Category Archives: UK news

Boris Johnson plans radical shake-up of NHS in bid to regain more direct control

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Exclusive: health secretary said to be frustrated by his lack of authority over NHS England boss Simon Stevens

Boris Johnson is planning a radical and politically risky reorganisation of the NHS amid government frustration at the health service’s chief executive, Simon Stevens, the Guardian has learned.

The prime minister has set up a taskforce to devise plans for how ministers can regain much of the direct control over the NHS they lost in 2012 under a controversial shake-up masterminded by Andrew Lansley, the then coalition government health secretary.

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WHO’s Covid-19 inquiry is a shrewd move in a sea of disinformation

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Its findings should illuminate global responses amid conspiracy theories and Trump’s mudslinging

In the world of epidemiology it’s sometimes said that pandemics are lived forwards and understood backwards.

We encounter them head-on, chaotically, trying to fathom the disease in real time even while trying to mitigate its impact. Lessons generally come later as the evidence accumulates.

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Pressure mounts on Priti Patel over case of 11-year-old at risk of FGM

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Open letter by former judges, leading politicians and campaigners urges home secretary to grant asylum to Sudanese girl

Barristers, former judges, politicians and campaigners are among 300 people who have signed an open letter to the home secretary, Priti Patel, urging her to grant asylum to an 11-year-old girl at high risk of female genital mutilation if taken abroad.

Helena Kennedy QC, former chief prosecutor Nazir Afzal, campaigner Leyla Hussein and more than 30 MPs have added their names to the letter published by the the Good Law Project alongside a petition launched today.

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Médecins Sans Frontières is ‘institutionally racist’, say 1,000 insiders

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Medical charity accused of shoring up colonialism and white supremacy in its work

The medical NGO Médecins Sans Frontières is institutionally racist and reinforces colonialism and white supremacy in its humanitarian work, according to an internal statement signed by 1,000 current and former members of staff.

The statement accused MSF of failing to acknowledge the extent of racism perpetuated by its policies, hiring practices, workplace culture and “dehumanising” programmes, run by a “privileged white minority” workforce.

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Coronavirus live news: Bolivia leader tests positive as Australia limits returnees

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Venezuelan Socialist party boss also tests positive; Brazil president Bolsonaro ‘in good health’; record new cases in Australian state of Victoria

Reuters is reporting that a clinical trial in Japan of Fujifilm Holdings Corp’s Avigan drug yielded inconclusive results as a treatment of Covid-19.

The drug, which has been shown to cause birth defects in animal studies, has already been approved as a Covid-19 treatment in Russia and India.

So, welcome to our coronavirus live coverage. For those of you wanting your news straight, here’s a summary of the top lines of the day, with link to key pieces for you to investigate further at your leisure:

The UK has rejected the chance to join the European Union’s coronavirus vaccine programme due to ministers’ concerns over “costly delays”, according to sources.

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Coronavirus: Bogotá to re-enter strict lockdown – as it happened

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WHO reports worrying rise; second Venezuelan minister tests positive; Brazil records 1,200 more deaths

This blog is closed – keep following coronavirus news at our new live blog.

US prison officials have announced California will release up to 8,000 people from state prisons to curb the spread of Covid-19 throughout the institutions.

Officials on Friday announced three separate efforts, approved by the governor, Gavin Newsom, that they say will decrease the prison population by 8,ooo by the end of August. The measures mark the largest release efforts the state administration has taken since Covid-19 began to circulate among prison staff and incarcerated people.

Related: California to release up to 8,000 prisoners to curb spread of coronavirus

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The world’s poorest women and girls risk being biggest losers in DfID merger

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The department is a world leader in programmes based on gender equality. The government must show this will continue

News that the Department for International Development and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office are to merge raised many questions about the UK’s commitment to supporting the world’s poorest people. A key question for us is how the new department will support women and girls.

For more than 20 years, UK aid has saved and transformed the lives of women and girls in some of the world’s poorest countries. In the past five years, 10 million women and girls have received humanitarian assistance and more than 6 million girls have been able to access quality education. Upwards of £25m has been invested to prevent violence against women and girls through the government’s What Works programme, and a further £67m committed.

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UK accused of ’empty talk’ as Bahrain activists face death penalty

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Calls intensify for withdrawal from security arrangement with kingdom over human rights

The British government has been accused of “empty talk” over human rights as two pro-democracy campaigners in Bahrain face the death penalty.

The UK has provided security advice to the island nation in the Persian Gulf for five years and funds a body that examines allegations of police mistreatment.

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‘Work out to help out’: gyms, sports clubs and swimming pools to reopen in England – video

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The culture secretary has urged the nation to 'work out to help out' as he announced that gyms, sports clubs, swimming pools and leisure centres will be able to reopen this month. Oliver Dowden also said theatre companies and musicians would be able to perform in open-air venues

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Coronavirus live news: WHO says pandemic still accelerating as global review announced

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WHO appoints committee to evaluate response to Covid-19 crisis; Serbia considers new lockdown after second night of riots; Infections worldwide pass 12m

As Covid-19 cases continue to surge in states throughout the US, another 1.3 million Americans filed for unemployment last week, highlighting the grim reality that any type of economic recovery may be far off, writes Lauren Aratani for Guardian US.

While the number of new unemployment filings has decreased significantly since it peaked in April at 6 million people filing in one week, it has remained above a million each week since forced shutdowns began.

Related: Another 1.3m Americans file for unemployment as states back away from reopening plans

Here’s a roundup of the key global coronavirus developments so far:

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Lost Rolling Stones song with Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page to be released

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Scarlet is joined by two other unreleased songs, Criss Cross and All the Rage, on a deluxe version of Goat’s Head Soup

A long-lost song the Rolling Stones recorded with Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page is to finally be released. Scarlet, thought to be named after Page’s daughter, was recorded in October 1974. It is described in a press release as having “layered guitar textures” from Page, and is “as infectious and raunchy as anything the band cut in this hallowed era”.

It is to be released on a deluxe edition of the Stones’ 1973 album Goats Head Soup, recorded in Jamaica and containing the atypical hit single, Angie. It is generally seen as a notch below the run of albums that preceded it, including Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main St, though Mick Jagger praised it above Main St on release, saying: “I really put all I had into it.”

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Scots to be allowed to meet indoors as lockdown eases further

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Sturgeon confirms country is ready for phase 3 of easing plan, with rule changes from Friday

Scots will be able to meet each other indoors and stay overnight from Friday for the first time in more than three months, as Nicola Sturgeon confirmed that the country was ready to enter phase 3 of her government’s route map to reopening.

Announcing a raft of new guidance in a statement to Holyrood on Thursday, she added that non-cohabiting couples would be allowed to meet outdoors, indoors and overnight without physical distancing, while children under 12 would no longer have to physically distance outdoors or indoors.

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Johnny Depp praised Amber Heard’s ‘heroism’ in his drugs battle, court hears

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Libel case hears details of actor’s attempt to withdraw from prescribed narcotic

Johnny Depp thanked Amber Heard for trying to get him “clean” during an attempt at drug detoxification on his private island and praised her “heroism”, a court has heard.

Details of the episode in August 2014 and Depp’s apparent gratitude to Heard, his fiancee at the time, were discussed on the third day of cross-examination of the actor at the high court in London.

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Boris Johnson’s pledge to recruit 50,000 more NHS nurses is in doubt

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Number of nurses coming from EU fell again and coronavirus prevented further arrivals

Boris Johnson’s pledge to recruit 50,000 more NHS nurses is in doubt after the number coming from the EU fell again and coronavirus prevented thousands of arrivals from the rest of the world.

The prime minister made the promise a cornerstone of his general election campaign last year and has since reiterated many times his determination to deliver the increase.

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CO2 in Earth’s atmosphere nearing levels of 15m years ago

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Last time CO2 was at similar level temperatures were 3C to 4C hotter and sea levels were 20 metres higher

The amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere is approaching a level not seen in 15m years and perhaps never previously experienced by a hominoid, according to the authors of a study.

At pre-lockdown rates of increase, within five years atmospheric CO2 will pass 427 parts per million, which was the probable peak of the mid-Pliocene warming period 3.3m years ago, when temperatures were 3C to 4C hotter and sea levels were 20 metres higher than today.

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Sir David Attenborough makes appeal to save charity behind London and Whipsnade zoos – video

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The naturalist has appealed for donations to save conservation charity ZSL, which has been severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic. The charity's director, Dominic Jermey, said the zoos would be unable to recoup the money lost even though they had been allowed to reopen, because of social-distancing measures and heavily restricted visitor numbers. He said: 'Unlike any other UK zoo, our zoos are the lifeline for groundbreaking research at the world-renowned ZSL Institute of Zoology and fund our global conservation projects – work that has never been more vital.'


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Liz Truss warns Boris Johnson over Brexit border plans

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International trade secretary tells PM and chancellor plans risk smuggling and damage to UK reputation

An extraordinary cabinet row has erupted over Brexit with Liz Truss warning that Boris Johnson’s border plans risk smuggling, damage to the UK’s international reputation and could face a legal challenge from the World Trade Organization.

The international trade secretary wrote to the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, and Michael Gove on Wednesday warning of four “key areas of concern” over their plans for the border next January.

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The Guardian view on Brexit and trade: an expensive geography lesson | Editorial

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Boris Johnson is learning the hard way that the UK’s position on the globe is a relevant factor in its negotiations with Brussels

It is possible that Boris Johnson meant it when he said last year that Brexit would not involve checks on goods moving between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, but only if he did not understand the deal he had signed. His position made sense as dishonesty or ignorance. It was never true.

As Brexit talks continue in London this week, it turns out the government has submitted to the EU its application to put border control posts at Irish Sea ports. That is a necessary act of compliance with the Northern Ireland protocol in the withdrawal agreement.

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