Week Ahead: Premier League returns as Daniel Morgan murder back in spotlight

OPENING DOORS, MASKS ON

Thousands of shops will open across England on Monday as the lockdown is eased – with the move coinciding with new face-covering measures which require everyone using public transport, as well as hospital visitors and outpatients to wear them.

Non-essential shops, zoos and safari parks are among those who have been given the green light to reopen their doors for the first time in months while easyJet has decided to resume flights from Monday.

Businesses which are reopening have to follow Government guidelines to make them “Covid-secure” through measures such as new hygiene procedures to increase the frequency of hand-washing and surface cleaning.

Pubs, bars, restaurants and hairdressers will not be able to reopen until July 4 at the earliest. The Government has said these businesses will remain closed for now because the risk of transmission in these environments is higher due to there generally being long periods of person-to-person contact.

The latest changes come as the Office for National Statistics reveals what are expected to be bleak unemployment and retail sales figures on Tuesday and Friday respectively.

FOOTBALL FRENZY

Professional football returns to England this Wednesday for the first time since March as the Premier League and Championship attempt to finish off their long-delayed seasons behind closed doors.

The first match back will be on Wednesday evening, with Sheffield United travelling to Aston Villa for a 6pm kick-off. This will be followed later the same evening by Manchester City taking on Arsenal, before a full-round of games takes place in the Premier League and Championship at the weekend.

The League Two play-offs begin on Thursday night, with the League One play-offs starting in early July.

Meanwhile, Royal Ascot will take place behind closed doors for the first time in the event’s 250-year plus history between Tuesday and Saturday. The racing programme will be broadcast by ITV and Sky Sports.

MURDER DOCUMENTARY

A new three-part series for Channel 4 is likely to make headlines this week as it examines the most investigated murder in the history of the Metropolitan Police.

Murder In The Carpark, starting on Monday at 9pm, explores the circumstances around the killing of private investigator Daniel Morgan in 1987.

A spokesman for Channel 4 said: “Four years in the making, the series will tell the incredible story of an unsolved murder which over the decades has involved accusations of police corruption, the tabloid press, covert operations, the phone hacking scandal and asks how, with millions of pounds in public money spent, has no one ever been brought to justice for this heinous crime.

“For the first time ever Morgan’s business partner, Jonathan Rees, ex-Metropolitan police detective Sid Fillery and Rees’ former brother-in-law Glenn Vian will collectively give their accounts.

“These three men who have found themselves under investigation for over three decades, they will give their accounts from the time of the murder, and in the years following, as police investigations unravelled again and again.”

SUMMER SOLSTICE

Saturday will be the longest day of what has already felt like a very long year.

English Heritage, which manages Stonehenge, where hundreds of people usually gather to watch the rising of the sun, has urged people to stay away this year due to coronavirus and said it will livestream video of sunrise at the neolithic monument instead.

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