Vaccinations underway at Newcastle's Centre for Life
Newcastle's Centre for Life was among seven mass coronavirus vaccination centres which opened in England this morning as the huge effort to protect the most at-risk people got a shot in the arm.
Newcastle's Centre for Life was among seven mass coronavirus vaccination centres which opened in England this morning as the huge effort to protect the most at-risk people got a shot in the arm.
Foreign ministers of China and the Philippines on Saturday committed to prioritising post-pandemic recovery efforts as senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi wrapped up a week-long visit to four Southeast Asian countries. Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte in March imposed one of the world's longest and strictest lockdowns to contain the virus, grounding to a halt what was one of Asia's fastest growing economies before the pandemic. "As a friend of the Philippines and your closest neighbour, we will firmly stand with the people of the Philippines until the defeat of this virus," Wang said in his opening remarks at a meeting with Manila's foreign minister.
India launched one of the world's largest vaccination campaigns through video conferencing on Saturday (January 16), aiming to bring the pandemic under control. Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed health workers. "India is going to the start the world's largest vaccination drive. I congratulate the countrymen for this." Modi will not immediately take the vaccine himself as India is initially prioritizing 30 million nurses, doctors and others on the front line. About 270 million over 50's or those deemed high-risk will follow. Sanitation worker Manish Kumar became the first person in India to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in the country. On the first day of vaccinations, around 100 people will be voluntarily vaccinated in each of the 3,006 centre's in India. Indians won't have a choice between the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine and a government-backed, homegrown one from Bharat Biotech whose efficacy is not known. Both are being produced locally. India has reported the highest number of coronavirus infections after the United States. The country wants to vaccinate around 300 million people with two doses in the first six to eight months of the year.
I always had delusions of grandeur. I liked the idea of living in a big city, living a cosmopolitan, New York-y kind of life, being in a city with lots going on, visiting theatres and galleries and having a group of very erudite friends. And if it wasn’t New York, it was going to be at least Blenheim Palace, or some sort of fabulous castle somewhere in Transylvania, or one of those big houses in The Great Gatsby. Those were the dreams of my teenage self. He would be absolutely furious if he knew that I moved back in with my parents in my early 30s. We live in Bromley in the house in which I grew up. It is exactly the kind of humdrum suburbia that I wanted to escape, but the truth is that I quite like the stability of being around people I care about. As I’ve got older, I’ve placed a lower value on a city kind of trendiness and a higher value on community and the support of friends and family. My younger self, in contrast, thought of himself as a bit of a lone wolf. I was eccentric, and the other children at school really took umbrage at that. I really loved obscure role models such as Kenneth Williams and Cary Grant, and even as a small child I liked to wear a blazer and have my hair slicked back. I thought I was Noël Coward, which is an odd attitude for a child of the 1980s. I always had the sense that I was a 46-year-old trapped in a child’s life, and I felt that I should be able to go and live my grown-up life right now. And of course people were like, “No, you can’t live your life as Noël Coward. You’ve got to go and do your GCSEs.” After a time, it seemed to become more acceptable to be different. By then, I quite enjoyed the attention, so I was furious. But it was strange to have felt different from an early age. For some time, I laid it at the feet of sexuality, of being gay, yet it wasn’t anything to do with that – I wasn’t looking to find a partner when I was seven. I think it was pure eccentricity. I’ve always had a posh voice, for example, which doesn’t correlate with my family, and when people asked me why I talked like that, I’d always be like, “I don’t know.” Even so, it was frightening to be gay. There was violence perpetrated against gay people, and because of Section 28, the teachers couldn’t tell us it was fine to be gay and that there were lots of gay people. I came out when I was 21, which is quite late by today’s standards, and it felt like a big deal. I dropped it into conversation with my friends, and they carried on as normal, which was brilliant because I didn’t want to make a fuss about it. I know – can you imagine me not wanting to make a fuss?
A plane carrying one million doses of Sinopharm's COVID-19 vaccine arrived on Saturday in Serbia, making it the first European country to receive the Chinese vaccine for mass inoculation programmes. President Aleksandar Vucic was accompanied by Beijing's ambassador to the Balkan country at Belgrade's airport as containers carrying the vaccines were unloaded from an Air Serbia plane. "I would like to thank President Xi Jinping and Chinese leadership for sending us one million doses of the vaccine," Vucic, who has helped forge close ties with China in recent years, told reporters.
Suicide rates in Japan have jumped in the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among women and children, even though they fell in the first wave when the government offered generous handouts to people, a survey found. The July-October suicide rate rose 16% from the same period a year earlier, a stark reversal of the February-June decline of 14%, according to the study by researchers at Hong Kong University and Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology. The early decline in suicides was affected by such factors as government subsidies, reduced working hours and school closure, the study found.
Not everyone is a fan of January snow, but it’s been perfect conditions for a group of polar bears in South Yorkshire.Yorkshire Wildlife Park released footage of polar bears Hamish, Nobby, Sisu and Luka enjoying the cold weather on January 14.“[The polar bears] spent the day rolling about and sliding down the hills of Project Polar, one of the world’s largest reserves which is at the centre of international conservation efforts to save the species,” Yorkshire Wildlife Park said. Credit: Yorkshire Wildlife Park via Storyful
Astrazeneca's COVID-19 vaccine has been granted approval for emergency use in Pakistan, the country's health minister said on Saturday, the first vaccine against the disease to be given the green light in the South Asian country. "DRAP granted emergency use authorisation to AstraZeneca's COVID vaccine," Pakistan's Health Minister Faisal Sultan told Reuters, referring to the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan. Pakistan is in the process of speaking to a number of vaccine makers, but this is the first local approval.
Indonesia has nearly 130 active volcanoes, more than any other country, and while many show high levels of activity it can be weeks or even months before an eruption. Other volcanoes, such as the Merapi volcano on the island of Java and Sinabung on Sumatra, have shown signs of activity recently.
Malaysia's Top Glove Corp, the world's largest medical grade glove maker, said on Saturday some employees at four factories had tested positive for COVID-19 recently. While the company did not say how many tested positive or when it received the test results, the news comes after more than 5,000 foreign workers at Top Glove were infected late last year and one died in what became Malaysia's biggest cluster of the coronavirus. All employees at one of the four facilities have undergone screening and those affected are under quarantine, while a mass screening is ongoing at another on Saturday, the company said in a statement.
Turkey will renew its offer to form a joint working group with the United States to look into the technical aspects of its acquisition of the Russian S-400 defence systems it acquired, once President-elect Joe Biden takes office, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was cited as saying on Friday. Cavusoglu made the comments to reporters on a flight home from Pakistan on Friday. Biden takes over from President Donald Trump on Wednesday.
Greece kicked off COVID-19 vaccinations among the elderly on Saturday, after first inoculating tens of thousands of frontline workers to fight the spread of the coronavirus. More than 75,000 healthcare workers and nursing home residents and carers have received the shot of the vaccine produced by Pfizer/BioNTech since Greece rolled out the plan along with other EU countries last month. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Friday that Greece aims to have 2 million people inoculated by March.
Suicide rates in Japan have jumped in the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among women and children, even though they fell in the first wave when the government offered generous handouts to people, a survey found. The July-October suicide rate rose 16% from the same period a year earlier, a stark reversal of the February-June decline of 14%, according to the study https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-01042-z by researchers at Hong Kong University and Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology. The early decline in suicides was affected by such factors as government subsidies, reduced working hours and school closure, the study found.
British airports called for urgent government support and an airline industry representative said the sector was heading for a "very difficult" place after Britain tightened its COVID-19 rules for international travellers on Friday. From 0400 GMT on Monday, all travellers to Britain must have a recent negative COVID-19 test and quarantine at home for 10 days on arrival, unless they test negative a second time five days after arrival. Tim Alderslade, chief executive of industry body Airlines UK, said the first three months of the year were typically a slow period for the sector, but called for plans to relax rules during the peak spring and summer period.
Turkey will renew its offer to form a joint working group with the United States to look into the technical aspects of its acquisition of the Russian S-400 defence systems it acquired, once President-elect Joe Biden takes office, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was cited as saying on Friday. Cavusoglu made the comments to reporters on a flight home from Pakistan on Friday. Biden takes over from President Donald Trump on Wednesday.
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 16 — Malaysia has added another six new Covid-19 clusters located throughout Johor, Negri Sembilan, Perak and Pahang. The additions gave the country a total of 285 active clusters...
Shake up a martini and settle in for six decades of movies.From Esquire
As he prepares to end a tumultuous four years as U.S. president facing potential legal jeopardy, Donald Trump has discussed the possibility of pardoning himself, according to a source familiar with the matter. The Justice Department has previously taken the view that the Constitution does not allow a sitting president to be indicted, but a former president enjoys no such protections. Here is an explanation of the potential constitutional problems with a self-pardon and why such action would not end Trump's legal jeopardy after his term ends on Wednesday.
U.S. law enforcement officials are gearing up for pro-Trump marches in all 50 state capitals this weekend, erecting barriers and calling in their National Guards to try to prevent the kind of violent attack that rattled the nation on Jan. 6. The FBI has warned police agencies of possible armed protests at all 50 state capitols starting Jan. 16 through President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration on Jan. 20, fuelled by supporters of President Donald Trump who believe his false claims of electoral fraud. Michigan, Virginia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Washington are among the states that have activated their National Guards to strengthen security, while Texas took the step of closing its Capitol from Saturday through Inauguration Day.
Armin Laschet, the new head of Germany's conservative CDU party, is a sworn European and defender of multiculturalism who has promised to continue the centrist course of Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Saturday fired long-range ballistic missiles into the Indian Ocean on the second day of a military exercise, state media reported. The drill, which comes in the waning days of high tensions with U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, was conducted in the country's central desert region. "One of our most important defence policy goals is to use long-range ballistic missiles against enemy warships, including aircraft carriers and warships," state media quoted Guards commander Major General Hossein Salami as saying.