SUNAK SAYS IT WAS WRONG TO 'EMPOWER' SCIENTISTS DURING COVID-19

Rishi Sunak has claimed that it was a mistake to “empower scientists” during the coronavirus pandemic and that his opposition to closing schools was met with silence during one meeting.

The Conservative leadership candidate believes one of the major errors was allowing the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) to have so much influence on decision making such as closing nurseries, schools and colleges in March 2020.

Sunak also disclosed that he was banned from discussing the “trade-offs” of imposing coronavirus-related restrictions such as missed doctor’s appointments and NHS waiting list backlogs.

In an interview with the Spectator to be published on Saturday, the former chancellor said: “We shouldn’t have empowered the scientists in the way we did. And you have to acknowledge trade-offs from the beginning.

“If we’d done all of that, we could be in a very different place. We’d probably have made different decisions on things like schools.”

Schools in the UK shut with the exception of those for looking after the children of keyworkers and vulnerable children. Some schools started to reopen in August 2020.

DEFYING CHINA, U.S. LAWMAKER VISITS TAIWAN

A U.S. lawmaker on the Senate Commerce and Armed Services committees arrived in Taiwan on Thursday on the third visit by a U.S. dignitary this month, defying pressure from Beijing to halt the trips.

Senator Marsha Blackburn arrived in Taiwan's capital Taipei on board a U.S. military aircraft, live television footage from the downtown Songshan Airport showed. She was welcomed on the airport tarmac by Douglas Hsu, director general of Taiwan's foreign affairs ministry, Blackburn's office said.

"Taiwan is our strongest partner in the Indo-Pacific Region. Regular high-level visits to Taipei are long-standing U.S. policy," Blackburn said in a statement. "I will not be bullied by Communist China into turning my back on the island."

China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory against the strong objections of the democratically elected government in Taipei, launched military drills near the island after U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited in early August.

Taiwan's Foreign Ministry said Blackburn was due to meet President Tsai Ing-wen during her trip, which ends on Saturday, as well as top security official Wellington Koo and Foreign Minister Joseph Wu.

PAKISTAN ANTI-TERRORISM COURT GRANTS INTERIM BAIL TO IMRAN KHAN IN TERRORISM CASE

Islamabad, Pakistan – An anti-terrorism court in Islamabad has granted interim bail to Imran Khan, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief and former prime minister, in a case registered against him last week for his remarks against senior police officials and a female judge.

The judge, Raja Jawad Abbas, on Thursday granted Khan bail until September 1 against a surety of 100,000 Pakistani rupees ($460).

Later in the day, additional sessions judge Tahir Abbas Supra also granted Khan interim bail until September 7 over an unlawful assembly charge against a surety of 5,000 Pakistani rupees ($22.8).

A hearing over a contempt of court charge will take place on August 31.

The cricketing icon-turned-politician has faced mounting legal challenges over the last few days. The last week saw multiple cases filed against him, including one under anti-terrorism laws for “threatening” senior police officials and a female judge, as well as contempt of court and unlawful assembly.

Before Khan arrived in court on Thursday, his lawyer contended that the terrorism case against the PTI chief was registered by police as an “act of revenge”.

GLOBAL MONKEYPOX CASES DROPPED LAST WEEK: WHO

GENEVA—Monkeypox cases fell by a fifth last week as infections in Europe dropped but the outbreak is going through "intense transmission" in the Americas, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

The WHO sounded the alarm for Latin America in particular, pointing to a lack of awareness and public health measures to control the spread of the virus.

A surge in monkeypox infections has been reported since early May outside the African countries where it has long been endemic.

The WHO triggered its highest level of alarm on July 24, classifying it as a public health emergency of international concern, alongside Covid-19.

There have been 45,355 cases and 15 deaths this year, across at least 96 countries, according to the WHO's dashboard.

After four consecutive weeks of increase, the number of monkeypox cases newly reported dropped by 21 percent last week compared to the previous seven days, from 5,907 to 5,213.

"In the early stages of the outbreak, most reported cases were in Europe, with a smaller proportion in the Americas," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference.

INDIANS GET LARGEST SHARE OF KEY U.K. VISAS

Indian citizens received the largest share of U.K. student, skilled worker and visitor visas for the year ending June 2022, as per official data published by the British government on Thursday. This data comes as British visa applicants have faced severe delays in the adjudication of their applications, owing to an increase in the number of applicants as travel recovers post-pandemic and the prioritisation of visas for Ukrainians.

As per the data, 1,17,965 students received student visas in the year ending June 2022, up 215% from 2019. India has displaced China to become the country with the highest number of sponsored study visas in the U.K. for the first time since the year ending June 2011. Indian and Chinese nationals get just under half of all sponsored study visas.

Indians received 1,02,981 work visas in the year ending June 2022, an 80% increase compared to the year ending December 2019, just before the pandemic began. Nigeria, the Philippines, Zimbabwe and the United States followed India (in that order) for work visas. Forty-six percent of worker (formerly, ‘skilled worker’) visas went to Indians.

Indian nationals received 28% of visitor visas in the year ending June 2022, moving ahead of China, which was the largest recipient pre-pandemic. (China has extensive quarantine requirements for individuals entering or re-entering the country). More than 2,58,000 Indians received tourists visas — but this was still down 50% from the 2019 calendar year. The largest fall over the same period was for Chinese nationals (6,12,495 or 95%).

US SEES INDIA AS INDISPENSABLE PARTNER: WH

Washington : The US sees India as an indispensable partner, the White House asserted on Wednesday. “We see … the (Indian) partners as indispensable partners. And the US-India Strategic Partnership is grounded in our shared commitment to the advancement of afree and open Indo-Pacific region,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters. She was responding to a question if the relationship is drifting apart in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “You’ve heard the president say this, the rule of law and the promotion of human freedom and dignity,” she said. “We are confident in our relationship, and in the years ahead, we’ll continue to stand together to defend the rules-based order; foster greater peace, prosperity, and security for our people; advance a free and open Indo-Pacific; and together, address the challenges we face around the world,” she said.

The US, she said, has been very clear on where it stands with Ukraine. “You see a very unified Nato. . . and they are unified because of the leadership of this president,” she said.

TRUMP: JUDGE ORDERS RELEASE OF REDACTED SEARCH COURT PAPERS

A US judge has ordered investigators to release a redacted version of court papers that convinced him to authorise a search of Donald Trump's estate.

The public version of the affidavit, a document that includes the evidence gathered by prosecutors, could reveal new details about the inquiry.

The Department of Justice had opposed releasing an uncensored version amid its ongoing investigation.

The FBI search was part of a probe into the potential mishandling of documents.

According to the search warrant, the FBI wanted to see if Mr Trump committed a crime by improperly handling government records when he took them from the White House to Mar-a-Lago as his administration ended.

US presidents are required to transfer documents and emails to the National Archives when they leave office.

The former US president has denied wrongdoing and insists the classified files that investigators say were found in Florida had already been declassified by himself.

On Thursday, US Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart ordered the affidavit to be released with redactions by noon (16:00 GMT) on Friday.

CLIMATE CHANGE: RUSSIA BURNING HUGE AMOUNTS OF GAS, PUZZLING EXPERTS

As Europe's energy costs skyrocket, Russia is burning off large amounts of natural gas, according to analysis shared with BBC News.

Experts say the gas would previously have been exported to Germany.

They say the plant near the border with Finland, is burning an estimated $10m (£8.4m) worth of gas every day.

Scientists are concerned about the large volumes of carbon dioxide and soot it is creating, which could exacerbate the melting of Arctic ice.

The analysis by Rystad Energy indicates that around 4.34 million cubic metres of gas are being burned by the flare every day.

It is coming from a new liquified natural gas (LNG) plant at Portovaya, north-west of St Petersburg. The first signs that something was awry came from Finnish citizens over the nearby border who spotted a large flame on the horizon earlier this summer.

Portovaya is located close to a compressor station at the start of the Nordstream 1 pipeline which carries gas under the sea to Germany.

Supplies through the pipeline have been curtailed since mid-July, with the Russians blaming technical issues for the restriction. Germany says it was purely a political move following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

‘CHINESE FUNDS GIVEN TO SOLOMON ISLANDS MPS’

Sydney : The Solomon Islands PM’s office distributed Chinese government money to 39 out of 50 members of parliament twice last year, a budget committee was told, prompting criticism the payments were politically motivated. PM Manesseh Sogavare, who switched the Islands’ diplomatic ties from Taiwan to Beijing in 2019, survived a vote of no confidence last December after deadly anti-government riots in Honiara. Before the no-confidence vote, opposition leader Matthew Wale accused Sogavare of using money from China in a national fund to prop up his position.

On Tuesday, the PM’s Office said SBD20. 9 million ($2. 49m) was provided by China for a fund spent at the PM’s discretion in 2021, and two tranches of payments were made to 39 lawmakers in November and December. A request for SBD9. 75 million ($1. 16m), or SBD250,000 per lawmaker, was made on November 22, and distributed equally to the 39 lawmakers, Jimmy Rodgers, secretary to the PM, told alivestreamed committee hearing. Another payment of SBD831,000, or about SBD20,000 each, was made on December 13, he said. In a statement, Sogavare’s office rejected the allegations.