| Covid jabs 'breaking cases and deaths link' |
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The UK’s vaccination programme is beginning to break the link between Covid cases and death, scientists tracking the epidemic say. In the UK, Pfizer’s vaccine was the first to be administered in December, the Oxford-AstraZenca jab followed a month later and yesterday Moderna's started to be used. So far, more than 5.6 million people have been fully vaccinated with two doses, while 31.7 million have had a first dose.
Scientists found infections had fallen by roughly two-thirds since February, but had begun to level off. While the decline in cases has stalled - probably because people are beginning to mix more - deaths did not follow the same pattern. This was not the case before January, when the vaccine rollout began and means scientists can identify decreases which are being driven by vaccination.
The rate of decline of new cases "slowed considerably" after the first substantial relaxation of lockdown in England when schools opened on 8 March, the report says. Prof Stephen Riley at Imperial College London, one of the study's authors, says the flattening off "probably does reflect increased social mixing", some of that will be to do with schools opening up. It is "gratifying", however, that rates did not go up when schools reopened, which Prof Riley says was "certainly a possibility". Scientists and government would need to, in his words, keep a "close watching brief as the lockdown gets eased further”. | |
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| UK halts Oxfam funding over abuse claims |
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Aid funding for Oxfam from the UK is suspended again after fresh allegations of sexual exploitation and bullying were made against staff. Following the latest claims, two of the charities workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo were suspended last week. It comes just weeks after Oxfam was allowed to apply for aid funding after serving a three-year ban following a cover-up of sexual exploitation by staff in Haiti.
In light of this, the Foreign and Development Office says the charity would not be able to make any applications for UK aid money until the new allegations were resolved. "All organisations bidding for UK aid must meet the high standards of safeguarding required to keep the people they work with safe," a spokesman says.
The latest allegations emerging from the Democratic Republic of Congo pose new questions about whether there has been enough change, according to our diplomatic correspondent James Landale. Oxfam says its suspensions of the two members of staff shows "our commitment to tackle abuses of power" and is “seeking further information about the ban”. | |
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| PM 'deeply concerned' about Belfast violence |
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| Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he is "deeply concerned" about scenes of violence that have erupted in Northern Ireland. Police were attacked, petrol bombs thrown and a bus set on fire in another night of disorder in Belfast. The disturbances took place on both sides of an interface in the loyalist Shankill and nationalist Springfield Road areas of the city on Wednesday. Our Ireland correspondent Emma Vardy said crowds of a few hundred on each side threw petrol bombs in both directions.
"The way to resolve differences is through dialogue, not violence or criminality," Mr Johnson says. Northern Ireland's power-sharing executive is meeting this morning to be briefed on what Deputy First Minister, and Sinn Féin's vice-president, Michelle O'Neill denounced as "the violence and street disorder which is causing huge distress in local communities". First Minister Arlene Foster condemned what she called "vandalism and attempted murder" and said it did "not represent unionism or loyalism". | |
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| | | | | Women on £1-a-week state pensions could be owed tens of thousands of pounds, the BBC has learned. Until recently, Carole Davies, 76, from Merstham in Surrey, was told she was entitled to less than £1 a week. "When I retired in 2003, my state pension was so low - 40p a week - I was told that it would be paid once a year," she told BBC Radio 5 Live. "Despite my husband Michael questioning this after he retired in 2005, we were told I wasn't due anything more."
Mrs Davies, a stay-at-home mum who worked in an administrative role for only a short period of time, had built up almost no entitlement to a state pension in her own right, as she had not built up enough National Insurance (NI) contributions. Every week, for more than 15 years, she had been underpaid, not knowing she was actually eligible to a married woman's pension.
After watching a TV programme about pensions in November, she decided to contact the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) again, convinced she should be getting more. "It's been pretty horrendous really and it just took so long. They just didn't seem to want to know and it was an uphill battle. Earlier this year, she finally got an answer - the grandmother of eight is owed £61,000 and is entitled to £82.45 per week. | |
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| | Sarah Corker | Business Correspondent | |
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| | | | The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is headlining most of the papers this morning. The family of a blood clot victim say “keep taking" the vaccine, reports the Daily Telegraph, which has spoken to the family of the first named person to have died from the rare side effect. His family are “furious” but say his was “extremely unlucky” and have urged people to “save lives” by getting vaccinated.
Many of the papers are carrying reassurances about the safety of jabs with the Sun telling us there is a “tiny chance”, a “0.000095%” chance, of developing a “killer clot”. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is insisting “jabs are safe and save lives”, the Times reports, and the Daily Mail says “keep calm and carry on jabbing”. The Financial Times, the Guardian and the i report on an alternative vaccine being given to under 30s over blood clot fears. You can read more here. | |
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| | | Myanmar Ambassador to UK 'locked out' of embassy |
| | | | Navalny Jailed Putin critic 'losing sensation in legs and hands' |
| | | | US Expert criticises use of force during George Floyd arrest |
| | | | Boohoo Price differences for same clothes 'a genuine mistake' |
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| If you watch one thing today |
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| If you listen to one thing today |
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| If you read one thing today |
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| Need something different? |
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| A new force may be with you – it’s not quite Star Wars but scientists have found “strong evidence” sub-atomic particles, called muons, behave in a way unlike any of the four forces of nature we know about like gravity. Scientists aren’t sure what it does but it could explain some mysteries surrounding astronomy. Watch our explainer here.
Most of us have heard of The Great Escape but how about the crate escape? Homesick Brian Robson airmailed himself back to the UK from Australia in a wooden box in 1965. He couldn't afford the air fare but he was desperate to get home so two friends helped him out. He’s now doing everything in his power to find Paul and John. | |
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| On this day | |
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| Let us know what you think of this newsletter by emailing bbcnewsdaily@bbc.co.uk. If you’d like to recommend it to a friend, forward this email. New subscribers can sign up here. | |
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