Photograph of teacher bloodied by Russian attack on Ukraine dominates front pages as Putin sends his troops to war
The front pages in Britain and around the world are devoted to the shocking events in Ukraine, with graphic images of the destruction unleashed by Vladimir Putin.
A photograph of a woman with a bloodied and bandaged head in the wake of a Russian attack dominates the front of the Guardian with the headline “Putin invades”.
Continue reading...As the government continues to lift pandemic safety measures, five people share their outlook on ‘living with Covid’
From Thursday, people who test positive for coronavirus are no longer required to self-isolate by law in England. Free mass testing for the general public in England will end on 1 April.
The change is part of the government’s new “living with Covid” plan, announced earlier this week, which will see the end of all pandemic regulations.
Continue reading...Options include giving to charities on the ground, supporting local journalists and writing to your MP
Russia’s invasion and bombing campaign has sparked outrage, with many in the UK asking how they can help the people of Ukraine.
Continue reading...Latest updates: prime minister condemns Russian president Vladimir Putin and promises to stand with Ukraine
General Sir Richard Shirreff, the former British officer who was Nato’s deputy supreme allied commander, told the Today programme this morning the possibility of the war in Ukraine leading to military conflict between Britain and Russia could not be ruled out. Asked if this was possible, he replied:
Absolutely there is a possibility that we as a nation could be at war with Russia, because if Russia puts one bootstep across Nato territory, we are all at war with Russia. Every single one, every single member of the Nato alliance.
Article 5 [of the Nato alliance] says an attack on one is an attack on all, so we need to change our mindset fundamentally, and that is why I say our defence starts in the UK on the frontiers of Nato.
What became evident in the days leading up to this invasion is that Vladimir Putin is increasingly isolated. That bizarre video of him berating his senior officials shows that he’s making these decisions increasingly in isolation and illogically.
And unfortunately I think that that is part of the reason why the initial round of international sanctions that [were] put in place by ourselves, by France, Germany, the US, Canada and others, didn’t have the deterrent effect.
The sanctions package that will be put in response to this is already actually having an effect. Just the announcement that it’s coming - we’ve seen the Russian stock market, the equivalent of the FTSE, drop by over 30%. That is a huge reduction in Russia’s economic abilities to fund this invasion.
And those sanctions will be laid today and over forthcoming days to really prevent Russia from funding this invasion.
Continue reading...The UK prime minister has said that 'a vast invasion is under way, by land, by sea and by air' in Ukraine, as he promised to impose 'massive' sanctions that would 'hobble' the Russian economy.
Speaking as world leaders scrambled to respond to the attacks that began in the early hours of Thursday morning, Johnson said Russia had 'attacked a friendly country without any provocation and without any credible excuse'.
He said Russia must not be allowed to succeed. 'Diplomatically, politically, economically, and eventually militarily, this hideous and barbaric adventure of Vladimir Putin must end in failure,' he said
PM says ‘we will not just look away’ and Putin’s ‘barbaric adventure’ in Ukraine must end in failure
Boris Johnson has said that “a vast invasion is under way, by land, by sea and by air” in Ukraine, as he promised to impose “massive” sanctions that would “hobble” the Russian economy.
Speaking as world leaders scrambled to respond to the attacks that began in the early hours of Thursday morning, the UK prime minister said Russia had “attacked a friendly country without any provocation and without any credible excuse”.
Continue reading...Buckingham Palace says audiences will be rescheduled for later date and Queen to continue with light duties
The Queen has postponed two virtual audiences after her Covid diagnosis, Buckingham Palace has said.
Concerns for the nation’s longest reigning sovereign have been heightened given her age, frailer appearance of late and recent health scare.
Continue reading...Claim against Associated Newspapers is reportedly related to article on prince’s security arrangements
Prince Harry has launched a libel action days after the Mail on Sunday published claims about problems with his security arrangements.
Court filings show Harry made a claim against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) on Wednesday afternoon. The claims are reportedly related to an article published by the Mail on Sunday under the headline “Revealed: How Harry tried to keep his legal fight over bodyguards secret”.
Continue reading...Foreign office’s ‘top-down’ approach failing people it is seeking to protect, says watchdog, with abuse cases still underreported
The British government has not listened to victims in its efforts to tackle abuse in the humanitarian sector after the “sex for aid” scandals, a UK watchdog has said.
The Independent Commission for Aid Impact (Icai) said the government was falling short because of a “top-down” approach and needed to listen and learn from recipients of aid who remained reluctant to report abuse allegations.
Continue reading...Experts see move from Russian-controlled territories as final pretext for full invasion
Russia’s ambassador to the United States has hit back at the imposition of sanctions imposed by US president Joe Biden, suggesting the move would hurt global financial and energy markets as well as ordinary citizens.
According to a recent post on the Russian embassy Facebook page early Wednesday, ambassador Anatoly Antonov said:
Sanctions will not solve anything regarding Russia. It’s hard to imagine that anyone in Washington is counting on Russia to review its foreign policy course under threat of restrictions.
I don’t remember a single day when our country lived without any restrictions from the Western world. We learned how to work in such conditions. And not only survive, but also develop our state.
Continue reading...Pop singer first act announced for Buckingham Palace bank holiday celebration with live audience of 10,000
The award-winning singer George Ezra has been confirmed as the first act for the Queen’s jubilee event the Platinum Party at the Palace, celebrating the monarch’s 70 years on the throne.
The 4 June concert will have an in-person audience of 10,000, half of which will be members of the public from a ticket ballot, the BBC reported, to be awarded in pairs.
Continue reading...The British prime minister has claimed the UK is 'out in front' in terms of sanctions against Russia as the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, pushed him for further measures during PMQs.
Boris Johnson said 275 people were subject to sanctions and bank assets were frozen. Only three individuals have been added to the list since the Ukraine crisis escalated at the beginning of the week, but Johnson added: 'There is more to come.'
The UK is expected to provide further military support to Ukraine, including lethal and non-lethal aid
Continue reading...Amrit Magar, who repeatedly turned up at tennis star’s home, must also do 200 hours of community service
A man who stalked and harassed the British tennis star Emma Raducanu has been given a five-year restraining order and sentenced to community service.
Amrit Magar, 35, who said he had walked 23 miles to the US Open champion’s home in London and then took her father’s shoe – thinking it belonged to Raducanu – as a souvenir, was found guilty of stalking at Bromley magistrates court last month.
Continue reading...Scientists report unexpected brain activity in patient, 87, as he died from heart attack
When Harry Stamper sets off a bomb to save planet Earth in the film Armageddon, his life flashes before his eyes. Now research has revealed tantalising clues that such recall may not be Hollywood hyperbole.
An international team of scientists has reported an unexpected situation in which they recorded the brain activity of an 87-year-old patient as he died.
Continue reading...Roger Michell’s final feature retells story of the cussed Newcastle pensioner who stole a Goya portrait in protest at government spending priorities
For what has become his final feature film, director Roger Michell made this sweet-natured and genial comedy in the spirit of Ealing, which bobs up like a ping pong ball on a water-fountain. It is based on the true story of Kempton Bunton, the Newcastle bus driver who in 1965 was had up at the Old Bailey for stealing Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington from London’s National Gallery. The mystery of its disappearance had so electrified the media that there was even a gag about it in the James Bond film Dr No, using a copy personally painted by the legendary production designer Ken Adam, which was itself stolen. Maybe there should be a film about that as well.
The court heard this was Bunton’s protest at government misuse of taxpayers’ money (the painting had been saved for the nation at some cost) and to publicise his demand for pensioners to be given free TV licences. (This film features the usual “historical coda” sentences over the closing credits, and one sentimentally records that free TV licences for the over-75s were finally introduced in 2000. But no mention of these being taken away again in 2020.)
Continue reading...Proportion of UK worker’s salary covered is typically less than quarter of Germany’s 100% in first six weeks
Asked this week about whether his move to drop Covid isolation requirements would drive infectious workers into the office, Boris Johnson said UK workers should learn from their German counterparts and stay home when unwell.
The prime minister did not mention the stark differences in the support available for British workers compared with Germany and the rest of the world, and whether this could explain their reluctance to take a sick day.
Continue reading...After perilous journeys fleeing human rights abuse in Eritrea, the four boys had arrived safely in the UK. Yet in the space of 16 months they were all dead. What went wrong?
For a while, the four teenage boys, Alex, Filmon, Osman and Mulue, did a reasonably good job of looking after each other. Filmon and Mulue had met in Eritrea before they embarked on their long, dangerous journey to Britain; the others became friends en route or in London, in a park near a Home Office registration centre for unaccompanied child refugees. Their similar backgrounds drew them together, as did the shared experience of travelling 3,300 miles in search of safety.
Mulue and Alex had both spent time in foster care before moving into independent accommodation; Osman and Filmon were living in a hostel in north London. They had all become used to surviving without parents, instead leaning on each other for support. All of them were also struggling with the unsettling reality of their precarious new lives, which was so different from the expectations they had clung to during their traumatic journeys.
Continue reading...Primary-aged children produce about four times fewer particles than adults, which may help explain their lower transmission risk
Primary school-aged children produce about four times fewer aerosol particles when breathing, speaking or singing compared with adults, which could help explain why they seem to be at lower risk of spreading Covid.
Various studies have suggested that young children are about half as susceptible to catching Covid as adults, and, despite carrying a similar amount of virus in their noses and throats, appear to pass it to fewer people if they do become infected.
Continue reading...Dan Jarvis and Johnny Mercer criticised government for removing £2,389 immigration bill only for long-serving veterans
Ministers are subjecting the families of Commonwealth military veterans to “deeply unjust” visa fees after pleas to waive the costly sums for spouses and children were rejected, two MPs have argued.
Labour’s Dan Jarvis and the former Conservative minister Johnny Mercer criticised the government for removing the £2,389 immigration bill only for long-serving veterans.
Continue reading...Met’s questionnaire asks recipients if they have ‘reasonable excuse’ for attending gatherings in lockdown
The first glimpse of a Partygate questionnaire confirms that Downing Street insiders are being questioned under police caution – and asked if they have a “reasonable excuse” for attending lockdown-busting gatherings.
Boris Johnson has already returned his replies to the Metropolitan police’s questions, and is believed to have argued that he attended social events in No 10 in a work capacity.
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