Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Prime minister criticises Brussels for invoking article 16 of post-Brexit Northern Ireland protocol
Boris Johnson has accused the EU of appearing to “cast doubt” on the Good Friday agreement, with last week’s decision to invoke article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol.
Speaking at prime minister’s questions after a call with Northern Ireland’s first minister, Arlene Foster, Johnson said: “It was most regrettable that the EU should seem to cast doubt on the Good Friday agreement, the principles of the peace process, by seeming to call for a border across the island of Ireland.”
The UK health secretary, Matt Hancock, has welcomed a new study that suggests one dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine may reduce transmission of coronavirus by two-thirds. Hancock said the results of the trial backed up Britain's strategy to delay the administering of the second dose of the vaccine by 12 weeks.
Hancock added: 'We may well need boosters that have a slightly adjusted vaccine as well in the same way that we do for flu each year.'
Exclusive: Kameel Ahmady smuggled himself out through mountainous border after being sentenced to nine years
A British Iranian dual national sentenced to nine years and three months in jail in Iran for co-operating with “a hostile state power” has smuggled himself out of Iran, escaping over the country’s treacherous mountainous border, and is now living in London.
In an interview with the Guardian, Kameel Ahmady explained he felt had no option but to flee after spending nearly 100 days in Evin prison, including a brutal spell in solitary confinement while he was being interrogated.
The former prime minister Gordon Brown has launched a scathing attack on the unprecedented cuts to UK aid, saying they put at risk tens of thousands of children’s lives while millions more face losing an education.
Writing in the Guardian, Brown said the planned cuts of 30% – £5bn – which come into force at the end of next month meant that the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, was “paying the bills for Covid off the backs of the poor – at home and abroad”.
Only 94,000 properties built in first nine months of 2020, well below the 300,000 a year promised
Covid-19 has knocked the government further off course from its housebuilding targets, a study has revealed, with only 94,000 new homes built during the first nine months of 2020.
The first wave of coronavirus led to the temporary closure of construction sites last spring, leaving output well below the 300,000 new homes a year which the Conservatives pledged in their manifesto, according to research by the Resolution Foundation thinktank.
The second world war veteran, who raised almost £39m for NHS charities, has died after testing positive for Covid-19. Moore walked 100 laps around his garden to raise money, earning him his first of two Guinness World Records. He broke his second one when he became the oldest person to reach number one in the UK charts with the single You'll Never Walk Alone, which he recorded with Michael Ball and The NHS Voices of Care Choir. In July, he was knighted by the Queen
One dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine provides sustained protection against Covid for at least three months and cuts transmission of the virus by two-thirds, according to research that appears to support the UK’s decision to delay booster shots.
Analysis of fresh data from three trials found that the first shot conferred on average 76% protection against symptomatic infections from three weeks until 90 days, and reduced transmission of the disease by 67%.
Matt Hancock said the government would take firm action to stamp out the South African Covid variant in the UK. The health secretary said 105 cases of the variant have been identified, including 11 without a direct connection to international travel. 'Our mission must be to stop its spread altogether and break its chains of transmission,' he said, as he summarised door-to-door testing efforts taking place in areas affected
Vaccines may have been described as the great escape route from the Covid pandemic – but treatments, which are bringing down death rates, will be needed as much as ever in the era of jabs because the virus is not expected to go away in the foreseeable future, experts say.
“It’s going to take a long time to vaccinate the world,” said Peter Horby of Oxford University, chief investigator of the Recovery trial into Covid treatments and chair of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag). “I don’t know what the estimates are, but we’ve already seen issues with manufacturing scale-up and difficulties in delivering at scale.
When the coronavirus pandemic was in its infancy, one of the common silver linings scientists mentioned was the virus’s slow rate of mutation. It raised the hope that the virus lacked the agility to rapidly evolve around human immunity – whether from previous infection or vaccine. The virus is certainly slow to mutate by some standards. Sars-CoV-2 typically acquires two single letter changes in its genetic code a month, about half the rate seen in influenza.
So why are so many new variants emerging? At the heart of the problem is the fact the global pandemic is raging. Every new case is a chance for mutations to arise, spread and build up. In the simple arithmetic of evolution, when a virus mutates and gains an advantage it can rise above the others.
Death rates among people who end up in intensive care with Covid-19 have improved dramatically since the start of the pandemic thanks to advances in treatment, new research has found.
The proportion of those worst affected by the disease who die from it has fallen from 60% when it first appeared early last year to 36% by October, the study of global trends shows.
Single malt sales to US have fallen more than third since retaliatory regime was imposed, says industry body
Losses to Scotch whisky exports after tariffs were imposed by the US have reached £500m, according to an industry body.
New figures suggest exports of single malt Scotch whisky have fallen by more than a third – amounting to more than £500m – since a 25% tariff was imposed in October 2019.
Decision came after council withdrew 12 staff at Larne following reports of ‘menacing behaviour’
Brexit checks on animal and food products arriving into Belfast and Larne ports have been suspended amid fears over the safety of staff, Northern Ireland’s agriculture ministry has said.
The decision came after Mid and East Antrim borough council agreed on Monday night to remove 12 of its staff at Larne port with immediate effect, following an “upsurge in sinister and menacing behaviour in recent weeks”.
A spokesman for Stormont’s Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Daera) said: “On the basis of information received today and pending further discussions with the PSNI [Police Service of Northern Ireland], Daera has decided in the interests of the wellbeing of staff to temporarily suspend physical inspections of products of animal origin at Larne and Belfast.
“The situation will be kept under review and in the meantime full documentary checks will continue to be carried out as usual.”
Tens of thousands of people will be tested in a door-to-door “two-week sprint” to halt the spread of the South African coronavirus variant as cases were found across England.
Squads of health officials, firefighters and volunteers have been established to deliver and collect PCR test kits door-to-door and mobile testing units will be sent to each area. Wastewater could also be tested to determined the prevalence of the strain.
The South African variant, like the new UK variant, contains a mutation known as N501Y which is believed to make the virus more contagious than older variants. The South African variant also contains other mutations of concern, including E484K and K417N. These two mutations are thought to explain why the South African variant appears to be better able to evade neutralising antibody responses by the body.
Neil Wilson of Markets.com suggests that large investors may also be driving the silver price rally, rather than it simply being caused by retail traders.
He also warns that such speculation is risky, and usually ends badly for some of those who get caught up:
The fact that such a large and liquid market as silver can be targeted by retail investors says much about the shift we are witnessing, though despite appearances this morning it’s going to a lot harder to squeeze silver shorts as the market is so much deeper and more liquid.
We should also note that some bigger smart money may have be front-running this trade to piggyback the rally and further fuelling the move up. (George Soros: “When I see a bubble forming, I rush in to buy, adding fuel to the fire.”)
Allianz’s Mohamed El-Erian has tweeted that GameStop and silver are not the same kind of short squeeze trade (as some WallStreetBets posts have also been pointing out).
El-Erian also cautions that the silver squeeze could undermine the squeeze on hedge funds who shorted GameStop’s shares, as the GME trade depends on keeping retail investors on board (rather than selling to the hedge funds).
.#GameStop and #silver are not the same for those pursuing the short squeeze trade The silver market is much larger; Existing shorts are smaller; Some of the #HedgeFunds that are short #GME are said to be long silver Bottom line: A dissimilar trade that eats away at #GME gains https://t.co/TMfpkr7QDE
Here are some of the main points from the Downing Street lobby briefing.
In Wales parents and children may know by the end of the week whether schools in Wales will be reopening after half-term, the Welsh government minister Eluned Morgan has indicated. She told a briefing:
We’re expecting an announcement on that on Friday but of course that will be determined by those negotiations [with teaching unions] that will be held this week.
The focus will absolutely be on those children who are youngest, who find it most difficult to learn online and need that socialisation perhaps more than some of the older children.
Duke settles libel case with paper and Mail Online over stories about his relationship with armed forces
The Duke of Sussex has accused the Mail on Sunday and Mail Online of underplaying the seriousness of an error in a story about his relationship to the British armed forces as the two sides formally settled a high court libel claim.
Harry had sued Associated Newspapers over two articles published in October, which claimed he had snubbed the Royal Marines and “not been in touch … since his last appearance as an honorary marine in March”, citing “informed sources”.
Britain has taken “a lot of risks” in its Covid vaccination programme that would be intolerable to the French public, France’s Europe minister, Clément Beaune, has said in defence of the EU’s record on vaccines.
With 14% of the UK adult population having received a first jab, compared with 3% of people across the 27 EU member states, there is growing discontent in the bloc.