Saadallah pleaded guilty to three murders and three attempted murders in jihadist attack in June
A man who murdered three men in 10 seconds on a summer evening in a Reading park, has been sentenced to die in prison after a judge determined it was a jihadist attack.
Khairi Saadallah, 26, showed no emotion as the rare whole-life tariff was handed down by Mr Justice Sweeney for the “swift, ruthless and brutal” stabbings last June.
Continue reading...You asked us about the fast-spreading coronavirus variant, here are the answers
How do scientists know the new UK variant is 70% more transmissible, and how certain are they of this figure?
Our gift to the world: the UK variant of Sars-CoV-2. There are sufficient data to quote 70% greater infectivity, but how was this figure ascertained?” D Moon, Brighton
Continue reading...The UK's Covid vaccine deployment minister, Nadhim Zahawi, confirmed England's restrictions were being reviewed but said the lockdown was already 'pretty tough'.
Zahawi told Sky News: 'The lockdown is actually pretty severe. We're asking people to stay at home, don't go out, if you have to go out it's only for exercise'
Continue reading...South Korea daily virus cases under 500 for first time since record highs in December; China says WHO Covid-19 origins probe team to arrive 14 January; one year has passed since first coronavirus death announced in Wuhan
In the UK, ministers appear to have downgraded their promise to vaccinate the most vulnerable by mid-February, committing only to offering them an inoculation by that point.
The prime minister Boris Johnson said last week that they would have received their first jab by that date – and that daily figures for vaccinations carried out would be published from this week.
The top four categories, actually, for the UK is 15 million people, in England it’s about 12 million people, so we will have offered a vaccination to all of those people.
When you offer a vaccination it doesn’t mean a Royal Mail letter, it means the vaccine and the needle and the jab are ready for you. What you will see us publishing is the total numbers of people being vaccinated, not being offered a vaccine, and that’s the number to hold us to account to.
Passenger numbers at London’s Heathrow airport were down 72.7% in 2020, with 22.1 million people travelling through it.
In December, demand fell by 82.9% to 1.1 million as the new variant of the virus spread in the UK. Heathrow’s chief executive John Holland-Kaye said:
The past year has been incredibly challenging for aviation. While we support tightening border controls temporarily by introducing pre-departure testing for international arrivals, as well as quarantine, this is not sustainable.
The aviation industry is the cornerstone of the UK economy but is fighting for survival. We need a road map out of this lockdown and a full waiver of business rates.
Continue reading...The Pentland hills outside Edinburgh have had to double up as the Alps and Cairngorms for residents of the capital city - under Covid-19 restrictions city dwellers are permitted to travel only a short distance beyond their local council boundary for exercise. Undaunted but social distanced they have rediscovered the modest but irresistible charms of the snow-clad hills overlooking the city and the firth of Forth
Nicknamed The Wodge because of its girth, the capital’s tallest ever office has just muscled onto the skyline. But in the age of coronavirus, who wants to jostle for 60 lifts with 12,000 others?
With the City of London deserted once more, its streets only populated by the occasional Deliveroo driver or tumbleweed-seeking photographer, it seems a strange time to be completing the largest office building the capital has ever seen, not least because the very future of the workplace is now in question.
But, rising far above the Cheesegrater and the Walkie-Talkie, dwarfing the now fun-sized Gherkin and boasting the floor area of almost all three combined, 22 Bishopsgate stands as the mother of all office towers. It is the City’s menacing final boss, a glacial hulk that fills its plot to the very edges and rises directly up until it hits the flight path of passing jets. The building muscles into every panorama of London, its broad girth dominating the centre of the skyline and congealing the Square Mile’s distinctive individual silhouettes into one great, grey lump.
Continue reading...The rebooted show will be called And Just Like That... and will feature the original stars, apart from Kim Cattrall
Sex and the City will be given a 2021 makeover, US streaming service HBO Max has announced.
Long-swirling rumours that the video-on-demand arm of the prestige TV brand was considering commissioning a revival of the 90s and 00s show were confirmed on Sunday night US time when three of the four stars of the original show, Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon, and Kristin Davis, shared a trailer for the series on social media platforms.
Continue reading...Analysis shows 12.4 million people infected since start of pandemic, against 2.4 million detected by test and trace
One in five people in England may have had coronavirus, new modelling suggests, equivalent to 12.4 million people, rising to almost one in two in some areas.
It means that across the country as a whole the true number of people infected to date may be five times higher than the total number of known cases according to the government’s dashboard.
Continue reading...London based Magic Circle’s event, streamed on Facebook, will feature David Copperfield, Debbie McGee and more
One hundred years ago next weekend, an English magician called Percy Thomas Tibbles literally and laboriously sawed through a sealed wooden box which contained a woman.
It was a sensation and has since become one of the best known magic tricks, performed with all manner of tools and varying degrees of blood - always involving someone cut in half and nearly always with them miraculously put back together.
Continue reading...Labour leader rules out extensive renegotiation if party wins next election
Keir Starmer has abandoned the commitment to free movement of people in the European Union he made to Labour members during the party’s leadership contest.
The Labour leader said his party had to be honest with the public, and that if it won the next general election a major renegotiation of the Brexit treaty would not be possible.
Continue reading...The health secretary promised vaccines would be offered to every adult in the UK ‘by the autumn’. Speaking on the BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show, Hancock said it was ‘very, very important’ that as many people as possible get a vaccine. More than 200,000 people are now being vaccinated each day, he added
Continue reading...Mayfield baths found in ‘stunning’ condition by archaeologists on site behind Piccadilly station
A large Victorian washhouse that served Manchester textile workers more than 150 years ago has been uncovered during work to create the city’s first public park in a century.
The ornate tiles of the Mayfield baths, whose pools measured nearly 20 metres, were found in “stunning” condition beneath a car park 164 years after it opened.
Continue reading...Exclusive: government accused of failing to ensure access more than a year after terminations legalised
Northern Ireland’s human rights commission (NIHRC) has launched a landmark legal action against the UK government for its failure to commission safe and accessible abortion services more than a year after abortion was made legal in the country, the Guardian can reveal.
The Northern Ireland secretary, Brandon Lewis, is accused of unlawfully denying the rights of women in the country, who experts warn are being forced to use unregulated services and to travel to high-risk areas during the pandemic. The NIHRC is also taking action against the Northern Ireland Executive and the country’s Department of Health.
Continue reading...We still have our beaches and fresh air, but the county isn’t so well served by healthcare facilities
First we thought Covid would come in July, when restrictions were lifted and tourists and second home owners escaped the confines of their cities and headed down the M5 for fresh air at the coast. Then we thought it would come in September, when tourists and second home owners headed back up the motorway, leaving the virus behind them.
But coronavirus rates have remained persistently low in Cornwall since the beginning of the pandemic and for many of us, including myself and my family, the crisis has seemed far removed from our corner of the world.
Continue reading...25 years ago, a mutation was discovered that makes some people susceptible to the disease, and now it has transformed treatment
Ten years ago, Tony Herbert developed a lump on the right side of his chest. The clump of tissue grew and became painful and he was tested for breast cancer. The result was positive.
“I had surgery and chemotherapy and that worked,” he said last week. But how had Herbert managed to develop a condition that is so rare in men? Only about 400 cases of male breast cancer are diagnosed every year in the UK compared with around 55,000 in women. A genetic test revealed the answer. Herbert had inherited a pathogenic version of a gene called BRCA2 and this mutation had triggered his condition.
Continue reading...The government has ordered sufficient doses to inoculate the entire population of the UK against Covid-19 but we are in for a long haul
When will the Covid-19 vaccine begin to have an effect on the nation?
The government has pledged to offer vaccines to 15 million people – the over-70s, healthcare workers and those required to shield by mid-February, and millions more by spring. This should slowly bring the virus under control although it will take many weeks before we can be sure the vaccine is having an effect. Numbers of daily cases of Covid-19 may drop but that decline could simply be due to impact of current lockdown measures. Only when hospital admissions start to reduce significantly will we be sure the vaccine is having an impact. Then there could be be a slackening of lockdown measures. Few scientists believe that will happen before Easter, however.
Continue reading...A further 1,035 deaths are reported on Saturday, taking the official total to 80,868
More than 80,000 people have died in the UK within 28 days of a positive Covid test, official figures show.
The total number of lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK has now also exceeded 3 million, according to the government’s dashboard, though the true figure of people who have been infected is likely to be much higher.
Continue reading...Injections given by royal household doctor at Windsor Castle, where the couple are spending lockdown
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh have been vaccinated against Covid, joining more than a million people in the UK who have been given the jab.
In an unusual move, Buckingham Palace – which rarely comments on the private health matters of the couple – announced that the 94-year-old head of state and her consort had been given the injection.
Continue reading...Morale plummets as NHS sees ‘grave consequences’ of relaxed rules over Christmas
Intensive care medics in London have made a fresh appeal to the public to comply fully with England’s coronavirus restrictions, as they struggle to deal with more patients than at any time over the last four winters.
Morale among ICU staff is tumbling and concerns have been expressed about a “mass exodus” as the second wave of Covid infections escalates rapidly in London and elsewhere in England. Some doctors and nurses have already quit.
Continue reading...Farmers ‘relieved’ as chemical sanctioned for emergency use, despite EU-wide ban backed by UK
A pesticide believed to kill bees has been authorised for use in England despite an EU-wide ban two years ago and an explicit government pledge to keep the restrictions.
Following lobbying from the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) and British Sugar, a product containing the neonicotinoid thiamethoxam was sanctioned for emergency use on sugar beet seeds this year because of the threat posed by a virus.
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