Babak Belurs

Jumat, 01 Mei 2020

Meghan loses first High Court fight against Mail On Sunday - Sky News

The Duchess of Sussex has lost the first High Court fight against the publishers of The Mail On Sunday.

The case is focused on the newspaper's publication of a letter that Meghan wrote to her estranged father, Thomas Markle.

In a ruling on Friday, Mr Justice Warby struck out parts of the duchess's claim against the Mail on Sunday's publisher, Associated Newspapers, including allegations that it acted "dishonestly" by leaving out certain passages of the letter.

The judge also struck out allegations that the publisher deliberately "stirred up" issues between Meghan and her father, and that it had an "agenda" of publishing intrusive or offensive stories about her.

Mr Justice Warby said those allegations should not form part of her case at this stage, because they were "irrelevant" to her claim for misuse of private information, copyright infringement and breach of the Data Protection Act.

However, he said those parts of her case may be revived at a later stage, if they are put on a proper legal basis.

A spokesman for the Duchess of Sussex said the ruling "makes very clear that the core elements of this case do not change and will continue to move forward".

He added: "Whilst the judge recognises that there is a claim for breach of privacy and copyright, we are surprised to see that his ruling suggests that dishonest behaviour is not relevant."

Meghan is suing Associated Newspapers over five articles, two in the Mail on Sunday and three on MailOnline, which were published in February 2019.

The articles reproduced parts of a handwritten letter she sent to her father Thomas in August 2018.

A preliminary hearing, in which lawyers for the publisher asked for parts of the Meghan's case to be struck out, was held last week.

The judge sat at the Royal Courts of Justice in London and lawyers and reporters attended remotely.

It is understood that the Meghan and her husband the Duke of Sussex listened online to the parts of the hearing.

The duchess is seeking damages from Associated Newspapers for alleged misuse of private information, copyright infringement and breach of the Data Protection Act.

Meghan has previously said any damages she may be awarded if she wins her case will be donated to an anti-bullying charity.

Associated Newspapers wholly denies the allegations, particularly the claim that the letter was edited in any way that changed its meaning, and says it will hotly contest the case.

Sections of the letter were published in the newspaper and online in February last year, and it was announced in October that the duchess would be taking legal action.

The headline on the main article read: "Revealed: The letter showing true tragedy of Meghan's rift with a father she says has 'broken her heart into a million pieces'".

No date has been set for any further hearing in the case and it is not known when a full trial of the issues is expected to take place.

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2020-05-01 11:13:53Z
52780755753278

Ryanair to axe up to 3,000 jobs as it warns over slow recovery - Financial Times

Ryanair is preparing to cut up to 15 per cent of its 19,000 workforce as it becomes the latest airline to warn that the aviation industry faces a slow recovery from the upheaval wrought by coronavirus.

Europe’s largest low-cost carrier said it expected it would take at least two years for a return to last year’s levels of passenger demand and pricing, as it laid out plans to cut further costs.

Michael O’Leary, Ryanair’s outspoken chief executive, said his outlook on the recovery had changed over the past week in light of the €9bn bailout Air France-KLM had won from the French and Dutch governments, and the state aid Lufthansa is expected to receive.

He said the “whole competitive market has now been completely turned on its head”.

“The weakest airlines going into the crisis — Lufthansa, Air France, KLM, Alitalia — who were going to in normal circumstances have to restructure and retrench are now going to be enormously enriched with this state aid doping. I think what we are facing now is that . . . they’ll be able to make life very difficult for the well-run airlines like ourselves, BA and easyJet.”

Mr O’Leary said Ryanair had to respond by downsizing the airline for the next 12 months. “Unless we have materially lower costs for the next 12-24 months, we won’t be able to operate successfully in a market where air fares are going to be materially lower.”

Ryanair intends to axe as many as 3,000 pilot and cabin crew jobs, and introduce pay cuts of up to 20 per cent as well as close a number of aircraft bases around Europe until air travel recovers. Mr O’Leary will extend his 50 per cent pay cut for the remainder of the financial year to March 2021.

He said it probably should be considering job cuts of up a third of its workforce, and could not rule out further reductions later, but said it was attempting to preserve jobs.

Ryanair’s comments come as any optimism over a speedy recovery for the industry is evaporating, forcing carriers to move from furloughing workers to making redundancies.

On Tuesday, British Airways revealed plans to axe almost 30 per cent of its 42,000-strong workforce after its parent company IAG warned that it could take several years to return to 2019 traffic levels. SAS, the Scandinavian airline, said it would permanently cut half — 5,000 — of its staff.

Ryanair on Friday said it expected to carry no more than 50 per cent of its original traffic target of 44.6m passengers between July and September. For the full year, ending March 2021, it is forecasting fewer than 100m passengers — 35 per cent below its original target of 154m.

In April, May and June, it expects to carry just 150,000 passengers — 99.5 per cent short of its previous target of 42.4m passengers.

The carrier said it was also reviewing its growth plans and aircraft orders, adding that it was in “active negotiations” with both Boeing and Laudamotion’s A320 lessors to cut the number of planned aircraft deliveries over the next 24 months.

The market update comes just a week after Mr O’Leary gave a bullish outlook for a recovery in air travel, outlining plans for the airline to resume 80 per cent of flights by September, provided that flying in Europe could restart from early July. However, he admitted that these planes would have low load factors.

On Friday, Mr O’Leary said there was still a chance Ryanair could reach 2019 traffic volumes by next summer but said it would take until 2022 for 2019 pricing levels to return.

He confirmed Ryanair had also filed a legal complaint to the European Commission over its state aid concerns, and said it would launch legal action by the end of the month.

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2020-05-01 09:37:51Z
52780758797202

Lockdown may stay for months until new cases fall below 1,000 a day as chief medic warns 2nd peak could be - The Sun

THE coronavirus lockdown could stay in place for months until the number of new cases falls below 1,000 a day.

There was a leap in the number of new daily cases to 6,032 from 4,076 and ministers want this figure to be in the hundreds before easing any lockdown measures.

⚠️ Read our coronavirus live blog for the latest news & updates

Britain's coronavirus lockdown could last months - as Professor Chris Whitty warned a second peak could be worse than the firstCredit: London News Pictures

Ministers want the coronavirus daily case rate to be below 1,000 before easing lockdown measuresCredit: PA:Press Association

According to the Daily Telegraph, some ministers were concerned after seeing Germany’s infection rate increase after easing its lockdown.

Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty also hinted a second peak could be worse than the first as the UK death toll topped 26,000.

He also said the eradication of coronavirus is "technically impossible".

Prof Whitty warned a video conference hosted by Gresham College: "Covid-19 is a very long way from finished and eradication is technically impossible for this disease."

The total number of cases in the UK has topped 171,000 and Britain has not experienced a three-figure case rise since March 23.

SECOND PEAK?

It comes after Boris Johnson last night declared the UK has passed its coronavirus peak - as he promised to unveil a masterplan to exit lockdown next week.

The PM’s three-pronged blueprint will reveal how the economy can be restarted, children will be able to return to school and people can travel to work again safely.

Mr Johnson insisted the virus is still too widespread for any relaxation of the tough restrictions, declaring that “dates and times will very much depend on the data”.

And last night, he joined in the Clap for Carers from outside No10. He also:

The latest data yesterday revealed new cases have more than halved since the numeric peak on Good Friday, and the new daily death toll of 674 has also halved since then.

While the toll stands at 26,771, it was still well below the worst-case scenario of 500,000, the PM argued.

The PM also insisted the key to when the lockdown will end will be what effect actions have on the rate of the virus’s transmission — known as R, for reproduction.

It is entirely plausible for a second wave to actually be more severe than the first if it is not mitigated.
Prof Chris Whitty

Prof Whitty echoed Mr Johnson’s statement on the R rate – currently between 0.6 and 0.9 – and said we need to keep it below one to ensure we don’t get another killer outbreak.

He said: “We need to make sure that R does not go back above one. Because if not we will go back to a second wave.

“It is entirely plausible for a second wave to actually be more severe than the first if it is not mitigated.”

He added: “It’s not just in Game of Thrones that winter is always coming...
“The winter is always worse than summer, spring and autumn for health services.”

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Mr Johnson said yesterday: “I can confirm today for the first time that we are past the peak of this disease, and on the downward slope.

“Or rather, we’ve come under what could have been a vast peak, as though we’ve been going through some huge alpine tunnel and we can now see the sunlight and pasture ahead of us.”

“It is vital that we do not now lose control and run slap into a second and even bigger mountain.”

Calling for another huge heave of “collective discipline”, the PM said: “I know we can do it, because we did it, we’ve shown we can do it, in phase one of this disease.

“This country came together in a way few of us have seen in our lifetimes.”

Covid-19’s R rate was at three when the lockdown was ordered on March 23.

If R is higher than one, it means any infected person will pass on the virus to more than one other — and the bug could spread rapidly again in a fresh outbreak.

But if R can be kept under one, the disease should eventually fade away as not enough new people are infected to sustain it.

Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty, right, warned a second peak could be worseCredit: PA:Press Association

The PM’s three-pronged blueprint will reveal how the economy can be restartedCredit: crown copyright

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Boris Johnson rules out austerity to balance the books if coronavirus crisis damages the economy

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2020-05-01 07:40:18Z
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Coronavirus: UK likely to be 'very close' to meeting COVID-19 testing target - Sky News

The government will either meet its coronavirus testing target or be "very close", a minister has told Sky News.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock had pledged that the UK would be conducting 100,000 tests for COVID-19 by the end of April.

Speaking at the government's daily coronavirus press conference, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said 81,611 tests had been carried out on Wednesday.

Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick said Thursday's figures would be released later.

"I think we will have either met it or be very close," he told Sky News.

"In that sense the target will have succeeded because it will have galvanised people across government, in the private sector and across the country to build the network that we needed to, which is the foundation of testing, tracking and tracing, which we need in the next phase of fighting the virus."

He added: "This in itself is just a stepping stone.

"We need to go beyond 100,000, but we have now seen a very substantial increase in testing in quite a short period of time.

"In that sense, it's been a success. But there's more to be done."

Cabinet colleague Robert Buckland told Sky News on Thursday it was "probable" that the UK would not meet the target.

However, he did say the milestone would be hit in the "next few days".

NHS Providers, which represents hospitals and NHS trusts in England, has previously said the target is a "red herring" which distracts from shortcomings in the long-term COVID-19 strategy.

Mr Buckland was speaking after the PM led his first daily coronavirus news conference in more than a month following his recovery from COVID-19.

Mr Johnson said the UK was past the peak of infections and promised to set out a "comprehensive plan" next week for how the lockdown could be eased.

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2020-05-01 06:33:37Z
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Kamis, 30 April 2020

Coronavirus: Have we met the government's five tests for easing lockdown? - The Loppy

news.sky.com

Boris Johnson has promised he will set out a “road map” for easing lockdown restrictions next week, after saying the UK has passed the peak of coronavirus infections.

Members of the public have called for a cautious approach to easing the lockdown, with a third of people saying it should not happen until there has been a substantial fall in daily deaths, according to a YouGov survey.

A further 37% said it should not be eased until even tougher targets had been met, including until there were no new reported cases, antibody tests easily available, or until a vaccine is available.

The government has its own tests for easing the lockdown – but has it met them?

Test One: The NHS has the capacity to provide critical care right across the UK

Firstly, the government will look at whether there is the capacity to care for seriously ill coronavirus patients.

This can be measured by the number of spare beds in intensive care.

The NHS has managed to roughly double its ICU capacity in its pre-existing hospitals to 1,555.

Hospitals have not been overwhelmed by patients so far, and there has also been the addition of NHS Nightingale hospitals in some parts of the country, which are designed as overspill facilities.

The Nightingale Hospitals have the capacity to treat thousands of COVID-19 sufferers, but so far reports suggest they have admitted few patients – something taken by many as a win.

However, there has been some criticism that the increased capacity to treat coronavirus patients has come at the expense of other care, including cancer treatments.

In spite of this, this test appears to have been met.

Test Two: A sustained and consistent fall in daily deaths from coronavirus

The number of daily deaths – though closely watched – is likely to be the last to show improvement.

This is because the delay between someone becoming infected and either recovering or dying can be around three to four weeks.

It is estimated that England’s daily hospital death toll peaked around 8 April and has been steadily falling since.

On Monday, the UK reported 350 deaths with coronavirus in hospitals. Although figures do tend to drop on Mondays because of a weekend lag, this was much lower than on previous Mondays.

The picture has become less clear now that deaths in the community are included, and there are some suggestions care homes could become the new epicentres of transmission.

It seems more data is needed to be clear whether this test has been met.

Test Three: The rate of infection decreased to manageable levels across the board

The infection rate, or “R” value, means the number of people that each person who contracts the virus ends up infecting.

The R is currently thought to be somewhere between 0.6 and 0.9.

The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus has been steadily decreasing, although it is accepted that the true number of cases is likely to be much higher than the reported amount.

This is due to the amount of testing, which is currently aimed at key workers and those seriously ill in hospital.

Another way of finding out if infection rate might be down is looking at the number of hospital admissions.

England’s chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said: “The number of new cases is down, that’s turning into fewer admissions, fewer people in hospital, fewer people in intensive care and we’re beginning to see that decrease in deaths.”

It is likely the rate of infection has decreased satisfactorily, but Sir Patrick said the number of people admitted to hospital still needs to decrease.

Test Four: Operational challenges including testing and PPE are in hand, with supply able to meet future demand

The government is close to hitting its target of testing 100,000 people a day, which it had set for the end of April.

Figures show 81,611 tests were carried out on Wednesday, though due to a time lag in reporting it is not yet clear whether the target was met.

Work has also started on a contract tracing app which will alert people if they have come into close contact with someone with symptoms, but this is not expected to be rolled out until next week.

:: Listen to the Daily podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker

More than a billion items of personal protective equipment (PPE) have been distributed, but there are still concerns among health care workers about shortages.

There may be challenges in sourcing PPE for some time, as numerous countries are trying to obtain equipment.

So far, it looks like this test has not been met.

Test Five: Confident that any adjustments to the current measures will not risk a second peak of infections that overwhelms the NHS

The prime minister has stressed that in order to “avoid disaster”, the fifth test means the R value should not raise above one.

Boris Johnson said he would not risk a second peak by relaxing restrictions too quickly, but did say the public will soon be told when certain lockdown measures can be relaxed, based on a series of options raised by the government’s scientific advisers.

Downing Street was forced to deny it had relaxed the fifth test, as the rule had initially stated “confident that any adjustments to the current measures will not risk a second peak of infections”.

It was later amended to add that the peak of infections should not “overwhelm the NHS”.

Number 10 said the wording had simply been revised to match the words of Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab on 16 April.

We currently don’t know for sure what these relaxation measures will be, so it is difficult to judge whether this test has been met.

Source

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2020-05-01 04:55:46Z
CAIiEKNax9RRtOt0WN4tQfwrZGUqGQgEKhAIACoHCAow5OeYCzD08bADMP2x0gY

Coronavirus: Have we met the government's five tests for easing lockdown? - Sky News

Boris Johnson has promised he will set out a "road map" for easing lockdown restrictions next week, after saying the UK has passed the peak of coronavirus infections.

A further 37% said it should not be eased until even tougher targets had been met, including until there were no new reported cases, antibody tests easily available, or until a vaccine is available.

The government has its own tests for easing the lockdown - but has it met them?

Test One: The NHS has the capacity to provide critical care right across the UK

Firstly, the government will look at whether there is the capacity to care for seriously ill coronavirus patients.

This can be measured by the number of spare beds in intensive care.

The NHS has managed to roughly double its ICU capacity in its pre-existing hospitals to 1,555.

Hospitals have not been overwhelmed by patients so far, and there has also been the addition of NHS Nightingale hospitals in some parts of the country, which are designed as overspill facilities.

The Nightingale Hospitals have the capacity to treat thousands of COVID-19 sufferers, but so far reports suggest they have admitted few patients - something taken by many as a win.

However, there has been some criticism that the increased capacity to treat coronavirus patients has come at the expense of other care, including cancer treatments.

In spite of this, this test appears to have been met.

Test Two: A sustained and consistent fall in daily deaths from coronavirus

The number of daily deaths - though closely watched - is likely to be the last to show improvement.

This is because the delay between someone becoming infected and either recovering or dying can be around three to four weeks.

It is estimated that England's daily hospital death toll peaked around 8 April and has been steadily falling since.

On Monday, the UK reported 350 deaths with coronavirus in hospitals. Although figures do tend to drop on Mondays because of a weekend lag, this was much lower than on previous Mondays.

The picture has become less clear now that deaths in the community are included, and there are some suggestions care homes could become the new epicentres of transmission.

It seems more data is needed to be clear whether this test has been met.

Test Three: The rate of infection decreased to manageable levels across the board

The infection rate, or "R" value, means the number of people that each person who contracts the virus ends up infecting.

The R is currently thought to be somewhere between 0.6 and 0.9.

The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus has been steadily decreasing, although it is accepted that the true number of cases is likely to be much higher than the reported amount.

This is due to the amount of testing, which is currently aimed at key workers and those seriously ill in hospital.

Another way of finding out if infection rate might be down is looking at the number of hospital admissions.

England's chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said: "The number of new cases is down, that's turning into fewer admissions, fewer people in hospital, fewer people in intensive care and we're beginning to see that decrease in deaths."

It is likely the rate of infection has decreased satisfactorily, but Sir Patrick said the number of people admitted to hospital still needs to decrease.

Test Four: Operational challenges including testing and PPE are in hand, with supply able to meet future demand

The government is close to hitting its target of testing 100,000 people a day, which it had set for the end of April.

Figures show 81,611 tests were carried out on Wednesday, though due to a time lag in reporting it is not yet clear whether the target was met.

Work has also started on a contract tracing app which will alert people if they have come into close contact with someone with symptoms, but this is not expected to be rolled out until next week.

:: Listen to the Daily podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker

More than a billion items of personal protective equipment (PPE) have been distributed, but there are still concerns among health care workers about shortages.

There may be challenges in sourcing PPE for some time, as numerous countries are trying to obtain equipment.

So far, it looks like this test has not been met.

Test Five: Confident that any adjustments to the current measures will not risk a second peak of infections that overwhelms the NHS

The prime minister has stressed that in order to "avoid disaster", the fifth test means the R value should not raise above one.

Downing Street was forced to deny it had relaxed the fifth test, as the rule had initially stated "confident that any adjustments to the current measures will not risk a second peak of infections".

It was later amended to add that the peak of infections should not "overwhelm the NHS".

Number 10 said the wording had simply been revised to match the words of Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab on 16 April.

We currently don't know for sure what these relaxation measures will be, so it is difficult to judge whether this test has been met.

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2020-05-01 03:35:06Z
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Coronavirus: UK 'quite likely' to get close to or hit 100,00 tests target - Shapps - NewsEverything

The UK is “quite likely to get very close to or meet” its target of 100,000 daily coronavirus tests, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has said.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the government would achieve the aim by the end of April – which was Thursday – and those figures are expected later.

Just over 81,000 tests took place on Wednesday, but Mr Shapps told Question Time there had been capacity for more.

It comes as the PM said the UK was now “past the peak” of the outbreak.

Speaking about the target for daily tests on Thursday night, Mr Shapps said that “the point is to have available tests”.

He continued: “At the beginning of the week we only had 5,000 home tests available, we now have 20,000 available and it’s the reason we are quite likely to get very close to or meet the 100,000 target.”

A government source also told the BBC they were “fairly confident” that testing numbers “will be where our projections forecasted them to be”.

“But you can never take anything for granted,” they added.

‘Comprehensive plan’

Speaking at the No 10 briefing for the first time since receiving hospital treatment for Covid-19, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the government was “massively ramping” up testing, and that the country was now “past the peak of this disease”.

The PM added he would set out a “comprehensive plan” next week on how to restart the economy, reopen schools and help people travel to work following the coronavirus lockdown.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer welcomed the prime minister’s commitment to outline a plan next week as “a step in the right direction”.

Some 26,771 people have now died with the virus in the UK, a rise of 674.

Media captionBoris Johnson: UK is “past the peak of this disease”

Mr Johnson said that to avoid the “disaster” of a second peak the UK must keep the R rate – the number of people to which one infected person will pass the virus – below one.

Coronavirus: Is R the crucial number?

BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg asked at what level the reproduction rate should be before the government would be “comfortable easing restrictions”.

The government’s chief medical adviser, Prof Chris Whitty, replied: “We are absolutely confident that the wrong answer is anything over one.”

He explained that as soon as the R rises above one you “restart exponential growth” and “sooner or later” the NHS would be at the risk of being overwhelmed. The current rate is thought to be between 0.6 and 0.9 across the country.

The government has set out five tests that must be met before lockdown restrictions can be eased, including:

making sure the NHS can cope
a “sustained and consistent” fall in the daily death rate
rate of infection decreasing to “manageable levels”
ensuring supply of tests and PPE can meet future demand
and being confident any adjustments would not risk a second peak “that overwhelms the NHS”

Image copyright
EPA

Image caption

Mr Johnson was among those joining in the nationwide Clap for Carers on Thursday evening

The prime minister said it was “vital” to avoid a second peak “because that would really do economic damage”, adding that the UK must “unlock the economy gradually” while also finding ways of continuing to suppress the disease.

He said dates and times of each individual measure would be driven “by where we are in the epidemic”, and said the government was “being guided by the science”.

“What you’re going to get next week is really a road map, a menu of options,” Mr Johnson said.

Face masks

Mr Johnson also said face coverings will be “useful” as part of the strategy for coming out of lockdown “both for epidemiological reasons but also giving people confidence they can go back to work”.

The Scottish government already recommends people use face coverings when in shops and on public transport.

And Mr Shapps told Question Time there was a “live discussion” within government about introducing new quarantine measures at airports for people coming into the country.

Also on the BBC One programme, former chancellor George Osborne said the country did not have testing “as quick as we’d like” and went into lockdown too late, but added: “The hospitals haven’t fallen over and the capacity has been built.”

Media captionFor the sixth week in a row people across the UK clapped for carers

Meanwhile, people across the country have taken part in the sixth Clap for Carers tribute to thank the NHS staff and care workers.

Mr Johnson was pictured clapping outside No 10, while fiancee Carrie Symonds – who gave birth to the couple’s son on Wednesday – tweeted she was joining in the clap and had “another wonderful reason to thank the NHS this week too”.

During the briefing, Mr Johnson also thanked the NHS and referenced his “very much happier hospital visit yesterday”.

The total number of deaths of people who have tested positive for Covid-19 in UK hospitals and the wider community is now 26,771, according to data published by the Department of Health and Social Care.

This is different to the total of 26,711 initially announced by Mr Johnson at the briefing.

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2020-05-01 03:20:55Z
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Jumat, 01 Mei 2020

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