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- Coronavirus live news: Singapore extends lockdown after sharp rise in cases
- UK coronavirus live: ONS to investigate why 8,000 weekly 'excess' death toll even higher than Covid-19 figures imply
- Boy with Covid-19 did not transmit disease to more than 170 contacts
- Coronavirus crisis could double number of people suffering acute hunger - UN
- South Korea and China play down Kim Jong-un ill-health claims
- US urges China to let lawyer return home after 'unjust detention'
- Brisbane man pleads guilty to 23-day attack on woman who was beaten, raped and burned
- Milan announces ambitious scheme to reduce car use after lockdown
- Netanyahu and Gantz agree to form unity Israeli government
- Grenfell Tower inquiry could resume by Zoom videolink
- Prince Harry pleaded with Thomas Markle on eve of wedding, court papers show
- Independent caught in tit-for-tat Turkey-Saudi media battle
- Nova Scotia shooting: friends and family pay tribute to ‘beautiful souls’ lost in rampage
- Kosovan acting PM accuses Trump envoy of meddling
- Touch saved me from loneliness. What will we become without it?
- Police officer who threatened to 'make up' offence suspended after outcry
- Zimbabwe faces malaria outbreak as it locks down to counter coronavirus
- Could Trump delay the 2020 US election due to coronavirus? – video explainer
- Lockdowns leave poor Latin Americans with impossible choice: stay home or feed families
- Elective surgery restart will allow government to wind back support for private hospitals
- Domestic abuse: 'Women in Herat may survive coronavirus but not lockdown'
- Why might Sweden's Covid-19 policy work? Trust between citizens and state | Umut Özkırımlı and Lars Tragardh
- A strict Covid-19 lockdown gave New Zealand a key ingredient to recover – solidarity | Morgan Godfery
- The way we once lived is now redundant. We need to reinvent ourselves
- 'Our lives are expendable': NYC subway workers speak out after dozens of Covid-19 deaths
- Ruby Princess crew finally disembark in Australia after Covid-19 quarantine – video
- Covid-19: is seven days in isolation enough? – podcast
- Under attack: WHO and the coronavirus pandemic – podcast
- Taxi driver applauded by medics after taking patients to hospital for free – video
- Life and death with a coronavirus ambulance volunteer in Milan – video
- Israelis hold 'socially distant' protest against Netanyahu – video
| Coronavirus live news: Singapore extends lockdown after sharp rise in cases Posted: 21 Apr 2020 03:44 AM PDT Donald Trump signals immigration ban; Oktoberfest cancelled; US oil market collapses into negative prices; global cases near 2.5 million
Here's more on the decision to cancel this year's Oktoberfest in Bavaria, from the Guardian's correspondent in Germany, Kate Connolly. Bavaria's leaders have cancelled Oktoberfest, the world's biggest beer festival, due to fears that it could become a breeding ground for the coronavirus. The 210-year-old festival, which attracts around six million visitors a year, is a major event in the German calendar. Living with coronavirus means living carefully. As long as there is no vaccination, we need to be very sensible. We are in mutual agreement that the risk is quite simply too high … compromises will not help. Related: 'Bitter pill': Bavaria cancels Oktoberfest over fears of coronavirus spread
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that all available evidence suggests that the coronavirus originated in bats in China late last year and it was not manipulated or constructed in a laboratory. US president Donald Trump said last week his government was trying to determine whether the virus emanated from a lab in Wuhan in central China. All available evidence suggests the virus has an animal origin and is not manipulated or constructed virus in a lab or somewhere else. It is probable, likely, that the virus is of animal origin. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 21 Apr 2020 03:47 AM PDT MPs expected to approve plans for 'virtual' sittings of the Commons as questions continue over PPE provision
Household claims for Universal Credit in Scotland have surged by 90,000 a month as the coronavirus pandemic continues to seriously affect family finances, writes my colleague Libby Brooks. UC claims increased from an average of 20,000 per month in 2019 to over 110,000 between 1 March and 7 April, the Scottish government has announced, as it launches a new campaign to raise awareness of the financial support available in partnership with the Citizens Advice network.
Super League's Magic Weekend, one English rugby league's major events, been postponed as a result of the ongoing pandemic. The event, which was scheduled for 23-24 May at Newcastle United's St James' Park, will not go ahead as planned but it may be rescheduled for a later date, according to organisers. Continue reading... |
| Boy with Covid-19 did not transmit disease to more than 170 contacts Posted: 21 Apr 2020 01:00 AM PDT Case of symptomatic nine-year-old suggests children may be less likely to pass on virus A nine-year-old boy who contracted Covid-19 in Eastern France did not pass the virus on despite coming into contact with more than 170 people, according to research that suggests children may not be major spreaders of the virus. The boy was among a cluster of cases linked to Steve Walsh, the Hove-based businessman who became the first Briton to test positive for coronavirus after attending a sales conference in Singapore in January. Continue reading... |
| Coronavirus crisis could double number of people suffering acute hunger - UN Posted: 21 Apr 2020 02:00 AM PDT Report from UN World Food Programme and others warns 265m people are facing acute risk The coronavirus crisis will push more than a quarter of a billion people to the brink of starvation unless swift action is taken to provide food and humanitarian relief to the most at-risk regions, the UN and other experts have warned. About 265 million people around the world are forecast to be facing acute food insecurity by the end of this year, a doubling of the 130 million estimated to suffer severe food shortages last year. Continue reading... |
| South Korea and China play down Kim Jong-un ill-health claims Posted: 21 Apr 2020 12:53 AM PDT North Korean leader has not been seen in public for days and reports said he had undergone heart surgery South Korea and China have played down speculation that Kim Jong-un is seriously ill, after a Seoul-based website reported that the North Korean leader had undergone heart surgery. Daily NK claimed Kim, who has not been seen in public for 10 days, was being treated at a private villa following the procedure this month. Continue reading... |
| US urges China to let lawyer return home after 'unjust detention' Posted: 21 Apr 2020 12:35 AM PDT Wang Quanzhang has been barred from reuniting with his family after serving nearly five years in prison for 'subversion' The US has called for Chinese authorities to allow a prominent human rights lawyer to return home, after having spent almost five years in "unjust detention". Wang Quanzhang was released two weeks ago after serving four-and-a-half years for "subversion", but told Hong Kong's Cable TV on Monday that the authorities were still stopping him from returning home and being reunited with his family. Continue reading... |
| Brisbane man pleads guilty to 23-day attack on woman who was beaten, raped and burned Posted: 21 Apr 2020 01:11 AM PDT Woman, 22, was left so severely injured by ordeal that paramedics thought she was dead, court told A Queensland man systematically raped and burned a woman during three weeks of drug-induced violence that grew more brutal as her injuries worsened. Nicholas John Crilley, 34, pleaded guilty to 54 offences, including grievous bodily harm, deprivation of liberty and torture, following the 23-day attack in June 2017. Continue reading... |
| Milan announces ambitious scheme to reduce car use after lockdown Posted: 21 Apr 2020 12:00 AM PDT Coronavirus-hit Lombardy city will turn 35km of streets over to cyclists and pedestrians Milan is to introduce one of Europe's most ambitious schemes reallocating street space from cars to cycling and walking, in response to the coronavirus crisis. The northern Italian city and surrounding Lombardy region are among Europe's most polluted, and have also been especially hard hit by the Covid-19 outbreak. Continue reading... |
| Netanyahu and Gantz agree to form unity Israeli government Posted: 20 Apr 2020 10:39 AM PDT Prime minister will remain in office for 18 months before handing position to his rival Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his main rival, Benny Gantz, have agreed to form a national unity government, ending a year-long political crisis that has seen the country hold three back-to-back elections. A copy of the power-sharing agreement said Netanyahu, currently the interim leader, would remain in the role for 18 months before handing over to Gantz, a former army chief, for the remainder of a three-year term. Continue reading... |
| Grenfell Tower inquiry could resume by Zoom videolink Posted: 20 Apr 2020 10:00 PM PDT Inquiry solicitor sets out options for restarting hearings during coronavirus crisis The public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower disaster could resume in virtual form with evidence taken by Zoom videolink, its senior legal adviser has told bereaved people and survivors. An online system has been successfully tested by role-playing barristers, and hearings could be restarted within weeks if the option is chosen following a consultation launched on Monday. Continue reading... |
| Prince Harry pleaded with Thomas Markle on eve of wedding, court papers show Posted: 20 Apr 2020 04:17 AM PDT Harry repeatedly tried to contact Meghan's father, warning that talking to press would backfire Prince Harry pleaded with his then future father-in-law, Thomas Markle, to stop talking to the newspapers and blamed the media for the collapse of Markle's relationship with the royal couple, according to a series of text messages sent on the eve of the Harry's wedding to Meghan Markle. The messages, revealed in court documents filed at the high court on Monday, show Harry repeatedly tried to make contact in the days before the televised royal wedding in May 2018. Thomas Markle, who lives in Mexico, had been expected to walk his daughter down the aisle in the ceremony at Windsor Palace, and was revealed by the Mail on Sunday to have helped stage paparazzi pictures of himself preparing for the wedding. Continue reading... |
| Independent caught in tit-for-tat Turkey-Saudi media battle Posted: 20 Apr 2020 11:00 PM PDT Ankara bans UK publication's Turkish-language site over its links to Riyadh The Independent has found itself caught in a bizarre tit-for-tat press freedom war between Turkey and Saudi Arabia, after the British publication's Turkish-language site was banned by authorities in Ankara over its links to Riyadh. The move comes shortly after Turkish authorities charged 20 Saudis over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, an incident that soured relations between the two countries. Continue reading... |
| Nova Scotia shooting: friends and family pay tribute to ‘beautiful souls’ lost in rampage Posted: 20 Apr 2020 03:04 PM PDT Eighteen people were murdered in a handful of tightlyknit communities in the hours-long shooting spree Flags have been lowered to half mast across Canada, as friends and families paid tribute to the victims of the country's worst ever mass shooting Related: Nova Scotia shooting death toll rises as Trudeau calls on Canadians to stand united Continue reading... |
| Kosovan acting PM accuses Trump envoy of meddling Posted: 20 Apr 2020 09:41 AM PDT Albin Kurti claims Richard Grenell involved in pushing for vote that collapsed government Kosovo's caretaker prime minister, Albin Kurti, has launched a stinging attack on Donald Trump's acting national intelligence director, accusing him of meddling in the country's politics and helping to bring down his former government with the goal of delivering a quick diplomatic victory for Trump. Kurti is staying on as PM in an acting capacity after his coalition partners turned against him in a parliamentary vote last month that was egged on by US diplomats. The upheaval was met with disbelief among many Kosovans, who wanted the government to focus on fighting coronavirus. Continue reading... |
| Touch saved me from loneliness. What will we become without it? Posted: 20 Apr 2020 10:00 PM PDT Touch is essential to our wellbeing, from the time we are babies. It's how we transmit meaning, care, love and community. Our sudden loss of it has been agonising I am afraid of what I will become without touch. Already the frayed edges are beginning to show. So much of my life and the lives of so many women is found through touch. We touch our babies, we hold them to our breasts and bellies, we wash our ageing mothers' bodies and comb and braid our daughters' hair. We massage and we pet and we soothe and we tickle. We do this with each other. I have been blessed to feel and embrace and be embraced by women all over the world. To hold their stories and their hands, weep with them in my arms. We know how to do this, women. We know how to express loss and grief with our shuddering bodies and tears, transform our rage into medicine with the simplest caress. We know how the body is filled with microaggressions and macro ones. We know how to loosen ourselves into grieving and tighten ourselves into rage. And many of us are practised in that particular hug that shelters, that relieves, that confirms. Hugging is how we know we are here. How we feel each others' existence and meaning and value and substance. How we transmit our love, our empathy, our care. Continue reading... |
| Police officer who threatened to 'make up' offence suspended after outcry Posted: 21 Apr 2020 02:11 AM PDT Young man pulled over in Lancashire was told police would fabricate evidence to detain him A police officer who was filmed threatening to "make something up" in order to lock up a young man has been suspended after a public outcry. The man was reportedly pulled over in Accrington, Lancashire, on Friday by police after purchasing a quad bike for a relative when he was accosted by an officer and ordered to surrender his car keys, prompting him to protest he had done nothing wrong. Continue reading... |
| Zimbabwe faces malaria outbreak as it locks down to counter coronavirus Posted: 20 Apr 2020 10:00 PM PDT A rise in cases of the mosquito-borne disease poses another layer of threat in a country where the health system is already struggling At least 131 people have died from malaria in Zimbabwe in a new outbreak, adding pressure to a country already struggling to deal with Covid-19. The fatalities occurred in 201 outbreaks recorded across the country, according to the Ministry of Health. Meanwhile Zimbabwe's lockdown has been extended by two weeks to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Continue reading... |
| Could Trump delay the 2020 US election due to coronavirus? – video explainer Posted: 21 Apr 2020 03:41 AM PDT Tuesday, 3 November is the date set by federal government for the 2020 US presidential elections, but amid the pandemic this has been called into question. America has the world's highest number of coronavirus-related deaths, with many states struggling to contain the outbreak; primary contests have been disrupted, conventions delayed and the two candidates, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, have both been prevented from holding rallies. Could Trump delay the vote, and if so what would that mean for 2021? The Guardian's Adam Gabbatt explains Continue reading... |
| Lockdowns leave poor Latin Americans with impossible choice: stay home or feed families Posted: 21 Apr 2020 03:00 AM PDT Families struggle to maintain coronavirus restrictions as they seek to stay afloat: 'My fear is my children going hungry' Leaders across Latin America have ordered their citizens indoors as they struggle to tame the coronavirus. But for Liliana Pérez, an Argentinian single mother of six, staying at home is a pipe dream. Continue reading... |
| Elective surgery restart will allow government to wind back support for private hospitals Posted: 21 Apr 2020 02:50 AM PDT RBA predicts coronavirus will cause the biggest contraction since the Great Depression as Virgin Australia goes into administration
Health authorities will begin to ease restrictions on elective surgery from next week in a move that will allow the government to start winding back some of its promised assistance to private hospitals. Scott Morrison hailed the decision as "another step on the way back" to normal life in Australia. Continue reading... |
| Domestic abuse: 'Women in Herat may survive coronavirus but not lockdown' Posted: 20 Apr 2020 11:00 PM PDT Violence against women is endemic in Afghanistan; with services closed by the pandemic, those working with abused women are terrified for their clients Every morning Marzia Akbari, a 25-year-old psychologist from the western Afghan city of Herat, wakes up, picks up her phone and starts calling women. Most calls go unanswered. Since Herat was put in lockdown two weeks ago, Akbari's work as one of Afghanistan's only healthcare workers helping victims of domestic abuse has ground to a halt and many of the women she was trying to protect have disappeared. "I'm very scared for them," she says. "Many women in Herat may survive coronavirus but won't survive the lockdown." Continue reading... |
| Posted: 21 Apr 2020 12:00 AM PDT The pandemic is a huge test for nation states – and success or failure depends on pre-existing values That coronavirus is colour blind and respects no borders is true enough, although far from being the great equaliser, it forces the poor to bear the brunt. And given the prominent role played by experts in epidemiology who speak in a universalising language of objective science and mathematical curves, attempts at containing or mitigating the spread of Covid-19 sound similar around the world. Yet the responses differ significantly from country to country, even among richer countries; shaped by historical legacies, political culture and social mores. The Swedish historian Sverker Sörlin, himself a Covid-19 survivor, noted in a recent article that there was never just one global pandemic but many, each shaped by its own national logic. Sörlin was building on William H McNeill and his classic Plagues and Peoples from 1976, in which McNeill tried to show that epidemics mirrored each affected society. There is not a universal biological enemy waging war, these global viruses strike societies, as much as the individuals within them. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 20 Apr 2020 06:32 PM PDT Pulling together in a time of crisis, where the burden falls so unevenly, is just what will help us to rebuild in a post-Covid-19 world I feel like a New Zealand patriot. I'm hardly a nationalist, and as a leftist, my dominant mode is bitter defeat, expecting it in almost every circumstance. But as the country prepares to move from alert level four to alert level three – meaning from a major lockdown to a moderate lockdown – patriotism seems irresistible. In the prime minister, yes, in the public service, for sure, and in the essential-service workers stocking the supermarket shelves, staffing the ports and distribution centres, and caring for Covid-19 patients in hospitals and the community. It almost feels detaching, especially as countries like the US and UK hit their peaks, that life in these islands could resume as normal, as if the virus were only a four-week nightmare. Continue reading... |
| The way we once lived is now redundant. We need to reinvent ourselves Posted: 20 Apr 2020 08:06 AM PDT There will be no going back to 'normal'. Our cherished concept of work is increasingly meaningless – the future belongs to those who understand the arts of life The infantilising of the people by our leaders is horribly revealing of the English psyche. "Jam tomorrow and jam yesterday – but never jam today." Only it is not jam in this case, it is life-saving personal protective equipment. I specify "English" because Nicola Sturgeon addresses her nation as grownups and Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel pay their people the same respect. Now, armed with the knowledge that our prime minister bunked off Cobra meetings as this crisis unfolded, we are being told nothing can really be decided until he comes back from his convalescence. So we are stuck with ministers in supply teacher mode. Everything has changed and we need to prepare for the new normal. Lockdown isn't ending any time soon. There is no simple choice between saving lives and saving the economy; the two are intertwined. There is no going back to BC: before corona. Some of us knew this from day one, others are still in denial. There is the unmistakable feeling that a monumental shift in how we live is coming, one way or another, a shift that has long been latent. Those of us in rich countries have been intent on pushing the climate emergency into the future, but now our money won't save us. Our vulnerability just might. But this requires humility. The idea that Boris Johnson will "bounce back" into his job is as ludicrous as thinking the economy will "bounce back". Continue reading... |
| 'Our lives are expendable': NYC subway workers speak out after dozens of Covid-19 deaths Posted: 21 Apr 2020 02:30 AM PDT Transit workers in New York City are afraid to go back to work after 68 employees have died from coronavirus, and say authorities could have done more to protect them. 'They want to call us heroes now, but how can you call up heroes when you didn't give your heroes proper equipment to fight this,' said conductor Tramell Thompson. Continue reading... |
| Ruby Princess crew finally disembark in Australia after Covid-19 quarantine – video Posted: 21 Apr 2020 02:15 AM PDT Ruby Princess crew members clapped and cheered from their balconies as the first of their workmates finally began to disembark the troubled cruise ship in New South Wales to fly home. At least 49 crew members from six countries disembarked from the ship, which has been docked at Port Kembla for more than two weeks following a Covid-19 outbreak. NSW Police has said more crew members will disembark in coming days, but hundreds will remain on board and return with the ship to its port of origin. The Ruby Princess initially docked in Sydney in March, when the ship's passengers and some crew disembarked.It has since been linked to at least 21 deaths and hundreds of coronavirus cases across Australia Continue reading... |
| Covid-19: is seven days in isolation enough? – podcast Posted: 20 Apr 2020 09:00 PM PDT How long should you remain in isolation if you have symptoms of Covid-19? It depends on who you ask. The UK government guidelines recommend seven days from the onset of symptoms, whereas the World Health Organization advises 14. To get to the bottom of this apparent disparity, Nicola Davis discusses viral shedding with Dr Charlotte Houldcroft, and asks what the evidence currently tells us about how long we stay infectious for Continue reading... |
| Under attack: WHO and the coronavirus pandemic – podcast Posted: 20 Apr 2020 07:00 PM PDT The World Health Organization has been at the forefront of the global response to new diseases and with differing outcomes. It was hailed for the way it dealt with Sars but pilloried for its handling of Ebola. Now, with its biggest challenge yet, it is in the crosshairs again as Donald Trump threatens to withdraw funding When Donald Trump announced he was suspending funding to the World Health Organization it immediately put the future of the UN body in jeopardy. The US president accused the WHO of being too close to China and covering up the spread of Covid-19. But as the journalist Stephen Buranyi tells Anushka Asthana, the facts do not tally with the Trump's version of events. In January, the WHO director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, declared an emergency and has since been urgently telling 194 of its members to "test, test, test" as the only route out of the crisis. As a body with no formal powers to sanction its members, it relies on the effectiveness of its leader. In the past that has led to mixed results: exemplary in the fight against Sars, heavily criticised for its Ebola response. But as the WHO faces its biggest crisis yet, its future is now as uncertain as ever. Continue reading... |
| Taxi driver applauded by medics after taking patients to hospital for free – video Posted: 20 Apr 2020 05:47 AM PDT A taxi driver in Spain was greeted with a round of applause as doctors at the Centro de Salud Ramón y Cajal in Alcorcón, Madrid wanted to show thanks for his kindness during the coronavirus outbreak. The taxi driver had been taking patients to the hospital without charging them. As a gesture of thanks the hospital gave him an envelope with money as well as the results of his coronavirus test, which were negative Continue reading... |
| Life and death with a coronavirus ambulance volunteer in Milan – video Posted: 20 Apr 2020 05:29 AM PDT In Milan, hundreds of volunteers are keeping the city's ambulance services running at night. Matteo is one of them, juggling urgent medical care with life with a newborn son and a move to a new flat which happened a day before lockdown. His partner, Fosca, is a nurse on maternity leave, caring for their baby but due to return to work soon. We follow Matteo and see how it has affected him Continue reading... |
| Israelis hold 'socially distant' protest against Netanyahu – video Posted: 20 Apr 2020 04:58 AM PDT Thousands of people in Tel Aviv staged a protest against Benjamin Netanyahu while attempting to maintain physical distancing due to the coronavirus pandemic. Protesters in Rabin Square wore masks and tried to keep two metres apart while voicing their anger at the prime minister, who is under criminal indictment in three corruption cases, in which he denies any wrongdoing Continue reading... |
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