Arrest follows discovery of stabbing victim in Walthamstow on Monday
A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a stabbing in a north-east London park. Yassar Mustakim Moussa suffered a wound to his neck and was unresponsive when he was discovered in a brook at St James’s Park in Walthamstow on Monday.
Police were called at about 1.40pm, but the victim was pronounced dead at the scene.
Continue reading...Party in despair, senior MP says, as Labour draws level in wake of exam chaos and Covid U-turns
Boris Johnson is facing a showdown with furious Conservative MPs over his government’s chaotic handling of Covid-19, as a new poll shows the Tories have surrendered a massive lead over Labour in just five months.
As MPs prepare to return to Westminster on Tuesday, Charles Walker, who is vice-chair of the 1922 committee of Conservative backbenchers, told the Observer that a recent string of U-turns had left many colleagues in despair, with some struggling to support and defend their government to constituents. Governing by U-turn in this way, he said, was unsustainable.
Continue reading...Tributes to groundbreaking star come from spheres of film, TV, sport and politics
Chadwick Boseman has been widely praised for breaking down cultural boundaries and inspiring a generation of young black people, following news of his untimely death.
The Black Panther star died at his home in the Los Angeles area aged 43, four years after being diagnosed with colon cancer. He was best known for his role as the regal T’Challa in the Marvel cinematic universe, the franchise’s first high-profile black superhero.
Continue reading...Ioannis Paradissis says messages from supporters of Manchester United footballer have shocked him
The fallout from Harry’s Maguire’s calamitous holiday in Mykonos has been swift, brutal and revelatory, not least for the Manchester United captain.
Yet for Ioannis Paradissis, the Greek prosecution lawyer at the centre of the case following the footballer’s arrest after a late-night brawl on the isle, the drama is far from over.
Continue reading...Merger of Foreign Office and Department for International Development will mean better value for money, minister says
Dominic Raab has pledged that the controversial merger of the Foreign Office and Department for International Development (DfID) will give taxpayers better value for money on government aid spending.
The foreign secretary has ordered a review into the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI), the body for overseeing government aid, in a move he said would lead to “more effective and accountable aid spending” when the new Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is formally launched next week.
Continue reading...Three-year-old Belgian shepherd malinois saved lives by tackling an al-Qaida gunman
A retired British military dog is to receive a medal for valour after he was injured in action while tackling an al-Qaida gunman.
Kuno will receive the PDSA Dickin Medal in a virtual ceremony in November, giving him the highest honour for military animal valour.
Continue reading...Climate protests including ‘funeral march’ due to take place across UK, with focus on airports
Climate demonstrations are due to take place across the UK this weekend, as the environmental campaign group Extinction Rebellion launches its latest “uprising”.
This weekend’s events will include a “funeral march” in Lewes, East Sussex, to “mark the death and destruction wrought by humans on our natural world”. The march, described as a Procession for the Planet, will include mourners dressed in black and a jazz band.
Continue reading...As government guidance continues to change over mask-wearing in schools, many are anxious about the risk to families
Eva Harratt, 13, would love to go to the park to meet her friends but it is forbidden because she lives in Oldham, the town in Greater Manchester facing restrictions due to a rise in Covid-19 cases. And yet, in five days, she is expected to return to her 1,370-pupil school and sit in classes of 30.
She likes school, misses her friends and wants to go back, but her mother is in the most vulnerable category because of an autoimmune disease. “Returning to school, I feel, is just not an option for me. They don’t appear to have given much thought to families with shielding members, or how that may affect them. Personally, I would prefer for things to go back to normal as soon as possible, but in the current situation, it is just not plausible for me,” says Eva.
Continue reading...Volunteers accuse charity of excluding deprived and minority ethnic schoolchildren
Volunteers are accusing the National Trust of excluding deprived and minority ethnic schoolchildren from enjoying nature and visiting its properties with the planned sacking of the charity’s education officers.
The number of protests and petitions are growing over the trust’s controversial “reset” involving the proposed loss of 1,200 jobs, including its learning staff, as the charity plans to stop providing any curriculum-based content or learning activities for schools.
Continue reading...Groups pitching to perceived desire for alternative output as trust in BBC falls
Rival efforts are under way to launch a Fox News-style opinionated current affairs TV station in Britain to counter the BBC.
One group is promising a news channel “distinctly different from the out-of-touch incumbents” and has already been awarded a licence to broadcast by the media regulator, Ofcom, under the name “GB News”. Its founder has said the BBC is a “disgrace” that “is bad for Britain on so many levels” and “needs to be broken up”.
Continue reading...Far-right activists have claimed falsely that refugees are given £40 a week and are displacing homeless veterans
Are asylum seekers living in luxury hotels, as the far right claims?
The quality of hotel accommodation varies. Most rooms are in budget hotels, which are being used during the pandemic because social distancing is not possible in accommodation the Home Office usually uses, especially those that have several beds or bunkbeds in one room.
Continue reading...One video shows members of Britain First entering hotel and banging on bedroom doors
Anger is mounting over a series of videos posted by far-right organisations in which activists enter hotels where asylum seekers are being held, knock on their doors to interrogate them and accuse them of wasting taxpayers’ money.
A video by Britain First, circulated widely on social media, shows a group of far-right activists entering a hotel in Bromsgrove, near Birmingham, and banging on bedroom doors, demanding to know what country the asylum seekers are from.
Continue reading...Some locals believe the ‘Zante 30’ were selfish while others say they did nothing wrong
They’ve become known – somewhat infamously - as the Zante 30.
Just as the pubs, cafes and shops on the Barbican in Plymouth were gearing up for a bumper bank holiday weekend, with visitors and city residents expected to arrive on the Devon waterside to drink, eat and be merry, the news came.
Continue reading...Bloc sources say Britain is trying to water down EU geographical protections
The UK government has renewed its attempt to reopen the chapter of the Brexit divorce treaty protecting specialty food and drink, such as Parma ham, roquefort cheese and champagne, in a move that left the EU chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, “a little bit flabbergasted”.
The British proposal on protected status for food and drink was included in a draft free-trade agreement handed to Barnier by his opposite number, David Frost, last week, according to two EU sources.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Third-party reports set out allegations at 18 Leicester suppliers
The fast-fashion retailer Boohoo has been selling clothes made by at least 18 factories in Leicester that audits say have failed to prove they pay the minimum wage to workers, a Guardian investigation has found.
Third-party audit reports produced over the past four years make claims of “critical” issues over record-keeping and working hours at the time they were written, suggesting that in parts of the supply chain workers may be paid as little as £3-£4 an hour.
Continue reading...As schools in England prepare to reopen, we examine the situation around the world
As schools in England and Wales get set to reopen amid continued controversy over safe conditions, attention has focused on potential evidence of coronavirus transmission in the classroom and on the experiences of other countries.
Research on the ability of children of different ages to catch and transmit the virus is contradictory, and differences in education systems and social conventions make comparisons difficult.
Continue reading...The UK government has gone quiet on global safeguarding. The new FCDO must work with NGOs to hold abusers accountable
When stories of sexual abuse, harassment and exploitation in the aid sector surfaced in February 2018, a firestorm of blame and recrimination broke out across British NGOs. Household names were vilified, and the secretary of state for international development publicly declared that we had lost our moral compass.
Stories from victims and survivors were horrific and needed to be heard. NGOs were ashamed that abuse was still happening on our watch. We apologised, made promises of improvement and change. We came together as a sector and rapidly acted. Policies, processes and training were improved across hundreds of organisations and thousands of staff around the globe.
Continue reading...Heavy rain brought flooding on Thursday, causing travel chaos for motorists and rail passengers
Torrential rain and flooding brought traffic mayhem as more heavy showers and thunderstorms are expected across parts of the UK on Friday.
Forecasters predict this bank holiday Monday could be the coldest on record for some parts of the UK as temperatures are expected to be well below average for the time of year.
Continue reading...Financial effect of pandemic may seriously erode ability to look after the most vulnerable
There is a graph circulating in the care home industry that should send chills down the spine of the health and social care secretary, Matt Hancock. It predicts, under a worst-case scenario, a plunge in the demand for care homes by the end of 2021 that would leave 180,000 beds empty.
The forecast by consultants Knight Frank is not good news based on a healthier aged population, but rather is based on fresh waves of coronavirus killing thousands more people in the community and in care homes, creating a flight from the sector.
Continue reading...Exclusive: English and Scottish regulators refuse to reveal homes with most fatalities
Covid-19 death tolls at individual care homes are being kept secret by regulators in part to protect providers’ commercial interests before a possible second coronavirus surge, the Guardian can reveal.
England’s Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the Care Inspectorate in Scotland are refusing to make public which homes or providers recorded the most fatalities amid fears it could undermine the UK’s care system, which relies on private operators.
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