Boris Johnson - The African Mirror

Jun

28

2021

UK government to probe leak of Hancock footage

BRITAIN’S government will investigate how footage of former minister Matt Hancock kissing his aide found its way into the media and forced his resignation, in the latest scandal to hit Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government. After first rejecting calls for Hancock to be sacked or resign as health minister after pictures were published of him embracing a woman he had appointed to a taxpayer-funded role, Johnson accepted his decision to step down on Saturday. The departure puts pressure on Johnson's government, which has overseen one of the highest official death tolls from the COVID-19 pandemic and was criticised for its…

Jun

27

2021

By The African Mirror

Pressure builds on UK’s Johnson to fire health secretary

WORLD

KATE HOLTON BRITISH Prime Minister Boris Johnson has come under mounting pressure to fire his health secretary after the admission that he broke COVID-19 guidelines by kissing an employee sparked accusations of blatant hypocrisy. Matt Hancock, 42, has been at the centre of the government's fight against the pandemic, routinely telling people to follow strict rules and even welcoming the resignation last year of a senior scientist who broke restrictions in a similar manner. Hancock apologised on Friday after The Sun newspaper showed him kissing and embracing a senior aide in his office last month, at a time when it…

Jun

12

2021

By The African Mirror

G7 to donate 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to poorer countries

WORLD

KATE HOLTON BRITISH Prime Minister Boris Johnson expects the Group of Seven to agree to donate 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to poorer countries during its summit starting on Friday, and help inoculate the world by the end of next year. Just hours after U.S. President Joe Biden vowed to supercharge the battle against the coronavirus with a donation of 500 million Pfizer shots, Johnson said Britain would give at least 100 million surplus vaccines to the poorest nations. Johnson has already called on G7 leaders to commit to vaccinate the entire world by the end of 2022 and the…

May

27

2021

By The African Mirror

UK’s Johnson dismissed COVID-19 as a ‘scare story’, ex-chief adviser says

WORLD

GUY FAULCONBRIDGE and ELIZABETH PIPER PRIME Minister Boris Johnson and the British state failed to appreciate the deadly threat from the novel coronavirus as it raced across the world in early 2020 and were disastrously slow to impose a lockdown, his former adviser said on Wednesday. With almost 128,000 deaths, the United Kingdom has the world's fifth worst official COVID-19 toll. Reuters has reported how Britain was slow to spot the infections arriving, it was late with a lockdown and it continued to discharge infected elderly hospital patients into care homes. In a blistering attack on the British state, Dominic…

Apr

13

2021

By The African Mirror

‘I’m so excited’ – England reopens with pints pulled, shopping sprees and hair cuts

WORLD

CARL RECINE, KATE HOLTON and SARAH YOUNG CROWDS queued up outside shops, pubs started selling pints at midnight and hairdressers welcomed desperate customers on Monday as England started to reopen its economy after three months of lockdown. After imposing the most onerous restrictions in Britain's peacetime history, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the reopening was a "major step" towards freedom but urged people to behave responsibly as the coronavirus was still a threat. Some folk lined up at bars after midnight or in the morning to raise a pint with fellow revellers. "It feels good to be back," Matthew McGuinness,…

Apr

09

2021

By The African Mirror

British Prime minister’s tribute to the late Prince Philip

WORLD

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has paid a warm tribute to Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth, who passed away today, aged 99. Below is a text of his speech. "It was with great sadness that a short time ago I received word from Buckingham Palace that His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh has passed away at the age of 99. "Prince Philip earned the affection of generations here in the United Kingdom, across the Commonwealth and around the world. "He was the longest serving consort in history, one of the last surviving people in this country to have…

Mar

30

2021

By The African Mirror

‘Happy Monday’ – English lockdown measures ease

WORLD

COSTAS PITAS and ALISTAIR SMOUT ENGLAND’S stay-at-home lockdown order ended yesterday with people allowed to meet up outside in groups of six for the first time in nearly three months, though Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged caution due to rising coronavirus cases in Europe. Johnson announced a third national lockdown in England on Jan. 4, but has said he plans to proceed with a "cautious and irreversible" route out of restrictions, underpinned by a quick rollout of COVID-19 vaccines. That contrasts with much of Europe, with Germany and France among countries contending with a third wave of COVID-19 infections and…

Feb

24

2021

By The African Mirror

David Attenborough to U.N.: ‘Climate change a threat to global security, I don’t envy you’

WORLD

MICHELLE NICHOLS BRITISH naturalist David Attenborough warned on Tuesday that climate change is the biggest security threat that modern humans have ever faced, telling the U.N. Security Council: "I don't envy you the responsibility that this places on all of you." Attenborough, 94, the world's most influential wildlife broadcaster, addressed a virtual meeting of the 15-member council on climate-related risks to international peace and security, chaired by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. "If we continue on our current path, we will face the collapse of everything that gives us our security: food production, access to fresh water, habitable ambient temperature…

Feb

24

2021

By The African Mirror

COVID-19 passports: What you need to know

COVID-19

UMBERTO BACCHI AS Britain announces its roadmap out of lockdown, vaccine certificates have once again come into the spotlight. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there would be a review into the issue although he added some form of vaccine passport would be "going to come on the international stage whatever" for foreign travel. Governments and developers around the world are exploring how certificates and passports could help to reopen economies by identifying those protected against COVID-19. Proponents say identifying people who are immune to the novel coronavirus or at lower risk of spreading it could help open up travel…

Feb

20

2021

By The African Mirror

At Biden’s G7 debut, leaders look beyond COVID to trade and China

WORLD

WILLIAM JAMES and GUY FAULCONBRIDGE THE Group of Seven leaders, who control a little under half of the world's economy, on Friday sought to look beyond the COVID-19 pandemic towards rebuilding their battered economies with free trade and to countering China's "non-market oriented" policies. U.S. President Joe Biden and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi debuted at the G7 virtual leaders' meeting which was chaired by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The leaders called for stronger defences against a future pandemic, including exploring a global health treaty, but the focus was on a green recovery - on the same day that…