Category Archives: Wales

People in England and Scotland urged to take more lateral flow tests

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UK government guidance updated to cover socialising indoors, as Scotland’s first minister urges people to make ‘extra effort’

Covid guidance is being toughened across the UK to try to prevent a surge in cases before Christmas, with a focus on more rapid tests and home working. But scientists said messaging must be reinforced with a significant government publicity blitz.

In an update to official guidance, people in England are now advised to take a lateral flow test (LFT) if they expect to be in a “high risk situation” that day, such as spending time in “crowded and enclosed spaces” and where “there is limited fresh air”.

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‘He was actually cracking jokes’: a volunteer on the 54-hour Brecon Beacons cave rescue

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Peter Dennis was one of the hundreds who descended into the 43-mile underground network to save injured caver George Linnane

It was when the text message suggested volunteers bring a sleeping bag that Dr Peter Dennis realised he might be in for what he politely refers to a “protracted operation”. But little did he know he would not return home for three nights after the longest rescue mission in Welsh history.

The ecologist from Aberystwyth University had heeded the call last Saturday to join the search for an injured caver in the Brecon Beacons who had fallen a mile into the 43.5-mile (70km) “intestinal” network of Ogof Ffynnon Ddu, which translates as Cave of the Black Spring.

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Boy, 10, killed by dog in Caerphilly named as Jack Lis

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Mother pays tribute to ‘beautiful’ son attacked while out playing with a friend

A boy who died after being attacked by a dog in Caerphilly in south Wales while he was out playing with a friend has been named as 10-year-old Jack Lis.

Gwent police were called to the Penyrheol area of the town at about 3.55pm on Monday and confirmed Jack had died at the scene. The dog was destroyed by firearms officers, the force said.

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Welsh study shows impact of Covid on 10- and 11-year-olds

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Children ate less healthily, took less exercise and had more emotional problems, say researchers

Children in the UK ate fewer vegetables, took less exercise and experienced worsening emotional difficulties following the Covid outbreak, according to a research study.

A biennial survey conducted by investigators at Cardiff University found that primary school-age children reported a sharp increase in “elevated or clinically significant emotional difficulties” in early 2021, compared with the same survey conducted in 2019.

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Man who organised Emiliano Sala flight convicted over safety

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David Henderson found guilty at Cardiff crown court of endangering safety of an aircraft

David Henderson, the businessman who organised the flight that crashed, killing the footballer Emiliano Sala, has been found guilty of endangering the safety of an aircraft.

The 67-year-old was convicted by a majority verdict of 10 to two by a jury at Cardiff crown court on Thursday.

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New rose named after one of UK’s first documented black gardeners

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John Ystumllyn was abducted from west Africa in 1746 and taken to Gwynedd, north Wales

One of Britain’s first known black gardeners has been honoured with a rose named after him in celebration of his life.

John Ystumllyn, whose original name is unknown, was abducted as an eight-year-old boy in west Africa around 1746 and taken to Gwynedd, north Wales. There he became a servant in the household of the Wynn family of Ystumllyn, whose estate he was named after, and learned horticulture in the gardens.

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Queen ‘irritated’ by world leaders talking not doing on climate crisis

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Overheard comment suggests anger at possible no-shows at Cop26 by leaders of countries with worst CO2 emissions

The Queen has criticised world leaders’ inaction on addressing the climate crisis, admitting she is “irritated” by individuals who “talk but don’t do”.

She made the remarks, which were picked up on a livestream, at the opening of the Welsh parliament in Cardiff on Thursday.

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No Covid pass, no entry: Cardiff clubbers divided on new Welsh rules

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As mandatory checks began, not everyone in the queue for the Pryzm club was prepared

There was an extra thing for the hundreds of young people waiting in the queue outside Pryzm nightclub in Cardiff to worry about.

As usual, they needed to show ID, undergo a search and make sure they still had their phone, keys and friends with them – but for the first time they also had to produce a Covid pass, showing they were fully vaccinated or had tested negative.

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Tunji Fahm obituary

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My friend the pioneering British-Nigerian lawyer and activist Tunji Fahm, who has died aged 88, was the first black minority-ethnic lawyer to be appointed as a chief officer of a local authority legal department in the UK, in 1974 at Islwyn (borough) district council, south Wales. He became the council’s chief monitoring officer in 1978 and, later, founder of the first legal practice led by black lawyers in Wales.

When Tunji arrived in the UK in 1954 to study law in Cardiff, he was one of the few African students in the university’s law school.

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Male life expectancy in UK drops for first time in 40 years as Covid takes toll

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Estimates for women broadly unchanged, with a girl born in 2018-20 likely to live for 82.9 years

Life expectancy for men in the UK has fallen for the first time since current records began 40 years ago because of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, figures show.

A boy born between 2018 and 2020 is expected to live until he is 79 years old, down from 79.2 for the period of 2015-17, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

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Concerns over plan to disinfect classrooms in Wales with ozone

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Machines to be used to clean up after Covid outbreaks part of £5.9m initiative to improve air quality

A £3.3m scheme to provide schools in Wales with machines that disinfect classrooms after a Covid outbreak has prompted calls for reassurance over their safety.

The Welsh education ministry said on Monday that all schools, universities and colleges in Wales would be supplied with ozone disinfecting machines for cleaning up Covid-hit classrooms.

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Menopause at centre of increasing number of UK employment tribunals

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Rise in women taking employers to court citing event as proof of unfair dismissal and discrimination

Growing numbers of women are taking their employers to court citing the menopause as proof of unfair dismissal and direct sex discrimination, researchers have said.

According to the latest UK data, there were five employment tribunals referencing the claimant’s menopause in 2018, six in 2019 and 16 in 2020. There have been 10 in the first six months of 2021 alone.

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Drug poisoning deaths in England and Wales reach record high

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Charities warn of a public health emergency after data shows 4,561 deaths in 2020 – up 3.8% on previous year

Deaths due to drug poisoning in England and Wales have reached a record high, with a growing number of people dying after using cocaine and opiates, data shows.

Charities warned the figures showed there was a public health emergency, with the pandemic negatively affecting those with addiction problems. In 2020, 4,561 died from drug poisoning– the equivalent of 79.5 deaths per million people. This is 3.8% higher than figures for 2019 and the highest number since records began in 1993.

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Police review teen killings in search of catalyst for spike in murders

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Pilot scheme hopes to discover patterns that will help prevent more deaths

Measures are being introduced to try to identify what is driving rising murder rates in the wake of a spike in teenage deaths in some of the UK’s homicide hotspots.

All homicides in London, Birmingham and south Wales will be reviewed by the authorities in an attempt to learn from the chaotic sequences of events that often preempt a death.

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UK weather: flood warnings as Storm Evert moves eastwards

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Unsettled weather forecast across England and Wales with ‘torrential thundery downpours’ in the east

The Met Office has issued weather and flood warnings as Storm Evert moved eastwards across Britain with thunderstorms forecast for the weekend.

Yellow wind warnings are in place for coastal areas in south-east England and East Anglia, and thunderstorm warnings for a swath of England from Nottingham to Norwich and north as far as Hull.

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Thunderstorms leave roads and tube stations flooded in London

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Environment Agency issues five flood warnings across southern England and 19 flood alerts including parts of Wales

Torrential rain has flooded roads and tube stations in London after thunderstorms hit the south of England on Sunday.

Barts Health NHS trust declared a major incident after the flooding led to problems at Whipps Cross hospital and Newham Hospital in the east of the city.

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Chinese-owned firm acquires UK’s largest semiconductor manufacturer

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Tory MP Tom Tugendhat raises concerns about deal in light of global computer chip shortage

The UK’s largest producer of semiconductors has been acquired by the Chinese-owned manufacturer Nexperia, prompting a senior Tory MP to call for the government to review the sale to a foreign owner during an increasingly severe global shortage of computer chips.

Nexperia, a Dutch firm owned by China’s Wingtech, said on Monday that it had taken full control of Newport Wafer Fab (NWF), the UK’s largest producer of silicon chips, which are vital in products from TVs and mobile phones to cars and games consoles.

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Welsh government to suspend all future road-building plans

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Deputy minister for climate change will announce move as part of plans to reach net zero emissions by 2050

The Labour-led Welsh government is to freeze new road-building projects as part of its plans to tackle the climate emergency, and an external panel will review all proposed schemes.

The deputy minister for climate change, Lee Waters, is to tell the Welsh parliament on Tuesday afternoon: “Since 1990, Welsh emissions have fallen by 31%. But to reach our statutory target of net zero emissions by 2050, we need to do much more.

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