Also, the women survivors of atomic bombs
   
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By Andrew McFarlane

 
 

Covid test results 'in 90 minutes'

 
 
Generic image of patient taking a swab test

Go for a coronavirus test today and you might have to wait up to two days for the result. However, new swab and DNA tests to be rolled out to care homes from next week will offer a result in just 90 minutes, the government says. Half a million rapid swab tests will be available in adult care settings later this month, while hospitals are to get thousands of DNA test machines from September, according to the Department for Health.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock describes the innovations as "life-saving", saying they will help "break chains of transmission quickly". The announcement comes after the government pushed back a July target for regular testing of care home staff and residents in England, admitting the number of testing kits had become more limited. Currently three-quarters of test results come back within 24 hours. Our health correspondent Lauren Moss says it's "hugely significant" that the use of mobile labs for swab analysis will offer a result within 90 minutes. "Another major benefit sees the tests able to detect other winter illnesses, such as the flu," she adds.

 
 
 

Half price meal offer begins

 
 

What's on your menu for this evening? Pub grub... pizza... Chinese... Indian... More than 72,000 restaurants will be hoping customers are tempted to down saucepans and take advantage of the government's Eat Out to Help Out scheme, which begins today. Taxpayers will subsidise half-price meals - up to £10 per person - between Mondays and Wednesdays throughout August.  Chancellor Rishi Sunak hopes the scheme will help protect the jobs of 1.8 million chefs, waiters and restaurateurs by boosting demand at a time when research suggests many remain "uncomfortable" at the thought of eating out. The scheme is not without critics, however, with questions raised last month about whether it offers taxpayers value for money. And Lib Dem health spokeswoman Munira Wilson argues: "With a number of fast-food chains signing up to the scheme, it seems clear that public health did not factor into the government's decision." Feeling peckish? Here's how to take advantage of the offer. 

 
 
 

Splashdown for historic Nasa mission

 
 

"Welcome back to planet Earth. Thanks for flying SpaceX." Those words greeted US astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken on splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico at the end of the first commercial crewed mission to the International Space Station. It was also the first crewed US water landing since the final outing of an Apollo command module 45 years ago. "It was truly our honour and privilege," Hurley said afterwards. However, it wasn't just mission control on hand to welcome the crew. Private boats which came close to the Dragon were asked to leave amid concern over hazardous chemicals on the capsule. "We need to make sure that we're warning people not to get close to the spacecraft in the future," says Nasa administrator Jim Bridenstine.

 
 
 
 

Women survivors of the atomic bombs

 

"I hate sunsets. Even now, sunsets still remind me of the burning city." Emiko Okada was eight years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Her elder sister, Mieko, and four other relatives were killed. 

"My sister left home that morning, saying, 'I'll see you later!' She was just twelve years old and so full of life," says Emiko. "But she never returned. No one knows what became of her. My parents searched for her desperately. They never found her body, though, so they continued to say that she must still be alive somewhere."

 
 
 
 
 
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Karen Lee Stow

Photo-journalist

 
 
 
 
 

What the papers say

 
 
Composite image featuring Mail and Guardian front pages

"Game-changing" is how the Daily Mail describes new coronavirus tests that can give results in 90 minutes. For the Times, they are a "significant boost" to control the virus as winter approaches, while the i says the quicker analysis should help schools reopening in September. Meanwhile, the Daily Express focuses on anger at the government for considering what campaigners call an "ageist" policy that could see people aged over 50 being asked to stay at home in order to prevent a second wave of the virus. Other potential "nuclear" options include London being sealed off, with the M25 ring road used as a "border", the Metro says. Read the full review.

 
 
 

Daily digest

 
 
   

Iran Cover-up of coronavirus deaths revealed by data leak

 
   

TikTok Microsoft to continue talks to buy US operations

 
   

'Badvertising' Campaign calls for ban on ads for polluting cars

 
   

HSBC Profits slump 65% amid coronavirus downturn

 
 
 

If you watch one thing today

James Hodgkinson
'I've got to know the man I killed'
 
 
 
 

If you listen to one thing today

A health worker walks between beds at a temporary field hospital set up by Medecins Sans Frontieres during the coronavirus disease outbreak in Khayelitsha township near Cape Town, South Africa.
More or Less: Data and Covid-19 in Africa
 
 
 
 

If you read one thing today

A barmaid wears a visor to serve outside
 Eight ways lockdown easing has changed the UK
 
 
 
 

Need something different?

 
 

If months of home-schooling has left you bereft of ideas on how to entertain the kids without resorting to tables, our video on how to get kids off devices this summer might help. And with airlines the world over retiring ageing planes early because of the global travel downturn, Soutik Biswas visits an Arizona "boneyard" where aircraft go to die.

 
 
 

On this day

 
 
   

2003 The Anglican Church in America votes to approve the appointment of the Reverend Canon Gene Robinson as its first openly gay bishop.

 
 
 

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