Tensions have risen between Beijing and London this week, after Boris Johnson pledged to open the UK’s doors to the three million residents of Hong Kong who have British National Overseas (BNO) status.
The prime minister extended the offer of residency after China passed “draconian” legislation aimed at cracking down on dissent in the former British colony. In response, Beijing warned that China would take “corresponding measures” to prevent Hongkongers from leaving.
The Asian superpower is also facing scrutiny over claims made in a new book that Beijing is “grooming” an elite group of British business and political leaders with strong ties to China.
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UK firms cut at least 10,000 jobs in just two days, with employees of high-street retailers and the aviation sector hit the hardest. And as the government prepares to begin winding down the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, experts are warning that many more redundancies are likely to follow.
Meanwhile, the US bought the global stock of a key coronavirus drug, leaving little for the rest of the world. The Donald Trump administration has snapped up more than 500,000 doses of remdesivir - all of the stocks of the drug produced in July, and 90% of those manufactured in August and September.
Trump is also facing accusations that he regularly “bullied and humiliated” Theresa May on phone calls when she was prime minister, calling her a “fool” and “spineless” on Brexit. The claims were made by Carl Bernstein, one of the journalists who broke the Watergate Scandal, who says Trump would “get nasty with [May] on the phone call”.
In other events over in the US, British socialist Ghislaine Maxwell has appeared in court accused of facilitating her friend Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual exploitation of underage girls.
Maxwell played a “critical role” in helping the late paedophile “identify, befriend and groom” victims, and took part in some of the abuse, New York attorneys claim.
