Category Archives: World News

How did Bad Bunny become the world’s biggest pop star?

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The superb Puerto Rican vocalist is now the most streamed artist on Spotify globally, but has never had a UK hit – something he’s determined to change

Each December, Spotify announces who has been the world’s most streamed artist that year, and this generally tallies with who has been popular in the UK. Drake, the Canadian rapper who has had six UK No 1 singles, was first in three of the previous five years, with fellow UK chart-toppers Ed Sheeran and Post Malone leading the others.

But in 2020, someone who has never had an album or solo single in the UK Top 100 is the world’s most popular artist: 26-year-old Puerto Rican vocalist Bad Bunny, streamed more than 8.3bn times this year on Spotify alone. Granted, he has featured on one UK Top 10 hit, but that was back in 2018, appearing on it for less than a minute: Cardi B’s I Like It. He appears nowhere in Spotify’s 50 most-played songs in the UK today, with Brits preferring Christmas classics and Gen Z pop stars such as Billie Eilish, Internet Money and 24kGoldn. Meanwhile, Bad Bunny’s current (and superb) single Dakiti is the most-played in the world at time of writing, earning more than 7m plays each day, 3m more than Ariana Grande’s Positions in second place.

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Coronavirus live news: Biden vows to get vaccinated in public; Cyprus to waive tests for vaccinated visitors

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Biden will ask Americans to wear masks for his first 100 days in office; Cyprus announces new measure to ease travel; Iran’s cases top 1m

In the UK saliva tests for Covid-19, which are being introduced for NHS workers as part of the government’s mass testing programme, pick up only 13% of people with low levels of the virus and not 91%, as the official assessment has claimed, according to experts.

Two members of the Royal Statistical Society’s working group looking at the accuracy of Covid tests have questioned the results and the way they have been evaluated.

Related: Experts question claimed accuracy of Covid-19 saliva tests

Revelations of distorted corona virus tallies have caused growing controversy in Greece reports our correspondent Helena Smith in Athens.

Figures released by the government nightly have been slammed for not reflecting the truth after reports of mismanagement by the national public health organisation, EODY.

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US in talks to resolve case of arrested Huawei finance chief

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  • Meng Wanzhou held in Canada on bank fraud charges
  • Case has put US-China-Canada relations under strain

US prosecutors are discussing a deal with lawyers for the Huawei finance chief, Meng Wanzhou, to resolve criminal charges against her, a person familiar with the matter said, signaling a potential end to a case that has strained ties between the United States, China and Canada.

Negotiations between Meng’s attorneys and the US justice department picked up after the US presidential election a month ago, the person said, but it is still unclear what kind of deal could be struck.

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UK soldiers 12% more likely to die than US troops in ‘war on terror’

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Study says poor equipment could be a reason for higher British fatality rate in Iraq and Afghanistan

British soldiers were 12% more likely to have been killed than their American counterparts during the “war on terror” in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a study of casualty figures.

The research – intended as a lessons learned exercise – also concludes that UK forces were 26% more likely to have been killed by improvised explosives, validating longstanding complaints about the poorly armoured Snatch Land Rover.

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France security law incompatible with human rights, say UN experts

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Special reporters take government to task over proposed legislation that would give police more power

UN experts have urged France to completely revise a proposed new security law, deeming it “incompatible” with international law and human rights.

Five independent UN special reporters took the French government to task over the proposed legislation and said tinkering with it by rewriting certain clauses was not enough.

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France could veto bad Brexit deal, Macron ally warns

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Close ally of Macron says Paris may act unilaterally if terms not right as negotiations falter

Downing Street has warned that the Brexit negotiations have hit a “very difficult point”, as France threatened to wield its veto to kill a trade and security deal brought back from London by the EU’s chief negotiator.

With the negotiations hitting troubled waters at the 11th hour, Clément Beaune, France’s European affairs minister and a close ally of president Emmanuel Macron, said his country could act unilaterally if the terms were not right.

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Brexit: Johnson and Von der Leyen to take over with direct talks

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UK PM and European commission president to speak on Saturday after negotiators fail to reach agreement

The Brexit talks will enter their final act on Saturday with a shift to direct negotiations between Boris Johnson and the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, following the failure to find agreement in London.

In a joint statement, David Frost, the UK’s chief negotiator, and his EU counterpart, Michel Barnier, said they had not been able to come to terms on the final issues and that the historic trade and security negotiation would be paused.

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Beating the anti-vaxxers: how star power can help squash vaccine myths

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Analysis: Vaccine hesitancy is growing, thanks in part to social media misinformation. Time for the Elvis approach?

The statement by the US president-elect, Joe Biden, that he would be happy to be publicly vaccinated against coronavirus to encourage people to follow suit – following similar pledges from Barack Obama, George W Bush and Bill Clinton – highlights a fundamental concern in global health circles.

Vaccine hesitancy – as well as anti-vaccination activism, sometimes promoted by celebrities – is growing. Countries that were once measles-free are seeing new cases due to suspicion over vaccination. Vaccine hesitancy was listed a year ago as one of the World Health Organization’s 10 global health threats to watch, alongside Ebola and the threat of a global influenza pandemic. Coronavirus came instead.

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Detained former Saudi crown prince at risk after social media attack, say lawyers

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Exclusive: YouTube asked to remove video claiming Mohammed bin Nayef plotted to bring down current regime

Mohammed bin Nayef – the detained former Saudi crown prince and interior minister – has been the victim of a sustained and coordinated attack from inside Saudi Arabia on social media that risks endangering his personal safety, lawyers acting for him have warned.

The lawyers have written to YouTube demanding it take down a video, saying the content claiming he had been plotting to bring down Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman runs the risk of inviting serious retribution and harm to him. YouTube has not yet acted on the complaint.

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Belgium says Brussels mosque infiltrated by Moroccan spies

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Mosque’s application for special recognition is refused after advice from security services

The Belgian government has refused permission for the Grand Mosque in the EU quarter of Brussels to be recognised as a local faith community, claiming that the place of worship has been infiltrated by Moroccan spies.

The decision to deny the application was made by the justice minister, Vincent Van Quickenborne, following advice from the security services, according to media reports. Recognition as a faith community secures financial support and assistance from the government.

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Calls to investigate possible link between menopause and Covid risk

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Some evidence suggests falling oestrogen levels could make older women more vulnerable

A possible link between the menopause and Covid-19 needs to be investigated, researchers have said, with some evidence suggesting that falling oestrogen levels could leave older women at increased risk from the disease.

Men are at greater risk of severe Covid, and dying of the disease, than women but recent research has suggested that in women, infections and long-lasting symptoms might be more common among those who have gone through the menopause.

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Covid chaos in NFL as ‘business as usual’ approach flounders

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‘America’s game’ struggles with quarantined quarterbacks, repeat rescheduling and home games played far from home

It has gone down as one of the worst performances by a player in recent NFL history – through little fault of his own.

Last weekend, 23-year-old Kendall Hinton, a practice squad wide receiver who had never before played professional football, ran on to the field as quarterback for the Denver Broncos, with just four hours’ notice and only his college-playing experience to rely upon. The deployment was described as unprecedented in the modern game.

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I tried the world’s first no-kill, lab-grown chicken burger

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Exclusive: At a ‘test restaurant’ in Israel, the meat is grown in vats behind a glass screen. Could it be a taste of the future?

A PhD in genetics might seem like an unusual requirement for the role of head chef. It makes more sense when the man running the kitchen is not just in charge of frying your chicken burger – he created the meat himself.

“This burger takes something between two to three days to grow,” says Tomer Halevy as he chops red onions, iceberg lettuce and avocado. He proceeds to batter what appears to be a strip of raw chicken before dipping it in breadcrumbs.

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‘I’m stealing Christmas to keep you safe,’ says Canadian provincial premier – video

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Brian Pallister, the premier of Manitoba, has urged people not to get together this Christmas, as lockdowns in the province continue amid a surge in coronavirus cases. Speaking to the press on Thursday, he said: ‘I’m the guy who’s stealing Christmas to keep you safe because you need to do this now.’ Pallister has repeatedly faced criticism during the pandemic, reportedly vacationing in Costa Rica during the early stages and being accused of rushing to reopen Manitoba’s economy

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China hits back at US spy chief’s ‘greatest threat to freedom’ claim

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Chinese official says article labelling it as biggest threat to democracy since WW2 is ‘concoction of lies’

China has rejected as a “concoction of lies” an incendiary article by the US’s most senior intelligence official, who labelled China the biggest threat to democracy and freedom since the second world war.

In a Wall Street Journal column, John Ratcliffe, the US director of national intelligence, said China was bent on world domination and the US needed to prepare for an “open-ended period of confrontation”.

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Global soils underpin life but future looks ‘bleak’, warns UN report

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It takes thousands of years for soils to form, meaning protection is needed urgently, say scientists

Global soils are the source of all life on land but their future looks “bleak” without action to halt degradation, according to the authors of a UN report.

A quarter of all the animal species on Earth live beneath our feet and provide the nutrients for all food. Soils also store as much carbon as all plants above ground and are therefore critical in tackling the climate emergency. But there also are major gaps in knowledge, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) report, which is the first on the global state of biodiversity in soils.

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‘Con Queen of Hollywood’ who allegedly duped actors arrested in UK

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Indonesian man impersonated film executives, including Rupert Murdoch’s former wife Wendi Deng, to swindle victims, FBI alleges

A suspected con artist who allegedly impersonated top female Hollywood executives to swindle wide-eyed aspiring stars out of hundreds of thousands of dollars has been arrested in Britain after a US extradition request, the FBI has said.

Dubbed the “Con Queen of Hollywood”, the suspect led investigators on a years-long, global manhunt so improbable it has even been optioned for a book deal.

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World Bank ‘missed vital opportunities’ to support Covid response, says Oxfam

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Millions forced to do without or pay for services as funding fails to adequately shore up healthcare systems, report finds

Millions of people in low-income countries have been forced to go without healthcare or have had to pay for it during the coronavirus pandemic, despite billions of pounds in emergency World Bank funding, research has found.

The World Bank’s $6bn (£4.45bn) emergency health fund to 71 countries in response to Covid-19 failed to strengthen health systems or remove financial barriers to using them, according to an Oxfam report published on Friday.

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US sets records for Covid deaths and hospitalizations as it nears 14m cases – live updates

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Senator Marsha Blackburn invokes Chinese stereotype a racist tweet

Republican senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee received swift backlash Thursday for a racist tweet invoking the history of China to allude to a stereotype of cheating.

China has a 5,000 year history of cheating and stealing. Some things will never change...

While recognizing Republican criticism, Donald Trump still refused to back down from earlier calls to repeal Section 230, a provision of the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that protects tech firms from liability over third-party content. In a tweet, the president called it a “must.”

Looks like certain Republican Senators are getting cold feet with respect to the termination of Big Tech’s Section 230, a National Security and Election Integrity MUST. For years, all talk, no action. Termination must be put in Defense Bill!!!

.@realDonaldTrump I fully support you on this. Please don’t back down. The freedom and future of our country is at stake. https://t.co/A5EPgvAuqX

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China the ‘greatest threat to democracy and freedom’, US spy chief warns

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Director of national intelligence John Ratcliffe accuses Beijing of stealing US technology to aid military modernization plan

The top US intelligence official has stepped up Donald Trump’s attacks on Beijing, labeling China the biggest threat to democracy and freedom worldwide since the second world war and saying it was bent on global domination.

Related: US sets records for Covid deaths and hospitalizations as it nears 14m cases – live updates

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