| Good morning, this is Emilie Gramenz bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Tuesday 19 May. Top stories There are rising hopes for a coronavirus vaccine after a human trial in the US produced positive results in its group of eight volunteers. Here’s a look at five organisations in the race to develop a vaccine. And in Geneva, China has joined 120 countries backing a push for a “comprehensive review” into the outbreak of Covid-19, despite earlier criticising Australia and other countries calling for such an investigation. However, there are growing suspicious that Chinese trade sanctions, including a new punitive 80% tariff announced on Australian barley overnight are a form of retaliation. A quarter of childcare centres have reported the federal government’s support package, which scrapped fees for parents, has not helped them remain financially viable. An education department report released today – a month into the free childcare scheme – reveals concerns that cost pressures will grow as coronavirus-related restrictions ease in Australia. The latest Guardian Essential poll shows one in 10 Australians who’ve lost their jobs during the crisis fear they will never work again. Hundreds of McDonald’s employees in Melbourne are the latest to be stood down because they may have come into contact with a delivery driver who tested positive. Australia’s death toll from the virus rose to 99 yesterday. The Morrison government has promised new measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including introducing an incentive scheme to allow big industrial polluters to earn revenue by emitting less than an agreed limit.It also plans to allow businesses to bid for funding from its main climate policy (the $2.55bn emissions reduction fund) for projects that capture emissions and either use them or store them underground. Angus Taylor, the energy and emissions reduction minister, said the government had agreed to 21 of 26 recommendations from a review into new ways to cheaply cut emissions. Germany and France have outlined an economic rescue package, proposing the EU borrows on the financial markets in order to disperse €500bn through grants to European economies hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic.There was a strong rise in share prices on global stock markets. Italy has reopened cafes, restaurants and St Peter’s basilica at the Vatican after two months of strict lockdown.And coronavirus cases in Belgium continue to fall but there’s a political row simmering over nurses’ pay and conditions Australia Victoria is experiencing an increasing number of megafires that are threatening some of the state’s most important ecological habitats, according to a new study in a leading international journal. The research says many areas have had fires reoccurring much too frequently to allow forests to recover, risking the beginning of ecosystem collapse. Court documents show Papua New Guinea’s commerce minister is suing the Australian Financial Review over a series of articles about a multinational oil company, ASX-listed Horizon Oil, and its dealings in PNG in 2011. Former senior public servants have called for the reintroduction of a carbon price, saying it would be the least economically damaging way to cut greenhouse gas emissions.The interviews were aired on ABC TV’s Four Corners last night. Aboriginal health organisations say the Queensland government is holding back a $3.3m national rollout of rapid Covid-19 testing in remote Aboriginal communities. Last month the federal government announced funding for a rapid-testing program in Aboriginal communities which cuts wait times to 45 minutes. World An unpublished UK government study has found temporary care workers transmitted Covid-19 between care homes. The study used genome tracking to investigate outbreaks. The US attorney general has dismissed the possibility of an “Obamagate” investigation. William Barr says he does not expect a justice department review of the FBI’s handling of 2016 election interference to lead to the criminal investigation of Barack Obama or Joe Biden, despite Donald Trump stoking the pseudo-scandal. A gunman who killed three US sailors and injured eight people at a military base in Florida last December planned meticulously and was radicalised overseas for at least five years, US officials said on Monday. The FBI learned of contacts between the gunman and an al-Qaida operative after breaking the encryption on locked cellphones. India is preparing to evacuate more than a million people, with a “super-cyclone” due to hit the country this week and cause devastation in vulnerable areas. The Indian states of West Bengal and Odisha, as well as coastal areas of Bangladesh, have been put on high alert over Cyclone Amphan. Recommended reads | 