Defence lawyer says ‘scary’ pattern of allegations shows former first minister must be acquitted
Alex Salmond’s lawyer has told jurors at the former first minister’s trial that the entire sexual assault and attempted rape case is “murky” and “smells bad”.
Gordon Jackson QC, Salmond’s defence advocate, told the jury of nine women and six men in Edinburgh they had to use their “rational minds” and acquit the former first minister of all 13 charges against him.
Continue reading...Walls have been raised and societies quarantined as people enter a new reality
It should not have come as a surprise. Life had already been upended in China. Iran and Italy have been reeling for a month. And yet it still felt sudden, this week, when walls were raised across the world, entire societies were quarantined and billions of people realised they had crossed a dividing line: from life before coronavirus to after.
After weeks of governments prevaricating over whether to ban mass gatherings, close businesses or seal borders, restrictions came in a flurry. “We are at war,” announced the French president, Emmanuel Macron. But without adequate weapons to fight the virus, let alone enough hospital beds or ventilators, this was the week the world beat a tactical retreat.
Continue reading...Dawn Bilbrough, a critical care nurse, appeals to people to stop panic buying after she was unable to find basic food items in her supermarket following a 48-hour shift. She urges people to remember that NHS staff like her are the ones looking after patients and need food to stay healthy
Continue reading...Welsh star’s song Something Beautiful played on Radio 2 to ‘lift spirits during these troubling times’
Duffy, the pop star who recently said she retreated from public life due to a kidnap and rape ordeal, has debuted her first new music since the announcement.
Related: Duffy has made peace. But social media won't let her
Continue reading...Cities across Britain have emptied as people adjust to social distancing and stay indoors to halt coronavirus
Continue reading...Ministers and operators to slim timetables after Covid-19 causes 70% fall in passengers
Train services are to be pared back across Britain from Monday as passengers are urged to stop all non-essential travel to slow the spread of coronavirus.
Ministers and rail operators across England, Scotland and Wales have agreed to make progressive cuts to timetables, with the aim of keeping core services running – but reflecting a drop of almost 70% in passenger numbers since the outbreak started.
Continue reading...Alliance of 16 anti-racism groups says report on scandal proves ‘institutional failures to understand racism’
An investigation into the extent of institutional racism within the Home Office must be launched in response to a damning report on the Windrush scandal, an alliance of anti-racism groups has urged.
The call came after the long-awaited publication of the independent inquiry into the government’s handling of the scandal, which saw British citizens wrongly deported, dismissed from their jobs and deprived of services such as NHS care.
Continue reading...Quantitative easing stimulus is equivalent to almost 2% off interest rates
The Bank of England has gone all in. By cutting interest rates to 0.1% and announcing a fresh £200bn of money creation via its quantitative easing programme it has fired all the conventional weapons in its arsenal.
There will be some who say this is all reminiscent of the Beyond the Fringe sketch where Peter Cook demands “a futile gesture” to raise the whole tone of the war. Others will saythe Bank’s new governor Andrew Bailey had no choice given the state of the markets and the imminent lockdown in London. Bailey has had a good first week in the job.
Continue reading...The prime minister has said the UK can 'turn the tide' in the fight against coronavirus in three months. Speaking at his daily press briefing on the pandemic, he said that after that period, science would be able to help treat and contain the virus
Continue reading...Raids on properties linked to Reichsbürger movement follow Hanau terror attack
German police have raided properties in 10 states across Germany and arrested members of a far-right group after it was banned by the government.
The United German Peoples and Tribes organisation belongs to the broader Reichsbürger or Citizens of the Reich movement, which rejects the authority of the modern German state and is driven by conspiracy theories. It is armed and considered extremely dangerous, the police said.
Continue reading...Police appeal for information after two men hospitalised in paramilitary-style assaults
Two men have been targeted in paramilitary-style attacks in separate incidents in Derry and Ballymena.
In the first attack, a man in his 30s was shot in the leg, which police said had “all the hallmarks of a paramilitary-style shooting”.
Continue reading...US says vaccine is 12 months away, Hubei reports no new cases and cases in Peru rise 61% in single day
Competition laws will be temporarily relaxed to allow supermarkets to collaborate in feeding the UK.
Retailers will be able to pool staff, share data on stock levels, and share distribution depots and delivery vans as supermarkets face intense demand, the government confirmed.
Donald Trump sowed fresh confusion about the US government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic by claiming that a therapeutic drug will be available “almost immediately” – only to be contradicted by officials.
In a rambling performance at Thursday’s White House press conference, the president asserted that chloroquine, used to combat malaria, had been approved and would be made available by prescription.
They’re doing great with the vaccines but there’s still a long process, but the therapies are something we can move on much faster potentially. And the treatments that will be able to reduce the severity or duration of the symptoms – make people better.
Chloroquine, or hydroxychloroquine, this is a common malaria drug. It’s also a drug used for strong arthritis … It’s been around for a long time, so we know if things don’t go as planned it’s not going to kill anybody … It’s shown very, very encouraging early results, and we’re going to be able to make that drug available almost immediately.
Pres. Trump touts chloroquine, an old malaria drug, that doctors say may help treat novel coronavirus, claims it will be available "almost immediately."
Read more about chloroquine: https://t.co/cYt0fxdlfB pic.twitter.com/9oPsMSD3HV
The Covid-19 outbreak is forcing politicians and central bankers to set aside ideology and orthodoxy to prevent a global collapse
It is as if the lights have been switched off. The global economy has been plunged into darkness as countries hunker down in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Most recessions develop gradually over time. When the last one started in 2008 it took the Bank of England six months to spot it. This time it is different. Then it was a financial virus, this time it is the real thing. Commentators often say the economy is hitting the wall or is falling off a cliff on the weakest of evidence. Today the cliches are horrifyingly true.
Continue reading...Critics fear hard-hitting report on scandal will be buried amid coronavirus crisis
Wholesale reform of a “reckless” and “defensive” Home Office is expected to be recommended in a hard-hitting review into the causes of the Windrush scandal when it is released by the home secretary on Thursday.
The Windrush Lessons Learned review is expected to criticise Home Office staff and government ministers for their continued failure to admit the magnitude of their mistakes and the scale of damage inflicted on thousands of legal UK residents who were wrongly classified as illegal immigrants, with catastrophic results.
Continue reading...As the report on the Home Office scandal is finally published, we revisit the victims’ stories
‘They made me feel like I’m not British’
Continue reading...Train and bus services are to be limited as travel is restricted, raising questions for both passengers and operators
More draconian restrictions may be needed in London to stop the spread of the coronavirus, with guidance to avoid non-essential travel and stay home being ignored by some, while confirmed cases of sickness escalate rapidly. The prime minister, Boris Johnson, told his Wednesday press conference that he was prepared to take “further and faster measures” to tackle the disease.
Transport for London (TfL) is now moving to cut the number of trains and buses running throughout the week, most likely to the level of weekend schedules. On Wednesday night it announced it was closing up to 40 stations with no interchange from Thursday onwards. But what are the key issues transport chiefs need to consider when limiting services?
Continue reading...Irish government says No 10 proposal to pursue only cases with compelling new evidence betrays Stormont agreement
The UK government has proposed closing the book on most unsolved killings during the Troubles, prompting dismay from the Irish government and Northern Ireland’s nationalist parties.
A new independent body will review cases, and only those deemed to have compelling new evidence and a realistic prospect of prosecution will receive a full police investigation, the government announced on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Complainant gave no hint of ‘personal involvement’, Edinburgh high court hears
Nicola Sturgeon took part in a meeting with a complainant and one of Alex Salmond’s former aides, a witness has told the high court in Edinburgh at the former first minister’s sexual assault trial.
Geoff Aberdein, formerly Salmond’s chief of staff, told the jury he met the complainant and the current first minister in Sturgeon’s office in the Scottish parliament on 29 March 2018.
Continue reading...The prime minster has said the government will bring forward emergency legislation to protect private renters from eviction amid the coronavirus pandemic. His comments came after the Labour leader said private tenants were ‘worried sick’ they might not be able to pay their rents if they fell ill
Continue reading...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.
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