Hold Still is a digital exhibition hosted by the National Portrait Gallery. People of all ages, from across the UK, were invited to submit a photographic portrait which they had taken during lockdown. The project aimed to capture and document the spirit, the mood, the hopes, the fears and the feelings of the nation as we continued to deal with the coronavirus outbreak. The final 100 images include one by the Guardian’s Sarah Lee
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Coronavirus live news: UK reports 2,621 new infections as global cases hit one-day record high
Public Health England also records nine further deaths; 14 refugees test positive after Lesbos fire; Silvio Berlusconi leaves hospital after treatment
- People in England’s 10 worst-hit Covid hotspots unable to get tests
- French regions to announce new restrictions
- American accused of ignoring quarantine to go on Bavaria bar crawl
- US coronavirus updates – live
French health authorities on Monday reported 6,158 new Covid-19 infections over the past 24 hours, sharply down from Saturday’s record high since large-scale testing began of 10,561 and Sunday’s tally of 7,183.
The Monday figure always tends to dip as there are fewer tests conducted on Sundays.
Related: Covid-19: Marseille and Bordeaux announce new restrictions
The Chinese city of Ruili will test all people there after authorities reported two new coronavirus cases imported from neighbouring Myanmar, state media reported late on Monday.
Ruili is part of Dehong Prefecture in China’s southwestern province of Yunnan. The city asked residents to quarantine at home, according to state television CCTV.
Continue reading...UK temperatures set to hit up to 30C in September heat
Hottest weather will be in the south but most of the country will see warmer days
The UK is set to bask in temperatures of more than 30C this week, as summer heat returns.
The mercury will be highest in southern parts of the UK, but most of the country will see a spell of warmer weather over the next few days, the Met Office has said.
Continue reading...Coronavirus: 86% of doctors in England expect second wave in next six months
BMA survey also found 90% thought test-and-trace failures were a risk factor
Almost 86% of doctors in England say they expect a second peak of coronavirus in the next six months, according to a new survey, as concern continues to grow over a recent rise in cases.
On Friday, new results from a population-based study suggested the R number for England is now at 1.7, with infections doubling every 7.7 days. While the prevalence of the disease remains lower than it was in the spring, an R value above 1 means cases could grow exponentially.
Continue reading...‘Lost decade for nature’ as UK fails on 17 of 20 UN biodiversity targets
UK government said it failed on two-thirds of targets, but RSPB analysis is bleaker – and suggests UK is moving backwards in some areas
The UK has failed to reach 17 out of 20 UN biodiversity targets agreed on 10 years ago, according to an analysis from conservation charity RSPB that says the gap between rhetoric and reality has resulted in a “lost decade for nature”.
The UK government’s self-assessment said it failed on two-thirds of targets (14 out of 20) agreed at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Nagoya, Japan, in 2010, but the RSPB analysis suggests the reality is worse. On six of the 20 targets the UK has actually gone backwards. The government’s assessment published last year said it was not regressing on any target.
Continue reading...Tory rebellion widens over Boris Johnson’s bill to override Brexit deal
Criticism grows of plan to break international law as EU calls for bill to be dropped
Downing Street is facing a showdown with Conservative backbench rebels as criticism over its plans to break international law with a new controversial bill that could override parts of the Brexit withdrawal agreement grew louder on Sunday.
It is understood that opposition among the party is growing, with dozens of Tory MPs expected to support a key amendment to the internal market bill that would give parliament a crucial veto of any changes to the agreement.
Continue reading...Minister says he would resign over Brexit bill if law is broken ‘in way I find unacceptable’
Justice secretary says he doesn’t believe international law will be broken, as discontent grows among Conservative backbenchers over internal market bill
The UK justice secretary, Robert Buckland, has said he would resign if the law was “broken in a way that I find unacceptable”, as Downing Street continued to come under pressure over planned legislation that would override parts of the Brexit withdrawal agreement.
In a remarkable scene in the Commons last week that astonished Conservative backbenchers, the Northern Ireland secretary, Brandon Lewis, admitted the internal market bill “does break international law in a very specific and limited way”.
Continue reading...Coronavirus live news: European outbreaks worsen; Australia sees anti-lockdown protests
Cases hit daily record in Czech Republic; Austria ‘experiencing start of second wave’; 74 people at an anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne
- Oxford University resumes Covid-19 vaccine trials
- Trump ally who tried to change Covid reports was ‘fighting deep state’
- Australian diplomats sent to Heathrow to help stranded citizens
An Israeli cabinet minister, who heads an ultra-orthodox Jewish party in Benjamin Netanyahu’s conservative coalition, has tendered his resignation in protest at a looming coronavirus lockdown. Housing minister Yaakov Litzman argued the restrictions would unfairly impede religious celebrations of Jewish holidays.
The rules - the most extensive Israel will have imposed since a lockdown that ran from late March to early May - are expected to go into effect on Friday, the Jewish new year Rosh Hashana, and span into the Yom Kippur fast day on 27 September.
This wrongs and scorns hundreds of thousands of citizens. Where were you until now? Why have the Jewish holidays become a convenient address for tackling the coronavirus...?
We have to move on, to make the decisions necessary for Israel in the coronavirus era, and that is what we will do in this session.
India has reported 94,372 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Sunday, taking total cases past 4.7 million.
The daily increase was down on the record global spike in the previous 24 hours of 97,570 new cases and came after three days of recording more than 95,000 new cases. Infections have been growing faster in India than anywhere in the world.
Continue reading...Outdoor worship, short services: ways to mark Yom Kippur during Covid
Coronavirus bans have forced Jewish communities to adapt and innovate as the year’s high holy days draw near
Rochelle Shorrick’s freezer would normally be filled well in advance with meals for extended family and friends over the Jewish high holy days of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, and Yom Kippur, the day of atonement.
Usually she bakes a honey cake to signify a sweet new year, and pops some extra dishes in the freezer in case of last-minute guests. She looks forward to several visits to her local synagogue in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, with her husband and three children – especially the service which precedes 25 hours of fasting and prayer on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
Continue reading...Iran postpones Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s trial at last minute
British-Iranian dual national said to be relieved but angry at surprise move
A new trial of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian dual national detained in Iran for the past four years, has been postponed at the last minute.
Her husband, Richard Ratcliffe, confirmed the news, which came as a surprise to both his wife and her London-based family. Her MP, Tulip Sidiq, said Zaghari-Ratcliffe was relieved but also frustrated, angry and stressed.
Continue reading...Coronavirus: is this the start of a second wave and is the UK prepared?
Cases are increasing here and across Europe as universities plan to reopen. What is the outlook for autumn?
Is this the start of a second wave, and if so will it be as bad as the first?
The number of Covid-19 infections has almost doubled in a week, with 3,497 cases announced yesterday. Admissions to hospital have also risen. We’ll find out soon if this is a second wave but there are some indicators of what is coming.
Cases are rising quickly…
Researchers at Imperial College London said on Friday that the number of cases had been doubling roughly every 7.7 days in England, and that the reproduction rate was as high as 1.7. If the virus continues to spread at that rate, the UK would see about 10,000 new cases a day in the next two weeks, with 300 to 400 hospital admissions a day.
300 years on, will thousands of women burned as witches finally get justice?
Lawyer seeks pardon for 2,500 Scots who were tortured and killed in ‘satanic panic’ begun by James VI
It spanned more than a century and a half, and resulted in about 2,500 people – the vast majority of them women – being burned at the stake, usually after prolonged torture. Remarkably, one of the driving forces behind Scotland’s “satanic panic” was no less than the king, James VI, whose treatise, Daemonologie, may have inspired the three witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
Now, almost 300 years after the Witchcraft Act was repealed, a campaign has been launched for a pardon for those convicted, an apology to all those accused and a national memorial to be created.
Continue reading...No kicks, coughs or slip-ups as party conferences go online
Attendees of this year’s virtual gatherings may be spared any gaffes, but at what cost?
Utter the phrase “conference season” to a Westminster veteran and don’t be surprised if their initial reaction is a shudder. For regular attendees of the annual party gatherings, which kick off next weekend, they raise the prospect of lengthy policy sermons and curled cheese sandwiches by day, followed by sweaty bars and third-hand gossip by night.
Related: Keir Starmer's conference challenge is to avoid the shadow of past leaders | Zoe Williams
Continue reading...Salute Toots Hibbert – a reggae pioneer to rival Bob Marley | Kenan Malik
The late singer was at the heart of an extraordinary collision of music, culture and politics
I can still remember the first time I heard Pressure Drop. The little drum intro. The bass riff. The rhythm guitars. And then the voice of Toots Hibbert, a voice both soulful and raw, comforting but just a little menacing too.
It was a song to bring joy, to get a roomful of Doc Martens bouncing. It was also a song about revenge and karma. That was the way with Hibbert – the melding of the blissful and the rough, the soothing and the sharp.
Continue reading...No 10 employee labels spokesman for Harry Dunn’s family a ‘bad guy’
Dunn’s mother, Charlotte Charles, has demanded an explanation from Boris Johnson
A Downing Street staff member labelled the spokesman for Harry Dunn’s family a “bad guy” after he voiced concerns of a potential cover-up over the teenager’s death.
The internal email sent by an employee at No 10, seen by the PA news agency, followed a statement on Twitter from Radd Seiger in which he said the teenager’s family were intent on exposing “misconduct ... on both sides of the Atlantic”.
Continue reading...Terence Conran, designer, retailer and restaurateur, dies aged 88
Family pay tribute to Habitat founder as ‘visionary who revolutionised the way we live in Britain’
Sir Terence Conran, the man who dragged Britain’s front rooms and parlours into the modern age almost single-handed, has died at the age of 88, his family has announced.
A designer, retailer and restaurateur who founded Habitat in 1964, Conran was at the centre of an aesthetic revolution that established England, and London in particular, as a European creative powerhouse.
Continue reading...UK move to classify Extinction Rebellion ‘organised crime group’ comes under fire
Letter signed by 150 public figures hits back at move to scapegoat protesters
Stephen Fry, Mark Rylance and a former Archbishop of Canterbury are among 150 public figures to hit back at government moves to classify the climate protesters of Extinction Rebellion as an “organised crime group”. In a letter to be published in the Observer on Sunday, XR is described as “a group of people who are holding the powerful to account” – who should not become targets of “vitriol and anti-democratic posturing”.
It comes in response to the prime minister and home secretary’s reported move to review how the group is classified in law after it disrupted the distribution of four national newspapers, including the Sun and the Daily Mail, last Saturday.
Continue reading...UK urged to take in refugees after fire at Lesbos migrant camp
Thousands have been left without shelter after blaze at Moria camp on Greek island
Pressure is mounting on the UK government to take in some of the thousands of asylum seekers left without shelter following a devastating fire at Europe’s largest migrant camp on the Greek island of Lesbos.
The blaze tore through the Moria registration and identification centre (RIC) overnight on Tuesday, incinerating tents that had been home to 13,000 people, including at least 4,000 children.
Continue reading...Brussels could ‘carve up’ UK if Tories reject Brexit bill, says Johnson
PM claims internal market bill is needed to counter EU ‘threats’ to put a blockade in Irish Sea
Boris Johnson has said his controversial legislation to override parts of his Brexit deal is needed to end EU threats to install a “blockade” in the Irish Sea.
The prime minister said Brussels could “carve up our country” and “seriously endanger peace and stability” in Northern Ireland if Conservative MPs rebel to block the internal market bill.
Continue reading...Winchester school bus crash leaves three children needing surgery
Pupils treated for ‘potentially life-changing injuries’ after double-decker hit bridge
Three children required surgery for “potentially life-changing injuries” after a double-decker school bus crashed into a railway bridge.
The top of the bus was ripped off almost completely when the vehicle hit the bridge in Wellhouse Lane, Winchester, on Thursday.
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