After the justice department dropped charges against Trump’s ex-national security adviser, Obama expressed fear the US is headed in a dangerous direction

Barack Obama has reportedly said the “rule of law is at risk” in the US, after the justice department said it would drop its case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Related: For Trump, l'etat, c'est moi. Attorney General Barr does whatever he wants | Lloyd Green

Unemployment rate rose to 14.7% from just 4.4% in March as the coronavirus pandemic shuttered the global economy

• Coronavirus – live US updates
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More than 20 million people in the US lost their jobs in April and the unemployment rate more than trebled as the coronavirus pandemic shuttered the world’s largest economy, triggering a financial crisis unseen since the Great Depression.

The Department of Labor announced Friday that the US unemployment rate rose to 14.7% from just 4.4% in March and a near 50-year low of 3.5% in February before the US was hit by the virus.

Scientists identify thousands of extreme events, suggesting stark warnings about global heating are already coming to pass

Intolerable bouts of extreme humidity and heat which could threaten human survival are on the rise across the world, suggesting that worst-case scenario warnings about the consequences of global heating are already occurring, a new study has revealed.

Related: One billion people will live in insufferable heat within 50 years – study

Labour’s shadow foreign secretary says coronavirus crisis exposes ‘myth of exceptionalism’

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Lisa Nandy has said the government’s “go it alone” approach left Britain unable to to prepare for the coronavirus crisis as she urged Boris Johnson to spearhead international cooperation to create and distribute a vaccine.

In her first newspaper interview since becoming shadow foreign secretary, the former Labour leadership candidate said the aftermath of the pandemic should mark a “serious reckoning” about Britain’s role in the world. She criticised the “myth of exceptionalism”, which she said was part of the country’s self-image.

Nadarajah Nithiyakumar held in custody after being discharged from hospital

A father has been charged with murdering his two young children at the family home.

Pavinya Nithiyakumar, aged 19 months, and Nigash Nithiyakumar, who was three years old, suffered fatal knife wounds at their house in Ilford, east London, on 26 April.

David Egan accused over death of Danny Pearce, who was allegedly targeted for his Rolex

A man has been charged with the murder of a 31 year-old in London almost three years ago.

David Egan, 23, of Deptford, south-east London, was expected to appear in custody at Bromley magistrates court on Saturday charged with the murder of Danny Pearce on 15 July 2017.

Complaints soar over useless face masks, handmade sanitisers and school meal scams

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More than 500,000 unusable face masks, and a garage selling fake Covid-19 testing kits, are among the hundreds of frauds investigated by trading standards officers since the start of the lockdown.

According to the Local Government Association, fraudsters have gone into overdrive during the past six weeks to exploit the public’s fears and the fact that they are stuck at home.

Care minister’s request is admission that centralised programmes have fallen short

Ministers have asked local directors of public health to take charge of Covid-19 testing in English care homes in what will be seen as a tacit admission that centralised attempts to run the programme have fallen short.

In a letter to sector leaders, seen by the Guardian, the care minister, Helen Whately, acknowledged that testing of care home residents and staff needs to be “more joined up”. She describes the new arrangements as “a significant change”.

NHS staff from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds may be given roles away from the frontline under plans to reduce their disproportionately high death rate from Covid-19.

The Guardian revealed last week that minority groups were over-represented by as much as 27% in the overall Covid-19 death toll. Additionally, 63% of the first 106 health and social care staff known to have died from the virus were black or Asian, according to the Health Service Journal.

Senior reporter Haroon Siddique looks at the figures and explains why BAME people may be more at risk.

• British BAME Covid-19 death rate 'more than twice that of whites'
  
• ‘So much living to do’: stories of UK's coronavirus victims

Conspiracy theories linking 5G technology to coronavirus have resulted in dozens of phone masts across the UK being vandalised in recent weeks. Theories about the dangers of 5G had already been circulating, despite regulators confirming that the radiation levels of the new technology are well within safe boundaries. So how did the conspiracy incorrectly linking it to 5G start? And is 5G really dangerous? We explain why 5G has nothing to do with Covid-19

As lockdown continues, Owen Jones speaks to private renters about how the pandemic has affected them. From activists in tenants' unions and NHS workers struggling to find accommodation to students who’ve had their final terms disrupted and are left unsure about what to do with their accommodation, he asks them if they are worried about what comes next 

A street artist called Msale has taken it upon himself to create giant murals bringing public health messages directly to the overcrowded Mathare slum in Nairobi. With half a million people living in such 'a squeezed area'  social distancing is quite impossible to achieve, says Msale, so he is providing information for people on how to keep safe in the 'simplest, clearest' way he knows

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It's one of the most important decisions a presidential candidate can make: so who will Joe Biden choose as his running mate? Political correspondent Lauren Gambino breaks down the most likely candidates for November's election

The spread of Covid-19 in India has been catastrophic for millions of its poorest and marginalised residents who are bearing the brunt of the world's biggest shutdown. Hannah Ellis-Peterson tells us how coronavirus and the lockdown is further dividing the country along class and religious lines

• In the most vulnerable countries, poverty could be as deadly as the coronavirus crisis
• Destitute migrant workers in India forced to pay train fares home

• This video was amended on 7 May 2020 to clarify that there are millions of migrant workers in India, but not 480 million as an earlier version suggested.
  

Despite a decade-old financial crisis that has crippled its hospitals, Greece appears to be keeping its coronavirus outbreak under control, with a far lower death toll than many other European nations. Dr Yota Lourida, Infectious Diseases specialist at Sotiria hospital in Athens, explains how it dealt with the crisis, and the steps taken by the country to mitigate against potentially catastrophic outcomes

Lebanon’s coronavirus lockdown has sent an economy already in deep trouble into freefall, and many are struggling to survive. Gino Raidy is an activist who was prominent during the October 2019 anti-government corruption protests. Now, with many fearing hunger and believing there is nothing left to lose, he is helping to keep demonstrators safe as they demand real and lasting change

• You think we care about masks?': anger and poverty grip Lebanese city

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For a while supper and wine were sufficient; now I’m watching every adaptation that is better than its source material

I suspect I’m not alone in this but, at some point in the past two weeks, I hit my lockdown wall. Not literally, although apparently the “banging one’s head against the kitchen wall” phase kicks in on the eighth week, so that’s something to put in the diary. But last week I felt really, really over it. Enough with every day being the bloody same; enough with watching my children become increasingly fretful because they haven’t seen their friends in over a month, the equivalent of five years to a pair of four-year-olds. But unless you want to be one of those delightful people protesting the lockdown in the US, clothed in stars and stripes, AK-47s across their backs, what choice do we have? So, like Bill Murray, we grind out the same day, again and again and again.

The trick is to invent things to look forward to. For a while, “supper” and “wine” were sufficient, but repetition has dulled their efficacy. So I set myself challenges, driven on by the thrill of completion. Some people hear the word “challenge” and think, “Fitness!” Those people are not me. “Rewatch the entirety of 30 Rock” is more my speed. It is so soothing to watch a show about a luxuriantly bouffanted New York tycoon who isn’t a moron. In a just world, Jack Donaghy would be the US president instead of, well, you get the point. Then, sparked by his brilliant turn as Chris Tarrant on the ITV drama, Quiz, my next challenge was, “Watch every Michael Sheen performance in which he plays a real person”. This was deeply enjoyable, even if, in my lockdown-confused mind, I now think Brian Clough interviewed Richard Nixon on TV and Kenneth Williams was prime minister when Diana died.

You’d think during a pandemic we’d all have gained a little perspective – but policing female bodies and appetites is a timeless trend

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Resuming the season is absurd and the ‘safety’ ideas are terrible, but whatever football decides it must decide together

“You eat alone, you choke.” During the years of plenty it became a habit to compare the Premier League’s wielding of power – always with a note of admiration – to the structures of a mafia family.

It isn’t hard to see why: the hierarchy of captains, the beautifully ruthless sense of unity, of a cartel of self-propelling interests. And yet the thing about mafia families is that now and then those interests start pulling in different ways. In mob lore breaking ranks is sometimes referred to as “eating alone”, with a certainty that bad things follow – and worst of all that bad business follows.

Charlie I’Anson’s contract in the third tier has been terminated but the lockdown has left him unable to travel

Charlie I’Anson spent Thursday packing up boxes in the small flat he rents near Madrid, finalising the details of his dismissal from the football club for whom he played, and trying to contact the police to request permission to travel home. The night before, the news slipped out: two months after the last match, and on the day the first and second division players returned to work, the football federation decided to cancel the rest of the season in Spain’s third and fourth tiers. Like thousands of footballers, the English centre-back’s season was over with 10 matches remaining.

Related: Covid-19's impact on football: 'It could take 10 years to get where we were'

• Follow a classic Merseyside derby at Wembley, as it happened
• Everton v Liverpool at Wembley – in pictures
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3.48pm BST

Half-time advertising break.

3.46pm BST

And that’s the end of the first 45. Plenty of thinking to do for Kenny Dalglish, Bob Paisley and the rest of the Liverpool management team. Everton took a while to get going, but they eventually assumed control and have been much the better team since. Peter Reid, Kevin Ratcliffe and Gary Lineker have been the standout turns. They deserve their lead. Unless there’s a seismic shift in momentum, Everton will be drinking from the cup of redemption in about one hour’s time!

Kate, a call handler for a domestic violence charity, discusses the challenges of trying to deal with the rising number of calls during lockdown. Guardian reporter Helen Pidd has been reporting on the domestic violence cases being heard at Manchester magistrates court over the past few weeks

Rachel Humphreys talks to Kate, a call handler with domestic violence charity Solace. Since lockdown began, calls to helplines like this one have risen by 25%. The Counting Dead Women project recorded 16 killings of women and children in the first three weeks of lockdown - where they’d usually expect about five.

Rachel also talks to the Guardian’s North of England editor, Helen Pidd, who last month listened in on court four at Manchester magistrates court to hear how lockdown was changing the way domestic violence cases are being prosecuted. We also hear from David Philpott from Olliers Solicitors who has been working at the court for over 30 years.

Despite rising coronavirus case numbers, the US state of Mississippi is moving out of lockdown and reopening parks, restaurants and other non-essential shops. Oliver Laughland went to the resort of Biloxi to see how residents were responding

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The US southern state of Mississippi is the country’s poorest. It went into the coronavirus crisis with high levels of poverty and poor health outcomes. But following the period of lockdown and orders for residents to stay at home, the state’s governor Tate Reeves has eased restrictions - despite evidence that the rate of infections has not yet hit its peak.

The Guardian’s Oliver Laughland travelled to the Mississippi coastal resort of Biloxi where he tells Mythili Rao he found the lockdown has hit hardest those working in low paid jobs in the tourism industry. One restaurant worker describes how the loss of work meant he has had to rely on the charity of his neighbours and local food banks. But despite growing numbers of cases, people are flocking back to the beach and increasingly breaching recommendations of minimum social distancing. The state is reopening, but at what cost?

Lockdown has changed the way we date. Is it possible to form the same kind of connection through a screen? To find out, we set up six strangers on three virtual blind dates ...

Today in Focus has been wondering what online lockdown dating is like now social distancing has taken face-to-face meets ups out of the equation. So we worked with the Guardian’s Blind Date column and asked listeners to let us matchmake them with a stranger on a virtual date, with dinner provided ... Host Rachel Humphreys introduces the first three couples in part one of a two-part special.

Harry, a 32-year-old producer from the UK meets Jayson, a 25-year-old journalist in Hong Kong. Sam, a 34-year-old currently residing in Los Angeles has been paired with Jennifer, a 28-year-old civil servant from the UK. And Titus, 36, spent a virtual evening with Len, a 30-year old amateur Muay Thai fighter, despite the fact they live just a few roads away from one another.

The story of global conflict is all the more powerful when it isn’t seen in black and white. Artist Marina Amaral explains her latest work

On a stretcher lies a patient; his ashen face protrudes from under a green blanket, eyes closed. Two uniformed women carry the stretcher, wearing face masks. It looks as if it’s a lovely day: the sun is shining, the shadows dark, the sky blue. But this is not a happy picture. Is the casualty even alive, or has he already been taken by the killer virus that has wrapped itself around our planet like a python, squeezing the life from it?

The photograph was taken at an ambulance station in Washington DC. Within the past couple of months? It could have been, if it weren’t for the uniforms (I don’t think today’s nurses wear lace-up leather boots) and the stretcher. In fact, it was taken more than a century ago, in 1918, during the Spanish flu epidemic, which killed so many millions. The photographer is unknown, forgotten. But the black and white picture was recently “colourised” by Marina Amaral.

Teenagers affirm evidence that suggests they are particularly struggling with coronavirus crisis

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When, in late February, Betsy Sheil turned 16, she thought she was staring down the end of secondary school, not the beginning of global pandemic.

“I was going to finish year 11 and do my GCSEs, then I was going to have a really long summer with my friends, hopefully go abroad – have that summer that everyone has.”

Joint statement insists return will not happen until stringent ‘test and trace’ regime in place

Ministers’ plans to reopen schools as early as 1 June are in serious doubt after unions representing teachers and school staff insisted that they would not consider a return without a stringent coronavirus “test and trace” regime.

In an unusual joint statement, which one senior union official said indicated that an early return to a normal school timetable was “off the menu”, the Trades Union Congress said that there should be “no increase in pupil numbers until full rollout of a national test and trace scheme”, and called for the establishment of a Covid-19 taskforce with government, unions and others to agree on the safe reopening of schools.

Teenager remains in hospital as two men are arrested after collision on Streatham High Road

A 16-year-old cyclist is in a life-threatening condition after being hit by two cars in south London.

The boy was critically injured in the collision in Streatham High Road shortly before 11.20pm on Friday.

Decca Classics’ youngest-ever signing, Christian Li, has been hailed a ‘superstar’ who is already up there with the greats

The classical music world is no stranger to young talent. The 19th century virtuoso Niccolò Paganini started playing aged seven, while Yehudi Menuhin caused a sensation with his performance, at the same age, of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto.

Now, however, there’s a new kid on the block, whose backers say transforms from “normal child” to “absolute superstar” the moment the lights dim. Christian Li, a 12-year-old schoolboy violinist from Melbourne, recently became the youngest-ever artist signed by the Decca Classics record label. He will release a new recording later this month, a contemporary adaptation of a traditional Chinese folk tune.

Concerns raised about ‘disproportionate’ use of force after young black man is seriously injured

The police watchdog has launched an investigation after a black man in his 20s was left with a life-changing injury after he was shot with a stun gun by officers in north London.

Police on patrol in Haringey chased the man on Monday after he ran away from them following an approach, it is understood. They used the stun gun as he jumped over a wall and he fell, suffering serious back injuries, which his family fear could leave him at least partially paralysed.

Six weeks into Britain's Covid-19 crisis, Anywhere but Westminster asks how a city keeps going when everything has ground to a halt. The team virtually visits Plymouth, population 250,000, to see how the services that are vital to a city and its inhabitants are scrabbling to stay afloat. The fishing industry is in meltdown, temporary housing is oversubscribed and nurses facilitate goodbyes over Zoom. Most of all, people are asking: what on earth happens after this?

• Watch our previous Anywhere but Westminster videos 

• Music: Lament by Simon Dobson: www.simon-dobson.co.uk
  

Epidemiologists use the term to describe tragic excess deaths – but for Covid-19 it seems to be the de facto government policy

There’s a term we use in epidemiology to capture the essence of increases in deaths, or excess mortality, above and beyond normal expectations: “harvesting”. During heatwaves, or a bad season of influenza, additional deaths above what would be normally seen in the population fit this description. Harvesting usually affects older people and those who are already sick. Generally, it is viewed as a tragic, unfortunate, but largely unpreventable consequence of natural events. It carries with it connotations of an acceptable loss of life. It is, in a sense, what happens as part of a normal life in normal times. But the word also has darker connotations: those of sacrifice, reaping, culling. As such, while it may appear in textbooks of epidemiology, it doesn’t occur in national influenza strategic plans or national discourse. The concept of harvesting is restricted to epidemiological circles.

But what if politicians promote the notion of harvesting (while declining to use the term) where it is not a “natural” consequence of events but a direct consequence of government policy? What if the medical and nursing world do not accept harvesting in these circumstances? What if a policy that results in harvesting cannot be articulated because it is unacceptable to the broader population? This is where we have got to with the coronavirus pandemic. Nowhere better exemplifies this tension between a policy and its popular acceptance than the effects of coronavirus in nursing homes.

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Britain is a latecomer to decarbonising transport but changes under lockdown and initiatives abroad could spark a revolution

It was a grim irony that the best transport news in ages was buried in the first few days of the coronavirus lockdown. On 26 March, the government published a document, Decarbonising Transport, which went further in facing up to the problem of emissions from air and vehicle traffic than most campaigners had dared to hope for.

The challenge is enormous. In 2016, transport overtook energy to become the single biggest source of domestic emissions. Motor vehicles on their own are responsible for around a fifth of the total. On aviation, the UK is the world’s third-worst polluter, behind China and the US.

The pandemic is giving us a lesson in life, hope and death. It’s one we should never forget

Back in the days when we all still hurried oblivious through crowded city streets, the names chalked on the pavement must have been easily missed. But now a long-running campaign by rebel botanists across Europe to highlight overlooked nature in the city, scribbling names and plant details alongside a pretty weed growing through a wall or a tree spreading overhead, has unexpectedly found its niche.

Going for a walk is the only real freedom many have had for weeks, and with no particular place to go but out, there is finally time to notice nature creeping through the cracks: the birdsong no longer drowned out by traffic; the daffodils in front gardens giving way to frothy peonies; a fat supermoon hanging heavy on the night horizon.

Repatriation flights and naval warships help return some citizens after long delays

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Relieved Indians are arriving at airports across the country on the first flights to bring home those stranded abroad, and others are en route on naval warships, in an extensive repatriation effort labelled the vande mataram (long live the motherland) mission.

Photos from inside a plane landing at Chennai airport showed the flight crew, who were tested for Covid-19 beforehand, wearing protective suits and smiling behind masks and visors.

With states opening even as Covid-19 rages on, the president is rolling the dice on his career – and tens of thousands of lives

• Coronavirus – latest US updates
• Coronavirus – latest global updates

On Monday the Republican governor of Nebraska, Pete Ricketts, a close ally of Donald Trump and frequent visitor to the White House, opened his daily coronavirus briefing with a big announcement. “Today is May 4,” he said, “the first day of loosened restrictions statewide.”

With his declaration, Ricketts placed Nebraska at the vanguard of America’s reopening. Churches can now open their doors to worshippers, wedding bells and funeral dirges will be heard once more, hospitals can reschedule elective surgeries, and most Nebraskans will be able to resumehaving their hair cut, nails manicured, bodies massaged and skin tattooed.

Country’s leader Alexander Lukashenko boasts of holding only parade in former Soviet Union

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Thousands of people, including elderly veterans of the second world war, turned out for Belarus’s Victory Day military parade despite the coronavirus pandemic.

Images from the parade showed crowds packed on to parade bleachers as the country’s leader, Alexander Lukashenko, boasted of holding the only parade in the former Soviet Union to mark the defeat of Nazi Germany.

Consignments are being moved in bulk across borders as Covid-19 cuts off normal routes, say police

Organised crime groups are taking increasingly audacious risks as they attempt to smuggle large quantities of drugs into lockdown Britain, senior police figures say.

Analysing the latest operations of transnational criminal networks, the National Crime Agency’s head of drug threat said that police were making more significant seizures during the pandemic than normal.

They believed insurance would cover the pandemic but have received demands for thousands

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Couples who have been unable to get married because of the coronavirus lockdown have had their wedding insurance claims rejected – in some cases despite being assured they were covered before buying their policy.

The Guardian has heard from people who have lost thousands when claims were turned down by provider WeddingPlan Insurance.

Would-be cyclists keen to exercise during the lockdown have cleared stores of their stock

Isabel had not ridden a bike since university 10 years ago when lockdown motivated her to seek out two wheels. But half a dozen cycle shops in south London gave her the same answer: no chance. We’re out of stock.

One or two said they could sell her a high-spec racing bike for a price in the region of £1,000. The others advised her to place an order, wait a couple of weeks for the bicycle to be delivered from the manufacturer, then another week or so for it to be built by the store. And there was no option to try before buying.

Your questions answered on what type of mask to wear to cut the risk of getting Covid-19

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Yes. Different types of mask offer different levels of protection. Surgical grade N95 respirators offer the highest level of protection, preventing the user from becoming infected with Covid-19, followed by surgical grade masks. However, these masks are costly, in limited supply, contribute to landfill waste and are uncomfortable to wear for long periods. So even countries that have required the public to wear face masks have generally suggested such masks should be reserved for health workers or those at particularly high risk.

Inaccuracies in the testing, such as false negatives and false positives, are potentially harmful

Belarus leader holds parade prompting safety concerns as other nations curb WW2 events; Russia records 10,000 new Covid-19 cases; Spain’s daily death toll continues to fall. Follow the latest updates

• Global report: Trump says Covid-19 will ‘go away without vaccine’
• Mike Pence press secretary tests positive to Covid-19
• Brazil’s Bolsonaro must ‘drastically change course’, says The Lancet
• Coronavirus at a glance
• Australia – live news

3.54pm BST

A child was among sixteen migrants rescued four miles off the coast of France when their makeshift vessel bound for Britain ran into difficulties in the middle of the night, authorities said.

The group was picked up 3.8 miles off the French port of Calais after calling for help, French maritime authorities confirmed to AFP. A French maritime surveillance vessel rescued the migrants at around 5am and transported them to the Channel port of Dunkirk, where they were handed over to border police.

3.21pm BST

Vladimir Putin has told Russians they are invincible when they stand together, as he sought to send a message of unity after the country’s tally of Covid-19 cases reached the fifth highest in the world.

Addressing the nation in a speech as he presided over Victory Day celebrations, a sombre Putin invoked the memory of the country’s veterans who fought in the second world war.

We are united by our shared memory, hopes and aspirations, as well as a sense of shared responsibility for the present and the future. We know and strongly believe that when we stand together, we are invincible.”

Mike Pence’s press secretary tests positive to coronavirus; China reports one new case; Russia reports 10,000 new cases for sixth day in a row

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Donald Trump has said coronavirus will “go away without a vaccine” and is expecting 95,000 or more deaths in the US, as Mike Pence’s press secretary tested positive for coronavirus.

The president’s comments, at an event with Republican lawmakers, capped a horror week in the US, in which it was revealed unemployment had risen to 14.7%, up from 3.5% in February, with 20 million people losing their jobs in April.

We’ve passed our goal and greenlit one more episode of Multiplex 10: The Web Series, so we’ll get back into production as soon as the Indiegogo campaign ends. But we’re not done yet! We have exactly one stretch goal: for every $2,500 over the base goal, we will produce at least two more minutes of … Continue reading Multiplex 10: The Web Series is FUNDED on Indiegogo!

Фонд Льва Левиева и Вячеслава Мирилашвили, сооснователей ВКонтакте, вкладывался в транспортное приложение в 2015 и 2018 годах..