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Daniela Elser The sum of $37,600. That is how much Prince Harry might, per some very complicated calculations, have earnt per minute for his speaking engagement at the JP Morgan Alternative Investment Summit in February.
Unless your surname is Bezos or you are of that ilk, this is a whopping, life-changing sum of money so large it could even buy a one-bedroom flat in inner Sydney that does not look onto a brick wall. However, if your surname is Sussex this might not be enough to cover your day-to-day expenses.
In January, Harry and Meghan seemingly tried to outline how they thought they were going to fund their new life when they unveiled their glossy new personal website.
According to them 5 per cent of their financing came from the Sovereign Grant, that is the money working members of the royal family receive from the State, while 95 per cent came from Prince Charles. In stepping back from frontline duties, they planned to give up the government’s money and become financially independent.
Since then, their financial situation has only grown more opaque. For one thing, they currently receive around $4.5 million from Prince Charles via his Duchy of Cornwall trust (which is valued at about $1.9 billion). Would Harry and Meghan, under this new arrangement, keep getting such a nice daddy windfall?
Ditto, who will pick up the security bill for the couple now they are about to become private citizens? While that figure, going forward, has been pegged at anywhere from $5.8 to $39 million, the short answer is a bloody lot.
All of which is before we have even gotten into paying for Archie’s organic rompers, Harry’s signature black puffer jackets and Meghan’s yoga mats.
So, just how much money do they need to earn, a year, to pay for everything?
LET’S START WITH, A HOUSE
Because you can’t keep borrowing somewhere to live from a mystery billionaire forever. Since November, the family has been staying in a $20 million home on Vancouver Island – the ownership of which remains a tantalising mystery.
At some point though, they are going to need to get their own place. While they have only said they will be based in North America, Los Angeles is looking more and more likely their ultimate destination given it is home to the entertainment business, of which Meghan is reportedly keen to rejoin, and her mother Doria Ragland.
Assuming they did head to the state, Malibu which is about a 45-minute drive from Beverly Hills and on the coast, seems a good bet with recent reports they were looking at a house owned by former Baywatch star David Charvet which is on the market for $10.5 million.
Even if this particular mansion is not their cup of (Fortnum and Mason) tea they would be looking at having to shell out a similar sum of money for a house that is not only large enough but private enough and safe enough.
Total: $10.5 million
DESIGNER DUDS
While Prince Harry is currently enjoying a delightful love affair with the humble black puffer jacket, Meghan is a woman with some serious style chops and an impressive knack for pairing high street with wildly high-end pieces.
In 2019, her wardrobe cost $367,000. Given that her days are no longer spent studiously shaking hands and hugging the devoted masses she will most likely need less “work” clothes.
That said, hanging out with the Carter-Knowles or the Clooneys necessitates a certain couture flair. Therefore, let’s assume she spends half as much on duds this year.
Total: $177,000
BODYGUARDS AND MORE BODYGUARDS
Ah, now this is a particularly thorny line item. Currently, the Sussex family has six gun-toting protection officers drawn from the special Metropolitan Police unit which protects Windsors and Westminster’s great and good.
While there is no firm number, last week, the Mirror reported having seen an internal Scotland Yard report which they report “revealed a staffing crisis within the squad that protects the royals, which is now facing an increasing and ­unprecedented demand from the royal couple”.
The same Mirror report said the future costs for keeping the Sussexes safe could be anywhere from $19.4m to $39m. Contributing to this, is the fact that it is expected that the young family will globe trot and separately at times, necessitating separate security teams.
With the Canadian government having said they would not pick up the tab, and with the question of British taxpayers incurring the ongoing cost a political hot potato, this expense might ultimately fall on the Sussexes to sort out.
Being conservative, let’s go with the lower end of the projected future costs reported by the Mirror.
Total: $19.4 million
JETTING ABOUT THE PLACE
It is time to talk about private jets, namely who pays for them. To start with, not the humble UK taxpayer. While official royal travel – such as during official engagements and international tours – is picked up by the sovereign grant, any private travel the Windsors do they have to pay for themselves.
So, when Kate and William tote their brood to Mustique for some vitamin D and quality Middleton family time, they have to put their hands in their pockets.
Now Harry and Meghan are parting ways with the Sovereign Grant, they will have to pay for not only all of their travel but staff costs for their security team, a nanny and any personal secretaries.
Let us say they would now travel as an eight-person entourage (Harry and Meghan, a nanny, two assistants, and three bodyguards.) that makes each Los Angeles to London return trip cost $88,000. Let’s assume they make the trip twice a year that is $176,000.
And, we haven’t even gotten to any private jet trips they might want to make. Again, we will play it safe and say assume they just make two return PJ jaunts to New York. That would add $180,000 to their bill.
Total: $356,000
OFFICE STAFF
In February it was confirmed that Harry and Meghan’s entire office staff of 15 (who were based at Buckingham Palace) were either being made redundant or deployed elsewhere.
While the Sussex family now might not need quite so much secretarial nous and planning chops, they are still going to need various assistants to book travel and keep their lives running like clockwork.
Therefore, let’s work on the assumption they decide they want a team of three or more junior staff with one senior private secretary running the show. That would cost approximately $400,000.
Total: $400,000
TOTAL: $30.8 million
Breaking that down, that equates to them having to do 28 JP Morgan-style events a year (working on the assumption they each pay around $1.1 million), which translates to more than one a fortnight – and that’s just to tread financial water for the first 12 months of their new independent life.
With the clock ticking down to March 31, their official exit date from being working members of the royal family, here’s hoping Meghan can teach Harry some handy vocal warm up exercises. Boy is going to have to protect his voice.
Daniela Elser is a royal expert and writer with 15 years experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.
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LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces his first rebellion on Tuesday over his decision to allow China’s Huawei a role in building the country’s 5G phone network.
In January, Britain decided to allow Huawei into what it said were non-sensitive parts of the network, with its involvement capped at 35%.
The decision angered the United States, which wants to exclude the Chinese company from the West’s next-generation communications systems because of security concerns. It has urged Britain to rethink.
A group of Johnson’s Conservatives, said to number between 30 and 50 lawmakers, oppose the decision. They are planning to back a change, or amendment, to the Telecommunications Infrastructure Bill, despite that legislation having very little to do with the security of the network.
They want the companies termed by British security experts as “high-risk vendors”, which includes Huawei, stripped out of networks completely by the end of 2022.
“We hope to curb the government’s enthusiasm for installing hardware produced by a company that they acknowledge to be ‘high risk’,” David Jones, a Conservative lawmaker who signed the amendment, told Reuters.
The Conservative rebels acknowledge they do not as yet have the numbers to force a change to government policy. But they hope if more than 20 lawmakers vote against a newly-installed government it might be a sizeable warning shot across the bows to influence Johnson to take a harder line.
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A third patient in England who tested positive for the coronavirus has died, England’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, said in a statement on Sunday. “The patient, who was being treated at the North Manchester General Hospital, was over 60 years old and had significant underlying health conditions. They had recently traveled from an affected area. Contact tracing is already underway”, the statement added.
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LONDON (Reuters) - The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United Kingdom has risen by 64 to 273, the Department of Health and Social Care said on Sunday, a leap of 30% and the biggest one-day increase so far.
More than 23,500 people in Britain have been tested for the virus. So far, two patients have died. The biggest concentration of cases is in London, which has had 51.
Finance minister Rishi Sunak said the government would invest whatever was needed to deal with the spread of the virus, including more money for the health service and help for companies suffering short-term cash flow problems.
After reports of people stockpiling goods such as hand sanitizer, soap, dried pasta and toilet rolls, the government said on Friday that supermarkets had contingency plans in place to prevent shortages.
Britain’s biggest supermarket, Tesco, said it was restricting bulk buying of several products in stores and online. Customers will be limited to buying five units of items such as anti-bacterial gels and wipes, dried pasta and long-life milk.
The government said the environment minister would hold a call with the chief executives of Britain’s main supermarkets and industry representatives on Monday to discuss their response to the coronavirus, in particular support for vulnerable groups in isolation. It follows a similar call on Friday.
The government also set out details of planned emergency legislation, including the possibility of holding more court proceedings via telephone or video link, and steps to protect the jobs of those who volunteer for the health service.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is chairing a meeting of the government’s emergency committee on Monday.
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2-3 minutesBritish Prime Minister Boris Johnson was heckled by some residents when he visited a flood-hit area in central England on Sunday, after the water had subsided.
Last month was the wettest February on record for the United Kingdom, with a succession of storms bringing widespread flooding to many areas.
Johnson was repeatedly criticized by opposition politicians at the height of the flooding for not visiting affected communities.
With waters now having subsided, Johnson on Sunday visited Bewdley in central England to see the recovery operation.
Television footage showed one man shouting “Traitor!” at the prime minister. A Reuters photographer heard some people booing Johnson, while others asked why he had waited until now to come.
Some residents said they were happy that he had now visited.
“There is no water here but you can still see the effects,” local resident Paul Smith, whose home was flooded, told Sky News. “We are just glad to see him here eventually.”
Speaking to reporters during his visit, Johnson said: “It is all too easy for a prime minister to come to a place in the middle of an emergency, it is not so easy frankly for the emergency services because ... they are then diverted from their work for hours and hours.”
“What I have been doing since the flooding began is coordinating the national response but also looking at what we can do in the next months and years to ensure that this country really is ready to cope with the impacts of flooding,” he said.
The finance ministry said on Saturday said it would use Wednesday’s budget statement to set out a doubling of spending on flood defenses to 5.2 billion pounds ($6.8 billion) over six years.
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Holly Ellyatt,Weizhen Tan,Yen Nee Lee

8:47 pm: G-7 countries promise to use policy tools but offer no specific actions to combat coronavirus

7:50 pm: Iran reports jump in coronavirus cases; supreme leader urges public to wash hands

6:46 pm: UK government publishes ‘battle plan’ to tackle spread of coronavirus

5:38 pm: Bank of England governor says its role is to help UK through ‘an economic shock’

5:01 pm: Germany’s number of coronavirus cases rises

The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus has risen in Germany to 188, up from 157 on Monday afternoon, according to the country’s RKI health institute. Germany’s Health Minister Jens Spahn warned last week of a potential epidemic in the country. — Ellyatt

5:00 pm: Beijing, Shanghai step up restrictions on travelers from overseas

4:00 pm: Ahead of full-year results, BMW CEO advises against pessimism

3:35 pm: Malaysia’s central bank lowers benchmark interest rate

3:00 pm: Economic growth in the Netherlands set to slow in 2020

2:40 pm: Pope Francis reportedly tests negative for coronavirus 

1:55 pm: Some new cases in China come from outside the country

12:50 pm: G-7 is expected to issue statement on countering virus impact

12:20 pm: Coronavirus outbreak forces China’s start-ups to rethink their priorities

11:55 am: Australia’s central bank cuts interest rate to a record low

11:30 am: Tencent to extend warranty for Nintendo Switches in China

11:10 am: US state Georgia confirms first two coronavirus cases 

10:15 am: Hong Kong will bring back 533 citizens from Wuhan

9:15 am: South Korea reports jump of 600 new cases

9:00 am: Twitter ‘strongly encourages’ all employees to work from home

8:00 am: China reports 125 new cases, 31 more deaths

7:50 am: WHO says the epidemics spreading outside China are of ‘greatest concern’

All times below are in Eastern time.

6:38 pm: Washington state governor says people ‘should start to think about avoiding large events’

Washington Governor Jay Inslee said that residents “should start to think about avoiding large events and assemblies” as the coronavirus outbreak in the state worsens. Local health officials are currently not making a request for events to be canceled, Inslee said during a press briefing. “The people should be prepared for that possibility and need to be thinking about it,” he added. Earlier in the day, Washington state officials said at least four more patients had died from COVID-19, bringing the total number of deaths in the U.S. to at least six. — Lovelace

6:35 pm: Pence says coronavirus-related travel restrictions may expand

Vice President Mike Pence said the administration’s decision on whether to expand its travel advisories for Italy and South Korea will be based on how many new cases they report. “The action the president authorized this weekend, raising the travel advisory, the American people should know we’re saying you should not travel to certain sections of Italy or South Korea. Those advisories may expand, but we’ll allow the caseload in those countries to define that,” he said during a White House press briefing. The Trump administration currently recommends Americans refrain from visiting regions of Italy and South Korea impacted by the virus. —Lovelace, Breuninger

5:09 pm: Consumers buy up survival foods like dried beans and vitamins

Consumers are shopping for more foods with long shelf lives and packaged items as the number of coronavirus cases in the U.S. rises, according to the latest Nielsen data. At U.S. stores, sales of fruit snacks were up by nearly 13%, dried beans were up 10% and pretzels were up 9% in the week that ended Feb. 22, according to Nielsen data that compared the period to the same time a year earlier. Sales of energy drinks, pet medicine, vitamin supplements and first aid kits also saw sales spike. On the other hand, sales of fresh fruit and vegetables have dropped. Mandarins were down 4% and celery was down 16% in the week that ended Feb. 22. —Repko
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William James
Britain announced a jump in coronavirus cases on Sunday, with 13 new infections taking the total to 36, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he expected the number to rise further.
Johnson will chair a meeting of the government’s emergency response committee on Monday, signaling a step up in attempts to tackle a virus that began in China and has killed almost 3,000 people worldwide.
“We’ve found about 35 people in this country have, or have had, the illness and clearly there may be more. That is likely now to spread a bit more,” Johnson said during a visit to a public health facility in London, before another case was reported in Scotland.
“I am very confident that this country has the capacity to deal with it.”
The government has announced some details of its “battle-plan” to cope with the virus, and is expected to set out the rest later this week. Johnson said closures of public events and schools could be considered.
If the virus becomes more widespread, the government will look at registering retired health workers to work again, and whether encouraging people to work at home could delay the virus’s peak until summer when it can be more easily dealt with.
Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said that as of 0900 GMT there had been 12 new positive tests, bringing the total to 35. The Scottish government later announced another positive test.
Of those new positive tests, three had been in close contact with an existing known case, seven had recently traveled from Italy and two from Iran. They were investigating one case with no relevant travel, to find out how the patient had caught the virus.
The health department said the outbreak in Britain remained in a “containment” phase despite Sunday’s increase in cases.
Health Minister Matt Hancock said he did not rule out any measures to contain the spread of the virus but said any further restrictions would be based on scientific evidence, and that for now people should go about their business as usual.
The government is launching a new public information campaign this week, encouraging people to wash their hands for at least 20 seconds, and to do so more often than normal.
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(Reuters) - Britain is preparing to reject EU demands to guarantee that the country will continue to be bound by European human rights laws once the UK becomes fully independent, the Sunday Telegraph reported.
British negotiators will refuse to accept proposed clauses in a post-Brexit trade agreement that would require Britain remain signed up to the European Convention of Human Rights, leaving the door open to break away from the treaty as soon as next year, the Sunday Telegraph said.
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Mike Harrison
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his girlfriend Carrie Symonds announced on Saturday they are expecting their first child together and are engaged to be married.
The couple have been living together in Downing Street since Johnson became prime minister in July, with Symonds the first unmarried partner to live openly with a British leader in recent history.
“The prime minister and Miss Symonds are very pleased to announce their engagement and that they are expecting a baby in the early summer,” the couple said in a statement.
The 55-year-old Johnson took office in July and led his Conservative Party to a decisive election victory in December.
The announcement means he will become the first British prime minister to marry in office for 250 years.
The couple’s relationship was the subject of scrutiny during his bid to take over from Theresa May as prime minister last summer after police were called to Symonds’ home by a neighbor who heard an apparent row between them.
Symonds, 31, said in a message posted on Instagram that she had kept news of her engagement secret until now.
“I wouldn’t normally post this kind of thing on here but I wanted my friends to find out from me,” she said.
“Many of you already know but for my friends that still don’t, we got engaged at the end of last year... and we’ve got a baby hatching early summer,” Symonds said, adding: “Feel incredibly blessed”.
Johnson was congratulated by members of parliament, including his former finance minister, Sajid Javid, who resigned after losing a power struggle over who should control Britain’s economy.
“Wonderful news!,” Javid said on Twitter.

THIRD MARRIAGE

Johnson, known for his rumpled appearance and flamboyant oratory, was previously married to Marina Wheeler, and they had four children together. They announced in September 2018 that they had separated and would divorce after 25 years of marriage.
The couple reached a financial settlement earlier this month, British media have reported.
Johnson has fathered one other child. He has always refused to say how many children he has. During the election campaign, Johnson said that he would not “put them on the pitch”.
Johnson was married to Allegra Mostyn-Owen before Wheeler, so Symonds will be his third wife.
Johnson’s most notable action so far in office has been to fulfill an election campaign pledge to “get Brexit done”. Britain finally left the European Union at the end of January, more than three years after Britons voted in a referendum to leave the bloc.
Johnson will be the first British leader since Augustus Henry FitzRoy, who was prime minister between 1768 to 1770, to remarry in office.
Recent British prime ministers’ wives have had babies while their husbands were in office
Former Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron’s wife Samantha had a baby daughter, Florence, in 2010.
Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair’s wife Cherie had a son, Leo, in 2000.
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Britain’s health ministry said on Friday that the number of people infected with coronavirus in the United Kingdom had risen to 20, after another patient in England had tested positive for the disease.
“The virus was passed on in the UK and the patient has been transferred to a specialist NHS infection centre,” England’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, said in a statement.
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David Milliken
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said slowing the spread of the coronavirus was now his government’s top priority, shortly after news on Friday that the first Briton had died of the disease after contracting it on a cruise ship moored in Japan.
The country was right to be concerned about the virus, he said, as the number of people infected in Britain rose to 20.
“The issue of coronavirus is something that is now the government’s top priority,” he told broadcasters in his first statement on the disease, adding that he would be chairing a meeting of ministers and officials on the subject on Monday.
Britain’s health ministry said the most recent person to be infected was the first to have caught the virus in Britain, rather than during a trip abroad, and that it was trying to find the source of the infection.
Mainland China - where the virus originated late last year - reported 327 new cases, the lowest since Jan. 23, taking its tally to more than 78,800 cases with almost 2,800 deaths.
However, the disease is now spreading across the globe, with the first case reported in Nigeria on Friday and 888 people infected in Italy, Europe’s worst-hit country.
Britain reported its first confirmed coronavirus case on Jan. 31 but there have been no deaths in the country so far. The British person who died was in Japan, where the Diamond Princess cruise ship had docked off Yokohama on Feb. 3.
The virus - which causes a disease called COVID-19 - is transmitted from person to person in droplets when an infected person breathes out, coughs or sneezes. It can also spread via contaminated surfaces such as door handles.
British health officials have urged the public to wash their hands to slow the spread of the disease, but have not recommended the use of face masks common in much of Asia.
Sterling weakened sharply on Friday to its lowest level since October 2019, down more than 1% on the day as investors moved their money to safe-haven assets and British shares recorded their biggest weekly fall since the 2008 financial crisis.
Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said at the start of the day that Britain should prepare for economic damage from the virus as it disrupts business supply chains.
A finance ministry spokesman said the government was keeping a close eye on the economic impact.
“As the Governor said there has been no feed-through into economic data at this stage, but the government is actively monitoring the outbreak, and well prepared for any effect it may have on the UK economy,” he said.
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Police have issued a safety warning over a climate protest rally in the southwestern city of Bristol on Friday which will be addressed by teenage activist Greta Thunberg.
The event has been organized by the Bristol Youth Strike 4 Climate group, part of a global movement of school students who stage protests in school time over what they say is the lack of government action on climate change.
Organizers say they expect between 15,000 and 60,000 protesters from across the country to attend.
One coach company said it was providing transport from 13 places around Britain, including Oxford, Birmingham, Brighton and Cardiff.
Police and the local council in Bristol issued a joint statement, expressing safety concerns.
“We have seen a number of protests over the last year however this one will be significantly larger,” it said. “Please do not underestimate the scale of this protest.”
Police will close roads around the area where Thunberg, 17, is expected to speak before she joins a march through the city.
Thunberg has been in Britain since the weekend. On Tuesday she visited the University of Oxford, where she met Malala Yousafzai, the 22-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner and campaigner for girls’ education, who is studying there.
The pair shared photos of themselves with their arms around each other. Thunberg called Yousafzai her role model, while Yousafzai said on Twitter: “She’s the only friend I’d skip school for.”
Thunberg starting missing lessons two years ago to protest outside the Swedish parliament building. She has since sparked a global movement calling for sustainability and awareness of climate change.
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3 minutesWitnesses at a public inquiry into the 2017 fire at Grenfell Tower in London which killed 72 people will be immune from prosecution over the evidence they give, Britain’s attorney general said on Wednesday.
As a result, people involved in putting combustible cladding on the tower as part of a redevelopment of the housing block will be able to give oral evidence to the inquiry without incriminating themselves.
“The undertaking I am providing to the Inquiry means it can continue to take evidence from witnesses who otherwise would likely refuse to answer questions,” Attorney General Suella Braverman said in a statement.
“These questions are important to finding out the truth about the circumstances of the fire. The undertaking will not jeopardize the police investigation or prospects of a future criminal prosecution.”
The 23-storey tower, owned by the wealthy borough of Kensington and Chelsea, was destroyed in June 2017 in the worst fire in a residential building in Britain since World War Two.
The inquiry, which began in September 2017, has established that a flammable cladding system fitted to Grenfell Tower’s external walls during a refurbishment was the main factor in the unstoppable spread of the fire.
Contractors involved in the refurbishment had been due to start testifying earlier this month but that was postponed after some of them made a request for a guarantee that nothing they told the inquiry could be used to prosecute them.
The government said that while the undertaking meant oral evidence couldn’t be used against individuals in criminal proceedings, it didn’t prevent the evidence being used against corporations in a future prosecution.
However, Grenfell United, a group which represents the bereaved and survivors of the fire, said that the decision made them “nervous”.
“Truth at the inquiry must not come at the expense of justice and prosecutions. For our continued participation, the government must make sure the inquiry process does not undermine prosecutions,” the group said in a statement.
“Grenfell was a tragedy but it was not an accident. The people responsible for knowingly encasing our families in a death trap and the people that allowed them to do it must face the full force of the law. We expect criminal prosecutions at the end of this and will not settle for anything less.”
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Andrew MacAskill
Julian Assange complained he was struggling to follow his extradition hearing on Wednesday as his legal team argued Britain should not send him to the United States because the charges against him were politically motivated.
Assange, 48, faces 18 counts in the U.S. including conspiring to hack government computers and violating an espionage law for publishing thousands of classified diplomatic cables. He faces decades in prison if convicted.
But the Wikileaks founder complained he was struggling to hear proceedings from his position in the dock at Woolwich Crown Court and asked to be able to sit with his lawyers.
“I am as much a participant in these proceedings as I am at Wimbledon (tennis),” he told the judge. “I cannot communicate with my lawyers or ask them for clarifications.”
On the third day of the hearing, Assange said he was also unable to communicate privately with his lawyers because of microphones in the dock and unnamed U.S. embassy officials in the courtroom.
Assange’s legal team will submit a formal application for him to leave the dock on Thursday after judge Vanessa Baraitser said such a move was not a risk assessment she could make and questioned whether he would still technically be in custody if allowed out of the dock.
She said most defendants normally sit in the dock and that she could not make exceptions but she did however ask Assange’s legal team to make a formal application that he should be able to move.
James Lewis, for the U.S. government, said he would not object if Assange were allowed to sit in the well of the court handcuffed to a security official.

“POLITICAL CHARGES”

Earlier, Assange’s lawyer, Edward Fitzgerald, said extradition for political offences was not allowed under the Anglo-US Extraditions Treaty set up in 2003.
Violent crimes and terrorism were the only type of political crimes that the treaty allows people to be extradited for, he said.
His legal team compared Assange to the British Iraq war whistleblower Katharine Gun and Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish artillery officer in the French army who in 1894 was convicted of treason and shipped to a penal colony off South America’s Atlantic coast.
Fitzgerald also argued that the court needed to consider various protections enshrined in both international law and the European Convention of Human Rights.
But Lewis for the U.S. disagreed with the claim that espionage is a political offense.
He said earlier this week that Assange had put lives at risk by disseminating classified materials through Wikileaks.
The United States asked Britain to extradite Assange last year after he was pulled from the Ecuador embassy in London, where he had spent seven years holed up to avoid being sent to Sweden over sex crime allegations which have since been dropped.
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3-4 minutesBritain has started random tests for the new coronavirus on patients with flu-like symptoms as part of an early warning system in case the outbreak of COVID-19 becomes more widespread, a senior health official said.
Britain has so far had 13 cases of people testing positive for infection with the new coronavirus. An outbreak in northern Italy worsened on Wednesday, and the epidemic has spread to Spain, Austria, Switzerland, Croatia and France via visitors who were recently in northern Italy.
“We’re heightening our vigilance because of the apparent spread of the virus in countries outside mainland China,” Public Health England’s medical director, Paul Cosford, told BBC radio.
The virus is believed to have originated in a market selling wildlife in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year and has infected about 80,000 people and killed more than 2,700, the vast majority in China.
British Health Minister Matt Hancock said the government had plans in place in case the coronavirus disease outbreak becomes a pandemic.
In Britain, random tests for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new virus, will be carried out at 11 hospitals and 100 general medical offices on people who have flu-like symptoms including a cough, plus shortness of breath and a fever.
“This testing will tell us whether there’s evidence of infection more widespread than we think” PHE’s Cosford said.
“The other thing it will do is, if we do get to the position of more widespread infection across the country, then it will give us early warning that that’s happening,” he said.
Hancock told parliament the government expected more cases in Britain. “We are taking all necessary measures to minimise the risk,” he said. “The public can be assured that we have a clear plan to contain, delay, research and mitigate this virus.”
Media have reported several schools have closed or sent pupils home after returning from trips to northern Italy during last week’s school holiday. Hancock said there was no need for schools to close or other students or staff to be sent home.
Bharat Pankhania, an expert at the University of Exeter Medical School agreed: “There’s no need for a school to close,” he said. “It’s disproportionate, and it gives the wrong impression. It makes people extremely concerned when there’s no need to be.”
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Conor Humphries
Irish left-wing nationalists Sinn Fein demanded a place in Ireland’s next government on Tuesday at a packed rally in Dublin, saying the country’s two dominant centre-right parties were trying block voters’ demand for change. Sinn Fein shocked the Irish political establishment in an election earlier this month by securing more votes than any other party for the first time, almost doubling its vote to 24.5% on a vow to fix the country’s housing and health systems.
But it has been frozen out of government talks by centre-right rivals, Fianna Fail and Prime Minister Leo Varadkar’s Fine Gael, who have both refused to contemplate sharing power due to policy differences and Sinn Fein’s history as the political wing of the Irish Republican Army.
The two parties, who have alternated in power for 100 years, on Tuesday held talks about possibly sharing power for the first time.
“They are doing everything they can to keep people who voted for us out of government,” Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald told a packed hall of 500 people, with a couple of hundred more waiting in freezing wind outside. “Sinn Fein wants to be in government and we want to deliver.”
“To the parties that have decided they do not want to speak to us, I say this: We respect your mandate. Now it is time that you respect ours,” she said. Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin said Sinn Fein does not operate to the same democratic standards held to by every other party and that McDonald had praised units of the IRA.
McDonald, who took over from Gerry Adams in 2018 and has no direct link to the IRA’s role in the three decades of violence in Northern Ireland that ended in 1998, rejected the statement and said Martin was “exuding bile.”
Varadkar has described the series of rallies Sinn Fein is holding across the country as part of a “campaign of intimidation and bullying,” a statement ridiculed by the party.
Asked if Sinn Fein planned to take their fight to the streets, McDonald said her focus was on talks with other parties. “The numbers will stand or fall within the Dail (parliament),” she said.
Fine Gael won 35 seats in the 160-seat house to the 37 each held by Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein.
Sinn Fein’s best chance of entering government appeared to be a tie-up with Fianna Fail, whose opposition has been slightly softer than that of Fine Gael, but Martin has repeatedly ruled that out. Most observers agree a government between Sinn Fein and several smaller left parties and independent members of parliament is unrealistic.
All sides predict it will take several weeks to form a government with the risk of a second election if talks fail, with analysts predicting Sinn Fein would be best placed to increase their seat numbers. Join Geezgo for free. Use Geezgo's end-to-end encrypted Chat with your Closenets (friends, relatives, colleague etc) in personalized ways.>>

Reuters3 minutes Britain will begin trying to define the new role it wants to play in global politics, the government said on Tuesday, launching a review of foreign policy, defense, security and international aid.
Britain technically completed its protracted exit from the European Union on Jan. 31, ending more than four decades of alignment with the European project. However, it remains bound by EU rules until the end of 2020 while a new trade deal is thrashed out.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is eager to move on from three years of division over Brexit that toppled his two predecessors, tested the limits of Britain’s constitution, and still threatens to tear apart the United Kingdom’s constituent countries.
The government said it would conduct the largest review of its kind since the end of the Cold War three decades ago to overhaul Britain’s approach to foreign policy. Its findings would set UK priorities and objectives and how to achieve them.
“I am determined to lead a government that delivers for our people - both at home and abroad. The UK’s institutions, expertise, leadership and values are renowned around the world,” Johnson said in a statement.
“But we cannot rest on our laurels. We must do more to adapt. We will be judged by how we respond to the opportunities ahead.”
At a time of heightened global uncertainty, the continued rise of China as a superpower and U.S. President Donald Trump’s disruptive international diplomacy, Britain’s 2016 vote to leave the EU has thrown its own role and influence on the world stage into doubt.
The review will take in the standpoints of government departments and draw on outside experts, looking at a range of topics from defense procurement to how data and technology can be used to counter national security threats.
Officials, reporting to the prime minister, will be expected to complete the bulk of their work in time for recommendations to influence a government spending review due later in the year, although full implementation will take several years.
Experts will look for innovative ways to promote British interests while meeting overseas aid and NATO defense spending commitments.
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