Plus, how to cool your home in a warming world
| Covid restrictions ease as PM urges caution |
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| | | If you're in England, then most legal restrictions imposed to halt the spread of coronavirus are lifted today. You can meet as many people as you like, go en masse to concerts, theatres, sporting events and places of worship, and no longer have to keep your distance. In Scotland, more people can meet indoors, and attend weddings and funerals, with pubs and restaurants able to open until midnight, but group numbers remain limited - indoors and out. Northern Ireland's restrictions aren't due to ease until next Monday, while Wales - which eased curbs on Saturday - is waiting until 7 August to lift most limits. There are warnings cases will surge, with some scientists predicting UK daily infections - currently at about 50,000 - could quadruple. But with more than 68% of UK adults fully vaccinated, modelling suggests there will be fewer hospital admissions, serious illness and deaths from Covid-19 than in earlier peaks. The prime minister, chancellor and health secretary are all in isolation, the latter having tested positive for coronavirus. Even so, Boris Johnson says it's the "right moment" to lift restrictions. "If we don't do it now we've got to ask ourselves, when will we ever do it?" he said in a Twitter video. But he urged caution, adding: "We've got to remember that this virus is sadly still out there." Double-check all the latest changes to the rules Face coverings may not be a legal requirement in England any more but - regardless of where you live - you'll still need masks in some situations. See our explainer | |
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| Spyware targeting activists, leak suggests |
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| Software intended to tackle terrorism is being used to target the phones of human-rights activists, according to an investigation by the Forbidden Stories network of journalists and human rights group Amnesty International. They say the Pegasus spyware has been sold to countries including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Hungary, Morocco and Rwanda, in reports carried by the Washington Post, Guardian and others. Reports say the phone numbers of targeted rights activists, journalists and lawyers are among up to 50,000 on a leaked list of those believed to be of interest to clients of Israeli surveillance firm NSO. The company says the investigation is "full of wrong assumptions and uncorroborated theories". It says the software is made available only to agencies from countries with good human-rights records for use against criminals and terrorists. | |
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| Racehorses and abattoirs - an investigation |
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| Thousands of racehorses - including some once owned and trained by some of the biggest names in the sport - are being sent to slaughterhouses in Britain and Ireland, according to a BBC investigation. Panorama says covert recording by charity Animal Aid shows how rules designed to protect horses from a cruel death appear to be regularly ignored at one of the UK's biggest abattoirs. The slaughterhouse involved told the BBC it did not accept any form of animal abuse. Read the investigation report in full. | |
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| | | | | More than 40,000 pupils were formally taken out of school in the UK between September 2020 and April 2021, compared with an average of 23,000 over the previous two years. When the pandemic hit the UK in March 2020, Novena-Chanel was worried about other children potentially showing symptoms of coronavirus. She also felt her son Imari, now five, wasn't thriving in a classroom environment. "He was starting to regress - they were doing phonics and he can read already," she said. "The school said they couldn't give him higher-level work." By November, Imari had been officially withdrawn from school. Novena-Chanel, who also runs a film club for home-educated children in south London, says he is now thriving academically and socially. | |
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| | Alix Hattenstone & Eleanor Lawrie | BBC News | |
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| | | | Most papers lead on the prime minister and chancellor being in self-isolation as a result of the health secretary testing positive for coronavirus. The Daily Telegraph says it's a "Freedom day farce", referring to the removal of lockdown restrictions in England. "Now will Boris see sense on pingdemic?" wonders the Daily Mail, saying about 1.7 million people are self-isolating after being "pinged" by the NHS Covid app. Meanwhile, food retailers are warning of shortages as workers are told to self-isolate, the Financial Times reports. | |
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| | | Covid Double-jabbed NHS staff could avoid isolation |
| | | | Ghosn Father and son sentenced for helping ex-Nissan boss flee |
| | | | Hopkins Australia to deport commentator over quarantine boast |
| | | | Olympics Eight Team GB athletes self-isolating |
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| If you watch one thing today |
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| If you listen to one thing today |
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| If you read one thing today |
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| Need something different? |
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| Lex Gillette is a long jump world-record holder and four-time Paralympic medallist. But he's yet to win gold. Could this year's Tokyo Games be his chance? He shares his mantra for success. And one man who seized his moment yesterday was racing driver Lewis Hamilton, who won the British Grand Prix for the eighth time. Along the way there was a collision with rival Max Verstappen that will, says our chief F1 writer, Andrew Benson, stand out as "a seismic moment that will become a defining part of the sport's history". Find out why. | |
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| | | 1974 – British fishermen demand a 50-mile fishing zone around the UK, as the foreign secretary travels to Brussels to discuss fishing limits around the European Common Market. Watch our archive report from the Lancashire port of Fleetwood. |
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