Actions completed in the recent past (but not in the finished period of time, this is a bit tricky!):
He has recently been to England. Now he is back in New York.
(been to because “been” is associated with the verb go to, so we don’t use in)
Compare:
He has recently gone to London. He is there now
Other examples:
She has just returned from New York. I haven’t seen him lately. Have you already finished your homework? Has it stopped raining yet? I haven’t found the book yet!
Very recent actions!
Here is the hint: with very recent actions, yes, we can use this term very recent actions, sometimes, with very recent actions, we can use Both Past Simple and Present Perfect:
She just left
She has just left
In a nutshell (exceptions may apply)
We use Present Perfect when we have:
just / recently / lately , already
yet can also express not only the completeness, but recentness of action
Past Simple
I have heard many times native speakers say:
What did you just say?
That’s because the speaker is not interested in the action (he said, or he didn’t say). They want to know what he said. Please, refer to the lesson “When we don’t use Present Perfect.”
Some verbs, such as say, tell, ask, understand etc. usually go with the Simple line of tenses:
Did you already tell him about it?
Did you understand what I told you?
I can also say that in modern English, the complexity of Present Perfect is simplified to the simplicity of Past Simple. What I want to say is that many times you can just substitute Present Perfect with Past Simple or use both when it comes to recentness of action:
No, thank you, I just had my lunch.
More on Present Perfect: