Gunman who killed five regularly expressed hatred of women but had firearms licence reinstated in July
Police must start taking misogyny more seriously in order to prevent more tragedies such as that in Plymouth, a top prosecutor has said, after a man who had regularly expressed his hatred of women killed five people and wounded two more.
Nazir Afzal, who was previously chief crown prosecutor for north-west England, said Jake Davison should have been on a police watchlist.
Continue reading...Blue Cross cautions about black market for popular breeds as government reportedly considers new offence of pet abduction
Stalking parks in affluent areas and luring puppies out of gardens with treats are among the methods dog thieves are using, campaigners have said, amid suggestions the government is preparing to clamp down on pet abductions.
Criminals mug dog-walkers for their pets and raid boarding kennels in an effort to steal in-demand breeds, whose price tags have soared during the pandemic. They are also on the look out for pets that have not been neutered or spayed and are capable of breeding.
Continue reading...Mother of Oscar in Derbyshire says her son and his cockapoo were ‘like peas in a pod’
When five-year-old Oscar was introduced to his puppy, Elvis, his life changed.
Oscar is on the autistic spectrum and had previously struggled to maintain friendships but his cockapoo therapy dog filled that gap, said his mother, Natallie Cobden.
Continue reading...Jake Davison had licence revoked in December but it was restored after he attended anger management course
A gunman who killed his mother and four passersby, including a three-year-old girl, had his firearms licence revoked in December, but police reinstated it last month after he attended an anger management course.
Police will face an investigation over their dealings with Jake Davison, 22, who expressed sympathy for the “incel” movement and a keen interest in mass shootings. One resident from Plymouth, where the killing spree took place, said Davison’s family had sought treatment for his mental health issues.
Continue reading...State media call Sarah Rainsford’s expulsion a response to alleged UK barriers for Russian journalists
Russia is to expel a senior BBC journalist in Moscow by refusing to extend her accreditation in a move the broadcaster condemned as a “direct assault on media freedom”.
Sarah Rainsford’s visa is due to expire at the end of August and will not be renewed. The state broadcaster Rossiya-24 first reported the decision on Thursday evening, calling it a response to alleged UK refusals or delays in issuing visas to Russian journalists.
Continue reading...Man suspected of killing five people, including a child, before turning a gun on himself named as Jake Davison
Jake Davison’s mother Maxine was in Plymouth and was from a large family.
Neighbours said Jake has a brother and a sister.
The prime minister, Boris Johnson, said the issue of how the Plymouth attacker, Jake Davison, came to legally own a gun should be “properly investigated”.
He described the shooting as an “absolutely appalling” incident.
Continue reading...Oxford Vaccine Group and Gavi say western leaders must not ‘reject their responsibility to the rest of humanity’
Many more people around the world will die of Covid if western political leaders “reject their responsibility to the rest of humanity” by prioritising booster shots for their own populations instead of sharing doses, the head of the Oxford vaccine group has warned.
Writing for the Guardian, Prof Sir Andrew Pollard, and Seth Berkley, the chief executive of Gavi, the vaccine alliance, say that the scientific and public health case for large-scale boosting has not been made and could have far-reaching consequences in other countries.
Continue reading...Jake Davison, the man suspected of killing five people in Devon city, had a firearms licence, say police
A gunman suspected of killing five people in a suburb of Plymouth, including a three-year-old girl, had a firearms licence, a police chief has said.
The chief constable of the Devon and Cornwall force, Shaun Sawyer, said Jake Davison, 22, had a firearms licence in 2020 but it was not clear whether it related to the weapon he used in his attack.
Continue reading...Read on for the facts about Sars-CoV-2, backed up by science
Wrong. People who never get symptoms from Covid are less infectious than people who get symptoms, but they can still have high viral loads and can pass on the virus. And the peak infectiousness in those who do develop symptoms is actually the day or two before they start feeling ill.
Continue reading...Police confirm deaths and say gunman is believed to have shot himself during the serious firearms incident
Six people, including a child, have died after a gunman repeatedly opened fire in Plymouth, police have confirmed.
The atrocity is being classed as a domestic incident and is not thought to be related to terrorism. Police believe the suspect to have shot himself.
Continue reading...Pentagon aims to send in 3,000 soldiers to ‘aid reduction’ of nationals and Afghans with visas
The US and UK have scrambled reinforcements to Kabul to help evacuate their diplomats, soldiers and citizens as well as thousands of Afghans who have worked with them, as the Taliban advance towards the capital.
The Pentagon announced it would send three battalions, about 3,000 soldiers, to Kabul’s international airport within 24 to 48 hours of the announcement on Thursday. The defence department spokesman, John Kirby, said the reinforcements would help the “safe and orderly reduction” of US nationals and Afghans who worked with the Americans and consequently had been granted special immigrant visas.
Continue reading...Show has been shot in New Zealand so far but filming will move to UK from June 2022
Amazon has made the surprise decision to move production of its $1bn-plus Lord of the Rings series from New Zealand to the UK, rejecting tens of millions of dollars in incentives to shoot the TV show in the same location as the blockbuster films.
Amazon, which four years ago paid $250m to secure the TV rights to JRR Tolkien’s works after founder Jeff Bezos demanded a Game of Thrones-style hit for its streaming service, chose to film the first series in New Zealand after competitive bids from around the world.
Continue reading...The Guardian’s picture editors select photo highlights from around the world
Continue reading...Academics warn ‘fugitive’ emissions from producing hydrogen could be 20% worse for climate than using gas
The government’s plan to replace fossil gas with “blue” hydrogen to help meet its climate targets could backfire after US academics found that it may lead to more emissions than using gas.
In some cases blue hydrogen, which is made from fossil gas, could be up to 20% worse for the climate than using gas in homes and heavy industry, owing to the emissions that escape when gas is extracted from the ground and split to produce hydrogen.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Roland Rudd, pro-EU group’s former chair, resigns along with director Richard Reed
Roland Rudd, one of the leading campaigners in the fight to keep Britain tied closely to the EU, has stepped down as a director of the company behind the People’s Vote group.
In a move one insider said marked as a “sorry end” to the slow decline of the movement forged during the fierce battle over Brexit, Rudd and another director, Richard Reed, resigned and handed over the reins of PV Campaign Ltd to Mark Kieran.
Continue reading...Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk gives tiles a special coating to stop bats slipping off as part of £6m roofing project
Bats have probably been in the attics of Oxburgh Hall for centuries. But how can they return for a good day’s sleep when the National Trust puts new and unfamiliar tiles on the roof?
The trust on Thursday revealed the lengths to which it has gone to keep the bat residents of a historic manor house in Norfolk happy during a £6m reroofing project – including specially adapted tiles which they can happily scoot up.
Continue reading...Gerry Layton, a royal supporter from Leeds, bought the cake topping and marzipan base for his collection of memorabilia
An ardent royalist has bought the topping from a slice of Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s wedding cake for £1,850 ($2,565) at auction, more than 40 years after the couple married.
The large piece of cake icing and marzipan base features a detailed, sugared design of the royal coat of arms in gold, red, blue and silver. It was given to Moya Smith, a member of the Queen Mother’s staff, who preserved it with cling film and dated it 29 July 1981.
Continue reading...Analysis: eastern bloc spy agencies historically would target western staff in junior roles
The arrest of a British citizen in Berlin for allegedly spying for the Russians has a distinctly cold war flavour.
In recent years the Kremlin has been accused of carrying out a number of spectacular cyber-operations. They include the hacking and dumping in 2016 of thousands of Democratic party emails. Moscow’s audacious goal, according to Washington: to help elect Donald Trump as US president.
Continue reading...Raised charges and Covax deals on order books of Pfizer, BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca
Two US companies, Pfizer and Moderna, have raised the prices of their Covid-19 vaccines after data from clinical trials showed their mRNA formula was more effective than cheaper vaccines from Britain’s AstraZeneca and the American drugs maker Johnson & Johnson.
AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson have pledged to provide their doses on a not-for-profit basis until the pandemic ends.
Continue reading...Judges say psychiatric expert report can form part of Washington’s full appeal
The WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, has lost a high court battle to prevent the US government expanding the grounds for its appeal against an earlier refusal to allow his extradition to face charges of espionage and hacking government computers.
On Wednesday, judges said the weight given to a misleading report from Assange’s psychiatric expert that was submitted at the original hearing in January could form part of Washington’s full appeal in October.
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