Conspiracy theories linking 5G technology to coronavirus have resulted in dozens of phone masts across the UK being vandalised in recent weeks. Theories about the dangers of 5G had already been circulating, despite regulators confirming that the radiation levels of the new technology are well within safe boundaries. So how did the conspiracy incorrectly linking it to 5G start? And is 5G really dangerous? We explain why 5G has nothing to do with Covid-19
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May Day workers confronting coronavirus around the world – in pictures
A celebration of the cleaners, transport workers, shop assistants, tradespeople, health workers and more who continue to serve despite the difficulties and risks of the pandemic
Continue reading...Coronavirus live news: Kim Jong-un reportedly appears in public
North Korean leader had not been seen for three weeks; Ireland and India both extend lockdowns, while global markets fall due to threat of US-China trade war
- Exclusive: US germ warfare lab creates test for pre-infectious Covid-19
- Where did Covid-19 come from? What we know about its origins
- Lingering and painful: the long road to coronavirus recovery
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The US president Donald Trump has offered an increasingly bleak picture for the US, telling a White House event:
Hopefully, we’re going to come in below that 100,000 lives lost, which is a horrible number, nevertheless.
The North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has made his first public appearance in nearly three weeks, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
N.K. leader reemerges from 20-day absence amid rumors over his health https://t.co/z4LhtCf7ox
Related: Kim Jong-un could be sheltering from Covid-19 pandemic, say US and Seoul
Continue reading...Boris Johnson joins UK clap for NHS, key workers and Capt Tom Moore – video
The PM stepped out of No 10 at 8pm to show his support for the NHS. He asked the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, to wish Capt Tom Moore, the veteran who has raised £30m for NHS charities, a happy birthday as the newly appointed honorary colonel marked his 100th birthday on Thursday 30 April
- UK coronavirus news: Britain unites again to applaud key workers on Covid frontline - as it happened
- Global coronavirus updates - live
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Germany and Spain ease lockdown as Eurozone slumps 3.8% – as it happened
This blog is now closed.
We’ve launched a brand new blog at the link below. Follow me there for the latest coronavirus news from around the world, live:
Hello, Helen Sullivan with you now. I’ll have the blog for the next few hours, so please do get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan.
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
Continue reading...Warning over ‘hidden effect of coronavirus’ after grandfather’s suicide
‘Pick up the phone to loved ones’, urges grandson after Dennis Ward’s death
A grandson is urging people to “pick up the phone” and speak to loved ones and vulnerable people in self-isolation after his 82-year-old grandfather killed himself during the coronavirus pandemic.
James Parnaby said his grandfather’s death was one of the “hidden effects of coronavirus” in a tribute posted on Facebook that described Dennis Ward as the “life and soul at family parties”.
Continue reading...Victoria Beckham reverses decision to furlough fashion label staff
Exclusive: application to use public money to support staff is withdrawn following criticism
Victoria Beckham has reversed a decision to furlough 30 staff at her fashion label and said that her team’s welfare “means everything to me” after the decision to apply for public money drew heavy criticism.
Following a change of heart by the designer and her board, the application to the government scheme has been withdrawn and all employees concerned restored to their roles.
Continue reading...Fears Brexit talks could collapse in June but UK still optimistic
‘Limited progress’ in bridging gaps on fisheries, health, environment and workers’ rights
The UK is still optimistic about striking a trade deal with the EU but warned that talks could collapse in June unless Brussels abandons its demands for a common fisheries policy and a level playing field, a source close to the UK’s negotiating team said.
The source said only “limited progress in bridging the gaps between us” had been made at last week’s talks, but there was “confidence that progress can be made quite quickly”.
Continue reading...Captain Tom Moore: flypast in honour of veteran’s 100th birthday – video
A flypast over Capt Tom Moore’s house by a wartime Spitfire and a Hurricane was broadcast live on BBC Breakfast to mark the second world war veteran’s 100th birthday.
The centenarian, who has helped to raise over £30m for the NHS during the coronavirus crisis with a sponsored walk around his garden, has been appointed an honorary colonel
Continue reading...Google executive took part in Sage meeting, tech firm confirms
Attendance of Demis Hassabis raises further questions about secretive group advising UK government on Covid-19
Google has confirmed that one of its senior executives participated in the UK government’s scientific advisory group on Covid-19, raising further questions about the composition of the secretive committee.
Demis Hassabis, a co–founder of Google’s artificial intelligence division, DeepMind, attended a meeting of the scientific advisory group for emergencies (Sage) on 18 March, when the group was considering whether the UK should go into lockdown.
Continue reading...Briton makes landfall after being blown off course in Atlantic rowing record bid
Graham Walters was just off coast of Antigua when he called for assistance
A 72-year-old man from Leicester has rowed solo across the Atlantic but may miss out on the record to become the oldest person to do so after he had to be towed in to port at the end of this journey.
Graham Walters was just six miles off the coast of Antigua, the end point of his journey, when his boat was blown off course by strong winds, and he would have ended up past the island and facing days more rowing if he had not accepted the assistance of the local coastguard.
Continue reading...UK coronavirus death toll revised up to 26,097, Dominic Raab announces – video
A total of 26,097 patients have died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK, Dominic Raab has said. It was the first time the daily death toll figures have taken into account deaths in care homes and the community as well as those in hospitals between 2 March and 28 April. It marked an increase of 3,811 on the previous figure
Continue reading...NHS staff coronavirus inquests told not to look at PPE shortages
Exclusive: guidance to avoid examining systemic failures is ‘very worrying’, says Labour
Inquests into coronavirus deaths among NHS workers should avoid examining systemic failures in provision of personal protective equipment (PPE), coroners have been told, in a move described by Labour as “very worrying”.
The chief coroner for England and Wales, Mark Lucraft QC, has issued guidance that “an inquest would not be a satisfactory means of deciding whether adequate general policies and arrangements were in place for provision of PPE to healthcare workers”.
Continue reading...Brussels and UK at odds over proposed EU office in Belfast
Clashes expected over plan which Britain says would sow division in Northern Ireland
Brussels and UK officials will clash over the increasingly fraught question of whether the European Union can open an office in Belfast.
At the inaugural meeting on Thursday of a special committee of officials charged with enforcing a de facto Irish Sea border, the European commission is expected to press the case to open “a technical office” in Belfast, three days after the government rejected an EU “mini-embassy” in the Northern Irish capital.
Continue reading...Boris Johnson back at work at No 10 after Carrie Symonds gives birth
After birth of boy Downing Street says PM intends to take paternity leave later this year
Boris Johnson is back at work in Downing Street and is not expected to take paternity leave at the moment, after the birth of his son in the early hours of Wednesday.
The prime minister’s press secretary said he would take paternity leave later in the year, after he and his fiancee, Carrie Symonds, welcomed their child at an NHS hospital in London.
Continue reading...UK aid efforts to tackle gender equality marred by ‘inaccuracy’, says watchdog
Whitehall auditor warns ‘ambitious aims’ will not be achieved without better oversight, planning and evaluation of programmes
Efforts by the UK government to achieve gender equality through its aid programmes need to be better managed and more transparent, according to the financial watchdog.
The National Audit Office (NAO) said the Department for International Development’s (DfID) 12-year gender equality strategy was wide-ranging, but did not have a long-term, costed, implementation plan, limiting “its ability to assess progress and consider value for money”.
Continue reading...Coronavirus live news: US drug trial shows ‘clear cut’ effect, says top medic
Schools in Turkey to stay shut until end of May; Germans urged to stay home; Vietnam says it has had no domestic transmission for two weeks
- Revealed: the inside story of the UK’s Covid-19 crisis
- ‘So what?’: Bolsonaro shrugs off Brazil’s rising coronavirus death toll
- UK coronavirus updates – live
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- See all our coronavirus coverage
Another 31 people have died in Ireland and 376 more cases have been diagnosed, the country’s chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan has said.
One of the deaths reported on Wednesday involved a person in the 15-24 age group, the second in this category. Dr Holohan warned the number in intensive care units was too high as the prospect of a rapid easing of movement restrictions dwindles.
That is simply too high and we need to get that down further not only because it is about protecting occupancy but the lower the figure is it is a reflection of better protection of the public and lower levels of spread of the infection.
Bolivia will extend its lockdown against the pandemic until 10 May, the government has announced, though it is planning to relax rules in less affected parts of the country from the following day.
The president Jeanine Áñez has said Bolivia will move to a “dynamic” or “less rigid” quarantine on 11 May, allowing some people to return to work.
Opening the quarantine a little or closing it completely will depend on how the pandemic is being controlled in each region. The Ministry of Health will evaluate every seven days how the pandemic evolves in each region. On that basis, decisions will be taken to relax or harden the quarantine.
Continue reading...Where is the kit to protect NHS workers? – podcast
As medics and carers report widespread shortages of protective equipment, the government is facing pressure to explain why it appears the UK went into a pandemic under-resourced. Daniel Boffey and Rob Davies unpick the strategy and its failures
With reports of medics using bin bags in place of personal protective equipment (PPE), the government is under growing pressure to explain its preparedness for a pandemic and its efforts since the crisis struck to protect frontline workers.
The Guardian’s Brussels bureau chief, Daniel Boffey, describes how the government declined to take part in a joint EU procurement scheme at the same time it was failing to secure enough equipment from other sources. Meanwhile Rob Davies has been investigating how British firms such as Burberry have switched from fashion to the production of PPE. And the government’s attempts to dramatically increase the stockpile of ventilators as manufacturers take up the challenge to produce established and new designs.
Continue reading...Refuges from domestic violence running out of space, MPs hear
Dame Vera Baird warns select committee Covid-19 lockdown is leading to ‘perfect storm’
Refuges providing sanctuary to victims of domestic violence are running out of space, with many full or effectively closed amid an “epidemic inside this pandemic”, the victims’ commissioner has told MPs.
A “perfect storm” of problems is in danger of overwhelming support services for those trying to escape violent and abusive partners, Dame Vera Baird QC warned members of the House of Commons justice select committee.
Continue reading...Trevor Phillips role ‘undermines Covid-19 BAME inquiry’
Equality campaigners warn of lack of ‘trust and confidence’ in controversial figure
The appointment of Trevor Phillips to an inquiry into why black, Asian and minority ethnic people are being disproportionately affected by Covid-19 has undermined its credibility among those it is seeking to serve, according to two leading BAME campaigners.
Phillips, who previously chaired the Equality and Human Rights Commission, was selected despite being suspended from the Labour party last month for alleged Islamophobia, including a reference to UK Muslims as being “a nation within a nation”. The first four UK doctors with Covid-19 known to have died were all Muslim.
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