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NHS facing shortage of doctors before second wave of coronavirus arrives
Jul 04, 2020 03:52A new survey of doctors in the UK found almost one in seven is planning to quit the NHS or retire when the current crisis subsides, with many more saying they aim to cut back on hours, and almost a third complaining of mental health problems related to four months of relentless struggle against Covid-19.
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UK debt is bigger than economy for first time since 1963
Jun 24, 2020 05:48Britain’s public debt is larger than the size of the country’s economy for the first time since 1963, after the government borrowed a record £55 billion in May. The total level of debt has risen by £173 billion over the last year to reach £1.95 trillion, or 100.9 percent of GDP, as ministers introduced unprecedented support for businesses and households during the coronavirus crisis.
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MPs say more than a million left out of coronavirus income support in UK
Jun 18, 2020 06:16The UK’s all-party Treasury select committee said the Chancellor of Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, needed to make good on his promise to “do whatever it takes” to protect individuals and businesses from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The MPs called on Sunak to address the gaps in his coronavirus job retention scheme (CJRS) and self-employment income support scheme (SEISS).
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Tourism deals lingering blow to global economy
Jun 15, 2020 10:49Economists warn the blow that coronavirus has dealt to the global travel and tourism industry is set to do lingering damage to the world’s growth, as areas that are dependent on visitors for their income struggle to reposition their local economies.
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World joins US protests but leaders restrained about Trump
Jun 15, 2020 10:05People have taken to the streets of Berlin, London, Paris and other cities around the world to demonstrate in support of Black Lives Matter protesters in the US and to vent anger over President Donald Trump’s response to the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota. But at the top, the leaders of traditional allies of the US have taken pains to avoid criticizing Trump directly, walking a fine line to reconcile international diplomacy with domestic outrage.
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American police shoot, kill, imprison more people than other developed countries
Jun 10, 2020 11:13US Police officers are more likely to use force on black Americans – and, according to a 2016 study published in the American Journal of Health, black men are nearly three times more likely than white men to be killed by police intervention. Comparable figures for other countries are not readily available. In general, more Americans are subjected to the cogs of the criminal justice system than in many other countries; and more end up in prison, too.
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Climate change: How a green new deal really could go global
Jun 01, 2020 11:08Renewables are now often cheaper than fossil fuels in large parts of the world. The technologies are proven and can be built at scale today. And most importantly, their cost follows the logic of all manufacturing — the more you produce, the cheaper it gets. The same logic applies to hydrogen and to electric vehicles. But it does not apply to fossil fuels, whose cost ultimately relies on mining ever more difficult and dwindling resources.
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The Cummings debacle has exposed Boris Johnson’s weakness and dependency
May 28, 2020 11:20By defending his most senior adviser, Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson has demolished a sense of moral obligation, undermining the public spirit that says “I will if you will”. He has allowed Britons all to follow their “instinct”, not the contact tracers’ instructions. Prof Stephen Reicher, of the Sage behavioral insights subcommittee, says: “Johnson has trashed all the advice we have given on how to build trust and secure adherence to the measures necessary to control COVID-19.”
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Museums are losing millions but working hard to preserve COVID-19 artifacts
May 20, 2020 06:07In the future, generations will need the means to understand how the coronavirus pandemic affected our world, just as they can now reflect on the Spanish flu or the Black Death. The world heritage sector is already working hard to preserve the COVID-19 moment, predicting that future generations will need documentary evidence, photographic archives and artifacts to help them understand this period of history.
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Isolated and alone, Britain has become the sick man of Europe
May 13, 2020 09:46The view of Britain as Europe’s “problem child” predates the coronavirus pandemic but has been greatly reinforced by it. Foreign perceptions of the UK as a badly governed, disorderly, embittered and chronically divided country took deep root in the politically chaotic years that followed the 2016 Brexit referendum.