Top story: Experts call for full English lockdown
Hello, Warren Murray bringing you our last scheduled Briefing of 2020. We hope we have lifted you into the day well informed and, especially in such times, feeling a little brighter than you otherwise might. On behalf of myself and the Briefing team, our thanks not only to you, the reader, but to Guardian colleagues far and wide whose work is represented here – with a special mention to Celine Bijleveld, our departing network production editor, who has done so much behind the scenes. See you all in early January.
The government was operating an illegal “buy British” policy when it signed untendered deals worth up to £80m with a UK firm to supply Covid antibody tests, when others were in a better position to do so, claim lawyers who have filed a case against the health secretary, Matt Hancock. The government was determined to get a British test after the fiasco of buying 3.5m Chinese antibody tests and ordering a further 17.5m, none of which were good enough. Abingdon Health claimed its finger-prick antibody test was 99% accurate. But a peer-reviewed Public Health England (PHE) evaluation showed real-world accuracy of less than 85%. The Good Law Project is alleging the deal was illegally influenced by nationalism. Abingdon Health and the health department were approached for comment.
Boris Johnson is facing intense pressure to impose another national lockdown within days, as more than 40 countries banned arrivals from the UK in an effort to keep out the new fast-spreading variant of coronavirus. Ministers have urged people to avoid panic-buying food, with supermarkets warning of produce shortages, as France refused to lift its ban on freight and passengers despite a personal appeal from the prime minister to President Emmanuel Macron. Reports this morning suggest that the French government today will set out its conditions for movement across the Channel to resume. In the cabs of lorries backing up along the motorway from Dover, drivers are wondering where they will end up spending Christmas. Keep tabs on coronavirus news at our global live blog.
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Jesse Kempson unmasked – Grace Millane’s killer can finally be named. Jesse Kempson had already raped another British tourist when he murdered Millane in Auckland, New Zealand, in December 2018. Kempson, now 28, has also been convicted of eight charges of sexual and other violence against a girlfriend.
Kempson is to serve the sentences of his two recent trials – amounting to 11 years – concurrently with the 17-year minimum sentence for Millane’s murder. Millane was murdered in Kempson’s Auckland studio apartment following a Tinder date. Kempson stuffed her body in a suitcase and buried it in a shallow grave in bushland west of Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city.
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‘Paris is key’ in fishing deal – As the Covid blockade of Britain provides a taste of what no-deal Brexit chaos might look like, Downing Street has made a major counter-offer on fishing access for EU fleets to British waters. According to EU sources, the British demand for a 60% reduction in the EU catch by value has been reduced to 35%. Michel Barnier has asked for 25%. Boris Johnson has also accepted a five-year phase-in period for new arrangements, and an arbitration process for tariffs and disputes about access. Diplomats from the major EU fishing states were sceptical that the offer would be acceptable in full. “Paris is key,” said one senior diplomat. “It is not enough – but it may be enough to unlock things.”
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Stay-away Hogmanay – Edinburgh’s annual new year celebrations are going online for the first time with a virtual programme featuring one of the UK’s largest-ever drone shows. There will be three short films, streamed free at 7pm on 29, 30 and 31 December. In the films a swarm of 150 glowing LED drones dance above the Highlands, with later footage of the Forth bridges and Edinburgh. The lights are choreographed to create words and symbols, birds, animals and mythical creatures illustrating a new poem, Fare Well, by Scots Makar – Scotland’s poet laureate, Jackie Kay. Narrators include David Tennant and nine-year-old Miren from Glasgow.
There are plenty of other digitally distanced New Year’s Eve options this year. Manchester nightclub the Haçienda is planning a 24-hour streamed house party while the fireworks over Sydney harbour are still going ahead and New York’s Times Square ball drop will be streamed around the world. A virtual Jean-Michel Jarre is giving a virtual concert in Notre Dame and YouTube has an international lineup. Phoebe Taplin takes you through these and other events.
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Lift cap to help out – About 150,000 children in the UK could be quickly rescued from severe poverty for less than the cost of “eat out to help out” if the government scrapped or suspended the benefit cap, campaigners have claimed. The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) says 35,000 jobless households will be capped this month, then a further 41,000 between January and March next year, on top of 170,000 already capped. They will face loss of income averaging £62 a week, and up to £200 a week for some. Two million families, including a million children, are facing destitution as the recession gets worse, according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. More than 800,000 private tenants in England and Wales could be behind on rent, says the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA), which is calling for government action to help tenants pay off their arrears.
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It’s a bird, it’s a spaceplane – The European Space Agency (ESA) has signed contracts for its first reusable space transportation system, Space Rider, a robotic laboratory about the size of a two eight-seater minivans. Its first launch is expected in 2023.
Designed for launch on an ESA Vega-C rocket from French Guiana, the Space Rider will stay in orbit for about two months. It will carry up to 800kg of experiments and technology demonstrations in its 1,200-litre cargo bay. It will descend to Earth and land on a runway, either in Kourou or Santa Maria in the Azores. The experiments will then be unloaded and analysed, and the spacecraft readied for its next flight.
Today in Focus podcast: Variant unmerry Christmas
Guardian health editor Sarah Boseley looks at the fast-spreading Covid variant that has prompted the prime minister to put London, the south-east and the east of England into tier 4 and more than 40 countries to ban UK arrivals because of concerns about the spread.
Lunchtime read: Mutant strain of government
A new variant is surging in the south-east of England and the consequences are well known. Anthony Costello, professor of global health at University College London and former WHO, argues we got here because the government decided to slow the virus down rather than wipe it out: “When a virus is allowed to spread, spending time in different hosts, it evolves and mutates.
“With an estimated 2 million people now infected with Covid in the UK, there are many more opportunities for the virus to mutate. None of this was inevitable. The recent surge cannot be blamed on a mutant virus alone; in fact, government mismanagement of the pandemic meant that many more people became infected, creating the conditions for mutations to occur.”
Sport
The wait for Chelsea to burst into life as an exhilarating attacking force goes on. Their first win in seven attempts over a fellow top-half side this season owed more to grit than inspiration, even though two late goals from Tammy Abraham gave the scoreline a deceptive look, masking the fact that West Ham had forced the game to be played on their terms for long spells. More than a fifth of elite rugby union players in England sustained at least one concussion during the 2018-19 season, according to the Rugby Football Union’s most up-to-date injury data.
Tottenham have announced that Alex Morgan will leave the club and return to the United States in the new year. Burnley’s revival continued with a comfortable win to stretch their unbeaten run to four games since their mauling at the Etihad, but post-match attention fell on Nuno Espírito Santo after the Wolves manager launched a stinging verbal attack on the referee Lee Mason. Gerwyn Price overcame a second-round scare at the PDC world darts championship, battling past his Welsh compatriot, Jamie Lewis, in an entertaining five-set encounter.
Business
Asian shares have retreated further on worries over the new, seemingly more infectious strain of coronavirus. In recent trading Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.5% while the Hang Seng edged 0.2% lower. South Korea’s Kospi declined 0.6% and Australia’sS&P/ASX 200 gave up 0.7% while the Shanghai Composite shed 0.4%. Expect the FTSE to open lower as well, by 0.5% on the current trend. The pound is worth $1.339 and €1.095 at time of writing.
The papers
Our Guardian print edition leads today with scientists calling on Boris Johnson to “Impose national lockdown or risk ‘human disaster’”. The Mail says “We’re ALL heading for tier 4”, saying Sir Patrick Vallance has put England on notice. “UK sealed off from the world” says the i.
The phrase “mutant virus” is highly contagious. In the Mirror’s splash headline it is “already spreading across the UK”. In the Times it is “everywhere”. In the Express it “skyrockets … now Tier 4 to spread”. The Metro has “Jingle hell”.
The Telegraph says “Johnson plans mass testing of lorry drivers to reopen ports” which might not inspire a great deal of confidence, considering the debacle-led approach to testing we have seen so far. The Sun says “Sprout of order” as it rails against shelves being “stripped of sprouts and turkeys”. The FT reports “Markets fall as more nations join UK travel ban over Covid variant” – its downpage lead is the EU authorities granting approval for the Pfizer vaccine rollout.
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