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- Election officials held in Myanmar 'in bid to prove fraud'
- Impeachment trial: Democrats rest case with warning that Trump remains a threat
- Coronavirus live: German border shut to parts of Czech Republic and Austria; Trump sicker with Covid than reported
- KPMG's Bill Michael resigns after telling staff to 'stop moaning'
- Tokyo Olympics chief resigns over sexist comments
- UK suffers record 9.9% slump; KPMG UK chair quits after 'stop moaning' comments – business live
- Alexei Navalny back in court on charges of slandering war veteran
- Global green recovery plans fail to match 2008 stimulus, report shows
- Armies of China and India pull back from hand-to-hand border battle zone
- Dramatic discovery links Stonehenge to its original site – in Wales
- 'You’re upside down, Tom': US congressman appears wrong way up at House video hearing
- Snap five-day Covid lockdown for Victoria announced in bid to contain UK variant
- 'A baptism of fire': medical volunteers at a Covid ICU – photo essay
- Japanese lose taste for Valentine's ‘obligation chocs’ under Covid
- 'I don't make enough': the financial cost of having Covid in the US
- 'It shook me to my core': 50 years of Carole King's Tapestry
- 'We need to stitch Catalonia back together': Socialist candidate vows to heal divisions
- Experience: I survived a plane crash
- Nurse's death in custody highlights peril of being a woman in Honduras
- US anti-abortion activists plan new push in year of Republican schism
- Josh Hawley's schooldays: ‘He made popcorn to watch the Iraq invasion’
- Andy Flurry and Mary Queen of Salt: craze for naming Scottish gritters goes global
- US lawmakers urge UK to help end complicity in Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen
- DRC is rich with farmland, so why do 22 million people there face starvation? | Vava Tampa
- Trump impeachment trial: Senate to hear former president's defense – live updates
- Daniel Andrews flags shutting out stranded Australians except for 'compassionate cases'
- At least 331 human rights defenders were murdered in 2020, report finds
- Saudi Arabia's release of Loujain al-Hathloul an overture to Biden
- Daniel Andrews announces five-day 'circuit breaker' as Victoria goes into Covid lockdown – video
- Biden blasts Trump administration's handling of vaccine program – video
- 'A wake-up call': impeachment managers warn against acquitting Trump – video
- Aerial footage shows huge vehicle pileup in Texas – video
- The key Capitol attack footage shown on day two of Trump's impeachment trial – video
| Election officials held in Myanmar 'in bid to prove fraud' Posted: 12 Feb 2021 02:37 AM PST A senior polling officer and a human rights watchdog say arrests part of military's attempt to discredit vote Myanmar's military government is detaining election commission officials in night-time raids and asking them to provide evidence that November's election was rigged, according to a senior member of the organisation and a human rights watchdog. The Tatmadaw justified its 1 February coup by alleging widespread irregularities in the vote, won decisively by Aung San Suu Kyi's party, but their claims have been rejected by the Union Election Commission (UEC), the organisation responsible for administering elections in Myanmar. Continue reading... |
| Impeachment trial: Democrats rest case with warning that Trump remains a threat Posted: 11 Feb 2021 05:00 PM PST
House impeachment managers rested their case against Donald Trump on Thursday, concluding that the deadly Capitol assault he stands accused of inciting was the culmination of a presidency beset by lies and violent rhetoric, and warning gravely that he would remain a threat to American democracy if not convicted and barred from holding future office. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 12 Feb 2021 02:37 AM PST Germany will ban travel from Czech border regions as well as Austria's Tyrol; Trump much more ill with Covid-19 than reported
Europe's drugs regulator has said it has launched a real-time review of CureVac's Covid-19 vaccine to speed up potential approvals and bring more shots to the region reeling from a surge in infections. The human medicines committee of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) will review data from ongoing trials of the German biopharmaceutical firm's vaccine until there is enough clinical data for approval, the regulator said. EMA has started a rolling review of CVnCoV, a #COVID19vaccine developed by CureVac AG:
After briefly leading the world in Covid-19 infections last month Ireland has dramatically curbed the spread of the virus. A lockdown that includes a 5km travel limit has reduced the 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 people to 326, around mid-way in Europe's table, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Continue reading... |
| KPMG's Bill Michael resigns after telling staff to 'stop moaning' Posted: 12 Feb 2021 01:03 AM PST Firm's UK chair apologises for comments in virtual meeting about Covid crisis KPMG's UK chairman, Bill Michael, has resigned after telling staff to "stop moaning" during a virtual meeting about the coronavirus pandemic and the impact of lockdown on people's lives. Michael, who has headed the company since 2017, was speaking at a virtual town hall meeting on Monday with members of the firm's financial services consulting team when he made the comments. Continue reading... |
| Tokyo Olympics chief resigns over sexist comments Posted: 12 Feb 2021 02:28 AM PST Yoshiro Mori issues apology, saying his 'inappropriate remarks have caused chaos' The head of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic organising committee has resigned, a week after his derogatory comments about women triggered an international backlash. "My inappropriate remarks have caused chaos, and I would like to apologise to express my deepest apologies to the members of the council and executive board, as well as the entire community," Yoshiro Mori, a former Japanese prime minister, told a meeting of the Tokyo 2020 executive board on Friday. Continue reading... |
| UK suffers record 9.9% slump; KPMG UK chair quits after 'stop moaning' comments – business live Posted: 12 Feb 2021 02:36 AM PST UK GDP shrank by 9.9% last year amid Covid-19 lockdowns, the worst since modern records began, and only beaten by the Great Frost of 1709
Earlier:
Kit Juckes, foreign exchange expert at French bank Société Générale, has delved into the history books too: Even George Washington, born on February 22, 1732 wasn't around the last time Great Britain, as it was then, saw a bigger GDP decline than 2020's 9.9%. This time it's a pandemic to blame whereas back then, it was a Great Frost, which saw ice in the North Sea, and the War of Spanish Succession (1701-1714) which was doing the damage. There 13.4% fall in British GDP in 1709 was followed by a 9.1% fall in 1710 and overall, GDP was smaller in 1715 than it was before the start of the war. Fighting with continental neighbours is never good for the economy…. Last year was extraordinary but despite concerns about new variants of the virus and continued economic restrictions, consensus looks for a 4.6% rebound in 2021.
Here's a handy chart putting 2020's GDP slump in historical context, from the Independent's Ben Chu: Latest official data confirms that UK economy contracted by 9.9% in 2020 - making it the worst year for the UK economy since 1709 pic.twitter.com/L5xSR2kp3z Continue reading... |
| Alexei Navalny back in court on charges of slandering war veteran Posted: 12 Feb 2021 01:27 AM PST Opposition leader accuses state of orchestrating case to damage his image among Russians Alexei Navalny, the leading opposition figure whose jailing this month sparked protests across Russia, has been back in court to face charges of slandering a war veteran in a separate case. Navalny denies the charges and has accused the state of orchestrating the case to damage his image among the Russian public. Continue reading... |
| Global green recovery plans fail to match 2008 stimulus, report shows Posted: 11 Feb 2021 11:01 PM PST Exclusive: just 12% of spending on economic rescue packages is going towards low-carbon projects, research finds Efforts by governments around the world to forge a green recovery from the coronavirus pandemic are so far failing even to reach the levels of green spending seen in the stimulus that followed the 2008 financial crisis, new analysis has shown. Only about 12% of the spending on economic rescue packages around the world is going towards low-carbon projects, such as renewable energy and clean technology, according to a report by Vivid Economics, published on Friday. Continue reading... |
| Armies of China and India pull back from hand-to-hand border battle zone Posted: 11 Feb 2021 06:14 PM PST Both countries say they are disengaging in disputed Ladakh where soldiers killed each other with sticks and rocks China and India have been pulling back frontline troops along disputed portions of their mountain border where they have been in a standoff for months, officials in both countries said. The troops started the disengagement on Wednesday at the southern and northern bank of Pangong Lake in the Ladakh region, according to the officials. Continue reading... |
| Dramatic discovery links Stonehenge to its original site – in Wales Posted: 11 Feb 2021 10:01 PM PST Find backs theory that monument was dismantled and dragged over 140 miles to Wiltshire An ancient myth about Stonehenge, first recorded 900 years ago, tells of the wizard Merlin leading men to Ireland to capture a magical stone circle called the Giants' Dance and rebuilding it in England as a memorial to the dead. Geoffrey of Monmouth's account had been dismissed, partly because he was wrong on other historical facts, although the bluestones of the monument came from a region of Wales that was considered Irish territory in his day. Continue reading... |
| 'You’re upside down, Tom': US congressman appears wrong way up at House video hearing Posted: 11 Feb 2021 06:29 PM PST First a cat-faced lawyer, now Minnesota representative Tom Emmer presents a topsy-turvy screen image at a virtual committee A US Republican congressman accidentally turned the political world upside down when he appeared with his face flipped the wrong way during a video call for a House of Representatives committee hearing. Days after a Texan lawyer presented in court with a kitten filter instead of his face, Minnesota representative Tom Emmer made his own unusual video call debut. Continue reading... |
| Snap five-day Covid lockdown for Victoria announced in bid to contain UK variant Posted: 11 Feb 2021 08:15 PM PST Daniel Andrews says stage four lockdown is to prevent a third wave in response to 'hyper-infectivity' of variant
Victoria will enter a "circuit-breaker" five-day lockdown from Saturday in an attempt to "prevent a third wave", Daniel Andrews has announced. The premier said on Friday afternoon the government would impose a snap lockdown from midnight because the "hyper-infectivity" and speed of a UK variant outbreak had created a "very real challenge". Continue reading... |
| 'A baptism of fire': medical volunteers at a Covid ICU – photo essay Posted: 11 Feb 2021 11:00 PM PST Photojournalist Graeme Robertson has spent several days working on a photo documentary project following two medical students and a consultant endocrinologist working on the Covid-19 ICU ward at the University College Hospital in London Some of the images have had details blurred, in order to protect patient identity. "When I started getting fitted for my PPE next to the Covid ICU ward I realised what I was doing. What a privilege I have to see what really is happening and form my own conclusions. My first impressions were: this is real, the people looked ill, in danger and in doctors hands. Doctors and nurses were running around but also in contemplation. I saw one doctor just looking at a patient with his hands on his hips. I could almost hear him think. Continue reading... |
| Japanese lose taste for Valentine's ‘obligation chocs’ under Covid Posted: 12 Feb 2021 01:11 AM PST Growing numbers of women ditch giri choco custom of 'forced giving' of gifts to senior male colleagues Shifting gender politics and the coronavirus have combined to spell the possible end of the Japanese Valentine's Day custom of women giving chocolates to male colleagues. Traditionally, women are expected to buy gift-wrapped chocolates for the men in their working lives – usually senior colleagues and others who have helped them during the course of the year – as part of a tradition called giri choco, literally obligation chocolates. Continue reading... |
| 'I don't make enough': the financial cost of having Covid in the US Posted: 12 Feb 2021 02:00 AM PST Major health insurers volunteered to cover testing and treatment, while the government introduced new programs – but those assurances haven't played out Covid-19 allowed for an experiment in US healthcare: what if doctor's visits and hospitalizations didn't cost people money? In response to the pandemic, major health insurers volunteered to cover coronavirus testing and treatment for their paying customers and the government introduced programs to make care more affordable. But a year after coronavirus was first identified in the US, those assurances haven't played out as planned. Continue reading... |
| 'It shook me to my core': 50 years of Carole King's Tapestry Posted: 11 Feb 2021 10:00 PM PST James Taylor, Roberta Flack, Tori Amos, Joan Armatrading, Rufus Wainwright and more on the 70s masterpiece The singer-songwriter genre was named around 1970, give or take, and was said to apply to me and, among others Joni Mitchell, Cat Stevens and Jackson Browne. Why that supposed movement didn't begin with Bob Dylan or even Woody Guthrie or Robert Johnson beats me – maybe they were still "folk". But, if it means anything, Carole King deserves to be thought of as its epitome. I'd been deep into her songs – Up on the Roof, Natural Woman, Crying in the Rain – for a decade before Danny Kortchmar introduced us in Los Angeles in 1970. She played piano on my Sweet Baby James album while working on the songs for her own Tapestry. Our collaboration, our extended musical conversation over the next three or four years was really something wonderful. I've said it before, but Carole and I found we spoke the same language. Not just that we were both musicians but as if we shared a common ear, a parallel musical/emotional path. And we brought this out in one another, I believe. Continue reading... |
| 'We need to stitch Catalonia back together': Socialist candidate vows to heal divisions Posted: 11 Feb 2021 09:00 PM PST Salvador Illa, Spain's former health minister, is contesting the election on a promise of unity, despite continuing split over independence Salvador Illa, the Socialist candidate in Sunday's Catalan election, has promised to focus on improving public health care, reactivating the economy, and bringing the region together after "10 lost years of increased division" caused by failed, unilateral efforts to secede from the rest of Spain. Illa, who served as Spain's health minister before stepping down last month to contest the election for the Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSC), said the coronavirus pandemic had underscored the need to overhaul and invest more in the region's health system and to fix its economy. Continue reading... |
| Experience: I survived a plane crash Posted: 12 Feb 2021 02:00 AM PST Knowing we had no food left, we began discussing the unthinkable – eating the frozen flesh of our dead friends As I walked to the plane, I could see my fiancee, Soledad, waving from the airport balcony. It was 12 October 1972 and I was flying from our home in Uruguay to Chile for four days, where some of my friends were playing rugby against an old boys' school team. I had been invited along by my best friend, Gastón, to make up numbers. There was a party atmosphere on board. I went to sit next to Gastón, but someone beat me to it so I took a seat further forward. About 90 minutes into the flight, we hit an air pocket. I heard the pilot shouting, "Give me power!" The plane was heading straight towards a mountain. There was a huge crash as the wing hit the rocks. I put my head between my legs and closed my eyes. I was convinced I was going to die at 24. Continue reading... |
| Nurse's death in custody highlights peril of being a woman in Honduras Posted: 12 Feb 2021 02:30 AM PST The death of Keyla Martínez, 26, is being treated as a murder – she is one of 29 women killed in the country so far this year Keyla Martínez screamed for help from inside the police cell, but no one came to save her. Martínez, a 26-year-old trainee nurse from La Esperanza, western Honduras, died in police custody last weekend after being detained for breaching a coronavirus curfew. Continue reading... |
| US anti-abortion activists plan new push in year of Republican schism Posted: 12 Feb 2021 02:00 AM PST Critics condemn 'appalling' Republican legislation – with the ultimate goal of overturning Roe v Wade – in many US states At a church-style rally in Arizona, the state Republican lawmaker Walter Blackman described his "perfect" legislative proposal: to prosecute women who have abortions for homicide alongside the doctors who provide them. Such a bill would be patently unconstitutional in the US – but for anti-abortion rights activists like Blackman that's the point. Continue reading... |
| Josh Hawley's schooldays: ‘He made popcorn to watch the Iraq invasion’ Posted: 11 Feb 2021 11:00 PM PST Before he became known as a leader in the attempt to try to overturn the presidential election, the Republican senator spent a year teaching at St Paul's, the elite British school, in 2002 Before Josh Hawley became known as a leader of the attempt to overturn the 2020 election in the US Congress, he was remembered by former students and staff at St Paul's, the elite British school for boys where he spent a year teaching, as an aloof, rightwing political obsessive who had made himself popcorn to watch the US invasion of Iraq. The Republican senator from Missouri has been the target of ire of millions of Americans after he became the first senator to say he would object to election results. Ultimately, 146 congressional Republicans joined the rightwing lawmaker in seeking to block votes from Pennsylvania and Arizona from being counted, an extraordinary move that was seen as stoking the flames of a pro-Trump mob who attacked the US Capitol. Continue reading... |
| Andy Flurry and Mary Queen of Salt: craze for naming Scottish gritters goes global Posted: 12 Feb 2021 01:51 AM PST With country gripped by icy weather, thousands track daily journeys of gritters and snowploughs online It started as a winter safety campaign for school children living in the Scottish Highlands but has since captured the urgent need for escapism during lockdown. Hundreds of thousands of people are now following the daily journeys of nearly 100 Scottish gritter lorries and snowploughs, vehicles luxuriating in names such as Spreddie Van Halen, Sir Andy Flurry, Skid Vicious, Gritallica and Mary Queen of Salt. Continue reading... |
| US lawmakers urge UK to help end complicity in Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen Posted: 11 Feb 2021 09:00 PM PST Question mark over far Biden administration will go to push allies to end arms sales Senior US lawmakers have called on the UK to live up to its "moral responsibility" and help end both countries "complicity" in Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen, in a sign of the pressure the UK will face in Washington to join the Biden administration and end weapons sales to the kingdom. Related: Biden announces end to US support for Saudi-led offensive in Yemen Continue reading... |
| DRC is rich with farmland, so why do 22 million people there face starvation? | Vava Tampa Posted: 11 Feb 2021 11:15 PM PST For two decades the global community has stood by while militia groups have got away with killing, raping and looting I was food shopping when I read the news. Nearly 22 million people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are facing starvation and malnutrition. Now. In 2021. You have to wonder how a country with eight months of rain, more than 50% of all the rivers, lakes and wetlands in Africa, and more agricultural land than any African country, with the potential to feed up to 2 billion people, gets to the point where it is unable to feed its population of 100 million. Continue reading...This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Trump impeachment trial: Senate to hear former president's defense – live updates Posted: 12 Feb 2021 02:44 AM PST Senate reconvenes at noon with Trump's team expected to push for swift conclusion to second impeachment trial
Rather than the Senate impeachment trial yesterday, president Joe Biden was preoccupied with the plan to vaccinate the nation against a Covid pandemic which has now cost over 475,000 lives. When I took office three weeks ago, America didn't have a plan or enough supplies to vaccinate most of the country. But my team got right to work, and as of today, we've increased weekly vaccine shipments by nearly 30% and purchased enough vaccines to vaccinate all Americans.
Here's the analysis of those closing arguments yesterday from the House impeachment managers from NBC News overnight: "He didn't react to the violence with shock or horror or dismay, as we did. He didn't immediately rush to Twitter and demand in the clearest possible terms that the mob disperse, that they stop it, that they retreat," Rep Joe Neguse said. "Instead, he issues messages in the afternoon that sided with them, the insurrectionists, who had left police officers battered and bloodied." The managers made the case that the mob believed they were acting at the direction of president, citing many of the rioters' own statements. They also cited the words of Republicans who publicly pleaded with Trump to call off his supporters as the siege was underway to bolster their argument that Trump was in control. Sen Lindsey Graham had a one-word response when asked by NBC News whether anything he had heard had changed his mind: "Nope." Continue reading... |
| Daniel Andrews flags shutting out stranded Australians except for 'compassionate cases' Posted: 12 Feb 2021 01:54 AM PST Citizens stuck overseas say the idea of making them list their 'tragedies' to be ranked is 'unspeakable' The Victorian premier, battling an outbreak of the UK variant of coronavirus, has flagged slashing the number of Australians able to return home, suggesting travellers could only be allowed to enter the country on "compassionate grounds". The proposal sparked a furious reaction from citizens stuck overseas, who said the proposal was "unspeakable" because it would lead to people's misfortunes being compared. Continue reading... |
| At least 331 human rights defenders were murdered in 2020, report finds Posted: 11 Feb 2021 05:12 AM PST Two-thirds of those killed worked to protect environmental, land and indigenous peoples' rights, while those providing Covid relief also faced reprisals At least 331 human rights defenders promoting social, environmental, racial and gender justice in 25 countries were murdered in 2020, with scores more beaten, detained and criminalised because of their work, analysis has found. Latin America, the most dangerous continent in the world in which to protect environmental, land and human rights, accounted for more than three-quarters of all the murders of human rights defenders in 2020. In Colombia, where activists are routinely targeted by armed groups despite a 2016 peace deal, 177 such deaths were recorded, more than half of the global total. The Philippines was the second deadliest country with 25 murders, followed by Honduras, Mexico, Afghanistan, Brazil and Guatemala. Continue reading... |
| Saudi Arabia's release of Loujain al-Hathloul an overture to Biden Posted: 11 Feb 2021 09:42 AM PST Analysis: Mohammed bin Salman views the move as an attempt to engage the new US administration As Loujain al-Hathloul marked her first day outside prison in nearly three years, Saudi Arabia's de facto leader, Mohammed bin Salman, was bracing for a reaction from Washington to what amounts to a peace offering on his part. Prince Mohammed views the decision to release the women's rights activist as an attempt to belatedly engage the new administration, whose strident tone on human rights issues in its early weeks of office has all but conditioned a working relationship with Riyadh on righting the wrongs of the Trump years. Continue reading... |
| Daniel Andrews announces five-day 'circuit breaker' as Victoria goes into Covid lockdown – video Posted: 11 Feb 2021 09:54 PM PST Victoria will enter a snap five-day coronavirus lockdown from Saturday in an attempt to halt the spread of a UK variant outbreak in response to its hyper-infectivity. Premier Dan Andrews made the announcement that will see the entire state return to stage 4 restrictions where Victorians are only able to leave their homes for four permitted reasons: shopping for essential items, essential work, exercise for two hours a day, or caregiving for compassionate reasons. Masks will be compulsory in all settings outside the home, all private gatherings are barred and a 5km ban on movement has been reintroduced
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| Biden blasts Trump administration's handling of vaccine program – video Posted: 11 Feb 2021 04:28 PM PST Joe Biden has criticised Donald Trump's handling of the US Covid vaccination program after confirming the country had ordered an additional 200m vaccine doses to be delivered by the end of July. Speaking at the National Institutes of Health on Thursday, the president spoke of the efforts his team had gone through to ensure high vaccination numbers and criticised Trump's strategy for distributing vaccines. 'My predecessor, to be very blunt about it, did not do his job,' Biden said. 'He didn't order enough vaccines. He didn't mobilise enough people to administer the shots' Continue reading... |
| 'A wake-up call': impeachment managers warn against acquitting Trump – video Posted: 11 Feb 2021 02:41 PM PST House impeachment managers warned that more political violence could occur if Trump is not held accountable. Representative Diana DeGette argued the vote to impeach would make sure this would never happen again. The managers rested their case on the third day of the trial after presenting arguments for convicting Donald Trump. Continue reading... |
| Aerial footage shows huge vehicle pileup in Texas – video Posted: 11 Feb 2021 11:46 AM PST At least five people were killed and dozens were injured in a crash that spread over nearly a mile and involved between 70 and 100 vehicles on an icy Interstate 35 near Fort Worth in Texas, police have said. A winter storm bringing freezing rain, sleet and snow contributed to the pileup. Continue reading... |
| The key Capitol attack footage shown on day two of Trump's impeachment trial – video Posted: 11 Feb 2021 04:16 AM PST In their prosecution of Donald Trump for inciting the 6 January attack on the United States Capitol in Washington DC, Democratic impeachment managers have focused on videos of the event, including previously unseen footage. The managers, who act as prosecutors in the case, have shown clips to their audience of senators, who are in effect acting as jurors. The shocking footage shown on Wednesday revealed the full scale and danger of the attack on the Capitol, including threats to some senators who were now sitting in the chamber during the trial
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