International

• Monday, February 22nd 2021 - 07:03 UTC

  Bank of England divided over the use of negative interest rates

  

  A member of Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, Gertjan Vlieghe, openly supported the use of negative interest rates if the U.K. needs more stimulus, while Deputy Governor Dave Ramsden said the bank still had scope for more quantitative easing. which has been a tried and tested policy.

• Sunday, February 21st 2021 - 17:19 UTC

  Fifth night of violent protests in Spain; coalition government divided over the gag law which triggered the rioting

  

  For a fifth night street protests in Spain on Saturday turned violent following the arrest of Pablo Hasél, a popular rapper, which has triggered a national debate on freedom of expression. But the disturbances have also strained relations inside the country's fragile coalition government.

• Sunday, February 21st 2021 - 17:17 UTC

  WTO chief calls on rich countries to share vaccines now, rather than waiting for the surplus

  

  The World Trade Organization, WTO, chief said that UK and other wealthy nations should send Covid-19 vaccines to poorer countries now rather than waiting for the surplus.

• Sunday, February 21st 2021 - 17:14 UTC

  Russia reported to WHO first case of avian flu H5N8 transmitted from birds to humans

  

  Russia announced on Saturday that its scientists had detected the world's first case of transmission of the H5N8 strain of avian flu from birds to humans and had alerted the World Health Organization.

• Saturday, February 20th 2021 - 08:59 UTC

  Johnson praises Biden as the leader of the free world helping to unite the West

  

  United States Joe Biden has put the United States back as leader of the free world in a fantastic move that has helped the West to unite, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday.

• Saturday, February 20th 2021 - 08:42 UTC

  Impressive pictures from the Perseverance rover successful landing in Mars

  

  Less than a day after NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover successfully landed on the surface of Mars, engineers and scientists at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California were hard at work, awaiting the next transmissions from Perseverance. As data gradually came in, relayed by several spacecraft orbiting the Red Planet, the Perseverance team were relieved to see the rover’s health reports, which showed everything appeared to be working as expected.

• Saturday, February 20th 2021 - 08:40 UTC

  Some 45 pilot whales stranded on an Indonesian beach: three survive

  

  Regional officials on the northeastern Indonesian island of Madura said on Friday at least 45 pilot whales that stranded themselves on a beach there have died, while rescuers managed to push three back out to sea.

• Saturday, February 20th 2021 - 08:39 UTC

  Coronavirus will be beaten when everyone in the world has been immunized, Angela Merkel

  

  The coronavirus pandemic can only be considered beaten once everyone in the world has been immunized against Covid-19, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel said, after she'd met with the G7 leaders at a virtual summit on Friday.

• Friday, February 19th 2021 - 10:30 UTC

  Pfizer is testing its vaccine in 4,000 volunteer healthy pregnant women

  

  Pfizer and BioNtech have started an international study with 4,000 volunteers to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of their COVID-19 vaccine in healthy pregnant women, the companies said on Thursday.

• Friday, February 19th 2021 - 10:19 UTC

  Ascension Island vaccinated with AstraZeneca, first BOT to complete inoculation

  

  A remote UK overseas territory in the South Atlantic could become the first whole island vaccinated against coronavirus, after the Royal Air Force flew 4,000 miles to deliver doses from RAF Brize Norton.