Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
The number of asylum applications received by the UK government between April and June nearly halved compared with the first three months of the year, fresh figures show, as the Covid-19 pandemic limited migration flows across the world.
There were 4,850 asylum applications made in the second quarter of the year, significantly down on the 8,455 received from January to March, Home Office statistics reveal.
Davey’s victory over Moran means the three biggest UK-wide parties are led by white men with seats in London, a fact which may not do much to realise the hopes all three have espoused to speak more effectively for the whole country.
Turning back to coronavirus, new figures from the Department of Health and Social Care show that 75.5% of close contacts of people who tested positive for Covid-19 in England were reached through the Test and Trace system in the week ending August 19.
That figure is up from 71.6% in the previous week. For cases handled by local health protection teams, 95.6% of contacts were reached and asked to self-isolate in the week to August 19. By contrast, for those cases handled either online or by call centres, 61.6% of close contacts have been reached and asked to self-isolate.
The jet engine maker Rolls-Royce made a record loss of £5.4bn in the first half of the year, after the collapse in international travel during the pandemic led to to a slump in demand.
The Derby-based company said it had originally expected to manufacture 450 engines during 2020 but now planned to deliver only 250.
Gatwick airport plans to cut around 600 jobs, which it says is due to the pandemic. Its chief executive Stewart Wingate said:
If anyone is in any doubt about the devastating impact Covid-19 has had on the aviation and travel industry then today’s news we have shared with our staff, regarding the proposed job losses, is a stark reminder.
We are in ongoing talks with government to see what sector-specific support can be put in place for the industry at this time, alongside mechanisms which will give our passengers greater certainty on where and when they can safely travel abroad.
A care provider group is calling on the government to reverse an “extraordinary” decision to allow health inspectors into care homes without regular coronavirus testing.
The National Care Forum (NCF) wants Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors to be included in weekly routine testing prior to on-site visits. The group, which represents 120 of the UK’s social care charities, said the current policy is “not credible” and “very counter-productive”.
For months central government and the regulator have been requiring care homes to essentially eradicate the movement of staff and the flow of people, including close family relatives, into homes.
Having done this, care homes are now being asked to let inspectors into homes without knowing whether or not they are Covid-positive.
Data showing fiscal deficit rose to £15bn in 2019-20 sparks row over case for independence
Scotland’s deficit has risen to nearly £2,000 per person after the gap between tax income and spending widened to become more than three times larger than the UK as a whole.
Data released on Wednesday showed Scotland’s fiscal deficit rose to £15bn in 2019-20, fuelling a row over the case for independence at first minister’s questions between Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish Labour leader, Richard Leonard.
The UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, appears to have employed the services of a celebrity personal trainer after admitting he needed to lose weight after contracting Covid-19.
Germany will end mandatory coronavirus tests for travellers returning from high-risk areas abroad and again focus its testing strategy on people with symptoms or possible exposure to Covid-19 patients, the country’s health minister said today.
Health minister Jens Spahn said that over the summer vacation period the number of virus tests performed in Germany nearly doubled to 900,000 a week in part to identify people who caught the virus during trips abroad, the Associated Press agency reports.
Report says racism is endemic in UK aid department’s HQ and network of offices abroad
Many black, Asian and minority ethnic men working in the Department for International Development claim to have experienced prejudice at work, including racist jokes and doubts about their legality as UK citizens.
The government’s aid department has also been severely criticised for signing off an anti-sexual harassment campaign that portrayed BAME men following or restraining white women, in a report seen by the Guardian.
Emily Thornberry labels ex-Australian PM a ‘Trump-worshipping misogynist’ amid reports of role
The shadow trade secretary, Emily Thornberry, has condemned reports that Boris Johnson is preparing to appoint the former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott to a senior trade role, calling Abbott a “Trump-worshipping misogynist”.
The Department of Trade declined to comment publicly on Wednesday but insisted no decision had yet been made, after the Sun reported that Abbott would be given a leading role on the board of trade.
Campaigners say unprecedented levels of littering and fly-camping are partly due to ignorance of behavioural guidelines
An unprecedented rise in litter, damaging fires and “fly-camping” across the English countryside is partly a result of the government spending less than £2,000 a year over the past decade on promoting the Countryside Code, campaigners say.
The code, a set of simple guidelines to help rural visitors respect wildlife, local people and landscapes, was relaunched in England in 2004 after the new “right to roam” law increased access to the countryside.
Pupils in England will no longer be advised against using face masks in secondary schools after Boris Johnson made an 11th-hour U-turn days before classrooms reopen.
In lockdown areas such as Greater Manchester, which have greater restrictions to stop the spread of the virus, wearing face coverings will become mandatory in school corridors where social distancing is more difficult.
Maguire found guilty of aggravated assault, attempted bribery
England defender will appeal 21-month suspended sentence
Harry Maguire has been found guilty of aggravated assault, resisting arrest and attempted bribery by a three-member misdemeanours court convening on the Greek island of Syros.
The £190,000-a-week Manchester United and England defender had denied all charges and said he would appeal. Maguire was given a prison sentence of 21 months and 10 days that was suspended on account of the charges being misdemeanours and and the court’s acknowledgement of his clear criminal record. His two co-defendants, who included his footballer brother Joe, were handed suspended 13-month sentences.
Exclusive: Thomas Young used cut-up method to treat translation of Egyptian relic as mathematical problem, papers show
Nobody knew how to read hieroglyphs when two 19th-century scholars set out to decipher the inscribed texts on the ancient Egyptian Rosetta Stone, one of the British Museum’s most famous treasures.
Now notes have been discovered among one of the scholars’ papers in the British Library that reveal the extent to which the translation was treated as though it was a mathematical problem.
While some scientists believe the virus has become less deadly, others look at the factors that suggest otherwise
Are Covid-19 death rates decreasing? Most statistics indicate that although cases of Covid-19 are rising in many parts of Europe and the United States, the number of deaths and cases of severe complications remain relatively low. For example, patients on ventilators have dropped from 3,000 at the epidemic’s peak in Britain to 70. At the same time, the number of cases in the UK have begun to rise in many areas.
What lies behind this trend? Doctors are unsure exactly what is going on. Some suggest that medical interventions are more successful at treating those who suffer complications from the disease. For example, the drug dexamethasone was recently shown to improve survival rates among patients requiring ventilation. Others argue that different factors are involved. One suggestion is that Covid-19 is now becoming a disease of younger people who are less likely to die or suffer serious complications.
NGOs and MPs fear appointments to Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office reflects unbalanced priorities
The UK’s ambassador to the EU is to become political director of the newly merged Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), one of seven senior officials who will form the core of the leadership team when the department launches next week.
Tim Barrow is one of five appointees from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office chosen to serve on the board of the FCDO. Two further appointments are officials from the Department for International Development (DfID).
• The head of England’s exam regulator, Sally Collier, has resigned over the exams fiasco that has engulfed schools and universities. News of her departure came hours after the education select committee announced she had been called to give evidence to MPs on the exams debacle at a hearing next Wednesday. An education source said: “She knew she’d reached the end of the line.” Collier, the chief regulator and Ofqual chief executive, oversaw the development of the flawed exams algorithm that was scrapped after it downgraded nearly 40% of A-level results. The algorithm was created after ministers insisted on avoiding grade inflation.
The EU’s trade commissioner has said he broke no public health regulations governing the pandemic while in Ireland.
Phil Hogan, whose role makes him of key interest to British government officials pursuing post-Brexit trade talks, provided 20 pages of documents to the head of the European commission, Ursula von der Leyen, after she requested further details of his trip home earlier this month.
I am satisfied, arising from the test that I did that proved it was negative, that I was no risk to anybody.
Because of the fact that I had a negative test. Because my medical people said I was no risk to anybody. I checked with the Citizens Information website which is funded by the HSE and I felt that I was no risk to anybody by going to Adare.
Carnival’s Princess Cruises has said it will cancel early 2021 cruises on two ships, citing travel, border and port restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Cruise lines, hammered by a crisis that has seen some ships turn into infection hotspots, had earlier said they were expecting solid 2021 bookings, mainly as repeat cruisers were eager to book their trips.
Kate Green, Labour’s shadow education secretary, has called the Department of Education change on face coverings a “half baked U-turn”.
Parents and schools needed clarity and leadership, but instead the government have just passed the buck back to them.
Face coverings should be compulsory in communal areas in schools.
It was inevitable that the policy on face coverings would change following guidance from the World Health Organization, and we recognise that the government in Westminster has responded to our call for a quick direction on this matter with the reopening of schools imminent.
The new policy is discretionary, other than in places where coronavirus restrictions apply, and secondary school and college leaders will welcome the flexibility this affords them to decide what best suits their circumstances.
Covid-19 has exposed the fragility of supply chains, which rely on the labour of black and brown workers. The deep inequalities won’t be fixed by injecting funds at the top
Is the UK governed by parliamentary democracy or big businesses? It is a question that should concern us all, yet it is becoming increasingly hard to differentiate between the two, as the government hands out multimillion-pound contracts to private firms with dubious track records, and ministers revolve between roles at big banks and government. Last week, the line between UK aid and private businesses was called into question, as the Department for International Development (DfID) announced the decision to direct £4.85m of taxpayers’ money towards the work of large retailers including M&S, Tesco and Primark.
The DfID funding is intended to support large companies to fix vulnerable supply chains and ensure that “people in Britain can continue to buy affordable, high-quality goods from around the world”. These aims, along with the fact that UK brands have been entrusted to deliver them, set off alarm bells for labour rights campaigners like myself, who advocate for better working conditions in the global garment industry.
Hans Sloane ‘pushed off pedestal’ and placed with artefacts putting his work in context of British empire
The British Museum has removed a bust of its founding father, who was a slave owner, and said it wanted to confront its links to colonialism.
Hartwig Fischer, the institution’s director, revealed the likeness of Sir Hans Sloane has been placed in a secure cabinet alongside artefacts explaining his work in the context of the British empire.
A devoted mother and transport worker, Mujinga was confronted by an angry passenger as Covid-19 swept the UK in March. Her death made headlines and raised pressing questions about race, abuse and workers’ rights
It is maybe three metres from the concourse in Victoria station to the ticket office. As Belly Mujinga ran, she would have been scared. It was 21 March, a Saturday, late in the morning. Victoria was a ghost of its former self. Hardly anyone was around to see Belly as she dashed for the ticket office, her breath shaky and uncontrolled, her hand reaching out to wipe the spittle from her face.
There are facts in the story of Belly – and there is a version of events that is disputed. Then there is the symbol that Belly has become to so many people – people who never met her or heard the sound of her voice, but who know her name and the story of what happened to her in those fear-filled days at the start of the coronavirus outbreak in Britain.
Star calls for live music to challenge social distancing rules, but faces fan backlash
Van Morrison has denounced the supposed “pseudoscience” around coronavirus and is attempting to rally musicians in a campaign to restore live music concerts with full capacity audiences.
The 74-year-old Northern Irish singer launched a campaign to “save live music” on his website, saying socially distanced gigs were not economically viable. “I call on my fellow singers, musicians, writers, producers, promoters and others in the industry to fight with me on this. Come forward, stand up, fight the pseudo-science and speak up,” he said.