Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
India has granted emergency approval to both the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine and the domestically developed Covaxin, signalling the start of one of the largest Covid-19 immunisation drives in the world.
At a press conference on Sunday, the drugs controller general of India said the decision to approve both the Oxford vaccine and Covaxin, which is produced by the Indian company Bharat Biotech and was part-funded by the government, had come after “careful examination” of the data.
The pedestrian pace of Covid-19 vaccinations in the US came under new scrutiny on Sunday, as the pandemic death toll passed 350,000 and experts warned of another surge in infections and deaths arising from gatherings at Christmas and New Year.
By 2021, according to various Silicon Valley luminaries, bandwagoning politicians and leading cab firms in recent years, self-driving cars would have long been crossing the US, started filing along Britain’s motorways and be all set to provide robotaxis in London.
1 January has not, however, brought a driverless revolution. Indeed in the last weeks of 2020 Uber, one of the biggest players and supposed beneficiaries, decided to park its plans for self-driving taxis, selling off its autonomous division to Aurora in a deal worth about $4bn (£3bn) – roughly half what it was valued at in 2019.
Pope Francis has condemned people who had gone abroad on holiday to escape coronavirus lockdowns, saying they needed to show greater awareness of the suffering of others.
Speaking after his weekly noon blessing, Francis said he had read newspaper reports of people catching flights to flee government curbs and seek fun elsewhere.
Stella Moris speaks out on eve of ruling on whether WikiLeaks founder can be sent for trial in US
Julian Assange’s partner has said a decision to extradite the WikiLeaks co-founder to the US would be “politically and legally disastrous for the UK”, on the eve of the judge’s ruling.
Two months ago, the Guardian interviewed a group of young people from across the UK about their experiences of the coronavirus pandemic and their feelings about how their lives had been affected. Here those young people reflect on an extraordinary year and share their hopes and fears for the future.
South African man, now known as Justin, speaks for first time of friend Carlito Vale, who died after 430-metre fall, in Channel 4 documentary
A South African man who survived an 11-hour flight from Johannesburg to London after hiding in a plane’s undercarriage has told of the last words he exchanged with a friend whose body fell from the same British Airways flight as it came in to land at Heathrow.
“He said: ‘We made it,’ and then I passed out with the lack of oxygen,” said the man, who was then known as Themba and who has spoken publicly for the first time about the desperate journey both men undertook in 2015.
Donald Trump’s departure will alter the face of geopolitics. The climate crisis and Covid response will affect all nations – while others face very particular challenges. Observer correspondents examine the 12 months ahead
A potent mix of hope and fear accompanies the start of 2021 in most of the world. Scientists have created several vaccines for a disease that didn’t even have a name this time last year. But many countries, including the UK and the US, are still stumbling through the deadliest period of the pandemic.
The shadow of Covid will not begin to lift, even in richer countries, for months. Britain was the first to approve a vaccine and has secured extensive supplies, yet Boris Johnson’s suggestion that life might be returning to normal by Easter is widely seen as optimistic. Other countries, particularly in the south, face a long wait to get vaccines, and help paying for them. The rebuilding of economies shattered by Covid everywhere will be slow; even countries that managed to contain it have taken a hit, from Vietnam to New Zealand.
Tourist lodges run out of cash to feed and care for the animals on their land and thousands of villagers lose their jobs
Impala run through the thorn bush, ibis fly above the lake and lightning forks over the horizon as a storm rolls in from the Drakensberg mountains.
The visitors driven across the 10,000 or more hectares of the Nambiti game reserve in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province see what they think is an unchanged, and unchanging natural landscape.
Squatters reportedly belonging to one family claim site of 5,000 year-old ruins was given to them in the 1970s
Illegal squatters have invaded the ruins of the oldest city in the Americas, and made death threats against Ruth Shady, the celebrated Peruvian archaeologist who discovered the 5,000 year-old civilization.
The threats came via telephone calls and messages to various workers at the archeological site at the height of Peru’s Covid-19 pandemic. They followed reports to the police and prosecutors about the invasions of the ancient ruins of Caral.
As Tehran moves on uranium enrichment, Washington braces for retaliation a year after the Quds Force commander’s assassination
Iran has announced plans to enrich uranium up to 20% purity, just a step away from weapons-grade levels, as tensions with the US ratchet up during the final days of Donald Trump’s presidency.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed it had been notified of Iran’s decision to increase enrichment at the Fordow facility, buried in a mountainside to protect it from military strikes, although Tehran did not say when the process would begin.
Republicans say they will reject presidential electors from states where Trump campaign contested results unless audit completed
Ted Cruz of Texas, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and nine other Republican US senators or senators-elect said on Saturday they will reject presidential electors from states where Donald Trump has contested his defeat by Joe Biden, “unless and until [an] emergency 10-day audit” of such results is completed.
Amid US tensions, Revolutionary Guards chief promises ‘reciprocal, decisive blow’ as he inspects forces on key island near Strait of Hormuz
The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, General Hossein Salami, has vowed to respond to any “action the enemy takes” during a visit to a strategic Gulf island amid tensions with the US.
Veteran talk show host Larry King, 87, is being treated at a Los Angeles hospital for Covid-19, according to multiple US reports. CNN, his employer for many years, said he had been in hospital for a week.
“Larry has fought so many health issues in the last few years and he is fighting this one hard too, he’s a champ,” ABC News reported a source close to the family as saying, after the story was originally reported in a showbiz column.
The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, decried what he called a “radical tantrum” on Saturday after his home in Kentucky was vandalised with messages apparently protesting against his refusal to increase Covid aid payments from $600 to $2,000.
The attack followed a similar one on the home of Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House speaker, in San Francisco.
Attacks on two villages were launched just as first-round results were announced in presidential election
“Terrorists” have killed around 100 people in two villages in western Niger, the latest in a string of civilian massacres that have rocked the jihadist-plagued Tillaberi region, a local mayor has said.
The attacks on the villages of Tchoma Bangou and Zaroumadareye occurred on Saturday just as first-round presidential election results were announced.
Greece reimposes Covid curbs after Christmas easing; just under 3 million Americans vaccinated so far as US death toll continues to rise; Israel vaccinates more than a million people
Russia has said it has vaccinated more than 800,00 people, and more than 1.5m doses have been dispatched.
People who have had the jab will get an electronic vaccination certificate, according to the TASS news agency. The health ministry is keeping a database of Russians who have had the Sputnik V vaccine.
The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) is the latest union to call for all schools in England to close for two weeks, in response to rising Covid-case numbers.
The body, which represents headteachers and other school leaders, held an emergency meeting of its executive committee this afternoon. Its general secretary, Geoff Barton is set to write to education secretary Gavin Williamson.
It is very clear that the government’s plans for the start of the spring term are untenable. The arrangements it has announced are hopelessly confused and we have seen no scientific rationale for them. Many school and college leaders have no confidence in the government’s approach, and we are very concerned about the safety of families, staff, and the wider community.
We are calling for a short period of remote education in order to protect all concerned and allow time for the government to work with the profession on a joint plan for safe opening. We fully support keeping education functioning as fully as possible during the Covid crisis but this has to be done safely, or the long-term consequences and disruption will be much worse.
The US is braced for a post-holiday coronavirus surge as its death toll passed 350,000, with thousands more predicted to die in the coming month and doctors warning they are at “breaking point” and fighting “world war three”.
Agreement in principle will allow territory to join the Schengen free movement area
Spain will have the last word on who can enter Gibraltar under the terms of the preliminary post-Brexit deal announced this week, Spain’s foreign minister has said, in an assertion that was swiftly challenged by Gibraltar’s chief minister.
The agreement in principle – struck just hours before Gibraltar was poised to become the only frontier marked by a hard Brexit – will allow the British overseas territory to join the Schengen free movement area with Spain acting as a guarantor.