Category Archives: UK news

Firm advised by ex-foreign secretary funding Russian fraudster’s legal case

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17 Arm, advised by Malcolm Rifkind, Ken Macdonald and others, is financing claim by Alexander Tugushev

A firm advised by a former Conservative foreign secretary and a former chief prosecutor is funding a large-scale legal action in the English courts by a convicted Russian fraudster once banned from Britain.

The firm, 17 Arm, which is advised by Malcolm Rifkind, Ken Macdonald and other establishment figures, is financing the legal claim by Alexander Tugushev against a Russian billionaire in an expensive and lengthy court battle.

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First wild stork chicks to hatch in UK in centuries poised to emerge

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More than 100 birds have been living wild in England as part of conservation scheme

The first wild stork chicks to hatch in Britain for centuries are expected to emerge next month after three pairs of the huge white birds built nests in West Sussex.

Disdaining platforms constructed especially for them, the storks have created their stick nests in the heights of oak trees on the Knepp estate, the centre for a reintroduction project.

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UK will need to extend Brexit transition, Merkel ally warns Britain

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UK will need extension to agree Brexit deal as pandemic derails talks

Boris Johnson must extend the UK’s transition out of the EU for up to two years to avoid compounding the economic damage of the coronavirus pandemic with a hugely disruptive and disorderly Brexit, according to a close ally of Angela Merkel.

In an interview with the Observer, Norbert Röttgen, chair of the Bundestag’s foreign affairs committee, said it was now impossible to see how the UK and other EU countries could agree even a minimal outline free trade agreement this year because the talks were so behind schedule.

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Why Britain’s 2.5 billion paper coffee cups are an eco disaster

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With only one in 400 cups recycled, and even those barely ‘green’, the hunt is on for an alternative

Britain gets through 2.5 billion of them every year, and the number is set to increase. But despite a growing clamour for coffee chains to make their cups more environment-friendly, the vast majority are used only once, which critics say is a considerable waste of natural resources.

One company vying to produce a truly recyclable alternative claims that the UK’s caffeine addiction is responsible for the felling of a million trees a year. An independent study it commissioned suggests that almost 1.5 billion litres of water go into making the cups the UK uses annually.

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Alone and disconnected: the woman left unable to call her dying partner

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Problems with internet and phone service were once just an inconvenience. Now they can prove to be catastrophic

Cut off by telecoms company, pensioner missed call as partner died of Covid-19

Barbara Parry* arranged to switch her phone and broadband account from Sky to Now TV in March, a week before lockdown. Instead, she was left incommunicado as her line was cancelled and her phone number reallocated.

During the following four weeks, as she pleaded in vain to be reconnected, her partner contracted Covid-19. He died four days later in hospital. Due to the blunders by Now TV, he was unable to call Parry from his deathbed and she was unable to say goodbye. The news was broken by a relative as the hospital could not get through on her cancelled number.

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Spain’s daily death toll drops below 300 as children allowed out for first time in weeks – as it happened

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WHO clarifies ‘immunity passport’ advice; global deaths pass 200,000; Russia case tally passes 80,000; Sweden’s deputy prime-minster admits problems with strategy. This blog is now closed.

We’ve launched a new blog at the link below – head there for the latest:

Related: Coronavirus live news: Boris Johnson back in Number 10 as Trump denies he plans to fire health secretary

Here a few key developments of the past few hours at a glance:

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Johnson faces lockdown dilemma as scientists warn over grim virus data

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Prime minister returns to work on Monday to cabinet at odds over easing social distancing

The number of new cases of Covid-19 being diagnosed is still much too high to allow any easing of the lockdown soon, leading scientists have warned, as the virus death toll in UK hospitals passed 20,000 on Saturday.

The home secretary, Priti Patel, described the figure as a “terrible milestone” and a “deeply tragic and moving moment”. She said it showed the need for the British public to “stay strong” and remain at home for the foreseeable future.

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Top Tories join calls to bar Cummings from scientific advisory group

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Cross-party demand for transparency after chief adviser is revealed as attending meetings of Sage

Boris Johnson is facing cross-party calls to stop his chief adviser from attending meetings of the secret scientific group advising him on the coronavirus pandemic, as demands grow for the committee’s deliberations to be made public.

The former Brexit secretary, David Davis, is among those calling for Dominic Cummings and Ben Warner, an adviser who ran the Tories’ private election computer model, to be prevented from attending future meetings of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage).

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UK increases arms sales to repressive regimes

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Campaigners condemn government and defence exporters accused of selling weapons to states with poor human rights records

UK arms sales to repressive regimes increased by £1bn last year compared with 2018.

The increase, of more than 300%, has been condemned by arms control campaigners, who accuse the government of putting profits before human rights.

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Man arrested after gun fired at Manchester funeral

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Police let hundreds gather at ceremony for convicted criminal Clive Pinnock in ‘interests of public safety’

A man has been arrested after a gun was fired as hundreds of mourners gathered for the Manchester funeral of a criminal known as “Mr Ibiza”, despite social distancing rules.

Armed police scrambled to Gorton Cemetery in Manchester on Thursday after chaos broke out during the funeral of Clive Pinnock, 38, from Longsight, south Manchester, who died in a road crash earlier this month.

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Blasphemy to be decriminalised in Scottish hate crime bill

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New law will also offer wider protection against race, sex, age and religious discrimination

The Scottish government has published a bill that would decriminalise blasphemy, more than 175 years after the last case was prosecuted.

The devolved administration in Edinburgh said the continued criminalisation of blasphemy, which falls under hate crime laws, “no longer reflects the kind of society in which we live”.

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UK government told not to use Zoom because of China fears

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Security services said last week that videoconferencing tool was vulnerable to surveillance

Government and parliament were told by the intelligence agencies last week not to use the videoconferencing service Zoom for confidential business, due to fears it could be vulnerable to Chinese surveillance.

The quiet warnings to limit the technology came after the cabinet had used Zoom to hold a well-publicised meeting at the end of March, a decision that was defended at the time as necessary in “unprecedented circumstances”.

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Mail publisher had agenda of ‘offensive’ stories about Meghan, court told

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Duchess sues publisher of British newspapers over use of letter to father Thomas Markle

A newspaper was accused of “stirring up” issues between the Duchess of Sussex and her estranged father, Thomas Markle, then using it to justify publishing a “private and confidential” letter, a court heard.

Lawyers representing Meghan said she was distressed at the realisation that Associated Newspapers had an agenda of “intrusive and offensive” stories about her, a judge was told.

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Matt Hancock can count on powerful support if not 100,000 tests a day

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NHS chiefs and No 10 endorse the health secretary as flaws emerge in the structure he leads

Matt Hancock sounded tetchy and exhausted on Friday morning as he took to the airwaves once again to explain the latest swerve in the government’s strategy for tackling coronavirus: recruiting an army of contact-tracers in an attempt to track its spread.

Asked whether his self-imposed target of testing 100,000 people a day by the end of next week would be met, he let out a self-deprecating laugh. The health secretary knows there’s a lot in the balance: the health of millions, his standing among the public and colleagues, perhaps even his career.

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Britain running down the clock in Brexit talks, says Michel Barnier

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EU negotiator expresses frustrations at UK refusal to discuss key issues of transition

Michel Barnier has suggested the UK is running down the clock in talks over the future trade and security relationship with the EU.

The claim by the bloc’s chief negotiator during a virtual press conference at the end of a difficult week of videoconference talks was swiftly denied by the government.

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What does the leaked report tell us about the UK’s pandemic preparations?

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Leaked National Security Risk Assessment describes threats posed by flu- and non-flu-type infectious diseases

Careful analysis of the National Security Risk Assessment document illustrates how the Covid-19 pandemic represents a hybrid of two of the major threats to the UK anticipated by the British government.

The first, an influenza-type disease pandemic, predicts waves of a novel flu virus striking several months apart. This type of threat represents the basis of the UK government’s blueprint for how it would respond to a pandemic.

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Coronavirus detected on particles of air pollution

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Exclusive: Scientists examine whether this route enables infections at longer distances

Coronavirus has been detected on particles of air pollution by scientists investigating whether this could enable it to be carried over longer distances and increase the number of people infected.

The work is preliminary and it is not yet known if the virus remains viable on pollution particles and in sufficient quantity to cause disease.

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Is comparing Covid-19 death rates across Europe helpful?

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Belgium appears hardest hit on paper, but not all countries count non-hospital fatalities

Every day, the statistics bring more grim headlines: “Italian death toll passes 20,000”, “Record UK daily death toll”, “Europe’s fatalities pass 100,000”. Across the world, people await national updates on the coronavirus – and compare their country with others.

The comparison game has been especially marked in Belgium, which on paper has the unhappy title of highest number of Covid-19 deaths per capita in Europe. Belgium – population 11.5 million – has counted at least 6,675 deaths since the start of the outbreak, more than Germany, which is nearly eight times more populous.

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Lockdown leaves festivalgoers stranded on beach with sewage problem

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30 British attendees at Panama event criticise embassy and say they fear being stuck for months

It must have seemed like a dream adventure: a two-week festival on a beach in central America, camping out under the stars at night in what organisers called “paradise on Earth”.

But because of the coronavirus outbreak, a group of 30 British workers and volunteers at the festival are stranded in a makeshift camp facing nonstop rain, a difficult relationship with the British embassy, and a sewage problem.

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Parliament must keep grip on restoration costs, says watchdog

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MPs and peers told to come up with a clear plan after previous business case was rejected

MPs and peers in charge of parliament’s restoration have been told by Whitehall’s spending watchdog that they must ensure that costs do not slip amid deepening concerns about public finances in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.

The National Audit Office (NAO) has called on the group tasked with the Palace of Westminster’s multibillion-pound overhaul to take a firm grip on the process. The budget for Big Ben’s construction works alone rose by 176%, auditors said.

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