Friday 27 November
- Tory MPs call for more evidence on ‘appalling’ Covid tiers plan
- COVID-19: Amazon staff in the UK to get pay bonus in the run-up to Christmas
- Donald Trump says he will leave White House if electoral college votes for Joe Biden
- France outlaws discrimination based on regional accents
- Oxford and AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine to be trialled AGAIN amid mounting questions over dosage issues
- Turkey hits record COVID-19 cases after change in reporting
- S Korea foils N Korea attempt to hack COVID-19 vaccine makers
Green gold: how sustainability became big business for consumer brands – FT
Black Friday: Next, M&S and Wilko shun sales event – BBC Business
Oil drops as rally fizzles out on supply concerns, vaccine doubts – Reuters
UK pubs announce heavy losses and job cuts as Covid curbs bite- The Guardian
Tory MPs call for more evidence on ‘appalling’ Covid tiers plan
BBC News says Tory MPs have called on the government to publish more evidence to justify areas of England being put into the higher tiers of Covid-19 restrictions when the lockdown ends next week.
Several Tory MPs have criticised the introduction of the stricter measures.
No 10 said on Thursday that most of England would go into the two highest tiers when lockdown ends on 2 December.
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COVID-19: Amazon staff in the UK to get pay bonus in the run-up to Christmas
Sky News says Amazon staff in the UK are set to see a Christmas boost in their pay packet, after the firm announced $500m (£374m) in global bonuses.
The company, which is run by the world’s richest man Jeff Bezos, will hand out £300 to full-time workers who are employed from 1 to 31 December, while part-time staff will get £150.
It comes after a year where many people have relied on the company to send gifts, buy essential items or while away the hours on box sets and films.
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Donald Trump says he will leave White House if electoral college votes for Joe Biden
The Guardian says Donald Trump has said that he will leave the White House when the electoral college votes for Joe Biden – in the closest the outgoing president has come to conceding defeat.
Biden won the presidential election with 306 electoral college votes – many more than the 270 required – to Trump’s 232. Biden also leads Trump by more than 6 million in the popular vote tally.
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France outlaws discrimination based on regional accents
France24 says France’s lower house of parliament approved a law banning discrimination based on a person’s accent, calling the practice “a form of racism”.
The text, overwhelmingly adopted by 98 votes to 3, adds accents to the list of causes of actionable discrimination, along with racism, sexism and discrimination against the disabled.
The maximum penalty proposed in the new legislation is three years’ imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euros.
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Oxford and AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine to be trialled AGAIN amid mounting questions overdosage issues
RT News says the Covid-19 vaccine being developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca will be tested again, the drug maker’s CEO said, following growing doubts over the jab, due to dosing and data-handling errors.
The British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant is to run a fresh trial of its candidate vaccine at a lower dosage, which the company earlier claimed had performed better than a full dosage. “Now that we’ve found what looks like a better efficacy we have to validate this, so we need to do an additional study,” AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot told Bloomberg.
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Turkey hits record COVID-19 cases after change in reporting
Arab News says Turkey became the country with the third-highest number of daily new Covid-19 cases globally on Nov. 25 — behind the US and India — after changing the way it reports figures.
Turkish Health Ministry has begun publishing all positive cases, including asymptomatic ones, in its daily count following months-long harsh criticisms from the scientific world, including the WHO and opposition figures claiming that the measuring method used was hiding the true scale of the outbreak.
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S Korea foils N Korea attempt to hack COVID-19 vaccine makers
Aljazeera says South Korea’s intelligence agency foiled North Korean attempts to hack into South Korean companies developing coronavirus vaccines, the News1 agency reported on Friday.
Legislator Ha Tae-keung said after being briefed by the National Intelligence Service the agency did not specify how many and which drugmakers were targeted but said there was no damage from the hacking attempts, News1 said.
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In Review
England will go back into tier restrictions next week as the national lockdown ends. The PM warned the tier system will have much tighter restrictions – now Tory MPs are threatening rebellion. – WTX News
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What’s the media saying?
MPs’ fury as 55m people in England face months in top tiers – The Guardian
New tier system: Boris promises your tiers are ‘not your destiny’ and Brits may escape harsh measures before Xmas – The Sun
COVID-19 tiers: 99% of England placed in Tiers 2 and 3 as new system revealed – Sky News
These are the only areas in England placed under Tier 1 – Salisbury Journal
Why has ALL of Kent been put in Tier 3? Plight sums up fury of rural areas who say they’ve been unfairly locked down because they are in same county as urban hotspots – Daily Mail
At-a-glance: Full list of England’s restrictions by area – BBC News
PM says England tier system will bring a lot of ‘heartache and frustration’ – WalesOnline
Trump Has Granted Fewer Pardons, Commutations Than Previous Presidents
Despite the controversial nature of many of Trump’s presidential pardons, including that of Michael Flynn, Trump has granted clemency far less than any of his predecessors in the past century, according to a U.S. research group. – VOA
Three French police officers suspended over violent arrest of Black music producer in Paris
Four French police officers have been suspended after a video of the violent arrest of a Black music producer in Paris went viral.
Images first shared on social media by French news website Loopsider showed officers repeatedly beating a man during a police operation on Saturday. – Euronews
Concern grows for civilians in Mekelle as Ethiopia battles Tigray rebels
The Ethiopian army has blocked one of the main roads leading to its border with Sudan, preventing Ethiopians fleeing the war in Tigray from reaching the neighbouring country, according to refugees who arrived Thursday at the Lugdi border crossing in eastern Sudan. – Africanews
Iran should bear responsibility for Middle East chaos
After the Iraq War of 2003, the phrase “you break it, you own it” was coined with regard to international interventionism. This means that, if a country chooses to intervene in a domestic file and things go badly wrong, then that country has the responsibility to find solutions and basically pay for the consequences and the damage it caused. – Arab News
More Malaysians now allowed to tap on retirement funds, withdrawal ceiling raised to RM10,000
Malaysia’s Ministry of Finance announced on Thursday that more than 8 million members of the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) can now make withdrawals from their account 1 if their source of income has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic – CNA
