Contact-tracing could determine whether we get a second coronavirus wave
Any day now, you could get the call: someone, perhaps someone you barely remember speaking to, has tested positive for coronavirus, and you must isolate for 14 days. Of course most of us have been stuck at home for two months. But with the nation on the point of enjoying the first limited freedoms, the psychological toll of two more weeks of total isolation cannot be underestimated. Nor should the practical problems be ignored: if a key group of staff are told to isolate at the same time, for example, or parents finally able to send children to school are told they cannot pick them up. It may be no exaggeration to say that freedom for the rest of us depends on the success of
Source:The Times
May 27, 2020 23:02 UTC
UK loses foreign investment crown to France after two decades at top
The UK has lost its crown as Europe’s top destination for foreign investment for the first time in more than two decades after being overtaken by France. However, it attracted almost a third of all overseas digital technology investments across Europe last year, more than France and Germany combined, as the country’s status as a hub for innovation generated a “spectacular” surge in activity. The United States superseded the European Union last year as the UK’s biggest source of foreign investment, as Brexit transforms global economic ties, according to EY’s annual attractiveness survey. London recorded its highest share of domestic foreign investment since the survey was first launched in 1997, with almost half of all projects taking place in the capital — 16 times as
Source:The Times
May 27, 2020 23:02 UTC
Child rapist jailed for drugging and attacking boys
Mr Justice Paul McDermott at the central criminal court in Dublin said the man sought out children for his own gratificationA child rapist who used his membership of a voluntary paramedic organisation to target two boys who he then drugged and sexually assaulted has been jailed for nine and a half years. The 29-year-old Co Kildare man used an oxygen mask to force one 15-year-old victim to inhale a pain relief drug before sexually assaulting him. In a second attack the accused raped the unconscious child while another man recorded it on his mobile phone. The man, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the victims, pleaded guilty at the central criminal court in Dublin to oral rape of one boy at a place in Co Laois on May 7, 2018. He also admitted meeting the child for the purpose of sexual exploitation
Source:The Times
May 27, 2020 23:02 UTC
University of Limerick defends links with Chinese partner put on US security list
The university said the partnership with Harbin Engineering University was unrelated to the decision to put it on the US entity listThe University of Limerick has defended its relationship with a Chinese university that has been accused by the United States government of attempting to use US technology to assist the Chinese army. Harbin Engineering University (HEU) was last week added to the entity list by the US Department of Commerce. The list identifies persons or organisations “reasonably believed to be involved, or to pose a significant risk of being or becoming involved, in activities contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States”. The University of Limerick (UL) has a postgraduate pathway agreement with HEU in computing and engineering. A spokesman for UL said the partnership with HEU was focused on teaching students and was “completely unrelated” to the decision to
Source:The Times
May 27, 2020 23:02 UTC
Services sector suffers fastest fall in business confidence on record
Businesses are concerned that it will take some time before activity returns to pre-crisis levelsConfidence in the services sector is declining at a record pace, according to the CBI. As a result, confidence levels among business and professional services companies have tumbled at their sharpest pace since the financial crisis a decade ago. Consumer services companies registered their biggest slump in confidence since the review began in 1998. The services sector accounts for the vast majority of Britain’s GDP and includes finance, retail and leisure businesses. Confidence levels
Source:The Times
May 27, 2020 23:02 UTC
Civil servant called racist for saying Wales is always wet
Anne Giwa-Amu had little money for food after she was dismissedA civil servant who was branded a racist for claiming that it always rained in Wales has been awarded more than £240,000 at an employment tribunal. Anne Giwa-Amu won her race and age discrimination case after being mocked for complaining about the cold, wet weather, which a colleague referred to as her regular “weather reports”, and accused of stealing ice cream. Ms Giwa-Amu, 59, a qualified solicitor who has Nigerian and Welsh ancestry, joined the Department for Work and Pensions as an administrative officer in 2017. During her time at the DWP office in Caerphilly she was the only non-white recruit and the only trainee over the age of 50 in her team. An employment tribunal in Cardiff concluded that she suffered “deliberate and humiliating
Source:The Times
May 27, 2020 23:02 UTC
Priti Patel seeks powers to turn back migrants off south coast
A French lifeguard boat was used to cross the Channel to Britain yesterdayPriti Patel is considering the introduction of new powers to turn back migrants off the coast as the number of Channel crossings continues to rise. Sixty migrants were brought ashore yesterday after being intercepted in the Channel in four incidents. The arrivals bring to about 1,730 the number arriving this year, compared with 1,890 in the whole of last year. The number of crossings has increased since the lockdown began. Ms Patel, the home secretary, who promised last year to make crossings an “infrequent phenomena” by the spring, has ordered officials to look at existing powers to deal with the problem.
Source:The Times
May 27, 2020 23:02 UTC
Hospital gave mother Laura Higginson, 30, overdose of paracetamol ‘and did not tell family’
A hospital accused of failing to disclose that a 30-year-old mother of two had died after a paracetamol overdose given while she was in its care is under police investigation. Merseyside police are looking into the circumstances surrounding the death of Laura Higginson in 2017 after a post-mortem examination report revealed that she had suffered a staggered overdose of the drug while at Whiston Hospital on Merseyside. A new coroner has also been appointed to reinvestigate at an inquest that opens today. The family fear that the drug may have contributed to Ms Higginson’s death from liver failure, yet they say they learnt of the overdose only by chance. The hospital trust, which investigated Ms Higginson’s case, denies that the overdose contributed to her death.
Source:The Times
May 27, 2020 23:02 UTC
Pubs could reopen before July
Pubs unable to reopen until July 4, such as this one in Highgate, north London, have turned to takeaway boozePubs, hotels and restaurants may reopen earlier than planned after Boris Johnson asked scientists to review the two-metre rule. In his road map out of the lockdown Mr Johnson said that they would remain closed until at least July 4. Officials suggested that outdoor cafés were the most likely to reopen before pubs, although the health secretary indicated this morning that beer gardens could open at some point during the summer. Matt Hancock suggested there would be a further easing of lockdown measures, enabling people to meet outside. Asked about the review of the rules, which is announced today, the health secretary said that the “risk of transmission outdoors is much lower”.
Source:The Times
May 27, 2020 23:02 UTC
Foreign firms prefer Scotland to almost anywhere else in UK
Excluding London, Glasgow was the third most popular city in the UK with 23 projects, behind Manchester and BirminghamScotland has remained the most attractive location outside London for overseas investment, according to research published today. There was an overall increase in the number of foreign direct investment (FDI) projects announced in Scotland last year with the expected level of job creation at its highest since 2011. Greater London was the most popular UK nation or region overall with Scotland second and the southeast of England third. Equipment and machinery, agriculture and food, digital and business services were among the most popular Scottish sectors. Excluding London, Glasgow was the third most popular city in the UK with 23 projects, behind Manchester and
Source:The Times
May 27, 2020 23:02 UTC
Quentin Letts: The dangerous liaison committee? Not really
Liaison committee: the name suggests something furtive and slinky. The reality yesterday, when the Commons liaison committee interviewed Boris Johnson for almost two hours, was rather different: a buffet of bluster, a feast of froth. The committee’s chairman, Sir Bernard Jenkin, spent much of the event fretting about the time. In a fairytale he would have been a tremulous rabbit, holding an ear to a giant, ticking watch dial, whiskers twitching at each tock. Sir Bernard was in a committee room at Portcullis House.
Source:The Times
May 27, 2020 23:02 UTC
Coronavirus in Ireland: Bike shops ‘can’t keep up’ with explosion in demand
Social distancing rules on public transport are leading to many commuters opting to buy bikesBike shops fear they will have almost no stock for the summer months after the sale of bikes “exploded” during the Covid-19 pandemic. Donnybrook Bikes in Dublin reported a 500 per cent increase in trade compared with the same period last year and is now unable to source new stock to meet the demand. Ruairi Parsons, its general manager, said: “We went from selling 20 bikes in a week this time last year to 120 bikes in a week. It just really exploded, and it has been like that every week even up until this week.”Mr Parsons said his staff are now starting to turn customers away. “We just have nothing left in the store for them really,” he said.
Source:The Times
May 27, 2020 23:02 UTC
Handover of power set to cost Centrica FTSE place
Centrica, the owner of British Gas, is one of the companies facing eviction from the premier FTSE 100 index on the Londom Stock ExchangeThe FTSE 100 could be on course for its biggest reshuffle since the financial crisis. Centrica, the owner of British Gas, and Carnival, the cruise operator, are both set to lose their positions in the index of Britain’s biggest publicly quoted companies when the next quarterly reshuffle takes place next week, according to AJ Bell, the investment platform. Based on sharp falls in their share prices over the past three months, they will joined by Easyjet, the budget airline, and Meggitt, the aerospace and defence group, AJ Bell said yesterday. ITV, Britain’s biggest commercial broadcaster, and M&G, the life assurer and fund management group recently spun out of Prudential, the FTSE 100 insurance company, are also looking vulnerable, it said. FTSE Russell,
Source:The Times
May 27, 2020 23:02 UTC
I’ve got outrage exhaustion: are you suffering from it too?
But it was Barnard Castle, where he and his family dry-coughed by a river, then dry-coughed in some woods, which now seriously counts as an enviable day out. I don’t have young children, but if I did I can imagine how this might set them off. “Mummy, Mummy, when can we go to some woods to dry-cough? When, Mummy, when?” Or: “It’s not fair. Why doesn’t Daddy ever strap me in the back of his car while
Source:The Times
May 27, 2020 23:02 UTC
Irish Rail did not tell watchdog about near miss for eight months
The near miss happened on a service from Galway to Dublin HeustonIrish Rail failed to notify accident investigators for almost eight months after a near miss between a train and a worker last year. The train driver saw a man walking in the same direction as the train, alongside the tracks. The man was a patrol ganger employed by Irish Rail. Patrol gangers maintain the tracks on behalf of Irish Rail, mainly by walking along the tracks and inspecting them. Irish Rail did not report the incident to the RAIU until
Source:The Times
May 27, 2020 23:02 UTC