Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
More than 30,000 pubs, bars and restaurants may remain permanently closed because the coronavirus shutdown has sent a wrecking ball through the UK’s hospitality trade.
The grim prediction follows a week in which the Casual Dining Group, which owns the Bella Italia and Café Rouge restaurant chains, warned it was headed into administration – casting doubt over the future of its 250 restaurants.
A total of 13 people have now been held in connection with 19-year-old law student’s death
Murder squad detectives have arrested two more suspects after a teenage law student was shot dead in a drive-by shooting in Blackburn. Lancashire police said the pair, aged 34 and 24, were arrested on suspicion of the murder of 19-year-old Aya Hachem.
A total of 13 people have now been held by police after Hachem was hit by one of several shots fired from a vehicle as she walked to a supermarket near her home in the town on Sunday. She died from a single wound to the chest.
Boris Johnson’s insistence that the UK will be able to roll out a “world-beating” coronavirus test, track and trace regime by 1 June has inevitably drawn comparisons with countries around the world that have already set up effective Covid-19 tracing programmes.
It has also raised questions about timing, as some experts insist a system would have been more useful at the beginning of the pandemic.
The Conservative backbenchers Henry Smith has outraged opposition parliamentarians by saying that the objection to MPs returning to the House of Commons after next week’s recess (when the current, largely-virtual proceedings will end) has come from the “lazy left” and from “workshy” Labour and nationalist politicians.
Not that I should be surprised by the lazy left but interesting how work-shy socialist and nationalist MPs tried to keep the remote Parliament going beyond 2 June.
Henry this is an appalling thing to say, would you like to compare cases dealt with in this crisis? Hours helping with food, PPE, testing? Number of questions put down to ministers? Number of bill amendments written? Also calling people working at home workshy is quite something https://t.co/RROVCxbG7O
The government’s own public health advice has said that those who can work from home should and parliament has developed a system using technology to ensure the scrutiny of government whilst allowing people to work remotely.
Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, told the London assembly this morning that he is considering banning passengers from buses and tube trains in the capital if they are not wearing a face covering. He said that he was hoping to persuade the UK government, which is currently just advising people to wear face coverings on public transport, to toughen its stance. He told the assembly:
We don’t want confusion. When there is a crisis, what’s important is to have message clarity.
When the coronavirus struck, the British government repeatedly said it was among the best-prepared countries in the world – with some justification. As recently as October, an international review of pandemic planning ranked the UK the second best prepared country in the world (behind the US).
Two months on, any breezy confidence has evaporated. The government is facing growing complaints over a series of policy missteps that critics say are responsible for the worst death toll in Europe.
IOPC says no further action required over businesswoman’s receipt of public money and access to trade trips
Boris Johnson has avoided a criminal investigation into his relationship with the US businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri while he was mayor of London.
But he will face a further investigation into his conduct when he was mayor, after the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) found evidence that officials were influenced by the close relationship between the pair.
Tribunal says if migrants can prove they cannot pay fees then they should not have to do so
A court ruling has given hope to thousands of migrants, including health and care workers, that they will no longer have to pay visa and NHS surcharge fees if they cannot afford them.
An immigration court found that the Home Office was applying too harsh a test on whether people should be forced to pay.
EasyJet is to resume a small number of flights on 15 June, with increased safety measures on board including mandatory wearing of face masks, as it returns to the skies after grounding its entire fleet on 30 March.
The airline initially will restart domestic routes in the UK and France where it says there is sufficient customer demand to support profitable flying. Further routes will be added in the following weeks, as and when passenger demand rises and lockdown measures ease further across Europe.
Preparing for the impact of a no-deal Brexit later this year would overwhelm local emergency response teams exhausted by the Covid-19 pandemic, a leaked Whitehall report has warned.
A review by a committee set up to review the response to coronavirus said failing to seek an extension to Brexit negotiations threatened to “compound Covid-19 with a second UK societal-wide, economic and social, chronic threat”.
Beaches across the south of England were packed on Wednesday as the country basked in the hottest temperatures since the coronavirus outbreak began. Since 13 May, people in England have been allowed to take unlimited amounts of outdoor exercise, sit in the sun, drive to other destinations, and play sports with members of their own household
IOPC to reveal on Thursday whether PM will face criminal investigation into relationship
Boris Johnson will find out on Thursday if he faces a criminal investigation into his relationship with an American businesswoman while he was mayor of London.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is to reveal its long-delayed decision on whether to investigate him for possible criminal misconduct over his friendship with Jennifer Arcuri.
More cuts in the UK expected as global funding crisis follows Haiti sex-abuse scandal and charity shop lockdown closures
Oxfam International is to lay off almost 1,500 staff and close operations in 18 countries – including Afghanistan where it has worked for 50 years – after it emerged that the global aid organisation had been bleeding cash during the coronavirus crisis.
The agency has seen its funding model hit by an accumulation of crises.
Exclusive: Former newspaper executive Will Lewis allegedly played part in email deletions
The former senior newspaper executive William Lewis, on the shortlist to be the next director general of the BBC, has been accused of playing a part in the concealment and destruction of vast amounts of emails relating to phone hacking by the publisher of the Sun and News of the World, according to high court documents made public on Wednesday.
Lewis, who ended a six-year stint as the chief executive of the publisher of the Wall Street Journal this month, has been named in the case being lodged by about 50 alleged victims of phone hacking against the publisher News Group Newspapers. NGN is a subsidiary of News UK, which is run by Rebekah Brooks and ultimately controlled by Rupert Murdoch, through the parent company News Corporation.
Minister says checks on animals and food products are needed to maintain island of Ireland’s ‘disease-free status’
The government has confirmed for the first time that there will be Brexit checks on animals and food goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK from next January.
The announcement, detailed in a 23-page document released by the government on Wednesday, comes months after Boris Johnson pledged there would be no checks on trade crossing the Irish Sea – telling businesses that if anyone asked them to fill in new paperwork, they could “throw it in the bin”.
Fresh uncertainty over the UK’s contact-tracing plans has thrown light on the difficulties of a successful track-and-trace system to tackle Covid-19. Prof John Ashton, a former regional director of public health and regional medical officer for the north-west of England, describes his experience of contact tracing at the early stages of the coronavirus crisis and highlights pitfalls the UK should avoid.
“In early February I was invited to Bahrain to examine the country’s preparedness for Covid-19. The first case, that of a religious pilgrim returning from a visit to holy sites in Iran, was diagnosed while I was in Bahrain on 24 February.
Here is more on US president Donald Trump calling for an in-person G7 meeting.
Donald Trump has said he may seek to revive a face-to-face meeting of Group of Seven leaders near Washington, after earlier canceling the gathering due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Institution first to announce virtual teaching for next academic year
Cambridge has become the first university to set out measures for the full 2020-21 academic year, announcing that it will move all “face-to-face lectures” online for the duration. The institution added that it was “likely” social distancing would continue to be required.
The university said lectures would continue virtually until summer 2021, while it may be possible for smaller teaching groups to take place in person if it “conforms to social-distancing requirements”.
George Eustice, the environment secretary, has urged Britons on furlough to 'lend a hand' picking fruit and vegetables on British farms, as only a third of the pickers from eastern European countries who usually complete the work have arrived this year