England has begun its second nationwide lockdown, after parliament approved Boris Johnson’s coronavirus strategy despite dozens of his own MPs voting against it
Continue reading...Category Archives: UK news
‘We’re going to the skies and stars!’ The man building our jetpack future – in tribute to his Dad
Richard Browning is pursuing the stuff of a million childhood dreams. But having built a working jetpack, will anybody use it?
On a gloomy afternoon in a Sussex wood, a 21st-century superhero appears. Dressed in black, helmeted, a pack on his back and jets on his arms, he rises to a couple of metres above the ground, accelerates up above a grassy bank and then hovers in a swirling cloud of autumn leaves.
No matter how many times you’ve watched a video on YouTube, nothing can quite prepare you for the sight of a human being in flight. It is the embodiment of a thousand myths, from Hermes and Peter Pan to Iron Man, as well as a million childhood dreams, and is the only correct answer to that old conundrum: which superpower would you choose, invisibility or flying? If it wasn’t for the roar of the jet engines and the smell of fuel, you would assume it was just a dream.
Continue reading...Coronavirus live news: Italy reports 445 new deaths, highest daily toll since end of April
Daily Italian total comes as Piedmont, Calabria, Lombardy and Aosta Valley face new restrictions from Friday; three-week restrictions in Greece
- UK chancellor extends furlough scheme until early 2021
- UK coronavirus updates – live
- Denmark plans to cull 15m mink over Covid mutation fears
- China bans non-Chinese arrivals from UK as England enters lockdown
- US sets record for daily new cases average one day after election
The head of France’s public health service has said the coronavirus crisis in the country is getting worse and every day in the fight to slow the spread of infections counts.
“We’re facing a very high wave (of infections),” Jérôme Salomon told a news conference. “The epidemic is progressing. We must all slow the spread together.”
Salomon: "The situation is deteriorating. Every day counts. We have to break the chain of this epidemic. Each of us must act to put a brake on the virus." He is outlining the health safety measures. "The slightest doubt, take a test."
Greece has reported 2,917 new coronavirus cases, hitting a new daily peak hours after authorities announced a second nationwide lockdown is going into effect this Saturday, 7 November.
Thursday’s cases follow on the 2,646 cases reported on Wednesday, which was a new record. Authorities said infections have risen 20% in recent days.
Continue reading...Ex-wives of undercover police tell of marriages ‘based on lies’
Three women share ‘shattering’ experiences in statement made to public inquiry
The former wives of undercover police officers have told a public inquiry about the “shattering” discovery that their marriages were “imbued with deceit” as a result of their husbands’ covert deployments.
A statement was made to the inquiry on behalf of three women who believed they were making personal sacrifices so their husbands could go undercover to infiltrate political groups during long-term deployments.
Continue reading...New moon? Scientists claim the Earth’s satellite may have a ‘dead ringer’
An asteroid hidden behind Mars has been found to closely resemble our moon. Is it a fragment that broke off billions of years ago?
Name: (101429) 1998 VF31 (AKA: the Moon’s Sister).
Age: 4.5bn years, give or take.
Continue reading...Coronavirus live news: seven US states report record hospitalisations; France suffers highest deaths since April
France sees 854 new deaths and 36,330 new cases; UK sees highest deaths since May; Italy fears ‘tsunami’ of hospitalisations.
- Rich states’ Covid deals ‘may deprive poor of vaccine for years’
- £45m deal for NHS masks in England collapses amid fraud claims
- China writes Covid response propaganda into school curriculum
- UK Covid death toll rises by nearly 400 in a day
Twitter has permanently suspended the account of the conspiracy theorist David Icke. A spokesman for the social media platform said Icke had violated its rules regarding coronavirus misinformation, PA Media reports.
The move follows the decision by YouTube and Facebook to terminate Icke’s accounts in early May for the same reason.
Related: Twitter permanently suspends conspiracy theorist David Icke’s account
Here is what we know so far about the US election. Among other things:
According to a CNN nationwide exit poll, about a third of voters said the economy was most important to them, around one in five said racial inequality and about one in six said the coronavirus pandemic.
We'll be updating this summary of what we know – and don't know – throughout the night:https://t.co/LZqwjQNhbl
Continue reading...Twitter permanently suspends conspiracy theorist David Icke’s account
Social media platform said Icke had violated its rules regarding coronavirus misinformation
Twitter has permanently suspended the account of the conspiracy theorist David Icke.
A spokesman for the social media platform said Icke had violated its rules regarding coronavirus misinformation.
Continue reading...Scientists hail earwax test for checking stress hormone levels
Researchers say cortisol sampling technique could transform diagnostics for people with depression
A test that uses earwax to measure levels of the stress hormone cortisol could “transform diagnostics and care for millions of people with depression or stress-related conditions”, scientists have said.
The researchers believe the test, which can be done at home without clinical supervision, may also have the potential to measure glucose or Covid-19 antibodies that accumulate in earwax.
Continue reading...Heard lost public sympathy for standing up against Depp assaults, says QC
Abused women expected to be ‘meek and subservient’ to receive public sympathy, says QC
Amber Heard’s stand against Johnny Depp’s assaults should not have deprived her of public sympathy for suffering the ordeal of domestic violence, a leading human rights lawyer has said.
Heard was subjected to death threats and misogynistic attacks on social media during the libel trial that left her feeling “down and beleaguered”, according to Helena Kennedy QC, who met Heard while the case was before the high court.
Continue reading...UK can expect at least three Covid waves with lockdowns, Mordaunt says
Tory MP defends strategy as rebels warn they will not vote to extend latest restrictions
The UK should be braced for at least a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic and further lockdowns, a minister has said as Tory sceptics warned they would not vote to extend England’s four-week shutdown.
Penny Mordaunt, the paymaster general, told MPs on Tuesday that there could yet be a rolling series of lockdowns – but argued this was not evidence that the measure was ineffective.
Continue reading...Met police told to reveal if spies still used in political groups
Head of undercover policing inquiry says he expects to be told if practice is continuing
The head of the inquiry into undercover policing has insisted that Scotland Yard reveal whether it is currently deploying spies in political groups.
The surprise intervention from Sir John Mitting came on the second day of public hearings in the inquiry into spying operations that targeted mostly leftwing groups for at least four decades.
Continue reading...Robert Fisk obituary
Veteran journalist and author whose postings read like a battle roll of the post-colonial wars he despised
Robert Fisk would have been amused, if unsurprised, by the plethora of reactions, from the adulatory to the sharply critical, prompted by the news of his death, at the age of 74. As a journalist, commentator and author, in a five-decade career that focused overwhelmingly on the Middle East, Fisk expressed strong views about who was responsible for the region’s agonies, and provoked equally strong responses.
Even a partial list of his postings and assignments reads like the battle roll of the post-colonial wars he despised: post-revolution Lisbon, Belfast, Tehran, Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad, Algiers, Kabul, Sarajevo.
Continue reading...Lockdown aim is to reduce Covid enough by 2 December to move on, says Whitty – video
The chief medical officer for England has told MPs the aim of the lockdown is to reduce infection rates to a point where there is a 'realistic possibility' of restrictions being eased after 2 December. England will enter a second national lockdown on Thursday after a steep rise in the number of coronavirus infections and hospital admissions in many areas of the country. The UK's chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, said test and trace was not having a 'big impact' on the prevalence of the virus
Continue reading...Rich states’ Covid deals ‘may deprive poor of vaccine for years’
Wealthy countries already have agreements for 3.73bn doses, with another 5m under negotiation, study finds
Governments in predominantly wealthy countries are negotiating to buy nearly 8.8bn doses of prospective Covid-19 vaccines in a “frenzy of deals” that could mean many poor countries would not get access to immunisation until at least 2024, a report says.
None of the 320-plus potential vaccines in development have been approved for use, but countries have already struck advance purchasing agreements for 3.73bn doses of the most promising candidates, with negotiations underway for another 5bn doses, the study by Duke University’s global health innovation centre calculated.
Continue reading...Deciphering the quirks of England’s second Covid lockdown rules
Details around the restrictions are proving complex enough to puzzle even ministers
The government has published the full regulations for England’s second national lockdown, which is to begin on Thursday and will last for four weeks. A number of details had already emerged, and some are sufficiently complex to have puzzled even ministers.
Continue reading...Coronavirus live news: France sees record new cases; WHO warns it’s ‘not too late’ to take critical action
Portugal considering state of emergency; Italy’s coronavirus strategy is ‘wasting time’, says scientific advisor; Germany begins ‘light lockdown’. Follow the latest updates.
- Police may be asked to stop England residents escaping to Wales to avoid lockdown
- Latest coronavirus lockdowns spark protests across Europe
- Slovakia carries out Covid mass testing of two-thirds of population
- UK coronavirus latest - live
- See all our coronavirus coverage
In the UK Liverpool (otherwise known as the World’s Best City) is set to become the first to have mass test-and-trace operation. My colleagues Sarah Boseley and Jess Elgot write:
Up to half a million people in Liverpool will be tested for Covid-19 under the UK government’s first attempt to embark on city-wide mass testing.
Related: Liverpool to pioneer UK's first attempt at mass Covid testing
Indonesia has reported 2,973 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of infections to 418,375, according to data from the country’s health ministry.
The country has also reported an additional 102 deaths, taking the total number of fatalities to 14,146.
Continue reading...Ryan Giggs denies assaulting girlfriend after arrest
Police said to have been called to Wales manager’s home after reports of a disturbance
The Wales football manager, Ryan Giggs, has denied allegations after he was arrested on suspicion of assaulting his girlfriend, Kate Greville, on Sunday night.
The Football Association of Wales (FAW) has cancelled a press conference planned for Tuesday where Giggs was due to announce his squad for upcoming international games due to the allegations.
Continue reading...Princess Diana’s brother calls for BBC inquiry into faked bank statements
Charles Spencer says BBC used ‘sheer dishonesty’ to secure interview with princess
Princess Diana’s brother has accused the BBC of a “whitewash” over faked bank statements that allegedly helped to secure a historic Panorama interview with his sister, and called on the corporation to carry out a formal inquiry.
Charles Spencer said the BBC had used “sheer dishonesty” to win the trust of Diana, Princess of Wales, for the interview with Martin Bashir.
Continue reading...Life during wartime: how west Belfast became the frontline of the Troubles
Acts of state violence, and repeated official denials, drove some Northern Irish Catholics to armed resistance. But not everyone in west Belfast supported the IRA’s methods
When Johnston Brown, a 27-year-old detective with the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) – the overwhelmingly protestant police force of Northern Ireland – volunteered in late 1977 to serve at Andersonstown police barracks in Catholic west Belfast, he was given a few pieces of very clear advice. He should never stop at a red light in west Belfast if it was safe to drive on. He should assume that any pedestrians who wanted to cross the road may be part of a trap – members of the security forces had lost their lives this way. Nor should Brown ever indicate that he was turning into a police barracks. He should approach with the flow of the traffic and then swerve suddenly in through the gates, to reduce the risk of being shot, and to make it harder for anyone to make a note of his registration number. And if he were unfortunate enough to fall into the hands of gunmen, he must attempt to shoot his way out – never try to talk himself out of trouble.
“I remember clearly,” Brown wrote in 2005, “one older detective sergeant, a man in his late 40s, telling me sternly: ‘Here you have at most between five and eight minutes at the door of any house you may call at on an enquiry. You have that much time to conduct the enquiry and get the hell out of those areas, because five to eight minutes is all the time it takes for the Provos [the Provisional IRA] to get hold of a weapon and a volunteer who will be only too keen to kill you before you conduct your enquiry and leave.’”
Continue reading...The fall of Johnny Depp: how the world’s most beautiful movie star turned very ugly
In the 1990s, he was a different kind of film star – eloquent, artistic and cool. But this week, with the loss of his court case against the Sun, the dream has decisively soured
Johnny Depp is “a wife-beater”. This is the verdict of the UK courts. Just writing that sentence feels genuinely shocking, and yet, by now perhaps, it should not. For a start, the allegation that he was physically abusive to his ex-wife Amber Heard emerged more than four years ago, after she applied for a temporary restraining order against him following their divorce, citing domestic abuse. It should also not be a shock, given how many other hugely famous men have been accused of abusing women. Sean Connery was alleged to have beaten his first wife and frequently defended hitting women. His death this weekend sparked online arguments about how much the coverage should focus on the professional achievements of a man who repeatedly insisted it was fine to hit women, “if the woman is a bitch, or hysterical, or bloody-minded continually”, as he said in 1965.
But Depp is a very different figure from Connery. The latter represented alpha masculinity and aggressive sexuality. No one ever said it explicitly, but Connery’s defences for beating women fit in, on some level, with his image, and so that side of him was never going to be a problem with his audience. Depp, however, represented something else. He sued the Sun for defamation when it described him as “a wife-beater”, something Connery would never have done, and it’s also why for a certain kind of fan (me), this feels like the death of yet another childhood hero.
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