News

News. 17^th November
Vaccine competition.  A US company Moderna, says its vaccine is 95% successful in preventing the virus.  There is not yet a full scale trial but they are making big claims.  Trouble is that Moderna want to charge a lot more than any other vaccine providers and Moderna got billions of dollars from the US Government to develop it.  The chances of this vaccine getting out to poorer countries is low.  Britain say they have bought some (5 million doses) but they will not arrive for five months.  However, the future for other vaccines is looking good.
Keeping the lights on in England.  Scotland has vast reserves of clean energy from the off-shore wind farms (huge turbines in the North Sea).  They are going to put in cables under water to send energy to England.  It will cost a lot to make this energy superhighway but it will provide enough power for 4.5 million homes in England.  Scotland itself expects to have this power to every home in Scotland by 2030.
On Monday Boris told a conference of MPs from the North of England that devolution (the Government in Scotland) was a disaster and that it was a big mistake.  This has not pleased his own MPs and is certain to make the Scottish people vote against the Conservatives.  The Scottish Parliament election is only in 6 months time. 
Trump is planning to bring home half of the American troops in Afghanistan and in Iraq.  He originally said he would bring them all home.  Military staff say this is not a good or safe time to make this change.