Author: News Desk

India building collapse sees death toll top 30 as rescue continues Rescuers in India are battling rain and cramped conditions to search through the rubble and look for possible survivors as the toll from the apartment building collapse rose to 35, a senior government official said on Wednesday.  “It’s been more than three days, so we don’t know if there are any survivors any more, but we are not losing hope,” Satya Pradhan, the head of the National Disaster Response Force, told Reuters.  At least eight people are still missing and rescue personnel are clearing debris to look for them,…

Raab defends new Covid-19 measures Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has defended the “balanced, targeted and proportionate” new Covid-19 measures amid criticism from some scientists.  In England, people are once again being told to work from home if they can and rules on face coverings have been expanded.  Prof John Edmunds, who advises the government said they did not go “anywhere near far enough.” But other scientists say they are hoping for a shift towards a more coherent policy.   Tighter restrictions have been announced in all four UK nations. Other measures introduced in England include a 10 pm closing time for…

Wednesday 23 September coronavirus updates BRIEF – ME! – DAILY NEWS BRIEFING Wednesday 23 September 2020 News Briefing – Today’s headlines are dominated by the global Coronavirus Pandemic. As of 6:30 am (GMT), these are the global active numbers. Global COVID-19 UPDATE Coronavirus Cases: 31,783,764 Deaths: 975,471 Recovered: 23,400,905 US passes 200,000 cases, still rising Record rise in weekly Covid-19 cases, but deaths down says WHO Coronavirus cases and deaths rise in Middle East countries Czech Republic appoints new health minister as second Covid-19 lockdown looms Follow new Covid-19 restrictions or risk second lockdown, PM says …

Tuesday 22 Spetember coronavirus updates BRIEF – ME! – DAILY NEWS BRIEFING Tuesday 22 September 2020 News Briefing – Today’s headlines are dominated by the global Coronavirus Pandemic. As of 6:30 am (GMT), these are the global active numbers. Global COVID-19 UPDATE Coronavirus Cases: 31,488,661 Deaths: 969,362 Recovered: 23,115,456 US Covid-19 deaths near 200,000, one in five of global death Saudi health authorities ready to join trails of Covid-19 vaccine Iran records highest daily coronavirus cases since early June Czech PM says he got carried away reopening too soon English pubs to close at 10 pm amid…

Twitter investigates racial bias in image previews Twitter announced it is investigating after users discovered its picture-cropping algorithm sometimes prefers white faces to black ones.  Users realised when two photos – one of a black face and the other a white face – were in the same post, Twitter often showed only the white face on mobiles.  Twitter says it had tested for racial and gender bias during the algorithm’s development. But added: “It’s clear that we’ve got more analysis to do.” Twitter’s chief technology officer tweeted: “We did analysis on our model when we shipped it – but [it]…

World’s richest 1% cause more than double CO2 emissions of the poorest 50% – Oxfam  Oxfam and the Stockholm Environment Insitute released a report revealing carbon dioxide emissions rose by 60 per cent from 1990 to 2015 and their research blames the wealthiest one per cent for 15 per cent of those emissions.  That is more than twice as much carbon dioxide as emitted by the poorer half of the world. The research also showed that the richest 10 per cent of the global population, comprising of about 630 million people, was responsible for about 52 per cent of global…

Two men sentenced in absentia to life in prison over 2012 Israeli bus bombing Two men were sentenced by a Bulgarian court on Monday to life in prison over the deadly 2012 bus bomb attack on Israeli tourists at the country’s Burgas airport. The July 2012 attack killed five Israelis including a pregnant woman, their Bulgarian bus driver and the Franco-Lebanese who carried the explosive, and left more than 35 people injured.  It was the deadliest attack against Israelis abroad since 2004.  Both Bulgarian and Israeli authorities blamed the bombing on the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, playing a part in…

Taj Mahal reopens despite India’s Covid-19 cases soaring India’s iconic landmark Taj Mahal and some schools reopened on Monday as authorities continued to press ahead with kickstarting the nations’ coronavirus-battered economy despite the mounting infection numbers.  India is home to 1.3 billion people and has some of the world’s most crowded cities, so its no surprise it’s second only to the United States in the number of Covid-19 cases and could take over the US soon. India currently has more than 5.4 million known coronavirus cases.  In March, India was put under a strict lockdown that devastated the livelihoods of…

More than £215 million furlough money returned to the government The government has seen a return of more than £215 million in furlough payments from employers, whilst the reimbursements will go some way in helping the UK’s leaders with the management of the coronavirus pandemic, the figure is minuscule in comparison to the £3.5bn officials say were paid out in error or to fraudsters.  Data released by HM Revenue and Customs show that 80,433 companies have sent back £215,756,121 as of 15 September, according to a Freedom of Information request sent by PA Media. Some employers returned money sent to…

Monday 21 September coronavirus updates BRIEF – ME! – DAILY NEWS BRIEFINGMonday 21 September 2020 News Briefing – Today’s headlines are dominated by the global Coronavirus Pandemic. As of 6:30 am (GMT), these are the global active numbers.Global COVID-19 UPDATECoronavirus Cases: 31,240,317Deaths: 965,068Recovered: 22,835,563 New Zealand lifts social distancing rules, except in AucklandDemonstrations in Madrid ahead of Monday’s tough new lockdown measuresUK at a ‘critical point’ over covid-19, top scientists to tell publicFlorida reports 9 deaths, more than 2500 new casesChina ‘third wave’ fears skyrocket after horror coronavirus leak at Hong Kong labLebanon’s coronavirus cases ‘spiralling beyond expectation’ Previous Next Headlines: What…