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Lockdowns do no help much in lower & middle income countries, important to let people work: Lancet Paper

“Let shopkeepers sell their wares and provide services. Let construction workers return to building sites. Allow farmers to harvest their crops and to transport them to be sold on the open market,” the authors wrote, while arguing that restrictions should be placed only in clusters which report higher number of cases.




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Amid lockdown, Madhya Pradesh government reshuffles 50 IAS officers

This is the first major bureaucratic rejig by the BJP-led state government since Shivraj Singh Chouhan became chief minister in March this year.




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Hamilton lays down a marker ahead of qualifying

Lewis Hamilton laid down a important marker ahead of qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix, setting a quickest time of 1:22.498 to finish ahead of Sebastian Vettel and the Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa on a glorious sunny morning at Monza




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Mercedes happy with double points haul

Mercedes drivers Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher said they were happy to come away with more important points for the team after their respective 5th and 9th place finishes




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Ferrari ready to focus on title charge - Domenicali

Ferrari insists it is right back at the centre of the championship fight after Fernando Alonso's victory at the Italian Grand Prix




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Fernando Alonso buoyed by podium finish in Montreal

Fernando Alonso admitted he was happy with a welcome return to form after finishing third in the Canadian Grand Prix although he said he could have won the race




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Red Bull 'have potential to dominate' - Horner

Red Bull's Christian Horner admitted the mechanical failure which cost Sebastian Vettel a likely win at the Bahrain Grand Prix was "very frustrating" but said overall he was happy




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Button has work to do, says Fry

Mercedes GP managing director Nick Fry says Jenson Button will spend the next two weeks wondering what he has to do to beat team-mate Lewis Hamilton




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Prost: Mercedes dominance 'part of the game'

Four-time world champion Alain Prost says he does not understand the complaints about Mercedes' domination after Australia as he says it is "part of the game"




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Australian GP boss labels F1 drivers 'prima donnas'

The boss of the Australian Grand Prix Ron Walker has labelled Formula One drivers "lazy prima donnas" after they complained about low light levels at this year's race




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Vettel and Webber dominate for Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel recorded a start-to-finish victory at an incident-packed Japanese Grand Prix, with team-mate Mark Webber taking second to complete a perfect weekend for Red Bull




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Webber dominates from start to finish

Mark Webber completed a start-to-finish victory in the Monaco Grand Prix, his second win in succession, to go joint top in the drivers' championship with team-mate Sebastian Vettel




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Driver-by-driver run down

A quick look at how the 24 drivers got on during the Monaco Grand Prix




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Hill has doubts over benefits of driver stewards

Damon Hill is no longer sure former drivers should be acting as full FIA stewards at grands prix




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Post-race driver rundown

A closer look at who did what at the Malaysian Grand Prix




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Much work to do, says Massa

Felipe Massa admitted the team has much hard work to do in the weeks ahead if it is to hold onto the lead of the drivers' and constructors' standings




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Tesla files complaint in federal court claiming 'no rational basis' for factory shutdown

Tesla alleged in a lawsuit that California's Alameda County, where the automaker has a factory, went against state rules and "created a legal quagmire."




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Tesla prepared to move out of California amid fight over factory shutdown, Musk tweets

Tesla had wanted to start production again in Fremont, California, on Friday afternoon, but officials said the company did not have authorization to break shelter-in-place rules. The plant is where the company makes vehicles for Europe and North America.




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George Christensen revives diplomatic spat with threat to summons Chinese ambassador

Coalition backbencher wants to know why ambassador threatened a trade boycott after Australia called for international inquiry into coronavirus

Diplomatic tensions between Australia and China may be reignited with an extraordinary threat by a Coalition backbencher to summons the Chinese ambassador to answer questions from a parliamentary committee.

While the attempt to compel the ambassador to appear at a hearing in Canberra is almost certain to fail because of diplomatic immunity, the push interrupts a pause in public sparring between the two governments over the response to Covid-19.

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Only 50% of Britons would download NHS tracing app – poll

Teething problems threaten the effectiveness of government ‘test, track and trace’ strategy

Just over half the population is likely to download the NHS app developed to track and trace cases of coronavirus, new polling suggests, amid concerns that test result delays could hamper its effectiveness.

A narrow majority of 52% of people told an Opinium poll for the Observer that they were likely to download the app, which alerts users if they have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive for the virus.

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Does TDS Return late fee applicable for NIL Returns also where there is no liability ?

Does TDS Return late fee applicable for NIL Returns also where there is no liability ?




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Countries set to lift lockdown measures as world’s Covid-19 cases surpass 4 million

The number of coronavirus cases worldwide topped four million as some of the hardest-hit countries readied Sunday to lift lockdown restrictions, despite concerns about a second wave of infections.




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‘We’re afraid of tomorrow’: Syrian refugees face hunger, poverty amid Covid-19 downturns

Ahmad al-Mostafa can't afford milk for his baby daughter. A Syrian refugee, he has barely been able to feed his family since Lebanon sank into economic crisis last year. But now, a coronavirus lockdown has made things even worse.




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France prepares to ease Covid-19 lockdown: What you need to know

On Thursday, the French government confirmed that the country will begin a “gradual” easing of its Covid-19 lockdown measures on Monday, May 11. Here’s everything you need to know about the restrictions being lifted.




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Isolating but not isolated – a photo essay of lives in lockdown

When Rhys Graham first picked up his camera in lockdown, he assumed he would take a few portraits of friends. Now, weeks in, it has turned into a sprawling project documenting Australia’s new domesticity

In these strange, suspended times, a camera and lens can be an emotional bridge from one person to the next.

As a film-maker you become reliant on the manic energy of shooting and the warmth of your community – crews, actors, colleagues or subjects – to keep you buoyant.

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How to save in lockdown … from buying chairs and laptops to car insurance

We may be spending less by not travelling to work, but with an uncertain future it’s time to take stock of personal finances

With gyms shut, taps turned off in pubs and the prospect of a holiday a distant dream, many people are finding their outgoings have dropped since lockdown. But the shadow of a looming recession and concern about whether jobs will even exist when offices reopen, means many are looking at their finances even more closely.

So what are the best ways to improve them amid extraordinary times and an uncertain future?

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TV tonight: on the journey to rap superstardom with Dave

Dave Burd brings a lightly fictionalised tale of his comedy rap career in a new sitcom. Plus: The Fantastical Factory of Curious Craft. Here’s what to watch this evening

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Can Iraq's new PM, and the region, escape Suleimani's long shadow?

Rise of spy chief to premier comes as Iran struggles to maintain momentum months after killing of powerful general

In late February, six weeks after the Iranian general Qassem Suleimani was killed by a US drone, a candidate for Iraq’s vacant premiership was nervously preparing for an interview that would secure him the role.

Mustafa al-Kadhimi’s rise from intelligence chief to the seat of national power had been unorthodox, as was the journey he had just made – from Baghdad, where high-stakes appointments like his had mostly been made over the past decade.

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Back to work: 'capacity of transport network will be down by 90%'

Transport secretary announces £2bn package to get UK walking and cycling instead

The enormity of the challenge of getting the UK back to work was laid bare on Saturday, as the government acknowledged that the capacity of Britain’s transport network will be reduced by 90%.

The transport minister, Grant Shapps, said at the daily Downing Street press briefing that even if a full public transport service is restored, the government’s two-metre physical distancing rule will mean 10% of the usual number of passengers will be able to travel.

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Plan to ease England lockdown 'likely to be in line with Wales'

Modest changes expected to include relaxing exercise rules and reopening garden centres

Boris Johnson’s plans to ease the UK lockdown are likely to be in line with Wales, which would result in only modest changes such as the reopening of garden centres and libraries, and a relaxation of exercise rules, the Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, said on Saturday.

Drakeford said the prime minister’s announcement for England would be in line with the very smallest easing granted in Wales.

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'There was a lot of swearing': the night West Ham played behind closed doors | Jacob Steinberg

Two players and a photographer remember what it was like to face Castilla at an empty Upton Park in 1980

At half-time West Ham’s former chairman Len Cearns was sent on a futile mission by his fellow directors. They wanted him to go down to the home dressing room to ask John Lyall if there was any way his team could possibly remember that the foul language being used in the heat of battle was floating away from the pitch, rattling around the empty terraces and causing some discomfort for the people sitting in the posh seats.

“There was a lot of swearing going on in the game,” Alvin Martin says as he recalls West Ham hosting a European tie behind closed doors in the autumn of 1980. “You don’t realise it. You’re communicating in a factory way.”

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Silverstone marshals wary of extra risks to F1 going behind closed doors

Volunteers who help the British Grand Prix run smoothly want to get back trackside but questions remain on safety and testing

“We are like one big family,” says Carolyn Doyle of the bond between the marshals of the British Grand Prix. “We are there because we love it and we want to achieve the same thing – that’s what makes it really special.”

Much as it does bring great pleasure to this selfless collective, the sport knows their presence is invaluable. As Silverstone considers hosting two consecutive races behind closed doors in July, the volunteer marshals are having to consider the new realities imposed on Formula One by the coronavirus crisis.

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Who is Kayleigh McEnany – and why is she saying nice things about Donald Trump?

The White House press secretary has made a confident start in a notoriously difficult role. Those who know her say the media and opponents underestimate her at their peril

It was a mic drop designed to thrill conservatives and infuriate liberals and the media.

Related: 'You can't ask the virus for a truce': reopening America is Trump's biggest gamble

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Through my lockdown lens: 11 leading photographers capture their confinement

Acclaimed photographers from around the world share a single image reflecting on their experience of the coronavirus outbreak

Minneapolis, Minnesota

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What does it take to get really great service in restaurants?

The first rule is, don’t be a complete schmuck...

In the opening chapter of Wine Girl, the hugely entertaining memoir by Victoria James, once America’s youngest sommelier, the author describes a blood-boiling encounter with the kind of customer for whom involuntary euthanasia should be devised. It is a Monday lunch at the glossy Aureole in New York and the host of a testicle-heavy table of four has ordered a $650 bottle of a serious white burgundy (a 2009 Chevalier-Montrachet from Domaine Ramonet).

Having checked at her serving station that the wine isn’t tainted, James returns to the table and pours a small measure for the customer to taste. He declares it corked. “I think she has too much perfume in her nose, this girl…” he says, as if competing for a gold in the misogyny Olympics. There are only two bottles of the wine in the restaurant’s cellar. James does not want to waste a big-bucks bottle when she knows it is perfectly fine. Instead, she presents the unopened second bottle, takes it away, then returns and gets him to taste the original bottle again. And between racist epithets, he declares it perfect, with a fat top note of triumph in his voice. Witness: small penis energy.

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The new rules to living in lockdown

Follow the science, they say… So here are 12 new ‘observations’ about life in a post-pandemic world

Apologies in advance: this column will be distressing to scientists (including those in my own family, but thankfully none of them read what I write).

The rules of the physical world seem to be abandoning us. The virus acts like no other pathogen. Two metres is entirely subjective now, expanding and contracting to meet our needs. Time is non-Newtonian, like the cornflour you’ve probably resorted to if you have small children to entertain, stiff and fluid at once. Numbers are basically meaningless: in pandemic maths, a figure such as 413 deaths – the one released on the day I am writing, an unthinkable catastrophe at another time – is encouraging, a cause for some optimism.

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The Observer view on the government's lack of a proper lockdown plan | Observer editorial

Ministers’ shambolic briefings expose a terrifying lack of competence


• Coronavirus latest updates

• See all our coronavirus coverage


‘In spite of the sunny bank holiday, it is vitally important that we continue to abide by the current restrictions: stay home, protect the NHS and save lives.” That was the message delivered by the environment secretary, George Eustice, at Friday afternoon’s press conference. Yet just the day before, most newspapers were emblazoned with excited headlines foretelling a significant relaxation of social distancing restrictions, based on briefing from government sources: “Lockdown freedom beckons”, “First steps to freedom from Monday” and “Stay home advice to be scrapped”.

Despite the critical importance of clear public messaging to any public health strategy, the government’s communications have been marred by mixed messages throughout this deadly pandemic. Its core message, asking the public to stay at home to protect the NHS and save lives, has been very effective, but this has consistently been undermined by ministers and advisers inaccurately briefing the press that there is about to be a shift in policy. Before the Easter weekend, reports appeared that ministers thought that the public had been too obedient in following the lockdown, and that a relaxation was imminent. The same happened before this bank holiday weekend, forcing the government to clarify that there was no change in restrictions and that people must continue to abide by the law.

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Johnson Starmer both know true exit plan means reducing our freedoms

Taking Britain safely out of lockdown will necessitate unpopular policies of more spending and surveillance

A commonplace criticism of political parties is that they have drifted “into their comfort zone”, which mostly means that Labour talks a lot about raising spending, while the Conservatives talk about cutting taxes. But politicians have comfort zones that are operational as well as ideological: ways of working that they find more attractive than others.

In late 2014, one ambitious young shadow cabinet minister asked his aides to draw up a 14-point plan to help him become leader of the Labour party. Step two involved an itemised list of Labour MPs, each of whom, he was told, he needed to wine and dine if he was to have any hope of making a successful bid at the job. The frontbencher in question contemplated evening after evening spent in conversation with his colleagues versus time spent with his wife and children. Surely, he reasoned, he could achieve the same end by writing thoughtful columns in the newspapers and delivering wide-ranging speeches? His leadership bid never recovered.

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Greeks marvel at Britain's Covid chaos as their lockdown lifts after 150 deaths

Still resilient after taking tough and early action, Greece can now look forward to a summer tourist season beginning in July

When Pavlos Pandelides realised the coronavirus pandemic was moving west, he bought a plane ticket and flew from Athens to London. He then drove north to Nottingham to collect his daughter, a student at the city’s university, before returning with her the next day to Greece. An ardent admirer of all things British, the businessman had absolutely no doubt that what he was doing was right. “The British are fighters but I could see they were underestimating this,” he said.

While Covid-19 was tearing through northern Italy, Boris Johnson was still faltering, with his government showing worrying signs of complacency. There was, said Pandelides, no time to waste. “It was more than a protective father thing. It was clear they were about to really mess up.”

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London police body criticises government's 'wishy-washy' coronavirus response

Metropolitan Police Federation says No 10 is sending mixed messages and authorities needed to be ‘firmer right from the beginning’

A body representing police officers in London has criticised the government’s pandemic response as “wishy-washy” amid concerns that the public has begun ignoring lockdown restrictions.

The Metropolitan Police Federation (MPF) said that, despite its assertions to the contrary, the government is sending out mixed messages.

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Can antibody testing deliver on promises to lift the lockdown?

As hundreds of test kits claim to offer accurate results on previous Covid-19 infection, scientists around the world are working hard to assess their accuracy

At the Erasmus University Medical Centre in Rotterdam, Marion Koopmans and a team of scientists are going throught the laborious process of verifying antibody tests for Covid-19. Over the last two months, dozens of prospective tests have hit the market, and with many governments wanting to feed the results of large-scale testing into their decisions whether to end lockdowns, biological tests have rarely carried such weight.

Most of the tests are enthusiastically marketed, boasting of their ability to accurately detect whether someone has previously been infected with the Sars-CoV-2 virus. The painstaking job of proving whether the tests do what they say has fallen to a worldwide network of 12 independent centres, of which Koopmans’s team is one.

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Mike Huckabee: No elected official who orders a lockdown should get a paycheck as long we're shut down

Reaction from Fox News contributor Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas and Republican presidential candidate.





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Venezuela says troops seize abandoned Colombian combat boats, weapons




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Boris Johnson's lockdown speech: What to watch out for

Boris Johnson's address from No 10 is expected to set out a "roadmap" for easing lockdown restrictions.




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Coronavirus: Elon Musk vows to move Tesla factory in lockdown row

Tesla CEO Elon Musk says the firm will leave California after he is ordered to keep a factory shut.




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Lion Dads Who Are Done

It appears parenting is difficult for all living creatures and not just us humans! Here's a lion dad who properly reflects some of our human-like reactions when it comes to dealing with little ones...

That face that just screams, "done."

You know the one. If you don't just scroll down to see what we're talking about. 




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Artist's "Sweety" Comics About Her Ragdoll Cat Is Adorable

Meet Sweety! The Ragdoll cat who gets into some cute crazy (yet very relatable) shenanigans!

Created by artist @redfur_13.art, who shared on her Webtoons bio, "My name is Red, and I own a young ragdoll cat named Sweety. She had two litters when she was young, and now has a forever home with me. "

You can follow the comic series, which updates twice a week) on Instagram or Webtoons





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Simon's Cat Daily Routine While Stay Indoors (Video)

While self-isolating it's important to maintain a daily routine! 

Don't know where to start? No worries -- Simon's Cat is here to help in the best way he knows how! 

And that's not all, check out Simon's Cat new essentials in Simon's "Stay Home" Collection! 




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Dogs are the best