Billy Hood’s family and campaign group Detained in Dubai working to appeal against convictions
A British football coach has been sentenced to 25 years in jail in Dubai after police discovered four bottles of vape liquid containing CBD in the boot of his car.
Billy Hood, 24, from Kensington, was sentenced for trafficking, selling and possessing drugs after he claims he was forced by police to confess in Arabic, a language he does not speak.
Continue reading...The geographic centre of the world’s carbon emissions used to sit atop the UK. Now it sits squarely over China
A new Guardian visualisation reveals how the “centre of gravity” of global emissions has moved over the past 200 years.
The analysis shows how the geographic centre of the world’s carbon emissions used to sit directly atop the UK before being pulled westwards by the US and back towards the east by the rise of China.
Constant Covid testing when travelling from the UK to countries such as the Netherlands should soon be a thing of the past
Trips to Europe over October half-term could become easier for British travellers after Brussels said a technical tie-up with the EU ensuring the NHS Covid pass is recognised across over 40 countries would be “going live soon”.
In some European countries, such as the Netherlands, tourists from the UK have faced constant Covid tests as the NHS app proving full vaccination status is not recognised at the Dutch border or in its bars, restaurants and museums.
Continue reading...The US will lift restrictions at its land borders with Canada and Mexico next month; holiday hot-spot Bali will reopen for vaccinated travellers from Thursday
There is a little bit of news on the Reuters wire which is coming out of Russia’s Interfax news agency. They are reporting that the Russian health ministry has said it will be having talks with the EU to discuss terms for the mutual recognition of Covid-19 vaccine certificates for their respective shots.
The European Medicines Agency is yet to approve Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine for use, which is the source of some friction between the two parties. Russia has accused the EU of doing so for political reasons, while the EU has in turn suggested that the vaccine’s manufacturer has not been forthcoming with the required data for approval.
Continue reading...Members raised concerns about ‘extreme’ positions taken by individuals involved in Restore Trust
The National Trust has warned of the “damage” it faces from an “ideological campaign” waged against it by self-styled “anti-woke” insurgents whom the charity has accused of seeking to stoke divisions.
It was prompted to speak out as members raised concerns about a range of “extreme” positions taken by individuals involved in a group called Restore Trust, which is backing a slate of candidates in elections for the NT’s governing council.
Continue reading...The dystopian drama tops the streaming service’s charts in more than 80 countries, bumping aside recent Regency-era romp, Bridgerton
Dystopian South Korean drama Squid Game has become Netflix’s most popular series ever, drawing 111 million fans since its debut less than four weeks ago, the streaming service said Tuesday.
The unprecedented global viral hit imagines a macabre world in which marginalised people are pitted against one another in traditional children’s games. While the victor can earn millions in cash, losing players are killed.
Continue reading...Offer to lift up to 50% of customs checks aims to turn page on troubled relationship with Boris Johnson
The EU will offer to remove a majority of post-Brexit checks on British goods entering Northern Ireland as it seeks to turn the page on the rancorous relationship with Boris Johnson.
Up to 50% of customs checks on goods would be lifted and more than half the checks on meat and plants entering Northern Ireland would be abandoned under the bold offer from Brussels.
Continue reading...Analysis: inquiry into UK’s response to Covid crisis shows Sage guidance should be put in public domain as soon as possible
The parliamentary inquiry into the UK’s response to the Covid crisis raises the serious issue of transparency around scientific advice – and why this remains crucial even as the country moves beyond an emergency situation.
The 151-page Coronavirus: lessons learned to date report, led by two former Conservative ministers, has made it clear that advice from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) should be rapidly placed in the public domain.
Continue reading...973 deaths in last 24 hours is new record for Russia; Thailand to drop mandatory quarantine for UK and US visitors
That last block mentioned that Prof Sir Andrew Pollard had written for us. As well as a message for governments, he had a message for individuals too: Individuals cannot solve vaccine inequality. If you’re offered a booster, take it
The “to boost or not to boost” moral dilemma is not in the purview of individual citizens who ponder whether to roll up their sleeve when offered a booster by a vaccine clinic this week. A dose that is in the vaccine clinic fridge (or freezer) cannot be redirected to someone else in another country, because the regulatory hurdles and shelf-life simply make redistribution of this dose not practical. Redistribution has to happen prior to the release of vaccine doses to the national health system. A protest against vaccination at individual level will be misdirected and risks wasting these precious doses. If you are asked to roll up your sleeve, then you should do so.
Continue reading...Mother speaks out after misconduct finding over death of Kelly Hartigan-Burns, who was found unresponsive in a Blackburn police cell
The mother of a vulnerable woman who died after failings by a Lancashire police officer has said a “stray dog” would have received better care.
The custody sergeant’s actions amounted to gross misconduct, a misconduct panel ruled.
Continue reading...A single winner would become richer than Adele and prize will be capped at £187m if it rolls over again
The EuroMillions jackpot has reached £184m, making it the largest ever lottery prize in British history.
The prize rolled over into Tuesday’s draw when no ticketholders won on Friday. A single winner could now suddenly count themselves richer than the singer Adele – whose net worth is £130m, according to the Sunday Times rich list.
Continue reading...Nightmarishness meets nostalgia as Jamie Dornan and Judi Dench star in a scintillating Troubles-era coming-of-age tale
There is a terrific warmth and tenderness to Kenneth Branagh’s elegiac, autobiographical movie about the Belfast of his childhood: spryly written, beautifully acted and shot in a lustrous monochrome, with set pieces, madeleines and epiphanies that feel like a more emollient version of Terence Davies. Some may feel that the film is sentimental or that it does not sufficiently conform to the template of political anger and despair considered appropriate for dramas about Northern Ireland and the Troubles. And yes, there is certainly a spoonful of sugar (or two) in the mix, with some mandatory Van Morrison on the soundtrack. There’s a key climactic scene about how you disarm a gunman in the middle of a riot if you have no gun yourself, which has to be charitably indulged.
But this film has such emotional generosity and wit and it tackles a dilemma of the times not often understood: when, and if, to pack up and leave Belfast? Is it an understandable matter of survival or an abandonment of your beloved home town to the extremists? (Full disclosure: my own dad left Belfast for England, though well before the era of this film.)
Continue reading...Organisers of exhibition on history of British fascism say parallels can be drawn with current thinking
A surge in Covid-19 conspiracy theories risks boosting antisemitism, hate crime campaigners have warned after the opening of an exhibition shedding light on interwar British fascism and its parallels today.
The Wiener Holocaust Library in London is staging the exhibition – focusing on the motivations and propaganda of British fascists and their European peers in the 1920s and 30s – out of concern about the recent growth of far-right ideas and populism in the UK and abroad.
Continue reading...Stephen Barclay, the minister for the Cabinet Office, refused multiple times to apologise for the deaths and suffering caused by Covid, after a parliamentary report called the government's early response to the pandemic one of the UK's 'worst ever' public health failures. The report, led by two former Conservative ministers, concluded that 'groupthink' and a deliberately slow approach meant the UK fared 'significantly worse' than other countries.
Speaking on LBC, Barclay repeatedly declined to apologise to families who lost loved ones, saying: 'We followed the scientific advice and the knowledge we had at the time'
Continue reading...As mandatory checks began, not everyone in the queue for the Pryzm club was prepared
There was an extra thing for the hundreds of young people waiting in the queue outside Pryzm nightclub in Cardiff to worry about.
As usual, they needed to show ID, undergo a search and make sure they still had their phone, keys and friends with them – but for the first time they also had to produce a Covid pass, showing they were fully vaccinated or had tested negative.
Continue reading...Exclusive: UK scientist says giving booster jabs rather than sharing doses fairly will cause hundreds of thousands of avoidable deaths
Hundreds of thousands of people worldwide will die needlessly from Covid this autumn as wealthy nations prioritise booster shots for their own “highly protected” people instead of sharing doses, the head of the Oxford vaccine group has warned.
Prof Sir Andrew Pollard said that while it was “possible” a third dose might help protect some people, the “potential benefit” for the vast majority was “small” because most double jabbed people were already “highly protected” against Covid-19.
Continue reading...Analysis: report is not short on lessons but a full public inquiry is needed to get to the bottom of UK’s response to pandemic
It might not have been the immediate public inquiry sought by opposition parties and bereaved families, but the landmark joint report into the UK’s handling of Covid proved less toothless than some feared.
Published almost exactly a year to the day since the MPs’ inquiry was first announced, the “lessons learned to date” report, prepared by two Commons committees after mammoth evidence sessions, is not short on lessons – some of them expressed with notable bluntness.
Continue reading...Early handling and belief in ‘herd immunity’ led to more deaths, Commons inquiry finds
Britain’s early handling of the coronavirus pandemic was one of the worst public health failures in UK history, with ministers and scientists taking a “fatalistic” approach that exacerbated the death toll, a landmark inquiry has found.
“Groupthink”, evidence of British exceptionalism and a deliberately “slow and gradualist” approach meant the UK fared “significantly worse” than other countries, according to the 151-page “Coronavirus: lessons learned to date” report led by two former Conservative ministers.
Continue reading...Slower vaccination rates in east lead to dramatic surge in cases, while UK remains outlier in west as cases rise despite vaccinations
Higher vaccination rates are translating to lower Covid infection and death rates in western Europe than in parts of central and eastern Europe, the latest data suggests – except in the UK, where case numbers are surging.
Figures from Our World In Data indicate a clear correlation between the percentage of people fully vaccinated and new daily cases and fatalities, with health systems in some under-inoculated central and eastern EU states under acute strain.
Continue reading...Inquest asked DCI Christopher Jones if initial delays were because Anthony Walgate was a young gay escort
A senior Metropolitan police officer has denied that unconscious bias affected his investigation into the death of serial killer Stephen Port’s first victim because he was “young, gay and working as an escort”.
DCI Christopher Jones, from the Met murder investigation team, declared the death of Anthony Walgate, 23, a fashion student from Hull, to be “unexplained” rather than “suspicious”, an inquest heard.
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