McFly singer and dancer Amy Dowden will miss next Saturday’s show while in separate isolation
The Strictly Come Dancing contestant Tom Fletcher and his professional partner, Amy Dowden, have tested positive for Covid-19 and will miss next Saturday’s live show, the BBC has said.
Fletcher, one of the lead vocalists from McFly, and Dowden had performed well in their first dance during this weekend’s show.
Continue reading...Melanie Chisholm, Boyzone’s Shane Lynch and S Club 7’s Hannah Spearritt latest to allege voicemail interception
A group of 1990s pop stars are among the latest individuals to launch phone-hacking cases against Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, as the scandal that has dogged the company for more than 15 years continues to rumble on at the high court.
Melanie Chisholm from the Spice Girls, Shane Lynch from Boyzone, Hannah Spearritt from S Club 7, and Steps’s Ian Watkins and Lee Latchford-Evans have recently filed claims against the company.
Continue reading...States including Idaho and Kansas report throwing away thousands of expired doses; clashes in Norway as bars, restaurants and nightclubs reopen
Here is a round-up of all the top Covid stories from the UK and around the world so far today:
A decline in public services in the UK could be hidden behind a “Covid crisis smokescreen”, unions have warned.
It comes amid calls from union chiefs for rail and bus services to be renationalised to avert “disastrous” cuts to services and jobs and increases in fares.
People just will not travel on trains if fares go up, and coupled with the new ways of working, there is a real danger that the railways will be hollowed out.
Continue reading...As the bank hires nearly 100 staff in the city, the region’s mayor hopes to attract more big firms
Investment bankers are rarely compared to football stars. But when the West Midlands mayor, Andy Street, formally welcomed Goldman Sachs to Birmingham this month, he likened its arrival to one of the summer’s big transfer moves.
“I hope this isn’t inappropriate,” he said, addressing a crowd of Goldman staff gathered at the city’s newly refurbished Grand Hotel. “I think you probably are the Cristiano Ronaldo moment. You’re the big one to secure.”
Continue reading...Police say they are questioning 36-year-old on suspicion of murder in ‘significant development’
Detectives are questioning a 36-year-old man on suspicion of the murder of the London schoolteacher Sabina Nessa, in what they called a “significant development” in the case.
The man was arrested at 3am on Sunday at an address in East Sussex and was taken into police custody. He is the third man arrested over the killing.
Continue reading...Leeds United have offered support but players face return to Taliban regime unless accepted soon
The UK government is being asked to urgently resettle female players from Afghanistan’s junior football team who fled the Taliban and have been offered a new life with Leeds United.
The 35 young women – many of whom are in their teens – their families and football coaches are in Lahore, Pakistan, on 30-day visas. But the 136-strong group face returning to Afghanistan unless they are accepted by a third country soon – they have to leave Pakistan by 12 October.
Continue reading...Emergency visa plan will not resolve Britain’s road transport crisis, says industry as majority blame Brexit in poll
The government’s emergency programme to issue temporary visas to thousands of lorry drivers is far too little to resolve Britain’s supply-chain crisis and is unlikely to attract them to the UK, haulage chiefs have warned.
Downing Street on Saturday night confirmed hastily compiled plans to add 5,000 HGV drivers and 5,500 poultry workers to a visa scheme until Christmas, to help the food and fuel industries with shortages.
Continue reading...Labour leader bids to stem damage after defeat on rules as deputy Rayner furious over unnecessary conflict
Keir Starmer is battling to restore authority over the Labour party after a bruising defeat at the hands of unions and the left sparked a storm of criticism over his performance as leader.
Ahead of a conference billed as the moment when Starmer would introduce himself as a future prime minister to the British people, the Labour leader on Saturday was forced to withdraw plans to limit the role of party members, and increase that of MPs, in selecting future party leaders, after the unions united in opposition to block the move.
Continue reading...EVCL Chill goes into administration hit by severe driver shortages and loss of customers
More than 400 jobs are at risk after a chilled food delivery business collapsed into administration – in part as a result of the driver shortage.
EVCL Chill, based in Alfreton, Derbyshire, had struggled after the loss of a number of customers over the past year and severe driver shortages, administrators PwC said.
Continue reading...Further 3,273 infections added to South Korea’s tally; fully vaccinated travellers in Northern Ireland will no longer need pre-departure test from 4 October
The introduction of Covid passes in the Netherlands has sparked protests, with demonstrators marching against the requirement to show proof of vaccination to enter bars, theatres and other venues.
After social distancing was brought to a close on Saturday, customers are now required to show proof of vaccination, recent recovery from Covid or a negative test to enter hospitality and leisure venues in the Netherlands.
The Netherlands ended social distancing measures on Saturday, replacing the restriction with a requirement to show a Covid-19 health pass to enter hospitality and entertainment venues.
Known as the “1.5-meter society” in the Netherland, social distancing measures have been in place for the last 18 months.
Continue reading...England and Wales victims’ commissioner says there needs to be more onus on police to protect public
Police need to do more to make the streets safe for women and girls after the death of Sabina Nessa, the victims’ commissioner for England and Wales has said.
Dame Vera Baird, who said she attended a vigil in Wood Green, London, in honour of the suspected murdered 28-year-old primary school teacher, on Friday evening, said there needs to be more onus on police to protect the public than on women to take precautions.
Continue reading...Serious themes are undercut by the flippant tone of this story about a Syrian refugee who becomes a conceptual art object
Here is a muddled caper of movie that doesn’t know what it wants to say; it doesn’t work as a satire of the international art market, nor as a commentary on the racism of white European culture. And its attitude to Syria is undermined by a silly and unconvincing ending that leaves a strange taste in the mouth. It is inspired by the Belgian conceptual artist Wim Delvoye and his human artwork called Tim: in 2008, Delvoye tattooed an elaborate punk-crucifixion scene on the back of a Zurich tattoo parlour owner named Tim Steiner, who in return for a cash payment agreed to sit still with his tattooed back on show in galleries for a certain number of times a year and have his tattooed skin surgically removed and put on display after his death. And of course it is this macabre destiny that lends fascination to the ongoing live events.
This movie from writer-director Kaouther Ben Hania imagines a Syrian man, Sam Ali (Yahya Mahayni) in love with a well-born woman Abeer (Dea Liane). But when he is wrongfully arrested by the tyrannical Assad government, Abeer’s family pressures her into marrying a smooth diplomat, Ziad (Saad Lostan), who takes her to live with him in Brussels where he is an embassy attache. Sam Ali manages to escape from police custody (the least of the film’s implausibilities) and get over the border into Lebanon where, hungry and hard up, he gatecrashes art exhibitions and gobbles the free canapes. And this is where he is approached by a preeningly arrogant artist, Jeffrey Godefroi (Koen De Bouw), who looks like Roger De Bris, the theatre director in Mel Brooks’s The Producers. If Sam will agree to the humiliation of having a massive “Schengen visa” tattooed on his back, then Jeffrey will be legally able to transport him to Brussels as a conceptual art object rather than a human being, as part of a show about the commodification of humanity, and Sam will be able to see Abeer.
Continue reading...A roundup of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Myanmar to Germany
Continue reading...Paul was in his 80s when someone called to say she was his daughter, conceived in a fertility clinic with his sperm. The only problem? He’d never donated any
For 40 years, Catherine Simpson thought she knew who she was: a nurse, a mother of three, a daughter and a sister. She looked like her mother, Sarah, but had the same temperament as her father, George: calm, unflustered, kind.
Then her father died. There was a dispute over his will, and that led her mother to call and tell her something that made the ground dissolve beneath her feet. George had had a vasectomy long before Catherine was born. She and her brother had been donor conceived in Harley Street using the sperm of two different anonymous men. George was not her biological father.
Continue reading...Analysis: Experts say it is first time since start of pandemic that sustained decline is recorded out of lockdown
In early September, outbreak modelling for the government’s Sage advisers showed Covid hospitalisations had the potential to soar. If people rushed back to work and resumed all the socialising they had put on hold, the number of daily admissions in England could peak at 7,000 within six weeks. It was, in effect, a worst-case scenario, barring a dramatic waning of immunity or a troublesome new variant.
The optimistic scenario looked very different. Assuming a more gradual return to normality, the modelling had daily Covid hospitalisations rising slowly and slightly, topping out at nearly 2,000, before falling again in November. Now, even that looks overly gloomy. Over the past fortnight, hospitalisations have fallen in England, even as schools and offices reopened.
Continue reading...Issue of whether royal had been notified about the case had previously been contested
The Duke of York has received court papers relating to a sexual assault lawsuit, US officials have confirmed.
The complainant, Virginia Giuffre, is seeking damages after alleging Prince Andrew sexually assaulted her, a claim he vehemently denies.
Continue reading...There are signs that previously struggling social democratic parties are drawing the right lessons from the pandemic
In the wake of the financial crash in 2008, hopes were high on the left that a bona fide crisis of capitalism would significantly shift the political dial in its favour. Isolated victories and movements aside, it didn’t really happen. Instead, in the early 2010s, the bailout of the bankers was followed by the imposition of austerity across Europe and in America as governments sought to balance the books.
Premature predictions on the nature of post-Covid politics in the west are therefore to be avoided. But certain themes do seem to be emerging. Sketching out broadly communitarian territory, they chime with many people’s experience of how the pandemic played out and what it exposed; and there is some evidence that, in northern Europe, they might inform a revival and renewal of centre-left parties and movements.
Continue reading...Police urgently seeking man captured on CCTV close to where 28-year-old teacher was found
Detectives fear the prime suspect for the murder of Sabina Nessa is still at large, the Guardian understands, as the school teacher’s family spoke of their shock.
Detectives are urgently seeking a man captured in CCTV images taken close to where Nessa, 28, was found dead on Sunday. Two men arrested in connection with the alleged murder have been released under further investigation.
Continue reading...Boris Johnson believed to have overruled ministers unwilling to compromise on post-Brexit immigration as forecourt queues mount
Ministers are poised to agree an extraordinary post-Brexit U-turn that would allow foreign lorry drivers back into the UK to stave off shortages threatening fuel and food supplies.
Boris Johnson ordered a rapid fix on Friday to prevent the crisis escalating. Ministers met in an attempt to agree a short-term visa scheme permitting potentially thousands more lorry drivers from abroad to come to the UK.
Continue reading...Petrofac made admission as part of deal to end four-year corruption investigation by Serious Fraud Office
A multinational oil firm, which was led by a major Conservative donor, has admitted that its employees paid bribes to land contracts, as it struck a deal to end a corruption investigation into the company.
The admission was announced by the firm, Petrofac, on Friday to settle a four-year corruption and money laundering investigation by the Serious Fraud Office.
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