World news

• Brexit trade deal to be approved by EU27 'within days'

  25-12-2020 23:48
  
  Little doubt that deal struck at 11th hour will be signed off, while British MPs are set to be recalled for 30 December voteThe 27 members of the EU are expected to approve the post-Brexit trade deal with the UK within days after a Christmas Day briefing of ambassadors by Michel Barnier, the bloc’s chief negotiator. Experts across Europe, from Berlin to Paris and Rome, will now pore over the 1,246-page text, although much of it is well known in the capitals and there is little doubt that t
  
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• Uganda Lake Albert boat accident leaves many dead

  25-12-2020 23:03 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Strong winds caused the boat to sink on the lake, which has a history of incidents, officials said.
  
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• Nashville police release image of vehicle that exploded on Christmas Day

  25-12-2020 22:39 via independent.co.uk
  
  Police are asking that anyone with any information about the vehicle that exploded on Friday morning come forward
  
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• Human remains found at blast site of bomb-rigged vehicle playing message that it was about to explode

  25-12-2020 22:29 via independent.co.uk
  
  Police believe the act was intentional
  
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• Nashville Explosion - Vehicle broadcast audio warning before exploding, knocking out vital telecom links

  25-12-2020 22:05 via independent.co.uk
  
  A large explosion ripped through part of downtown Nashville early on Christmas morning.
  
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• Finnish Lapland: How coronavirus has hit Santa’s homeland

  25-12-2020 21:44 via independent.co.uk
  
  ‘The much worse and serious coronavirus situation in Sweden affects our area,’ a local health official tells Zoe Tidman
  
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• Nashville Explosion - Live: Vehicle broadcast audio warning before exploding, knocking out vital telecom links

  25-12-2020 21:42 via independent.co.uk
  
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• ‘We thought we were going to lose him for sure’: 3-year-old Missouri boy suffers coronavirus-related stroke

  25-12-2020 21:33 via independent.co.uk
  
  ‘If this had been anybody over the age of 40 or 60, they would have probably had a very different outcome,’ a pediatric neurologist said
  
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• Top associate of Russian opposition leader Navalny detained

  25-12-2020 21:14 via independent.co.uk
  
  A top associate of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been detained after doorstepping an alleged security operative who has inadvertently revealed details of Navalny’s supposed poisoning with a Soviet-era nerve agent
  
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• Las Vegas slots player wins $15.5M jackpot on Christmas Eve

  25-12-2020 21:01 via independent.co.uk
  
  It is the largest slots prize won in Nevada for eight years
  
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• Nearly 500,000 wake up with no power after Christmas Eve storm batters east coast

  25-12-2020 20:42 via independent.co.uk
  
  Winds and heavy rain cancel 250 flights and delay more than 750
  
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• NBA forbids teams from getting early Covid vaccinations

  25-12-2020 20:23 via independent.co.uk
  
  League’s boss says NBA will not ‘jump the line’ for shots
  
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• Russian historian jailed for dismembering partner

  25-12-2020 19:45 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Oleg Sokolov, an expert on Napoleon, was sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison.
  
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• Huge explosion rips through Nashville after police find vehicle playing recording that claimed it was a bomb

  25-12-2020 19:30 via independent.co.uk
  
  Police believe the act was intentional
  
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• Nashville Explosion - Live: Parked vehicle broadcast audio warning before massive explosion

  25-12-2020 19:29 via independent.co.uk
  
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• ‘Club kid’ killer Michael Alig dies of ‘heroin overdose’ inside his Manhattan home on Christmas morning

  25-12-2020 19:12 via independent.co.uk
  
  Michael Alig once played by Macaulay Culkin in Party Monster movie
  
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• Boko Haram kill villagers in Christmas Eve attack

  25-12-2020 18:17 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The Islamist group also burnt down the church in the Christian village in northeast Nigeria.
  
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• Nashville Explosion - Live: Parked vehicle blows up in apparent ‘intentional act’

  25-12-2020 17:56 via independent.co.uk
  
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• Covid: Millions of Americans face unemployment benefits lapse

  25-12-2020 16:19 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Critical payments to 14 million people could stop from Saturday in a standoff over a stimulus bill.
  
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• Nashville Explosion - Live: Parked vehicle blows in apparent ‘intentional act’

  25-12-2020 16:09 via independent.co.uk
  
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• Five cases of UK-based coronavirus variant detected in Japan

  25-12-2020 16:01 via independent.co.uk
  
  Highly infectious variant already linked to cases in a number of countries, including Denmark, Singapore and Australia
  
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• Huge explosion in downtown Nashville 'after parked vehicle blew up'

  25-12-2020 15:19 via independent.co.uk
  
  A large explosion ripped through part of downtown Nashville early on Christmas morning, according to authorities. 
  
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• Australian expeditioner evacuated from Antarctica in five-day mission

  25-12-2020 15:13 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Australia, China and the US work together to medically evacuate the expeditioner.
  
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• Thousands apply to be a Finn for 90 days in migration scheme

  25-12-2020 15:00
  
  Americans, Canadians and Britons among those lured by campaign to attract foreign tech workersFinland has received more than 5,300 applications in a month for a groundbreaking scheme offering foreign tech workers and their families the chance to relocate to the Nordic country for 90 days to see if they want to make the move permanent.“We’re not top of many relocation lists, but we know once people do come, they tend to stay,” said Johanna Huurre, of Helsinki Business Hub which
  
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• Rags to riches for cat rescued by waste worker

  25-12-2020 14:44 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A waste disposal worker rescues a cat from imminent death while sorting through rubbish at a plant in Russia.
  
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• Coronavirus chaos: Thousands of lorry drivers spending Christmas Day in their cabs at Channel border

  25-12-2020 13:38 via independent.co.uk
  
  Some 1,100 soldiers now being deployed to help carry out Covid-19 tests as demanded by French authorities
  
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• ‘All you can do is survive’: A bleak midwinter for Christians in the Middle East

  25-12-2020 13:31 via independent.co.uk
  
  From a deserted Bethlehem to a broken Beirut, Christmas is rounding off a particularly painful year in the region, writes Bel Trew
  
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• Pope urges coronavirus vaccine access for all

  25-12-2020 13:20 via bbc.co.uk
  
  "We cannot erect walls" to its availability, he says, in his first online Christmas Day message.
  
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• Discovery of 'cryptic species' shows Earth is even more biologically diverse

  25-12-2020 12:30
  
  Excitement as DNA barcoding technique leads to unmasking of new species tempered with fear that some are already at risk of extinctionCounting the species: how DNA barcoding is rewriting the book of lifeRead more in our series Biodiversity: what happened next?A growing number of “cryptic species” hiding in plain sight have been unmasked in the past year, driven in part by the rise of DNA barcoding, a technique that can identify and differentiate between animal and plant species using
  
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• In pictures: Christmas celebrations around the world

  25-12-2020 12:19 via bbc.co.uk
  
  This year's services and events are being attended by far fewer people because of the Covid outbreak.
  
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• Mary Wollstonecraft statue becomes one of 2020's most polarising artworks

  25-12-2020 11:30
  
  Maggi Hambling’s north London sculpture aimed to provoke debate – and a survey of passersby shows it has certainly done that“It’s marvellous, I think it is unbelievably beautiful,” said Hilary Everett, a retired social worker, as she walked past one of the most controversial, most debated and most polarising public artworks of 2020.But Michaela Crimmin, a reader in art passing by a few minutes later, disagreed: “I loathe it. There’s no aesthetic to it. T
  
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• Alexei Navalny ally Lyubov Sobol 'held after raid'

  25-12-2020 11:24 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Lyubov Sobol had earlier turned up at the home of an agent Alexei Navalny says helped poison him.
  
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• Coronavirus: Passengers travelling to US from UK will need negative test or be barred from flying

  25-12-2020 10:36 via independent.co.uk
  
  Airlines will deny boarding to anyone who has not been screened for deadly virus within last three days
  
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• Idi Amin challenged my father to a wrestling match – then chickened out

  25-12-2020 08:15
  
  Uganda has never acknowledged the sporting legacy of athlete ‘Sunlight’ Okiror. Almost 30 years after his death, his son hopes this might changeMy father, Samson “Sunlight” Okiror, lived an extraordinary life. He was a soldier, a rebel and one of Uganda’s most famous sportsmen.A wrestler and heavyweight lifter, he could lift a car off the ground. He could tie a rope to a Land Rover and stop it from moving when the engine was turned on. He could stretch steel chains
  
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• Ivry Gitlis: Celebrated Israeli virtuoso violinist dies at 98

  25-12-2020 05:44 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Described as one of the modern greats of classical music, he was a hugely charismatic figure.
  
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• Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch sold to billionaire

  25-12-2020 02:58 via independent.co.uk
  
  Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch in California has found a new owner in billionaire businessman Ron Burkle
  
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• How delivery drivers became vital in the pandemic

  25-12-2020 01:14 via bbc.co.uk
  
  They made sure no-one had to leave the house but now they are taking on an even more important role.
  
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• Georgia climbers who risk their lives for Christmas trees

  25-12-2020 01:13 via bbc.co.uk
  
  In the Republic of Georgia, workers harvest the seeds of Nordmann firs for export to Europe.
  
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• Astronaut Scott Kelly: How to survive a year in space

  25-12-2020 01:13 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Record-breaking astronaut Scott Kelly talks about living in space and his desire to go back.
  
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• The refugees feeding a nation

  25-12-2020 01:07 via bbc.co.uk
  
  How did French Guiana come to rely on its Hmong citizens for food?
  
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• A scene in The Pianist changed Arson Fahim's life

  25-12-2020 01:02 via bbc.co.uk
  
  As a young boy, Fahim saw a piano on screen in a refugee camp. "What I saw captivated me," he said.
  
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• Michael Jackson: Neverland Ranch 'sold to billionaire for $22m'

  25-12-2020 00:23 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Billionaire Ron Burkle reportedly buys the estate for a quarter of its initial asking price.
  
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