Tag: 2020

Covid-19: More than 40 countries ban UK arrivals

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More than 40 countries have banned UK arrivals because of concerns about the spread of a new variant of coronavirus.

Flights from the UK are being suspended to territories across the world including Spain, India and Hong Kong.

France shut its border with the UK for 48 hours, meaning no lorries or ferries can leave from the port of Dover.

Boris Johnson said he spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron and both sides wanted to resolve “these problems as fast as possible”.

The prime minister told a Downing Street press conference: “We had a very good call and we both understand each other’s positions.”

Mr Johnson, who earlier chaired a meeting of the government’s emergency committee, added: “We are working with our friends across the Channel to unblock the flow of trade.”

And French Europe Minister Clément Beaune said they would announce on Tuesday what measures were being introduced “after this phase of emergency and harsh precaution that we had to take”. He said they would come into effect from Wednesday.

European Union member states met earlier in Brussels to discuss a co-ordinated response, with officials suggesting a requirement for tests could be imposed on all people arriving from the UK.

It came as the Northern Ireland Executive met on Monday night to consider whether to impose a travel ban between NI and England, Scotland and Wales.

Countries to impose a ban on UK arrivals include Belgium, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Russia, and Switzerland.

Some of the bans are already in force while others are to begin on Tuesday.

Eurotunnel services to France are also suspended and Eurostar trains to Belgium are not operating.

However, Eurotunnel spokesman John Keefe said he hoped travel from the UK could begin on Wednesday or Thursday.

Muhammad Ali Jinnah ( 25 December 1876 – 11 September 1948)

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Muhammad Ali Jinnah (25 December 1876 – 11 September 1948) was a barrister, politician and the founder of Pakistan. Jinnah served as the leader of the All-India Muslim League from 1913 until Pakistan’s independence on 14 August 1947, and then as Pakistan’s first Governor-General until his death. He is revered in Pakistan as Quaid-i-Azam (“Great Leader”) and Baba-i-Qaum, (“Father of the Nation”). His birthday is a national holiday in Pakistan.

Born at Wazir Mansion in Karachi, Jinnah was trained as a barrister at Lincoln’s Inn in London. Upon his return to British India, he enrolled at the Bombay High Court, and took an interest in national politics, which eventually replaced his legal practice. Jinnah rose to prominence in the Indian National Congress in the first two decades of the 20th century. In these early years of his political career, Jinnah advocated Hindu–Muslim unity, helping to shape the 1916 Lucknow Pact between the Congress and the All-India Muslim League, in which Jinnah had also become prominent. Jinnah became a key leader in the All-India Home Rule League, and proposed a fourteen-point constitutional reform plan to safeguard the political rights of Muslims. In 1920, however, Jinnah resigned from the Congress when it agreed to follow a campaign of satyagraha, which he regarded as political anarchy.

By 1940, Jinnah had come to believe that Muslims of the Indian subcontinent should have their own state to avoid the possible marginalized status they may gain in a Hindu-Muslim state. In that year, the Muslim League, led by Jinnah, passed the Lahore Resolution, demanding a separate nation. During the Second World War, the League gained strength while leaders of the Congress were imprisoned, and in the elections held shortly after the war, it won most of the seats reserved for Muslims. Ultimately, the Congress and the Muslim League could not reach a power-sharing formula for the subcontinent to be united as a single state, leading all parties to agree to the independence of a predominantly Hindu India, and for a Muslim-majority state of Pakistan.

As the first Governor-General of Pakistan, Jinnah worked to establish the new nation’s government and policies, and to aid the millions of Muslim migrants who had emigrated from the new nation of India to Pakistan after independence, personally supervising the establishment of refugee camps. Jinnah died at age 71 in September 1948, just over a year after Pakistan gained independence from the United Kingdom. He left a deep and respected legacy in Pakistan. Innumerable streets, roads and localities in the world are named after Jinnah. Several universities and public buildings in Pakistan bear Jinnah’s name. According to his biographer, Stanley Wolpert, Jinnah remains Pakistan’s greatest leader.