Category Archives: UK news

Boris Johnson: ‘If we ease off now, we risk losing control of this virus’ – video

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Boris Johnson said he was sorry that most of England would exit lockdown into tiers 2 or 3 with the toughest restrictions. Johnson said the measures 'strike a balance' between limiting the spread of the virus and protecting freedoms. 'If we ease off now, we risk losing control of this virus,' Johnson added.

Chris Whitty, the government’s chief medical adviser, urged people to 'have sense' over the festive period, and bluntly warned against hugging and kissing elderly relatives at Christmas

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Largest number of Prevent referrals related to far-right extremism

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Of cases referred on to Channel, 43% were for rightwing and 30% for Islamist radicalisation

Just 11% of referrals to the government’s controversial Prevent programme were ultimately deemed to be at risk of radicalisation, with the largest number of referrals relating to far-right extremism.

The annual figures emerged as James Brokenshire, the security minister, warned that far-right terror posed “a growing threat” which had been accelerated by the amplification of conspiracy theories online during the pandemic.

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Jeremy Corbyn to start legal action over suspension of Labour whip

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Allies say he aims to prove there was a deal with Keir Starmer’s office to readmit him to party

Jeremy Corbyn is to start a formal legal claim against the Labour party for suspending the whip, in a case which allies of the former Labour leader say is intended to prove there was a deal with Keir Starmer’s office to readmit him to the party.

The Guardian has seen evidence of exchanges between key members of Starmer’s office and Corbyn’s representatives, suggesting there were private meetings in the run-up to the party’s decision to lift his suspension from the party.

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Fears of bleak winter unites those across England’s tiers

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People in tiers 2 and 3 face tight restrictions while those in tier 1 worry of influx from outside

While there was welcome relief at the news that England’s second national lockdown would finally end, Thursday’s announcement that it was to be replaced with only slightly milder restrictions across much of the country left many fearing a bleak winter in tiers 2 and 3.

Only three areas received a relative reprieve in tier 1, but, for many, happiness was tempered by a fear that an influx of visitor from riskier areas could leave them facing tougher restrictions too.

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Kylie Moore-Gilbert’s release shows dangers of making deals with Iran

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Talks over other dual-national detainees risk encouraging Tehran to see hostage-taking as a winning strategy

The release of Kylie Moore-Gilbert, the British Australian academic, is a bittersweet moment for the relatives across the globe of other Iranian dual nationals still trapped in Iranian jails. Many families celebrated her release, but also asked themselves again whether their own governments are doing all they can to bring their loved ones home.

Sherry Izadi, the wife of a 66-year-old British-Iranian construction engineer, Anoosheh Ashoori, jailed for 10 years, told the Guardian: “It is extraordinary the lengths the Australian government was prepared to go to secure her release. They seem to have persuaded the Thai government to exchange three Iranians accused of terrorism in return for her release.” The three-way negotiations between the governments took six months.

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A tale of two cities: Manchester, Liverpool and the journey of Covid tiers

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Analysis: the two regions have emerged with contrasting fortunes from their dealings with Westminster

As Matt Hancock put the final touches to England’s new lockdown regime on Wednesday night, the mood of leaders in Manchester and Liverpool could not have been more different.

On Merseyside the leaders felt they had done all they could to have become the first English region to leave the strictest coronavirus measures introduced six weeks ago. The Liverpool city region has now been moved down to tier 2.

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Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine results face growing scrutiny

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Share price drops as critics question claim vaccine could protect up to 90% of people

The Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine is coming under increasing scrutiny, with critics questioning the claim that trials showed it could protect up to 90% of people against coronavirus.

On Thursday Sir John Bell, Oxford’s regius professor of medicine and the UK government’s life sciences adviser, dismissed suggestions the trial had not been properly set up or reported. “We weren’t cooking this up as we went along,” he said, adding that he hoped the full, peer-reviewed data would be published in the Lancet medical journal at the weekend.

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Dominic Raab says legislation is needed to cut UK aid spending

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Foreign secretary says it is not known when 0.7% target, set in law, will be restored

The foreign secretary has decided legislation is required to cut the aid budget since the current fiscal uncertainty means the government may feel obliged to miss the commitment to spend 0.7% on gross national income on overseas aid for longer than a year.

Legislation would be laid, Dominic Raab told MPs in an oral statement, but he did not give a date for doing so. The Foreign Office has indicated it is unlikely to be introduced until the second half of next year.

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UK aid cuts ‘unprincipled, unjustified and harmful’, say experts and MPs

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Cuts announced by Rishi Sunak will hit girls and women in poorest countries hardest, with charities predicting huge numbers of deaths

The UK aid cuts announced by chancellor Rishi Sunak could see a million girls lose out on schooling, nearly three million women and children go without life-saving nutrition and 5.6 million children left unvaccinated, causing up to 100,000 deaths, charities, aid experts and MPs have said.

They described the slash in funding to overseas aid, from 0.7% to 0.5% of Britain’s gross national income, as “unprincipled, unjustified and harmful” just as a global health crisis is throwing decades of progress on poverty, healthcare and education into reverse.

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Coronavirus live news: virus spread in France showing signs of slowing; fears Africa may be at back of vaccine queue

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Daily cases continue to fall in France; health campaigners fear Africa will have to wait until mid-2021 for vaccine; weddings banned and cafes closed in Croatia

The head of British drug manufacturer AstraZeneca said further research was needed on its Covid-19 vaccine after questions emerged over the protection it offers, but the additional testing is unlikely to affect regulatory approval in Europe.

AstraZeneca and its partner, the University of Oxford, announced on Monday that it was seeking regulatory approval for the vaccine after it showed an average 70% effectiveness.

Related: Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine results face growing scrutiny

Spain’s capital Madrid turned on its Christmas lights on Thursday, spending more than last year to illuminate 30 additional streets and squares despite a sharp economic downturn driven by the coronavirus pandemic.

Banners of LED lights in the red and yellow of the Spanish flag appeared in parts of the city, including stretches of over a kilometre alongside the central boulevard that runs past the world-famous Prado museum.

Así ha encendido Madrid la Navidad

#MD964
DIRECTO https://t.co/Cnw7Ol5lQX@MadridDirecto pic.twitter.com/LkccoTnpkx

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Most of England to enter two toughest tiers when lockdown is lifted

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Signs of growing parliamentary rebellion amid fears measures could stay in place until spring

The majority of England will enter the two toughest tiers of Covid restrictions from next week, ministers are set to announce, amid signs of a growing parliamentary rebellion and fears that the measures could remain unchanged until spring.

On Thursday Matt Hancock, the health secretary, is expected to say that most of the country will be placed into tiers 2 or 3, which imply significant restrictions on hospitality, after the national lockdown ends on 2 December.

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Medical staff urge Priti Patel to close barracks housing asylum seekers

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Letter to home secretary raises concerns about sites holding 600 men in Kent and Pembrokeshire

Healthcare professionals have called for former army barracks being used to house asylum seekers to be closed over concerns about the residents’ wellbeing.

Medical staff have written to the home secretary, Priti Patel, with a damning assessment, to raise concerns about the sites at Napier barracks in Kent and Penally barracks in Pembrokeshire, which between them are holding more than 600 men.

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Kylie Moore-Gilbert released from Iran jail in prisoner exchange

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British-Australian academic has been imprisoned in Iran since 2018

Kylie Moore-Gilbert, the Australian-British academic detained by Iran on espionage charges, has been released in a prisoner exchange for three Iranians.

In what will be seen as a victory for Iranian state hostage-taking by some and a humanitarian move by others, Moore-Gilbert was released on Wednesday morning. The move also raises hopes for the fate of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori, dual UK-Iranian nationals who have been held since 2016 and 2017 respectively.

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Judge denies Johnny Depp permission to appeal Sun libel action

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Actor ordered to pay £630,000 after libel action against Sun over ‘wife beater’ allegations

The Hollywood actor Johnny Depp has been refused permission to appeal after losing his high stakes libel action against the Sun over its description of him as a “wife beater”.

A high court judge also ordered the actor to make an initial payment to the Sun’s publishers, New Group Newspapers (NGN), of almost £630,000 in legal fees.

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Deadly frost and war with the French: Britain’s recession of the 1700s

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Economic distress caused by pandemic is the first in a very long time to have been brought about by the natural world

The chancellor has said the government will borrow a peacetime record of almost £400bn this year in the face of the worst recession the UK has experienced in more than 300 years. But how many of us know what happened at the time of that distant milestone?

Three centuries ago, Britain looked very different. The country was still largely agricultural and as such was completely at the mercy of nature – though 2020 has shown that perhaps, in a way, it still is. Nonetheless, in the early 18th century it was the success or failure of the harvest, which depended on the weather, that had a profound impact on the rate of economic growth.

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Christmas and Covid: is mixing households a good idea?

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The UK says three households can get together for festivities. Four Britons react – with relief, caution and despair

The UK government’s announcement to allow three households to meet together over five days at Christmas has attracted differing opinions. Many people fear that relaxing lockdown poses too great a risk to life, others are pleased they can see their family after being apart so long. One in four, according to a poll last weekend, would probably treat Christmas as they do normally, despite any restrictions.

The Guardian spoke to four people about their response to the news.

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Coronavirus live news: Germany reports record daily deaths; Sicily asks Cuba to send doctors and nurses

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Germany reports 410 Covid-related deaths in 24 hours; Sicilian hospitals struggling with shortage of medical personnel; global cases near 60m cases

The regional government of Madrid is proposing allowing groups of up to 10 people to gather on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day and the feast of the Epiphany (6 January). The number of different households allowed to mix would be capped at three.

Under the plans, which have been submitted to the central government, the current midnight to 6am curfew would be replaced on those days by one running from 1.30am to 6am.

Authorities in Sicily have asked Cuba’s government to send to the region about 60 health operators, including doctors and nurses, as hospitals are struggling with a shortage of medical personnel during the second wave.

The request was filed this week to the Italian embassy in Cuba and consists of intensive care specialists, nurses, anaesthetists, resuscitators, virologists and pneumologists, the Italian newspaper la Repubblica has reported.

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Meghan reveals she had a miscarriage

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Duchess of Sussex writes about her grief and pain in losing a baby, and addresses the stigma of miscarriage

The Duchess of Sussex has revealed her grief after suffering a miscarriage, in an article that speaks to loss and the importance of asking about others’ welfare in times of pandemic and polarisation.

Meghan shared the devastation that she and Prince Harry felt after she lost a baby in July and was admitted to hospital.

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British Library apologises for linking Ted Hughes to slave trade

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The poet had been wrongly included among more than 300 figures whose collections were associated with wealth obtained from colonial violence

The British Library has apologised to Carol Hughes, the widow of the former poet laureate Ted Hughes, after it linked him to the slave trade through a distant ancestor.

Hughes’s name had been included on a spreadsheet from the library detailing more than 300 figures with “evidence of connections to slavery, profits from slavery or from colonialism”. Hughes’s link was through Nicholas Ferrar, who was born in 1592 and whose family was, the library said, “deeply involved” with the London Virginia Company, which was set up to colonise North America.

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‘We made a promise’: fallout from UK’s cut in overseas aid remains to be seen

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David Cameron’s commitment to spend 0.7% of gross national income to help world’s poorest in tatters

The former prime minister David Cameron’s political legacy will be permanently dominated by Brexit, an event he misjudged and abhorred. But until now he could at least comfort himself with one positive foreign policy achievement to his name. He was prime minister when the UK for the first time met its goal of spending 0.7% of its gross national income on overseas aid, and also enshrined it in law in 2015, so apparently entrenching Britain’s commitment to the world’s poorest.

Related: David Cameron and Tony Blair warn against cutting foreign aid

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