There will be direct negotiations between Boris Johnson and the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, as time runs out to get a deal through before the UK leaves EU trading rules on 31 December. Negotiators for the two sides called in the two leaders after saying “significant divergences” remained following a week of intensive talks. Although most of the deal has been completed, key sticking points remain, says the BBC.
Chief medical officers have warned NHS staff that the Covid-19 vaccine will not reduce pressures on hospitals from Covid-19 patients for at least three months. Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, and his counterparts in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, also warned about festive mingling. They said: “The social mixing which occurs around Christmas may well put additional pressure on hospitals and general practice in the new year.”
The mayor of Liverpool has been arrested as part of a fraud investigation and suspended from the Labour party. Joe Anderson was one of five men arrested across Merseyside on Friday in an investigation into building and development contracts in the city. The father-of-four was the city’s first elected mayor in 2012. Liverpool City Council said it was co-operating with Merseyside Police.
Reported anti-Sikh hate crimes reported across Britain have soared by 70% in the last two years, according to Home Office figures. Britain’s first female Sikh MP Preet Kaur Gill has told Sky News that there are “lots of concerns from the Sikh community that there is not enough being done to protect us” and that the community “feels forgotten”.
Donald Trump has ordered the withdrawal of nearly all US troops from Somalia by 15 January, the Pentagon has announced. The US president, an opponent of military interventions, has long called for the nation’s troops to come home. The US has about 700 troops in the country helping local forces in their fight against militants from al-Shabab and Islamic State.
Purchases of new cars in the UK fell by nearly 30% last year, as the second national lockdown hit sales. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders said just 113,781 new registrations were recorded in the UK, nearly 43,000 or 27.4% fewer than during November 2019. James Fairclough, the chief executive of AA Cars, said: “England’s November lockdown knocked new car sales into reverse.”
The Jamaican government has confirmed that one of the prisoners deported from the UK to Jamaica on Wednesday has tested positive for Covid-19. The man is being held in isolation at a hospital in the capital, Kingston. Meanwhile, Priti Patel has been accused of “deeply insulting and patronising” behaviour by victims of the Windrush scandal after she described those calling for deportation flights to be stopped as “do-gooding celebrities”.
A £1.5 billion spending spree in pubs and shops has been forecast for today. The first non-working day since lockdown ended has been dubbed “Stupor Saturday” by The Sun. The paper says drinkers will “raise a glass to the Covid jab” as more than 300,000 people are expected to flock to London’s West End, 150,000 at Birmingham’s Bullring and 120,000 at Manchester’s Trafford Centre.
The future of cinema chains was thrown into question after Warner Bros said that films including Dune and The Matrix 4 would be streamed as “a strategic response to the impact of the global pandemic”. Shares in Cineworld, which operates nearly 130 cinemas in Britain, fell more than 10 per cent and Everyman Media fell more than two per cent.
