Watchdog says intelligence officers destroyed documents despite being told to keep them
A secretive Scotland Yard intelligence unit shredded a large number of documents after a public inquiry was set up into the undercover infiltration of political groups, a watchdog has found.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) announced on Wednesday that it had found that documents had been destroyed despite an instruction that they had to be preserved.
Continue reading...Kay Rufai’s portraits of smiling black boys from south London came out of an initiative that investigated the lack of mental health provisions for black teenagers. The photographs will be on display at Brixton Village
Continue reading...Man, whose identity is suppressed in New Zealand, will appeal against both his conviction and his life sentence
The man found guilty of the murder of British backpacker Grace Millane will appeal his conviction and life sentence, lawyers said on Wednesday.
In November a jury of seven women and five men took just five hours to unanimously agree that the accused, whose name is suppressed, murdered Millane in his hotel room after the pair met on a date in Auckland’s CBD.
Continue reading...Legislation to stop ‘vexatious’ claims excludes alleged crimes by military personnel in Northern Ireland
A five-year time limit on bringing prosecutions against soldiers and veterans who have served abroad – except in “exceptional circumstances” – is to be imposed under legislation introduced by the government.
Clauses in the overseas operations (service personnel and veterans) bill would protect serving and former military personnel from what the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, claimed was a “vexatious” cycle of claims and re-investigations.
Continue reading...Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak delivered a coronavirus update to the UK on Tuesday where the chancellor announced that £330bn of guaranteed loans would be made available for businesses, among a number of other loans for smaller businesses. Johnson meanwhile said that ‘we must act like a wartime government’
British-Iranian dual national required to wear ankle brace and stay close to parents’ home
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian dual national, has been temporarily released from Evin prison on Tehran, but will be required to wear an ankle brace and not move more than 300 metres from her parents’ home.
Her two-week release came after weeks of family and diplomatic pressure on the Iranian judicial authorities to accept she was in vulnerable position in jail as the threat of coronavirus spread through Iran’s prison system.
Continue reading...The company is prioritising five categories of goods which it classifies as essential products
Online retail giant Amazon is stopping sellers from sending non-essential items to its UK and US warehouses until 5 April, to make space for vital items needed by its customers during the coronavirus outbreak.
Amazon wrote to its third-party sellers, some of whom use the company’s logistics to store and dispatch their products, to inform them that stocks of medical supplies and certain household items are running low due to increased demand from online shoppers.
Continue reading...Border issue and other matters discussed in conference call with Germany, France and UK
Turkey has pressed European leaders to make fresh cash pledges to prevent tens of thousands of refugees from leaving the country and trying to reach Europe amid a Russian-Syrian offensive in north-west Syria.
After intense bombardment in Idlib province last month, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, encouraged thousands of refugees in the country to move on towards the Greek islands and the Baltics, in a repeat of the surge to Europe in 2015.
Continue reading...Cross-Whitehall team set up in 2017 in response to growing threat of foreign interference
The UK government has established a cross-Whitehall body to monitor the threat from foreign spies, it has been revealed.
The Joint State Threats Assessments Team (JSTAT) was set up in 2017 in response to the growing threat of espionage and subversion by foreign powers.
Continue reading...England’s deputy chief medical officer does not rule out further curbs; Ohio primary polls ordered to close; France in lockdown; WHO urges widespread testing. Follow the latest updates
Iran has temporarily freed a total of 85,000 prisoners, including political prisoners, a spokesman for its judiciary said on Tuesday, adding that the prisons were responding to the threat of a coronavirus epidemic in jails.
“Some 50% of those released are security-related prisoners . Also in the jails we have taken precautionary measures to confront the outbreak,” the spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili.
The #Iranian government feels it is appropriate to release 80k+ prisoners due to #Covid_19 ,including murderers&drug dealers,but continuously refuse to release the innocent political prisoners,because they hold too much value as bargaining chips #freeanoosheh
On the island of Jamaica, political and social messages have long been spread through the dancehalls and music, and so it is with coronavirus.
Just days after the island’s first confirmed case, an educational single, New Hail, was released to teach listeners how to avoid spreading the virus.
Mi just ah think, we cyan a guh roun’ and touch touch people like we used to. Then me link wid one of my G dem - and you know da likkle supm deh weh we ah rub off big finga? Mi seh dah hail deh now, it haffi guh cut out. Because dis nuh good fi we health, right now. Right deh so now, di song pop inna mi head, like yow, we need fi hail wid we foot enuh.
It a affect yuh, and it nuh care ‘bout race, riches or gender. A nuh everything make fi gimmick and joke ‘bout. As an artiste, I’m all about the fun, but this is not a fun thing and me coulda never do a dance fi some people siddung and joke and laugh about. Yuh know how much street dance cancel over this thing, how many people livelihood affected? Yuh know how much a my show dem get cancel because no travelling nah gwaan?
Continue reading...BAT seems to be running accounts to promote e-cigarettes after crackdown on hiring influencers
British American Tobacco (BAT) is marketing e-cigarettes and heated cigarettes with pictures of attractive models and using hashtags such as “I dare you to try it”, despite a crackdown last year after it paid social media influencers to promote its products.
BAT had come under fire after hiring young models to sell its products despite having an explicit policy banning under-25s from appearing in adverts.
Continue reading...Fifty London theatres and 250 throughout UK to close, says industry body
All major British theatre will cease and several cultural institutions will close or postpone shows as the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the UK’s arts and culture sector grows following the government’s call for “drastic action” to halt its spread.
The Society of London Theatre (Solt) and UK Theatre, the industry body that represents nearly every British theatre, announced that, as of Monday night, all its members would close their doors. The groups represent about 50 London theatres and almost 250 others throughout the UK.
Continue reading...Tech giant conspired with wholesalers Tech Data and Ingram Micro to align prices, says watchdog
Apple has been fined a record €1.1bn (£990m) by antitrust regulators in France for engaging in anti-competitive agreements with two wholesalers. The penalty imposed on the US tech giant is the largest ever handed out to a company by the Autorité de la Concurrence.
Commenting on the move, Isabelle de Silva, head of the French competition watchdog, said: “Apple and its two wholesalers agreed to not compete against each other and prevent resellers from promoting competition between each other, thus sterilising the wholesale market for Apple products.”
Continue reading...Man, 40, held after two women, aged 43 and 52, stabbed to death in neighbouring homes
A 40-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murdering two women who were stabbed to death in neighbouring homes.
Police found a 43-year-old woman with fatal stab wounds after being called to a house in the suburb of Moseley, in Birmingham, on Monday.
Continue reading...Director-general of World Health Organization says ‘We cannot fight a fire blindfolded’ and urges governments to test public; US measures ramped up; Germany closes shops. Follow the latest news
Angela Merkel has announced a raft of further drastic measures to curb the spread of the Covid-19 virus in Germany, including the closure of places of worship, playgrounds and non-essential shops.
Speaking at a press conference in Berlin on Monday afternoon, the German chancellor issued new guidelines for restricting social gatherings, which the country’s federal state are expected to enforce in the coming days. She said:
These are measures that we have never had in our country, but they are necessary to reduce the number of illnesses and severe illnesses and avoid overwhelming our health services.
The more individuals stick to these rules, the quicker we will get through this phase. The benchmark [for these measures] isn’t what we want to do, but what scientists tell us is the right response”.
Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, says he will close his country’s border to foreigners. Only four Canadian airports will be allowed to accept international flights, he said.
The closure will not apply to commerce or trade, Trudeau said.
HAPPENING NOW: I’m speaking from Rideau Cottage about the rapidly evolving COVID-19 outbreak and announcing significant new measures we’re taking to protect your health and keep you safe. Watch live: https://t.co/ZWtPbeNPVk
Continue reading...PM tells Britons to avoid pubs, restaurants and non-essential travel but school stay open for now as chief medical officer says ‘next few months are going to be extraordinarily difficult for NHS’
Johnson is wrapping up now.
He says he does not remember government announcing a change like this in his lifetime. He does not think there has been one since wartime, he says.
Q: Are you saying elderly MPs and peers must stay away from parliament?
Johnson says this is a universal announcement, intended for everybody. There are no exceptions, he says.
This is not two weeks and we’re done. This is a significant period of time.
Continue reading...Sharp losses recorded after US interest rate cut, as Bank of England hints at further support to combat turmoil
The FTSE 100 fell below 5,000 points on Monday and trading on Wall Street was suspended for the third time in a week as markets were gripped by mounting concerns over the threat of a global recession, despite a coordinated effort by central banks to protect growth and jobs.
In an escalation of the worst turmoil since the 2008 financial crisis, stock markets suffered further sharp losses on Monday despite dramatic action taken by the US central bank late on Sunday in an attempt to limit the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Continue reading...Boris Johnson has announced new measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus outbreak in Britain. The measures include whole household isolation and avoiding mass gatherings
RAF has launched no attacks in Syria or Iraq since September, but controversy continues over civilian casuality numbers
Britain’s five-year air war against Isis has quietly come to an end, with official figures revealing no bombs have been dropped since September – yet the MoD still acknowledges only one civilian casualty in the entire conflict.
The data shows that over a period longer than the first world war, 4,215 bombs and missiles were launched from Reaper drones or RAF jets in Syria and Iraq, and a wide discrepancy has emerged between UK and US estimates of the number of civilians killed.
Continue reading...Striker’s family criticise Civil Aviation Authority for length of investigation into death
The family of the footballer Emiliano Sala, who died in a plane crash 14 months ago, has strongly criticised the length of time it is taking the UK aviation regulator to investigate the tragedy.
Relatives of the Argentinian striker are also angry at what they see as a lack of teeth from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in prosecuting the sort of unlicensed flight that Sala was taking at the time of his death.
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