9 h. ago Washington LIVE: Area near White House on lockdown after man drives car into barricades

Police said the vehicle crashed into barricades on E St NW and 17th St NW by the White House in Washington DC, an area of the US capital said to now be on lockdown

Society

14 h. ago ‘I’m 43, blind and stuck living in a lockdown with my parents’

David Brookmyre, who is blind, has waited 18 months for rehabilitation to give him the confidence to go out and about in society

Politics

27 h. ago Covid inquiry live: children paid ‘huge price’ to protect rest of society in pandemic, says Johnson

The former prime minister says method for adjudicating exam results ‘must have been bitterly disappointing to students’Former prime minister Boris Johnson tries to give the inquiry context around the decision making on the closure of educational settings. He says:Don’t forget that we didn’t know the effect this disease had on kids. We didn’t know much about the transmissibility of the disease. There were all sorts of things that were simply unknown and difficult to plan for. And the thing was moving very fast.And from the point of view of No 10, we were focused very much on trying to stave off, trying to avoid an appalling public health crisis, and we were focused on getting enough ventilators, on getting enough PPE, trying to avoid a significant number of casualties, and I think it’s important for the inquiry to focus, to remember that at the time that the school closures were first mentioned, they were seen as something you put in at the peak of the pandemic, and we didn’t think w...

Politics

28 h. ago Covid inquiry live: Boris Johnson questioned over impact of pandemic on children

The former prime minister is appearing at the UK’s Covid-19 inquiryClair Dobbin KC is questioning the former prime minister. She is counsel to the Covid Inquiry. She leads its work in Northern Ireland and, separately, its work in relation to children.She has opened by asking about Gavin Williamson’s evidence which suggested there had been very little preparation for the closure of schools. She says his evidence was that “he didn’t seek assessment of the impact of school closures, and nor did he seek to develop planning for mass school closures because, and these were the words he used in his oral evidence, the steer I was hearing – whether it was in cabinet or anything else – was to keep things open, not about closing things.” Continue reading...

Politics

6 d. ago How elder care can rupture sibling relationships: ‘I didn’t have much choice’

Guardian readers shared how caring for ageing parents with siblings tested – and sometimes broke – family bondsWhen Katrina, 60 (who withheld her last name for privacy), moved in with her family in Mexico during Covid, it made sense for her to manage her aging parents’ medical care; she’s a nurse. Her sister, who has an MBA, took care of the administrative tasks. It was the first time the family had all lived together since Katrina was in high school. The lockdown was a “very challenging, wonderful” time, she says.At first, the division of responsibilities between the two sisters worked well. But slowly, Katrina started to feel there was “scope creep”. Instead of staying in her administrative lane, her sister started weighing in more and more on Katrina’s management of medical matters. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Westfalenkolleg stabbing LIVE: Paderborn school attack sparks lockdown

German special forces have rushed to the scene at Westfalenkolleg, a vocational school in Paderborn, North Rhine-Westphalia, after an attack alert

Events