The size of the Army is expected to be reduced by about 10,000 soldiers as part of a move towards robots, drones, and cyber warfare. The defence review is likely to see the loss of some tanks and aircraft – but the government said there would be “more ships, submarines and sailors”. Numbers in the regular Army will be reduced to about 70,000 soldiers, having already fallen in recent years. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace will make a statement in the Commons later.

On Sunday, he told BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show he was making decisions in the context of an increased defence budget. But Labour said the number of soldiers was being cut despite an increase in threats facing the UK. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said overhauling the armed forces would make them “more valuable” to the UK’s allies and act as a deterrent to the nation’s “foes”.(NU)…[+]

France and Poland have reintroduced partial lockdowns as both countries battle a sharp rise in Covid infections in recent weeks. Some 21 million people in 16 areas of France, including the capital Paris, are affected as the country fears a third wave. In Poland, non-essential shops, hotels, cultural and sporting facilities are now closed for three weeks. The country has the highest new daily rates of Covid cases since November. Coronavirus cases are also rising exponentially in Germany, with Chancellor Angela Merkel warning it is likely that the country will now need to apply an “emergency brake” and re-impose lockdown measures.

The Indian city of Mumbai is to roll out mandatory coronavirus tests in crowded places as the country grapples with a rise in infections. The local government said rapid tests would be done randomly in areas such as shopping centres and train stations. A refusal to be tested will “amount to an offence”, it said.

India recorded 40,953 new Covid cases on Saturday, the biggest daily jump for nearly four months. A total 159,000 people have died with the disease. It has seen more than 11.5 million cases of coronavirus infections so far – and the number has been steadily climbing for weeks as the country scrambles to vaccinate its population and identify highly contagious variants of the disease. In Mumbai, a coronavirus hotspot in the western state of Maharashtra, 2,982 people have contracted the disease in the past 24 hours.(BBC)…[+]

The French capital is set to go into a month-long Covid lockdown as the country fears a third wave.

Some 21 million people in 16 areas of France will be placed under the measures from midnight on Friday. These measures will not be as strict as the previous lockdown, Prime Minister Jean Castex said, with people allowed to exercise outdoors. France has recorded more than 35,000 new infections within the past 24 hours. Mr Castex said a “third wave” of infections in the country was looking increasingly likely. The situation in Paris is particularly worrying with 1,200 people in intensive care there, more than at the peak of the second wave in November, Health Minister Olivier Véran said. Under the new measures, non-essential businesses will be forced to close, but schools will remain open, along with hairdressers if they follow a “particular sanitary protocol”. Government spokesman Gabriel Attal stressed there would be differences with the two earlier lockdowns and said further details would be given of which business could stay open or would have to shut.(BBC)…[+]

First-year bankers at investment bank Goldman Sachs have warned that they might quit unless their gruelling working conditions improve. An internal survey among 13 employees showed they averaged 95 hours of work a week and slept five hours a night. Their personal relationships also suffered as did their physical and mental health. The analysts warned that they would be likely to leave within six months unless things changed.

The EU’s leading states are to restart their roll-out of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine after Europe’s medicines regulator concluded it was “safe and effective”. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) reviewed the jab after 13 European countries suspended use of the vaccine over fears of a link to blood clots.

It found the jab was “not associated” with a higher risk of clots. Germany, France, Italy and Spain said they would resume using the jab. It is up to individual EU states to decide whether and when to re-start vaccinations using the AstraZeneca vaccine. Sweden said it needed a “few days” to decide. The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday called on countries to continue using the vaccine, and is due to release the results of its own review into the vaccine’s safety on Friday. The agency’s investigation focused on a small number of cases of unusual blood disorders. In particular, it was looking at cases of cerebral venous thrombosis – blood clots in the head.

A court in Egypt has sentenced the prominent human rights activist Sanaa Seif to 18 months in jail after finding her guilty of “spreading false news”. Seif was detained in June as she tried to file a complaint about an assault that she had allegedly suffered. Prosecutors later accused her of making unfounded claims about the handling of Covid-19 outbreaks in Egyptian prisons. Amnesty International said she had been convicted “on bogus charges stemming purely from her peaceful criticism”. President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has overseen what human rights groups say is an unprecedented crackdown on dissent since leading the military’s overthrow of Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi, in 2013 following protests against his rule.(BBC)…[+]

Donald Trump’s net worth dropped by about $700m to $2.3bn (£1.65bn) during his time as president, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The Covid-19 pandemic hit his fortunes hard, with Mr Trump’s office buildings, branded hotels and resorts losing revenue and falling in value. His fleet of planes and golf courses have also seen drops in their value. Mr Trump is currently under a criminal investigation into his financial affairs and his family business. Bloomberg analysed financial documents and other filings from May 2016 and January 2021 to calculate Mr Trump’s wealth before and after he became US president. Mr Trump’s commercial real estate accounts for about three-quarters of his net worth. The office towers he owns or co-owns have seen big drops in valuations as more people work from home, a trend that could last in the long term.