Category Archives: UK news

Coronavirus live news: infections down in England – but not London; 7pm curfew introduced in Switzerland

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London bucks trend of declining positive tests in England; Switzerland orders restaurants, bars and shops to close down from 7pm

Companies in America are considering various options to get employees back to work after the Covid vaccine has been rolled out, Reuters is reporting.

Options on the table include giving workers a choice between a free vaccine and a cash bonus if everyone gets inoculated, to being reassigned or even losing your job.

Australia has cancelled the production of a locally made vaccine against Covid-19 after trials showed it could interfere with HIV diagnosis, Reuters is reporting.

The government has instead securing additional doses of rival vaccines.

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Sadiq Khan considering £3.50 daily charge for drivers entering London

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Capital’s mayor asks TfL to begin feasibility study for plan to raise £500m a year

Drivers could face a £3.50 daily charge to enter Greater London under proposals from the mayor of London to address the capital’s funding crisis.

Sadiq Khan has asked Transport for London to start feasibility studies for the plan to raise £500m a year.

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Going for a song: why music legends are lining up to sell their rights

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Stars follow Bob Dylan’s lead as streaming boom and Covid-19 upheaval fuels gold rush in song rights

Bob Dylan just made more than $300m (£227m) doing it, Dolly Parton says she might do the same, while the singer-songwriter David Crosby says he is being forced to do it. Musicians are queuing up for big paydays by selling the publishing rights to their songs, as the streaming boom and industry upheaval wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic redefines the economics of music.

Dylan’s surprise move this week to sell the publishing rights to his 600 songs, from Blowin’ in the Wind to Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, was described by the buyer, Universal Music, as one of the most important deals of all time. 

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UK Covid self-isolation period set to be reduced to 10 days

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Chief medical officers of all four UK nations expected to formally announce change later on Friday

Governments across the UK are to announce a reduction in the coronavirus self-isolation period, from 14 to 10 days, it is understood.

It is expected the chief medical officers of all four UK nations will formally announce the change later on Friday.

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Barbara Windsor, star of Carry On films and EastEnders, dies at 83

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Husband says ‘final weeks were typical of how she lived her life. Full of humour, drama and a fighting spirit until the end’

Dame Barbara Windsor, best known for her roles in EastEnders and the Carry On films, has died aged 83, her husband Scott Mitchell has said.

Mitchell said in a statement: “It is with deep sadness that I can confirm that my darling wife Barbara passed away at 8.35pm on Thursday 10 December at a London care home.

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Boris Johnson: no-deal Brexit now a ‘strong possibility’

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PM says he cannot accept UK being ‘locked in EU’s orbit’, but Tories urge him to strike deal

Boris Johnson has ordered ministers to prepare for the “strong possibility” of a no-deal Brexit, warning that the UK risks being “locked in the EU’s orbit” as senior Tories urge him to find an agreement.

After a three-hour summit with the European commission chief, Ursula von der Leyen, failed to bridge major gaps between them, the prime minister said he was prepared to “go the extra mile” by flying to Paris or Berlin for face-to-face talks with EU leaders.

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Welsh secondaries and colleges to shut on Monday to stem Covid spread

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Learning will move online, in contrast to England’s plans for mass testing of students

Secondary schools and colleges in Wales will close to almost all students next week and lessons will move online in an effort to stem the growing spread of coronavirus, the Welsh government has announced.

The Welsh education minister, Kirsty Williams, said the public health situation in Wales was deteriorating and she had been advised by the chief medical officer that learning should be moved online for secondary school pupils as soon as possible.

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The Brexit Brussels dinner: fish and frank talk but no one left satisfied

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There was said to have been a refreshing candidness, but there is much still left to chew over

In the final few moments, at the end of a long dinner on the 13th floor of the European commission’s Berlaymont headquarters, Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen slipped away from their advisers and chief negotiators to talk alone in a corner of the room. It was a tête-à-tête between two leaders mindful of the historic nature of their discussions.

Their conversation was intense, and notable for its apparent frankness; the body language made that clear to observers. The entire evening, as Von der Leyen would later tweet, had been “lively” – but this was not two politicians merely talking past each other. Both appeared to understand each other’s point of view, sources told the Guardian, and concluded it was worth “one last go” to reach a Brexit deal, even amid warnings of increasingly gloomy prospects. A Sunday deadline was set.

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Banksy confirms he created ‘Aachoo!!’ artwork in Bristol

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Stencil mural unveiled on side of house shows woman sneezing out her false teeth

Banksy has confirmed he is behind an artwork showing an older woman sneezing out her false teeth which has appeared on a house in Bristol.

The stencil mural entitled “Aachoo!!”, on the side of a semidetached house in Totterdown, had been covered up before its unveiling on Thursday morning.

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Pornhub to ban unverified uploads after child abuse content claims

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Site – visited 100m times a day – to make changes following allegations it was hosting abusive and non-consensual material

Pornhub, one of the largest adult content sites in the world, has announced it will be banning unverified video uploads after allegations that it has been hosting child abuse videos.

An investigation by the New York Times last week claimed Pornhub was hosting non-consensual and child abuse content on its website. Activists have long called for changes to Pornhub’s business model, claiming it was not carrying out sufficient checks to ensure videos were consensual.

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‘It has hammered us’: 2019’s election voters on a difficult year

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We return to speak to the people we interviewed pre-election last December. How have they fared?

The mist of uncertainty that worried east Belfast voters in the run-up the general election has given way, a year later, to a depressing clarity: things have got worse. Covid-19 has battered Northern Ireland’s economy, health system and power-sharing government. And Brexit has become only more ominous, with warnings of possible disruptions to trade and food supplies in January.

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Covid has ‘cut life expectancy in England and Wales by a year’

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Exclusive: Life expectancy has regressed to 2010 levels, say scientists, with poor hardest hit

The Covid-19 pandemic has cut life expectancy in England and Wales by roughly a year, scientists have estimated, reversing gains made since 2010.

A study, conducted by Oxford researchers, found that life expectancy at birth (LEB) had fallen by 0.9 and 1.2 years for females and males relative to 2019 levels respectively.

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Coronavirus live news: Italy reports steep rise in daily deaths; Israel abandons Hanukkah curfew plan

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Italy reports 887 coronavirus-related deaths, up from 499 on previous day; Israel abandons Covid-19 curfew plan ahead of Hanukkah

Bolivia’s cholita wrestlers are making a comeback to the ring after the iconic female fighters were forced to hang up their billowing skirts and bowler hats due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Reuters reports.

I’ve been wrestling for about 10 years. I am a single mother of two children, and I have a trade. Because of the trade I am in, I am able to dedicate enough time to my children, to take them to school and to study.

Before the pandemic, we were a part of the cultural heritage that wasn’t recognised, tourists came from all over the world to see just us, the fighting cholita luchadores of wrestling.

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Stunning dark ages mosaic found at Roman villa in Cotswolds

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Fifth-century discovery suggests break with Rome did not cause steep decline in living standards for all


Life at the start of the dark ages in Britain is generally thought of as a pretty uncomfortable time, an era of trouble and strife with the departure of Roman rulers resulting in economic hardship and cultural stagnation.

But a stunning discovery at the Chedworth Roman villa in the Cotswolds suggests that some people at least managed to maintain a rich and sophisticated lifestyle.

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Boris Johnson and EU set Sunday deadline to decide on Brexit deal

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Significant gaps remain between PM and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen after Brussels dinner

A Brexit deal must be sealed by Sunday or there will be no deal, Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen agreed after a “lively and frank” three-hour summit that set the stage for a dramatic final act of the negotiations.

Despite nine months of troubled talks, “very large gaps” were said to remain between the UK and EU. The leaders said they should come to a deal or no deal outcome by the end of the weekend, with pressure on both sides to find time for parliamentary ratification.

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‘Deeply boring’: Martin Kenyon puzzled by vaccine video fame

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TV interview outside hospital after getting jab makes 91-year-old an internet hit

A 91-year-old man whose interview with CNN after he was vaccinated for coronavirus became an internet hit said he was bemused by the commotion he caused by talking about the jab, and described anti-vaxxers as “very silly”.

Martin Kenyon, 91, was outside Guy’s hospital in London after receiving the Pfizer Covid vaccine when he encountered the CNN correspondent Cyril Vanier. Asked how it felt to be one of the first people in the world to receive the jab, he 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.”

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Brexit: Johnson claims Brussels wants power to ‘punish’ UK if it does not implement future EU laws – live

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Prime minister tells Commons conditions for trade deal are unacceptable before later heading to Brussels for last-ditch talks

Scotland came close to eliminating Covid during the first nationwide lockdown, according to genomic sequencing for Sage of 5,000 samples of the virus, the Scottish government believes.

Jason Leitch, the Scottish government’s national clinical director, said analysis by scientists in Edinburgh, Glasgow and St Andrews on the COG-UK consortium found that around 300 different strains of the virus were circulating in Scotland during the first wave.

That allows us to say this did get us incredibly close to eliminating the virus in our communities, but as we opened up, inevitably people began to travel across the UK [and] travel abroad. New strains were imported again into Scotland.

[This] indicates that, while lockdown in Scotland is directly linked with the first wave case numbers being brought under control, travel-associated imports (mostly from Europe or other parts of the UK) following the easing of lockdown are responsible for seeding the current epidemic population.

This demonstrates that the impact of stringent public health measures can be compromised if, following this, movements from regions of high to low prevalence are not minimised.

Public Health Wales has recorded 2,238 further coronavirus cases. That is a new record daily high for recorded cases. The previous daily record was 2,021, on Monday. A week ago today the figure was 1,480.

There have also been 31 further deaths. A week ago today the figure was 51.

The rapid COVID-19 surveillance dashboard has been updated.

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Four charged over damage to Colston statue in Bristol

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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.

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For seasoned EU watchers, Brexit trade talks look uncannily like Grexit

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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.

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Boris Johnson: no PM could accept trade terms offered by EU

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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.

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