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- US fines Boeing $2.5bn following fraud charges tied to 737 Max crashes
- The baby-selling scheme: poor pregnant Marshall Islands women lured to the US
- Coronavirus live news: US reports world record 4,000 Covid deaths in 24 hours; EU signs deal for 300m more Pfizer jabs
- Seoul court orders Japan to pay damages over wartime sexual slavery
- Olympics official says he is not certain Tokyo Games will go ahead
- Climate crisis: 2020 was joint hottest year ever recorded
- Indian fashion designer Satya Paul dies aged 79
- Identical twins are not so identical, study suggests
- Food for thought? French bean plants show signs of intent, say scientists
- 'The worst by a cataclysmic margin': the race to save the NHS from Covid
- Covid billionaires should help starving people, says charity boss
- UK coronavirus live: 'deep concerns' over South Africa variant behind new border measures, says Shapps
- 'We can't cope': Lesotho faces Covid-19 disaster after quarantine failures
- 'Being black in America requires emotional aerobics': Regina King on 'powder keg' movie One Night in Miami
- The director who dared to suggest Jewish men don't need rescuing by blond women
- From Bowie to Biden: 10 of the best celebrity TV cameos
- 'David was terrified': the inside story of how Bowie and Lennon met
- A year of reading dangerously: in 2021, I resolve to read more challenging books
- A virtual tour of Peru through films, food, books and music
- Covid in Wales: level 4 lockdown restrictions to remain in place
- 'Teaching us wonder': Turkey embarks on cultural mission to preserve its fairytales
- From Charlottesville to the Capitol: how rightwing impunity fueled the pro-Trump mob
- Guatemala mine's ex-security chief convicted of Indigenous leader's murder
- Opposition leader Anthony Albanese taken to hospital after car crash in Sydney
- Kenya faces $62bn bill to mitigate climate-linked hunger, drought and conflict
- Bob Grose obituary
- Donald Trump recognises 'new administration' after US Capitol riot – video
- Pelosi says House is prepared to impeach Trump again over 'assault' against America – video
- 'Domestic terrorists': Joe Biden condemns Capitol mob – video
- Ugandan police confront Bobi Wine during online press conference – video
- Pro-Trump mob chases lone Black police officer up stairs in Capitol – video
| US fines Boeing $2.5bn following fraud charges tied to 737 Max crashes Posted: 07 Jan 2021 01:33 PM PST
Boeing has been fined $2.5bn by the US justice department after being charged with fraud and conspiracy in connection with two fatal crashes of its 737 Max airliner. Continue reading... |
| The baby-selling scheme: poor pregnant Marshall Islands women lured to the US Posted: 07 Jan 2021 07:00 PM PST Dozens of women from the Pacific island victims of brazen trafficking ring that operated for years Rolson Price still scans Facebook for her picture. He's seen her occasionally, at the periphery of someone else's photo, instantly recognisable. But he's never met her, and concedes he never will. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 08 Jan 2021 01:29 AM PST First time any country's official toll has passed 4,000; EU doubles number of Pfizer and BioNTech doses; Brisbane locks down after UK strain detected
Dick Pound, a senior member of the International Olympic Committee, has said he "can't be certain" that the delayed Tokyo 2020 Games will go ahead this summer, as a coronavirus state of emergency was declared in the host city. Asked about the prospects that the Games will open on 23 July, the Canadian told the BBC: "I can't be certain because the ongoing elephant in the room would be the surges in the virus." Related: Olympics official says he is not certain Tokyo Games will go ahead
The European Union has reached a deal with Pfizer and BioNTech for 300m additional doses of their Covid-19 vaccine, doubling the amount of doses from these producers, the head of the European commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said. "The European commission today proposed to the EU Member States to purchase an additional 200m doses of the Covid-19 vaccine produced by BioNTech and Pfizer, with the option to acquire another 100m doses," it said in a statement. Continue reading... |
| Seoul court orders Japan to pay damages over wartime sexual slavery Posted: 07 Jan 2021 10:19 PM PST Japan denounces ruling as 'unacceptable' as row over sexual enslavement of women in the second world war enters new chapter Japan has denounced as "utterly unacceptable" a South Korean court ruling ordering it to pay damages to women who were sexually enslaved by the Japanese military before and during the second world war. The Seoul central district court on Friday said Japan was liable to compensate 12 women who were forced to work as so-called "comfort women", in a ruling that is expected to inflict further damage on the countries' already fraught ties. Continue reading... |
| Olympics official says he is not certain Tokyo Games will go ahead Posted: 08 Jan 2021 01:13 AM PST IOC's Dick Pound voices concern after host city declared state of emergency due to third wave of coronavirus Dick Pound, a senior member of the International Olympic Committee, has said he "can't be certain" that the delayed Tokyo 2020 Games will go ahead this summer, as a coronavirus state of emergency was declared in the host city. Asked about the prospects that the Games will open on 23 July, the Canadian told the BBC: "I can't be certain because the ongoing elephant in the room would be the surges in the virus." Continue reading... |
| Climate crisis: 2020 was joint hottest year ever recorded Posted: 07 Jan 2021 11:00 PM PST Global heating continued unabated despite Covid lockdowns, with record Arctic wildfires and Atlantic tropical storms The climate crisis continued unabated in 2020, with the the joint highest global temperatures on record, alarming heat and record wildfires in the Arctic, and a record 29 tropical storms in the Atlantic. Despite a 7% fall in fossil fuel burning due to coronavirus lockdowns, heat-trapping carbon dioxide continued to build up in the atmosphere, also setting a new record. The average surface temperature across the planet in 2020 was 1.25C higher than in the pre-industrial period of 1850-1900, dangerously close to the 1.5C target set by the world's nations to avoid the worst impacts. Continue reading... |
| Indian fashion designer Satya Paul dies aged 79 Posted: 07 Jan 2021 03:53 PM PST Paul revolutionised and revitalised the sari as well as launching one of India's best-known fashion brands Satya Paul, the Indian fashion designer who invented the modern sari, has died at the age of 79. His son, Puneet Nanda, said in a Facebook post that the designer had suffered a stroke in early December from which he had not recovered. Continue reading... |
| Identical twins are not so identical, study suggests Posted: 07 Jan 2021 05:45 PM PST Research finds they differ by an average of 5.2 early mutations, adding new perspective to nature-versus-nurture debates Genetic differences between identical twins can begin very early in embryonic development, according to a new study that researchers say has implications for studying the effects of nature versus nurture. Identical – or monozygotic – twins come from a single fertilised egg that splits in two. They are important research subjects because they are thought to have minimal genetic differences. This means that when physical or behavioural differences emerge, environmental factors are presumed to be the likely cause. Continue reading... |
| Food for thought? French bean plants show signs of intent, say scientists Posted: 07 Jan 2021 11:00 PM PST Many botanists dispute idea of plant sentience, but study of climbing beans sows seed of doubt They've provided us with companionship and purpose during the darkest days of lockdown, not to mention brightening our Instagram feeds. But the potted cacti, yucca, and swiss cheese plants we've welcomed into our homes are entirely passive houseguests. Aren't they? Research suggests that at least one type of plant – the french bean – may be more sentient than we give it credit for: namely, it may possess intent. Continue reading... |
| 'The worst by a cataclysmic margin': the race to save the NHS from Covid Posted: 07 Jan 2021 11:00 PM PST As patients wait in ambulances and some hospitals say they can no longer provide high-standard critical care, what's next? On Monday, just before Boris Johnson announced another lockdown, the chief medical officers of the four UK nations issued a plainly worded joint statement warning that the health service could soon by overwhelmed. "Many parts of the health systems in the four nations are already under immense pressure," they said, "with substantial numbers of Covid patients in hospitals and in intensive care. Continue reading... |
| Covid billionaires should help starving people, says charity boss Posted: 07 Jan 2021 11:00 PM PST Head of World Food Program USA says 235 million people 'marching toward starvation' Billionaires whose wealth has soared during the coronavirus pandemic should stump up to provide emergency aid to the record numbers of people facing starvation, the head of a US charity supporting the World Food Programme has said. Related: Billionaires' wealth rises to $10.2 trillion amid Covid crisis Continue reading... |
| Posted: 08 Jan 2021 01:34 AM PST Latest updates: transport minister says extra checks brought in for travellers arriving into UK after government concerns over virus mutations
Data from a study run by King's College London suggests there are 69,958 daily new symptomatic cases of coronavirus in the UK on average, a 27% rise on a week ago. The study also put the current UK R value - which represents how many people an infected person will pass the virus on to on average - at 1.2.
Marks & Spencer said its clothing sales dropped by a quarter over the key Christmas trading period as the retailer was hit hard by store closures on the back of the Covid-19 lockdown. The outlook for trading "remains very challenging" because the latest lockdown could last until Easter, the retailer said. Continue reading... |
| 'We can't cope': Lesotho faces Covid-19 disaster after quarantine failures Posted: 08 Jan 2021 12:00 AM PST Rise in cases reported after workers returned from South Africa for Christmas, with many crossing illegally to avoid tests A Covid-19 disaster is threatening the small southern African kingdom of Lesotho after revelations that the government released people who had tested positive for the virus from quarantine early. Government sources this week said they had been sending Covid-19 patients home from as far back as last June over cost concerns. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 07 Jan 2021 10:00 PM PST The Oscar-winning Beale Street actor on success and her sharply topical feature debut, a civil rights-era film that coincided with the explosive rise of Black Lives Matter To say Regina King is "having a moment" feels a little inappropriate, considering that she is 35 years into her career. But it also feels like an understatement. In the past five years she has won an Oscar, four Emmys and numerous other awards for her performances in a string of acclaimed titles, including Barry Jenkins's If Beale Street Could Talk, the prescient comic-book miniseries Watchmen and the Netflix race-crime drama Seven Seconds. As well as marching her down several miles of red carpet, the flurry of attention has catapulted her into a new echelon of star power. Now she is also making waves as a director. Her debut feature, One Night in Miami, was the first film directed by an African American woman ever to screen at the Venice film festival. The resultant acclaim, combined with the resonance of the civil rights-era story, puts it in contention for the upcoming awards season; she is considered a shoo-in for the best director shortlists. Everything King touches seems to be turning to gold right now. What's her secret? Continue reading... |
| The director who dared to suggest Jewish men don't need rescuing by blond women Posted: 08 Jan 2021 12:00 AM PST The late film-maker Joan Micklin Silver exploded the cliches of modern romances. If only others would do the same The director Joan Micklin Silver, who died last week, was – to use the kind of cliche she abhorred – a pioneer. She was a female director at a time when studio executives were more than comfortable with being openly sexist, telling Silver: "Women directors are one more problem we don't need." She made distinctly Jewish movies, as opposed to the kind of Jewish-lite movies that were – and are still – Hollywood's more usual style. Her two greatest films, Hester Street (1975), about a Jewish immigrant couple (Steven Keats and Carol Kane) on the Lower East Side in the 1890s, and the peerless 1988 romcom Crossing Delancey, about a modern young woman (Amy Irving) who is reluctantly fixed up with a pickle seller (Peter Riegert), are to When Harry Met Sally what the Netflix series Shtisel is to Seinfeld: Jewish as opposed to merely Jew-ish. Continue reading... |
| From Bowie to Biden: 10 of the best celebrity TV cameos Posted: 08 Jan 2021 01:00 AM PST Taylor Swift interrupts a wedding and Mark E Smith is the son of God in these brief sitcom appearances from A-listers Of course, everyone had a cameo in Ricky Gervais's TV industry comedy. But even in this crowded field, Bowie stole the show. After all, funny as Ross Kemp was, he wasn't going to be able to perform a deliciously cruel song ("He's banal and facile, he's a fat waste of space") mocking the sitcom's hero. In a show about empty fame, Bowie was a reminder of what talent actually means. Continue reading... |
| 'David was terrified': the inside story of how Bowie and Lennon met Posted: 08 Jan 2021 12:00 AM PST A new BBC interview with producer Tony Visconti retells the awkward encounter that led to the creation of David Bowie and John Lennon's US No 1 Fame David Bowie and John Lennon first met in scenes more reminiscent of an awkward children's playdate than a summit of two of rock's greatest ever stars, according to a new interview with music producer Tony Visconti. Speaking on the programme Bowie: Dancing Out in Space, airing on BBC Radio 4 and 6Music on 10 January to mark five years since Bowie's death, Visconti, who produced 11 of Bowie's studio albums, tells the story of how the pair met in a New York hotel room, ahead of their collaborations on Bowie's 1975 song Fame and his cover of the Lennon-penned Beatles song Across the Universe. Continue reading... |
| A year of reading dangerously: in 2021, I resolve to read more challenging books Posted: 07 Jan 2021 11:00 PM PST Comfort reading helped author Megan Nolan make it through 2020, but now it's time for a return to hard-won rewards I don't set myself quantitative reading targets. I read as I live, compulsively and without much planning, which means that I average out at about a hundred books a year, mostly fiction. In terms of sheer mass I do fine, it's just that I often remember almost nothing about them once I've finished. I read a lot, but very poorly. This has never been more evident than in 2020, when my tendency to either read nothing or to binge thoughtlessly was crystallised. Almost two months went by in which all I could read were tweets, the news and despairing emails from friends. I could not listen to music or watch films with any focus, either. By the time summer came I had begun to read again, in fitful jags and a spirit of mania rather than relaxation or contemplation. I read dozens of thrillers in one particularly stressful week, completing the back catalogues of some fairly prolific authors, and could not have told you much about them by the following morning. Continue reading... |
| A virtual tour of Peru through films, food, books and music Posted: 07 Jan 2021 10:30 PM PST We may not be able to travel at the moment, but our new series of virtual guides brings the world to you – starting with a cultural tour of Peru There's something fitting about a virtual guide to Peru. For would-be conquistadores, it was a land of fantasy and imagination. The very name of the country would have conjured up illusions of untold treasures, Inca emperors, wild beasts and heathen practices. Lima was the seat of Spain's South American imperial territories for 300 years; it was where you had to be if you wanted to acquire booty, land, or influence. But it was traversed by impassable mountains and treacherous rivers, fringed by dark jungles in the east and uncharted seas to the west. Explorers chased visions and mirages across Peru, too. Francisco de Orellana, the first European to explore the Amazon, in 1541, reported pitched battles between female warriors straight out of myth. Machu Picchu "discoverer" Hiram Bingham called one of the sites he unearthed the "Plain of Ghosts". Archaeologists are still searching for lost cities – and occasionally finding one, as happened in 2002 when a team led by American Gary Ziegler and British writer and explorer Hugh Thomson identified Cota Coca in the Vilcabamba area of southern Peru. Continue reading... |
| Covid in Wales: level 4 lockdown restrictions to remain in place Posted: 08 Jan 2021 01:25 AM PST Extra safety measures may be introduced in workplaces and shops as cases remain very high Additional safety measures may be introduced in Welsh shops and workplaces to try to bring Covid-19 under control as the nationwide lockdown was extended for at least another three weeks and teachers were told remote learning was likely to continue until the February half-term. The Welsh first minister said ministers were reviewing whether supermarkets and other retailers needed to put further measures in place to protect shoppers and what else employers needed to do to make workplaces safer and help people work from home. Continue reading... |
| 'Teaching us wonder': Turkey embarks on cultural mission to preserve its fairytales Posted: 07 Jan 2021 09:00 PM PST Mammoth task to collate magical folklore of Anatolian plateau involves thousands of stories Once upon a time, in the old, old days when the mouse was a barber, and the donkey ran errands, and the tortoise baked bread, there was a great mountain called Kaf Daği on the border of the spirit realm, from which many of the fairytales and myths of the Middle East sprang forth. Today, Kaf Daği is thought to be somewhere in the Caucasus mountain range that separates the Black Sea from the Caspian. In this magical place – also known as Jabal Qaf in Arabic and Kuh-e Qaf in Persian – princes are cursed by witches, who turn them into stags; beautiful maidens are birthed from oranges; and sultans, courtiers, slaves and farmers alike are at the mercy of the peri (fairies) and ifrit (demons) that populate the Turkish fairyland. Continue reading... |
| From Charlottesville to the Capitol: how rightwing impunity fueled the pro-Trump mob Posted: 07 Jan 2021 11:00 PM PST The playbook for the 6 January insurrection had been tested across the country for years As Susan Bro watched the footage of a mob of white Trump supporters breaking into the US Capitol and halting the official count of the 2020 election results, she was "mad as hell", but she was not surprised. Bro's daughter, Heather Heyer, was murdered in 2017 while protesting against neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Virginia. Donald Trump had responded to Heyer's death by saying there were "very fine people on both sides". Continue reading... |
| Guatemala mine's ex-security chief convicted of Indigenous leader's murder Posted: 07 Jan 2021 09:05 AM PST
A judge in Guatemala has accepted a guilty plea by the former head of security at Central America's largest nickel mine who was on trial for killing an Indigenous leader, in a rare conviction over human rights violations allegedly linked to Canadian-owned mining companies in the region. Mynor Padilla was found guilty on Wednesday of homicide for the 2009 fatal shooting of Adolfo Ich, a Maya Q'eqchi' teacher and community leader who opposed the Fenix mine outside the town of El Estor. Continue reading... |
| Opposition leader Anthony Albanese taken to hospital after car crash in Sydney Posted: 08 Jan 2021 12:26 AM PST The federal Labor leader is said to be 'very shaken but OK' after his car was allegedly struck by a Range Rover driven by a 17-year-old The federal opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, has been taken to hospital after he was involved in a car crash in Sydney's inner west. The Labor leader was driving in Marrickville on Friday when he was allegedly "T-boned" by a Range Rover at the intersection of Hill and Glen streets about 5pm. Continue reading... |
| Kenya faces $62bn bill to mitigate climate-linked hunger, drought and conflict Posted: 07 Jan 2021 11:15 PM PST Country accounts for less than 0.1% of global emissions but suffers disproportionately from related disasters, say new report Kenya needs $62bn (£46bn) to mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis in the next 10 years, according to a government document sent to the UN framework convention on climate change. It equates to almost 67% of Kenya's GDP. The report illustrates the scale of the challenge as the country aims to cut greenhouse gases by 32% within the next decade. It will rely on international sources to fund close to 90% of the expenditure. Securing such a colossal amount of often contentious climate financing from rich countries yet to honour their commitments to the $100bn target pledged during the 2015 Paris agreement will be a tall order. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 07 Jan 2021 03:30 AM PST For some people, the work they do and the life they lead are in perfect alignment. My friend and colleague Bob Grose, who has died aged 71, was one of those people. He did historically important work on HIV/Aids for the World Health Organization (WHO) in Africa, and for polio, HIV and leprosy for the Overseas Development Administration (ODA, later DfID) in India. Writing for War on Want in the mid-1980s, Bob was one of the first to predict that truckers would be high-risk vectors for the HIV epidemic in Africa. He was quickly snapped up by the WHO's Global Programme on Aids (later UNAids) in Geneva, where he worked from 1987 to 1992 as a technical adviser. He was ahead of his time, mobilising community groups in Africa to raise awareness of the epidemic: a focus of UNAids to this day. Continue reading... |
| Donald Trump recognises 'new administration' after US Capitol riot – video Posted: 07 Jan 2021 08:34 PM PST Donald Trump acknowledges in a video released on Thursday night that a 'new administration' will be inaugurated on 20 January, one day after he repeated baseless claims at a Washington DC rally that the election had been stolen. The rally became a precursor for a violent attack on the US Capitol that appalled the nation. In his video, Trump went on to say the rioters 'do not represent our country' and that those who broke the law would pay. Continue reading... |
| Pelosi says House is prepared to impeach Trump again over 'assault' against America – video Posted: 07 Jan 2021 02:35 PM PST The speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, called for Donald Trump's immediate removal from office via the 25th amendment, a day after a pro-Trump mob stormed the US Capitol. Demands for Trump to be removed have come from across the political spectrum after the attack in Washington, as Congress formally certified Joe Biden's election victory despite objections from some Republican lawmakers Continue reading... |
| 'Domestic terrorists': Joe Biden condemns Capitol mob – video Posted: 07 Jan 2021 12:35 PM PST Joe Biden condemned the 'unprecedented assault' on American democracy yesterday, as a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol saying it was perpetrated by 'domestic terrorists' who should not be called protesters. Biden also argued the event was very predictable, given Donald Trump's attacks on the hallmarks of democracy, and he and Kamala Harris highlighted the racist implications of the police reaction
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| Ugandan police confront Bobi Wine during online press conference – video Posted: 07 Jan 2021 12:07 PM PST Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, known as Bobi Wine, is the Ugandan presidential hopeful trying to unseat the long-serving president, Yoweri Museveni. The candidate was dragged from his car as he announced a petition to the international criminal court to investigate rights abuses in the country Continue reading... |
| Pro-Trump mob chases lone Black police officer up stairs in Capitol – video Posted: 07 Jan 2021 04:53 AM PST A journalist captured the moment a lone Black police officer was confronted by pro-Trump supporters who had stormed into the US Capitol in what some lawmakers condemned as an attempted insurrection aimed at overturning the results of the presidential election. A politics reporter at HuffPost, Igor Bobic, filmed the officer as he was chased up the stairs of the building by Trump loyalists who objected to the certification of Joe Biden as the next president, which was taking place in Congress during a joint session. Four people died during the violent occupation
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