Category Archives: UK news

Police should carry drugs overdose antidote, says senior officer

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Exclusive: NPCC’s drugs lead backs wider supply of naloxone after successful trials

The overdose antidote naloxone should be made available to all police officers in areas where there is a clear need, the police chiefs’ drug lead has urged after successful pilot schemes.

North Wales police and Police Scotland are trialling having beat officers carry naloxone nasal sprays that can be used to treat opiate overdoses, and West Midlands police have extended their pilot scheme, with a rollout due to be announced.

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Harry and Meghan Oprah interview to air hours after Queen’s Commonwealth message

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Awkward timing lays bare fractures in royal family

On the last Commonwealth Day, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex appeared in public with the Queen and other senior royals for a final time before they departed the UK for North America.

One year on, and the fracturing of the royal family is clearly marked as the Queen, Prince of Wales and Duke and Duchess of Cambridge appear in a special televised broadcast to celebrate the Commonwealth, while hours later the Sussexes appear on TV in the US for an “intimate” and “wide-ranging” interview with Oprah Winfrey about their experience of leaving the royal fold.

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Engine parts drop from Boeing 747 cargo plane in Netherlands

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Longtail Aviation cargo plane scatters small metal parts over Meerssen, injuring woman

Dutch authorities are investigating after a Boeing 747-400 cargo plane dropped engine parts shortly after takeoff from Maastricht airport.

The Longtail Aviation Flight 5504 cargo plane scattered mostly small metal parts over the southern Dutch town of Meerssen on Saturday, causing damage and injuring a woman.

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No 10 ‘concerned’ about Facebook news shutdown in Australia

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Oliver Dowden expected to meet US company, as No 10 says UK will ‘defend free speech and journalism’

The UK government is “obviously concerned” at the repercussions of Facebook’s shutdown of large numbers of news and public information resources in Australia, Downing Street has said, confirming that the culture secretary will meet the US company this week.

Oliver Dowden is “expecting to meet Facebook this week”, Boris Johnson’s spokesperson said, adding that the date had yet to be confirmed.

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Vaccinating children could be key to stifling Covid, say experts

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Scientists say there is significant risk of resurgence until all age groups are immunised

Vaccinating children and teens could be key to stifling the pandemic, experts have said, as clinical trials begin to test Covid-19 vaccines in young people.

While Covid-19 is associated with a considerably lower burden of morbidity and mortality in young people, and there is evidence that children may be less likely to acquire the infection, the role of children in transmission is unclear, according to the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.

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The world faces a pandemic of human rights abuses in the wake of Covid-19 | António Guterres

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The virus has been used as a pretext in many countries to crush dissent, criminalise freedoms and silence reporting

  • António Guterres is secretary general of the United Nations

From the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic almost one year ago, it was clear that our world faced far more than a public health emergency. The biggest international crisis in generations quickly morphed into an economic and social crisis. One year on, another stark fact is tragically evident: our world is facing a pandemic of human rights abuses.

Covid-19 has deepened preexisting divides, vulnerabilities and inequalities, and opened up new fractures, including faultlines in human rights. The pandemic has revealed the interconnectedness of our human family – and of the full spectrum of human rights: civil, cultural, economic, political and social. When any one of these rights is under attack, others are at risk.

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UK’s anti-terror chief fears rights group boycott threatens Prevent review

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Neil Basu says move to protest appointment of William Shawcross could harm process

Britain’s best chance of reducing terrorist violence risks being damaged amid a huge backlash to the government’s choice of William Shawcross to lead a review of Prevent, the country’s top counter-terrorism officer has told the Guardian.

Assistant commissioner Neil Basu’s comments came after key human rights and Muslim groups announced a boycott of the official review of Prevent, which aims to stop Britons being radicalised into violent extremism.

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People with extremist views less able to do complex mental tasks, research suggests

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Cambridge University team say their findings could be used to spot people at risk from radicalisation

Our brains hold clues for the ideologies we choose to live by, according to research, which has suggested that people who espouse extremist attitudes tend to perform poorly on complex mental tasks.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge sought to evaluate whether cognitive disposition – differences in how information is perceived and processed – sculpt ideological world-views such as political, nationalistic and dogmatic beliefs, beyond the impact of traditional demographic factors like age, race and gender.

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Cautious Johnson faces battle with own MPs over lockdown exit

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Analysis: many on the Tory backbenches want Covid restrictions over by end of April

When Boris Johnson stands at the dispatch box on Monday to deliver his roadmap for easing Covid restrictions for what he hopes will be the final time, there is likely to be a sigh of relief from his scientific advisers who will have won the most recent battle.

Johnson is now gearing up for the next tussle, which will be with his MPs. There is a truce with the cabinet.

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Johnson unveils lockdown exit plan: schools and social contact first

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PM to unveil proposals for England on Monday, with shops and restaurants facing longer wait

Social contact with loved ones will take precedence over the reopening of shops and hospitality when Boris Johnson sets out his roadmap for lifting restrictions in England on Monday, with school sports and family picnics offered as a trade-off for a longer closure of retail and restaurants.

Johnson will order the reopening of all schools on 8 March and pledge that two families or a group of six friends will be allowed to meet outdoors three weeks later, the Guardian understands.

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DUP leadership starts legal challenge against Northern Ireland protocol

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Arlene Foster and senior MPs want new post-Brexit trade arrangements to stop disruption at Irish Sea ports

The leader of the Democratic Unionist party, Arlene Foster, and senior DUP MPs are launching a legal action challenging the Brexit deal’s Northern Ireland protocol.

They will be joining other unionists from across the UK in judicial review proceedings unless alternative post-Brexit trade arrangements are put in place that secure their consent.

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‘I ate 40kg of chocolate’: Yorkshire teacher, 21, on rowing solo across the Atlantic

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Jasmine Harrison, the youngest woman to make the 3,000-mile journey alone, relished the freedom of doing it all by herself

It was always during the night when things went wrong for Jasmine Harrison, the youngest woman to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean. Like the time her boat hurtled into a huge wave at 19.2 knots and capsized, leaving her with a badly injured elbow.

“I was basically thrown at a wall at 20-odd miles an hour. That’s going to hurt, especially in the middle of your sleep,” she said. “Everything happened when I was asleep.”

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Listen to the world: Radio Garden app brings stations to millions in lockdown

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Free app allowing access to 30,000 stations proves hit for audiences stuck at home

Ever fancied listening to some pop music from Prague? Rock from Russia, or talk from Taiwan? With the pandemic limiting travel abroad, an online app has ignited the imagination of millions, allowing them to experience new sounds and travel the globe by radio.

The free app, Radio Garden, which carries tens of thousands of radio stations broadcasting live 24 hours a day, has seen a huge spike in popularity during the Covid crisis. Its founders say in the past 30 days they had 15 million users, a 750% increase on the visitors they normally get in a month.

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Jo Whiley says vaccine offer for her sister ‘too late’ as she fights Covid – video

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The BBC Radio 2 DJ says ‘it couldn’t be crueller’ after her sister, Frances, has finally been offered a Covid vaccine, but it may have come too late.

Whiley said it had been the worst week of her family’s lives and 24 hours ago medical staff were discussing palliative care for her sister, although on Saturday she rallied round and her oxygen levels were beginning to rise.

Whiley said she hoped speaking out about her sister’s experience would highlight the need to get people with learning disabilities vaccinated as soon as possible

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Scientists say clinical trials for ‘variant-proof’ vaccines could start very soon

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From immunity to blocking transmission of the virus, labs across the UK are hunting for second-generation jabs


Scientists are developing a range of second-generation Covid vaccines aimed at expanding protection against the disease.

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Ban on outside sport can end, top scientist urges Johnson

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Call comes as prime minister aims for all adults to be vaccinated by July

Data on the number of Covid-19 cases is now so encouraging that outdoor sports for children and small numbers of adults should be allowed immediately as part of an accelerated easing of the lockdown, a leading scientist and adviser to government has told the Observer.

With the prime minister expected to take a cautious approach to lifting restrictions in a statement to the House of Commons on Monday, Prof Mark Woolhouse of Edinburgh University, whose work feeds into the Sage committee’s sub-group Spi-M, said the data showed there was no need for the government to be “ultra-cautious”.

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21-year-old UK teacher becomes youngest woman to row Atlantic solo

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Jasmine Harrison made the record-breaking journey in 70 days, three hours and 48 minutes

A 21-year-old swimming teacher from North Yorkshire has become the youngest woman to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

Jasmine Harrison, a part-time teacher and bartender from Thirsk, began the journey in December when she departed from La Gomera in the Canary Islands. It took her 70 days, three hours and 48 minutes to reach Antigua.

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Prince of Wales visits his father Prince Philip in hospital

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Duke of Edinburgh was admitted to King Edward VII’s hospital in London on Tuesday after feeling unwell

The Prince of Wales has visited his father the Duke of Edinburgh in hospital.

Philip, 99, was admitted to King Edward VII’s hospital in London on Tuesday evening as a precautionary measure after feeling unwell and walked unaided into the medical centre.

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Tobacco giant bets £1bn on social-media influencers to boost ‘lung-friendlier’ sales

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As smoking falls out of fashion, BAT is pinning its hopes on younger users of e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches

Flashing an ice-white smile for her 50,000 followers on TikTok, a fresh-faced young woman pops a flavoured nicotine pouch into her mouth, as one of Pakistan’s most popular love songs plays in the background.

More than 3,000 miles away, in Sweden, another social media starlet lip-syncs for the camera, to a different pop tune. The same little pouches, made by British American Tobacco, appear in shot.

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Ports feel the chill as trade re-routes around Brexit Britain

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In Holyhead, traffic has fallen 50% as hauliers stymied by Brexit find their way from Ireland to France without entering the UK

Perched on the shores of Anglesey, the island linked by road bridges to the north-west coast of Wales, Holyhead’s geography has given it a leading role in British-Irish trade since the early 19th century.

About 50 miles directly across the Irish Sea from Dublin, a journey of just three-and-a-quarter hours by ferry, Holyhead was until December the second busiest roll-on roll-off port in the UK after Dover. About 450,000 trucks rumbled through each year on their way to Dublin, with cargoes of meat and agricultural produce, secondhand cars and items destined for the shelves of Irish supermarkets.

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