Johnson ‘glad’ to see Trump go, says ex-Civil Service head Lord Sedwill

BBC says Boris Johnson will be glad Donald Trump has not been re-elected as US president, ex-Civil Service head Lord Sedwill has suggested.

Writing in the Daily Mail, Lord Sedwill said those who believed Boris Johnson would have preferred Mr Trump to win again were “mistaken.”

He said he “would not have been to the benefit” of British or European security, trade or environment issues.

Downing Street said Mr Johnson looked forward to working with Joe Biden.

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British lorry drivers now need negative Covid test to enter Denmark and Netherlands

CityAM says Hauliers will now need to provide a negative coronavirus test before entering Denmark and the Netherlands, the government has announced.

All drivers of heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) have been told they will be eligible for free Covid tests at specialist sites across the country. However, just four out of 35 of the sites will run 24 hours a day, with the majority open between 6am and 10pm.

The French government last week said British lorry drivers would only be allowed to enter if they took a rapid Covid test at the border, as it rolled out new measures requiring all other entrants from the UK to present a negative PCR test.

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Portugal tightens Covid-19 lockdown amid record numbers of new cases, deaths

France24 says stricter lockdown rules are being enacted in Portugal, the government announced Monday, as a surging Covid-19 pandemic sets grim records and pushes hospitals to the limit of their capacity.

PM António Costa said too many people had taken advantage of exceptions included in the lockdown that began last Friday, with authorities reporting 70% of normal movement over the weekend.

“We are going through the most serious phase of the pandemic” so far, Costa said, urging people to comply with the rules. “This is no time for finding loopholes in the law.”

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UAE records highest number of COVID-19 cases since pandemic began

Arab News says the UAE on Monday recorded 3,471 new COVID-19 cases, the highest daily count since the start of the pandemic, and six deaths.

Officials from the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) said the total number of cases since the pandemic began had reached 256,732, while the death toll rose to 751.

Some 2,990 people had recovered from the virus in the past 24 hours. The total number of recoveries is 228,364.

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Indian sailors stranded for months on Chinese coast reach Japan

Aljazeera says a group of Indian sailors stranded off the Chinese coast for seven months, caught up in a trade dispute between China and Australia, have been allowed to leave for Japan, union officials said.

The sailors had been stuck outside the Chinese port of Jingtang since mid-June due to a Chinese trade embargo on Australian coal.

The embargo kept them from reaching China but maritime law prevented them from taking off with a cargo that had been purchased by Chinese merchants.

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Biden to propose eight-year citizenship path for immigrants

TRT World says Joe Biden plans to unveil a sweeping immigration bill on the first day of his administration, hoping to provide an eight-year path to citizenship for an estimated 11 million people living in the US without legal status, a massive reversal from the Trump administration’s harsh immigration policies.

Under the legislation, those living in the US as of January 1, 2021, without legal status would have a five-year path to temporary legal status, or a green card, if they pass background checks, pay taxes and fulfill other basic requirements. From there, it’s a three-year path to naturalisation, if they decide to pursue citizenship.

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US and China clash at WHO over COVID-19 scientific mission in Wuhan

CNA says the US called on China on Monday to allow an expert team from the WHO to interview “caregivers, former patients and lab workers” in the central city of Wuhan, drawing a rebuke from Beijing.

The team of WHO-led independent experts trying to determine the origins of COVID-19 arrived on Jan 14 in Wuhan where they are holding teleconferences with Chinese counterparts during a two-week quarantine before starting work on the ground.

The US, which has accused China of hiding the extent of its initial outbreak, has called for a “transparent” WHO-led investigation and criticised the terms of the visit, under which Chinese experts have done the first phase of research.

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