Top story: ‘Kill the Bill’ – 14 arrests at new Bristol protest
Hello, Warren Murray bringing you the first news of the day.
Guidance to England and Wales police on how to handle protests may breach human rights obligations, according to campaigners. Material from the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and College of Policing (COP) appears to use a definition of unlawful protest that could include boycotting a shop or silently taking a knee. The Good Law Project and Stop Funding Hate have expressed “serious concerns” and urged that the guidance be made public. According to a report from the policing inspectorate, police chiefs use a definition of “aggravated activism” as “activity that seeks to bring about political or social change but does so in a way that involves unlawful behaviour or criminality, has a negative impact upon community tensions, or causes an adverse economic impact to businesses”. Jolyon Maugham from the Good Law Project said: “What does this mean for the right to protest against slavery in supply chains? Or against the polluters who are destroying the planet? Or, indeed, for the right to strike?”
Overnight, police have dispersed demonstrators in Bristol and made 14 arrests, two days after another protest there descended into rioting. Avon and Somerset police said about 130 people gathered and were moved off College Green by 11pm but arrests were made when some remained on Deanery Road and refused to leave. Police investigating the riot that marred the peaceful “Kill the Bill” protest in Bristol on Sunday have released images of 10 people they wish to trace. Seven men, aged between 20 and 44, were arrested on suspicion of violent disorder. A man from the Bedminster Down area of Bristol has appeared in court and denied a charge of possessing an offensive weapon. Sunday’s initially peaceful gathering was a demonstration against the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill.
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Suez backed up – Efforts are continuing to move a container ship that became lodged sideways up the Suez Canal, leading to a tailback of freighters. The 220,000-tonne, 400-metre-long Ever Given became stuck in the canal on Tuesday, and tugboats have been at work – as well as an excavator – trying to free its bow from the bank. The Panama-registered vessel is operated by Evergreen Marine of Taiwan.
The Suez is one of the most important waterways in the world, linking the Mediterranean with the Red Sea and shipping lanes to Asia. It is 120 miles long, 24 metres deep and 205 metres wide.
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Midweek catch-up
> More than 11,000 outlets permanently disappeared last year from UK high streets, shopping centres and retail parks, according to analysis, with fears a further 18,000 may close in 2021 as the full impact of the coronavirus pandemic becomes more clear.
> Disease outbreaks are more likely in areas of deforestation and plantations that contain few or a single species, according to a study. The authors say diseases are kept in check by varied predators in a diverse habitat, and when this is gone, species such as rats and mosquitoes can spread pathogens to human and non-human habitats.
> The pandemic has caused a dramatic drop in urgent referrals for suspected cancers in England and a plummeting quality of life among patients awaiting hip and knee surgery in the UK, new figures show. Cancer Research UK says NHS figures equate to 20,300 fewer people referred for lung cancer alone from last March to this January.
> Exit polls from Israel’s fourth election within two years have put Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party ahead but still short of a governing majority.
> Oakland in California is to launch a universal basic income (UBI) giving eligible families $500 a month with no rules on how they spend it. UBI aims to break cycles of poverty by giving people financial room to improve their health, life and work circumstances.
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‘Don’t wait another minute’ – Joe Biden has called for gun controls to be passed quickly after mass shootings in Atlanta and Colorado left 18 people dead in the course of a week. The president said Congress must close loopholes in the background checks system and once again ban assault weapons. “I don’t need to wait another minute, let alone an hour, to take commonsense steps that will save lives in the future,” Biden said. It is unclear whether the bills can make it through the evenly divided Senate, given Republicans’ general opposition to gun restrictions. It has emerged the attack in Boulder, Colorado came a few days after a judge blocked the city from enforcing a ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines.
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World heating but drill on – Ministers will allow drillers who pass a “climate compatibility” test to keep looking for oil in the North Sea, despite the government’s pledge to tackle carbon emissions. The government has offered to help the North Sea oil and gas industry cut its carbon emissions through a joint investment of up to £16bn supporting 40,000 North Sea jobs. In return the industry has promised to cut its carbon emissions by 50% by the end of the decade. What the government calls a “landmark deal” has dashed hopes that the UK would follow Denmark and France in declining new oil exploration licences. Meanwhile, a coalition of NGOs is reporting its “shocking” finding that the world’s biggest 60 banks have provided $3.8tn of financing for fossil fuel companies since the Paris climate deal in 2015. JPMorgan Chase provided the most; the UK bank Barclays provided the most among all European banks; and BNP Paribas of France was the biggest in the EU.
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‘Festival of Brexit’ – A celebration of the British weather and the largest grow-your-own food project of modern times will be among events staged in 2022 for a nationwide event dubbed by some as a “festival of Brexit”. In the absence of a finalised name it is being called Festival UK 2022. The £120m idea was commissioned by Theresa May’s government and supported by Boris Johnson. Its chief creative officer is Martin Green, whose CV includes the Olympic ceremonies and Hull city of culture. Ten teams have been chosen – Mark Brown, Guardian arts correspondent, gives a flavour of what some of their projects are about.
Today in Focus podcast: Men – will you help halt misogyny?
The educator and author Dr Jackson Katz discusses why all men need to be part of ending violence against women – and what they can do to help.
Lunchtime read: How Taiwan managed what UK couldn’t
The Taiwanese government’s success in taming the coronavirus pandemic shows lives may have been saved had the UK government acted differently. By Emma Graham-Harrison and Helen Davidson in Taipei.
Sport
A new technology that could pave the way for an objective test to diagnose concussion at pitchside has been hailed as a “gamechanger” by researchers. Eddie Jones’s future as England’s head coach will be decided within the next three weeks but the Rugby Football Union insists it will not “overreact” after the squad’s most uncomfortable Six Nations campaign since 1976. The British & Irish Lions have reverted to plan A and will play behind closed doors in South Africa this summer after abandoning alternative plans to host the tour in the UK. Ryan Giggs remains the elephant in the room when it comes to Wales, who today kick off a World Cup qualifying campaign minus their manager.
Martin Brundle believes Lewis Hamilton is going to face a strong challenge from Red Bull for the Formula One world championship this season. The women’s Six Nations championship is set to kick off next week without a title sponsor but England’s final game of the tournament next month is poised to be broadcast to a live free-to-air audience on the BBC. Andy Murray has expressed his frustration after another setback as he was forced to withdraw from the Miami Open with a groin injury. And tributes have flowed for the former England forward Frank Worthington, who has died at the age of 72 after a long illness.
Business
The reputation of Goldman Sachs as the best financial institution to work for has received a setback as young bankers rebel over having to work long hours – sometimes 18 hours a day – for what they see as too little reward. Read this special report by our banking correspondent, Kalyeena Makortoff. The FTSE100 is poised to fall 0.6% this morning while the pound has shed a bit of value overnight to stand at $1.37 and €1.157.
The papers
“Johnson admits Covid regrets but rejects clamour for public inquiry” – the lead story in our Guardian print edition today; accompanied by Facebook’s internal content rules, which are OK with violent rhetoric including calling for the death of public figures; and how a top Saudi official made a death threat against the UN’s investigator of the Jamal Khashoggi murder. We have a photo of one of the Covid anniversary vigils – as does the Times with the headline “Bell tolls for 126,000 lives lost”.
“Our grief and loss” says the Metro while the Mail has a full-page close-up of a sombre PM and the headline “This will haunt me for as long as I live”. “A year on from lockdown, time to learn from the mistakes” says the Mirror. The Duchess of Cambridge places daffodils in Westminster Abbey on the front of the Telegraph, which leads with “Children in line for Covid jabs from August”. Same picture on the Express but story-wise its mind is elsewhere: “Boris blasts out of touch BBC” – referencing a storm that Tory MPs have brewed up about whether the national broadcaster flies the flag enough.
The i reports “Summer 2021: holidays at home (again)” and says people may be asked not to visit the seaside unless they have accommodation booked. The FT’s top story is “Wirecard fraud started more than decade ago, senior executive says” and it also covers the Australian floods, as well as AstraZeneca promising to release more data about its vaccine’s efficacy, after a please-explain from US regulators.
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