Australian intelligence knocks back US government's Wuhan lab virus claim
By Anthony Galloway and Eryk Bagshaw
Australian intelligence agencies have questioned evidence trumpeted by United States officials supposedly linking the coronavirus to a Wuhan laboratory as concerns within the government grow that the push will derail efforts to eliminate dangerous wildlife wet markets.
Senior members of the Australian intelligence community told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age a research document shared in political circles under the Five Eyes intelligence arrangement was mostly based on news reports and contained no material from intelligence gathering.
Japan extends state of emergency amid fears second wave could cripple Tokyo hospitals
Shinzo Abe says lockdown measures will remain in place in all regions until 31 May
Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has extended the country’s state emergency until the end of the month, amid warnings that relaxing social distancing advice too early could flood already crowded hospitals with coronavirus patients.
Abe declared a month-long state of emergency in Tokyo and six other prefectures on 7 April, enabling local governors to request that people avoid unnecessary trips outside and that non-essential businesses close.
The measures have since been expanded nationwide, but they are far less restrictive than those introduced in the US and parts of Europe, with no fines or other penalties for those who do not comply.The Kent State shootings, 50 years on: a massacre that shocked ‘a nation on the edge of chaos’
After the National Guard killed four students on their Ohio campus, Richard Nixon was told that the US's generational rifts could tear its society apartAndrew Naughtie
On 30 April 1970, Richard Nixon gave a televised address explaining that despite his wish to draw down American forces from Vietnam, and despite the majority of the American people wanting the war to end, the US military was going to mount operations in Cambodia. The president explained that since the North Vietnamese were using Cambodian territory to plan and execute attacks within Vietnam, the US had no realistic choice but to destroy their presence there by military force.
“We take this action not for the purpose of expanding the war into Cambodia,” he said, “but for the purpose of ending the war in Vietnam, and winning the just peace we all desire.”
Do not silence journalists during coronavirus pandemic
Old habits die hard, they say, including the age-old inclination to silence independent, critical voices. But the coronavirus pandemic means we need those voices more than ever, the OSCE's Harlem Desir writes for DW.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, governments have been faced with the enormous task of guiding and steering communities through one of the biggest crises of our time, often having to base their decisions on little and sometimes contradictory information. A difficult undertaking, with unforeseen consequences and unpredictable results.
In several countries, this uncertainty has amplified the tendency of the authorities to try to control every aspect of the flow of information and to silence unwelcome voices. From the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, my office has witnessed many instances, where the authorities introduced measures, special legislation, or decrees to restrict the rights of journalists and the media as well as the free flow of information.
World will be same but worse after 'banal' virus, says Houellebecq
Controversial French writer Michel Houellebecq said Monday that he believes the world will be just the same after the coronavirus - only worse.
The novelist, seen by his fans as a modern prophet of a nihilistic, individualistic age, poured cold water on those who see the pandemic as a possible turning point.
"I do not believe for a half-second the declarations that 'nothing will be like it was before'," said Houellebecq who rose to international fame through his 1998 novel "Atomised".
Coronavirus is causing a flurry of plastic waste. Campaigners fear it may be permanent
Updated 1017 GMT (1817 HKT) May 4, 2020
Surgical masks, gloves, protective equipment, body bags -- the Covid-19 crisis has spurred a rapid expansion in the production of desperately-needed plastic products, with governments racing to boost their stockpiles and regular citizens clamoring for their share of supplies.
Such production is necessary. But all that plastic ends up somewhere -- and environmental campaigners fear it is just the tip of a looming iceberg, with the pandemic causing a number of serious challenges to their efforts to reduce plastic pollution.
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