Brexit: Government suffers huge defeats as top Tories join attacks on ‘ridiculous and immoral’ bill

Sky News says the House of Lords has voted to remove parts of the government’s Brexit legislation that ministers have admitted will allow them to break international law.

In two votes, peers voted overwhelmingly (433 votes to 165, majority 268, and 407 votes to 148, majority 259) to strip out the controversial clauses in the UK Internal Market Bill.

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Covid: Seven-day-a-week clinics for vaccine proposed

BBC News says Doctors’ leaders say they “stand ready” to start providing a Covid-19 vaccine – with proposals being drawn up for clinics to run for seven days a week.

The British Medical Association said mass vaccination centres could be used “in a similar way to testing centres”.

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UK peer sparks outrage after calling Kamala Harris ‘the Indian’

The Guardian says a former deputy leader of the Ulster Unionist party and member of the House of Lords has been called on to apologise after referring to the US vice-president-elect as “the Indian” in a tweet.

The Speaker of the Lords, Norman Fowler, was among those to demand John Kilclooney retract his remarks about Kamala Harris, who is the first black and Asian-American person to be elected to the role.

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Pfizer coronavirus vaccine is 90% effective, early data suggests

The Independent says scientists have hailed a major breakthrough in the fight against Covid-19 after Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech announced that their vaccine appears to be 90 per cent effective in preventing disease, in what has been described as “a great day for science and humanity”.

The vaccine, tested on 43,500 people in six countries, has so far proven to be safe, raising hope that the pandemic could be brought under control by summer of next year.

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EU mulls Europe-wide ‘imam training’ body to crack down on ‘ideology of hatred’

RT News says Brussels needs to set up a new institute to train imams and curb the spread of Islamic extremism across Europe, said European Council head Charles Michel, calling for a new crackdown on glorifying terrorism online as well.

“To fight the ideology of hatred, we need to set up as soon as possible a European institute to train imams in Europe,” Michel, who chairs the council of 27 EU heads of government, said on Twitter on Monday.

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US sanctions more officials over China’s crackdown in Hong Kong

Aljazeera says the US has slapped sanctions on four more officials in the mainland and Hong Kong, accusing them of threatening the peace and security of the semi-autonomous city over their role in enacting the national security law imposed by Beijing at the end of June.

“These individuals will be barred from travelling to the United States and their assets within the jurisdiction of the United States or in the possession or control of US persons will be blocked,” said Mike Pompeo.

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Armenia accepts defeat in fight over occupied Azerbaijan territories

TRT World says Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has admitted defeat by signing a deal with Azerbaijan and Russia to end conflict in occupied Karabakh.

During the early hours of Tuesday morning, Pashinyan announced on Facebook that he had signed what he called a “painful” agreement.

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Trump Fires Defense Secretary Via Twitter

VOA says President Donald Trump Monday announced via Twitter that he has fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

“Mark Esper has been terminated. I would like to thank him for his service,” Trump wrote Monday. 

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