The pandemic has thrown publishing and booksellers into crisis – and left customers struggling to obtain books when they most want them. But some in the industry sense an opportunity to drag it into the 21st century

On 18 March, Emma Corfield-Walters received the news that for the second year running, her shop, Book-ish, in Crickhowell in the Brecon Beacons, had landed the title for Wales in the regional round of the independent bookshop of the year award. Corfield-Walters has run Book-ish for 10 years. It has 16 staff and a cafe, is the base for a literary festival that she also organises, and is credited with having played a major part in the regeneration of Crickhowell’s award-winning high street. Above all, it is a highly successful business: 2019 was a record year. The fact that it would now again be a contender for the overall prize – to be announced in June at the British book awards – was for Corfield-Walters a hard-earned affirmation of a decade’s passion and work.

But she was hardly celebrating. Britain was then five days from lockdown. “It was surreal,” she says. “We’d won best bookshop in Wales, yet I wasn’t sure for how much longer I’d have a shop that people could visit. It was like that scene in Star Wars when the walls are moving in, and the room’s getting smaller and smaller. The goalposts were shifting every day. At first, we thought: OK, we’ll buy hand sanitiser! But by the weekend, it was clear the shop would have to close.” Her first thought was for her staff, who are “like family” to her; the government’s subsequent announcement of its furlough scheme came as a huge relief. But there was also the question of her stock, and how she might keep selling it. Suddenly, the Book-ish website, hitherto used only to sell event tickets and signed copies, came into its own: “On the Saturday before lockdown began, we managed to get all 6,000 titles from the shop on to our website.”

The new Bank of England governor’s predictions about a swift bounce-back don’t inspire confidence

Andrew Bailey, the governor of the Bank of England, is only a few months into the job and already his reputation for sound management of the economy is in danger. Last week he published a scenario for the next two years that amounted to his best guess on the depth of the recession in front of us, and the prospects for a recovery.

The recession would be deep, he said. Most likely the deepest in more than 300 years. It would last for much of the year and cause severe hardship to many, with increases in unemployment not seen since the 1980s.

Volunteer Services Lewisham’s food delivery service is a lifeline to vulnerable people suffering under lockdown

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Brown bread. Baked beans. Tea. And would you happen to have any custard, dear?

Some things stand out in the middle of the prodigiously energetic food-parcel line being run from a community hall in south-east London.

One person was killed after a fire broke out on Saturday at a Moscow hospital treating patients infected with the new coronavirus, the authorities said.

Father Andrei Molchanov, the latest Russian Orthodox priest to die from the novel coronavirus, was buried on Saturday by his heartbroken daughter who said she wished the Moscow church where he served had closed earlier.

China and the United States both supported a draft United Nations Security Council resolution confronting the coronavirus pandemic on Thursday and it was "shocking and regretful" that Washington changed its mind on Friday, a Chinese diplomat said.

Every year for the past 20, Rosa Maria Fuenzalida has visited her mother's grave on Mother's Day without fail in the central Chilean city of Curico.

Coronavirus patients were being turned away from hospitals in the Mexican capital on Saturday, as both public and private medical facilities quickly fill up and the number of new infections continues to rise.

Venezuela's military said it seized three abandoned Colombian light combat vessels that soldiers found on Saturday while patrolling the Orinoco river, several days after the government accused its neighbor of aiding a failed invasion.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 667 to 169,218, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Sunday.

Thailand reported five new coronavirus cases but no deaths on Sunday, bringing the total to 3,009 cases and 56 deaths since the outbreak started in the country in January.

Japanese Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said on Sunday the government is looking to lift the state of emergency in "many of 34 prefectures" that are not among the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic before the nationwide deadline of May 31.

Singapore registered 876 new coronavirus infections, its health ministry said on Sunday, taking the city-state's total to 23,336 cases.

Australia's most populous state, home to Sydney, will allow restaurants, playgrounds and outdoor pools to reopen on Friday as extensive testing has shown the spread of the coronavirus has slowed sharply, New South Wales state's premier said on Sunday.

South Korea warned of a second wave of the new coronavirus on Sunday as infections rebounded to a one-month high, just as the authorities were starting to ease some pandemic restrictions.

China's National Health Commission reported 14 new confirmed coronavirus cases on May 9, the highest number since April 28, including the first for more than a month in the city of Wuhan where the outbreak was first detected late last year.

The Russian authorities said on Sunday they had recorded 11,012 new cases of the coronavirus in the last 24 hours, bringing the nationwide tally to 209,688.

The British government wants to slowly and cautiously restart the economy, housing minister Robert Jenrick said on Sunday ahead of a televised address from the prime minister to set out plans to begin easing the coronavirus lockdown measures.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will set out a five-tier warning system for the coronavirus in England on Sunday when he outlines the government's plans to begin slowly easing lockdown measures, British media reported.

The Department of Homeland Security has issued new regulations, set to take effect Monday, that will limit visas for Chinese reporters to 90 days.

Although health officials have pointed to a flattening rate of daily cases in many provinces, Trudeau said Canada was "not in the recovery phase yet."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Saturday he is "very worried" about residents of Montreal, the epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, where the province is preparing to loosen confinement measures despite a rash of fatal outbreaks at nursing homes.

The idea is to identify the problem of burnout early and stop it before it happens.

For more than six weeks the 15-member council has been trying to agree on a text that ultimately aims to back a March 23 call by U.N. chief Antonio Guterres for a ceasefire in global conflicts so the world can focus on the pandemic.

More than 77,000 people with COVID-19 have died in the United States and more than 1.27 million people have tested positive.

Premier Doug Ford says that an announcement will be made next week on whether or not Ontario students will be able to return to the classroom this school year.

Quebec's public health institute says deaths could spike in the greater Montreal area if physical distancing measures designed to limit the spread of COVID-19 are lifted.

Alex Morgan, who helped the United States women's soccer team to World Cup and Olympic titles, has become the newest mom in the national squad after giving birth to her first child.

HALIFAX - Another resident of Nova Scotia's largest long-term-care home has fallen victim to COVID-19. The Northwood facility, which has more than 400 residents, is the site of the province's worst outbreak. Provincial health officials said Saturday that deaths related to the viral infection

The latest numbers of confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases in Canada as of 4:00 a.m. on May 10, 2020: There are 67,702 confirmed and presumptive cases in Canada. _ Quebec: 36,986 confirmed (including 2,786 deaths, 9,268 resolved) _ Ontario: 19,944 confirmed (including 1,599 deaths, 14,383

OTTAWA - With reports of a sharp rise in violence against Indigenous women as COVID-19 restrictions keep families stuck in their homes, concerns are being raised about whether the pandemic could delay the promised June delivery of a national action plan on missing and murdered Indigenous

Provinces have been releasing plans for easing restrictions that were put in place to limit the spread of COVID-19. Here is what some of the provinces have announced so far: Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador plans to loosen some public health restrictions in a series of

Boris Johnson's announcement on how the UK will take its first steps out of lockdown is just hours away, but the Prime Minister's authority is not absolute across the country.

Boris Johnson will exercise "extreme caution" in easing lockdown restrictions, the Transport Secretary has said, as he warned the public not to "throw away" their hard work by going outside.

England's commuters will need to walk, cycle and even scoot more as ongoing social distancing will force them to seek alternative forms of transport, the Government has announced.

Christopher Evans-Gordon from Family Meals shares his story You can donate at virginmoneygiving.com/fund/FoodforLondonNOW

Former US president Barack Obama has criticised Donald Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, calling it an "absolute chaotic disaster".

It comes as trade union leaders warn that they will not tell their members to return to work unless safety standards are improved. Mr Johnson is expected to urge employees who cannot do their jobs from home to begin returning to their workplaces while following social-distancing rules.

As heads of state, local leaders, business owners and individual citizens weighed the costs of re-opening the global economy, fears of new outbreaks grew. A central question emerged: How much infection and loss of life will emerge amid the push to restart business? In Waterloo, Iowa, the virus is “devastating everything." The community is home to a meatpacking plant, and residents are worried it is becoming a vector for the virus.

Raul Luis López never had the chance to say goodbye. The 39-year-old native of Oaxaca, Mexico, suffered from diabetes which worsened his illness. The day he left for treatment was the last time his wife, Sara Cruz, saw him.

Fighting continues to rage in English-speaking parts of Cameroon after most armed groups reject a truce.

Taliban leaders searched their ranks, including in the much-feared Haqqani network, and on Sunday told The Associated Press they are not holding Mark R. Frerichs, a Navy veteran turned contractor who disappeared in Afghanistan in late January. “We don't have any information about the missing American,” Sohail Shaheen, the Taliban's political spokesman, told the AP. A second Taliban official familiar with the talks with the United States said “formally and informally” the Taliban have notified U.S. officials they are not holding Frerichs.