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Kellyanne Conway to leave Trump White House at end of month President’s adviser cites the need to focus on her family as her husband George also steps back from his role at the Lincoln ProjectThe White House adviser Kellyanne Conway has announced she will be leaving Donald Trump’s administration at the end of August, citing the need to focus on her family.Conway, Trump’s campaign manager during the 2016 presidential race, was the first woman to successfully steer a White House bid, then became a senior counsellor to the US president. She informed Trump of her decision in the Oval Office on Sunday. Continue reading... Go to Source

Boris Johnson moves to seize control of schools agenda after exams chaos PM’s decision to front return-to-school drive is bid to win back the public, top Tory suggests Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverage Boris Johnson attempted to reassert his grip over education after days of chaos by making a personal plea to parents to send their children back to the classroom in England in September.The prime minister, who was criticised for going on holiday to Scotland during the A-level debacle, has spoken out to say the risk of contracting coronavirus in school is low and that it is damaging for children to be out of education for any longer. Continue reading... Go to Source

Revealed: London councils take funds from developers to pay for planning guidelines Critics say ‘poachers have become gamekeepers’ as a result, but councils deny conflict of interestThe final straw? Tory heartlands in revolt over planning reforms Councils have accepted hundreds of thousands of pounds from property developers to fund planning guidelines designed to help govern their own schemes, a Guardian analysis has found.In deals that have been criticised for allowing unfair influence and marginalising local residents, bodies including housing developers, landowners and urban regeneration companies paid large sums to draft supplementary planning documents (SPDs), which councillors must then consider when determining planning applications. Continue reading... Go to Sour...

Coronavirus live news: calls for party ban in Germany to curb cases; ex-Ukraine PM 'seriously ill with Covid' Call for temporary ban as infections reach four-month high; Yulia Tymoshenko has high fever; Italy ‘won’t lock down’ again to curb infections Outbreak in English schools ‘uncommon’, says PHEEngland to fine organisers of illegal raves up to £10,000Analysis: the UK’s gathering Covid autumn stormIndia passes 3m cases as South Korea sees biggest surge since MarchChildren over 12 should wear face masks to combat Covid, says WHO 6.45pm BST The Greek island of Lesbos was on Sunday added to a list of areas under “heightened” Covid-19 vigilance, officials said.The move came as health authorities announced a new daily infection high of...

Exam results row deepens as Ofqual hits back at statistics body Chair of exams regulator in England says RSS’s comments caused misunderstanding and suspicion about its algorithmThe row over A-level and GCSE results has intensified after the chair of the exams regulator in England accused the Royal Statistical Society (RSS) of making comments that led to “widespread misunderstanding and suspicion” about Ofqual’s work.Ofqual has been under scrutiny for its role in the debacle, which left pupils devastated and university admissions in chaos. In the increasingly acrimonious aftermath, Roger Taylor, the chair of Ofqual, called on the RSS to set the record straight after it raised concerns about the now discredited algorithm and offered help. Continue reading... Go ...

Lost medieval sacristy uncovered at Westminster Abbey Remains of hundreds of bodies also discovered at site used as burial ground for monksA lost medieval sacristy used by 13th century monks has been uncovered in the grounds of Westminster Abbey along with the bones of hundreds, if not thousands, of buried bodies.“You do have to be careful where you’re walking,” said archaeologist Chris Mayo, pointing to a fragment of skull poking out of the sandy soil. “You can see from the ground there are burials everywhere.” Continue reading... Go to Source

Belarus: defiant protesters flood Minsk demanding Lukashenko's removal Defence minister’s threat to call in army fails to quell protests sparked by disputed electionDefiant protesters have flooded central Minsk again in a sign that even a threat to use the army was not enough to quell the uprising against Belarus’s authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko.The vast square outside the parliament was turned into a sea of red and white by protesters waving the traditional Belarusian flag adopted by the protest movement, and chanting “Resign!” and “Put Lukashenko in a police van!”. Unofficial estimates put the crowd at 150,000 people or more. Continue reading... Go to Source

Calls to mental health helplines double in Manchester under Covid restrictions Increase reported by police and specialist services prompts council leader to call for more nuanced approach Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageCalls to police and specialist services about mental health have almost doubled in Manchester while people have been isolated at home, prompting the leader of the city council to call for a more balanced and proportionate approach to lockdown.Sir Richard Leese, who heads Manchester city council and is also deputy mayor of Greater Manchester, said the government needed a new strategy to tackle outbreaks which “brings into play mental health and other health risks including those caused by poverty and economic inactivity, and one tha...

Police sources say Alexei Navalny was under surveillance in Siberia Leak to newspaper is apparently intended to show Navalny was not poisoned in city of TomskA Russian newspaper has alleged there was extensive government surveillance of the Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny during a trip to Siberia before he collapsed from a suspected poisoning on Thursday.Navalny’s press secretary, Kira Yarmysh, had complained of being followed during the trip, calling the police surveillance “absolutely obvious” during a stopover in the city of Novosibirsk. The next leg in the city of Tomsk was “relatively calm”, she said, until Navalny fell ill during a return flight to Moscow on Thursday. He was transferred to Berlin’s Charite hospital on Saturday for treatment. Conti...

UK to drop 'Facebook tax' in favour of post-Brexit trade deal Recently introduced tax would have raised £500m, helping to reduce Britain’s huge Covid billCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe UK government is preparing to drop a recently introduced tax on global technology companies such as Facebook, Google and Amazon, due to fears that the so-called “Facebook tax” could jeopardise a post-Brexit trade deal.Rishi Sunak is reportedly planning to ditch the digital services tax which was expected to generate about £500m to help pay towards the huge cost of the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Continue reading... Go to Source

Cheshire police examine serial killer theory in five couples' deaths Five apparent murder-suicides in north-west may have been murders, coroner’s officer saysPolice in the north-west of England are reviewing claims that a serial killer may have been behind five apparent murder-suicides of elderly couples over the past 24 years.Stephanie Davies, Cheshire police’s senior coroner’s officer, has produced a 197-page report raising concerns that the deaths of Harold and Bea Ainsworth in April 1996 and Donald and Auriel Ward in November 1999, all in the wealthy town of Wilmslow, were double murders by a third party who is still at large, the Sunday Times reported. Continue reading... Go to Source

California wildfires: weather turns as Bay Area burns and Trump declares disaster Fears of new fires overnight as residents prepare to fleeWildfires explained: how did they start – and is this normal?An unwelcome change in the weather, with higher winds, temperatures and lightning that threatens to spark new wildfires was coming on Sunday to parched northern California, where firefighters have for nearly a week battled three huge “complexes” of fires that have destroyed hundreds of homes and forced tens of thousands to flee. Related: The Californians with nowhere to go as wildfires rage – photo essay Continue reading... Go to Source

Keir Starmer tells Boris Johnson: your 'chaos' puts schools return at risk Labour leader attacks ‘confusion and incompetence’ from governmentCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coveragePlans to get all children back to school in early September are now at “serious risk” because of government incompetence and the chaos caused by the exams fiasco, the Labour leader Keir Starmer has warned.In one of his strongest interventions to date, which is bound to draw a furious response from Downing Street, Starmer told the Observer that two crucial weeks, which should have been spent preparing for schools to reopen, have been wasted dealing with a self-inflicted “mess” that has destroyed public confidence in government. Continue reading... ...

Coronavirus pandemic halts life-saving UK cancer and heart disease research Thousands of clinical trials have closed permanently or been suspended – and may never have the cash to restartCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageMore than 1,500 clinical trials of new drugs and treatments for cancers, heart disease and other serious illnesses have been permanently closed down in Britain in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition, a further 9,000 have been suspended and most will need major cash injections if they are to be reactivated.The figures highlight the catastrophic effect that Covid-19 has had on UK medical research, which has suffered a devastating blow to development of new life-saving treatments. Improvements in disease-survival rates are l...

Coronavirus live news: India nears 3m cases as Australian state of Queensland to announce two new cases India passes 1m daily test milestone; Mexico nears 60,000 deaths; Italy records worst infections since lockdown. Follow the latestChildren over 12 should wear face masks to combat Covid, says WHOAustralia: State closure rules border on the ridiculous for farmers and familiesSee all our coronavirus coverageWHO says world could rein in pandemic in less than two yearsSouth Korea tightens social distancing rules as Covid cases rise 12.51am BST Health authorities in the Australian state of Queensland have confirmed two new cases of coronavirus on Sunday morning. A woman in her 30s and an infant, both from the same family in the West Moreton area near Ipswich, had returned positive tests fo...