French health minister confirms death of man from virus that has killed more than 1,500 people
Europe has recorded its first coronavirus fatality, a Chinese tourist in France, it has been confirmed.
The death of the 80-year-old man, who was visiting Paris with his daughter when he was taken to hospital three weeks ago after falling ill, also marks the first coronavirus mortality outside Asia since the start of the outbreak.
Continue reading...Piece, which appears to be a nod to Valentine’s Day, has graffiti scrawled across it
A piece of street art in Bristol that was this week confirmed as being by Banksy has been vandalised.
A picture shared on social media showed “BCC wankers” scrawled across the artwork, which shows a young girl firing a slingshot filled with flowers.
Continue reading...French president says EU must have effective defence policy, larger budget and integrated capital markets
Europe’s middle classes will only remain reconciled to the European Union if it becomes more integrated, with an effective defence policy, a larger budget and integrated capital markets, and is shorn of vetoes that slow decision-making, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, has said.
Setting out his 10-year vision for Europe on Saturday, Macron said he still wanted to see the UK involved in defence, but urged European countries to recognise that in terms of social welfare, Europe had a different values to the US.
Continue reading...Mark Esper says countries using Chinese technology will put intelligence cooperation at risk
The US defence secretary, Mark Esper, warned that US alliances including the future of Nato were in jeopardy if European countries went ahead with using Chinese Huawei technology in their 5G networks.
Esper also warned future intelligence cooperation would be at risk, as the US would no longer be certain its communications networks were secure.
Continue reading...How list is compiled also to be reviewed amid claims it blights life chances and is discriminatory
Hundreds of young people have been removed from a controversial police list of alleged gang members after claims that it is discriminatory and blighted their life chances, the Guardian has learned.
The Metropolitan police’s gangs matrix, which the force says is a vital tool in tackling violence in London, has been found to be breaking data laws.
Continue reading...Some Democratic observers fear their party is following the British left’s road to defeat
British politics rarely intrudes into a US presidential election. In 1988, Joe Biden was forced to abandon his first bid for the White House after it emerged that he had quoted without attribution a chunk of oratory from the then Labour party leader, Neil Kinnock. In 2016, Donald Trump deployed Nigel Farage as an occasional mascot on the stump, the Brexit victory in that year’s referendum deemed a happy omen that populists could defy the odds and win. In 2020, a third name has surfaced, offered as a cautionary tale to a Democratic party that this week confirmed a septuagenarian radical socialist and longtime backbench rebel as its frontrunner. That name is Jeremy Corbyn.
“I don’t want the Democratic party of the United States to be the Labour party of the United Kingdom,” James Carville, the victorious manager of Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign, told audiences on cable TV and in New Hampshire this week, warning that if Democrats nominate Bernie Sanders, they will almost certainly be following Corbyn’s Labour party to defeat.
Continue reading...Police investigate after video on social media appears to show near-miss close to where teen died
A police investigation has been launched after a video on social media appeared to show a car being driven on the wrong side of the road outside an RAF base near where teenager Harry Dunn was killed.
Northamptonshire police said it is “aware of footage shared on social media on Friday relating to a near-miss close to RAF Croughton” and “a full investigation is being carried out and witnesses are sought”.
Continue reading...Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including Boris Johnson chairing a meeting of the new cabinet and further government reshuffle developments
Q: If the UK goes into recession, how would that affect your plans?
Long-Bailey says the economy is vulnerable because the economic model is broken.
Q: How much would your policy on freedom of movement affect the wages of workers?
Long-Bailey says the UK will be out of the single market. She says she wants an immigration system based on values, not on targets.
Continue reading...Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, including the latest eurozone growth figures
Andrew Kenningham of Capital Economics has told clients:
“We think the economy will continue to flirt with recession in the first half of this year.”
It’s hard to put too much gloss on a stagnating economy, but the German government has tried to strike an optimistic-ish tone this morning.
Berlin’s economy ministry says Germany’s economy is going through a weak phase, but it’s encouraged that business sentiment has improved.
Continue reading...Parents were on way to hospital when mother went into labour on busy motorway
A new mother has thanked emergency staff for helping her as she gave birth to a baby boy in the front seat of a car parked on a motorway lane while traffic whizzed past.
Jayne Rowland, 36, a teaching assistant, was on her way to hospital when she went into the final stages of labour on the M5 in Somerset.
Continue reading...The 32-year-old had been missing for a week after she went walking in Mount Aspiring national park
The body of the missing British hiker Stephanie Simpson has been found more than a week after she went missing, New Zealand police have said.
The discovery was made at about 1.40pm on Friday in the Pyke Creek area, a region in which police had devoted significant search resources, including two dog teams, 12 specialist search and rescue staff, thermal imaging drones and a helicopter.
Continue reading...With rightwing demagogues gaining power and public debate getting nastier, many are calling for a return to a more sensible politics. But this approach has its own fatal flaws. By Benjamin Moffitt
You’ve probably heard some version of it in recent years. Maybe you’ve even said or thought it yourself. “Politicians are always fighting!” “Politics has become totally irrational!” “Why can’t politicians just compromise, find some consensus and solve our problems?”
For many people, these views have come to seem like basic common sense. In this era of extreme partisanship, the argument goes, what we need is more unity and moderation to bring us together. And if there is one group of politicians who have been blamed for the sorry state we find ourselves in, it is populists.
Continue reading...Rishi Sunak replaces Javid, who refused the PM’s request to sack all his advisers
Sajid Javid has resigned as chancellor after Boris Johnson asked him to sack all of his advisers in a move by No 10 to seize control of the Treasury.
Javid has been replaced by his deputy, Rishi Sunak, the chief secretary to the Treasury, who is a favourite within No 10.
Continue reading...Steve Rotheram says far-right Italian politician is not welcome in the city
Italy’s far-right leader, Matteo Salvini, has denied he is going to Liverpool after the mayor of the city said “the only audience he’ll find here is one that won’t be shy in telling him what they think of fascists like him.”
The mayor of Liverpool, Steve Rotheram, said Salvini’s “division and hate” would not be welcomed in the city after reports Lega nel Mondo, a global network of the League established by Salvini in 2018, was holding an event in March.
Continue reading...Conservation work on Elizabeth Tower is ‘more complex than anticipated’
The repair bill to fix parliament’s Elizabeth Tower that houses Big Ben has increased by £18.6m to nearly £80m following the discovery of asbestos, second world war bomb damage and pollution problems.
Conservation work on the 177-year-old structure, which is supposed to be completed at the end of next year, led to the discovery by the project team after intrusive surveys, parliamentary officials have disclosed.
Continue reading...Research shows abundance at sites in Europe has plunged by up to 80% in two decades
Two scientific studies of the number of insects splattered by cars have revealed a huge decline in abundance at European sites in two decades.
The research adds to growing evidence of what some scientists have called an “insect apocalypse”, which is threatening a collapse in the natural world that sustains humans and all life on Earth. A third study shows plummeting numbers of aquatic insects in streams.
Continue reading...Chevon Brown was sent to country where he has no close relatives after committing a driving offence
When Chevon Brown was 21 he was convicted of dangerous driving and spent seven months in prison. He admits he was speeding at over 100 miles an hour in an uninsured car and acknowledges he behaved irresponsibly, but feels the consequences have been wholly disproportionate.
As a result of that conviction he was deported to Jamaica a year ago, a country he left as a teenager and where he has no close relatives. He has been separated from his father and three younger brothers in Oxford, and is struggling to readjust to life without his family.
Continue reading...Artist pays tribute to collector Robert Tibbles, who was his first customer in 1989
In 1989, 28-year-old Robert Tibbles bought a medicine cabinet artwork full of bottles of pills for £600. His friends derided it as “crap” and told Tibbles he had been ripped off and should return it.
On Thursday that medicine cabinet, called Bodies by Damien Hirst, is expected to sell for between £1.2m and £1.8m in an auction of Tibbles’ entire Cool Britannia collection, which also includes works by Michael Craig-Martin and Gilbert & George.
Continue reading...World meteorological agencies decide when a storm gets a name and what to call it
In Europe storms are named as a joint enterprise between the UK’s Met Office, Ireland’s Met Éireann and the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI). The list is set in advance, runs in alphabetical order and usually alternates between names associated with male and female gender. In 2020, Ellen, Francis, Gerda and Hugh are to follow Storm Ciara and Storm Dennis in turn.
According to the Met Office, the decision for a storm to be named is “based on a combination of both the impact the weather may have, and the likelihood of those impacts occurring. A storm will be named when it has the potential to cause an amber or red weather warning.”
Continue reading...Request caused by apparent tech glitch came when Italian Giovanni Palmiero applied to stay in UK post-Brexit
A 101-year-old Italian man who has been in London since 1966 was asked to get his parents to confirm his identity by the Home Office after he applied to stay in the country post-Brexit.
In what appears to be a computer glitch the Home Office thought he was a one-year-old child.
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