Category Archives: UK news

Boris Johnson tightens rules on travel and mask-wearing over Omicron concerns

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Travellers to UK must take PCR tests and masks to be made mandatory in shops and on public transport

Boris Johnson has announced fresh measures to curb the spread of coronavirus including mandatory masks in shops and PCR tests for travellers entering England after two cases of the Omicron variant were detected in the country.

Amid mounting global concern over Omicron, named a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization on Friday, the prime minister set out a series of steps the UK is taking to maximise its defence against Covid-19.

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Priti Patel blames ‘evil’ gangs for Channel crossings but the reality is far more complicated

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Analysis: The UK government’s own experts say many journeys are actually organised directly by desperate families

The government repeatedly insists that sophisticated criminal networks are driving the Channel crossings by people seeking asylum in Britain. Of all the contested claims advanced by the home secretary on the issue, it remains among the most pervasive.

True to form, in the aftermath of Wednesday’s drownings, Priti Patel wasted little time reiterating her determination to “smash the criminal gangs” behind such crossings.

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UK officials still blocking Peter Wright’s ‘embarrassing’ Spycatcher files

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A documentary-maker has accused the Cabinet Office of defying the 30-year rule in withholding details of the MI5 exposé

The Cabinet Office has been accused of “delay and deception” over its blocking of the release of files dating back more than three decades that reveal the inside story of the intelligence agent Peter Wright and the Spycatcher affair.

Wright revealed an inside account of how MI5 “bugged and burgled” its way across London in his 1987 autobiography Spycatcher. He died aged 78 in 1995.

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Succession’s plot twist prompts surge of interest in leaving money in wills to Greenpeace

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When Cousin Greg was disinherited by his grandfather in favour of the environmental group, inquiries about such legacies soared

In one bewildering and painful scene in the hit TV drama Succession, Cousin Greg sees his future of ease and wealth turn to dust. His grandfather, Ewan, announces he is giving away his entire fortune to Greenpeace, depriving Greg of his inheritance.

Now Greenpeace is hoping to benefit in real life as well as in the fictional world of the media conglomerate Waystar Royco. Thousands of people have looked into leaving money to the environmental group since the darkly comic storyline about Cousin Greg losing his inheritance and then threatening to sue the organisation was broadcast. More than 22,000 people have accessed online advice about making donations in their wills to Greenpeace. The group’s legacy webpage has also seen a tenfold surge in traffic since the episode was first broadcast earlier this month.

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Kurdish woman is first victim of Channel tragedy to be named

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Maryam Nuri Mohamed Amin from northern Iraq was messaging her fiancé when dinghy started sinking

A Kurdish woman from northern Iraq has become the first victim of this week’s mass drowning in the Channel to be named.

Maryam Nuri Mohamed Amin was messaging her fiance, who lives in the UK, when the group’s dinghy started deflating on Wednesday.

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Stephen Sondheim: master craftsman who reinvented the musical dies aged 91

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Scoring his first big hit with West Side Story at 27, the US composer and lyricist raised the art form’s status with moving and funny masterpieces including Follies and Company

‘His songs are like a fabulous steak’: an all-star toast to Sondheim

Stephen Sondheim, the master craftsman of the American musical, has died at the age of 91. His death, at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut, on Friday has prompted tributes throughout the entertainment industry and beyond. Andrew Lloyd Webber called him “the musical theatre giant of our times, an inspiration not just to two but to three generations [whose] contribution to theatre will never be equalled”. Cameron Mackintosh said: “The theatre has lost one of its greatest geniuses and the world has lost one of its greatest and most original writers. Sadly, there is now a giant in the sky. But the brilliance of Stephen Sondheim will still be here as his legendary songs and shows will be performed for evermore.”

Over the course of a celebrated career spanning more than 60 years, Sondheim co-created Broadway theatre classics such as West Side Story, Gypsy, Sweeney Todd and Into the Woods, all of which also became hit movies. His intricate and dazzlingly clever songs pushed the boundaries of the art form and he made moving and funny masterpieces from unlikely subject matters, including a murderous barber (Sweeney Todd), the Roman comedies of Plautus (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum) and a pointillist painting by Georges Seurat (Sunday in the Park With George).

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Omicron variant spreads to Europe as UK announces countermeasures

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Experts stress importance of delaying import of new Covid variant to UK to avoid Christmas mixing

As an alarming new Covid variant spread to Europe on Friday, scientists warned that it would inevitably reach Britain, while ministers faced calls to urgently speed up the vaccination programme.

Thousands of travellers were left stranded or with their plans in disarray after flight bans were introduced targeting countries across southern Africa, where the variant was discovered. Hotel quarantine and enhanced testing would be brought in across the UK, the health secretary, Sajid Javid, said.

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Ghislaine Maxwell sex-trafficking trial ‘over-hyped’, brother insists

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British socialite is accused of grooming girls as young as 14 to have sex with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein

Before opening arguments in Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial for allegedly aiding the late financier Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of minor girls, the Briton’s brother protested over what he called “the most over-hyped trial of the century”.

A family member would be in court at all times from Monday to show support, Ian Maxwell told the Associated Press. A woman who identified herself to court staff as a family member has attended all recent proceedings.

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‘We are sick of double speak’: French government intensifies attack on Johnson over Channel tragedy – live

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Latest updates: Macron slams Boris Johnson for trying to negotiate with him via Twitter as it cancels talks with UK officials over Channel crossings

The French government has accused Boris Johnson of “double speak”. In a briefing, the French government spokesperson, Gabriel Attal, said that the proposal in Johnson’s letter to Emmanuel Macron for France to take back people who successfully cross the Channel on small boats was “clearly not what we need to solve this problem”.

According to PA Media, Attal also said that the letter doesn’t correspond at all” with the discussions Johnson and Macron had when they spoke on Wednesday. Atta went on: “We are sick of double speak.”

What would be completely unacceptable, a stain on our country and a scandal would be to see in future those whose parents have died being placed in inappropriate institutions, in elderly care homes or mental health institutions.

That would be something that I think would bring shame to our country as well as an utterly inappropriate lifestyle for those to whom we should be giving the best possible care.

This is not a bill about a condition, it is not about dealing with Down’s syndrome, it is about people who deserve the same ability to demand the best health, education and care as the rest of our society.

It is not on our part an act of charity, it is an act of empowerment and the recognition that all members of our society must have a right to respect, independence and dignity. That is why I brought this bill forward.

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‘I’m happy to lose £10m by quitting Facebook,’ says Lush boss

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Losing 10m followers on sites such as Instagram is a price worth paying for co-founder of ethical beauty empire

Quitting social media is hard to do, even when it doesn’t cost you anything. So when Lush’s chief executive, Mark Constantine, shut its thousands of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok accounts on Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year, he knew dropping off millions of customers’ screens would damage his business.

Its Facebook and Instagram accounts alone had 10.6 million followers and the void will result in an estimated £10m hit to sales but Constantine, one of the business’s co-founders, said it had “no choice” after whistleblowers called attention to the negative impact social media sites such as Instagram are having on teenagers’ mental health.

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I crossed the Channel in a small boat. This is what it’s like – video

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Ali, 28, left his home in Iran to escape religious persecution. After being denied asylum in France, he made the decision to cross the Channel in a dinghy. He told the Guardian's Today in Focus podcast about his experience making the perilous crossing twice, in search of a better life

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With so little known about new Covid variant, UK must act fast, say experts

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Analysis: extended red list, winter plan B and local lockdowns may all be needed to reduce spread

Despite the UK’s much-vaunted vaccination programme, and scientists’ ever-growing understanding of Covid-19, Britain and the rest of the world face the challenge of a new, potentially more transmissible variant just a month before Christmas.

While Sajid Javid, the health secretary, announced the red-listing of six southern African countries and said “we must act with caution”, he ruled out immediate new Covid measures including triggering winter plan B – which would involve working from home, mask-wearing and Covid passports.

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Failure to share Covid vaccines ‘coming back to haunt us’, says Gordon Brown

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Ex-PM says world was ‘forewarned’ of dangers of failing to vaccinate poorer countries amid rise of new variant

The failure of the world to get vaccines to the developing world is “coming back to haunt us”, Gordon Brown has warned, as experts said the emergence of variants such as B.1.1.529 could have been avoided if jabs had been more fairly distributed.

Writing in the Guardian, the Labour former prime minister said the world had been “forewarned” that a lack of vaccines in poorer countries could have serious consequences for the pandemic.

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Twelve-year-old girl dies after assault in Liverpool city centre

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Police say four boys arrested on suspicion of murder after Ava White suffered ‘catastrophic injuries’

An “incredibly popular” 12-year-old girl has died after being assaulted in Liverpool city centre after an altercation.

A murder investigation has been launched following the death of Ava White, described by her teachers as “much loved, valued and unique”. She died from “catastrophic injuries” after being attacked when out with friends on Thursday night during the annual switch-on of the Christmas tree lights on Church Street.

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‘I come, or I die’: fatalistic refugees say Channel crossing their only option

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Young people who have made the dangerous journey tell why they have risked all to reach the UK

In the early hours of Thursday morning, a group of newly arrived refugees huddled together on the coast of Dover. The smugglers had not halted their trade in moving people across the Channel and, just hours after 27 people died on the perilous journey, they were back at work.

There is little evidence that the latest loss of life will deter others from making the dangerous journey. After the tragic drowning of the Kurdish family who tried to cross the Channel in October last year, two asylum seekers who survived told the Guardian that, despite being deeply traumatised, they continued trying to cross and not long after made it to the UK.

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Macron tells Johnson to ‘get serious’ on Channel crisis after tweeted letter

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French president says: ‘We do not communicate on these issues by tweets’ after PM issues five-point plan via Twitter

President Emmanuel Macron has told Boris Johnson to “get serious” or remain locked out of discussions over how to curb the flow of people escaping war and poverty across the Channel.

In a further sign of an escalating diplomatic crisis since the deaths of 27 people on Wednesday, the French leader criticised the UK’s decision to issue a five-point plan via Twitter instead of conducting bilateral talks.

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Boris Johnson’s plan for Irish Sea bridge rejected over £335bn cost

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Project or alternative of a £209bn tunnel would be vastly expensive and fraught with complexities, study says

Boris Johnson’s proposal for a bridge or tunnel linking Scotland to Northern Ireland has been rejected by a feasibility study as vastly expensive – £335bn for the bridge or £209bn for the tunnel – and fraught with potential difficulties.

Released alongside a wider so-called union connectivity review, which called for investment in road, rail and domestic aviation to better connect the four UK nations, the fixed link report found either a bridge or tunnel would be at the very edge of what could be achieved with current technology.

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Sajid Javid on latest Covid variant: ‘Our scientists are deeply concerned’ – video

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The health secretary, Sajid Javid, has announced the UK will temporarily ban flights from several African countries, after the discovery of the B.1.1.529 Covid variant in the region against which vaccines might be less effective.

Officials characterise the variant, which has double the number of mutations as the currently dominant Delta variant, as the 'worst one yet'.

Flights from South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Eswatini will be banned from Friday afternoon, and returning British travellers from those destinations will have to quarantine

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‘I’ll try to get across’: people camped out in Dunkirk still hope to reach UK

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News of Channel deaths has reached camp, but many still plan to pay people smugglers huge amounts in hope of a better life

Everybody at the camp on the outskirts of Dunkirk, little more than a scrappy collection of tents with no toilets or running water, has heard about the 27 people who drowned on Wednesday.

Everybody knows the risks. But everybody says they still have the same plan, to try to get on a boat to the UK, because they do not believe that death will come to them – and because of their hope for a better life.

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