Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
UK negotiator to tell Boris Johnson that two more weeks of talks could lead to breakthrough
Boris Johnson will be advised by his chief negotiator that a trade deal with the EU is still possible should the prime minister ditch his deadline and continue to negotiate with Brussels as tentative signs of a compromise on fisheries emerged.
David Frost, who has been in talks with the EU team led by Michel Barnier this week, will inform the prime minister that a further two weeks, at least, of daily talks could result in the remaining gaps being bridged.
Ken McCallum also pledges to boost diversity in the service as response to Black Lives Matter movement
MI5’s new boss has said the spy threats posed by China and Russia to the UK are “growing in severity and complexity” while the terrorist threat from Isis and the far right “persists at scale”.
Giving his first speech since his domestic spy agency’s director general in April, Ken McCallum focused on risks from hostile states, including undermining “the integrity of UK research” on a coronavirus vaccine.
The German chancellor Angela Merkel urged young people to do their part to halt the spread of the coronavirus after private parties were repeatedly blamed for localised outbreaks in German cities.
“We must call especially on young people to do without a few parties now in order to have a good life tomorrow or the day after,” Merkel said at a news conference after agreeing additional measures against coronavirus with the heads of Germany’s 16 states.
Ireland’s government moved three counties on its open border with Northern Ireland - Donegal, Monaghan and Cavan - to Level 4 of its five-step framework of Covid-19 constraints and banned almost all visits to homes across the country.
Sergey Gorshkov left a hidden camera in a Russian forest for 11 months to capture the big cat
An image of a clearly ecstatic tigress hugging an ancient Manchurian fir tree in a remote Siberian forest has won one of the world’s most prestigious photography prizes.
It took Russian photographer Sergey Gorshkov 11 months to capture the moment using hidden cameras. His patience led to him being named 2020 wildlife photographer of the year by the Duchess of Cambridge at a ceremony at London’s Natural History Museum.
Keir Starmer called on the government to “follow the science” and impose a national “circuit breaker” lockdown of at least two weeks as the death toll from Covid-19 soared to a four-month high.
In a significant escalation, the Labour leader said Boris Johnson had “lost control of the virus” and must take urgent action to impose a near-total shutdown across England over October half-term.
The UK government has launched a Covid fraud hotline, after being criticised for failing to act on warnings about risks linked to emergency business loans.
The hotline, run by Crimestoppers, allows the public to leave anonymous tips about suspected fraud linked to the government’s emergency Covid-19 loan and grant schemes for UK businesses. That could include identity theft to obtain loans, false grant claims and the use of so-called mule bank accounts to cover the tracks of money launderers.
When the NHS test-and-trace system was launched in late May, Boris Johnson promised it would help “move the country forward”. We would be able to see our families, go to work and stop the economy crumbling.
In the absence of a vaccine, the prime minister’s “world-beating” system would be worth every penny of the £10bn funding that Rishi Sunak announced in July. The chancellor said it would enable people to carry on normal lives.
Chief negotiator says little prospect yet of EU and UK entering ‘tunnel’ negotiations
Michel Barnier has mocked Boris Johnson for issuing a “third unilateral deadline” during a meeting with EU ministers, warning that the Brexit talks remain difficult with little prospect yet of the two sides entering a decisive “tunnel” negotiation.
With 48 hours remaining before an EU leaders’ summit in Brussels, by which time the British prime minister has demanded a breakthrough moment, the bloc’s chief negotiator suggested a deal was “very difficult but still possible”, according to diplomatic sources.
The newly released assessment by the UK government’s scientific advisers that the £12bn test and trace programme “is having a marginal impact” in reducing Covid-19 transmission has refocused attention on how other countries are faring with their regimes.
Since test-and-trace programmes were first mooted around the world at the outset of the pandemic – including monitoring via apps or hardware – they have been beset by issues of privacy and public support over both downloading and using apps and also with a wider willingness to abide by isolation measures.
Days before UK ministers rejected advice to impose a shortened “circuit breaker” lockdown in late September, Israel made the opposite decision and enforced the unpopular and painful policy to stem the spiralling number of virus infections.
The country of 9 million – less than 15% of the population of Britain – was shut down for a second time, with Israeli officials arguing it was essential to halt infections or risk overloading hospitals.
World economic outlook says 2020 impact is less than thought but there will be deep scars
The International Monetary Fund has scaled back its estimate of the hit to the global economy from Covid-19 this year but warned that the final bill for the pandemic would total $28tn (£21.5tn) in lost output.
Gita Gopinath, the IMF’s economic counsellor, described coronavirus as the worst crisis since the Great Depression, and said the pandemic would leave deep and enduring scars caused by job losses, weaker investment and children being deprived of education.
The Department for Education’s latest school attendance statistics show an increase in the number of state schools in England partially closed because of Covid-19.
More than one in five state secondaries reported being partially closed, meaning that classes or year groups were sent home or were isolating. Previously 82% were classed as “fully open” but last week the proportion fell to 79%.
Attendance in fully open primary schools is now consistent with what we would have expected before coronavirus. Across all state schools, only a small minority of pupils are self-isolating and schools are providing remote education, in line with what pupils would be receiving in school.
We will continue to work with schools to ensure all appropriate steps are taken to keep pupils and staff safe.
A pilot scheme will be launched “shortly” in England which will involve relatives of care home residents being treated as key workers to enable safe visits, Helen Whately, the care minister, has said.
Giving evidence to the joint science and health committee hearing on coronavirus, she said she wanted to enable visiting “but it must be safe”.
More than 2 million people who shielded during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic in the UK have been given new advice on what to do depending on the Covid alert level in their area.
Germany must agree on nationwide rules to contain the spread of the coronavirus and prevent infections from getting out of control, the premier of Bavaria said on Tuesday.
Reuters reports:
Speaking ahead of a meeting between Chancellor Angela Merkel and the leaders of Germany’s 16 states on Wednesday, Markus Soeder said the next four weeks would be crucial for whether Germans could celebrate a relaxed Christmas.
“We must now set the course jointly, otherwise there is a danger that it could get out of control,” he told a news conference following a meeting of Bavaria’s cabinet.
Westminster Bridge leading to parliament in central London closed to traffic
Police have been called to a security incident at St Thomas’ hospital in central London, with nearby Westminster Bridge leading to parliament closed to traffic.
The alert was being stood down, police said, and road closures in the area were being lifted.
Governments are not doing enough to prevent rapid rebound, says agency’s report
The coronavirus pandemic is expected to cause a record 7% decline in global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in 2020, but governments are not doing enough to prevent a rapid rebound, according to an influential report.
Carbon dioxide emissions from energy use are expected to fall to 33.4 gigatonnes in 2020, the lowest level since 2011 and the biggest year on year fall since 1900 when records began, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its annual world energy outlook.
The three-tier Covid alert system is a significant shift in the government’s approach to the coronavirus crisis in England, and, while scientists broadly welcomed the simplified rules, there are concerns the restrictions come too late and are open to abuse.
A major benefit of the new system is that it clears up the confusing and messy patchwork of different rules in different places, which arose as regions in northern England, the Midlands and other parts of the country battled to contain local outbreaks. With simplicity and stability should come better compliance, and with that more control of the epidemic.
Family of Alexandra Greenway say she was passed ‘pillar to post’ and not given psychiatric support
The family of a transgender woman who was found dead at her flat in Bristol have said at her inquest that she was passed from “pillar to post” in her efforts to seek help for her mental illness.
Alexandra Greenway’s relatives told the inquest the 23-year-old recruitment consultant did not receive the psychiatric support she required before her death on 11 May last year.
Culture secretary distanced himself from widely mocked poster amid job losses in arts
A government-backed advert that encouraged people working in the arts to reskill by turning to a career in cybersecurity has been scrapped after the culture secretary described it as “crass”.
On Monday morning Oliver Dowden distanced himself from the Cyber First campaign, which resurfaced on the same day his department was celebrating awarding £257m in funding to struggling venues and organisations.
Dowden tweeted that the ad campaign, which is backed by the government and promotes retraining in tech, did not come from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), while reiterating that he wanted to “save jobs in the arts”.
A swathe of northern England could join the Liverpool city region under the highest level of restrictions, Boris Johnson indicated as he unveiled a new, three-tier Covid rules system for England.
Announcing the much-briefed new approach, which will divide local authorities into “local Covid alert levels”, listed as medium (tier 1), high (tier 2), and very high (tier 3), the prime minister told MPs he wanted to “simplify and standardise” rules while avoiding a new full lockdown.