Some weeks ago my main worries were around my GCSEs. Now I hear every day about deaths from Covid-19

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It is the sixth week of lockdown, and for many people things are getting progressively more intense. Most families are physically distancing at home. People are only leaving the house for their weekly shop – and spending a lot of that time waiting in the queue – or to exercise once a day.

In my family things are a bit different. Our driveway is usually empty during the day as my parents, who are doctors, go in to work. It is difficult to imagine how only some weeks ago my main worries were around my GCSEs. Now every day, I hear about deaths from coronavirus. I cannot help but feel a surge of fear for my parents as I watch these updates with my brother. I’m painfully aware of the many healthcare workers who have lost their lives.

Exclusive: report criticising government lockdown proposals heavily redacted before release

• Coronavirus – latest updates
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Government scientific advisers are furious at what they see as an attempt to censor their advice on government proposals during the Covid-19 lockdown by heavily redacting an official report before it was released to the public, the Guardian can reveal.

The report was one of a series of documents published by the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (Sage) this week to mollify growing criticism about the lack of transparency over the advice given to ministers responding to the coronavirus.

As the coronavirus outbreak continues to be our focus on Science Weekly, we also want to try look at other science stories. In this episode, Nicola Davis speaks to Dave Krause about the 66-million-year-old fossil of a cat-sized mammal dubbed ‘crazy beast’. A giant in its day, we hear how this now extinct branch of mammals – known as Gondwanatherians – offers new insights into what could have been

A man whose wife was killed in the April mass shooting in Nova Scotia is the plaintiff named in a proposed class-action lawsuit against the estate of the deceased gunman, denturist Gabriel Wortman.

The mother of a newborn wants to see her own mother cuddle the baby, while adult children must rely on virtual connections with their elderly mother. COVID-19 proves challenging physically and emotionally for many this Mother's Day.

Most are doing their best to avoid other people's germs right now. But for cleaners and those who get rid of that trash, they're coming into contact with COVID-19 every shift.

The United Nations said a "smart strategy" is to contain coronavirus in the world's most vulnerable countries to stem a "further phase of the pandemic."

Vice President Mike Pence's press secretary has the coronavirus, the White House said Friday, making her the second person who works at the White House complex known to test positive for the virus this week. President Donald Trump, who publicly identified the affected Pence aide, said he was “not worried” about the virus spreading in the White House. Pence spokeswoman Katie Miller, who tested positive Friday, had been in recent contact with Pence but not with the president.

Kenyans are afraid that money set aside to tackle the virus is being misspent, writes Waihiga Mwaura.

The Senate failed to override President Trump's veto of legislation that would have prevented him from taking military action in Iran without congressional approval. On Thursday, the Senate voted 49-44 in favor of the override, falling short of the two-thirds majority needed for it to be approved. Both chambers of Congress passed the bipartisan resolution earlier this year.

Security council had spent weeks seeking resolution but Trump administration opposed mention of organizationThe US has blocked a vote on a UN security council resolution calling for a global ceasefire during the Covid-19 pandemic, because the Trump administration objected to an indirect reference to the World Health Organization.The security council has been wrangling for more than six weeks over the resolution, which was intended to demonstrate global support for the call for a ceasefire by the UN secretary general, António Guterres. The main source for the delay was the US refusal to endorse a resolution that urged support for the WHO’s operations during the coronavirus pandemic.Donald Trump has blamed the WHO for the pandemic, claiming (without any supporting evidence) that it withheld information in the early days of the outbreak.China insisted that the resolution should include mention and endorsement of the WHO.On Thursday night, French diplomats thought they had engineered a compromise in which the resolution would mention UN “specialized health agencies” (an indirect, if clear, reference to the WHO).The Russian mission signaled that it wanted a clause calling for the lifting of sanctions that affected the delivery of medical supplies, a reference to US punitive measures imposed on Iran and Venezuela. However, most security council diplomats believed Moscow would withdraw the objection or abstain in a vote rather than risk isolation as the sole veto on the ceasefire resolution.On Thursday night, it appeared that the compromise resolution had the support of the US mission, but on Friday morning, that position switched and the US “broke silence” on the resolution, raising objection to the phrase “specialist health agencies”, and blocking movement towards a vote.“We understood that there was an agreement on this thing but it seems that they changed their mind,” a western security council diplomat said.“Obviously they have changed their mind within the American system so that wording is still not good enough for them,” another diplomat close to the discussions said. “It might be that they just need a bit more time to settle it amongst themselves, or it might be that someone very high up has made a decision they don’t want it, and therefore it won’t happen. It is unclear at this moment, which one it is.”A spokesperson for the US mission at the UN suggested that if the resolution was to mention the work of the WHO, it would have to include critical language about how China and the WHO have handled the pandemic.“In our view, the council should either proceed with a resolution limited to support for a ceasefire, or a broadened resolution that fully addresses the need for renewed member state commitment to transparency and accountability in the context of Covid-19. Transparency and reliable data are essential to helping the world combat this ongoing pandemic, and the next one,” the spokesperson said.While the force of the resolution would be primarily symbolic, it would have been symbolism at a crucial moment. Since Guterres made his call for a global ceasefire, armed factions in more than a dozen countries had observed a temporary truce. The absence of a resolution from the world’s most powerful nations, however, undermines the secretary general’s clout in his efforts to maintain those fragile ceasefires.Talks will continue next week at the security council to explore whether some other way around the impasse can be found.

The flight from Italy was one of the last arrivals that day at the Stockholm airport. A Swedish couple in their 50s walked up and loaded their skis into Razzak Khalaf's taxi. It was early March and concerns over the coronavirus were already present, but the couple, both coughing for the entire 45-minute journey, assured Khalaf they were healthy and just suffering from a change in the weather.

On the 75th anniversary of the allied victory in the World War II, The Associated Press spoke to veterans in ex-Soviet countries and discovered that lessons they learned during the war are helping them cope with a new major challenge — the coronavirus pandemic. As they recalled the horrors of the war, they also talked about how strength and tenacity were key to survival both then and now. For Russian World War II veteran Valentina Efremova, the coronavirus pandemic is like going through the war all over again.

Arriving at his retirement home, he immediately went into self-isolation with his wife of 55 years, Jean, who has shown no symptoms of the virus. Embleton, who received an MBE honor from Queen Elizabeth II in 1993 for outstanding service to the Royal Navy, thinks the lockdown rules are too strict for some elderly people.

President Vladimir Putin told Russians they are "invincible" when they stand together as the country on Saturday marked the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II in lockdown from the coronavirus. With cases surging and authorities urging Russians to stay in their homes, celebrations of this year's Victory Day were muted after the Kremlin grudgingly postponed plans for a grand parade with world leaders. Instead of columns of military hardware and thousands of troops marching through Red Square as planned, Putin walked alone to lay flowers at the Eternal Flame outside the red brick walls of the Kremlin.

The back-and-forth continues.The Department of Homeland Security said Friday the United States will shorten the visa length for Chinese journalists working for non-American news outlets to 90 days. Previously, journalists with Chinese passports were granted open-ended visas. They can apply for extensions under the new rules, but renewed visas will also last just 90 days. The new limit won't apply to reporters from Hong Kong Macau, or to mainland Chinese citizens who hold green cards.It's the latest development in a media war between Washington and Beijing that has intensified during the coronavirus pandemic. American officials said the rules were meant to counterbalance the "suppression of independent journalism" in China, whose government expelled journalists from The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Washington Post in March. Before that, the U.S. reduced the number of Chinese citizens employed by multiple state-controlled Chinese news organizations to work in the country. The New York Times notes the move wasn't unexpected; U.S. intelligence officials have long believed some journalists at Beijing-run outlets are spies, and the Trump administration has designated some Chinese news agencies foreign government functionaries.The heightened tensions between the world's two biggest powers didn't just show up in the media world Friday. U.S. lawmakers wrote to nearly 60 countries asking them to support Taiwan's participation in the World Health Organization, a move that likely won't sit well with China. And Washington also blocked a United Nations security council resolution calling for a global ceasefire during the pandemic because it indirectly referenced the WHO, which the U.S. has blamed in conjunction with China for failing to suppress the outbreak.More stories from theweek.com Outed CIA agent Valerie Plame is running for Congress, and her launch video looks like a spy movie trailer 7 scathing cartoons about America's rush to reopen Trump says he couldn't have exposed WWII vets to COVID-19 because the wind was blowing the wrong way

Many people saw more than the last moments of Ahmaud Arbery's life when a video emerged this week of white men armed with guns confronting the black man, a struggle with punches thrown, three shots fired and Arbery collapsing dead. The Feb. 23 shooting in coastal Georgia is drawing comparisons to a much darker period of U.S. history — when extrajudicial killings of black people, almost exclusively at the hands of white male vigilantes, inflicted racial terror on African Americans. It frequently happened with law enforcement complicity or feigned ignorance.

Myan Mode, a garment factory on the outskirts of Yangon, Myanmar, produces men's jackets, women's blazers and coats for Western fashion companies like Mango and Zara. Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, it has seen a decrease in orders from international retailers.That was why it let go almost half of its 1,274 workers in late March, the factory's managing director said in response to protesters who arrived at the factory's doors to denounce the dismissals.Three fired sewing operators, however, said the factory was taking an opportunity to punish workers engaged in union activity. In an interview, the operators -- Maung Moe, Ye Yint and Ohnmar Myint -- said that of the 571 who had been dismissed, 520 had belonged to the factory's union, one of 20 that make up the Federation of Garment Workers Myanmar. About 700 workers who did not belong to the union kept their jobs, they said.Myan Mode's South Korean-based owner did not respond to requests for comment, and did not provide details about the firings.Moe, 27, was the factory union's president and had organized several strikes. Yint, 30, was the union's secretary, while Myint, 34, had been a union member since its founding in June 2018."The bosses used COVID as an opportunity to get rid of us because they hated our union," Moe said. He said he and other union members had been in discussions with the factory managers before the firings, demanding personal protective equipment and that workers be farther apart on the factory floor. "They thought we caused them constant headaches by fighting for our rights and those of our fellow workers."Union-busting -- practices undertaken to prevent or disrupt the formation of trade unions or attempts to expand membership -- has been a serious problem across the fashion supply chain for decades. But with the global spread of COVID-19 placing fresh pressures on the industry, it is a particular issue in South Asia, where about 40 million garment workers have long grappled with poor working conditions and wages."Union-busting is not a COVID-specific issue for the garment industry -- it happens all the time," said Luke Smitham of the sustainability consultancy Kumi Consulting.Zara's parent company, Inditex, which is supplied by Myan Mode, said its code of conduct for manufacturers expressly prohibited any discrimination against worker representatives. The company said in an email that it was "actively following the situation" at Myan Mode, and would "try to achieve the best possible solution for workers."Mango, which has started to reopen its stores in Europe, said in an emailed statement that it "understood the need to ensure that the human rights of factory workers are respected." The company added that it was maintaining "a continuous" dialogue with suppliers.Roughly 2% of garment workers in Myanmar, where the minimum wage is roughly $3.50 a day, and 0.5% of garment workers in Bangladesh belong to a union, according to affiliate data estimates collected by the global trade union IndustriALL. While Cambodia's workforce is more unionized than others in the region -- around 80% -- the unions there are fragmented, meaning successful collective bargaining negotiations can be difficult.Tear gas, water cannons, police brutality and imprisonment were some of the tools used by the governments of Bangladesh, Cambodia, India and Myanmar to punish striking garment workers and union members last year, according to the International Trade Union Confederation, an umbrella group for unions around the world. It noted that many workers in those countries who tried to form a union were dismissed from jobs or blacklisted by factories. And the number of countries that exclude workers from the right to establish or join a trade union increased to 107 in 2019 from 92 in 2018.Andrew Tillett-Saks, a labor organizer in Yangon, said he had seen a surge in unionizing by garment workers in Myanmar over the last 18 months -- and a reaction from factory owners. Before the pandemic, he said, some garment factories with fledgling unions were abruptly closing and firing union members, then reopening weeks later to supply the same brands under a slightly different name with a new group of nonunionized workers.Tillett-Saks said that much of the focus had been on whether brands would pay wages for workers during the pandemic, or for orders that had already been produced. But factory owners "taking this as an opportunity to break down labor movements in the supply chain could be an even bigger issue."Some brands, like H&M, have tried to facilitate union activity in supplier factories by signing ACT, an agreement brokered by IndustriALL and designed to secure fair wages for workers through collective bargaining and building guarantees of labor rights into purchasing agreements. But there are still hurdles. Before the International Labor Organization, a U.N. agency, can take action, allegations of mistreatment must be sent in writing from a national or international trade union organization and then reviewed internally by the agency -- a complicated process even before the pandemic."We have heard allegations of anti-union discrimination in recent weeks," said John Ritchotte, a specialist in social dialogue and labor administration in Asia for the International Labor Organization. "However, it is currently more difficult than usual for us to verify those allegations through our usual procedures because of travel restrictions and local lockdowns."In the weeks since the Myan Mode layoffs, around 15,000 jobs in the textile industry have been lost and about 40 factories closed across Asia, said Khaing Zar Aung, president of Industrial Workers Federation of Myanmar.Moe said the fired Myan Mode workers had protested outside the factory for weeks, watching as daily wage workers entered and scores of exhausted former colleagues left at midnight after overtime shifts. Eventually, management offered severance but not re-employment to the 571 fired workers, plus 49 employees who had walked out in solidarity. All but 79 eventually took the severance pay.The Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia said about 60% of its factories -- where union members have also been targeted -- had been severely affected by canceled orders of ready-made garment exports because of the pandemic.On March 31, several dozen union workers at the Superl leatherwear factory on the outskirts of Phnom Penh -- which produces handbags for brands like Michael Kors, Tory Burch and Kate Spade -- were told they were being let go. One was a woman who was six months pregnant.Soy Sros, a factory shop steward and the local president of the Collective Union of Movement of Workers, wrote about the company's actions on Facebook, stating it violated a March 6 appeal from the Cambodian government saying COVID should not be used as a chance to discriminate against union members.Twenty-four hours later, Sros was forced by factory management to take down her post and make a thumbprint on a warning letter accusing her of defamation. On April 2, she was removed from the factory floor by the police and charged with posting fake information on social media. She is now in jail.Superl, which is headquartered in Hong Kong, did not respond to requests for comment, nor did Michael Kors and Tory Burch, who regularly place orders at the factory. Another customer, Tapestry, the owner of Kate Spade, declined to comment.In Myanmar, Moe, Yint and Myint all said they did not regret joining the union despite the difficulties they had faced. They said the loss of jobs was proof that worker representation was needed."I worry for the future of garment workers here without representatives," Myint said, referring to both the firings at Myan Mode and other factories across Asia. "But for now, I worry about providing for my family and getting food on the table."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has won bipartisan praise for rallying supplies for his ravaged hospitals and helping slow the coronavirus, is coming under increasing criticism for not bringing that same level of commitment to a problem that has so far stymied him: nursing homes. In part-lecture, part-cheerleading briefings that have made him a Democratic counter to President Donald Trump, Cuomo has often seemed dismissive and resigned to defeat when asked about his state leading the nation in nursing home deaths. “We’ve tried everything to keep it out of a nursing home, but it’s virtually impossible,” Cuomo told reporters.

Comcast hasn't enforced data cap since March 13 because of pandemic.

Evidence points to London being a ceremonial site from the fourth millennium BC

Mission is remembered as perhaps Nasa's finest, and most desparate, hour

Imaging specialist produces clearest pictures yet from dramatic Nasa mission

Disease, spread by spittlebugs, capable of infecting over 300 plant species

The remote working stakes have just gone up a notch

Extremely high-resolution imagery allowed researchers to 'read' rocks on planet surface

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord is currently $37.50 on cdkeys.com. Yesterday it was $41. 

https://www.cdkeys.com/pc/games/mount-and-blade-ii-2-bannerlord-pc

On Steam its MSRP is $50 with a limited time sale going on now for $45. The game just came out to Early Access 3/31.

The question now is: jump now on the good price, or will the price continue to fall?

Note: It's in Early Access and has been in development for like 8 years. Expect some clunk.

As the title states, game is currently $49.99 and finally available for ordering. Add it to your cart plus 2 other $49.99 games, make sure the other 2 are shipped. Either keep them all for around $35 each, or cancel the other 2 games and end up with RE3 on day 1 for $35.

https://www.target.com/p/resident-evil-3-xbox-one/-/A-79468974

https://www.target.com/p/resident-evil-3-playstation-4/-/A-79468973

It's a bumper crop of BonusCash at your local Rite-Aid this week, with not 1, 2, 3, but 4 gaming GC's, and 1 of those gives you even more options!

• Nike, GameStop, Netflix ... $5 BonusCash when you buy $25 of these items.*
• Google Play, AMC Theatres, Apple AppStore/iTunes, Fandango, XBOX, Panera Bread, Regal Theatres ... $6 BonusCash when you buy $30 of these items.*

FYI, "GameStop" is a big win, because not only can you purchase (additional) XBOX, PSN, Nintendo, and Steam credit there, but you order the GC credit from their website, and get a redemption code instantly after checkout.
 
For those who are new to the "Rite-Aid wellness+ reward BonusCash" program, you'll receive the $$$ amount when you purchase the minimum amount specified. Gift-cards within the same bullet-point share the same "limit 2 offers per customer", but you can earn rewards on the other bullet-point lines as well. For example, you can purchase $25 each of GameStop & Netflix (or $50 of GameStop) ... and still be able to purchase another $60 mix of Google & Apple & XBOX, and can stagger your 4 GC purchases throughout the week.

Screenshot of 2 separate GC offers (bullet points) included here:

• if you've met the limit of 2 items per BonusCash group with the current transaction, or
• if the transaction you're about to complete exceeds the limit of 2 per week, or
• when your BonusCash rewards will expire.

Luckily the mobile RiteAid app (and website) list your individual accumulation & cashing out on a per transaction basis, so that's a good way to keep tabs on the expiration dates, since you only get 30 days to spend the BonusCash once earned. Good luck!