Top story: Ofqual switch deepens chaos for students
Morning everyone. I’m Martin Farrer and these are the top stories this morning.
Boris Johnson is under mounting pressure from Labour and his own MPs to end the chaos surrounding the downgrading of A-level results in England, and head teachers have demanded a Scotland-style solution using teachers’ assessments. The crisis that has dogged the process since the release of results last week deepened when the exams regulator, Ofqual, blindsided ministers by scrapping agreed rules allowing pupils to appeal against their grades using the results of mock exams. Our education editor explains what Ofqual has done.
Hundreds of A-level students say they feel let down by Ofqual’s latest decision and hundreds protested in London on Sunday calling for the downgrades to be reversed. One sixth-former has launched legal action. Parents have reportedly deluged MPs with complaints and many fear the problems might be repeated when GCSE results are released on Thursday.
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Going postal – The US House of Representatives has been recalled early from its summer break to consider a Democrat-backed bill to prevent cuts to the US postal service and stop Donald Trump’s “sabotage” of the November elections. Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, said lawmakers would return this week amid fears that the cuts would mean it could not deliver enough postal votes on time for the presidential and congressional elections due in November. Around half the votes are expected to be postal. Bernie Sanders called it a “threat to American democracy”. Trump has claimed that postal voting, or mail-in voting as it is called in the US, leads to fraud.
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Coronavirus latest – The NHS is launching a renewed appeal for British Asians to take part in trials of a Covid-19 vaccine after a “disappointing” uptake in the first drive for recruits. The government’s vaccines taskforce said today that more than 112,000 people had signed up for trials beginning as soon as next month. But only 3% of volunteers were Asian. “Myths” in the Asian community that vaccines are harmful had hindered the uptake, one doctor said, along with language barriers and lack of access to mainstream media. Fears that summer socialising will lead to a surge in Covid-19 cases around the UK have been heightened after concerns that JD Wetherspoon is failing to prevent overcrowding in pubs in its 900-strong chain. Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s top adviser, has been asked to hand over mobile phone and car-tracking details to prove that he did not make a second lockdown trip to Durham at the height of the pandemic.
New Zealand has postponed its general election scheduled for September for a month amid an outbreak of Covid-19 in Auckland. Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister, said the electoral commission needed the extra time to ensure polling staff were safe from infection. Japan saw its economy shrink by the greatest amount in modern history in the June quarter as the pandemic hit and Australia has had its deadliest day so far with 25 fatalities. Italy has closed all nightclubs for three weeks to prevent the spread among young people, while France recorded 3,000 new cases for the second consecutive day. Follow all the overnight developments at our live blog.
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Belarus strikes – Workers at state-run factories in Belarus are expected to go on strike today, piling the pressure on Alexander Lukashenko to quit as president after one of the biggest rallies seen in the country’s history yesterday calling for him to stand down. Lukashenko made repeated pleas to Vladimir Putin over the weekend to intervene and save his 26-year-old regime as protests against his government continued to mount. Lukashenko called the Kremlin for assurance that Russia would provide military assistance against external threats, while warning supporters that the country was under foreign pressure. Around 200,000 people flooded the centre of the capital, Minsk, yesterday to end a week of demonstrations after Lukashenko was accused of rigging last Sunday’s general election.
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Violence spikes – The coronavirus crisis has compounded domestic violence in the UK, new research has revealed, with two-thirds of women in abusive relationships suffering more at the hands of their partners during the pandemic. Three-quarters of victims also say the lockdown has made it harder for them to escape their abusers, according to an investigation by Panorama to be screened tonight.
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Photograph: Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP
Crowning moment – Interesting news for fans of The Crown: Elizabeth Debicki, best known for her role in The Night Manager, is to play Diana, Princess of Wales in the final two seasons of the Netflix show. Debicki, who is Australian, will join Imelda Staunton (the Queen), Jonathan Pryce (Duke of Edinburgh) and Lesley Manville (Princess Margaret) as newcomers to the cast.
Today in Focus podcast
When Extinction Rebellion began holding protests two years ago, the movement could not have predicted its rapid growth or the public support it received. But missteps and the Covid-19 shutdown meant the group lost momentum. Now, it is planning a series of new actions in the autumn.
Lunchtime read: Joe Tracini: ‘I’m an expert in not killing myself’
His films about borderline personality disorder, sadness and erectile dysfunction have made the actor a radical voice on mental health. He tells Simon Hattenstone about his successful early career as a magician on stage with his father, Joe Pasquale, his decision to become an actor in Hollyoaks and other TV series, and his struggles with drugs, alcohol, BPD and despair.
Sport
Ole Gunnar Solskjær highlighted Manchester United’s poor finishing after his side failed to advance into the Europa League final and said his young players still had plenty to learn about closing out games and achieving consistency. Ronnie O’Sullivan defeated Kyren Wilson 18-8 in the final of the 2020 World Snooker Championship at the Crucible in Sheffield to seal his sixth title. Only 10 full overs were possible on the penultimate day of England’s rain-ruined second Test against Pakistan, but each ball in the slim passage of play was mesmerising. Lewis Hamilton described his win at the Spanish Grand Prix as one of his best drives and close to perfection. Jack Willis produced a breakdown masterclass in front of Eddie Jones to cap Wasps’ hugely impressive Premiership victory over Northampton in what was, by a considerable distance, the best match of the round. And Australia’s Chloe McCardel completed a record-breaking crossing of the Channel, reaching Calais just before 7am on Sunday.
Business
Britain’s housing market had its busiest month in more than 10 years in July, with sales up by 38% on the same period last year and worth a combined total of more than £37bn. More properties were put up for sale than in any month since 2008, according to the property website Rightmove. The FTSE100 is due to take a slight dip at the opening this morning. The pound is up a little at $1.31 and €1.106.
The papers
Many of the papers lead with the continuing pressure on the government to address the A-level results fiasco, including Tory-supporting titles. The Guardian says “PM under pressure as criticism of exams fiasco grows from all sides”, the Times headline reads, “End exam shambles, Tories tell Johnson”, while the Yorkshire Post has “PM urged to act on A-level results chaos”. The Telegraph goes with “Williamson and Ofqual divided over exam grades”, the Mail asks “Will GCSE results be delayed? and the i says “‘Chaotic’ exam grading sparks legal action”.
The FT splashes with “Government explores bailout loans for private equity-owned groups”, the Express says “New battle to free UK from EU shackles” and the Mirror has “Brothers lost at sea in hols horror”. The Scotsman leads with “Covid patients knowingly sent into Scots care homes”.
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