There was a disconnect: clothes were just something belonging to other people that I would embody, and then shed.

What’s hot and what’s not in fashion this week

Kaia As in Gerber, who joins the likes of Alexa and Jane Birkin – she now has a bag named after her, by Saint Laurent. Style icon status: confirmed.

The latest trends may not matter any more, but there is a whole new set of influences on what we wear

I know, I know – there are more important things to think about than clothes at the moment. I get that. On the other hand, I don’t see that me squinting at graphs or scrolling through headlines is going to make a vaccine come any quicker. So thinking about clothes is no less constructive than pondering logarithmic scales or contact tracing approaches, really.

I have pretty much checked out of fashion, in the sense of trends, during the period universally known as This Difficult Time. For those of us fortunate enough not to be at the sharp end of the crisis, lockdown is a little like living in a freeze-frame, and the “spring trends” that were scheduled to be happening in our wardrobes now – Bermuda shorts, crochet dresses, waistcoats – feel like outfits for a party that got cancelled. Fashion in the this-week’s-must-have sense feels like a radio station that’s still broadcasting, but with no one tuning in.

In the last 10 years, there’s been an ever-widening niche of documentaries about Stanley Kubrick. Every one of them has been fascinating, one or two (like “Stanley Kubrick’s Boxes”) are as idiosyncratic as the director himself, and the most artful and memorable — “Filmworker” (2017), a portrait of Kubrick’s monkishly devoted gofer and right-hand assistant, […]

Andre Harrell, a veteran music executive best known as the founder of Uptown Records, where Sean “Puffy” Combs got his start in the business, who later went on to head Motown Records, has died. He was 59. The cause of death is as yet unclear. DJ D-Nice revealed the sad news while spinning on Instagram […]

Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks, a large media and entertainment law firm, appears to have been the victim of a cyberattack that resulted in the theft of an enormous batch of private information on dozens of celebrities, according to a data security researcher. The trove of data allegedly stolen from the New York-based firm by […]

System treats maternity allowance as unpaid income, skewing the amount of universal credit paid out

Pregnant women on the lowest incomes are being denied vital financial support during the Covid-19 crisis, according to unions and women’s support groups, who are calling for urgent reforms to universal credit.

An anomaly in the way universal credit differentiates between pregnant earners has created an unfair system, it is argued. Universal credit treats maternity allowance, which is paid to the lowest-earning women and those who are self-employed, as “unearned income”, which means it is deducted from their benefit payments.

From Berlin to Bogotá there are new footpaths and bike lanes – but not in London

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A growing number of cities around the world are temporarily reallocating road space from cars to people on foot and on cycles to keep key workers moving and residents in coronavirus lockdown healthy and active while socially distancing.

Limited urban park space and leisure trails are under increasing pressure, with many closed to prevent the spread of coronavirus, further limiting urban dwellers’ access to outdoor space. While traffic has dropped around the world, and with it nitrogen dioxide levels, there are widespread concerns over a rise in speeding drivers endangering those walking and cycling.

Australia’s peak representative body for cyclists has called on governments to transform roads into cycleways to ease traffic on bike paths

Australian bike retailers are struggling to keep up with the boom in sales since coronavirus restrictions came into force last month.

“We’re the new toilet paper and everyone wants a piece,” Grant Kaplan, manager of Giant Sydney, a bike store in Sydney’s CBD, tells Guardian Australia.

The WHO recommends cycling to achieve the minimum daily requirement for exercise while physical distancing. Pedalling photographer Martin Godwin looks at cycling during the lockdown

As lockdown eases, travelling by bike will be a safe, healthy and potentially addictive option

There are many reasons you might want to think about cycling for commuting or other transport when the coronavirus lockdown starts to ease, particularly if you live in a city.

With physical distancing remaining in place for some time to come, capacity on public transport will be limited. If more people drive it will create gridlock.

With so much time on our hands, it’s easy to dwell on loss, says Mariella Frostrup. Try distracting yourself with online dates, box sets and classic novels

The dilemma Several months ago my partner of five years left me very suddenly. He’d gone abroad to work, but as far as I knew everything was fine. I even had flights booked to go and visit. The break-up was a huge shock that left me in a low place. After a few weeks I felt I was beginning to come out of the fog and start moving on with my life, going out and seeing friends, going to classes, etc, but then the lockdown was imposed. Being shut away in my flat all day, alone with my thoughts, I seem to be going backwards.

I’m very aware that we are in the middle of a global crisis and it’s awful for everyone. Luckily, I’m in a good position regarding pay and I’m not paying rent, so I really don’t have any reason to complain. However, all I can think about is my ex. It’s driving me a little bit mad. Do you have any advice on dealing with non-Covid-related troubles during this crisis? Talking to others about it is hard, and I don’t want to make it all about myself.

Gov. Tim Walz is hesitant to reopen businesses until his state's daily testing rate dramatically increases. "You can't flip it like a switch and say you're open if you don't have testing," he says.

A trio of Senate Democrats wants to give $2,000 per month to individuals through the end of the health emergency. One Senate Republican suggests covering payroll for companies that rehire workers.

The procedural move gives attorneys for House Democrats until May 18 to respond. They say they're owed access to confidential evidence and other materials. No, argues the Trump administration.

Rick Bright, a top scientist working on a vaccine, says he was reassigned for not focusing on treatments favored by President Trump, even though they lacked "scientific merit."

President Trump and Vice President Pence have made official visits to battleground states this week, while the Biden campaign tries new ways to reach voters in key states virtually.

The Census Bureau says it plans to continue its relaunch of limited 2020 census operations on May 13, when the next round of workers is set to resume hand-delivering paper forms in rural communities.

From a mysterious toilet flush to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg speaking from the hospital, here are the highlights — including audio clips — from a historic week for the high court.

President Trump wants businesses to start reopening after the coronavirus forced shutdowns. Here's what the White House task force recommends for states.

NPR's Ron Elving talks about the historic U.S. unemployment rate, and the Justice Department's move to drop its criminal case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

"Your support to vulnerable Americans during this crisis is deeply appreciated," said U.S. Consul General Greg Stanford.

The files also show that after reports that the guidance document had been buried, the Trump administration ordered key parts of it to be fast-tracked for approval.

Just a few short months ago, Trump planned to campaign for reelection on the back of a robust economy. That’s now a distant memory.

Justin Trudeau says there will be more support from the federal government to help certain sectors of the economy reeling from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Publishers of several of Canada’s major newspapers signed a joint letter to the federal government this month, taking aim at the advertising revenue earned by Google and Facebook.

The new amendments allow the president to to take measures to contain the virus, but they also include expanded powers to ban public and private meetings, protests, celebrations and other forms of assembly.

The Rooms is eager to document how people are coping with the current pandemic to build a record for the future.

The efforts to undermine Democratic governors who invoked stay-at-home orders are most pronounced in states such as Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, all three of which have divided government and are key to President Donald Trump's path to reelection.

Roughly 19 Canadian crew members aboard Holland America’s MS Koningsdam disembarked at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro, Calif. on Friday while another group of 53 aboard the Emerald Princess is hoping to do the same on Saturday at Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

While the data suggests long-term care homes across the globe have suffered unduly from COVID-19, residents in Canada's system seem to be suffering more than others.