
By Unknown Author from NYT World https://ift.tt/3jyiAzQ

UK’s narrow clinical definition only includes high fever, continuous cough, or loss of smell and taste
Senior scientists have called for the UK to expand its official list of Covid symptoms to reduce the number of missed cases and ensure more people know they should self-isolate.
The researchers, who include Prof Calum Semple, a member of the government’s Sage committee of experts, argue the UK’s narrow clinical definition of Covid leads to delays in identifying people with the disease and may miss them altogether, hampering efforts to disrupt the spread of the virus.
Continue reading...Lewis Hughes, 24, apologises for ‘any upset caused’ after video of incident in London went viral
A man who was called a “thug” by Boris Johnson after being filmed accosting Prof Chris Whitty has apologised for “any upset I caused”.
Lewis Hughes, 24, said if he made England’s chief medical officer feel “uncomfortable”, then “I am sorry to him for that”. He said he had lost his job as a result of the video.
Continue reading...Analysis: leader’s talk of huge crisis, despite no admission of Covid cases, comes amid concerns over health infrastructure and food shortages
Almost 18 months after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, North Korea has come close to conceding that its attempts to keep the virus from its borders have failed.
While North Korea’s state-controlled media have not reported any cases, some analysts assume the virus has breached the country’s defences, prompting its leader, Kim Jong-un, to issue a coded request for outside help this week.
Continue reading...With the Manchester international festival starting this week, we pick restaurants and street food venues to fuel the brain after all that culture
Starting on Thursday and running until 18 July, the Manchester international festival will see the city come alive with cultural activity. The central Festival Square will showcase good food too, from operators such as Neapolitan-style pizza perfectionists Honest Crust and high-quality chef and producer collective Eat Well MCR. But what of refuelling options across Manchester? Here are 10 standouts, from takeaways to ambitious restaurant dining.
Continue reading...Showdowns between Polish activists and its ultra-conservative government could help build a more tolerant future
If you want to understand the currents of change shaping our world, look to the periphery. Countries and people pushed to the margins teach us a lot about the health of democracy. They paint a picture steeped in paradox. As storytellers from one of these strange borderlands of western culture, we have made it our life’s work to truffle-hunt for narratives of hope and perseverance in dark places. Our homeland, Poland, is filled with such stories.
Take Elzbieta Podleśna, a veteran civil rights activist, who was drawn to Płock, a town in central Poland where the clergy wields unchecked political power. She led a group protesting against a church exhibition that encouraged believers to battle against so-called LGBT sins. Overnight they plastered posters of the Virgin Mary with a rainbow-coloured halo around the church – and promptly drew the fury of the police, the Catholic church hierarchy and lawyers brandishing the blasphemy laws.
Continue reading...I hate it when language is used to exclude and obscure. But it takes guts to resist
My first job in journalism was in business news. This wasn’t my first choice; in truth it would probably have been my last, but it was the only place that would have me. I was as bewildered as the next work experience bod but, since I had three weeks there, I thought I might as well try to get to the bottom of the stuff they were talking about. At school, no teacher had ever had to encourage me to put my hand up if I didn’t understand something. Invariably, my hand was raised already. My powers of concentration, severely limited at the best of times, diminish to zero if I hear words and phrases I am unfamiliar with. I have to put my hand up and seek clarification. I’m sure my teachers got tired of this, but not half as tired as the staff in the BBC’s Business Programmes department.
“What’s RPI?” I would ask.
Continue reading...