International

• Wednesday, February 3rd 2021 - 09:25 UTC

  Russia's Sputnik V vaccine is 91,6% effective, The Lancet

  

  The Russian Sputnik V vaccine is 91.6% effective against Covid 19 in its symptomatic manifestations, according to the medical journal The Lancet . “The trial results show a strong protective effect consistent across all age groups of participants,” the researchers explain.

• Wednesday, February 3rd 2021 - 08:03 UTC

  Russian dissident sentenced to 3,5 years in jail despite demands from Western countries

  

  Russian dissident Alexei Navalny was sentenced to three and a half years in a penal colony after a Moscow court found him guilty of disobeying the terms of his probation over the 2014 money laundering case. In the Tuesday ruling, however, the court also took into account the time Navalny had spent under house arrest, meaning that the Kremlin critic would spend only two years and eight months behind bars.

• Wednesday, February 3rd 2021 - 08:00 UTC

  Dragui, ex ECB chief invited to form a new government in Italy

  

  Italian President Sergio Mattarella has invited former European Central Bank (ECB) chief Mario Draghi to talk about forming a new government. Dragui passed the ECB baton to Christine Lagarde in 2019 after an eight-year stint. Draghi is set to meet President Matarella later on Wednesday.

• Wednesday, February 3rd 2021 - 07:00 UTC

  “Captain Tom” leaves us his message, “always remember, tomorrow will be a good day”

  

  Tom Moore, better known as “Captain Tom” died from COVID-19 on Tuesday morning, his family said. The 100-year-old World War II veteran became popular in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic.

• Wednesday, February 3rd 2021 - 06:42 UTC

  Impact on Scotland's economy if it breaks away from the UK, LSE report

  

  Reuters – The economy of Scotland will suffer a trade shock two to three times more severe than the impact of Brexit if it leaves the United Kingdom, according to an academic study published this Wednesday.

• Wednesday, February 3rd 2021 - 06:03 UTC

  The Northern Ireland Protocol, fails Unionists' testing

  

  The two Northern Irish ports of Larne and Belfast temporarily suspended border checks and withdrew staff on Tuesday amid safety fears. Officials pulled a dozen staff members from duty at Larne Port after an “upsurge in sinister and menacing behavior,” Mid and East Antrim Borough Council said.

• Tuesday, February 2nd 2021 - 09:42 UTC

  Falklands receives first batch of 3,000 doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine

  

  The Falkland Islands Government has welcomed the delivery of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine on Monday 1 February 2021. Upon arrival the vaccines were carefully offloaded from the South Atlantic Airbridge and were transported by road to the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, where they were immediately taken to refrigeration units within the hospital.

• Tuesday, February 2nd 2021 - 09:38 UTC

  Lufthansa lands in Falklands with scientists; returns to Germany on Wednesday

  

  Lufthansa’s longest flight ever has landed in the Falkland Islands. The aircraft departed Hamburg at 21:23 on Sunday, landing at Mount Pleasant Complex at 09:00. The flight, which is also the longest flight to have departed Hamburg, clocked in at 15 hours and 36 minutes.

• Tuesday, February 2nd 2021 - 09:28 UTC

  Pfizer-BioNtech promises 75 million more vaccines to EU in 2021 second quarter

  

  BioNtech-Pfizer has promised to deliver up to 75 million more coronavirus vaccine doses to the EU in the second quarter of 2021, the company's head Sierk Poetting said in a statement on Monday.

• Tuesday, February 2nd 2021 - 09:15 UTC

  Coronavirus upshot: German beer sales down

  

  Beer sales within Germany were down 5.5% in 2020 compared with the year before amid coronavirus pandemic restrictions the Federal Statistical Office has said. In total, German-based breweries and distributors sold 8.7 billion liters (2.3 billion gallons), according to official figures.