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- Furious Tories pile pressure on Boris Johnson over No 10 parties
- Novak Djokovic blames agent for Australian paperwork ‘mistake’ and admits not isolating after positive Covid result
- Covid news live: Boris Johnson to face MPs over lockdown party claims; Germany sets new daily case record
- ‘Democracy on the line’: Biden under pressure to act on voting rights now
- Rape trial of Greek sailing coach begins as MeToo gains ground
- Ukraine talks: Russia sees no grounds for optimism ahead of Nato meeting
- UK government sued over ‘pie-in-the-sky’ net-zero climate strategy
- ‘The only pure thing right now’: alleged Wordle copycats criticised for monetising free game
- Capitol attack panel closes in on Trump inner circle with three new subpoenas
- YouTube is major conduit of fake news, factcheckers say
- New Zealand navy rescues duo stuck in Singapore for 18 months
- Covid loses 90% of ability to infect within minutes in air – study
- Quebec plans to impose a ‘health contribution’ tax on the unvaccinated
- Fears of pandemic exodus from England’s cities prove unfounded
- Fauci clashes with Rand Paul at Senate hearing as daily Covid cases soar
- ‘A journey through the past’: lost music of the Palestinian uprising is restored
- ‘More people is the last thing this planet needs’: the men getting vasectomies to save the world
- Russia’s belief in Nato ‘betrayal’ – and why it matters today
- ‘Why don’t Jews play Jews?’ – David Baddiel on the row over Helen Mirren as Golda Meir
- A moment that changed me: I was crippled by negative thoughts – then I bought a silver bracelet
- Hopes Cathedral of the Moorland could save Spanish village with single resident
- Driving change: the all-female garage shifting attitudes in northern Nigeria
- Police should not ignore any law-breaking at No 10, says senior ex-officer
- Israeli embassy claims it was asked by organisers to sponsor Sydney festival
- Trump’s new Manhattan bar: serving rip-off drinks and a side of narcissism
- ‘Babies here are born sick’: are Bolivia’s gold mines poisoning its indigenous people?
- French national glassed NSW stallion handler after arguing over Australia’s best horse stud
- ‘No running water’: foreign workers criticise UK farm labour scheme
- ‘I saw myself in RuPaul’: how Drag Race inspired LGBTQ+ Kenyans to find freedom
- Calls for release of Kabul University professor detained by Taliban
- As violence in the Congo escalates, thousands of displaced people are effectively held hostage | Vava Tampa
- Painting a bigger picture: Senegal’s pioneering ‘first lady’ of graffiti
- Robert Durst: how a murderer’s death keeps his victims from finding closure
- Will Covid-19 become less dangerous as it evolves?
- 20 May 2020: what was UK doing while No 10 aide organised a party?
- In today’s New Zealand, it’s not about being just Māori or Pākehā - everyone must belong | Philip McKibbin
- 'Kindles the crazies': Fauci tells Rand Paul his accusations incite death threats – video
- EU parliament president David Sassoli's Christmas message, the last before his death – video
- 'This is an evolving crisis': New York mayor Eric Adams revises Bronx fire death toll to 17 – video
- Japan’s coming of age ceremony – in pictures
- Train smashes into crashed plane seconds after pilot is rescued – video
- Bronx fire: baby rescued from burning New York building – video
- The struggling shopkeepers of Afghanistan – in pictures
| Furious Tories pile pressure on Boris Johnson over No 10 parties Posted: 11 Jan 2022 12:44 PM PST Former ministers and MPs call on prime minister to fully address issue in Commons after latest revelation Boris Johnson is facing intense pressure from senior Conservatives to publicly confess he attended a rule-breaking garden party in Downing Street, with the Scottish Tory leader suggesting the prime minister should resign if he broke Covid rules. A string of Conservative MPs openly expressed anger and humiliation about the "bring your own booze" gathering for up to 40 people on 20 May 2020 after it emerged in a leaked email. Others called on him to come clean and apologise on Wednesday in the hope of stemming rising fury. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 11 Jan 2022 08:02 PM PST Djokovic in Instagram statement fails to address media reports which have raised questions over his 16 December positive PCR result
Novak Djokovic has blamed his agent for an "administrative mistake" when declaring he had not travelled in the two weeks before his flight to Australia and acknowledged an "error of judgment" by not isolating after he tested positive for Covid. The world No 1 released a statement on Wednesday in a bid to address what he called "continuing misinformation" about his activities in December before he came to Australia in a bid to retain his Australian Open crown. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 12 Jan 2022 12:41 AM PST Furious Tory MPs call on PM to confess he attended rule-breaking party in Downing Street; Germany reports more than 80,000 new cases
India is reporting almost 200,000 new Covid infections in a single day. The Asian nation recorded 194,720 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, the most since late May, health ministry data shows. We cannot directly rule out that the virus is imported directly, because the spread of virus is not only through humans, but it can be spread via objects or environmental [contamination]. We are still investigating other possibilities for the virus to be imported to Tianjin directly…There is another option – would it be possible that it is not imported but came from other areas [in China] and spread to Tianjin? We are tracing this simultaneously and we have found some clues already." Continue reading... |
| ‘Democracy on the line’: Biden under pressure to act on voting rights now Posted: 11 Jan 2022 11:00 PM PST Critics and supporters alike rally to urge president to amend Senate filibuster and pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act As Joe Biden and Kamala Harris readied to speak at the Atlanta University Center Consortium in Georgia on Tuesday, nearly a dozen protesters gathered outside the building, holding up signs that read "end the filibuster" and bore messages of support for federal voting rights protections. Biden and Harris were in Atlanta to bring urgent attention to the party's efforts to pass new voting rights laws, but some activists who attended the event (and several who opted not to attend) have criticized the president, claiming he was using the moment as a "photo op" instead of putting forth a solid plan of action. Continue reading... |
| Rape trial of Greek sailing coach begins as MeToo gains ground Posted: 12 Jan 2022 12:43 AM PST Trial of coach who allegedly raped 11-year-old in 2010 comes after Olympic champion spoke out on abuse The landmark trial of a Greek sailing coach accused of raping a minor has opened in Athens, a year after an Olympic champion effectively launched the MeToo movement in the country by speaking out about her experiences. The case is one of many that came to light after Sofia Bekatorou, a former Olympic sailing gold medal winner, broke the taboo on speaking out on such matters in December 2020. Continue reading... |
| Ukraine talks: Russia sees no grounds for optimism ahead of Nato meeting Posted: 11 Jan 2022 11:23 AM PST Moscow's chief negotiator played down chances of a breakthrough as Russian troops conduct live-fire exercise near Ukraine The Kremlin has said it sees "no significant reason for optimism" about diplomatic solutions for the Ukraine crisis, ahead of a meeting in Brussels between Russia and Nato's 30 member states. As Moscow was playing down the chances for success at the negotiating table after initial US-Russian talks in Switzerland on Monday, Russian forces deployed near Ukraine conducted a live-fire military exercise involving 3,000 troops and tanks, in a clear rejection of US demands for a de-escalation in the region. Continue reading... |
| UK government sued over ‘pie-in-the-sky’ net-zero climate strategy Posted: 11 Jan 2022 10:00 PM PST ClientEarth and Friends of the Earth say strategy fails to include policies needed to ensure emissions cuts The UK government is being sued over its net zero climate strategy, which lawyers argue illegally fails to include the policies needed to deliver the promised cuts in emissions. Court papers were filed on Wednesday by ClientEarth (CE) and, separately, by Friends of the Earth (FoE). CE also claims the failure to meet legal carbon budgets would contravene the Human Rights Act by impacting on young people's right to life and family life. Continue reading... |
| ‘The only pure thing right now’: alleged Wordle copycats criticised for monetising free game Posted: 11 Jan 2022 09:52 PM PST The creator of the viral word game has pledged to keep it completely free – but a host of since-removed apps have been accused of trying to cash in No good deed goes unpunished – as is the case with Wordle, the viral linguistic guessing game which found itself with a deluge of apparent clones flooding Apple's App Store this past week. Initially created by software engineer Josh Wardle for his partner, a puzzle aficionado, the brainteaser skyrocketed in popularity earlier this year, blooming from just 90 daily players in November to now more than 2 million. Continue reading... |
| Capitol attack panel closes in on Trump inner circle with three new subpoenas Posted: 11 Jan 2022 02:37 PM PST Subpoenas suggest committee examining whether Trump's rally speech suggests White House had prior knowledge of attack plans The House select committee investigating the Capitol attack closed in on Donald Trump's inner circle on Tuesday, issuing subpoenas to three new White House officials involved in planning the former president's appearance at the rally that preceded the 6 January insurrection. The new subpoenas show the select committee is moving ever nearer to Trump in its investigation and suggests the panel is now examining whether the former president's speech suggested that the White House had advance knowledge of plans to attack the Capitol. Continue reading... |
| YouTube is major conduit of fake news, factcheckers say Posted: 11 Jan 2022 09:00 PM PST Platform is not doing enough to tackle spread of falsehoods, claims letter signed by 80 groups YouTube is a major conduit of online disinformation and misinformation worldwide and is not doing enough to tackle the spread of falsehoods on its platform, according to a global coalition of factchecking organisations. A letter signed by more than 80 groups, including Full Fact in the UK and the Washington Post's Fact Checker, says the video platform is hosting content by groups including Doctors for the Truth, which spread Covid misinformation, and videos supporting the "fraud" narrative during the US presidential election. Continue reading... |
| New Zealand navy rescues duo stuck in Singapore for 18 months Posted: 11 Jan 2022 06:03 PM PST Civilians leave on visiting HMNZS Canterbury after pandemic combined with medical condition had left them stranded New Zealand's navy has conducted an unusual mercy mission to retrieve two people stranded in Singapore for 18 months due to Covid-19. A medical condition meant the two could not fly to New Zealand, and their shrinking bank balance made staying in Singapore difficult. Continue reading... |
| Covid loses 90% of ability to infect within minutes in air – study Posted: 11 Jan 2022 10:45 AM PST Exclusive: findings highlight importance of short-range Covid transmission Coronavirus loses 90% of its ability to infect us within 20 minutes of becoming airborne – with most of the loss occurring within the first five minutes, the world's first simulations of how the virus survives in exhaled air suggest. The findings re-emphasise the importance of short-range Covid transmission, with physical distancing and mask-wearing likely to be the most effective means of preventing infection. Ventilation, though still worthwhile, is likely to have a lesser impact. This article was amended on 11 January 2022. In an earlier version, we said Covid loses 90% of ability to infect within five minutes. It is actually within the first 20 minutes – with most of the loss occurring within the first 5 minutes. This has been corrected for clarity. |
| Quebec plans to impose a ‘health contribution’ tax on the unvaccinated Posted: 11 Jan 2022 12:42 PM PST The tax comes amid a new wave of coronavirus in the province and would be for those who refuse the jab for non-medical reasons Quebec has announced plans to impose a "health tax" on residents who refuse to get the Covid-19 vaccination for non-medical reasons, as a new wave of the coronavirus pandemic overwhelms the province. Premier François Legault announced the new "contribution" for the unvaccinated on Tuesday, as the province reported 62 new deaths, bringing the total number of people killed by Covid-19 in the province to 12,028 – the most in Canada. Continue reading... |
| Fears of pandemic exodus from England’s cities prove unfounded Posted: 11 Jan 2022 10:00 PM PST Exclusive: figures show Covid has not deterred people from moving to Manchester and other city centres When Covid hit in 2020, it was a nerve-racking time for many urban developers. As gardens – or the countryside – seemed ever more important for locked-down house hunters, some wondered if their half-finished city apartment blocks would ever find residents. But almost two years into the pandemic, the speculation about "the death of the city" have been proven wrong. Exclusive figures gathered by the Guardian suggest thousands more people are now living in the biggest English city centres since Covid first hit the UK – mostly in flats, often without balconies or outdoor space. Continue reading... |
| Fauci clashes with Rand Paul at Senate hearing as daily Covid cases soar Posted: 11 Jan 2022 12:08 PM PST The daily infection rate hit a new record of 1.35m while 145,982 people were in hospital with coronavirus on Monday The US recorded a record number of hospitalisations due to Covid-19, the Biden administration said, as daily infections soared to more than 1.35m. Nonetheless, politics dominated a Senate hearing on the pandemic on Tuesday, as Republicans attempted to use the disease for political gain. Rand Paul of Kentucky clashed once again with Anthony Fauci, Joe Biden's chief medical adviser. Continue reading... |
| ‘A journey through the past’: lost music of the Palestinian uprising is restored Posted: 11 Jan 2022 09:00 PM PST Mo'min Swaitat uncovered 10,000 tapes in the West Bank during lockdown, and digitised Riad Awwad's intifada album As Covid-19 swept across the world in the spring of 2020, Mo'min Swaitat, a Palestinian actor and filmmaker living in London, found himself stranded in his hometown, the West Bank city of Jenin. On walks through the quiet streets, he was drawn to the shuttered Tariq Cassettes, a music shop and record label he remembered from childhood that had closed down years ago. Intrigued, Swaitat got in touch with the former owner, who let him while away the days of the pandemic searching through the dusty archive of tape cassettes on the second floor. In the process, he uncovered a treasure trove: long-forgotten music that animated Palestinian life during the 1980s, when the first intifada (uprising) broke out. Continue reading... |
| ‘More people is the last thing this planet needs’: the men getting vasectomies to save the world Posted: 11 Jan 2022 10:00 PM PST With the climate crisis becoming ever more urgent, a growing number of young, childless men are taking the drastic decision of being sterilised for environmental reasons When Lloyd Williamson lay on his back in a GP's clinic late last November, it was for the surgical culmination of years of soul searching. Williamson, who is 30 and from Essex, remembers wanting a family as a child, but something changed in his early 20s. "I thought: you know what? I don't want to bring a life into this world, because it's pretty shitty as it is and it's only going to get worse," he says, two weeks after his vasectomy. Williamson was largely motivated to sterilise himself by the climate crisis. Given the link between fossil-fuelled economic growth and population growth, he believes that having fewer children is one thing individuals can do to help. "We can't offset our carbon problem on to the next generation, because it's not fair on them," he says. Continue reading... |
| Russia’s belief in Nato ‘betrayal’ – and why it matters today Posted: 11 Jan 2022 09:00 PM PST The idea that the Soviet Union was tricked in 1989-90 is at the heart of Russia's confrontation with the west The current confrontation between Russia and the west is fuelled by many grievances, but the greatest is the belief in Moscow that the west tricked the former Soviet Union by breaking promises made at the end of the cold war in 1989-1990 that Nato would not expand to the east. In his now famous 2007 speech to the Munich Security Conference, Vladimir Putin accused the west of forgetting and breaking assurances, leaving international law in ruins. Continue reading... |
| ‘Why don’t Jews play Jews?’ – David Baddiel on the row over Helen Mirren as Golda Meir Posted: 11 Jan 2022 10:00 PM PST Maureen Lipman sparked fury by suggesting the ex Israeli PM should not be played by Mirren. But, says David Baddiel, why shouldn't 'authentic casting' apply to all minorities? And where is the outcry over Bojack Horseman? Soon after the brilliant It's A Sin came out, Russell T Davies justified his decision to cast only gay actors in gay parts by saying: "They are not there to 'act gay' because 'acting gay' is a bunch of codes for a performance. You wouldn't cast someone able-bodied and put them in a wheelchair … authenticity is leading us to joyous places." It would be wrong to suggest that no one questioned this statement, but it became part of an ongoing conversation about casting and minorities. Davies was not, thankfully, mightily abused on social media for saying it – which is what happened last week to Maureen Lipman, after she suggested, on being asked about the casting of Helen Mirren in a biopic of Israel's former prime minister Golda Meir, that Jewish parts should perhaps be played by Jewish actors. Continue reading... |
| A moment that changed me: I was crippled by negative thoughts – then I bought a silver bracelet Posted: 11 Jan 2022 11:00 PM PST My self-esteem was at rock bottom, but on a break from my academic job I found myself in Paris. As I wandered through the city, an impulse buy gave me hope I could value myself again A couple of years ago, after a bad academic year, I'd thought things would get better over the summer. They didn't. I kept walking out of shops without buying what I'd gone in for, because it felt wrong to be taking up space and expecting attention. I couldn't buy train tickets, even at the machine, because other people deserved to go first and, as soon as there was someone behind me, I gave up mid-transaction. I wasn't eating much – food was for other people – but at the same time I was travelling and appearing at literary events and festivals, confident on stage as I'd been confident in the classroom all year. It seemed to me that my low estimation of myself off stage was correct and so I didn't think to seek help any more than I'd seek help for believing that rain is wet. One day in September (kids at school, students still on summer vacation, a time when work can be done from a train or hotel), I was in Paris, changing trains, really, but still with enough sense to know that a person arriving at night and leaving the next day might as well leave late the next day and give herself a day in Paris. I wasn't sure it would work, knew myself perfectly capable of walking the streets hour after hour telling myself that any competent person would be enjoying museums and shops and cafes and what kind of privileged neurotic steals a day from her work and her family and then doesn't even have the guts to buy a croissant, days off are wasted on me and I don't deserve … I knew the city, a bit, from teenaged (mis)adventures, and I set off into the Marais, hungry from missed meals the day before and carrying a backpack too heavy with books. Sunlight through plane trees, the streets still quiet. Old stone, balconies, geraniums, city squares with those perfectly geometric arrangements of trees and municipal planting that we don't do in England. Continue reading... |
| Hopes Cathedral of the Moorland could save Spanish village with single resident Posted: 11 Jan 2022 09:00 PM PST Campaigners plan arts centre for magnificent medieval church to lure tourists and new inhabitants Not for nothing is the parish church of the Spanish village of Villamorón known as la catedral del páramo – the Cathedral of the Moorland. For eight centuries, the church of Saint James the Apostle has held out in the northern wilds of Castilla y León, a Romanesque-creeping-into-Gothic treasure that sits beneath a low sky, amid endless fields and at the edge of a village that gave up the ghost almost 50 years ago. Continue reading... |
| Driving change: the all-female garage shifting attitudes in northern Nigeria Posted: 11 Jan 2022 11:15 PM PST The NGO Nana is upending gender norms in conservative Sokoto state, where one in 20 girls finish secondary school The green-and-red Nana Female Mechanic Garage sign is visible from the main road into Sokoto city. Behind its sliding iron gate, Zainab Dayyabu stomps around in heavy work boots and a blue jumpsuit, her hands callused and oily. "I love the job I'm doing," says the 23-year-old, as she opens the bonnet of a Peugeot van to test its battery. Continue reading... |
| Police should not ignore any law-breaking at No 10, says senior ex-officer Posted: 11 Jan 2022 10:00 PM PST Former assistant commissioner Robert Quick says lockdown parties scandal could damage image of policing Police officers who saw laws broken while on guard duty at Downing Street would be expected to report it, a former Scotland Yard police chief has said. The former assistant commissioner Robert Quick was head of specialist operations at the Metropolitan police from 2008 to 2009, including counter-terrorism and protection officers for Downing Street. Continue reading... |
| Israeli embassy claims it was asked by organisers to sponsor Sydney festival Posted: 11 Jan 2022 11:43 PM PST Correspondence suggests festival told groups opposed to sponsorship $20,000 would also pay for Q&A session hosted by Israeli embassy The government of Israel was asked to financially contribute to the 2022 Sydney festival by someone from the festival's management, a representative from the Israeli embassy in Canberra has claimed. The deputy Israeli ambassador to Australia, Ron Gerstenfeld, told ABC radio on Wednesday that "someone from management" approached the embassy for sponsorship of the Sydney Dance Company production of Decadance, a work devised by Tel Aviv choreographer Ohad Naharin. Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning Continue reading... |
| Trump’s new Manhattan bar: serving rip-off drinks and a side of narcissism Posted: 11 Jan 2022 11:00 PM PST 45 Wine and Whiskey, the ex-president's latest venture in his eponymous New York tower, is quite an experience – if you can find anyone to let you in If you are a man who has failed in an attempt to launch a vodka brand, done the same with a line of steaks, and bankrupted several casinos and hotels, leaning further into the hospitality business might not seem the savviest move. But that's exactly what Donald Trump, never one to listen to his haters, or to his advisers, has done, in opening a new bar in his eponymous midtown Manhattan tower. Continue reading... |
| ‘Babies here are born sick’: are Bolivia’s gold mines poisoning its indigenous people? Posted: 11 Jan 2022 10:15 PM PST The government has been criticised for apparent inaction as evidence mounts that mercury contamination is causing illness in fishing communities Outside a small brick house shared by four families, Daniela Prada, who is heavily pregnant, gathers guava leaves to make a tea for her two-year-old son. "My baby gets sick a lot," she says, boiling a pot of water in her outdoor kitchen. "He always has diarrhoea and last night he had a fever. Most of the time I give him natural medicine." |
| French national glassed NSW stallion handler after arguing over Australia’s best horse stud Posted: 11 Jan 2022 11:57 PM PST Corentin Emile Franck Huens handed corrections order over September 2020 attack when he told victim 'You will remember me – I am from Arrowfield' A French national who attacked a stallion handler in a regional New South Wales pub toilet after they argued over what was Australia's best horse stud has been placed on a 19-month intensive corrections order. French national Corentin Emile Franck Huens, 28, was working for the Arrowfield horse stud in Scone when he head-butted and glassed stallion handler Keelan Dempsey, 29, from the rival Newgate stud at Aberdeen. Continue reading... |
| ‘No running water’: foreign workers criticise UK farm labour scheme Posted: 11 Jan 2022 11:45 PM PST Government report on post-Brexit recruitment finds staff citing no health and safety equipment, racism and unsafe accommodation Seasonal workers in the UK on a post-Brexit pilot scheme to harvest fruit and vegetables were subjected to "unacceptable" welfare conditions, according to a government review. Issues cited by workers included a lack of health and safety equipment, racism, and accommodation without any bathrooms, running water or kitchens. Continue reading... |
| ‘I saw myself in RuPaul’: how Drag Race inspired LGBTQ+ Kenyans to find freedom Posted: 10 Jan 2022 11:15 PM PST Inspired by the hit US show, a Nairobi group is using catwalk events to combat stigma and abuse An audience wearing face masks sits around the edges of a nondescript room in an unassuming building in the centre of Nairobi. Sparsely furnished and decorated with a few posters advertising PrEP, a drug that reduces chances of contracting HIV, there is a low hum of excited chatter. Then the speakers crackle into action, playing Sweet Dreams by Beyoncé, and in struts Toyo, a 23-year-old transgender woman, wearing a figure-hugging sparkly blue dress accessorised with bright red painted nails and the ubiqitious face mask, in black. She walks to the end of the room, strikes a pose and struts back out. Toyo is followed by Miss K – or Kelvin, when not in drag – 24, who is wearing a red strappy dress, long black wig, fake Louboutin heels, and plenty of makeup. Continue reading... |
| Calls for release of Kabul University professor detained by Taliban Posted: 10 Jan 2022 08:45 AM PST Prof Faizullah Jalal, an outspoken critic of Afghanistan's ruling group, was arrested for alleged remarks on social media Supporters of a prominent university professor, and one of Afghanistan's most vocal critics of the Taliban, are calling for his release after he was arrested on Saturday. Faizullah Jalal, a professor at Kabul University, was detained by the Taliban after the group claimed he was responsible for a series of messages on social media attacking them. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 10 Jan 2022 06:33 AM PST The UN has appealed for urgent help following militia attacks on camps for internally displaced people. But money alone won't solve the crisis In a bare and violent patch of land in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 75,000 people are living in what one UN field officer described as "hellish conditions". Food and water are scarce. Even the flimsiest shelters are in short supply and sanitation is nonexistent. Girls have been raped by militiamen while attempting to find food in fields around the site. Ibrahim Cisse of Unicef says people here are effectively being held hostage. Rhoe – a remote camp of internally displaced people (IDP) approximately 45km northeast of Bunia, the capital of DRC's Ituri province – is "a tragedy waiting to happen", according to those who have visited. Continue reading... |
| Painting a bigger picture: Senegal’s pioneering ‘first lady’ of graffiti Posted: 09 Jan 2022 11:00 PM PST Artist, poet and singer, Dieynaba Sidibé, AKA Zeinixx, has made her way to the top of the country's male-dominated hip-hop scene and wants her messages of hope to inspire young women When Dieynaba Sidibé discovered graffiti, it was love at first sight. She was 17 and had already begun experimenting with painting and drawing. "It was on TV. I was sitting in my living room and I saw people doing big walls and I thought, 'This is what I need'," the Senegalese artist says, one hoop earring shaking as she laughs. "I don't like small things. I was doing big canvases, and I said to myself: 'A wall is a bigger surface for expression'." Continue reading... |
| Robert Durst: how a murderer’s death keeps his victims from finding closure Posted: 10 Jan 2022 10:00 PM PST California law mandates that his conviction will be vacated and the charges over the murder of his missing first wife will be dismissed In the final months of Robert Durst's life, it seemed as if the walls were at last closing in on the disgraced multimillionaire and real estate heir. He was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a longtime friend in September, and shortly after, New York officials charged him with the murder of his missing first wife. But his death in a California hospital on Monday has upended the cases against the 78-year-old. The murder case over the death of his ex-wife Kathleen McCormack Durst will come to a halt and, thanks to a legal technicality, the murder conviction for the killing of his friend Susan Berman will soon be voided. Continue reading... |
| Will Covid-19 become less dangerous as it evolves? Posted: 10 Jan 2022 10:00 PM PST Analysis: experts warn that viral evolution is not a one-way street and a continuing fall in virulence cannot be taken for granted The pandemic has been awash with slogans, but in recent weeks, two have been repeated with increasing frequency: "Variants will evolve to be milder" and "Covid will become endemic". Yet experts warn that neither of these things can be taken for granted. Those stating that viruses become less deadly over time often cite influenza. Both of the flu viruses responsible for the 1918 Spanish flu and 2009 swine flu pandemics eventually evolved to become less dangerous. However, the 1918 virus is thought to have become more deadly before it became milder. And other viruses, such as Ebola, have become more dangerous over time. Continue reading... |
| 20 May 2020: what was UK doing while No 10 aide organised a party? Posted: 10 Jan 2022 11:53 AM PST At the time, there was no mixing indoors, non-essential shops were shut, and hospitality businesses remained closed To many, May 2020 may feel like a lifetime ago, so much has happened in the last 20 months of the Covid-19 pandemic. On 20 May 2020, when the prime minister's private secretary was inviting colleagues to bring their own booze for socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden to "make the most of this lovely weather", the rest of the country was in a very different position. Continue reading... |
| Posted: 10 Jan 2022 11:00 AM PST While some of us are both, many of us are neither. The urge to separate us out is used to marginalise people around the world It took me a long time to embrace my Māori identity. On my mother's side, I whakapapa (relate, through ancestry) to Kāi Tahu, the largest iwi (tribe) of Te Waipounamu (the South Island of New Zealand), but I grew up believing I was only Pākehā (NZ European). I spent most of my childhood living with my Pākehā father. Even though my Māori ancestry was mentioned occasionally, I resisted the suggestion that I was Māori. I didn't grow up on a marae (Māori village), or speak te reo – and I didn't look like the Māori kids I knew. Continue reading... |
| 'Kindles the crazies': Fauci tells Rand Paul his accusations incite death threats – video Posted: 11 Jan 2022 11:47 AM PST Senator Rand Paul and Dr Anthony Fauci sparred at a Senate hearing on Tuesday. The top immunologist said the Republican senator's behaviour 'kindles the crazies' against him. Fauci testified on Tuesday at a hearing on the federal response to new Covid-19 variants. He blamed Paul's false accusations against him for threats he has received, citing an incident in December when police stopped a man allegedly traveling to the capital to 'kill Dr Fauci'. 'What happens when he gets out and accuses me of things that are completely untrue is that all of a sudden that kindles the crazies out there and I have ... threats upon my life, harassment of my family and my children,' Fauci said Continue reading... |
| EU parliament president David Sassoli's Christmas message, the last before his death – video Posted: 11 Jan 2022 01:31 AM PST David Sassoli, the president of the European parliament, has died at the age of 65, his spokesperson has said, after a serious illness for which he was hospitalised for more than two weeks. In December, Sassoli posted what would be his last video message, in which he expressed hope for women's rights and solidarity Continue reading... |
| 'This is an evolving crisis': New York mayor Eric Adams revises Bronx fire death toll to 17 – video Posted: 10 Jan 2022 01:16 PM PST The mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, on Monday revised the death toll from a high-rise fire in the Bronx on Sunday, saying 17 people were killed, two fewer than originally thought. Adams said nine adults and eight children had died. He did not immediately provide a reason for the lower count Continue reading... |
| Japan’s coming of age ceremony – in pictures Posted: 10 Jan 2022 05:36 AM PST Coming of age day is a Japanese holiday held every January to celebrate those who have reached 20, the official age of adulthood in Japan. Many ceremonies around the country have been scaled back as authorities continue to implement measures to tackle the ongoing coronavirus pandemic Continue reading... |
| Train smashes into crashed plane seconds after pilot is rescued – video Posted: 10 Jan 2022 03:28 AM PST Police in Los Angeles pulled a pilot from a plane that had crashed on to rail tracks near Whiteman airport in Pacoima just moments before it was hit by an incoming train. Video showed the train ramming into the wreckage full force, sending debris flying across a fence and nearly hitting bystanders. The pilot was treated at hospital for cuts and bruisesl and no one on board the train was injured, local media reported Continue reading... |
| Bronx fire: baby rescued from burning New York building – video Posted: 10 Jan 2022 03:02 AM PST A baby was rescued from a massive fire in New York where at least 19 people were killed, including nine children, and dozens were injured. A witness filmed the rescue attempts in the 19-floor apartment block in the Bronx after a fire that officials said started because of a malfunctioning space heater, spread smoke through the building Continue reading... |
| The struggling shopkeepers of Afghanistan – in pictures Posted: 09 Jan 2022 11:00 PM PST Nearly four months after the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, the country is at risk of near-universal poverty. The economic crisis has worsened since the Taliban took over and most Afghans live on less than $2 a day. We take a look at the shopkeepers trying to make ends meet Continue reading... |
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