Rail industry resists calls from passenger groups to release data on risk of contracting Covid on trains
Train operators have been urged to release research showing the risk of contracting Covid on trains, with the chances now believed to be substantially higher than the figure publicised by the rail industry last year.
The industry-funded Rail Research and Safety Board (RSSB) said in July 2020 that the risk was just one infection in 11,000 average journeys in Great Britain.
Continue reading...Gifted as a cub by a Maharajah to a young British boy, Singh lived at a house in Surrey before outgrowing his home and being driven in a black cab to the zoo. Now his story has been made into a book
“He was,” London Zoo said, “one of the zoo’s politest pets.”
Singh the Lion arrived in a black cab and padded in through the front door, on a lead.
Continue reading...Farkhad Akhmedov had contested 2017 decision but has now reached an agreement over divorce
After almost five years of fighting a high court ruling that awarded the UK’s largest ever divorce payout, a Russian billionaire has reached a settlement with his ex-wife.
Farkhad Akhmedov and Tatiana Akhmedova have been embroiled in the most expensive family feud in history since a London high court judge awarded Akhmedova a £450m divorce payout in 2017.
Continue reading...Archie White awarded fine arts degree from East Sussex College aged 96 years and 56 days
A former solicitor from Hastings is believed to have become Britain’s oldest new graduate after receiving a degree in fine art at the age of 96.
Archie White, who retired at 92, said he was “not too bothered about being the oldest graduate or not” and had thoroughly enjoyed studying at East Sussex College.
Continue reading...Dumfries course teaches 11- to 18-year-olds how to create a persona, apply makeup and the history of drag
“You can use drag to explore anything you want to,” says Natalie Doidge, the organiser of what is thought to be Scotland’s first “drag school” for teenagers, which opens its doors later this month after facing down controversy.
“Drag isn’t limited to men dressed as women … and this course opens it out to anyone who wants to try it. It’s an exploration of [oneself] – especially for young people at the upper end of high school, when your life is just beginning and you’re thinking about who want to be. Gender is a performance, after all.”
Continue reading...Painting reclaims former glory as English Heritage rights the wrongs of 19th-century additions
At some point in the last 400 years a painting restorer probably decided the Dutch vegetable seller was far too glum and should be smiling. Now it has been put right and she is once again enigmatic.
English Heritage revealed the results on Friday of a two-year conservation project to reveal the true glory of a mysterious, unsigned painting that has been in its stores for more than 60 years.
Continue reading...Leaders of £24m Stocksbridge fund include local MP, her husband, and others with personal or business links to plans
Labour has raised concerns about the management of a flagship levelling up scheme after it emerged that decisions about one local £24m fund were primarily led by a group including the local MP, her husband, and others with personal or business links to some of the plans.
Documents also show that the towns fund board for Stocksbridge in South Yorkshire, co-chaired by Conservative MP Miriam Cates, met for eight months before members began filing details of personal interests, and that the scheme of governance was only published after more than a year.
Continue reading...Government says its Covid app is unlikely to be adjusted to make it less sensitive for weeks
Up to 1.6 million people in England have been told to isolate in a single week, Guardian analysis has found as the government said the Covid app is unlikely to be changed for weeks.
The number of new UK coronavirus cases climbed to 48,553 on Thursday – the highest since mid-January and the start of the third lockdown – with the upward curve showing no signs of abating, raising fears of a summer of chaos as businesses and households are hit by self-isolation. Sixty-three people were reported on Thursday to have died from the virus.
Continue reading...Organisations in Scotland say they have tried to contact Google about the dangers but received no reply
Scottish mountaineering charities have criticised Google for suggesting routes up Ben Nevis and other mountains they say are “potentially fatal” and direct people over a cliff.
The John Muir Trust, which looks after the upper reaches of the UK’s highest mountain, said attempts to contact the company over the issue had been met with silence.
Continue reading...Ex-employee is suing Aspinalls in Mayfair for discrimination, alleging a ‘hostile and demeaning environment’
An exclusive London casino allowed wealthy patrons to racially abuse staff with impunity and “segregated” black employees from gamblers who insisted on white dealers, a tribunal has heard.
Semhar Tesfagiorgis, 41, is suing Crown London Aspinalls, in Mayfair, for race and sex discrimination, alleging there was a “hostile and demeaning environment” when she worked there.
Continue reading...Calls for national screening programme as symptoms revealed range from brain fog to tinnitus
The largest ever international study of people with long Covid has identified more than 200 symptoms and prompted researchers to call for a national screening programme.
The study found the myriad symptoms of long Covid – from brain fog and hallucinations to tremors and tinnitus – spanned 10 of the body’s organ systems, and a third of the symptoms continued to affect patients for at least six months.
Continue reading...Campaigner Zoe Scaman has collected women’s stories and is calling for policy change in the industry
Hundreds of women working in advertising have described being sexually assaulted, harassed and discriminated against, after a blog provoked an outpouring of fury that is being described as the industry’s #MeToo moment.
Senior advertising industry player Zoe Scaman said she had been inundated with emails from women across the world describing incidents ranging from sexist comments in meetings to sexual assault and rape. She is now working with leaders of bodies representing women in the advertising sector to try to effect real change and “not just another policy pledge”.
Continue reading...Proposals to end prosecutions relating to Troubles before 1998 opposed by Irish government
All criminal prosecutions relating to the Troubles and future attempts to take civil actions would be blocked under UK government plans that have united Northern Ireland’s parties in opposition.
The proposals, which are also opposed by the Irish government, were announced by Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary, who told MPs it was a “painful truth” that criminal investigations were unlikely to deliver successful outcomes.
Continue reading...Change means some people will have to quarantine when arriving in England from Monday, as red and green lists also updated
Ministers have performed a U-turn on the Balearic Islands by removing the Spanish holiday destination from the UK’s quarantine-free “green list” after only two weeks, in a move which will force holidaymakers to cancel plans or self-isolate for up to 10 days upon return.
However, summer holidays to budget holiday destination Bulgaria looked more likely after it was upgraded to the green list alongside Hong Kong. Croatia and Taiwan will be placed on the green watchlist – designed to give people some notice a country might be downgraded.
Continue reading...Guardian readers applaud the England football team’s ‘dignity and decency’ and the joy they brought throughout Euro 2020
Eight Guardian readers and England fans reflect on their personal highlights from the tournament, and what they celebrate most about this Three Lions squad.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Steve Baker says ‘this may be a decisive moment for our party’ amid backlash over abuse of footballers
Conservatives urgently need to change their attitudes towards people taking the knee, an influential Tory MP has said amid an angry backlash against the government over the racist abuse of England footballers.
Steve Baker, the former minister and hard Brexit campaigner, broke cover on Tuesday to plead for his party to think again about dismissive attitudes towards the taking of the knee and calling for better understanding of the motives behind it.
Continue reading...Community comes together to back England footballer and oppose racism after mural was defaced
“We’re going to take the knee like the footballers do,” said Nahella Ashraf, leading a crowd of at least 300 people in performing the anti-racism gesture in front of the freshly repainted mural of Marcus Rashford on Tuesday evening.
Ashraf, a member of Manchester Stand Up to Racism, said she aimed to show “we are the majority” after the mural was defaced in the wake of England’s Euro 2020 final defeat.
Continue reading...Charities warn that shift on 19 July to personal choice on virus precautions is instilling fear in many most at risk
Cancer patients, disabled people and other clinically extremely vulnerable groups say they will feel unsafe stepping the house after hearing that mask and social distancing requirements are to be abandoned, charities have warned.
Campaigners estimate that 3.8 million people have been left feeling abandoned by the government’s shift towards promoting “personal responsibility” as the sole means of navigating the surging Covid-19 infection rates in England.
Continue reading...Draft Nice guidelines for England, Wales and Northern Ireland will not solve poorer maternity outcomes for women of colour, say doctors
Proposed guidance that recommends inducing labour at 39 weeks in pregnant women from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds has raised concerns from doctors and midwives and been branded “racist” by activists.
White women with uncomplicated pregnancies should be offered an induction of labour at 41 weeks, according to the draft guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice). The institute’s clinical guidelines such as this apply in England, Wales and Northern Ireland but do not cover Scotland.
Continue reading...Unvaccinated younger sufferers more at risk of debilitating long-term symptoms, study finds
The decision to lift England’s remaining Covid restrictions next Monday – even as cases of the Delta variant surge around the country – is expected to turbocharge the epidemic and push the nation into what one leading scientist called “uncharted territory” in terms of the numbers of people left suffering from long Covid.
Ministers have been told to expect at least one to two million coronavirus infections in the coming weeks. And while the mass rollout of vaccines – which started with elderly and vulnerable people – will dramatically reduce the proportion who are hospitalised and die, the wave may leave hundreds of thousands of younger people with long-term health problems, researchers have said.
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