
WHO announced on Thursday the initiation of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (IPPR) to evaluate the world’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Beset by the second industry downturn in five years, global awards for floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels will likely number just one in 2020 as exploration and production firms cut budgets and activity, Rystad Energy predicted. However in 2021 should be a recovery year mainly in Brazil and Guyana and probably in the Falkland Islands.

Quarantine requirements both in the United Kingdom and the Falkland Islands, combined with global restrictions in air travel, have led to changes to the South Atlantic Airbridge scheduling, it was announced by the Islands' government.
Specifically, civilian passengers can only travel Southbound on every third flight.

Falkland Islands' Justices of the Peace last week remanded three individuals in custody after they entered guilty pleas for charges of violent disorder. Sonny Ball, Samuel Goldsworthy, and Chassy Duncan appeared at the Summary Court after they were involved in a serious incident on the evening of Monday 29 June.

Catalonia on Wednesday ordered all residents and visitors to wear face masks in public at all times, becoming the first Spanish region to toughen a national directive mandating their use when in close proximity to others.

Britain's new post-Brexit sanctions regime faces an early test over London's deteriorating relationship with China, as calls mount for it to be used against Beijing officials.

The UK government on Wednesday unveiled a package worth £30 billion (US$37 billion, €33 billion) to save jobs and help the young into work to kick-start the coronavirus-hit economy.

New genetic research shows that there was mingling between ancient native peoples from Polynesia and South America, revealing a single episode of interbreeding roughly 800 years ago after an epic transoceanic journey.

Passengers arriving in Scotland from 57 overseas destinations that have similar or lower levels of coronavirus (COVID-19) infection than Scotland will no longer need to quarantine. Travelers from the 14 UK overseas territories will also be exempt.

Germany is determined to expand its attempts to regulate online hate speech even as Facebook promises to do more to clean up its site after a global advertiser boycott, with politicians saying the issue is too important to leave to self-regulation.