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Your support makes all the difference.Boris Johnson has blamed a "mutant algorithm" for this summer's exams chaos in an attempt to dodge responsibility for the downgrading of thousands of students’ grades.
Meanwhile, the guidance on face masks in schools has changed following the latest government U-turn on coronavirus, with secondary school pupils now told to wear masks in parts of England.
Face coverings will be required in communal areas of schools in parts of the country where local lockdowns are in place, while headteachers elsewhere will have the option to ask pupils to wear them.
It came as the government announced that the Department for Education’s top civil servant, Jonathan Slater, would step down next week following the controversy around exam results this month.
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World Economic Forum delayed to summer 2021 due to coronavirus
The 2021 Davos World Economic Forum (WEF) summit of business leaders and politicians has been called off for January due to the coronavirus pandemic, with organisers planning to reschedule the event for sometime early next summer.
“The advice from experts is that we cannot [host the event] safely in January,” WEF said in a statement.
The event in the Swiss Alps, which has hosted rival heads of state such as Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping in recent years, is held at the Davos ski resort.
WEF, which takes over Davos for about a week each year, has branded itself as the world's top venue for the business and political elite to meet and discuss the challenges of globalisation.
The group said the decision to delay this year's edition “was not taken easily, since the need for global leaders to come together to design a common recovery path and shape the 'Great Reset' in the post-Covid-19 era is so urgent.”
It added that it would host virtual “high-level” discussions in the week of 25 January, in lieu of the physical meeting.
Nightclubs could reopen with mandatory masks and socially distanced dancefloors
Many of the UK’s nightclub owners have appealed to the government to let them reopen with safety measures during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Night Time Industries Association has released a series of measures to ensure they can reopen safely, which includes the demand for patrons to wear face masks.
Other suggestions include limiting the number of people allowed on dancefloors, and the possibility of temperature tests upon arrival.
You can find the full story below:
Top education mandarin ousted as Boris Johnson calls for ‘fresh’ leadership
The Department for Education’s top civil servant, Jonathan Slater, is to step down next week, the government has announced, following the chaos around exam results this month.
Boris Johnson has apparently decided there is “a need for fresh official leadership” in the department.
You can find more on this breaking story below:
Leaders in Stockport and Bolton to call for restrictions to be lifted
Political leaders in Stockport and Bolton will ask the government to lift coronavirus restrictions in their boroughs due to “progress” with slowing the rate of infections.
Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, said “political consensus” had been reached in both boroughs to push for the removal of restrictions on social gatherings at homes.
However, council leaders across Greater Manchester agreed to request that restrictions remain in place in Oldham, Manchester, Rochdale, Bury, Tameside, Salford and Trafford.
“While there is progress in many of our boroughs there are still high numbers of cases and of course we do now have to think about the imminent return of schools and planning safely for that,” Mr Burnham said.
The next announcement on restrictions in the “northern area of intervention” is due to take place after a meeting on Thursday of the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC) chaired by health secretary Matt Hancock and England's chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty.
With the government's latest U-turn on face coverings, The Independent has taken a look at how the UK's approach to masks in schools compares to the policies adopted by other countries in this piece:
Face coverings recommended in Welsh schools
The Welsh government has announced pupils over the age of 11 in Wales will be recommended to wear face coverings in school communal areas where social distancing cannot be maintained.
The new guidance also covers pupils on school transport, college students, and staff and will require schools and local authorities to carry out risk assessments of their sites to determine if the two-metre rule cannot be maintained.
A joint statement by health minister Vaughan Gething and education minister Kirsty Williams said: "The current advice from the chief medical officer for Wales is that face coverings are recommended for all members of the public over 11 years in indoor settings in which social distancing cannot be maintained, including schools and school transport.
"We will amend our operational guidance for schools and FE to require settings and local authorities to undertake risk assessments of their estates to determine if face coverings should be recommended for their staff and young people in communal areas. This will also include school and college transport."
Russia preparing for approval of second vaccine
Russia's deputy prime minister has said the country is preparing to approve a second vaccine against Covid-19 in late September or early October.
Speaking at a televised government meeting today, Tatiana Golikova told president Vladimir Putin that early-stage clinical trials on the vaccine, developed by the Vector virology institute in Siberia, would be completed by the end of September.
She said there had been "no complications" among those vaccinated in the first and second stages of testing.
Earlier this month Russia became the first country to grant regulatory approval to a Covid-19 vaccine after less than two months of human testing.
The approved vaccine, called "Sputnik V" in homage to the world's first satellite launched by the Soviet Union, has been hailed as safe and effective by Russian authorities.
But Western experts have been sceptical about Russia's approval of "Sputnik V", warning against its use until all internationally approved testing and regulatory steps have been taken.
British military scientists have discovered a common insect repellent can kill the Covid-19 virus, Shaun Lintern reports.
In a series of experiments, scientists at the UK's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, an agency of the Ministry of Defence, demonstrated that Mosi-guard Natural spray could kill the virus when used either as a spray or as a liquid.
The insect spray contains an ingredient called Citriodiol, which could be used to create a new protection against the virus. Citriodiol is already known to kill other types of coronavirus.
Spain records more than 3,500 new cases in one day
Spain has recorded 3,594 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours.
Cumulative cases, including the results from antibody tests on patients who may have already recovered, have now reached 419,849, the highest level in western Europe.
Seven more deaths were also recorded, bringing the overall toll to 28,971.
The data showed Spain reached a new peak last week, recording around 8,000 new infections on Friday.
Car manufacturer BMW is set to cut hundreds of jobs at a Mini car factory in Cowley, Oxford, following a "substantial" fall in customer demand, Kate Ng reports.
Four-hundred out of 950 onsite agency personnel will be affected by the move, said BMW. The factory, which employs over 4,000 people, stopped production in March at the start of the coronavirus lockdown, and resumed work in May.
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