July 2022
Sugar high of tax cuts will not fix UK economic woes
Loosening fiscal policy could stoke inflation and force the Bank of England to push interest rates higher.
UK leadership race heats up as big names target top job
Conservatives organising the contest are keen to whittle down the race from nine to a final two before parliament goes on its summer recess on July 21.
After the fall: the legacy of Boris Johnson
Britain’s next Conservative prime minister will operate in a landscape defined by a uniquely polarising leader.
Who’s in the race to be Britain’s next PM, and how will it be won?
The outcome will depend on whether MPs and grassroots Tories are minded to reward or punish those who stuck with Boris Johnson, versus those who deserted him.
Fatally wounded, Boris Johnson refuses to accept political death sentence
The political assassination has been as slow and incompetent as that of Rasputin: somehow the UK’s mercurial prime minister manages to hold on.
June 2022
COVID-19 team creates vaccine to tackle toughest cancers
Pfizer scientists use same technology to develop therapy for hard-to-treat pancreatic tumours.
January 2022
Europe’s healthcare systems creak under omicron’s rapid spread
Healthcare networks across Spain, Britain, Italy and beyond have found themselves in increasingly desperate circumstances.
December 2021
Omicron spreads global gloom over New Year’s celebrations
Governments are moving at different speeds to contain the scourge, with some reimposing restrictions immediately and others hesitating to spoil the party again.
Boris Johnson hesitates over omicron Christmas lockdown
The British government is torn between waiting for more data on hospitalisations or acting pre-emptively to try to suppress the COVID-19 surge.
Europe braces for more restrictions
From a new lockdown in the Netherlands to travel restrictions targeted by several countries at the UK, Europe faces a critical week of decisions that could disrupt the holidays.
Netherlands back into lockdown as omicron rages across Europe
All non-essential stores, bars and restaurants in the Netherlands would be closed from the weekend until January 14, caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte said.
COVID-19 rebels deal hammer blow to Boris Johnson’s authority
The result was a blow to the embattled PM, whose approval ratings have plunged amid ethics scandals and allegations his government breached its own pandemic restrictions.
Surge in omicron cases in Denmark, UK sends warning to rest of Europe
The variant is having a clear impact on case numbers in Denmark and the UK, the first evidence outside southern Africa of its ability to change the course of the pandemic.
Omicron variant now detected in at least 20 nations
Experts cautioned not to put too much stock in reports that the variant is causing only mild illness because the data is still sparse.
November 2021
Austria in lockdown as COVID-19 rules trigger riots across Europe
Riot police used water cannons and tear gas as peaceful demonstrations turned ugly in Brussels when tens of thousands of protesters marched through the streets.
September 2021
Teenagers can overrule parents to have virus jab: UK minister
Britain’s vaccines minister said if a 12- to 15-year-old wanting to receive the jab was judged ‘competent’, they could go against their parents’ wishes.
Cholesterol jab could transform heart disease treatment
Britain has approved use of a new ‘gene silencing’ drug that involves twice-yearly injections and could eventually replace statins.
August 2021
‘Delta has wrecked any chance of herd immunity’
Scientists in the UK say it’s time to accept that there is no way of stopping the virus spreading through the entire population, and monitoring people with mild symptoms was no longer helpful.
July 2021
England’s ‘freedom day’ marred by soaring cases and isolation chaos
Boris Johnson’s bet that he can get one of Europe’s largest economies firing again because so many people are now vaccinated marks a new chapter in the global response to the coronavirus.
UK’s big reopening marred by infection chaos and Johnson’s U-turn
Pandemic restrictions are ending in England on Monday, a moment that was meant to herald the full reopening of an economy battered by its deepest recession in 300 years.