Jyoti Kumari said she opted for desperate ride from New Delhi to Bihar after rickshaw work ended amid Covid-19 crisis
From her village in east India, 15-year-old Jyoti Kumari reflected on her desperate 745-mile cycle home with her disabled father, a journey that has drawn international praise.
“I had no other option,” she said on Sunday. “We wouldn’t have survived if I hadn’t cycled to my village.”
Continue reading...Jair Bolsonaro swore 34 times during a two-hour cabinet meeting some think could help bring his four-year term to a premature end. Brazilians are horrified by their president's lack of focus on Covid-19, which has killed more than 21,000 people
Hong Kong police used teargas, pepper spray and water cannon on crowds as thousands rallied against Beijing’s declaration that it intends to impose national security laws on the semi-autonomous region – a highly criticised move because of the 'one country, two systems' rule.
At least 120 people were arrested, according to police, in one of the biggest gatherings in the country since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic as the proposed law, banning subversion, separatism, and acts of foreign interference on Hong Kong, is to be approved next week at China’s National People’s Congress
Scientist who oversaw the response to Sars says country has failed the vulnerable
The predecessor of Sweden’s state epidemiologist has broken her silence on the country’s controversial coronavirus strategy, saying she now believes the authorities should have put in place tougher restrictions in the early stages of the pandemic to bring the virus under control.
Annika Linde, who oversaw Sweden’s response to swine flu and Sars as state epidemiologist from 2005 to 2013, had until now expressed support for her country’s approach under her successor, Anders Tegnell.
But she has now become the first member of the public health establishment to break ranks, saying she has changed her mind as a result of Sweden’s relatively high death toll compared with that of its neighbours, Denmark, Norway, and Finland.
“I think that we needed more time for preparedness. If we had shut down very early ... we would have been able, during that time, to make sure that we had what was necessary to protect the vulnerable,” Linde told the Observer.
Continue reading...The Royal Society president says scientists must not be made scapegoats for policy failures
In 1981, a virus that had jumped the species barrier some decades earlier to infect humans began to wreak havoc among the gay community in San Francisco and New York. A taskforce was set up to study the cause of this disease, and it took a few years to identify HIV as the definitive cause of Aids and its genome to be sequenced, and nearly 15 years before a cocktail of drugs meant that having an HIV infection was no longer a certain death sentence.
Forty years later, the cause of the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan was identified as a new coronavirus Sars-CoV-2, and its sequence determined in a matter of weeks. That, in turn, paved the way for a sensitive test for infection and, now, antibody tests for people who may have had the disease. That we know so much in such record time is due to sustained international investment in science.
Continue reading...France asks citizens to avoid foreign trips; US likely to impose travel restrictions on Brazil; Afghanistan cases top 10,000
The Daily Mail - usually one of Boris Johnson’s supporters in the press - has called on the prime minister to sack Dominic Cummings, trailing its headline with the following:
In the clearest way, Dominic Cummings has violated the spirit and letter of the lockdown. Boris Johnson says he ‘totally gets’ how the public feels about this. Clearly he totally doesn’t. Neither man has displayed a scintilla of contrition for this breach of trust. Do they think we are fools? For the good of the government and the nation, Mr Cummings must resign. Or the prime minister must sack him. No ifs. No buts.
The White House has announced it is prohibiting foreigners from traveling to the US if they had been in Brazil in the last two weeks, two days after the South American nation became the world No. 2 hot spot for coronavirus cases.
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the new restrictions would help ensure foreign nationals do not bring additional infections to the US, but would not apply to the flow of commerce between the new countries.
Continue reading...Penny Wong says treasurer should have ‘the courage’ to take responsibility for error as Coalition faces calls to expand wage subsidy
Labor will attempt to pressure the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, to appear before the Senate’s Covid-19 inquiry to explain the “$60bn black hole” in the jobkeeper program.
The move comes as the Morrison government faces growing calls to expand the wage subsidy to cover a wider group of workers, after revelations on Friday that the six-month program is now expected to cost the budget $70bn rather than $130bn.
Continue reading...As US Covid-19 death toll nears 100,000, Times presents a tribute to some of the Americans to fall victim to the disease
As the US approaches the grim milestone of 100,000 coronavirus deaths, the New York Times has filled the entire front page of Sunday’s paper with the death notices of victims from across the country.
In a decision the paper said was intended to convey the vastness and variety of the tragedy, the front page is a simple list of names and personal details taken from obituaries around the US.
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Here’s a look at today’s main stories:
After Donald Trump said on Friday that he believes places of worship should be deemed as essential services, Minnesota’s Democratic governor, Tim Walz, issued an executive order addressing the issue. Places of worship in the state will now be able to open at 25% of capacity. Individuals or households in the buildings must maintain six feet distance.
Walz said he still encouraged citizens to worship remotely. “I am under no illusion whatsoever: Every move we make that loosens up increases the risk,” Walz said.
Continue reading...Pandemic subdues Ramadan festivities as Taliban declares ceasefire; Spain and Greece to welcome tourists
Muslims worldwide prepared to celebrate Eid under lockdown, with the strictest governments bringing in 24-hour curfews for the holiday – but across the world the slow march is continuing out of coronavirus quarantine.
For the first time since the beginning of the outbreak, China said it had recorded no new cases of the virus; Spain joined Greece in saying it would be reopening to foreign tourists from July, and also said its football league would start again next month.
Continue reading...The unique nature of the pandemic means the economic downturn could impact women for decades
Rebecca Wilkie is used to running a budget. The single mother of two daughters knows what it is to keep one eye on the bank balance. After being stood down as a full-time Qantas flight attendant at the end of March, however, the budget is tighter still. “Life was a struggle for us before the pandemic, to be honest,” she says.
She is managing. But catching up on the mortgage payments after the initial relief ends, and paying for the greater utility bills when they come through, worry her. She’s hoping, and expecting, that after 18 years at the airline, a job will be waiting for her once jobkeeper stops and the recovery begins.
Continue reading...The Swedes were the Brexiters’ poster nation, but now have Europe’s worst death rate
Covid-19 is nature’s way of making bad situations worse. From the moment it turned the world upside down, you could have predicted that the Chinese Communist party would have arrested whistleblowers and covered up the threat to humanity. It’s what it does best, after all.
You would not have needed mystical powers to divine that Viktor Orbán would have used a pandemic as an excuse to turn Hungary into the European Union’s first dictatorship. Nor did it take a modern Nostradamus to foresee that, if you put men who care nothing for competence, complexity, or the difference between truth and falsehood in power, you will live to regret it. Or in the case of tens of thousands who trusted Donald Trump and Boris Johnson, die needless deaths.
Continue reading...Republican Doug Burgum was moved to tears over divisions in the US over wearing face masks during the coronavirus pandemic, in which some stores have turned customers away for wearing masks. 'This is a ... senseless dividing line,' he said
China reports no cases on mainland for 22 May as US president says worship ‘essential’ and Muslims worldwide prepare for Eid
The 102-year-old car rental firm Hertz has filed for bankruptcy protection in the US after its business all but vanished during the coronavirus pandemic, Reuters reports.
Hertz said in a US court filing on Friday that it had voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 reorganisation. Its international operating regions including Europe, Australia and New Zealand were not included in the US proceedings.
Related: Car rental firm Hertz files for bankruptcy protection in US
The 54 countries of the African Union were reporting a total of 103,933 cases of coronavirus on Saturday morning, according the Africa Centres for Disease Control.
So far African nations have reported 3,183 deaths from Covid-19, while 41,473 people have recovered since the virus was first detected on the continent 14 weeks ago.
#COVID19 update in Africa (As of 23 May 2020, 9 am East Africa Time)
54 @_AfricanUnion Member States reporting 103,933 cases, 3,183 deaths, and 41,473 recoveries.
More information at https://t.co/vEZ4eupedf#COVID19 #FactsNotFear #AfricaResponds pic.twitter.com/GlqVUAqYT5
Case numbers have not grown at the same exponential rate as in other regions and so far Africa has not experienced the high mortality seen in some parts of the world. Today, there are 3,100 confirmed deaths on the continent.
By comparison, when cases reached 100,000 in the World Health Organization (WHO) European region, deaths stood at more than 4,900. Early analysis by WHO suggests that Africa’s lower mortality rate may be the result of demography and other possible factors. Africa is the youngest continent demographically with more than 60% of the population under the age of 25. Older adults have a significantly increased risk of developing a severe illness. In Europe nearly 95% of deaths occurred in those older than 60 years.
Now that countries are starting to ease their confinement measures, there is a possibility that cases could increase significantly, and it is critical that governments remain vigilant and ready to adjust measures in line with epidemiological data and proper risk assessment.
Continue reading...Author Bernardine Evaristo, broadcaster Hugh Pym, playwright James Graham and more pen letters to themselves, to be opened in May 2021
James Graham, playwright
Continue reading...The Morrison government commission has promoted gas as a key way to boost the economy after the coronavirus crisis
The head of the Morrison government commission tasked with coming up with plans to revitalise the economy after the coronavirus crisis, Nev Power, is to step aside from his position as deputy chairman of a gas company over conflict of interest concerns.
“Because of the perceptions of conflict of interest he has stepped back from participating in board meetings and will not participate in the decisions of the board” of Strike Energy, a spokesman for the National Covid-19 Coordination Commission said on Friday evening.
Continue reading...Kayleigh McEnany appears to accidentally show private details while displaying Trump donation to fight coronavirus pandemic
Efforts to highlight Donald Trump’s largesse during his time in office have backfired after his press secretary appeared to display the US president’s personal bank details to the world.
At a press conference on Friday, Kayleigh McEnany announced that Trump would donate his quarterly pay cheque to the Department of Health and Human Services to “support the efforts being undertaken to confront, contain and combat the coronavirus”. So far, so laudable.
Continue reading...PM set to shrink Chinese firm’s involvement to zero by 2023 after caving to backbench pressure
Boris Johnson has been forced to cave into to Conservative backbench rebels opposed to the presence of Huawei in 5G networks and has drawn up plans to reduce the Chinese company’s involvement to zero by 2023.
The prime minister’s retreat is designed to stave off what could have been an embarrassing defeat when his existing proposal to reduce Huawei to a 35% market share was to be voted on in the Commons.
Continue reading...Travel restrictions from Covid-19 have made seasonal traditional practices – and being on country – difficult for one Tasmanian artist
Lola Greeno collects delicate, pearlescent shells she turns into jewellery, the way Tasmanian Aboriginal women have been doing for thousands of years.
But this year Greeno has missed the spring tide on Flinders Island, one of the very few times to harvest them, because of Covid-19 travel restrictions.
Continue reading...Donald Trump has demanded states reopen churches, synagogues and mosques for in-person services, threatening to 'override' governors who refuse. The president said he was identifying houses of worship as 'essential services' and suggested he was correcting the 'injustice' that liquor stores and abortion clinics had reopened in some states while places of worship had not
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