SO enough with the panic buying, already. Now that we're all settling down into quarantine and accepting that the new normal is going to be never seeing anyone, ever again, now is the time to reflect on the last few weeks. And what the last few weeks have revealed to me is that the contents of my cupboards have changed beyond all comprehension.

WEEK 190 and as life continues to change before our very eyes, a new way of showing off has emerged. We have moved on from the Zoom drinks party to the Zoom dinner party, which gives you the opportunity to prove to your tragic suburban friends that not only do you have the most exotic ingredients in your kitchen cabinets, but that you are also the best cook.

The Virtual Grand National takes place today - but what TV channel is the race on?

The Virtual Grand National takes place today and Express Sport is on hand with all the live stream information, including how to watch the race for free.

The Virtual Grand National takes place this weekend instead of the actual race - but who is favourite to win?

The Virtual Grand National replaces the real-life National this afternoon with ITV providing life coverage of a lifelike simulation to substitute for the cancelled regular race. Express Sport brings you live updates with an animated Tiger Roll the favourite for victory.

The Virtual Grand National takes placed this evening in the absence of the real race at Aintree.

Horse racing in Britain is currently suspended amid the coronavirus pandemic - but when will racing resume?

Champion jockey Frankie, 49, looks back at his favourite festival on the horse-racing calendar, Royal Ascot

UNIVERSAL CREDIT claims have surged in recent weeks, as Britons have begun to feel the impact of the coronavirus crisis. How do earnings affect payments?

GEORGE SOROS made a chilling warning about the state of global markets in 2012 that has fresh relevance today as world leaders grapple with the unprecedented challenge of rebuilding the post-coronavirus economy.

The FA Cup has taken place this weekend but when is draw for the fourth round? Express Sport is on hand with the date, time and TV information for the draw.

Emiliano Sala was tragically killed in January 2019 in a plane crash over the British channel.

Peter Whittingham is fighting for his life in hospital, the South Wales Police have confirmed.

Peter Whittingham's death has taken the world of football by shock.

Peter Whittingham has died following a head injury from an accidental fall.

ALERT LEVEL: No Alert Level
Region: S
LOCATION: Lyell Highway, HAYES
STATUS: Going
TYPE: STRUCTURE FIRE
SIZE: Not Available
Number of Vehicles: 1
More Info: http://www.fire.tas.gov.au/i/20016273
RESPONSIBLE AGENCY: Tasmania Fire Service
UPDATED: Sat, 9 May 2020 18:13:18 +1000

MELANIA TRUMP, 50, has been the US First Lady since 2017. A style expert has explained how she ensures she stands out when she steps out with Donald Trump, 73.

THE QUEEN has one of the most extensive jewellery collections in the world, and is particularly noted for her tiaras. The Belgian Sapphire is a particular favourite of Her Majesty's - and it has a scandalous former royal owner.

LASH extensions may be a distant memory for some as the UK lockdown continues and salons remain closed. But there are ways to give yourself longer lashes at home if you're missing the fuller flutter.

QUEEN ELIZABETH II has ruled Britain for nearly 70 years, and many of us cannot remember a time when she was not on the throne. And during her long reign, one item in particular has become synonymous with the monarch.

KATE MIDDLETON, 38, wowed fans by appearing in a video with a new mother and midwives. The Duchess of Cambridge did so ahead of UK's Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week.

PRINCESS ANNE, 69, appeared in a video on the Royal Family Instagram to celebrate the International Day of the Midwife. A video of the Princess Royal, the Queen's only daughter, was posted to the IGTV of the account.

KATE MIDDLETON wore a yellow dress with a tree-inspired pattern on This Morning today. The 38-year-old mum of three spoke about her new project.

THE QUEEN addressed the nation as part of VE Day celebrations today, and Her Majesty wore her Aquamarine Clip Brooches, making a sweet nod to her father, who gave her the jewellery.

West Ham signed Jarrod Bowen from Hull City for £22million on transfer deadline day.

Storm Ciara is threatening to cause chaos with this week's sporting events including Premier League football, Six Nations rugby and eight horse racing meets.

Leeds United take on Hull City on Saturday and Whites boss Marcelo Bielsa faces an important decision after Kiko Casilla was issued an eight-match ban.

Hull City host Leeds United in the Championship today and Express Sport is on hand with all the live stream and TV information.

Leeds continues their Premier League promotion push with a dominant 4-0 win against Hull on Saturday.

A quick look back over the decade since the 9-11 attacks finds that the neo-conservatives have achieved the opposite of what they set out to do: rather than winning a war on terror and expanding their power even further, they have over-stretched their own nation, militarily and economically. The Bush Administration preferred to concentrate on Iraq rather than Bin Laden and the trillions of dollars spent on this (directly and indirectly) has contributed to the recent economic problems the country now faces. All terribly costly given there were opportunities to get Bin Laden a lot earlier.

Media coverage and public attitudes have also shifted in the past decade, now almost reflecting partisan lines. Rights groups around the world have long voiced concerns that the war on terror is also an excuse for governments to wage a war on freedoms. Bin Laden may be dead but are the terrorists winning?

Read full article: War on Terror

Around 21,000 children die every day around the world.

That is equivalent to:

• 1 child dying every 4 seconds
• 14 children dying every minute
• A 2011 Libya conflict-scale death toll every day
• A 2010 Haiti earthquake occurring every 10 days
• A 2004 Asian Tsunami occurring every 11 days
• An Iraq-scale death toll every 19–46 days
• Just under 7.6 million children dying every year
• Some 92 million children dying between 2000 and 2010

The silent killers are poverty, easily preventable diseases and illnesses, and other related causes.

Despite the scale of this daily/ongoing catastrophe, it rarely manages to achieve, much less sustain, prime-time, headline coverage.

This update includes updated numbers, charts and graphs. It shows that there is steady progress each year in reducing the number of children that die each year, but clearly the number is still high.

Read full article: Today, almost 21,000 children died around the world

A recent IAEA report on Iran’s nuclear program was portrayed by most Western mainstream media and politicians as new proof Iran is close to building nuclear weapons. The US Senate passed sanctions on Iran targeting its central bank in response.

However, the report does not say what the mainstream media and politicians claim. It has been much more guarded and much of it is about the state of Iran’s program up to 2003. After that period, the report is much more uncertain. Furthermore, many experts contend that the speculations (not definitive proof) that are in the report are misguided, too, leaning on unreliable sources, for example.

This update to the page on Iran has more information about this. Although the page is long, look for the new section about half way down under the heading of Regurgitating old stories as new information to justify sanctions?

Read full article: Iran

NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) monitors global surface temperatures on an ongoing basis. Their analysis shows temperatures around the globe in 2011 compared to the average global temperature from the mid-20th century. The comparison shows how Earth continues to experience warmer temperatures than several decades ago.

Global temperatures have warmed significantly since 1880, the beginning of what scientists call the “modern record.” At this time, the coverage provided by weather stations allowed for essentially global temperature data. As greenhouse gas emissions from energy production, industry and vehicles have increased, temperatures have climbed, most notably since the late 1970s. In this animation of temperature data from 1880-2011, reds indicate temperatures higher than the average during a baseline period of 1951-1980, while blues indicate lower temperatures than the baseline average.

Click on the image to see the video:

Read full article: Global Temperature Anomaly, 1880 - 2011

It seems the world is awash with money, even though most governments are facing economic pressures. Trillions are being hidden away by a very few global super elite in offshore bank accounts, avoiding billions in taxes such that constrained governments turn to austerity and other measures, inflicting more hardship on people who are typically already victims of the global financial crisis. Furthermore, it turns out that many of the banks we have all bailed out help with these offshore practices in various ways.

Tax avoidance by the super rich results in lost revenues in the order of hundreds of billions a year, which would (in theory at least) benefit most of society. But if you can afford an army of ingenious lawyers and accountants, it seems you can play by a different set of rules.

Recent high profile cases of companies and individuals avoiding taxes in recent years has resulted in governments claiming they will address this issue thoroughly. But that is as far as it seems to go.

This update includes additional figures and examples of recent tax avoidance issues that have come to light.

Read full article: Tax Avoidance and Tax Havens; Undermining Democracy

A recent study found that coral reefs will face severe challenges even if average global warming temperature rise is restricted to 2 degrees Celsius. This is a rise that most countries are struggling to negotiate and meet. But reefs are very sensitive to temperature changes, experts fear the window of opportunity to prevent massive reef loss is very small.

Read full article: Nature and Animal Conservation

In recent years, global military expenditure has increased again and is now comparable to Cold War levels. Recent data shows global spending at over $1.7 trillion, despite the global economic conditions. It is still approximately 1% increase since 2008 when the financial crisis began, for example.

Not all nations have felt the impacts of the global financial crisis in the same way. Some have grown economically, including many Asian countries, which has allowed some of them to increase their military spending. There are geopolitical interests at stake for various powers, so economic troubles or not, military spending is seen as important to maintain, or at least to minimize possible reductions.

The highest military spender is the US accounting for 39% of the world’s spending, more than the next top 10 countries combined, and more than all its potential enemies, combined. But this represents a slight decline over previous years as other nations, especially China and Russia, increase their spending. At the same time, the US has reduced military spending for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, while Western Europe’s austerity programs affect their military spending budgets.

This update includes new and updated figures, graphs and charts exploring this further.

Read full article: World Military Spending

An overview of the Climate Change Conference (also known as COP 19), held in Warsaw, Poland in November 2013.

Predictably and sadly, the same issues have resurfaced: West stalling on doing anything, lack of funding, disagreement on priorities, etc.

This page is an overview of the Warsaw Climate conference and also includes a feed of latest news stories from Inter Press Service’s coverage of the conference.

Read full article: COP19 - Warsaw Climate Conference

It is well known that tobacco smoking kills. But it also exacerbates poverty, contributes to world hunger by diverting prime land away from food production, damages the environment and reduces economic productivity. Second hand smoking also affects other people’s lives. Despite many attempts to prevent it, a global tobacco control treaty became international law in 2005.

However, challenges still remain as tobacco companies try to hit back, for example, by targeting developing nations, increasing advertising at children and women, attempting to undermine global treaties and influence trade talks, etc.

This update includes updated stats, as well as more information on the above issues.

Read full article: Tobacco

A recent study has found that three quarters of the world’s big carnivores are in decline, due to declining habitats and persecution by humans. This is also having a negative impact on the environment because top predators have a crucial role in any given ecosystem which is hard to replace.

At the same time, the number of rhinos being poached in South Africa (where most rhinos now remain) has soared exponentially in recent years.

This update includes more information on the above issues.

Read full article: Nature and Animal Conservation

The OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) recently published new preliminary figures for aid in 2013.

It showed official development assistance (ODA) aid from wealthy governments had increased to just under $135 billion in 2013 (at constant 2012 prices). This is roughly 0.3% of GNI (Gross National Income) of the donor nations.

Yet, over 40 years ago nations promised to reach 0.7% of their GNI by the mid-1970s. While each year the amount of aid falls quite short of that 0.7% target (less than half of that target), the quality and effectiveness of that aid is often questionable, sometimes benefiting the donor more than the recipient due to the types of conditions attached to this aid.

This update includes a number of new and updated charts and graphs.

Read full article: Foreign Aid for Development Assistance

An overview of the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa that has been described by the World Health Organization as the largest, most severe and most complex outbreak in the history of the disease.

The epidemic began at the end of 2013, in Guinea. From there it spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Senegal. Many of the affected countries face enormous challenges in stopping its spread and providing care for all patients.

Thousands of people have died and many are at risk as the fatality rate from this virus is very high. As the crisis worsens, as well as the enormous health challenges involved, the social and economic consequences may set these countries back, reversing some gains a number of these countries have made in recent years.

This new page includes more information on the above issues.

Read full article: Ebola Outbreak In West Africa

Recently released data showed that 2014 was the hottest year since records began in 1880.

This update includes updated charts and graphs and animations that look into this further.

Read full article: Climate Change and Global Warming Introduction

Rangers could be without Alfredo Morelos and Scott Arfield for their trip to play Hearts on Sunday.

Steven Gerrard is very frustrated with Rangers’ poor performance against Hearts.

Steven Gerrard spoke about Alfredo Morelos after the Colombian scored two in Rangers' Scottish League Cup semi-final against Hearts.

David Moyes came close to joining Celtic on two occasions and has opens up on his quest to return to management.

Celtic host Hearts as top takes on bottom in the Scottish Premiership, with Neil Lennon hoping to maintain his seven-point lead over title rivals Rangers. Express Sport is on hand to provide all of the Hoops' team news, as well the predicted line-up, as two stars return from injury.

Celtic host Hearts in the Scottish Premiership today and Express Sport is on hand with all the live stream and TV information.

Manchester City face Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup fifth round at Hillsborough on Wednesday night, and Pep Guardiola has a number of injury concerns for his starting XI. This is the Citizens' predicted line up, as Sergio Aguero could feature, while Claudio Bravo starts in goal.