Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Dubai ruler is part of the British establishment and weathered scandals linked to his stables and daughters’ disappearance
Despite being vice-president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, 70, is very much a part of the British establishment.
The billionaire sheikh is on friendly terms with the British royal family and spends a considerable amount of time at his multiple UK residences. In June last year, just over a month after initiating proceedings against Princess Haya in the high court, he received a trophy from the Queen when one of his horses won a race at Royal Ascot.
Teacher was given 20 minutes to pack and must remain in hotel room for two weeks
Jo Davison and her partner were relaxing in their flat in Shenzhen, China, when the phone rang. She was told by the Chinese authorities that they had been exposed to the coronavirus at close proximity and that officials were on their way.
“It was terrifying. Five people in hazmats turned up at our apartment, they looked like ghostbusters,” she said. “They took swabs from our nose and throat and said they’d return in the morning so we should start packing.”
The ruler of Dubai orchestrated the abductions of two of his children – one from the streets of Cambridge – and subjected his youngest wife to a campaign of “intimidation”, a damning UK family court judgment has found.
In findings that risk destabilising diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates, a close Gulf ally of Britain, the actions of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum were described by the judge as behaviour which, on the balance of probabilities, amounted to potentially breaking English and international law.
The Guardian and other news organisations can reveal the ruling following months of private hearings and a legal dispute that reached the supreme court. It details an extraordinary family saga spanning 20 years during which the sheikh, 70, organised international kidnappings, imprisoned two of his daughters and “deprived [them] of their liberty”.
Much of the 34-page fact-finding ruling by Sir Andrew McFarlane, president of the family division of the high court in England and Wales, records the events surrounding the notorious disappearances of Princess Shamsa from Cambridge in 2000, when she was 19, and of Princess Latifa, who was seized by Indian army commandos from the Indian Ocean in 2018, when she was 32, before being forcibly returned to Dubai.
Frontline constable, 21, suspected of membership of group linked to terrorism
A Metropolitan police officer has been arrested on suspicion of being a member of a banned group linked to rightwing terrorism.
The constable, 21, was held by counter-terrorism officers on Thursday at an address in north London, where a search is being carried out. The officer, who works in “frontline policing”, has been taken to a south London police station where he remains in custody.
EU negotiator sets out main obstacles to deal, including rights convention and fishing
Michel Barnier has spoken of grave differences between the EU and the UK over their future relationship, warning that Boris Johnson’s refusal to formally commit to the European convention on human rights would limit cooperation in fighting crime.
Following the first round of negotiations between the two 100-strong teams, the EU’s chief negotiator said there were many “serious divergences” between the two sides.
Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including the Commons health committee questioning Prof Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer
Boris Johnson and Prof Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England and the UK government’s chief medical adviser have both been speaking about coronavirus this morning. Whitty gave evidence to the Commons health committee for about an hour and a half, and Johnson gave a much shorter interview to ITV’s This Morning. They did not contract each other in any way, but there was a marked difference in tone. Whitty was calm and factual, in no way alarmist, but also very honest about the fact that coronavirus is likely to lead to a significant disruption to normal life, and particularly to the NHS, for a short period later this year. In contrast, Johnson was much keener to gloss over the downsides and assure viewers that the UK was going to get through this “in good shape”.
Perhaps this is a sophisticated “good cop, bad cop” routine. But it is more likely that Johnson is just congenitally programmed for optimism, and resistant to anything that might make him sound like a “gloomster”. People expect their leaders to be positive, and at the moment Johnson is getting mostly plaudits for his handling of this crisis, but there may come a point where he does not seem to be acknowledging the risk.
The most important message at this stage, as we start to see the spread, is number one, wash your hands, but number two, as far as possible, it should be business as usual for the overwhelming majority of people in this country, for the simple reason this is a great country, massively strong economy, the British public I think understands completely the balance of risk involved. The scientists have done a very good job of explaining to us what the risks are, and they are really quite small. They are appreciable, but quite small. And people can see that this country is going to get through this in good shape.
One of the theories is perhaps you could take it in on the chin, take it all in one go and allow the disease to move through the population without really taking as many draconian measures. I think we need to strike a balance.
I think it would be better if we take all the measures that we can now just to stop the peak of the disease being as difficult for the NHS as it might. I think there are things we may be able to do.
At the moment what they are telling me is, actually, slightly counter-intuitively, things like closing schools and stopping big gatherings don’t work as well perhaps as people think in stopping the spread.
Let me clear that up immediately because it is very important that we are transparent, people understand that we are transparent.
Public Health England needs to be absolutely sure about the diagnosis of these cases so what they are doing is they are immediately identifying the region where they think there’s an incidence and then within 24 hours confirming the exact location to be sure that we have got the right thing.
The bit of the system which will come under pressure first will be those conditions that require people to have oxygen and particularly to have critical care beds, and that bit, I think, will come under pressure at quite an early stage if we have a high-end-of-the-range epidemic for this.
Q: Will coronavirus affect the talks?
Barnier says there are a lot of people at these meetings. At most there are 200 people at a meeting. But the EU will be taking steps to protect people.
We have been informed that one of our employees at 8 Canada Square has been diagnosed with COVID-19. This colleague is under medical supervision and has self-isolated. We are working closely with the health authorities.
We are deep-cleaning the floor where our colleague worked and shared areas of the building. Colleagues on that floor, and others who came into contact with him, have been advised to work at home. Based on medical and official advice the building remains open and operates as normal.
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) issued a statement warning businesses to not exploit the coronavirus outbreak and take advantage of people. The CMA said it will take enforcement action against companies that are charging excessive prices or making misleading claims about the efficacy of protective equipment.
CMA chairman Lord Tyrie said: “We will do whatever we can to act against rip-offs and misleading claims, using any or all of our tools; and where we can’t act, we’ll advise government on further steps they could take, if necessary.”
The next leader should focus on building support among young people, families and precarious workers around urban centres
The candidate who secures the mandate of the Labour membership in April will require humility and subtlety. Humility, because the size of the Tory majority is formidable; subtlety, because the electorate is changing in ways that suggest there is no easy path to revive Labour’s vote share.
To win the most seats at the next election, let alone form a majority government, the new leader will need to engineer a breakthrough in several parts of the country simultaneously, from politically ambivalent Cornwall to the new SNP strongholds in Scotland. Along the way, of course, large chunks of support will need to be clawed back in the so-called “red wall” areas of the post-industrial north and Midlands, which turned so decisively blue in 2019.
In South Korea, those worried about new coronavirus cases can trace the commute and daily movements of infected people before their diagnosis by logging on to an app. In China too, you can track new cases as they are confirmed in real time and find out whether you have been on a flight or in a train with somebody who was later diagnosed.
In the UK, however, as confirmed cases jumped by 36 – the biggest surge so far – the Department of Health and Social Care announced on Twitter that it would no longer be tweeting their general locations, let alone their travelling habits, “due to the number of new cases”. Instead, it planned to put out a regional breakdown once a week, it said.
Covid-19, first seen in Wuhan, China, last year, has infected tens of thousands of people and, as of Wednesday 4 March, killed more than 3,000 people globally.
As the world faces rising numbers of infections, the Guardian's health editor, Sarah Boseley, discusses what we can do to prevent it spreading
Boris Johnson has given the government’s strongest backing yet for Priti Patel in the wake of fresh bullying allegations, insisting the home secretary was doing an “outstanding job”, as Jeremy Corbyn demanded an independent inquiry into whether she had broken the ministerial code.
Patel was alongside Johnson on the frontbench during prime minister’s questions as he told the Commons she was keeping the country safe by increasing the number of police officers on the streets and bringing in a system to “tackle our migration crisis”.
Home secretary may have to give evidence under oath if case comes to tribunal
Sir Philip Rutnam, the senior civil servant who resigned on Saturday claiming he was bullied and forced from office, has begun legal action against the government over his treatment by Priti Patel, his union has told the Guardian.
Legal documents name the home secretary, the Home Office and the Cabinet Office as respondents, the FDA said. It would mean that Patel will be expected to give evidence under oath if the case comes to tribunal.
Police are investigating an alleged race-hate attack on a Singaporean student in London by a group of people who are said to have shouted about the coronavirus before beating him up.
Officers said they were looking into reports of an attack on Oxford Street at about 9.30pm last Monday, after Jonathan Mok shared pictures of his battered face and wrote about his ordeal in a Facebook post.
Thanks for following the blog, which we’re closing now. Don’t worry though, we’ve started a new one helmed by my colleague Helen Sullivan so you can keep up with all the developments.
The drop in the Australian share market despite the US Fed rate cut raises questions over the ability of central banks to halt the fall in share prices, according to Michael McCarthy of CMC Markets in Sydney. The moves in Australia follow late falls on Wall Street as the main indices failed to rally on the emergency Fed stimulus.
The market reaction to the Fed’s decisive action is worrying for investors. Major US indices dropped 2.5% to 3%. There is now a question over the ability of monetary policy to halt plummeting asset prices. The dangers of negative wealth effects from stock market falls adds to concern about the global outlook. The seeming ineffectiveness of further monetary easing will almost certainly lead to further calls on governments to push the fiscal stimulus button.
Bonds rallied again, pushing yields to fresh all-time lows. Gold found a firmer footing to rally by 3% as the US dollar slipped. In an illustration of the unusual conditions cryptocurrencies were among the least volatile markets.
Publicity will be increased about the need for good hygiene measures (handwashing and “catch it, bin it, kill it”) and for workers to stay at home for the full duration of their illness.
Wolf Hall novelist adds that centuries on from Henry VIII, a female royal such as the Duchess of Sussex is ‘still perceived as public property’
Hilary Mantel has said that racism has been an element in the “invective” against Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.
The novelist, who is about to publish the third part in her trilogy about the life of Thomas Cromwell, The Mirror and the Light, was asked by the BBC if Meghan had been a victim of racism. She said that “racism is a factor” in the criticism the duchess has faced since marrying Prince Harry.
Officials claim British-Iranian dual national has not been affected by coronavirus
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is being offered temporary release from Evin prison in Tehran due to the risk of the coronavirus outbreak reaching Iran’s jails.
The news was confirmed by the Iranian ambassador to the UK, Hamid Baeidinejad, and by Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s constituency MP in north-west London, Tulip Siddiq.