Federal authorities are working to piece together the motive behind the Christmas Day bombing in Nashville that severely damaged dozens of downtown buildings and injured three people.
Related: Nashville blast: officials identify Anthony Warner as the bomber
Continue reading...The coronavirus relief bill has finally been signed into law by Donald Trump. Here’s a look at what’s in the 5,000-page package
Donald Trump signed the new Covid-19 stimulus package into law on Sunday night, suddenly giving into pressure from Congress after calling the legislation a “disgrace” days earlier.
Related: Dow hits record high after Trump belatedly signs Covid relief bill
Continue reading...At least 20 trains cancelled after swan stopped at site of another’s death near Fuldatal
Police and firefighters in Germany were forced to intervene to move an apparently “mourning” swan that was blocking a high-speed railway line, according to a statement released by the rescuers on Monday.
The swan was pictured blocking the line near Fuldatal, causing at least 20 trains to be cancelled, after a second swan was killed when it flew into the overhead line above the tracks.
Continue reading...Hundreds left Verbier after discovery of new Covid variant despite order to self-isolate
Only about a dozen British tourists out of about 420 appear to be left in the Swiss ski resort of Verbier after an undisclosed number fled a mandatory quarantine, many under cover of darkness, risking a 10,000 Swiss franc fine (£8,300) and drawing widespread condemnation on social media.
Asked about the runaway tourists, the Swiss health minister, Alain Berset, said: “We are aware of that. It’s obviously a problem. There was an order to quarantine that has not been respected.”
Continue reading...Latest updates: Trump passes $900bn aid bill to support the US economy; Jakarta cities concerns around the new strains of coronavirus for ban
The new variant of the virus circulating in the UK has been detected in Finland in two people, while a separate variant spreading in South Africa has been detected in one other person, local health officials have said.
Finland imposed travel restrictions earlier this month on passengers from the UK amid concerns over the new variant, which is thought to be more contagious than previous ones.
Ukraine’s biggest ski resort, Bukovel in the Carpathian mountains, is fully booked until the end of year as Ukrainians have sped to it instead of other foreign resorts that have been shut due to coronavirus-linked restrictions across Europe.
Bukovel’s management said the resort had already been booked at 80% capacity through January. Bukovel, which sits 920 metres above sea level and covers five mountains in western Ukraine, attracts 2 million visitors each year. A tourist from Kyiv, Anton Luzhnyh, told Reuters he used to go to France to ski.
Why am I here? Because foreign ski resorts are closed. It is lockdown there. Maybe they will be reopened in February, then we will go there.
Continue reading...Highly unusual independent inquiry accuses officer of staging their deaths as a fake gunfight
In a highly unusual move, Indian police have indicted an Indian army officer, accusing him of killing three civilians in Kashmir in July and staging their deaths as a fake gunfight.
The rare independent police inquiry into extrajudicial killings in the troubled region found that the Indian military officer Capt Bhoopendra Singh, who used the alias Maj Basheer Khan, had conspired with two of his informers to abduct three local labourers. It said they killed the men, planted illegal weapons on the bodies and branded them “hardcore terrorists”.
Continue reading...Backing of EU27 paves way for new arrangements between UK and EU to come into force on 1 January
The post-Brexit trade and security deal has been unanimously backed by EU member states, paving the way for the new arrangements to come into force on 1 January.
At a meeting of ambassadors in Brussels, the 27 member states gave their support for the 1,246-page treaty to be “provisionally applied” at the end of the year. The decision will be formally completed by written procedure at 3pm central European time (1400 GMT) on Tuesday.
Continue reading... Police in China detain colleague of Yoozoo Games founder Lin Qi on suspicion of involvement in death
Shanghai police have detained a man in relation to the suspected poisoning death of the wealthy founder of a video games company.
Lin Qi, 39, died on Christmas Day, eight days after he was taken to hospital with “acute symptoms of illness”, according to his company, Yoozoo Games Co, known for the Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming strategy game and as the producer of a forthcoming Netflix adaptation of the science fiction hit The Three-Body Problem.
Continue reading...Court suspends some of sentence and backdates start of term, meaning she only has three months left to serve
Loujain al-Hathloul, the Saudi women’s rights activist detained three years ago by the Saudi government, has been sentenced to five years and eight months in jail after being found guilty of spying with foreign parties and conspiring against the kingdom.
But the court suspended two years and 10 months of her sentence, and backdated the start of her jail term to May 2018, meaning she only has three months left to serve.
Continue reading...A survivor warns against the harmful practices many are forced to undergo to try to change their sexuality or gender identity
When I was nine, my parents took me to a traditional healer. He used a razor to make three incisions on the insteps of my feet, my wrists, my elbows, my forehead and on the back of my neck. As blood started to flow, the healer rubbed a concoction of herbs into the incisions and gave me a potion to drink. He took alligator pepper and rubbed it on various parts of my body. There was a rooster, into which he cast the “demon” inside me. The rooster was slaughtered and thrown into the river, supposedly taking my sexuality with it.
In boarding school, I met a boy who I would say was my first love. We talked about everything and liked to take long walks. But he struggled. I watched him struggle to accept his sexuality. He felt there was something wrong with him but I didn’t know how to help him. For me it was different. It wasn’t just about sexuality; it was also about gender. I was born male but I have never felt like a man.
When I was 22, in university, I met a transgender woman. She was a lot more open, more cosmopolitan, more upfront about what she wanted. I’d never met anyone like her. We had a sisterhood –– fun, graceful, pure. It was as if the scales fell from my eyes.
What part of me has been lost in the effort to make me fit a heteronormative, socially acceptable form?
Continue reading...Kerala villagers are reaping the benefits of a scheme that pays them to leave their trees rooted, reducing risk of deforestation
In the misty, hilly terrain of Wayanad, in the southern Indian state of Kerala, the people with any access to land in the quiet town of Meenangadi have been out counting their trees.
Sheeja CG, a 46-year-old farmer, has lived among coffee, coconut and pepper plantations all her life but last month she increased her income dramatically by mortgaging 53 of her trees at the local bank, in return for a sum of 2,650 rupees (£26.96), or 50 rupees each. She was one of the first beneficiaries of the state-sponsored scheme.
Continue reading...Prosecution of 10 Hong Kongers detained in mainland China after allegedly attempting to flee to Taiwan also began on Monday
Zhang Zhan, a 37-year-old former lawyer and citizen journalist who was arrested in May while reporting from Wuhan, has been sentenced to four years in jail.
Zhang was arrested for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” – an accusation commonly used against dissidents, activists and journalists – with her video and blog reports from the Wuhan lockdown. Last month she was charged with disseminating false information.
Continue reading...Beloved bird that inspired toys and a picture book remembered by conservationists as a ‘precious taonga [treasure]’
A much-loved and extremely rare white kiwi has died following surgery, prompting an outpouring of grief among conservationists in New Zealand.
Manukura the North Island brown kiwi hatched in captivity in May 2011 with a rare genetic trait, leucism, that gave her striking white plumage.
Continue reading...President Cyril Ramaphosa expected to announce new restrictions in attempt to slow the surge
South Africa’s Covid-19 surge has taken the country to more than 1 million confirmed cases as president Cyril Ramaphosa called an emergency meeting of the national coronavirus command council.
The country’s new variant of the coronavirus, 501.V2, is more contagious and has quickly become dominant in many areas of the resurgence, according to experts.
Continue reading...Move comes after Republicans voiced anger over the delay, which resulted in millions of Americans losing unemployment aid
Donald Trump has signed the Covid-19 relief and spending bill after days of delays, preventing a mid-pandemic government shutdown.
The announcement on Sunday night came after Republicans urged him to act following his refusal to sign the bill, a decision that meant millions of Americans lost unemployment aid.
Continue reading...Latest updates: first vaccine doses administered across Europe; Germany rollout delayed after potential irregularities in cooling of Pfizer shot
Dr Anthony Fauci, the head of the US coronavirus taskforce said that he believes the Covid-19 variant detected in the UK must be taken “very seriously” but is not likely to cause more serious illness or be resistant to vaccines.
He said: “Does it make someone more ill? Is it [a] more serious virus in the sense of virulence? And the answer is, it doesn’t appear to be that way.”
The UK’s coronavirus vaccination programme will resume on Monday, after a pause on Christmas Day and the weekend.
The latest figures show that a total of 70,572 people in the UK have died from Covid-19. The number is likely to rise further on Tuesday, as authorities in both Scotland and Northern Ireland have not released data over the festive period.
Continue reading...About half of the 420 visitors ordered to self-isolate left Verbier in ‘cloak and dagger’ operation
Hundreds of British tourists fled the upmarket Swiss ski resort of Verbier in a “cloak-and-dagger operation” this week, breaking quarantine rules retroactively put in place to contain the spread of the coronavirus variant first discovered in the UK.
Following the detection of the new mutation of Covid-19 in Britain, Swiss authorities announced on 21 December that all people who had arrived from the UK since 14 December would need to self-isolate for 10 days from their date of arrival.
Continue reading...Three people wounded in clash between camp residents and youths near coastal city of Tripoli
Hundreds of Syrian refugees have fled their makeshift camp in north Lebanon after their tents were set alight when fighting broke out between local youths and camp residents.
At least three people were wounded in the clash on Saturday in the Miniyeh region near the coastal city of Tripoli, after which youths set fire to the camp, Lebanon’s state-owned National News Agency said.
Continue reading...European nations launched a massive vaccination drive on Sunday, with pensioners and medics lining up to take the first shots to see off the coronavirus pandemic that has claimed more than 1.7 million lives worldwide. With surveys pointing to high levels of hesitancy about the vaccine in countries from France to Poland, leaders of the EU27 are promoting it as the best chance of getting back to something like normal life in 2021
Intellectual property to be repatriated to the US after IRS said it was owed $9bn in taxes
Facebook is winding up Irish holding companies it has used to channel billions of profits to avoid paying taxes in the US, the UK and hundreds of other countries.
The company’s main Irish subsidiary paid $101m (£75m) in tax while recording profits of more than $15bn in 2018, the last year for which records are available. Facebook companies around the world paid the Irish holding company for use of its intellectual property.
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