The theatre and endoscopy staff at the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust have thanked and applauded the general public for staying at home. In a video posted online, matron Vicky Oluwole says: 'We, the staff of Lewisham endoscopy theatres, are thanking you for clapping for the NHS. Now, we are clapping and saying thank you for staying at home'
Continue reading...Category Archives: UK news
Cop26 climate talks in Glasgow postponed until 2021
Crucial UN conference will be delayed until next year as a result of the coronavirus crisis
The UN climate talks due to be held in Glasgow later this year have been postponed as governments around the world struggle to halt the spread of coronavirus.
The most important climate negotiations since the Paris agreement in 2015 were scheduled to take place this November to put countries back on track to avoid climate breakdown. They will now be pushed back to 2021.
Continue reading...UK woman wins claim for NHS to pay US surrogacy costs
Woman was left infertile after NHS trust failed to detect signs of cervical cancer
A woman who wants to have surrogate children through commercial agreements in California has won her claim that the NHS should pay for the treatment.
The woman, identified only as XX, cannot bear her own children following earlier medical mistreatment.
Continue reading...UK charity failed to safeguard aid worker killed in Syria – report
Alan Henning, from Greater Manchester, was beheaded by Isis militant Jihadi John in 2014
A British charity that employed the murdered aid worker Alan Henning failed to properly safeguard him and other other volunteers on convoys to war-torn Syria, a government report has found.
Henning, 47, was beheaded by the Islamic State militant known as Jihadi John after being held captive for nine months in Syria along with other western hostages in 2014.
Continue reading...‘You aren’t getting it’: farmer urges public to stay away from fields – video
A Scottish sheep farmer has pleaded with the public to follow the government’s guidance to stay indoors to prevent putting farmers, who are ‘trying to provide for the nation’, at risk of coronavirus. Speaking in a video posted on Facebook, Emma Murdoch from New Galloway said: ‘Every gate you touch, every stile you touch, if you have the virus you are giving it to a farmer. If we are ill, how do we look after our livestock? How do we produce for the nation?'
Financial help for airlines ‘should come with strict climate conditions’
Former EU climate chief Miguel Arias Cañete fears end of Covid-19 will bring higher carbon emissions
Financial help from taxpayers to airlines hit by the coronavirus crisis must come with strict conditions on their future climate impact, the former EU climate commissioner and a group of green campaigners have said.
“It must be conditional, otherwise when we recover we will see the same or higher levels of carbon dioxide [from flying],” said Miguel Arias Cañete, the EU climate commissioner who led the bloc to the Paris agreement, in an interview with the Guardian. “We know the level of emissions we have to commit to [under Paris]. They [airlines] are worried about survival and will need lots of support, lots of liquidity – that gives them a big responsibility.”
Continue reading...Coronavirus embarrassed Trump and Bolsonaro. But the global right will fight back | Paulo Gerbaudo
Science and welfare are at the heart of this crisis – which is bad for right-wing populists. But they won’t be wrongfooted for long
The populist right has built their electoral strength on boisterousness and arrogant self-confidence. Yet, amid the coronavirus pandemic, figures such as Donald Trump, Boris Johnson and Jair Bolsonaro seem to be confounded. They are either desperately clinging to a narrative of normality (it’s just a flu), or have already been forced to make embarrassing U-turns acknowledging the gravity of the crisis.
Boris Johnson had to abandon the government’s “herd immunity” strategy when new scientific evidence made apparent its horrific human cost. He recently tested positive for the virus and is now accused of complacency and lack of leadership. In Italy, Matteo Salvini, leader of the far-right League party and former deputy prime minister, appears downbeat, unable to wear the robes of the responsible statesman this emergency calls for; his unabashed criticism of government has even earned him the label “unpatriotic”. In France, Marine Le Pen seems to have vanished altogether from the media, while Bolsonaro’s persistence in denying the crisis is leaving him increasingly isolated.
Continue reading...Covid-19: signs of hope on Edinburgh’s streets – in pictures
Pictures of rainbows have begun appearing in windows up and down the country as families and households work to stay positive during the lockdown. The posters, many drawn or painted by children, often contain messages of support for the NHS. Further, inspired by the popular children’s book We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen, teddy bears have also been on display. Photographer Murdo MacLeod went on a hunt of his own on the streets of Edinburgh
Continue reading...UK care home staff ‘at breaking point’ as coronavirus cases rise
Care workers and homes report insufficient PPE and lack of clear government guidance
Britain’s care homes are in danger of being overwhelmed by the coronavirus, with staff warning they are at “breaking point” and the country’s biggest charitable provider revealing confirmed or suspected cases in more than half of its facilities.
MHA, which runs more than 220 facilities, said 750 of its staff – more than one in ten – are unable to work, and that confirmed deaths from the disease are rising.
Continue reading...How will the UK’s £75m coronavirus repatriation work?
Key questions around the government’s plan to rescue 300,000 stranded Britons
The government has announced a £75m rescue mission to repatriate an estimated 300,000 British stranded abroad because of the coronavirus outbreak. How will this work and who will be selected for a flight home?
Continue reading...Scottish lawyers call plan to suspend jury trials ‘kneejerk reaction’
Courtroom lawyers say plans designed to fight Covid-19 are ‘premature, disproportionate and ill advised’
Lawyers have attacked plans to suspend jury trials for up to 18 months in Scotland to cope with the coronavirus crisis as a “knee-jerk reaction instigated by panic”.
The Scottish government is pushing through a swathe of emergency powers to help the criminal justice system and public adapt to the pandemic in a bill expected to be approved by Holyrood on Wednesday in a single day.
Continue reading...Coronavirus: Briton returns to UK on repatriation flight from Peru – video
John McNamee, 32, returned to the UK on Tuesday after two weeks in an Airbnb in Lima while the whole of Peru has been under strict lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic. More than 1,000 Britons had registered with the UK embassy in Peru for assistance in returning home due to a near total absence of commercial flights and McNamee was one of about 200 on the first repatriation flight out of the country
Continue reading...Couple live-streams wedding during coronavirus lockdown – video
A ban on weddings, and other public events did not deter one couple from 'tying the knot' in Slough over the weekend. While it wasn't a legally recognised ceremony, David Howell and Brenda Rolfe made vows to each other in front of their pastor who appeared on a YouTube live stream. After the ceremony guests were invited to the wedding reception on the Zoom app, and asked to wear wedding attire (from the waist up at least) and bring cake to eat
Continue reading...Hampshire 112-year-old officially recognised as world’s oldest man
Bob Weighton presented with certificate at assisted living home where he is isolating
A Hampshire resident has been officially recognised as the world’s oldest man by Guinness World Records.
Bob Weighton, who is 112 years and two days old, was presented with his certificate by staff at the assisted living home where he lives, while keeping the appropriate distance because he is isolating.
Continue reading...Family’s lockdown adaptation of Les Misérables song goes viral – video
A family from Kent who shared a video of their living room performance of a lockdown-themed adaptation of a Les Misérables song have become a sensation online. Ben and Danielle Marsh and their four children changed the lyrics of One Day More to reflect common complaints during the Covid-19 lockdown. They say the video, which has gone viral, was intended to give friends and family a laugh during this stressful time
Continue reading...If coronavirus sinks the eurozone, the ‘frugal four’ will be to blame | David Adler and Jerome Roos
The Dutch-led opposition to a ‘coronabond’ to raise funds for nations hardest-hit by the pandemic is self-defeating
Last Thursday, the leaders of the European Union convened a video conference to deliberate the escalating Covid-19 crisis. On the agenda was a simple proposal co-signed by nine different eurozone governments: the “coronabond”, a new type of public debt instrument backed by all the members of the currency union as they come together to combat the virus.
After a long decade of crisis fighting in the eurozone – pitting north against south, creditor against borrower – the proposal marked a rare display of unity, and the meeting was a perfect opportunity to ratify it. Issued collectively, the “coronabond” would drive down the borrowing costs of some of Europe’s most heavily affected countries, staving off another sovereign debt crisis and freeing up much-needed resources to invest in public health and economic recovery. “We are all facing a symmetric external shock,” the proposal read, “and we are collectively accountable for an effective and united European response.”
Continue reading...Coronavirus live news: rise in Italy, US and France deaths takes global confirmed toll past 40,000
Worldwide confirmed cases pass 800,000 as Spain and Russia also report record single-day death tolls and Mexico wakes to state of emergency
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Do you ever run out of questions, you people? Trump asks a room full of reporters.
Trump is talking about the impeachment. “They probably illegally impeached me... you don’t hear much about that nowadays because everyone’s talking about the virus,” which he is happy about, the US president says.
“The democrats their whole live their whole being their whole existence was to try and get me out of office any way they can even if it was a phony deal.”
"I think I'm getting A pluses now for how I handled myself during a phony impeachment," Trump says.
Continue reading...UK police warned against ‘overreach’ in use of virus lockdown powers
Exclusive: policing chiefs seek to set out legal powers forces have in coronavirus lockdown
Police chiefs are drawing up new guidance warning forces not to overreach their lockdown enforcement powers after withering criticism of controversial tactics to stop the spread of coronavirus, the Guardian has learned.
The intervention comes amid growing concern that some forces are going beyond their legal powers to stop the spread of Covid-19, with one issuing a summons to a household for shopping for non-essential items and another telling locals that exercise was “limited to an hour a day”.
Continue reading...Extend Brexit transition by years over coronavirus, UK told
European People’s party says it hopes ‘common sense will prevail over ideology’
The largest group in the European parliament has urged the UK government to do the “responsible thing” and extend the Brexit transition period, as coronavirus plays havoc with the timetable for an EU-UK deal.
The centre-right European People’s party (EPP), which unites the parties of 11 EU leaders, including Angela Merkel and Leo Varadkar, issued a statement on Monday calling on the government to extend the Brexit transition beyond the end of the year.
Continue reading...NHS nurse applauded by family as she returns from work amid coronavirus crisis – video
An NHS nurse working during the coronavirus outbreak in the UK received a standing ovation from her family as she returned home from a shift.
Her son shared a video on Twitter and said: 'We as a family have been welcoming our mum home from work as a hero. She is a nurse in the NHS in Britain and is working so hard every day! We will continue to do this every time she returns home from work'
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