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Dungeons & Dragons while social distancing? It's free to try the newest 'Critical Role'-inspired sourcebook.

Dungeon Master Matthew Mercer is the mind behind Dungeons & Dragons' latest official sourcebook. There's a preview online, too.

      




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Video games: How to get started while staying at home, social distancing amid coronavirus

With many people practicing social distancing and self-isolation in response to the coronavirus epidemic, now is an ideal time to try video games.

      




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Video games can be a healthy social pastime during coronavirus pandemic

At the behest of the World Health Organization, video game companies are promoting hand washing, physical distancing during the coronavirus crisis.

      




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Final Fantasy VII Remake: A timeless video game classic is back!

'Final Fantasy VII' is considered one of the best video games. Now, Square Enix is bringing it back with the launch of 'Final Fantasy VII Remake.'

       




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Review: 'Final Fantasy VII Remake' summons back a timeless classic

Role-playing epic Final Fantasy VII Remake is an ambitious revisiting of one of the most beloved titles in video game history.

       




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Coronavirus home lesson plans, coming for free in 'Minecraft'

'Minecraft,' played on iPads, video game consoles and computers, is getting free educational content for kids stuck at home during the coronavirus.

       




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PlayStation's coronavirus contribution: Stay home and play free 'Uncharted,' 'Journey' PS4 video games

Sony PlayStation is giving players some free video games as part of its "Play At Home" initiative to encourage staying at home during the pandemic.

       




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Travis Scott held a performance in 'Fortnite,' and more than 12 million players watched live

On Thursday night, popular video game Fortnite hosted rapper Travis Scott as part of the Astronomical musical experience.

       




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Google Doodles: Tech giant brings back some of its popular interactive games

Google is launching a series of Doodles starting Monday celebrating some of their most popular interactive games available on its main search page.

       




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On coronavirus lockdown, gamers seek solace and community in video games

Coronavirus lockdowns and extended social distancing has more people playing video games to stay connected and pass the time.

       




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Up close and sensational: the best monologues made during lockdown

From love triangles to the bond between mothers and daughters, performers step into the relationships minefield

The beady-eyed character of Iseult Golden’s monologue could be an Alan Bennett creation: steely and unsentimental, she speaks her mind smartingly in a video message to her daughter who refuses to talk to her. Her tone is spiky at first but Marion O’Dwyer’s wry, understated delivery gives the drama a quietly pained depth. Part of the Abbey theatre’s monumental series Dear Ireland, it captures the bristling complexities of love between mothers and daughters in eight bittersweet minutes.

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'Complete anarchy': frontline NHS staff on the coronavirus peak

Medics reflect on the stress and strain they have been under, and what might happen next

More people have died of coronavirus in the UK than in any other country in Europe, and details about the true scale of the pandemic continue to emerge as the extreme pressure on the NHS begins to ease.

We have been speaking to frontline workers since the crisis began about how they are coping. They have told us how they were resigned to contracting Covid-19 because of shortages of protective equipment and a lack of testing as hospitals were inundated with coronavirus patients. Here, they recall the pandemic reaching its peak and begin to make plans for where the health service will go from here.

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Outsourcing the coronavirus crisis to business has failed – and NHS staff know it | Cat Hobbs

Handing out contracts out to firms like Serco and G4S is now second nature to those in power. We need to rebuild state capacity

The coronavirus pandemic has revealed a lot about British society – the fragility of the economy, the insecure situation so many workers find themselves in – but it has also shone a light on the state itself. Many comparisons have been made between the current mobilisation of state resources and the second world war. But while that crisis involved a ramping up of public sector capacity, this one is being managed by a state that believes itself to be utterly dependent on the private sector.

First, there are the outsourcing giants, shadowy corporations who have been handed numerous contracts over the past 20 years. Matt Hancock has put Serco in charge of the phonelines for contact tracing, a vital part of the government’s public health strategy. This is a company that mismanaged data at a GP surgery, and failed to train staff properly for a breast cancer hotline service. Along with G4S, it claimed money from the government for tracking prisoners who were later found to be dead.

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For too many Britons, Boris Johnson's easing of lockdown will be no picnic | Polly Toynbee

Despite everything, the Tory party is sticking to the ideology of the free market, rather than saving lives and jobs

“How on earth did it come to this?” Keir Starmer’s question could skewer Boris Johnson at every PMQs from now on. It encompasses all the damage the government did in the last decade, as well as all it has failed to do to protect the country from Covid-19. The list of derelictions in the early stage of the crisis is long, the testing and the protective equipment still shamefully inadequate. Have lessons been learned? The auguries are not good.

Related: Picnics and sunbathing on cards as PM expected to allow more time outside

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The Guardian view on BAME death rates: inequality and injustice

Coronavirus is much more likely to claim the lives of black people than white. Socio-economic factors are a significant contributor

A universal experience is highlighting the sharp divides in our society. Few are as stark and shocking as those revealed by Thursday’s news that black people in England and Wales are more than four times as likely to die from Covid-19 as white people. Bangladeshi and Pakistani people were about three and a half times more likely, and those of Indian origin two and a half times as likely, the Office for National Statistics reported.

The disproportionately high toll of BAME people was already evident, notably among medical staff: a review of just over a hundred NHS staff who died found that almost two-thirds were black or Asian, though those groups account for less than one in seven workers in the health service. It is all the more striking, given that age is one of the biggest risk factors and the over-65s comprise only one in 20 of the BAME population, compared with almost one in five of the white population.

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More people dying at home during Covid-19 pandemic – UK analysis

Exclusive: Data suggests that sick may be avoiding hospital because of coronavirus fears

About 8,000 more people have died in their own homes since the start of the coronavirus pandemic than in normal times, a Guardian analysis has found, as concerns grow over the number avoiding going to hospital.

Of that total, 80% died of conditions unrelated to Covid-19, according to their death certificates. Doctors’ leaders have warned that fears and deprioritisation of non-coronavirus patients are taking a deadly toll.

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British Covid-19 patient in Vietnam could have lung transplant

Vietnam Airlines pilot one of only two serious cases in country with mass testing regime

A 43-year-old British man may undergo a lung transplant in Vietnam, where he is critically ill with Covid-19.

The man, a Vietnam Airlines pilot, developed a fever and cough on 17 March, and was later admitted to Ho Chi Minh City Hospital for Tropical Diseases.

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Paths out of lockdown: questions Boris Johnson must answer

Clarity on lifting Covid-19 rules needed, from increasing time outdoors to schools returning

Boris Johnson will address the nation on Sunday to set out a road map for how England might leave the Covid-19 lockdown. Any immediate changes have been billed as modest and incremental, but people are expecting more details on how life could differ over the next few weeks. Here are the questions the prime minister needs to answer:

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The Guardian view on relaxing lockdown: repent at leisure | Editorial

The government must be cautious in both the decisions it takes and the messages it sends

The end is not in sight. With an estimated 20,000 new infections a day, and with experts warning that the reproduction rate of coronavirus may be rising again, any premature loosening of the lockdown will only prolong the crisis. When the prime minister speaks on Sunday evening, it is essential that he makes it clear that people should still be staying at home, not relaxing their guard.

Though so many other countries had been hit, the government did not act soon enough to either contain the threat or prepare for it. Those failures have made a longer and tougher lockdown necessary. It was slow to take the pandemic seriously, slow to impose stringent social distancing, and slow to pursue equipment, testing and tracing, as the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, noted this week.

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Pandemic shows power of doctor's phone call to provide care

It was intended as an interim measure to protect people during the pandemic, but now that doctors across Canada have embraced virtual care, some clinicians and patients would like to see it continue.




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With natural prey like capelin and shrimp in decline, cod are eating their young: DFO

The once mighty northern cod stocks' growth is stalled according to DFO science. Ecosystem conditions including a lack of food are contributing factors. Fish harvesters say in the bigger picture though, the numbers are moving in the right direction.



  • News/Canada/Nfld. & Labrador

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Don't blame bats for COVID-19, says University of Saskatchewan researcher

A U of S researcher says there is no evidence that COVID-19 jumped to humans from bats.



  • News/Canada/Saskatoon

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European coalition takes shape on coronavirus contact tracing

A European coalition is forming around an approach to using smartphone technology to trace coronavirus infections that, its backers hope, could help to reopen borders without unleashing a second wave of the pandemic.



  • News/Technology & Science

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Scrubbed birds ready to take flight after touching down on Alberta oilsands tailings pond

A small flock of shorebirds contaminated with oil after touching down on a northern Alberta tailings pond is expected to be released back into the wild within a week.



  • News/Canada/Edmonton

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WeChat's surveillance of international users boosts censorship in China, researchers say

WeChat is one of the world’s most popular apps, but researchers at the University of Toronto caution it is surveilling international users and using their information to broaden censorship on the app in China.



  • News/Technology & Science

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Sidewalk Labs cancels plan to build high-tech neighbourhood in Toronto amid COVID-19

Sidewalk Labs, a Google-affiliated company, is abandoning its plan to build a high-tech neighbourhood on Toronto’s waterfront, citing what it calls unprecedented economic uncertainty.



  • News/Canada/Toronto

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Canada's privacy commissioners offer guidance on COVID-19 contact-tracing apps

As New Brunswick and other provincial governments contemplate launching COVID-19 contact-tracing apps, privacy watchdogs from across the country have issued joint guidelines on what they are describing as an "extraordinary" measure, urging transparency and accountability.



  • News/Canada/New Brunswick

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Icebergs and whales galore! Take a virtual tour of Bonavista Bay

Whale and iceberg season has come early, but the local tourism industry has been forced to press pause.



  • News/Canada/Nfld. & Labrador

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Quebec police investigating possible link between cell tower fires and 5G coronavirus conspiracy theories

Quebec provincial police are investigating whether at least two cellphone tower fires north of Montreal could be linked to conspiracy theories that 5G wireless technology caused the coronavirus pandemic.




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Austrian ski resort covers glacier after coronavirus cuts season

- With its season cut short by the coronavirus pandemic, one of Austria's most popular glacial ski resorts covered its glacier in protective fabric earlier than usual this year to help preserve it for a still uncertain reopening.



  • News/Technology & Science

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Tiger King: Producer accuses Joe Exotic of 'shooting animals just because he was pissed off'

TV star's also claimed to have fed a peacock he killed to his pets




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Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig star in social distance soap opera with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show

The 'Saturday Night Live' alumni virtually reunited on Fallon's chat show




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Better off dead: Can someone please put Killing Eve out of its misery?

The smash serial killer comedy returns to the BBC with an 'exasperatingly average' third series, leaving our arts columnist Fiona Sturges wishing it would bite the dust




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Marvel actor Deborah Ann Woll 'struggling with self-doubt' following Daredevil cancellation: 'I haven't had an acting job since'

'If I'm not acting, I'm not sure who I am,' the True Blood star said




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Antiques Roadshow: Guitar once owned by George Harrison and John Lennon valued at up to £400,000

Show's expert called it 'by far the most expensive thing [he's] ever seen in 25 years'




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Michael Sheen's 'chaotic' Who Wants to Be a Millionaire re-enactment leaves Graham Norton Show viewers in stitches

'This has made the lockdown worthwhile'




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Tiger King: Joe Exotic's husband Dillon Passage vows to stand by his spouse – 'I'm not going anywhere'

'I'm not going to just abandon him when he needs support'




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Gogglebox viewers in hysterics as Channel 4 stars watch Tiger King: 'I'm in absolute stitches'

'Watching everyone's reaction to Joe Exotic was far better than the series itself,' one viewer wrote




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SNL star Michael Che pays tribute to grandmother who died of coronavirus in new lockdown episode

'I'm very hurt and angry that she had to go through all that pain alone'




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Tom Hanks surprises SNL viewers in first TV appearance after testing positive for coronavirus

Actos said he's 'been more like America's dad than ever before​' following diagnosis




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Tiger King new episode released by Netflix after show becomes Stranger Things-sized hit

It features many faces from the hit documentary




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Tiger King: Jeff Lowe reveals whether he thinks Carole Baskin 'killed her ex-husband' in new episode

Zoo owner also accuses Netflix of sensationalising' story to make him 'villain' in new aftershow




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Tiger King's head zookeeper Erik Cowie says Joe Exotic should not be a free man: 'He's gonna die in prison – good riddance'

Cowie doesn't hold back in aftershow that's just been released on Netflix




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Tiger King: Former zoo manager John Reinke accuses Joe Exotic of 'blowing up' his cabin in new episode

'The man's done a lot of stupid s***'




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Killing Eve season three review: This once-thrilling comedy drama has grown stale and predictable

New head writer Suzanne Heathcote's zombie-writing experience might come in handy. Where 'Killing Eve' had a vitality, it now feels tired to the point of lifelessness




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Seinfeld's Jason Alexander, Fran Drescher, Billy Porter and more raise $1.5m for CDC with remote Seder

Mayim Bialik, Debra Messing, Finn Wolfhard and many others joined




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Quiz: The true story of the 'coughing major' and the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? scandal

As a new drama about the 'most British crime of all time' arrives on ITV, here's a reminder of Charles and Diana Ingram's notorious quiz show appearance and their trial for conspiring to cheat




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Quiz review: A brilliant, big-hearted romp through one of the great British scandals of the century

This dramatisation of the 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?' coughing scandal is superbly entertaining and well constructed, and will likely make viewers rethink a story they thought they knew well




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Quiz: Chris Tarrant's son casts verdict on Michael Sheen's performance of his father

New TV drama charts story of infamous 2001 coughing scandal