World news

• Father of child killed in Iraq massacre says Trump’s Blackwater pardons ‘broke my life again’

  23-12-2020 23:51 via independent.co.uk
  
  The private security contractors killed at least 14 civilians, including women and children
  
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• Ex- doctor convicted of sexual abuse Larry Nassar won’t be resentenced despite judge’s ‘inappropriate’ remarks

  23-12-2020 23:35 via independent.co.uk
  
  The judge laid into Mr Nassar throughout the trial, but an appeals court held that didn’t prove bias in sentencing
  
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• US again protects Citgo assets from Venezuela creditors

  23-12-2020 23:28 via independent.co.uk
  
  The Trump administration has extended a measure blocking holders of crisis-torn Venezuela’s debt from liquidating its U.S.-based Citgo refineries as payment
  
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• ‘Mom influencer’ investigated for making kidnap claims against Latino couple

  23-12-2020 23:17 via independent.co.uk
  
  ‘I couldn’t believe it. It’s like we’re literally guilty of being brown while shopping,’ Sadie Martinez said
  
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• Serial gymnastics molester Larry Nassar won’t be resentenced despite judge’s ‘inappropriate’ remarks

  23-12-2020 23:14 via independent.co.uk
  
  The judge laid into Mr Nassar throughout the trial, but an appeals court held that didn’t prove bias in sentencing
  
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• Parents convicted in 2009 'balloon boy' hoax pardoned

  23-12-2020 23:06 via independent.co.uk
  
  A couple convicted of criminal charges in the so-called balloon boy hoax that fascinated the country more than a decade ago were pardoned Wednesday by the governor of Colorado
  
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• Coronavirus live news: another new variant found in South Africa travellers; Canada approves Moderna vaccine

  23-12-2020 23:00
  
  More areas of England moved up into tiers 4 and 3; UK has highest recorded daily rise in cases; new variant discovered in travellers from South AfricaMillions more under tier 4 restrictions in England from Boxing DayTrump demands changes to sign $900bn stimulus bill
  Australian officials scramble after Qantas crew member tests positive
  Covid fatalities soar in Mexico as president condemned for inaction 10.00pm GMT The Moderna company have said on Wednesday that it expects its vaccine to be protec
  
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• Massive winter storm causes at least 330 flight cancellations or delays throughout Midwest and northern US

  23-12-2020 22:58 via independent.co.uk
  
  Wind chill in some areas will cause below-zero temperatures
  
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• Australia coronavirus live: Bondi Icebergs pool on Covid alert as new rules kick in for Christmas Eve in Sydney

  23-12-2020 22:50
  
  Australian Medical Association says Sydney New Year’s Eve fireworks should be cancelled; Qantas air crew quarantine in the spotlight. Follow all the latest news and updates, liveNSW Covid hotspots – list of venues and case locationsBorder restrictions: rules for NSW travellersHealth officials scramble after Qantas crew member tests positive
  Follow the global liveblog 9.50pm GMT Victoria has recorded its 55th consecutive day without a locally transmitted case. Yesterday there were 0 n
  
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• Dozens sue Amazon's Ring after camera hack leads to threats and racial slurs

  23-12-2020 22:40
  
  Class action claims weak security allowed hackers to take over the smart cameras used on doorbells and in homesDozens of people who say they were subjected to death threats, racial slurs, and blackmail after their in-home Ring smart cameras were hacked are suing the company over “horrific” invasions of privacy.A new class action lawsuit alleges that lax security measures at Ring, which is owned by Amazon, allowed hackers to take over their devices. Ring provides home security in the
  
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• Tony-nominated Broadway star Rebecca Luker dies at 59

  23-12-2020 22:17 via independent.co.uk
  
  Broadway soprano Rebecca Luker has died at 59
  
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• Missouri couple charged with murder of 4-year-old girl they claimed was possessed by a ‘demon’

  23-12-2020 22:02 via independent.co.uk
  
  The girl’s father said he knew the couple had been beating her for weeks
  
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• Trump vetoes huge US defense spending bill but Congress set to override

  23-12-2020 22:00
  
  President blocks $740bn bill in part over renaming US basesAdvisers expect Congress to pass bill anywayDonald Trump vetoed a $740bn bill setting policy for the Department of Defense on Wednesday, despite its strong support in Congress, raising the possibility that the measure will fail to become law for the first time in 60 years. Related: America braced for final month of madness as Trump show nears its endContinue reading...
  
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• California Covid patient beats roommate to death with oxygen tank

  23-12-2020 21:24 via independent.co.uk
  
  Authorities have not yet determined motive for attack
  
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• At least 102 killed in massacre in western Ethiopia after Abiy visit

  23-12-2020 21:21
  
  Witnesses report knife and gun attacks and children shot by armed men after PM warning over continuing ethnic conflictsMore than 100 people have been killed in Ethiopia’s western region of Benishangul-Gumuz, in the latest massacre along ethnic lines in the country.Witnesses and officials said that at least 102 people were killed in the attack early on Wednesday in the Metekel zone. Continue reading...
  
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• VIRUS TODAY: Vaccine deal reached, jobless claims still high

  23-12-2020 21:16 via independent.co.uk
  
  Drug companies Pfizer and BioNTech have reached a $2 billion deal to supply the U.S. government with an additional 100 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine
  
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• Alaskan tribes, activists and businesses sue to save America's biggest national forest

  23-12-2020 21:01
  
  Tongass national forest, which plays a key role in fighting climate crisis, poised for logging after US ruling
  A coalition of Alaskan native tribes, conservation groups and small businesses have filed a lawsuit in an effort to save America’s largest national forest by overturning one of the Trump administration’s most contentious environmental rollbacks.Protection for the Tongass national forest in Alaska, one of the world’s last intact temperate rainforests, which plays a cruc
  
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• Putin signs order giving all Russian presidents immunity from prosecution

  23-12-2020 20:46 via independent.co.uk
  
  Move follows sweeping changes to the political system this year
  
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• Kent volunteers make pizzas and hot meals for stranded lorry drivers – video

  23-12-2020 20:24
  
  A Kent football team made 200 pizzas and delivered them to stranded lorry drivers on the M20 and Manston airport on Tuesday night.Hot meals were also provided by a Sikh charity and delivered by Gravesend's Gurdwara Sikh community as thousands of lorry drivers waited for information after France closed its border with the UK for fear of a new variant of Covid-19 Continue reading...
  
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• SHELL – Coronavirus: México es el primer país de América Latina en recibir la vacuna

  23-12-2020 20:21 via independent.co.uk
  
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• New York Republican club under fire for maskless conga line

  23-12-2020 20:04 via independent.co.uk
  
  ‘Covid conga lines are not smart,’ says governor Andrew Cuomo
  
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• New Zealand's first Latin American MP says adopted country has many blind spots

  23-12-2020 20:00
  
  Country’s ‘slick branding machine’ can’t hide ‘entrenched inequality’, says Ricardo Menéndez March New Zealand’s first Latin American MP has had a controversial start: he’s been labelled “disrespectful” for his attitude to senior citizens, called out the government for hypocrisy over the country’s “100% Pure” marketing campaign, and upset monarchists with a chihuahua meme about having to swear allegiance to the
  
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• Q&A: Clooney on 'Midnight Sky' and his twilight as an actor

  23-12-2020 19:42 via independent.co.uk
  
  George Clooney directs and stars in The Midnight Sky,” an apocalyptic sci-fi drama with some striking solitude
  
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• California warns it cannot afford a Christmas Covid surge as hospitals near capacity

  23-12-2020 19:28 via independent.co.uk
  
  Some regions have been out of ICU capacity for days
  
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• Model Stella Tennant dies aged 50

  23-12-2020 19:11
  
  Family announce ‘sudden death’ and ask for privacyThe model Stella Tennant has died, five days after her 50th birthday on 17 December. According to police, there were no suspicious circumstances around her death.Her family said in a statement: “It is with great sadness we announce the sudden death of Stella Tennant on 22 December 2020. Continue reading...
  
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• Indian news channel fined in UK for hate speech about Pakistan

  23-12-2020 18:54
  
  Ofcom imposes £20,000 penalty on Republic TV for ‘highly pejorative’ comments on talk showA rightwing Indian news channel known for its strong pro-government stance and firebrand host has been fined by the UK regulator Ofcom for broadcasting hate speech about Pakistan.Republic TV was fined £20,000 for airing a segment on its UK service, which conveyed the view that all Pakistani people are terrorists, including “their scientists, doctors, their leaders, politicians
  
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• South African Covid-19 variant may be 'more effective at spreading'

  23-12-2020 18:48
  
  Research still to confirm threat posed but variant does not appear to provoke more serious symptomsCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe South African variant of Covid-19, two cases of which have now been detected in the UK, is likely to be more transmissible, may hit young people harder, and may be slightly more resistant to vaccines, scientists in South Africa believe.However, research is still continuing to confirm the threat posed by the variant, which does no
  
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• Epidemiologist predicts a Roaring ‘20s response in America post-pandemic, but there’s a catch

  23-12-2020 18:42 via independent.co.uk
  
  Period of ‘sexual licentiousness’ and economic prosperity is anticipated in 2024
  
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• Fears UK aid cuts could undermine research on deadliest diseases

  23-12-2020 18:41
  
  Exclusive: experts sign letter warning against slashing spending on public-private programmesExperts fear a push to cut the UK’s aid budget will slash spending on global health research, handicapping international public-private programmes that have helped combat the world’s deadliest diseases over the last decade.In a letter addressed to the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, last week, prominent parliamentarians sought reassurance that the planned cuts would not lead to “dramat
  
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• Baltimore explosion: More than 20 hospitalised and two rescued after dangling from building

  23-12-2020 18:40 via independent.co.uk
  
  An explosion in downtown Baltimore left at least 21 people hospitalised and two dangling on sacaffolding.  
  
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• More data needed before giving just one vaccine dose, says Covid adviser

  23-12-2020 18:39
  
  Tony Blair and others make argument for giving more people a single jab rather than twoCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageA senior scientific adviser has said more data is needed before the government can adopt a proposal to give as many people as possible a single dose of a Covid vaccine rather than preserving stocks so there is enough for a second jab.The former prime minister Tony Blair and Prof David Salisbury, a former director of immunisation at the Departmen
  
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• Panic, paucity and pessimism: life on Plague Island UK | Zoe Williams

  23-12-2020 18:30
  
  With a mutant Covid variant out of control and lorries piling up in Kent, Britain feels like a country adrift and rudderlessThe rest of the world is calling the UK Plague Island because it’s true: a mutant strain of the coronavirus is out of control, laying waste to fantasies that any region is out of the woods, or that the November lockdown had its desired effect, or that we might manage a “merry little Christmas”, in the words of the prime minister.The plague phrase carries a
  
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• 'Cheer' star pleads not guilty to child porn, sex charges

  23-12-2020 18:29 via independent.co.uk
  
  “Cheer” star Jerry Harris has pleaded not guilty to federal child pornography charges and allegations that he solicited sex from minors and convinced teenage boys to send him obscene images of themselves
  
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• Angela Merkel and Joe Biden set to 'come to blows' in row over trade

  23-12-2020 18:23 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  ANGELA MERKEL has welcomed US President-elect Joe Biden's victory in November, but one analyst warns the two leaders could come to blows over trade.
  
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• What do we know about the two new Covid-19 variants in the UK?

  23-12-2020 18:20
  
  One appears to have arisen in Kent, the other brought in from South Africa. Both are highly transmissibleCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageTwo new variants of Covid-19 have been identified as of concern in the UK, both said to be more transmissible than the previously dominant version. Here’s what we know so far. Continue reading...
  
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• A dog is for life not just for Noel: Macron’s dog in video plea to be kind to rescued pets

  23-12-2020 18:08 via independent.co.uk
  
  France to debate pet adoption bill to combat animal cruelty and abandonment
  
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• France gives fast-track citizenship to migrant frontline Covid workers

  23-12-2020 17:50 via independent.co.uk
  
  A total of 2,890 people have applied so far.
  
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• Banjo Paterson: 120-year-old chocolate found in Australian poet's belongings

  23-12-2020 17:45 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Remarkably well-preserved chocolate - found in Australia - gives a fascinating glimpse into history.
  
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• In pardoning Blackwater guards, Trump deprives murdered Iraqi civilians of justice

  23-12-2020 17:39 via independent.co.uk
  
  The killings were brutal and unprovoked, writes Kim Sengupta, who was in Baghdad’s Nisour Square at the time of the massacre
  
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• Lockdown-free South Korea battling sudden surge in virus

  23-12-2020 17:32 via independent.co.uk
  
  Testing is being expanded to almost 50,000 people per day
  
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• US sees record 117,000 daily Covid hospitalisations two days before Christmas

  23-12-2020 17:22 via independent.co.uk
  
  Dr Fauci is ‘concerned’ about holiday travel
  
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• 'Our blood is cheaper than water': anger in Iraq over Trump pardons

  23-12-2020 17:21
  
  Joe Biden to be lobbied to reverse decision to pardon security guards jailed over massacreIraqis have reacted with outrage to Donald Trump’s move to pardon four security guards from the security firm Blackwater who were jailed for a 2007 massacre that sparked an outcry over the use of mercenaries in war.The four men were part of a security convoy that fired on civilians at a central Baghdad roundabout, killing 14 people including a nine-year old child and wounding many more. Continue readi
  
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• From plans to panic: how the UK's week of Covid chaos unfolded – video timeline

  23-12-2020 17:16
  
  The week before Christmas quickly turned chaotic as the health secretary, Matt Hancock, announced a new, more contagious strain of coronavirus had been found in south-east England. The news resulted in a last-minute government U-turn over Christmas mixing rules, the implementation of a new, stricter coronavirus tier, and dozens of countries suspending travel from the UK days before the end of the Brexit transition period, prompting 'Plague Island' to trend on Twitter. Here is a look back at the
  
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• Fire destroys migrant camp in Bosnia

  23-12-2020 17:16
  
  Lipa facility had been criticised by rights groups for failing to provide basic servicesA fast-moving fire has destroyed a migrant camp in Bosnia strongly criticised by rights groups as inadequate due to its lack of resources.The blaze broke out at the Lipa camp, close to the border with Croatia, on the same day the International Organization for Migration (IOM) had declared the effective closure of the facility, saying Bosnian authorities had ignored its appeals to supply basic services. Contin
  
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• Emmanuel Macron handed lesson in 'how to lose an election' as insiders fear worst

  23-12-2020 17:16 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  EMMANUEL MACRON was criticised after his party lost disastrously in a key vote this year, leading to warning signs about his hopes in 2022's Presidential elections.
  
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• Ivanka Trump helps load food into cars of drivers in need

  23-12-2020 17:02 via independent.co.uk
  
  Presidential daughter Ivanka Trump helped load boxes of food into the cars of drivers who showed up at a South Florida drive-through food distribution event for those in need
  
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• California health system buckling under strain of pandemic as state reaches two million cases

  23-12-2020 16:46 via independent.co.uk
  
  California’s health care system is buckling under the strain of the nation’s largest coronavirus outbreak and authorities say it may fracture in weeks if people ignore holiday social distancing
  
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• Brexit trade deal expected within hours

  23-12-2020 16:44
  
  Brussels and London sources believe tortuous talks coming to a successful conclusionAgreement on a post-Brexit trade deal appears likely to be announced within hours, after nine months of tortuous negotiations.A meeting of EU ambassadors has been pencilled in for Christmas Eve to start the ratification process. Sources in Brussels and London confirmed they believed the talks were coming to a successful conclusion. Continue reading...
  
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• German church finally apologises for witch burning after 400 years of silence

  23-12-2020 16:43 via independent.co.uk
  
  Around 60,000 innocent people were killed in Europe between the 15th and 18th centuries, accused of being witches 
  
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• Fire burns through temporary migrant camp in Bosnia – video

  23-12-2020 16:26
  
  A huge fire has destroyed the main tents in what was designed to be a temporary migrant camp to stop the spread of Covid-19 in northern Bosnia. Thick black smoke rose from the Lipa camp near the Croatian border on Wednesday, where about 1,200 people had been staying since the summer  Continue reading...
  
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