Category Archives: UK news

Regional museums break ranks with UK government on return of Benin bronzes

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Aberdeen says it will repatriate a bust while Cambridge museum has ‘expectation’ its collection could be returned

Regional UK museums could lead a wave of repatriations of disputed Benin bronzes – most of them looted by British forces in 1897 – in defiance of the British government’s stance that institutions should “retain and explain” contested artefacts.

On Thursday, the University of Aberdeen confirmed it would repatriate a bust of an Oba, or king of Benin, which it has had since the 1950s, “within weeks”, a landmark move for a British institution.

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UK government in talks over expanding Covid travel ‘red list’

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Ministers under growing pressure to prevent variants undermining vaccine programme

Discussions are under way in Whitehall about expanding the travel “red list” of countries as ministers face mounting pressure to prevent coronavirus variants undermining the vaccine programme.

The Guardian understands that officials met on Friday to consider the case for taking a tougher approach. British residents and nationals returning from countries on the red list must quarantine in an airport hotel for 10 days at a cost of £1,750, while other arrivals are banned. It remains illegal to go on holiday.

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Call centre staff to be monitored via webcam for home-working ‘infractions’

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Exclusive: Teleperformance, which employs 380,000 people, plans to use specialist webcams to watch staff

Thousands of staff at one of the world’s biggest call centre companies face being monitored by webcams to check whether they are eating, looking at their phones or leaving their desks while working from home, the Guardian has learned.

In a sign of potential battles ahead over the surveillance of remote staff after the pandemic, Teleperformance – which employs about 380,000 people in 34 countries and counts dozens of major UK companies and government departments among its clients – has told some staff that specialist webcams will be fitted to check for home-working “infractions”.

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France claims UK will struggle to source second Covid jabs

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EU will not be blackmailed over Oxford/AstraZeneca doses, says foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian

The war of words with the EU over vaccines has escalated as France’s foreign minister claimed Britain will struggle to source second Covid jabs but that Brussels would not be “blackmailed” into exporting doses to solve the problem.

Jean-Yves Le Drian, a close political ally of the French president, Emmanuel Macron, claimed that the UK’s success had been built on driving forward with first jabs without having secured the second doses necessary for full vaccination.

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China sanctions UK businesses, MPs and lawyers in Xinjiang row

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Former Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith says he will wear the retaliation like a ‘badge of honour’

China has sanctioned organisations and individuals in the United Kingdom over what it called “lies and disinformation” about Xinjiang, after Britain imposed sanctions for human rights abuses in the western Chinese region.

The Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement that it sanctioned four entities and nine individuals, including the former Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith and the Conservative party’s own Human Rights Commission.

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Gibraltar looks to post-Covid era as vaccine drive nears completion

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British overseas territory is positioning itself as real-time case study in relaxing restrictions

This month Gibraltar’s health minister snapped a photo from her first dinner out in months, showing two glasses of red wine sitting prominently on the table and a face mask cast off in the background. “Operation freedom begins,” tweeted Samantha Sacramento alongside the photo.

Operation Freedom, the name given to Gibraltar’s vaccination programme, is now closing in on its target: in the coming days the British overseas territory will become one of the first places in the world where every willing resident over the age of 16 has been fully vaccinated.

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Welsh tourism sector can start to reopen from this weekend

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Lifting of stay-local rule is for Welsh residents only as country stays shut to visitors from other parts of the UK

The tourism sector in Wales can begin to reopen from Saturday as the country’s stay-local rule is lifted, but only for Welsh residents.

Organised outdoor activities and sports for children and under-18s will also be able to take place and up to six people from two different households can meet and exercise outdoors and in private gardens.

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EU leaders back ‘global value chains’ instead of vaccine export bans

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Refusal to support measure despite Ursula von der Leyen highlighting 21m doses sent to UK

EU leaders backed “global value chains” rather than support Brussels in using new powers to block Covid jab exports to highly vaccinated countries, despite being told that 21m doses had been sent to the UK.

At a virtual summit, attended briefly by Joe Biden, the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, highlighted the large shipments sent over the Channel, amounting to two-thirds of the jabs given in the UK.

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Pint of milk protest: Charles Walker’s surreal Commons speech – video

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‘I want to talk about milk,’ begins Charles Walker. ‘I am going to walk around London with a pint of milk on my person, because that pint will represent my protest.’ In a convoluted speech, he concludes that unless you cherish freedoms, you will lose them. ‘Unless you fight for freedoms, every day they end up being taken away from you’

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UK diplomacy masks private fury in Covid vaccine row with EU

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Tussles over supplies could last months despite commitment in public to work together

Tussles with the EU over vaccine supplies could continue for months, UK government insiders fear, despite a joint statement in which both sides committed to working together.

From Boris Johnson’s phone calls to EU leaders to the foreign secretary Dominic Raab’s discreet lobbying on the fringes of this week’s Nato meeting, a significant amount of senior government time and energy is being invested in trying to resolve the issue.

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Boris Johnson says ‘freedom loving’ MPs should support cautious lockdown easing – video

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The prime minister says the only way to restore a normal way of life is to beat Covid-19 and that 'the best path to freedom is down the cautious but irreversible roadmap that we've set out'. He also denies telling Tory MPs this week that the success of the vaccine programme was down to 'greed'

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Revealed: police barred from searching Queen’s estates for looted artefacts

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Exclusive: palace and government refuse to say why exemption from 2017 law was deemed necessary

Police have been barred from searching the Queen’s private estates for stolen or looted artefacts after ministers granted her a personal exemption from a law that protects the world’s cultural property, the Guardian can reveal.

Buckingham Palace and the government are refusing to say why it was deemed necessary in 2017 to give the Queen an exemption that prevents police from searching Balmoral and Sandringham.

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EU leaders push back against bloc’s plans to halt Covid vaccine export

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More sceptical member states hope ‘stick will never be used’ amid concerns over supply chain

EU leaders are likely to shy away from supporting the use of new powers to block Covid vaccine shipments to countries such as the UK with better jab coverage than the bloc, according to a draft statement ahead of a meeting of EU leaders today.

The European commission has increased its scope for blocking vaccine exports but disquiet among capitals is set to be reflected in a muted statement at the end of the virtual summit on Thursday evening.

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David Cameron faces investigation into possible lobbying law breach

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Lobbying registrar to look at ex-prime minister’s work on behalf of Greensill Capital, according to reports

A formal investigation has been launched into whether David Cameron breached lobbying laws through his work on behalf of Greensill Capital, according to reports.

However, the Guardian understands the former prime minister will say he was acting as an employee for the firm. According to guidance by the register of consultant lobbyists, people who lobby on behalf of their own organisation do not need to declare themselves on the register.

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GCHQ releases ‘most difficult puzzle ever’ in honour of Alan Turing

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12 riddles linked to new £50 note featuring the codebreaker may take seven hours to crack

GCHQ has released its “most difficult puzzle ever”, a set of 12 riddles linked to design elements of the new £50 note featuring the mathematician and codebreaker Alan Turing.

The questions begin with a relatively straightforward crossword-style puzzle that starts by asking where GCHQ’s predecessor agency, where Turing worked, was based during the second world war. A two-word answer, nine letters then four, is required.

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British black power: stars of BBC documentary reflect on UK activism

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As a new film on 60s and 70s resistance is released, its subjects discuss what progress, if any, has been made

When Zainab Abbas, a renowned activist and former member of the Black Liberation Front, was asked if things had improved for black people in the UK over the past 50 years, she didn’t hesitate with her response.

“I don’t think it’s got better, I really don’t,” she said, pointing to rates of stop and search, black unemployment and rising hate crimes. “It’s important to remember that things haven’t changed because they were able to wipe out our history.”

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Boris Johnson on EU vaccine exports and ‘vaccination passports’ – video

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Boris Johnson has told the EU that Europe would be the loser if it imposed a Covid vaccine blockade on Britain, as Brussels empowered officials to prohibit shipments to countries with a better record in vaccinating their population. The prime minister also discussed whether pubs should be allowed to set rules on vaccine passports as a condition of entry

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AstraZeneca plant investigated by Italian police at EU’s request

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Investigation is fresh sign of breakdown in relations between Brussels and Anglo-Swedish vaccine supplier

An AstraZeneca plant has come under investigation by the Italian police at the request of Brussels in a sign of the breakdown in relations between the Anglo-Swedish vaccine supplier and the EU.

Officers were sent into the facility in the town Anagni, east of Rome, on Saturday evening after the European commission contacted the Italian government with concerns.

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