General news

• Former Zoom employee accused of censoring Tiananmen Square video meetings for Chinese government

  18-12-2020 23:57 via cnn.com
  
  A former Zoom employee is wanted by the FBI for his alleged participation in a scheme to censor meetings on behalf of the Chinese government.
  
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• Ex-Zoom employee accused of censoring Tiananmen Square video meetings

  18-12-2020 23:57 via cnn.com
  
  A former Zoom employee is wanted by the FBI for his alleged participation in a scheme to censor meetings on behalf of the Chinese government.
  
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• A nurse's home burned down while she was caring for a critical Covid-19 patient

  18-12-2020 23:51 via cnn.com
  
  After caring for Covid-19 patients all day, what Tina Irwin looked forward to the most was walking through the doors of a house she worked hard to make a home.
  
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• Arizona GOP leaders' quarrel over election results could impact party's future

  18-12-2020 23:11
  
  The Arizona GOP is continuing their fight against the election results, even after 11 electors for Biden cast their ballots and sent the certification to Congress.
  
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• Keilar calls out GOP hypocrisy over Biden aide swearing

  18-12-2020 22:45 via cnn.com
  
  CNN's Brianna Keilar rolls the tape on Republicans' hypocrisy over comments made by Jen O'Malley Dillon, President-elect Joe Biden's campaign manager and incoming White House deputy chief of staff, where she used profanity to refer to congressional Republicans.
  
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• Brianna Keilar on Biden aide's swearing: Message from Republicans is very clear

  18-12-2020 22:45 via cnn.com
  
  CNN's Brianna Keilar rolls the tape on Republicans' hypocrisy over comments made by Jen O'Malley Dillon, President-elect Joe Biden's campaign manager and incoming White House deputy chief of staff, where she used profanity to refer to congressional Republicans.
  
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• Man dead after having medical emergency on United flight

  18-12-2020 22:38
  
  A United flight was diverted after a passenger suffered a medical emergency and subsequently passed away.
  
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• Tension rises between Pentagon and Biden transition team over meetings

  18-12-2020 21:43 via cnn.com
  
  President-elect Joe Biden's transition team said Friday that they did not agree to a two-week break in critical transfer-of-power discussions with Pentagon officials, despite an assertion from the acting Defense Secretary that both sides had agreed to take such a "holiday pause."
  
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• College students recruited as teachers to keep schools open

  18-12-2020 21:17
  
  As the coronavirus sidelines huge numbers of educators, school districts around the country are aggressively recruiting substitute teachers, offering bonuses and waiving certification requirements in order to keep classrooms open
  
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• Biden vows to impose 'costs' for Russian aggression when he becomes president

  18-12-2020 20:49 via cnn.com
  
  President-elect Joe Biden's approach to Russia is now an even tougher challenge with news that Moscow may be responsible for a massive cyber attack on US federal agencies -- one Biden said he will impose "costs" for.
  
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• With evictions ban expiring soon, new housing crisis could threaten minorities most

  18-12-2020 20:27 via cnn.com
  
  A federal ban on evictions expires at the end of the year, and it's sparking fears of a housing crisis that could disproportionately send people of color out of their homes.
  
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• A homeless man sentenced to life in prison for a $20 marijuana sale is freed after 12 years

  18-12-2020 20:24 via cnn.com
  
  In 2008, Fate Winslow was approached by a plain-clothed undercover police officer in Shreveport, Louisiana, looking for some marijuana.
  
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• Tova O'Brien 2020 Politics year in review |Tova O'Brien

  18-12-2020 20:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Despite political screw-ups and scandal, New Zealand is in a relatively good place right nowRemember January 2020? We were young, carefree and full of hope. The political year in New Zealand started like any other but then the wheels came off spectacularly, and in a way none of us could have predicted.Covid, coups, conspiracies, scandal, leaks, lies, leadership, lockdowns, misinformation, ministerial screw-ups, a sexting MP. It was immense – and that was before we hit the campaign trail. C
  
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• The loneliness epidemic of 2020 – Australian politics live podcast

  18-12-2020 20:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Looking back at the year, Katharine Murphy sits down with Labor MP Andrew Giles and Liberal MP Fiona Martin to discuss Australia’s other epidemic: loneliness. With coronavirus exacerbating the country’s feelings of isolation, which age groups have been hit hardest? How has social media use increased loneliness among young people? And what measures will the government take to solve the problem? Continue reading...
  
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• Pence gets coronavirus vaccine on TV as Bidens plan to receive it on Monday – live

  18-12-2020 19:58 via theguardian.com
  
  Mitch McConnell and Nancy Pelosi receive shotsJoe Biden has said he will receive vaccine in publicMike Pence gets vaccine on TVFDA panel clears way for emergency use of Moderna’s vaccineSupreme court dismisses challenge to Trump’s census proposalMcConnell: ‘I’m even more optimistic’ about Covid relief deal
  Sign up to receive First Thing – our daily briefing by email 6.55pm GMT Mitch McConnell announced he also received the coronavirus vaccine today, praising t
  
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• Fire hazards found at block housing Grenfell Tower survivors

  18-12-2020 19:57 via theguardian.com
  
  Residents shocked to find block owned by Kensington and Chelsea is ‘not fire safe’Fire hazards similar to those found at Grenfell Tower have been discovered at a block bought by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to house survivors of the disaster that killed 72 people.To the horror of residents, round the clock “waking watch” patrols started on Friday at Doveberry Place in north-west London after a risk assessment uncovered problems with fire protection between
  
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• The restaurant apocalypse is here

  18-12-2020 19:42 via cnn.com
  
  American restaurants are dying and Covid is killing them. More than 110,000 US restaurants have closed during the pandemic -- and more are likely to shut, with winter limiting outdoor options, cases surging and states imposing new restrictions.
  
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• Covid: Austrians who pass antigen test to be exempt from lockdown

  18-12-2020 19:31 via theguardian.com
  
  Italy prepares for national lockdown over Christmas while Portugal has banned New Year’s Eve gatheringsCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageAustria is to enter a third lockdown from Boxing Day but will stage mass coronavirus tests in mid-January to determine who will be exempt from certain restrictions, the government announced on Friday.The news came as Italy prepared to outline new measures that could lead to the country going into complete lockdown over the
  
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• US scrambling to understand fallout of suspected Russia hack

  18-12-2020 19:23 via theguardian.com
  
  At least six government departments breached in likely Russian intelligence operation thought to have begun in MarchThe US government is still in the dark over how deeply Russian hackers penetrated its networks during the worst ever cyber attack on federal agencies, members of Congress warned on Friday.At least six government departments were breached in a likely Russian intelligence operation thought to have begun in March. Although there is no evidence that classified networks were compromised
  
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• Cops discover an illegal winery operating out of an Alabama town's sewage plant

  18-12-2020 19:20 via cnn.com
  
  Authorities say they've busted a large illegal winery operating out of a wastewater treatment plant in a small Alabama town.
  
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• Whoops! Man drops iPhone from plane while it was filming

  18-12-2020 19:19 via cnn.com
  
  An iPhone falls from a plane with the video rolling and survives to tell the tale. CNN's Jeanne Moos reports.
  
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• The FDA wants to get rid of its rules governing the identity of French dressing

  18-12-2020 19:19 via nbcnews.com
  
  The Food and Drug Administration proposed to revoke the standards of French dressing after decades of rules governing the identity of the American staple.
  
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• Man drops iPhone from plane while it's filming

  18-12-2020 19:19 via cnn.com
  
  An iPhone falls from a plane with the video rolling and survives to tell the tale. CNN's Jeanne Moos reports.
  
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• Rescued Nigerian schoolboys brought back to families in state capital

  18-12-2020 19:18 via cnn.com
  
  Horrific tales of beatings and endurance emerged on Friday as more than 300 boys rescued from captivity in northwestern Nigeria were brought back to their waiting families in the state capital, ending a week-long ordeal.
  
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• Wall Street braces for trading surge as Tesla joins S&P 500

  18-12-2020 19:17 via nbcnews.com
  
  Traders expect to see high volume Friday as Tesla’s historic entry into the S&P 500 triggers a wave of portfolio rebalancing.
  
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• Vanessa Bryant slams lawsuit from mom seeking support

  18-12-2020 19:10 via nbcnews.com
  
  Vanessa Bryant’s statement said she and her husband allowed her mother to live for free in one of their properties on the tony Newport Beach coast but never promised her anything.
  
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• Give NHS staff Covid vaccine now or face growing winter crisis, say hospital bosses

  18-12-2020 19:07 via theguardian.com
  
  Trust chiefs say making frontline workers wait until early 2021 is ‘kick in the teeth’Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageHospital bosses in England want NHS staff to start getting the Covid vaccine urgently because soaring rates of sickness among frontline personnel are threatening to intensify the service’s growing winter crisis.Doctors and nurses are asking their hospitals to vaccinate them, but are being told they will have to wait until early
  
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• Michel Barnier seeks to end Brexit deadlock with fresh fishing proposal

  18-12-2020 19:05 via theguardian.com
  
  EU chief responds in final hours to Boris Johnson’s request for Brussels to seal deal Brexit news – latest updatesMichel Barnier has sought to break the deadlock in what he described as the final “few hours” of the post-Brexit trade talks with a new proposal on EU fishing access in British waters, after Boris Johnson called on Brussels to move to seal a deal.After meetings with aides to the EU’s heads of state and government and fisheries ministers, Barnier was lock
  
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• Pence receives Covid vaccine on TV as FDA panel recommends Moderna – live

  18-12-2020 19:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Vice-president becomes highest-ranking official to receive vaccine so farFDA panel clears way for emergency use of Moderna’s vaccineSupreme court dismisses challenge to Trump’s census proposalMcConnell: ‘I’m even more optimistic’ about Covid relief deal
  Sign up to receive First Thing – our daily briefing by email 6.00pm GMT Here’s where the day stands so far: 5.52pm GMT The acting secretary of defense is pushing back against an Axios report that he has h
  
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• Coronavirus live news: Sweden tightens rules after nearly 10,000 daily cases; Austria to lock down after Christmas

  18-12-2020 19:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Sweden introduces tougher measures after recording 9,654 cases; Austria announces third lockdown just 11 days after ending last oneMacron faces criticism over behaviour before Covid testMike Pence receives Covid-19 vaccine Covid in Europe: Spain facing ‘third wave’UK coronavirus – latest updates
  US coronavirus – latest updates 6.00pm GMT World Health Organization (WHO) officials said an international team would be going to China in the first week of January to investigate
  
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• Belgian minister tweets EU's Covid vaccine price list to anger of manufacturers

  18-12-2020 18:53 via theguardian.com
  
  Pharmaceutical companies complain of breach of confidentiality after amount EU has agreed to pay for leading vaccines goes publicCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageA Belgian minister has inadvertently blown the lid off a sensitive and commercial secret – the price that the EU has agreed to pay for the leading Covid vaccines.Belgium’s budget state ecretary, Eva De Bleeker, posted the price list on Twitter, with the amounts of each vaccine that her countr
  
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• Six Hampshire police officers guilty of misconduct over offensive comments

  18-12-2020 18:41 via theguardian.com
  
  Officers in elite unit were recorded making racist, homophobic and sexist remarksSix police officers who were part of an elite unit plagued by racist, homophobic and sexist behaviour have been found guilty of gross misconduct at a disciplinary hearing.A covert bug recorded members of Hampshire police’s serious organised crime unit regularly making offensive remarks, including wishing death on foreigners, and an investigation found that part of the office where a black officer worked was ca
  
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• McDonald's is watching its dumpsters closely

  18-12-2020 18:36 via cnn.com
  
  Jason Gates spends a lot of his time thinking about trash, and how we can generate less of it.
  
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• Human rights group denounces police in Peru of abuses after protesters' deaths

  18-12-2020 18:28 via nbcnews.com
  
  “We were protecting people who had already fallen to the ground and police kept moving forward and shooting straight at us,” said a father who marched at a protest.
  
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• Nigerian schoolboys meet president after kidnap ordeal

  18-12-2020 18:12 via theguardian.com
  
  Some of 344 children recount their ordeal as they meet with Muhammdu Buhari in Katsina
  Nigeria’s president, Muhammdu Buhari, has met with more than 300 schoolboys kidnapped a week ago in the country’s restive north-west as authorities celebrated their freedom amid widespread anger in the country at deepening insecurity.The 344 boys arrived in the city of Katsina on Friday morning, relieved to be free but exhausted from a week spent in captivity following their abduction by local band
  
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• Suspected Russian cyber-attack growing in scale, Microsoft warns

  18-12-2020 18:07 via theguardian.com
  
  Government agencies around world among targets in SolarWinds ‘espionage-based’ hackMicrosoft has said the UK and six other countries outside the US have been affected by a suspected Russian hacking attack that US authorities have warned poses a grave risk to government and private networks.Brad Smith, Microsoft’s chief legal counsel, said the company had uncovered 40 customers, including government agencies, thinktanks, NGOs and IT companies, who were “targeted more preci
  
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• Sweden looks to change law so 1994 ferry disaster can be re-examined

  18-12-2020 18:04 via theguardian.com
  
  New documentary questions findings of original investigation into cause of sinking in Baltic Sea that claimed 852 livesSweden will seek to lift a ban on inspections of the wreck of the Estonia ferry that sank in the Baltic Sea in 1994 with the loss of 852 lives in one of the worst maritime disasters of the 20th century.The Swedish Accident Investigation Authority has made a request to amend a law banning dives in order to allow a re-examination of the wreck after a documentary presented evidence
  
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• As Trump weighs pardons, GOP divided on whether Snowden should receive one

  18-12-2020 18:03 via cnn.com
  
  The expectation that President Donald Trump will issue a flurry of pardons in his final days in office has sparked a contentious discussion among congressional Republicans over whether former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden deserves one.
  
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• Congress passes a bipartisan bill that actually fights corruption. How did that happen?

  18-12-2020 18:00 via nbcnews.com
  
  With one small change in the law, the Corporate Transparency Act combats grand corruption, terror financing, human trafficking, weapons smuggling and fraud.
  
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• California activates 'mass fatality' program as Covid cases and deaths climb

  18-12-2020 17:58 via nbcnews.com
  
  "This is a deadly disease, a deadly pandemic and we're in the middle of it right now," Gov. Gavin Newsom said.
  
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• For many Sikh Americans, India's new farm laws hit close to home

  18-12-2020 17:57 via nbcnews.com
  
  Sikhs in the U.S. often come from farming families who will be hurt by the policies that can lead to loss of land and income — so activists are protesting.
  
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• Venezuela is quietly quitting socialism

  18-12-2020 17:41 via cnn.com
  
  Shantytowns surround Caracas, Venezuela's capital, like the walls of a bowl. Little houses pile on each other on the steep hills, some reachable only by vertiginous staircases.
  
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• For years, the Pentagon sits on racial discrimination survey data

  18-12-2020 17:30 via nbcnews.com
  
  “It concerns me tremendously,” Maryland Rep. Anthony Brown said, adding Congress had established a clear reporting requirement and the public had a right to know.
  
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• Congress hits a new snag on Covid relief bill as shutdown deadline looms

  18-12-2020 17:29 via nbcnews.com
  
  Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell said he remains "optimistic" thatdeal is close.
  
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• Cyberpunk 2077: how 2020's biggest video game launch turned into a shambles

  18-12-2020 17:27 via theguardian.com
  
  Starring Keanu Reeves and hyped to the heavens, Projekt Red’s dystopian but glitchy romp has been pulled from sale. What went wrong? Cyberpunk 2077, one of the most-anticipated video games of the year was released last week. A dystopian romp around a Blade Runner-inspired city, it had all the ingredients for a perfect storm of hype: it’s been nearly a decade in the making; its creator, Warsaw’s CD Projekt Red, was behind one of the greatest games of the last decade (The Witcher
  
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• Mexico: assassin shoots former state governor in restaurant bathroom

  18-12-2020 17:22 via theguardian.com
  
  Aristóteles Sandoval was shot in the back in bathroom in Puerto Vallarta, and died soon afterwards at local hospitalThe former governor of Mexico’s violence-wracked western state of Jalisco has been shot dead in a restaurant bathroom in the popular beach resort of Puerto Vallarta.Aristóteles Sandoval was dining with four others when at around 1.40 on Friday he got up from the table and went to the toilet, where the killer shot him in the back, said the state attorney general,
  
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• Northeast just got hit by a historic snowstorm. Could a white Christmas be next?

  18-12-2020 17:19 via nbcnews.com
  
  As millions dig out from under at least a foot of snow after a powerful nor'easter, could more wintry weather be on the horizon for the holiday week?
  
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• Saunas to sourdough: Unesco updates culture heritage list

  18-12-2020 17:09 via theguardian.com
  
  Thirty-five entries from around the world added to 2020 list of national traditions
  Sauna culture in Finland, sourdough making in Malta, Budima dancing in Zambia and a grass mowing competition in Bosnia and Herzegovina have been added to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s prestigious list of intangible cultural heritage.The entries were among the 35 from around the world added to the list for 2020, and also included the tradition of playing the hunting h
  
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• Barack Obama lists his favorite books of 2020

  18-12-2020 17:04 via cnn.com
  
  In a year that saw many traditions upended, former President Barack Obama is keeping up with one annual custom: sharing his favorite books of the year.
  
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• Supreme Court throws out challenge to Trump census plan to exclude undocumented immigrants

  18-12-2020 17:03 via nbcnews.com
  
  “This case is riddled with contingencies and speculation,” the court said in a short, unsigned opinion, referring to the states' challenge.
  
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