From Our Own Correspondent

Attitudes to Covid in Russia have been very different to those in western Europe. At its government played down the risks and scoffed at ‘pandemic panic’ in the West. That changed as the virus swept across the country and its healthcare system creaked under the pressure – especially in regions far from Moscow. Russia makes its own vaccine, Sputnik V, which it has shared widely with other countries and is now promoting heavily at home. But as Sarah Rainsford explains, the drive to get people jabbed must contend with public cynicism, scepticism and fear. Everything in Hong Kong these days points to tighter control from Beijing. The draconian national security law recently introduced in the territory is being applied to stifle protests, criminalise dissent and to get its previously lively press working within stricter limits. China’s government calls this “restoring stability”. Danny Vincent has seen the process unfold. . Western Canada is still reeling from a week of record temperatures on the Pacific coast.