UK lawmakers to renew govt’s contentious COVID-19 powers

LONDON (AP) — British lawmakers are set to renew the government’s sweeping powers to impose emergency restrictions to curb the coronavirus. But many have criticized the way Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative administration has used the powers. House of Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle said the government had treated lawmakers with “contempt,” with new laws being brought in without scrutiny and sometimes published just hours before coming into force. The govern