European nationals added to voluntary returns scheme, which can include flights and up to £2,000 for resettlement
EU citizens are being offered financial incentives to leave the UK, the Guardian has learned, months before the deadline to apply for settled status.
From 1 January EU citizens have quietly been added to the government’s voluntary returns scheme where financial support is offered as an encouragement to return to their country of origin.
Continue reading...Ten of the world’s most infectious diseases identified by the WHO not being catered for by drug firms
The world’s biggest pharmaceutical firms are little prepared for the next pandemic despite a mounting response to the Covid-19 outbreak, an independent report has warned.
Jayasree K Iyer, executive director of the Netherlands-based Access to Medicine Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation funded by the UK and Dutch governments and others, highlighted an outbreak of the Nipah virus in China, with a fatality rate of up to 75%, as potentially the next big pandemic risk.
Continue reading...International development committee tells government that pandemic and foreign aid cuts fuelling poverty and food insecurity
Billions of dollars of debt owed by poor countries must be permanently cancelled in order to stave off a “looming financial tsunami” caused by Covid-19 and the ensuing global recession, a cross-party committee of MPs has warned.
Debt relief will not be enough to help the world’s most vulnerable economies as they face skyrocketing levels of hunger and unemployment, according to an inquiry into Covid-19’s secondary impacts in developing countries, published on Tuesday by the House of Commons international development committee (IDC).
Continue reading...One of Britain’s greatest designers, she has dressed everyone from Princess Diana to Diana Ross. She discusses punk, pink hair and staying creative after serious illness
Zandra Rhodes was doing a yoga session with a friend in the early weeks of the pandemic when she realised that something was wrong. “It’s a funny story,” she says. “We were lying on our lilac mats in my rainbow penthouse, and I was breathing deeply – and my stomach felt full. And I thought, why is it full? I haven’t had a meal today.”
It turned out she had a tumour. “It was in the bile [duct] and going into whatever’s near it,” she says, vaguely. Treatment involved weeks travelling across a locked-down London for chemotherapy, followed by an immunotherapy regime that she is still on, even though she is happy to say that the tumour is in full remission. Her first thought after diagnosis was “to get my will in order with a power of attorney that included a do-not-resuscitate order. I was very lucky because I had no pain whatsoever. I just got very tired while I was having the chemo.”
Continue reading...Research from three Cambridge grave sites suggests poor people were at greatest risk of injury
A friar crushed by a cart, another the victim of an attack by bandits: it sounds like the plot of a medieval mystery. But according to new research these are some of the possible misfortunes to have befallen those in centuries gone by.
An analysis of bones from 314 individuals aged 12 or older, dating from around 1100 to the 1530s, and found in three different sites across Cambridge, reveals that bone fractures were common among those buried in a parish cemetery – where many ordinary workers would have been laid to rest. But the team also found evidence of horrific injuries among those buried in an Augustinian friary, suggesting the clergy were not protected against violent events.
Continue reading...Lawyers point out series of failings in buildup to bombing that killed 22 and injured hundreds
A series of “unacceptable and unjustified” security failures occurred before the Manchester Arena bombing, the public inquiry into the attack has been told.
The inquiry heard lawyers’ closing statements on chapter seven, relating to security at the venue. The arena is operated by SMG, who employed the company Showsec to provide security and stewarding services there.
Continue reading...Sharmaine Lincoln has appealed for witnesses to the killing of teenager in Handsworth, Birmingham last Thursday
The mother of a 15-year-old boy gunned down and stabbed to death in a daylight attack, has said she heard the gunshots that killed him.
Keon Lincoln was set upon in the street in Handsworth, Birmingham last Thursday afternoon. Police believe a group of youths were behind the unusually violent attack.
Continue reading...Health secretary says it is too early to draw timeline for restrictions, because of pressure on NHS
The health secretary, Matt Hancock, has fired a coded warning at MPs seeking a roadmap out of Covid restrictions, saying the pressure on the NHS is too great, with hospital admissions still almost double the April peak.
The deputy chief medical officer, Jenny Harries, said people “need to keep these figures in proportion”, adding that there was a serious risk to health services, especially in winter. “We are not out of this by a very long way,” she said.
Continue reading...Denying mission full privileges under the Vienna convention risks poisoning diplomatic ties, No 10 told
Downing Street has been warned by Brussels that downgrading the status of the EU’s ambassador to the UK will poison diplomatic relations for years to come.
The UK has so far declined to grant the bloc’s representative, João Vale de Almeida, and his 25-strong mission the privileges and immunities afforded to diplomats under the Vienna convention.
Continue reading...A group of celebrities have released a video addressing vaccine misinformation in BAME communities.
The group, including actors Adil Ray and Meera Syal, as well as cricketeer Moeen Ali and presenter Konnie Huq, appealed to black, Asian and ethnic minority communities in the UK to help address hesitancy around the Covid-19 vaccine.
Coronavirus has disproportionately impacted minority ethnic communities, but these communities have also been subject to misleading information around the vaccine.
‘Unfortunately we are now fighting another pandemic: misinformation,’ Ray, who helped organise the video, explained. ‘We all must do what we can and come together to fight this deadly virus. We hope this video can help dispel some of the myths and offer some encouragement for everyone to take the vaccine’
Continue reading...Brexit rule changes that make it tricky to tour the EU will hold back UK artists from a fast-growing market
Limiting UK artists from working and touring in the EU post-Brexit will destroy the development of British music, say European industry experts, amid thriving competition from German rap, Spanish pop and more.
British artists now face the need for visas, work permits and equipment carnets when working in the EU, with emerging acts most likely to feel the impact of this costly and time-consuming admin. Over the last month, the UK and the EU have blamed each other for the inability to strike a deal to help the creative industries.
Continue reading...More vaccination centres open as experts call for monitoring of effect of lengthy gap between jabs
Experts have called for greater clarity about the monitoring in place to assess the 12-week dosing interval for Covid vaccines, as the UK’s vaccination programme ramps up.
According to government data released on Sunday, a total of 6,353,321 people in the UK have received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine. A further slew of vaccination centres are due to open on Monday to speed up delivery of the jabs.
Continue reading...Postmortem establishes cause of Keon Lincoln’s death to be gunshot and stab wounds
Three more teenagers have been arrested after the killing of a 15-year-old boy in Birmingham last week, taking the total to five.
West Midlands police said Keon Lincoln was attacked by a group of teenagers with weapons in the Handsworth area on Thursday.
Continue reading...Poorly-executed change to terms of service sends messaging app’s subscribers flocking to competitors
A poorly explained update to its terms of service has pushed WhatsApp users to adopt alternative services such as Signal and Telegram in their millions.
The exodus was so large that WhatsApp has been forced to delay the implementation of the new terms, which had been slated for 8 February, and run a damage limitation campaign to explain to users the changes they were making.
Continue reading...Health secretary says case rate too high to ease restrictions; first Pfizer dose does not immediately prevent infection, says Israeli health minister
Egypt has launched a Covid vaccination campaign, with the first shots of the Sinopharm’s vaccine given to healthcare workers in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia.
Italy will take legal action against Pfizer and AstraZeneca over delays in deliveries of Covid vaccines, with the aim of securing the doses rather than seeking damages, the foreign minister, Luigi Di Maio, said on Sunday.
Di Maio said on RAI state television:
We are working so our vaccine plan programme does not change. We are activating all channels so the EU commission does all it can to make these gentlemen respect their contracts.
Continue reading...Thousands join events in Scotland and far afield, and post-a-haggis service is in high demand
It’s the night when Scots emerge from mid-winter hibernation, says the Burns scholar Pauline Mackay. On the poet’s birthday, 25 January, or thereabouts, thousands of societies, clubs and groups of friends across Scotland and around the world gather to celebrate the life and work of the national bard Robert Burns.
The ritual elements of a Burns supper – addressing those gathered with his poem To a Haggis, completing several rounds of toasts and reading from the funny, sexy, radical diversity of his work – have remained constant since the first event was held by nine friends in 1801, five years after his death.
Continue reading...Online course being used to help reach government target was created after letter to the Guardian
An online language course created five years ago following a letter published in the Guardian is to be used to help reach a government target of a million Welsh speakers by 2050.
Duolingo launched its Welsh language course in January 2016 and so far more than 1.5 million people around the world have been taught through it.
Continue reading...First minister says she will hold advisory referendum, whether Westminster consents or not
Nicola Sturgeon says she will hold an advisory referendum on independence if the Scottish National party wins a majority in May’s Holyrood elections, regardless of whether Westminster consents to the move.
Her party is setting out an 11-point roadmap for taking forward another vote, which will be presented to members of the SNP’s national assembly on Sunday.
Continue reading...JCVI deputy chair defends extended gap between jabs as Hancock warns end of restrictions ‘long way off’
A representative of the UK’s vaccine advisory committee has defended its decision to delay giving people a second dose, saying it will “save many lives”, as the health secretary, Matt Hancock, warned lifting restrictions was “a long, long way off”.
Prof Anthony Harnden, of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), said the evidence was still in favour of delaying the dose, after a small Israeli study on people over the age of 60 suggested a first dose gave just 33% protection from coronavirus.
Continue reading...Exactly a year after his first story about coronavirus, our science editor received the Pfizer injection last week. Here he reflects on a remarkable scientific achievement
I marked a grim anniversary in an unexpected manner last week. On 18 January last year, I wrote my first story about a mysterious disease that had struck Wuhan, in China, and which was now spreading around the world. More than two million individuals have since died of Covid-19, almost 100,000 of them in the UK.
Remarkably, 12 months to the day that the Observer published my story, I was given my first dose of Covid-19 vaccine, allowing me to follow nearly six million other newly immunised UK residents who are set to gain protection against a disease that has brought the planet to a standstill. It was a rare, comforting experience after a year of unremitting sadness and gloom.
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