Top story: next year’s GCSEs and A-levels could be delayed
Morning everyone. I’m Martin Farrer and here are the top stories from the UK and around the world this morning.
Boris Johnson will formally announce the easing of lockdown rules in England today as he gives the go-ahead for museums, cinemas, pubs, restaurants and hairdressers to reopen from 4 July. Two days later, millions of people with underlying health issues who have been shielded at home for three months will be permitted to leave their homes, while the government has also decided to halve the social distancing requirement to one metre. While the number of new cases yesterday was the lowest since March – 958 and 15 deaths – unions, doctors and charities expressed concern about the easing of the rules. There is also concern about the plan for pubgoers to register before they can have a drink. Accor, which runs Novotel and Mercure hotels, plans to reopen on 14 July minus its usual buffet breakfast offering.
As the government continues to struggle with the reopening of schools, the education secretary, Gavin Williamson, told MPs that next year’s GCSEs and A-levels could be delayed to enable pupils more time to catch up with studies. The governor of the Bank of England says Britain nearly went bust in March as the crisis hit and an emergency cut in VAT and changes to national insurance and business rates are among the options available to Rishi Sunak as he prepares to unveil a post-Covid rescue package for the economy. And Gabi Hinsliff looks at how the crisis has set back gender equality in the UK as women grapple with childcare, home schooling and the demands of work.
You can also follow all the overnight developments in the global pandemic at our live blog and there’s more in the Coronavirus Extra slot further down.
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Making a break – KitKat has cut its ties with Fairtrade after a 10-year relationship despite warnings that thousands of farmers in the developing world will be adversely affected. Fairtrade, which guarantees that the farmers behind a product get a set minimum price as well as a financial bonus, said the decision by Nestle was “profoundly disappointing”. The Swiss food company said it would source its cocoa from producers via the Rainforest Alliance, which it already uses for its Aero and Yorkie bars.
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Burnley shame – The captain of Burnley FC says he is “ashamed and embarrassed” after fans of the club towed a banner reading “White lives matter Burnley” in the sky over the Etihad stadium shortly before the club’s 5-0 thrashing by Manchester City. Ben Mee, who took the knee before the game along with all the other players and officials, said “these people need to come into the 21st century and educate themselves as a lot of us do”. Burnley said they would issue life bans for the fans behind the stunt.
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‘Colonial mindset’ – Dozens of countries are understood to have raised concerns with Downing Street about the prime minister using his power to hinder the reappointment of Baroness Scotland as secretary general of the Commonwealth. One high commissioner said Boris Johnson was showing a “colonial mindset” by suggesting that there had been “a significant and diverse” number of objections from some states to the Blair-era attorney general staying on for a second four-year term.
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Deal or no deal? – Donald Trump’s special adviser on trade threw his boss’s spin machine and financial markets into a frenzy after saying on television that the US-China trade deal was “over”. Peter Navarro said the agreement had been scuppered by Beijing’s allegedly unhelpful response to the coronavirus outbreak. But as stock markets in Asia went into a tailspin, Trump tweeted that the deal was “fully intact” before Navarro claimed his comments had been taken out of context. Shares later rebounded.
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‘Godzilla’ dust cloud – A vast cloud of dust blown from the Sahara is blanketing the Caribbean in a volume not seen for 50 years. Air quality across parts of the region reached record “hazardous” levels and experts, who nicknamed the event the “Godzilla dust cloud”, warned people to stay indoors and use air filters if they had them. The dust cloud is heading towards the US.
Coronavirus Extra
The virus is continuing to spread again throughout the US with half of its 50 states recording a surge in cases on a seven-day average. Texas is remaining “wide open” for business, its governor insists, despite an average of 3,200 Texans being admitted to hospital in the past 10 days. California has also seen a surge in admissions. However, in New York City, people are starting to return to work after seeing only a single digit death toll in recent days. A poll in Australia has found that a majority think the country will see a second wave of infections, and that it will take one or two years for international travel to resume to pre-crisis levels.
Today in Focus podcast
The New Jersey city of Newark had one of the worst reputations for police violence in the US, but as the Guardian’s Ankita Rao discovers, it is leading the charge for reform under a new mayor.
Lunchtime read: Salisbury and Russia’s ‘chain of stupidity’
The unmasking of the Salisbury poisoning suspects by online investigative journalists was an embarrassment for Vladimir Putin. Luke Harding relates the gripping story of how the killers’ analogue spying techniques were hopelessly inadequate in the digital age – a “chain of stupidity”, one former agent says – and what it tells us about Russia’s wider, chaos-ridden decline.
Sport
Phil Foden and Riyad Mahrez were both on the scoresheet twice for Manchester City in a 5-0 dismantling of Burnley on a night marred by a banner displaying the words “White Lives Matter Burnley” that was flown over the Etihad Stadium. The FBI has launched an investigation after a noose was found in the team garage of Bubba Wallace, Nascar’s only black full-time driver. Confirmation that the Ryder Cup, due to be held in September at Whistling Straits, will be postponed until 2021 is expected next week. Andy Murray wants to play in the rescheduled US Open at the end of August, but he shares the concern spreading rapidly through tennis since Grigor Dimitrov, Borna Coric and two trainers tested positive for coronavirus in Croatia at the weekend. And Pakistan’s tour of England appears to be in the balance, with three of their players having tested positive for Covid-19 and a further batch of results set to be published in the next 24 hours.
Business
The clothing retailers North Face and Patagonia have pledged not to pay for advertising on Facebook platforms as part of the Stop Hate for Profit campaign launched by activists angered by what they say is Facebook’s failure to block hate speech. After the Navarro-induced dive, the FTSE100 is set to nudge up 0.4% this morning. The pound is worth $1.247 and €1.107.
The papers
The easing of lockdown restrictions in England leads many of the papers. The Guardian says “Museums, cinemas and pubs to reopen in major lockdown easing”, the Times has “Art galleries, museums and cinemas will reopen” and the Telegraph reckons “Galleries to reopen in return of cultural life”. The Express claims it is a “Freedom pass for millions” while the i focuses on “Pub ID checks across all ages”.
The Scottish papers lead on a report saying the country needs £6bn to pull its economy out of the Covid-19 slump. The National headline reads “Scotland needs more powers to recover from virus crisis”, the Record says “Tsunami of lost jobs” and the Scotsman says “Scottish economy needs a ‘£6 billion Covid-19 crisis kickstart’”.
The Mail leads on the Reading latest – “Police stopped suspect a day before attack” – while the Mirror has a story about NHS nurses: “Final insult”. The FT says “Japan warns of limited trade deal as it sets 6-week deadline for talks”.
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