In this issue

October 22, 2021

Care watchdog issues dire NHS warning despite Javid claiming service can cope

England’s NHS and care services face a “tsunami of unmet need”, the health watchdog has warned, despite ministers insisting that hospitals are coping with the huge surge in demand. The alarm was raised as the number of daily coronavirus infections hit 50,000 for the first time since the end of lockdown amid fears the NHS is heading into a serious winter crisis.

3 mins

Mixed messages: Labour in a muddle over Covid plan B

Shadow health secretary and Starmer say different things

2 mins

Rees-Mogg says Tories will not wear masks in chamber

Tory MPs will continue to refuse to wear masks in the Commons chamber because they “know each other”, a defiant Jacob ReesMogg has said. Sajid Javid, the health secretary, bowed to pressure for Conservative MPs to change their much-criticised stance – as he warned of tougher Covid restrictions if the public’s behaviour does not change.

2 mins

Pfizer Booster Offers High Protection Against Variants

A booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine offers exceptionally high levels of protection against coronavirus, including the Delta variant, new trial data shows. Pfizer said its trial of 10,000 people found that the risk of symptomatic infection was reduced by 95.6 per cent in people who received a third dose, compared to those who were vaccinated with two.

2 mins

Amess suspect has been plotting attacks on MPs since 2019, court hears

The man accused of murdering Sir David Amess had been plotting to kill MPs for years, a court has heard. Ali Harbi Ali, 25, is accused of murdering the Conservative politician during a constituency surgery in the Essex town of Leigh-on-Sea last Friday. Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard that he has also been charged with preparing acts of terrorism between May 2019 and September this year, with previous plans to kill other members of parliament.

1 min

Frost refuses to publish protocol amendments

Britain’s Brexit chief has refused to publish details of his plans for changes to the Northern Ireland protocol, despite having already shared them with the EU. Lord Frost said the legal text – which opposition parties want to scrutinise – was not a “new stage or evolution in our position” and simply reflected the UK’s position set out earlier in the summer.

1 min

G7 Trade Leaders Meet Amid Global Supply Chain Chaos

Trade ministers from the G7 group of wealthy nations will meet in London today as they wrestle with global supply chain disruptions that threaten to derail the recovery from the pandemic. In their first in-person gathering, to be held at Mansion House, the national trade chiefs will discuss how to pool resources in order to unblock bottlenecks in the world’s trading system.

2 mins

Starmer: PM ‘selling out' workers over fire and rehire

Sir Keir Starmer has accused Boris Johnson of “selling out” workers by failing to back a bid to stamp out the “awful” practice of firing and rehiring employees on less favourable terms.

2 mins

Queen In ‘Good Spirits' After Night In London Hospital

The Queen spent a night in hospital after cancelling her visit to Northern Ireland, Buckingham Palace has said.

2 mins

Trump launches own social media app and news site

Former president Donald Trump has announced that he will launch his own social media app and news company to compete with “big tech”. The move comes nine months after he was banned from several social media platforms for his role in the 6 January US Capitol riots that left five people dead. The new company, named Trump Media & Technology Group, will launch its own app called “Truth Social”.

1 min

Read all stories from The Independent

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The Independent has been at the frontline of journalism since 1986, with its mission to challenge and debate always ahead of its time. The Independent is free-thinking and free of bias in an increasingly fragmented world where communities locally, regionally and across continents are disenfranchised with traditional establishments. They want real facts and frank opinions delivered first-hand from a news source that is ready to stand for something, not everything.