Laura Goldman says she expects Maxwell to seek plea deal over charges relating to exploitation of young girls
Ghislaine Maxwell would never say anything about the Duke of York’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, according to one of her friends.
Maxwell appeared in court in the US on Thursday accused of helping disgraced financier Epstein “identify, befriend and groom” multiple girls, including one as young as 14.
Continue reading...Vic Goddard is one of many school leaders daunted by the burden of supporting pupils and staff through their grief
Vic Goddard is trying not to cry. The headteacher of Passmores academy in Harlow and star of the 2011 TV series Educating Essex is thinking about the 23 pupils and two staff at his school who have been bereaved during the coronavirus pandemic.
His greatest fear, a fear that keeps him awake at night and is making his voice tremble, is what could happen to them if he does not manage to support them adequately when they return to school. “I’m going to get upset, I’m really sorry…” he stops. “You feel dreadfully … dreadfully … There is an element of responsibility.”
Continue reading...Fourth of July weekend in US sees cases surging; WHO changes timeline of how it was alerted to virus; housing estates in Melbourne locked down. Follow developments live
What we’re learning about Covid as US states open up
How Victoria’s outbreak divided Australia
Scotland and Wales attack UK government’s shambolic travel changes
As some countries and regions are reintroducing restrictions and imposing local lockdowns, Thailand’s nightlife venues were allowed to reopen on 1 July after having been shut for three months.
My colleague Rebecca Ratcliffe reports from Bangkok.
Related: 'Let’s do karaoke!': Bangkok nightlife eases out of lockdown
Israel is one of several countries so far that are seemingly paying the price for lifting lockdown restrictions early, as the government tries to grapple with rising infections.
Over the last 24 hours 1,008 people have been diagnosed with Covid-19, raising the number of active cases in Israel to 10,060, according to data released by the Health Ministry.
Continue reading...Bricks were thrown at officers responding to complaints of noise, anti-social behaviour and violence
Seven officers have been injured after police interrupted an unlicensed music event in west London.
Police were called to White City on Friday evening following reports of a number of people gathered at an estate.
Continue reading...Foreign minister points out his country’s death rate from Covid-19 is a fraction of the UK’s
Portugal’s tourism sector reacted with fury and disbelief at England’s decision to maintain a quarantine regime for travellers coming from the country despite the UK having a higher death toll.
Portugal was left off a list of more than 50 countries that Westminster has deemed safe enough for travel without coronavirus-related restrictions, meaning holidaymakers returning from Portugal will have to quarantine for 14 days.
Continue reading...Trip by Stanley Johnson could weaken message on Covid-19 rules, warns Sage adviser
The decision by the prime minister’s father to travel to his Greek villa in apparent breach of Foreign Office guidance has been criticised by a government scientific adviser.
Boris Johnson has refused to condemn his father, Stanley, for flying to Greece, despite current advice for British nationals to avoid all but essential international travel.
Continue reading...Pressure grows on Duke of York to ‘speak up’ after the arrest of his friend Ghislaine Maxwell
The Duke of York was accused of subjecting alleged victims of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein to a “torture test” by his silence as lawyers for the women increased the pressure following the arrest of Ghislaine Maxwell.
As Maxwell, 58, remained in custody on charges of facilitating former boyfriend Epstein’s sexual exploitation of underage girls, lawyers for multiple women demanded Prince Andrew “be a man”, “speak up” and stop “deliberately avoiding” US authorities.
Continue reading...Barrister says Home Office’s unwillingness to protect 11-year-old makes a mockery of FGM protection orders
Human rights lawyers have launched a scathing attack on the Home Office for failing to grant asylum to an 11-year-old girl found by judges to be at high risk of female genital mutilation if removed from Britain.
The girl, who is thriving at school and only speaks English, was brought to the UK in 2012 by her mother, herself a victim of what is known as type 3 FGM whose two sisters died after being cut in their native Sudan.
Continue reading...Quarantine rules will not be lifted for arrivals from US due to its high number of infections
The US will be on a “red list” of high-risk countries that people in England are advised not to visit for non-essential reasons because of its continued high level of coronavirus cases, the government has confirmed.
Travel restrictions will be relaxed in England for more than 50 countries including nearly all EU countries, British territories such as Bermuda and Gibraltar, and Australia and New Zealand.
Continue reading...Philippines reports largest single-day increase in cases; Florida confirms 10,000 new cases in one day; Brazil infections nearing 1.5m
Authorities in northern Nigeria’s biggest city Kano have lifted a three-month lockdown imposed to contain a coronavirus outbreak linked to hundreds of deaths.
State governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje announced the lifting of the curfew in a broadcast, insisting the key trading hub had seen a sharp drop in infections.
We can beat our chest and say we are winning the case and there is no longer any need for the lockdown.
There will be free movement for all.
Despite imposing an early lockdown, containment may be unravelling in Bolivia amid poverty, an underprepared health system and a bitter political standoff, report Laurence Blair and Cindy Jiménez Bercerra in La Paz.
When Pedro Flores and a group of fellow doctors arrived in the Beni, Bolivia’s tropical northern province, at the end of May, they knew the crisis caused by coronavirus would be severe. But what they found still left them shaken.
There were no medical supplies, there were no ventilators, no oxygen.
Here in Trinidad most people have a relative, a friend, a neighbour who has died. We’re in a health disaster.
Related: Bolivia in danger of squandering its head start over coronavirus
Continue reading...NGOs warn of rising uncertainty over programmes to tackle poverty and Covid-19 despite assurances from ministers
The government’s plans to merge the Department for International Development (DfID) with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office have been criticised for a chaotic lack of clarity as NGOs are told to cut aid programmes.
DfID said it was due to review its aid spending because of a fall in gross national income, but stressed no decisions had been made. However, experts in the aid sector say there are already signs of cuts among programmes tackling poverty and Covid-19.
Continue reading...Grassroots groups have rallied to help traumatised former residents of the Park Inn
When Gabriel Vest ran into Asda on Sunday evening with £300 to spend on underwear and socks, staff at Glasgow’s southside branch were initially bemused. He explained he was buying emergency supplies for around 90 asylum seekers evacuated from the Park Inn hotel last Friday after Badreddin Abedlla Adam, from Sudan, stabbed six people before being shot dead by police. “Then they just wanted to help. I didn’t even have to queue.”
Vest, who ordinarily works with Bikes for Refugees, was bulk-buying for Maslow’s, a nearby community shop that supplies second-hand clothing for newly arrived migrants, and that day was hurriedly putting together packages for residents who had had to leave their belongings behind the police cordon. “I got a message from another volunteer who was at the hotel, to say there was one man who was still in his underwear because that was how he’d left his room when the fire alarm had gone off. He was left like that for two days. It was grim.”
Continue reading...Royal ‘bewildered’ after US attorney asks him to come forward following arrest of his friend over alleged sex crimes
Pressure on Prince Andrew to speak to FBI investigators was mounting after his friend Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested on charges of sex trafficking and perjury as part of its ongoing inquiry into the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
At a press conference in New York in which prosecutors detailed the allegations facing Maxwell, they urged the Prince to come forward.
Continue reading...Little respite for Duke of York over friendship with British socialite and Jeffrey Epstein
The arrest by the FBI of the British woman Ghislaine Maxwell on multiple charges related to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein throws an uncomfortable spotlight once more on the Duke of York.
It comes less than one month after a bad-tempered war-of-words between Prince Andrew’s lawyers and US prosecutors over the royal’s cooperation – or alleged lack of it – over their investigation into the late billionaire.
Continue reading...Ghislaine Maxwell, the close friend of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has been charged over her 'critical role' in helping the now late billionaire groom underage victims and for lying under oath.
Maxwell was accused by many women of recruiting them to give Epstein massages, during which they were pressured into sex.
Continue reading...China said UK will ‘bear all consequences’, raising possibility of retaliation
China has responded angrily to a UK promise to offer nearly 3 million residents of Hong Kong with British national overseas status (BNO), the right to settle in the UK.
China’s foreign ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian, said Britain would “bear all consequences”, and China’s ambassador to the UK later said that Beijing “reserve[d] the right to take corresponding measures”.
Continue reading...A fast growing mountain of toxic e-waste is polluting the planet and damaging health, says new report
At least $10bn (£7.9bn) worth of gold, platinum and other precious metals are dumped every year in the growing mountain of electronic waste that is polluting the planet, according to a new UN report.
A record 54m tonnes of “e-waste” was generated worldwide in 2019, up 21% in five years, the UN’s Global E-waste Monitor report found. The 2019 figure is equivalent to 7.3kg for every man, woman and child on Earth, though use is concentrated in richer nations. The amount of e-waste is rising three times faster than the world’s population, and only 17% of it was recycled in 2019.
Continue reading...EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier complained of lack of respect and engagement by UK
The latest negotiations in Brussels on an EU-UK trade and security deal have broken up early, with the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, complaining of a lack of respect and engagement by the British government.
The two sides ended the week’s talks – the first held in person since February – a day ahead of the jointly-agreed schedule amid evident frustration at the lack of progress in bridging what both Barnier and his UK counterpart, David Frost, described as “serious” disagreements.
Continue reading...Thames Water overflow pipe pumped waste for 1,000 hours into London wetlands last year
Raw sewage was discharged for more than 1,000 hours from a Thames Water overflow pipe into an environmental wetland at the Olympic Park last year, the Guardian can reveal.
The combined sewer overflow (CSO) at Mulberry Court pumped untreated waste 91 times into the waterway that feeds into the River Lea. To April this year, the same CSO has so far discharged for 34 hours in 20 incidents.
Continue reading...Scotland’s distancing rule to be relaxed for some sectors; lockdown-easing paused in some Scottish towns; getting English schools back to normal critical, Williamson says
A “partial reopening” of the tourism sector in Wales is to take place over the next few weeks as long as rates of coronavirus continue to fall, the Welsh government has announced.
The Labour-led government has asked visitors to enjoy their time in the country – but to respect local communities.
Tourism is a vital part of the Welsh economy at a national, regional and local level. I’d like to thank all our industry partners for working with us to carefully reopen the visitor economy.
A successful, safe and phased return will give businesses, communities and visitors confidence to continue with the recovery of the visitor economy.
NHS England has recorded a further 35 coronavirus hospital deaths in England. The full figures are here.
For comparison, here are the equivalent daily figures announced by NHS England over the past fortnight.
Continue reading...