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Fears UK aid cuts could undermine research on deadliest diseases

Exclusive: experts sign letter warning against slashing spending on public-private programmes

Experts fear a push to cut the UK’s aid budget will slash spending on global health research, handicapping international public-private programmes that have helped combat the world’s deadliest diseases over the last decade.

In a letter addressed to the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, last week, prominent parliamentarians sought reassurance that the planned cuts would not lead to “dramatic reductions” in investment for devastating diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria, HIV/Aids and a clutch of neglected tropical diseases.

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Brexit Business Coronavirus Economic growth (GDP) Economic policy Economic recovery Economics Europe European Union Foreign policy France Job losses News Politics Rishi Sunak Transport Transport policy UK job furlough scheme UK news

A perfect storm has pitched the UK economy into troubled waters

Analysis: A new Covid variant, tougher lockdowns, record redundancies and clogged ports have arrived as Brexit turmoil looms

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Britain’s economy is suffering increasing damage from the rapid growth in Covid infections, renewed lockdown measures, and turmoil over Brexit at the end of the worst year for growth in three centuries, according to a Guardian analysis.

With negotiations going down to the wire amid vast tailbacks at Dover before the Brexit transition expires on New Year’s Eve, the latest figures from the UK economy show stalling growth, falling retail sales, and redundancies rising at the fastest rate since records began.

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Japan and South Korea scramble jets to track Russian and Chinese bombers

Joint Russia and China patrol over the Pacific signals stronger military ties between Moscow and Beijing

Japan and South Korea have scrambled fighter jets to track Russian and Chinese bombers which flown a joint patrol mission over the western Pacific in a show of increasingly close military ties between Moscow and Beijing.

The Russian military said a pair of its Tu-95 strategic bombers and four Chinese H-6K bombers flew over the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea on Tuesday.

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Brexit Coronavirus Europe European Union Foreign policy Health News UK news World news

Brexit poses grave risks to UK health and care sector, report finds

Disruption to medicine supply chains and barriers to science investment will hit sector, Nuffield Trust says

The health and care sector faces a perilously uncertain future after Brexit, a new report has said.

The thinktank stated: “The perilously uncertain future facing the UK at the end of the Brexit transition period could put the UK’s health and care system at risk.”

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Brexit deadlock: EU members asked to think over No 10 fishing offer

France and Denmark thought to be most cautious about budging from current demands on fish caught in British waters

EU member states with the largest fishing fleets are being asked by Ursula von der Leyen’s senior team to rethink their “final offer” after Downing Street made a significant move to break the Brexit deadlock.

France and Denmark are understood to be the most cautious about making a counter-proposal, budging from their current demand that their vessels lose only 25% by value of the fish they catch in British waters.

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