Top story: Mental health aftermath of virus
Good morning, Warren Murray here to help you engage with Tuesday.
Britain could start distributing a coronavirus vaccine by Christmas, the deputy chief medical officer has said, after large-scale trials showed the Pfizer/BioNTech trial vaccine to be 90% effective. But Prof Jonathan Van-Tam warned no vaccine would come soon enough to stop significant restrictions on public life during the second wave.
Boris Johnson said that should the Pfizer vaccine pass all its safety checks, the UK had ordered 40 million doses, which would cover about a third of the population since each person needs two doses. It remains unclear if the vaccine prevents people catching the virus and passing it on, or rather prevents someone developing symptoms. Van-Tam said older people would be first in line with prioritisation decided by an independent committee.
Some of the youngest children have been going backwards in learning and life skills during the pandemic – forgetting their potty training, losing their grasp of basic numbers and no longer able to use a knife and fork, Ofsted has warned. Nearly one in five people who have had Covid-19 are diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder such as anxiety, depression or insomnia within three months of testing positive, according to a study of US patients that was run from the University of Oxford. Three survivors have told the Guardian’s science correspondent Nicola Davis how coming down with coronavirus affected their mental wellbeing.
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Trump signals cabinet purge – Donald Trump has sacked his defence secretary, Mark Esper, for refusing to fall into line with the president and there is talk of a purge in the outgoing administration against officials who refuse to help undermine the legitimacy of the election result. The legality of Esper’s replacement is being questioned: Trump has drafted Christopher C Miller, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, into the job when Esper’s deputy should have taken over. William Barr, Trump’s attorney general, has authorised federal prosecutors to begin investigating “substantial allegations” of voter irregularities – a break with longstanding practice that comes amid a lack of evidence of any major fraud.
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Lords rebuffs illegal bill – Boris Johnson has put himself on a collision course with the Joe Biden administration in the US after Downing Street said it would press ahead with legislation to override the Brexit deal on Northern Ireland. The House of Lords on Monday rejected measures that seek to “disapply” parts of the Northern Ireland protocol – which Biden has said would put the Good Friday agreement at risk. The government has said it intends to put the measures back in. The former prime minister Sir John Major has weighed in, saying Britain’s global reputation has been damaged and lawyers have been left “incredulous” by the government’s determination to override key elements of the Brexit deal.
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Accord in Nagorno-Karabakh – Armenia’s prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, has signed a “painful” deal with the leaders of Azerbaijan and Russia to end the military conflict over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region after more than a month of bloodshed. The declaration on Tuesday morning follows six weeks of heavy fighting in which Azerbaijan’s forces have retaken land lost in a conflict between the two countries in the 1990s, leaving hundreds dead and forcing thousands of ethnic Armenians to flee into Armenia. The region has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since 1994. Russia is to send in 1,960 peacekeepers under a five-year mandate as part of the peace deal.
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Hope for Saudi political prisoners – Saudi Arabia is considering clemency for jailed female activists ahead of its virtual hosting of the G20 summit on 21-22 November, the Saudi ambassador to the UK has said. The summit has brought the kingdom under renewed pressure on, for instance, the fate of a group of women who were prominent in the campaign for the right to drive. One of the jailed women, Loujain al-Hathloul, has been on hunger strike since 26 October. Hathloul was arrested with nine other women’s rights advocates in May 2018, months before women were finally granted the right to drive. At least five of those arrested remain in jail.
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Sport
The Masters has suffered a high-profile Covid-19 withdrawal after Sergio García, the 2017 champion, returned a positive test. Augusta would usually be banking on a bonanza as the Masters rolls into town but the situation is anything but before the season’s now third and final major. In a further sign of changed days at Augusta National, Lee Elder, the first black man to play in the tournament, will take a role of honorary starter in 2021.
England’s Nations League match against Iceland next Wednesday could be played in Albania or Germany after the Football Association held emergency talks with the government to decide whether the game can go ahead at Wembley. The Georgia captain, Merab Sharikadze, has described Eddie Jones’s ploy of selecting nine forwards as “quite weird”. Wayne Pivac has admitted his Wales setup could be perceived as “a mess” after the sacking of the defence coach, Byron Hayward, less than a year into the job. And Premier League clubs are yet to schedule a third vote on whether to allow five substitutions during matches despite growing pressure to reconsider.
Business
The installation of renewable electricity will hit a record level around the world this year, according to the International Energy Agency, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to reduce the amount of fossil fuels being used. Asian stock prices have been more subdued overnight despite the vaccine-inspired surge on Wall Street on Monday. After leaping 4.5% yesterday, the FTSE 100 is expected to shed 1% this morning. The pound is buying $1.318 and €1.114.
The papers
The full-page pictures of vials and syringes may be a _little_ unsettling but the story is a positive one. “A great day for humanity” says the Telegraph while the Mail calls it “One small jab for man” as if it is publishing in another era (and you actually need two jabs, which makes me think of John Prescott for some reason …)
The Guardian has “Virus breakthrough gives hope of vaccine programme by Christmas”. Our print edition front page also reports on the ground gained against Covid by the 17-day “firebreak” in Wales. The Mirror hails “Our little bottle of hope” – while the Express enthuses “Vaccine hope – life back to normal by spring” and the Times is in a similar vein (I thank you!): “Vaccine milestone heralds ‘normal life by next spring’”.
“A shot in the arm to beat Covid” – the Metro is usually more clever than that. The FT takes the angle you would expect: “Covid vaccine breakthrough brings” – hope of end to deadly pandemic? No – “boost to battered global markets”. While the Star leads on the somewhat peripheral detail that Pfizer also makes Viagra.
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