- US agency focused on foreign disinformation shuts down
- On Christmas Eve, Pope Francis launches holy Jubilee year
- 'Like a dream': AFP photographer's return to Syria
- Chiefs seek top seed in holiday test for playoff-bound NFL teams
- Panamanians protest 'public enemy' Trump's canal threat
- Cyclone death toll in Mayotte rises to 39
- Ecuador vice president says Noboa seeking her 'banishment'
- Leicester boss Van Nistelrooy aware of 'bigger picture' as Liverpool await
- Syria authorities say armed groups have agreed to disband
- Maresca expects Man City to be in title hunt as he downplays Chelsea's chancs
- Man Utd boss Amorim vows to stay on course despite Rashford row
- South Africa opt for all-pace attack against Pakistan
- Guardiola adamant Man City slump not all about Haaland
- Global stocks mostly higher in thin pre-Christmas trade
- Bethlehem marks sombre Christmas under shadow of war
- NASA probe makes closest ever pass by the Sun
- 11 killed in blast at Turkey explosives plant
- Indonesia considers parole for ex-terror chiefs: official
- Global stocks mostly rise in thin pre-Christmas trade
- Postecoglou says Spurs 'need to reinforce' in transfer window
- Le Pen says days of new French govt numbered
- Global stocks mostly rise after US tech rally
- Villa boss Emery set for 'very difficult' clash with Newcastle
- Investors swoop in to save German flying taxi startup
- How Finnish youth learn to spot disinformation
- South Korean opposition postpones decision to impeach acting president
- 12 killed in blast at Turkey explosives plant
- Panama leaders past and present reject Trump's threat of Canal takeover
- Hong Kong police issue fresh bounties for activists overseas
- Saving the mysterious African manatee at Cameroon hotspot
- India consider second spinner for Boxing Day Test
- London wall illuminates Covid's enduring pain at Christmas
- Poyet appointed manager at South Korea's Jeonbuk
- South Korea's opposition vows to impeach acting president
- The tsunami detection buoys safeguarding lives in Thailand
- Teen Konstas to open for Australia in Boxing Day India Test
- Asian stocks mostly up after US tech rally
- US panel could not reach consensus on US-Japan steel deal: Nippon
- The real-life violence that inspired South Korea's 'Squid Game'
- Blogs to Bluesky: social media shifts responses after 2004 tsunami
- Tennis power couple de Minaur and Boulter get engaged
- Supermaxi yachts eye record in gruelling Sydney-Hobart race
- Hawaii's Kilauea volcano erupts, spewing columns of lava
- MGO Global Announces Closing of Upsized $6.0 Million Public Offering
- The Melrose Group Demands Hank Payments Management Facilitate Requisitioned Shareholder Meetings
- MedMira receives Health Canada approval for its Multiplo(R) Rapid (TP/HIV) Test for Syphilis and HIV
- The Glimpse Group Regains Compliance with NASDAQ
- Sokoman Minerals Completes Phase 1 Diamond Drilling Program Fleur de Lys Gold Project, NW Newfoundland
- Canadian Government Provides C$100 Million Financing LOI to Green Technology Metals in Support of Electric Royalties' Flagship Lithium Royalty Asset in Ontario
- Sendero Resources Announces First Tranche Closing of Its Non-Brokered Private Placement
London wall illuminates Covid's enduring pain at Christmas
UK families of some 240,000 people who died from Covid-19 have hung festive lights on a London wall, a symbol of love, anger and pain ahead of another Christmas overshadowed by loss.
As the fifth anniversary of the global pandemic approaches, emotions still run raw across the UK amid lingering accusations that the then government responded too slowly to the crisis.
Some 240,000 hearts have been painted by hand on the wall, nestled on the banks of the Thames, opposite the British parliament.
Each heart on the 500-metre-long (540-yard) wall represents one of the UK victims of the disease, which shattered and disrupted lives around the globe after being first detected in China in December 2019.
"We put up lights every Christmas, just as a way to reflect and remember those people who are not with us," said Kirsten Hackman, 58, whose mother died from Covid in May 2020.
"For many of us, there is that empty place at the table this Christmas," she added.
The wall is a collective "therapy session," say volunteers.
Since 2019 more than seven million people have been reported to have died from Covid worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. But the true toll is believed to be much higher.
Thousands of messages written on the hearts on the London wall reveal the depth of the emotional toll and scars left by the pandemic on UK lives.
"Mamy, love you forever," reads one, while another says: "Phil, always in my heart".
The remembrance wall was originally meant to be temporary, and was constructed without permission in March 2021 in protest at then prime minister Boris Johnson's handling of the pandemic.
He faced accusations of being too slow to recognise Covid's threat and then taking too long to lock down the country to try to prevent the spread of the highly infectious disease.
The wall is an "outpouring of love, anger, rage", Lorelei King, whose husband died of Covid in March 2020, told AFP.
The 71-year-old is part of the "Friends of the Wall" group, a dozen volunteers who come every Friday to clean the monument, repaint the rain-washed hearts and rewrite the messages.
"It's quite meditative", she said.
The group continues to draw new hearts as Covid claims new lives.
- Wall 'comforts me' -
But on the Friday before Christmas, the volunteers met for another, more joyful mission: to hang lights along the wall.
They illuminated them on Monday, and the decorations will remain in place until the beginning of January.
Nearly five years after the start of the pandemic, the pain remains the same, said King, adding she was one of many who had not been able to grieve properly.
"We weren't able to have a real funeral," due to lockdown rules, she explained, referring to the severe restrictions put in place on visiting loved ones in their dying hours, and then from holding large gatherings to mourn their loss.
Instead, she focuses her energy on the wall. "It comforts me. And I don't want the people we care about to be forgotten," said King.
"We are all in the same boat", added Michelle Rumball, 53, whose mother died of Covid in April 2020.
She was there on the first day that some hearts were painted, following a social media call by activist group Led By Donkeys.
Over the next 10 days, hundreds of people who had lost loved ones showed up to add their tribute, despite risking arrest for damaging a listed wall.
"I was very angry at that time. It was a demonstration," recalled Rumball.
The group is in discussions with the authorities to make the wall, whose upkeep depends on donations, "permanent" and officially recognised, meaning it could be better protected.
And a few days before Christmas, they had a "very positive" meeting, King said.
According to the WHO, more than 232,000 people have died with Covid in the United Kingdom. By comparison, there have been around 168,000 deaths in France.
Ch.Havering--AMWN