Top story: ‘Heartbreaking figures’
Hello, Warren Murray here for our last meeting until next week.
More than 40,600 people have been likely infected with coronavirus while being treated in hospital in England for another reason, data shows. Doctors and hospitals claim many of the infections were caused by the NHS’s lack of beds and some hospitals being old, cramped and poorly ventilated – as well as decisions to keep providing normal care during the second wave.
Across England as a whole one in seven (15%) of all patients treated for the virus between 1 August 2020 and 21 March got it while in hospital – though NHS England has insisted the real rate is 4.5%. Its statement was based on cases regarded as “definite” because the person tested positive on or after their 15th day of admission. An NHS spokesperson said: “The Office for National Statistics and other data conclusively demonstrate that the root cause of rising infection rates in hospitals is rising rates in the community.”
Kevin Stevenson, 57, told the Guardian how his partner, Dr Aruna Narshi, 50, came to die of Covid at Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham after going in for a spinal operation. She had also been diagnosed with cancer. “Her operation was a complete success. She remained in hospital for a week, recovering her mobility. It was a miracle, within 24 hours she was able to walk again … They were all set to discharge her, but about a week post-op, she had a temperature, and suddenly tested positive for Covid. She was supposed to come home on Friday. By Monday, she was dead. It was horrible. It simply wasn’t fair.” Layla Moran MP, the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on coronavirus, said: “These heartbreaking figures show how patients and NHS staff have been abysmally let down by the failure to suppress the virus ahead of and during the second wave.”
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China’s ‘badge of honour’ for IDS – China has retaliated with sanctions against UK groups and individuals, including the former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, after Britain imposed sanctions on the Communist regime for human rights abuses in Xinjiang, the Uighur province. Individuals named by China also include the Conservative MPs Tom Tugendhat (who chairs the foreign affairs select committee), Nus Ghani, Tim Loughton and Neil O’Brien; as well as members of the Lords, David Alton and Helena Kennedy QC. The barrister Geoffrey Nice and the China academic Joanne Nicola Smith Finley were also on the list. The entities included the China Research Group, Uyghur Tribunal and Essex Court Chambers, as well as the Conservative party’s own Human Rights Commission. Duncan Smith said early on Friday that he would wear the sanction like a “badge of honour … It’s our duty to call out the Chinese government’s human rights abuse in Hong Kong and the genocide of the Uighurs. Those of us who live free lives under the rule of law must speak for those who have no voice.”
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‘Find out why and put it right’ – Talented black graduates are being shut out of academic careers in science and technology, according to the president of the Royal Society. White students were twice as likely as black students to graduate from degrees in Stem subjects with first-class honours in 2018-19, according to Higher Education Statistics Agency data. In academia, 1.7% of staff identify as black compared with 13.2% as Asian and 81.3% as white. Just 3.5% of black academic staff were professors, compared with 11.9% of white staff. Sir Adrian Smith, the president of the Royal Society, which commissioned the report, said: “Our reports show that black people are more likely to drop out of science at all points of the career path. It is time that the whole science community comes together to find out why and put it right.” Separately, companies could be ordered to disclose any pay gap between white employees and minority ethnic colleagues under reforms supported by Boris Johnson’s race equality advisers.
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‘Today, I am happy’ – Almost exactly 10 years ago Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the man set to be the next leader of France, was arrested in New York and accused of raping a hotel chambermaid. Back in France the spotlight fell on a young journalist and writer: Tristane Banon, who had also accused DSK, as he was known, of attempted rape years before. US prosecutors eventually dropped charges, citing issues in the complainant’s credibility and inconclusive physical evidence. Charges were also dropped in France, where prosecutors stated there was a lack of evidence. Strauss-Kahn has always denied the charges against him. But Banon is now celebrating after helping to drive through legislation protecting children and teenagers from sexual assault.
French MPs unanimously passed a draft bill establishing 15 as an age of “non-consent” under which no minor can be presumed to have agreed to sex with someone five or more years older. In cases of incest, the age of non-consent will be set at 18. The legislation follows successive sexual scandals involving high-profile figures. For Banon it marks a watershed. She recently completed a novel, her tenth book. “Today, I am happy,” she said. “I am delighted to have got this new law through.”
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Kim missiles ‘new type’ – North Korea has claimed that two “new-type tactical guided projectiles” accurately hit their target off its eastern coast on Thursday. The US president, Joe Biden, has warned of consequences if Pyongyang escalates tensions. Photos on the website of the North’s main Rodong Sinmun newspaper showed a missile lifting off from a launcher. The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted top official Ri Pyong Chol saying the missiles would be good for “deterring all sorts of military threats existing on the Korean Peninsula”. The weapons hit a target 600km (370 miles) away, KCNA claimed – further than the 450km reported by South Korea’s military – and could carry a payload of 2.5 tonnes.
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Nasty package – Amazon has caused an uproar in the US with a leaked memo confirming it is aware its delivery workers have been forced to urinate in bottles and defecate in bags because of a lack of access to toilets. “This evening, an associate discovered human feces in an Amazon bag that was returned to station by a driver,” the email reads. “This is the 3rd occasion in the last 2 months when bags have been returned to station with poop inside.” Workers at Amazon, which is known for its gruelling hours, have previously told the Guardian they needed to urinate inside water bottles on a daily basis for fear of missing delivery rates. Amazon did not respond to request for comment.
Today in Focus podcast: Aftermath of a rape
While working in Abu Dhabi launching a literary festival, Caitlin McNamara alleges she was raped by a member of the Emirati royal family. A year on she describes her struggle to hold her attacker to account, and to come to terms with what happened to her.
Lunchtime read: What to do with a blocked canal?
As a massive container ship ran aground and got stuck in one of the world’s most vital routes, Egypt’s initial response was characteristic silence, even as reports of the problem began to emerge publicly over 12 hours later. Ruth Michaelson writes that few observers expect transparency about when the Suez canal will reopen. Separately – your tips, please, on how to refloat the Ever Given.
Sport
Gareth Southgate praised England for not taking San Marino lightly after they began their World Cup qualifying campaign with a comfortable 5-0 win over the lowest-ranked team in the world. John McGinn struck late on to ensure Scotland started their campaign with a 2-2 draw against Austria, while Northern Ireland made a losing start as they were beaten 2-0 by Italy. Zlatan Ibrahimovic was typically decisive on his return to international football, creating the only goal for Viktor Claesson in Sweden’s 1-0 win over Georgia. On the eve of the new season, Lewis Hamilton has stated his belief that Formula One can no longer ignore human rights issues in the countries it visits, putting the sport’s chief executive, Stefano Domenicali, in an awkward position.
Athletes who have made allegations of physical and psychological abuse against British Gymnastics have been told to wait until December for a response to legal claims put to the organisation a month ago. England must win their final two one-day internationals in India to avoid series defeats across all three formats but have seen the challenge become even tougher with the news that Eoin Morgan’s tour has been ended prematurely by a hand injury. And Jack Draper’s ATP main-draw debut at the Miami Open ended bitterly after he collapsed with a heat-related illness and was forced to retire from his first-round match against Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin.
Business
Octopus Energy, the UK’s fastest growing energy supplier, is absorbing its renewables-focused sister company in a £3bn deal that will hand the startup a portfolio of about 300 renewable energy projects across six different countries. It will make Octopus one of Europe’s biggest renewable energy investors. The FTSE100 is set to lift 0.6% this morning while the pound is on $1.376 and €1.168.
The papers
Our Guardian print splash today is “Pub check strategy to make young people seek vaccine”. Government insiders are understood to believe that making Covid certificates compulsory to get into a pub could act as a “nudge” to get vaccinated for young people, who are thought to be a “particularly hesitant group”. We also report on concern about police officer deployments in schools – while police forces say the officers play an important role in keeping children safe, campaigners and charities warn their presence risks criminalising young people, exacerbating inequalities, and creating a climate of hostility.
The Mail’s Friday take on jars and jabs is “Fury over Covid ‘pub passport’ on phones” – hospitality bosses reckon it won’t work (but did anyone ask “parched punters” what they think, if only for an excuse to add to the alliteration). The i has “Revealed: UK vaccine plan for booster jab” – using both “vaccine” and “jab” in the one headline is regrettable, for mine. “Macron: EU is to blame” saith the Metro after the French president said Europe had lacked the “ambition” and “madness” to implement a fast vaccine rollout.
The Express continues to wear the laboured EU/you homophone threadbare with “EU can’t stop us! We WILL all get jab by July”. “Tell us why they died” demands the Mirror as it lends front-page support to calls for a Covid inquiry. The Times and the Telegraph cover the row surrounding a West Yorkshire school where a teacher has been suspended for displaying Charlie Hebdo cartoons. The FT leads with “India deals blow to global Covid fight by blocking vaccine exports”.
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