Defendants found guilty on range of charges from membership of criminal network to complicity in attacks
A court in France has convicted 14 people in relation to the January 2015 terror attacks in Paris on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket.
A total of 17 people were murdered across three days in a series of attacks that horrified the nation. All three assailants were killed in shootouts with the police, leaving only accomplices to face trial.
Continue reading...UN body also suggests gatherings should be ‘outside where possible’ to reduce Covid transmission risk
Europeans gathering for Christmas with their friends or families should try to celebrate outside or wear masks indoors in a well-ventilated space, according to an advisory issued by the World Health Organization.
The advice, posted by the UN health body’s European region on its website, covers a variety of issues relating to winter recreation and holidays, including whether to take a skiing break and seasonal celebrations.
Continue reading...Ursula von der Leyen told European leaders she did not know if a trade agreement could be reached with Britain before the 31 December deadline.
The main issue remained fisheries, on which the European commission president said discussions were very difficult. She added Europe did not question UK sovereignty over its waters, but asked for rights for EU workers
One in four people globally may not get vaccines until 2022; EU likely to approve vaccine within days; Canada signs deal to accelerate Moderna vaccine deliveries
A little more on the new community transmission case in Sydney. The positive case was detected in van driver transporting international airline crew to and from Sydney airport. Matilda Boseley and Melissa Davey report.
Related: NSW records new local Covid case, raising questions over airline crew quarantine
It’s been described as “very un-Australian” - one of the fiercest, but most flexible, criticisms you can make in this part of the world.
Australian department of foreign affairs and trade officials are being allowed to skip government-mandated hotel quarantine when returning from abroad, instead spending two weeks at home.
Related: Foreign affairs officials allowed to skip hotel quarantine when returning to Australia
Continue reading...‘We have to act now,’ says Danish PM; 11,214 new cases in the Netherlands; no vaccines for poorer countries until 2024, report claims
Peru’s government told people in the country not to invite friends and family who live outside the home to Christmas and New Year celebrations, a measure aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus.
Coronavirus cases in Peru totalled 987,675 as of Tuesday with 36,817 deaths so far, according to official figures. Health authorities are warning of a possible second wave of infections early next year.
Brazil has registered more than 70,000 additional cases of Covid-19, pushing the country’s total confirmed cases over 7 million.
The country has now registered 7,040,608 total confirmed cases, behind only the US and India.
Continue reading...Paris mayor to pay fine of €90,000 for breaking national rules in 2018 on gender parity
Paris city authorities have been fined for employing too many women in senior positions, a decision mocked as absurd by the mayor, Anne Hidalgo, on Tuesday.
The fine of €90,000 (£81,000) was demanded by France’s public service ministry on the grounds that Paris city hall had broken national rules on gender parity in its 2018 staffing.
Continue reading...Heavy rain has hampered work on site intended to relieve queues around Dover from 1 January
The Kent lorry park designed to relieve queues of up to 7,000 trucks taking goods across the Channel will not be ready for Brexit on 1 January, it has emerged.
Damian Green, the MP for Ashford, said the government told him rain had hampered work on the site between the villages of Sevington and Mersham, fuelling fears of traffic queues around the county for the first two months of the year.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Ethnic Armenian men refused to leave their villages before Azerbaijani forces arrived, locals say
Two elderly men who were beheaded by Azerbaijani forces in videos widely shared on messaging apps have been identified, confirming two of the bloodiest atrocities of the recent war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The ethnic Armenian men were non-combatants, people in their respective villages said. Both were beheaded by men in the uniforms of the Azerbaijani armed forces. The short, gruesome videos of the killings are among the worst of a torrent of footage portraying abuse, torture and murder that has continued to emerge more than a month after a Russian-brokered ceasefire came into force.
Continue reading...Latest updates: health secretary holds press conference after tougher restrictions announced for London and parts of Essex and Hertfordshire
Prof. Whitty reiterates a “minimalist, responsible” Christmas meeting families sticking to the rules, calling it a “limited relaxation”.
Hancock tells @Kate_M_Proctor he's repeatedly answered the question on whether the Christmas relaxation could be tightened up if cases rise
Narrator: He has not answered the question on whether the Christmas relaxation could be tightened up if cases rise
Barnier says PM’s acceptance of need for ‘evolution clause’ as standards diverge has unlocked talks
A post-Brexit trade and security deal could be sealed as early as this week after Boris Johnson made a key concession at the weekend but the pathway to agreement remains “very narrow”, Michel Barnier has told ambassadors and MEPs in Brussels.
The EU’s chief negotiator said the prime minister’s acceptance of the need to ensure that there is fair competition for British and European businesses as regulatory standards diverge over time had unlocked the talks despite difficult issues remaining.
Continue reading...Analysis: eavesdropping on high-value targets is labour intensive so hackers may not have made most of access
If there is one silver lining to the months-long global cyber-espionage campaign discovered when a prominent cybersecurity firm learned it had been breached, it might be that the sheer numbers of potentially compromised entities offers them some protection.
By compromising one piece of security software – a security tool called Orion developed by the Texan company SolarWinds – the attackers gained access to an extraordinary array of potential targets in the US alone: more than 425 of the Fortune 500 list of top companies; all of the top 10 telecommunications companies; all five branches of the military; and all of the top five accounting firms.
Continue reading...FBI to investigate after treasury and commerce departments believed to have been targeted
Suspected Russian hackers have carried out the biggest cyber-raid against the US for more than five years, US officials have said, targeting key government networks including the Treasury and commerce departments.
The hackers were able to monitor internal email traffic and may have compromised other government bodies, in what is being described as a highly sophisticated state-level attack. The situation is so grave it led on Saturday to a national security council meeting at the White House.
Continue reading...Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, says a 'good, balanced agreement' on a trade deal is still possible, as negotiators continue talks ahead of the 31 December deadline.
Barnier stressed the EU had never before tried to reach such a complex agreement with a country in such a short space of time.
Britain and the EU enter the final stretch of the negotiations with renewed hope of a deal being struck within days, after Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen agreed to “go the extra mile” and ordered the resumption of talks in Brussels
Our foreign correspondents reflect on the practical and cultural importance of fluency in a country’s native tongue
During the worst of the coronavirus outbreak in China, people described to us deeply personal and traumatic experiences – losing their parents, suffering the death of a child, being harassed and intimidated for trying to speak out. Having these conversations in Mandarin was important not just for capturing nuance and detail but for a sense of empathy.
Continue reading...Dutch PM to speak to the nation tonight; ministers to recommend restrictions are extended in Poland
The US has reported 16,113,148 cases of new coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic, with 1,476,230 cases reported in the last seven days.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Monday that 17,184 people had died from Covid-19 in the previous week, taking the total US death toll so far to 298,266.
Turkish president has said Turkey will impose a five-day full lockdown beginning on 31 December, as official data showed new daily coronavirus deaths hit a record 229.
Recep Tayip Erdoğan, speaking after a cabinet meeting, said the stay-home order would begin at 9pm on New Year’s Eve and run to 4 January.
Continue reading...Support services in Poland and abroad say numbers increasing even before legislation is tightened
Polish women are increasingly being forced to travel abroad to seek abortions even though a court ruling to tighten the country’s already strict laws has not yet coming into force, activists have said.
The constitutional court ruled in October that abortion was illegal even in cases where there were severe foetal abnormalities. Around 1,000 abortions a year – almost all of the country’s legal abortion procedures – are carried out for this reason.
Continue reading...Negotiations to continue say Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen in joint statement after phone call
In his Sky interview Johnson warned that no deal is still more likely. And he suggested that his suggestion to talk to other EU leaders has been rejected by the EU. He said:
The UK certainly won’t be walking away from the talks. I think people will expect us to go the extra mile. I repeated my offer, which is if it’s necessary to talk to other capitals, then I’m very happy to do that. The commission is very determined to keep the negotiations on the way that they be done between us and the commission and that’s, fine.
But I’m going to repeat the most likely thing now is of course that we have to get ready for WTO terms, Australia terms. And don’t forget, everybody, we’ve made huge preparations for this we’ve been at this for four and a half years ... perhaps more intensively in the last couple of years than previously. But anyway, we’ve got ready. And anybody who needs to know what to do get on to gov.uk/transition, see what needs to be done and get ready for January 1st and. Either way, whatever happens, the UK will do very, very well.
Boris Johnson has warned that the two sides are “very far apart on some key things.”
In quite a downbeat interview with Sky News he said:
I’ve just talked to Ursula Von der Leyen and updated the cabinet about the contents of that call. On Wednesday the hope was that we were going to be able to finish things off today, if there was a deal to be done.
As things stand, and this is basically what Urusal and I agreed. I’m afraid we’re still very far apart on some key things. But where there’s life, there’s hope we’re going to keep talking to see what we can do.
Continue reading...Germany introduces new restrictions to combat spread of virus; Turkey changes counting method, almost doubling cases
Here are some striking images of Dr. Luigi Cavanna visiting his patients in their homes in small towns and rural areas in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy.
He checks his patients’ oxygen levels, uses ultrasound to scan their lungs and tests them and their relatives for coronavirus.
Residents in Jersey care homes are receiving Covid vaccinations a day earlier than expected, the island’s government has announced.
Officials said the government made the call to start on Sunday rather than Monday “in view of the positive Covid cases in care homes”, which have seen a recent 400% surge, from four on Thursday to 19 by Saturday.
Continue reading...Angela Merkel says urgent action is needed as daily cases and deaths hit record highs
Germany will close most shops from Wednesday until 10 January as it tightens coronavirus restrictions and tries to rein in the spread of the disease, the country’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, has said.
Schools will also be shut during the period, and employers will be asked to close operations or have employees work from home. The sale of fireworks will be banned ahead of New Year’s Eve.
Continue reading...British negotiators stay on in Brussels but PM says two sides still ‘very far apart’ on key issues
Britain and the EU enter the final stretch of the Brexit negotiations with renewed hope of a deal being struck within days after Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen agreed to “go the extra mile” and ordered the resumption of talks in Brussels.
As the prime minister played down expectations following a telephone conversation with the European commission president, EU embassies in Brussels were briefed that “progress has been made” and that “the next days will be important”. UK negotiators are expected to stay in Brussels until at least Tuesday.
Continue reading...