Category Archives: UK news

Covid vaccine uptake high despite concerns over hesitancy

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Experts fear misinformation and development worries could undermine efforts to control pandemic

Uptake of the Covid-19 vaccine has been high among those offered it, doctors say, despite fears that vaccine hesitancy could undermine efforts to control the pandemic.

Experts have feared mass uptake of the jab could be jeopardised by widespread misinformation, concerns among the public about the speed at which the vaccine has been developed and approved, and lack of trust in vaccines and the pharmaceutical companies and governments calling for it.

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Freezing weather across Britain could send temperatures as low as -10C

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Met Office issues snow and ice warning after a day of heavy snowfall, with mercury set to plunge furthest in western Scotland

A cold snap will continue to spread across Britain on Tuesday and temperatures could plunge as low as -10C in parts of the country.

The Met Office has issued a yellow warning of snow and ice for much of England and Wales and parts of Scotland after a day of heavy snowfall in some regions, with more wintry weather expected on Wednesday and Thursday.

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Starmer faces high-profile Labour rebellion before Brexit deal vote

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MPs including John McDonnell say party must not ‘fall into trap of rallying around rotten deal’

Keir Starmer is facing a high-profile rebellion against Labour’s Brexit position on the eve of the vote in parliament, as prominent MPs including John McDonnell and Clive Lewis accused him of “falling into the trap of rallying around this rotten deal”.

Labour is likely to contain a major rebellion of frontbench MPs but an increasing number of prominent supporters are urging Starmer to change course. Backbenchers have also raised concerns on private WhatsApp groups that Labour’s endorsement for the deal has been given without the legislation being published.

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Only about 12 Britons stay in quarantine in Swiss ski resort after hundreds flee

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Hundreds left Verbier after discovery of new Covid variant despite order to self-isolate

Only about a dozen British tourists out of about 420 appear to be left in the Swiss ski resort of Verbier after an undisclosed number fled a mandatory quarantine, many under cover of darkness, risking a 10,000 Swiss franc fine (£8,300) and drawing widespread condemnation on social media.

Asked about the runaway tourists, the Swiss health minister, Alain Berset, said: “We are aware of that. It’s obviously a problem. There was an order to quarantine that has not been respected.”

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Analysis of Covid search terms reveals Britons’ hopes and fears in 2020

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Although preoccupations changed over year, Britons’ thirst for Covid-related information continued to outstrip that for all other health topics

At the peak of the pandemic, Britons were searching for coronavirus-related information six times a day on average, an analysis of search engine data reveals. And although our preoccupations have changed over the months, our thirst for Covid-related information continues to outstrip that for all other health and social care-related topics.

2020 has been an extraordinary year. Never before have we been so united in our concerns and interests as we roller-coasted through the months. To better understand what that psychological journey looked like, Kaiasm, a Somerset-based data intelligence company, crunches the searches people make on Google, Bing and other internet sites. But rather than analysing the top search terms people use, it groups these together into underlying concepts, to better understand people’s needs and interests.

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EU states unanimously back Brexit trade and security deal

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Backing of EU27 paves way for new arrangements between UK and EU to come into force on 1 January

The post-Brexit trade and security deal has been unanimously backed by EU member states, paving the way for the new arrangements to come into force on 1 January.

At a meeting of ambassadors in Brussels, the 27 member states gave their support for the 1,246-page treaty to be “provisionally applied” at the end of the year. The decision will be formally completed by written procedure at 3pm central European time (1400 GMT) on Tuesday.

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Western Isles council rejects official sex ed in favour of Catholic teaching

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Vote came after ministers on Lewis said parents and teachers unhappy about government-backed materials

The Western Isles has been hit by a fresh row over the influence of churches on public policy after councillors voted to endorse a Catholic manual on teaching sex education and relationships in schools.

A large majority of councillors on Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (CnES) backed a motion “commending” Roman Catholic teaching materials, which uphold an orthodox Catholic stance against sexual intercourse outside heterosexual marriage.

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UK beach clean: disco ball and pink pants among oddest items found

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Crisp packets, cup lids and wet wipes among the more mundane objects commonly encountered

A full-size disco ball, a plastic Christmas tree and a double mattress were among the more unusual objects found by volunteers cleaning up the UK’s beaches this autumn.

The most common polluting items retrieved in the Marine Conservation Society’s annual clean of coastal areas were pieces of plastic or polystyrene, plastic takeaway cup lids and wet wipes.

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Coronavirus live news: British tourists flee Swiss ski resort quarantine; inoculation in EU begins

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Latest updates: first vaccine doses administered across Europe; Germany rollout delayed after potential irregularities in cooling of Pfizer shot

Dr Anthony Fauci, the head of the US coronavirus taskforce said that he believes the Covid-19 variant detected in the UK must be taken “very seriously” but is not likely to cause more serious illness or be resistant to vaccines.

He said: “Does it make someone more ill? Is it [a] more serious virus in the sense of virulence? And the answer is, it doesn’t appear to be that way.”

The UK’s coronavirus vaccination programme will resume on Monday, after a pause on Christmas Day and the weekend.

The latest figures show that a total of 70,572 people in the UK have died from Covid-19. The number is likely to rise further on Tuesday, as authorities in both Scotland and Northern Ireland have not released data over the festive period.

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Hundreds of UK tourists flee Covid quarantine in Swiss ski resort

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About half of the 420 visitors ordered to self-isolate left Verbier in ‘cloak and dagger’ operation

Hundreds of British tourists fled the upmarket Swiss ski resort of Verbier in a “cloak-and-dagger operation” this week, breaking quarantine rules retroactively put in place to contain the spread of the coronavirus variant first discovered in the UK.

Following the detection of the new mutation of Covid-19 in Britain, Swiss authorities announced on 21 December that all people who had arrived from the UK since 14 December would need to self-isolate for 10 days from their date of arrival.

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Covid poses ‘greatest threat to mental health since second world war’

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UK’s leading psychiatrist predicts impact will be felt for years after pandemic ends

The coronavirus crisis poses the greatest threat to mental health since the second world war, with the impact to be felt for years after the virus has been brought under control, the country’s leading psychiatrist has said.

Dr Adrian James, the president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said a combination of the disease, its social consequences and the economic fallout were having a profound effect on mental health that would continue long after the epidemic is reined in.

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Liu Xiaoming to quit his role of Chinese ambassador to Britain

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Critic of UK decision to ban Huawei from 5G networks to be replaced by China’s vice-foreign minister

China’s long-serving envoy to Britain, Liu Xiaoming, a staunch defender of closer UK-China economic ties and the imposition of new security laws in Hong Kong, is standing down, marking the end of an era in relations between the two countries that hit a high in 2015 but has since worsened markedly.

He is being replaced by his country’s vice-foreign minister, Zheng Zeguang, a former Cardiff University law student once tipped to become China’s ambassador to the US, and still seen as a candidate for that post in a couple of years’ time.

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The great opportunity: how Covid transformed global crime

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2020 led to surges in everything from domestic abuse to black markets in fake vaccines

By the end of March, one week into the UK’s first lockdown, recorded crime in Lancashire had dropped by a startling 40% compared with the four-year average.

“At first there was some mild panic,” says DCI Eric Halford, of Lancashire Constabulary. “Most senior officers expected a surge in demand.”

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Global report: AstraZeneca chief believes Covid vaccine will work on variant strain

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Pascal Soirot says firm has ‘winning formula’ to improve Oxford jab’s efficacy, as countries across Europe roll out vaccination programs

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The head of the firm behind the Oxford Covid vaccine has said researchers believe the jab will be effective against the variant strain of the virus that was first found in the UK.

AstraZeneca chief executive, Pascal Soriot, told the Sunday Times more tests were needed to be sure, but hailed the discovery of what he called a “winning formula” to improve the vaccine’s efficacy.

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Fishing chiefs cry ‘betrayal’ as MPs fear rush to ratify Brexit deal

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‘UK caved in on fish to win a wider treaty’, industry bodies say, while leading Brexiter David Davis says one-day debate is ‘too fast’

Senior Conservative MPs late on Saturday expressed alarm at plans to rush the historic UK-EU trade deal through parliament in just one day, as fishermen’s leaders accused Boris Johnson of “caving in” at the 11th hour to clinch agreement on Christmas Eve.

And there were growing fears among senior Tories, who will spend the next three days poring over the 2,000-page agreement published on Saturday, that details in the fine print could still allow the EU to impose punitive tariffs on British exports if businesses fail to follow European rules.

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Anger of 10,000 lorry drivers ‘held hostage’ in Covid Christmas standoff

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Hauliers stranded in their cabs on UK roads say they are being used as political pawns

Juan Andrés had braced himself for what promised to be an atypical holiday season. But the lorry driver from southern Spain never imagined that Christmas Day would be spent in his cab tucking into a ham and cheese sandwich – among provisions handed out by the British military – as he inched towards the Channel.

“I would describe it as a kidnapping,” said the 52-year-old when asked about the diplomatic impasse that left him stranded on British roads for nearly a week. As many as 10,000 lorries from across Europe were stuck after France temporarily closed its border over fears of a fast-spreading coronavirus variant, reopening only to those drivers who could show a negative coronavirus test.

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Future shock: how will Covid change the course of business?

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The crisis poses a deadly threat to some sectors and creates opportunities for others. We examine how they will fare in 2021

Coronavirus has changed lives and industries across the UK, accelerating fundamental shifts in behaviour and consumption that were already on their way. Debates about home working, preserving local high streets and the ethics of air travel were bubbling away before coronavirus rampaged across the world, but the consequences of the worst pandemic in more than a century have either settled those arguments or boosted the momentum behind certain lifestyle changes. Here we look at how those debates have been changed – or resolved – by Covid-19.

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Coronavirus live news: millions more wake up to tier 4 in England

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Follow all the latest on the coronavirus pandemic across the world

The new variant of the coronavirus circulating in Britain has been detected in Sweden after a traveller from Britain fell ill on arrival and tested positive for it, the Swedish health agency said on Saturday.

A health agency official, Sara Byfors, told a news conference that the traveller, who was not identified, had kept isolated after arrival to Sweden and that no further positive cases had so far been detected.

Jordan has arrested a journalist over an article alleging that the coronavirus vaccine had arrived in the kingdom and that officials had received the jab, a judicial source said on Saturday.

“The state security court prosecutor ordered the arrest Thursday of journalist Jamal Haddad, editor of news website Al-Wakaai, for writing that government officials had been vaccinated against the coronavirus,” the source said.

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