Researchers say cannibalistic tendency may help explain why the invasive creatures thrive
When the going gets tough, most parents try to protect their offspring. But the warty comb jelly takes a different tack: it eats them.
Despite initial appearances, comb jellies are not jellyfish but belong to a different group of animals, ctenophora, which swim using tiny hair-like projections called cilia.
Continue reading...PM Jacinda Ardern outlines easing curbs to allow domestic travel and eating out; White House says US-China relationship one of ‘disappointment’; eurozone’s future threatened. Follow the latest updates
A gas leak at a chemical factory in southern India has killed at least nine people and led to hundreds being taken to hospital, amid warnings that the death toll could climb higher.
Styrene leaked from the Korean-owned LG Polymers plant during the early hours of Thursday morning when families in the surrounding villages were asleep, a local official in Andra Pradesh state said.
Related: Gas leak at chemical factory in India kills at least nine and hospitalises hundreds
Donald Trump has again suggested the US may need to accept the reality of more deaths in order to start reopening the economy, as governments around the world continued to ease out of lockdown restrictions.
Related: Global report: deaths are price of reopening, says Trump, as China warns risks remain
Continue reading...Tests have been hailed as key to helping end the UK lockdown. But what can they tell us?
Antibody tests have been hailed as a key to understanding the spread of the coronavirus and even as a means of easing us out of lockdown. But what are they, and what can they tell us?
Continue reading...President says it’s time to reopen businesses as US deaths top 70,000; number of Russian cases rises by more than 10,000 for fourth consecutive day; Spain set to extend state of emergency for two more weeks
Pope Francis has urged employers to respect the dignity of workers, particularly migrants, in the face of economic difficulties brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking at the end of his general audience, held from the papal library instead of St Peter’s Square because of Italy’s lockdown, he said:
It’s true that the crisis is affecting everyone but the dignity of people must always be respected.”
Baseball fans will be let back into Taiwanese stadiums this week as the government begins relaxing some controls implemented to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Taiwan has been relatively successful at controlling the virus, with 439 cases to date and six deaths, and 100 active infections, thanks to early prevention and detection efforts. The island has never gone into total lockdown, though the government has promoted social distancing and face masks.
Related: Taiwan to welcome baseball fans back into stadiums this week
Continue reading...With attention focused on coronavirus, undiagnosed and untreated TB cases will cause 1.4 million to die, research suggests
The head of a global partnership to end tuberculosis (TB) said she is “sickened” by research that revealed millions more people are expected to contract the disease as a result of Covid-19 restrictions.
Up to 6.3 million more people are predicted to develop TB between now and 2025 and 1.4 million more people are expected to die as cases go undiagnosed and untreated during lockdown. This will set back global efforts to end TB by five to eight years.
Continue reading...Elon Musk reportedly involved in the production, which if confirmed would be first feature film ever made in space
Tom Cruise is in talks with Nasa about working on a movie shot in outer space, according to the head of the space agency.
“Nasa is excited to work with Tom Cruise on a film aboard the Space Station!,” Nasa administrator Jim Bridenstine wrote on Twitter.
Continue reading...Strict quarantining and widespread testing have helped the country avoid disaster, but with tourism on hold the nation’s future is uncertain
Vietnam didn’t just flatten its coronavirus curve, it crushed it. No deaths have been reported, official case numbers have plateaued at just 271, and no community transmissions of the virus have been reported in the last two weeks. On 23 April, the nation eased lockdowns in its major cities and life is gradually returning to normal. It is a stark contrast to many other nations including the US, where more Americans have died from Covid-19 than during the entire Vietnam war.
Kidong Park, the World Health Organisation’s representative to Vietnam, has praised the country’s response to the crisis.
Continue reading...More than 100 cases of unusual illness have emerged in at least six countries as 15 New York patients aged two to 15 hospitalized
New York City’s health department has reported 15 cases of a rare but potentially lethal inflammatory syndrome in children that may be linked to coronavirus infections.
More than 100 cases of the unusual illness have now emerged in at least six countries, with doctors in Britain, the US, France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland investigating the condition.
Continue reading...Plan involves beefing up protection for vulnerable people while easing controls on others
Britain could exit the coronavirus lockdown by relaxing restrictions on more than half of the population and beefing up protection for those over 70 and vulnerable people, scientists have said.
The strategy from researchers at Edinburgh University, known as “segmenting and shielding”, is intended to create leeway for ministers to ease the lockdown on those least at risk from the virus while ensuring that vulnerable people only come into contact with carers and family members who are free from infection.
Continue reading...Austria says easing lockdown has not led to spike in infections; Macron says major foreign travel will be limited this summer; global deaths pass 250,000
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported 19,138 new confirmed cases; taking the total to at least 1,171,510. The number of deaths has risen by 823 to 68,279, it added.
The figures do not necessarily reflect those reported by individual states.
A regional capital in Brazil has become the country’s first city to declare a total lockdown – in direct opposition to the president Jair Bolsonaro, who has railed against social isolation and dismissed a soaring death-toll.
The lockdown in São Luís, capital of the north-estern state of Maranhão, and three neighbouring towns, was ordered by a judge after intensive care beds in state government hospitals filled up. States such as Rio de Janeiro are watching closely. But the move came as looser social isolation measures introduced by state governors crumble across Brazil and cases soar.
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Related: Coronavirus live news: WHO and Five Eyes reject Chinese lab theory as global deaths pass 250,000
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is taking the lead in pressing a hard line against Beijing over the coronavirus pandemic, AFP reports.
Pompeo, in an interview Sunday on ABC, said there was “enormous evidence” that the new coronavirus came out of a Wuhan lab - not a wet market, as most scientists suggest.
Continue reading...YouTube deletes Covid-19 conspiracy theorist’s account; Warren Buffett optimistic; Rohingya refugees detained in Malaysia. Follow the latest updates
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...UK PM says doctors had prepared to announce his death; Iran to reopen mosques on Monday; global cases near 3.5 million
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
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Continue reading...Just one in five want schools, pubs and restaurants to be reopened, according to new poll by Opinium
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Fewer than one in five of the British public believe the time is right to consider reopening schools, restaurants, pubs and stadiums. The findings, in a new poll for the Observer, suggest Boris Johnson will struggle to convince people to return their lives to normal if he tries to ease the lockdown soon.
The poll by Opinium, taken between Wednesday and Friday last week, found 17% of people think the conditions have been met to consider reopening schools, against 67% who say they have not been, and that they should stay closed.
Continue reading...Germany’s top coronavirus expert says children play as big a role as adults in spread
More countries across Europe are preparing to reopen schools in the coming weeks despite conflicting advice from scientifist, some of whom caution against underestimating children’s potential to spread the coronavirus.
Some schools and nurseries in Denmark and Norway have already reopened, and grandparents in Switzerland are allowed to hug grandchildren under 10, following a ruling by the health ministry’s head of infectious diseases that it is safe to do so.
Continue reading...Exclusive: test has potential to identify carriers before they become infectious
Scientists working for the US military have designed a new Covid-19 test that could potentially identify carriers before they become infectious and spread the disease, the Guardian has learned.
In what could be a significant breakthrough, project coordinators hope the blood-based test will be able to detect the virus’s presence as early as 24 hours after infection – before people show symptoms and several days before a carrier is considered capable of spreading it to other people. That is also around four days before current tests can detect the virus.
Continue reading...People tell of symptoms coming and going weeks after falling ill, even in mild cases
Six weeks after first feeling unwell, Jenny* is still recovering from what she believes was Covid-19.
On 17 March she, like many others, began preparing for an expected lockdown in the UK, stocking up on supermarket essentials. She was feeling a little flushed – something she put down to a reemergence of cold-like symptoms from a few weeks before.
Continue reading...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
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...Alabama company Dynetics also chosen for moon landing project, as three firms prepare to compete
Nasa has selected three private space companies to lead the development of lunar landers for its forthcoming moon landings.
The three companies are Blue Origin, owned by Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos; Elon Musk’s SpaceX; and Dynetics, based in Huntsville, Alabama, Nasa announced on Thursday.
Continue reading...Currents act as conveyor belts that concentrate microplastics in hotspots, study suggests
Scientists have discovered microplastics in greater quantities than ever before on the seabed, and gathered clues as to how ocean currents and deep-sea circulation have carried them there.
Microplastics – tiny pieces of plastic less than 5mm in size – are likely to accumulate most densely on the ocean floor in areas that are also biodiversity hotspots, intensifying the damage they may do to marine ecosystems, according to the research.
Continue reading...