Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Family of motorcyclist killed near US base to receive crucial papers after seeking review
Lawyers representing the family of 19-year-old motorcyclist Harry Dunn are poised to receive a series of crucial documents which they believe will help their legal case to expose a “scandalous cover-up” by the Foreign Office.
The development comes after documents showed that a senior Foreign Office diplomat had sent a text message to a US Embassy counterpart saying they should “feel able” to put suspect Anne Sacoolas on the next flight back to the States.
With pyjamas and tracksuits becoming the lockdown look, the photographer Robin Sinha invited residents of his home street in Walthamstow to put on their Sunday best and imagine they had a special occasion to attend. Sinha hopes the project - All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go - will bring the street’s residents closer, and is exploring the idea of a local exhibition to raise funds for the NHS
The long-held belief about the UK’s highest award for valour may have originated in speculation by the press, research has found
The Victoria Cross, or VC as it is popularly known, is the most cherished award in the British armed forces, awarded since 1857 for courage displayed “in the presence of the enemy”.
Its long history is filled with true stories of great bravery. But one long-held belief – that Victoria Cross medals were made from enemy guns captured during the Crimean war against Russia – is unlikely to be true, and originated instead from speculation in the press, according to new research.
As more and more state and local officials announce the release of thousands of at-risk inmates from the nations adult jails and prisons, parents along with children rights groups and criminal justice experts say vulnerable youths should be allowed to serve their time at home, AP reports.
But they say demands for large-scale releases have been largely ignored. Decisions are often not made at the state level, but instead carried out county by county, with individual judges reviewing juvenile cases one by one.
Such legal hurdles have resulted in some kids with symptoms being thrown into isolation for 23 hours a day, in what amounts to solitary confinement, according to relatives and youth advocates. They say many have been cut off from programs, counsellors and school. Some have not been issued masks, social distancing is nearly impossible and they have been given limited access to phone calls home.
The Bolshoi ballet held its first online classes only this week, more than a month after lockdown began, AFP reports.
In the middle of their bedroom, Bolshoi ballet dancers Margarita Shrainer and Igor Tsvirko have placed a linoleum mat and a barre. Since the start of the lockdown, the couple, both soloists in the legendary troupe, have largely used their own initiative to keep up their dance skills at home.
Hello, I’ll be taking over the live blog for the next few hours. If you have a news tip, comment or suggestion, please get in touch via Twitter DM @cleaskopeliti or by email at clea.skopeliti.casual@guardian.co.uk. Thanks in advance.
Sculptor sees police helicopter overhead and invites officers to meet her ‘large wild cat’
Armed police and a helicopter were scouring the Kent countryside for a big cat on the loose following a call from a member of the public, only to find a model tiger made of chicken wire and resin in the woodland of an 85-year-old sculptor.
Juliet Simpson, who made the lifesize sculpture 20 years ago, was first alerted to the situation when a neighbour rang saying police were following up reports of a wild cat near her house in the village of Underriver.
Fewer than one in five of the British public believe the time is right to consider reopening schools, restaurants, pubs and stadiums. The findings, in a new poll for the Observer, suggest Boris Johnson will struggle to convince people to return their lives to normal if he tries to ease the lockdown soon.
The poll by Opinium, taken between Wednesday and Friday last week, found 17% of people think the conditions have been met to consider reopening schools, against 67% who say they have not been, and that they should stay closed.
As the world battles the coronavirus pandemic, communities are coming together to support each other through difficult times. From improvised festivals to a flypast for Capt Tom Moore at 100, here are some of the small and big things people are doing to keep each others' spirits up.
The communities secretary has announced £76m in support for survivors of domestic and sexual abuse who have been affected by the coronavirus lockdown. Admitting the measures have been 'a nightmare' for people trapped at home with abusers, Jenrick said the money would be used to provide more safe spaces and accommodation, recruit workers for survivors of sexual violence and support frontline charities working with those in need
Pair, aged 19 and 17, in custody after Londoner, 24, stabbed days before father’s funeral
Two teenagers have been arrested on suspicion of murdering David Gomoh, the NHS worker killed outside his home in east London last weekend.
Gomoh, 24, worked for Barts Health NHS trust in supplies and procurement. He was stabbed to death just days before he was due to attend the funeral of his father, who died from a Covid-19-related illness.
The UK’s paymaster general, Penny Mordaunt, has written to the EU to firmly reject a repeated request for an office in Northern Ireland: “The UK cannot agree to the permanent EU presence based in Belfast,” she wrote.
UK commuters could be asked to check their temperatures at home before travelling under plans to ease the coronavirus lockdown being considered by the government.
A change in physical distancing measures, including reducing the recommended gap between people in public from 2 metres to 1 metre, is also being considered, according to reports, as Boris Johnson prepares to lay out a “roadmap” next week for schools and businesses reopening.
Kamrul Islam doesn’t dare visit his local supermarket. Over the last few weeks, he said three of his closest friends fell ill with the coronavirus shortly after shopping there. One friend’s mother became seriously unwell after contracting the virus and sadly died.
The 40-year-old former cab driver says a day doesn’t go by when he isn’t aware of a death or infection of someone he knows. While the coronavirus has spread widely across the UK, the pandemic has taken a huge toll on the area where Islam lives, the east London borough of Newham, which has recorded the worst mortality rate in England and Wales.
The government has been accused of counting some tests prematurely, reportedly expanding its daily count to include tests that have been sent out in the post, rather than those actually carried out in labs. While it denies the charge, regardless of whether the 100,000 target has been met, countries that have taken a “test, trace, isolate” approach are running a far higher proportion of tests to positive cases than the UK. Germany, which is down to fewer than 1,000 daily positive cases, is performing nearly 1m tests per week. South Korea is doing 15,000 tests per day, but has had no more than 100 daily cases since the beginning of April. So, for a robust “test, trace, isolate” regime in the UK, the number of tests would need to be vastly increased or we would need to wait for the number of cases in the community to fall significantly.
Legal team for family of dead 19-year-old to seek answers in meeting with Raab aides
The Foreign Office has obstructed a search for truth into the death of 19-year-old motorcyclist Harry Dunn, lawyers for his family have claimed prior to a potentially tense meeting with aides to Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary.
Dunn died in August when his motorcycle collided with a car driven by Anne Sacoolas, the wife of a US intelligence officer stationed at a US spy base at RAF Croughton, Northamptonshire. Sacoolas immediately admitted to the police she had caused the accident by driving on the wrong side of the road.
PM urged to impose sanctions if Netanyahu carries out threat to annex parts of West Bank
Nearly 130 parliamentarians, including former Conservative cabinet ministers, have written to Boris Johnson urging him to impose economic sanctions against Israel if Benjamin Netanyahu’s new coalition government goes ahead with its threat to annex parts of the West Bank.
The letter, signed by the former Tory chairman Lord Patten and the former international development secretary Andrew Mitchell, says annexation would be clearly illegal under international law.
NHS staff from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds may be given roles away from the frontline under plans to reduce their disproportionately high death rate from Covid-19.
The Guardian revealed last week that minority groups were over-represented by as much as 27% in the overall Covid-19 death toll. Additionally, 63% of the first 106 health and social care staff known to have died from the virus were black or Asian, according to the Health Service Journal.
Senior reporter Haroon Siddique looks at the figures and explains why BAME people may be more at risk.
NHS launches inquiry after Guardian investigation exposes senior official trading protective gear amid pandemic
A head of procurement for the NHS has set up a business to profit from the private sale of huge quantities of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, an undercover investigation by the Guardian can reveal.
David Singleton, 42, a senior NHS official in London who has been working at the capital’s Covid-19 Nightingale hospital, launched the business two weeks ago to trade in visors, masks and gowns.
Judge rules part of Duchess of Sussex’s case against Associated Newspapers be struck out
Lawyers for the Duchess of Sussex have insisted her privacy claim against the publishers of the Mail on Sunday (MoS) will continue after she was dealt an initial blow when a judge ruled that part of her case should be struck out.
Lawyers for Associated Newspapers had argued last month against elements including that some words and sentences from a letter by Meghan to her estranged father, Thomas Markle, had been “dishonestly” cut out before publication in order to paint a misleading picture of the relationship between the two.