News In A Flash

News In A Flash.

Daily News clips of events going on around the World.

Hollywood stars to be exempt from UK’s coronavirus quarantine rules

The government has announced that major Hollywood stars, including Tom Cruise, will be exempt from quarantine regulations as part of its drive to get film production in the UK back up and running.

Every Brit to get 50% off ‘eat out to help out’ discount to help restaurants

Rishi Sunak has announced that every Brit will be given 50% discounts at restaurants in a ‘creative’ new scheme to help save the hospitality industry. The ‘eat out to help out’ initiative offers customers money off of up to £10 per head when going to restaurants from Monday to Wednesday in August.

There is no limit on the number of times the discount can be used eligible days but it will only apply to non-alcoholic drinks.

Coronavirus: What’s happening around the world

As the number of COVID-19 cases surpassed three million in the U.S. on Wednesday, President Donald Trump threatened to withhold federal money if schools don’t reopen in the fall, and lashed out at federal health officials over school reopening guidelines that he says are impractical and expensive.

 Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said he is confident he will swiftly recover from the novel coronavirus thanks to treatment with hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria drug that has not been proven effective against the virus.

Bolsonaro, 65, said he tested positive for the coronavirus on Tuesday after months of downplaying its severity while deaths mounted rapidly inside the country.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday he took full responsibility for the government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak, denying that he was trying to blame care workers for the spread of COVID-19.

Johnson has been criticized for saying some care homes did not follow procedures to stem the spread of COVID-19 deaths and was repeatedly asked by Opposition Labour Leader Keir Starmer to apologize. The prime minister did not do so.

 Catalonia’s regional authorities will on Wednesday decide to make it mandatory to wear masks regardless of people’s ability to maintain a safe distance, becoming the country’s first region to do so, Catalan regional leader Quim Torra said.

Africa now has more than a half-million confirmed coronavirus cases. The continent-wide total is over 508,000, according to figures released Wednesday by the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The true number of cases among Africa’s 1.3 billion people is unknown as its 54 countries continue to face a serious shortage of testing materials for the virus.

Indonesia reported another record high of 1,863 coronavirus cases, bringing the national total above 68,000, while the government expects to slowly reopen the tourist island of Bali.

Fifty people died in the last 24 hours, bringing the death toll to 3,359, the highest in Southeast Asia.

In Iran,the death toll from COVID-19 passed 12,000 on Wednesday, health ministry spokesperson Sima Sadat Lari said in a statement on state TV. The total number of infections in the country has reached 248,379, she said. 

In Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Wednesday said the country should slow down the return of its citizens from abroad, as Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, and surrounding regions began another partial lockdown to slow the spread of the virus.

The border between the states of Victoria and New South Wales, the busiest in the country, was closed overnight.

Morrison said he would take a proposal on reducing the number of repatriation flights to a national cabinet of state and territory leaders on Friday.

Seychelles creates massive marine protection areas using world-first “debt-for-dolphin” financing

Seychelles has created 13 new Marine Protected Areas, expanding its protected areas to cover 30% of its waters, an area double the size of the island of Great Britain.

Spain permanently closes half of its coal-fired power stations

In 2018, coal plants generated roughly 15% of the European nation’s electricity. By May 2020, they contributed less than 2% of energy production. Now, seven of the nation’s 15 remaining coal plants are shutting down for good.

‘Monumental Victory’: Tribes and Climate Activists Celebrate Court-Ordered Shutdown of Dakota Access Pipeline

A U.S. district court on Monday delivered a major win to local Indigenous organizers and climate activists—and a significant blow to the fossil fuel industry and the Trump administration—by ordering the Dakota Access Pipeline to be shut down and emptied of oil by Aug. 5 while federal regulators conduct an environmental review of the project.

Ivory Coast PM and presidential candidate Amadou Coulibaly dies

Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly, the presidential candidate of Ivory Coast’s ruling party, died Wednesday just days after returning from two months of medical treatment in France, where he previously had undergone a heart transplant.

Coulibaly’s death throws the upcoming presidential election into disarray, raising concerns about who now will represent the party of President Alassane Ouattara, who is required to step down after his second term.

Former journalist denies passing Russian military secrets to NATO country

A Russian former journalist arrested on suspicion of passing state secrets to a NATO country has denied allegations that he was spying.

Ivan Safronov faces up to 20 years in prison if he is found guilty of providing the information, which according to Russia’s FSB state security service covered military and security issues

‘Rank hypocrisy’: UK’s green light to restart Saudi arms sales slammed

The UK is once again able to issue new licences to export arms to Saudi Arabia despite concerns the weapons could be used against civilians in the Yemen civil war, in violation of international humanitarian law.

Human rights campaigners have branded the decision “disgraceful” and “morally bankrupt”.

Facebook ad boycott groups ‘disappointed’ after Zuckerberg meeting

A meeting with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday has been labelled as ‘disappointing’ and ‘spin’ by leaders of rights groups.

The meeting failed to quell tensions between civil rights groups and the tech giant, following hundreds of companies dropping advertisements on the platform.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Color of Change, and Free Press were among the groups at the meeting who have been leading a campaign to call on Facebook to do more to curb hate speech and disinformation on the platform.

The groups launched the #StopHateForProfit campaign in June, which is urging companies to suspend Facebook advertisements. Since then, over 900 companies have suspended their adverts, including Verizon, Starbucks, and Coca-Cola.

Orwell Cancelled? Journalist Says “Vile” Author Aided Nazis

Despite being dead for 70 years, George Orwell may become the latest public figure to be cancelled after a journalist called him a “vile man” who aided the Nazis with his strident criticism of Stalinist Russia.

“In addition to being a gov snitch, fraud George Orwell spent WWII demonizing the USSR as it defeated Nazism,” tweeted Ben Norman.

“As the Red Army sacrificed millions fighting Hitler, and as the Nazi regime shoved Jews into gas chambers, Orwell was writing Animal Farm. Vile man,” he added.

US first lady Melania Trump statue set on fire in Slovenia

A wooden sculpture of US first lady Melania Trump was torched near her hometown of  Sevnica, Slovenia, on the night of July Fourth, as Americans celebrated US Independence Day, said the artist who commissioned the sculpture.