Top story: Labour says PM passing buck to schools

Hello, Warren Murray holding the news still for a moment so you can get a decent look at it.

Pupils in England will no longer be advised against using face masks in secondary schools after an 11th-hour U-turn by Boris Johnson with classrooms reopening within days. In lockdown areas such as Greater Manchester face coverings will become mandatory in school corridors where social distancing is more difficult. In other areas of England headteachers will have discretion over whether to require face masks but the government will no longer advise against their use, it is understood.

The prime minister bowed to pressure and changed the guidance late on Tuesday after scores of headteachers broke ranks to urge their use, backed by Labour and trade unions. Scotland had already said secondary school pupils should wear masks in communal areas and on school buses. Kate Green, Labour’s shadow education secretary, said face coverings should be compulsory in communal areas in schools but the government had just “passed the buck” to parents and school leadership. But the Association of School and College Leaders said school heads “welcome the flexibility this affords them to decide what best suits their circumstances”.

The head of England’s Ofqual exam regulator, Sally Collier, has resigned over the exams fiasco that has engulfed schools and universities. Psychiatrists meanwhile have urged the government not to fine families for refusing to send their children to school in England. In a letter to the education secretary, Gavin Williamson, the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Dr Bernadka Dubicka says: “The threat of fines could force parents of children who feel anxious to send them back to school, even if they’re not ready.”

Jacob Blake protests continue – The family of Jacob Blake have said he is paralysed from the waist down after being shot by a Wisconsin police officer. The city of Kenosha is the scene of the latest protests in a summer of racial unrest in the US after footage showed police shooting Blake, apparently in the back and as he leaned into his SUV with his three children inside. The 29-year-old remains in hospital following extensive surgery. Blake’s family have called for rioting in his name to end.

Raysean White, who said he recorded cellphone video of the shooting, said he saw Blake scuffling with three officers and heard them yell “Drop the knife! Drop the knife!” before the gunfire started. White said he did not see a knife and the state’s Democratic governor said he had seen no information to suggest there was one, but the case was being investigated by the justice department. The officers at the scene of the shooting have been placed on administrative leave.

Midweek catch-up

> Melania Trump has declared her husband “demands action and he gets results” as she addressed the second night of the Republican convention. Questions have been raised after Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, delivered a speech to the convention from Jerusalem during a diplomatic trip and the White House was used as the setting for a naturalisation ceremony in apparent contravention of a law against government officials mixing official duties with political work on federal property.

> Eight Met police officers are now facing a misconduct inquiry over “inappropriate” unofficial photographs of the bodies of Nicole Smallman, 27, and Bibaa Henry, 46, who were found murdered in a London park. Two officers were initially arrested while six more were placed under investigation yesterday.

> Three days of monsoon rains have killed at least 90 people and damaged at least 1,000 homes across Pakistan, the country’s national disaster agency has said.

> Anne Sacoolas, the wife of a US intelligence officer, may be tried in her absence for dangerous driving causing the death of Harry Dunn. After her car and Dunn’s motorbike fatally collided, Sacoolas returned to the US claiming diplomatic immunity.

> Tributes have been paid after the journalist Carrie Gracie announced that she has left the BBC after 33 years to “do something new”.

Gracie quit as China editor in 2018 in protest at pay inequalities. She and other women at the BBC pursued groundbreaking equal pay claims.

Mother dies next to baby – A woman in “extreme poverty” who relied on charities and friends for food has been found dead next to her crying baby in a flat on the Southside of Glasgow. The charity Positive Action in Housing named her as Mercy Baguma, 34, from Uganda, who had lost her limited leave to remain and subsequently sought asylum. Her one-year-old son was said to have been malnourished and required hospital treatment. It is believed that he has since been released into the care of his father in Glasgow. Police Scotland said her death was being treated as unexplained but not suspicious. The Home Office said it would be fully investigating the case.

Australia sends Abbott back – The ousted Australian prime minister Tony Abbott is tipped to be appointed to advise the UK, his birthplace, on post-Brexit trade. The Sun has suggested Abbott is to become joint president of the UK Board of Trade but other reports say he will be an adviser. The deeply polarising social conservative politician once bit into a raw onion like it was an apple on national television. He was toppled as PM by Malcolm Turnbull.

Today in Focus podcast: Bristol bus boycott legacy

Marvin Rees, the mayor of Bristol, discusses the 1963 Bristol bus boycott – a protest that proved to be a watershed moment in the UK’s civil rights movement.

Today in Focus is revisiting episodes from our archive examining race and racism after a worldwide summer of protests in reaction to the killing of George Floyd in the US.

Lunchtime read: MGTOW and toxic male separatism

Members of the “men going their own way” (MGTOW) movement (pronounced mig-tau) aim to live their lives with no female contact. The idea began on the fringes of the internet – so how has it made it all the way to the White House, asks Laura Bates.

Sport

Lionel Messi has told Barcelona that he wants to leave the club immediately – and on a free transfer. Harry Maguire has been withdrawn from the England squad to face Iceland and Denmark early next month after being convicted in a Greek court following a high-profile fracas outside a bar in Mykonos. Jimmy Anderson can see no reason why 700 Test wickets and a place on next year’s Ashes tour should not be a reasonable set of targets after carving out the latest milestone in his record-breaking, age-defying England career in the drawn Test with Pakistan.

Johanna Konta played with near-unbreakable focus in searing New York heat to move to within two wins of reaching her first Cincinnati Open final, but Andy Murray’s run in the men’s draw came to an end with a straight-sets defeat. Barcelona missed more and more chances as the Women’s Champions League semi-final went on, but Wolfsburg’s Fridolina Rolfö took one that was enough for the German side to reach the final. West Indies have once again come to the rescue of English cricket with the news that their women’s team will arrive next month for a five-match Twenty20 series. Sale moved up to third in the Premiership after edging a scrappy encounter with Wasps while Billy Keast’s late try earned leaders Exeter a wild win on a windy night in Bristol. And Super League has been forced into rescheduling its fixture list after three Catalans Dragons players tested positive for Covid-19.

Business

Retailers are cutting jobs at the fastest rate since 2009, according to a CBI survey which said more than half of companies expected to reduce the number of employees in the next three months as the pandemic continued to take a toll on consumer confidence. Despite the corporate carnage around the world, the S&P500 and Nasdaq both closed at record highs again on Wall Street last night. The FTSE100 is a long way from the top but will nudge up 0.11% this morning. The pound is buying $1.314 and €1.118.

The papers

The Telegraph and the Times look like the first and second editions of the same paper today. “Pupils will wear masks in schools after U-turn” says the former, and its picture lead is James Anderson taking his 600th Test wicket. “Secondary pupils will wear masks after U-turn” is the Times’ splash while it has Anderson in a more spontaneous celebratory pose. They both put the Rule Britannia controversy on the front as well. The Guardian’s version: “PM forced to backtrack on face masks in schools.”

The song row gets stentorian treatment in the Mail: “Boris blasts ‘cringing’ BBC” and the Express – “Enough! Hands off our heritage”. The FT has “China’s Ant Group paves way for blockbuster $200bn share debut”, which is about the mobile payments part of the Alibaba empire.

“Man U are so guilty Harry” – the Metro has a laugh at Harry Maguire’s expense while the Mirror leads with his protestations: “England star guilty … but says I’m the victim” as he “vows to clear name.”

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