Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Some older people who fund their own care home fees are being forced to pay a steep and unexpected coronavirus bill by their care provider, it has been revealed.
Older people and their families are being asked to pay more than £100 a week on top of their usual care home fees, with homes saying the cost of PPE and staff absences could push their finances into the red, threatening their sustainability.
People over 60 or with health issues should wear a medical-grade mask when they are out and cannot socially distance, according to new guidance from the World Health Organization, while all others should wear a three-layer fabric mask.
The announcement on Friday marks a significant change of stance by the WHO, which until now has been reluctant to advocate the wearing of masks by the public because of limited evidence that they offer protection.
A senior Northern Ireland police officer has made a strong appeal to protesters not to take part in demonstrations this weekend.
PSNI assistant chief constable Alan Todd said his officers are engaging with organisers of Black Lives Matter gatherings to explain the coronavirus regulations, adding if the warnings are ignored then enforcement will be used.
I have a very clear message to organisers, the best way to resolve this for everybody’s interests is to call off these events.
Large crowd protests are at this time inappropriate.
On any other day as a police service we would be fully facilitating those protests in a peaceful and lawful manner with the organisers, however this is not any other day, we’re in the middle of a pandemic and gathering in crowds, socially distanced or otherwise, is both a risk to public health and a breach of the health protection regulations.
It seems to be somewhat ironic that we would protest the avoidable and unnecessary death of an individual in the United States by risking unnecessary and avoidable deaths in Northern Ireland.
The commander of US forces in Japan has accused China of using the coronavirus crisis as a cover for a surge in naval activity to push territorial claims in the South China Sea.
In a telephone interview with the Reuters news agency, Lieutenant General Kevin Schneider said there had been a surged of activity by China, with navy ships, coast guard vessels and a naval militia of fishing boats in harassing vessels in waters claimed by Beijing.
Peru is beginning the second phase of its economic reopening on Friday, even as its ongoing coronavirus outbreak showed little signs of slowing, with 4,284 new confirmed cases reported on Thursday.
The president, Martin Vizcarra, announced the second phase of lockdown easing on Thursday, after his council of ministers approved a presidential decree calling for the restart of economic activity.
Recent developments stir painful memories for residents of small Portuguese coastal town
The sunny street that leads to the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz is quiet, its silence interrupted only by the chirping of birds carried on a warm breeze.
A pair of blue curtains is drawn across the window of the ground-floor apartment, the old balcony door has been replaced by an iron one and the hedge outside is perfectly trimmed.
Christian Brückner may be linked to disappearance of a five-year-old girl in Germany and six-year-old boy in Portugal
German prosecutors are investigating whether the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann was involved in a similar case of a five-year-old girl who went missing in Germany in 2015.
Reports on Friday night also said authorities were looking into connections with the disappearance of a six-year-old German boy in Portugal in 1996.
Simon Schama and Sir Malcolm Rifkind among those warning that annexation ‘would have grave consequences’ for Palestinians
Some of the most prominent and respected names in British Jewry have raised alarm over the Israeli government’s plans to annex parts of the West Bank, saying such a move would be an existential threat to Israel.
Among more than 40 signatories of an unprecedented letter to the Israeli ambassador to the UK are Sir Ben Helfgott, one of the best-known Holocaust survivors in Britain; the historians Sir Simon Schama and Simon Sebag Montefiore; the former Conservative foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind; the lawyer Anthony Julius; the philanthropist Dame Vivien Duffield; the scientist Lord Robert Winston; the former MP Luciana Berger; the Times columnist Daniel Finkelstein; and the author Howard Jacobson.
Candidate for ‘cake rep’ sparks anger after comparing killing of black man to flour shortages
An Oxford college has ordered staff and students to undergo training to combat racial bias after an undergraduate made a “joke” drawing a comparison between protests over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and flour shortages.
The comments, described as racist and trivialising by witnesses, were made during a virtual hustings event by a candidate for the position of “cake rep” – a welfare position on the junior common room committee at Christ Church college.
The actor has sustained a ‘nick to the head’ in what she told former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard was a minor incident
Cate Blanchett has sustained a cut to the head following a chainsaw accident at her home in East Sussex.
The Oscar-winning actor, who relocated from Sydney to Crowborough last year, was asked how lockdown was going by former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard on her podcast last week.
Six months needed to prepare for Brexit border checks, warn Northern Ireland business groups
Northern Ireland business groups are calling for a six month delay to Brexit checks in the Irish Sea saying that Boris Johnson’s late admission that he is legally obliged to implement them has left them no time to prepare for the December cliff edge.
They have also hit out at Downing Street secrecy, saying they are refusing to discuss the plans with the very people that needed to implement them.
Police in UK, Portugal and German launch joint appeal for information about Christian Brückner
Detectives in three countries have appealed for evidence in relation to the strongest suspect they have had in 13 years to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, as German authorities said they believe she is dead.
Circumstantial evidence has convinced detectives that a 43-year-old German child sexual offender and rapist, identified by Portuguese sources on Thursday as Christian Brückner, is their prime suspect as it emerged he has been known to police for years.
Barcelona-based firm is thought to have fought off bids from Unilever, L’Oréal and Shiseido
The celebrity makeup artist Charlotte Tilbury has handed a control of her namesake makeup and skincare empire to a Spanish fashion and fragrances business in a deal that could have valued the company at up to £1bn just seven years after she started it.
Tilbury, 47, personally owned between half and 75% of the company until signing a deal with the Barcelona-based Puig will likely have handed her a cash payout worth tens of millions of pounds. The Spanish firm also owns brands including Paco Rabanne, Jean Paul Gaultier and Nina Ricci.
PM uses settlement, which took away three-fifths of territory, for nationalist agenda
Church bells rang out across Budapest, public transport came to a halt and people observed a moment of silence as Hungary commemorated the centenary of the treaty of Trianon on Thursday.
Signed in the aftermath of the first world war, the treaty still forms a major part of Hungary’s national identity and memories of the harsh settlement have helped fuel the nationalist agenda of the current prime minister, Viktor Orbán.
Face coverings on public transport will be compulsory from 15 June in England to reduce the spread of coronavirus, Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, has said.
People can be fined if they do not wear a covering on buses, trains, airplanes and ferries from that date, when non-essential shops are likely to reopen
Threatened job losses follow announcement of 1,500 redundancies internationally and closure of offices in 18 countries
More than 200 UK jobs could be lost at Oxfam, after the charity’s funding plummeted during the coronavirus pandemic.
The threatened UK job cuts are in addition to the loss of almost 1,500 staff roles internationally and the closure of offices in 18 countries, announced by the aid organisation in May.
Michael Clauss says talks will be a focus from September and UK needs more realistic approach
Britain must give away some sovereignty to secure free trade with the EU but Europe’s leaders will intervene in the negotiations in the autumn with the aim of sealing a compromise deal at a summit on 15 October, Germany’s ambassador in Brussels has said.
Michael Clauss, whose country will take over the rolling presidency of the EU for the second half of the year, said there had been “no real progress” in the talks so far but predicted they would become the EU’s main political focus in September and October.
Interesting and important thread here by John Burn-Murdoch of the Financial Times, on the coronavirus data being released by the Spanish government. In particular, the way they report Covid-19 deaths was changed last week, and has allowed the government to release artificially deflated figures (which the Guardian has written up, for example here). He also links to this article in El Pais.
NEW: much has been made this week of Spain recording zero new Covid deaths for two successive days.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchéz called it "A success for all".
In a video for a virtual graduation ceremony at her old high school in LA, the Duchess of Sussex recalled words of advice given by a teacher when she was 15, who said to her: 'Always remember to put another’s needs above your fears.' She told the graduating students: 'I am sorry that in a way we have not gotten the world to a place that you deserve it to be'
Spokesman says it is first time in 13 years he can recall police fixing sights on one individual
The parents of Madeleine McCann believe the identification of a convicted German sex offender as the key suspect in their daughter’s disappearance is “potentially very significant”, their spokesman has said.
An international appeal for information is under way after police in Britain and Germany revealed that a serving prisoner is the new prime suspect in the disappearance of the three-year-old on 3 May 2007.
Thousands of protesters have marched through central London in an overwhelmingly peaceful Black Lives Matter demonstration that culminated in passionate crowds gathering at the heart of Westminster.
The demonstrators, the vast majority of whom were under 30, chanted: 'No justice, no peace, no racist police', 'I can’t breathe' and 'the UK is not innocent', in a lockdown-defying demonstration that was largely organised through word of mouth and social media away from established anti-racism groups.