Boycotts can be extremely effective - as Facebook is finding out.

In the late 18th century, the abolitionist movement encouraged British people to stay away from goods produced by slaves. It worked. Around 300,000 stopped buying sugar - increasing the pressure to abolish slavery.

The Stop Hate for Profit campaign is the latest movement to use boycott as a political tool. It claims that Facebook doesn't do enough to remove racist and hateful content from its platform.

It's convinced a series of major companies to pull advertising from Facebook and some other social media companies.

Among the latest to do so are Ford, Adidas and HP. They join earlier participants including Coca-Cola, Unilever and Starbucks.

News site Axios has also reported that Microsoft suspended advertising on Facebook and Instagram in May because of concerns about unspecified "inappropriate content" - a development the BBC can confirm.

Meanwhile, other online platforms, including Reddit and Twitch, have piled on more pressure by taking anti-hate steps of their own.

Can that boycott hurt Facebook? The short answer is yes - the vast majority of Facebook's revenue comes from ads.

David Cumming from Aviva Investors told the BBC's Today programme that the loss of trust, and a perceived absence of a moral code, could "destroy the business".

On Friday, Facebook's share price dropped by 8% - making chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, theoretically at least, £6bn poorer.

But whether this could be bigger - an existential threat to Facebook's long-term future - is far less clear.

First of all, this isn't the first boycott of a social media company.

In 2017, major brand after major brand announced they would stop advertising on YouTube - after ads were placed next to racist and homophobic videos.

That particular boycott is now almost totally forgotten. YouTube tweaked its ad policies, and three years on YouTube's parent company Google is doing just fine.

And there are more reasons to believe this boycott isn't as damaging to Facebook as you might think.

Firstly, many companies have only committed to a one-month boycott in July.

Secondly, and perhaps more significantly, much of Facebook's advertising revenue comes from thousands and thousands of small- to medium-sized businesses.

CNN reports that the highest-spending 100 brands accounted for $4.2bn in Facebook advertising last year - or about 6% of the platform's ad revenue.

So far, the vast majority of medium-sized companies have not signed up.

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg oversees the four most downloaded apps of the decade

Mat Morrison, head of strategy at advertising agency Digital Whiskey, told me there's a huge number of smaller businesses that "can't afford not to advertise".

He says that for smaller businesses - which are priced out of advertising on TV - cheaper and more focussed ads on platforms like Facebook are essential.

"The only way our business works is having access to these highly targeted audiences, that aren't mass media audiences, so we'll continue to advertise" Morrison says.

In some ways Facebook looks like a good choice of company to lobby. The structure of Facebook gives Mark Zuckerberg a huge amount of power to effect change. If he wants something, he'll get it.

You only need to change the mind of one man.

But the reverse is also true. Shareholders aren't able to put pressure on Mr Zuckerberg in the same way as other companies. If he doesn't want to act, he won't.

So far though, he has shown signs he's prepared to move. On Friday, Facebook announced it would begin to tag hateful content - and look out for further announcements this week.

These changes won't be enough to make Stop Hate for Profit go away though.

And elsewhere, others are taking action of their own.

This Monday, Reddit has banned The_Donald forum as part of a wider crackdown on "subreddits" whose members have engaged in harassment and threatening behaviour. The community was not officially linked to the President, but had helped widely spread memes that supported him, before Reddit took earlier steps to limit the posts' reach.

In addition, Twitch has temporarily banned an account run by the Trump campaign.

The Amazon-owned video-streaming site said two videos of Mr Trump's rallies that were shown on its platform had broken its rules on hateful conduct.

Twitch's action may feed into existing tensions between President Trump and Amazon's chief executive Jeff Bezos

One dated from 2015, before he was elected, at which he had said Mexico was sending rapists to the US. The other was from earlier this month, in which the President had described a fictional "tough hombre" breaking into the home of an American woman.

"We do not make exceptions for political or newsworthy content," Twitch said in a statement.

This year is going to be a rocky year for all social media companies.

Facebook is by no means the exception. But companies will always be guided by their balance sheets.

If the boycott drags on into the autumn - and if more and more companies sign up - this could be a defining year for the social network.

There have been more than 300,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus so far in the UK and over 45,000 people have died, government figures show. However, these numbers only include people tested, and the actual death toll is higher.

Here we a take a look at some of the key figures of the pandemic in the UK - estimates of the death toll and whether cases are rising or falling. You can also find out more about cases in your area using our search tool and map.

Find out how the pandemic has affected your area and how it compares with the national average:

Public Health England figures on coronavirus cases were updated on 2 July to include people tested in the wider community, as well as hospitals and healthcare workers, causing the numbers to increase sharply. Figures for the rest of the UK already included people tested in the wider population.

If you can't see the look-up click here.

The new coronavirus, which causes the disease Covid-19, was first confirmed in the UK at the end of January, but the number of daily confirmed cases and related deaths only began to increase significantly by the second half of March.

Lockdown restrictions came into force across the UK at the end of that month and the number of new confirmed cases continued to rise until April, before starting to fall steadily throughout May and June.

However, the downward trend now appears to have stalled.

On Tuesday, a further 581 cases were reported.

How many confirmed cases are there in your area?

Since some of the March lockdown restrictions were eased, a number of local outbreaks have been identified across the country. Health Secretary Matt Hancock says targeted action is being taken every week against such clusters of infections.

The Lancashire town of Blackburn with Darwen is one of the latest hotspots, where coronavirus cases are rising, as is Luton in Bedfordshire. Both towns say gyms and other leisure facilities will remain closed for the time being.

Local lockdown measures were announced in Leicester at the end of June and although non-essential shops were told last Friday they could reopen, people have been urged not to leave their homes just to go shopping.

Public Health England has also produced a coronavirus watchlist of areas, based on an assessment of incidence rates, and other indicators such as trends in testing, local responses and plans, healthcare activity and mortality.

While the fall in the number of new cases of coronavirus appears to have stalled, government-announced deaths have continued to drop since a peak in mid-April, though the downward trend has slowed recently.

On Tuesday, a further 119 deaths were reported. On Monday there were only seven deaths announced, but the figure is often lower at weekends and just after because there is a delay in reporting deaths on Saturdays and Sundays.

The latest figures were published on the government's coronavirus dashboard - although a review is taking place into the way deaths from coronavirus are counted in England.

Public Health England have confirmed that reported deaths may have included people who tested positive months before they died. Other UK nations include only those who died within 28 days of testing positive for coronavirus.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock told a Commons committee last week that the results of the review would be published "very, very shortly".

The majority of the UK's deaths have been in England, with just over 41,000 so far.

No new deaths were reported in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland on Tuesday.

When looking at the overall death toll from coronavirus, official figures count such deaths in three different ways.

On a daily basis, Public Health England counts the deaths of people who have tested positive for coronavirus, providing the government with a figure it announces each 24 hours.

But the Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes weekly updates using two other measures.

The first includes all deaths where coronavirus was mentioned on the death certificate, even if the person had not been tested for the virus. The latest figures using this measure suggest there had been more than 55,000 deaths by 17 July.

The ONS also looks at all UK deaths over and above the number usually expected for the time of year. The latest figures for this measure show the death toll was just under 64,000 up to 17 July.

In recent weeks, figures used in this third measure have actually been falling.

This is because the number of deaths from all causes registered in a single week - including coronavirus - has now stayed below the five-year average for four weeks in a row.

The UK has the highest official death toll in Europe and the third highest in the world, after the US and Brazil.

However, both countries have much larger populations than the UK and the number of people who have died per 100,000 people in the UK is currently higher than for either the US or Brazil.

The government has argued it is too soon to make definitive international comparisons but, as the impact of the first wave becomes clear in many countries, analysis is beginning to suggest the UK has been the hardest hit of the leading G7 nations.

The "R number" is the average number of people an infected person will pass the disease on to.

If R is below one, then the number of people contracting the disease will fall; if it is above one, the number will grow.

The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, known as Sage, believes the R number across the whole of the UK is currently between 0.7 and 0.9.

The government says in England itself it is between 0.8 and 1.0.

The estimate for Scotland is between 0.6 and 0.9. In Northern Ireland it is between 0.7 and 0.9, while it is between 0.6 and 0.8 in Wales.

The government has said in the past that the R number is one of the most important factors in deciding when lockdown measures can be eased. But it now says that infection rates are too low to calculate R precisely in all areas of the UK.

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Social distancing means keeping apart from people to restrict the spread of coronavirus.

The rules and guidance are being relaxed across the country.

Rules are different in each UK nation - and they will not ease in Leicester, which is currently under a local lockdown.

The original rule across the UK was that you had to stay 2m (6ft) away from anybody who was not a member of your household.

Those rules have now been relaxed.

You should still ideally stay 2m (6ft) apart, but if that's not possible, you can stay 1m (3ft) apart with extra precautions such as face coverings and not sitting face-to-face.

In Scotland the exemptions to the 2m rule are only in some premises such as pubs and restaurants, and face coverings are compulsory in shops.

And in Wales, while the 2m rule remains, the guidance is changing to reflect the fact that it is not realistic to stay that far apart in somewhere like a hairdresser's shop.

The only people you do not have to distance yourself from are those you live with and those you have linked to in a support bubble.

In England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, single adults living alone - or single parents with children under 18 - can form a bubble with one other household of any size, and visit each other's homes. In Wales, two households of any size can now join up in a similar "extended household".

Also, in Scotland, children aged 11 or under no longer have to socially distance with others outside.

Outdoors in England, up to 30 people from two households can meet, or a maximum of six people can meet from multiple households.

People from different households must maintain social distancing throughout.

People who are clinically vulnerable and are "shielding" can now gather in groups of up to six people outdoors, including individuals outside of their household.

In Scotland, up to 15 people from five different households can meet outdoors.

In Northern Ireland, up to 30 people who are not in the same household can meet outdoors.

In Wales,any number of people from two different households can now meet outdoors.

In England, two households up to a maximum of 30 people can meet indoors and overnight stays are allowed.

In Scotland, up to eight people from three different households can meet indoors while social distancing. In Northern Ireland, groups of up to six people not in the same household can meet indoors.

In Wales, indoor meetings are still not allowed, but with indoor bars and restaurants due to reopen in August that will presumably be relaxed.

The guidance encourages people to keep windows and doors open for ventilation.

If you have guests coming for a meal, put crockery and cutlery in a dishwasher or hot soapy water (and then rinse in cold water) immediately after use.

Experts recommend the following:

Pubs, restaurants and cafes have been able to reopen indoors in England and Northern Ireland, as long as they follow safety guidelines.

Staff should practise good hand hygiene and social distancing, but they don't have to wear face coverings.

The government advice to employers includes:

Read the government guidelines for staff in pubs and restaurants and hotels and attractions.

Indoor parts of pubs and restaurants will reopen in Scotland on 15 July, while in Wales they can open outdoors from 13 July and indoors from 3 August.

Self-isolating means staying at home and not leaving it.

People who have symptoms of coronavirus should isolate themselves for seven days and arrange to get tested. Symptoms include:

Other members of their household should isolate for 14 days and not leave their homes.

If you test positive you will be contacted by contact tracers, who will establish who else you might have passed on the infection to.

Anybody they deem to be at risk will have to isolate themselves for 14 days from the point of contact.

In England, until recently, those categorised as "clinically extremely vulnerable", or "shielders" have also been self-isolating, but they can now go outside for exercise and meet up to five other people outdoors while social distancing if they want to. They can also form a support bubble.

From 1 August, shielding in England will be "paused". The guidance in Northern Ireland is similar, but different in Wales and Scotland.

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CoronaVirus translator

What do all these terms mean?

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Antibodies test

A medical test that can show if a person has had the coronavirus and now has some immunity. The test detects antibodies in the blood, which are produced by the body to fight off the disease.

Asymptomatic

Someone who has a disease but does not have any of the symptoms it causes. Some studies suggest some people with coronavirus carry the disease but don't show the common symptoms, such as a persistent cough or high temperature.

Containment phase

The first part of the UK's strategy to deal with the coronavirus, which involved trying to identify infected people early and trace anyone who had been in close contact with them.

Coronavirus

One of a group of viruses that can cause severe or mild illness in humans and animals. The coronavirus currently sweeping the world causes the disease Covid-19. The common cold and influenza (flu) are other types of coronaviruses.

Covid-19

The disease caused by the coronavirus first detected in Wuhan, China, in late 2019. It primarily affects the lungs.

Delay phase

The second part of the UK's strategy to deal with the coronavirus, in which measures such as social distancing are used to delay its spread.

Fixed penalty notice

A fine designed to deal with an offence on the spot, instead of in court. These are often for driving offences, but now also cover anti-social behaviour and breaches of the coronavirus lockdown.

Flatten the curve

Health experts use a line on a chart to show numbers of new coronavirus cases. If a lot of people get the virus in a short period of time, the line might rise sharply and look a bit like a mountain. However, taking measures to reduce infections can spread cases out over a longer period and means the "curve" is flatter. This makes it easier for health systems to cope.

Flu

Short for influenza, a virus that routinely causes disease in humans and animals, in seasonal epidemics.

Furlough

Supports firms hit by coronavirus by temporarily helping pay the wages of some staff. It allows employees to remain on the payroll, even though they aren't working.

Herd immunity

How the spread of a disease slows after a sufficiently large proportion of a population has been exposed to it.

Immune

A person whose body can withstand or fend off a disease is said to be immune to it. Once a person has recovered from the disease caused by the coronavirus, Covid-19, for example, it is thought they cannot catch it again for a certain period of time.

Incubation period

The period of time between catching a disease and starting to display symptoms.

Intensive care

Hospital wards which treat patients who are very ill. They are run by specially-trained healthcare staff and contain specialist equipment.

Lockdown

Restrictions on movement or daily life, where public buildings are closed and people told to stay at home. Lockdowns have been imposed in several countries as part of drastic efforts to control the spread of the coronavirus.

Mitigation phase

The third part of the UK's strategy to deal with the coronavirus, which will involve attempts to lessen the impact of a high number of cases on public services. This could mean the NHS halting all non-critical care and police responding to major crimes and emergencies only.

NHS 111

The NHS's 24-hour phone and online service, which offers medical advice to anyone who needs it. People in England and Wales are advised to ring the service if they are worried about their symptoms. In Scotland, they should check NHS inform, then ring their GP in office hours or 111 out of hours. In Northern Ireland, they should call their GP.

Outbreak

Multiple cases of a disease occurring rapidly, in a cluster or different locations.

Pandemic

An epidemic of serious disease spreading rapidly in many countries simultaneously.

Phase 2

This is when the UK will start to lift some of its lockdown rules while still trying to reduce the spread of coronavirus.

PPE

PPE, or personal protective equipment, is clothing and kit such as masks, aprons, gloves and goggles used by medical staff, care workers and others to protect themselves against infection from coronavirus patients and other people who might be carrying the disease.

Quarantine

The isolation of people exposed to a contagious disease to prevent its spread.

R0

R0, pronounced "R-naught", is the average number of people who will catch the disease from a single infected person. If the R0 of coronavirus in a particular population is 2, then on average each case will create two more new cases. The value therefore gives an indication of how much the infection could spread.

Recession

This happens when there is a significant drop in income, jobs and sales in a country for two consecutive three-month periods.

Sars

Severe acute respiratory syndrome, a type of coronavirus that emerged in Asia in 2003.

Self-isolation

Staying inside and avoiding all contact with other people, with the aim of preventing the spread of a disease.

Social distancing

Keeping away from other people, with the aim of slowing down transmission of a disease. The government advises not seeing friends or relatives other than those you live with, working from home where possible and avoiding public transport.

State of emergency

Measures taken by a government to restrict daily life while it deals with a crisis. This can involve closing schools and workplaces, restricting the movement of people and even deploying the armed forces to support the regular emergency services.

Statutory instrument

These can be used by government ministers to implement new laws or regulations, or change existing laws. They are an easier alternative to passing a full Act of Parliament.

Symptoms

Any sign of disease, triggered by the body's immune system as it attempts to fight off the infection. The main symptoms of the coronavirus are a fever, dry cough and shortness of breath.

Vaccine

A treatment that causes the body to produce antibodies, which fight off a disease, and gives immunity against further infection.

Ventilator

A machine that takes over breathing for the body when disease has caused the lungs to fail.

Virus

A tiny agent that copies itself inside the living cells of any organism. Viruses can cause these cells to die and interrupt the body's normal chemical processes, causing disease.

Main story continues below

When I first moved back to the area I grew up in, I went around and asked people what the biggest issues in the community were right now.

One thing that came up a lot was kids hanging around and causing trouble.

This is something I've heard since I was a teen.

I'd be out on the streets with my mates because we'd nowhere else to go. And that's pretty much what happens now.

"There's not really anything to do after school," 14-year-old Jennifer Adesanya tells me. "So you'll see groups of young people doing things that don't look good for the local area.

"But it's not because they want to get involved in bad stuff. There's just nothing for them to do."

Gorton in Manchester is in the top 10% most deprived neighbourhoods in England. Action group End Child Poverty estimates more than half of the children here are living in poverty.

So many families simply can't afford to pay for a 12-week course for their kid to go and learn how to play the drums or do gymnastics.

To be honest it feels like not much has changed in the area in the past 20 years.

So when I was chatting to one of the stall owners on Gorton indoor market, I was pretty surprised to hear a new £6 million youth centre was opening this year.

Adam Farricker is the CEO of the Hide Out Youth Zone in Gorton

"There's a feeling of excitement, a feeling of about time," its boss Adam Farricker tells me. "Something like this has been needed for a long time."

Adam grew up around here and says there's often a stigma attached to the area - but it has great community strengths too.

"It's a tight-knit community and people look after each other," he says.

"Young people have the same aspirations and the same potential as their peers across the rest of Manchester and across the country. But they don't have the same opportunities."

I chat with Adam about life in Manchester during a tour of the centre

When I walked into Hide Out Youth Zone, the first thing I noticed was a colourful climbing wall which has a timer so you can race to the top.

Over two floors there is a boxing ring, a gym, a dance studio, a music and podcast recording studio, a training kitchen where you can learn to cook, chill out rooms with Xboxes plus rooms to host employment and career workshops.

I decided I wanted to be a journalist at the age of 15 after writing for my school's newspaper. So I know giving young people the chance to try out different activities could shape their entire lives.

Cherry Wilson is a proud northerner who recently moved back to Stockport, Greater Manchester, where she grew up.

She studied journalism in Sheffield and was the first in her family to go to university. Her passion is telling the stories of the people and communities behind the headlines, exploring issues that matter to them. She has a great love for cups of tea, jerk chicken, chips and gravy and Coronation Street.

Read more from Cherry:

Some of the walls have inspirational quotes on them from famous people from Manchester such as suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst and Oasis singer Liam Gallagher.

I'm told one girl did want a lyric from Manchester rapper Aitch on the wall but it was just a bit too rude. This made me laugh.

The Chill Out room is kitted out with a hairdresser's sink to give members a space to get their hair done and chat about their wellbeing

Every room is decorated with the symbol of Manchester - the bee - something us Mancs are very proud of.

"The youth centre will help give young people the opportunities they need to grow in life," 16-year-old Alex Kennedy tells me. She was part of a group of local young people that helped shape how Hide Out looks.

"It's something that will be really beneficial to help reduce knife crime, help reduce hate crime, keep people off the streets and doing things like drugs and drinking alcohol," she says.

Hide Out will be open seven days a week for young people aged eight to 19 - or 25 for those with additional needs - and costs £5 for a year's membership and then 50p a visit.

Where was this when I was a kid?! I know how much of an impact a place like this could have on young people here. But they will have to wait a bit longer.

Alex and Jennifer are members of a young person's development group that helped shape Hide Out

The centre aims to have 1,000 visits a week - but so far it's had none.

It was due to open in June but has had to abandon its plan because of lockdown and social distancing rules.

Hide Out is part of the charity OnSide Youth Zone network - which has 14 centres across the country from Wigan to Croydon - and they're all still closed.

Many have adapted and offer online sessions, but it's just not the same as face-to-face contact.

Having been on so many Zoom calls over the last few weeks, I can definitely relate to that.

The lights are still off at Hide Out Youth Zone because of coronavirus

So young people across the UK have no school and nowhere to hang out with friends. As always, it's those who at most at risk that are hardest hit.

I've seen reports from the National Youth Agency and England's children's commissioner about the impact of coronavirus on young people and it's grim reading.

This line really stuck with me: "There are over one million young people with known needs that have been amplified by the pandemic and an estimated two million young people with emerging needs triggered or caused by COVID-19."

There's so many young people right now being exposed to gangs or stuck in abusive or overcrowded homes - with no place to escape.

Young people shared how they were feeling in lockdown for a Hide Out video project

But it's not just the most vulnerable that are being affected by the pandemic.

"I definitely feel in limbo," says Alex, who had her GCSE exams cancelled this year.

"There's been extra responsibilities at home, helping my sisters with their school work and stuff.

"This summer was supposed to be the best summer after finishing high school and I'm probably not going to be able to go out."

I have a 10-year-old brother so I know how hard lockdown is on young people.

He misses having me around to play Monopoly Deal and Overcooked on the Nintendo Switch.

He answered one of those quizzes you see parents asking their kids and posting on Facebook. It asked who would he hug first after lockdown, and he said me.

Hide Out boss Adam says his biggest worry for young people going through lockdown is the lack of socialising.

"You'll get some people who are dying to get out the house and they feel like they're in prison," he says. "But the other risk is the young people who are not saying that's an issue.

"They're quite happy to be locked down in the house and are just engaging digitally, and that concerns me as well."

It's obvious to me that places like Hide Out are going to have a big role to play in supporting young people when we come through this.

"Everyone is going to want to go and try it out," says Jennifer. "It's going to be a place for everyone to feel comfortable and to be themselves."

They aim to have between 2,000-3,000 members signed up by the end of the first year.

"It's going to make people proud for a long time, and hopefully make people proud to live in Gorton again," Alex adds.

Despite lockdown rules being relaxed on 4 July, so far there's no official guidance from the government on when youth centres will be allowed to reopen.

Staff at Hide Out are working on how to they will be able to reopen in a socially-distanced world

But Adam is hopeful the young people here will bounce back from the crisis.

"We're Manchester aren't we? There's not a better city in the country that was built to deal with crisis and come back from that better.

"We know that these services are going to be needed more than ever.

"We're here, we're ready and we're eager and passionate to get going and support these young people and allow them to support each other."

Follow Cherry on Twitter: @cherryewilson

Installing a political appointee as the prime minister's new national security adviser is a significant departure.

The move is motivated by a desire to make the government machine more responsive but has raised questions about what it means for a security and intelligence community already in transition.

The job of national security adviser (NSA) involves acting as the principal adviser to the prime minister on security and foreign policy and overseeing the relevant machinery of government, including the UK's spies.

Day to day operational responsibility for MI6 and GCHQ lies with the foreign secretary and MI5 with the home secretary but over many years Downing Street has been increasing its reach and the national security adviser oversees the intelligence budget and carries out performance reviews of the heads of the three agencies.

They also oversee implementation of decisions by the National Security Council, on which ministers and defence and intelligence chiefs sit.

Although an experienced diplomat and negotiator, the new national security adviser David Frost does not have a particular background in security and intelligence issues in the way his predecessor Mark Sedwill had.

His appointment looks to mark a shift to focusing on repositioning the UK in a post-Brexit world, with potentially a greater focus on trade and prosperity than hard-edged security, reflecting the prime minister's priorities.

And it comes as a major integrated review of security and defence is under way which could herald radical changes to spending, priorities and structures.

The nature of this appointment makes clear that delivering change will be at the top of the agenda, which may worry parts of the Ministry of Defence since its budget has come under particular criticism.

Some have raised questions about having a political appointee in such a sensitive role.

Although the equivalent role in the US and some European countries is politically appointed that has not been the case in the UK (despite some discussion of it at the start of the 2010 coalition government).

The crucial question, one former senior intelligence official says, is whether the new adviser will be able to speak 'truth to power' by telling the prime minister something he does not want to hear.

The intelligence community still bears the scars of the Iraq war period when some felt there was insufficient challenge to policy set by Downing Street when some officials got too close.

Much, observers say, will depend on how Mr Frost embarks on the role and how he wields - or even tries to expand - his influence.

One former official said the foreign and home secretaries would likely resist any attempt to diminish their political role overseeing the agencies.

They said it was Frost's presence in the House of Lords that seemed most risky, especially if it turned him into something more like a minister for intelligence and security as well as an adviser.

On the other hand, he could delegate some of the aspects of the job to his two deputies, who have normally been experienced civil servants, and focus on the advisory role, to reduce potential tensions.

Not everyone is sure that having a more independent figure in that position is a mistake.

One person who has worked closely with the role said there may be benefits in having someone who has a broader perspective than a traditional 'securocrat' and who is not captured by what they call 'the machine'.

They argue it can be a mistake to have people from inside the world overseeing the intelligence services because there is a need to sometimes challenge their assumptions and the priority given to their views within the National Security Council.

The appointment comes at a transitional moment for the UK intelligence community. Ken McCallum has just taken over as head of MI5. A new head of the National Cyber Security Centre (part of GCHQ) is due to be appointed over the summer. And interviews have just been completed for a new head of MI6. A recommendation is normally made by senior civil servants who carried out the interviews but this goes to the foreign secretary (and potentially the prime minister) for approval, offering a route for influence.

Any perception that the job of running one of the intelligence agencies, and not just acting as the prime minister's adviser, is to become a political appointment would likely lead to many more questions - even from those who do not normally speak out.

Pupils will face the front, but the safety plans will not be based on social distancing

The return-to-school plans for autumn in England will involve entire year groups staying in separate "bubbles".

A draft of the plans, set to be announced later this week, has been published by the Huffington Post.

It means that groups of up to 240 pupils could be kept apart within a school, with a separate time for starting and finishing.

It could also mean they would all be sent home if there was a Covid-19 case in the group.

There will also be a recognition of the need for pupils to catch up after months out of regular lessons, with an emphasis on core subjects such as English and maths.

The plans, understood to be draft documents shared as part of a consultation, show the approach to safety in the autumn is an expansion of the "protective bubble" approach already used.

Rather than relying on social distancing, the aim is to limit the points at which the infection could be spread, by keeping pupils in separate, isolated groups through the school day, with their own breaks and lunchtimes.

In primary schools this term, these bubbles have been up to 15 pupils, but in the plans for the autumn they could include a full secondary year group, which if there were eight classes, could be 240 pupils.

In primary schools in the autumn, the bubbles are expected to be a whole class of 30 pupils.

In secondary school entire year groups could be kept apart in the protective "bubble" system

If a pupil shows coronavirus symptoms, parents will have to quickly come to collect their child.

"While waiting, the child should be kept 2m away from the supervising teacher," says the leaked guidance.

"If that is not possible, in the case of a young child or one with complex needs, staff should wear full PPE - disposable gloves, a disposable apron, a fluid-resistant surgical face mask and in some cases eye goggles."

There will not be any fixed social distancing requirements for pupils in primary school - and in secondary it will be 1m, but only where possible, the leaked documents suggest.

But teachers will be expected to maintain social distancing at the front of a class - in classrooms in which pupils will face forward, rather than facing each other around circular tables.

On Monday, the Education Secretary Gavin Williamson promised a comprehensive track and trace system would be in place for autumn.

That would allow year groups or schools to be closed down if there were Covid-19 cases, or if there were signs of a local upsurge infections.

There will be routines of regular hand-washing, but there are not expected to be temperature checks or masks, either for staff or pupils.

Pupils will be encouraged to get back on track with their learning when schools return for full-time lessons.

Attendance will be compulsory - with confirmation on Monday that penalty fines can once again be issued to parents who do not send their children back to school, at the usual level of £60 and then £120 for late payment.

And there will be a push on helping children to catch up in English and maths, which could include narrowing options in GCSE subjects and repeating work from before the lockdown.

An increase in disruptive behaviour is anticipated - but it is expected that Ofsted will not be carrying out routine inspections during the term.

In response to the leaked documents, a Department for Education spokesman said there would be continuing consultation, ahead of the full plans being published this week.

"We've said we want to see all children back at school in September - returning to full primary and secondary class sizes in a safe way," said the DfE spokesman.

A couple in Madrid getting married in early June

The government has published new guidance on weddings in England, allowing ceremonies of up to 30 people but advising against receptions.

From 4 July, wedding and civil partnerships can go ahead but with only 30 people including the couple, staff such as a photographer and witnesses.

People should socially distance, singing should not take place and hands must be washed before exchanging rings.

Receptions should be small, with only two households able to meet indoors.

Since lockdown began on 23 March, weddings in England have been banned under almost all circumstances.

Wedding dress shops have reopened in England, but with masks and social distancing

Small weddings are currently allowed in the other nations of the UK, which set their own lockdown rules.

In Northern Ireland, weddings of up to 10 people are allowed outdoors. In Wales, ceremonies can also take place, but social distancing must be observed, while outdoor marriages and civil partnerships can take place in Scotland.

Under the new guidance for England released on Monday, small wedding and civil partnership ceremonies are allowed to go ahead only when they can be done safely and follow social distancing guidelines.

The government advice also suggests changing traditional wedding layouts to avoid face-to-face seating, improving ventilation or using face masks.

The requirement to follow the 2m rule - or 1m with extra precautions - will likely rule out the tradition of a father walking his daughter down the aisle, unless they live in the same household.

The maximum number of 30 people includes everybody at the ceremony - including the couple, witnesses, officiants, guests and suppliers such as photographers and caterers.

The guidance also says receptions that "typically follow or accompany marriages or civil partnerships are strongly advised not to take place at this time".

It says small celebrations should only take place if they follow social distancing guidelines, such as groups of up to two households indoors, or up to six people from different households outdoors.

The reason people are urged not to sing or speak loudly is based on scientific advice which suggests doing so produces more respiratory droplets which enter the air and can be inhaled by others.

Hannah Randolph and her fiance are due to get married at the beginning of September but have decided to leave it to "the last possible moment" to decide whether to walk up the aisle.

The 33-year-old from south-west London worries that if they cancel now, their suppliers will be unlikely to offer a refund as the ceremony can go ahead. But she says: "I just don't think it'll feel like a wedding."

"Weddings are every expensive but you can maybe justify it if you're having a party for 100 people," she says. Under the new guidance, she would have to cut that by two-thirds.

For her, uninviting guests will not be an easy task: "My fiance has got three siblings and their partners and a nephew and once you add that up it means you've got to have some really awkward conversations with members of the family."

While Hannah says weddings can feel "frivolous" given the circumstances, the lack of clarity from the government has left her feeling completely in the dark.

"I can go to a pub and have drinks with a bunch of strangers, but can't have socially distanced drinks with loved ones," she said. "It seems nonsensical."

The government says venues that do not follow the guidance could face action from the Health and Safety Executive or the local authority.

Failing to put in place sufficient measures could constitute a breach of existing health and safety legislation and venues could face enforcement notices, the guidance adds.

One man, who wanted to remain anonymous, said he and his fiancee are due to get married at the end of July but the new rules "have made it impossible to have the wedding as planned".

"It's a joke - the venue we have is a farmhouse and we would have been in the courtyard," he said. "We can protest with hundreds of other people, we can gather to celebrate a football game with strangers, yet we cannot have an outdoor reception with our 25 guests. It goes beyond illogical."

The 2020 spring and summer wedding season in the UK has been hit hard by the pandemic, with many couples forced to postpone their weddings.

Some couples have held substitute celebrations instead, with one couple in Northamptonshire holding a street party and two hospital workers staging a mock wedding while wearing personal protective gear.

While the majority of wedding companies and venues have been flexible about postponing, some brides and grooms said they had been locked in a battle to get their money back.

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With the coronavirus pandemic reaching a global total of 10m cases, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned of a dangerous new phase in the crisis.

While many countries in western Europe and Asia have the virus under some degree of control, other regions of the world are now seeing the disease spread at an accelerating rate.

It took three months for the first one million people to become infected, but just eight days to clock up the most recent million.

And because these numbers only reflect who has tested positive, they're likely to be "the tip of the iceberg", according to one senior Latin American official.

The graphs are moving in completely the wrong direction in parts of the Americas, south Asia and Africa.

The US, already recording the most infections and most deaths from Covid-19 anywhere in the world, is seeing further startling increases. The number of positive tests recorded in the past few days has reached a daily record total of 40,000, and it's still climbing, fuelled by an explosion of clusters in Arizona, Texas and Florida.

This is not a "second wave" of infections. Instead, it's a resurgence of the disease, often in states which decided to relax their lockdown restrictions, arguably too early.

Brazil, the second country after the US to pass 1m cases, is also experiencing dangerous rises. Its biggest cities, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, are the hardest hit but many other areas of the country are doing little testing, and the real numbers are bound to be far higher.

Something similar is happening in India. It recently recorded its greatest number of new cases on a single day - 15,000. But because there's relatively little testing in some of the most heavily populated states, the true scale of the crisis is inevitably larger.

Why is this happening? Deprived and crowded communities in developing countries are vulnerable. Coronavirus has become "a disease of poor people", according to David Nabarro, the WHO's special envoy for Covid-19.

When whole families are crammed into single-room homes, social distancing is impossible, and without running water, regular hand-washing isn't easy. Where people have to earn a living day-by-day to survive, interactions on streets and in markets are unavoidable.

For indigenous groups in the Amazon rainforest and other remote areas, healthcare can be limited or even non-existent.

And the rate of infection itself is often worryingly high: of everyone tested in Mexico, just over half are turning out to be positive. That's a far higher proportion than was found in hotspots like New York City or northern Italy even at their worst moments.

Shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline medical staff are far more severe where budgets are small.

In Ecuador, where at one stage bodies were being dumped in the streets because the authorities could not cope, a key laboratory ran out of the chemicals needed to test for coronavirus.

And where economies are already weak, imposing a lockdown to curb the virus potentially carries far greater risks than in a developed nation.

Dr Nabarro says there is a still a chance to slow the spread of infections but only with urgent international support. "I don't like giving a depressing message," he says, "but I am worried about supplies and finance getting through to those who need them."

But these are not the only things driving the rise. Many politicians have chosen for their own reasons not to follow the advice of their health experts.

The president of Tanzania took the bold step of declaring that his country had largely defeated the virus. Since early May he has blocked the release of proper data about it, though the signs are that Covid-19 is still very much a threat.

In the US, President Trump has either played down the disease or blamed China and the WHO for it, and urged a rapid re-opening of the American economy.

He praised the Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, for being among the first to bring his state out of lockdown, a move now being reversed as cases rise.

Even the wearing of masks in public, which has been an official US government recommendation since early April, has become a symbol of political division.

Mr Abbott has refused to allow Texan mayors to insist on them so that, as he put it, "individual liberty is not infringed". By contrast the governor of California, a Democrat, says the "science shows that face coverings and masks work". Mr Trump, meanwhile, has refused to wear one.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, has been caught up in the same kind of argument. Having dismissed the coronavirus as "a little cold", he's repeatedly tried to stop officials from doing anything that might disrupt the economy. And after regularly appearing in public without a mask, he's now been ordered by a court to wear one.

It's attitudes like this that prompted the head of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, to warn that the greatest threat is not the virus itself but "the lack of global solidarity and global leadership".

As a remote set of islands in the Pacific, New Zealand is able to isolate easily, and the government of Jacinda Ardern has been widely praised for an aggressive response which recently led to a 24-day period with no new cases.

That came to an end as citizens started to return from abroad, some of them infected, and further measures have been needed to monitor people on arrival. But rather than this being a blow to New Zealand's hopes of becoming Covid-free, many experts see it as evidence of a surveillance system that generally works effectively.

Similarly, South Korea is lauded for using technology and contact tracing to drive down infections to extremely low numbers and had three days in a row with no new cases.

Its officials now say they are seeing a second wave, with clusters centred on nightclubs in the capital Seoul, though the numbers are relatively small.

The mayor of Seoul has warned that if cases go above 30 for three days, social distancing measures will be re-imposed. By contrast, the UK has roughly 1,000 new cases a day.

Proudest of all is Vietnam, which claims to have had no deaths from Covid-19 at all. A rapid lockdown and strict border controls combined to keep the numbers of infections low.

What's next? A big unknown is what happens in most of the countries of Africa, which in many cases have not seen the scale of disease than some feared.

One view is that a lack of infrastructure for mass testing is obscuring the true spread of the virus. Another is that with relatively young populations, the numbers becoming afflicted are likely to be lower.

A third perspective is that communities with fewer connections to the outside world will be among the last to be touched by the pandemic.

In countries that have most successfully controlled the virus, the challenge is remaining vigilant while trying to allow some normality to resume.

But the reality for many of the rest is Dr Nabarro's grim forecast of "continued increases in the numbers of people with coronavirus and the associated suffering".

Which is why he and many others are hoping that developing countries will get the help they need, before the crisis escalates any further.