Sensitive sites and technology will be made more secure to allow Britain to trade with an increasingly powerful China, a landmark defence, security and foreign policy review says today.
China poses the “biggest state-based threat” to the UK’s economic security and presents a “systemic challenge” to British prosperity and values, according to a copy of the report that was leaked before publication to The Times.
The 100-page document, Global Britain in a Competitive Age, will say that China’s military modernisation and growing international assertiveness in the Pacific region and beyond will pose an “increasing risk to UK interests”.
It says that Britain will “not hesitate” to stand up for its values and will increase protection of critical infrastructure, such as the national grid,
Three bodies have been found in the search for fishermen who went missing six weeks ago.
The families of Ross Ballantine, 39, Skipper Carl McGrath, 34, and Alan Minard, 20, have been informed after police discovered three bodies off the English coast at the weekend.
The men went missing on January 27 after setting off onboard the Nicola Faith from Conwy, North Wales.
Alan Minard (Image: Just Giving page)
Carl McGrath (Image: Just Giving page)
When they failed to return the following day a major RNLI and HM Coastguard search was launched but despite exhaustive efforts, no trace was found.
A life raft belonging to the boat then washed ashore in Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland, two weeks ago.
Police today confirmed they had discovered three bodies in the search for the missing trio as their families were being supported.
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The former Glasgow University student said the family would be unable to grieve until they had answers.
A Just Giving page was set up by the families of the missing men to pay for a private search by leading oceanographer David Mearns who helped recover the plane carrying tragic Cardiff City footballer Emiliano Sala in February 2019.
The page raised over £55,000 to aid the efforts.
A North Wales Police statement said: "We are aware that the bodies of three men have been recovered from the coastline off the Wirral and Blackpool over the weekend.
"We have been in contact with colleagues from both Merseyside and Lancashire Police, and we await the outcome of the Home Office postmortem examinations.
"The families of the missing crew members from the vessel ‘Nicola Faith’ have been kept informed, and continue to be supported by specialist officers.
"We would request that they are given the necessary privacy at this difficult time."
A probationary Met officer involved in the search for Sarah Everard has been removed from duties for allegedly sharing an "inappropriate graphic".
The force said a graphic was shared via social media on Friday and was reported by a number of officers "who were concerned by its content".
The PC has been placed in a non-public facing role and a referral has been made to the police watchdog.
The Met said it expected officers "to behave professionally at all times".
The constable had been deployed as a cordon officer supporting the search operation in Kent, but they have been "placed in a non-public facing role while inquiries continue".
"Given the context of the officer's duties at the time, a voluntary referral has been made to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) in relation to this matter," the force said.
PA Media
The Met added that the graphic did not "contain photographic images, no images of Sarah, nor any other material obtained from or related to the investigation into Sarah's murder", but her family had been made aware of what had happened.
Assistant Commissioner Nick Ephgrave said the force "expects its officers to behave professionally at all times and this includes how they use social media.
"I take allegations that any officer or officers have failed to observe these standards very seriously and have referred this matter to the IOPC," he added.
Her body was later found in woodland in Kent and Met Police officer Wayne Couzens, 48, has been charged with Ms Everard's kidnap and murder.
The IOPC confirmed it would be "investigating the conduct of a probationary police constable" and said it had also started a separate investigation looking at how Mr Couzens had sustained two head injuries while in custody last week.
In a statement the police watchdog said it had so far "completed assessments into four further matters linked to the tragic death of Sarah Everard".
However, the IOPC said it would not be investigating the actions of officers at the Clapham Common vigil, as called for by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, as "this type of investigation is not within our remit".
"We have discussed this further with the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Service (HMICFRS) to consider how concerns might be included in work being undertaken by HMICFRS," it said.
A probationary Metropolitan Police officer involved in the Sarah Everard search
operation in Kent has been removed from their duties after allegedly sharing an "inappropriate graphic" with colleagues.
The force said a graphic was shared via social media on Friday and was reported by a number of officers "who were concerned by its content".
The probationary police constable, who had been deployed as a cordon officer during the search operation in relation to Ms Everard's murder, has now been placed in a non-public facing role while enquiries continue, according to the Met.
The matter has been referred to the police watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
Image:The matter has been referred by Scotland Yard to the police watchdog
The Met said the graphic does not contain photographic images, no images of Ms Everard, nor any other material obtained from or related to the investigation into her murder.
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Ms Everard's family has been made aware of the incident.
Assistant Commissioner Nick Ephgrave said: "The MPS expects its officers to behave professionally at all times and this includes how they use social media.
More from Sarah Everard
"I take allegations that any officer or officers have failed to observe these standards very seriously and have referred this matter to the IOPC."
Police officers investigating Ms Everard's death have been combing a supermarket car park in Sandwich, Kent.
And specialist divers have been seen preparing to search part of the River Stour which runs through the town.
Ms Everard, 33, went missing while walking home from a friend's house in south London on 3 March.
Human remains were found on 10 March in an area of woodland near Ashford, Kent, which were subsequently identified as Ms Everard's.
Serving police officer Wayne Couzens, 48, has been charged with the marketing executive's kidnap and murder.
Home Secretary Priti Patel says she understands public anger over Sarah Everard's death, but warned against protests while Covid restrictions are in place.
It comes as hundreds of people gathered in London's Parliament Square on Monday to pay tribute to Ms Everard.
Ms Patel told MPs her heartache and that of others could be summed up as "she was just walking home".
She stressed that she was committed to listening to women and girls.
Hundreds of people had gathered on London's Clapham Common to lay flowers and pay their respects to the 33-year-old marketing executive, who went missing while walking home from a friend's house on 3 March.
Her body was later found in woodland in Kent and Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens, 48, has been charged with Ms Everard's kidnap and murder.
Police officers handcuffed and removed a number of women from Saturday's Clapham gathering and arrested four people for public order and Covid offences.
The Met has faced widespread criticism for its handling of that event - but the force's commissioner, Dame Cressida Dick, has rejected a call to step down.
Reclaim these Streets, the group that initially organised the vigil, said on Monday that it had lost confidence in Dame Cressida after talks with her on Monday, claiming that she left after 15 minutes.
Anna Birley of Reclaim these Streets told BBC News: "To be honest Cressida Dick has lost our confidence and the confidence of women in the capital. We didn't want to call on her to resign until we'd at least had a meeting and given her a chance to engage.
"We don't have great confidence in the Met Police's willingness to work with us unless forced to."
Ahead of the event, Reclaim These Streets called off the vigil, saying police had failed to "constructively engage" on how it could be held in a Covid-secure way.
When people gathered anyway, the group pointed out that they did so without the marshalling and other safety measures that had been originally proposed.
On Sunday, there were protests outside the Met Police's headquarters at New Scotland Yard, Downing Street and in Parliament Square.
Speaking in the House of Commons on Monday, Ms Patel said she had made her views about the vigil "very clear" to Dame Cressida before the event.
The home secretary said she had been in touch with the Met Commissioner "on Friday and throughout the weekend", adding that they had had "extensive discussions in terms of planning [and] preparation" for the vigil.
In a statement to MPs, Ms Patel said Ms Everard's death had "rightly ignited anger at the danger posed to women by predatory men, and anger I feel as strongly as anyone".
She insisted she was committed to listening to women and girls, but urged people not to "participate in large gatherings or protests".
Ms Patel added that while the right to protest was a "cornerstone of our democracy, the government's duty remains to prevent more lives being lost during the pandemic".
The home secretary said she recognised why Ms Everard's death had upset so many people, insisting that women and girls "must feel safe" walking the streets.
"Too many of us have walked home from school or work alone only to hear footsteps uncomfortably close behind us. Too many of us have pretended to be on the phone to a friend to scare someone off.
"Too many of us have clutched our keys in our fist in case we need to defend ourselves and that is not OK.
"Women and girls must feel safe whilst walking our streets, that is why we have continued to take action."
She stressed that the government has put in place measures to ensure women and girls feel safe, including tackling domestic abuse, female genital mutilation and upskirting.
The Domestic Abuse bill is on track to receive royal assent by the end of April, she said, adding that it would "transform our collective response to this abhorrent crime".
Ms Patel also revealed that since the government's survey into Violence Against Women and Girls had been reopened on Friday, there had been 78,000 new responses - "considerably more" than the 18,000 responses gathered across the 10 weeks the survey had originally been open for.
In response, Labour's shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said "things clearly went very wrong" at Saturday's vigil.
He said: "Let me be clear, it is not women who should change their behaviour, it is men and wider society that needs to change.
"And at times like this it is vital people are able to have their voices heard, of course in a way that is lawful and Covid-secure. Yet this weekend in Clapham things clearly went very wrong and I share the anger about the policing and the scenes we saw."
He also accused the government of "a chronic failure" to address violence against women and girls, adding that "meetings and reopening surveys are not enough".
But is it a case of being too cautious? Are these governments missing the bigger picture?
The decision has been made on the basis of the precautionary principle - a well-established approach in science and medicine that stresses the need to pause and review when evidence is uncertain.
But in a fast-moving pandemic - when each decision can have major consequences - it is an approach which can sometimes do more harm than good.
Cause or coincidence?
The data supplied by AstraZeneca shows there have been 37 reports of blood clots among the 17m people across Europe who have been given the vaccine.
But the key question that has to be asked is whether this is cause or coincidence? Would these clots have happened anyway?
Adverse events like blood clots are monitored carefully, so regulators can assess if they are happening more than they should.
The 37 reports are below the level you would expect. What is more, there is no strong biological explanation why the vaccine would cause a blood clot.
It is why the World Health Organization and European and UK drugs regulators have all said there is no link between blood clots and the vaccine.
And it is why many vaccination experts have questioned the move. Prof Adam Finn, a member of the WHO's working group on Covid vaccines, says stopping vaccine rollout in this way is "highly undesirable" and could undermine the rollout and cost lives.
"Making the right call in situations like this is not easy, but having a steady hand on the tiller is probably what is needed most."
This is not the first time countries in Europe have exercised caution about the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The precautionary principle was adopted by Germany, France and others, when they did not initially recommend use of the vaccine for the over-65s. French President Emmanuel Macron even called it "quasi-ineffective".
It is a decision which has now been reversed, but not before it damaged confidence in the vaccine.
Germany and France have supplies of the vaccine going to waste, with both countries having used fewer than half their supplies so far.
And this is threatening to have deadly consequences. France, Germany and the other major European nations all have higher rates of infection than the UK, and face the prospect of things getting worse before they get better.
BBC News
If you look back at the decision on the over-65s, you can see how it was made. The way the trials had been organised meant there was limited evidence on its use in older age groups.
The organisers had wanted to recruit younger adults in the initial stages for safety reasons, so when it came to regulators assessing infection rates the data was not yet ready for older people.
But there was evidence from blood samples that the vaccine had prompted a strong immune response in the older age groups. So there was no plausible reason why the vaccine would not work in older age groups - it was just that insufficient time had passed to gather the evidence in the real world.
There was also a problem interpreting results. There was a lack of consistency across different sites used during the trials, which essentially meant there were four different trials within a trial.
Protocols and practices followed varied across each, including the use of a half-dose in one. It created a somewhat messy set of data to interpret.
It was this pragmatic approach to decision-making that also led the UK to recommend up to a three-month gap between doses.
This caused much controversy when it was announced at the end of December.
The Pfizer vaccine was not tested like this in trials - the interval was three weeks.
But again, the absence of evidence did not mean the move would not work or was not based on logic.
The AstraZeneca trials did have longer intervals for some participants, which seemed to make it more effective, while the Moderna vaccine, which is a similar type of vaccine to Pfizer, also suggested it could work.
It is also well-established that with two-dose vaccines, most of the protection is provided by the first dose, while the second boosts that and provides more long-lasting protection.
With cases rising rapidly at the time, the UK was clear the benefit of maximising available vaccine supplies to provide some protection to more people was logical even if the trial evidence did not directly support it.
Prof Sir David Spiegelhalter, an expert in understanding risk at Cambridge University, says it shows that sometimes you have to be bold in your decision-making.
'The precautionary principle can be a sensible way to make decisions in the face of scientific uncertainty.
"It favours inaction as a way of reducing risk. But the problem is that these are not normal times and inaction can be more risky than action."
What is needed in circumstances like these, according to Sir David, is to work out what is most likely on the balance of probability. That requires looking at both the direct and indirect evidence and the context those decisions are being made in.
"Making decisions when there is such uncertainty is incredibly difficult, but sometimes it can be harmful to wait for certainty. Not vaccinating people will costs lives."
Police investigating the murder of Sarah Everard are searching various parts of a town 30 miles from where her body was found.
Police divers were seen searching the River Stour in Sandwich, Kent, while other officers looked under cars and in a trolley shelter outside a supermarket in the town.
Sandwich Town Council said it was in contact with Kent Police on behalf of Scotland Yard as part of the investigation and urged residents not to gather near the scene.
Image:A group of police divers were seen assisting in the search
Ms Everard, 33, went missing while walking home from a friend's house in south London on 3 March.
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Human remains were later found in an area of woodland near Ashford, Kent, which were subsequently identified as Ms Everard's.
Serving police officer Wayne Couzens, 48, has been charged with the marketing executive's kidnap and murder.
Officers were seen using sticks to search through a trolley shelter at the Co-op supermarket in Sandwich earlier on Monday, while their colleagues looked under vehicles.
At the edge of a cordon, a number of officers gathered and were seen discussing over a piece of jewellery, which was then put in an evidence bag.
A unit of divers from Devon and Cornwall were sent to the scene, with officers seen in the waters of the Stour.
Metropolitan Police officers have also set up a separate scene with a tent and equipment in the Guildhall car park.
"Police have requested that residents do not gather trying to ascertain information or details," the local council said in a statement on Sunday.
Image:Police examine trolleys at a Co-op in Sandwich, Kent
Image:Police have been searching areas of London and Kent
The Met said police have been routinely searching areas of London and Kent as part of the investigation.
The latest development follows a weekend of protests and vigils as women expressed their anger at the murder, the continued harassment of women on the streets, and policing.
Planned vigils for Ms Everard, organised by Reclaim These Streets, were cancelled but hundreds still turned out at events across the country.
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'Deeply disturbing' arrests at vigil
At a vigil in Clapham Common on Saturday, police officers were seen grabbing and handcuffing women in scenes that were widely condemned - with Boris Johnson saying he was "deeply concerned" by the events.
On Sunday, hundreds of protesters angry at policing at the vigil marched from Scotland Yard to Parliament Square and chanted "shame on you" at officers.
