Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Pregnant women in hospital with coronavirus are less likely to show symptoms and may have a greater risk risk of being admitted to an intensive care unit than non-pregnant women of similar age, a study has found.
The analysis, which encompassed 77 studies conducted globally and was published in the British Medical Journal, looked at 11,432 pregnant women admitted to hospital and diagnosed as having suspected or confirmed Covid-19.
The morning flow of commuters arriving at Canary Wharf, London’s financial district, was a trickle on Tuesday rather than the torrent traditionally associated with the end of summer return to work.
Sparse numbers of suited and smartly dressed workers emerged from the underground station, clutching their morning takeaway coffees, destined for the corporate headquarters of banks, financial services companies and law firms.
Tens of millions of pupils, most wearing face masks, have headed back to class in France, Belgium, Poland and Russia, as schools across Europe cautiously reopened amid spiralling numbers of new coronavirus cases in several countries.
Parents and teachers around the continent have expressed fears that strict physical distancing and hygiene measures such as hand cleansing stations will not be able to prevent a second Covid-19 wave, maybe coinciding with the autumn flu season.
Tony Abbott, the former Australian prime minister tipped to become a UK trade envoy, has railed against Covid “health dictatorships”, saying the economic cost of lockdowns meant families should be allowed to consider letting elderly relatives with the coronavirus die by letting nature take its course.
He claimed it was costing the Australian government as much as $200,000 (£110,000) to give an elderly person an extra year’s life, substantially beyond what governments would usually pay for life-saving drugs.
Historians estimate as many as 300 black people were killed
Suit alleges massacre responsible for inequality in Tulsa today
A group of Oklahomans, led by 105-year-old woman, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday demanding reparations for the 1921 Tulsa race massacre which saw white mobs burn down a thriving black neighborhood and kill hundreds of people.
US-Senegalese star says smart city will be built in mould of fictional nation Wakanda
The US-Senegalese music mogul Akon has said he is pressing ahead with lofty plans to create a futuristic Pan-African smart city in Senegal next year, built in the mould of Wakanda - the fictional, technologically advanced African nation depicted in the Marvel blockbuster Black Panther.
The 2,000-acre, surrealist, solar-powered “Akon City”, backed by the Senegalese government and funded by unnamed investors, was first announced by Akon in 2018.
Spokesman for Boris Johnson says hopes of meeting deadline in December are dwindling
Downing Street has played down the prospect of reaching a trade deal with the EU in time for December, saying it will be “very difficult” – and blaming Brussels’ insistence on tackling tough issues upfront.
The UK’s chief negotiator, David Frost, is meeting his EU counterpart Michel Barnier in London, in advance of the next round of formal talks next week.
French leader meets Fairouz, 85, amid frustration with ruling class unwilling to change
The French president had tried it all before: rebuking his counterpart, cajoling ministers, withholding aid and imploring the Lebanese ruling class to change its ways in order to save the country.
This time Emmanuel Macron arrived in Beirut with a different approach – a visit to one of the country’s most unifying figures. His first port of call was to the home of the illustrious singer, Fairouz, whose songs of loss and lament have been a soundtrack to Lebanese life for more than 50 years.
It had not – really not – been a pleasant experience. Queuing for their banh mi and bibimbap, sushi or Thai salad outside the fast-food takeaways of the Rue Saint-Lazare, young office workers in central Paris spoke with one voice.
“I thought I wasn’t going to last an hour, it was so uncomfortable,” said Egé, gesturing at her blue surgical mask. “Hot, sweaty, the smell of your own breath … Just very unpleasant. But you get used to it. In any case, we have no choice.”
Germany’s health minister was jeered, spat at and targeted by homophobic abuse as the countrywide protests of a vocal minority of people against coronavirus restrictions has taken on an increasingly aggressive tone.
The Conservative politician Jens Spahn, a key figure in Germany’s handling of the pandemic, on Saturday tried to confront a crowd of protesters outside an event ahead of local elections in North-Rhine Westphalia.
Images depicting Muhammad on cover as alleged accomplices in 2015 attack due in court
The French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo is to republish controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad to mark the start of a trial of suspected accomplices of terrorist gunmen who attacked its offices in January 2015.
Workers will be able switch jobs without employers’ permission, but rights groups say measure does not go far enough
Workers in Qatar may now change jobs without needing to obtain their employers’ permission, ending one of the most criticised elements of the country’s labour system.
The government has also announced an increase in the minimum wage, but rights groups have said the measure does not go far enough, leaving low wage workers earning as little as £1 an hour.
Joe Biden has responded to Trump’s refusal to condemn Kyle Rittenhouse:
In a statement, he said:
Tonight, the President declined to rebuke violence. He wouldn’t even repudiate one of his supporters who is charged with murder because of his attacks on others. He is too weak, too scared of the hatred he has stirred to put an end to it.
So once again, I urge the President to join me in saying that while peaceful protest is a right — a necessity — violence is wrong, period. No matter who does it, no matter what political affiliation they have. Period.
If Donald Trump can’t say that, then he is unfit to be President, and his preference for more violence — not less — is clear.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is seeking a communications firm to “defeat despair and inspire hope,” bidding out a $250m contract, Politico reports.
Ahead of the elections, with 180,000 Americans dead from coronavirus, HHS wants a firm to help “deliver important public health and economic information the administration can defeat despair, inspire hope and achieve national recovery.”
Several weeks ago, the department sent out to a number of communications firms a “performance work statement,” which lays out what work will be expected of the winning firm. The document says that the vast majority of the money will be spent from now until January.
The document also lists the goals of the contract: “defeat despair and inspire hope, sharing best practices for businesses to operate in the new normal and instill confidence to return to work and restart the economy,” build a “coalition of spokespeople” around the country, provide important public health, therapeutic and vaccine information as the country reopens and give Americans information on the phases of reopening.
The UK has spent more than £2.5bn on services and equipment related to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to fresh analysis that raises concerns about “opaque” contracts around the world wasting money and putting lives at risk.
A report by the Open Contracting Partnership and Spend Network found governments had spent $130bn (£97bn) on pandemic-related contracts, including on PPE (personal protective equipment) and other medical supplies, out of an annual procurement spend of nearly $13tn.
Government frames decree as pre-election goodwill gesture
Guaidó-led opposition says conditions for vote are not fair
The Venezuelan government has announced pardons for more than 100 people, including political opponents who are in prison, have taken refuge in foreign embassies in Caracas or fled the country.
A Qatari-brokered truce commits Israel to easing its 13-year-old blockade of the Palestinian territory
Gaza’s Islamist rulers Hamas have announced they have reached a Qatari-mediated deal with Israel to end more than three weeks of cross-border exchanges of fire.
After talks with Qatari envoy Mohammed al-Emadi, “an understanding was reached to rein in the latest escalation and end [Israeli] aggression against our people,” said the office of the Palestinian territory’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar.
A flight from the Greek island of Zante was “full of selfish ‘covidiots’ and an inept crew”, according to a passenger among the almost 200 onboard who have been told to self-isolate after a coronavirus outbreak.
Tui said it had launched an investigation after 16 people tested positive for Covid-19 linked to its flight to Cardiff on 25 August, including seven passengers who were infectious or potentially infectious on the plane.
The president has shown a lifelong penchant for inflaming racist hatreds and fears – expect much more of this before November
Six months into the coronavirus pandemic, Donald Trump tweeted a rare statement of condolences, as the confirmed death toll in the US climbed past 183,000.
Detective tells court Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder was motivated by desire to suppress information
Police believe that the anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed for what she was about to reveal about a government-sponsored power station deal, a court in Malta has heard.
At the start of 2017, Caruana Galizia received a cache of 600,000 emails leaked from an energy company partly owned by Yorgen Fenech, who is now the chief suspect in the murder. The company, Electrogas, holds a lucrative concession to supply Malta’s state-owned electricity provider.
Pact covers security, land ownership, power sharing and return of displaced people
Sudan’s government has agreed to a peace deal with five rebel groups in a move seen by observers as a significant step towards resolving multiple deep-rooted civil conflicts that have caused immense suffering in the country for decades.