Our field club recently visited this area of wild ground on the edge of town called Danes Moss. The trip was inspired by local naturalists who have logged more than 1,600 plant and animal species there in short order.

That urgency to record its wildlife has been driven, in turn, by Cheshire East council, which has earmarked Danes Moss for 900 new houses. Not only does this decision ride roughshod over all the implications entailed in that biodiversity, it follows decades of encroachment that has already consumed half the site for human use.

The new proposals are also judged to entail the release of 220,000 tonnes of CO₂. That’s because it’s a raised peat bog, the largest in Cheshire and the one rare habitat sequestering more carbon than all others, including rainforest. As well as a buffer for our climate change, Danes Moss is a remarkable living, breathing space – a mosaic of quagmire interspersed with flower-smothered paddocks and lush marsh vegetation bounded by jungles of birch and willow.

The place is currently host to a million insects. As we zoned in on these marvels, one after the other, it was easy to forget that all the abundance could be destroyed. We soon found a new one to add to the site total – an earth-hugging grasshopper relative called the common groundhopper. Despite apparent modesty, groundhoppers are joyous creatures, and every one I’ve ever seen has had unique colour patterns. This little fid of life is also far more complex, more full of mystery than any dead star the astronomers would have us fuss over in outer space.

Find of the day, however, was smaller still and would fit on your pinky as on a throne. It’s a moth called little longhorn, a smudge of glittering copper barred with white and only found at one place in Cheshire. You can guess where. What that presence implies is something about all great living places: they exist in four dimensions. Danes Moss is as old as any landscape in our region and a 5,000-year continuous commonwealth of life. To violate it will symbolise yet again how this nation takes its place among the most nature-depleted on Earth.

A suspected bird strike has caused a Virgin Australia plane to make an emergency landing in New Zealand after one of its engines caught fire shortly after takeoff.

The Melbourne-bound flight left Queenstown on Monday evening with footage emerging later that appeared to show fire coming from the Boeing 737-800.

Flight tracking websites show that immediately after taking off the plane headed south from Queenstown – rather than west to Melbourne as was scheduled.

It performed a holding pattern while flying over the South Island before landing at the airport in Invercargill, about 150km south of Queenstown.

The Boeing 737-800 jet was carrying 67 passengers and six crew. It landed safely about 50 minutes after leaving Queenstown and was met by fire trucks on the tarmac.

“At this time, we are not aware of any physical injuries to guests or crew,” Virgin Australia’s chief operations officer, Stuart Aggs, said.

Passengers said they saw flames coming from one of the engines and heard loud bangs, the New Zealand Herald reported.

Michael Hayward said it was completely dark outside when the plane took off at 6pm local time.

“Within 10 seconds of going airborne, you hear just the loudest ‘bang’, golden lights filling within the cabin and a burst of flames off the right-hand engine,” he told ABC radio.

Hayward said he was quite anxious as were the other passengers – with a few cries in the cabin as people realised something had gone wrong.

“I could see flames shooting out of [the engine] at regular intervals,” he said, adding the captain later informed passengers the plane had hit a flock of birds.

“There was an initial worry but it wasn’t long until people realised OK, it’s under control, so just sit back, relax and whatever happens happens.”

Queenstown airport’s chief executive, Glen Sowry, said on Tuesday that a bird caught in the engine was the most likely cause of the incident.

“At this stage, we believe that it’s highly probable that it was a bird strike, but until such time as the engine has been inspected by engineers in Invercargill we won’t be able to confirm that for sure,” Sowry told RNZ.

Bird strikes were a known risk but incidents were infrequent, the CEO said. The airport took regular risk-management measures, including keeping the grass short and not allowing standing water nearby.

“If you get a bigger bird that is ingested into an engine, which looks probably what may have occurred on this occasion, then – depending on where in the engine it goes – it can damage critical parts.”

The runway had been inspected two minutes before the plane took off and no bird activity had been recorded, Sowry said.

Aircraft are designed to be able to operate and land using one engine.

The Virgin Australia flight most likely took a pre-determined safe route, designed for instances of engine failure, to avoid nearby mountains, Sowry said on Tuesday.

Queenstown airport released a statement confirming the flight “experienced an issue just after takeoff” and was diverted to Invercargill.

Passengers were given accommodation in Invercargill overnight and were then transported back to Queenstown airport where they were expected to be booked on alternative flights to Australia on Tuesday.

The rate of birds striking planes at New Zealand’s airports is about four in every 10,000 aircraft movements, the country’s aviation regulator says on its website.

– Additional reporting Australian Associated Press

The pop star and soon-to-be Glastonbury headliner Dua Lipa has said she is willing to risk a backlash over political statements after she recently described military operations in Gaza as “Israeli genocide”.

In an interview with the Radio Times, the 28-year-old said she repeatedly checked herself before making a statement, but did so if she felt it was for the “greater good” and worth the risk.

The Grammy award-winner last month reposted to her 88 million Instagram followers a graphic from the group Artists4Ceasefire, along with the hashtag #AllEyesOnRafah, which trended in the days after Israel’s bombing of the city in Gaza.

She wrote: “Burning children alive can never be justified. The whole world is mobilising to stop the Israeli genocide. Please show your solidarity with Gaza.”

Recently, she was referenced in an Israeli drill rap song that called for violence against public figures who have expressed pro-Palestinian views.

Lipa told the Radio Times: “When I speak about things that are political, I double-, triple-check myself to be: ‘OK, this is about something that is way bigger than me, and it’s necessary – and that’s the only reason I’m posting it.’ That is my only solace in doing that.

“It’s always going to be met with a backlash and other people’s opinions, so it’s a big decision. I balance it out, because ultimately I feel it’s for the greater good, so I’m willing to [take that hit].”

Lipa, who was born in London to Kosovan-Albanian parents, suggested her heritage influenced her overt politics.

“[Speaking up is] a natural inclination for me, given my background and heritage, and that my very existence is somewhat political – it’s not something that is out of the ordinary for me to be feeling close to,” she said.

In the same interview, Lipa revealed she continued to support Labour and suggested she would vote for the party in the forthcoming UK elections, but stopped short of backing Keir Starmer personally.

She said: “For me, over the past three or four years, I’ve kind of decided that standing behind a certain political party leader is probably not the route I want to take. I’ve always supported Labour so that’s where I’ll always stand, but I don’t think I’ll be publicly going for or against anyone … because politicians overall just have a way of letting you down.”

Lipa is due to headline Glastonbury at the end of this month on the Pyramid stage in Pilton, Somerset. Her most recent album, Radical Optimism, was released last month to favourable reviews.

Ian McKellen is “in good spirits” and expected to make “a speedy and full recovery” after a fall during Monday evening’s performance of Player Kings, a spokesperson for the Noël Coward theatre in London has said.

McKellen was taken to hospital after the fall. The audience was evacuated from the West End theatre and informed that the evening show was cancelled.

McKellen, 85, who plays John Falstaff, was in a battle scene involving the Prince of Wales and Henry Percy when he fell off the front of the stage.

As the house lights came up, the actor cried out in pain and staff rushed to help, the BBC reported.

Paul Nero, a writer and broadcaster, wrote on X: “Audience shocked by Sir Ian McKellen’s fall off stage tonight at Noel Coward theatre. Staff working hard to help him. Thoughts with him, cast and crew.”

An audience member, Paul Critchley, a Methodist minister from Norfolk, told the PA news agency: “Sir Ian seemed to trip as he moved downstage to take a more active part in the scene.

“He picked up momentum as he moved downstage which resulted in him falling off the stage directly in front of the audience.

“The house lights came up very quickly as the stage management and front of house team dealt with the incident. We were evacuated immediately so that Sir Ian could be treated in privacy.

“An announcement was made by theatre management that the show had been cancelled, that Sir Ian was receiving treatment and an ambulance had been called.

“It was a shock to witness his fall and I wish him a speedy recovery. My thoughts are also with his fellow cast members, stage crew and front of house team at the Noel Coward Theatre.”

Another member of the audience, Sandro Trapani, told the BBC the incident was “very shocking”.

“I really hope that he is going to be all right,” she said. “As far as I saw, he was conscious because he was asking for assistance.”

Player Kings is a production of Shakespeare’s Henry IV Parts I and II, and started its 12-week West End run in April.

The play, adapted and directed by Robert Icke, is due to move to the Bristol Hippodrome in July and will also be staged in Birmingham, Norwich and Newcastle.

McKellen’s career has spanned more than six decades. On screen he is best known for playing Magneto in the X-Men films and Gandalf in Peter Jackson’s fantasy trilogy, based on the books by JRR Tolkien.

On the stage he has played Shakespearean characters including Richard II, Macbeth, Coriolanus and King Lear.

His many acting credits have led to a number of accolades over the years including several Olivier Awards.

A Texas evangelical pastor and former spiritual adviser to Donald Trump has confessed to sexually assaulting a young girl in his past.

Robert Morris, a founding pastor of Dallas-based Gateway megachurch, was accused by an Oklahoma woman of sexual abuse in the 1980s, beginning when she was 12 and continuing until the age of 16.

Morris confirmed the allegations to a religious publication, the Christian Post.

In a statement to the Christian Post, Morris said: “When I was in my early 20s, I was involved in inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady in a home where I was staying.”

In her own statement to the Christian Post, the victim of the assault said she was “appalled” at the description of her as a “young lady” and said the repeated abuse had taken decades for her to process. She said her family had threatened Morris with the police and later considered filing a lawsuit.

Other churches where Morris has ministered, such as Shady Grove church in Grand Prairie, were allegedly aware of his abusive history, but Morris told the Christian Post he received counseling and had since “walked in purity and accountability in this area”.

Shady Grove church became the Gateway church’s Grand Prairie campus in 2013.

Morris told the Christian Post: “In March of 1987, this situation was brought to light, and it was confessed and repented of. I submitted myself to the Elders of Shady Grove Church and the young lady’s father. They asked me to step out of ministry and receive counseling and freedom ministry, which I did.”

Despite his admission, Morris will continue to be a primary speaker at the church on weekends and his son, James Morris, will assume his father’s senior pastor duties next year.

Morris was never criminally charged and by the time his accuser decided to explore legal action, she was advised the statute of limitations for criminal or civil action had probably expired.

In a statement to the local Dallas news outlet WFAA, Gateway church said the “35-year-old matter” had been resolved: “Pastor Robert has been open and forthright about a moral failure he had over 35 years ago when he was in his 20s and prior to him starting Gateway church. He has shared publicly from the pulpit the proper Biblical steps he took in his lengthy restoration process.

“The two-year restoration process was closely administered by the Elders at Shady Grove Church and included him stepping out of the ministry during that period while receiving professional counseling and freedom ministry counseling. Since the resolution of the 35-year-old matter, there have been no other moral failures.”

Morris’s accuser said while she had forgiven him for the sexual abuse, she did not believe he should have returned to ministry.

Morris was appointed to Trump’s evangelical advisory board for his 2016 presidential campaign.

And in a 2020 roundtable discussion with faith leaders in Texas, then-president Trump thanked two pastors, one of whom was Morris, for attending the event.

“They’re great people. Great people with a great reputation. I have to say that,” Trump said. “Great reputation. And Gateway church – the team has been incredible in hosting us.”

A US military veteran who died earlier this month came out as gay in an obituary published after his death.

The obituary in the Albany Times-Union tells the story of Colonel Edward Thomas Ryan, a decorated army officer who served in the Vietnam war and was also a fireman in his hometown, Rensselaer, New York. He died on 1 June at the age 85.

In the obituary, Ryan added a note written in the first person just before his death: “I must tell you one more thing. I was Gay all my life: thru grade school, thru High School, thru College, thru Life.”

Ryan, or “Uncle Ed”, as he was known to some, admitted to being “in a loving and caring relationship with Paul Cavagnaro of North Greenbush”.

“He was the love of my life. We had 25 great years together. Paul died in 1994 from a medical Procedure gone wrong … I’m sorry for not having the courage to come out as Gay.”

Ryan said he did not come out sooner because he “was afraid of being ostracized: by Family, Friends, and Co-Workers”.

“Seeing how people like me were treated, I just could not do it,” he said.

The New York Times reported that Ryan showed the obituary to his niece Linda Sargent and her husband, Edward Sargent, a month before he died.

“Linda and I knew, you know what I mean? We never sat down and talked about it prior to that because my uncle was a private person. So we never broke that boundary. We knew, but we didn’t say anything,” Edward Sargent told the newspaper.

The revelation was met with a wave of support, with people from all over the world commenting on Ryan’s obituary.

One person wrote: “Many condolences and may you and Paul find eternal happiness together. Thank you for your service. I’m sorry you could never fully be yourself. Rest easy.”

“Rest in pride and power, Col. Ryan,” another person wrote.

Ryan is survived “by many nieces and nephews” and will be buried in Kinderhook, New York, next to his partner, Cavagnaro.

“Now that my secret is known, I’ll forever Rest in Peace,” Ryan said.

Male mountaineers should be more mindful of women’s concerns about their personal safety in remote areas and avoid patronising them by questioning their map-reading abilities, a climbing expert has said.

The advice comes in response to female hillwalkers and mountaineers saying sceptical attitudes towards their skills and unwanted attention are discouraging women from taking up the sport.

Writing in the latest edition of Scottish Mountaineering, Richard Tiplady, a Scottish Mountaineering member, made several recommendations based on “horror stories” from women.

These include that men abstain from asking women about their route, do not push invitations to walk together or pitch tents in close proximity, and avoid giving condescending or unsolicited advice or greeting them with dated language such as “darling” or “sweetheart”.

He added: “Never ever say to a woman: ‘I’ll walk with you to keep you safe’ (this rings major alarm bells).”

Tiplady wrote: “It’s rather simple. Respect people’s boundaries. Be friendly but don’t try to be friends. Treat someone as they would like to be treated. Then clear off and leave them alone.”

Tiplady said he was motivated to write the advice after learning from female friends that “men don’t realise how much women feel patronised by men on the hills”.

“This is just life, it’s not just the hills – but the hills are not necessarily different to anywhere else,” he said, adding that he had learned “I’ve got to handle myself in a way that makes [women] feel safe and secure, but in a way that doesn’t make [them] feel patronised.”

Keri Wallace, a mountain leader in the Scottish highlands who co-founded Girls On Hills eight years ago to encourage more women to enter the sport, said she saw the advice as “an extension of the women’s personal safety issue we already see in the streets,” particularly in relation to being catcalled or harassed while running.

She previously surveyed female walkers about barriers and found over 50% had concerns, including around going to the toilet outdoors and venturing out in all-male groups.

She feels that there is a lingering effect on women’s confidence and sense of belonging from historical attitudes that “frowned upon” women going out in the mountains, believing them to be too delicate and weak.

These remained as “perceived or soft barriers, almost as a byproduct of the culture we still have around women’s abilities relative to men”.

In Wallace’s own excursions, she is regularly questioned by men about whether she knows how far away the summit is, prompting comments such as “surely you’re not going the whole way”, as well as expressions of surprise that she is a mountain leader, which she said could make you “feel like you don’t really belong there or you’re not competent”.

Wallace said these issues were primarily about confidence rather than safety, since assaults in the mountains are virtually unheard of. But she acknowledged that women carried over valid safety concerns from cities into wild areas, discouraging them from wild camping or staying in Scotland’s remote unlocked refuges, bothies.

She said men being mindful of this and giving women space when they encountered them alone could help women feel more comfortable, as it showed a level of consideration.

Ian Sherrington, the head of training at Glenmore Lodge who takes part in the Mountain Safety Group network, said he was not aware of formal discussions around women’s comfort and safety but he felt this was “very worthy of further investigation”.

“I would dig deeper first – [it] could be by approaching groups represented that have a concern,” he said. “I believe trained and qualified mountain leaders already played a positive part in supporting individual confidence in the mountains. Further learning in the best way to do that is always welcomed.”

Oasis Academy South Bank in Waterloo sits in a densely built-up corner of south London – so densely that the only space found for the school was in a recommissioned office block. There is no playground, no sports pitch, nowhere to play football at break time.

Steve Chalke is the founder of Oasis Charitable Trust, the organisation that runs the school, one of 54 in their charge across England. He admits it is a challenging environment.

“We are in an old 1960s office block. Kids have to be indoors at breaktime. We do have table tennis but for other sports there is no space. We hire the local park but it’s hard locally to hire sports pitches. It costs a lot because we are in central London and they aren’t always available.”

The land around the academy is hot property. Within walking distance, at Elephant & Castle station, cranes and diggers are a permanent fixture, building thousands of expensive private homes on land that was once council property.

One of the parents, Kathy, whose 12-year-old daughter – “high-energy, fidgety’’ – is a pupil at Oasis South Bank, says: “The lack of outdoor space is a downside, but I’m grateful we have a school in this area, because until 10 years ago we didn’t.”

The school is hugely oversubscribed. “We turn away many more children than we take,” says Chalke.

And Kathy and her daughter have some outside space – a shared garden for their flat and an allotment. “It’s not just about space, it’s about green as well,” she says. “Not everyone around here has that.”

Another parent, Sarah, says that it is the wider context that matters: “We are lucky to live near one of London’s last adventure playgrounds, so my son can head there after school, but I walk through many estates round here and see ‘No ballgames’ signs everywhere. That, for me, is more of a problem than what happens in school.”

Chalke and his team are busy looking for land they can use as city farms or specialist spaces for “the children we know can’t cope in the classroom”. They already have a city farm in Waterloo.

And he has concerns about the decisions that local authorities are making. “Down the road from us there is a former primary school – a Victorian building that will outlive any school building put up today. If we ran it we could have had six forms of entry – it had fantastic playgrounds.

“Instead the council sold it off in the 1980s. It’s now expensive apartments and those playgrounds are now private gardens and car parking space. So when we needed a new school in this area, all that was affordable was an office block.”

He warns that London boroughs are not keeping hold of enough land for children to live and breathe in.

“Councils are turning land into housing but leaving local schools without enough space. I’m seeing very cramped new schools where staff tell me: ‘You can’t swing a cat here’.

“Local authorities are not thinking of the next generation when they build too much housing. Once the space is gone, it’s gone for ever. Children need green space for their mental health and we neglect this to our long-term regret.”

In California, state of sunshine and palm trees, a small group of men are locked in a big legal fight over the money made by a US company selling Covid tests to the British government. The founder of Innova Medical Group says his business collected $2bn (£1.6bn) in profits, one of the largest fortunes banked by any medical supplier during the scramble for lifesaving equipment in the early months of the pandemic.

In a storm of claims and counter-claims, Innova’s boss, Charles Huang, is accused by former associates of “squandering” or moving $1bn of those profits, spending lavishly on luxury aircraft, an $18m house in Los Angeles and “homes for his mistresses”.

The previously little-known Chinese-American businessman’s fortune was transformed by the British taxpayer through 11 government contracts worth approximately £4.3bn for lateral flow tests (LFTs) made in China and sold by Innova. The government fast-tracked the company after its British representatives sent a direct email to Dominic Cummings, the chief adviser to the then prime minister, Boris Johnson, in July 2020. And, a Guardian investigation has found, the fast-tracking of Innova was supported by the then chancellor Rishi Sunak’s team at the Treasury.

Innova became for a period of at least four critical months the only company authorised to supply rapid Covid tests in the UK, despite scores of others developing similar kits. At the time, the government spending watchdog raised concerns, saying the lack of competition posed “risks to value for money”.

In his evidence to the Covid inquiry last October, Cummings told how he had pushed through the first Innova contract with backing from Sunak’s team. The intention was to allow the economy to reopen by providing enough kits for up to 10 million people a day to test for the disease. The mass daily testing plan, labelled “moonshot”, was met with scepticism by scientists, including Jonathan Van Tam, the then deputy chief medical officer, who has told the inquiry that he had “real doubts about whether it was workable”. The moonshot plan became part of NHS test and trace, known as the mass testing programme.

“In the autumn [of 2020],” Cummings said in his written statement, “Sunak’s team supported me with the mass testing team as we tried to overcome horrific Whitehall bureaucracy, secretly buy hundreds of millions of fast tests before other countries realised their value and there was a PPE-like panic.”

The UK Health Security Agency has confirmed in response to a freedom of information request that the “secret” buying of tests was the first contract awarded to Innova. Agreed in September 2020, it was worth £103m. The government went on to spend billions more with the company.

The information raises further questions about the UK government’s widely criticised decision-making during the pandemic, and the huge sums of public money spent after normal procurement processes were suspended. The apparent support of Sunak’s team also raises questions about how far the Treasury was involved in the government expenditure of billions of pounds on test and trace and personal protective equipment. Sunak has repeatedly presented his work during the pandemic as a landmark success, telling workers at an event on the first day of the 2024 general election campaign: “You know you can trust me when it comes to the economy: I got our country through Covid.”

‘Risks to value for money’

For Innova, landing any UK government contracts at all was an extraordinary bonanza. The company was only formed in March 2020 by Huang’s California-based financial vehicle Pasaca Capital Inc, said by some of its own investors in the legal claims to have had little money behind it. Huang, a serial entrepreneur, had limited evident success in his track record, according to the legal claims against him.

After the pandemic hit, everything changed. Another investor in Pasaca had a connection with a company in China, Xiamen Biotime Biotechnology, which like many others around the world, including some in the same city of Xiamen, was beginning to manufacture LFT kits.

Kimberley Thonger, Innova’s UK representative, who had previously worked in marketing for a series of shoe companies including Dr Martens, emailed Cummings in Downing Street in July 2020. In that email, published following a freedom of information request by the Good Law Project, Thonger promised that the tests were “a true gamechanger”. Cummings told the Covid inquiry he saw the rapid tests as key to the proposed mass daily testing that he believed could enable “superspreaders” to be isolated and so “allow most of the country to operate as normal”. He immediately referred Thonger to another Downing Street adviser who replied within an hour to tell him “we are very keen”, and introduced him to a leading civil servant. In September 2020, Innova was awarded the first UK government contract, although its test was still not evaluated. It was authorised for use by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) three months later, in December 2020.

The authorisation was based on tests carried out at the government’s high-security Porton Down laboratory, which had been asked to evaluate a number of LFTs and indicated that it had prioritised Innova’s product because contracts had already been awarded to the company. The Department of Health and Social Care identified Innova at that time as the only supplier with a validated test that could produce the large volumes needed and work flexibly.

By March 2021, Innova had already been awarded contracts worth £3.2bn, according to a critical National Audit Office report published in June of that year. The public spending watchdog noted that Innova was still “the only supplier of LFDs [lateral flow devices] for self-test approved by the MHRA”. The report warned that there were “risks to value for money due to a lack of competition and normal regulatory processes”.

Cummings said the government needed to buy these tests secretly, “without alerting the rest of the world”. But countries across Europe were already evaluating rapid tests, and Italy was using them in ports and airports from the summer of 2020. In September 2020, the World Health Organization issued guidance, noting that nearly 100 companies were developing or manufacturing rapid tests. It announced a “global partnership” to supply 120m kits to poorer countries, made by companies in the US and South Korea. In February 2021, the EU published a list of 82 different suppliers, but not including Innova or Xiamen Biotime Biotechnology.

Innova did offer to sell to other countries, but does not appear to have done so in large quantities. In a scathing report published after Innova first distributed them in the US without authorisation, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said the tests should be thrown away or returned to the company. It has repeatedly barred attempts to import the tests.

An FDA spokesperson said: “Covid-19 antigen tests produced by Xiamen Biotime Biotechnology Company are being refused admission into the US.”

Innova was included in a later edition of the EU’s approved list, among many other manufacturers, as a “B” supplier; member states were advised to use tests from the “A” list.

The UK government is said to have ordered 1.8bn tests from Innova altogether, paying the company approximately £4.3bn. In one of the legal claims against Huang, the former Innova executive Robert Kasprzak states: “Innova’s UK contracts generated substantially all [sic] of the revenue for Pasaca Group.”

In 2022, Huang was featured in a film, Asian Inspirations, saying Innova had made a profit of $2bn after tax from its Covid contracts. Huang is now contesting legal claims over those profits, from Kasprzak and Innova’s UK representatives, Thonger and Charles Palmer, claiming they should have been paid more.

Kasprzak accuses Huang of having a chequered career and few achievements of substance before Innova’s remarkable fortunes in the pandemic.

Huang is accused in the claim of being “a high-end con artist” who squandered or moved for his own use due to “incompetence, power and greed … more than $1bn of … assets generated from UK sales”. He is alleged to have lavished some of the proceeds on luxury purchases including private jets for $70m, the $18m luxury home with a swimming pool in LA known as “the CEO house”, and “homes for his mistresses”, as well as poor investments in “flailing businesses”.

Kasprzak also claims Huang was trying to secure a knighthood and working on having a film made about himself, titled Overnight Billionaire. He alleges Huang promised to buy out his shares for $75m but never did, and ultimately fired him from the company. Huang has responded by denying the claims and alleging that Kasprzak and the former Innova chief executive Daniel Elliott “stole” millions from the company. Kasprzak and Elliott deny those allegations.

The UK representatives, Thonger and Palmer, are also suing Innova in California, claiming that their company, Disruptive Nanotechnology, was due 10% commission on all UK contracts, and so they should have been paid $500m. They accuse Kasprzak and Elliott of duping them out of that commission and pocketing the money themselves. Instead of the saved commissions being used for the promised purpose, “to keep the price of Innova’s Covid-19 tests competitive”, the claim alleges, Elliott “spent tens of millions of dollars to purchase lavish properties, expensive cars, a private jet, and other luxury items”. They both deny those claims.

The disputes are all ongoing. Whatever the merits of their arguments, this fight on the US west coast is over extraordinarily large amounts of British taxpayers’ money, spent during the pandemic, with one newly formed company, for vast quantities of rapid Covid tests that it was able to deliver.

A spokesperson for Innova and Huang dismissed the allegations against him as “baseless”. Pointing to Innova’s success in being awarded the contracts and having its tests officially validated, the spokesperson said: “We were the largest supplier to the UK of Covid 19 tests for these reasons; we were cost effective – the average price of each test we provided went down on every subsequent contract and we met the significant shipping expenses to the UK ourselves each time – delivered on time and at all times met the urgent requirements of the UK government at a critically important period for the country.”

Mark Holscher, a Los Angeles attorney representing Elliott, said he “categorically denies” any claims against him, and “did not receive any improper compensation” from anybody.

“These tests saved thousands of British lives and prevented many more hospitalisations,” Holscher said, adding that it was “one of the very best performing tests that could be immediately produced and delivered at the massive scale required by the United Kingdom. Providing these tests required herculean and unmatched logistical efforts. Mr Elliott takes great pride in this accomplishment and has been lauded by the UK government for his efforts.”

An attorney representing Kasprzak said he “stands by” his legal claims, and added: “None of these US proceedings has called into question the efficacy of the tests or the UK government process. The tests saved thousands of British lives, as recognised by the UK government itself, and Mr Kasprzak is extremely proud of his role in delivering these tests to the UK.”

A spokesperson for Disruptive Nanotechnology said: “We cannot comment on ongoing legal proceedings.”

Cummings did not respond to requests for comment.

A government spokesperson said in a statement given before the general election was called: “We have always said there are lessons to be learned from the pandemic and we are committed to learning from the Covid inquiry’s findings which will play a key role in informing the government’s planning and preparations for the future. While the inquiry is ongoing, it would not be appropriate to comment.”

The Covid inquiry is due in the spring to turn its attention to the government’s multibillion-pound spending on medical supplies, including lateral flow tests, in the extraordinary circumstances of the pandemic.

Benjamin Netanyahu has dissolved the Israeli war cabinet that had been overseeing the conflict in Gaza, rebuffing his far-right allies who had been seeking seats, and apparently moving to solidify his grasp on decision-making over the fighting with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah across the Lebanese border.

The prime minister announced the move to ministers, saying the war cabinet had been established as part of an agreement in which the moderate politician Benny Gantz and his National Unity party joined an emergency coalition last year.

The disbanding of the war cabinet was confirmed by Israeli officials briefing anonymously, against a backdrop of mounting discontent over the conduct of the war in Gaza and calls from anti-government groups for a week of daily protests.

Netanyahu reportedly told ministers that the war cabinet was no longer needed following Gantz’s resignation a week ago. Gantz, one of the members of the war cabinet, quit the coalition along with Gadi Eisenkot, one of the three observers in the body.

Netanyahu is now expected to hold consultations about the Gaza war with a small group of ministers, including the defence minister, Yoav Gallant, and the strategic affairs minister, Ron Dermer, who had been in the war cabinet.

The dissolution of the war cabinet is unlikely to have any meaningful impact on the conflict – decision-making will move back to the security cabinet – but the political ramifications may be more significant.

The move appears to be a deliberate snub to Netanyahu’s far-right allies in the coalition, including the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who had been angling for a seat in the war cabinet since Gantz’s departure after complaining he had been sidelined for key decisions.

Reports in the Hebrew-language media suggested Netanyahu intends to make key decisions in meetings with his own advisers, excluding Ben-Gvir, before presenting them to the security cabinet.

The move comes amid divisions of opinion between Netanyahu and senior Israel Defense Forces commanders.

According to reports in the Israeli media on Monday, Netanyahu told the regular Sunday meeting of the full cabinet that “in order to reach the goal of eliminating the capabilities of Hamas, [he had] made decisions that were not always acceptable to the military echelon”, but added: “We have a country with an army and not an army with a country.”

Netanyahu’s moves suggest an increasing confidence as the prime minister’s poll numbers have improved since the departure of Gantz, which has caused the latter’s polling to decline markedly.

While Netanyahu had been under pressure from the Biden administration to maintain the war cabinet, which was viewed as a more moderate forum, some analysts saw the move as preserving the Israeli prime minister’s desire to continue with the conflict, even as he sidelined Ben-Gvir and the finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich.

The small war cabinet had been the source of friction between Netanyahu and other members, including over the issue of hostages being held in Gaza by Hamas and other groups.

However, the war cabinet had also worked effectively, meeting numerous times since Hamas’s surprise attack on southern Israel’s Gaza border communities on 7 October.

In the immediate aftermath of the dissolution of the war cabinet, the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth speculated that some key decisions would now go to an expanded cabinet, sometimes numbering 50 participants, where more hawkish voices dominate, giving Netanyahu more political cover for the continuing conflict.