US airlines have begun laying off thousands of workers after efforts to negotiate a new economic relief plan in Congress stalled. American Airlines says it shedding 19,000 workers and United Airlines 13,000.  The carriers – badly hit by the coronavirus pandemic – say they are ready to reverse the decisions if more financing is found.

The airlines have received billions of dollars from the federal government. Congress agreed the aid agreed earlier in the year as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act [Cares Act]. It was conditional that the carriers did not lay off workers until 1 October. Airlines worldwide have been hit by a massive fall in demand caused by the pandemic. In a letter to staff announcing the layoffs, American Airlines Chief Executive Officer Doug Parker said: “I am extremely sorry we have reached this outcome. It is not what you all deserve.” On Wednesday United Airlines, in a message to its employees, said it was imploring “our elected leaders to reach a compromise, get a deal done now, and save jobs“.(BBC)…[+]

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have called for the end of “structural racism” in a piece written for a newspaper for Black History Month. Prince Harry and Meghan said there had been changes in the UK in the past 30 years but “sufficient progress had not been achieved”. They were writing in the London Evening Standard as they highlighted leaders in the UK’s black community. The couple recently urged voters in the US election to “reject hate”. The duke and duchess have moved to Santa Barbara with their son Archie and agreed a deal to create shows for the streaming service Netflix, having stepped back as senior royals in January. In the piece they said that “if you are white and British, the world you see often looks just like you” and spoke of the importance for young people of seeing role models and leaders who share the same skin colour as them. 

“For as long as structural racism exists, there will be generations of young people of colour who do not start their lives with the same equality of opportunity as their white peers. And for as long as that continues, untapped potential will never get to be realised,” they warned. The duke and duchess concluded the article by saying: “We cannot change history, nor can we edit our past. But we can define our future as one that is inclusive, as one that is equal, and one that is colourful.”(BBC)…[+]

A Japanese man has pleaded guilty to murdering nine people after contacting them on Twitter, in a high-profile case that has shocked the country. Dubbed the “Twitter killer”, Takahiro Shiraishi was arrested in 2017 after body parts were found in his flat.

He told a court in Tokyo on Wednesday that the allegations against him “are all correct”. But his lawyers argue that his charges should be reduced because his victims apparently gave consent to be killed. If convicted of murder, Mr Shiraishi faces the death penalty, which is carried out by hanging in Japan. The court case has attracted wide interest, with more than 600 people lining up for 13 public gallery seats to watch the first hearing on Wednesday, reported public broadcaster NHK. The prosecution say the accused opened a Twitter account in March 2017 “to contact women contemplating suicide, whom he saw as easy targets”, NHK said.

Eight of his victims were women, one of them aged 15. The only male victim, aged 20, was killed after confronting Mr Shiraishi about the whereabouts of his girlfriend, Japanese media reported. The 29-year-old is believed to have lured his victims by telling them he could help them die and in some cases claimed he would kill himself alongside them.(BBC)…[+]

Even an effective coronavirus vaccine will not return life to normal in spring, a group of leading scientists has warned. A vaccine is often seen as the holy grail that will end the pandemic. But a report, from researchers brought together by the Royal Society, said we needed to be “realistic” about what a vaccine could achieve and when.

They said restrictions may need to be “gradually relaxed” as it could take up to a year to roll the vaccine out. More than 200 vaccines to protect against the virus are being developed by scientists around the world in a process that is taking place at unprecedented speed. “A vaccine offers great hope for potentially ending the pandemic, but we do know that the history of vaccine development is littered with lots of failures,” said Dr Fiona Culley, from the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College London. There is optimism, including from the UK government’s scientific advisers, that some people may get a vaccine this year and mass vaccination may start early next year.(BBC)…[+]

Astronauts were woken during the night to continue the hunt for an air leak on the International Space Station (ISS).

Crew members have been hunting for the source over several weeks. But the search was stepped up a notch when the size of the leak appeared to grow on Monday; this erroneous reading turned out to have been caused by a temperature change onboard the ISS. Analysis by ground teams traced the leak to the main work area inside a Russian ISS module called Zvezda. This module contains life support equipment for the space station and also houses living quarters for two crew members. Further analysis will be necessary to pinpoint the precise area from which air is escaping.(BBC)…[+]

A nurse has been fired from a Canadian hospital after a video emerged showing a dying indigenous woman screaming in distress and being insulted by staff. Quebec Premier Francois Legault said the nurse’s remarks were “unacceptable” and “racist”. He said Joyce Echaquan’s death would be thoroughly investigated.

It is the latest in a series of incidents that have raised questions about systemic racism faced by Canada’s indigenous citizens. In 2015 a report found that racism against indigenous people in Canada’s healthcare system contributed to their overall poorer health outcomes, compared to non-indigenous Canadians. Ms Echaquan, a 37-year-old Atikamekw woman, had gone to the Joliette hospital about 70km (45 miles) from Montreal suffering from stomach pains. The mother of seven filmed herself in her hospital bed screaming and calling for urgent help.(BBC)…[+]

The first person cured of HIV – Timothy Ray Brown – has died from cancer. Mr Brown, who was also known as “the Berlin patient”, was given a bone marrow transplant from a donor who was naturally resistant to HIV in 2007.

It meant he no longer needed anti-viral drugs and he remained free of the virus, which can lead to Aids, for the rest of his life. The International Aids Society said Mr Brown gave the world hope that an HIV cure was possible.

Mr Brown, 54, who was born in the US, was diagnosed with HIV while he lived in Berlin in 1995. Then in 2007 he developed a type of blood cancer called acute myeloid leukaemia. His treatment involved destroying his bone marrow, which was producing the cancerous cells, and then having a bone marrow transplant. The transfer came from a donor that had a rare mutation in part of their DNA called the CCR5 gene.(BBC)…[+]

The Covid-19 pandemic began last year in a city in central China, but has since grown to affect nearly every country on earth. The virus has put world leaders in hospital while exposing inequality. It has asked major questions of governments and encroached on the daily lives of billions. And it shows no signs of ending any time soon. As the number of deaths passes one million, we take a look at some of the landmarks along the way. January was a big month for news – it saw the US assassinate an important Iranian general, rampant wildfires in Australia and the death of basketball great Kobe Bryant in a helicopter crash.

We didn’t know it at the time, but the biggest story emerged from China, which the BBC first reported as a cluster of cases of a “mysterious viral pneumonia” in the city of Wuhan. On 11 January, China reported its first confirmed death from the virus – a 61-year-old male resident of the city. Chinese scientists identified the illness as a type of coronavirus, which cause different diseases from the common cold to more severe ones like Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome). There were early signs of the kind of response that would later be commonplace around the world – the outbreak prompted Singapore and Hong Kong to bring in screening processes for travellers from Wuhan.

There were also fears the virus could spread rapidly as hundreds of millions of people in China prepared to travel around the country for Chinese New Year. But it was still unclear how the illness was transmitted, with health officials saying no cases of human-to-human transmission had been confirmed. At that point, the World Health Organization (WHO) said it was aware of the outbreak, it was in contact with the Chinese government and it was closely monitoring the event.(BBC)…[+]