Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Prince William said to have feared brother was ‘blindsided’ by lust in his haste to marry
The royal rift that led to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex leaving Britain and stepping back from royal duties began after Prince William feared his brother had been “blindsided” by lust in his haste to marry Meghan Markle, a new book claims.
Harry was offended by William’s advice to “take as much time as you need to get to know this girl”, causing tension between the two that finally led to “Megxit” , according to the authors of Finding Freedom.
Dominic Raab has defended the government's sudden decision to impose restrictions on holidaymakers returning from Spain after a surge in coronavirus cases in the country. Travellers will have to self-isolate for two weeks upon their return. The foreign secretary said the government would not 'make apologies' for the move as inaction could have risked a second wave in the UK
Latest updates: how has Covid-19 progressed where you live? Check the week-on-week changes across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
The map shows local authorities where the number of cases has increased week-on-week and where it has fallen. Some of this is due to natural fluctuations, especially in areas where there are very few cases, and so a rise from 1 to 2 is a doubling. Increased testing also means that more cases may be being detected than previously, although the impact of this between one week and the next is likely to be slight.
Twenty-one new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed at a caravan park in England.
The local county council fears the number of cases at the site in Shropshire , which is in the town of Craven Arms, will continue to rise before infection control measures start to take effect.
President Donald Trump has announced his itinerary for next month amid the pandemic.
Because of my strong focus on the China Virus, including scheduled meetings on Vaccines, our economy and much else, I won’t be able to be in New York to throw out the opening pitch for the @Yankees on August 15th. We will make it later in the season!
Campaigners accuse Kensington council of ‘contemptuous disregard’ in decisions that led up to the fire
The Grenfell Tower fire inquiry must include a separate investigation into how “race and class” contributed to the tragedy, according to a group supporting more than a third of the deceased.
The organisation, which represents 28 of the 72 individuals who died in the fire, submitted a statement on 21 July to the inquiry chairman, judge Sir Martin Moore-Bick, to request that an extra module be added to the inquiry to examine if the cost-cutting measures that helped spread the fire would have been sanctioned “if the tower block was in an affluent part of the city for an affluent white population”. Currently there are eight modules, each covering a separate theme, in phase 2 of the inquiry which is examining why the fire happened.
Opinium poll for the Observer also reveals 47% of public think Putin’s government affected UK’s 2019 general election
Almost half the British public believes the Russian government interfered in the EU referendum and last year’s general election, according to a poll. The latest Opinium poll for the Observer found that 49% of voters think there was Russian interference in the Brexit referendum, with 23% disagreeing. Some 47% believed Russia interfered in the December general election.
The poll findings come after the long-awaited publication of the report into Russian interference by parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee last week. It found that the government had not attempted to investigate potential Russian interference in the referendum. It said the UK had “badly underestimated” the Russian threat.
MPs who compiled the Russia report were incredulous at Britain’s reluctance to tackle Kremlin
In September 2015 a tall young man with jet black hair and a pleasant grin made his way to Doncaster. His name was Alexander Udod. With the EU referendum vote on the horizon, Udod was attending Ukip’s annual conference. In theory he was a political observer. Actually Udod was an undercover spy, based at the Russian embassy in London.
Udod chatted with the man who would play a key role in Brexit – the Bristol businessman Arron Banks. The spy invited Banks to meet the Russian ambassador Alexander Yakovenko. What allegedly followed was a series of friendly encounters between Leave.EU and the Russians in the crucial months before the June 2016 poll: a boozy lunch, pints in a Notting Hill pub, and the offer of a Siberian gold deal. (Banks denies receiving money from Russia and previously stated his only contact with the Russian government in the run-up to the referendum consisted of “one boozy lunch” with the ambassador.)
‘Provocative test of a weapon-like projectile’ from Russian satellite shows peaceful use of space is under threat, says defence secretary
Britain will boost its ability to handle threats posed by Russia and China in space as part of a foreign, security and defence policy review, the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, has said.
“This week we have been reminded of the threat Russia poses to our national security with the provocative test of a weapon-like projectile from a satellite threatening the peaceful use of space,” Wallace wrote in the Sunday Telegraph, adding that China also posed a threat.
Green co-founded band with Mick Fleetwood in 1967 and was behind a string of hits
Tributes have been paid to Fleetwood Mac co-founder Peter Green after he died “peacefully in his sleep” aged 73.
A statement from Swan Turton solicitors, acting on behalf of his family, said: “It is with great sadness that the family of Peter Green announce his death this weekend, peacefully in his sleep. A further statement will be provided in the coming days.”
Activists want London mayor Sadiq Khan to cancel Silvertown road tunnel project
Three Extinction Rebellion activists have locked themselves to a rig in the middle of the Thames to protest against a planned road tunnel underneath the river in south-east London.
The keys to the locks around the protesters’ necks have been delivered to the capital’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, with a note asking him to come and talk to them. However, the mayor’s office issued a statement ignoring the request and confirming plans to build the Silvertown tunnel are continuing.
Comments will be a blow to No 10, which had hoped Merkel would help break deadlock
Angela Merkel’s government has called for more realism from the UK in the ongoing trade and security talks, after the EU capitals were given a “sobering” update by Michel Barnier following the recent round of Brexit negotiations.
After a presentation by the EU’s chief negotiator to ambassadors from the 27 member states on Friday, a spokesman for the German government, which holds the rolling EU presidency, said the bloc was ready to move negotiations quickly forward but “expressed the need for more realism in London”.
Boris Johnson has conceded there were “things we could have done differently” over Covid-19, and admitted the government did not understand the virus in the “first few weeks and months”.
In a sometimes combative interview with the BBC, the prime minister repeatedly refused to discuss any lessons that could be learned before a possible second wave of Covid-19 this winter, saying it was not the moment to “run a kind of inquiry into what happened in the past”.
Heard became ‘nervous wreck’ at auditions, fearing Depp’s reaction, acting coach says
Johnny Depp wanted Amber Heard “barefoot and pregnant – and at home”, her acting coach told the high court in London as she outlined her growing suspicions that the Pirates of the Caribbean actor was hitting his wife.
Kristina Sexton, Heard’s friend and then acting coach, said she had not seen Depp “hit, kick or throw anything” at Heard, but she was aware of the “volatility” of their relationship and had “overheard some serious fights” while waiting to start her coaching sessions.
Teenagers Henry Long and passengers Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers cleared of murder
The widow of PC Andrew Harper, who died after being dragged along a road by a getaway car in Berkshire in August 2019, has said she is “utterly shocked and appalled” after three teenagers were cleared of his murder.
Henry Long, 19, the driver, and his passengers Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers, both 18, were found guilty of manslaughter at the Old Bailey.
Three professors at the University of Southampton school of medicine have this week made a “major breakthrough” in the treatment of coronavirus patients and become paper millionaires at the same time.
Almost two decades ago professors Ratko Djukanovic, Stephen Holgate and Donna Davies discovered that people with asthma and chronic lung disease lacked a protein called interferon beta, which helps fight off the common cold. They worked out that patients’ defences against viral infection could be boosted if the missing protein were replaced.
Even before the coronavirus pandemic, there were vast inequalities between men and women in the world of work. Despite chipping away at the glass ceiling over recent decades, in 2020 the gender pay gap still remains stubbornly high, while more men called Steve and Dave run FTSE 100 companies than women.
Four months from the launch of lockdown, and as Britain slips into the deepest recession for three centuries, it is increasingly clear the economic fallout from the pandemic is having a disproportionate impact on women.
Boris Johnson has said people opposed to vaccinations are “nuts” as he promotes an expanded programme of flu jabs that ministers hope will ease pressure on the NHS if there is a second wave of coronavirus this winter.
It comes after several polls have suggested some Britons are feeling apprehensive about having a Covid-19 vaccine. A coronavirus jab is seen by many experts as a key route out of the pandemic. Last year, the World Health Organisation identified “vaccine hesitancy” as one of the top 10 health threats to the world.
In Liverpool One shopping complex on Friday, signs telling customers to wear masks were up in many of the stores and a vending machine selling face coverings had been installed, PA reports.
The machine had packs of five three-ply masks for £4.75, packets of two for £1.95 or fashion coverings for £5.95.
I think it is a little bit late to have introduced this and lots of people I’ve seen this morning are not even wearing one. It won’t put me off coming to the shops because I’ll be out anyway but it does seem a bit unnecessary.
I’m vulnerable and so is my husband. I think this should have started from day one. I was on the bus this morning and people were getting on with no masks. If you go in to a shop without a mask I don’t think anyone is going to say anything. I think people are more relaxed now.
Outgoing international development secretary says Britain’s ‘world superpower’ status will remain after merger with FCO, despite fierce criticisms
Britain’s status as a world superpower in development is in “safe hands” under Dominic Raab, according to the international development secretary, as she prepares to leave her post.
In an interview with the Guardian, Anne-Marie Trevelyan expressed sadness at leaving the Department for International Development (DfID), whose work is “truly impactful” and “doing good”, she said. But she said she has seen passion and enthusiasm in the foreign secretary towards helping developing countries become stronger.