US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said there is 'enormous evidence' the coronavirus outbreak originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China, but failed to provide evidence following his statement. Pompeo added,'experts seem to think it was manmade', before reversing his statement after he was reminded the US intelligence dismissed those claims last week.
Continue reading...Category Archives: Coronavirus outbreak
‘My desk isn’t usually as messy as this’: Guardian readers share their work-from-home setups
What you see on a video conference isn’t always the whole story – here, readers reveal what’s really going on around them
We asked you to share photographs of the “two yous” that exist while you’re working from home – the person that appears on a video chat screen, and the oftentimes messier space space that surrounds you.
Continue reading...Mike Pompeo: ‘enormous evidence’ coronavirus came from Chinese lab
- Secretary of state does not provide any evidence to back claim
- Trump aide unclear on whether claim is virus was manmade
- Coronavirus US: latest news
- Coronavirus outbreak: full coverage
The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, claimed on Sunday there is “enormous evidence” the coronavirus outbreak originated in a Chinese laboratory – but did not provide any of the alleged evidence.
Related: Pandemic brings Trump's war on science to the boil – but who will win?
Continue reading...‘Happy hypoxia’: unusual coronavirus effect baffles doctors
Some patients who appear not in distress are found to have dangerously low oxygen levels
It is a mystery that has left doctors questioning the basic tenets of biology: Covid-19 patients who are talking and apparently not in distress, but who have oxygen levels low enough to typically cause unconsciousness or even death.
The phenomenon, known by some as “happy hypoxia” (some prefer the term “silent”) is raising questions about exactly how the virus attacks the lungs and whether there could be more effective ways of treating such patients.
Continue reading...North-west overtakes London for number of Covid-19 hospital cases
Latest figures reveal English regional differences in spread and peak of coronavirus
More people are in hospital with coronavirus in the north-west of England than in London, as regional differences in the spread and peak of the pandemic become increasingly apparent.
Latest figures show 2,033 people in London hospitals compared to 2,191 in the north-west, where the peak for hospitalisation appears to have been on 13 April, compared to 8 April in the capital.
Continue reading...UK coronavirus live: Gove to give daily briefing as rail unions warn against lifting lockdown
Letter to leaders warns against increasing service levels amid concerns for public and workers
The government’s 4pm briefing has been delayed and is expected to start within the next 20 minutes.
The Welsh government does “not see the science” in recent extensions to England’s testing policy, according to Wales’ health minister Vaughan Gething.
He also raised doubts about the benefits and validity of England’s 100,000 tests-per-day target and defended his own country’s decision not to extend testing to all care homes regardless of whether there is an outbreak.
Continue reading...Spain and Italy ease Covid-19 lockdown but Russia hits daily high
Two of Europe’s worst affected countries begin careful process of opening up societies again
Spain and Italy, two of the European countries hardest hit by coronavirus, are beginning to emerge from lengthy and strict lockdowns as Russia and Afghanistan reported their biggest one-day rises in new infections.
In Spain, where 217,466 cases of Covid-19 and 25,264 deaths have been confirmed, adults were allowed back on to the street to exercise for the first time in seven weeks this weekend.
Continue reading...Coronavirus ‘reinfections’ were false positives, says WHO technical lead – video
Test results suggesting people in South Korea had been reinfected after recovering from Covid-19 were actually false positives caused by dead lung cells, the World Health Organization's technical lead, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, has told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show
Continue reading...Grant Shapps: greater coronavirus testing capacity would have cut deaths – video
Fewer people would have died from coronavirus in the UK if the country's testing capacity had been greater sooner, Grant Shapps has said. Asked that question on BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show, the transport secretary replied: 'Yes. If we had had 100,000 test capacity before this thing started and the knowledge that we now have retrospectively I’m sure many things could be different'
Continue reading...‘We are on the eve of a genocide’: Brazil urged to save Amazon tribes from Covid-19
Open letter by photojournalist Sebastião Salgado and global figures warns disease could decimate indigenous peoples
Brazil’s leaders must take immediate action to save the country’s indigenous peoples from a Covid-19 “genocide”, a global coalition of artists, celebrities, scientists and intellectuals has said.
In an open letter to the Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, figures including Madonna, Oprah Winfrey, Brad Pitt, David Hockney and Paul McCartney warned the pandemic meant indigenous communities in the Amazon faced “an extreme threat to their very survival”.
Continue reading...Trump’s wealthy friends look to cash in during coronavirus crisis
Watchdog groups say Trump’s close ties with donors and backers deserve scrutiny as trillions in federal funds are handed out
Fracking billionaire and Trump donor Harold Hamm was among an elite group of oil and gas executives who met with the president in early April to press for federal help, including access to big loans for businesses hurt by the coronavirus pandemic. It prompted Trump afterwards to promise to “make funds available to these very important companies”.
Related: Trump erupts over poll slump and threatens to sue campaign manager
Continue reading...Easing of lockdown a relief to Ghana’s poor – despite fears it is premature
As Accra and Kumasi’s markets and shops reopen, government defends decision to partially lift coronavirus restrictions
Since the sudden easing of a three-week lockdown in Ghana’s two major cities, Accra and Kumasi, daily life is gradually returning to normal.
Markets and commercial districts that had ground to an eerie halt have buzzed back to life. Stores and banks have slowly reopened. Modest traffic jams have emerged as many people who had escaped the lockdown return to the cities. But schools, places of worship, restaurants and bars remain shut.
Continue reading...£40m for islanders exiled from British territory goes unspent
Chagossians promised aid go hungry as coronavirus renders them jobless in a foreign state
Chagos Islanders living in exile from the territory claimed by Britain, and left destitute by the coronavirus downturn, have been refused support by the UK government, leaving some unable to buy enough food.
They question why a £40m support package – which was announced by the UK government in 2016 to assist Chagossians living in the UK, Mauritius and Seychelles – isn’t being used to help them during this time. The fund has gone largely unspent since its launch.
Continue reading...Exclusive: almost a fifth of UK homes with children go hungry in lockdown
New data shows families go without as parents lose income, meal voucher scheme is beset with problems and food banks can’t cope
The number of households with children going hungry has doubled since lockdown began, as millions of people struggle to afford food.
New data from the Food Foundation shared exclusively with the Observer has revealed that almost a fifth of households with children have been unable to access enough food in the past five weeks, with meals being skipped and children not getting enough to eat as already vulnerable families battle isolation and a loss of income.
Continue reading...All dressed up: one street’s response to corona chic – in pictures
With pyjamas and tracksuits becoming the lockdown look, the photographer Robin Sinha invited residents of his home street in Walthamstow to put on their Sunday best and imagine they had a special occasion to attend. Sinha hopes the project - All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go - will bring the street’s residents closer, and is exploring the idea of a local exhibition to raise funds for the NHS
Continue reading...Dan Tehan tried to pressure Victoria to reopen schools, but he went from raging bull to mewling kitten | Katharine Murphy
While the federal education minister banked on parents’ frustration with home schooling, those same parents are also worried
It’s been a wild old Sunday, with the federal education minister Dan Tehan going from raging bull to mewling kitten in the space of four hours, so let’s work through things step by step.
Scott Morrison has been intensely frustrated with school closures for weeks. The prime minister wants schools to reopen as the bedrock of getting the economy moving again, and the bulk of the medical advice before the government suggests that schools are low risk.
Continue reading...Coronavirus live news: European leaders join forces to find vaccine as France proposes 14-day quarantine on entry
YouTube deletes Covid-19 conspiracy theorist’s account; Warren Buffett optimistic; Rohingya refugees detained in Malaysia. Follow the latest updates
- Europe’s tourism industry faces ruin
- Where did Covid-19 come from?
- Coronavirus latest: at a glance
- See all our coronavirus coverage
As more and more state and local officials announce the release of thousands of at-risk inmates from the nations adult jails and prisons, parents along with children rights groups and criminal justice experts say vulnerable youths should be allowed to serve their time at home, AP reports.
But they say demands for large-scale releases have been largely ignored. Decisions are often not made at the state level, but instead carried out county by county, with individual judges reviewing juvenile cases one by one.
Such legal hurdles have resulted in some kids with symptoms being thrown into isolation for 23 hours a day, in what amounts to solitary confinement, according to relatives and youth advocates. They say many have been cut off from programs, counsellors and school. Some have not been issued masks, social distancing is nearly impossible and they have been given limited access to phone calls home.
The Bolshoi ballet held its first online classes only this week, more than a month after lockdown began, AFP reports.
In the middle of their bedroom, Bolshoi ballet dancers Margarita Shrainer and Igor Tsvirko have placed a linoleum mat and a barre. Since the start of the lockdown, the couple, both soloists in the legendary troupe, have largely used their own initiative to keep up their dance skills at home.
Continue reading...Coronavirus live news: Russia and Afghanistan announce their biggest rises in cases
UK PM says doctors had prepared to announce his death; Iran to reopen mosques on Monday; global cases near 3.5 million
- Boris Johnson: it was 50-50 whether to put me on ventilator
- UK coronavirus updates - live
- Coronavirus latest: at a glance
- See all our coronavirus coverage
Head over to the UK live blog to follow Downing Street’s daily coronavirus briefing.
Related: UK coronavirus live: Gove to give daily briefing as rail unions warn against lifting lockdown
Hello, I’ll be taking over the live blog for the next few hours. If you have a news tip, comment or suggestion, please get in touch via Twitter DM @cleaskopeliti or by email at clea.skopeliti.casual@guardian.co.uk. Thanks in advance.
Continue reading...Egypt has made journalism a crime with crackdown, says Amnesty International
Egyptian government using pandemic to tighten control of media and quash dissent, rights group reports
Journalism in Egypt has effectively become a crime over the past four years, Amnesty International says, as authorities clamp down on media outlets and muzzle dissent.
As the number of coronavirus infections in Egypt continues to rise, the government is strengthening its control over information instead of upholding transparency, the London-based rights group said in a report released on Sunday.
Continue reading...Coronavirus may keep Norwegian flying – but it’s not much to celebrate
For the over-ambitious airline’s bondholders, investors and lessors, survival means the lesser of two evilly large losses
As one of Norway’s greatest exports, A-ha, put it, in their classic 1980s hit Take on Me, it’s no better to be safe than sorry. This advice may appear ever more overwhelmingly wrong to those who bet their kroner on the vision of the two Bjorns, Kjos and Kise, the co-founders turned chief executive and chairman of Norwegian Air.
The pair wisely exited the scene last year after an extraordinary ride during which they turned Norwegian from a small local carrier into a global pioneer of low-cost, long-haul air travel, and eventually established bases all around Europe. With half an eye on transatlantic links and another on a booming short-haul operation, Norwegian became a dizzying array of subsidiaries whose complexity could not disguise the fact that it was heading for financial disaster.
Continue reading...