Tuesday 22 December
Daily News Briefing VIDEO
- Covid-19: UK and France to set out plan to restart freight
- All arrivals to Greater Manchester and West Midlands from Tier 4 and Wales asked to self-isolate
- New Zealand backpacker killer revealed as serial predator
- COVID-19 vaccination centres to open soon in parts of Saudi Arabia
- Lebanon passes landmark sexual harassment law
- ‘Dozens of email accounts’ hacked at US Treasury
- Outgoing US Attorney General Deepens Distance With Trump
- Covid testing capacity expected to fall short as UK cases surge
- UK government ‘likely to miss’ broadband and 5G targets
- Coronavirus: Royal Mail halts deliveries to Europe amid transport turmoil
- Google, Facebook agreed to team up against possible antitrust action, draft lawsuit says
- Abraham scored twice as Chelsea ended their recent mini-slump by beating West Ham
- Eddie Izzard: Comedian and actor opts to use pronouns ‘she’ and ‘her’
Covid testing capacity expected to fall short as UK cases surge – FT
UK government ‘likely to miss’ broadband and 5G targets – BBC Business
Coronavirus: Royal Mail halts deliveries to Europe amid transport turmoil – Sky Business
Google, Facebook agreed to team up against possible antitrust action, draft lawsuit says – WSJ – Reuters
Covid-19: UK and France to set out plan to restart freight
BBC News says lorry drivers in Kent have spent a second night sleeping in their vehicles waiting for the border with France to reopen – as politicians thrash out a plan to restart trade and travel.
France shut the border for 48 hours on Sunday, leaving at least 945 lorries stacked-up near Dover amid fears over a new coronavirus variant in the UK.
Other European countries are talking about how to coordinate their response.
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All arrivals to Greater Manchester and West Midlands from Tier 4 and Wales asked to self-isolate
Sky News says anyone entering Greater Manchester or the West Midlands from Tier 4 areas and Wales should self-isolate for 10 days and “assume” they have the new Covid-19 variant, health officials have said.
There are fears that travellers will spread the more infectious variant across the country, which has been blamed for a surge in coronavirus cases.
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New Zealand backpacker killer revealed as serial predator
France24 says the New Zealand man who murdered British backpacker Grace Millane committed violent sex crimes against at least two other women, a court revealed Tuesday, as police urged any more victims to come forward.
The Supreme Court overturned orders banning Jesse Shane Kempson being identified as the predator who strangled Millane in December 2018 after the pair met through the online dating app Tinder.
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COVID-19 vaccination centres to open soon in parts of Saudi Arabia
Arab News says vaccine centres will soon open in Saudi Arabia’s western region and the Eastern Province, as part of the ongoing Covid-19 inoculation campaign from the Ministry of Health.
More than 440,000 people have signed up through the Sehaty app to receive the coronavirus vaccine, according to the ministry. Ninety per cent of those registered through the app are between the ages of 20-60 years old.
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Lebanon passes landmark sexual harassment law
Aljazeera says Lebanon’s Parliament has endorsed a landmark law criminalising sexual harassment that could see the most flagrant perpetrators spend up to four years in prison and pay fines up to 50 times the minimum wage.
“It’s a very good law that should serve as a deterrent,” said Danielle Hoyek, a lawyer with gender equality organisation ABAAD, on Monday.
“It also provides a little bit of hope during this economic and social crisis Lebanon is going through. It shows that we aren’t living by the law of the jungle, that there are laws that you can lean on,” she told Al Jazeera.
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‘Dozens of email accounts’ hacked at US Treasury
TRT World says “Treasury still does not know all of the actions taken by hackers, or precisely what information was stolen,” US Senator Ron Wyden’s office says.
Dozens of email accounts at the US Treasury Department have been comprised by the powerful hackers responsible for a wide-ranging espionage campaign against US government agencies, the office of US Senator Ron Wyden said.
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Outgoing US Attorney General Deepens Distance With Trump
VOA says outgoing William Barr was once so closely aligned with President Donald Trump that critics labelled him “Trump’s personal lawyer.”
But as Barr prepares to step down Wednesday, he again appears to distance himself from Trump and the president’s baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud in the November 3 election won by Democrat Joe Biden.
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In Review
As two people are found guilty of killing 39 migrants in the Essex lorry deaths, we take a look into the headlines.
“Two men have been found guilty of the manslaughter of 39 Vietnamese migrants found dead in a lorry trailer in Essex.
The migrants suffocated in the sealed container en route from Zeebrugge to Purfleet in October 2019.
Eamonn Harrison, 24, who dropped off the trailer at the Belgian port, and people-smuggler Gheorghe Nica, 43, were convicted by an Old Bailey jury.
Two others were convicted of being part of a wider people-smuggling conspiracy.” – BBC News
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What’s the media saying?
Essex lorry deaths: Why do thousands of Vietnamese migrants risk their lives to come to the UK? – Sky News
Essex lorry deaths: How authorities missed chances to stop people-smuggling gang – The Telegraph
Essex lorry deaths: The supposed ‘VIP’ journey that killed 39 people – BBC News
Essex lorry deaths: Two orphans of married victims don’t know their parents are dead – Mirror
The Irish-Romanian clique behind migrant lorry deaths in Essex – The Irish Times
After 39 Vietnamese trafficking victims died in UK, has anything changed? – The Guardian
US Charges New Suspect in 1988 Pan Am Bombing
William Barr announced criminal charges against a new suspect in the 1988 terrorist bombing of a Pan Am airliner that exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland.
The charges against Abu Agela Masud, a former senior Libyan intelligence officer and bomb maker, came on the 32nd anniversary of the bombing that killed 270 people. – VOA
COVID-19 and Brexit: two crises that raise fears of a British food shortage
The last few days before Christmas are fairly chaotic in British supermarkets every year, with sharp-elbowed shoppers anxiously charging their way around the aisles to finish festive shopping.
But fears that shoppers may resort to panic-buying for non-festive reasons have resurfaced after France decided to temporarily shut its border with the UK over the weekend. – Euronews
CAR President Touadera says election to proceed after coup reports
Central African Republic President Faustin-Archange Touadera on Monday urged people to defy threats and vote in presidential and parliamentary polls on December 27, as news of a rebel advance on Bangui appeared to dampen confidence and spread fear ahead of the vote. – Africanews
Jordan continues cross-border goods transport with Saudi Arabia despite new virus restrictions
Jordan said that cross-border transport of goods with Saudi Arabia continued without disruption despite restrictions introduced over concerns of a new COVID-19 strain. – Arab News
Taiwan reports first locally transmitted COVID-19 case in more than 8 months
Taiwan on Tuesday reported its first locally transmitted case of Covid-19 in more than eight months.
The local case is a woman who is a friend of a previous case, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung told a news conference. – CNA
