Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
As England braces for a second national lockdown, Downing Street once more faces a rebellion over tougher restrictions. Ahead of a Commons vote on Wednesday, several Conservative MPs are weighing up their options. Here are some key figures who may line up against the government and the broad camps they sit in, alongside Nigel Farage and his plan for a new anti-lockdown party.
England is preparing to enter a second national lockdown after scientific advisers warned that coronavirus infections and the numbers of people in hospital are rising steeply in many areas of the country. But what is the science behind the decision?
Strategies for exiting spring lockdowns did not work, and goodwill leached away, allowing infection rates to rise
Last week Europe registered 1.5m new cases of Covid-19 – a record – making it once again the centre of the pandemic. The UK is not exempt, and England will enter a new lockdown from Thursday 5 November. From the outside, it might seem the continent is in the grip of a second wave that is ramping rapidly towards its peak. But it is not one wave, it’s many local waves, and that is crucial in understanding how to rein it in and prevent the same thing happening again.
Though there is some tentative evidence that the virus itself has undergone a change since the summer, there is none to suggest that this change has affected either the transmissibility or the severity of the disease. Nor can the change explain the synchronous surges in all parts of the continent.
British-Iranian dual national in court to hear fresh charges of undermining Iranian state
The detained British-Iranian dual national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has avoided being sent back to jail after after appearing in court to hear fresh charges of undermining the Iranian state.
There had been fears that she would be sent back to Evin prison in Tehran but the hearing was adjourned before she could present her defence, her British-based family told her local MP, Tulip Siddiq.
Pirates of Caribbean actor had sued newspaper publisher for damage to his reputation
The Hollywood actor Johnny Depp has lost his high-stakes libel action in the London courts against the Sun after the newspaper described him as a “wife beater”.
The high court dismissed the claim by the Pirates of the Caribbean star for compensation at the end of one of the most widely followed libel trials of the century. His lawyers said he would most likely appeal against the “perverse and bewildering decision”.
Gender equality, postnatal depression and transatlantic migration are all tackled in quest for international audiences
Once Nollywood might have meant films that were low budget and high drama and aimed mostly at a west African audience. But Nigerian cinema has evolved and this year a slew of new film-makers are tackling grittier subjects – and winning international acclaim.
A roster of screenings at autumn’s Film Africa festival in London reveal directors unafraid to look at issues such as gender equality, postnatal depression and transatlantic migration.
US president Donald Trump is currently speaking past a coronavirus curfew intended to mitigate infections in Florida, as he hosts a rally in Miami-Dade county.
The county has a nightly curfew that comes into effect at midnight. But Trump’s rally is still going on past the witching hour, with thousands of supporters in attendance.
With 25 mins left til Miami-Dade’s midnight curfew goes into effect, Pres. Trump has landed in Opa-Locka. pic.twitter.com/mZtoX6LcwO
“Is there any place you would rather be than a Trump rally? We got a lot of rich people here, lotta money,” says Trump at his rally that is now breaking Miami-Dade curfew.
In Serbia, huge crowds have attended the funeral for the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro in violation of coronavirus-fighting restrictions.
Associated Press report that thousands gathered outside the main temple in the capital, Podgorica, for the liturgy and the burial of Bishop Amfilohije. Authorities said the bishop died Friday after contracting the virus weeks ago.
Governments in Europe face a “very, very difficult situation” in controlling rising numbers of Covid-19 cases as their citizens grow weary with renewed restrictions on daily life, the World Health Organization’s top emergencies expert said.
“Clearly people are frustrated, and have every right to be frustrated, and they are fatigued,” Mike Ryan told a regular WHO news briefing in Geneva.
Footage of a pianist in Barcelona playing a rendition of the Bangles’ hit Eternal Flame amid the sound of explosions, wailing sirens and protesters has gone viral on social media.
Peter William Geddes, who was playing in Plaça Nova on 31 October, said as the violence escalated in the background he felt peaceful: “When I play I am very calm. No nerves.”
Bookshop.org, which launched in the US earlier this year, has accelerated UK plans and goes online this week in partnership with more than 130 shops
It is being described as a “revolutionary moment in the history of bookselling”: a socially conscious alternative to Amazon that allows readers to buy books online while supporting their local independent bookseller. And after a hugely successful launch in the US, it is open in the UK from today.
Bookshop was dreamed up by the writer and co-founder of Literary Hub, Andy Hunter. It allows independent bookshops to create their own virtual shopfront on the site, with the stores receiving the full profit margin – 30% of the cover price – from each sale. All customer service and shipping are handled by Bookshop and its distributor partners, with titles offered at a small discount and delivered within two to three days.
Boris Johnson will insist there is “no alternative” to a nationwide lockdown as he addresses the House of Commons on Monday amid mounting fury among Tory MPs, after ministers conceded the new “stay at home” order could be extended beyond 2 December.
The prime minister will tell parliament that without the draconian new measures, which will come into force across England on Thursday, deaths from coronavirus over the winter could be “twice as bad or even worse” than in the first wave.
It was less licence to kill and more dramatic licence. Donald Trump’s claim that the late Sean Connery assisted him in getting planning applications passed in Scotland fell apart quickly on Sunday when the chair of the planning committee said the James Bond star was not involved.
In a series of tweets, two days prior to the US election, Trump paid tribute to Connery, saying he was “highly regarded and respected in Scotland and beyond”. It was announced on Saturday the James Bond actor had died aged 90.
Labour leader says his predecessor should ‘reflect’ on comments about antisemitism
The “vast majority” of Labour members would not have approved of Jeremy Corbyn’s response to the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s report on antisemitism in the party, Sir Keir Starmer said on Sunday.
The new leader also said his predecessor should “reflect” on what he said following the publication of the findings of the EHRC inquiry which found the party responsible for unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination.
Morgues in converted ice rinks, security guards outside overwhelmed hospitals to turn patients away, even municipal mass graves.
When Boris Johnson’s “quad” of senior ministers met on Friday, they were presented with a chilling prognosis of what would happen if they failed to take draconian action.
Boris Johnson has announced a four-week lockdown in England, following weeks of pressure from his own scientific advisers and opposition parties to introduce tougher measures to tackle coronavirus. The full details of the restrictions will be published early this week before a vote in parliament on Wednesday.
Sir Desmond Swayne, one of the Conservative MPs most opposed to a second lockdown, told Sky News that the policy announced by the PM yesterday would have “disastrous consequences”. He said:
I’m worried about the disastrous consequences for unemployment, for wrecked businesses, for years of under-investment while we try and pay this off, when the reality is that the number of deaths for the time of year is normal and expected.
It is very difficult to believe scientists who tell you that there is a deadly pandemic taking place when there are no excess deaths beyond the normal five-year average.
Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, has called for schools in his region to close for a period during the lockdown to help drive down the virus. He was speaking at a joint conference with Steve Rotheram, the mayor of Liverpool city region, who also backed the proposal. Burnham said:
It’s my view, and it’s shared by Steve, that we do need to see a period of closure in our schools if we are to get those cases right down, and if we are to avoid a scenario where large parts of the north-west are simply put back in tier 3 coming out of this.
Acquisition is one of the most valuable modern prints ever donated to the museum
An American flag artwork worth at least $1m (£770,000) and made by one of the world’s most celebrated living artists has been donated to the British Museum.
With just days to go before the US presidential election, the museum announced that an edition of Jasper Johns’s Flags I (1973) had been gifted to them by New York-based collectors Johanna and Leslie Garfield.
Transport for London (TfL) has secured a bailout from the government worth about £1.8bn just a fortnight after Boris Johnson said Sadiq Khan had “effectively bankrupted” the tube and bus service in the capital.
In a significant win for the London mayor, the government has backed down on demands for fare increases, an extension of the congestion zone to cover the entire city and the scrapping of free fares for children and over-60s.
Keir Starmer has said schools must stay open during England's second coronavirus lockdown. 'The harm caused to children by not being in school is huge,' the Labour leader told BBC One's The Andrew Marr Show. He said the risk of infections could be managed by mass weekly testing at schools. Sir Jeremy Farrar, a member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), has suggested schools may need to close to make the lockdown more effective