Brussels laments London’s failure to table comprehensive legal text to work on
Planned negotiating rounds on the UK’s future relationship with the EU have been abandoned as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, with Boris Johnson’s government still to table a comprehensive legal text for both sides to work on.
During a European commission briefing on Thursday, envoys for the EU capitals were told that holding negotiations via video-conferencing had so far proved impossible.
Continue reading...Rishi Sunak announced a new self-employed income support scheme on Thursday to help those struggling with the consequences of the coronavirus lockdown in the UK. Under the scheme, the government will pay the self-employed a taxable grant based on their previous earnings over the last three years, worth up to 80% of earnings, and capped at £2,500 a month
Continue reading...Coronavirus crisis spurs Fine Gael-Fianna Fáil government formation talks
The coronavirus crisis has spurred government formation talks in Ireland between Leo Varadkar’s ruling Fine Gael party and its old rival, Fianna Fáil.
Both parties lost seats in a general election last month that marked a revolt against the political establishment, but parliamentary arithmetic and the coronavirus pandemic have prodded them towards an unprecedented coalition.
Continue reading...Derbyshire police have defended using a drone to shame people into staying away from a national park during the lockdown. The force tweeted footage taken near Curbar Edge in the Peak District, insisting members of the public should not be driving there to walk their dogs or take photographs. 'It's not Big Brother,' a spokesman said. 'It's just to illustrate the fact that people are going out and making these journeys against the government's rules.'
Seven ships remained off UK coast for unusually long time this month
Nine Royal Navy ships were involved in a major operation shadowing seven Russian vessels who had lingered in the Channel for several days this month as the coronavirus crisis was beginning to worsen in the UK.
The unusually high level of Russian activity concluded about a week and a half ago and navy officials said they believed it was primarily a response to western exercises in Europe rather than to a perception that the disease was leaving the UK vulnerable.
Continue reading...European governments already have system for working together in a health emergency – it’s called the EU
More than 250 million European citizens are in mandatory home confinement to help curb the spread of Covid 19. Yet while Swedes, Germans and Bulgarians still walk more or less freely around their cities, Italians, Spaniards and French people can’t leave their homes. Swedish kids are still going to school, while most of their European peers are not. Shops are open in the Netherlands, Denmark and Hungary but closed elsewhere.
How can we make sense of these conflicting realities when European citizens are all equally affected by the virus? How do we achieve the same aim: the containment of the disease in a shared continent, supposedly without borders, with such a range of different policies?
Continue reading...Ruth Michaelson had reported on study that questioned country’s official tally of cases
Egyptian authorities have forced a Guardian journalist to leave the country after she reported on a scientific study that said Egypt was likely to have many more coronavirus cases than have been officially confirmed.
Ruth Michaelson, who has lived in and reported from Egypt since 2014, was advised last week by western diplomats that the country’s security services wanted her to leave immediately after her press accreditation was revoked and she was asked to attend a meeting with authorities about her visa status.
Continue reading...How can a community keep in touch when it can’t physically be together? A group of performers have set up what they say is the first global cabaret to tackle the social isolation of coronavirus lockdowns. Getting ready for the show, activist Dan Glass says there is a lot to learn from his own HIV diagnosis, which left him socially isolated for years
Continue reading...A 40-year-old pastor suspected of having coronavirus has issued a plea from his hospital bed over social distancing. Struggling to speak, Mark McClurg, from County Down in Northern Ireland, said the virus 'wants to kill you' and 'take all the life out of your lungs'. 'Don't think for one moment that this is just a wee cold and cough you'll get', he warned
Continue reading...Box office numbers for drive-in cinemas in Seoul, South Korea, are on the rise as people find a way to avoid crowds during the coronavirus outbreak
Continue reading...My experience on the Sultan’s trail found that two Christians, two Muslims, a Jew and two atheists could live peaceably together, although the mountain scenery seems a lifetime away now
Back in early autumn I went on a pilgrimage from Belgrade to Istanbul with six others to film a television programme that airs on Friday. At the best of times, the mountains of Bulgaria would feel a lifetime away, but now it all feels so much further.
I took part because I enjoy talking about faith, and love walking. Our route was part of the Sultan’s Trail, a long-distance footpath from Vienna to Istanbul. It marks the 16th-century marches taken by Suleiman the Magnificent and his Ottoman armies as they conquered Belgrade and most of Hungary before the Viennese held out against them. The trail is styled the “path of peace”, along which all cultures and religions can come together.
Continue reading...As the Gulf state outlaws ‘all forms of gatherings’, migrant workers continue to toil on construction sites
Migrant labourers building stadiums and infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar are still being sent to work on crowded construction sites, despite a government order outlawing “all forms of gatherings” because of the coronavirus pandemic.
With less than 1,000 days to go until the tournament kicks off, workers said it was “business as usual” as construction continued at a relentless pace.
Continue reading...Maritime union said the requirement for ships to ‘self-declare’ illness was ‘woefully inadequate’ 50 days before Ruby Princess allowed to offload sick passengers in Sydney
The New South Wales Port Authority ignored warnings in January of the need for tighter biosecurity checks, the Maritime Union of Australia says.
In an email seen by Guardian Australia, MUA secretary Paul Garrett warned the NSW Port Authority chief executive, Philip Holliday, that ship captains could not be relied upon to self-disclose illnesses on board.
Continue reading...Offences including burglary and violence fall by as much as 20% in some areas
The coronavirus crisis has led to a drop in recorded crime, by as much as 20% in some areas.
Offences such as burglary and violence were down last week compared with the previous seven days, after Boris Johnson made his first request for people to stay home on the Monday.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Protectionist policies and shortage of workers could see problems start within weeks
Protectionist measures by national governments during the coronavirus crisis could provoke food shortages around the world, the UN’s food body has warned.
Harvests have been good and the outlook for staple crops is promising, but a shortage of field workers brought on by the virus crisis and a move towards protectionism – tariffs and export bans – mean problems could quickly appear in the coming weeks, Maximo Torero, chief economist of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, told the Guardian.
Continue reading...Tokyo governor warns of measures to prevent ‘explosion’ of cases as Hong Kong health expert calls for curfew to handle cases arriving from overseas
Tokyo faces further isolation measures to prevent an “explosion’ of coronavirus cases and there are calls in Hong Kong for a curfew to stop the health system collapsing amid fears of a second wave of infections in eastern Asia.
The governor of Tokyo has asked the city’s residents to stay at home this weekend “at all costs” to avoid an “explosion” of Covid-19 infections following a rise in the number of local cases.
Continue reading...The country already has the most deaths in south-east Asia, but research suggests the official 800 infections so far may only be 2% of the total
It was just last month that Indonesia’s coronavirus cases stood at zero, with officials fiercely rejecting suggestions that infections were spreading undetected.
Weeks later, 78 fatalities have now been linked to the virus, the highest number in south-east Asia. Seven health workers are among those who have died.
Continue reading...Spain saw what happened in Iran and Italy – and yet it just overtook China’s death toll in one of the darkest moments in recent Spanish history
It is one of the darkest and most dramatic moments in recent Spanish history. In the chilling table of daily dead from the coronavirus pandemic, Spain has taken top position from Italy - with 738 dying over 24 hours.
Spain is now the hotspot of the global pandemic, a ghoulish title that has been passed from country to country over four months – starting in Wuhan, China, and travelling via Iran and Italy. As it moves west, we do not know who will be next.
Continue reading...Ugandan star among those taking to the airwaves with a message on how to avoid spreading Covid-19
Bobi Wine, a Ugandan musician and rising political force, has joined the likes of footballer-turned-president George Weah in resorting to song to help stem the spread of coronavirus in Africa.
Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, worked with fellow artist Nubian Li to release a song on Wednesday laced with east Africa’s signature rhumba melodies about the importance of personal hygiene.
Continue reading...In Wellington it felt downright bizarre as people took exaggerated arcs on the footpath to avoid each other, while near-empty buses sped past
By the time they locked down Italy, it seemed like it was already too late. Hundreds of people there had died of Covid-19 , with thousands infected. Over the next two weeks, the death toll soared. In New Zealand, we have oddly been in the opposite position: no one has died from the virus. Seven people are in hospital but they’re not in intensive care or on ventilators. There are more than 280 people confirmed to have the disease.
Yet this country has begun at least four weeks of some of the strictest restrictions anywhere in the world to fight Covid-19, clamping down on most movement, association and – to the chagrin of some – shopping, in the hope that a tragedy like the one unfolding in Italy and elsewhere can be avoided.
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