Daily London

A top restaurant critic has polarised readers of The Sunday Times this weekend with a scathing review of JD Wetherspoon. Visiting the pub chain’s newest outpost in Ramsgate, Marina O’Loughlin slated the “calorific” menu and advises prospective visitors to avoid the food altogether. The esteemed critic  – who succeeds the late AA Gill - received a slew of vitriolic responses from readers for what is only her third column in the role. O’Loughlin, clearly unimpressed by the pub’s culinary offerings, slates every dish she names. From the mushy peas (“fag ash”) to the quinoa and chicken salad (“impacted cardboard”) to the mixed grill (“the sort of thing you might scoop out of the bottom of Hannibal Lecter’s recycling bin”), not even a mere chicken burger ("flabby") could win the highly-sought-after-critic’s seal of approval. Reproduction: Independent 

Salisbury has been named the UK’s “best place to live” just one year after becoming globally infamous as the scene of a deadly nerve agent attack. The cathedral city topped the annual list compiled by The Sunday Times, which praised its “resurgent community spirit” following the novichok poisonings, which made headlines around the world. Former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia both survived an assassination attempt blamed on Russian intelligence agency GRU. But the poisoning later claimed the life of local Dawn Sturgess, 44, who died died after coming into contact with a perfume bottle that was thought to have been used in the attack. Commenting on the decision to choose Salisbury as the best place to live in the UK, Helen Davies, The Sunday Times home editor said it had "shown real collective spirit in dealing with a chemical attack that saw the cathedral city become the centre of world headlines for all the wrong reasons”. Ms Davies added: “There are still parts of the ...

In the morning in Olievenhoutbosch, the children wake early and run in the small dirt yard. There is hot tea and hope. In the afternoon, everyone is hungry and listless, and the hours drag. Tempers fray. By nightfall, with little for dinner except vegetables and maize meal, spirits flag. “The evenings are hard,” said Maria Rabutla, who lives with her two daughters and three grandchildren in a small two-bedroom house in Olievenhoutbosch. “The children are saying they want more to eat. We just tell them that we all must trust in God and that God will answer us and that this will pass too.” Last week there was excitement in the township, where 70,000 people live in tightly packed rows of small houses and shacks surrounded by the malls, business parks and gated communities that sprawl around Johannesburg, South Africa’s biggest city. First, the strict lockdown imposed across South Africa in late March to stem the spread of Covid-19 was eased to allow people out of their homes between 6am a...

Why do we need an antibody test? An antibody test is often described as the “have you had it?” test, as it reveals whether a person has had the coronavirus. The results are valuable for a number of reasons. At the population level, antibody tests give a picture of how widely the virus has spread. More people with antibodies means a lower risk of a second wave of infections when the lockdown is eased, since the antibodies are expected to confer at least some resistance. The number also sheds light on the lethality of the disease, giving doctors an indication of the infection fatality rate – the risk of death from picking up the virus.  Coronavirus tests: how they work and what they show The tests are less helpful on the individual level, but can potentially tell who has been infected and had an immune response and who hasn’t. But tests would need to become much more accurate, and the level of protection better understood, for them to be used for the much-mooted idea of “immunity pas...