Category Archives: UK news

‘Big tobacco wants our youth’s lungs’: rise of smoking in Jordan

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Despite one of the world’s highest smoking rates, many politicians believe a ban will effect the economy

When patients quit cigarettes at the King Hussein Cancer Center’s smoking clinic they are asked to be patient with their children. Often their offspring have been exposed to so much secondhand smoke that they have become addicted, too.

“For every four cigarettes their parent has smoked, the child has smoked one,” says Firas al-Hawari, a physician who directs the clinic. “We can control the parents with medication, but the kids are going through withdrawals because we don’t have them on medication.”

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Apple update to allow iPhone users to choose default apps

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Move in autumn will let users set Gmail as default email app and Firefox as main web browser

iPhone users will be able to set Gmail as their default email app, Firefox as their main web browser, and listen to Spotify on their HomePod speakers, after Apple announced concessions to competitors who argue the company is abusing its monopoly.

The new openness will arrive with a wave of software updates in the autumn, Apple said, alongside the other new features the company promised at its Worldwide Developers Conference, held remotely from Cupertino, California, on Monday.

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Masks, beers and 2m visits: life in a care home after a coronavirus outbreak – video

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In April, St Ronans care home in Southsea, Portsmouth, tested positive for coronavirus. Without readily available testing, staff think Covid-19 infected about 25 of their residents. Four died  with symptoms or suspected symptoms. Through a mixture of videos shot by workers inside the home and interviews filmed outside, they discuss how they are coping with the pandemic, and how staff, residents and relatives are adjusting to the 'new normal' 

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Father and children killed in Cumbria road crash named by police

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Local man arrested over deaths of Joshua James Flynn, his son Coby-Jay and daughter Skylar

A man and his two children who were killed while out on a Father’s Day walk have been named by police.

Joshua James Flynn, 37, his son Coby-Jay Flynn, 15, and daughter Skylar Flynn, 12, along with their dog, Troy, died in the collision with a Peugeot 206 in Dalton, Cumbria, at about 2.30pm on Sunday. All were pronounced dead at the scene.

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Coronavirus: what changes mean for people shielding in England

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From 6 July, people with underlying health issues will no longer have to avoid all contact with others

With the government relaxing lockdown for those shielding from Covid-19 in England, we explore what this means for the most vulnerable in society.

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Monsters are heinous, but they need collaborators to do their dirty work | Suzanne Moore

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Mouths to feed, rent to pay: there’s always an excuse if you’re tempted to do the wrong thing

Where is Ghislaine Maxwell? Where? I sat through the four episodes of Filthy Rich, the Netflix documentary on Jeffrey Epstein. I had to force myself, not because it was so upsetting – which, of course, it also was – but because the tales of his sexual abuse were so monotonous. Brave and defiant, his victims had to numb themselves slightly to tell and retell what happened to them when they were as young as 14. The interviews with the monster himself, as always, were disappointingly banal. Monsters often are tediously ordinary. The magnetic charm, the immense intellect, is one of the biggest delusions of “true crime”. See also Ted Bundy.

Anyway Ghislaine, accused of procuring underage girls for Epstein, is said to be a free woman in Paris, living in the swanky 8th arrondisement. French law prevents her extradition. Many of those implicated in Epstein’s world of obscene exploitation, including all the art world and socialite scum, must have a clue where she is. Alleged scum, I should say. They love their children just like we do. Sure.

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Scrap Stonehenge road tunnel plans say archaeologists after neolithic discovery

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Exclusive: Discovery of prehistoric structure is another reason to give up ‘disastrous, white elephant’ scheme

Leading archaeologists say a £1.6bn scheme to build a road tunnel through the historic Stonehenge landscape should be scrapped altogether after the sensational nearby discovery of the largest prehistoric structure ever found in Britain.

Mike Parker Pearson, professor of British later prehistory at University College London, said: “This is just another reason to give up this disastrous, white elephant of a scheme.”

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Johnson and May ignored claims Russia had ‘likely hold’ over Trump, ex-spy alleges

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Exclusive: Christopher Steele claims May government turned blind eye to Trump allegations

Boris Johnson and Theresa May ignored claims the Kremlin had a “likely hold” over Donald Trump and may have covertly funded Brexit, the former spy Christopher Steele alleges in secret evidence given to MPs who drew up the Russia report.

In testimony to MPs, the MI6 veteran accused the government led by May and in which Johnson was foreign secretary for two years of turning a blind eye to allegations about Trump because they were afraid of offending the US president.

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Reading knife attack: unarmed police officer tackled suspect, MPs told

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Priti Patel pays tribute to bravery of police responding to fatal stabbings in park

An unarmed police officer tackled a suspected terrorist carrying out a deadly knife attack in a park in Reading, the home secretary has told MPs.

Providing an update to the House of Commons, Priti Patel said a 25-year-old suspect was apprehended at “great speed”, and she paid tribute to the bravery of the officers and members of public who intervened.

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Authors quit JK Rowling agency over transgender rights

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Writers had asked company ‘to reaffirm their commitment to transgender rights and equality’

Four authors represented by JK Rowling’s literary agency have resigned after accusing the company of declining to issue a public statement of support for transgender rights.

Fox Fisher, Drew Davies and Ugla Stefanía Kristjönudóttir Jónsdóttir said they could no longer work with the Blair Partnership, the London-based agency that represents all aspects of the Harry Potter author’s work, because they were not convinced the company “supports our rights at all avenues”. One other author is understood to have also quit the agency but wishes to remain anonymous.

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Windrush lawyer Jacqueline McKenzie: ‘The Home Office is treating people with contempt’

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The lawyer representing 200 victims of the Windrush scandal says systemic racism is at the root of the problem

For the past three months, Jacqueline McKenzie says her front room has been covered with Windrush compensation files. Since lockdown, she has stopped going to the offices of the law firm she co-founded in 2010 and has been working from home. But her study is too small to accommodate the huge amount of paperwork that goes with the 200 separate claims she is filing on behalf of people affected by the Home Office citizenship scandal, during which thousands of people were wrongly classified as illegal immigrants because they could not prove they were British citizens.

“I think they are treating people with contempt,” she says. She is frustrated at the slow progress towards paying compensation to people who lost their jobs or their homes, were denied healthcare or the right to travel, or who were, in extreme cases, detained and deported. Part of the problem, she says, lies with the structure of the scheme, which requires claimants to gather large amounts of documentary proof of the losses they have incurred as a result of being miscategorised as unlawful residents (a problem that often arose because those affected were unable to gather the large amounts of documentary proof required to show that they had been living legally in the UK since the 1960s).

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Why doctors say UK is better prepared for a second wave of coronavirus

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Drug research, well-practised NHS staff and greater awareness of dangers give reasons for hope

When a deluge of coronavirus cases threatened to overwhelm the NHS in March, Covid-19 was a brand new and little-understood disease, causing panic as well as deaths. Hospitals under huge pressure did all they could.

Next time round, if, as everyone supposes, there is a next time, it will be different. In a second wave, or even localised spikes across the nation, the health service will know more about what it is dealing with – and will be better able to help people recover and send them home, say doctors.

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Coronavirus live news: Bolsonaro silent as Brazil passes 50,000 deaths; global cases reach 9 million

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China halts imports from food plant where 481 tested positive; New York shops and bars reopen; Lisbon brings back lockdown restrictions

The Netherlands reported zero new deaths from Covid-19 on Monday, the first day since the beginning of March that the country’s pandemic death toll has not risen.

Deaths reported by Dutch national institute for public health are not necessarily from the past 24 hours, so it cannot be confirmed that no one has died from coronavirus-related illness. But it is the first day since 12 March that no death has been reported. The country’s total death toll is 6,090.

The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus around the world since the outbreak began has passed 9 million, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The US-based research university, which keeps a tally of official statistics, said that so far 9,003,042 cases had been reported. The United States is the world’s worst affected country by case numbers, with nearly 2.3 million cases alone, followed by Brazil with nearly 1.1 million, then Russia, with nearly 600,000.

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Windrush scandal: cross-government group aims to tackle ‘terrible’ treatment

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Home Office says it will launch ad campaign to ensure people are aware of support available

A cross-government working group has been launched in an attempt to address the challenges faced by the Windrush generation, two years after the then prime minister, Theresa May, promised to right the wrongs faced by those mistakenly classified as illegal immigrants by the Home Office.

Duwayne Brooks, a campaigner and friend of the murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, has agreed to join the group, in recognition of the “terrible” treatment faced by the Windrush generation. He said he was “looking forward to working with the home secretary to ensure all those affected come forward to claim the compensation they deserve and get the support they need to move on”.

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Libyan held over Reading multiple stabbing ‘known to security services’

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Suspect, Khairi Saadallah, 25, had been investigated last year but no serious risk was identified, sources say

The suspect in an alleged terror attack that left a teacher and two others dead was known to security services and other authorities, it emerged on Sunday.

Khairi Saadallah, the 25-year-old Libyan refugee held over the stabbings in a Reading park, was on the radar of MI5 in the middle of last year, sources told the Guardian.

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Police investigate double murder after Manchester street gathering

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Two men died after reports of shooting in Moss Side early on Sunday

Police are investigating a double murder that followed a lockdown street gathering of “hundreds of people” in Manchester.

A 36-year-old man died after reports of a shooting near Caythorpe Street, Moss Side, at about 12.55am on Sunday. A 21-year-old was also taken to hospital with gunshot wounds but died later on Sunday, Greater Manchester police said. No arrests have been made.

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Reading stabbings: murder inquiry launched after three killed in rampage

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Police arrest one man at scene and are not looking for anyone else over attack that they are not currently treating as a terrorism incident

Three people have died and another three have been seriously injured after a stabbing attack on Saturday night in Reading, police have confirmed.

A 25-year-old man from Reading, about 40 miles west of London, was arrested at the scene on suspicion of murder and is in custody, Thames Valley police said. They are not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident.

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Coronavirus in England: are cases falling or rising near you?

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How has Covid-19 progressed where you live?

The map shows local authorities where the number of cases has increased week-on-week and where it has fallen. Some of this is due to natural fluctuations, especially in areas where there are very few cases, and so a rise from 1 to 2 is a doubling. Increased testing also means that more cases may be being detected than previously, although the impact of this between one week and the next is likely to be slight.

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Britain still failing on climate crisis, warn advisers

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Committee urges that companies must meet green standards to qualify for Covid-19 corporate bailouts

Ministers are bracing themselves for a powerful new rebuke from the government’s own advisers over the nation’s inadequate response to the climate crisis. In its annual progress report, to be published on Thursday, the Committee on Climate Change will lambast continuing failures by the government to tackle the issues of overheating homes, flash floods, loss of biodiversity and the other threats posed as our planet continues to overheat dangerously.

Last year, the committee complained that no areas of the UK’s response to the climate crisis were being tackled properly. “The whole thing is run by the government like a Dad’s Army,” said the committee’s chairman, Lord Deben.

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Home Office ‘uses racial bias’ when detaining immigrants

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Pressure group claims disproportionate number of black people held for longer periods to ‘reduce black and brown migration to UK’

Black people are detained significantly longer than white people inside the UK’s immigration detention system, prompting fresh claims of “institutional racism”.

Although the Home Office does not record ethnicity data for detainees, analysis of nationalities of those recently held within the immigration detention estate found that citizens from countries with predominantly black and brown populations are held for substantially longer periods than those from predominantly white countries.

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