New Zealand has reported a 12th straight day of no new cases of Covid-19, as the government considers abandoning as early as next week all remaining restrictions on the country except stringent border controls.
Just one person in New Zealand is still recovering from the illness, health officials said on Wednesday. They are not in hospital. There have been fewer than 1,500 confirmed cases of the virus in the country, with 22 deaths.
Keir Starmer has accused Boris Johnson of causing a collapse in public confidence over the government?€?s handling of the coronavirus crisis, saying No 10 will be directly responsible if the infection rate starts to rise again.
In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, the Labour leader launched a stinging attack on the the prime minister, accusing him of ?€?winging it?€? over the easing of the lockdown and making an already ?€?difficult situation 10 times worse?€?.
Germany lifted its blanket European travel ban as coronavirus lockdowns across the EU continued to ease, with officials saying new cases in western Europe were now in steady decline.
Parisians reclaimed their cafe terraces and Berliners took back their bars as normal life inched closer to returning in many parts of the continent.
The World Health Organization struggled to get needed information from China during critical early days of the coronavirus pandemic, according to recordings of internal meetings that contradict the organisation?€?s public praise of Beijing?€?s response to the outbreak.
The recordings, obtained by the Associated Press (AP), show officials complaining in meetings during the week of 6 January that Beijing was not sharing data needed to evaluate the risk of the virus to the rest of the world. It was not until 20 January that China confirmed coronavirus was contagious and 30 January that the WHO declared a global emergency.
UK prime minister says all eligible for BNO passport can apply if China cuts freedoms
Boris Johnson has opened the path to what he called one of the ?€?biggest changes?€? ever to the British visa system, stating he was ready to offer a right to live and work in the UK to any of the nearly 3 million Hong Kong citizens eligible for a British National Overseas passport.
Ministers have been ambivalent since last Thursday on whether the government?€?s offer of an extendable 12-month visa would be available only to the 350,000 current BNO passport holders in Hong Kong, or would also include the more than 2.5 million eligible to apply for the passport.
CEO says decision was ?€?tough?€? but ?€?thorough?€? as company faces harsh criticism and public dissent from employees
Mark Zuckerberg is standing by his decision to allow Donald Trump to threaten violence against George Floyd protesters on the platform despite harsh criticism from civil rights leaders and public dissent from his own employees, including a public resignation.
In a video conference with staff on Tuesday, Zuckerberg said that his decision to not remove Trump?€?s warning on social media on Friday that ?€?when the looting starts the shooting start?€? was ?€?tough?€? but ?€?pretty thorough?€?, the New York Times reported. The company usually holds an all-staff meeting on Thursdays, but the session was moved up to address growing discontent among employees, hundreds of whom staged a ?€?walkout?€? on Monday by requesting time off.
First cyclone in 70 years for financial capital sparks rush to transfer Covid-19 patients and sanitise temporary shelters
At least 100,000 people including coronavirus patients were being moved to safety as India?€?s west coast braced for a cyclone - the first such storm to threaten Mumbai in more than 70 years.
Authorities in India?€?s financial capital, which is struggling to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, evacuated nearly 150 virus patients from a recently built field hospital to a facility with a concrete roof as a precautionary measure, officials said on Tuesday.
One man was a retired St Louis police captain checking on his friend?€?s shop. Another was the beloved owner of a Louisville barbecue restaurant who provided free meals to officers. Yet another was a man known as ?€?Mr Indianapolis?€?, a former star football player.
They are among those killed as protests have roiled American cities in the week since the death of George Floyd. Many of the people killed were African Americans, compounding the tragedy for black communities.
Tory government must act as exports are prohibited if used for internal repression, says Emily Thornberry
Labour has called on the UK to suspend the sale of riot control equipment to the United States and review whether any British-made teargas or crowd control guns were being used against demonstrators across the United States.
Emily Thornberry, the shadow international trade secretary, has written to her opposite number, Liz Truss, arguing it would ?€?be a disgrace?€? if the UK supplied material that was used by US police or national guard during crisis sparked by the death in police hands of George Floyd.
In her letter the Labour MP said: ?€?If this were any other leader, in any other country in the world, the suspension of any such exports is the least we could expect from the British government in response to their actions, and our historic alliance with the United States is no reason to shirk that responsibility now.?€?
MPs are to return to parliament after a government motion was passed to prevent the resumption of virtual voting, despite what one MP called ?€?absurd?€? scenes of a kilometre-long conga line of politicians trying to vote.
The 527 MPs snaked through Westminster halls and courtyards for an hour and 23 minutes to vote on the proposal by the Commons leader, Jacob Rees-Mogg, which was carried by 261 votes to 163. It incited a furious reaction from many MPs, including those who are shielding and black and ethnic minority (BAME) politicians.
UN says country is on cliff edge after fundraising summit raises only $1.35bn for the year
Yemen remains on the brink of ?€?a macabre tragedy?€?, the UN has warned after a humanitarian fundraising summit raised only $1.35bn (£1.05bn) for this year, around $1bn short of the target and only half the sum raised at the equivalent pledging conference last year.
The UN?€?s humanitarian chief, Mark Lowcock, said unless more money was raised Yemen ?€?will face a horrific outcome at the end of the year?€?.
Conversion of building where Nazi leader was born will cost ?5m and be completed in 2022
Austrian authorities have unveiled a design for turning the house where Adolf Hitler was born into a police station - while trying to make it unattractive as a pilgrimage site for people who glorify the Nazi dictator.
A design by Austrian architects Marte.Marte beat 11 competitors in an interior ministry tender, officials said on Tuesday. The refurbishment is expected to be completed around the end of 2022 and will cost about ?5m (£4.5m).
Police in Fuenlabrada, near Madrid, arrest man who played bingo with 83-year-old victim
Spanish police investigating the murder of an 83-year-old woman who was robbed and killed a year ago have arrested a man in his 80s with whom she used to play bingo.
Officers began their inquiries on 22 May last year after the woman?€?s care worker became worried by her failure to answer calls.
Study may shed light on material and debated origins of some of the 25,000 fragments
With myriad fragments and an extraordinary past, the Dead Sea scrolls are quite a puzzle. Now experts say ancient DNA has helped them piece together which fragments come from the same scrolls, as well as which texts may have travelled a distance, and how widespread the writings were.
The scrolls are one of the most remarkable discoveries of the 20th century. Found in the caves of Qumran as well as other sites around the Judean desert, the ancient texts cover parts of the Hebrew bible canon as well as writings about religious practices, legal documents, and hymns.
The Senakw development aims to ease the city?€?s chronic housing crisis - and to challenge the mindset that indigeneity and urbanity are incompatible
The scrubby, vacant patch beneath the Burrard Street Bridge in Vancouver looks at first glance like a typical example of the type of derelict nook common to all cities: 11.7 acres of former railway lands, over which tens of thousands of people drive every day.
This is not any old swath of underused space, however. It?€?s one of Canada?€?s smallest First Nations reserves, where dozens of Squamish families once lived. The village was destroyed by provincial authorities more than a century ago.
Amazon have arrived in force in rapidly expanding Hyderabad, with designs on the currently almost non-existent Indian e-commence market
The futuristic lobby of the new Amazon building in Hyderabad feels as though it should have a permanent orchestra blasting out Also Sprach Zarathustra. The scale is intended to awe. A large slogan on a wall suggests the company is ?€?Delivering smiles?€?. The only sound that rises above the hush is a synthesised beep, coming from a giant screen playing a video of the campus at various stages of its construction.
Built on nine acres in this Indian city?€?s financial district, it is Amazon?€?s single largest building globally and the only Amazon-owned campus outside the US. It can house over 15,000 employees, but its size is its main architectural feature: it resembles the same cube of glass steel and chrome seen in corporate offices across Hyderabad, though a flash of magenta reflected in one of the top floor windows, from a billowing sari across the road, is a nice Indian touch.
Minibuses that run on Friday evenings and Saturdays buck state?€?s religious restrictions
Tel Aviv is one of Israel?€?s most dynamic cities, but the latest local craze could appear fairly humdrum to outsiders - a bus service that runs at weekends.
Packed 19-seat minibuses fill up fast with passengers, who excitedly gossip about the new routes. People patiently queue at bus stops, knowing they might have to wait for two or three buses to pass before there is a space. Still, they are upbeat. ?€?It?€?s a pleasure,?€? said Ben Uzan, a 30-year-old electronic engineer. ?€?It?€?s a blessed initiative.?€?
The Garbage Cafe in Ambikapur, India, is helping to tackle the country?€?s plastic waste problem - and their novel idea is catching on
On bad days, when his employer made some excuse for not paying him his paltry daily wage, Ram Yadav?€?s main meal used to be dry chapatis, with salt and raw onion for flavour. Sometimes he just went hungry. For a ragpicker like him, one of the thousands of Indians who make a living bringing in plastic waste for recycling, eating in a cafe or restaurant was the stuff of fairytales.
But last week, Yadav was sitting at a table at the Garbage Cafe in Ambikapur, in the state of Chhattisgarh, over a piping hot meal of dal, aloo gobi, poppadoms and rice. He earned the food in exchange for bringing in 1kg of plastic waste. ?€?The hot meal I get here lasts me all day. And it feels good to sit at a table like everyone else,?€? he said.
All four of the UK?€?s chief medical officers rejected suggestions from No 10 that the coronavirus threat level could be reduced because it contradicted evidence that showed the virus was still widespread, the Guardian has been told.
A senior source in one devolved government said the chief medical officers of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland discussed and refused Boris Johnson?€?s proposal.
Public health experts and officials have warned that the idea of ?€?air bridge?€? links between the UK and overseas holiday destinations may prove impossible this summer, amid continued concern over how they could operate safely.
A number of Conservative MPs are pushing for air bridges - mutual agreements with other countries to allow travellers to fly in and out without coronavirus quarantine restrictions - ahead of the imposition of the UK?€?s 14-day quarantine system next week.
A former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Mike Mullen, condemned the use of force against protestors in order to clear the way for a photo op. In an op-ed published by The Atlantic, Mullen, who served as the highest-ranking military officer in the country from 2001 to 2011, wrote:
It sickened me yesterday to see security personnel?€?including members of the National Guard?€?forcibly and violently clear a path through Lafayette Square to accommodate the president?€?s visit outside St. John?€?s Church. I have to date been reticent to speak out on issues surrounding President Trump?€?s leadership, but we are at an inflection point, and the events of the past few weeks have made it impossible to remain silent.
Whatever Trump?€?s goal in conducting his visit, he laid bare his disdain for the rights of peaceful protest in this country, gave succor to the leaders of other countries who take comfort in our domestic strife, and risked further politicizing the men and women of our armed forces.
ABS reports growth slowed to 1.4% through the year as industrial relations roundtables prepare an agenda to regrow the jobs lost during Covid-19. Follow live
Carmen Arestegui?€?s battle to stay on the airwaves is the subject of a film highlighting the risks of exposing corruption and crime
When Mexican news anchor Carmen Aristegui was fired from a popular radio show after revealing a presidential scandal on air, it sparked an outpouring of anger and protests.
For millions of listeners Aristegui is a trusted voice cutting through government spin and corruption, and her absence left a void.
Brutality of 22-year-old Vera Uwaila Omozuwa?€?s killing has shocked the country amid a chorus of demands for justice
Vera Uwaila Omozuwa, a 22-year-old microbiology student, sought the quiet of her empty church in Benin City, southern Nigeria, as a place to study. Hours later she was raped and killed in a crime that has sparked outrage across Nigeria.
Last Wednesday evening, a church security guard found Uwa, as she is known, unconscious in a pool of blood, according to her family.
Authorities are forcing people from homes they say were unlawfully built during a nationwide quarantine
Don Pacho has been running from the rival factions of Colombia?€?s civil war his whole life. Now, he?€?s running from the police, as authorities in the country?€?s capital push on with a wave of evictions despite a strict coronavirus lockdown.
Hundreds of Bogotá?€?s poorest residents are caught between two brutal forces: a nationwide quarantine that makes working impossible and authorities forcing people from homes they say were unlawfully built.
Refugees face violence and disease as they travel across the Red Sea hoping to find work in the Gulf states
Yellow and purple headscarves and patterned dresses made a jarring contrast with the camouflage uniforms worn by soldiers milling around a bullet-ridden checkpoint in the southern Yemeni city of Aden.
It was 8am, and the sun was already hot. The family of six - four women and two men from Ethiopia, across the Red Sea - had already walked eight miles (13km) so far that morning. They stopped to ask the soldiers for water before continuing on their journey.
Record-breaking rainfall has devastated communities - and with thousands displaced and more rain predicted the picture is bleak
Using a short piece of nylon line with a hook at one end and a long thin stick on the other, a mechanic and a nightclub doorman have only caught one small fish all day.
?€?I?€?ve never been a fisherman before,?€? says Erick Ochieng on the edge of a flooded creek in the port city of Kisumu on the banks of Lake Victoria. ?€?I used to work as a bouncer but nightclubs have closed. Sometimes my family sleeps without eating.?€?
When Larry Hamm, a veteran activist with People?€?s Organization for Progress, kicked off last weekend?€?s protest in Newark, New Jersey, he asked the crowd what they wanted. The majority - though not all - said they wanted a peaceful protest.
The inquiry into disparities in the risk and outcomes of Covid-19 commissioned by the Department of Health identifies major inequalities, confirming that - contrary to the popular refrain - we are not all in this together.
?€?When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross,?€? goes an oft-quoted line of uncertain origin.
On Monday evening, Donald Trump, with four US flags behind him, threatened to send in the military against the American people, then crossed the road to pose for a photo outside a historic church while clutching a Bible.
There is something so wounded in American society that basic commitment to justice is not part of the operating code
In 1919, as soldiers returned from the first world war, many white Americans saw African American men in military uniforms for the first time. That sight, and the challenge it posed to the political, social and economic order, was deeply threatening to them. Groups of armed white men hunted down and slaughtered hundreds of black Americans across the country. The wave of lynchings and race riots came to be known as the Red Summer.
The black community did its best to fight back, without protection from the state. In some cases, police actively participated in the lynchings. The US attorney general, A Mitchell Palmer, claimed that leftwing radicals were behind the uprisings - a false charge and one that further endangered African American lives. Palmer worked for President Woodrow Wilson, an ardent segregationist who screened Birth of a Nation in the White House and praised the Ku Klux Klan even as it deployed terrorism to keep blacks away from the voting booth. Wilson had been silent while whites slaughtered African Americans in East St Louis in 1917, and he did little to nothing in 1919 when they again attacked and killed black people, this time on an even more horrific and grisly scale.
Roxie Washington, the mother of George Floyd's six-year-old daughter, spoke at a news conference on Tuesday after days of protests following his death in Minneapolis. "I'm here for my baby and I'm here for George because I want justice for him," Washington said through tears. "He was a good man"
The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, was silent for 21 seconds in reaction to a question on Donald Trump's handling of protests across the US over the killing of George Floyd by a white police officer.
Trudeau said Canada also had to face up to 'systemic discrimination' and become allies against it
Protesters marched in their thousands in towns and cities across America, part of a wave of demonstrations that have followed the killing of George Floyd
Joe Biden has addressed the killing of George Floyd and the protests that his death has sparked. During a speech in Philadelphia, the Democratic presidential candidate said Floyd?€?s last words, 'I can?€?t breathe', were a 'wake-up call for our nation'. Biden also sought to draw a clear distinction between himself and Donald Trump, saying the US president was 'part of the problem'
Today, Historic England reveals 200 new images which have been added to their archive to form the Picturing Lockdown Collection. This follows a call-out asking the public to photograph their lockdown from 29 April to 5 May. The appeal was the first time the public have been asked to submit photographs for the archive since the Second World War.
US president Donald Trump has authorised the use of "heavily armed soldiers" to "dominate the streets" in a press conference held in the White House Rose Garden. A few hundred metres away on the streets of Washington DC, police used teargas to disperse crowds of protesters.
George Floyd?€?s brother implores protesters to remain peaceful, urging people to go out and vote rather than turn to violence. ?€?Stop thinking our voice don't matter, and vote,?€? Terrence Floyd said, visiting the site of his brother?€?s death. ?€?If I?€?m not over here wilding out, if I'm not over here blowing up stuff, if I'm not over here messing up my community, then what are y'all doing??€?
Large number of US citizens demonstrated against the war in Iraq (and the possible war in Iran) during this October weekend. Massive turnout in Boston and San Fransisco, and also in Chicago, LA and DC people took to the streets. The message was: NO more war in Iraq! NO to a war with Iran!
