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- Coronavirus live: UK lockdown 'long way' from lifting, says Hancock; Israel still seeing cases after first Pfizer jab administered
- Move to EU to avoid Brexit costs, firms told
- Chaos of Trump's last days in office reverberates with fresh 'plot' report
- Chinese aircraft enter Taiwan's air defence zone
- China mine accident: 11 workers rescued after two weeks underground
- Chile 'regrets' panic caused by mistaken tsunami warning after earthquake
- Jewish leaders use Holocaust Day to decry persecution of Uighurs
- 'Inevitable' Google and Facebook will pay for Australian news, treasurer says
- Grant Shapps faces fury over mass Covid outbreak at DVLA
- ‘No more monkey selfies’: scientists told images could drive illegal pet trade
- ‘A complete massacre, a horror film’: inside Brazil's Covid disaster
- 'The air reeks of invisible danger': an extract from Breathtaking: Inside the NHS in a Time of Pandemic
- I’ve had my first vaccine jab. It gives me hope of liberation... but not yet
- The pandemic one year on: 100,000 dead in the UK from coronavirus
- Donald Trump is gone but his big lie is still corrupting America's body politic
- Is it time to leave WhatsApp – and is Signal the answer?
- The idea of having a baby scares me. What if my child is horrible? | Dear Mariella
- Emma Corrin: ‘I ended up having an overwhelming appreciation for Diana's complexity’
- From Oliver! to Golda… new life for long-lost Lionel Bart musical
- 'A Brexit nightmare': the British businesses being pushed to breaking point
- Lissie Harper: ‘We had a lot to look forward to’
- Netflix still several steps ahead in strategy for wooing subscribers
- Fabled ark could be among ancient treasures in danger in Ethiopia’s deadly war
- Undoing Trump's legacy: Biden wastes no time in first 100 hours as president
- Saxon church prays for deliverance from nuclear plant
- 'We've had a good run': Pineapple Hooper on track for defeat in Rockhampton
- Protesters demonstrate across Russia in support of Alexei Navalny – in pictures
- Thousands rally across Russia to call for Navalny's release – video
- Melania Trump leaves Donald Trump alone in front of the cameras – video
| Posted: 24 Jan 2021 02:09 AM PST UK health secretary says case rate is still far too high to consider easing restrictions; first Pfizer dose does not immediately prevent infection, says Israeli health minister
Asked why Israel is not vaccinating Palestinians in the country and under occupation in the West Bank – despite the United Nations saying it is their legal obligation to ensure they have access, and pressure from senior rabbis to act – Edelstein says it is prioritising its own citizens. As far as the vaccination is concerned, it's the Israel obligation first and foremost to its citizens. They pay taxes for that don't they, but having said that I do remember that it is our interest – not our legal obligation – to make sure Palestinians get the vaccine. That they won't have Covid-19 spreading. First of all, we could also look to the Oslo agreements where it says loud and clear that Palestinians have to take care of their own health. If it's the responsibility of the Israeli health minister to take care of the Palestinians, what exactly is the responsibility of the Palestinian health minister - to take care of the dolphins in the Mediterranean?
After Israel's health ministry this week rowed back on comments by the country's coronavirus tsar, who suggested single doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine had not given as much protection against the disease as had been hoped, the country's health minister has said there have been cases among those inoculated. Yuli Edelstein told the BBC's Andrew Marr show: We're just in the beginning of the campaign, we unfortunately do see cases that after getting the first dose, people do get sick, get the coronavirus. At the same time there are some encouraging signs of less severe diseases, less people hospitalised after the first dose. At this stage its very difficult to say, its not a clinical trial yet ... We sincerely hope we will have better information soon. We still have a very small number of those who we consider fully vaccinated, meaning a week after the second dose, according to Pfizer's instructions ... We decided to follow their instructions. Related: Single Covid vaccine dose in Israel 'less effective than we thought' Continue reading... |
| Move to EU to avoid Brexit costs, firms told Posted: 23 Jan 2021 11:00 AM PST Exporters advised by Department for International Trade officials to form EU-based companies to circumvent border issues British businesses that export to the continent are being encouraged by government trade advisers to set up separate companies inside the EU in order to get around extra charges, paperwork and taxes resulting from Brexit, the Observer can reveal. In an extraordinary twist to the Brexit saga, UK small businesses are being told by advisers working for the Department for International Trade (DIT) that the best way to circumvent border issues and VAT problems that have been piling up since 1 January is to register new firms within the EU single market, from where they can distribute their goods far more freely. Continue reading... |
| Chaos of Trump's last days in office reverberates with fresh 'plot' report Posted: 23 Jan 2021 12:04 PM PST Ex-president, whose Senate trial will start in two weeks, reportedly planned to oust acting attorney general in bid to overturn election Donald Trump was at his Florida resort on Saturday, beginning post-presidency life while Joe Biden settled into the White House. But in Washington and beyond, the chaos of the 45th president's final days in office continued to throw out damaging aftershocks. Related: Deborah Birx 'always' considered quitting Trump coronavirus taskforce Continue reading... |
| Chinese aircraft enter Taiwan's air defence zone Posted: 23 Jan 2021 03:23 PM PST Eight bombers and four fighter jets warned off as missiles deployed to monitor incursion Eight Chinese bomber planes and four fighter jets entered the south-western corner of Taiwan's air defence identification zone on Saturday, and Taiwan's air force deployed missiles to "monitor" the incursion, the island's defence ministry said. China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, has conducted almost daily flights over the waters between the southern part of Taiwan and the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands in the South China Sea in recent months. Continue reading... |
| China mine accident: 11 workers rescued after two weeks underground Posted: 24 Jan 2021 12:01 AM PST TV footage showed the first miner 'extremely weak' lifted out of the goldmine, after 22 were trapped from a 10 January blast in Qixia Chinese rescuers have pulled 11 gold miners to safety, two weeks after they were trapped by an underground explosion, state broadcaster CCTV reported. Footage showed the first miner to be rescued, a black blindfold across his eyes, being lifted out of a mine shaft in the morning. The miner was extremely weak, CCTV said on its Weibo site. Continue reading... |
| Chile 'regrets' panic caused by mistaken tsunami warning after earthquake Posted: 23 Jan 2021 06:53 PM PST Interior ministry had called for evacuation of coastal areas after a 7.1 quake in Antarctica on Saturday night Authorities in Chile said they regretted spreading panic with a mistaken tsunami warning calling for people to get out of coastal areas following an earthquake in Antarctica. The interior ministry said on Twitter that a tremor of magnitude 7.1 struck at 8.36 pm local time, 216 km northeast of the O'Higgins Chilean scientific base, and called for the coastal regions of Antarctica to be evacuated because of a tsunami risk. Continue reading... |
| Jewish leaders use Holocaust Day to decry persecution of Uighurs Posted: 24 Jan 2021 01:30 AM PST UK community speaks out in effort to pressure government to take stronger stance Leading figures in the UK Jewish community are using Holocaust Memorial Day on 27 January to focus on the persecution of Uighur Muslims, saying Jews have the "moral authority and moral duty" to speak out. Rabbis, community leaders and Holocaust survivors have been at the forefront of efforts to put pressure on the UK government to take a stronger stance over China's brutal treatment of the Uighurs. Continue reading... |
| 'Inevitable' Google and Facebook will pay for Australian news, treasurer says Posted: 23 Jan 2021 06:20 PM PST Josh Frydenberg says tech companies' threats to pull services out of Australia did them a 'big disservice' Josh Frydenberg has warned the internet giants it is "inevitable" they will pay for news content and their threats to shut down core functions in Australia do them a "big disservice". At a doorstop on Sunday, the treasurer said the Morrison's government intended to become a "world leader" in regulating social media and search companies, who he accused of shifting the goalposts in their opposition to the proposed bargaining code of conduct. Continue reading... |
| Grant Shapps faces fury over mass Covid outbreak at DVLA Posted: 23 Jan 2021 03:50 PM PST Minister under fire for 'shameful' virus spread as staff told to work on with more than 500 cases at agency in Swansea Ministers are at the centre of an explosive row over their failure to protect workers from Covid-19 as the Observer reveals the largest workplace outbreak of the virus has taken place at a top government organisation. More than 500 cases have been recorded at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency's offices in Swansea, where employees claim people with symptoms were encouraged to return to work while vulnerable workers have had requests to work from home turned down. Continue reading... |
| ‘No more monkey selfies’: scientists told images could drive illegal pet trade Posted: 24 Jan 2021 12:30 AM PST New guidelines say pictures posted on social media by primatologists and researchers can inadvertently damage conservation efforts Celebrity primatologists and scientists have been urged not to post selfies with chimpanzees, orangutans and other primates on social media to help conservation efforts for threatened species. Cuddling baby monkeys on camera and sharing Instagram posts interacting with primates at sanctuaries is strongly discouraged under new guidelines aimed at scientists, researchers and TV presenters from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the global authority on protecting the natural world. Continue reading...This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| ‘A complete massacre, a horror film’: inside Brazil's Covid disaster Posted: 24 Jan 2021 02:00 AM PST Hospitals in Amazonas state overwhelmed after surge in infections linked to new variant, leaving many without even the most basic supplies It took just 60 minutes at daybreak for the seven patients to die, asphyxiated as coronavirus swept back into the Brazilian Amazon with nightmarish force. "Today was one of the hardest days in all my years of public service. You feel so impotent," sobbed Francisnalva Mendes, the health chief in the river town of Coari, as she remembered the moment on Tuesday when its hospital's oxygen supply ran out. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 24 Jan 2021 02:00 AM PST In this extract from her new book Breathtaking, palliative care doctor Rachel Clarke reveals the pressure and pain of splitting her time between hospice patients and hospital Covid wards
In January 2020, novel coronaviruses are nowhere on my mind. Like everyone working in the NHS, I am steeled for a home-grown catastrophe. For no matter how many patients lie on trolleys in corridors, how many ambulances sit trapped on hospital forecourts, how many photos go viral of toddlers slumped on their parents' coats, receiving oxygen on the floor of a beleaguered A&E, nothing ever truly changes. These days, the annual NHS "winter crisis" is both dreaded and reliable as clockwork. The numbers are so large, and repeated so frequently, they have long been leached of their force: 17,000 hospital beds lost since 2010; only 2.5 beds per 1,000 people in the UK, compared with three times that number in Germany; unfilled vacancies for more than 10,000 doctors and 40,000 nurses. Continue reading... |
| I’ve had my first vaccine jab. It gives me hope of liberation... but not yet Posted: 23 Jan 2021 11:00 PM PST Exactly a year after his first story about coronavirus, our science editor received the Pfizer injection last week. Here he reflects on a remarkable scientific achievement I marked a grim anniversary in an unexpected manner last week. On 18 January last year, I wrote my first story about a mysterious disease that had struck Wuhan, in China, and which was now spreading around the world. More than two million individuals have since died of Covid-19, almost 100,000 of them in the UK. Remarkably, 12 months to the day that the Observer published my story, I was given my first dose of Covid-19 vaccine, allowing me to follow nearly six million other newly immunised UK residents who are set to gain protection against a disease that has brought the planet to a standstill. It was a rare, comforting experience after a year of unremitting sadness and gloom. Continue reading... |
| The pandemic one year on: 100,000 dead in the UK from coronavirus Posted: 24 Jan 2021 12:17 AM PST The UK is set to reach a grim milestone by the end of January after a year of missed opportunities has led to one of the worst Covid-19 fatality rates in the world The World Health Organization begins tracking the disease we now call Covid-19. On 14 January it finds its first case outside China, in Thailand. Human-to-human transmission seems likely, and on 30 January WHO warns this is a "public health emergency of international concern" – the highest level of alert that WHO can issue. Continue reading... |
| Donald Trump is gone but his big lie is still corrupting America's body politic Posted: 23 Jan 2021 11:00 PM PST The myth of the 'stolen election' – simple and endlessly repeated – is likely to be a rallying call for far-right terrorists When the back wheels of Air Force One finally lifted off the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday bound for Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump's White House-in-exile in West Palm Beach, cheers erupted in millions of households across America and around the globe. Continue reading... |
| Is it time to leave WhatsApp – and is Signal the answer? Posted: 23 Jan 2021 11:00 PM PST The Facebook-owned messaging service has been hit by a global backlash over privacy. Many users are migrating to Signal or Telegram. Should you join them? Earlier this month, WhatsApp issued a new privacy policy along with an ultimatum: accept these new terms, or delete WhatsApp from your smartphone. But the new privacy policy wasn't particularly clear, and it was widely misinterpreted to mean WhatsApp would be sharing more sensitive personal data with its parent company Facebook. Unsurprisingly, it prompted a fierce backlash, with many users threatening to stop using the service. WhatsApp soon issued a clarification, explaining that the new policy only affects the way users' accounts interact with businesses (ie not with their friends) and does not mandate any new data collection. The messaging app also delayed the introduction of the policy by three months. Crucially, WhatsApp said, the new policy doesn't affect the content of your chats, which remain protected by end-to-end encryption – the "gold standard" of security that means no one can view the content of messages, even WhatsApp, Facebook, or the authorities. Continue reading... |
| The idea of having a baby scares me. What if my child is horrible? | Dear Mariella Posted: 23 Jan 2021 10:00 PM PST Parents often wish they'd been more aware of the massive impact of having a child, but few regret doing it, says Mariella Frostrup The dilemma I am terrified of having children. Not childbirth, but the thought of potentially bringing up absolutely horrible kids. I recently entered my late 20s and have been married to my older, lovely, husband for more than a year. When we first met we dreamed of our future family, but I feel the older I get the more comfortable and happy I am in my carefree, albeit selfish, life. He, on the other hand, cannot wait to be a father. Yet all I read and hear about, all day, every day, is how horrendously hard parenting is. And how a woman loses not only her identity, but her body, soul and spirit, and then also the intimacy of her partner. Continue reading... |
| Emma Corrin: ‘I ended up having an overwhelming appreciation for Diana's complexity’ Posted: 24 Jan 2021 12:00 AM PST The breakout star of season four of The Crown on her steep rise to fame, how her mum helped her to get Diana's voice, and why she now wants to get away from doing 'posh English' From the moment it began in 2016, The Crown, Netflix's hugely successful, much admired and occasionally controversial royal soap, has never put a foot wrong when it comes to casting – to the point where its stars have sometimes seemed to save it from itself. But even its producers were worried about the prospect of finding someone to play Princess Diana. Dust down the annals of Di-based drama and they tell a pretty desperate story: of a role that is irresistibly tempting and yet, utterly impossible to pull off. Was she out there somewhere, the woman who could bring her to life? And if she wasn't, what would this mean for their series? "I was so nervous about being able to find someone capable of doing it, I was prepared to consider cancelling the show and simply not continuing, rather than getting it wrong," admits its creator and writer, Peter Morgan. For Morgan and his colleagues, though, the stars would somehow align. In 2018, when season three was still being cast (Diana would not appear until season four), a young unknown called Emma Corrin was asked to come in and help out with a "chemistry" reading as the search for someone to play Camilla Parker Bowles opposite Josh O'Connor's Charles continued (the part went, in the end, to Emerald Fennell). Corrin, whose agent had instructed her that this was definitely not an audition, went down well with the director: after she'd read as Diana, he took her outside and asked if she would like to work on the character a bit – and eight months later, she got a call asking if she would like to audition properly for Morgan. "In a way, it's unfair to say that Emma was born to play Diana," he writes to me in an email. "Because I believe she will have great and lasting success as an actor playing many roles. That said, I do believe – and I think a small part of her might also believe – that she has an uncanny, fated connection to the character and was born to play this part." Continue reading... |
| From Oliver! to Golda… new life for long-lost Lionel Bart musical Posted: 23 Jan 2021 11:15 PM PST Songs from the composer's doomed show about the Israeli stateswoman will make their debut online The self-taught musical genius Lionel Bart was the Londoner who first successfully challenged the long-established dominance of Broadway shows. When he launched Oliver! on the West End in 1960 it took first Britain and then America by storm, breaking records and becoming a classic of musical theatre and then a beloved film. But Bart never reached such commercial heights again, despite his talent. Now music from the lost show once set to relaunch Bart's career as he struggled with ill health and debt is to be performed for the public for the first time. Continue reading... |
| 'A Brexit nightmare': the British businesses being pushed to breaking point Posted: 23 Jan 2021 11:00 AM PST Less than a month after leaving the EU, trade is flowing so badly that small firms are moving operations abroad to survive Christophe Fricker lectures in German at the University of Bristol and adores living in England. He was born in Germany but his anglophilia became so strong after moving here that he wrote a book called 111 Gründe, England zu lieben ("111 Reasons to Love England") in 2018. He selected the gardens of Cornwall, the National Portrait Gallery, the way the English use collective nouns for groups of animals (herds, packs, and so on) and their fascination with murder cases in his varied list of reasons for loving this country. But since 1 January, Fricker has been reminded that there are also worrying things about life in England – and being outside the EU is now chief among them. Continue reading... |
| Lissie Harper: ‘We had a lot to look forward to’ Posted: 24 Jan 2021 01:00 AM PST The dreadful killing of her police officer husband, Andrew, led Lissie Harper to propose a new law to protect emergency workers. She explains why she had to take action At first glance Lissie Harper's artfully curated Instagram page reflects an idyllic life. Photographs of her cuddling her cat and walking in meadows sit alongside others featuring holidays abroad, her hen night and her wedding to her childhood sweetheart, Andrew. Yet, the words accompanying some of the posts reveal her true story, one of grief and loss which began 18 months ago when Andrew, a police officer, was killed in the line of duty. Next to a picture of herself staring out to sea, Lissie notes: "Grief is like living two lives. One is where you pretend that everything is all right, and the other is where your heart silently screams in pain." Accompanying a photo of her and Andrew kissing on their wedding day, posted on the anniversary of his funeral, she's written: "'I miss you' doesn't even come close to the hollowness that has encapsulated me these past 14 months. My life is missing its brightest spark." Continue reading... |
| Netflix still several steps ahead in strategy for wooing subscribers Posted: 24 Jan 2021 01:00 AM PST Many thought the streaming service would come unstuck with its debt-fuelled growth, but the pandemic changed all that Only Frank Underwood could amass as much power in such a short space of time. Nearly eight years after Netflix used House of Cards as the launch of its global empire, the streaming service announced last week that it now had more than 200 million subscribers. The pandemic has hastened the company's transformation from a debt-laden digital upstart into an essential part of the TV landscape in homes across the world. In 2013, when Netflix's first original series made its debut, the company had 30 million (mostly US) subscribers. This was six years after it moved from being a DVD-by-post business to a streaming pioneer. Since then it has added 170 million subscribers in more than 190 countries and its pandemic-fuelled results last week sent Netflix's market value to an all-time high of $259bn. Continue reading... |
| Fabled ark could be among ancient treasures in danger in Ethiopia’s deadly war Posted: 24 Jan 2021 01:45 AM PST Tigray's rich heritage is 'highly endangered', experts warn, as the conflict escalates near key cultural sites It has been hidden from view for thousands of years, and its whereabouts never proved. But if the Ark of the Covenant indeed rests in a chapel in northern Ethiopia, this extraordinary religious treasure could be at grave risk from fighting in the area. The Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion, which reputedly houses the ark – a casket of gilded wood containing stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments, according to the Bible – was the scene of a recent massacre of 750 people, reports filtering out of the country say. Continue reading... |
| Undoing Trump's legacy: Biden wastes no time in first 100 hours as president Posted: 24 Jan 2021 01:00 AM PST The Democrat has kicked off his presidency with a blitz of executive orders and measures – here are the key themes On Sunday afternoon, the US will reach the 100th hour of Joe Biden's presidency. Already, there has been a blitz of executive actions and a bewildering pace of change. Four years after Donald Trump set about undoing Barack Obama's legacy, Obama's vice-president appears to be returning the gesture with interest. Related: Chaos of Trump's last days in office reverberates with fresh 'plot' report Continue reading... |
| Saxon church prays for deliverance from nuclear plant Posted: 24 Jan 2021 01:00 AM PST Community says boom in renewable energy means Bradwell B in Essex is not needed For the 55 years that Tim Fox has worshipped at St Peter-on-the-Wall, his only neighbours have been a farm and a birdwatchers' shelter. Now, the tranquil surroundings of the salt marsh and the Essex sea wall at Bradwell-on-Sea are threatened by a new arrival: a sprawling nuclear power station, Bradwell B. Continue reading... |
| 'We've had a good run': Pineapple Hooper on track for defeat in Rockhampton Posted: 23 Jan 2021 07:32 PM PST 'Accidental' mayor, elevated to top job under a controversial runner-up succession rule, claims moral (if not actual) victory A barefoot climate change activist dubbed Queensland's accidental mayor appears set to fail in his bid to put the coal and beef-loving city of Rockhampton on a greener path. Chris "Pineapple" Hooper, a bike-riding, self-declared ratbag, is running third as the count continues in Saturday's mayoral byelection, sparked by the shock resignation of long-serving civic leader Margaret Strelow in November 2020. Continue reading... |
| Protesters demonstrate across Russia in support of Alexei Navalny – in pictures Posted: 23 Jan 2021 02:40 PM PST Russian police arrested more than 3,400 people on Saturday during nationwide protests demanding the release of opposition leader Continue reading... |
| Thousands rally across Russia to call for Navalny's release – video Posted: 23 Jan 2021 07:14 AM PST More than a thousand people have been arrested at rallies in towns and cities across Russia as they called for the release of the opposition leader Alexei Navalny from jail. The protests are thought to be the largest in Russia since 2017 Continue reading... |
| Melania Trump leaves Donald Trump alone in front of the cameras – video Posted: 23 Jan 2021 04:00 AM PST The former first lady Melania Trump apparently spurned the conventions of her role by leaving Donald Trump alone in front of the cameras at Palm Beach airport after the couple left the White House for the final time ahead of Joe Biden's inauguration. Trump himself paused to wave at photographers, but his wife continued walking until she was firmly offscreen, leaving her husband alone and triggering speculation about the state of her marriage to the now former president Continue reading... |
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