There is evidence that scheme under which Berlin tops up wages of those put on short-time working is effective
It all looked so different for Rishi Sunak three weeks ago. After a bleak early spring in which the economy was sacrificed for health reasons, there were signs that the worst might be over.
Related: Germany’s furlough scheme saves firms from freefall
Continue reading...Despite government’s efforts, rules for Covid-safe behaviour are far from simple
The longer the coronavirus lockdown lasts, the more complex the suite of rules governing everyday behaviour seemingly become, despite the government’s efforts to simplify matters with the rule of six.
A new set of restrictions was unveiled on Tuesday, with the full regulations due to be published later on Wednesday. Here are some nuances and quirks to have emerged so far. These apply only to the default rules for England; they differ in other UK nations and where stricter local lockdowns are in force.
Continue reading...Tighter measures are being imposed, but they vary across the continent
Continue reading...English rules don’t go ‘anywhere near far enough’, says leading government Covid adviser
Starmer says Johnson said the opposite yesterday. Everyone can read it in Hansard. He says a week ago the PM acknowledged that there was a problem. Is the PM saying capacity is the problem, as Dido Harding says? Or he is saying that too many healthy people are requesting tests, as Matt Hancock says?
Johnson says the attacks on Harding from Labour are unseeming. He says the government is going to get testing up to 500,000 per day. He says he wants to hear “more of the spirit of togetherness” that was on display yesterday.
So why did Johnson says yesterday it had “very little” to do with the spread of the disease, Starmer asks.
Johnson says it is an “epidemiological fact” that transmission takes place human to human. And capacity today is at a record high, he says.
Continue reading...Exclusive: chemicals and machines needed to hit target by end of October are ‘a few weeks behind’
A pledge to hit 500,000 coronavirus tests a day in the UK by the end of next month could be missed as vital chemicals and analysing machines needed to hit the target are “a few weeks” behind schedule, the body representing their manufacturers has said.
Boris Johnson has insisted the UK will hit the target by the end of October, up from about 260,000 capacity now, despite a number of problems including people told to travel hundreds of miles and delays in getting results back.
Continue reading...Paris move would follow curbs in other French cities; world reports just under two million Covid-19 cases in one week
Travel restrictions around Europe aimed at curbing coronavirus contagion ravaged Spain’s tourism industry during the crucial month of August, depriving it of millions of tourists, Reuters reports.
The number of nights booked in Spanish hotels fell 64% last month from a year ago, data from the National Statistics Institute showed on Wednesday.
In the first eight months of the year, hotel bookings slumped 70% from the same period in 2019.
The Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz has announced the cancellation of this year’s Vienna Opera Ball, a glamorous society event that usually marks the peak of the Austrian ball season.
The government cited rising Covid-19 infection rates in the Alpine country as the reason for calling off the event, which was planned for 11 February 2021. While the Vienna State Opera put a lot of effort into security concepts, the wellbeing of participants could not have been guaranteed, the government said.
Continue reading...Doctors say Russian opposition leader could make full recovery from exposure to suspected novichok
Alexei Navalny has been discharged from Berlin’s Charité hospital after spending 32 days as an inpatient, following what German authorities say was poisoning with a novichok nerve agent and with doctors suggesting he could make a full recovery.
The hospital said in a statement on Wednesday morning that the Russian opposition politician’s condition had “improved sufficiently for him to be discharged from acute inpatient care”, and added that he had left on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Music venue drops association with slave trader and will be known as Bristol Beacon
A new name has been announced for the Bristol venue Colston Hall following decades of protests and boycotts over its association with the slave trade.
Colston Hall, which was named after the 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston, will from now on be known as Bristol Beacon following a public consultation.
Continue reading...Amid prerecorded speeches, secretary-general issues warning over US-China rivalry at an unprecedented moment
“Today, we face our own 1945 moment,” the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, said as he opened the UN’s 75th general assembly, to a thinly populated chamber of socially distanced diplomats.
Guterres meant the historical reference as a call to action inspired by the generation who had survived the second world war and sought to build a new world. A similarly concerted effort, he said, would be needed to defeat Covid and the pandemics that may follow, and the climate emergency.
Continue reading...The UK is at a 'perilous turning point' and must act, Boris Johnson has told MPs, announcing new restrictions for England including reducing the size of wedding gatherings and bans on indoor team sports, as well as a return to home working
Continue reading...Italian health minister says ‘we have to be cautious’; Iran death toll one of worst in Middle East; Madrid residents advised not to travel
The EU Council, scheduled for later this week, has been postponed after its president tested positive, reports Euronews political editor, Darren McCaffery.
MEANS: EU Council due to be held this Thursday and Friday has been postponed until next week, 1st and 2nd of September
The UN summit is proving to be a bad-tempered event.
In a recorded video, the US president, Donald Trump, called Covid-19 the “China virus”, adding: “We must hold accountable the nation that unleashed this plague upon the world.”
Continue reading...First minister also confirms 10pm curfew on pubs, bars and restaurants from Friday
Household visiting will be banned across Scotland, as Nicola Sturgeon moves to limit a key driver of coronavirus infections before the winter.
While Boris Johnson’s statement on Tuesday did not include direct limits on socialising, Scotland’s first minister said she would be extending nationwide from Friday the ban on household visiting already in place in the west of Scotland, where she said the limits were already having an impact on escalating infection rates.
Continue reading...British officials hand over evidence after mother of one of accused men loses challenge
The prosecutions of two alleged Islamic State members accused of carrying out a series of beheadings can go ahead in the US after British officials handed over key evidence.
The material was given to Washington after high court judges sitting in London dismissed a challenge brought by the mother of one of the accused men.
Continue reading...PM announces 10pm closing for pubs, a ban on indoor team sports and new weddings curbs
The UK is at a “perilous turning point” and must act, Boris Johnson has told MPs, announcing new restrictions for England including slashing the size of wedding celebrations and bans on indoor team sports, as well as a return to home working.
Speaking in the Commons on Tuesday, Johnson announced a ban on indoor team sports, such as five-a-side football, and said plans for a partial return of sports fans to stadiums from 1 October had been “paused”. Wedding celebrations will be limited to just 15 guests, half of what was previously permitted, though funerals will be allowed to go ahead with up to 30 mourners.
Continue reading...The decision to drop the Queen had long been planned, but the shameful Windrush scandal altered perceptions of the ‘mother country’
Barbados’s recent announcement that it will become a republic, ending the tenure of the Queen as head of state by November 2021, is noteworthy not only for what is said about the island but also about changes in perception of Britain and its monarchy.
There is legitimacy in the stance taken by the prime minister, Mia Amor Mottley. A toddler in 1966 when “Little England” (as Barbados was referred to) achieved independence, this highly regarded Caribbean leader has strong nationalist and regional instincts. With many leading Commonwealth Caribbean countries already republics, she, like others born in the independence era, sees republicanism as a coming of age.
Continue reading...Boris Johnson has announced a series of new, more robust coronavirus restrictions to come into force across England in a speech to parliament, to be followed by a TV address on Tuesday evening. These are the key points of what he told the Commons.
Continue reading...Spooky opening gives way to a leaders’ showdown with little drama and lacking in spark
There was high drama at the first televised debate last night between New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, and the leader of the oppositionNational party, Judith Collins, when host John Campbell crept out of the darkness and onto the studio floor in the spooky opening seconds. His eyes were bulging. He clutched some kind of weapon in his hands. Campbell has always had an excitable, untamed spirit, and his menacing entrance made him look like Michael Myers from Halloween except in a grey check suit.
And that was it for the high drama. After the curious stage direction, Campbell gave a warm welcome to Ardern and Collins, and revealed that he was holding nothing more sinister than a brand new clipboard. The next 90 minutes were all downhill.
Continue reading...Head of EU exit at the port says money needs to be ‘issued rather than talked about’
Dover port is not Brexit ready because it is still waiting for government funds to be released for vital infrastructure for the new border operations, it has been revealed.
It comes as it emerged that the government was considering forcing drivers to obtain a special Brexit passport before entering Kent in a bid to avert queuing chaos in January.
Continue reading...Ex-PM says internal market bill could lead to a united Ireland and undermine trust in UK
Theresa May has launched a blistering attack on the government’s plan to give itself powers to renege on the special arrangements for Northern Ireland in the Brexit deal.
She described the plans as “reckless” and “irresponsible” and said they “risked the integrity of the United Kingdom”, as they would not only tarnish Britain’s reputation globally as an upholder of the law but could contribute to a reunited Ireland.
Continue reading...President of Perugia airport contradicts press reports that PM visited on 11 September
An Italian airport has quashed reports the prime minister landed there to make a secretive trip to the country less than a fortnight ago, a claim described by Downing Street as “completely untrue”.
Related: From scandal to PR cock-up: how the Boris Johnson Perugia mystery unravelled
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