I am UK/Home Affairs Correspondent for BBC News. Police, prisons, law, crime and terrorism. Before that Moscow Correspondent so still post about Russia/Ukraine.
Prince Harry, Sir Elton John, David Furnish, Elizabeth Hurley, Sadie Frost and Baroness Doreen Lawrence have launched a legal action against Associated Newspapers, publishers of The Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday and the Mail Online.
So this happened. The Conservative Party took an interview from
@GMB
this morning. They edited it to add on the last shot in which Keir Starmer looks stumped. But that didn't happen. In the original Keir Starmer immediately answered
@piersmorgan
's question.
Something is definitely going on in the Russian TV news sector. Reports of several senior resignations at the other main TV company, VGTRK that produces news for Rossiya-1 and Rossiya-24
Hamlins LLP said "These individuals have become aware of compelling and highly distressing evidence that they have been the victims of abhorrent criminal activity and gross breaches of privacy by Associated Newspapers."
Hamlins LLP said the "unlawful acts alleged to have taken place include:
1) The hiring of private investigators to secretly place listening devices inside people’s cars and homes
2) The commissioning of individuals to surreptitiously listen into and record people’s live, private telephone calls whilst they were taking place
3) The payment of police officials, with corrupt links to private investigators, for inside, sensitive information
4) The impersonation of individuals to obtain medical information from private hospitals, clinics, and treatment centres by deception
5) The accessing of bank accounts, credit histories and financial transactions through illicit means and manipulation.
At Conservative Party conference
@BrandonLewis
says "It cannot be right that transgender prisoners when convicted of serious sexual offences or those who have not had reassignment surgery are housed in the general women's estate. This will end"
In the end it is up to the UK public to decide whether they want to see their politicians at times of crisis talking in self-crafted promo videos like this, or in a genuine engagement with the broadcast media like ITN, Sky and BBC News.
.
@PritiPatel
was in Dover today seeing first-hand how Border Force officers are intercepting small boats in the Channel.
We are committed to tackling this issue and working with the French government to make this route completely unviable.
Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (Tommy Robinson) has lost the preliminary stage of a libel case to do with two videos in which he said a 16-yr-old Syrian boy was part of a gang which had beaten a young girl black and blue, and said the boy had also threatened to stab another child.
Apart from getting the name of the suburb wrong, the number of jihadists wrong, the number of mosques wrong, the location of the murder wrong, the reason for the veil ban wrong, and the profession of the teacher wrong, what was wrong with the original article? 😮
NEW: The Court of Appeal says Shamima Begum should be allowed to come back to the UK to pursue her case "Ms Begum should be allowed to come to the United Kingdom to pursue her appeal albeit subject to such controls as the Secretary of State deems appropriate."
Absolutely shocking from Tim Montgomerie when the BBC has literally led the way with award-winning coverage that exposed the scale of the concentration camps for Uighurs, and at some considerable risk to the staff involved. Shameless.
If the BBC was truly a public service broadcaster China would be receiving at least as much attention as Trump. I guess BBC staffers are more offended by rude Tweets than concentration camps for Uyghurs
Three men have been arrested on suspicion of violent disorder and ABH after the attack on
@OwenJones84
in the early hours of the morning of Saturday 17th August. The three men are aged 39, 34 and 29. They are currently in custody.
Associated Newspapers has now said:
"We utterly and unambiguously refute these preposterous smears which appear to be nothing more than a pre-planned and orchestrated attempt to drag the Mail titles into the phone hacking scandal concerning articles up to 30 years old."
Alexey
@navalny
's lawyer says his court hearing is happening now, in a police station. It appears the Russian authorities do not want a public hearing for the man the President dares not mention by name.
Idiotic, daft story from an increasingly daft newspaper. Workers who have to get to work when there is no public transport (eg Christmas Day) sometimes use minicabs (NOT London taxis.) What is everyone doing over Christmas? Watching TV. Who makes the TV? The BBC.
"These unsubstantiated and highly defamatory claims - based on no credible evidence - appear to be simply a fishing expedition by claimants and their lawyers, some of whom have already pursued cases elsewhere."
Two large fires in Russia today. One at the Second Central Research Institute of the Russian Air and Space Forces, in Tver. The other at the Dmitrievsky Chemical Plant, in Kineshma.
NHS: “We are pleased to be able to inform you that Yulia Skripal is improving rapidly and is no longer in a critical condition. Her condition is now stable.”
As people adjust to the news think of this:
-A new head on the stamps
-A new face on the money
-New initials on the post boxes
-No more Queen's Speech or Queen's Counsel
-Formal toasts will toast "The King"
-The heir to the throne and the Prince of Wales will be William.
Somehow pro-Govt LifeNews and Rossiya had advance warning of the hearing in the police station and are present. No other media appear to have known in advance
BUT there are many aggravating features in this case. Not least of all that he abused his position as a serving police officer, but also the abduction and rape. So even if the starting point is not whole life it could start to creep up towards that.
After an investigation by the FBI and the UK's National Crime Agency, Maksim Yakubets has been named as the group's leader, and Igor Turashev as a key administrator.
Boris Johnson's new catchphrase "Hands, Face, Space" (and get a test if you have symptoms). So wash your hands, cover your face, keep your social distance.
Liverpool is just an example of how the number of Covd-19 infections has ballooned in a fortnight. Everyone really needs to start remembering all the rules. Hand-washing, masks, distancing, minimising unnecessary contact. How did we forget so soon?
If the suspect (who has now been arrested) is charged, police will name him. The court will then decide if he did it or not. The principle of innocent until proven guilty is a long-standing one in English law.
The Home Secretary Priti Patel says Ukraine has asked that Russia is suspended from Interpol and "we will be leading all international effort to that effect."
Pictures from inside Napier barracks asylum “contingency” accommodation released by inspectors today. This was where young men were sleeping during a pandemic.
Extraordinary that at the same time that some European countries are struggling to persuade people to have the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine it is doing BETTER than the Pfizer vaccine in a real world scenario in Scotland
Best press release of the day, by a country mile. The Botswanan government asking the US government to clarify if Botswana (which is fantastic by the way) is a "shithole country"
Here is my voice: the statement below is wrong. A plan to reopen schools and businesses and return to our normal lives through mass vaccination and testing is endlessly discussed by ministers and their expert advisors...along with the need to avoid 100s of thousands of deaths.
Your regular reminder that there is no end to lockdowns.
There is no exit strategy, no plan to reopen schools & businesses, to return to our normal lives.
There will *always* be another reason to remain in lockdown.
This will never end until we decide it does. Use your voice.
As well as his alleged criminality, Maksim Yakubets is said by the US authorities to have worked for the FSB - a leading Russian intelligence organisation and one of the successors to the KGB.
Court 1 at Westminster Magistrates Court is now in session. The Julian Assange case is not up yet but the lawyers for the Crown Prosecution Service (acting for the US government) are in court.
This just does not seem to be part of the Russian calculation. How will they control a country or even parts of a country that will never forgive them?
It's with great sadness we're letting you know that after a careful investigation into the image 'The night raider', we have disqualified the photograph. It was the winner of the 2017 Animals in Their Environment category. More info here:
They say Yaubets "provides direct assistance to the Russian government's mailicious cyber efforts, highlighting the Russian government's enlistment of cybercriminals for its own malicious purposes."
Well either the Russian news agency has amazing sources or this is a shocking lie. RIA Novosti claims Boris Johnson will have “artificial lung ventilation”. Assuming this is untrue, it is a truly dreadful bit of misinformation
a) the murder of two people or more and when they involve sex, premeditation or abduction
b) the murder of a child if it involved sex/abduction
c) the murder of a police /prison officer on duty
d) ideological murder
e) a murder after a previous murder conviction
A really shocking
@policeconduct
report into the culture at Charing Cross police station in London's West end - "We believe these incidents are not isolated or simply the behaviour of a few 'bad apples'"
Julian Assange will next appear on the 2nd of May by video link at this court on the extradition matter. He will next appear on the bail offence at Southwark Crown Court on a date to be announced. Hearing over.
Fairly disgraceful that the Covid Inquiry doesn't sit until 10am, doesn't work past 5pm, and doesn't sit on Fridays.
Dragging this on for far longer than necessary, and at greater cost as a result.
What a microcosm of government efficiency.
The government is being threatened with legal action over its failure to give visas to a female judge and a female MP from Afghanistan
Both women are still in Afghanistan and are being assisted by a team of lawyers in Britain who are acting for free (“pro bono”.)