Your morning briefing: What you should know for Friday, July 17

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  • July 17, 2020
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The latest headlines in your inbox twice a day Monday – Friday plus breaking news updates

NHS to get £3bn extra funding to protect against possible second wave of Covid-19

The NHS will get an extra £3 billion in funding to prepare for a possible second wave of coronavirus, Boris Johnson is set to announce.

In the wake of a dire warning of the consequences of Covid-19 rebounding, Number 10 said the funding will allow extra hospital capacity and routine treatments and procedures to continue.

The Prime Minister will also use a Downing Street press conference later to commit to a new target of reaching the capacity for 500,000 coronavirus tests a day by November.

The funding for the NHS in England will allow private hospital capacity to be used and for Nightingale hospitals to be maintained until the end of March.

British Airways retires entire fleet of Boeing jumbo jets

British Airways has announced it is retiring its entire Boeing jumbo jet fleet with immediate effect.

The move is due to the downturn in travel industry caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the airline said last night.

Global curbs imposed to stem the spread of the virus led to a turbulence in air travel, placing the future of many airline companies in doubt.

BA is the world’s largest operator of the Boeing 747.

130 Twitter accounts targeted in major bitcoin scam

Hackers targeted about 130 Twitter accounts this week in an attack which saw the profiles of many US celebrities and politicians compromised.

The FBI has launched an investigation after hackers hijacked the accounts of the likes of Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, Barack Obama and Joe Biden as part of the bitcoin scam.

“The accounts appear to have been compromised in order to perpetuate cryptocurrency fraud,” said the FBI as it launched the probe.

Trump’s niece Mary says she’s heard him use n-word and anti-Semitic slurs

Donald Trump’s niece Mary has said that she’s heard her uncle use the n-word and anti-Semitic slurs.

She said the president is “clearly racist”. Asked on Thursday if she had heard the president use racist slurs, specifically the n-word, she replied: “Yes.”

The White House called Mary’s allegations “a book of falsehoods”. It added: “The president doesn’t use those words.”

She is the author of a scathing new book about her family, Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.

It hit the shelves on Tuesday and became an instant bestseller.

Netflix boosts global subscriptions by more than 10 million amid coronavirus pandemic

Netflix boosted its total number of global subscriptions by more than 10 million in the last quarter amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The streaming giant has now seen the number of paid memberships it receives grow by 26 million in the first half this year, according to a company letter to shareholders.

The figure is nearly on a par with the 28 million that were added throughout the whole of 2019 and the company has exceeded its targets.

On this day…

1453: The Hundred Years War ended when the French defeated the English at Castillon.

1717: George I, Hanoverian King of England, held a public concert on the Thames for Handel to conduct his hour-long Water Music. The King enjoyed it so much he asked for two complete encores.

1841: The first issue of the magazine Punch was published in London.

1917: The British Royal Family adopted the name House of Windsor in place of House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

1945: The Potsdam Conference began with world leaders Truman, Stalin and Churchill planning for the future peace at the end of the Second World War.

1955: Walt Disney’s Disneyland was opened in California.

1969: Oh Calcutta!, the sex revue devised by theatre critic Kenneth Tynan, opened in New York. Critic Clive Barnes said the show gave pornography a dirty name.

1975: An international space link-up between US astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts took place when they crossed over from their docked spacecraft and shook hands 140 miles above Britain’s south coast.