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The Scottish government should have been better prepared for coronavirus outbreaks at universities, opposition parties have claimed.

Hundreds of students have tested positive since universities returned earlier this month.

Opposition leaders accused First Minister Nicola Sturgeon of a “basic failure” to anticipate the problem and provide more testing.

Ms Sturgeon insisted the country’s testing system was working well.

And she said the rising number of coronavirus cases underlined why tough new restrictions were introduced on Tuesday to “get the virus back under control”.

• How do you self-isolate in a student flat?
• What do campus outbreaks mean for students?

A further 465 positive tests were reported across Scotland on Thursday, represen...

Pub-goers are likely to be given 20 minutes to drink up after last orders at 22:00, Wales’ Health Minister Vaughan Gething has said.

On Tuesday, First Minister Mark Drakeford said pubs and restaurants would close at 22:00 from Thursday.

But on Wednesday it was confirmed pubs in Wales will not have to close at 22:00 but will have to stop serving alcohol at this time.

The regulations will say people need to drink up and move on, Mr Gething said.

He told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast with Claire Summers: “I think we’re talking in the order of 20 minutes… That’s what I think, but I need to check it with the lawyers.”

The move means rules are now different to England, where pubs and restaurants must close at 22:00.

Mr Gething said: “We do recognise that if you simply had businesses open as lon...

People are waiting longer for test results from England’s community Covid testing centres, figures show.

Only 28% of tests carried out in these venues came back in 24 hours in the week up to 16 September.

That is down from one in three last week, and two in three the week before, NHS Test and Trace said.

Just over 5% of tests took more than three days to turn around. It comes as the government is struggling to increase lab capacity to process tests.

Access to community testing has had to be rationed because the network of five Lighthouse Labs, which process tests done in the community, are struggling to keep up with demand.

The opening of a sixth lab in Newport has been delayed from August.

The government said that lab and a seventh in Loughborough would be open by next month, helping ...

The government is to top up the wages of workers covering up to two-thirds of their hours for the next six months, Chancellor Rishi Sunak has said.

The new Jobs Support Scheme will replace the existing furlough scheme when it ends on 31 October.

Mr Sunak set out his “winter economy plan” after the government introduced new measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

There are fears firms will make mass job cuts when the furlough scheme ends.

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Matt Hancock has refused to rule out banning students from returning home at Christmas, to limit the spread of coronavirus outbreaks.

The health secretary was responding to a question about concerns that students could be spreading Covid-19, amid numerous university-based outbreaks.

At Glasgow University 120 students have tested positive for Covid-19 and are among 600 self-isolating there.

Academics had warned against the mass movement of the UK’s million students.

The University and College Union had called for students to be taught wholly online, from home until Christmas, ahead of the start of term, but ministers advised some face-to-face learning was key to students’ mental health.

In a response to a question on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme about whether students would be asked t...

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Former Sunday Times editor Sir Harold Evans has died at the age of 92, the Reuters news agency has reported.

The British-American journalist, who led an investigation into the drug Thalidomide, died of heart failure in New York, his wife Tina Brown said.

His 70-year career also saw him work as a magazine founder, book publisher, author and – at the time of his death – Reuters’ editor-at-large.

Sir Harold was editor of the Sunday Times for 13 years.

He then went on to become the founding editor of Conde Nast Traveller magazine and later president of the publishing giant, Random House.

One of Britain and America’s best-known journalists, Sir Harold also wrote several books about the press and in 2003 was given a knighthood.

Sir Harold forged his reputation as editor of the Northern Ec...

Charities dealing with men who suffer domestic abuse have seen pleas for help jump by up to 60% during the lockdown.

The Respect Men’s Advice Line said some victims had told them they had sought refuge by sleeping in cars or in tents in the gardens of friends or relatives.

The charity said it had received 13,812 calls and emails between April and July in lockdown compared to 8,648 in the same period in 2019.

Respect’s Ippo Panteloudakis said the pandemic had made the problem worse.

He said: “It was absolutely clear the lockdown period exacerbated everyone’s domestic abuse experiences.

“They were talking about increases in violence, increases in psychological abuse and becoming homeless as a result of the domestic abuse and not having anywhere to go.

“We had reports from men sleeping ...

The UK could be the first country in the world to carry out Covid “challenge trials” – where healthy volunteers are deliberately infected with coronavirus to test possible vaccines.

It is understood the studies – first reported by the Financial Times – would be conducted in London.

The UK government said it was holding discussions about developing a vaccine through such “human challenge studies”.

No contracts have yet been signed, the BBC understands.

• How close are we to a coronavirus vaccine?
• NHS Covid-19 app launches for the over-16s

A spokesman for the government said: “We are working with partners to understand how we might collaborate on the potential development of a Covid-19 vaccine through human challenge studies.

“These discussions are part of our work to research ways of ...

Chancellor Rishi Sunak will later unveil a plan aimed at minimising further unemployment as stricter Covid-19 restrictions come into force.

The new measures are expected to replace the furlough scheme, which is set to expire next month.

In July, around five million workers were still receiving some or all of their income through the scheme, many in the hospitality sector.

Pubs and restaurants have warned they will be hit hard by new restrictions.

From Thursday, hospitality venues in England will have to shut at 22:00 BST as the government tries to control the spread of the coronavirus.

Scotland is introducing similar measures, with pubs and restaurants having to close at 22:00 BST from Friday, while in Wales restrictions are limited to stopping alcohol sales at 22:00 from Thursday.

“L...