Category Archives: UK news

UK to block visas for countries refusing to take back asylum seekers

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Bill would give home secretary power to take action against citizens of countries deemed not to be cooperating

The UK will block visas for visitors from countries the home secretary believes are refusing to cooperate in taking back rejected asylum seekers or offenders.

In proposed legislation published on Tuesday, Priti Patel and future home secretaries would have the power to suspend or delay the processing of applications from countries that do no “cooperate with the UK government in relation to the removal from the United Kingdom of nationals of that country who require leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom but do not have it”.

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Javid: no need for fully vaccinated Covid contacts to self-isolate from 16 August – video

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Close contacts of people in England who have tested positive for Covid will not need to self-isolate if they have received both Covid jabs, or if they are under 18, the health secretary, Sajid Javid, has told the Commons. People will still need to self-isolate if they test positive for the virus. 'This new approach means we can manage the virus in a way that's proportionate to the pandemic while maintaining the freedoms that are so important to us all,' he said

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Damien Hirst on painting cherry blossom: ‘It’s taken me until I’m 55 to please my mum’

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The former hell-raising, hard-partying YBA known for slicing animals in half is now painting trees in bloom. Has he lost his edge? And why is his hair blue?

The first thing that hits me when I see Damien Hirst’s Cherry Blossoms isn’t the scale (monumental) or the palette (psychedelic) but the paint itself. It’s thick, sticky and a little bit nasty. Creamy-white and dusty-pink daubs swirl from the surface like meringue kisses, fragile and sugary sweet. Others are more chewy, like dried gum. Then there are the viscous splats of mustard-yellow and brown, which are toe deep and remind me of something I side-stepped on the pavement this morning.

“I think the idea of being a painter has always appealed to me,” says Hirst, who is more famous for what we might call his non-canvas work. “I suppose it’s that old story of Turner being strapped to a mast during a storm so he could paint it – it’s a romantic thing.”

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‘More than a game’: Euros delirium in Denmark despite UK travel setback

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Nation with Hans Christian Andersen-inspired football song is hoping for fairytale win against England

People dancing on buses is not something you see every day in Denmark. Rule-abiding Danes tend to keep their celebrations low-key – but not this summer.

Football fans brought traffic to a standstill in Aarhus after Denmark beat the Czech Republic in the Euro 2020 quarter-finals and even scaled public transport to broadcast their euphoria and belt out another round of Re-sepp-ten – first a hit for Denmark’s national team at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. The anthem’s crowd-sourced lyrics are laden with Hans Christian Andersen imagery and feel particularly apt this year.

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To mask or not to mask: what will Johnson and others do after 19 July?

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The PM says he will keep his covering in crowded places after England’s rules change but what do his ministers and experts think?

Boris Johnson has said he will continue to wear a mask in “crowded places” after mandatory requirements are dropped in England on 19 July.

“What we’re trying to do is move from a universal government diktat to relying on people’s personal responsibility,” he told Monday’s Downing Street press conference. “Clearly there’s a big difference between travelling on a crowded Tube train and sitting late at night in a virtually empty carriage on the main railway line. So what we want to do is for people to exercise their personal responsibility but to remember the value of face coverings both in protecting themselves and others.”

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Sajid Javid says England is in ‘uncharted territory’ with Covid unlocking – video

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The health secretary said the government expects cases could reach as high as 50,000 cases a day by the time measures are fully relaxed on 19 July, and continue rising. Figures show 27,334 people across the UK tested positive reported on 5 July

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‘A cascade of catastrophic failings’: the UK’s baby death scandals

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The failures in maternity care that have been unearthed at hospital trusts around the country over past few years

An investigation into baby deaths at Furness general hospital in Barrow between 2004 and 2013 found a “lethal mix” of failings at almost every level.

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Priti Patel to reveal proposals for offshore centres for asylum seekers

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Borders bill will allow for charges against migrants ‘knowingly’ arriving in UK without permission

Ministers are to reveal proposals for a suite of new laws paving the way for offshore centres for asylum seekers and criminal charges for migrants “knowingly” arriving in the UK without permission.

The nationality and borders bill, formerly known as the sovereign borders bill, has been described by the Home Office as containing “the most radical changes to the broken asylum system in decades” making it harder for those who enter illegally to stay in the UK.

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Mammoth journey ahead as elephants leave Kent zoo for the Kenyan savannah

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All but one of the herd of 13 were born in captivity, but conservationists hope they can be ‘rewilded’


A herd of elephants born and raised in a Kent zoo are about to get on a plane to travel almost 4,500 miles (7,000km) to Kenya, in order to reintroduce them to the wild in a first-of-its kind operation.

The herd of 13, which includes three calves, were all but one born at Howletts Wild Animal Park, a private zoo near Canterbury. The mammoth mission to “rewild” the elephants is being carried out by the Aspinall Foundation, the Kenya Wildlife Service and Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.

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‘The police bill is wiping out a culture’: New Travellers take a stand

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If it becomes law, residing on land without permission would be a criminal offence, threatening a way of life for communities across the UK

“I am worried that not everyone knows what is coming,” says Amy, sitting in the truck she has turned into a cosy home for her and her two children. “If this bill is passed it will mean the end of our culture. The end of our way of life.”

Amy, who wanted to be known by her first name, lives with her two sons on a small Travellers’ site down a quiet country lane in the west of England, along the edges of an ancient forest.

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Chinese-owned firm acquires UK’s largest semiconductor manufacturer

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Tory MP Tom Tugendhat raises concerns about deal in light of global computer chip shortage

The UK’s largest producer of semiconductors has been acquired by the Chinese-owned manufacturer Nexperia, prompting a senior Tory MP to call for the government to review the sale to a foreign owner during an increasingly severe global shortage of computer chips.

Nexperia, a Dutch firm owned by China’s Wingtech, said on Monday that it had taken full control of Newport Wafer Fab (NWF), the UK’s largest producer of silicon chips, which are vital in products from TVs and mobile phones to cars and games consoles.

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Why living with Covid would not be the same as flu

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Analysis: coronavirus is more contagious and more lethal than influenza, and we lack the same global protection mechanism

As England prepares to ease coronavirus restrictions further, the messaging from ministers has changed. We have reached, it seems, a tipping point in the pandemic where rules will be replaced by personal decisions. The mantra now is about living with coronavirus, much as we do with seasonal flu.

The pandemic has invited countless comparisons between coronavirus and influenza and the diseases do have some features in common. Both are contagious, potentially lethal respiratory viruses. They can spread through aerosols, droplets and contaminated surfaces. And they share some of the same symptoms in the form of fever, cough, headaches and fatigue. In the winter ahead, one challenge the NHS faces is separating the Covid patients from the flu cases.

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Surging Covid and unlocking: does England risk being a variant factory?

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Many scientists argue that lifting all restrictions at this stage will increase likelihood of dangerous variants

Covid cases in the UK are rising exponentially, largely in younger age groups who are more likely to be partially or completely unvaccinated. What does this mean for the risk of new variants popping up?

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Malawi Pride and press freedoms in Palestine: human rights this fortnight – in pictures

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A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Chile to Cambodia

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Antarctic expedition to renew search for Shackleton’s ship Endurance

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Endurance22 will launch early next year with aim of locating and surveying wreck in the Weddell Sea

The location of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance has been one of the great maritime mysteries since the ship became trapped in ice and sank in 1915. Finding this symbol of the “heroic age” of polar exploration at the bottom of the Weddell Sea was long thought impossible because of the harshness of the Antarctic environment – “the evil conditions”, as Shackleton described them.

Now a major scientific expedition, announced on Monday, is being planned with a mission to locate, survey and film the wreck.

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‘Idea of commuting fills me with dread’: workers on returning to the office

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Staff warily contemplate going back to work as business leaders say it is vital to boost urban economy

With the lifting of coronavirus restrictions in England probably two weeks away, the prospect of returning to offices means the revival of the daily commute.

In a push to bring back more people to town and city centres to boost the urban economy, a group of 50 business leaders, including the Canary Wharf executive chair, Sir George Iacobescu, the bosses of Heathrow and Gatwick airports, the Capita chief executive, Jon Lewis, and the BT chief executive, Philip Jansen, are calling for the government to encourage a return to the office.

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TfL hit by £100m fall in ad revenue across tube, rail and bus network

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Exclusive: record low level of London journeys during Covid crisis drives down commercial income

Transport for London (TfL) has recorded a £100m plunge in advertising revenue across its network of tube stations, trains and buses after Covid-19 pandemic restrictions kept commuters away from travelling to work.

TfL’s advertising estate – which comprises more than 100,000 billboards, posters and panels throughout the capital’s tube and rail network, in trains and on buses and shelters – is one of the largest and most valuable in the world.

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PM to confirm 19 July end to Covid rules despite scientists’ warnings

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Boris Johnson to press ahead with final stage of unlocking in England amid huge rise in infections

Boris Johnson is to announce that the lifting of most remaining Covid-19 restrictions in England will go ahead on 19 July amid a backlash from government scientific advisers who have warned that doing so would be like building new “variant factories”.

Despite cases having risen to their highest level since January 2021, the prime minister is set to press ahead with the final stage of unlocking in two weeks.

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Coronavirus live: UK records 24,248 new cases; Luxembourg PM ‘in hospital with Covid’

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Media reports say Xavier Bettel is undergoing tests as a precaution; Israel seeking new deal after talks with UK collapse

Russia has recorded a record daily number of Covid-19 infections after deaths hit at a record-high for five days in a row this week.

Vladimir Putin has for now refrained from calling another lockdown, but the 25,142 infections reported on Sunday were the biggest figure since 2 January, AFP reports.

France’s health minister has warned “our country is in a race against time” as he said a fourth wave of Covid-19 could arrive by the end of the month.

In a tweet on Sunday Olivier Véran urged people to get vaccinated as he warned of a worrying rise in cases caused by spread of the Delta variant, Reuters reports.

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Politics trumps Covid science in Javid’s push to ‘live with the virus’

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Experts are urging greater vaccination coverage and action over ventilation in public spaces before lifting restrictions

For months, the prime minister has repeated the mantra that further easing of Covid-19 restrictions would be about “data and not dates”. Yet, as coronavirus cases in the UK continue to surge, and scientists warn that fully reopening society risks building “variant factories” in our own back yard, the government appears poised to put one date – 19 July – ahead of everything else. Once again, politics has trumped science.

Since Sajid Javid’s appointment as health secretary on 26 June, the UK has confirmed a further 188,538 coronavirus cases, with approximately 25,000 extra people testing positive each day. On Sunday, Javid said that the best way to protect the nation’s health was by lifting the main Covid-19 restrictions, even though this would result in a further significant increase in cases. “We are going to have to learn to accept the existence of Covid and find ways to cope with it – just as we already do with flu,” he said.

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