A scathing attack on Matt Hancock’s handling of the pandemic by the prime minister’s former aide Dominic Cummings has put the health secretary in the spotlight. During a seven-hour appearance before MPs at the health and science select committees on Wednesday, Mr Cummings made a number of explosive claims about the government’s handling of the pandemic. He argued that mistakes meant "tens of thousands of people died, who didn't need to die", plus he portrayed the government as unprepared and with no useful plan for handling a pandemic.
As part of his evidence, Mr Cummings said Mr Hancock should have been “fired for at least 15 to 20 things”, including lying on multiple occasions to him and others in government and in public. He described the health secretary as "completely incapable of doing the job", criticising him over PPE, or personal protective equipment, shortages and "stupid" testing targets. Mr Hancock’s spokesman said “we absolutely reject Mr Cummings' claims”, with the health secretary later saying he hadn’t seen the evidence session in full because he was “dealing with getting the vaccination rollout going… and saving lives”. He faces MPs in the House of Commons this morning to answer an urgent question tabled by Labour. Labour's shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said Mr Cummings' "very grave allegations" appeared to be "well-founded" and the health secretary would have to "give us an explanation" in order for the country to "maintain confidence in him".

“We have almost a tsunami of patients coming to us”, says one GP, “it just keeps coming and coming and coming in this one massive, endless wave of patients who all are ill and need help and input”. The pandemic has caused severe disruption to GP practices, with services in England now struggling to keep up with demand. Doctors and patient groups are warning that rising numbers of people needing care, restrictions on access and a shortage of GPs is threatening to overwhelm the system. Appointments have dropped by 10%, meaning 31 million fewer consultations with GPs and practice nurses, according to an analysis of NHS data in England. It also showed an increasing number people are seeking help, with more than 28 million appointments booked in March - one of the highest on record. Patient groups are calling for an urgent review and the chairman of the Royal College of GPs, Prof Martin Marshall, says what is being asked of doctors is "undoable".

The origins of Covid-19 will be investigated by US intelligence agencies on the orders of President Joe Biden amid growing controversy. The virus was first detected in Wuhan in late 2019 and early cases were linked to a seafood market in the Chinese city. Scientists believed the virus first passed to humans from animals. But recent US media reports suggest growing evidence the virus could instead have emerged from a laboratory in China. The US Intelligence Community has “not reached a definitive conclusion on this question”, said Mr Biden. He has asked US intelligence to report back to him within 90 days. Beijing has condemned the reports, suggesting the virus could have come from a US lab instead.

The explosive claims made by Dominic Cummings during questioning about the government’s handling of the pandemic dominate the front pages this morning. And photographs of his changing expressions in the seven-hour appearance before MPs have been married with the story in many of the papers. The Metro plays on his name with the headline “Domshell”, the Times leads on “Cummings rains fire on No10” and the Daily Telegraph says the prime minister’s former aide “takes his revenge as he lays blame on Johnson and Hancock”. You can read the newspaper review here.

Despite getting zero points for the UK at this year’s Eurovision contest, James Newman still feels like a winner. "Maybe people just didn't like my music", he says, but he "wouldn't change a thing" about his performance - which received a standing ovation.
A round of applause erupted in a restaurant when a waiter saved a man who was choking on his curry. Watch the moment Sheakh Nazmul Hasan Rifat - who revealed he was also saved from choking as a child - sprang into action. Finally, a giant tortoise breed, thought to be extinct, is safe. Genetic tests confirm it’s linked to a species last seen in 1906.

From elsewhere