sds officers infiltrated left wing and progressive groups on a long term basis passing back information to scotland yard and m15. their targets included anti apartheid campaigners, including peter, now lord, hain, who went on to become a labour cabinet minister. he s one of those who gave evidence to the first phase of the public inquiry into undercover policing. the inquiry head, the senior judge sirjohn mitting, is producing his first report today. another political activist, richard chessum, discovered that in the 1970s, he was befriended by a police spy. ifelt that he had betrayed us politically, but i didn t know until the mitting inquiry and all that s emerged in the inquiryjust how much personal details he had conveyed to m15 about me and also my friends and family. the inquiry opened in 2020.
the bank of england said. that was the highest level seen since comparable records began 26 years ago. nicola sturgeon has said that she still worries about whether scotland lacked resources such as ppe to cope with the covid 19 pandemic. the former first minister was giving evidence to the uk s covid inquiry. she highlighted that her government tried to suppress the virus as much as possible, rather than deciding to live with it. a former seniorjudge says an undercover police unit which was used from the 19605 to 19805 to infiltrate political and activist groups should have been disbanded early on. in his first report, sirjohn mitting is highly critical of the methods of the metropolitan police s special demonstration squad, which included officers using dead children s names to create false identities. you re live with bbc news. in a landmark ruling, the us supreme court has banned the use of race and ethnicity
live, but we believe them to be of the french capital, paris. you can see the overturned cars burning and riot police running through the streets. there has been a lot of protesting and violence over the last 2a hours. at least 180 people have been arrested so far after two nights of unrest following the death of a 17 year old boy. those are pictures we are getting through to us here on bbc news. we will try to bring you more on that story as and when we get it. back to the uk. here in the uk a damning report says an undercover police unit, which gathered evidence on left wing and anarchist groups forfour decades, should have been disbanded. a former seniorjudge has been looking into the work of the special demonstration squad, which was set up by london s metropolitan police in 1968. sirjohn mitting says the organisations it was investigating posed no threat.
to focus on prevention. the aim is notjust to reduce crime, but to make sure women and other vulnerable groups feel safer. for more stories from across the uk, head to the bbc news website. you re live with bbc news. a secret police unit in the uk, which spied on more than a thousand political groups and trade union activists over a0 years should have been disbanded as far back as the 1970s had the public known about its activities. that s the conclusion of a seniorjudge heading the undercover policing inquiry. in his first interim report sirjohn mitting says most of those spied on didn t threaten state security or pose a risk of serious crime as our home affairs correspondentjune kelly reports the vietnam war one of the defining episodes of the 1960s.
building. lucy williamson in paris, thank you. a secret police unit which spied on more than a thousand political groups and trade union activists over a0 years should have been disbanded as far back as the 1970s had the public had known about its activities. that s the conclusion of a seniorjudge heading the undercover policing inquiry. in his first interim report, sirjohn mitting says most of those spied on didn t threaten state security or pose a risk of serious crime, as our home affairs correspondentjune kelly reports. the vietnam war one of the defining episodes of the 1960s. protests outside the american embassy in london led scotland yard to set up an undercover police unit, the special demonstration squad, to gather information on anti war activists. soon the sds had infiltrated scores of campaign groups. none of it was justified and the sds should have been disbanded early on says the chair of the undercover policing inquiry.