Pfizer vaccine roll-out in Britain
After making history as the first country to approve a COVID-19 vaccine, the UK was also the first to distribute it to the public when on Tuesday 8th the Pfizer/ BioNTech vaccine’s mass inoculation roll-out began. Fifty hospitals have begun vaccinating the first 400,000 people to access the vaccine, starting with elderly people (80+) and care home workers, soon to be followed by critically vulnerable people. Margaret Keenan, aged 90, was the first to receive the vaccine at 6:31 am Tuesday, followed by 81-year-old William Shakespeare. In an October Ipsos poll 79% of Britons asked said they would take the vaccine if it was available to them. Across the world, Canada has joined the UK in approving the vaccine, describing it as ‘safe, effective and of good quality’.
ITV Scandal
It was revealed on Tuesday that ITV had broken Ofcom competition rules due to not counting thousands of votes. Over 40,000 postal entries from 2016-19 were not counted properly in a breach of Ofcom rules, spread over several programs such as Loose Women and Good Morning Britain. Contestants who took advantage of the fact that postal entrants did not pay a premium rate fee for the competitions were excluded from the draw and so had no chance of winning. ITV blamed human error for the breach and offered to make a donation to charity to show their remorse/ sincerity. Ofcom decided to take no further action against ITV, despite its power to impose fines.
Brexit in Brussels
Brexit talks are continuing to move at a snail’s pace, despite Boris Johnson meeting Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday to try and save the Brexit trade deal in person after Monday’s phone talk ended in an impasse with neither willing to make concessions. A government official was quoted as saying ‘We have made no tangible progress’ since Friday ahead of the in-person meeting. Chief negotiators prepared an overview of remaining differences to be worked through and discussed in person at Brussels. However, after Wednesday, Von der Leyen said the two sides were still ‘far apart’, with disagreements about fishing rights and business competition rules remaining. Nonetheless, Dominic Raab has said it is ‘unlikely’ that negotiations will continue past Sunday, supported by Von der Leyen who said, ‘We will come to a decision by the end of the weekend’. On Thursday, the EU set out the measures it would take in a no-deal scenario, perhaps showing a lack of confidence that a deal will be reached before the 31st of December when the UK stops following EU trading rules. Ministers confirmed that, if a trade deal were signed, they would scrap plans to override part of the Brexit withdrawal agreement affecting Northern Ireland.
Trump continues to questions election results
President Trump once again called the validity of the 2020 US election results into question on Tuesday, appealing to the US Supreme Court and lawmakers to overturn the election results. After falsely claiming he won the swing states he continued to accuse the Biden administration of “stealing” hundreds of thousands of votes. This is despite no evidence being found that fraud played a role in the outcome of the race, with this stance being supported by the federal government and election officials from both parties. Trump has said ‘Let’s see whether or not somebody has the courage, whether it’s legislators or legislatures or a justice of the Supreme Court or a number of justices of the Supreme Court. Let’s see if they have the courage to do what everybody in this country knows is right.’ However, despite the President, his administration, and congressional Republicans all supporting the claim that the election was ‘stolen’, their efforts to delay and overturn election results may soon end due to Giuliani’s (Trump’s personal lawyer) hospitalisation after testing positive for COVID-19.
Bob Dylan music sale
In what has been described as “the most significant music publishing agreement this century” Bob Dylan has sold his entire publishing catalogue to Universal Music for around £225 million. The hallmark deal includes 600 of his songs such as “Knockin’ on Heaven’s door” and “Like a Rolling Stone”. In his lifetime Dylan has sold over 125 million records and became the first songwriter to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016. Unlike most artists, Dylan owned the rights to his music, against the commonality of artists giving up publishing rights early in careers. This deal comes after Stevie Nicks sold a majority share in her catalogue for around $80 million, following a trend of artists selling their music catalogues this year
