News

Watchdog warns true number of cases where claimants took own lives as a result of DWP actions could be far higher The Department of Work and Pensions has investigated 69 suicides of benefit claimants in the past six years and said this could be a small fraction of the total number of such deaths, a government watchdog has said.The National Audit Office (NAO) said it is unlikely this figure represents the true number of benefit-related suicides, in part because the DWP did not until recently actively seek information from coroners and other sources about such cases. Continue reading...

Shamima Begum loses first stage of appeal against citizenship removal Former schoolgirl who went to Syria to join Islamic State had citizenship revoked a year agoShamima Begum, the woman who left Britain as a schoolgirl to join Islamic State in Syria, has lost the initial stage of her appeal against the Home Office’s move to revoke her citizenship and prevent her from returning to London.A judgment by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) found against Begum, now 20, on three grounds, including that she had not been improperly deprived of her citizenship. Continue reading... Go to Source

Phillip Schofield, ITV presenter, comes out as gay ITV show host appeals for kindness, particularly to wife and daughters who support himPhillip Schofield, the co-presenter of ITV’s This Morning, has announced he is gay.In a statement released on the programme’s Twitter account, the presenter, who has been married to his wife for almost 27 years, paid tribute to his family. Continue reading... Go to Source

Coronavirus: 41 more people, including British honeymooner, test positive on cruise ship – latest news Total infections pass 30,000 as Wuhan whistleblower doctor dies and North Korea confirms first case of virusDoctor who blew whistle over virus diesProfile of whistleblower doctorFirst British national to get virus had been in SingaporeShare your stories 11.44am GMTThe world is running out of masks and other gear to protect against the new coronavirus, the World Health Organization has warned.The WHO chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told the organisation’s executive board in Geneva:The world is facing a chronic shortage of personal protective equipment. 11.31am GMTA woman from China has taken ill at Copenhagen airport, prompting a small area to be cordoned off.The Copenhagen a...

Give people right to ignore work emails at home, says Long-Bailey Labour leadership contender says she wants to end ‘24/7 work culture’Rebecca Long-Bailey has called for workers to be given the right to ignore work emails and messages outside working hours to end the “24/7 work culture” and protect mental health.The Labour leadership candidate said she would bring new ideas to the party, having worked on her policy positions for four years. Continue reading... Go to Source

Jamaica deportations 'must be halted until Windrush report published' Home Office warned against forced removal of about 50 people until report is released The advisory panel of a review into the Windrush scandal, including a former senior immigration judge, has warned against the resumption of mass deportation flights to Jamaica until after its report is published.Up to 50 people are due to be deported on Tuesday in what will be the second immigration removal charter flight to Jamaica since the Guardian exposed the scandal of the wrongful deportation of Commonwealth citizens from the Caribbean in 2018. Continue reading... Go to Source

'Hero who told the truth': Chinese rage over coronavirus death of whistleblower doctor Demands for freedom of speech in the wake of Li Wenliang’s death have been censored by the authorities amid widespread outpouring of anger Coronavirus outbreak – latest updatesThe death of a whistleblowing Chinese doctor who was punished for trying to raise the alarm about coronavirus has sparked an explosion of anger, grief and demands for freedom of speech among ordinary Chinese.Li Wenliang, 34, died in the early hours of Friday local time after he was infected during the fight against the outbreak, said Wuhan central hospital, where he worked, in a statement. Continue reading... Go to Source

Doctor who blew whistle over coronavirus has died, hospital says Early reports of death of Li Wenliang were retracted, only for doctor to succumb to disease later in dayCoronavirus – latest developmentsA whistleblowing Chinese doctor who tried to raise the alarm about the coronavirus outbreak has died, a Communist party-controlled newspaper has confirmed.Li Wenliang, 34, was declared dead at 2.58am local time on Friday morning after “emergency treatment” at a hospital in Wuhan, the Global Times reported, following hours of confusion over his fate. Continue reading... Go to Source

Terror police's Extinction Rebellion 'risk report' sent out a year ago Police say Rising Up report was commissioned as group had a ‘large following’ and concluded XR was not a threatCounter-terrorism chiefs ordered a formal assessment of whether Extinction Rebellion was a national security threat one year ago and then sent a secret report about the group to police forces, the Guardian has learned.The revelation shows that counter-terrorism police’s interest in the non-violent climate emergency group began earlier and was more extensive than previously thought. Continue reading... Go to Source

‘It was all bullshit’: Trump delivers mocking, vitriolic speech after acquittal President turned speech into a screed against investigations into his administration and railed against DemocratsDonald Trump delivered a triumphalist, mocking, vitriolic and vulgar speech in the White House on Thursday afternoon in celebration of the acquittal at his impeachment trial the night before in the US Senate.In ebullient mood, the US president held up the front page of the Washington Post with the headline “Trump acquitted” and said: “I went through hell, unfairly, I did nothing wrong.” Then he asked for the newspaper to be framed. Continue reading... Go to Source

Christina Koch returns to Earth after record-breaking space mission Koch lands in Kazakhstan after 328 days in space, the longest continuous spaceflight by a female astronaut She would miss the friendship of her crewmates, she said, and of course the spectacular views.But after 328 days on the International Space Station – the longest continuous spaceflight ever undertaken by a female astronaut – Christina Koch could not deny last week that she was looking forward to experiencing some very simple pleasures back on Earth, including “the feeling of wind on my face”. Continue reading... Go to Source

Third person in UK confirmed as having coronavirus Patient diagnosed in Brighton and taken to London did not catch virus in UK or ChinaCoronavirus – latest updatesThe UK has a third case of coronavirus infection, England’s chief medical officer has confirmed.The patient, who it is understood was diagnosed in Brighton but is being transferred to a London hospital, did not contract the disease in the UK or mainland China but another country in Asia. Continue reading... Go to Source

UK to host spyware firm accused of aiding human rights abuses Exclusive: NSO Group technology is allegedly used by autocratic regimes to spy on journalists and activistsThe British government is helping a controversial Israeli spyware company to market its surveillance technologies at a secretive trade fair visited by repressive regimes, the Guardian can reveal.The government will host the NSO Group, which sells technology that has allegedly been used by autocratic regimes to spy on the private messages of journalists and human rights activists, at the closed Security and Policing trade fair in Hampshire next month. Continue reading... Go to Source

Trump celebrates impeachment acquittal by lashing out at 'evil' opponents – live Trump speaks at White House for first time since acquittalReport shows Iowa caucus results ‘riddled with inconsistencies’Buttigieg lead over Sanders narrowing in Iowa resultsHelp us cover the critical issues of 2020. Consider making a contribution 5.46pm GMTTrump took a shot at Mitt Romney after the Republican senator voted to convict the president on the first article of impeachment, abuse of power.The Utah Republican said of his decision yesterday, “As a senator-juror, I swore an oath before God to exercise impartial justice. I am profoundly religious. My faith is at the heart of who I am. I take an oath before God as enormously consequential.” 5.39pm GMTTrump addressed his contr...

Push for bathing water quality hailed as 'game changer' for UK rivers Environment Agency boss calls for more funding to help public embrace wild swimmingGrowing pressure to clean up Britain’s rivers to meet bathing water quality is a “game changer” that will require more government funding as the public embrace the outdoors, the head of the Environment Agency has said.A growing number of river users are calling for action to tackle the routine and legal discharge of untreated sewage into Britain’s waterways, which they say amounts to treating them like an open sewer. Continue reading... Go to Source

Dissident republicans suspected of Brexit day plot to blow up ferry Northern Irish police say bomb was found on lorry after tip-off about device at Belfast docksDissident republicans in Northern Ireland are suspected of trying to blow up an Irish Sea ferry on Brexit day last week, after a bomb was found on a lorry following two tip-offs.The discovery of the device came after the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) was told of a possible bomb on a lorry in Belfast docks bound for Scotland last Friday and another report on Monday naming a haulage company the lorry belonged to. Continue reading... Go to Source