Category Archives: UK news

Stock market correction of 5%-10% ‘likely before year end’; US inflation expectations rise – as it happened

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Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news

Earlier:

Time to wrap up....

Here’s today’s main stories:

Related: Alibaba shares plunge as Beijing ‘seeks to break up Ant’s Alipay’

Related: Stock market pullback likely by year end, Deutsche Bank survey finds

Related: Evergrande investors face 75% hit as company edges closer to restructure

Related: UK cancels Covid vaccine deal with French firm Valneva

Related: Higher taxes could leave low-paid frontline workers £1,000 worse off

Related: EU Brexit controls are pointless bureaucracy, says M&S chairman

Related: Brexit trade barriers added £600m in costs to UK importers this year

Related: Primark hit by ‘pingdemic’ but it says supply crisis won’t lead to shortages

Related: West End theatres bank on staging a revival with big-budget productions

Related: All Sainsbury’s stores to stay shut on Boxing Day as a ‘thank you’ to staff

Related: UK to offer £265m in subsidies for renewable energy developers

European stock markets have shrugged off growth fears and talk of a stock market pullback, to end the day higher.

In London, the FTSE 100 gained 39 points or 0.55% to end at 7068 points. Royal Mail (+3%), Lloyds Banking Group (+2.8%), and hedge fund management group Pershing Square (+2.6%) led the risers.

Spain's Ibex up 1.3%. German Dax up 0.6%
The major European indices are ending the day with gains across the board:

German DAX, +0.56%
France's CAC, +0.2%
UK's FTSE 100, +0.55%
Spain's Ibex, +1.3%
Italy's FTSE MIB, +0.9%
In other markets as European/London traders look to exit:

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Fully vaccinated people account for 1.2% of England’s Covid-19 deaths

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ONS figures show 51,281 Covid deaths between January and July, with 458 dying at least 21 days after second dose

People who were fully vaccinated accounted for just 1.2% of all deaths involving Covid-19 in England in the first seven months of this year.

The figures, published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), have been seized on as proof of the success of the vaccine programme.

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Tech firms not doing enough to fight terrorism, says Met police chief

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Cressida Dick calls for more action to stop online radicalisation and questions push towards end-to-end encryption

The UK most senior police officer has accused technology firms of failing to identify, monitor and report the activity of terrorists, in a plea for improved access to social media platforms.

Dame Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan police commissioner, also questioned the push to expand end-to-end encryption in a speech to law enforcement officials on Monday.

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UK children aged 12 to 15 to be offered Covid jab

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UK’s four chief medical officers decide to set aside view of vaccine watchdog that benefits of jabs were too minimal to justify them

Children aged 12 to 15 can be offered Covid vaccinations, the UK’s four chief medical officers have decided, saying the likely impact in reducing disruption to schools meant such a plan could be clinically justified.

All children in the age group will be offered a first Pfizer jab as soon as possible, with the programme led by in-school vaccination services. A second injection will be potentially given once more evidence is gathered, so not before the spring term at the earliest.

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New York court to hold pre-trial conference on civil suit filed against Prince Andrew

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Attorneys for Virginia Giuffre expected to argue royal has been properly served with documents in alleged sexual assault case

A New York court is to hold a pre-trial conference on Monday on the civil suit filed against the Duke of York in the sex assault case against him, with reports suggesting his lawyers will not attend the hearing,

Attorneys for Virginia Roberts Giuffre, 38, who alleges Prince Andrew, 61, sexually assaulted her when she was 17, a charge he vehemently denies, are expected to argue that the royal has been properly served with documents in the case.

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Coronavirus live news: Italy sends 100,000 vaccines to Iraq; England to scrap Covid vaccine passport plans

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Latest updates: follow all our coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic from the UK and around the world

Conservative MPs fear vaccine passports could still be made mandatory later this year amid a warning the NHS faces “the worst winter in living memory”, despite the health secretary’s announcement earlier today that they are to be scrapped.

The dramatic U-turn came just weeks after Boris Johnson announced the controversial documents would be necessary for fully vaccinated people to go to nightclubs and other crowded venues.

They shouldn’t be kept in reserve – they are pointless, damaging and discriminatory.

“The very concept of vaccine passports needs to be ruled out for good, as they are fundamentally unconservative, discriminatory and would lead to a two-tier society that I am confident no one actually wants to see.

“I don’t believe that, sadly it’s probably politics.

Related: Some Tories fear second U-turn over plan for Covid vaccine passports in England

South Africa’s president has announced an easing of Covid-19 restrictions and a shortening of the national curfew after a decline in infections.

Authorities will also extend the hours of alcohol sales, further relaxing restrictions introduced in June to combat a third wave of cases caused by the Delta variant, Reuters reports.

While the third wave is not yet over, we have seen a sustained decline in infections across the country over the last few weeks.

With the decline of infections across all provinces, the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Covid-19 has recommended an easing of restrictions.

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Serving Met police officer charged with voyeurism offences

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Neil Corbel, 40, a detective inspector from the Met’s continuous policing improvement command, is charged on 19 counts

A serving Metropolitan police officer has been charged with a string of voyeurism offences. Neil Corbel, 40, a detective inspector from the Met’s continuous policing improvement command, was charged with 19 offences on 11 August.

The alleged offences took place in the Greater London, Manchester and Brighton areas between January 2017 and February 2020; Corbel was not on duty at the time, the Met said.

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UK vaccine volunteers to help prepare for next virus at new Pandemic Institute

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The Liverpool site will work with other international centres to research the threat of emerging disruptive diseases

A new scientific institute which aims to prevent future pandemics may have been able to save thousands of lives by accelerating vaccine development had it existed before December 2019, its researchers believe.

Liverpool’s new Pandemic Institute will include a new human challenge facility, where volunteers will test new vaccines and treatments under controlled conditions.

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Facebook office cleaner who led protests at London site fears for his job

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Suspended union rep calls on social media giant to intervene after exhausted workers complain of extra workload

Facebook’s facilities management firm has demanded the removal of a union activist leading a campaign against “impossible workloads” imposed on exhausted cleaners at the US tech giant’s London offices.

Emails seen by the Observer show JLL @ Facebook, which manages the social media firm’s London sites, asked Churchill Group, which employs the cleaners, to remove the workers’ elected union rep, Guillermo Camacho, from Facebook’s offices after he helped organise protests against a doubling of cleaning duties in July.

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US court to hold pretrial conference in Prince Andrew sexual assault suit

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Lawyers claiming to represent Duke of York question whether papers were properly served

A US court will hold a pretrial conference on Monday in the civil suit filed by a woman who claims Prince Andrew sexually assaulted her, as the two sides argue over whether the prince was properly served with documents in the case.

Lawyers for Virginia Roberts Giuffre say the documents were handed over to a Metropolitan police officer on duty at the main gates of Andrew’s home in Windsor Great Park on 27 August.

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SNP members call for creation of state-run energy company

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Motion will be seen as rebuke to party leader Nicola Sturgeon, who pledged to establish national firm in 2017

Scottish National party members backed a call for a state-run energy company to be set up on the second day of their autumn conference, four years after leader Nicola Sturgeon first pledged one. The move will be seen as a direct rebuke to the leadership’s failure to make good on the promise.

On Saturday activists overwhelmingly supported a motion demanding the creation of a Scottish national energy company, which first minister Nicola Sturgeon first promised in October 2017 at a previous conference.

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Johnson aims to beat Thatcher’s record with another decade in power – reports

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‘Levelling up’ British society will take 10 years, the prime minister writes as Tories slip in polls

Reports that Boris Johnson has ambitions for another decade in power as he aims to outlast Margaret Thatcher’s 11-year tenure in No 10 have been met with consternation.

The Times reported that Johnson wanted to build a legacy. One cabinet member reportedly told the newspaper: “Boris will want to go on and on. The stuff Dom [Dominic Cummings] was saying about him going off into the sunset was nonsense. He’s very competitive. He wants to go on for longer than Thatcher.”

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Photographer David Bailey reveals he has vascular dementia

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‘It’s just one of those things,’ says the British celebrity snapper, 83, who is still busy with new work

David Bailey has revealed he has dementia, a life-limiting condition the British photographer described as a bore.

Speaking to the Times, Bailey, 83, said: “I’ve got vascular dementia. I was diagnosed about three years ago.

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‘My son misses his Papa’: Brexit rules force families to split

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Partners and spouses are being kept apart by Home Office delays in processing revised versions of entry permits to Britain

A British woman has told how she had to separate her six-year-old son from his French father because post-Brexit rules prohibited her spouse from returning with her to the UK for a new job without prior Home Office approval.

After 11 years in France, the couple, who work in highly skilled jobs in the defence industry, decided to move back to the UK and thought it would be as simple as getting on a Eurostar train.

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Richard E Grant reveals late wife Joan Washington had lung cancer

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Actor says Washington, who died earlier this month aged 71, was diagnosed eight months before her death

Richard E Grant has revealed his wife of 35 years, Joan Washington, was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer eight months before her death.

The actor, 64, known for films including Withnail And I and Can You Ever Forgive Me?, announced Washington, a voice coach, died earlier this month, aged 71, by sharing a video of the pair dancing together to Only You by the Platters on Twitter.

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The Taliban are not the only threat to Afghanistan. Aid cuts could undo 20 years of progress

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The most vulnerable people will bear the cost of sanctions, as services and the economy collapse

Watching Afghanistan’s unfolding trauma, I’ve thought a lot about Mumtaz Ahmed, a young teacher I met a few years ago. Her family fled Kabul during Taliban rule in the late 1990s.

Raised as a refugee in Pakistan, Ahmed had defied the odds and made it to university. Now, she was back in Afghanistan teaching maths in a rural girls’ school. “I came back because I believe in education and I love my country,” she told me. “These girls have a right to learn – without education, Afghanistan has no future.”

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Prince Andrew served with lawsuit from Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre

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A US court document showed paperwork was filed at Royal Lodge and a response is due by 17 September

Prince Andrew has been served with an affidavit for a lawsuit say lawyers for Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who alleges she was forced to have sex with the royal when she was 17 years old.

A document filed in a US court on Friday showed that paperwork for Giuffre’s lawsuit was filed at Andrew’s home, Royal Lodge, in Windsor on 27 August. The affidavit was accepted by a Metropolitan police officer at the gates of the property at 9.30am, after the agent filing the document had been turned away the previous day, according to the documents.

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‘This girl means serious business’: the making of Emma Raducanu

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Even from a young age, those around the latest British tennis star suspected she had something special

Emma Raducanu’s unprecedented run to the US Open final so soon after committing to the sport is not the first time she has burst through and demanded attention.

In November 2015, only three days after her 13th birthday, which meant she could finally compete in international under-18 tournaments, Raducanu travelled up to Liverpool for the Nike Junior International tournament. Five matches later, she had won the event.

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Boys more at risk from Pfizer jab side-effect than Covid, suggests study

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US researchers say teenagers are more likely to get vaccine-related myocarditis than end up in hospital with Covid

Healthy boys may be more likely to be admitted to hospital with a rare side-effect of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine that causes inflammation of the heart than with Covid itself, US researchers claim.

Their analysis of medical data suggests that boys aged 12 to 15, with no underlying medical conditions, are four to six times more likely to be diagnosed with vaccine-related myocarditis than ending up in hospital with Covid over a four-month period.

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Man jailed for life for murdering 17-year-old daughter

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Scott Walker to serve minimum 32 years for murder of Bernadette, whose body has still not been found

A man who murdered the teenage girl who called him her father, after she said he had sexually abused her over a number of years, has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 32 years.

Scott Walker, 51, of Peterborough, was convicted of the murder of 17-year-old Bernadette Walker, who was not his biological daughter, following an earlier trial at Cambridge crown court.

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