Top story: A president physically distancing the facts

Hello, I’m Warren Murray delivering the first news offerings of the day.

Donald Trump has been condemned for putting countless lives at risk after announcing the US is freezing payments to the World Health Organization (WHO) over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic. He accused it of “severely mismanaging and covering up” the threat, even though the WHO declared a public health emergency on 30 January – after which the president continued to hold rallies, play golf and compare the coronavirus to the common flu. It has also emerged that relief cheques to get hard-hit Americans through the crisis are being delayed because Trump wants his name printed on them.

The WHO is indeed facing criticism but Trump’s attacks have been laced with falsehoods and contradictions that are catalogued in Julian Borger’s analysis: “Trump’s turn against the WHO only gathered pace over the past week, as more and more reports emerged of the administration’s own complacent and dysfunctional response.” There has been condemnation across the world of Trump’s action. Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of the Lancet medical journal, said it was “a crime against humanity … Every scientist, every health worker, every citizen must resist and rebel against this appalling betrayal of global solidarity.” Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary general, said now was “not the time” to cut funding or to question errors – a process that should take place “once we have finally turned the page on this epidemic”.

In other coronavirus developments: mainland China reported a decline in new confirmed cases from 89 to 46 on Wednesday although an increasing number of local transmissions in its far north-east bordering Russia remained a concern. Australia jailed its first person for breaching isolation laws: a man aged 35 will spend a month in jail after repeatedly sneaking out of hotel quarantine to visit his girlfriend. The International Monetary Fund has slashed its forecasts for global growth and warned of the kind of slump unseen since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Here is our latest summary and, as ever, you will be able to find further developments at our live blog.

There’s more in our Coronavirus Extra section further down … and here’s where you can find all our coverage of the outbreak – from breaking news to factchecks and advice.

> Barack Obama has endorsed Joe Biden for US president. “Joe has the character and the experience to guide us through one of our darkest times and heal us through a long recovery,” Obama said of his two-term vice-president.

> A rare aerial photo shows how the monoliths of Stonehenge fit together a bit like Lego.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Top of one of the Stonehenge columns. Photograph: Nick White

Smooth knobs were carved on top of the columns, fitting snugly into corresponding holes in the weighty lintels that were placed on top of them.

> Some Labour MPs have warned against appointing any senior party officials before the publication of an inquiry into a leaked internal report about the party’s handling of antisemitism complaints.

> The advertising watchdog has banned adverts for Burger King’s plant-based Rebel Whopper. The chain implied it is suitable for vegans and vegetarians, when it is not – being cooked on a grill with meat and topped with egg-based mayonnaise.

Power-sharing in Ireland – The Irish Republic’s Fine Gael party and its longtime rival Fianna Fáil have moved closer to forming an unprecedented coalition government. Leo Varadkar, the Fine Gael leader and taoiseach of the previous government, and Micheál Martin, the Fianna Fáil leader, agreed on Tuesday to seek a “full and equal partnership” for five years during which they would rotate the position of taoiseach. The pair are due to brief their parties on the details today. A general election in February left a hung parliament.

Coronavirus Extra

For our science podcast, Ian Sample speaks to Professor Carmine Pariante about the effects of social isolation on the mind and body.

Science Weekly Social isolation and you Sorry your browser does not support audio - but you can download here and listen https://audio.guim.co.uk/2020/04/14-58967-gnl.sci.20200415.ms.cv19_isolation.mp3 00:00:00 00:14:13

How did coronavirus start? Graham Readfearn talks to the experts about various theories on the route that Covid-19 took from animals to humans, and whether the now-infamous Huanan seafood market played a part.

The government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) is meeting this week to assess the effect of the lockdown and review whether conditions are right to relax restrictions. Here are some of the key figures and trends Sage will need to consider.

Today in Focus podcast: Working in disaster zones

Luis Encinas is a nurse and Médecins Sans Frontières coordinator. He has treated patients in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, in Sierra Leone as Ebola took hold, and now in Spain, battling Covid-19. Encinas and the Guardian’s Madrid correspondent, Sam Jones, describe how the virus has transformed Spain.

Today in Focus Working in disaster zones Sorry your browser does not support audio - but you can download here and listen https://audio.guim.co.uk/2020/04/14-72980-20200415_TIF_Spain.mp3 00:00:00 00:21:27

Lunchtime read: Planned obsolescence, a scourge of our era

“Imagine you showed someone a smartphone 20 years ago. You said: ‘Here’s this thing, it’s going to be awesome, and it’ll cost $1,000. But the manufacturers are going to glue the battery in, and you’re supposed to get rid of it when the battery wears out.’ You would have thought that notion was completely bananas.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Volunteers fix gadgets at a branch of Repair Café in Vlaardingen, Netherlands. Photograph: Martin Waalboer

Unrepairable phones and laptops are one of the scandals of our throwaway society. But the pushback is building – and the coronavirus crisis has added more pressure for change, writes John Harris.

Sport

Liverpool will mark the 31st anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster today with a series of commemorative events after the final Anfield memorial service was postponed as a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic. The England women’s team have linked up with the #PlayersTogether initiative instigated by Premier League players and aimed at providing support to the NHS.

The acrimony attached to the Scottish Professional Football League’s attempts to abandon this season shows no sign of abating after Partick issued a legal challenge to the governing body. Mike Ashley’s controversial 13-year ownership of Newcastle could soon be over. England’s Sam and Tom Curran have said they would be happy to resume their international cricket careers behind closed doors if necessary. And Kenyan runner Daniel Wanjiru, winner of the 2017 London Marathon, has been provisionally suspended following an alleged anti-doping violation.

Business

Asian stocks have edged lower after the International Monetary Fund predicted the global economy would suffer its worst year since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Benchmarks in Tokyo and Hong Kong were flat while Shanghai and Sydney declined despite Wall Street’s overnight gain driven by buying of technology stocks. New Zealand and Singapore gained while Jakarta declined. The pound is at $1.26 and €1.148 at time of writing.

The papers

“Forgotten front line” – the Metro looks at the plight of those keeping care homes running during the coronavirus pandemic, as does the Guardian with “Are people dispensable? Care manager tells of toll” accompanying a front-page picture of Anita Astle, manager of a Nottinghamshire home where more than a third of residents have died. Our print edition’s splash is “UK economy could shrink by 35% in Covid-19 fallout”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Guardian front page, Wednesday 15 April 2020. Photograph: Guardian

“4,000 feared dead in our care homes” – the Mail also picks up on the horror and heartbreak in residential aged care where the prevalence of the virus and the death toll are feared to be much higher than official figures capture. Others are mostly drawn to the economic implications as seen by the Office for Budget Responsibility. “Virus threatens to hit economy harder than war and flu in 1918” says the FT while the Times has “Two million could lose jobs in the lockdown”.

“Biggest economic shock in 300 years” – the Telegraph reaches right back to the time of Adam Smith and the birth of political economy itself as a concept. The Sun bemoans “Lockdown meltdown”. Others including the Mirror and the Express take heart from predictions that there will be a rebound – the i is an exemplar, with “UK faces worst recession in a century but should bounce back quickly”.

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