Yahoo Finance Friday briefing: Blair – next time we need vaccine in 100 days
Top story: Queen – jab won’t hurt so think of others
Hello, Warren Murray here – let’s launch headlong together into Friday’s news.
World leaders could have cut the length of the Covid outbreak by three months if they had collaborated on vaccines, testing and drugs, Tony Blair has said. A report published by the former PM’s thinktank argues that in future a new vaccine could be created in as little as 100 days. Blair is urging the UK to lead development of a “health security infrastructure” to identify emerging new threats and come up with vaccines and treatments. “Number one, you have to prepare for the potential of this happening again, or with different variants of this particular virus. And number two, you cannot afford to take this long to get on top of it.”
Headteachers fear the reopening of England’s schools could be undermined because parents will not consent to Covid testing for their children and wearing face masks is not enforceable. The school standards minister, Nick Gibb, has admitted neither measure is compulsory. One headteacher in Kent said some schools had received consent for testing from only 35%-40% of parents.
The Queen has zoomed into the vaccine debate. On a video call she praised health workers and urged Britons to “think about other people rather than themselves” and get their Covid vaccination. Describing her own experience, she said: “It was very quick, and I’ve had lots of letters from people who have been very surprised at how easy it was to get the vaccine. And the jab – it didn’t hurt at all.”
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MBS facing Khashoggi reckoning – Joe Biden has spoken with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman for the first time as president, with the US about to release an intelligence report likely to blame Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. The dissident and Washington Post columnist was never seen again after he was lured to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The White House has suggested that it is preparing to take further actions against those it deems responsible. The White House has made clear Biden considers the 85-year-old king his counterpart, not MBS, who runs an increasingly repressive regime in Riyadh. Separately the US has confirmed it carried out airstrikes in Syria targeting the facilities of Iranian-backed militia groups near the Iraqi border. The Pentagon said the strikes were retaliation for a deadly rocket attack in Iraq this month. The airstrikes are the first military action undertaken by the Biden administration.
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Labour sheds Corbyn nuclear doubt – Labour’s commitment to the UK having nuclear weapons is “non-negotiable”, its shadow defence minister, John Healey, is expected to say in a speech today. Jeremy Corbyn’s public doubts over nuclear weapons and Nato are seen by some within Labour as having damaged its reputation with certain voters. Healey will stress the party’s commitment to the North Atlantic alliance, and to maintaining a viable UK defence industry. Labour’s 2017 and 2019 manifestos pledged to support the renewal of the Trident nuclear submarine system after Corbyn was obliged to compromise, writes Peter Walker.
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Stop and search slammed – A watchdog has castigated police forces over stop and search, saying that 35 years after the power was introduced they are still unable to explain why black people are nine times more likely to be targeted. The Inspectorate of Constabulary says in a report published today that public trust is in danger. Barely one in 10 stops are based on intelligence, most relying on officers’ suspicions, according to the report. Stop and search is a longstanding flashpoint in British policing. Incidents last year in which innocent black people were stopped and sometimes handcuffed, including the champion athlete Bianca Williams, put community relations under significant strain.
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‘Never asked him to step aside’ – Britney Spears has not asked her father to give up his legal custodianship of her affairs, the lawyer for Jamie Spears has said. The pop star’s career, finances and some of her personal affairs have been controlled by Jamie Spears since 2008 when she had a public mental health crisis. His lawyer, Vivian Thoreen, has told Good Morning America that during the pandemic Spears and her father had spent “two weeks with other family members, hunkered down in Louisiana … In that time, Britney never expressed those words to her father. She’s never asked him to step aside.” It has been claimed that Spears’ estate under her father’s care has grown from $2.8m to $60m. Thoreen said: “Britney’s assets were clearly being mismanaged and she was being taken advantage of financially by some of those around her.” Another hearing on Spears’ conservatorship is due to take place in Los Angeles next month.
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Brown is the new green – Thousands of homes in south-west London could soon be part of England’s first poo-powered district heating scheme. Thames Water hopes to harvest the heat of human waste from its treatment plant in Kingston upon Thames to warm more than 2,000 new homes in the borough’s Cambridge Road estate. Typically the water company flushes the clean, warm water from treated sewage back into a local river system. Under the new plan it will extract that heat to warm up water (entirely separate water, you understand) destined for the heating systems of local homes. Meanwhile the government’s flagship green homes grant scheme will help just 8% of its target 600,000 households switch to renewable energy by the end of March, analysis reveals. The £2bn scheme is being withdrawn at the end of next month.
Today in Focus podcast: UK music’s worst year ever?
Guardian music writer Laura Snapes, singer-songwriter Arlo Parks and musician Nitin Sawhney discuss the impact of Covid, Brexit and the “streaming economy”.
Lunchtime read: Alice Cooper and Detroit debauchery
When the shock-rocker returned to the place of his birth in the 60s, he found a raw paradise of unsegregated rock’n’roll. As Cooper releases an album celebrating the city, he and his peers relive one of the greatest music scenes in the US.
Sport
England captain Joe Root insisted it was up to the International Cricket Council to decide whether the pitch in Ahmedabad was fit for purpose following a punishing third Test defeat to India inside two days, the inquest into which will yield no easy answers. British Gymnastics is facing an unprecedented class-action lawsuit from 17 former gymnasts, who allege there was widespread physical and psychological abuse deployed by coaches on children as young as six as part of a “win at all costs” mentality in the sport. Former US Olympic gymnastics coach John Geddert, who was charged on Thursday with human trafficking and sexual assault, has since taken his own life, authorities said.
Leicester slumped out of the Europa League with a whimper, falling to a deserved 2-0 defeat by Slavia Prague. But Manchester United coasted into the last 16 after a goalless draw against Real Sociedad to progress 4-0 on aggregate, and Arsenal moved through 4-3 on aggregate after Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang headed in an 87th-minute winner in a 3-2 win over Benfica. Rangers also booked their place in the next round after Ryan Kent and Borna Barisic were both on the scoresheet in a 5-2 win over Antwerp and a 9-5 aggregate victory. George North will win his 100th cap this weekend as Wayne Pivac selected the most experienced team in Wales’ history to take on England in the Six Nations. The double Olympic 800m champion Caster Semenya has filed an application to the European court of human rights in a final bid to save her career and overturn the ban on her defending her title at Tokyo. German officials have lamented the decision by the International Olympic Committee to make Brisbane’s bid their preferred partner for the 2032 Games.
Business
Asia-Pacific shares have skidded after rising bond yields triggered a sell-off on Wall Street that erased the markets’ gain for the week and handed the Nasdaq composite index its steepest loss since October. Tokyo, Hong Kong and Sydney all fell 2% or more in early trading today, leading losses across regional markets. Expect the FTSE to open lower by upwards of 1%. The pound is worth $1.395 and €1.148 at time of writing.
The papers
Our Guardian print edition leads this morning with “Climate impact fears as Atlantic weather system weakens”. The Atlantic Ocean current underpinning the Gulf Stream, the weather system that brings warm and mild weather to Europe, is at its weakest in more than a millennium and climate breakdown is the probable cause, according to new data (remember that movie with Jake Gyllenhaal?). Our picture lead is Lady Gaga offering a $500,000 reward after robbers shot and wounded her dog walker and stole Koji and Gustav, the singer’s french bulldogs.
A command performance today as many of the others relay Her Majesty’s instruction to get vaccinated. The Express seems a little over the top: “Queen’s shock message: get your jab” – apparently this is a stunning and “rare royal intervention”. The Mail has “Queen: it’s selfish not to have jab” also calling it an “astonishing intervention”.
Others are less stuffy about precedent. “One is not immune” says the Metro, while the Sun goes with “One’s had one’s jab and one’s … RIGHT AS REIGN”. “Do one’s duty” is the “Queen’s vaccine plea” in the Mirror. The Telegraph is joyless: “Queen says refusing vaccine is selfish”. The Times continues to prime the pump with “Sunak’s tax raid on pensioners”– it says the lifetime allowance for pension pot savings will be frozen during this parliament at just over £1m in next week’s budget. The Metro has “No NHS pay rise in Budget”.
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