‘Remarkable woman’ Weddington hailed for role in 1973 case that established right to abortion
Tributes were paid to Sarah Weddington after the attorney who argued and won the landmark Roe v Wade case at the supreme court, establishing the right to abortion, died aged 76.
Susan Hays, a former student of Weddington’s and a Democratic candidate for Texas agriculture commissioner, announced on Twitter that Weddington died on Sunday morning “after a series of health issues”.
Continue reading...Years of fighting mean children as old as 10 have never been to school. Khaled Ziad’s images document a generation whose entire future is at risk
Their classroom has no roof, no seats, no desks; most of the 50 small children sitting on the rubble-strewn floor have no pens or paper. But the students in this makeshift school in Hays, a village in Yemen’s Hodeidah province, are still among the luckiest in the country simply for having a teacher and a place to learn.
Seven years into a catastrophic war that sparked the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, Yemen’s conflict shows no signs of ending soon, and the future of an entire generation is at risk of being destroyed. About 3 million children are unable to attend school, according to the Red Cross, with 8.1 million needing urgent educational assistance.
Continue reading...Indoor and outdoor gatherings restricted in size with leisure facilities closing in several states
Germans across large parts of the country face a tightening of rules governing both private and public spaces in an effort to slow down a wave of coronavirus infections triggered by the Omicron variant.
Gatherings both indoors and outdoors are to be restricted in size from Monday, with leisure facilities – from gyms to swimming pools and nightclubs to cinemas – shutting in several states and restaurants facing earlier closing times.
Continue reading...Spanish officials hail ‘historic’ deal to limit arrivals to maximum of three vessels a day at Mallorca port
Officials in the Balearic Islands will seek to limit cruise ships to a maximum of three vessels a day at its largest port, in a deal described as the first of its kind in Spain.
The regional government said in a statement that arrivals at Palma in Mallorca would be limited when possible to three cruise ships a day, one of the vessels allowed to be a mega-cruise liner carrying more than 5,000 people, starting in 2022.
Continue reading...Law would have prevented companies outside the EEA from holding a controlling stake in Polish media companies
The Polish president has vetoed a media ownership law that critics said was aimed at silencing the US-owned news channel TVN24.
“I am vetoing it,” Andrzej Duda said in a televised statement, after the EU and the US heavily criticised the law.
Continue reading...German city where early Covid vaccine was developed uses its new-found wealth to slash debt and attract other biotech firms
The Pfizer/BioNTech jab is having an unexpected side-effect on the German municipality where scientists first developed it: for the first time in three decades the city of Mainz expects to become debt-free thanks to the tax revenues generated by the company’s global success.
Mainz’s decision to use its financial windfall to also slash corporate tax rates in the hope of attracting industry, especially biotech companies, however, is drawing criticism from neighbouring cities and economists.
Continue reading...The Canadian film-maker died suddenly at the weekend according to his representative
Jean-Marc Vallée, the Canadian director best known for his work on Matthew McConaughey drama Dallas Buyers Club, has died aged 58.
Vallée’s representative, Bumble Ward, said he died suddenly over the weekend in his cabin outside Quebec City. His two sons survive him.
Jean-Marc stood for creativity, authenticity and trying things differently. He was a true artist and a generous, loving guy. Everyone who worked with him couldn’t help but see the talent and vision he possessed. He was a friend, creative partner and an older brother to me. The maestro will sorely be missed but it comforts knowing his beautiful style and impactful work he shared with the world will live on.
Continue reading...Yury Dmitriyev’s term increased to 15 years on charges supporters say are punishment for exposing Soviet-era crimes
A Russian court has increased a jail sentence for the Gulag historian Yury Dmitriyev to a total of 15 years on charges his supporters say are punishment for his work exposing Stalin-era crimes.
Supporters say Dmitriyev, 65, is being targeted because of his efforts to expose the horrors of the Soviet era under Joseph Stalin.
Continue reading...Turning invasive plants into a force for good and powering healthcare with solar – here are three of the 2022 nominees
From a solar-powered crib that treats jaundiced babies to fibre made from water hyacinth that absorbs oil spills, innovators from nine African countries have been shortlisted for the Royal Academy of Engineering’s 2022 Africa prize.
This year half of the shortlist of 16 are women, and for the first time it includes Togolese and Congolese inventors. The entrepreneurs will undergo eight months of business training and mentoring before a winner is chosen, who will receive £25,000, and three runners-up, who win £10,000 each. All the projects are sustainable solutions to issues such as access to healthcare, farming resilience, reducing waste, and energy efficiency. The Guardian spoke to three of the shortlisted candidates.
Continue reading...Committee to request contents of the call seeking to stop Biden’s certification and may subpoena Rudy Giuliani
Congressman Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack, has said the panel will open an inquiry into Donald Trump’s phone call seeking to stop Joe Biden’s certification from taking place on 6 January hours before the insurrection.
The chairman said the select committee intended to scrutinize the phone call – revealed last month by the Guardian – should they prevail in their legal effort to obtain Trump White House records over the former president’s objections of executive privilege.
Continue reading...Laali and Meenakshi’s unborn daughters are among the country’s 46 million ‘missing’ women and girls over the past 50 years
Laali was alone at home when she realised her legs were drenched in blood. The bleeding did not stop for eight hours. As she fell unconscious, the 25-year-old thought she would die alongside the foetus she was losing.
She had been three months pregnant when she was taken for prenatal sex determination. “When I learned it was a girl, I started feeling as though I was suffocating,” she says.
Continue reading...Omicron threat stokes fears coast to coast but leading public health expert says ‘We know how to keep schools open and safe’
As US regional health authorities reacted with alarm to a jump in child Covid infections that caused some school districts to announce returns to remote learning, a leading public health official questioned the need for schools to close, saying: “We know how to keep schools open, we know how to keep them safe.”
Over the past three weeks, as Omicron-related cases soared in New York City and elsewhere, the number of children hospitalised in New York with Covid-19 quadrupled, the state health department said.
Continue reading...A strict lockdown in the city of 13 million entered its fifth day as the country continues to pursue a ‘zero-Covid’ strategy
Lockdown restrictions have been tightened in the Chinese city of Xi’an, which is battling the largest community outbreak the country has seen since the initial months of the pandemic when China brought thousands of daily infections under control.
Authorities reported 162 new community infections on Monday, up from 158 on Sunday. All but 10 of Monday’s new cases were reported in Shaanxi province, where 13 million residents of the capital Xi’an have been forced to stay in their homes for five days.
Continue reading...The beloved anti-apartheid hero will lie in state for two days in Cape Town before a funeral on 1 January
Thousands of South Africans will pause to remember the anti-apartheid icon Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who died on Sunday aged 90, every day this week as bells are rung at churches across the country for 10 minutes at noon.
Tributes to Tutu, described as the “moral compass” of his country, have poured in from around the world since his death in a Cape Town care home, as a series of events commemorating his life and achievements begin.
Continue reading...No walk-in PCR tests available in England for a few hours due to ‘high demand’; French PM announces new measures
Queensland has detected 784 new Covid-19 cases but the health system is coping, state premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has said.
Quarantine and testing policies are being reviewed and rapid antigen tests may be introduced for some people within 48 hours to take pressure of testing facilities, AAP reports.
I don’t want people to be alarmed by that, the real issue here is what is the impact it is having on individuals in hospitals?
We are not seeing any massive impacts on our hospitals, which is really good news.
Continue reading...Texan lawyer and Linda Coffee won landmark 1973 case, safeguarding right now under threat from US supreme court
Sarah Weddington, an attorney who argued and won the Roe v Wade supreme court case which established the right to abortion in the US, has died aged 76.
Susan Hays, a Democratic candidate for Texas agriculture commissioner, announced the news on Twitter on Sunday and the Dallas Morning News confirmed it.
Continue reading...State says snowpack now between 114% and 137% of normal across Sierra range while southern areas get much-needed rain
A major Christmas storm caused whiteout conditions and closed key highways in the mountains of northern California and Nevada, with forecasters warning that travel in the Sierra Nevada could be difficult for several days.
Rainstorms also continued to hit parts of southern California. The conditions were difficult but welcome developments in a parched state where the Sierra snowpack had been at dangerously low levels after weeks of dry weather.
Continue reading...Cyril Ramaphosa, president of South Africa, paid tribute to the late archbishop Desmond Tutu in a televised address to the nation on Sunday. Calling him a leader with 'compassion, dignity, humility and grace', Ramaphosa highlighted Tutu's activist approach to peace and alleviating poverty.
Tutu was diagnosed with prostate cancer in the late 1990s and in recent years was hospitalised on several occasions because of infections associated with his treatment. He died peacefully in the early hours of Sunday morning, according to his relatives.
Politicians, religious figures and activists pay tribute to archbishop, who died on Boxing Day aged 90
Politicians, religious figures and activists from around the world have paid tribute to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the cleric, social activist and giant of South Africa’s struggle against white minority rule who died on Sunday aged 90.
The president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, said: “The passing of archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu is another chapter of bereavement in our nation’s farewell to a generation of outstanding South Africans who have bequeathed us a liberated South Africa.
Continue reading...Cases of Covid-19 will continue to surge worldwide due to the Omicron variant, the US chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, said on Sunday, warning Americans not to get complacent amid reports that the variant is less harmful than others.
“If you have many, many, many more people with a less level of severity,” Fauci told ABC’s This Week, “that might kind of neutralise the positive effect of having less severity.
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