Category Archives: World News

Trump call to Georgia secretary of state electrifies voters in Senate runoffs

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Some voters not surprised by president’s call but expressed uncertainty over how it would impact the race

An explosive recording of Donald Trump pressuring Georgia election officials to overturn the election results is further electrifying voters in Georgia’s elections for two US Senate seats, in Tuesday’s runoff that will determine which party controls Congress’ upper chamber.

In the call, made public by the Washington Post on Sunday, Trump pressured Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to “find 11,780 votes”, to overturn Trump’s loss there. When Raffensperger refused, Trump suggested he and his aides may be committing a criminal offense.

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South Korean forces arrive in waters near strait of Hormuz amid Iran tensions

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Destroyer moves into region one day after Revolutionary Guards seize a South Korean tanker

South Korean forces have arrived in waters near the strait of Hormuz as pressure builds on Iran to free a South Korean tanker it seized along with its crew on Monday.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had taken control of the South Korean vessel, the Hankuk Chemi, and its 20 crew because it was “polluting the Persian Gulf with chemicals”. The tanker is being held at Iran’s Bandar Abbas port city.

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‘He’s a risk-taker’: Germans divided over Elon Musk’s new GigaFactory

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The Tesla project will put Grünheide on the map, but some say it is doing ‘irreversible’ harm to the environment

For the past 10 months, Silas Heineken has been flying a drone over one of Germany’s biggest building sites and posting the images on YouTube.

The 14-year-old self-named “Tesla Kid” has built a significant following, as tens of thousands tune in each week to see the latest developments in Elon Musk’s GigaFactory as it emerges at speed from the sandy ground of Brandenburg, south-east of Berlin.

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Why the world’s biggest mammal migration is crucial for Africa – photo essay

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Up to 10 million straw-coloured fruit bats descend on Zambia’s Kasanka national park every year, dispersing millions of seeds as they go

  • Words and photographs by Georgina Smith

David Mubiana will always remember the day he was shot. It happened in 2002, when his unit was ambushed by poachers with AK-47 rifles and a shotgun. He was wounded in the arm and stomach; one bullet rupturing his spleen. As a wildlife police officer in Zambia’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife, his job is inherently risky.

“Even if you fall down, you have to stand up and continue fighting. If we finish our wildlife, [our children] are not going to see what we are seeing today,” he says.

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Many ‘long Covid’ sufferers unable to fully work six months later

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Respondents to global survey report 205 symptoms across 10 organ systems after infection

Many people suffering from “long Covid” are still unable to work at full capacity six months after infection, a large-scale survey of confirmed and suspected patients has found.

While Covid-19 was initially understood to be a largely respiratory illness from which most people would recover within two or three weeks, as the pandemic wore on increasing numbers reported experiencing symptoms for months on end.

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21 things to look forward to in 2021 – from meteor showers to the Olympics

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From finally seeing the back of Donald Trump to being in a football stadium – the new year is full of promise

You probably found a few things to enjoy about last year: you rediscovered your bicycle, perhaps, or your family, or even both, and learned to love trees. And don’t forget the clapping. Plus some brilliant scientists figured out how to make a safe and effective vaccine for a brand new virus in record time.

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Calls for Saudi Dakar Rally boycott while women’s right to drive activist in prison

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Campaigners say racers will pass jail holding Loujain al-Hathloul while kingdom ‘sportwashes’ its reputation

Supporters of women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul, who campaigned for women’s right to drive in Saudi Arabia, have called for a boycott of the Dakar Rally for “sportswashing” the reputation of the conservative kingdom while Hathloul remains in prison.

Racers in the off-road competition – including 12 women – are due to pass within a few hundred metres of Riyadh’s Al-Ha’ir prison, where Hathloul is being held, on Tuesday.

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Budapest Black Lives Matter artwork sparks rightwing backlash

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Officials from Viktor Orbán’s rightwing party stoke outrage over two-week installation

It will be only one metre high, and will be on display for just two weeks. Nevertheless, a planned art installation dedicated to the theme of Black Lives Matter is causing uproar in Budapest, where the rightwing, nationalist government of Viktor Orbán has taken aim at the movement and all it represents.

The installation won a recent tender for public art in Budapest’s ninth district, an area on the city’s Pest side that combines streets of grand turn-of-the-century buildings with communist-era social housing projects.

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‘One state can chart the course’: Biden rallies in Georgia on eve of Senate runoffs

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President-elect speaks at Atlanta rally alongside Democratic candidates Jon Ossoff and the Rev Raphael Warnock

Joe Biden urged Georgia voters to surprise the nation once again by sending two Democrats to the US Senate, on the eve of a pair of critical runoff elections that will determine the balance of power in Washington and the scope of the president-elect’s ambitious legislative agenda.

Biden, speaking at a drive-in rally in downtown Atlanta alongside the Democratic candidates Jon Ossoff and the Rev Raphael Warnock on Monday afternoon, did not mention Donald Trump’s increasingly brazen efforts to overturn the results of the November election, which escalated this weekend when the president pressured Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” enough votes to reverse his defeat in the state. Instead, he focused on what Democrats could accomplish with control of the Senate.

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Republicans divided: Trump creates new splits as party frets about Georgia

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The president’s baseless claims have pleased some in the party but turned off others, which does not bode well for the runoff results

Donald Trump has been marking the final days of his presidency by creating new fissures within the Republican party, at a time when the GOP needs to unify if it is to win two races in Georgia, which will decide control of the Senate.

Related: Trump's Republicans have dumped Lincoln – they're the Confederacy now | Lloyd Green

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Georgia official suggests Trump could face criminal inquiry over ‘find votes’ demand – live

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The Guardian’s Stephanie Kirchgaessner reports:

David Perdue, the Georgia Republican facing a Senate runoff election on Tuesday, has twice bought a significant number of shares in a US bank shortly after meeting with financial policy makers, raising more questions about his prolific stock trading while in office.

Related: Revealed: David Perdue bought bank stocks after meeting financial officials

DC mayor Muriel Bowser urged residents to avoid downtown in the next couple of days, as the city prepares for pro-Trump demonstrations in connection to Congress’ electoral vote count on Wednesday.

The Democratic mayor said at a press conference today, “We will not allow people to incite violence, intimidate our residents or cause destruction in our city.”

[Bowser] urged calm Monday as some 340 National Guard troops were being activated while the city prepared for potentially violent protests surrounding Congress’ expected vote to affirm President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.

According to a U.S. defense official, [Bowser] put in a request on New Year’s Eve to have Guard members on the streets from Jan. 5-7th, to help with the protests. The official said the D.C. National Guard members will be used for traffic control and other assistance but they will not be armed or wearing body armor. ...

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Outcry after Canadian politicians confess to ignoring holiday travel advice

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Jason Kenney, Alberta’s premier, faces calls to resign after refusing to punish party members and staff who took vacations

As winter descended over Canada and coronavirus case numbers rose, officials begged residents to remain home over the Christmas holidays.

But a string of politicians at federal or provincial levels have admitted to having taken vacations outside of the country, prompting outrage across the country and raising fears that their behaviour could undermine confidence in Canada’s fight against the pandemic.

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France arrests former DRC rebel leader for role in ‘crimes against humanity’

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Roger Lumbala suspected of various acts during 1998-2002 war in Democratic Republic of Congo

French anti-terror prosecutors have announced the arrest of the former head of a rebel group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on charges of “complicity in crimes against humanity”.

Roger Lumbala, 62, is a former opposition lawmaker who led the RCD-N party, an armed group suspected by UN investigators of carrying out extrajudicial killings, rapes and cannibalism during the country’s civil war from 1998-2002.

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Netherlands and Germany refuse entry to UK nationals for non-essential travel

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Thirteen people barred since Brexit because UK no longer exempt from EU Covid-related travel restrictions

More than a dozen UK nationals have been refused entry to the Netherlands since 1 January because Britain is no longer exempt from Covid-related restrictions on non-essential travel from outside the EU since it left the bloc.

A Dutch border force spokesman confirmed on Monday that up to 13 British citizens had been turned away at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport since Friday because their trips were not necessary and third-country coronavirus regulations now applied.

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Slack messaging service suffers global outage

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Outage disrupts service in the US, Germany, India, the UK, Japan and elsewhere

Slack, the messaging service used by millions of people for work and school, has suffered a global outage on Monday, the first day back for most people returning from the New Year’s holiday.

It was the latest tech glitch to show how disruptive technical difficulties can be when millions of people are depending on just a few services to work and go to school from home during the pandemic.

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Iran seizes South Korean tanker as tensions with US mount

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Move comes as Iran resumes enriching uranium to up to 20% purity in significant breach of 2015 nuclear accord

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have seized a South Korean vessel “for polluting the Persian Gulf with chemicals” amid rising tensions between Iran and the US during the final days of Donald Trump’s presidency.

Iranian news agencies published photos showing Revolutionary Guards speedboats escorting the tanker MT Hankuk Chemi and said the vessel’s crewmembers, including nationals of South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam and Myanmar, had been detained. The tanker is being held at Iran’s Bandar Abbas port city.

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Revisited: How to make love last

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Morie and Liz met in London in 1980 but she was from Australia and he was from Iran. In this episode of Full Story, they tell how they overcame war, distance and disapproving parents to form a bond that has lasted 40 years

This week, we are replaying some of our favourite episodes. This episode first aired on 12 February 2020

You can read Alexandra Spring’s interview with Morie and Liz Goli here.

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Greek Orthodox church to defy lockdown by opening for Epiphany

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Holy synod says services will be held at places of worship on Wednesday despite closure rules in Greece

The Greek Orthodox church has announced it will defy government lockdown orders aimed at curbing the spread of coronavirus and open places of worship to mark Epiphany this Wednesday.

After an emergency session of the holy synod, its governing body, senior clerics said they would press ahead as planned and celebrate the baptism of Christ on 6 January.

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Fat felines: we all love a ‘chonky’ cat – but the online trend has to end

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Over the last few years, the internet has thrilled to pictures of chubby pets. But now experts are calling for a new era of cat shaming and determined dieting

Name: Fat cats.

Age: Probably no older than 10, given their propensity to die young.

Appearance: Fat.

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British ex-soldier and 12 others on trial over kidnap of French millionaire

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Jacqueline Veyrac, 80-year-old owner of Cannes hotel, was found bound and gagged in car in 2016

A former British soldier has gone on trial with 12 others in France accused of kidnapping a wealthy hotel heiress.

Jacqueline Veyrac, 80, the owner of the five-star Grand Hotel in Cannes, was snatched from the street near her home in October 2016.

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