Defendants face January hearing after statue of 17th-century slave merchant was toppled
Four people have been charged with criminal damage after the toppling of a statue of the slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol in June this year.
Rhian Graham, 29, Milo Ponsford, 25, Jake Skuse, 32, and Sage Willoughby, 21, will appear before Bristol magistrates court on 25 January for the first hearing, the Crown Prosecution Service said.
Continue reading...Analysis: While there are similarities with the 2015 clash between Athens and Brussels, there are also key differences
It was a marathon even by the European Union’s standards. For hours, leaders of countries in the eurozone argued, haggled and shouted at each other. After breaks for refreshment, they argued, haggled and shouted some more. Rumours swirled around the packed media room. Eventually, as Brussels was waking to a new morning, the 17-hour overnight summit staggered to an end.
All participants were in agreement that victory had been snatched from the jaws of defeat. Despite the brinkmanship, a deal was eventually done – as seasoned EU watchers had always said it would be, even when all hope seemed lost.
Continue reading...Johnson defends UK negotiating stance as he prepares to fly to Brussels for last-ditch Brexit talks
Boris Johnson has claimed no prime minister would be right to accept the trade terms being offered by the EU, as he prepares to fly to Brussels for last-ditch talks.
Asked in the House of Commons by the veteran Tory backbencher Edward Leigh about the prospects for a deal, Johnson said: “Our friends in the EU are currently insisting that if they pass a new law in future with which we in this country do not comply or don’t follow suit, then they want the automatic right to punish us and to retaliate.
Continue reading...Two health service workers experienced symptoms after receiving Pfizer vaccine
People with a history of significant allergic reactions should not receive the Covid vaccine, the medicines regulator has said, after two NHS workers experienced symptoms on Wednesday.
Both of the NHS staff carry adrenaline autoinjectors, suggesting they have suffered reactions in the past. These kind of devices, of which the best-known brand is the EpiPen, administer a swift adrenaline boost to counter allergic reactions that occur when some people, for instance, eat nuts.
Continue reading...Police ordered to pay £15,500 to man trafficked to UK from Vietnam as a boy who was detained and threatened with deportation
The Metropolitan police is to pay £15,500 to a victim of slavery who tried to report his traffickers but was instead arrested for immigration offences and sent to a detention centre.
The man, referred to in court as KQT, was 15 when he was taken by traffickers from Vietnam through Russia to the UK in a refrigerated lorry. He was arrested on arrival and placed in foster care, but shortly after was collected by his traffickers and forced to work on a cannabis farm, where he was locked inside a storeroom and only fed one meal a day. In January 2018, he escaped his captors and walked into a police station to report his ordeal.
Continue reading...Indian Ocean island purchases archive found in UK attic relating to life of Queen Ranavalona III
An archive of fashion, photographs and letters telling the remarkable story of the last queen of Madagascar will return home after it was bought at auction by the island’s government.
The jumble of ephemera, along with an ornate 19th-century dress, all relates to the life of Queen Ranavalona III, who was dethroned by the French and exiled to Algiers.
Continue reading...Previous prime ministers have defined their leadership via a row with Europe – will Johnson be different?
Since the formation of the European Union, it has been a habit for British prime ministers to try to define their premiership via a row with the rest of the bloc, especially given the laudatory domestic newspaper headlines such disputes engender.
The leading exponent was Margaret Thatcher, ironically in many ways the architect of the single market from which Boris Johnson is struggling to organise the UK’s retreat.
Continue reading...German chancellor calls for new year shutdown; UK science chief warns Britons may need masks next winter; Ion Chicu tests positive, adviser says
Brazil will “quite likely” begin vaccinations to stem the coronavirus pandemic in January or February, the health minister, Eduardo Pazuello, said in a Wednesday interview with CNN Brasil, according to a report by Reuters.
Pazuello said on Tuesday that Brazil had signed a letter of intent to receive 70m Covid-19 vaccine doses from Pfizer starting in January
Oman will exempt nationals of 103 counties from needing an entry visa for a stay of up to 10 days, Reuters reports, in a move to support tourism and shore up its struggling economy.
Visitors must have a confirmed hotel reservation, health insurance and a return ticket, Royal Oman Police said on its Twitter account.
Continue reading...US cases pass 15m; North Korea lashes out at South Korea over zero cases doubt; Giuliani expects to leave hospital on Wednesday
South Korea reported 686 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday as it battles a third wave of infection that is threatening to overwhelm its medical system, Reuters reports.
The daily tally was the second-highest since the start of the pandemic, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. New cases have been consistently around 600 over the past week.
Tougher social distancing rules took effect on Tuesday, including unprecedented curfews on restaurants and most other businesses.
The government has also introduced a new testing method to cater to surging demand, and eased rules to release some recovered patients faster to free up hospital beds.
The government has signed deals with four global drugmakers to procure Covid-19 vaccines for 44 million people.
South Korea’s total infections stand at 39,432, with 556 deaths.
Destitution levels in Great Britain are expected to double in the wake of the pandemic with an estimated 2 million families, including a million children, likely to struggle to afford to feed themselves, stay warm, or keep clean as the recession deepens, according to a study.
The estimates, carried out for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), described “increasing, intensifying” levels of extreme poverty experienced by some of the country’s poorest households in recent years, and highlight a social security system increasingly failing to protect society’s most vulnerable:
Related: Covid-driven recession likely to push 2m UK families into poverty
Continue reading...Parents in Canberra were unaware daughter had allegedly paid substantial sum to purported hitman
A tip-off from a British journalist working for the BBC led to the arrest of an Australian woman who allegedly used the dark web to hire a contract killer to murder her parents, police say.
The 26-year-old Canberra woman is accused of agreeing to pay $20,000 to kill her parents, who are reportedly prominent businesspeople in the Australian Capital Territory.
Continue reading...Tax experts and economists outline ‘fairest, most efficient’ way to repair public finances and quickly raise £260bn
The government has been urged to launch a one-off wealth tax on millionaire households to raise up to £260bn in response to the coronavirus pandemic, as the crisis damages Britain’s public finances and exacerbates inequality.
The Wealth Tax Commission – a group of leading tax experts and economists brought together by the London School of Economics and Warwick University to examine the case for a levy on assets – said targeting the richest in society would be the fairest and most efficient way to raise taxes in response to the pandemic.
Continue reading...Greenpeace report warns against granting licences to ‘deeply destructive’ industry with opaque oversight, and calls for global ocean treaty
Private mining firms and arms companies are exerting a hidden and unhealthy influence on the fate of the deep-sea bed, according to a new report highlighting the threats facing the world’s biggest intact ecosystem.
An investigation by Greenpeace found a handful of corporations in Europe and North America are increasingly dominating exploration contracts, and have at times taken the place of government representatives at meetings of the oversight body, the UN’s International Seabed Authority (ISA).
Continue reading...Senior police officer says it is ‘not unreasonable’ to suggest Salman Abedi fought or trained with militia in 2011
The Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi may have trained and fought with Islamist militia in Libya, an inquiry into the attack has been told.
Abedi’s cousin Abdurrahman Forjani told police that he had travelled to Libya during the 2011 revolution and got a job “locating Gaddafi supporters”.
Continue reading...Martin Kenyon, 91, was outside Guy’s Hospital in London after getting the Pfizer Covid vaccine when he was chanced upon by CNN correspondent Cyril Vanier. Asked how it felt to be one of the first people in the world to receive the jab, Kenyon said:’ I don’t think I feel much at all, except that I hope that I’m not going to have the bloody bug now.’
During the interview, which went viral after being shared by CNN’s Oliver Darcy on Twitter, Kenyon added that he intended to hug his family for Christmas. ‘I’m going home to tell them now. Nobody knows. You’re the first to know,’ he told Vanier.
News that PM will meet European commission president comes as Michel Barnier says chance of deal is ‘very slim’
The future of Britain’s relationship with the rest of Europe will hang on the success of a dinner between Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels on Wednesday, it has emerged, as the EU’s chief negotiator warned the chance of a Brexit deal was now “very slim”.
Downing Street said the prime minister would join the European commission president at its Berlaymont headquarters on Wednesday evening, where the leaders would seek to break the Brexit impasse over a three-course meal.
Continue reading...Newly published data shows 90% efficacy only in small group who got half-dose first
The Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid vaccine has efficacy of 90% in a small group who got a half-dose first, but only 62% in the majority, full trial data newly published in the Lancet has confirmed.
The results may create a quandary for regulatory bodies, which will have to decide on how the vaccine should be used if they approve it.
Continue reading...Surprise at high price as company looks to beat Bose and Sony with super luxury audio
Apple has announced its long anticipated first over-ear, noise-cancelling wireless headphones, AirPods Max, retailing at £549.
The new headphones look to take the good bits of Apple’s wireless earbuds, AirPods, and put them in larger Bluetooth headphones with high quality speakers and a very high price tag.
Continue reading...After walking across deserts and crossing seas on small boats, Noor wants to reveal the plight of women and girls in Yemen
A woman who crossed eight borders, two deserts and one sea to get to the UK to claim asylum has spoken for the first time about her incredible journey.
The 29-year-old, who calls herself Noor, escaped from Yemen when her life was threatened and travelled alone with only smugglers and other desperate migrants for company en route. It is highly unusual for a woman from a country such as Yemen to embark on this kind of journey unaccompanied.
Continue reading...The UK is the first country to start vaccinating people with the Pfizer/BioNTech jab. Care home workers, NHS staff and the elderly began receiving it on the first day of the largest immunisation programme in the UK’s history
Continue reading...UK prioritising over-80s, frontline healthcare workers and care home staff and residents; France unlikely to end lockdown on 15 December; Brazil to make vaccines free
UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock told BBC Good Morning Scotland the next doses of the vaccine will arrive next week. He said:
The next scheduled arrival will be next week and the numbers depend on how quickly Pfizer can manufacture it.
It is being manufactured in Belgium and obviously right across the UK the job is to be able to get the vaccinations done as quickly as the manufacturer can create it, so we’ve been all working together really closely, the UK Government, which has been buying the vaccine and getting it delivered into the country, and then the NHS in the four nations of the UK.
We’ve got a broad schedule, there will be several million for the UK as a whole, so several hundred thousand for Scotland over the remainder of this month.
We’ve got that as a broad delivery schedule but obviously the manufacturing process itself is complicated, so we’ve got to get the stuff in the country and then once it’s in the country we can be confident that we’re able to deliver it, and I’m sure the NHS across Scotland and across the whole of the UK is up to the challenge.
We are not proposing to have a sort of immunity certificate that allows you to do different things.
Got a bit of a lump in the throat watching this. Feels like such a milestone moment after a tough year for everyone.
The first vaccines in Scotland will be administered today too. https://t.co/KKaEhf19Jo
NHS nurse Mrs Parsons said it was a “huge honour” to be the first in the country to deliver the vaccine to a patient.
She said:
It’s a huge honour to be the first person in the country to deliver a Covid-19 jab to a patient, I’m just glad that I’m able to play a part in this historic day.
The last few months have been tough for all of us working in the NHS, but now it feels like there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Continue reading...