More than 1m jabs booked on Friday and Saturday after all adults in England invited to get vaccine
More than 9,200 Covid cases were reported in the UK on Sunday, the day before it was originally planned that all remaining Covid restrictions in England would be lifted.
It came as figures revealed that more than 1m Covid jabs were booked in two days following the invitation on Friday for all adults in England to come forward for vaccination.
Continue reading...Chief scientific adviser will head new government body looking at big bets in science and technology
The government’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, has been asked by Boris Johnson to investigate whether the UK’s successful vaccine procurement programme can be replicated in other areas of technology.
Vallance, who has become a household name following his appearances at coronavirus press conferences, will take on the new title of national technology adviser, serving alongside his current roles.
Continue reading...Protests in Brazil as confirmed death toll soars past half a million; most adults should be double-vaccinated by England lockdown lifting date
Vaccinations have been key to keeping levels of the Delta variant of Covid-19 low in Ireland at a time when it has been surging in the UK, according to an Irish expert.
There have been 180 known cases of the Delta variant - first identified in India - identified in Ireland, according to the Journal.ie. That accounts for five percent of sequenced cases in Ireland.
The Thai island of Phuket is racing to vaccinate as many people as possible in the hope that, if 70% of the population receives a dose before 1 July, the island will become the first Thai destination to reopen to foreign tourists.
If the island can build its immunity, it could soon come back to life again, said infectious disease nurse Bang-orn Rungruang, who is helping to coordinate vaccines at the Angsana Convention and Exhibition Space. The pandemic, she said, had devastated the island’s businesses.
Continue reading...Revamped gallery to reveal the importance – and presence – of Mary Moffat in missionary’s life and travels
Dr Livingstone, the Scottish explorer and Christian missionary in Africa, was a hero for Victorian schoolboys, his reputation enhanced by exuberant biographies. But next month the reopening of a museum on the banks of the River Clyde, following a £9.1m investment, is to set his famous story in a broader context.
The cliche runs that behind every great man stands a great woman. In Livingstone’s case, the reputation of his fearless wife, Mary Moffat, actually went before him, smoothing his path through remote regions.
Continue reading...Unvaccinated children have potential to drive third wave of highly transmissible Delta variant, says virologist
The drive to vaccinate all adults over the age of 18 in the UK could lead to the concentration of Covid-19 cases in schoolchildren, a leading British virologist has warned.
Under-18s would then become reservoirs in which new variants of the virus could arise, said Julian Tang, of Leicester University.
Continue reading...Sir David King hopes to emulate success of British Covid advisory body by issuing monthly reports on environmental crisis
Several of the world’s leading scientists plan to launch an independent expert group this week to advise, warn and criticise global policymakers about the climate and nature crises.
The new body has been inspired by Independent Sage – the cluster of British scientists who have held UK ministers and civil servants to account for their lack of transparency and mishandling of the Covid pandemic.
Continue reading...Former Speaker says party has become reactionary and xenophobic under its current leadership
• The blue wall: what next for the Tories after shock defeat?
John Bercow, the former Tory MP and Speaker of the House of Commons, has delivered an extraordinary broadside against Boris Johnson and the Conservative party as he announces he has switched his political allegiance to Labour.
In an explosive interview with the Observer, Bercow says he regards today’s Conservative party as “reactionary, populist, nationalistic and sometimes even xenophobic”.
Continue reading...Police not looking for anyone else in connection with deaths in Duckmanton as reports name woman as Gracie Spinks
Police are investigating after the bodies of a 23-year-old woman and a man in his 30s were found within hours of each other in fields near a Derbyshire village.
The woman was found in a field near Staveley Road in Duckmanton at about 8.40am on Friday, and was pronounced dead at the scene. She has been named in reports as Gracie Spinks, a keen horse rider.
Continue reading...Tens of thousands turn up to grounds of West Ham, Spurs and others, as young people are urged to get jabs
Londoners received tens of thousands of Covid jabs in just a few hours on Saturday as football grounds in the capital were transformed into mass vaccination centres.
Huge jab clinics have been set up at the London Stadium, Stamford Bridge, the Tottenham Hotspur stadium, the Valley, home of Charlton Athletic, and Selhurst Park.
Continue reading...Prof Adam Finn’s comments come after PHE reported 79% rise in number of Delta variant cases in just one week
A government scientific adviser has said a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic is “definitely under way” as the vaccine programme races to outpace the Delta variant’s spread across the UK.
It comes after Public Health England reported a 79% rise in the number of cases of the variant first identified in India in a week. Hospital admissions have almost doubled.
Continue reading...Former Met chief reveals he questioned prince as a witness in 2005 about note written by princess
The former Metropolitan police chief John Stevens has disclosed that he questioned Prince Charles over allegations that he had plotted to kill Diana, Princess of Wales.
Charles was interviewed as a witness in 2005, during a three-year investigation into Diana’s death in a Paris car crash in 1997, the Daily Mail reported.
Continue reading...International Rescue Committee hires law firm to review internal policies as leadership accused of ‘belittling and gaslighting’ staff
The International Rescue Committee reinforces “white supremacy culture”, staff have alleged, with the aid organization subsequently hiring a law firm to review its policies relating to discrimination, harassment and retaliation, the Guardian can reveal.
Headed by former UK foreign secretary David Miliband, the IRC is a major NGO with 20,000 staff and volunteers and a budget of $800m. It delivers aid in more than 40 countries, primarily in Africa, and helps resettle refugees across the US, with operations mainly directed out of New York.
Continue reading...Arrests made as police dealt with football crowds in Leicester Square and around Wembley after scoreless draw on Friday night
More than a dozen people have been arrested as police dealt with football fans when England took on Scotland in a much-anticipated Euros match.
Crowds thronged into Leicester Square in central London after the scoreless draw at Wembley on Friday night.
Continue reading...Georgia Laurie gives interview about attack that left her sister Melissa recovering in hospital
A British woman has described beating a crocodile on its snout while it grabbed her other hand as she fought to save her twin sister from the reptile.
Georgia Laurie, 28, said she feared her sister, Melissa, was dead when she saw the crocodile drag her underwater after they went for a swim in a lagoon in Mexico.
Continue reading...Headteachers across the country have been forced to get inventive to recreate a sense of occasion
Headteacher Ben Davis bowed to the inevitable this week and wrote to all of his year-11 pupils and their families to inform them that the school prom – the now-fashionable highlight at the end of secondary school – had been postponed.
The hotel that was to have hosted the event contacted the school to say that in the light of the prime minister’s announcement on Monday that final Covid restrictions were to remain in place for another month, the prom could sadly no longer go ahead.
Continue reading...Nicola Sturgeon prohibits non-essential travel as Delta variant spreads through north of England
Nicola Sturgeon has imposed a travel ban between Scotland and Manchester and Salford as a result of rising Covid cases.
The restrictions, which will come into force from Monday, add to travel limits put in place last month as the Delta variant spread rapidly through the north of England.
Continue reading...National Trust for Scotland presents exploration of intimacy from 17th to 20th century
The chafing doesn’t bear thinking about. A replica linen condom secured with a dainty blue ribbon is one of the more wince-inducing props for a new exploration of the history of sex and intimate lives in Scotland.
The other material used to fashion prophylactics in the 17th century was animal gut, which was dried then rehydrated at the crucial moment. The Edinburgh-born diarist James Boswell writes about dipping one in a river before intercourse. He was adamant about their use to ward off venereal disease, but still recorded numerous painful bouts of infection in his journals.
Continue reading...Analysis: the leader of the DUP in Northern Ireland has quit after just 21 days in the job
Edwin Poots has resigned as leader of the Democratic Unionist party after just 21 days in the job. What has prompted the latest dramatic development in the leadership of Northern Ireland’s biggest party?
Continue reading...Industry body says analysis of HMRC data shows structural rather than teething problems with Brexit
British food and drink exports to the EU fell by £2bn in the first three months of 2021, with sales of dairy products plummeting by 90%, according to an analysis of HMRC data.
Brexit checks, stockpiling and Covid have been blamed for much of the downturn, but the sector has said the figures show structural rather than teething problems with the UK’s departure from the EU.
Continue reading...Babis Anagnostopoulos had claimed robbers killed Caroline Crouch, 20, who was found dead next to her baby
The husband of a young British woman supposedly killed during a robbery at their Greek home and whose body was found next to her baby has confessed to the crime, police said on Thursday.
Babis Anagnostopoulos, a 32-year-old pilot, was taken by police helicopter to Athens on Thursday from the island of Alonissos, where he was attending a memorial service for his wife, Caroline Crouch. He confessed several hours later, the police said in a tweet.
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