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- Coronavirus live news: Hong Kong fast-tracks approval of Sinovac vaccine; US agents seize 10m fake N95 masks
- Myanmar hackers target military-run propaganda sites in online protest
- Facebook's botched Australia news ban hits health departments, charities and its own pages
- Islamic 12th-century bathhouse uncovered in Seville tapas bar
- New Tokyo 2020 chief acknowledges 'great public concern' over Games
- New US laws to give undocumented migrants a pathway to citizenship
- People are rescuing thousands of 'cold-stunned' sea turtles in Texas
- Biden seeks to sideline Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
- French ex-minister jailed for rape and sexual abuse of staff member
- 'Look after yourself my darling': letters salvaged from 1941 shipwreck
- Rihanna angers Hindus with 'disrespectful' Ganesha pendant
- Snowstorms throw US vaccine distribution into disarray
- Covid infections in England fall by two-thirds but spreading fastest among young
- Mink farms a continuing Covid risk to humans and wildlife, warn EU experts
- Educating Zimbabwe: illegal ‘home schools’ defy lockdown in townships
- Damien Hirst: 'I flirted with the idea of pickling people'
- Even for a company that specialises in PR disasters, Facebook has excelled with its Australian blackout | Emily Bell
- '99% of the world has no idea': inside the shocking legal guardianship industry
- Magnets, vacuums and plant-based nets: the new fight to clean plastic from our seas
- Love Island's Dr Alex George: 'If my brother had asked for help, would he still be alive?'
- The Texans facing blackouts and burst pipes: 'Do I wait for the ceiling to cave in?'
- Body of woman found after house collapse in Greater Manchester
- The international community must stop legitimising despots' regimes in Africa | Nelson Chamisa
- Texas winter weather crisis grows | First Thing
- Mexico calls on rich countries not to hoard coronavirus vaccines
- Brittany Higgins: Scott Morrison warns Labor ‘this issue’ is not confined to one party
- Brazil health workers accused of giving Covid vaccinations with empty syringes
- Athens accused of ‘downplaying’ risks of lead contamination at Lesbos camp
- 'No way they'll back out': tensions rise amid Ethiopia opposition hunger strike
- Biden's offer to work with Republicans faces first real test on Covid relief
- Mass testing still a vital tool in Covid efforts despite UK vaccine success
- Thousands of 'cold-stunned' sea turtles rescued from frigid waters in Texas – video
- Ash Wednesday under Covid restrictions – in pictures
- Mount Etna erupts in spectacular fashion – in pictures
- Donald Trump's former casino in Atlantic City demolished – video
- Free speech protests erupt in Spain after rapper's arrest – video
- Captain Tom: online trolling would have 'broken his heart', says daughter – video
| Posted: 18 Feb 2021 03:23 AM PST Hong Kong fast tracks China's Sinovac vaccine approval; US agents have seized 10m fake 3m-brand N95 masks in recent weeks
Guinea is in talks to obtain 400,000 doses of Russia's Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine and expects to have the doses by the end of February, the health ministry official Mohamed Lamine Yansane said on Thursday. Sixty doses of the vaccine were previously provided to the west African country on an experimental basis, with president Alpha Conde and some ministers among those vaccinated, Reuters reports.
The British state must take a bigger role in supporting businesses and the public just like it did in the aftermath of the second world war, the opposition Labour party leader, Keir Starmer, will set out in a speech on Thursday. Starmer, who took over as leader of the main opposition to the prime minister Boris Johnson's Conservative party in 2020, will map out his alternative vision for the country's post-Brexit and post-Covid future. I believe people are now looking for more from their government – like they were after the second world war. They're looking for government to help them through difficult times, to provide security and to build a better future for them and their families. |
| Myanmar hackers target military-run propaganda sites in online protest Posted: 17 Feb 2021 08:45 PM PST Hacking group says move is akin to 'mass protesting of people in front of government websites' Hackers in Myanmar have targeted key state websites, including the military's propaganda page, as part of an online battle with the junta, which has repeatedly imposed internet shutdowns and blocked social media sites. A group called Myanmar Hackers disrupted websites including the Central Bank, the military-run propaganda agency True News Information Team and state-run broadcaster MRTV, as part of a civil disobedience movement designed to prevent the junta from functioning. Continue reading... |
| Facebook's botched Australia news ban hits health departments, charities and its own pages Posted: 17 Feb 2021 05:49 PM PST Social media company's ban on sharing news has also affected dozens of government, not-for-profit and community pages The Bureau of Meteorology, state health departments, the Western Australian opposition leader, charities and Facebook itself are among those to have been hit by Facebook's ban on news in Australia. On Thursday morning Facebook began preventing Australian news sites from posting, while also stopping Australian users from sharing or viewing content from any news outlets, both Australian and international. Continue reading... |
| Islamic 12th-century bathhouse uncovered in Seville tapas bar Posted: 17 Feb 2021 09:00 PM PST Dazzling geometric motifs dating from Almohad caliphate discovered during renovation of city's bar A magnificently decorated 12th-century Islamic bathhouse, replete with dazzling geometric motifs and skylights in the form of eight-pointed stars, has emerged, a little improbably, from the walls and vaulted ceilings of a popular tapas bar in the heart of the southern Spanish city of Seville. Last summer, the owners of the Cervercería Giralda – which has been pouring cañas and copas near Seville's cathedral since 1923 – decided to take advantage of local roadworks and the coronavirus pandemic to set about a long-delayed renovation. Continue reading... |
| New Tokyo 2020 chief acknowledges 'great public concern' over Games Posted: 18 Feb 2021 02:46 AM PST Seiko Hashimoto says she is taking on 'grave responsibility' as she succeeds Yoshiro Mori after sexism row Seiko Hashimoto, the new head of the Tokyo 2020 organising committee, has said she understands there is "great public concern" over hosting the delayed Olympics during the coronavirus pandemic. Speaking after her appointment five months before the Tokyo Games are due to open, the former Olympic track cyclist and speed skater said addressing the coronavirus threat was the most important task she faced, and she vowed to hold a "safe and secure" Games. Continue reading... |
| New US laws to give undocumented migrants a pathway to citizenship Posted: 18 Feb 2021 02:00 AM PST Biden administration's proposed legislation would allow eligible immigrants to apply for temporary legal status and right to work The Biden administration and congressional Democrats will formally unveil legislation on Thursday that would dramatically reshape the nation's immigration laws and create a pathway to citizenship for the millions of undocumented immigrants in the United States. After two decades of failing to advance meaningful immigration reform, Joe Biden and his allies on Capitol Hill are reviving the effort, which the new president has signalled will be a top domestic priority. Continue reading... |
| People are rescuing thousands of 'cold-stunned' sea turtles in Texas Posted: 17 Feb 2021 02:03 PM PST A convention center has come to aid these latest victims of severe winter weather: 'We had trailers full yesterday that had 80, 100, 50' Residents, some of whom lack heat or basic amenities in their own homes due to the unusually chilly weather, have been rescuing cold-stunned sea turtles and taking them to a convention center in a south Texas resort town. "Every 15 minutes or less there's another truck or SUV that pulls up," said Ed Caum, executive director of the South Padre Island Convention and Visitors Bureau, to the Associated Press on Wednesday. Continue reading... |
| Biden seeks to sideline Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Posted: 17 Feb 2021 11:03 AM PST The new US administration has signalled it expects the desert kingdom to 'change its approach' in a break with Trump policy The Biden administration has said it expects Saudi Arabia to "change its approach" to the US and signalled that it wants to minimise any direct contact between the president and the country's de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The stance marks an abrupt change compared with the Trump administration, which showered the young heir with attention and praise. It comes as intelligence officials are preparing to release – possibly as early as next week – a declassified report to Congress that will describe its assessment of the crown prince's alleged culpability in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the US-based Washington Post journalist who was killed by Saudi officials in 2018. Continue reading... |
| French ex-minister jailed for rape and sexual abuse of staff member Posted: 18 Feb 2021 02:28 AM PST Georges Tron found guilty at appeal trial of town hall assault A former French government minister has been sentenced to jail after an appeal court convicted him of the rape and sexual abuse of a staff member at the town hall where he is mayor. Two former municipal employees had accused Georges Tron, who claimed to be an expert reflexologist, of making them submit to foot massages that turned into sexual assaults in 2007 and 2010. Continue reading... |
| 'Look after yourself my darling': letters salvaged from 1941 shipwreck Posted: 18 Feb 2021 12:00 AM PST Archivists have painstakingly reconstructed the wartime missives recovered from the SS Gairsoppa, sunk by a U-boat off the Irish coast The fragments of a 1941 love letter to a woman named Iris, found nearly three miles under the ocean in a shipwreck, have been painstakingly pieced together by experts, 80 years after it was posted. "Look after yourself my darling, not only for your own sake …….. for mine also," wrote the unknown serviceman stationed in the Waziristan region, now part of Pakistan. "Imagine that I have my lips tight against yours with my arms around you tight … let us hope that this bloody war will soon be over." Continue reading... |
| Rihanna angers Hindus with 'disrespectful' Ganesha pendant Posted: 18 Feb 2021 03:09 AM PST Comments on singer's Instagram account say wearing likeness of god is cultural appropriation The singer Rihanna has angered the Hindu community with a "disrespectful" Instagram picture in which she wears a diamond-studded pendant featuring the Hindu god Ganesha. Commenters on her Instagram account have called the wearing of the likeness of the god around her neck cultural appropriation. Continue reading... |
| Snowstorms throw US vaccine distribution into disarray Posted: 17 Feb 2021 07:04 PM PST Vaccination sites close or see shipments delayed, heightening frustrations as thousands of shots are canceled Devastating winter storms sweeping the US have injected confusion and frustration into the nation's Covid-19 vaccination drive, snarling deliveries and forcing the cancellation of thousands of shots around the country. Across a large swath of the US, including deep south states such as Georgia and Alabama, the snowy, slippery weather either led to the closing of vaccination sites outright or held up the necessary shipments, with delays expected to continue for days. Continue reading... |
| Covid infections in England fall by two-thirds but spreading fastest among young Posted: 17 Feb 2021 04:01 PM PST Experts urge care over opening schools as children aged 5-12 now in one of most common groups for virus Covid infections have fallen by two-thirds in a month in England but the virus is now spreading most among primary-age children and young people, research suggests. The React 1 study from Imperial College London points to the third national lockdown having significantly curbed the spread of the coronavirus despite the emergence of new variants. Continue reading... |
| Mink farms a continuing Covid risk to humans and wildlife, warn EU experts Posted: 18 Feb 2021 02:00 AM PST Health experts call for regular testing of staff and animals after coronavirus found at 400 breeding units across Europe All mink farms are at risk of becoming infected with Covid-19 and spreading the virus, and staff and animals should be regularly tested, EU disease and food safety experts said on Thursday. Denmark, the world's largest exporter of mink fur, announced that it would cull up to 15 million mink in November, after discovering a mutated variant of the virus that scientists feared might have jeopardised the effectiveness of future vaccines. Continue reading... |
| Educating Zimbabwe: illegal ‘home schools’ defy lockdown in townships Posted: 17 Feb 2021 11:15 PM PST Priced out of online access, poor children are turning to backyard teachers as Covid closes state classrooms It's Friday morning and Help Mabwe is preparing to give the day's illicit lessons. Round the back of his house the teacher has created a classroom out of some old canvas and some wooden poles. A few broken chairs and benches, and an ancient chalkboard complete the furniture in Mabwe's backyard college in Kuwadzana, a township 15km west of central Harare. Continue reading... |
| Damien Hirst: 'I flirted with the idea of pickling people' Posted: 17 Feb 2021 11:15 PM PST As a survey of his work opens amid the snow of St Moritz, the artist talks about his obsession with blood, his disconnection from the art world, and why he misses banter with his army of assistants If anyone should have been ready for this it was Damien Hirst. Thirty years before the pandemic that has made the modern world feel mortal, a young artist from Leeds was putting dead animals in glass tanks and arranging drugs in medicine cabinets to ram home the fragility of life. Now Hirst is in lockdown like all of us, and as he chats via Zoom from what must be the least impressive room in his house, a small, spartan space with a blue and white cloth over a tiny window, he agrees that that early work suddenly feels very current. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 17 Feb 2021 11:59 PM PST By turning off news sharing, Facebook has turned attention away from flawed government legislation and on to its own reckless opaque power When Facebook removed vast swathes of Australian media from its platform overnight on Wednesday the social media company intended to shock the system of Australian government and media cronyism and send a strong message to regulators everywhere. Instead, Facebook managed to turn attention away from a flawed piece of legislation and on to its own reckless, opaque power. Continue reading... |
| '99% of the world has no idea': inside the shocking legal guardianship industry Posted: 17 Feb 2021 10:42 PM PST In dark Netflix thriller I Care a Lot, a predatory court appointed guardian wreaks havoc, a story that's far closer to reality than one would expect "My mother: I should be able to see her whenever I want," a man pleads to a judge at the start of the splashy new Netflix movie I Care a Lot. "She doesn't need to be in a care facility, she doesn't need a court appointed guardian. She has a loving son to take care of her. I just don't understand how the court can entrust my mother to this stranger." Increasingly anguished as an icy Marla Grayson, played by Rosamund Pike, looks on, he pleads: "Miss Grayson forced my mother into the home when she made it very clear that she didn't want to go and now she's auctioned off my mother's house, her car, her personal belongings and she uses the proceeds to pay herself. And now Miss Grayson's barred me from seeing my mother at all. It's a goddam nightmare. She's kidnapped my mother!" Continue reading... |
| Magnets, vacuums and plant-based nets: the new fight to clean plastic from our seas Posted: 18 Feb 2021 03:00 AM PST Microplastics are finding their way into the air, our drinking water, and even our placentas. Here is how some innovators are tackling them When it comes to microplastics, there's rarely good news. Researchers continue to find the tiny plastic fragments everywhere they look. Microplastics have been found in rain, Arctic ice cores, inside the fish we eat, as well as in fruit and vegetables. New research suggests 136,000 tons of microplastics are ejected from the ocean each year, ending up in the air we breathe. They are in human placentas, our wastewater, and our drinking water. Continue reading... |
| Love Island's Dr Alex George: 'If my brother had asked for help, would he still be alive?' Posted: 18 Feb 2021 03:00 AM PST An A&E doctor and social media influencer, George has long advocated better mental healthcare. But after the death of his brother last year, he knew he wanted to do more "Mental health can be such an unsexy subject," says Alex George. This is the message that the A&E doctor and former Love Island contestant will "really try to get across" in his new job as the government's youth mental health ambassador. He doesn't mean that the job is to add sex appeal, although he has 1.8m followers on Instagram, people call the hospital where he works to ask if "Dr Alex" is on duty, and, in the first lockdown, he taped a topless shot from his Love Island days to the chest of his PPE. What he means is that he wants to make mental health a positive issue. He is irked that every time he asks children: "When I say 'physical health', what words come to mind?", they mention such things as exercise, running and Joe Wicks. "But if you say: 'What's mental health?' they go: 'Depression, anxiety, sadness.'" Continue reading... |
| The Texans facing blackouts and burst pipes: 'Do I wait for the ceiling to cave in?' Posted: 18 Feb 2021 01:00 AM PST After millions lost power in a winter storm, residents condemn leadership: 'They don't want to do anything for anyone' Krystal Foreman's ceiling started to crack and sag on Tuesday while inches of water, presumably from a burst pipe, cascaded down her walls and covered her floor. As Foreman's home flooded, her heating broke, causing the indoor temperature to drop to match the frigid conditions outside. Foreman called her complex's emergency maintenance line five, six, maybe seven times, but no one answered. So she and her one-year-old son waited for four hours and she weighed the risks of icy roads, a deadly virus and her ravaged home. "Do I want to risk exposing us to Covid, or do I want to just wait for the ceiling to cave in?" she said. Continue reading... |
| Body of woman found after house collapse in Greater Manchester Posted: 18 Feb 2021 02:38 AM PST Cause of incident in village of Ramsbottom unconfirmed but one resident reported 'a loud bang' The body of a woman has been found at the scene of a collapsed house in Bury, Greater Manchester. Emergency services were called just before 9.30pm on Wednesday, after reports that a house had collapsed on East View in Summerseat, a village in Ramsbottom. Continue reading... |
| The international community must stop legitimising despots' regimes in Africa | Nelson Chamisa Posted: 18 Feb 2021 01:00 AM PST The bright future of younger generations is being perpetually postponed by ageing authoritarian politicians
Africa cannot afford to continue with the despotic forms of governance that still proliferate across the continent. Authoritarian and dictatorial governments are repressive, corrupt and inefficient. Their main interest is to retain power and loot public resources for the benefit of a few political elites, leaving the majority of citizens in poverty. As a result, although rich in raw resources, our continent remains the poorest in the world. We have seen this trend of authoritarianism in Zimbabwe, and we are now seeing it in Uganda, which has just held a farcical election. Continue reading... |
| Texas winter weather crisis grows | First Thing Posted: 18 Feb 2021 03:21 AM PST Millions of residents have been left without electricity and heat in Texas amid bitter temperatures and heavy snow. Plus, Biden set to announce plans to overhaul US immigration Good morning. Frustration is mounting in Texas, where ferocious winter weather has left millions of people without electricity and heat. Between 2 and 3 million people in Texas still had no power last night after nearly two full days, leaving them with little support against the biting temperatures. Water pipes are bursting, cutting off water supplies, and hours-long queues are snaking around grocery stores as people try to find food. Authorities in Kyle, south of Austin, asked residents to use water only to "sustain life", with the water supply close to running out. Continue reading... |
| Mexico calls on rich countries not to hoard coronavirus vaccines Posted: 17 Feb 2021 12:34 PM PST
Mexico has made a plea at the UN security council for countries to stop hoarding vaccines against Covid-19 as poorer ones fall behind in the race to vaccinate their citizens. Three-quarters of the first doses have been administered to citizens in only 10 countries that account for 60% of global gross domestic product (GDP), the Mexican foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, said, while in more than 100 countries no vaccines have been applied at all. Continue reading... |
| Brittany Higgins: Scott Morrison warns Labor ‘this issue’ is not confined to one party Posted: 18 Feb 2021 01:43 AM PST Ministers deny cover-up of alleged rape at parliament house as prime minister insists government response 'respected her wishes' The prime minister, Scott Morrison, has doubled down on claims his office knew nothing of the alleged 2019 rape of staffer Brittany Higgins, while delivering a veiled threat to Labor that the issue was not "confined to any one party in this place". The handling of the rape allegation dominated parliament on Thursday as government ministers denied a cover-up and Morrison insisted the response to Higgins' allegation had "respected her wishes" at all times. Continue reading... |
| Brazil health workers accused of giving Covid vaccinations with empty syringes Posted: 18 Feb 2021 02:00 AM PST Police are looking into allegations of so-called 'wind vaccinations' amid speculation about possible motives Police in Brazil police are investigating allegations that healthcare workers are giving fake Covid-19 inoculations, amid reports of nurses injecting people with empty syringes. Cases of what local media are calling "wind vaccination" have been reported in four states, adding to the woes of the country's halting and uncoordinated immunisation programme. Continue reading... |
| Athens accused of ‘downplaying’ risks of lead contamination at Lesbos camp Posted: 17 Feb 2021 05:50 AM PST Campaign group calls for more testing at Mavrovouni, a temporary facility housing thousands of refugees on the Greek island The Greek government is "downplaying" the risks of lead contamination in the refugee camp on Lesbos, according to Human Rights Watch. The group is calling for further comprehensive testing at the Mavrovouni camp after results revealed that one area had particularly high levels of lead contamination. Continue reading... |
| 'No way they'll back out': tensions rise amid Ethiopia opposition hunger strike Posted: 17 Feb 2021 03:46 AM PST Supporters say the politicians are prepared to die as government stands firm, with human rights lawyers warning consequences 'could be huge' For two hours the doctors had waited outside the gates of Kaliti prison in Addis Ababa. Bekele Gerba, a leading Ethiopian opposition figure from the Oromo ethnic group, was very ill and due to be taken to hospital for treatment. The 60-year-old is one of 20 senior political detainees, including the most prominent, Jawar Mohammed, who have been on hunger strike for the past three weeks. After a flurry of phone calls, the prison authorities informed the waiting medical team that the prisoner, who has hypertension, would not be going to hospital on Friday. "They wouldn't let us provide the emergency medical care he needs," said Dr Illili Jamal, who alleged that the order to keep him in his cell came from senior government officials. Continue reading... |
| Biden's offer to work with Republicans faces first real test on Covid relief Posted: 18 Feb 2021 03:00 AM PST Analysis: The president stressed a willingness to work with Republicans – but some say his outreach has its limits Joe Biden and his team have promised to extend the bipartisan olive branch like no previous administration in a move that on the surface appears to match the new president's long political history of seeking support from Republicans. Since taking office, the Biden administration has stressed a willingness to work with Republicans on its major initiatives like a Covid relief bill. Behind the scenes, it has initiated a broad push to reach out to as many congressional offices as possible, getting in contact with both former and current Republican lawmakers and their staffs, and hosting a high-visibility meeting between almost a dozen Republican senators and Biden himself. Continue reading... |
| Mass testing still a vital tool in Covid efforts despite UK vaccine success Posted: 17 Feb 2021 05:55 AM PST Analysis: Operation Moonshot rhetoric has been toned down but tests will help spot variants When the government's Operation Moonshot plans for mass testing of the population for Covid-19 were first revealed, the intention was to use that as the route out of perpetual cycles of lockdown. It was described as a £100bn-plus endeavour, with resources likened to the Manhattan Project, the top-secret wartime endeavour led by the US to develop a nuclear bomb. Continue reading... |
| Thousands of 'cold-stunned' sea turtles rescued from frigid waters in Texas – video Posted: 17 Feb 2021 11:00 PM PST Thousands of 'cold-stunned' sea turtles have been rescued from frigid waters in Texas as the state battles severe winter weather. As icy and freezing conditions have left many in the state without power, residents in the resort town of South Padre Island have been rescuing sea turtles and taking them indoors to a convention centre to escape from the cold waters in the Gulf of Mexico Continue reading... |
| Ash Wednesday under Covid restrictions – in pictures Posted: 17 Feb 2021 11:23 AM PST The first day of Lent looked a little different this year as Christians took part in the holy day Continue reading... |
| Mount Etna erupts in spectacular fashion – in pictures Posted: 17 Feb 2021 07:54 AM PST Europe's most active volcano has been on explosive form, with high lava fountains and several flows of incandescent magma, together with a copious shower of ash and lapilli that reached as far as Catania Continue reading... |
| Donald Trump's former casino in Atlantic City demolished – video Posted: 17 Feb 2021 07:31 AM PST Atlantic City authorities have demolished Donald Trump's former casino and hotel complex after it fell into disrepair. It was closed to the public in 2014. Trump, who opened the building on the oceanfront boardwalk in 1984, lost control of it in a 2009 bankruptcy Continue reading... |
| Free speech protests erupt in Spain after rapper's arrest – video Posted: 17 Feb 2021 06:51 AM PST Protesters clashed with police in several Spanish cities on Tuesday night after Pablo Rivadulla, known as Pablo Hasél, was arrested to serve a prison sentence for glorifying terrorism and insulting royalty and the police in his lyrics and on social media. Hasél had barricaded himself in Lleida University to highlight 'a hugely serious attack' on freedom, and his arrest has fuelled debate about freedom of speech in Spain and the country's so-called 'gag law' Continue reading... |
| Captain Tom: online trolling would have 'broken his heart', says daughter – video Posted: 17 Feb 2021 02:16 AM PST Captain Sir Tom Moore's daughter has said he would never have been able to understand the online 'hate' the family received. In an interview with BBC Breakfast, Hannah Ingram-Moore said she could not tell her 100-year-old father about the abuse after his fundraising efforts for the NHS. Moore died at Bedford hospital on 2 February after testing positive for Covid-19 Continue reading... |
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