Michael Gove ‘concerned’ at how few UK businesses have made Brexit preparations June 18, 2020 Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove has said he is worried about how few businesses have made Brexit preparations for the UK’s exit from the EU single market and customs union. Gove, the defacto Brexit minister, said today that figures showing that almost two-thirds of businesses had made no preparations for the end of the Brexit [...]
Coronavirus: 135 more deaths as UK passes 300,000 cases June 18, 2020 A further 135 people have died of coronavirus in the UK, the latest figures from the Department of Health revealed today. The increase means that the total number of people to have died from the disease has reached 42,288. The figures also showed that the number of confirmed cases of the disease has now passed [...]
Privacy U-turn: NHS tracing app shifted to Apple and Google model June 18, 2020 The government has announced it will abandon its previous work on its coronavirus-tracing app to move towards a more privacy-focused model, based on technology developed by Apple and Google. The UK will follow in the footsteps of others such as Germany in chasing a more decentralised approach. While it has been argued to be more [...]
England’s Test and Trace system misses one in four people with coronavirus June 18, 2020 The number of contacts made by positive coronavirus cases identified by England’s NHS Test and Trace system increased to 44,895 in its second week, but it missed one in four infected patients. The Department of Health said today that 5,949 people who tested positive for coronavirus had their case transferred to the contact tracing system [...]
Brexit: UK ‘won’t hang around’ for a trade deal June 18, 2020 Foreign secretary Dominic Raab has warned the EU that the UK will not wait around for a post-Brexit trade deal and that negotiators are prepared to walk away from talks. Raab told LBC that the UK does not “want to hang around” and will not “wait for this to be dragged out into the autumn [...]
Dominic Raab says taking a knee comes from Game of Thrones June 18, 2020 Foreign secretary Dominic Raab has said he would only “take the knee” for the Queen and his wife, while also mistakenly claiming the symbol comes from Game of Thrones. Black Lives Matter protesters have co-opted the symbol from former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who refused to stand during the American national anthem before games to [...]
UK says it still wants deal on global digital tax after US quits talks June 18, 2020 The UK will continue to push for a solution to taxing international digital companies such as Google and Facebook after the US abandoned negotiations for a global digital tax, the Treasury said. US treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin pulled out of talks on digital services taxes with EU officials after they failed to make any progress, [...]
Trump asked for China’s help to win 2020 election, says ex-adviser Bolton June 18, 2020 In a withering behind-the-scenes portrayal, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton accused him of sweeping misdeeds that included explicitly seeking Chinese President Xi Jinping’s help to win re-election in 2020. Bolton, a longtime foreign policy hawk who Trump fired in September over policy differences, also said that the US president had expressed [...]
China hawks risk accelerating the outcomes they are trying to avoid June 18, 2020 The Covid-19 pandemic is leading to a clear hardening of western attitudes towards China. The origins of the virus in Wuhan, coupled with suspicions that the Chinese government suppressed awareness of the initial outbreak, have emboldened sino-sceptics and heightened fears of growing Chinese influence. Yet blanket hostility risks accelerating the emergence of the aggressive and [...]
Oriel College votes to take down Cecil Rhodes statue June 17, 2020 The governing body of Oriel College at Oxford University has tonight said that it has recommended that its statue of colonialist benefactor Cecil Rhodes be taken down. It also said that it would launch an inquiry into the issues surrounding the statue, which has been the subject of student protests for five years. In recent [...]