Category Archives: UK news

Coronavirus live news: Scott Morrison and chief medical officer get second vaccine dose; US administers first vaccine dose to more than 100m

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Germany warns cases could hit Christmas peak by April; Australia records first local Covid case in more than two weeks; Poland reports rise in daily cases

In Australia a person who works in two Sydney quarantine hotels has tested positive to Covid-19.New South Wales health said it was notified of the new infection late last night. Urgent genomic testing is underway to determine the source of the infection, and the person’s close contacts have also been tested. It is the first locally-acquired case in 55 days in NSW. It’s not counted in today’s numbers but will be included in tomorrow’s.

NSW Health was notified late last night of a new case of COVID-19 in a person who works at two Sydney hotels which provide hotel quarantine for returned travellers. This case will be included in tomorrow’s numbers. pic.twitter.com/seNuUfBHBD

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Police clash with mourners at Sarah Everard vigil in London

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Unofficial event on Clapham Common marred by at least one arrest and confrontations with officers

The evening in south London began in grief and silence, as hundreds gathered to remember Sarah Everard and call for changes that will keep others safe. It ended in anger and violence, as police trampled flowers and candles laid out in tribute to Everard and tried to silence women speaking out in her memory.

Tensions were high before the vigil, which had officially been cancelled after the Metropolitan police refused to give the organisers a permit. That compounded anger at the force, already high after a serving officer was charged with Everard’s kidnap and murder.

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Hong Kong: UK accuses China of breaching joint declaration

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Beijing guilty of ‘ongoing non-compliance’ with 1984 deal, says foreign secretary Dominic Raab

Dominic Raab has accused China of breaching the legal deal over the governance of Hong Kong, amid criticisms of Beijing’s attempts to tighten its control over the territory.

In a major escalation of diplomatic tensions, the foreign secretary said the UK considered China to be in a “state of ongoing non-compliance” with the Sino-British joint declaration as he condemned Beijing’s decision to reduce the role of the public in picking Hong Kong’s leaders. China has instead handed power to a pro-Beijing committee, which will appoint more council members.

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Hidden joys of the UK’s holiday spots: seafood in Yorkshire and Scotland | Jay Rayner

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We’ll soon be able to venture beyond our local park … and to help us, the Observer has launched a guide to Britain’s hidden treasures, starting with Jay Rayner’s hunt for tasty morsels in unlikely places

The Oban docks on Scotland’s west coast are a functional place. Veteran CalMac ferries to the islands heave on their moorings and, from time to time, there’s a waft of diesel in the air. It’s not the first place you might think of visiting for lunch. But there, alongside the blocky, modern ferry terminal building, is the glory that is the Oban Seafood Hut. It’s in the kind of prefabricated shed only its designer could love, and emblazoned with a garish bright green signage that can doubtless be seen from a mile off shore. But oh, the food. One afternoon, beneath gunmetal skies, I feasted on scallops the size of a baby’s fist in ponds of hot garlic butter, shiny black mussels and crab sandwiches thicker than an airport bonkbuster novel.

I cannot claim that the Oban Seafood Hut is a secret, newly whispered. I’ve written about it in my column and, in any case, part of my job reviewing restaurants in normal times involves giving exposure to the relatively obscure. I have no secrets. But it is proof, if we needed it, that a very good time out is not necessarily found in all the most obvious places; those destinations weighed down by labels like “beauty spot” and “national park” and the crowds of visitors that flock to them.

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Sarah Everard: Met officer appears in court charged with kidnap and murder

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Wayne Couzens’ head wound is visible as magistrates hear victim’s body was found in a builder’s bag

The Metropolitan police officer charged with the kidnap and murder of 33-year-old Sarah Everard has appeared in person in court.

PC Wayne Couzens, 48, was at Westminster magistrates court on Saturday morning for his first hearing, the start of the process before a full trial for murder, following his arrest on Tuesday at his home in Kent.

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Take things slowly as lockdown ends to avoid ‘re-entry’ syndrome

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A psychiatrist advises us not to catastrophise post-Covid life and to be compassionate towards others


First of all, it’s normal to be anxious when there’s such a big change for us as a society. I think the last time there was something similar was post-9/11 when people had to adjust to using transport at a time when people were anxious about that.

The “re-entry” syndrome people might be experiencing as lockdown ends is part of a healthy readjustment and something that people have to deal with when they’ve been off sick or on maternity leave for long periods.

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Sarah Everard: Met police officer charged with kidnap and murder

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PC Wayne Couzens charged over 33-year-old woman’s disappearance and death

A serving Metropolitan police officer has been charged with kidnapping Sarah Everard from a London street as she walked home and then murdering her.

PC Wayne Couzens was charged on Friday following an extensive investigation by homicide detectives. He will appear at Westminster magistrates court on Saturday for his first hearing, the start of the process that leads to a full trial for murder.

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Boris Johnson rules out return of Parthenon marbles to Greece

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Prime minister says sculptures taken by Lord Elgin would remain in Britain as they had been legally acquired

Boris Johnson has used his first interview with a European newspaper since becoming the UK’s prime minister to issue a point-blank rejection of the Parthenon marbles being returned to Greece.

Johnson insisted that the sculptures, removed from the monument by Lord Elgin in circumstances that have since spurred one of the world’s most famous cultural rows, would remain in Britain because they had been legally acquired.

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‘No 10 was a plague pit’: how Covid brought Westminster to its knees

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Insiders tell of a Whitehall in panic mode and reveal virus spread far more widely than was acknowledged

Westminster is an infectious place. A tiny germ of controversy or rebellion can spread across parliament, through Whitehall and into the prime minister’s office within hours. The windowless offices are cramped, MPs sit elbow to elbow in a Commons chamber that can only squeeze just over 400 MPs into its seats, two-thirds of the number in parliament.

It is also a place of macho presenteeism, where the Greggs in Westminster tube station often serves as a nightly dinner spot for some of the most senior office-holders in the land.

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What happened to me was nothing – the nothing women know all too well | Marina Hyde

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At 4.56pm on a spring afternoon, countless women in the UK were being harassed on the street. It turns out I was one of them

I don’t know why I’m writing about this really, because nothing happened. Compared to what happens, nothing really happened. And in the five minutes it took to not happen – between 4.55pm and 5pm yesterday – he was never closer to me than three feet. What a respectful distance from which to be called a “dirty cunt”, my ha-di-ha-ha brain is saying. I was merely verbally aggressed by a stranger in a socially distanced way.

Plus it all feels a bit convenient for a columnist, right? And I agree – being followed and simultaneously screamed at by some guy I’d never clapped eyes on before yesterday afternoon was nothing if not convenient. Look, I’m writing a column about it today. But before this outbreak of convenience, this column honestly was going to be a fictional imagining of the royal family attending implicit bias training. I don’t want you to conclude I didn’t have other wares for this space if it hadn’t been for the convenient nothing that happened.

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Royal watchers say Harry and Meghan crisis must jolt ‘the firm’ towards change

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Spotlight is on the power behind the royals as much as on the Queen, Charles and William

Four days after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex eviscerated the “the firm” with the sharp blade of “their truth”, Prince William had still not spoken to his brother. “But they just do not communicate in the way other families do,” said one veteran royal watcher. “You wonder if anyone has rung Harry.”

According to one report, the Queen plans to personally offer an olive branch to the couple. She said in a statement this week that the extraordinarily damaging allegations from the Sussexes – of racism and of emotional neglect that Meghan said had left her feeling suicidal – would be dealt with privately.

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‘Imperially nostalgic racists’ target Empireland author with hate mail

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Sathnam Sanghera speaks out against ‘vicious’ abuse he is receiving over his bestselling book: ‘Empire has been weaponised by the right wing, ever since Black Lives Matter’

Sathnam Sanghera’s Empireland, a journey through Britain’s imperial past, has been a bestseller since it was pubished last month, acclaimed by critics as “unflinching … moving and stimulating” (the Guardian), and “excellent” and “balanced” (the Sunday Times). And yet, from the British public the author has received handwritten hate mail, and thousands of abusive tweets from “imperially nostalgic racists”, as he succinctly replied, some of them verging, he says, on death threats.

Related: Empireland by Sathnam Sanghera and Slave Empire by Padraic X Scanlan – review

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Sarah Everard: Organisers of vigil challenge Met’s decision to ban it

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Women behind Reclaim These Streets launch emergency action saying force’s decision is unlawful

Organisers of a vigil for Sarah Everard are launching an emergency legal challenge against the Metropolitan police, arguing their decision to ban the gathering planned for Saturday night is unlawful.

Women organising the Reclaim These Streets vigil planned on Clapham Common in south London accused the Met of silencing thousands of women who wanted to “stand up for our right to feel safe on our streets”, after police said the gathering would be unlawful under lockdown restrictions.

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Netflix weighs up crackdown on password sharing

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Streaming service tests feature that asks viewers if they share household with subscriber

Netflix has begun testing a feature that asks viewers whether they share a household with a subscriber, in a move that could lead to crackdown on the widespread practice of sharing passwords among friends and family.

Some Netflix users are reported to have received a message asking them to confirm they live with the account owner by entering a code included in a text message or email sent to the subscriber.

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Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe ‘in urgent need of psychiatric support’

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Detained UK-Iranian dual national has been victim of torture, says psychiatrists’ report

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe “is in urgent need of psychiatric support” and has been the victim of torture, a report prepared by psychiatrists has found after examining her mental health.

The detained British-Iranian dual-national’s healing “can be only provided in the UK in the presence of her family after reunification”, the report says.

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Wales set to ease Covid lockdown restrictions from Saturday

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First minister to announce ‘stay local’ will replace ‘stay home’ rule among other changes

Some semblance of normal life will begin again in Wales from Saturday, with the country’s first minister, Mark Drakeford, expected to announce a change from the current “stay home” restrictions to more lenient “stay local” requirements.

Drakeford is expected to say: “We are taking a phased approach to unlocking each sector – starting with schools. We will make step-by-step changes each week to gradually restore freedoms. We will monitor each change we make, so we know what impact each change has had on Wales’s public health situation.”

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‘It’s the right thing to do’: Londoners receive first jabs at new mass vaccination centre – video

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A north London business centre previously used to host almost a million people across hundreds of events each year has reopened as an NHS  Covid-19  mass vaccination centre. Up to 4,000 people a day will receive shots in dozens of private booths at the Business Design Centre in Islington, treated by trained staff and an army of volunteers. Patients arriving on its opening day expressed excitement and hope that the vaccine programme could eventually end lockdowns

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Boris Johnson comes under pressure to make UK safer for women

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Discovery of remains in search for Sarah Everard causes outpouring of anger as female MPs calls for tougher action

Boris Johnson came under concerted pressure to take action to tackle male violence and misogyny and make the UK safer for women, as the discovery of human remains in the search for Sarah Everard caused an outpouring of anger.

The inquiry into the disappearance of the 33-year-old marketing executive added poignancy to the annual International Women’s Day debate in the House of Commons as dozens of female MPs told moving and angry stories of the harassment they had been subjected to.

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Endemic violence against women is causing a wave of anger

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Analysis: Sarah Everard’s disappearance sparks furious demands to address misogyny in UK

Women feared this was coming. They waited, messaging each other in WhatsApp groups and on social media. They talked about their own attempts to stay safe, discussed their near misses.

When the news came on Wednesday evening – that police investigating the disappearance of Sarah Everard had found the remains of a body – a wave of grief crashed over them, followed quickly by anger.

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Delaying second Pfizer dose leaves cancer patients at risk, say researchers

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Covid vaccination policy review urged after study finds 12-week gap leaves patients vulnerable

Delaying the second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine must be urgently reviewed for cancer patients after a single shot was found to offer inadequate protection, researchers have said.

A study from King’s College London and the Francis Crick Institute – which has not yet been peer reviewed – found that three weeks after the first jab antibody responses were found in 39% of people with solid cancers and 13% of people with blood cancer.

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