Plus, the teenager who found a way to give his sister a voice
| Furlough scheme starts to wind down |
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| | | Furlough, or the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme as it is formally known, starts to wind down from today - with employers now having to contribute. The UK government has so far spent £66bn covering 80% of people’s wages, up to £2,500, to support more than 11 million jobs when the scheme was announced back in March 2020 - the country's first lockdown to tackle the spread of coronavirus. Since then, restrictions have remained in place but they are easing with plans on track, according to the government, for further relaxation of measures on 19 July. Many people have been returning to work as the country reopens and now only about 1.5 million workers are still on furlough. From today, staff on the scheme will continue to receive 80% of their wages, but employers will pay 10% of that for the first time as the government drops its contribution to 70%. Then in August and September government contribution will fall by another 10% and employers will increase theirs to cover the difference. What does this mean? According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies this could prompt layoffs, with older workers at greater risk of redundancy. "The furlough scheme does need to be wound down as the economy recovers, rather than attempting to keep every job on life support. But this does mean that some will end up unemployed," says senior research economist Tom Waters. | |
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| William and Harry to unveil Diana statue |
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| A statue of Diana, Princess of Wales, will be unveiled later on what would have been her 60th birthday. Her sons, the Dukes of Cambridge and Sussex, will come together for the unveiling of the piece which they hoped would "reflect on her life and her legacy". William and Harry, who flew in from the US last week to comply with quarantine rules in time for the ceremony, commissioned the statue in 2017. It’s being placed in Kensington Palace's redesigned Sunken Garden, which had been "one of the princess's favourite locations" when she lived there, Kensington Palace says. The brothers will be seen together for the first time since the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral in April. The ceremony, scaled back due to Covid restrictions, comes at a time of family turmoil, says our Royal correspondent Daniela Relph. William and Harry will put on a united front but the close relationship between them is broken. The sight of William and Harry alongside the statue of their mother - within the grounds of their childhood home, Kensington Palace - will be evocative, she adds. | |
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| 'Avoid your pets if you have Covid' |
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| "If you have Covid, you should avoid contact with your cat or dog, just as you would do with other people," says Dr Els Broens, from Utrecht University. This is because research suggests coronavirus is common in pet cats and dogs whose owners have the disease. The study found six cats and seven dogs returned positive PCR results and 54 animals tested positive for virus antibodies from 310 pets tested in households where a human infection had been detected. Most infected pets tend to be asymptomatic or display mild Covid symptoms and researchers say it’s most likely that people have passed the virus on the animals rather than the other way round. The worry is the potential risk “pets could act as a reservoir of the virus and reintroduce it into the human population," Dr Broens says. | |
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| | | | | Some people, including those pushing an anti-vaccine agenda online, have been claiming a large proportion of those dying with the Delta variant of coronavirus had been vaccinated. One conspiracy site even claimed vaccinated people were dying at higher rates than those who had not received the jab, which is untrue. This site and others use real figures in a misleading way, to arrive at a completely false conclusion - that the vaccine may not be working or even doing more harm than good. The latest Public Health England figures show there were 92,029 confirmed Delta cases between 1 February and 22 June. Of these, 58% were in completely unvaccinated people and only 8% were fully vaccinated. This shows the vaccine is reducing cases. | |
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| | | | “Get (the) Covid and flu jab in each arm from autumn” says the Times as it leads on plans for both vaccines to be administered together from September to reduce the risk of more restrictions this winter. The Daily Mail also reports on this story, saying all over-50s will be offered booster jabs as part of plans to prevent another lockdown. This story is one of many leading the papers, others include the i saying that schools will be told to treat Covid like the flu and the Guardian reporting there are fears over the safety of mass events after 1,300 Scotland fans who travelled to London for a Euro 2020 match tested positive for coronavirus. The Dukes of Cambridge and Sussex also feature in a couple of the papers ahead of the unveiling of a statue of their mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, on what would have been her 60th birthday. Read the newspaper review in full here. | |
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| | | UK Man apologises over Prof Chris Whitty park footage |
| | | | Business Right to repair rules comes into force |
| | | | Pandemic Pupil self-isolation Covid impact 'not monitored' |
| | | | Gap US fashion giant to close all 81 stores in UK and Ireland |
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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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| After being told aged 10 that "in a game dominated by men a young lady such as yourself would feel out of place in a dugout”, 70-year-old Gwen Goldman finally got the chance to serve as a bat girl for the New York Yankees. Watch her reaction when she finds out her dream to be part of the baseball team finally came true. Now to a place once dominated by people - until there was nuclear disaster in 2011. The area in Japan was largely abandoned but did you know it was then taken over by wild boars? Read how they are thriving in Fukushima’s disaster zone. And finally to a Guinness World Record holder who refused to abandon attempts to stack as many M&M's as possible during a miserable day in lockdown. Would you believe he only had four to beat? Will Cutbill managed to balance five of the button-shaped chocolates on top of each other - see how his persistence eventually paid off. Maybe that'll tempt you to try stacking six, or more. | |
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| | | | 1999 The Queen opens the first Scottish Parliament in 300 years - watch the ceremony from The Mound in Edinburgh. |
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