Plus, five ways to avoid catching coronavirus indoors
| Christchurch mosque attack killer gets life term without parole |
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| | | "Your crimes are so wicked that even if you are detained until you die, it will not exhaust the requirements of punishment." Those were the words of a New Zealand judge as he imposed the country's first sentence of life imprisonment without parole on the man who killed 51 people at two mosques in an attack live-streamed via Facebook. Australian Brenton Tarrant, 29, had admitted to the killings, another 40 counts of attempted murder and one charge of terrorism, yet appeared "neither contrite nor ashamed", said Judge Cameron Mander. The country's prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, said the sentence meant Tarrant would have "no notoriety, no platform". Tarrant had shown little emotion during a week in which almost 90 people had given victim impact statements in court. Among them was Sara Qasem, who said she wondered what her father Abdelfattah Qasem's last thoughts were. "I wish more than anything in the world that I could have been there to hold his hand and tell him it would all be OK." She struggled to hold back her tears, before looking at Tarrant and saying "these tears are not for you". | |
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| Low-income workers to get self-isolation pay |
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| Concerns have long been raised about people who cannot work from home refusing to self-isolate for fear of missing out on pay. Now, the government says those in parts of England where there are high rates of coronavirus who receive Universal Credit or Working Tax Credit will be able to claim up to £182 - worth £13 a day. The scheme will be trialled in Blackburn with Darwen, Pendle and Oldham - where there have been tighter lockdown measures after a rise in cases - before a planned national roll-out. However, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham says the payment - available to those who test positive, their household and anyone eligible who's told to self-isolate by NHS contact tracers - "goes nowhere near far enough" and that people need "full pay". | |
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| Warning over flu jab take-up |
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| Complacency over the flu jab risks overwhelming the NHS, experts are warning. Last month, the government expanded the free vaccine scheme to cover about 30 million people in England, ahead of a winter that could see the annual flu season coincide with a surge in coronavirus cases. However, BBC analysis reveals local authorities in England saw an average of 45% of under-65s with serious health conditions take up the offer last winter - down from 50% in 2015. Dr Tonia Thomas, project manager at Oxford University's Vaccine Knowledge Trust says many think flu - which can be fatal and often requires hospital treatment - is "not that bad" and that some patients forget they are at risk. "It is only when they contract an infection that they realise their body responds differently to other people's," she says. Here's why flu remains a major concern. | |
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| | | | | A few days after the coronavirus lockdown began, Ciaran Martin's phone pinged with a text message - the government was warning him he had left home three times and had to pay a fine. As the official in charge of defending the UK against cyber-threats, he knew enough to spot a scam. But it was also a sign he was unlikely to have a quiet end to his time as the first head of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). Speaking in his last few days in office, he says recent events have been an "unexpected vindication" of the decision to spin out part of the intelligence agency GCHQ so classified intelligence could be better shared to protect the UK. | |
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| | Gordon Corera | BBC security correspondent | |
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| | | | The Daily Telegraph leads on the payments to low-earners forced to quarantine after testing positive for coronavirus. Meanwhile, others focus on the fallout from the sacking of the Department for Education's top civil servant over what the Financial Times calls the exam results "fiasco". The prime minister has been accused of throwing Jonathan Slater under the bus, amid growing Tory unrest over government U-turns, says the i. "Turtle chaos" is the Metro's headline, inspired by Boris Johnson's description of a "mutant algorithm" having been to blame for downgrading many A-level results. Meanwhile, the Daily Express reports that scientists have found an ingredient in a £10 insect repellent can kill the Covid-19 virus. Read the review. | |
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| | | Jacob Blake Attorney general names police officer involved in shooting |
| | | | Housing Pent-up demand 'leading to quicker home sales' |
| | | | Trump US president challenges Biden to drug test before debate |
| | | | Home-working Warnings of 'ghost towns' if office staff do not return |
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| If you watch one thing today |
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| If you listen to one thing today |
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| If you read one thing today |
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| Need something different? |
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| | | 1994 A 62-year-old man is given the world’s first battery-operated heart - watch our report on the ground-breaking operation. |
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