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  Published Date: 2020-07-28 

 Image copyright PA Media Image caption The death of George Floyd triggered large anti-racism protests in the UK The government is "dragging its feet" over racism and is failing to make it a priority, the chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission has said. David Isaac, who is due to leave his role next week, has told the BBC that ministers should come up with a "coherent strategy" to combat racism. He has also urged businesses to set targets to recruit more people from ethnic minorities into senior roles. Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch said tackling racism was a "top priority". Mr Isaac's comments come after the death of George Floyd - a black man who was detained by police in America - sent shockwaves across the world. It triggered large anti-racism protests in the UK and the US. In response, the government announced it would form a new commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities to see what more could be done to eradicate racial and social inequality. In an exclusive interview with the BBC, Mr Isaac said: "There are lots of people of colour who need supporting and for that reason a coherent race strategy is a top priority and I call upon the government to act urgently. "I do believe the government is dragging its feet. "They seek to understand it (racism) but are they taking action and is this a top priority? I don't believe so." Last month, the Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the UK had made "huge strides" in tackling racism but more had to be done. Mr Isaac believes another review is not the answer. He said: "The time for more recommendations in my view is over. "We know what needs to be done. Let's get on with it. "There are lots of quick wins such as implementing the ethnicity pay gap for example, so reporting on that I believe would shine a light on some of the disparities we see in relation to income." Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Racism in the UK: 'I feel like an alien' Since 2017 there have been several reviews into racial inequality, including the Lammy review and the McGregor-Smith review. All have been published with a series of recommendations, some of which ministers say have been implemented. 'Rightly outraged' Mr Isaac also endorsed Lloyds Banks' recent announcement that it would increase the number of black staff in senior roles as part of a "race action plan". "In too many companies around the country, there are not enough senior people of colour," he said. "So setting targets and actually putting in place programme to support black and minority ethnic staff to ensure that they flourish in the same way that other people flourish is something the commission has been calling for for some time and now is a moment when businesses must play their part too." He also said he understood why people were "rightly outraged" there were no black commissioners in the EHRC, and said he hoped when the new commissioners were appointed in the autumn "they would be truly representative and that would include people of colour and black people". In a statement, the government said it was "committed to tackling racism as part of our mission to unite and level-up the country". "This new, independent commission is broader in scope in comparison to previous reviews, and builds on the work of the Race Disparity Audit," it said. "We continue to take action on recommendations from previous reviews that we have agreed to take forward. This new commission will improve our evidence base to change lives for the better. "We ask that those with strong views engage with the commission." Mr Isaac will step down from the equality watchdog on 8 August after completing a four-year term. 'Top priority' Ms Badenoch said Mr Isaac had "never raised" his concerns with her and insisted that tackling racism was a "top priority". "It is simply not true to say the government is dragging its heels on this," she told the BBC's Today programme. She said the government had carried out 16 of the Lammy Review's recommendations. "And yet people act as if none of this work is happening," she added. 

  Published Date: 2020-07-28 

 Image copyright Getty Images A government scheme offering £50 bike repair vouchers will launch in England on Tuesday as part of plans to boost cycling and walking. An initial 50,000 vouchers will be made available online later in the day on a first-come, first-served basis. The prime minister also announced that bikes will be made available on the NHS as part of the strategy. But Labour said many of the government's proposals were taking too long to come into effect. It comes after the government launched its obesity strategy on Monday. GPs in areas of England with poor health will be encouraged to prescribe cycling, with patients able to access bikes through their local surgery. Recent Public Health England research found that being overweight or obese puts people at greater risk of serious illness or death from Covid-19. Government statistics showed nearly 8% of critically ill patients in intensive care units with the virus have been morbidly obese, compared with 2.9% of the general population. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said cycling and walking have "a huge role to play" in tackling health and environmental challenges. "But to build a healthier, more active nation, we need the right infrastructure, training and support in place to give people the confidence to travel on two wheels," he said. "That's why now is the time to shift gears and press ahead with our biggest and boldest plans yet to boost active travel - so that everyone can feel the transformative benefits of cycling." Former Olympic gold medal cyclist Chris Boardman, now a policy adviser to British Cycling, welcomed the plans. "There's a quarter of households in Britain who don't have access to a car at all and we've got public transport operating at 30%, so 70% of people have got to find another way to travel or not go to work," he told BBC Breakfast. "This can be not only provision for people who don't have a car now, it's a consultation for the future." 'Fix Your Bike' vouchers The government's "Fix Your Bike" vouchers are being released in batches "to help manage capacity" and so that the scheme can be monitored before being rolled out more widely, the government said. They will typically cover the bill for a standard service and the replacement of a basic component such as an inner tube or cable. During a Downing Street briefing in May, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the initiative would be "available from next month". But the Department for Transport (DfT) said in July that it would only begin when maintenance shops could handle the expected spike in demand. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Halfords reported a surge in bike sales during lockdown Halfords says it has thousands of slots available each day for customers to bring their bikes into stores to identify potential faults which could be rectified under the scheme. "We think the government's 'Fix Your Bike' voucher scheme will not only help individuals become more confident about keeping their bikes maintained, but will help speed up the cycling revolution," said chief executive Graham Stapleton. The retailer previously reported that bike sales had risen by 57.1% in the 13 weeks to 3 July, as people sought to avoid public transport during lockdown. Thousands of miles of new protected cycle lanes, cycle training for children and adults, and the creation of the UK's first zero-emission transport city are also part of the plans to promote cycling and walking. The initiative has been welcomed by cycling groups and environmentalists. They have long argued that Active Travel - the new phrase for walking and cycling - fulfils twin objectives of improving health and well-being, while also reducing emissions that harm people's health and fuel climate change. But they point out that the investment is less than a 10th of the £27bn that the government previously announced would be spent on new roads. There's now increasing pressure for that road budget to be reduced. AA head Edmund King told BBC News in April that some of the cash might be better spent on improving broadband. And environmentalists have brought a legal challenge against the plans because the construction and use of the roads will increase carbon emissions when ministers are committed to reducing emissions. A recent study suggested that big carbon savings can be made by constructing cycle lanes in suburbs, to be used by e-bikes. 'Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity' Other measures to improve the well-being of pedestrians and cyclists include strengthening the Highway Code, improving legal protections, increasing lorry safety standards and working with the police and retailers to tackle bike thefts. The plans will be funded by a £2bn investment announced in February. Mr Shapps said it was a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a shift in attitudes" to make cycling or walking part of daily routines. Matt Mallinder, director of the charity Cycling UK, said the plan "places cycling at the heart of our towns and cities", but he called for even more funding "to truly shift gears". Kerry McCarthy, Labour shadow cycling minister also said that the Conservative party had "failed to seize the opportunity this crisis has posed". "Although funding is welcome, cyclists will be rightly concerned about how long it is going to take to actually put these plans into practice." 

  Published Date: 2020-07-28 

 Image copyright Doctors of the World Image caption A charity has translated coronavirus advice into 60 languages (such as Gujarati) to combat what it calls a government "blind spot" A lack of translated coronavirus guidance is jeopardising the safety of non-English speakers in the UK, a joint letter to the health secretary claims. The government said it has translated public health information into 25 languages, reaching a "wide audience". But campaigners say it is a "limited range of languages" and the translations can take weeks to be updated when advice or rules change. One charity said the government has so far shown "no engagement" on the issue. More than four million people in England and Wales do not consider English to be their main language, including more than 860,000 people who speak little or no English, according to the most recent official figures. In England and Wales, 88 languages other than English are spoken as a main language. A government spokesperson said it "wouldn't be feasible" to provide translations of all of these languages but that it had translated some of its "key messages" around coronavirus into the most common languages spoken in the UK. No translations of 'stay alert' advice But translations have become outdated as guidance has been updated. For example, in March the government provided guidance on social distancing in 11 languages, including Welsh, Urdu, Arabic and Bengali. But this advice was withdrawn on 1 May as guidance changed, and the current social distancing guide for England - which is titled "staying alert and safe" - has not been translated by the government. Other current guidance that has not been translated by the government includes information on the NHS Test and Trace programme and the rules on wearing face coverings. The government said it was "committed to ensuring people across the UK receive the information they need to stay safe" during the pandemic, and had made coronavirus messages accessible "to a wide audience". Patients 'unable to protect themselves' Some 30 local authorities, groups of public health leaders and charities have written to Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick urging the government to produce and continue to update information in more languages. Doctors of the World, which co-ordinated the letter, runs clinics in London that provide medical care and information for "excluded people" such as non-English speaking migrants, asylum seekers, sex workers, homeless people and those with low literacy levels. The charity said it has translated coronavirus guidance into documents, audio guides and videos in more than 60 languages because the government "has completely forgotten and left out this patient group" who are therefore "at increased risk of catching the virus, and are unable to protect themselves and their families". Doctors of the World's head of policy and advocacy, Anna Miller, said there had been "no engagement" from Public Health England or the Department of Health when her charity asked, ahead of the UK lockdown in March, what resources might be provided for non-English speakers. She said trying to highlight the "blind spot" had been like "hitting your head against a brick wall". "It's just been an absolute lack of communication, or refusal to communicate, from central government, that has meant we've had to get on and do [the translations] as if government doesn't exist," she said. "Ensuring public health information gets to everybody should have been the most basic, first thing in the government response. And 'everybody' includes people who don't speak English." Top 10 main languages in England and Wales Other than English (and Welsh in Wales) The resources produced by Doctors of the World have been downloaded about 60,000 times in the UK - including by police forces and groups providing accommodation for asylum seekers. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Doctors of the World says distrust of the NHS and government are leaving migrants scared to seek healthcare for Covid-19 Local authorities do provide translations of some of their own guidance, but Ms Miller said Doctors of the World had been told by several local authorities that they "can't keep up with the rapid changes of guidance", resulting in inconsistent and outdated information. The letter, sent on Monday evening and seen by the BBC, called for leadership from central government to maintain "quality and consistency" of public health messages. It added that it was Mr Hancock's "statutory duty" to provide translated resources. It said: "As lockdown measures are eased and guidance changes regularly, it is not sustainable or practical for local authorities and civil society to meet this need." The Department of Health has been contacted for comment. 

  Published Date: 2020-07-28 

 Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus outbreak this Tuesday morning. We'll have another update for you at 18:00 BST. 1. Spanish travel latest Spain's prime minister says the UK's decision to impose a two-week quarantine on everyone arriving from his country is "unjust". Pedro Sánchez said Britons would be safer from coronavirus in most regions of Spain than in the UK. Talks are taking place, he added. While the virus remains under control in many parts of Spain, certain areas have seen a huge spike. Labour called the government's handling of the restrictions "chaotic". Read the rules in detail and your rights if you had a trip booked. 2. Translation criticism The health secretary has been told a lack of translated coronavirus guidance is jeopardising the safety of non-English speakers in the UK. The government said it has translated public health information into 25 languages, but Doctors of the World, which co-ordinated a letter to Matt Hancock from local authorities, public health leaders and charities, said that's not enough and leaves many people unable to properly protect themselves. More than 860,000 people in the UK speak little or no English, according to official figures. Image copyright Doctors of the World Image caption The charity has translated coronavirus advice into 60 languages (such as Tigrinya) to combat what it calls a government "blind spot" 3. Repatriation 'too slow' More criticism for the government this morning comes from a group of MPs, who believe the Foreign Office operation to bring home more than a million Britons at the start of the pandemic was too slow. The advice given to those stranded was also misleading or confusing, the Foreign Affairs Committee says, while "little was done" to provide financial support for those facing hardship while stuck abroad. Image copyright AFP Image caption The committee said the Foreign Office had relied too much on commercial flights 4. Cycling boost For days now we've been learning about government plans to improve public health in order to strengthen resilience to coronavirus. Today the focus is on how it intends to spend £2bn to promote cycling and walking in England, including thousands of miles of new cycle lanes and cycle training for anyone who wants it. A scheme offering £50 bike repair vouchers is also being launched today. This certainly isn't the first attempt by a government to tackle the problem of obesity - BBC Reality Check looks at the success of its predecessors. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The Bikeability Trust's Paul Robison breaks down how to start cycling with confidence. 5. Print pioneers Hunting for a magazine to read during lockdown, six-year-old Faith Boyd and her mother, Serlina, were disappointed by the lack of diversity. So they took action and launched the UK's first magazine for young black girls. It's already sold more than 11,000 copies. Earlier this month, we also told you about 10-year-old Arlo Lippiatt, whose lockdown project was creating a music fanzine. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Faith and Serlina talk about launching the first ever UK magazine for younger black girls Get a longer news briefing from the BBC in your inbox, each weekday morning, by signing up here. And don't forget... You can find more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page and follow our live page for all the latest from around the world. Plus, watch the very powerful story of Monica Munoz, from Texas, whose own devastating loss at the hands of Covid-19 says much about how badly the Hispanic community is being hit. What questions do you have about coronavirus? In some cases, your question will be published, displaying your name, age and location as you provide it, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. Please ensure you have read our terms & conditions and privacy policy. Use this form to ask your question: 

  Published Date: 2020-07-28 

 Image caption Hilary Mantel has won the Booker Prize twice - for Wolf Hall in 2009 and 2012's Bring Up the Bodies Hilary Mantel's The Mirror & The Light is among the novels longlisted for this year's Booker Prize. It is the third book in the author's Cromwell trilogy, and was selected for its "masterful exhibition of sly dialogue and exquisite description," the judges said. Mantel has previously won the prize twice - for the first two novels in the trilogy. The longlist will be whittled down from 13 to a shortlist of six in September. British nominees this year include Gabriel Krauze, Douglas Stuart and Sophie Ward. Zimbabwean writer Tsitsi Dangarembga was nominated, like Mantel, for the third novel in her own trilogy - entitled This Mournable Body. This year's longlist - nicknamed the 'Booker's dozen' - features eight debut novels. The prize, which has been going since 1969, was last year won jointly by Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo. The annual longlist was compiled from 162 English-language novels published in the UK or Ireland. 'Complex, nuanced, emotionally charged' Margaret Busby, chair of the 2020 judges, said that each of the titles on this year's list was "deserving of wide readership". "Included are novels carried by the sweep of history with memorable characters brought to life and given visibility, novels that represent a moment of cultural change, or the pressures an individual faces in pre- and post-dystopian society," she said in a statement. Image copyright Reuters Image caption Atwood praised Evaristo for encouraging black female writers "Some of the books focus on interpersonal relationships that are complex, nuanced, emotionally charged. There are voices from minorities often unheard, stories that are fresh, bold and absorbing," she added. "The best fiction enables the reader to relate to other people's lives; sharing experiences that we could not ourselves have imagined is as powerful as being able to identify with characters." The shortlist of six books will be announced on 15 September, with the £50,000-prize winning author being revealed in November. The 2020 Booker Prize longlist in full: Diane Cook - The New Wilderness Tsitsi Dangarembga - This Mournable Body Avni Doshi - Burnt Suga Gabriel Krauze - Who They Was Hilary Mantel - The Mirror & The Light Colum McCann - Apeirogon Maaza Mengiste - The Shadow King Kiley Reid - Such a Fun Age Brandon Taylor - Real Life Anne Tyler - Redhead by The Side of The Road Douglas Stuart - Shuggie Bain Sophie Ward - Love and Other Thought Experiments C Pam Zhang - How Much of These Hills is Gold Follow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk. 

  Published Date: 2020-07-28 

 Image copyright AFP Image caption Kylie Moore-Gilbert, a lecturer at Melbourne University, has been in jail since September 2018 A British-Australian woman serving a 10-year sentence in Iran for espionage has been transferred to a notorious prison in the desert, according to Iranian human rights activists. Kylie Moore-Gilbert, a lecturer at Melbourne University, has been in jail since September 2018. She strongly denies all the charges against her. She spent almost two years sleeping on the floor in a cell in the capital Tehran, according to a friend. She has been in solitary confinement and on several hunger strikes, and she is said to have been beaten for trying to comfort new prisoners by passing notes and writing to them on prison walls. Now she has reportedly been moved to the notorious Qarchak prison. The jail is sometimes used as punishment for Iranian political prisoners, reports Caroline Hawley, BBC World Affairs correspondent. Conditions have been described by former inmates as abysmal. 'I can't eat anything' Ms Moore-Gilbert, a lecturer in Middle East politics, told an Iranian human rights activist in a phone call earlier this week that she had not spoken to her family for about a month. Reza Khandan, the husband of imprisoned human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, said in a Facebook post that Ms Moore-Gilbert was in "a very bad condition". He wrote that she had told him: "I can't eat anything, I don't know, I'm so disappointed. I'm so very depressed." In letters smuggled out of Tehran's Evin prison in January, the lecturer said she had "never been a spy" and feared for her mental health. She said she had rejected an offer from Iran to become a spy. "I am not a spy. I have never been a spy, and I have no interest to work for a spying organisation in any country." She also said she feared her health had "deteriorated significantly". "I think I am in the midst of a serious psychological problem," she wrote, worsened by "the ban on having any phone calls with my family". Ms Moore-Gilbert remains adamant that she is "an innocent woman... imprisoned for a crime I have not committed". The Cambridge-educated academic was travelling on an Australian passport and was detained at Tehran airport in 2018 as she tried to leave following a conference. She was tried in secret last year for espionage. 

  Published Date: 2020-07-28 

 Image copyright Amazon Amazon is ramping up its online grocery service with the aim of serving millions of shoppers across the UK by the end of 2020. Online food sales have almost doubled during the pandemic with grocers struggling to keep up with demand. Amazon is now after a bigger slice of this fast-growing market, which analysts say could increase pressure on rivals such as Ocado. "It's extremely significant" says retail analyst, Richard Hyman. "[Amazon] can be compelling, disruptive and it's a business with gigantic ambitions." Amazon Fresh offers same or next-day grocery deliveries for customers in London and the Home Counties. Shoppers have to subscribe to Amazon Prime to get it and users currently have to pay an additional monthly fee or a delivery charge per order. It has about 10,000 products including fresh, chilled and frozen food. From Tuesday, this service will now be a free benefit to subscribers in these areas on orders above £40. About 40 postcodes in Surrey will also have access to a faster offer, with a possible same-day delivery before midnight if you order by 21:00. Amazon says it will roll out this quicker and unlimited free delivery grocery service to "multiple cities" by the end of this year. It's an ambitious move. 'Big step up' "Grocery delivery is one of the fastest growing businesses at Amazon and we think this will be one of the most-loved Prime benefits in the UK, " says Russell Jones, country manager of Amazon Fresh UK. He says this expansion was on the cards before Covid-19. "We've been planning this for a long time. It's a big step up in volume. In the early days of lockdown all our capacity was being used. We're confident that we can launch this service now at this point in time," he says. Amazon revealed few specifics about its plans. It launched Amazon Fresh in the UK in 2016 and has never given sales figures or customer numbers. It hasn't even confirmed how many Amazon Prime members it has in the UK. According to market research firm Mintel, there are 15 million subscribers, potentially giving Amazon a huge platform. Competitive market "I think they will be a big player in food retailing online. They wouldn't be doing it otherwise. Most of the markets they go into, they want to be the biggest player," says Richard Hyman. It's also far more difficult for grocers to make a profit with online sales compared to customers visiting stores. "The frightening thing for everybody else is that they all really need to make money, whereas Amazon doesn't and that places them at an enormous advantage." But it won't be easy, says Thomas Brereton, retail analyst at GlobalData. Image copyright Amazon "At the moment, people don't really consider Amazon for food. They've got to build brand awareness and that takes time and a lot of investment." "Food and non-food retailing are two very different concepts, and Amazon must be careful not to underestimate the competitiveness of the UK grocery market." He adds: "Also, because of what's happening with the economy, value is going to be the main driver, which is something Tesco's been trying to do with Aldi and its price match campaign. Amazon's target is going to be fairly premium as it has signed a lot of deals with smaller, independent suppliers." A big battle for upmarket shoppers is set for the autumn. In September, Ocado will start selling M&S products instead of Waitrose food. And it's these players, thinks Richard Hyman, who have most to worry about when it comes to Amazon's latest move. "If you think about the demographic of Prime, these members are relatively better-off... It's one thing fighting Amazon off when you have an established business, but fighting them off when you've got something completely new in the case of M&S and relatively new in the case of Waitrose flying solo will be more challenging. "Amazon are very clever at getting the rest of the market to follow their agenda and I think what they will particularly be doing is upping the ante on delivery times," he says. All of the established players have been rapidly building online capacity to cope with soaring demand, which many believe will be a permanent shift in shopping behaviour. Amazon's expansion means this part of the £119bn grocery market is going to become even more competitive in the coming months. 

  Published Date: 2020-07-28 

 We all feel deeply for everyone who’s been affected by this. We very strongly encourage employers to take a sensible and compassionate approach to people who find themselves in this situation. If people are in genuine crisis, then of course there is a safety net through the new employment support allowance or through universal credit and advances can be paid very quickly if you’re in immediate need. We really do hope that employers will be supportive and put sensible steps in place to accommodate people who are affected by this. 

  Published Date: 2020-07-28 

 Residents will get powers to banish through-traffic from local streets and councils will be prevented from building substandard cycle lanes under what Downing Street has billed as a revolution for cycling and walking in England. The plans will see the creation of a watchdog to ensure new cycle and walking routes are up to standard, intended to act as a transport equivalent of the schools inspectorate, Ofsted. Active Travel England, to be led by a yet-to-be-appointed commissioner for walking and cycling, will refuse to fund paint-only bike lanes – without physical barriers or protection from cars – or routes where cyclists and pedestrians have to share space. It could also cut budgets in other areas for highways departments which fail to deliver on active transport. The plans, led by Boris Johnson, will be funded by a previously announced £2bn in new funding over five years, with a pledge of longer-term money. They include cycle training for every child or adult who seeks it, a pilot scheme for GPs to prescribe cycling to improve patients’ health, and thousands of miles of protected bike lanes. Local people will be given a chance to choose whether residential side streets should be closed to through motor traffic to make them safer for pedestrians and cyclists, under plans to be put out for consultation. Another proposal could see some main roads, for example in cities, kept as through-routes for pedestrians, cyclists and buses, with other motor traffic allowed access only. Also on the table are grants to help people with the cost of electric-assist bikes, which can encourage cycling, particularly on longer or more hilly commutes. However, these tend to be more expensive than traditional bikes, often costing well over £1,000. It has not yet been specified how much assistance might be offered. Following Monday’s announcement of a new strategy to combat obesity, the push for more active travel is a parallel strand of Downing Street efforts to improve public health, an issue highlighted by worse coronavirus outcomes faced by many people with chronic conditions connected to weight and inactive living, such as type 2 diabetes. More active travel will also relieve pressure on the roads and on public transport, where capacity has been cut due to social distancing measures. Since May, people have been urged to walk or cycle to work or elsewhere when possible. Johnson, who will formally launch the initiative on Tuesday, said it was “the time to shift gears and press ahead with our biggest and boldest plans yet to boost active travel”. He said: “From helping people get fit and healthy and lowering their risk of illness, to improving air quality and cutting congestion, cycling and walking have a huge role to play in tackling some of the biggest health and environmental challenges that we face.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest The proposals include the provision of more cycle racks in city and town centres to encourage people to arrive by bike. Photograph: Maureen McLean/Rex/Shutterstock The plans were welcomed by campaigners, who nonetheless warned that their effectiveness would depend on proper implementation and necessary funding. Chris Boardman, the former cycling champion who is now policy adviser to British Cycling, said the plans showed “the level of ambition required to transform the country”. He added: “Many will focus on the health benefits of more people getting around by bike or on foot, but we know that these are changes which reap dividends in all walks of life, not least the quality of the air we breathe, the congestion on our roads and the economic benefit for shops, cafes and bars.” Matt Mallinder, director of influence and engagement at the campaign group Cycling UK, said the plan was “a truly comprehensive and far reaching set of measures”, but warned about the levels of funding. “To truly shift gears so that everyone can feel the transformative benefits of cycling the £2bn of funding already announced will not be enough,” he said. “However, with a forthcoming spending review, now’s the time for the chancellor to invest in the future and make the prime minister’s vision of a golden age of cycling come true.” The new standards for cycling and walking routes will be fully spelled out in updated official guidance to be published on Tuesday. The proposals include more cycle racks at stations and other transport hubs, as well as in town and city centres, and for protected bike hangars allowing safe storage for people who cannot keep a bike at home. Others cover areas such as strengthening the Highway Code to protect pedestrians and cyclists, giving councils new powers to tackle traffic offences, and pilot schemes for local authorities to give contracts in areas such as waste disposal to cycle freight companies. 

  Published Date: 2020-07-28 

 Nearly 3 billion animals were killed or displaced by Australia’s devastating bushfire season of 2019 and 2020, according to scientists who have revealed for the first time the scale of the impact on the country’s native wildlife. The Guardian has learned that an estimated 143 million mammals, 180 million birds, 51 million frogs and a staggering 2.5 billion reptiles were affected by the fires that burned across the continent. Not all the animals would have been killed by the flames or heat, but scientists say the prospects of survival for those that had withstood the initial impact was “probably not that great” due to the starvation, dehydration and predation by feral animals – mostly cats – that followed. An interim report based on work by 10 scientists from five institutions, commissioned by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), suggests the toll from the fires goes much further than an earlier estimate of more than 1 billion animals killed. Q&A What is the After the Bushfires series? Show Hide The wildfires that swept through many parts of Australia between July 2019 and February 2020 were of a scale and size that is difficult to imagine. By the end of February, they had burned through at least 32,000 square miles (85,000 sq km) of Australian forest, an area the size of Ireland. Nearly 3 billion animals were killed or displaced by bushfire. The habitat of an estimated 143 million mammals, 180 million birds, 51 million frogs and 2.5 billion reptiles was burned. The fires came during Australia's hottest year on record and in a country that already has among the world's highest extinction rates because of invasive non-native species such as cats, foxes, deer, horses and various pathogens, along with habitat clearing and fragmentation. But one year on from the start of those fires, what does the landscape look like today? With state borders closing because of Covid-19, the Guardian took a virtual journey through the blackened path of Australia’s summer of bushfires, talking to those who are investigating the state of the continent’s surviving flora and fauna. Scientists from the University of Sydney, University of New South Wales, University of Newcastle, Charles Sturt University and Birdlife Australia contributed to the study. Dermot O’Gorman, WWF-Australia’s chief executive, said: “It’s hard to think of another event anywhere in the world in living memory that has killed or displaced that many animals. This ranks as one of the worst wildlife disasters in modern history.” Chris Dickman, a professor in ecology at the University of Sydney and fellow of the Australian Academy of Science who oversaw the project, said its central finding was a shock even to the researchers. “Three thousand million native vertebrates is just huge. It’s a number so big that you can’t comprehend it,” he said. “It’s almost half the human population of the planet.” Dickman said the project showed the impact of the fires was much greater than the devastating loss of koalas, which became the public face of the disaster to international audiences. Many of the reptiles affected were smaller species, such as skinks, that can live in densities of more than 1,500 individuals per hectare. Play Video 1:13 'We're helpless': thousands of koalas probably dead after wildfires – video Lead researcher Lily van Eeden, of the University of Sydney, said the study was the first to attempt a continent-wide assessment of the impact of bushfires on animals. The analysis is based on a burned zone of 11.46m hectares (28.31m acres), an area nearly the size of England. It includes about 8.5m hectares of forest, mostly in the southeast and southwest but including 120,000 hectares of northern rainforest. The study showed the extent to which megafires were reducing the country’s biodiversity, and underlined the need to address the climate crisis and stop the clearing of land for agriculture and development, said Dickman. “We really need to start thinking about how we can rein in this demonic genie that’s out of the bottle,” he said, referring to climate change. “We need to be looking at how quickly can we decarbonise, how quickly can we stop our manic land-clearing.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest A dead native bird washed up among ash and fire debris on Boydtown Beach, Eden. Photograph: Tracey Nearmy/Reuters Since the late 1980s Australian scientists have been warning that adding more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere would increase bushfire risk. An analysis in March found the risk of the kind of hot and dry conditions that helped drive Australia’s catastrophic fires had increased by a factor of more than four since 1900, and would be eight times more likely if global heating above pre-industrial levels reached 2C. In evidence to a royal commission into the bushfires in May, the Australian meteorology bureau presented data showing dangerous fire weather in southeast New South Wales and Victoria was now starting in August, three months earlier than in the 1950s. Facebook Twitter Pinterest An endangered Rosenberg’s monitor after being rescued from the fires. Photograph: David Mariuz/EPA The WWF-backed analysis is the latest of several papers to map the devastating impact of the bushfires. A peer-reviewed study by three ecology professors in June concluded that the fires had caused “the most dramatic loss of habitat for threatened species and devastation of ecological communities in postcolonial history”. This month a separate paper drawing on the work of more than 20 leading Australian scientists found that 49 native species not currently listed as threatened could now be at risk, while government data suggested 471 plant and 191 invertebrate species needed urgent attention. The WWF report says several techniques were used to estimate animal numbers. Mammal numbers were based on published data on the densities of each species in different areas; bird numbers were derived from BirdLife Australia data based on nearly 104,000 standardised surveys; reptile estimates were modelled using knowledge of environmental conditions, body size and a global database of reptile densities. The scientists said their estimates were conservative due to limitations in the methodologies used. The number of invertebrates, fish and turtles affected was not estimated due to a lack of relevant data. A final report is due next month. Several scientists have called for an overhaul of threatened species protection in the wake of the bushfires, including better monitoring of biodiversity. Conservationists have linked Australia’s limited monitoring of its wildlife to a funding for environment programmes being cut by more than a third since the conservative Coalition government was elected in 2013. O’Gorman said the report should be considered as part of an ongoing independent review of Australia’s national environment laws. “Following such a heavy toll on Australia’s wildlife, strengthening this law has never been more important,” he said. Facebook Twitter Pinterest An injured koala rests in a washing basket at the Kangaroo Island wildlife park. Photograph: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images An interim report from the review released last week said the country was losing biodiversity at an alarming rate and had one of the highest rates of extinction in the world. It said existing laws were not fit to address current or future environmental challenges. Scott Morrison’s government responded by announcing it would introduce new national environmental standards against which major development approvals would be judged. But the government has been criticised for pushing to change the laws to allow it to devolve approval decisions to state and territory governments before completion of the review and before the new standards were ready to improve biodiversity protection. Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on Twitter for all the latest news and features