57 countries see surge in new cases as global count passes 25m with Portugal likely to return to UK quarantine list
Rise in new coronavirus cases worldwide as Glasgow lockdown tightened
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More than 50 countries around the world are experiencing a rise in new coronavirus cases, figures show.
Europe, north Africa and south Asia have the highest concentration of countries that are experiencing an upswing in coronavirus cases, as the worldwide total passed 25 million.
The UK is among the worst hit. Infections have spiked in two northern areas of England due to be released from lockdown against the advice of local officials.
Meanwhile, there have been hints that Portugal will be put back on the list of countries arrivals from which must self-isolate for 14 days.
Lockdown restrictions have been tightened in Glasgow after a spike in coronavirus cases in the area.
Please see below for how the day’s events unfolded.
Piers Corbyn has been labelled “dangerous” by Dr Hilary after espousing his views that the coronavirus may not exist and that “vaccines cause death”, Andy Gregory reports.
The brother of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn appeared on ITV’s Good Morning Britain today after being fined £10,000 for helping to organise an anti-lockdown rally in Trafalgar Square.
The 73-year-old climate change denier claimed the pandemic is a “psychological operation to close down the economy in the interests of mega-corporations” and that its death toll has been over reported, touting the use of controversial anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine and denouncing modern vaccines as making people more ill.
Relax rules to let everyone judge the risk, urges ex-Australian PM
Coronavirus restrictions should be lifted so that people can make their own decisions about the risks they are prepared to run, a former Australian prime minister has urged.
Tony Abbott, who is tipped to become joint president of Britain's relaunched Board of Trade, railed against strict lockdowns, questioning whether the measures are proportionate to the disease.
"From a health perspective, this pandemic has been serious. From an economic perspective, it has been disastrous," he told the Policy Exchange think tank in London.
"But I suspect that, from an overall wellbeing perspective, it will turn out worst of all. Because this is what happens when, for much more than a mere moment, we let fear of falling sick stop us from being fully alive.
"Now that each one of us has had six months to consider this pandemic and to make our own judgments about it, surely it is time to relax the rules so that individuals can take more personal responsibility and make more of their own decisions about the risks that they are prepared to run?"
He also warned that lockdown measures could be kept up "indefinitely" in the absence of a vaccine, and said they can produce not just a "stop-start economy, but a stop-start life".
Williamson to reveal education plans to MPs
Education secretary Gavin Williamson is to explain to parliament how the government is mitigating risks to children's futures, following U-turns over exam results and face coverings in schools.
Mr Williamson is due to make a statement in the Commons on Tuesday afternoon on the reopening of schools and colleges to all pupils, as well as GCSE, A-level and Btec exams.
The Social Mobility Foundation has written to the education select committee with concerns that poorer pupils are still being "overlooked" because of limited criteria for appealing over grades.
Coronavirus tracked: 57 countries see surge in new cases as global count passes 25m
More than 50 countries around the world are experiencing a rise in new cases, according to the latest figures.
Data show a clear upward trend in at least 57 countries. Europe, North Africa and South Asia have the highest concentration of countries experiencing an increase.
And the UK is among the worst-hit countries. Anthony Cuthbertson has this analysis:
Outbreak will peak this month, predicts Indonesian president
Indonesia's coronavirus outbreak is likely to peak this month, President Joko Widodo has said, adding he was "very confident" about access to a safe and effective vaccine by the end of this year.
Indonesia, which has one of the world's lowest per-capita testing rates, reported record new cases on three successive days last week, when 11 per cent of its total 177,571 infections were recorded.
Its 7,505 Covid-19 deaths are the highest in southeast Asia.
Workers carry a mock coffin as part of an awareness drive against the coronavirus in Jakarta
Infections surge in northern areas released from lockdown against local advice
Trafford and Bolton have been at the centre of a political storm since Friday when the government announced they would be among a host of places where restrictions, which have banned different households from mixing at home, would be eased from Wednesday.
But infection rates have spiked by more than 150 per cent in Bolton in the four days up to 28 August and almost doubled in Trafford in the same period. Our correspondent Colin Drury reports:
As schools in England reopen for the first time since March, Natasha Preskey speaks to parents about their concerns
Use pandemic to give environment vital 'rest', says pope
Pope Francis has said the Covid-19 pandemic has shown how the planet can recover "if we allow it to rest" and must spur people to adopt simpler lifestyles to help a planet "groaning" under the constant demand for economic growth.
In his latest urgent appeal to help a fragile environment, Francis also renewed his call for the cancellation of the debts of the most vulnerable countries.
"In some ways, the current pandemic has led us to rediscover simpler and sustainable lifestyles," the pope said in a written message.
"Already we can see how the Earth can recover if we allow it to rest: the air becomes cleaner, the waters clearer, and animals have returned to many places from where they had previously disappeared," he wrote. "The pandemic has brought us to a crossroads."
The pontiff urged people to seize the opportunity to reflect on their habits of energy usage, consumption, transportation and diet.
Until now, "constant demand for growth and an endless cycle of production and consumption are exhausting the natural world," the pope said, adding, "Creation is groaning."
Disintegrating biodiversity, climate disasters and the "unjust impact of the current pandemic on the poor and the vulnerable" amount to a "wake up call in the face of our rampant greed and consumption," the pope wrote.
UK manufacturers ramped up job cuts in August despite reporting the fastest growth in output for more than six years, business correspondent Ben Chapman reports.
Businesses reduced headcount for the seventh successive month, even as many fired up production lines after lockdown restrictions eased, according to IHS Markit’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI) survey.
Almost 400 fines have been issued to people refusing to wear face masks on public transport in England, with the vast majority being given out in London, new figures show.
Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, said enforcement statistics indicated that around 90 per cent of people are complying with coronavirus laws.
By 20 August, almost 115,500 people had been “stopped and reminded” of the requirement to wear a face covering, around 5,300 people were prevented from boarding public transport and 4,200 had been told to leave a service.
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