Ten Things You Need to Know Today: Friday 28 Aug 2020

1. Trump says Biden is ‘destroyer of American greatness’

Donald Trump has warned that Joe Biden will “demolish” the American dream if he wins the White House. Speaking on the final night of the Republican convention, the US president depicted his challenger as “the destroyer of American greatness” and claimed the Democrats would give free rein to “violent anarchists”. The election campaign is “widely expected to be one of the ugliest in living memory”, says the BBC.

‘It’s the economy, stupid’: what would four more years of Donald Trump look like?

2. Care homes’ death tolls hidden ‘for commercial reasons’

Coronavirus death tolls at individual care homes are being kept secret by regulators to protect providers’ commercial interests before a possible second wave, reports The Guardian. England’s Care Quality Commission and the Care Inspectorate in Scotland are refusing to disclose which homes or providers recorded the most fatalities because they fear that the supply of beds and standards of care could be threatened if customers deserted badly hit operators.

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Coronavirus: just how bad was the Covid crisis in UK care homes?

3. Conservatives tell Boris to get Britain back to workplaces

Boris Johnson is under pressure from senior Tory MPs to give a “clear and consistent message” that it is safe for people to go back to work. There have been warnings of “devastating consequences” for town and city centres as analysis of mobile phone data shows that just 17% of workers have returned to their offices, no more than at the end of June.

CBI chief warns of ‘ghost towns’ as UK workers stay away from offices

4. Hurricane Laura downgraded after killing six in Louisiana

Six people have died after Hurricane Laura hit Louisiana, felling trees and damaging buildings. The Category 4 storm arrived yesterday morning near the Texas border, tearing off roofs and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands. However, the expected 20ft (6m) storm surge was avoided and Laura has now been downgraded to tropical storm status.

5. BMJ says Covid risk to schoolchildren is ‘tiny’

The British Medical Journal says parents should be “reassured” that Covid-19 has not caused the deaths of any otherwise healthy children in the UK. Researchers looked at 651 children with coronavirus in hospitals and found that children's risk of needing hospital treatment for coronavirus is “tiny” and critical care “even tinier”. The news comes as English schools prepare to open next week.

Will reopened schools spread coronavirus?

6. Staff in hazmat suits rush Covid passenger off Ryanair flight

Officials in full PPE swept on board a Ryanair flight moments before it departed from London to remove a passenger who had tested positive for Covid-19. The passenger had received a text from test and trace minutes before departure, informing him that he had the virus. Ryanair said: “The passenger and his travel companion were immediately offloaded and taken to a Stansted airport isolation area.”

Could airport coronavirus testing reduce quarantines?

7. Banksy finances boat to rescue refugees in the Mediterranean

The street artist Banksy has funded a boat to rescue refugees attempting to reach Europe from north Africa. Named Louise Michel after a French feminist anarchist, the boat set off on 18 August from the Spanish seaport of Burriana, near Valencia, and is now in the central Mediterranean. It has so far rescued 89 people in distress, including 14 women and four children.

8. British children ‘the least happy in Europe’

Researchers have blamed a “particularly British fear of failure” for their finding that more than a third of 15-year-olds here have low scores for life satisfaction, making them the unhappiest in Europe. The annual Good Childhood Report found that UK children were dissatisfied with schools, friends and their sense of purpose.

9. Harry Maguire says he thought he was being kidnapped

The footballer Harry Maguire said he feared for his life when Greek police arrested him last week because he thought he was being kidnapped. Speaking to the BBC, the Manchester United and England defender claimed that plain-clothed police officers, who did not identify themselves, pulled over his group's minibus in Mykonos, threw him off the bus and struck him on his legs.

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10. Conservationist killed by lions he hand-reared

A 69-year-old South African conservationist has been killed by the lions he raised. West Mathewson was walking two white lionesses when one of the animals attacked and killed him without warning at the Lion Tree Top Lodge, in northern Limpopo province. Mathewson, known as “Uncle West”, had reare the lions from cubs.