This blog is now closed.
We’ve launched a new live blog at the link below where we’ll be bringing you the latest developments in the coronavirus pandemic:
Related: Coronavirus live news: UN warns of 'biblical' famine as White House prepares immigration halt
In today’s White House press briefing Trump said the US has “tested more than any country in the world, even put together.”
This is false.
Continue reading...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...Multimillionaire ‘king of the good times’ Vijay Mallya faces allegations of £1bn fraud
The Indian multimillionaire businessman Vijay Mallya has lost his appeal against a decision to extradite him to India to face allegations of a £1bn fraud at his now defunct Kingfisher Airlines.
High court judges on Monday rejected Mallya’s appeal against a 2018 decision granting his extradition, ruling that there was a “prima facie case of fraud by false representation”.
Continue reading...Locked-down institutions go online for Yorkshire Museum’s weekly ‘curator battles’
A zombie blowfish, a hideous mermaid and a lucky charm made out of a dead man’s finger are all competing to be crowned the creepiest exhibits in the world after an archaeological museum in the north of England challenged curators during the lockdown to showcase their most sinister objects.
Since its closure due to Covid-19 restrictions, the Yorkshire Museum in York has launched a weekly #curatorbattle on social media to challenge museums and visitors to put forward objects related to a particular theme.
Continue reading...Officer stabbed and murdered during a terrorist attack on parliament in March 2017
The Metropolitan police are facing legal action over the death of PC Keith Palmer, murdered during a terrorist attack on parliament.
An inquest in October 2018 concluded with the coroner, Mark Lucraft QC, ruling that the officer’s death may have been prevented had armed officers been closer.
Continue reading...There's a lot of talk about testing at the moment, but some people are getting confused about what coronavirus tests actually are. How are the tests different? What do they do? And why are they important? Josh Toussaint-Strauss speaks with Professor David Smith to answer some of these questions
Continue reading...Sir Philip Rutnam takes action under whistleblowing laws, claiming constructive dismissal
Priti Patel is facing legal action under whistleblowing laws after her former permanent secretary Sir Philip Rutnam lodged an employment tribunal claim on Monday saying he was forced from his job for exposing her bullying behaviour.
Rutnam claims he was constructively dismissed from his role as Home Office permanent secretary after informing the Cabinet Office that Patel had belittled officials in meetings and made unreasonable demands on staff.
Continue reading...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...Tycoon’s blog appeal comes after reports UK government has rejected £500m bailout
Sir Richard Branson has said he will put his private Caribbean island up as collateral in his attempt to persuade the UK government to save his Virgin Atlantic airline from going bust.
Branson, who is the UK’s seventh richest person with an estimated £4.7bn fortune and lives on Necker Island in the tax-free British Virgin Islands, on Monday promised in a public blogpost that he would “raise as much money against the island as possible to save as many jobs as possible”.
Continue reading...Challenging herself to see her immediate environment in a new way, photographer Sarah Lee, who has been on complete lockdown for over four weeks, shot these images on an iPhone within a one-mile radius of her home in Camden Town, north London
Shortages of PPE set to continue and testing behind schedule after Gove admits Johnson missed key Cobra meetings
Boris Johnson’s government has come under pressure to defend its handling of the coronavirus pandemic after Michael Gove was forced to admit that the prime minister had missed five key emergency meetings when the crisis first hit.
With ministers warning that shortages of protective medical gear could continue, test rates remaining stubbornly low and the hospital death toll rising on Sunday to 16,060, some Conservative MPs have expressed private concern that Downing Street does not have a strong grip on the crisis.
Continue reading...Health managers in England voice ‘intense frustration’ in unprecedented intervention
Hospital leaders have directly attacked the government for the first time during the coronavirus crisis over the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) after a desperately needed consignment of surgical gowns that had been announced by ministers failed to arrive.
In an unprecedented intervention, which hospital leaders privately say is the result of “intense frustration and exasperation”, the organisations representing NHS trusts in England urged ministers to “just focus on what we can be certain of” after weeks of “bitter experience” with failed deliveries.
Continue reading...Chris Lewis is staying on usually uninhabited Hildasay until charity challenge can resume
A former paratrooper is isolating on a usually uninhabited Shetland island after lockdown measures were introduced when he was on a fundraising challenge to walk the UK coastline.
Chris Lewis, 39, has walked 12,000 miles since setting off from Llangennith beach on the Gower peninsula near his home city of Swansea, south Wales, in August 2017.
Continue reading...Criminals seek rich pickings as viewers stuck at home flock to TV streaming sites
More than 700 fake websites mimicking Netflix and Disney+ signup pages have been created seeking to harvest personal information from consumers during the coronavirus lockdown streaming boom.
Netflix, which is expected to smash its forecast of 7 million new global subscribers when it reports first-quarter results on Tuesday, is the main target as millions of new potential customers seek entertainment while confined to their homes.
Continue reading...Death toll rose by 888 to 15,464, according to health department figures on Saturday
More than 15,000 people have died from coronavirus in UK hospitals, figures from the Department of Health and Social Care show.
The death toll rose by 888 from 14,576 on Friday, taking the total to 15,464 as of 9am on Saturday.
Continue reading...Spokesperson said on TV her release would be extended but British-Iranian yet to be told
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is waiting to be told whether her temporary release from an Iranian prison is to be extended beyond this weekend, or if she will have to return to complete her five-year sentence on Sunday.
The Prosecutors Office in Tehran told the British-Iranian woman’s lawyer on Saturday to come back on Sunday for an update on the situation, according to the Free Nazanin Twitter account.
Continue reading...As the world battles the coronavirus pandemic, communities are coming together to support each other through difficult times. Capt Tom Moore, a 99-year-old war veteran, has raised more than £23m for the NHS by walking 100 laps of his garden. Notre Dame Cathedral's bell tolled again in tribute to health workers, and Matthew McConaughey hosted virtual bingo for older self-isolators
Continue reading...Dr Chaand Nagpaul says data must be gathered now to save lives of UK BAME citizens
The government’s failure to record and publish real-time data on the ethnicity of Covid-19 patients is a scandal that is endangering lives, according to the chair of the British Medical Association.
Speaking to the Observer, Dr Chaand Nagpaul said: “This is not an issue that should require further campaigning. It would be a scandal if it requires further lobbying as data recording needs to start now, not tomorrow. When you have stark statistics like this, it is an instruction for government to act.”
Continue reading...China pushes ‘comprehensive’ economic reopening; first virus case in Syria’s northeast; Germany says pandemic ‘under control’. Follow latest updates
For the latest global coronavirus developments, here is our at-a-glance guide:
Related: Coronavirus latest: at a glance
Thailand has reported 33 new coronavirus infections, bringing the country’s total to 2,733 cases.
Eleven of the new cases were in Bangkok and had a history of going to public areas, said Taweesin Wisanuyothin, a spokesman for the government’s Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration.
Some have questioned if the low number of detected cases is down to a lack of testing in the country.
China denies cover-up as Wuhan death toll revised up by 50%; Brazil’s president fires health minister
WHO’s daily briefing on the coronavirus outbreak has just begun. WHO director Tarik Jasarevic said the coronavirus solidarity fund has generated $150 million from more than 245,000 individuals, corporations, and foundations.
Deaths from the coronavirus epidemic in Italy rose by 575 on Friday, up from 525 the day before, while the number of new cases declined slightly to 3,493 from a previous 3,786.
The daily death toll is down considerably from peaks reached around the end of March, Reuters reports.
Continue reading...