Former Conservative leadership contender Rory Stewart began calling for a lockdown in late February and still feels UK government ministers could have handled the pandemic differently.

"The tendency in government is always to ask for more information, always to move more slowly than you might, particularly in a very difficult, uncertain situation," he told the BBC.

"So I think it's right that they did follow the scientific advice, but it's also true, I believe, that from the end of February they should have been challenging it harder, on the basis of what they could see was happening elsewhere in the world."

On Wednesday, former government adviser Prof Neil Ferguson said if the UK had locked down a week earlier the number of deaths could have been halved.

Image source, Reuters

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has ordered e-commerce giants Amazon and eBay to stop selling a number of unsafe or unproven pesticides and disinfectants, including products falsely marketed as anti-Covid-19.

The "stop sale" orders mention more than 70 products, which must now be taken off the companies' platforms. Failure to comply could result in big fines.

“We are removing the products in question and are taking action against the bad actors who listed them,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement, Reuters reports.

Ashley Settle, an eBay representative, said the company was supportive of the EPA’s “efforts to prohibit the sale of items making fraudulent health claims", according to Bloomberg.

“Since the outbreak we have been employing a combination of digital and manual surveillance tools to remove products like those marketed with the term ‘coronavirus’, which violates our policies regarding making unsubstantiated health claims," the representative said.

Image source, UKRAINE PRESIDENT'S OFFICE

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he has been fined for violating the country's lockdown rules.

Zelensky said this happened after he visited a cafe in the central city of Khmelnytsky on 3 June.

His office later released a photo of Zelensky sipping coffee in the cafe - although a ban on catering services indoors was still in effect at the time. The president was also without a face mask.

"They did the right thing," the president said, referring to the fine - but without revealing how much he had to pay.

Zelensky also said he had even considered at one point getting deliberately infected with Covid-19 to show Ukrainians that the danger was real.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Image source, UK Parliament

After former government adviser Prof Neil Ferguson said going into lockdown a week earlier could have halved the UK's death toll, ministers are coming under pressure from those who argued for quicker action in March.

But Minister for Regional Growth Simon Clarke told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the government was "not seeking to hide" from scrutiny.

"We’ve made decisions in good faith based on the available evidence," he said, adding that the government faced "unenviable political choices based on fast-emerging scientific data".

Critics such as former Tory MP Rory Stewart and Labour's shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth were being "wise after the fact", he said.

Asked about pressure from his party to relax the 2m social distancing rule to help hospitality businesses and schools, Clarke said the government is "not blind to the very severe challenges" it creates but said it is supported by the best available guidance.

There's bad news on the jobs front in France and Germany. A collapse in temporary work in France is largely responsible for the loss of half a million jobs in the first quarter of 2020. The private sector has been hit hardest. Meanwhile, troubled German airline Lufthansa says 22,000 jobs could go as it restructures as part of a €9bn ($10bn; £8bn) state bailout. In other news:

• A French family is launching a legal case after a refuse collector took his own life shortly after being sacked. The man, a key worker from Normandy, lost his job for drinking a beer he'd been given by a grateful member of the public
• Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has confirmed he'll give evidence on Friday to an inquiry on why an early lockdown was not imposed in the Bergamo area, the epicentre of Italy's pandemic
• The Bosnian city of Tuzla is preparing to declare a second epidemic following a steep rise in cases
• If you've missed Spanish football, you'll be thrilled to learn that La Liga is back on Thursday night with Sevilla entertaining local rivals Real Betis at 22:00 (20:00 GMT).

Ferdinand Omondi
BBC News, Nairobi

Image source, EPA

The Kenyan government faces tough decisions in opening up the economy while keeping Covid-19 under control and avoiding a collapse of its health system.

This year’s budget is expected to focus on turning around the economy, which the World Bank expects will slow down from from 5% growth to just 1%.

Recently President Uhuru Kenyatta said relaxing restrictions by only a fifth could lead to 30,000 deaths by December. He added that up to half a million jobs could be lost in the next six months if the country did not get back on track.

Small businesses here are struggling because many of their main clients, the slum dwellers themselves, lost their income as casual workers in companies which have closed down due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Image source, Getty Images

Tony Watima, an economist based in Nairobi, says the journey to full recovery will take years.

"For now, it’s about stabilisation... We cannot talk about stimulating the economy at this time when you still have lockdown effects," he says.

Kenya remains under a countrywide overnight curfew and movement in and out of its two largest cities of Nairobi and Mombasa is restricted until at least the first week of July.

Image source, EPA

A further 8,779 cases of coronavirus have been reported in Russia, bringing the country's total above 500,000.

The official national death toll rose to 6,532, after a further 174 Covid-19 deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours.

According to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University, Russia now has the third highest number of infections worldwide, behind only the US and Brazil.

But it has recorded lower numbers of deaths than a dozen other countries.

Image source, Reuters

The shutting of British pubs during the lockdown has had a knock-on effect for lovers of Marmite.

Shoppers can't currently find larger jars of the spread on supermarket shelves and the makers of Marmite, founded in Staffordshire in 1902, have explained why on Twitter., external

Replying to a customer's query about which retailers currently stock the 400g jars, the company revealed that their product relies on repurposed brewers' yeast, which is in short supply because beer production has been cut back while pubs remain closed.

Love it or hate it, Marmite is only available in 250g jars at present. And fans of the divisive spread are now among those yearning for pubs to reopen.

If you're just joining us this morning, here are the latest headlines from the UK:

• Senior Conservative backbenchers are calling for the government to reduce the 2m social distancing rule to help pubs, restaurants and cafes survive
• The economic pressures of the pandemic mean that businesses cannot cope with leaving the EU without a trade deal at the end of the year, the outgoing head of the Confederation of British Industry has warned
• High-risk offenders have not been monitored as closely as they should have been during lockdown, a Ministry of Justice document admits
• With small shops in Northern Ireland due to open tomorrow, the executive in Stormont is due to consider whether more lockdown restrictions can be lifted today
• The travel industry is putting further pressure on the government to implement safe "travel corridors" to avoid the need to quarantine passengers
• And there are concerns about help for drug and alcohol addicts in Wales during lockdown after referrals for support fell by 57%

Image source, EPA

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said he will never trade national values in response to what he described as "coercion".

Morrison's comments come after Beijing urged Chinese students to not study in Australia, citing the risk of Covid-19 and of racist attacks. The Australian government has rejected the accusations.

Relations have soured since Australia echoed the US in calling for an independent inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus, which was first detected in China late last year.

China is Australia’s largest trading partner but in recent weeks Beijing has banned Australian beef imports and imposed steep tariffs on barley from the country. International education is Australia's fourth-largest export industry, worth A$38bn ($26bn; £20bn) annually.

Image source, Getty Images

Premier League clubs face a £1bn ($1.2bn) reduction in their revenues in 2019-20 because of the pandemic, says financial services firm Deloitte.

The 20 English top-flight clubs had a combined revenue of more than £5bn for the first time in 2018-19, but this season has been on hold since March and the 92 remaining matches will be held behind closed doors.

Deloitte's Dan Jones expects "significant revenue reduction and operating losses" in European football, with £500m of the reduction for Premier League clubs - in rebates to broadcasters and a loss of matchday revenue - being "permanently lost". The remainder will be "deferred" until 2020-21 if this season and next are completed.

Manchester United said last month that the pandemic had already cost them £28m - but they expect the final figure to be far higher.

Image source, Getty Images

India has lifted its export ban on hydroxychloroquine, the drug that US President Donald Trump called a "game-changer" in the fight against Covid-19.

India's minister for chemicals and fertilisers tweeted the news on Wednesday night.

Hydroxychloroquine is very similar to chloroquine, one of the oldest and best-known anti-malarial drugs.

But the drug has also attracted attention over the past few decades as a potential antiviral agent.

Trump has repeatedly touted the drug as a possible cure for Covid-19, despite a lack of proof and reservations from medical experts.

India, one of the world's largest manufacturers of hydroxychloroquine, banned exports in March when its lockdown disrupted supply chains. However, the country did ease some restrictions and shipped 50 million tablets of the drug to the US in April, external, Reuters reported.

• Read more on what we know about the drug so far

Michelle Roberts
Health editor, BBC News online

As lockdown restrictions are eased, the government has announced a new plan for people in England to set up "support bubbles".

The scheme, aimed at people who've been cut off from friends and family during the coronavirus pandemic, is also referred to as "bubbling".

In England from 13 June a single adult living alone (or with children under the age of 18) will be able to form a "support bubble" with one other household (of any size). This means they can act as if they are one household - for instance, they can go into each other's houses, stay the night and don't have to maintain social distancing.

• Click here to read more

Image source, Getty Images

Nigeria's Minister of Women's Affairs Pauline Tallen has called on law enforcement agencies to speed up investigations of rape after an "alarming" spike in such cases during the lockdown regime in the country.

“There has been an outcry against rape epidemic because of the lockdown," the minister said at a government meeting on Wednesday.

She said that rape cases had recently increased by a factor of three, noting that "women and children are locked down with their abusers".

All 36 states in Nigeria were affected, Ms Tallen said.

Nigerian police said on Wednesday they had arrested a man after 40 people were raped in one town over the period of a year.

Image source, Reuters

Heathrow Airport has launched a voluntary redundancy scheme, but warned it cannot rule out further job cuts as it battles to recover from the coronavirus crisis.

The company said it had agreed the scheme with unions, which comes just days after it cautioned around 25,000 jobs - about a third of all staff - could be at risk.

Chief executive John Holland-Kaye said: "Throughout this crisis we have tried to protect frontline jobs but this is no longer sustainable, and we have now agreed a voluntary severance scheme with our union partners.

"While we cannot rule out further job reductions, we will continue to explore options to minimise the number of job losses."

Passenger numbers were down 97% in May, news agency Reuters reports.

Pakistan says it is following a "holistic" strategy when it comes to battling coronavirus in response to the WHO's recommended that it reimpose a strict, intermittent lockdown.

The comments from the country's top medical expert, Dr Zafar Mirza, came on Wednesday, external - a day after Pakistan recorded its highest daily spike with more than 5,300 new infections. Total cases have crossed 113,000 with the death toll at 2,255.

“We have to make tough policy choices to strike a balance between lives and livelihoods,” Mirza added.

Earlier, the WHO said that Pakistan did not meet any of its six criteria for easing a lockdown, which the country did in May. Prime Minister Imran Khan had removed restrictions at various points throughout May, but eased most of them at the end of the month, saying Pakistan would have to "live with the virus" as the lockdown was devastating its economy.

The global body also urged Pakistan to increase daily testing to at least more than 50,000 a day, external. It is currently testing around half of this figure - 23,799 people were tested on Tuesday, Al Jazeera reported, quoting government data.

Image source, Getty Images

Although the daily number of new cases has declined sharply in some parts of the the US, including in New York, the figure is increasing in 20 states.

New York Times data, external shows the seven-day rolling average of new cases is up across the past two weeks in:

California; Texas; Florida; North Carolina; Arizona; Tennessee; Washington; South Carolina; Missouri; Utah; Kentucky; Arkansas; Nevada; New Mexico; Oregon; Idaho; Vermont; Hawaii; Alaska; and Montana.

The NYT says the increases are "in part because some [states] have recently ramped up their testing capacity".

Image source, Reuters

Image source, AFP

Second-tier football returned in Spain on Wednesday. Now the top flight is set to resume, with Sevilla hosting Real Betis in the Seville derby on Thursday (21:00 BST).

There is plenty at stake in the remaining 11 rounds of this season's La Liga with the title race, European places and the battle to avoid relegation all wide open.

Games will be played behind closed doors every single day so the pace will be frantic, and there are a host of compelling storylines, such as Uruguay's Luis Suarez returning from injury for leaders Barcelona, who are two points clear of Real Madrid.

Click here to read more on the remainder of the Spanish season.

Image source, Reuters

Thailand says it had no new virus infections or deaths over the past day - the first time in almost three weeks there were no new cases.

It's also been 17 days since a local transmission was recorded. All other recent cases had been imported by people returning from abroad.

The country's total stands at 3,125 confirmed infections, while 58 deaths have been linked to Covid-19.

• A group of major sports has "started working" with UK government experts on how the return of fans after the lockdown might work. No timescale has yet been set for crowds being allowed, but representatives of football, cricket, rugby and horse racing have been part of discussions
• West Indies captain Jason Holder says his players feel safe after arriving in England and "at some point", some kind of normal must return. West Indies landed in the UK on Tuesday for their three-match Test series which begins on 8 July at bio-secure venues
• A game in Spain which started last December before being stopped because of offensive chanting was finally completed on Wednesday as the country's football season restarted. The concluding 45 minutes of the second-tier match between Rayo Vallecano and Albacete were played without fans, with Rayo winning 1-0 as fans in surrounding flats celebrated on balconies
• Holders Bayern Munich beat Eintracht Frankfurt on Wednesday to set up a German Cup final against Bayer Leverkusen, in Berlin's Olympic Stadium on 4 July