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- US judge dismisses suit filed against Pence seeking to overturn election result
- Iran to enrich uranium to up to 20% purity, UN nuclear watchdog says
- Brexit is nothing to celebrate, says Ireland's foreign minister
- Execution of only woman on US federal death row can go ahead, court rules
- India prepares for vast Covid vaccination push ahead of AstraZeneca-Oxford jab approval
- Senate overrides Donald Trump's veto of defense spending bill
- Ireland Covid cases surge as health official warns virus is 'absolutely rampant'
- Tate & Lyle accused of betraying Cambodia families whose land was allegedly taken
- Plane crash deaths rose in 2020 despite pandemic
- 'Hold my beer': Australian surfer Mikey Wright charges into Hawaii surf to rescue struggling swimmer
- Coronavirus live: Vietnam reports first case of new Covid variant; Irish health officials warn virus is 'absolutely rampant' - latest updates
- 'I'd sunk, lost all confidence': the charity helping young people into work
- NSW makes face masks mandatory as state records seven new Covid cases
- Dr Anthony Fauci says US will not delay second doses of Covid vaccine
- ‘From now on, I was in an LGBTQ+ family’: my husband came out as trans while I was on maternity leave
- Nicholas Hoult: ‘Part of your brain doesn’t want to walk down a corridor naked’
- Blind date: ‘She picked up the entire steak with her bare hands’
- The fall of Fox?: how rising rightwing media outlets could topple the conservative giant
- Prebiotics are hard to stomach, but will your gut thank you for trying? | Zoe Williams
- Golden ticket: the lucky tourists sitting out coronavirus in New Zealand
- Inside the 'moving factory' that will cut HS2 through the Chilterns
- Brexit: how the new rules will change your visits to Europe
- ‘The sea is rising, the climate is changing’: the lessons learned from Mozambique’s deadly cyclone
- Biden wants to fill federal court seats – but he needs to win the Senate first
- Beekeepers brace for next round with Canada's 'murder hornets'
- Australia coronavirus news live: NSW records seven new local cases and masks to be mandatory in some indoor settings
- What difference will Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine make in UK?
- Australian pro surfer Mikey Wright saves woman struggling in Hawaii surf – video
| US judge dismisses suit filed against Pence seeking to overturn election result Posted: 01 Jan 2021 08:35 PM PST Lawsuit aimed at allowing vice president to reject electoral college votes is latest in a long line of cases to be thrown out A US judge has rejected a lawsuit from a Republican congressman that sought to allow vice president Mike Pence to reject electoral college votes for Joe Biden when Congress meets on Wednesday to certify his victory over president Donald Trump. The latest long-shot attempt by Trump's Republican allies to overturn the November election result was dismissed by one of Trump's own appointees to the federal bench, Jeremy Kernodle. Continue reading... |
| Iran to enrich uranium to up to 20% purity, UN nuclear watchdog says Posted: 01 Jan 2021 05:42 PM PST Latest move was flagged in law passed last month after the assassination of country's top nuclear scientist Iran has told the United Nations nuclear watchdog it plans to enrich uranium to up to 20% purity, a level it achieved before its 2015 accord, at its Fordow site buried inside a mountain, the agency has said. The move is the latest of several recent announcements by Iran to the International Atomic Energy Agency that it plans to further breach the deal, which it started violating in 2019 in retaliation for Washington's withdrawal from the agreement and the reimposition of US sanctions against Tehran. Continue reading... |
| Brexit is nothing to celebrate, says Ireland's foreign minister Posted: 01 Jan 2021 08:05 AM PST As first ferries arrive under new trade rules, Simon Coveney warns of disruption to come Brexit is "not something to celebrate", Ireland's foreign minister Simon Coveney declared after the UK formally severed ties with the EU, as he warned of trading disruptions due to fresh red tape. Related: Political demands of Brexit now face economic reality Continue reading... |
| Execution of only woman on US federal death row can go ahead, court rules Posted: 01 Jan 2021 10:15 PM PST Lisa Montgomery, who strangled a pregnant woman and cut her baby out of her belly, is set to be executed by lethal injection on 12 January A US appeals court has cleared the way for the only woman on federal death row to be executed before president-elect Joe Biden takes office. The ruling, handed down on Friday by a three-judge panel on the US court of appeals for the District of Columbia circuit, concluded that a lower court judge erred when he vacated Lisa Montgomery's execution date in an order last week. Continue reading... |
| India prepares for vast Covid vaccination push ahead of AstraZeneca-Oxford jab approval Posted: 01 Jan 2021 11:43 PM PST Health officials hold vaccine drills as country sets target of inoculating 300 million people within six months India has staged nationwide drills to start one of the world's biggest coronavirus vaccination programmes as the drug regulator prepared to approve the first vaccine. A government panel on Friday recommended emergency use of the AstraZeneca-Oxford University shot and the first injections could be given in the coming week once the Drugs Control Authority of India gives final approval. Continue reading... |
| Senate overrides Donald Trump's veto of defense spending bill Posted: 01 Jan 2021 01:11 PM PST Republicans join Democrats to push through bill against Trump's strong objections Donald Trump's fellow Republicans in the US Senate on Friday took the atypical rebellious step of overriding his veto for the first time in his presidency. The Senate pushed through a bill on defense spending against Trump's strong objections – just 20 days before he leaves office. Continue reading... |
| Ireland Covid cases surge as health official warns virus is 'absolutely rampant' Posted: 01 Jan 2021 08:33 PM PST Some 9,000 cases yet to be formally reported as chief medical officer says biggest worry is rise in hospitalisations Ireland is bracing for 9,000 more Covid cases to be added to the official tally as the system struggles to handle a surge in positive results, with health officials warning hospitals will not be able to cope if the trend continues. The sharp rise in positive results led to delays in formal reporting, said Professor Philip Nolan from the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET), though he said it "does not affect case management or contact tracing or our overall monitoring and modelling of the pandemic". Continue reading... |
| Tate & Lyle accused of betraying Cambodia families whose land was allegedly taken Posted: 01 Jan 2021 09:00 PM PST UK company says it will keep trying to use leverage to get compensation from local supplier Tate & Lyle has been accused of betraying 200 families in Cambodia who have fought for years to secure compensation for land they say was taken from them to make way for a sugar plantation. Residents in Koh Kong, Cambodia, say their livelihoods, and their children's futures, were devastated when their land was taken from them in a process that began in 2006. The land was later used to supply sugar to Tate & Lyle. Continue reading... |
| Plane crash deaths rose in 2020 despite pandemic Posted: 01 Jan 2021 05:58 PM PST Dozens more died in large commercial plane crashes despite 42% drop in flights worldwide The number of people killed in large commercial airplane crashes rose in 2020 to 299 worldwide despite a sharp decline in flights due to the coronavirus pandemic, a Dutch consulting firm has found. In 2020 there were 40 accidents involving large commercial passenger planes, five of which were fatal, resulting in 299 fatalities. In 2019 there were nearly double the number of accidents – 86 – eight of which were fatal, resulting in 257 fatalities, said aviation consulting firm To70. Continue reading... |
| 'Hold my beer': Australian surfer Mikey Wright charges into Hawaii surf to rescue struggling swimmer Posted: 01 Jan 2021 07:03 PM PST Wright himself was filming the incident, then jumped a fence, dived into the water and pulled the woman to safety An Instagram video has caught an Australian pro surfer heroically stepping in to rescue a woman being swept away by strong currents in Hawaii. Mikey Wright was looking out over a beach, thought to be on Oahu's north shore, when he saw a beachgoer struggling in the surf. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 02 Jan 2021 02:04 AM PST Just under 3 million Americans vaccinated so far as US death toll continues to rise; expert defends UK decision to delay second dose of vaccine
VIDEO: On the first day of 2021, Wuhan residents express gratefulness and hope when asked about their expectations for this year compared to 2020, a year marked by the Covid-19 epidemic which first emerged from the central Chinese city pic.twitter.com/V3CSStZdOq
The deputy chairman of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, Prof Anthony Harnden, has defended government plans to delay the second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine from three weeks to 12 weeks after the first jab. Prof Harnden told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that patients he had dealt with accepted the decision, explaining: When it was explained to them that the vaccine offers 90% protection for one dose, and the priority was to get as many people vaccinated in the elderly and vulnerable community as possible, they understood. I think the country is all in this together. And, I think we really, really want to pull together to try and do the best strategy possible. Continue reading... |
| 'I'd sunk, lost all confidence': the charity helping young people into work Posted: 02 Jan 2021 12:30 AM PST Georgina George and Jamil Mungul credit UK Youth-supported programmes with helping them find a new direction
Georgina George had a tough time at school and struggled for years afterwards to work out what she wanted to do with her life. Then just before the pandemic hit, it all came together: she discovered a passion for aviation engineering and found a job in the sector that she loved. Shaking off the problems from her past, the 23-year-old began to forge ahead. Continue reading... |
| NSW makes face masks mandatory as state records seven new Covid cases Posted: 01 Jan 2021 09:04 PM PST Gladys Berejiklian announces new measures for greater Sydney and $200 on-the-spot fines, as Victoria's hard border takes effect The New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, said she does not want to "restrict business activity, jobs or economic activity", announcing new restrictions including mandatory masks, as seven new cases of community transmission of coronavirus were announced on Saturday. Meanwhile Victoria's hard border blocking travel from NSW took effect, with the Victorian health minister, Martin Foley, saying he would not apologise for taking tough measures to prevent virus spread. The ACT health department also announced non-ACT residents travelling from affected areas of NSW would now need an exemption. Continue reading... |
| Dr Anthony Fauci says US will not delay second doses of Covid vaccine Posted: 01 Jan 2021 04:06 PM PST American infectious disease expert disagrees with UK's plans to prioritise first doses The American infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci has said he does not agree with the UK's approach of delaying the second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. On Friday, Dr Fauci told CNN that the United States would not be following in the UK's footsteps and would follow Pfizer and BioNTech's guidance to administer the second dose of its vaccine three weeks after the first. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 02 Jan 2021 02:00 AM PST I'd chosen an unconventional partner, and we both bristled at gender stereotypes. But I had sensed a distance between us, and it wasn't just new parenthood Today I sat on a bench facing the sea and sobbed my heart out. I don't know if I will ever recover. This is a note on my phone, written on 9 November 2017. I forgot about it for a couple of years, but I remember typing it as if it were yesterday. The gulls squawked and the sun dipped into the sea. I had been sitting there so long my hands were too cold to type. I put my phone into my coat pocket, and turned the buggy to face home. Continue reading... |
| Nicholas Hoult: ‘Part of your brain doesn’t want to walk down a corridor naked’ Posted: 02 Jan 2021 12:00 AM PST From starring opposite Hugh Grant aged 11 to joining the X-Men, does nothing faze the actor? Well, there was one scene for his latest role ... Preparing for his role as Emperor Peter III of Russia in the TV show The Great, Nicholas Hoult wondered if he should go for the accent. The 31-year-old had just finished filming The Current War, a movie in which he played the inventor Nikola Tesla, and it struck him he could, without too much effort, repurpose his Serbian into a passable Russian. Hoult is thoughtful, conscientious, and takes his job very seriously. "It didn't flow in the right way," he says, of his stab at Russian, and back he went to the drawing board, specifically to an exaggerated version of his own accent. "I don't go the full public schoolboy, but I'm very posh – educated but childish." A new comic antihero was born. Hoult is in London with his girlfriend Bryana Holly, an American model, and their two-year-old son Joaquin, in the midst of filming season two of The Great. It's a terrific show, written by Tony McNamara – who also penned the Oscar-winning movie The Favourite, in which Hoult appeared alongside Olivia Colman and Emma Stone – and co-starring Elle Fanning as Catherine the Great. It's riotously entertaining, and Hoult, as Peter III, is spoilt, impulsive, infantile and profane, a figure who will summarily execute or pardon on a whim. It is also very funny. Despite being a period piece, there is a vibe of The Thick Of It, mainly because of the amazing levels of swearing and Hoult's indignant tyranny. His catchphrase – "huzzah!" – is the most benign thing about him. Continue reading... |
| Blind date: ‘She picked up the entire steak with her bare hands’ Posted: 01 Jan 2021 10:00 PM PST Andrea, 24, student, and Emily, 24, photographer and brewer What were you hoping for? |
| The fall of Fox?: how rising rightwing media outlets could topple the conservative giant Posted: 01 Jan 2021 11:00 PM PST Once Trump's darling, Fox has seen its favorability decline among GOP supporters with the rise of OAN and Newsmax Just as change is coming at the White House, a fresh wind appears to be blowing through the established rightwing media system, with a collage of TV stations and social media networks seeking to attract the ardent, dissatisfied Donald Trump supporters. For years Fox News has dominated the conservative landscape. The network has spent four years fawning over Trump, and promoting sometimes spurious stories about his rivals over the past four years. Continue reading... |
| Prebiotics are hard to stomach, but will your gut thank you for trying? | Zoe Williams Posted: 01 Jan 2021 11:00 PM PST Since you're seeking the indigestible, whatever it is usually has to be raw – unless it's an onion You'll have heard of probiotics, because they're very 2015, which I have identified as the year in which everyone started talking about gut health (the phrase "gut fauna" entered the vernacular a bit later). The potted version is that you want your gut bacteria to be as varied and exciting as possible, and the best way to ensure that is by eating fermented foods: yoghurts, kefir, kombucha, sauerkraut. Cultures that are alive when you consume them. Prebiotics are different: these are sources of indigestible fibre. Roughage, broadly, is the element of a plant or legume that won't dissolve in water, and therefore moves intact through your body, not releasing calories but doing other useful things, such as keeping you regular. There's a sub-category within that, though, of indigestible fibres that the bacteria inside your gut can digest: almost always raw, and very often weird – dandelions, acacia gum – and this will boost your bacterial environment overall. Continue reading... |
| Golden ticket: the lucky tourists sitting out coronavirus in New Zealand Posted: 01 Jan 2021 11:00 AM PST Visitors from UK and North America tell of finding themselves with a pass to one of the best-rated pandemic responses in the world For Christmas 2019 Efrain Vega de Varona gave his partner plane tickets to New Zealand – her dream holiday destination. It has proved a gift that keeps on giving. A year later they are still in New Zealand, having decided to stay put at the end of their two-week holiday in mid-March rather than return to Los Angeles. "We've been living out of two suitcases for 10 months," says Vega de Varona from their latest Airbnb rental (number 50-something this year) in Island Bay, Wellington. Continue reading... |
| Inside the 'moving factory' that will cut HS2 through the Chilterns Posted: 01 Jan 2021 11:00 PM PST With protesters camped nearby, two giant 170m machines are being assembled In a decade's time, passengers on the new high-speed trains hurtling out of London will get just a burst of daylight and a glimpse of the Colne Valley landscape before disappearing back underground through the Chiltern Hills. Today, in that three-mile stretch between future tunnel openings to the north-west of the capital, the £98bn HS2 project's scale, engineering might and cost are all evident: both at the vast work site scooped out beside the M25 in Buckinghamshire, and in nearby waters and woods where protesters are still encamped to stop machines coming through. Continue reading... |
| Brexit: how the new rules will change your visits to Europe Posted: 01 Jan 2021 11:00 PM PST From holidays and health to mobile phones, we explain what has changed for consumers Before Brexit, UK citizens could travel, live, go on holiday and work anywhere in the EU without any special permits or visas. As of 1 January 2021 that is no longer the case. The Guardian's Money team has spent the week poring over the many pages of documentation to explain how Brexit will affect you. Continue reading... |
| ‘The sea is rising, the climate is changing’: the lessons learned from Mozambique’s deadly cyclone Posted: 02 Jan 2021 01:00 AM PST As another severe tropical storm hits Mozambique, people still struggling to rebuild lives destroyed by 2019's Cyclone Idai tell their stories The tree had stood in the square for nearly 100 years. It was planted by his father, before Afonso Reis was born. He worked as a driver and "liked trees", says Reis, who is in his 70s. People used to eat the bitter red fruit, but more recently it had provided welcome shade for the stallholders of a busy market in Beira, one of Mozambique's largest cities. "I liked to sit under the branches," says Fina, 21, who sells tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and garlic in the market's chaotic alleyways. Others hawk bananas, oranges, secondhand clothes. Life would change but the tree seemed constant. Then something odd happened. At about 2pm on 14 March 2019, the tree suddenly keeled over and crashed to the ground. No one was hurt, but people were taken by surprise. "There was only a light wind," Fina says. "Who would have thought that a tree that size would just fall down?" Continue reading... |
| Biden wants to fill federal court seats – but he needs to win the Senate first Posted: 02 Jan 2021 12:00 AM PST Trump went into overdrive on filling court seats, but the Democrats must win in January's runoff or a Republican Senate will block them at every turn During the disastrous first presidential debate in September, Donald Trump mocked Barack Obama, and Joe Biden by extension, for leaving office with so many federal court seats unfilled. "I'll have so many judges because President Obama and him left me 128 judges to fill," Trump said, slightly inflating the 105 vacancies he inherited. "When you leave office, you don't leave any judges. That's like, you just don't do that … If you left us 128 openings, you can't be a good president. Continue reading... |
| Beekeepers brace for next round with Canada's 'murder hornets' Posted: 01 Jan 2021 03:00 AM PST British Columbia resigned to a 'long fight' after 2020's efforts to track and kill the invasive insects ended in frustration
The year 2020 is not one that beekeepers in Washington state and the Canadian province of British Columbia are likely to forget in a hurry. Since the spring, experts in both regions have been gripped by fears of Vespa mandarinia, a hulking insect whose voracious appetite for honeybees and stealthy spread could pose a threat to the region's vulnerable ecosystem. I squeezed [the queen] on her thorax ... and this huge stinger came out. And the giant mandibles moved, trying to bite me. It was really quite beautiful Continue reading... |
| Posted: 01 Jan 2021 11:08 PM PST Two people in Victoria to be fined $19,000 each for breaching health orders, as state records 10 new cases. This blog is now closed
And with that comes the end of today's blog. Here is what happened today:
Queenslanders who have been in Victoria on or since 21 December have been advised by authorities to get tested immediately and quarantine at home until they get their results. The advice comes from the state's chief health officer, Dr Jeannette Young, although there are still no changes to the state's border restrictions. Victoria's own assessment of the situation is that the risk of spread is right across the state, not just in Melbourne, which is why they have imposed restrictions across their entire state. This is very serious and we're taking this action now, like we did with New South Wales. This will ensure we know of any positive cases really early and we can manage our response accordingly. Continue reading... |
| What difference will Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine make in UK? Posted: 01 Jan 2021 09:57 AM PST We look at how the introduction of a new vaccine in the fight against Covid will work The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is central to the government's plans for ending social distancing in the UK and returning to some sort of normality. It has invested in seven different vaccines, but the biggest order is for 100m doses of the AstraZeneca jab, most of which will be manufactured in the UK. While the prime minister was jubilant that the UK was first in the world to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, he is now able to claim a British triumph. More to the point is the ease of use of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Unlike Pfizer's, it does not have to be kept in the long term at -70C. Pfizer's vaccine can be stored in a fridge for five days, but AstraZeneca's can be kept for months at fridge temperature, which is 2-8C and will be easy to take to care homes to administer to residents, the first priority group for vaccination. Continue reading... |
| Australian pro surfer Mikey Wright saves woman struggling in Hawaii surf – video Posted: 01 Jan 2021 06:55 PM PST Mikey Wright has been filmed saving a beachgoer who was struggling against a current at a beach on Oahu's north shore. The Australian surfer, who was in Hawaii for the Pipeline Masters event, posted footage of the rescue on Instagram with the caption: "hold my beer". Although other beachgoers could be seen trying to help and reach the struggling swimmer, the current was too strong until Wright stepped in. Continue reading... |
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