Category Archives: UK news

Coronavirus live news: UK death toll rises by 612; Denmark to impose hard lockdown over Christmas

Posted on by

‘We have to act now,’ says Danish PM; 11,214 new cases in the Netherlands; no vaccines for poorer countries until 2024, report claims

Peru’s government told people in the country not to invite friends and family who live outside the home to Christmas and New Year celebrations, a measure aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus.

Coronavirus cases in Peru totalled 987,675 as of Tuesday with 36,817 deaths so far, according to official figures. Health authorities are warning of a possible second wave of infections early next year.

Brazil has registered more than 70,000 additional cases of Covid-19, pushing the country’s total confirmed cases over 7 million.

The country has now registered 7,040,608 total confirmed cases, behind only the US and India.

Continue reading...

Senior faith leaders call for global decriminalisation of LGBT+ people

Posted on by

UK conference brings together more than 60 leaders, demanding an international ban on conversion practices

Senior faith leaders from around the world are coming together at an event backed by the UK government to call for an end to the criminalisation of LGBT+ people and a global ban on conversion practices.

More than 370 figures from 35 countries representing 10 religions have signed a historic declaration ahead of a conference on 16 December in a move that will highlight divisions within global religions.

Continue reading...

Lost artefact from Great Pyramid of Giza found in cigar box in Aberdeen

Posted on by

Wooden fragment from at least 3000BC discovered by chance by Egyptian university researcher

A lost artefact from the Great Pyramid of Giza, one of only three objects ever recovered from inside the last remaining wonder of the ancient world, has been found in a chance discovery at the University of Aberdeen.

Curatorial assistant Abeer Eladany, originally from Egypt, was reviewing items in the university’s Asia collection when she came across a cigar box marked with her country’s former flag.

Continue reading...

‘Like nothing seen in nature before’: strange dinosaur has scientists enthralled

Posted on by

The highly unusual Ubirajara jubatus boasted a mane of ‘hair-like structions’ and two ‘ribbon-like features’, researchers say

About 110 million years ago along the shores of an ancient lagoon in what is now north-eastern Brazil, a two-legged, chicken-sized Cretaceous period dinosaur made a living hunting insects and perhaps small vertebrates like frogs and lizards.

On the inside, it was ordinary, with a skeleton similar to many small dinosaurs from the preceding Jurassic Period, scientists said on Tuesday. On the outside, it was anything but.

Continue reading...

Christmas plans in the balance as UK leaders re-examine Covid rules

Posted on by

Heads of four nations to meet to discuss tighter restrictions in break, but Johnson likely to push back

Christmas plans for millions of families were in the balance last night as ministers and devolved leaders held talks on curtailing freedoms over the festive period amid warnings that the NHS would be overwhelmed.

Boris Johnson is likely to face down calls to change course, though the government may issue new advice urging extreme caution. A government source said it was possible the four nations may diverge after no agreement was reached at a crisis meeting with devolved administrations on Tuesday chaired by Michael Gove.

Continue reading...

UK’s ‘test to release’ Covid scheme for travellers gets off to chaotic start

Posted on by

Most private providers are unable to offer the service, which should have cut quarantine from to 10 days to five

The UK government’s long-awaited test to release scheme, designed to allow travellers to cut quarantine, was embroiled in chaos on its first day of operation after the last-minute publication of 11 private providers, most of whom appeared unable to offer the service on Tuesday morning.

Airports, many of which have had testing centres in place for weeks or months, were perplexed at being left off the Department for Transport’s approved list, as they reported a surge in bookings in the run-up to the festive season.

Continue reading...

Coronavirus live news: Germany pressures EU for speedy vaccine approval; Italian PM says new restrictions needed

Posted on by

Germany keen to begin vaccinations amid surge in cases; Guiseppe Conte says third wave in Italy to be avoided at all cost

The Danish government will extend current lockdown measures to the entire country, the broadcaster TV2 has reported, citing unnamed sources. The measures, which were implemented last week in parts of Denmark after signs of a rapid rise in infections, include shutting bars, restaurants and museums.

Plans to relax Covid restrictions at Christmas must be reversed or many lives risk being lost, according to a rare joint editorial from two of the UK’s most eminent medical journals.

The government can no longer claim to be protecting the NHS if it goes ahead with “rash” plans to allow households to mix indoors over Christmas, the British Medical Journal and Health Service Journal have said.

Related: UK medical journals call for Christmas Covid rules to be reversed

Continue reading...

Kent lorry park will not be ready in time for Brexit day deadline

Posted on by

Heavy rain has hampered work on site intended to relieve queues around Dover from 1 January

The Kent lorry park designed to relieve queues of up to 7,000 trucks taking goods across the Channel will not be ready for Brexit on 1 January, it has emerged.

Damian Green, the MP for Ashford, said the government told him rain had hampered work on the site between the villages of Sevington and Mersham, fuelling fears of traffic queues around the county for the first two months of the year.

Continue reading...

UK medical journals call for Christmas Covid rules to be reversed

Posted on by

Move increases pressure on ministers to rethink plans to allow households to mix over festive period

Plans to relax Covid restrictions at Christmas must be reversed or many lives risk being lost, according to a rare joint editorial from two of the UK’s most eminent medical journals.

The government can no longer claim to be protecting the NHS if it goes ahead with “rash” plans to allow households to mix indoors over Christmas, the British Medical Journal and Health Service Journal have said.

Continue reading...

Sadiq Khan: putting London in tier 3 ‘doesn’t make sense’ – video

Posted on by

The mayor of London has criticised the government's Covid tier system, calling it a 'blunt instrument being retrofitted around solutions that are not as effective as they should be'. The city will be placed in tier 3 from 16 December, meaning bars and restaurants must close.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Khan said the majority of new infections in the capital were among school-age children. 'I see very few children of that age in pubs, bars and restaurants,' Khan said. He urged  the government to close secondary schools so that pupils do not pass on the virus to older relatives over Christmas

Continue reading...

‘It made Boris seem like a normal person’: how did Johnson’s Covid change him?

Posted on by

The prime minister’s spell in intensive care underscored the severity of the pandemic. Did it also make him reassess his life?

It was an unexpected twist in what already felt like an excessively dramatic disaster movie. On 6 April, the British prime minister was admitted to the intensive care ward at St Thomas’ hospital in London, after contracting a new and potentially deadly virus. Donald Trump said he was “praying for his good friend”; the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said all his wishes were with the prime minister, his family and the British people in “this difficult time”. The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, described it as “terribly sad news”.

Boris Johnson pulled through, of course, surviving to witness the birth of his son, Wilfred – given the middle name Nicholas, after the doctors, Dr Nick Price and Dr Nick Hart, who saved Johnson’s life. But more than eight months later, could the country still be feeling the impact of this dramatic turn of events?

Continue reading...

UK coronavirus live: Hancock holds news briefing after revealing new Covid variant and putting more areas into tier 3

Posted on by

Latest updates: health secretary holds press conference after tougher restrictions announced for London and parts of Essex and Hertfordshire

Prof. Whitty reiterates a “minimalist, responsible” Christmas meeting families sticking to the rules, calling it a “limited relaxation”.

Hancock tells @Kate_M_Proctor he's repeatedly answered the question on whether the Christmas relaxation could be tightened up if cases rise

Narrator: He has not answered the question on whether the Christmas relaxation could be tightened up if cases rise

Continue reading...

Brexit trade deal possible within days after Johnson concession, says EU

Posted on by

Barnier says PM’s acceptance of need for ‘evolution clause’ as standards diverge has unlocked talks

A post-Brexit trade and security deal could be sealed as early as this week after Boris Johnson made a key concession at the weekend but the pathway to agreement remains “very narrow”, Michel Barnier has told ambassadors and MEPs in Brussels.

The EU’s chief negotiator said the prime minister’s acceptance of the need to ensure that there is fair competition for British and European businesses as regulatory standards diverge over time had unlocked the talks despite difficult issues remaining.

Continue reading...

New variant of coronavirus identified in UK, Matt Hancock says – video

Posted on by

Health secretary suggests that variant could be linked with the rapid spread of the virus in south-east England, although it was highly unlikely a vaccine would not work against it

Continue reading...

Prince Andrew refuses to deny he stayed in Jeffrey Epstein mansion

Posted on by

Duke’s spokeswoman declines to comment on report contradicting his claim in Newsnight interview

Prince Andrew’s spokeswoman has refused to comment on a report that he stayed in the New York mansion of the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in April 2001, despite the duke denying doing so in his infamous Newsnight interview.

The refusal to repeat the denial comes after the Daily Mail uncovered a fax that said the prince had stayed at a “private address in New York” on 11 April and its sources confirmed this was Epstein’s £60m home in Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

Continue reading...

Italy likely to follow Germany with Covid Christmas lockdown

Posted on by

Netherlands also set to announce more restrictions amid mounting fears of surge in infections

Italy and the Netherlands are set to impose tough new anti-coronavirus measures before the holidays as Germany, already facing a hard Christmas lockdown, warned its restrictions were unlikely to ease early in the new year.

Italian media reported that the government could place the whole country under so-called “red-zone” lockdown from Christmas Eve until at least 2 January amid mounting fears of a possible surge in infections over the festive period.

Continue reading...

Coronavirus: key moments – timeline

Posted on by

From December 2019, when an unknown virus was found in China, to the release of vaccines for Covid-19 – here are the points where momentum shifted

From December 2019, when an unknown virus was found in China, to the release of vaccines for Covid-19, it has been an extraordinary year. Here’s how the momentum shifted

Continue reading...

Coronavirus live news: Netherlands heading for month-long lockdown; Poland facing ‘third wave’ of Covid

Posted on by

Dutch PM to speak to the nation tonight; ministers to recommend restrictions are extended in Poland

The US has reported 16,113,148 cases of new coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic, with 1,476,230 cases reported in the last seven days.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Monday that 17,184 people had died from Covid-19 in the previous week, taking the total US death toll so far to 298,266.

Turkish president has said Turkey will impose a five-day full lockdown beginning on 31 December, as official data showed new daily coronavirus deaths hit a record 229.

Recep Tayip Erdoğan, speaking after a cabinet meeting, said the stay-home order would begin at 9pm on New Year’s Eve and run to 4 January.

Continue reading...

John le Carré obituary

Posted on by
Writer whose spy novels chronicle how people’s lives play out in the corrupt setting of the cold war era and beyond

John le Carré, who has died aged 89 of pneumonia, raised the spy novel to a new level of seriousness and respect.

He was in his late 20s when he began to write fiction – in longhand, in small red pocket notebooks, on his daily train journey between his home in Buckinghamshire and his day job with MI5, the counter-intelligence service, in London. After the publication of two neatly crafted novels, Call for the Dead (1961) and A Murder of Quality (1962), which received measured reviews and modest sales, he hit the big time with The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963).

Continue reading...