- Liverpool mass-testing finds 700 cases with no symptoms
- Devolution ‘a disaster north of the border’, says Boris Johnson
- St John Ambulance to train thousands of volunteers to administer coronavirus jab
- ‘Founding principles HAVE BEEN LOST’: Macron blasts US media for legitimizing Islamist violence after wave of terrorist attacks
- Hurricane Iota makes landfall in Nicaragua
- Peru names Francisco Sagasti as third president in a week
- Trump asked for options for attacking Iran last week, according to US official
Liverpool mass-testing finds 700 cases with no symptoms
BBC News says a mass Covid-19 testing trial in Liverpool has found 700 people unwittingly had the virus.
PHE director said nearly 100,000 people had been tested over the last 10 days. She stressed that these positive cases would have not been detected otherwise.
About 2,000 soldiers have been deployed in the city for the project, which was intended to run for an initial period of 10 to 14 days.
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Devolution ‘a disaster north of the border’, says Boris Johnson
The Guardian says politicians across the spectrum have reacted angrily after Boris Johnson dismissed devolution as “a disaster north of the border”.
During a Zoom call with around 60 northern Conservative MPs on Monday evening, the PM described devolution as “Tony Blair’s biggest mistake”.
While Downing Street later stressed that the remarks referred to Scottish National party mismanagement, Johnson’s comments will be seen as especially provocative with support for Scottish independence showing a sustained lead in polling throughout 2020.
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St John Ambulance to train thousands of volunteers to administer coronavirus jab
Sky News says St John Ambulance has confirmed it has been approached to potentially train up volunteers to administer a coronavirus vaccine.
Last month the rules over who can give a vaccine were extended to include independent nurses, allied healthcare professionals, paramedics, physiotherapists, pharmacists and student nurses and doctors.
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‘Founding principles HAVE BEEN LOST’: Macron blasts US media for legitimizing Islamist violence after wave of terrorist attacks
RT News says Emmanuel Macron has accused the US media of “legitimizing” Islamist violence and smearing his country as racist after a series of terrorist attacks that began with the beheading of a schoolteacher in October.
“When I see, in that context, several newspapers which I believe are from countries that share our values – journalists who write in a country that is the heir to the Enlightenment and the French Revolution – when I see them legitimizing this violence and saying that the heart of the problem is that France is racist and Islamophobic, then I say the founding principles have been lost,” Macron told the New York Times.
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Hurricane Iota makes landfall in Nicaragua
TRT World says along with heavy winds and rain, Iota will raise sea levels by as much as 6 metres above normal tides. It is expected to quickly weaken inland, but will dump as much as 76 cm of rain over the next few days.
“This powerful hurricane Iota is already on the front line, it’s already on land. At the moment, the eye of the hurricane is already touching the border of the Haulover coast” in the Caribbean, Marcio Baca, told a press conference on Tuesday.
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Peru names Francisco Sagasti as third president in a week
Aljazeera says Peru has chosen legislator Francisco Sagasti as the Andean country’s caretaker president, in an attempt to defuse a sharp political crisis after angry protests and the departure of two presidents in the past week.
People waved the nation’s red-and-white flag and blared horns outside the gates of Congress on Monday as the 76-year-old Sagasti, from the centrist Morado Party, won enough votes to head Congress. This means he will assume the presidency of Peru before national elections called for April.
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Trump asked for options for attacking Iran last week, according to US official
France24 says President Trump asked for options on attacking Iran’s main nuclear site last week but ultimately decided against taking the dramatic step, a U.S. official said on Monday.
Trump made the request during a meeting on Thursday with his top national security aides, including Mike Pence, Christopher Miller, and General Mark Milley, the official said.
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In review
The Taylor Swift – Scooter Braun feud dominates the entertainment news this morning after it was announced Braun sold Taylor’s masters to an investment fund for $300m.
Taylor Swift says Scooter Braun sold her master rights and tried to ‘silence me forever’. The two have been battling over the album rights since 2019, when he purchased her old record label. The Independent
Taylor Swift unable to buy her own music from Scooter Braun – unless she signed NDA Sky News
‘We fully respect and support her decision’: Investment fund that bought Taylor Swift’s master recordings says they understand why she wouldn’t participate in deal
Taylor’s masters sold to Shamrock .. but she rerecording them anyway Music Business
Taylor Swift claims she tried to buy her masters back from Scooter Braun, but he refused to give her a quote US Weekly
3rd Breonna Taylor grand juror: Cops ‘got slap on the wrist’
Fox News says a woman who sat on the Breonna Taylor grand jury said she believes their investigation was incomplete and that prosecutors wanted to give police “a slap on the wrist and close it up.”
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SpaceX-NASA mission: Four astronauts arrive at International Space Station
CNN says the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft that launched from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center with four astronauts on board Sunday night safely docked with the the International Space Station around 11 p.m. ET Monday.
Taking responsibility: How watchmakers are embracing sustainability to preserve the planet
Euronews says there is something inherent in the crafting of timepieces built to last that makes horology and sustainability comfortable bedfellows. In a world where climate activism has gone from strength to strength, sustainability is increasingly becoming a watchword for many consumers who are looking to change their habits and avert a climate disaster.
Explainer: Why is Ethiopia fighting one of its regions?
AfricaNews says battles are raging in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray state.
The Ethiopian government has called it a law enforcement operation against a rebellious region. The Tigray regional leadership has called the federal army operations …an invasion.
Pandemic tests the endurance of Middle East’s cultural industry
Arab News says as second and third waves of the coronavirus pandemic sweep the globe, the human and economic costs continue to mount. One area that has been found to have especially weak immunity to a disruption of this kind is arts and culture.
South Korea to tighten social distancing, warns of new COVID-19 crisis
CNA says South Korea will impose stricter social distancing rules for the greater Seoul area a month after easing them, officials said on Tuesday, warning of an even bigger crisis if anti-Covid-19 efforts fail to dampen a spike in new cases.
More political turmoil for Papua New Guinea
RNZ says politics in Papua New Guinea has been plunged into more turmoil today, with government MPs continuing to meet, with the opposition out of town, thinking they had adjourned parliament until the end of this month.
