The Standard

The education secretary, Gavin Williamson, has told the Evening Standard that opening schools in September is a "moral imperative" . Where does that leave parents who are unsure about the risks, or children who haven't seen a classroom since March? Child psychologist Emma Kenny gives advice on how to talk to young people who may be worried about the health and social risks of going back to school,...

The opening of Crossrail has been delayed yet again until the first half of 2022 with at least another £450 million added to the total bill. In yet another “deeply disappointing” setback, the team responsible for the 60-mile east-west route across London said social-distancing rules meant only half the normal number of workers could be on site. Conservative London Mayor candidate Shaun Bailey...

GCSE and A-level pupils are celebrating record grades, but half a million BTec students are still awaiting results  and thousands of young people remain in the dark over places at sixth forms and universities. The Evening Standard's education editor Anna Davis says it'll be at least until next week before the results fiasco starts to clear up. Meanwhile, teachers have been...

A decision to hike train fares by 1.6% in January has been greeted with dismay by those who have been trying to encourage commuters to get out of their houses and back into offices. But the pandemic's led to a massive fall in the number of people using rail and that's caused millions of pounds to be lost from the network. Is there an alternative that will encourage people to get on train...

Marks and Spencer is to cut 7,000 jobs over the next three months, and customers working from home is one of the reasons why. The company says there's been a "material shift" in trading, with its once strong sales in office wear taking a hammering because so few people are going back to their desks. Evening Standard city journalist Mark Shapland says it's not the only retailer to be hit hard by th...

With mounting anger from the public, and criticism from within the Tory party, is the education secretary's job at risk following the exams crisis? Gavin Williamson's being attacked by some for taking too long to resolve the problem, with two ministers among those raising concerns over how it's being dealt with. Our political editor Joe Murphy says Mr Williamson has Boris Johnson's support for now...

More than 150,000 holidaymakers are scrambling back to Britain from France before tough new quarantine restrictions come into force. From 4am om Saturday, the new rules mean anyone returning from the UK's second most popular holiday destination must stay at home and self-isolate for 14 days. We speak to Abigail Thomas who has cut short her holiday in Avignon and is in a car, trying to get to Calai...

Headteachers from across the country are scrambling to launch thousands of appeals against “unfair” A-level results as a storm over the exam system grows.  Many students have been left distraught after about 280,000 entries were downgraded from teacher assessments. But the Evening Standard's education editor Anna Davis says the appeals will have to wait because authorities can'...

After an exam result shambles in Scotland, it's England's turn - but lessons don't appear to have been learned. The government's u-turned on using a similar algorithm to standardise marking A-levels and GCSEs that caused chaos north of the border. Yet, the so-called "triple-lock" guarantee is only causing more confusion. How will the tests be graded, and what can pupils who have already had a year...

After 102 days with no locally transmitted infections, coronavirus is back in New Zealand . Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern confirmed four cases have been found in Auckland, the country's biggest city, which has now been put into lockdown. Restrictions are being increased in the rest of the country, with people being asked by the government to wear masks for the first time. Radio New Zealand host Ka...

Boris Johnson says the country has a "moral duty" to get children back in school this September. But with scientists debating the safety of it, how does the government plan to re-open classrooms without increasing the risk of coronavirus spreading? The Prime Minister says he has a plan, but there doesn't seem to be much detail being released to the public. Our deputy political editor Nicholas Ceci...

A special Evening Standard investigation has found thousands of vulnerable young people weren’t visited by children's services during lockdown. In the three months to June 30, face-to-face visits by children’s services plummeted 75 percent in some boroughs compared with the same period last year. Our investigations editor David Cohen tells us how serious the risk is to these services when they can...

What is the legacy of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bomb attacks? 75 years on, survivors have contributed to an oral history of that's being exhibited at the Imperial War Museum, with a message that governments must to do more to ban nuclear weapons. We speak to nuclear strategy expert Sophie McCormack, who tells us how modern missiles are much more powerful today, and explains what could hap...

There's anger on the streets of Beirut after an explosion with a quarter of the Hiroshima nuclear bomb's power ripped apart the port area of the city. From there, journalist Nada Homsi tells us blame appears to be focusing on a welder who may have ignited a fire that reached thousands of tonnes of ammonium nitrate being unsafely stored in a warehouse. She says people have been holding pr...

Donald Trump's opponents have seized on a television interview in which the US President struggles to defend the country's record on coronavirus. He's also been criticised for dismissing civil rights leader John Lewis' legacy, and trying to explain why he wished Jeffrey Epstein's former partner Ghislaine Maxwell "well". The Evening Standard's Londoner editor Ayesha Hazarika, a former adviser to La...

The World Health Organisation's Dr David Nabarro's told the Evening Standard London is "at a critical time" in its battle against coronavirus. He's spoken to our deputy political editor Nicholas Cecil, who says the warning comes as infection rates rise in two thirds of the city's boroughs. Meanwhile, the government appears to be considering strict lockdown procedures if there's another spike, incl...

Boris Johnson has cancelled major moves out of lockdown including the reopening of wedding parties and casinos in response to a rise in coronavirus cases. The Prime Minister called a press conference to announce that he was “squeezing the brake” on the reopening of the economy and society in order “to protect those we love”. It follows the health secretary imposing lockdown on parts of t...

Britain suffered the worst excess death rate in the whole of Western Europe during the coronavirus pandemic. Official statistics lay bare what many experts suspected, that the UK’s mortality rate was raised cumulatively higher by the end of May than even Italy and Spain, which were hit earlier. The details come as health secretary Matt Hancock announces an extension in how long people with th...

Ministers are on standby to impose quarantine measures on more countries amid fears that a second wave of coronavirus cases could undermine the reopening of schools in September. But is the government making up its Covid-19 counter-strategy "on the hoof" and possibly in danger of losing the public's trust? Travel journalist Simon Calder tells us about the chaos that flip-flopping over quarantine r...

Will a £50 bicycle repair voucher, or even one on prescription from your GP, be enough to get you cycling? Boris Johnson's calling his £2bn package to get people onto two wheels "the most ambitious ever" but campaigners say it pales in comparison to the money going on roads. We speak to London Cycling Campaign's Simon Munk, who's welcoming the investment but warns it's not enou...

The Evening Standard's Amira Hashish was one of thousands of tourists caught out when the government suddenly decided to impose lockdown restrictions on travellers returning from Spain and the Balearics. She joins the podcast to tell us how the news went down where she was staying in Ibiza. She also gives us the latest advice from Downing Street as senior minister Helen Whately tells people t...

Singer KT Tunstall joins the Leader for a special episode looking at the resurgence of culture as lockdown eases. Along with the Evening Standard's showbiz journalist Lizzie Edmonds we ask does the launch of Taylor Swift's new album and the opening of the Tate galleries next week show that the arts are coming back alive after months of lockdown? We also talk about Kanye West's controversial Presid...

The full scale of the battle to save central London’s economy has been laid bare with an Evening Standard survey finding many workers in Britain’s top companies are set to stay away from the office for months. We've spoken to  FTSE 100 firms and found a series of the UK’s largest listed businesses have no immediate plans to return many staff to offices. City journalist Simon English...

The Labour Party has agreed to pay "substantial damages" to seven ex-employees following a BBC Panorama investigation into anti-Semitism within the party. The whistleblowers, who were responsible for the probe into alleged misconduct by party members, sued Labour over “defamatory and false allegations”. Evening Standard columnist Ayesha Hazarika tells us why it's an important move for Si...

A long-awaited report into Russian interference in the UK has made a bombshell claim: the Government ‘actively avoided looking for evidence’ of a threat from the Kremlin. MI5 is also criticised for its response to the Intelligence and Security Committee as it investigated whether Moscow sought to sway the outcome of the 2016 Brexit vote. The Evening Standard’s Julian Glover says the big question n...