Lloyds to shut 44 more bank branches - is yours one of them? - Sky News

1. Lloyds to shut 44 more bank branches - is yours one of them?  Sky News
2. Lloyds to close another 44 bank branches  BBC News
3. Lloyds Bank to close another 44 branches – live updates  Telegraph.co.uk
4. Lloyds and Halifax to close 44 branches - see if your bank is affected  The Mirror
5. Lloyds and Halifax branch closures: Is yours next to be axed?  This is Money
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‘Hyper-creepy’: Gavin Williamson mocked over One Britain, One Nation song - The Guardian

1. ‘Hyper-creepy’: Gavin Williamson mocked over One Britain, One Nation song  The Guardian
2. Education chiefs back campaign for school kids to sing 'patriotic' One Britain One Nation anthem  Sky News
3. Education department challenged over support for One Britain One Nation day  The Guardian
4. As a teacher, I can’t support this ‘One Britain One Nation’ nonsense  The Independent
5. Schoolchildren made to sing ‘strong Britain, great nation’  The Independent
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Travel industry protests against Covid restrictions

Airline and travel firms want more help from the government amid tight rules on international travel.

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DeepMind uses AI to tackle neglected deadly diseases

The company’s technology maps out the shape of proteins, an otherwise costly and time-consuming process.

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Online Safety Bill 'catastrophic for free speech'

A new campaign claims it outsources internet policing to Silicon Valley.

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Are black holes racist now too? Cornell University's new Race and the Cosmos course explores issue - Daily Mail

1. Are black holes racist now too? Cornell University's new Race and the Cosmos course explores issue  Daily Mail
2. Down a black hole  Power Line
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FIFA 22 leaks reveal changes to menu, custom tactics & gameplay - Dexerto

1. FIFA 22 leaks reveal changes to menu, custom tactics & gameplay  Dexerto
2. FIFA 22 leaks and rumours including Beta, commentators, new FUT Icons and FPS boost  The Mirror
3. FIFA 22 Beta Details And Images Leak From The PlayStation Network  PlayStation Universe
4. How to get FIFA 22 closed beta codes: Start date, PS5 & Xbox Series X|S download  Dexerto
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William unimpressed that Meghan and Harry 'tried to hide Archie's birth', says author - The Mirror

1. William unimpressed that Meghan and Harry 'tried to hide Archie's birth', says author  The Mirror
2. Diana made Harry and William ‘promise to be best friends’ and ‘never let anyone come between them’, expert...  The Sun
3. Prince Harry making it difficult to call for truce after waging war with royals  Geo News
4. ‘You Can’t Find A New One’: High Demand, Low Inventory Leave Boat Buyers Adrift  CBS Minnesota
5. Prince Charles gut-wrenching reaction to Harrys fallout on Fathers Day  The News International
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EU wants emergency team for 'nightmare' cyber-attacks

European Commission says recent ransomware attacks on US and Ireland have "focussed mind"

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GSK chief shrugs off concerns over leadership as she outlines vision - Financial Times

1. GSK chief shrugs off concerns over leadership as she outlines vision  Financial Times
2. Glaxo cuts dividend and looks to pipeline | Business  The Times
3. GSK to slash dividend and spin off consumer division in radical shake-up  Telegraph.co.uk
4. GSK boss promises sales of £33bn in attempt to head off activist Elliot  Yahoo Finance UK
5. FTSE 100 set to hold on to gains as investors await key GlaxoSmithKline update and bitcoin jumps  Evening Standard
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Supreme Court Rules for Cheerleader Punished for Vulgar Snapchat Message

By Adam Liptak from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3j4GHFQ

Gabon is first African country paid to protect its rainforest

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Schumer says there is a ‘rot at the center’ of the Republican Party

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‘Offensive and demeaning.’ NC tribe wants school board to remove high school mascot

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Signs of geological activity found on Venus - BBC News

1. Signs of geological activity found on Venus  BBC News
2. Venus may still be geologically active after experts spot moving crust  Daily Mail
3. Venus has huge land masses that jostle about like Earth’s continents  New Scientist
4. The surface of Venus is cracked and moves like ice floating on the ocean – likely due to tectonic activity  The Conversation US
5. NASA balloon used to detect 2019 California Ridgecrest earthquakes could spot Venus tremors  Daily Mail
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Watch bear and bicyclist get spooked in close encounter on woodsy British Columbia trail

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NASA sends squid from Hawaii into space for research - The Associated Press

NASA sends squid from Hawaii into space for research  The Associated PressView Full coverage on Google News

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Red Bull baffled by Mercedes F1 engine comments after French GP - Autosport

1. Red Bull baffled by Mercedes F1 engine comments after French GP  Autosport
2. Martin Brundle: Max Verstappen vs Lewis Hamilton worth the wait as Red Bull wrongfoot rivals in France  Sky Sports
3. Crown begins to slip as Mercedes face hardest test in seven years  The Times
4. 'Will' is on Pierre Gasly's side to return to Red Bull seat  PlanetF1
5. Lewis Hamilton bracing himself for more misery at Austrian Grand Prix as Max Verstappen looks to open...  The Sun
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Man hits £1billion jackpot after launching bathroom business from his parents' shed - The Mirror

1. Man hits £1billion jackpot after launching bathroom business from his parents' shed  The Mirror
2. Victorian Plumbing IPO marks biggest debut on London’s junior market  Financial Times
3. Victorian Plumbing shares surge in biggest ever float on London’s junior market  City A.M.
4. Victorian Plumbing bursts onto Aim with 20 per cent rise on first day  The Times
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After Weeks of Declining Vaccination Rates in the U.S., They Went Back Up in June. Will the Momentum Last?

On April 8, more than 4.3 million people in the U.S. received a COVID-19 vaccine dose. But after that peak, the numbers began to fall. By June 3, the national seven-day average for daily shots given had dropped to 850,000.

But after that—with weeks to go before the Fourth of July, the date by which President Joe Biden wanted 70% of U.S. adults to have gotten at least one shot—the numbers began to creep back up. On June 7, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data, the seven-day average for daily vaccinations again broke a million. It shrank a bit after that, but was still close to 900,000 on June 15.
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While it’s common for daily numbers to go up and down, it’s somewhat surprising that this uptick would happen months after COVID-19 shots became widely available to U.S. adults. Vaccine supply now far outpaces demand. To keep shots going into arms, many states have done away with appointment requirements; opened mobile clinics and partnered with community organizations in areas with low vaccine uptake; and dangled incentives and cash prizes for those who get vaccinated.

But Loren Lipworth-Elliot, the associate director of Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s epidemiology division, says there may be a partial explanation that has nothing to do with those efforts: In mid-May, kids ages 12 to 15 became eligible to receive Pfizer-BioNTech’s shot.

There are about 17 million U.S. adolescents in that age group, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. As of June 21, 28% of them had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and almost 18% were fully vaccinated. That means almost 8 million shots have been given in that age group alone over the last six weeks. “That’s definitely accounting for some of what we’ve been seeing,” Lipworth-Elliot says.

Dr. Mark Roberts, director of the Public Health Dynamics Lab at the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health, agrees that childhood vaccinations are part of the explanation—but they’re probably not all of it, he says. “You’re seeing a fulfilling of that pent-up demand [for pediatric immunizations], but it’s not going to be huge,” he says, because 12- to 15-year-olds make up only about 5% of the U.S. population.

It’s hard to say exactly what else has been driving the recent uptick, but Roberts says it may have something to do with recent state-run incentive programs, like lottery drawings for vaccinated people. Ohio, for example, reported a 28% increase in vaccinations during the two weeks after it announced its Vax-a-Million lottery in May, compared to the week before the announcement.

Trends vary widely from state to state, Lipworth-Elliot adds. States with relatively low vaccination rates, like Florida, Tennessee and Alabama, are among those seeing recent increases in vaccinations, while daily tallies are logically dropping off in areas where most eligible people are already protected. And while vaccination rates are still lower among Black and Hispanic/Latino people than among white people in the U.S., federal data suggest the gap is narrowing slightly, driven particularly by the Hispanic/Latino population. Both trends, Lipworth-Elliot says, suggest health officials are getting better at bringing vaccines to populations that need them and chipping away at vaccine hesitancy by building trust within communities.

The fact that the CDC now says fully vaccinated people can safely go mask-free, socialize indoors and travel may also be encouraging some holdouts to get vaccinated, Lipworth-Elliot says. “People are seeing that there’s a lot of leeway and freedom given to people who are vaccinated, for good reason,” she says. TIME/Harris Poll data also suggest the CDC’s mask guidance encouraged some people to get vaccinated because they were concerned about the risks of others going mask-free in public.

It’s too soon to say if the positive momentum will continue; both Lipworth-Elliot and Roberts caution that variations in the vaccination data are common, and that it will take time to see how the trends play out. Already, daily averages are lower than they were a couple weeks ago.

But there are reasons for optimism. Shots may become available to kids even younger than 12 by the fall, which would open up a whole new swath of the population to vaccination. And in a recent Gallup poll, about a fifth of adult respondents who said they do not plan to be vaccinated—a group equivalent to about 5% of the U.S. adult population—said they were open to changing their minds. With about 65% of U.S. adults already vaccinated with at least one dose, building trust even within that small group could be the difference between making or missing Biden’s Independence Day goal.

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Democrats Bring Popular Efforts to the Senate. Why They Keep Dying

This article is part of the The DC Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox every weekday.

Increasingly, it seems as though the substance of the legislation being bandied about at the Capitol doesn’t really matter. Instead, partisan fault lines are as predictable as Washington’s humidity, and both are swamping Democrats’ hopes of getting big-idea bills to President Joe Biden’s desk. If it weren’t so maddening, it would be laughable.

As soon as this evening, the Senate is set to take a vote on a massive voting-rights package that would undo restrictive bills that have made their way into state laws in places like Georgia, Florida and Arizona. Its backers describe it as an attempt to defend democracy itself, while its detractors say elections should be run by the states and not by Washington.
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But voters? They really like it. In fact, when partisan cues are stripped from polling and pollsters simply ask about the meat of the proposal, more than 80% of Americans agree that foreign interference in U.S. elections should be a no-no, that money is too prevalent in politics and that election security can be improved. When it comes to making it easier to vote—same-day registration, 15 days of early voting and nonpartisan redistricting commissions—support still stays north of 60%, according to Vox polling from the spring.

Still, Republicans are standing lockstep against what Democrats have titled the For The People Act. And Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin is standing with them—not because he disagrees with the Democrats’ bill on its merits, but because he says a partisan voting-rights bill could spark the kind of distrust and anarchy that besieged the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Instead, Manchin has offered his own compromise, notably including a voter-ID requirement that was missing from Democrats’ earlier draft. Progressives have long argued that such a requirement is unfair to minorities and elderly voters who may not have access to such documents, but liberal voting-rights maven Stacey Abrams blessed Manchin’s compromise attempt. Progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders, too, signaled they could accept Manchin’s plan if it meant getting his vote. And the voter-ID question isn’t as partisan as many in the Democratic coalition had once feared: Monmouth polling out just yesterday found voter-ID requirements have the support of 62% of Democrats and 87% of independents. (Republicans, who for years have argued poor and minority voters were cheating the system in places without voter-ID laws, support the requirement with a whopping 91%.)

So even if the Democrats’ For The People Act goes down, Manchin’s compromise is going to get across the finish line, right?

No.

Manchin may have found the sweet spot on voting rights on policy, but he can’t change the politics of Washington. As soon as Manchin rolled out his proposal, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell tossed a bucket of ice water on it, saying Republicans still won’t put new federal curbs on what traditionally have been state affairs, and won’t support his plan. McConnell’s allies fell in line, sensing the merits in denying Biden a win at this point and reinforcing every toxic instinct of The Big Lie. Absent 10 Republicans siding with Democrats to open the door to an actual vote, the GOP can threaten a filibuster and shut down the Senate. So even though Manchin found a voting rights plan that is popular with voters on both sides, only lawmakers wearing blue jerseys are willing to stand with him.

If all of this sounds familiar, it should. It’s close to the pattern that’s been playing out for months on bipartisan and popular criminal-justice efforts that have drawn a broad and powerful coalition of backers. It’s the same dance with an infrastructure bill, whose details are also expected to emerge as soon as today. (Early signs suggest about $580 billion in new spending, although with almost two dozen Senators drafting the outline on legal pads, Post-It notes and magic markers, it’s become something of a muddle.)

Washington is also looking nervously at an Aug. 1 deadline to increase the federal credit card’s limit on red ink, a must-pass transportation bill by Sept. 30 and a raft of expiration dates through the summer and fall for COVID-19 relief programs up for renewal. Each is politically inert, broadly popular, but nonetheless far from guaranteed.

Lawmakers here in Washington respond to one thing above all else: power. So much energy in this town is spent chasing and defending it that it’s amazing that anything unrelated to that race ever gets finished. So when considering why GOP lawmakers are not even listening to their base’s support for the voting-rights package, it’s worth remembering that something can be simultaneously popular but not agenda-setting. Until there is a cost for inaction, Republicans aren’t going to bend. At least until there is an appreciable threat to their power.

Make sense of what matters in Washington. Sign up for the daily D.C. Brief newsletter.

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Raid on hideout of Myanmar militants sparks deadly shootout

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Three injured trying to save California teenager who drowned in lake, rescuers say

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Why Kyrsten Sinema's fears about a post-filibuster GOP may be exaggerated

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Euro 2020: More than 60,000 fans allowed in Wembley for semi-finals and final - Sky News

1. Euro 2020: More than 60,000 fans allowed in Wembley for semi-finals and final  Sky News
2. Italy’s PM says Euro 2020 final should be moved to Rome due to UK Covid rates  The Guardian
3. Wembley to have crowd of 60000 for Euro semis and final - UK govt  Reuters
4. UEFA Request To Waive Quarantine For Euro 2020 VIPs Sparks Passionate Double Standards Debate | GMB  Good Morning Britain
5. Italy PM wants Euro 2020 final moved from Wembley to Rome due to rise in COVID infections  Sky News
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7-week-old baby killed after dad throws her to the ground, Kentucky police say

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Man sought after police officer’s throat cut - Evening Standard

1. Man sought after police officer’s throat cut  Evening Standard
2. Police launch manhunt for suspect, 30, after an officer was held down and had his throat cut  Daily Mail
3. Officer suffered knife wound to neck after being attacked by three men  The Northern Echo
4. Police search for man after officer's throat cut in attack which saw him punched to ground  Teesside Live
5. Police launch manhunt after held-down officer has throat cut  The Telegraph
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9 Modern Farmhouses That Won’t Be on the Market for Long

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Euro 2020: Why no Scotland players have to isolate after Gilmour contracts COVID - but England pair do - Sky News

1. Euro 2020: Why no Scotland players have to isolate after Gilmour contracts COVID - but England pair do  Sky News
2. "THIS WILL BREAK THE HEART OF EVERY #SCO FAN!" SJ reacts to Billy Gilmour testing positive for Covid  talkSPORT
3. Opinion: I hate to get political but Mason Mount and Ben Chilwell have been unfairly robbed – Talk Chelsea  Talk Chelsea
4. Billy Gilmour's Positive Covid Test Raises Questions About England Players' Need To Isolate | GMB  Good Morning Britain
5. Billy Gilmour Covid moaners in England are just bitter at Wembley draw - Hotline  Daily Record
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Bitcoin price suddenly crashes below $30k as crypto market enters ‘freefall’ - The Independent

1. Bitcoin price suddenly crashes below $30k as crypto market enters ‘freefall’  The Independent
2. Bitcoin price slumps further as China tightens crackdown  The Guardian
3. Bitcoin sinks below $30,000 for first time since January  Financial Times
4. China gets tough with trading and mining cryptocurrencies - General Business - News - HEXUS.net  HEXUS
5. Chinese market GPU prices drop amid crypto crackdown  PC Gamer
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Amazon Prime Day 2021 latest deals – Last chance to buy Samsung, Apple, LG and Nespresso bargains TODAY – l... - The Sun

1. Amazon Prime Day 2021 latest deals – Last chance to buy Samsung, Apple, LG and Nespresso bargains TODAY – l...  The Sun
2. Amazon Prime Day 2021 deals: FEMAIL reveals the best deals on day two of the shopping bonanza  Daily Mail
3. The best anti-Prime Day deals that are just as good as Amazon  Rock Paper Shotgun
4. I'm turning my Xbox Series X into a smart device with this Amazon Echo Dot deal  Techradar
5. Best Amazon Prime Day gin deals 2021  decanter.com
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LIVE: Andy Burnham holds latest Covid-19 press conference amid spiking rates and Scotland travel ban - Manchester Evening News

1. LIVE: Andy Burnham holds latest Covid-19 press conference amid spiking rates and Scotland travel ban  Manchester Evening News
2. UK Covid live: Scotland keeps restrictions amid 40% case rise; nearly 250,000 English pupils missing school  The Guardian
3. Scottish stadiums can have 2000 fans from 19 July in new routemap plans  BBC News
4. Manchester travel ban: Why has Scotland banned travel to Greater Manchester, what have Nicola Sturgeon and Andy Burnham said, why is it controversial?  The Scotsman
5. Boris Johnson's indifference is a boon for unionists  The Times
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Vladimir Putin uses 80th anniversary of Nazi invasion to lash out at Nato

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Baby found unharmed at home where parents were shot to death, Michigan police say

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Teen killed in crash with fallen tree on Midlands road, coroner says

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Fox News' Tucker Carlson is reportedly a 'primary supersecret source' for journalists

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Valerie Bacot: French woman goes on trial for murder of abuser - BBC News

1. Valerie Bacot: French woman goes on trial for murder of abuser  BBC News
2. Woman to stand trial in France for killing stepfather after years of abuse  The Guardian
3. France gripped by trial of wife who killed to survive  The Times
4. Woman who killed her abusive rapist stepfather goes on trial for murder in France  Daily Mail
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Friends Gunther star James Michael Tyler battling stage four prostate cancer - The Mirror

1. Friends Gunther star James Michael Tyler battling stage four prostate cancer  The Mirror
2. Friends actor James Michael Tyler reveals prostate cancer diagnosis  Daily Mail
3. Friends star James Michael Tyler reveals prostate cancer diagnosis  Metro.co.uk
4. Friends star James Michael Tyler says he missed reunion so cancer diagnosis wouldn’t ‘bring a downer’ on it  The Independent
5. Friends Gunther star James Michael Tyler confirms stage 4 prostate cancer diagnosis  Daily Star
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Message in a bottle from 2018 found after Atlantic voyage

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Let’s get the 2040 plan right, Charlotte leaders

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Large late-night tornado sweeps through some Chicago suburbs

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Gracie Spinks death: Derbyshire Police referred to watchdog - BBC News

1. Gracie Spinks death: Derbyshire Police referred to watchdog  BBC News
2. First picture of stalker suspected of killing tragic horse lover Gracie Spinks in ‘murder-suicide’...  The Sun
3. Gracie Spinks: Derbyshire Constabulary refers itself to police watchdog after tragedy  Derbyshire Times
4. Gracie Spinks: Mum heartbroken as 'beautiful daughter taken away' in 'murder-suicide'  The Mirror
5. Stalker, 35, 'who killed horse-loving model, 23, in murder-suicide was former colleague'  Daily Mail
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Traffic snarl caused by crash blocks lanes on highway headed to Columbia

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A man suspected of killing 3 people forced a random woman to drive him 2,000 miles from Oregon to Wisconsin before turning himself in, police say

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Column: Many California kids can't access Wi-Fi for schoolwork. Newsom wants the state to step up

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Ron Johnson visited Milwaukee's Juneteenth Day celebration. It didn't go well.

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Man armed with handgun robs 4 convenience stores early Monday in Fort Worth

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India v New Zealand: rain delays World Test Championship final, day four – live! - The Guardian

1. India v New Zealand: rain delays World Test Championship final, day four – live!  The Guardian
2. World Test Championship final: New Zealand edge third day against India in Southampton  BBC Sport
3. New Zealand's latest additions continue to look ready-made for Test cricket  ESPNcricinfo
4. Kyle Jamieson stands tall as New Zealand gain WTC final edge over India  The Guardian
5. Karthik’s Commentary Banter With Hussain Leaves Fans Entertained  The Quint
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Pakistani lawyer who represented Asia Bibi says he faces threats to his life

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Tokyo 2020 will allow up to 10,000 domestic fans into Olympic venues - The Guardian

1. Tokyo 2020 will allow up to 10,000 domestic fans into Olympic venues  The Guardian
2. Japan confirm they WILL allow crowds of up to 10,000 into events at the Olympics  Daily Mail
3. Tokyo 2020 organizers to set 50% venue capacity limit for spectators  CNN International
4. Japan to allow 10,000 local fans at Tokyo Olympics  Al Jazeera English
5. Ugandan Olympic athlete who tested positive for Covid barred from entering Japan; ITV News  ITV News
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'Kidnapped' Dubai princess Latifa pictured 'on holiday in Spain'

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"Oh, God, come on!": Tucker Carlson says he won't run for president in 2024

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Cryptocurrency boom fails to stem losses at UK fintech firm Revolut - The Guardian

1. Cryptocurrency boom fails to stem losses at UK fintech firm Revolut  The Guardian
2. Revolut Losses Hit $280 Million in 2020 With Staff Costs Surging  Bloomberg
3. Revolut losses almost double to £207 million  Finextra
4. Revolut boss expects digital bank to return to profit  Financial Times
5. Revolut sees revenues soar as customer numbers jump by nearly half in lockdown boost  AltFi
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These five South Florida hospitals are being sold for $1.1 billion

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Swedish government toppled in no confidence vote - BBC News

1. Swedish government toppled in no confidence vote  BBC News
2. Swedish PM Stefan Löfven loses no-confidence vote  The Guardian
3. Sweden's government topples as prime minister loses historic no-confidence vote  The Telegraph
4. Swedish prime minister loses no-confidence vote  Financial Times
5. Swedish prime minister Stefan Lofven loses no-confidence vote  The Times
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4 stumbling blocks Charlotte’s big 2040 growth plan had to avoid as it nears approval

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Online shopping boom drives rush for warehouse space

The logistics industry has been building at breakneck speed, but we still haven't reached "peak shed".

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Maya Jama's estranged dad reveals how his stints in and out of prison ruined their relationship - Daily Mail

Maya Jama's estranged dad reveals how his stints in and out of prison ruined their relationship  Daily MailView Full coverage on Google News

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Coronavirus infection rates, cases and deaths for all parts of Wales on Sunday, June 20 - Wales Online

1. Coronavirus infection rates, cases and deaths for all parts of Wales on Sunday, June 20  Wales Online
2. Coronavirus case rate in Wales trebles in 15 days  South Wales Argus
3. Here is the latest number of new Covid-19 cases in North Wales  LeaderLive
4. North Wales sees all but one area's coronavirus infection rate increase in latest update  North Wales Live
5. The 304 areas of Wales with virtually no Covid cases  Wales Online
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BBC sparks discrimination row after advertising for £17,810 trainee role only open to people from ethnic... - The Sun

1. BBC sparks discrimination row after advertising for £17,810 trainee role only open to people from ethnic...  The Sun
2. BBC sparks discrimination row after banning white people from applying for £18,000 trainee job  Daily Mail
3. 'How is this legal?' BBC bans white people from applying for Springwatch & One Show job  Express
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Nasa's giant SLS rocket: a guide

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Andy Burnham's anger at Manchester-Scotland travel ban - BBC News

1. Andy Burnham's anger at Manchester-Scotland travel ban  BBC News
2. Andy Burnham demands ‘compensation’ from Nicola Sturgeon over travel ban  The Independent
3. Manchester mayor Andy Burnham to demand compensation from Scottish Government for ‘hypocritical’ travel ban  The Scotsman
4. Andy Burnham rages at Nicola Sturgeon for Scotland's Manchester travel ban and demands compensation  Manchester Evening News
5. Andy Burnham rages at 'hypocrite' Nicola Sturgeon over travel ban  Daily Mail
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Thelma & Louise stars recall male backlash to film 30 years on - BBC News

1. Thelma & Louise stars recall male backlash to film 30 years on  BBC News
2. Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon reunite 30 years on from Thelma & Louise  The Mirror
3. Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis recreate the magic 30 years later at a screening of Thelma And Louise  Daily Mail
4. Thelma and Louise 30th Anniversary Drive-In Event  ET Canada
5. Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis recreate that famous Thelma & Louise kiss on the film’s 30th anniversary...  The US Sun
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Indian Navy on high alert for new China threat – Beijing military takeover Sri Lankan port - Daily Express

Indian Navy on high alert for new China threat – Beijing military takeover Sri Lankan port  Daily Express

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Investigation starts as woman killed in Holywell house fire - BBC News

1. Investigation starts as woman killed in Holywell house fire  BBC News
2. Woman in her 30s found dead after house fire in Wales as police launch investigation  Daily Mail
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Is banning Trump from Facebook a First Amendment issue? Clarence Thomas, other conservatives say it is

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McManus : Why Republicans are suddenly reluctant to condemn political violence

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Celebrity Cruises’s CEO Lisa Lutoff-Perlo Navigates COVID-19, Vaccine Wars, as Travel Rebounds

(The interview below was delivered to the inbox of Leadership Brief subscribers on Sunday morning, June 20. To receive weekly emails of conversations with the world’s top CEOs and business decisionmakers, click here.)

Moments after two passengers on Celebrity’s Millennium cruise ship tested positive for COVID-19 in early June, the phone of Celebrity’s CEO, Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, rang. It was her senior vice president of operations who was onboard carefully monitoring the company’s first cruise from a North American port in 15 months. “When I saw his name come up I said ‘‘This can’t be good,’ says Lutoff-Perlo. “He said ‘We have two positive cases.’”
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Few industries have been hit harder by COVID-19 than the cruise business. One of the first enduring images of the pandemic was of the Diamond Princess ship, quarantined off Japan in early 2020 as more and more of its thousands passengers and crew got sick. (HBO just released a documentary, The Last Cruise, on the plight of the ship.) Cruise lines took on billions in debt to make it through the shut down. Royal Caribbean Group, the parent company of Celebrity, reported a net loss of $5.8 billion for 2020 and its net debt rose to $16.45 billion, according to S&P Global Ratings. After suspending operations in March 2020, the company estimated it burned through $250 million to $290 million a month in cash in 2020.

Now, as the nation reopens and people resume traveling, the industry has been caught up in the culture war surrounding vaccines. Celebrity and other cruise lines are requiring that passengers provide proof of vaccines before boarding a vessel. The CDC issued guidelines in April that allowed cruises to sail without preliminary test cruises if the crews and passengers were largely vaccinated, but Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis passed a law barring businesses from requiring proof of vaccines and the state of Florida sued the CDC and the U.S. government in federal court, challenging the cruise guidelines and on June 18, a federal judge sided with Florida, granting the state’s request for a preliminary injunction barring the CDC from enforcing its rules. The judge said that starting on July 18, that they will be only a nonbinding recommendation. Celebrity is planning its first departure from a U.S. port, from Fort Lauderdale in Florida, on June 26. After the ruling, the company said that it was reviewing the order but that it continues to move forward with plans for the June 26 departure. Prior to the Friday ruling, Celebrity had been asking whether booking passengers were vaccinated, versus requiring proof, as in the case of the St. Maarten cruise. The vast majority of customers were reporting that they had been vaccinated, according to Celebrity.

Lutoff-Perlo and her team had spent much of the 15 months they were closed down planning how to reopen safely and when the positive tests came back, Celebrity’s safety protocols kicked in. To start with, the ship was only at 30% capacity as the company tiptoes back to sea. The positive pair, who were asymptomatic, were placed in an isolation cabin, which was connected to a medical facility. Through interviews and reviewing onboard security camera footage, Celebrity identified other passengers and crew that had been in contact with the infected pair, including the other 19 people that had taken an excursion with them. No additional cases were detected and the cruise finished on schedule. Two days after our interview, Royal Caribbean announced it was postponing a cruise scheduled for July after eight crew members tested positive for COVID-19, underscoring the challenges of restarting the industry.

Lutoff-Perlo, who acknowledges that cruising may not be at the top of everybody’s list of reopening activities, recently joined TIME for a video conversation on the pent-up urge to travel, cruise resistors and the current consumer mindset. “People are just going to go for it,” she says.

 

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(This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.)

How quickly were you informed of the positive tests?

Immediately. Immediately.

What was your initial response when you got the call about the positive tests?

“Oh, shit.” I was disappointed, but I wasn’t freaked out or upset by it because it was bound to happen. It might have been nice if it didn’t happen on the first cruise but it did, and we had done everything right.

Let’s talk a bit more about safety and perception issues: This is just my own personal focus group but when I mention this story to people, the universal response has been ‘That doesn’t sound safe. Going on a cruise is the last thing I would want to do right now.’

Listen, I’ve been in this business for 36 years and long before COVID, people said “Oh, I don’t think cruising is for me,” so I’m not surprised when people say that cruising might not be at the top of their list of vacation choices. But my response to that is being on a Celebrity cruise ship is probably the safest place you can be on the planet right now. So I would take exception to that comment. If I’m traveling, or if I’m going out to dinner and I’m sitting in a crowded restaurant with no social distancing and no requirements for vaccinations and I don’t know who I’m sitting next to. I would feel much safer on a cruise ship right now then I would just about anywhere else, including traveling on an airplane. So I think that people that say that are mis- or ill-informed.

Is there a certain segment of the population that is just not in your total addressable market?

There have been cruise rejecters since the beginning of time. There will be cruise rejecters long after I retire from this business.

Are you highlighting your safety protocols in your marketing?

We’re not. Our message is not going to be about that. Our message is about getting back to our normal lives. People want to get back to traveling, people want to get back to doing the things that they haven’t been able to do in a really long time. The vaccine for the vast majority of the people that we talk to is liberating. We are appealing to the place that the consumer is and their mindset right now is they want to get back to reconnecting with their families, to reconnecting with other people, to reconnecting with the planet and traveling again. Anything that they want to know about health, and our protocols, and our vaccination requirements is available on our website.

Does the debt that your parent has taken on inhibit your ability to operate and do everything you want to do?

It doesn’t. We need to get people back on cruise ships. That’s how we’re going to be successful in paying back our debt, but our long-term strategy has not changed. We continue to build ships. We are taking delivery of Celebrity Beyond in April 2022 . Our chairman is over visiting the shipyards we’re all of our ships are being built this week.

What does a new cruise ship cost?

The ships are over a billion dollars to build.

What is your view of the protests and proposed bans by cities like Venice that object to the stresses these huge cruise ships put on a location.

Part of our opportunity is to work with all of the destinations that we visit in a more meaningful way to understand what they’re worried about. We are partners in this and we certainly want to be helpful. But the one thing that this pandemic has proven is that the cruise industry plays a very meaningful role in the financial health and economic success of so many different places around the world, and those places far out number some of the places that get the most publicity around how they feel about cruise ships visiting, whether it’s Venice or Havana. What I see mostly is legislation being passed so that ships can go back to Alaska, because Alaska is hurting so badly because cruise ships have lost two seasons there and their economy is in really big trouble. I see how happy and how welcomed and well received we were in these Caribbean islands because we were the first cruise line to come back in North America and how happy these islands are that our guests are back. Their economy suffered so greatly because we weren’t there for 15 months. There are so many positive things that we do for economies and people. We can always focus on the ones that stand out that are the most problematic, but they are the exception not the rule.

How has the pandemic changed you?

I’ve learned a lot about being grateful and appreciative for the people that I work with every day to a degree that I probably never would have had the opportunity to do if it were not for this crazy pandemic that we’ve been living through. I’m a pretty hard driver as anyone that knows me will tell you and I know I still have that in me because that’s just who I am. But I really tried to think about what’s important and what’s not important and what to emphasize and what not to worry about emphasizing. Perspective and appreciation has risen to the top of the things that I learned to accentuate that I probably didn’t accentuate enough prior to this. And so I think we’ve all come out of this differently and hopefully better.

There are a lot of predictions that travel is going to come roaring back: what is your sense?

We’re seeing levels of bookings at 2019 levels, which is really, really encouraging. We can see that people are booking their vacations but they’ve been putting off now, really for two seasons. People have money now because they haven’t been able to do anything for so long.

It’s the return of the big spender?

We find that people are treating themselves to better accommodations. We find that they’re spending a lot of money on board because they just want to enjoy themselves. They want to go to the casino. They want to get a massage. They want to go to a specialty restaurant. So I agree with that statement that it’s going to come roaring back. People are just going to go for it because it’s been quite a long time since they’ve been able to. They’re really, really having a great time and getting back to enjoying their lives. I think that goes back to what people have learned during this time—they’ve learned that they miss travel and they learn that they miss connecting with other human beings. We humans were not meant to live the way we’ve been living.

 

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McDonald's to open 50 new restaurants and hire 20,000 staff as lockdown eased - The Mirror

1. McDonald's to open 50 new restaurants and hire 20,000 staff as lockdown eased  The Mirror
2. McDonald's to hire 20,000 staff - including in West Midlands restaurants  Birmingham Live
3. McDonald's announces 800 jobs for Ireland  RTE.ie
4. McDonald's to hire 800 people in restaurants across the country  Independent.ie
5. McDonald's announce 800 new jobs across Ireland ahead of 'full reopening'  Irish Mirror
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