Category Archives: UK news

Britons with homes in EU told they can’t drive through France to get there

Posted on by

Eurotunnel operator issues warning to UK nationals after update to Covid travel rules by French government

Eurotunnel is warning British citizens who live in the EU that they cannot travel through France by car from the UK due to new coronavirus restrictions imposed by the French government.

Getlink, the operator of the Channel rail link, issued an urgent warning on its website and Twitter page on Wednesday evening that appeared to confirm that the French government had changed its travel rules.

Continue reading...

Prince Andrew emerges with barely a mention in Ghislaine Maxwell trial

Posted on by

Analysis: there was no cross-examination of the prince’s friend and his accuser was not called to give evidence

For the Duke of York, the fact he was barely mentioned in Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial will have been an undoubted relief. With Maxwell declining the stand, no opening of her “little black book” of society contacts and, crucially, no sign of his accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre, Prince Andrew was a mere footnote in the New York proceedings.

Maxwell opted not to give evidence before being found guilty on five of six charges, saying there was “no need” because prosecutors had failed to prove their case, so the subject of Andrew was not raised with her via cross-examination.

Continue reading...

Covid live: UK cases hit new daily record of 183,037; Spain cuts isolation period to seven days

Posted on by

Case figures include delayed data from Northern Ireland; Spain cuts quarantine despite record rise in cases

India has recorded another 9,195 confirmed coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, according to recently released data from its health ministry.

A further 302 deaths were also recorded, bring the total death toll to 480,592.

Continue reading...

‘It won’t be easy’: the European exporters battling Brexit bureaucracy

Posted on by

Paperwork and Covid culminate in another year of headaches for food and wine producers

For more than two decades, Unexport has shipped millions of kilograms of produce annually from farms in the southern Spanish region of Murcia to clients in the UK. Brexit has transformed the relatively straightforward process into a bureaucratic nightmare, yielding border waiting times of up to 10 hours for lorries laden with lemons and lettuce, said Domingo Llamas, its president.

Given the damage already inflicted by the UK’s exit from the bloc, plus the coronavirus pandemic, he sees the final implementation of thrice-delayed checks as just “one other thing” to manage.

Continue reading...

UK zoo helps lost Mexican fish live to see another Tequila sunrise

Posted on by

Declared extinct in the wild in 2003, species has been reintroduced to its native river after being bred in Chester

A “charismatic little fish” declared extinct in the wild has been reintroduced to its native Mexico after being bred in an aquarium at Chester zoo.

The tequila fish (Zoogoneticus tequila), which grows to no bigger than 70mm long, disappeared from the wild in 2003 owing to the introduction of invasive, exotic fish species and water pollution.

Continue reading...

Reminded of the gap: why men still get paid more in UK public sector

Posted on by

Analysis: academy and health service trusts responsible for big disparities as overall public pay inequality rises

It is clear that the public sector pay gap reported to government remains stubbornly high, at 15.5% versus 9% in the private sector. So where within public services is this happening, and why?

In 2018, the first year of compulsory gender pay gap reporting, women working in the public sector earned 86p for every £1 their male counterparts did. In 2021, that dropped to 84p.

Continue reading...

My best pandemic shot: Guardian and Observer photographers’ view on 2021

Posted on by

We asked our photographers to pick their best image of the pandemic in 2021

From vaccination centres and ICU wards to family reunions and lockdown beards, the images selected by the Guardian and Observer photographers, accompanied by their thoughts, give individual takes on covering the ongoing pandemic.

The Covid-19 ICU ward at the University College hospital in London, 27 January

Continue reading...

Up to 90% of Covid patients in ICU are unboosted, says Boris Johnson

Posted on by

Prime minister urges people to get third jab during visit to a vaccination centre in Milton Keynes

Boris Johnson has urged people to get their booster vaccine as he said up to 90% of those in intensive care had not had their third Covid jabs.

On a visit to a vaccine centre in Milton Keynes, the prime minister said people should enjoy their new year celebrations while taking extra precautions such as ventilation and testing, and he urged people to take up the offer of a third dose.

Continue reading...

Gordon Brown: west is sleepwalking into Afghanistan disaster

Posted on by

Ex-PM warns poverty and starvation mean country is at risk of world’s biggest humanitarian crisis

The west is “sleepwalking into the biggest humanitarian crisis of our times” in Afghanistan, Gordon Brown has warned, as he called for a support package to save the country from economic and social collapse after the Taliban’s takeover.

Four months after the western-backed government was overthrown following a mass military withdrawal, the former UK prime minister said the case for action was not based only on morals but also “in our self-interest”.

Continue reading...

Prince Andrew lawyer seeks to halt US case as accuser ‘lives in Australia’

Posted on by

Lawyer argues court does not have jurisdiction as Virginia Giuffre’s ties to Colorado are ‘very limited’

Prince Andrew’s lawyer has called for the US civil case against the royal over alleged sexual assault to be stopped because his accuser is “actually domiciled in Australia”.

Virginia Giuffre is suing the Queen’s son for allegedly assaulting her when she was a teenager. Andrew strongly denies the allegation.

Continue reading...

Air travel in and out of UK slumps by 71% in 2021 amid pandemic

Posted on by

Report from aviation analytics firm Cirium shows domestic flights were down by almost 60%

Air travel in and out of the UK slumped by 71% in 2021 as the second year of the Covid-19 crisis took its toll on international flying, according to a report.

Just over 406,000 international flights operated from the UK up to 22 December this year compared with almost 1.4m in 2019 before the pandemic struck and travel restrictions were imposed, the aviation analytics firm Cirium said. UK domestic flights were found to have declined by almost 60%.

Continue reading...

What to do about the UK’s unvaccinated? No 10’s Covid dilemma

Posted on by

Analysis: growing frustration at vaccine refusers has crept into ministers’ speeches recently

A growing sense of frustration with people who have not been vaccinated against Covid has been creeping into the speeches of senior government figures from Sajid Javid to Boris Johnson in recent weeks.

The health secretary has accused those who have chosen not to take up the offer of free vaccination of taking up hospital beds, damaging society and potentially harming their families as well as themselves.

Continue reading...

Covid: how long are people infectious and how do isolation rules vary?

Posted on by

The US has cut the self-isolation period to five days, while in England it is seven with negative tests

The US has announced it is cutting the recommended self-isolation time with Covid to five days. How long are people with Covid infectious for, and why do the rules vary between countries?

What are the rules for self-isolation in the UK?

Continue reading...

Omicron is ‘not the same disease’ as earlier Covid waves, says UK scientist

Posted on by

Sir John Bell says disease ‘appears less severe’ as other scientists criticise lack of new restrictions in England

Omicron is “not the same disease we were seeing a year ago” and high Covid death rates in the UK are “now history”, a leading immunologist has said.

Sir John Bell, regius professor of medicine at Oxford University and the government’s life sciences adviser, said that although hospital admissions had increased in recent weeks as Omicron spreads through the population, the disease “appears to be less severe and many people spend a relatively short time in hospital”. Fewer patients were needing high-flow oxygen and the average length of stay was down to three days, he said.

Continue reading...

‘Good anti-sinking capacity, lifejacket optional’: journey of a ‘refugee boat’

Posted on by

From a factory in China to an English beach, rubber dinghies are acquired by people-smugglers to transport desperate people


Against the backdrop of Dunkirk’s busy port with its cranes and smoke, a collapsed, grey rubber dinghy lies on the shore, abandoned and washed in by the tide.

It is one of the many haunting signs of the thousands of desperate people who have attempted to cross the Channel from northern France.

Continue reading...

Covid live: US, UK, France, Portugal and Greece all break new daily cases records

Posted on by

US reports 512,553 cases; UK reports 129,000; France reports 179,807; Portugal 17,172; and Greece 21,657

Stock markets have continued to gain ground despite the surge of Omicron around the world.

Asian markets lifted on Tuesday with the Nikkei in Japan up nearly 1%, Shanghai up 0.2%, Seoul up 0.1% and Sydney’s ASX200 is up 0.44%.

Continue reading...

MoD under fire for spending almost £13m on hire cars for staff

Posted on by

Unite union criticises ‘excessive’ figure while Labour says ‘Tory waste’ letting down taxpayers

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has come under fire after revelations that it has spent almost £13m on hire cars for staff this year.

A freedom of information (FoI) request by PA Media also showed that the Department for Transport spent more than £1.1m in the year to October, while other departments have spent tens of thousands of pounds. The total figure from responses to the FoI request was more than £14.2m.

Continue reading...

Policeman ‘shocked’ by state of car driven with rear end hanging off

Posted on by

Porsche stopped on M25 so badly damaged its bumper was ‘literally bouncing out of the boot’

A police officer said he was “honestly shocked” to see a motorist had driven for more than 30 miles along the M25 in a car so badly damaged its rear end was hanging off.

PC Serge Hadfield, from Surrey police, stopped the car near Cobham on Sunday after a member of the public called the police.

Continue reading...