Country was expanding at a faster rate than before the coronavirus pandemic at the end of 2020
China’s economy has posted its strongest growth in two years after completing a rapid recovery from the slump caused by the Covid-19 pandemic at the start of 2020.
Although the 2.3% annual increase in activity for the world’s second biggest economy was its slowest since 1976, by the final three months of last year China was expanding at a faster rate than before the crisis.
Continue reading...Trump has accelerated a deliberate strategy by Republicans to weaken faith in elections by making it harder to vote
When an American president is inaugurated, it’s supposed to mark the height of American democracy and power. The elaborate ceremony is designed to convey the peaceful transfer of power and that no matter how bitter the election, the nation is moving on.
Related: Trump official admits family separation policy 'should never have been implemented'
Continue reading...UK-based security firm faces calls to repay charges made by recruitment agents for jobs in Gulf states and conflict zones
Migrant workers working for the British security company G4S in the United Arab Emirates have collectively been forced to pay millions of pounds in illegal fees to recruitment agents to secure their jobs, the Guardian can reveal.
An investigation into G4S’s recruitment practices has found that workers from south Asia and east Africa have been made to pay up to £1,775 to recruitment agents working for the British company in order to get jobs as security guards for G4S in the UAE.
Forcing workers to pay recruitment fees is a widespread practice, but one that is illegal in the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The practice allows companies to pass on the costs of recruitment to workers from some of the poorest countries in the world, leaving many deep in debt and vulnerable to modern forms of slavery, such as debt bondage.
A decade after an outbreak of Q fever killed 95 people in the Netherlands, scientists fear the emergence of a new disease
In early 2008, Jeannette van de Ven began to see a slightly higher rate of miscarriages among the goats on her dairy farm in the south of the Netherlands.
“We sent the samples to the veterinary authority. Nine out of 10 results showed no explanation. Only maybe toxoplasmosis from cats. We had no cats,” she says.
Van de Ven, who keeps a herd of around 1,700 dairy goats in Noord-Brabant, a province densely populated with goat farms, kept sending samples. Finally, in May 2008 an outbreak of the respiratory infection Q fever was confirmed. It infects livestock including goats, sheep and cattle, and is found in placenta, amniotic fluid, urine, faeces and milk.
The disease turned into a nightmare for the Netherlands after thousands of people also became infected during the outbreak, which lasted from 2007 to 2010. The Dutch government culled more than 50,000 dairy goats on 55 farms in an effort to stop the spread of the disease.
About half of the humans infected ended up developing complications, such as heart failure, and 95 people died.
The FBI announced that authorities had arrested the guitarist of heavy metal band Iced Earth in connection to the Capitol riot.
Jon Schaffer was allegedly among those who sprayed Capitol police with bear spray.
Jon Schaffer, Columbus, IN, has been arrested in connection to Jan 6 incident at the U.S. Capitol. Schaffer faces 6 charges including engaging in an act of physical violence in a Capitol building. Schaffer was allegedly among rioters who sprayed Capitol police with "bear spray."
Jason Kenney, the premier of Alberta, Canada, has responded to the report that President-elect Joe Biden will cancel the Keystone XL pipeline permit via executive action on his first day in office.
“The Keystone XL pipeline represents tens of thousands of good paying jobs that the American economy needs right now,” he writes.
I am deeply concerned by reports that the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden may repeal the Presidential permit for the Keystone XL border crossing next week.
My full statement: pic.twitter.com/vZjun1IdMH
Former senator Surangel Whipps Jr promises to stand by allies US and Taiwan when he takes office on Thursday
Palau’s president-elect has vowed to stand up to Chinese “bullying” in the Pacific, and said the small archipelago nation will stand by its alliances with “true friends”, the United States and Taiwan.
Fifty-two-year-old Surangel Whipps Jr, a supermarket owner and two-time senator from a prominent Palauan family, will be sworn in as the new president on 21 January, succeeding his brother-in-law Tommy Remengesau Jr.
Continue reading...UK had highest Covid death toll in week to 17 January with 16.5 deaths per 1m people; Czech Republic and Japan find Covid variant first detected in UK
Hauliers require a negative Covid-19 test before travelling from Britain to Denmark and the Netherlands, the UK government has said.
Last week the French government said people travelling from non-EU countries to France will no longer be allowed to enter by presenting a negative result from a quick Covid-19 test, but cross-Channel truck drivers would be exempt.
Nigeria has written to the African Union to request 10 million Covid-19 vaccine doses to supplement the COVAX programme and has allocated $26 million for licensed vaccine production, the health minister said.
Nigeria, like other countries across Africa, is grappling with a second wave of coronavirus. As of Monday, Nigeria, the continent’s most populous country of 200 million inhabitants, had 110,387 confirmed cases and 1,435 deaths.
Continue reading...Joe Biden will deliver a message of national unity when he assumes the presidency on Wednesday, seeking to begin healing a country fractured by the acrimony of Donald Trump’s administration and ongoing threats of violence by his supporters.
Related: America is broken – can Biden and Harris put it back together?
Continue reading...Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit reached space on Sunday, eight months after the first demonstration flight of its air-launched rocket system failed, the company said.
Related: Virgin Orbit looks into cause of LauncherOne test failure
Continue reading...What happens to Vladimir Putin’s opponent after his arrest depends on what officials think they can get away with
Since Alexei Navalny emerged as a top critic of Vladimir Putin more than a decade ago, the Kremlin has done its utmost to smother him: tying him up in courtrooms, locking him down under house arrest, and taking his brother as hostage by sentencing him to a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence.
Finally, a decision appeared to have been taken to eliminate him when he was allegedly poisoned by Russia’s FSB spy agency. With that operation a failure and Navalny defying the Kremlin to return to Moscow, Putin’s dilemma remains what to do with one of his most stalwart and effective critics.
Continue reading...Campaigners seek inquiry into whether skills gained in UK were used to commit abuses in countries such as Bahrain, China and Saudi Arabia
The UK government has trained the armies of two-thirds of the world’s countries, including 15 it has rebuked for human rights violations.
An anti-arms trade organisation has called for an investigation into the use of UK military training by other countries to determine whether it has been used to perpetrate human rights abuses.
Continue reading...Collaboration between Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons, only the second for the designers, includes gloves and comfort-wear
At a time when the relevance of high fashion is being questioned, Prada’s menswear show in Milan addressed the criticism with an unusually practical item of clothing: a pair of long johns.
Speaking after an audience-free show at a largely virtual Milan fashion week, Raf Simons and Miuccia Prada, co-creative directors of the brand, described the item as symbolic of the current situation. Worn by every model, and intended as a second skin, they were inspired as much by pyjamas and babies as wetsuits and “rockers”, though Simons was quick to add: “We didn’t want it to look like activewear.”
Continue reading...Opposition figure picked up after landing in home country following recovery from poisoning
The Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny has been detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on his return from treatment abroad after a suspected poisoning attempt on his life by Russia’s FSB spy agency.
Navalny, whose investigations into corruption in Vladimir Putin’s inner circle have sparked protests and angered the country’s most powerful men, had vowed to return home despite signs the Kremlin was preparing to arrest him.
Continue reading...David Perry is giving China a PR coup by acting against pro-democracy activists, foreign secretary says
David Perry QC, the barrister acting for the Hong Kong government in its efforts to jail pro-democracy activists, is behaving in “a pretty mercenary way” and providing the Chinese government with a PR coup, the foreign secretary Dominic Raab said on Sunday.
Perry has agreed to represent the Hong Kong government in prosecuting nine activists, including the media proprietor Jimmy Lai, arising from demonstrations in August 2019. The trial is due to begin next month.
Continue reading...Truncheon-wielding Guatemalan troops have clashed with Central American asylum seekers trying to push their way north towards the US border as Donald Trump’s presidency entered its final days.
Thousands of mostly Honduran migrants began crossing the Guatemalan border on Friday night, having set off on foot from the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula in the early hours of Thursday.
Continue reading...NYT and Esquire coin terms for the ways people are expressing frustration through clothes
With online sales booming but retail in sharp decline, the pandemic has changed shopping for ever. Practical, comfortable items suitable for a lifestyle of working from home and occasional trips outside – such as Ugg boots, Crocs and trousers with elasticated waistbands – have seen rising sales.
But with many of us grappling with our emotions during lockdown, the way we feel and speak about our clothes has altered too.
Continue reading...India launches bid to vaccinate 300m people amid fears over efficacy of domestically produced vaccine
Emerging from Holy Family hospital in New Delhi, Ram Verma, a sanitation worker, breathed a deep sigh of relief. As one of the first in India to receive a coronavirus vaccine on Saturday – marking the start of the world’s largest vaccination programmes – he had been feeling a little jittery.
“I must admit I was nervous,” said Verma, who had received his Covaxin jab in a centre set up in the hospital car park. “A lot of us were. I thought I might faint or have side-effects. After all, it is something totally new. But I’m fine. There is nothing to worry about.”
Continue reading...Producer who revolutionised music in 1960s with his ‘wall of sound’ dies while serving sentence
Phil Spector, the music producer behind some of pop music’s biggest hits, has died aged 81 while serving a prison sentence for murder.
Media reports said Spector, who had been sentenced to 19 years to life for murdering the actor Lana Clarkson, died after being diagnosed with Covid-19 four weeks ago.
Continue reading...As opposition leader’s home is surrounded by army and police he says he fears for his life
The party of the Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine says it is preparing to challenge President Yoweri Museveni’s election victory as it condemned what it called the house arrest of Wine and his wife.
Amid growing international concern about the conduct of the election, Wine said in an interview from his house, where he is surrounded by army and police, that he was “worried about my life and the life of my wife”.
Continue reading...Analysis: centrist Armin Laschet, the new leader of Germany’s CDU, will need to deliver on promises of reconciliation
The election of Armin Laschet as the new leader of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union has been welcomed by those hoping for a smooth transition after the imminent departure of Angela Merkel from political leadership. But his detractors have warned he faces an uphill challenge to unite not just his party but also the country in the event that he becomes chancellor, at a time of national crisis and division.
Laschet, who is now in line to succeed Merkel as chancellor after the parliamentary elections in September, secured victory at the weekend despite the odds having been on Friedrich Merz, a prominent conservative and investment banker. Norbert Röttgen, chair of the Bundestag foreign affairs committee, dropped out after the first round, prompting many of his supporters to back Laschet. The digital vote must still be confirmed by a postal ballot.
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