Six In The Morning Friday 8 May 2020

80 million Chinese may already be out of work. 9 million more will soon be competing for jobs, too

By Laura He and Nectar Gan, CNN Business

Updated 0831 GMT (1631 HKT) May 8, 2020

Wang is used to job hunting in China.

The 26-year old tech worker spent the last year jumping from one startup to another in what already felt like a precarious job market. But when he was laid off again in January, this time from a Beijing-based internet company, he never expected things to become as difficult as they are.

Last year "already felt like living in a hell mode," Wang told CNN Business in a telephone interview. "But 2020 is even worse. The coronavirus is like a head-on blow."

UK scientists furious over attempt to censor Covid-19 advice

Exclusive: report criticising government lockdown proposals heavily redacted before release

Paul Lewis and David Conn

Fri 8 May 2020 11.58 BST

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.

However, large blocks of text in the report, produced by SPI-B, the Sage subcommittee providing advice from behavioural scientists on how the public might respond to lockdown measures, were entirely blanked out.

Berlin marks day of liberation from Nazis with unprecedented public holiday

Coronavirus lockdown means much of planned commemorations called off

Tim Wyatt

Germans in Berlin are celebrating a public holiday to mark the end of the Second World War for the very first time.

Normally 8 May passes without any significant attention in Germany, but for 2020 and the 75th anniversary, the city of Berlin decided to declare it a new public holiday for not only the defeat of Nazism but the rebirth of democracy.

However, many of the public events planned for the day have had to be cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

UN agency for Palestinians launches corona appeal

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) launched an emergency coronavirus appeal Friday, saying Palestinians across the Middle East were suffering a devastating socio-economic impact.

The agency appealed for $93.4 million for the next three months to provide food and cash assistance to the vulnerable.

While the number of Palestinian refugees infected with COVID-19 has so far been relatively low, they often work in informal sectors and are facing devastating economic repercussions from the crisis, UNRWA said.

Covid-19 and refugee crisis limit Erdoğan’s options

Tensions in Turkey over its Syrian guests

Turks welcomed 3.5 million refugees fleeing from Syria’s civil war. But with most of them hoping to settle permanently in the country, a worsening economy and global pandemic, relations have grown strained and resentment is on the rise.

by Ariane Bonzon

The Covid-19 pandemic has bumped the Syrian refugee question off the front pages in Turkey. But that could be temporary, as the health crisis may exacerbate hostility to some 3.5 million Syrian refugees (official estimate). once welcomed as guests but now viewed as undesirables. A German Institute for International and Security Affairs survey found 60% of Turks think their country has done its best for the Syrians.

While Muslim solidarity meant they were welcomed at first, more than 70% of Turks now think their presence is damaging the country’s sociocultural fabric and social services. İsmail Saymaz, a journalist with the daily Hürriyet, explains that ‘for the first five years, we coexisted quite happily because we thought the Syrians would leave.

A coronavirus crimewave: How illegal loggers are profiteering

Illegal loggers are accelerating deforestation, further increasing the risk from zoonotic diseases like COVID-19.

by Nick Clark

It is a story as old as the hills of the Mau Forest in Kenya where it all begins, a process of nature that supports a network of ecosystems. The rain falls - and down it gently percolates into the waterways and aquifers which form the Mara River Basin, home to the Masai Mara Game Reserve and the northern edge of the Serengeti National Park.

The Mau Forest is a natural water tower, living, breathing, growing, and pulsating with life, as it sustains millions of animals and people living on the plains below. 

But in some places, deforestation has stripped those old hills bare. Suddenly when the rain falls there is nothing to stop it cascading down with devastating consequences.