Britain will return to normal by Christmas, PM says

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the latest timetable today for easing coronavirus restrictions and said he hopes Britain could return to normality before Christmas. [Forward to a friend]( | [Subscribe]( | [View in your browser]( [Top of The World]( --------------------------------------------------------------- In the news today PM Johnson says Britain will return to normal by Christmas [People are shown not wearing face coverings in London, following the outbreak of the coronavirus in Britain, July 17, 2020.]( Credit: Hannah McKay/Reuters British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the latest timetable today for easing the coronavirus restrictions and said he hopes Britain [could return to "normality" before Christmas](. Britain's COVID-19 death toll is the worst in Europe, with more than 45,000 from confirmed cases. Johnson said employers would be given more discretion over working from home rules and that the safety of larger gatherings would be evaluated. While the number of cases appears to be improving elsewhere in the world, India [joined a grim club Friday](, becoming the third country globally to record more than 1 million cases of the coronavirus. It is behind only Brazil, which has now [surpassed 2 million cases]( and the US, where a [record 75,600 new daily cases]( were reported — the 11th time in the past month that the record had been broken. Today on The World, we’ll hear from US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield, who was interviewed recently [by The Economist](. Redfield took issue with the increasing politicization over wearing face masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus: “We don’t need to be politicizing these public health interventions. Face coverings isn’t a political issue, it’s a public health issue. Really, there’s not value to have these interventions get politicized.” What The World is following British Airways said today it plans to retire [its entire fleet of Boeing 747s]( — four years ahead schedule — because of the massive downturn of passenger travel over the coronavirus pandemic. BA is the world's largest operator of Boeing 747s. Last week, the Trump administration announced that it would block visas for foreign students who could only take their US university classes online. That policy [was overturned this week]( after Harvard and MIT successfully filed a suit against the government. There are concerns that [foreign students could still be in danger of losing visas](, and today on The World, reporter Rebecca Kanthor reports from Shanghai that the anxiety it has caused could do long-term damage to American universities' abilities to attract foreign students. --------------------------------------------------------------- From The World [Abortion is a protected right in Spain. But the government blocked a website that provides abortion info and pills.]( [A woman holds a banner that reads "Free abortion covered by social security" during a pro-choice march to celebrate the government ending its plan to reform Spain's abortion law in Madrid September 28, 2014.]( Credit: Susana Vera/Reuters Since becoming legal in 1985, right-wing politicians have periodically made feeble attempts to limit or ban access to abortions. Each time it happens though, the action is met with [strong pushback]( from the public. [The problem with offers of citizenship to those fleeing Hong Kong]( [Riot police patrol at a shopping mall during a protest after China's parliament passes national security law for Hong Kong, in Hong Kong, China June 30, 2020.]( Credit: Tyrone Siu/Reuters Physicist Yangyang Cheng was born in mainland China and took advantage of a visa program a decade ago to come to the United States to study. She says she's troubled by the language politicians and governments are using to promote resettlement policies for Hong Kong residents. "[W]hat we are seeing from a lot of the language in a policy and the punditry with regard to resettlement proposals for Hong Kong residents is that the host countries, whether it's the UK or Australia and to some extent some members of the US government as well, they are only seeing the most privileged, the most well-educated, the ones who have the most resources. And they are seeing this policy as a way to enrich their own countries. And I found that to be a dehumanizing perspective," [she said.]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Podcast [(Special) The wrong apocalypse — democracy! Yawn.]( As the US reckons with systemic racism and a less-than-democratic past, China is doubling down on its authoritarian ways. Meanwhile, research on the health of democracy from across the globe indicates the patient is not well. In episode five of the third season of "[Things That Go Boom](," our partner podcast from PRX, host Laicie Heeley traces China’s rise from the 1990s, when American pop music held a place alongside patriotic education, to its more recent political assertiveness — not to mention its chokehold on civil rights in Hong Kong and Xinjiang. As China moves to assert itself on the world stage, is democracy losing? --------------------------------------------------------------- Morning meme Cornwall, England, pub landlord Jonny McFadden is serious about social distancing. So much so he's [installed an electric fence]( in front of his bar to encourage customers to keep their distance. [A screen grab of a BBC tweet.] [Credit: Screen grab from Twitter]( AP and Reuters contributed to this newsletter. --------------------------------------------------------------- In case you missed it on The World - [Estonia as refuge]( - [Spain bans abortion website]( - [Palestinians impose new restriction amid recent surge in COVID-19 cases]( - [Iranians tweet against government’s use of death penalty in rare act of online solidarity]( - [‘Freedom cannot be eaten like rice’]( - [Australia wants to welcome those fleeing Hong Kong]( - [Planting tiny forests to combat extreme heat in South Asian cities]( - [Russian hackers targeting COVID-19 researchers]( - [Hurdles and advances in the great coronavirus vaccine race]( - [EU top court strikes down key EU-US data-sharing mechanism]( Don't forget to subscribe to The World's Latest Edition podcast using your favorite podcast player: [RadioPublic](, [Apple Podcasts](, [Stitcher](, [Soundcloud](, [RSS]( [The World logo]( [The World on Facebook]( [The World's Twitter account]( [Donate]( | [Forward to a friend]( | [Subscribe]( | [Edit your subscription]( | [Unsubscribe]( | [View in your browser]( Top of the World is written weekday mornings by the team at [The World](. 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