Top story: Global heating ‘pushing polar vortex south’
Hello, Warren Murray here again, and I can assure you it’s Wednesday … the days can be a bit like that lately can’t they.
Ferocious winter weather sweeping across large parts of the central and southern US has brought record-breaking cold temperatures, left millions without power and killed at least 21 people across multiple states. The worst power outages have been in Texas where more than 4m homes and businesses were cut off on Tuesday in subfreezing temperatures, along with widespread cuts in Mexico and Oregon.
In North Carolina three people were found dead after a tornado struck their town while in Texas four family members perished in a house fire that started when they lit a fireplace. Others died in car crashes or from carbon monoxide poisoning while trying to stay warm. The storms have carried heavy snow and freezing rain into New England and the deep south, bringing painfully low temperatures and wind-chill warnings extending from Canada into Mexico, and leaving homeless people struggling to find food and warmth.
US conservatives of a false meme-sharing bent have lined up to suggest renewable energy sources such as wind turbines are to blame for the blackouts. But their assertions were shown up as false when the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (Ercot), which operates the state’s power grid, said failures in natural gas, coal and nuclear energy systems were responsible for nearly twice as many outages. Scientists meanwhile say there is evidence the rapid heating of the Arctic due to climate change may be pushing frigid air from the northern “polar vortex” much further south. “This is happening not in spite of climate change, it’s in part due to climate change,” argued Judah Cohen, from the forecasting company Atmospheric and Environmental Research. Treacherous weather is expected to grip much of the United States through Friday – Joe Biden’s administration has said delays in Covid vaccine shipments and deliveries are likely.
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Jab doing its job – The success of the UK’s vaccination programme is beginning to be felt with Covid death rates declining across age groups ranging from 20 to over 80. Among over-80s there have been 62% fewer deaths from coronavirus since 24 January. Among people aged between 20 and 64 the drop in deaths was 47%, while among those aged 65 to 79 it was 51%. Prof David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University said the figures are significant enough not to be a result of lockdown alone. Some experts are more hesitant – Prof Paul Hunter from the University of East Anglia said: “It is still difficult disentangling the impact of lockdown from the impact of vaccine.” Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, has called for ceasefires in conflict zones such as Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen to allow vaccinations. In the US, Joe Biden has pledged to roll out 600m vaccine doses by July, while the WHO says new infections fell 16% last week globally. We are covering further developments at our live blog.
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Midweek catch-up
> The BBC is giving over-75s longer to pay for a television licence after more than 650,000 households did not respond in time. More than 2.7m households with a resident over 75 had purchased licences, the BBC said, with another 750,000 applying for free licences available to those who qualify.
> Survivors of rape are calling on the government to give legal victim status to children who are conceived as a result. Sammy Woodhouse – who became pregnant aged 14 after being exploited by the Rotherham grooming gang – said there was no support for her son in dealing with how he had been conceived.
> The trial of deposed Aung San Suu Kyi appears to have begun secretly a day early without her lawyer. The UN’s special rapporteur Tom Andrews said expected protests and reports of troop movements meant the Myanmar military “could be on the precipice of … committing even greater crimes”. Myanmar has again been plunged into an internet blackout.
> The five crew of a grounded oil tanker that was abandoned by its owners in the Persian Gulf have taken their first steps on dry land in nearly four years. They have received about 65% of unpaid wages from the ship’s new owner ahead of their expected return to their homes in India, Pakistan and Myanmar.
> Ministers should cut VAT on repairs for electrical goods and green home improvements to help people reduce greenhouse gas emissions in their everyday lives, an influential committee of MPs has urged.
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‘No trial, no charge. Nothing’ – The daughter of Dubai’s ruler, who fled in 2018 but was abducted from a yacht off India and forced home, has sent a series of secret phone videos of her being held “hostage” in a locked villa surrounded by police. The messages have since ceased and campaigners for Princess Latifa al-Maktoum are calling for international help. The videos were obtained by BBC Panorama and aired on Tuesday evening.
They are the first time the princess has appeared – other than in material released by the Dubai royal family – since a YouTube video surfaced after her escape attempt three years ago. In one video, Latifa said she had been imprisoned since she was kidnapped: “No trial, no charge. Nothing.” Latifa’s father is Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, ruler of Dubai and the UAE’s vice-president. She is the second of his 25 children who have fled, been recaptured and then vanished. UK courts have accepted the plight of Latifa and her older sister Shamsa, who was snatched from the streets of Cambridge after fleeing the sheikh. His sixth and youngest wife, Princess Haya, 46, fled to London in April 2019 with their two young children and a court heard that the sheikh tried to have her abducted as well.
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Parting shot – Ministers are “institutionally biased” against supporting children and families, the children’s commissioner for England, Anne Longfield, is to say in a spicy speech at the end of her six-year tenure. Longfield will say it is a “national scandal” that a fifth of children leave compulsory education without basic qualifications, and call on Boris Johnson to introduce a “Covid covenant” of education and wellbeing support to help children and young people recover from the pandemic. “It’s impossible to overstate how damaging the last year has been for many children.” Longfield will be succeeded by Dame Rachel de Souza, of whom the Cabinet Office minister, Michael Gove, is a big fan.
Today in Focus podcast: Asylum seekers in army barracks
The Guardian’s home affairs correspondent, Jamie Grierson, discusses the government’s decision to use two former army barracks, Napier and Penally, to house up to 600 vulnerable asylum seekers. Amid allegations of cover-ups, poor access to healthcare and legal advice, and crowded conditions, one former resident describes the impact Napier had on him.
Lunchtime read: ‘He’s beaten her black and blue’
Over the past year, reports of domestic violence have risen enormously – while refuge places are scarce. One woman explains what it is like trying to help those who have fled for their lives.
Sport
The world number one and top seed Ash Barty has been put out of the Australian Open 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 by Karolína Muchová. Jürgen Klopp said Liverpool’s refusal to lose belief had been rewarded as they took a significant step towards the Champions League quarter-finals with a 2-0 away win over RB Leipzig. Eddie Jones has put England’s substandard start to the Six Nations down to a problem with their “arousal level” and admitted his under-fire captain, Owen Farrell, is one of a number of players struggling for form. France’s pursuit of the Six Nations grand slam has been severely disrupted after their head coach, Fabien Galthié, tested positive for Covid-19 and the entire squad was put into isolation.
A virtually empty stadium witnessed Kylian Mbappé score a superb hat-trick that led Paris Saint-Germain to a deserved 4-1 victory over Barcelona at the Camp Nou. The chief executive of UK Athletics has vowed to dismantle the “jobs for the boys” network and to radically change the culture in the sport so that more women coaches succeed at the highest level.
Business
The value of bitcoin has dipped back below $50,000 after it surged past its latest significant milestone yesterday, but one expert reckons that “fundamental” demand will keep pushing it upwards. ByteDance, the Chinese company behind TikTok, has been forced to deny reports from China overnight that it was going to list the popular video app in New York. The pound has slipped back slightly and is buying $1.389 and €1.149, while the FTSE 100 is set to open fairly flat this morning.
The papers
“Nearly 2m more to shield after new Covid research” – the front-page lead in our Guardian print edition today. Modelling has for the first time shown ethnicity and deprivation to be risk factors for severe Covid. Our picture lead is the Radio 2 DJ Jo Whiley on the anguish of being offered a vaccination while her sister Frances, who is in a care home, was still waiting. The i says “Shield for six weeks, extra 1.7 million people told”.
“Let us visit loved ones” – a sadly too familiar and too regular plea in the Mirror on behalf of care home residents’ families. The Metro says “Two jabs for all by August” adding “Every UK adult may be vaccinated before autumn”. The FT has “Surging commodity prices deliver cash bonanza for mining investors” – among them, shareholders of Glencore, which has resumed dividend payouts. The financial paper also says some employers are drafting “no jab, no job” contracts for new and existing employees, with the government offering no guidance on what to do.
The more government-friendly organs eke out leaks about Boris Johnson’s forthcoming speech on how lockdown might be wound up. “Mass testing blitz” says the Times a touch redundantly “as PM plans easing of lockdown”. “The Daily Telegraph understands” that lockdown will continue “until cases drop below 1,000 a day”. “Roadmap out of lockdown (but it’ll take until July)” says the Mail. Each round of easing would take place only at four-week intervals, the paper reports. The Express has given us umpteen Covid headlines in the vein of “Boris optimistic but we must stay the course” – yet on a day of such upbeat news it leads instead with “Queen’s faith in Harry over tell-all TV show”.
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