South Korea closes schools again

amid coronavirus spike, days after

reopening
The Washington Post
By Valerie Strauss
May 30, 2020
South Korea closed hundreds of schools that had reopened days earlier — and
postponed the opening of many others — after a spike in cases of the novel
coronavirus.

The country had started to stage the opening of schools in the last week, instituting
social distancing and prevention measures in an attempt to prevent the spread of the
virus.

But according to the Korea Times, hundreds of schools were closed again because of
high infection rates in their communities. It cited the Ministry of Education as saying
that 838 schools of the 20,902 nationwide that were supposed to reopen on Wednesday
did not, including in Seoul, and hundreds closed on Thursday in Seoul, Bucheon and
other cities.

School districts in the United States that have been closed for months are now trying to
figure out when and how they can reopen safely. Some are watching how other countries
are handling the reopening of schools, including South Korea, which has been successful
in containing the spread of the virus.

South Korea had more diagnosed patients with coronavirus than any country other than
China in late February, but it implemented a tough program of contact tracing, isolation
and other measures, containing the virus. South Korea still reports that fewer than 300
people have died of covid-19.

After putting plastic barriers in many schools to separate students while they eat and
learn, disinfecting, and other preventive steps, some schools began to open last week for
the first time in several months, with more accepting students this week.

But new clusters of the coronavirus have been identified in recent days, leading the
government to close not only schools but also parks and museums — and people are
being urged again not to gather in big numbers.

The Yonhap News Agency reported that on Wednesday, the same day hundreds of
schools reopened, more than 60 cases of coronavirus were confirmed at a distribution
center in Bucheon, between the western port city of Inchon and the capital of Seoul. It
said that on Thursday, the The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
confirmed 79 new infection cases, including 69 linked to the center owned by Coupang,
the country’s leading e-commerce giant.

The Beatles announce Get Back, first

official book in 20 years
Ben Beaumont-Thomas

Wed, 16 September 2020, 5:00 pm GMT+4

The first official Beatles book since seminal Anthology in 2000

is to be published in August 2021.

The Beatles: Get Back will tell the story of the final Beatles
album, Let It Be, drawn from over 120 hours of transcribed
conversations from the band’s studio sessions. It will
accompany Peter Jackson’s feature documentary of the same
name, also set for release that month.

The book documents January 1969, with friction building in the

band as they recorded music for an intended TV special – George
Harrison walked out of the sessions at one point and John
Lennon described them as “hell”. The music they made, though,
would be among the most poignant in their catalogue, and the
sessions built towards the group’s final live performance, on top
of the Apple Corps building in London on 30 January 1969.

The songs they recorded were later mixed (including with

controversial input from Phil Spector) and eventually released in
May 1970 as Let It Be, instead of the original title Get Back. It
followed the recording and release of Abbey Road in September
1969, and was released a month after Paul McCartney’s departure
precipitated the band’s split.

The book’s introduction is written by Hanif Kureishi, who

describes the period as “a productive time for them, when they
created some of their best work. And it is here that we have the
privilege of witnessing their early drafts, the mistakes, the drift
and digressions, the boredom, the excitement, joyous jamming
and sudden breakthroughs that led to the work we now know and
admire.”

Jackson will write a forward, and the book will also feature
hundreds of previously unpublished photos by Ethan Russell and
Linda McCartney. Guardian writer John Harris edited the
transcripts of the conversations.

Those taped conversations also feature in Jackson’s film

alongside selections from 55 hours of unreleased and restored
16mm footage. This footage was made by director Michael
Lindsay-Hogg, initially for the TV special, and eventually included
in his documentary Let It Be. It was released alongside the
original album, and earned the band Oscars for best original song
score.

The Beatles: Get Back is being published by the Beatles’

company Apple Corps in tandem with Callaway Arts and
Entertainment, whose founder Nicholas Callaway said: “The
creativity and inspiration expressed in this landmark book and in
Peter Jackson’s film are as important and relevant today as
ever.”

The previous official project Anthology was a major archival

project straddling albums, a TV documentary and book.

The Guardian

Man arrested over killing of London

schoolteacher Sabina Nessa
Josh Halliday
Sun, 26 September 2021, 5:37 pm

Detectives are questioning a 36-year-old man on suspicion of the

murder of the London schoolteacher Sabina Nessa, in what they called
a “significant development” in the case.
The man was arrested at 3am on Sunday at an address in East Sussex
and was taken into police custody. He is the third man arrested over
the killing.

DCI Neil John, of the Metropolitan police’s specialist crime command,

said: “Sabina’s family have been informed of this significant
development and they continue to be supported by specialist officers.”

Nessa, 28, is suspected to have been killed as she made what should
have been a five-minute journey on foot to a pub from her home at
about 8.30pm on Friday last week. She was found dead the following
day in Cater Park in Kidbrooke, south-east London, where on Friday
about 500 mourners held a candlelit vigil in her memory. The killing
has reignited concerns about the level of danger women face in
Britain.

Two men previously arrested by homicide detectives – a 38-year-old

man and a man in his 40s – were released under investigation.

Detectives have until the early hours of Thursday morning to question

the latest suspect, before deciding whether to charge him or release
him under investigation.

The arrest on Sunday came 48 hours after police appealed for help to
trace a man captured on CCTV images taken near where Nessa was
found dead. Scotland Yard would not confirm if the suspect was the
man in the footage, but it is understood investigators are no longer
seeking him.

The man in the CCTV images was filmed on the night of the killing
carrying what is thought to be a reflective red item. Detectives have
said the man may have been trying to conceal the item up his sleeve
but that police retained an open mind as to whether it was used in the
killing.

A 12-second video released by the Met shows the balding man wearing
a black hooded coat and grey jeans looking over his shoulder and
pulling at his hood as he walks down a footpath.

Police said they were content that neither of the two men previously
arrested featured in the CCTV footage.
Nessa’s sister, Jebina Yasmin Islam, issued a statement on Friday
evening before a rally at the East London Mosque – one of many vigils
that took place across the country.

“There are no words to describe how we are feeling as a family at the

moment,” she said. “We did not expect that something like [this] would
ever happen to us. I urge everyone to walk on busy streets when
walking home from work, school or a friend’s homes. Please keep
safe.”

She added: “I ask you to pray for our sister and make dua
[supplication] for her. May Allah grant her paradise.”

Nessa’s uncle Shahin Miah described his niece as “a kind and an open-
minded person”, who was “always smiling and helping others”.

He said her death had “once again brought to the fore the question of
women’s safety on the streets”, adding: “We don’t want what
happened to Sabina to happen to anyone else. We don’t want any other
mother’s chest to be empty or filled with deep sorrow, or to see the
tears in the eyes of any father.”