thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-20--Donald Trump Said So Many Daft Things This Week We Had To Do This Roundup

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Yes, the president of the United States saying something daft is nothing new in the slightest but the past week has been so eventful in the White House it’s been difficult to keep up.
So we compiled this handy round up of some absolute gems from the mouth – and fingers – of Donald Trump.
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The Washington Post via Getty Images
The fake video
Trump loves to call out the “fake news” so it’s all the more ironic that on Friday he tweeted a doctored and completely faked CNN video to his 82 million followers.
The clip is edited to look like it appeared on a CNN broadcast, showing a black toddler running away from a white child, with a fake CNN breaking news caption reading: “Terrified todler (sic) runs from racist baby.”
It then claims to reveal “what actually happened”, showing the original version of events where the pair are playing – the way CNN had reported it – before accusing “fake news” of being the root cause of problems in America.
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Twitter later removed the video.
The ‘different scene’
On Saturday night Trump – against the advice of his top health experts – will hold a huge indoor campaign rally where MAGA fans will not be required to wear facial coverings as they scream, cheer and possibly spread coronavirus.
Counter-demonstrations are expected and Trump preempted them on Friday by saying the “will not be treated like you have been” during protests earlier this month”.
He added: “It will be a much different scene!”
Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis. It will be a much different scene! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 19, 2020
Given that earlier protests were violently suppressed by police and Trump implored governors to bring in the military, this sounds like quite a threat as many on social media pointed out.
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Nothin' to see here, just a national call to violence against 1st Amendment peaceful assembly. https://t.co/CfnxYYgxPq — Tea Pain (@TeaPainUSA) June 19, 2020
I've been attending rallies alongside our Veterans to protest racial injustice
Beyond reprehensible for the President to threaten American civilians & our Veterans with violence for exercising our First Amendment right to protest injustice.
Of course, GOP silent https://t.co/ouRg1G8dWP — Qasim Rashid for Congress (@QasimRashid) June 19, 2020
John Bolton
Former US national security adviser John Bolton has a book coming out that has the White House very rattled.
It contains a series of claims about Trump’s time in office, accusing the commander in chief of ignorance of world affairs and putting his own personal interests ahead of those of the nation.
Trump has been on the offensive trying to downplay the claims and claiming Bolton is nothing but a “sick puppy’.
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Bolton’s book, which is getting terrible reviews, is a compilation of lies and made up stories, all intended to make me look bad. Many of the ridiculous statements he attributes to me were never made, pure fiction. Just trying to get even for firing him like the sick puppy he is! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2020
Obviously this is not how he described him when he hired him which is a great time to highlight just how he turns on people once they start revealing what he’s like to work with.
WATCH: Throughout his presidency, President Trump has been quick to praise his most trusted aides on their way into his administration, and quick to bash them on their way out. pic.twitter.com/y06kYTLfn5 — The Beat with Ari Melber on MSNBC 📺 (@TheBeatWithAri) June 19, 2020
The book, titled The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, is set to be released on Tuesday by Simon & Schuster but we already know some of the juicier details, most notably that Trump asked China’s Xi Jinping during a 2019 summit meeting to help his re-election prospects by purchasing more US farm products.
Actually while we’re talking about the book...
The book
He may not have said it this week but as they were revealed this week, the revelations in the book make it into our roundup.
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Here are some highlights:
Bolton alleges that in a meeting with then-prime minister Theresa May in 2018, a British official referred to the UK as a “nuclear power”. Trump then asked: “Oh, are you a nuclear power?” Bolton insists that the comment “was not intended as a joke”.
Trump once asked whether Finland – which is home to around 5.5 million people – was part of Russia.
He encouraged China to build what have been described as concentration camps for Muslims “which he thought was exactly the right thing to do”.
Trump was desperate to get a signed copy of Elton John’s ‘Rocket Man’ to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un following a visit to the country.
The ‘total disaster’
Perfectly illustrating Trump’s shaky understanding of facts and figures is this tweet from Thursday in which he attempted to bash Democratic rival Joe Biden.
The president described Biden’s response to the the 2009 Swine Flu outbreak that killed 12,469 Americans as a “total disaster”.
The current coronavirus death toll in the US is 121,407 and counting.
Biden got failing grades and polls on his clueless handling of the Swine Flu H1N1. It was a total disaster, they had no idea what they were doing. Among the worst ever! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2020
12,000 H1N1 deaths:
“A total disaster”
119,000 Covid-19 deaths (so far):
“Maybe our best work” — James Felton (@JimMFelton) June 18, 2020
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The testing paradox
On one level, Trump’s logic in this statement on coronavirus testing is absolutely faultless. On another, it ranks as one of the daftest things said by a world leader in modern times.
Our testing is so much bigger and more advanced than any other country (we have done a great job on this!) that it shows more cases. Without testing, or weak testing, we would be showing almost no cases. Testing is a double edged sword - Makes us look bad, but good to have!!! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2020
Yup, the president of the United States saying that if they didn’t test for coronavirus then the country would have no confirmed cases.
The president deliberately chose not to ramp up testing for COVID-19 because he thought that finding positive cases would make us look bad. Now over 117,000 Americans are dead. https://t.co/KrP9X2tg7L — Rep. Val Demings (@RepValDemings) June 15, 2020
The polling
On Wednesday Trump made a point of highlighting an astonishing approval rating of 96% within his Republican Party.
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96% Approval Rating in the Republican Party. Thank you! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 17, 2020
Things is, outside of the Republican Party and in the real world his polling is increasingly dire and he is trailing Biden by almost ten percentage points in the presidential race.
The late night chat... with himself
Being leader of the free world is a full-time job with little respite from all manner of incredibly important and life-changing decisions that have far-reaching consequences around the world.
It’s also a bit lonely at the top.
Which might explain why Trump took some time out one night this week to essentially chat to himself on Twitter.
Perusing his own feed, the president saw a comment he had made on Sunday and decided that the world needed to know he hadn’t changed his mind in the intervening two days and retweeted it with the words “So true!”.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-20--Alexandra Burke Details Racism She's Experienced Throughout Career: ‘I Was Told To Bleach My Skin’

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Alexandra Burke has opened up about her experience as a Black woman in the music industry in an emotional video she shared on Instagram.
The singer began the 15-minute clip by revealing that she was “nervous” before explaining that it was not a “negative video”.
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Alexandra Burke Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP
“Please forgive me, I’m a little bit nervous because I’ve been wanting to make this video for a long time,” she began.
“I’ve just been a bit scared to do it,” she said, before adding that she was “really frightened of speaking my truth.”
“This is not a video to bash anyone, this isn’t a negative video,” she insisted. “This is simply me speaking about what I have been through in the past 11 years and finally feeling like I am not ashamed to speak about it. And that is a strong point for me.”
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The 2008 X Factor winner went on to state that she is “proud of being a Black woman, my culture, my heritage. I am proud of what my family has done, what they have sacrificed for us,” before detailing her experience in the music industry.
“The music industry is such a funny little place. I love singing, I love what I do but if it wasn’t for the love that I have for music I definitely wouldn’t be in this industry,” she admitted.
“A few reasons are, when I won the X Factor I was told, ‘Right, because you are Black, you are going to have to work 10 times harder than a white artist, because of the colour of your skin. You can’t have braids, you can’t have an afro, you can’t have anything that basically is my identity, you have to have hair, for example, that appeals to white people so they can understand you better,’” she said, fighting back tears.
She added: “That was so hard to digest. I was told to bleach my skin, and that was something I refused to do.”
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Alexandra does not reveal who made these requests of her.
Alexandra was crowned winner of The X Factor in 2008 Ken McKay/Shutterstock
The 31-year-old also spoke of the microaggressions she has experienced throughout her career, including being told to “smile more on Instagram because you come across aggressive”.
The star later broke down in tears as she recalled her mother’s death, which happened on the launch day of Strictly Come Dancing in 2017.
Alexandra, who finished runner-up on the BBC dance show, detailed the tough three months she experienced after being targeted by trolls and certain sections of the tabloid press.
“How I got through it, now I look back and I have no idea, no idea,” she said. “I don’t even like thinking about that experience at all. But thankfully, my family and friends got me through it and the amazing fans that supported me.”
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Fans were quick to show their support for the star after she shared the video...
Listening to Misha B and Alexandra Burke talk about their experiences is so heartbreaking. To know that people can even be treated like that is beyond me. I can’t help but feel so frustrated 😓 — Shamilla Chiraga (@simplysham) June 20, 2020
Watching Alexandra Burke talk about the racism she faced as an artist is so heartbreaking. From the age of 16 they were taking the absolute piss. Seeing her get upset about allowing it to happen is really sad she was only trying to survive, she was 19. — Chanté said ABOLISH THE POLICE 🦖🇩🇲🇯🇲 (@ChantayyJayy) June 20, 2020
Leona Lewis, Misha B, Keisha Buchanan and now Alexandra Burke. If you still believe Britain isn’t racist after these four women have come forward to talk about their experiences with racism and character assassination from the British media and the public you’re a massive problem — Lewis (@ConfideInTay13) June 20, 2020
Alexandra Burke was the last season I watched and loved all the way through, we were sending each other her songs via Bluetooth back in high school and I’m so sad to hear about this but so proud of her for speaking out. I love her so much and only want the best for her 💛 — eliana vigo (@missanerys) June 20, 2020
I swear the music industry is scum! Confidently with their chest telling Alexandra Burke to bleach her skin and change her hairstyles to suit the mainstream demographic. DISGUSTING — Laura Living Life (@living_laura) June 20, 2020
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Watch Alexandra Burke’s latest IG video where she talks about how the press unfairly portrayed as this aggressive diva on Strictly on the same day/time her mum just died...so awful. I’ve met her after one of her shows and can honestly say what a lovely, kind woman she truly is💞 — George Newsome (@georgenewsome_) June 20, 2020
We need a list of the songs Alexandra Burke will personally make the most money from, so we can stream it NOW. She is one of our most talented artists who's success was intentionally curtailed, she needs LOVE now that she's spoken out, don't leave her high and dry. — Daniel (@ItsVeryThatTees) June 20, 2020
Alexandra Burke is SUCH a talent it's fucking awful what the industry did to her https://t.co/xUriGf58Rr — Theresa Green (@itsTheresaG) June 20, 2020
The singer opened up in an Instagram video about how she was left with suicidal thoughts and diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after being publicly accused of ‘bullying’ by then-judges Louis Walsh and Tulisa Contostavlos live on air.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-20--This Is How It Feels To Be Erased From Your Own History Lesson

When Abdul Wahid attended Founder’s Day at Sir John Cass Redcoat School in Stepney, east London, he had no idea he was being lectured on the glories and achievements of a prolific slave trader.
“I remember all the kids around me were brown and Black,” he said. “Now I find it haunting that we were being told to pay homage to a man who benefited from enslaving people.”
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Wahid, now 32, still keeps a meticulous record of his history curriculum from the early 2000s: from the Norman Conquest and medieval “really nonsense stuff like the evolution of castles” to Britain’s “contribution” to its colonies during the industrial revolution.
After a Year 9 lesson on “Britain’s judicial and educational legacy in India”, he went home to ask his family about it. “My grandma said it was fucking bollocks,” he said. “She grew up in 1930s Sylhet (in modern day Bangladesh) – she was there.”
When he recounted to his white teacher what his grandmother had said, he was told although “there were obviously things that weren’t completely right, on balance Britain was hugely beneficial to India.”
“I had nothing to say. This middle-class white English person telling 29 brown and Black kids – and only one white kid – what their families’ experience of colonialism was.”
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On Wednesday, the governing body of Sir John Cass Redcoat School announced it would rename the school – following London Metropolitan University’s announcement it would rebrand its own Sir John Cass School of Art, Architecture and Design.
In a statement, it said: “We recognise that the use of Sir John Cass’ name endorses this major figure in the early development of the slave trade and the legacy of this pain. The use of his name is discordant with our pledge to support the Black community and our active commitment to oppose racism in all forms.”
The latest statement from the Governing Body regarding the removal of the statue and bust of John Cass from the school premises and the re-naming of the school can be found on the school website - https://t.co/Cu59qQ3737 pic.twitter.com/bCQeBZpliB — SJCR (@SJCRschool) June 17, 2020
The ceremonial rebranding of an institution or street name may feel satisfying, but the truth is that for decades Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people have been taught from childhood that they do not exist in their own country. And it will take much more than a few statues being toppled to rework their erasure from their history textbooks.
Fourteen-year-old Jude Gittins, from Leicestershire, is currently studying for his GCSEs, which include a history curriculum that is – in his own words – “ethnocentric and whitewashed”.
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“I can only recall ever having two or three lessons about African Americans during the exodus and KKK lynchings,” he told HuffPost UK.
Rather than being taught “Black philosophy, science and politics, Black war/revolutions, Black leaders, Black struggle, Black inventions and Black nations or monarchies”, he says “the good sides of Black history have been erased to be replaced with the bad.”
He says his history lessons have left him feeling “very excluded” and that he has “a fatalist[ic] view on everything nowadays”. When he brings this up in the classroom, he says his classmates “mostly spout stupidity or racist jokes” and his teachers “don’t even see the point in Black Lives Matter let alone a change in the curriculum”.
“The mainstream media already has painted a picture of Black people and stereotypes, like the criminal, killer, poor child soldier, witch doctor, loud-mouthed mother and warlord cannibal,” he said.
“I sit in class and get good grades, but for what? An award from a white GCSE board, in white history.”
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Ghanaian-born Denise, 19, agrees the syllabus she was taught at her Hampshire school also left her feeling excluded. “History as a subject made me uncomfortable because it glorified the UK a lot whilst ignoring the truth of what this country did to my people,” she told HuffPost UK.
She described the “mental strain” of trying to explain her struggles of racism to the people around her at school. Her teachers made her feel “unwelcome”, so she was too scared to bring it up in her class.
“I remember crying several times in school because of how I was treated. There was no one I could talk to who would understand nor would anyone back me if I spoke. I was often the only Black person in my classes,” she said.
“I also had an image I had to stray away from, I couldn’t be the angry Black girl always bringing race into everything. I was literally single-handedly representing all Black women.”
Erasing Black people from history “sends out more ignorant people into the world” with “an image that only white people were intellectual or smart”, she added.
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“The children they failed to teach about Black history grow up into film directors, they become doctors who are less likely to properly assess Black patients, they become teachers who fail to understand the needs of their Black students, they become judges and lawyers who unfairly close cases on Black people, they even become prime ministers who go on to call their citizens thugs, letterboxes, swarms.”
Boris Johnson - then London mayor - and George Osborne at the book launch of Johnson's Churchill biography in 2014 David M. Benett via Getty Images
Even when prime ministers grow up to study classics at university and write history books, they end up celebrating the wartime triumphs of a white supremacist instead of focusing on the role of millions of Black and brown people in the Second World War.
For Hannah Ipinson-Fleming, 18, from Bristol, history at GCSE and A-level “gives the impression that BAME history is less valuable”.
“Our existence is consistently portrayed as having begun only after colonisation,” she told HuffPost UK. “When it comes to the acknowledgement of Black people in history they are collateral within a story – a means to an end.”
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As a young Black student in majority-white schools, she says from a very young age she was “incredibly aware of how my life and the way I encounter different institutions will be different to my white peers”.
“I feel strongly that they failed me as a Black student in properly educating other students on topics regarding race,” she added.
As the Black Lives Matter movement has gained traction in the UK following the killing of George Floyd, so have calls to change the current history curriculum to accurately depict Britain’s colonial and imperial past, and reflect the achievements and contributions of BAME people.
Among those demanding for changes to the education system are school friends Esmie, 19 – who is Black – and Nell, 18 – who is white.
The pair came up with the idea of petitioning the government to teach Britain’s colonial past as part of the compulsory curriculum after surveying 50,000 people about what they learned at school.
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The results showed a “horrific disparity” between those who learned topics such as the Tudors (86.2%) and only those who studied the role of slavery in British industrialisation (9.9%).
Esmie told HuffPost UK studying a whitewashed history “felt like gaslighting”. “I knew that these things had happened, but I would go into school and be taught a different history that erased the contributions of my ancestors,” she said.
“It’s such a horrible thing to have happen to you – the systemic erasure of key parts of your identity. And not just your identity, but your lived experience – to be Black in this country is to suffer racism, and the roots of that racism lie in Britain’s history.
“So you experience all this inner turmoil, while the white kids around you are elevated and validated by this idea of Britain as a nation of intrepid and successful explorers who brought ‘civilisation’ to the ‘savages’ of the colonies.”
Both Esmie and Nell want to see a national history curriculum “where you can be taught both the contribution of famous historical figures to today’s world, but also highlight the oppression and slavery that made it all possible”.
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If not, “Black kids will continue to feel gaslighted, lied to, and erased,” Esmie says. Their petition has so far received more than 200,000 signatures.
While activists such as the initiative The Black Curriculum work behind the scenes to decolonise the national curriculum, there are some teachers who are actively fighting for a more inclusive history education in their classrooms.
Ayca Sonmez has been teaching history for seven years at Acland Burghley School in Camden, north London. Her students are given lessons on the medieval history of African kingdoms, the Qing dynasty, Black Tudors, Black migration and the decolonisation of India.
One of her Year 10 students says by only focusing on British achievements and neglecting other cultures, many people in Britain “are not very educated when it comes to Black lives and Black achievements during history”.
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“Black people have had many great achievements that have been significant to the world but yet we have learnt nothing about these in schools. For example, Mary Seacole, a Black nurse who saved many white lives during the Crimean War,” they said.
Another Year 10 student stressed the “absolute necessity” to “awaken the world to how little so many people really know” about the “atrocities of racism”.
“What history we teach has a massive impact on students,” Sonmez told HuffPost UK. “We have a huge responsibility on how kids view the world and how they view themselves.
“If we only teach a specific strand of history and omit [other histories] from our classrooms, we are saying that these are the histories that should be remembered and that other histories are not relevant.”
As head of humanities at her school, she has pushed to “decentre dominant narratives and Eurocentric curricula” so students don’t leave school “with gaps in their knowledge” and instead can “think more deeply and critically about history and its impact”.
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Professor Hakim Adi, the UK’s first-ever history professor of African heritage, points out that history is the third least popular subject for Black undergraduate students in the UK – behind veterinary science and agriculture.
″[Young Black people] are alienated from history because it’s presented in such a Eurocentric manner,” he told HuffPost UK. “This is reflected in school level, and then as a result there are very few Black academic historians, very few Black history teachers.”
In Sonmez’s classrooms, history is becoming an increasingly popular subject among BAME kids. “The response has been really positive,” she says. “They’re learning a new part of history that is engaging. They go home and tell their parents who are really interested because they didn’t learn [these parts of history] either.”
In 2013, Abdul Wahid returned to Sir John Cass Redcoat School – this time as a teacher. During that period of almost a decade, the school’s history syllabus had not changed – it was still “whitewashed and not fit for purpose”, he says.
He found himself once again sitting among Black and brown children in the school’s “Great Hall” listening to speeches about their founder’s so-called “philanthropy”. “It was hammered home to us to be grateful to [Sir John Cass].
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-20--Melania Trump Posts Juneteenth Tweet And Gets Reminded Of 'Birther' Past

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Melania Trump attempted to honor Juneteenth on Friday by reading a children’s book about the holiday — but was accused of not reading the room.
The first lady took to Twitter to read “All Different Now” by Angela Johnson, which tells the story of Juneteenth, a day that celebrates the end of slavery, through the eyes of a young girl.
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In the tweet, Trump also reminisced about a trip to Ghana where she toured the House of Slaves, a place where millions of kidnapped Africans were held before being forced onto slave ships bound for the New World.
Today we celebrate #Juneteenth, the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the end of slavery in the U.S. In honor of today, I would like to share the story "All Different Now" by Angela Johnson, which sheds a light on the first Juneteenth through the eyes of a young girl. pic.twitter.com/ZG9zoup4yG — Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) June 19, 2020
Many Twitter users found the first lady’s video insensitive for a variety of reasons, but especially because of her past support of the racist “birther” conspiracy theory championed by her husband, President Donald Trump, that falsely claimed that former President Barack Obama wasn’t born in the U.S.
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This ignorant bitch right here...I mean...I can't with her tone-deaf idiocy. https://t.co/orzLbssPWS — Vivicca A. Whitsett (@2tall4u2) June 19, 2020
Would that it had been “All Different Now.” “Slavery” ended. But, Jim Crow, Black Codes, Lynchings, the KKK, Disenfranchisement, Gerrymandering, White Supremacy, Discriminatory Hiring Practices, Racial Profiling, Inferior Education & BIRTHERISM followed…3rd Lady. https://t.co/KBl0Tbs3Gh — Star Jones (@StarJonesEsq) June 19, 2020
How to not read the room: a masterclass. https://t.co/tkhHw9BP1n — Tim Windsor (@timwindsor) June 19, 2020
Others focused on the video’s visual details — notably the decision to sit the first lady on a gilded bench in an ornate room and film her at a distance.
A great way to send a message of equality, humanity and togetherness is a wide shot in which the only person in the frame is completely overwhelmed by ridiculously opulent furniture https://t.co/bI6sCD8ID8 — Meredith Blake (@MeredithBlake) June 19, 2020
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I am awaiting Sophia Coppola's film about how Melania taught all of white America about Juneteenth from her gilded room in Versailles on the Potomac... https://t.co/tzwgiadCsn — Jeffrey St. Clair (@JSCCounterPunch) June 19, 2020
"Don't zoom in."
"Oka- wait. DON'T zoom in?"
"Yes. Don't zoom in."
"So, just stay wide the whole time?"
"Yes."
"Isn't that going to look weird?"
"I don't know. Just stay wide."
"So, super wide, no zoom."
"Right."
"Okay. Ready when you are."
"Barack Obama wasn't born in the U.S." https://t.co/8CZx4I7b2X — ɐpoqoʌs ʎɐɾ (@jaysvoboda) June 19, 2020
This looks like the opening of a horror movie.... slow push in... she smiles.. then... her face turns into a bleeding skull....."CHRISTMAS" https://t.co/6Zq19mOXYU — Hal Sparks (@HalSparks) June 19, 2020
But sometimes the most telling comments are also the shortest.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-20--Scathing Supercut Shows How Quickly Donald Trump Flips On His Once Most Trusted Aides

WATCH: Throughout his presidency, President Trump has been quick to praise his most trusted aides on their way into his administration, and quick to bash them on their way out. pic.twitter.com/y06kYTLfn5


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-20--See Jamie Foxx As Mike Tyson For Boxer Biopic

“I ain’t got no calf muscles, so we might have to get some prosthetics for that,” he said.
Foxx, who won an Academy Award for playing Ray Charles in the biopic Ray, promised to show how Tyson evolved and reveal his “two different lives.”
Tyson’s troubled career ranged from the high of winning the heavyweight title at age 20 and gaining worldwide fame, to lows that included three years in prison for rape, biting off part of Evander Holyfield’s ear in a bout, and squandering his fortune.
Tyson, 53, is reportedly pondering a comeback in boxing or another combat sport.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-20--Angelina Jolie Says She Split From Brad Pitt For Her Family’s ‘Wellbeing’

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Angelina Jolie has opened up about her divorce from Brad Pitt, saying she split from the Hollywood star for her family’s “wellbeing”.
The Maleficent star said she continues to “focus on healing” their six children – three adopted and three biological – who she described as “very brave, very strong young people’”.
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Angelina and Brad first got together after they starred in Mr and Mrs Smith in 2005.
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt SIPA USA/PA Images
They went on to marry in 2014 in the South of France before filing for divorce two years later, citing irreconcilable differences.
Speaking to Vogue Global Network, Angelina said: “I separated for the wellbeing of my family. It was the right decision. I continue to focus on their healing.
“Some have taken advantage of my silence, and the children see lies about themselves in the media, but I remind them that they know their own truth and their own minds.
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“In fact, they are six very brave, very strong young people.”
The 45-year-old star was speaking ahead of World Refugee Day on 20 June and detailed her experiences of raising children from different backgrounds.
Angelina explained that she made sure that ‘adoption’ and ‘orphanage’ are “positive words in our home”.
“All adopted children come with a beautiful mystery of a world that is meeting yours,” she said.
“When they are from another race and foreign land that mystery, that gift, is so full.
“For them, they must never lose touch with where they came from. They have roots that you do not. Honour them. Learn from them. It’s the most amazing journey to share. They are not entering your world, you are entering each other’s worlds.”
SIPA USA/PA Images
Last year, Brad opened up about getting sober following the break down of his marriage.
Speaking with The New York Times, the Once Upon A Time In Hollywood actor revealed he had sought the support of Alcoholics Anonymous group meetings to process the fallout from his highly-publicised divorce.
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“I had taken things as far as I could take it, so I removed my drinking privileges,” he said, adding that he attended AA meetings for a year and a half.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-20--Jeremy Corbyn's Brother, Piers, Charged With Breaching Coronavirus Regulations At 5G Protest

Guy Smallman via Getty Images
The brother of ex-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has been charged with two counts of breaching coronavirus regulations after attending anti-5G protests in London
Piers Corbyn, 73, was pictured at a demonstration in Hyde Park on May 16, while he has also been charged in relation to a protest on May 30.
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He faces charges under the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) Regulations 2020 and has been given two court dates, according to the Met.
Corbyn has pushed a bizarre and unfounded conspiracy theory that Bill Gates has somehow manufactured the coronavirus pandemic in order to depopulate the world with a vaccine that causes infertility.
THE CV PANDEMIC WAS SIMULATED OCT 2019 BY MEGA-RICH CONTROL FREAKS BILL GATES, GEORGE SOROS +CRONIES.
NOW IT'S FOR REAL.
THE AIM IS A WORLD POPULATION CULL ("PEOPLE cause #CO2 problem") by THEIR mass VACCINATION PLAN CONTAINING POISON.
*REFUSE*CV*VACCINE*https://t.co/uv0A4B5rNP — Piers Corbyn (@Piers_Corbyn) March 16, 2020
He also describes man-made climate change as “nonsense” believes earthquakes are triggered by the sun, and that Jewish financier George Soros is funding and using Extinction Rebellion to hike energy prices.
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He is said to be due before Westminster Magistrates’ Court on July 24 and August 20 this year over the separate incidents.
Twelve others were arrested and charged under the Health Protection Act for allegedly taking part in the anti-lockdown protests of May 16, PA Media reports.
All are due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
Jeffery Wyatt, 56, of Milton Keynes, is due in court on July 10.
Dimitri Pensin, 34, of Pinner, north-west London, and Alexander Heaton, 37, of Bow, east London, are due in court on August 12.
Princess Rose Morgan, 56, of Lambeth, south London, is due in court on August 13.
Philip Hartley, 37, of Doncaster, Yorkshire; Fiona Hine, 35, of Wandsworth, south-west London; Jackub Andrzej, 27, of Ealing, west London; and Jaime Stewart, of Wood Green, north London, are all due in court on August 18.
Ian Jackson, 66, of Wandsworth, south-west London, is due in court on August 19.
Donnalee Andrews, 55, of Northampton; and Aleksandrs Rimicans, of Islington, north London, are all due in court on August 20.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-20--Leaked Lockdown Rules Reveal What Your Pub And Restaurant Trips Might Look Like Next Month

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Drinkers would be encouraged to order pints on smart phone apps and pubs could be patrolled to ensure social-distancing measures are enforced under plans to ease the lockdown for the hospitality sector.
Boris Johnson is expected to make an announcement next week on pubs, cafes, restaurants and hotels – with their reopening in England an ambition from July 4 to start reviving the ailing economy.
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With the coronavirus alert level having been reduced on Friday, the prime minister believes he has some space to relax measures in a boost for the sector.
Culture secretary Oliver Dowden told BBC Radio 4 that the review the PM ordered into the two-metre social distancing rule would be concluded “within the coming days”, while Whitehall officials confirmed the outcome is expected next week.
The rule seeks to slow the spread of Covid-19 but would be a heavy restraint on the hospitality sector when it reopens, with many bosses favouring the distance being reduced.
Guidance drawn up by the sector and ministers is understood to encourage pubgoers to order drinks using apps instead of going to the bar, while current legislation was said to include the powers for patrols.
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The Times reported that restaurant tables would not be set in advance and room service would be left outside doors in hotels under the guidance.
It was being stressed that decisions on further easings were yet to be made, but the PM said the lowering of the alert level from four to three allows ministers to “start making some progress” on social-distancing measures.
And he promised new guidance for the hospitality sector and businesses “very shortly”.
The downgrading – recommended by the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC) – means transmission of coronavirus is no longer considered to be “high or rising exponentially”.
Localised outbreaks of Covid-19 are still “likely” to occur, the advisers warned, and the virus remains in general circulation.
Johnson also told the public on Friday to “watch this space” when asked whether the distance restriction could be reduced to help schools in England return in autumn.
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He has been under significant pressure from Conservatives to relax the distance and on Friday night former business secretary Greg Clark said evidence from other nations is “lower social distancing has worked”.
“It’s important we should benefit, it seems to me, from the experiences of others in this,” the Tory MP told BBC Newsnight.
Government scientific advisers have said they would be comfortable with a reduced distance if risk-mitigating measures were taken, such as people sitting side by side and wearing face coverings.
The PM also said it is his intention that children of all ages in England should be able to return to school on a five-days-a-week basis in September.
Education secretary Gavin Williamson suggested that primary school class sizes of 15, known as “bubbles”, could be expanded back to their normal size to allow more children back in the classroom.
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At the Downing Street daily briefing, Williamson said he wanted all year groups to return to school “full-time” in September, adding that further guidance on safety measures will be published in the next two weeks.
The comments came as the government’s £1 billion plan to help pupils catch up with learning came under fire from education leaders.
Head teachers said they were not consulted on the details of the scheme, which will see the most disadvantaged children in England given access to funds to pay for tutors while the majority of the funding will be shared across schools to help pupils from all backgrounds affected by the lockdown.
College and nursery leaders have criticised the government for leaving their pupils out after it announced that £650 million would only be given to state primary and secondary schools for the 2020-21 academic year.
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A further £350 million will be spent on a one-year subsidised national tutoring programme targeted at the most disadvantaged pupils in schools.
Sector leaders say the funding will not reach young children in nurseries and college students who are most “in need of support” amid the pandemic.
In Wales, first minister Mark Drakeford was planning to end its five-mile restriction on travel next month and allow holidaymakers to return a week later.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-20--My Pride Anthems: Saara Aalto

My Pride Anthems: Saara Aalto

The coronavirus pandemic has changed everything, and that includes how we’re all celebrating Pride in 2020.
With huge public gatherings out of the question, we’re asking a range of LGBTQ celebrities and allies for their personal Pride anthems, to help us all get into the Pride spirit from lockdown.
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Since making it through to the X Factor final in 2016, Saara Aalto has been busy not just consistently releasing music and performing all over the world, but also representing her native Finland in Eurovision and trying her hand at ice skating in Dancing On Ice.
Saara Aalto performing at Pride In London in 2019 HOLLIE ADAMS/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
As part of our ongoing My Pride Anthems series, Saara has also shared some of the songs she thinks we all need to be listening to this Pride month, including a “lesbian anthem” from Brandi Carlile, and the music that she says helped her through the coming out process...
Lady Gaga – Born This Way
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“This was the song that I used to sing a lot at my gigs, when I was just about to come out. This was like a power song for me, I used to be like ‘I’m going to come out soon, and it’s OK to be who you are’ when I was performing this, I just have so many good memories of singing it at my gigs.
“I used to perform it at Prides around Finland at that time... and then I also chose it for my first performance on Dancing On Ice last year. I was like ‘it has to be my first skate’, and it was! It’s a special song for me, I love it.”
Brandi Carlile – The Story
“Oh my god, this song is so, so good. I remember when I came out, and I started to have more LGBT people in my friendship groups, there were lesbians I knew who absolutely loved this song. This song was actually played on Grey’s Anatomy, and then it kind of became a lesbian anthem.
“When I heard it for the first time, I was like ‘this is a song I need to sing’, and I have been singing it a lot at my shows. Last summer I performed it at Diva magazine’s HearHer festival, and it was amazing to have all the lesbians in the audience singing along with me, it’s just a really powerful song. Please listen to it if you’ve never heard it before.”
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MNEK and Hailee Steinfeld – Colour
“It’s funny, before I came to the UK for X Factor, I was already a fan of MNEK’s, and I kind of never thought that I would actually meet him. And last summer, we were together on Virgin Atlantic’s Pride flight… and he saw me on the plane and he was like ‘Saara! Hello!’, and came over to talk to me because he knew me from X Factor, and I was like ‘oh my goodness, I’ve listened to you for years, and now you’re here with me on the same flight’.
“I think he is just an amazing producer, amazing songwriter, amazing performer, I just really love him. He’s done so many amazing things.
“And last summer, I was walking in a queer fashion show at London Fashion Week, and I played this song in my dressing room when I was getting ready, and it just really reminds me of last summer. It’s just a happy song, and really LGBT-friendly song.”
Saara Aalto – Dance Like Nobody’s Watching
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“I had to choose one of my own songs, and this is my Pride anthem. I’ve worked so much for the LGBT community, and this song is kind of the heart of my work, in a way.
“We also filmed a really beautiful music video for this song, telling the story of a transgender ballerina, and we actually got a trans ballerina for the video, and it was her first professional dance after her transition. So she was crying on set, we were crying, everybody was crying, and when we saw the video for the first time, it felt so beautiful. And it was really important for me to tell that story that isn’t maybe told all that often.
“This was the official song for Pride In London last summer and that was such a big honour, after performing at Prides for years all across the world. I’m forever grateful to X Factor first of all, for giving me that opportunity to move to London, and be accepted in the UK, it’s been such a big thing for me.”
Bright Light Bright Light – This Was My House
“This song is really about feeling safe in your community. I think it’s really important for all of us, in this moment, when everything is a bit scary, to feel safe. That’s why Pride is so important, and everything about this song is totally queer, which I adore.
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“Bright Light Bright Light is also a friend of mine, we’ve done some cool things together, and he does so much for the queer community.”
Adam Lambert – If I Had You
“This is a love song really reminds me of that time when I had just come out. And also a time shortly before that, when I was secretly dating girls, but because I was kind of in the public eye… when it was all new to me, I was a bit, like, hiding it. But for me, this song, [reminds me of] when I would be partying and being like ‘I’m coming out soon, I’m doing it’. That song really just makes me want to dance.
“I actually sang with Adam Lambert at The X Factor final, and that was my biggest dream come true, because I’d been his fan for years. He came second on American Idol, and when I came second on X Factor, he sent me a message to be like ‘welcome to the club’. It’s just crazy for a Finnish girl to experience all that. And be friends with somebody that you absolutely adore.”
Saara Aalto recently launched her No Fear school, which focusses on wellness, self-care and sense of self. This currently includes a podcast series with her wife, Meri Aalto, and singing masterclass taught directly by Saara.
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We’ll be adding each celebrity’s song choices to our bumper My Pride Anthems playlist each day. Take a listen below:
Useful websites and helplines:


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-20--Self-Care Is Vital When Fighting For Social Change. Here's Why.

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Fighting for social change isn’t easy. There’s no quick fix. In the past few weeks, thousands of activists around the world have taken part in anti-racism protests, in solidarity with Black Lives Matter demonstrations in the US. Nightly protests were alive in many American cities after the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, who was killed in Minneapolis by a white police officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck for eight minutes. It sparked similar protests in the UK.
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They’ve given us the opportunity to have much-needed conversations about police brutality, what it means to be anti-racist, our responsibility to address institutional racism, and our work towards equality for the most marginalised.
Amidst this anger came the voice of another marginalised group, after JK Rowling attracted criticism for her comments on trans issues. Trans people felt angry and disappointed – and Black trans people are even more disproportionately targeted.
These fights are essential. They put focus on the struggles minorities face. But they also take energy – successfully establishing social change takes time, it’s not something that can be achieved in a matter of days. And sustaining that energy throughout can be hard – both for those in the centre of the fight, and others wanting to support and understand their experiences.
It’s important to maintain self-care while absorbing information and committing to push forward change. “Without proper self care, people risk suffering from burnout,” says Isaac Maweu, a psychotherapist and life coach.
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“The brain is the most vital organ in the body and it’s being drained more by what [people] are doing – as much as it’s a good cause.”
Maweu says if we don’t maintain self care, there’s a “great risk” of projecting and displacing the anger to other people in our lives. “In all that we do, let’s be aware of how this affects us at the long-run,” he adds.
So how can you make sure you’re at your best?
Learn to know when your brain needs a break.
Whether you’re frustrated, angry, or overwhelmed, it’s understandable you’re going through an emotional rollercoaster right now. Set and honour your own boundaries.
“When you feel drained, it’s time to fill up – and you can only fill up if you’re accessing your mental health and self-care toolbox,” explains Grace Victory, content creator and founder of How to Heal Holistically. “Release your emotions by crying, exercising, or being in nature – pent up emotions manifest in your body which can cause deeper distress. Meditate, create, and find joy.
“This is a time to get educated, but it’s also a time that’s incredibly traumatic and exhausting.”
“This is a time to get educated, but it’s also a time that’s incredibly traumatic and exhausting.” - Grace Victory, founder of How to Heal Holistically
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If you don’t, feelings of deep, heavy exhaustion can set in and this may make you retreat inside yourself when everything gets too much. “Try bringing your attention away from what you digest online,” says Cassandra Corrado, the woman behind Feminist Sex Ed, who created a resource on how to rest and recover during this time.
“The reality is, if you put down your phone for two hours, the information is still going to be there,” she tells HuffPost UK. “Overstimulation can make you feel jumpy – or like you’re buzzing out of your skin. Move back for a bit and say, ‘Okay, what do I need in this immediate 15 minutes to take care of myself?’ I’ve found journalling and breathing to be some of the helpful methods.”
Understand your limits with social media.
You might have been involved with a debate on Twitter or posted a black square on Instagram – and then think, “Now what?”. Many feel the need to do more – but do what you can right now to your best ability.
“A feeling of powerlessness can have negative effects on our overall mental health, because we feel like we don’t have autonomy,” explains Corrado. ”Some people think, ‘There’s no point in me doing anything because I have no power and if I have no power, then I’m ultimately worthless to this movement.’ We get stuck in this loop where we think we have to be processing all this information – all the time – as a way of keeping ourselves safe.”
“A feeling of powerlessness can have negative effects on our overall mental health.” - Cassandra Corrado, Feminist Sex Ed
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It’s great to be clued up on the moment, with a hunger to learn more, but being constantly switched on has been proven to cause us stress. If the urge to scroll is too strong to resist, turn off notifications and limit the time you spend reading or watching the news.
“Take regular breaks from social media so your mind can process what you’re ingesting,” suggests Victory. “Try to set yourself a strict sleep routine – switch off technology an hour before bed and have an hour to yourself in the mornings before engaging in the online world.”
nadia_bormotova via Getty Images
Prioritise rest and diet relentlessly.
Resting and recharging starts from within. When you give yourself a good base, you’re more able to take on whatever the day brings. We need energy to show up as our best selves for everyone around us, which means prioritising our rest and diet as relentlessly as we can.
“Focus on putting the right things in your body and make ‘me’ time a priority –that way you can then serve other people,” says Ngoni Chikwenengere, a fashion, food and lifestyle blogger. “Self-care is underrated. During lockdown, I’ve spent a lot of time working out, eating right, sleeping more, and trying to keep myself in a positive space physically, because it impacts everything else.”
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If you implement small changes to your life to build healthy habits, they’ll eventually stick. “Make self-care a ritual because it takes time to get used to, but it lets your mind know it’s time to rest,” Chikwenengere adds.
“Make a list of what you want to try. Opt for healthy alternatives in the house, use a sleep spray, or work out to clear your mind.”
Know that your actions, however small, matter.
Giving yourself time to reenergise will help you think productively about the movement – and what you can do to contribute to change. Now it’s time to think about how you can turn your feelings into actions.
Acknowledge and understand that small changes can make big differences; from tackling difficult conversations to educating others, it can be a challenging, but absolutely necessary, process.
“Everyone can do something.” - Celine Erorh, founder of mental health social enterprise Celutions
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“Everyone can do something,” says Celine Erorh, founder of Celutions, a mental health social enterprise and creator of an online mental health wellness guide. “Share information with your audience, donate, sign petitions, or protest if you want to – just remember to protect yourself, both physically and mentally.”
If you’re unsure how to take action, use your platform to shine a spotlight on marginalised people and their experiences, that may have been hidden by the mainstream. “Pay attention and hold space for Black people to be heard,” adds Victory. ”Hear them when they cry, shout or vent.
“This is the first time for many that our voices are actually being listened to. We underestimate the importance of just hearing.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-20--Your Saturday Shopping Spree Won't Be Like You Remember It

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After months of feeling trapped at home, thousands of Brits flooded back to the shops this week – whether to high street giants like Primark or the designer outlets of Bicester Village – for the first time since the beginning of lockdown.
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Many non-essential shops, department stores, homeware retailers, and charity shops reopened on Monday June 15, with prime minister Boris Johnson telling the nation: “People should shop, and shop with confidence.”
Most of us have known the joy of a Saturday spree – or even just a browse – with family or friends. Shopping becomes a leisure activity at the weekend.
Or it used to be. The coronavirus pandemic has permanently changed the way we shop, retailers are signalling – with a focus on locality, more home deliveries, and a shift in habits towards more sustainable ways.
Locktown hasn’t curbed our appetite for retail therapy. In fact, we’re shopping online more than ever. But as physical shops re-open with social distancing measures in place – from extra hygiene to closed-off fitting rooms and a limit on crowds – will shopping ever be the same again?
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Online vs. offline
For some buying stuff on the internet during the height of lockdown was a vital lifeline, while it forced others who had never shopped online to give it a try – though the closure of physical shops hit hardest those brands that had failed to keep up with the digital age and weren’t ready for the online hordes.
Online shopping might be quick, convenient, and offer shoppers the ability to purchase a brand-new outfit delivered straight to their door at a click of a button, but it does lacks the human interaction and in-store experience.
Theresa Marie Coles, 30, a full-time mother from Tamworth in the West Midlands, has saved up some money from being stuck indoors and can’t wait to hit the shops this weekend. “I usually prefer shopping in person rather than online, as I don’t really like the hassle of having to return items,” she says. “There’s something about shopping that I find therapeutic. Finding something I’ve been looking for or finding a bargain is my biggest thrill!”
Besides the advantages of being able to touch, feel and try before you buy, shopping in-person can also double up as a social occasion and an opportunity to catch up with friends. “I meet up with my best friend to shop together and we usually make a day of it,” Coles adds. “A good drive out to somewhere new and spend the whole day browsing and drinking coffee.”
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In favour of the small and local
As we ease out of lockdown, there’ll be people in two different camps: the people who will think twice about shopping and those desperate to get out to splash some cash.
“The pandemic has been horrific obviously and I did close for three months, but reopening was wonderful because my regular customers couldn’t wait for me to open again,” says Karen Hall, owner of Karen George, a small womenswear clothing boutique based in Emsworth that reopened this week. “I have an older clientele and for that particular age group, they’re anxious about shopping. They’d be worried about going to bigger shops like Primark where there are lots of people and long queues.”
This ‘new normal’ could potentially spark a revival and a greater interest in the small, independent businesses, as people avoid the crowds and shop for the less generic. As a conscious shopper, media consultant Andy Jones, 36, from north London opts for look, feel, and quality over quantity and price.
“You can’t always tell what you’re going to get from buying online,” he says. “Everyone’s got less money in a recession and with more time on our hands, you make more considered purchases. People are starting to care more about the value of where it comes from, stuff that’ll last, and whether it was sustainably made.”
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The re-imagined shopping experience
As someshoppers return with three months of pent-up spending energy, retailers are adapting by taking the necessary precautions including plastic screens at the tills and floor markings to keep shoppers two metres apart.
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Clothes shops big and small plan to use steamers to clean clothes between customers. John Lewis is reopening stores, but without their changing rooms for now – and is also floating a 72-hour quarantine for clothes touched or returned by customers before they go back on the shop floor.
Waterstones is doing similar, asking customers to put books back on to a trolley, after which they will be quarantined for three days. It all makes browsing, one of the joys of the weekend shopping trip, a little more fraught for sure.
Not all shops will even raise their shutters from the get-go. The reopening is going to be a gradual process, but for many, it’s an important opportunity to welcome spending customers back in store.
“I was actually really excited to go back –– it was almost like my first day of business again,” admits Karen Hall. “Although, I was a bit apprehensive because I wonder whether I’m going to be busy or completely dead.”
Even though there’s been a spike in our shopping habits, according to a study compiled by SumUp, a contactless payment system, “shoppers are keeping their cash despite being able to buy clothing online with Europe and UK.” The clothing sector is one of the worst-hit and has seen “a drop by as much as 90%.”
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Many people are eschewing non-essential items – if we can’t wear them out, we won’t invest. “As far as income is concerned, I’ve had to watch my bank balance every day because what I stock is seasonal,” Hall explains. “So, if people aren’t holidaying and going on cruises, they’re probably not going to bother to update their wardrobe, because they can’t go anywhere.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-20--We've Reached Summer Solstice, But Don't Feel Like You've Wasted 2020

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When Boris Johnson issued the lockdown order on March 23, we’d barely packed away our winter jumpers. We lost spring – a whole season – to the peak of the pandemic, when time itself seemed to dismantle and nothing felt quite real. Now, we’re at the summer solstice. It doesn’t seem possible.
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Individual days may have dragged, yet somehow, the past three months have also passed in a blink. As we hurtle towards autumn, with our personal and professional goals left in the dust, 2020 can start to feel like a wasted year. It’s hardly the dawn of a new decade we’d imagined.
“For many people 2020 was going to be the year,” says life coach Jessica Rogers, a member of Life Coach Directory. “The start of a new decade always feels significant and many people [will have] set long term goals that they want to accomplish this decade, with some key actions and intentions for this year.”
It’s unlikely life has progressed in the way you expected, but that doesn’t mean time has been wasted. Instead, reframe your mindset by focussing on what you’ve gained during lockdown. “Even if it has been a challenging year, there will be some important learnings that will serve you going forward,” she says.
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If nothing else, for those of us who have had more spare time in lockdown, it has “held us in suspension and given us time to think”, says counsellor and psychotherapist Lucy Fuller.
“One of the main positives of this is that we’ve been forced to step back from our busy lives and think about the things that bring us joy and the things that don’t,” she says. “I don’t know anyone who has not come away from lockdown with something that they will do differently going forward.”
This could be anything – from deciding you’re going to spend more time with family from now on, to reprioritising your work-life balance.
“Even those who’ve been working flat out as a key workers during lockdown have had a different experience to their ‘normal’ life,” Fuller adds, “so there is always something to take away from it, whether it’s something you feel positive about or a difficult, life-changing decision that lockdown has helped to sharpen your mind about.”
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No one would’ve wanted a global pandemic to be the catalyst for this introspection, but hard times help build resilience. If we pause to consider how much our mindset has changed during lockdown, we may begin to see the growth, adds life coach Denise Bosque.
“The lockdown forced everyone into a retreat, free of charge,” she says. “We had to go inwards, facing ourselves, assessing our lives, our relationships and what ultimately matters. In many ways, it was a gift.” There are plenty of external factors to be grateful for too, she adds, from the reduction in pollution to the discovery of new loves, like running or baking. But even if you’ve spent the the majority of lockdown slumped in front of Netflix, instead of baking sourdough, time has not been wasted. Fuller recommends being kind to yourself and letting go of the idea that you “should have” been more productive.
“What most people have found, is that although they wanted to use this ‘extra’ time to get stuff done, the house is still untidy, the bedroom still undecorated, learning a new skill has barely started and life plans are still in the air,” she says.
“The world hasn’t been normal, so it is unsurprising we’ve been held back within ourselves to get on and achieve. We haven’t found the energy for creative thoughts and deeds as we hoped – basically because our hearts have been heavy.”
“The world hasn’t been normal, so it’s unsurprising we’ve been held back within ourselves to get on and achieve.” - Counsellor and psychotherapist Lucy Fuller
So how can we focus on the gains, rather than the perceived losses? Practising gratitude can help, says Rogers. “Relax, take in your surroundings and notice what you are grateful for, even if your gratitude is just that you can stop and breathe deeply,” she says. “In the same way you may have set goals for 2020, write down what you have accomplished in 2020 so far – even the little things.”
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If you crave a sense of development, focus on the things you’ve learned and how you’ll use those lessons in autumn and beyond. Write down what you’d like to take forward from this time, how you’d like your work and life to look, and how you want to feel, suggests Rogers.
Of course, for those who’ve had milestone plans put on hold – be that getting married, changing jobs or starting fertility treatment – the loss of time will be felt more acutely, and potentially more painfully. If this applies to you, Fuller says try and be as patient as possible and make a plan for how you can best get things moving again.
“Missing out on one of the big milestones in life is difficult,” she says. “Find a way to let off steam by talking with a sympathetic friend or finding other people who are suffering in a similar way. You have a right to feel angry or frustrated and this emotion needs to be released in a safe and positive way to move things forward to where you want them to be.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-20--Private Tuition Trebles During School Closures, As Parents Pay To Catch Their Kids Up

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The use of private, online tutors has trebled during the coronavirus pandemic, HuffPost UK can reveal, as the government announces a National Tutoring Programme to commence in autumn.
The government scheme, worth £350m, is designed to help the county’s most disadvantaged pupils “catch up” once the school term resumes.
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But parents able to afford tutoring have been using private companies throughout the school closures.
The online tutoring platform MyTutor told HuffPost UK its customer base has grown by three times during the pandemic.
Demand for tutoring for Key Stage 2 pupils in particular is now 11 times higher than before school closures, while tutoring for university students is five times higher.
“Since schools closed we’ve seen a surge in demand for online tuition,” Nicola Anderson, chief marketing officer for MyTutor tells HuffPost UK. “We mainly support children at secondary level, but since school closures the demand from primary school parents has tripled.”
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Maths is the subject most in demand – accounting for one third of all tutorials – followed by English and Chemistry. Anderson believes the motivation for parents employing private tutors has changed during the pandemic.
“Rather than preparing their kids for GCSEs and A Levels, the focus now is to keep their kids on track for the next stage in their education,” she says. “Whether it’s making the leap from GCSE to A Level or continuing progress as they go into an exam year, parents are keen to stop any new learning gaps from forming while the kids are at home.”
The government’s National Tutoring Programme is due to commence in schools in England in Autumn. Under the scheme, schools will be able to access “subsided tuition” for disadvantaged pupils, from an approved list of tuition providers. Schools in the most disadvantaged areas of the country will also be able to employ trained graduates, to offer extra “catch-up support” to pupils at school.
The programme is targeted at pupils who usually receive pupil premium, but school leaders “will be able to exercise their professional judgement to determine if tutoring is the right support for each pupil”.
The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) is worth £350m, while a further £650m will be given to schools to spend as they see fit (including on tutoring) to help make up for missed education. The numbers sound high, but the latter national pot of £650m equates to £91 per pupil, according to School’s Week, and some are concerned the figure won’t got far enough to help all children.
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A whole £91 per pupil - those two hours of tutoring should catch them right up — evesonjj (@orwellianmellon) June 19, 2020
While I welcome the idea of the catch-up premium announced by the government, I’m not sure £91 per pupil is going to help us overcome the disadvantage gap. @10DowningStreet please don’t spend £900,000 painting a brexit plane; invest more money in our children and their future 🙏 — MrD (@MrD_Uplands) June 19, 2020
@GavinWilliamson Well done Gavin, £91 per pupil. That will be about 4 hours max tutoring per pupil to catchup on 4 months out of school! That is a bit embarrassing to say the least! Eo you really know what goes on in a school? #childrenareworthmore #farce #coronavirus #notenough https://t.co/NcroMV1Ik3 — Colum Donaghy (@DonaghyColum) June 19, 2020
It’s key to note that tutoring under the NTP will be subsidised by 75% and not free. Paying the remaining 25% is at the school’s discretion and the bill may sometimes fall to parents, meaning some pupils will still face financial barriers.
“A school can buy a session that would normally cost £50, for £12,” the Educational Empowerment Foundation explains. “Schools are also free to use additional catch-up funding, announced by the Department for Education in 2020, to pay for the remainder of the cost.”
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The Sutton Trust, which was one of the groups calling for tutoring support, has praised the latest government scheme, labelling it “a huge step forward” for the most disadvantaged.
“When it comes to schooling, Covid-19 has done huge damage, at speed, to our children’s prospects, putting their futures in danger. Many pupils have fallen significantly behind in their learning. These pupils come disproportionately from poorer homes,” Sir Peter Lampl, founder and chairman of the Sutton Trust and chairman of the Education Endowment Foundation said in a statement.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-20--For Refugees Like Me, Loneliness Is Yet Another Struggle To Overcome

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Content warning: this article contains description of attempted suicide
The Covid-19 pandemic tearing through the world is terrifying, but it’s not the only disease we have to worry about. Loneliness is a horrible virus, one which kills you slowly and painfully. I know because it has made me its servant, and I have endured loneliness ever since I was born.
I grew up in rural town in East Africa on a nice farm with my twin sister. My mother was taken away from my dad and was forced by my uncle to marry another man for money. It was lonely to grow up without a mother, even though my dad, a church reverend, tried his best to bring us up alone. But after several years, he remarried the stepmother from hell, who treated us like slaves or rivals, rather than young stepchildren. We were not allowed to talk to one another and we would get a slap if we did. So we found other ways of communicating, as children always do.
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As a young adult, I studied journalism and met my husband at university. I then worked as a sports reporter for TV, radio and local papers. I was considered a wealthy woman in my country and my two young children were doing well in school. But in 1985, the government changed. During internal conflicts in East Africa, I was abducted in 2001 by my own compatriots and taken into the bush. I thought I would never get out of there alive. Many of us were captured, but by then I was all alone in the world.
In the conflict, my father, my husband and the person who would have been my rock, my twin sister, were killed. My children, who were my strength, were abducted by the military. I was rescued by a friend who put me on a plane which brought me to my new country, the UK. I landed at Heathrow in July 2001 and was so ill, I was taken to hospital. But this was not the end of my troubles – I found myself so alone that I almost took my own life. The loneliness was who I had become.
“I was sharing a room with four other women, but I felt alone because we were roommates, not friends.”
I was sent to an immigration detention centre near London for three days. I was sharing a room with four other women, but I felt alone because we were roommates, not friends. We had never met before we were detained together. Each of us had our own problems to think about, and I did not want any of the women to know my secret. I think they felt the same.
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After I was released from detention, identified as a torture survivor, I was housed in a room in a hostel. The loneliness remained. All I thought about then were my children, my parents and most of all, my twin sister. We were identical twins, so we had a lot in common and we had understood one another very well.
When things get tough, often the only solution you can see is to end it all, so that the suffering can end. When I once attempted suicide, I woke up in my room alone, hungry, and with no food. Luckily, when I opened the door, my neighbour saw me. She thought I had been away visiting a friend. I lied and said, I had been, but I was back now. I remember asking her to buy me a McDonalds. She was happy to help.
I live alone in Clapham, South London now and things are different. I volunteer and attend a creative writing group called Write to Life. Though my profession is a writer, it took me ten years after my torture to pick up a pen and be able to do that again. Torture is made to silence you but my writing proves that I am doing that opposite of that. Things get better.
“We are all housebound and the most difficult thing, again, is loneliness.”
Now is another trying time. Many people are isolated because of this pandemic that has taken – and is still taking – so many lives. We are all housebound and the most difficult thing, again, is loneliness.
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Many of my neighbours are alone in our homes. It must be tough especially for children. They miss their school friends and teachers while parents miss their ‘me’ time because they have become teachers, helping their kids with their schoolwork.
Nevertheless, we have to be strong and follow what the medical professionals are telling us to do. I know they are looking for ways to eradicate this virus so that we can get back to our usual lives and return to ourselves.
It has made us afraid, but when we wake up every morning, we can pinch ourselves, laugh and do funny dances because we are alive! I know from my experiences that no matter how bad things get, we will get through it.
Jade Jackson is a journalist and refugee
Refugee Week, the UK’s largest festival celebrating the contribution of refugees, takes place on 15-21 June 2020. Refugee Week is a partnership project coordinated by Counterpoints Arts. For more information on Refugee Week and to get involved, visit refugeeweek.org.uk
Useful websites and helplines
Mind, open Monday to Friday, 9am-6pm on 0300 123 3393.
Samaritans offers a listening service which is open 24 hours a day, on 116 123 (UK and ROI - this number is FREE to call and will not appear on your phone bill).
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CALM (the Campaign Against Living Miserably) offer a helpline open 5pm-midnight, 365 days a year, on 0800 58 58 58, and a webchat service.
The Mix is a free support service for people under 25. Call 0808 808 4994 or email help@themix.org.uk


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-20--Could Wave Of Action Result In Meaningful Change For Black People?

To those simply catching clips of masked protesters and statues toppling, the goals of the Black Lives Matter movement in the UK may seem unclear.
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However, the movement’s unifying call is to eradicate racism, and the exposure of Black people to premature death. And with protests now entering their fourth week, many are speculating on how likely it is that they will see success – what would success even look like?
The empty plinth where the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol once stood PA
Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff, author of Mother Country: Real Stories of the Windrush Children, is sceptical of the British government’s ability to respond meaningfully to protests.
With Windrush Day – a commemoration of the scandal that saw British Caribbeans lose access to work, healthcare and citizenship – approaching, Charlie says: “I’m not sure we will ever get true justice for state injustices like Windrush. I have absolutely no faith in this government, and we’ve still got another four years to go.”
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Charlie points towards Boris Johnson’s appointment of Munira Mirza, an adviser who has described institutional racism as a “myth”, to lead the upcoming racial equality review in response to unrest. “They’re just playing us, and they’re going to be very tactical about it.”
But Nadine El-Nany – director of Birkbeck’s centre for research on race and law and author of (B)ordering Britain – says that, having closely followed anti-racist protest in previous years, this wave of action does feel like something special to her.
“These uprisings we’ve seen around the world have given me a feeling of hope and optimism that is generally very hard to come by,” she said.
She points out these protests are taking place in a different context from those of the movement’s first wave in 2014 to 2017.
A demonstrator wearing a face mask at a Black Lives Matter protest in Trafalgar Square, London, on June 13 EMPICS Entertainment
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“We’ve seen rising far-right nationalism and authoritarianism in recent years,” she told HuffPost UK. “To see people rise up and push back against that has been uplifting.”
Meanwhile Sarah Lasoye, an organiser and postgraduate student, says the coronavirus pandemic has laid the foundations for these protests to roar on for longer, and for the demands to be more radical.
“I think coronavirus has exposed fragility – the fragility of societal orders,” she said.
“In so many ways, we now know that it is possible to change things.
“I feel like this has sparked a deeper interrogation of what the mainstream would consider a radical project – a reimagining of how we structure society, and where we invest money in order to keep us safe.”
For these reasons Sarah also sees this moment as a potential tipping point.
But Nadine stresses that, to understand the protests, and to resist far-right rhetoric that frames them as criminal, we have to place them in context.
Protesters throw the statue of Edward Colston into Bristol harbour during a Black Lives Matter protest on May 25 PA
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“Even if we just think about the Colston statue action for a moment, we must remember Rhodes Must Fall started in South Africa. We have to remember that this is an anti-colonial movement at its heart – resistance against white supremacy there, and here, a system that subjugates Black lives.”
Much conversation has surrounded racist cultural artefacts; this week, Oxford’s Oriel College voted to remove its statue of imperialist politician Cecil Rhodes. Nadine sees these changes as positive, but also feels we shouldn’t lose sight of bigger goals.
“We risk the demands becoming about the removal of statues, rather than the dismantling of structural racism,” she said. “It’s been refreshing to see demands made around abolition because these are the sorts of radical demands we should be making – abolition of the police, borders and all forms of detention.”
Protesters wearing face masks and holding placards during a protest outside the University of Oxford's Oriel College. The statue of British imperialist Cecil Rhodes above one of its entrances will be removed, the college's governors have since confirmed SIPA USA/PA Images
T*, a representative from Community Action on Prison Expansion (CAPE), tells us that police and prison abolitionists, who broadly advocate for the dissolution of police forces and the redirection of funding towards community groups and support services, are having their ideas heard more than ever before.
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She said: “When this pandemic started we were still having conversations about whether or not the demands to free everyone in prison as a matter of public health were too radical.
“Now police abolition feels like a tangible goal.”
Sarah agrees. “I’ve seen people from school, and people who previously haven’t meaningfully engaged with issues like police brutality, sharing abolitionist posts and discussing why the police are not the necessary institution that they declare themselves to be,” she said.
“It seems that people are really coming to understand the systematic, institutional nature of the police’s racism.”
T said she also felt worried about abolitionists’ goals being co-opted – citing how the demand to “defund the police” has quickly been watered down to appease reformists.
People take part in a Black Lives Matter protest rally in Holyrood Park, Edinburgh, on June 7 ASSOCIATED PRESS
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When it comes to the police, T says protesters shouldn’t settle for reforms – pointing towards Minneapolis City Council’s decision to disband its police service. “I don’t believe the state will have any problem sacrificing a few ‘bad officers’ or implementing liberal reforms like ‘8 can’t wait’ in order to quell protests.
“We need to focus and not get distracted by empty platitudes that do nothing to transform our material conditions.”
Charlie agrees it’s too soon to say whether there will be a meaningful government response to this month’s protests. But while this might not be a policy tipping point, she says, it seems to be a cultural one.
“That’s really exciting to me. For example, in the last few weeks I’ve seen many of the issues Black journalists cover finally being discussed in mainstream discourse. That feels very new, and very unique.”
Whilst some are more optimistic about the potential for change than others, Charlie, T, Nadine and Sarah all agree there are things we can do in the short-term to increase the movement’s likelihood of success.
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Charlie said: “In the short term in the UK, we need to continue looking at and campaigning around deaths in police custody.
“I’ve also seen a lot of conversation on workers’ rights, the experiences of Black people within the workplace, instances of everyday racism, and taking steps to eradicate them. These perhaps aren’t revolutionary, but will really improve the lives of Black people in this country.”
“In the last few weeks I’ve seen many of the issues Black journalists cover finally being discussed in mainstream discourse. That feels very new, and very unique.” - Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff
But there is another urgent matter to address. Following the 2011 riots, which have frequently been used as a media reference point for recent Black Lives Matter protests, 1,292 people were jailed for a total of over 1,800 years. Following this month’s protests, said Nadine, supporters must vocally oppose the prosecution of demonstrators.
For Sarah, change starts at home – looking around at your local community and the ways that racial injustice might be enacted within it: ″‘What is near me? Where is my closest prison? Where is my local police department? How can I contact my MP? How do I make the case for my own community to begin defunding the police?’
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“It’s about distilling this big moment of realisation into something that’s applicable for you, in your community.”
T agrees, encouraging supporters to find out about the campaigning local groups and communities are already doing around prison abolition, but also other issues that disproportionately affect Black people, like housing, poverty and the criminalisation of sex work and drugs.
“Offer your help and support where you can,” she said. “Ultimately we need to keep listening and learning from ways communities are already keeping each other safe.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-20--Removing Statues Is The Easy Part. Confronting Britain's Racist Legacy Will Be Harder

A likeness of Cecil Rhodes, the controversial Victorian imperialist who supported apartheid-style measures in southern Africa is seen mounted on the facade of the Oriel College, in Oxford ASSOCIATED PRESS
Videos and photographs portraying the toppling of Edward Colston’s statue during Bristol’s Black Lives Matter March received global media attention and sparked a wave of action. Taking inspiration from the initiative exhibited by Bristolians, people around the world have recognised the futility of trying to make change through democratic means, taking matters into their own hands by defacing, disfiguring, and removing public memorials that celebrate key figures in the Slave Trade. Today, Oxford University announced its removal of a statue that was created in order to glorify one of the most violent and barbaric imperialists: Cecil Rhodes.
Ironically enough, critics arguing that these statues should have been removed through official channels seem to have erased the history that they are now suddenly so interested in preserving. In recent years, we have seen students in universities around the world democratically campaigning to remove these statues from their campuses, while having their names tarnished at the hands of the right-wing British press. Years of work done by those within the student and academic population led to no change. Within 10 days of the Colston statue being pushed into the docks, supporters of the UK’s #RhodesMustFall movement finally have the outcome that they’ve wanted for years. But with this change has come the revelation that most people in Britain actively fail to acknowledge the nation’s central involvement in slavery and colonialism, and how it impacts Black people today.
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The way in which this country approaches racism and the history of the empire goes beyond the presence of statues. Celebrating centuries of genocide through the memorialisation of slave traders’ figurines is emblematic of the epistemic violence that underpins the distorted retelling of our nations’ history. This ignorance leads to the creation of an official version of our social reality that is in service of the reproduction of white supremacy. The claim that the presence of these statues acts as a method of “preserving history” normally arises in tandem with an outright refusal to acknowledge the role colonialism played (and continues to play) in the development of modern society. The removal of these statues has forced the British public to acknowledge the darker, racist side of their history, and how the actions of Britain in the colonial era have structured the world according to a particular racial logic that is universal within our society today.
Removing these statues across the nation is a step in the right direction. But I guess the question I have is, what now? The British public has a habit of derailing the conversation when movements like this arise in order to avoid doing anything substantial for those who need it the most. This is clearly shown through the ”gingerbread person” debacle that received national media attention, rather than addressing the issues that transgender people face on a daily basis, from the regular misgendering to the lack of gender neutral toilets and changing rooms. We are even seeing it now; reducing the Black Lives Matter movement to the removal of shows such as Little Britain and Fawlty Towers is intentional. It presents the Black Lives Matter as one obsessed with political correctness, rather than one dedicated to fighting racial injustice.
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Removing statues is the easiest thing to do at a time like this. But to interrogate and remove the systems put in place that rationalise the celebration of murderers such as Colston and Rhodes requires a lot more than a mere statue replacement. The legacies of colonialism do not start and stop with the presence of a stone or bronze figure. We need to confront Britain’s racist history and understand that colonialism was the precondition for the development of our modern society. Even more so, colonialism is constitutive of modernity. Ignoring this is destructive for Black people in Britain, allowing for collective modes of denial that manifest in claims that Britain is a ‘post-racial’ society, with everyone being on a level playing field.
Post-racialism and colonialism go hand in hand. A post-racial perception of society cannot exist without the ahistoricism created by colonial ways of thinking. This widespread, systemic production of white ignorance is what makes people in this country feel justified in silencing Black people when they talk about racism, whilst ignoring their calls for change. What we need to see is a change the relationship between knowledge and perception. As the old adage says, “knowledge is power”, the history that we are informed of is heavily structured by relations of racial domination. What we need is to recognise and reorient where this power is drawn from.
This is a change that requires a mass upheaval of the world as we know it, recognising that, by living in a white supremacist society, it follows that our conceptual apparatus will be shaped by the biases of the ruling group, whether we have these statues in place or not. Clearly this cannot be done overnight. But it can start by refocusing the discussion surrounding racism to the matters at hand, looking at the real ways in which racism affects Black people on a daily basis. We need to actively uplift Black people’s voices and experiences, actively work to combat the structural roadblocks put in place at every stage of their life, and acknowledge the fact that colonialism has shaped, and continues to shape, modern society as we know it.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-20--At Least Two Stabbed In Suspected Terror Attack In Reading Park

Thomas Hornall and Ted Hennessey / PA Media

Police at Forbury Gardens in Reading town centre where they are responding to a suspected terror attack PA
Three people have been killed and another three are seriously injured after multiple stabbings in Reading town centre, police have confirmed.
Thames Valley Police said a 25-year-old man from Reading was arrested at the scene on suspicion of murder and is currently in custody.
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The attack took place at around 7pm in Forbury Gardens, and is not currently being treated as terror-related.
Detective chief superintendent Ian Hunter said: “We have made one arrest and at this stage we are not looking for any other people in connection with this incident.
“There is no intelligence to suggest that there is any further danger to the public, however we urge people to remain vigilant and report anything suspicious by calling police.”
At least two casualties are being treated in the emergency department of the Royal Berkshire Hospital, a spokesperson told PA news agency.
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Graphic footage shared on social media showed a bloodied scene as a person gave chest compressions to a victim on the ground. Thames Valley Police and the National Police Chiefs Council have urged people not to share pictures of video alleged to show the attack or aftermath.
Two air ambulances and several police vehicles responded to the attack, with images on social media showing a significant police presence.
Boris Johnson tweeted: “My thoughts are with all of those affected by the appalling incident in Reading and my thanks to the emergency services on the scene.”
Home Secretary Priti Patel said she was “deeply concerned” by the reports emerging from the attack while business secretary and MP for Reading West Alok Sharma also took to social media to thank emergency services.
Sharma tweeted: “My thoughts are very much with all at @ThamesVP and others who are dealing with this incident and those who have been affected.”
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One eyewitness, who said he was about 10 metres from the scene, said the attack looked “completely random”.
Lawrence Wort, 20, a personal trainer from Chippenham, told PA: “So the park was pretty full, a lot of people sat around drinking with friends when one lone person walked through, suddenly shouted some unintelligible words and went around a large group of around 10, trying to stab them.
“He stabbed three of them, severely in the neck, and under the arms, and then turned and started running towards me, and we turned and started running.
“When he realised that he couldn’t catch us, he tried to stab another group sat down, he got one person in the back of the neck and then when he realised everyone was starting to run, he ran out the park.”
The leader of Reading Council Jason Brock tweeted: “Concerning reports from Reading town centre – please stay clear of the area as Police are dealing with a serious incident.”
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Freelance journalist Claire Gould, 33, who lives near the scene, told PA she saw the emergency air ambulance vehicles land on the nearby Kings Meadow on Saturday evening as a police helicopter circled overhead.
She described hearing lots of sirens and said surrounding roads and a retail park had been cordoned off by officers.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-20--Anti-Racism Protesters March In UK Cities For Fourth Consecutive Week

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Protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement in the UK continued for a fourth consecutive week as demonstrators marched in London, Glasgow, Coventry and Newcastle to protest against police brutality following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Several hundred people assembled in Hyde Park in London, where there was a heavy police presence. Protesters chanted slogans including “Munira Mirza must go”, referring to the appointment of the head of racial inequality review earlier this week.
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Barriers erected down Whitehall to separate anti-racism demonstrators from far-right counter-protesters last weekend were still in place.
Demonstrators at the London march were offered face masks and gloves upon arrival.
Tash, 23, told PA news agency: “This protest makes me feel hopeful but it also concerns me. We’re in a pandemic and I don’t want it to just be a hashtag and a trend.
“It is hopeful because people are finally listening but are they just listening because they have the time and they are bored?
“I want to see change, I want this to be followed through.”
Describing her own experience of racism growing up in London, she said: “I’ve been asked what slave country I come from – in all seriousness – and I just think ‘how do I respond to that?’”
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London Black Lives Matter protest. super diverse 🏳🌈 super peaceful. 👏🏼 watch out for the police officer’s smile at the end #BLM #BLMLondon #TransIsBeautiful pic.twitter.com/EcRHMNAxMQ — Polly Boiko (@Polly_Boiko) June 20, 2020
Protest organiser Imarn Ayton called for the removal of Mirza and said her appointment was a grave mistake.
She told attendees: “We are all here today because we know that Black lives matter, we are all here today because we know that Black is beautiful.
“And we are all here today because we know that it is time to burn down institutional racism.”
She continued: “Boris Johnson has responded to our cry, Boris Johnson has heard our cry and he has responded with a new race inequality commission.
“We appreciate a response, we like a response but we know that a grave mistake has been made, a catastrophic mistake has been made.
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“Boris Johnson has appointed a lady called Munira Mirza to head up our race inequality commission.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-20--Britons Can Travel To Spain Without Quarantine From Sunday

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UK citizens will soon be able to travel to Spain without facing quarantine, Spanish officials said.
From Sunday, Britons travelling into Spain will be “freely” welcomed along with visitors from the European Union. On arrival, they will need to register to the Spanish government to trace them.
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However anyone returning to Britain would still need to quarantine for 14 days under the UK government’s current rules.
Spain’s foreign minister, Arancha González Laya, said the decision had been made “out of respect” for the 400,000 Britons who have second homes in Spain.
“We will allow British visitors to enter Spain just like the rest of the European Union as from June 21 freely and without the need for a quarantine,” she told BBC News.
“We’re discussing with the UK authorities to see if they would do the same on their side, we nevertheless are doing this out of respect for the 400,000 British citizens that have a second residence in Spain and are dying to benefit from their homes in our country.”
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She added: “We do hope [the UK government] will be sensitive to the 250,000 Spaniards that are also living in the UK and would like to enter the UK without a quarantine.”
Upon arrival in Spain, visitors will face a “triple check” on their origin, temperature and contact point in order to stem the spread of the virus.
The Foreign Office is still currently advising British nationals against all but essential international travel.
Boris Johnson is facing pressure to form so-called ‘air bridges’ with countries that have coronavirus under control to exempt them from the quarantine.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-20--Three Young Children Die In Paisley Flat Fire

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Three children have died and a woman is critically ill after a fire at an upper cottage flat in Renfrewshire.
Fiona Gibson, 12, Alexander James Gibson, eight, and Philip Gibson, five, died at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow on Friday night.
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A 39-year-old woman was taken to Paisley’s Royal Alexandra Hospital in critical condition.
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service previously told the PA news agency six fire crews were met with a “well developed” blaze in a first-floor property.
Emergency services responded to a report of a blaze at the property on Renfrew Road, Paisley, at around 9pm on Friday.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Police Scotland officers are continuing enquiries following a fatal fire at a flat in Paisley on Friday, 19 June, 2020.
“Around 9 pm on Friday, 19 June, 2020 emergency services attended a report of fire at an upper cottage flat in Renfrew Road, Paisley.
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“Three children, Fiona Gibson, 12, Alexander James Gibson, eight, and Philip Gibson, five, were taken by ambulance to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital but sadly died a short time after admission.”
Photo issued by Police Scotland of Fiona Gibson (12), Alexander James Gibson (8) and Philip Gibson (5) who died in hospital after a fire at an upper cottage flat in Renfrewshire. PA
Fatal Fire – Renfrew Road, Paisley Police Scotland officers are continuing enquiries following a fatal fire at a flat... Posted by Renfrewshire & Inverclyde Police Division on Saturday, 20 June 2020
“A 39-year-old woman was taken by ambulance to the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley. Hospital staff describe her condition as critical.”
The spokesperson added: “An investigation is underway to establish the exact circumstances of this incident.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-20--UK Records 128 More Coronavirus Deaths In 24 Hours, Bringing Total To 42,589

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The number of people who have died in the UK after testing positive for coronavirus has risen to 42,589 – an increase of 128 over 24 hours.
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The figures cover the period up to 5pm on Friday and do not include all deaths involving coronavirus across the UK.
Only those who had tested positive for Covid-19 are included, which means anyone who died with a suspected case would not be recorded.
As of 9am 20 June, there have been 7,714,201 tests, with 230,550 tests on 19 June.
303,110 people have tested positive.
As of 5pm on 19 June, of those tested positive for coronavirus, across all settings, 42,589 have sadly died.
More info:
▶ https://t.co/xXnL3FU15k pic.twitter.com/7S48LxqRcS — Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) June 20, 2020
The Department of Health and Social Care reported that another 1,295 people had tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the UK total to 303,110.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-06-20--Judge Rejects White House Demand To Block John Bolton's New Book

“While Bolton’s unilateral conduct raises grave national security concerns, the government has not established that an injunction is an appropriate remedy,” Lamberth wrote.
The new book details a laundry list of corruption and ineptitude within the Trump administration. Bolton alleges that Trump sought help from China to win reelection, offered to help Turkey’s leader avoid a Justice Department probe, had a fraught relationship with the U.K. and had little knowledge of world events, among other things.
“We’ve never seen such a senior former official saying that the president they served was fundamentally unfit and unethical and ignorant and therefore incapable of doing the job,” Max Boot, a conservative commentator for The Washington Post, said of the book.
For all his new candor about what goes on in the White House, Bolton was largely silent while playing an active role in the Trump administration. And when he was called upon by House Democrats to testify during Trump’s impeachment probe, he refused. That hasn’t stopped Bolton from saying more should have been done during the impeachment probe.
As explosive details about the Trump administration have trickled out from Bolton’s upcoming book, the president has attacked Bolton as a “washed up guy” and a “wacko.”
Following Saturday’s latest blow to Trump, the president predictably rushed to Twitter to air his grievances.
Bolton “must pay a very big price for this, as others have before him,” Trump threatened. “This should never [sic] to happen again!!!”