The Spanish government has called on people to behave responsibly and use their “common sense” after pictures over the weekend showed the streets of Madrid and other big cities heaving with crowds despite the country’s ongoing struggle with the second wave of the coronavirus.
Spain has been in a state of emergency since the end of October and is subject to an overnight curfew. The prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has asked people to drastically curtail their social lives and limit their movements for the common good.
Local authorities in tier 3, with the toughest Covid restrictions, will be invited to apply for funds to run mass testing programmes of people with no symptoms, in hopes of driving down the virus and moving to tier 2, the government has said.
Public health directors will be able to put forward proposals for testing in those parts of their communities most at risk from the virus, if they so choose, which could be particular neighbourhoods or workplaces where infection rates are high.
An area seven times larger than Greater London has been lost in what one activist called a ‘humiliating and shameful’ destruction
A vast expanse of Amazon rainforest seven times larger than Greater London was destroyed over the last year as deforestation surged to a 12-year high under Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.
Figures released by the Brazilian space institute, Inpe, on Monday showed at least 11,088 sq km of rainforest was razed between August 2019 and July this year – the highest figure since 2008.
Vietnam reported its first local transmission of Covid-19 in nearly three months on Monday, with officials scrambling to prevent a wider outbreak in the country’s most populous city.
The communist nation was applauded earlier this year for controlling the pandemic with strict restrictions on movement, extensive quarantine measures and a robust track-and-trace regime.
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.
You can find me (and a picture of my dog) on Twitter @helenrsullivan.
Amnesty report accuses sites of openly signalling they will bow to authoritarian regimes
Facebook and YouTube are complicit in “censorship and repression on an industrial scale” in Vietnam, according to a report by Amnesty International that accuses the platforms of openly signalling that they are willing to bow to the wishes of authoritarian regimes.
Facebook’s executives have repeatedly promoted the platform as a bastion of “free expression”, but in Vietnam, where there is little tolerance for dissent, the company complied with hundreds of requests to censor content earlier this year. This includes peaceful criticism of the state by activists, which is protected under international human rights law.
Scientists use powerful new instrument in outback WA to map three million galaxies in 300 hours, unlocking deepest secrets of the universe
A powerful new telescope developed by Australian scientists has mapped three million galaxies in record speed, unlocking the universe’s deepest secrets.
The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (Askap) broke records as it conducted its first survey of the entire southern sky, mapping approximately three million galaxies in 300 hours.
Consumer goods company says all 81 employees will be paid for five days but work four in 12-month experiment
The consumer goods company Unilever is poised to try out a four-day working week for all its New Zealand employees.
Unilever said all 81 staff members at its offices across New Zealand would be able to participate in the trial, starting next week and running for 12 months until December next year. The employees would be paid for five days while working just four.
This article container spoilers: we craved a delicious denouement; we got a disappointing dud befitting these times
I think, overall, we’ve only ourselves to blame. If 2020 has taught us nothing else, it is surely that things never turn out as well as you’d hope. Nevertheless we went straight ahead and invested our last remaining coins of hope and optimism in a shiny drama from HBO and Sky Atlantic.
For five weeks we tuned in to their six-part whodunnit in our increasing millions around the globe, turning the tale of the starry Manhattan couple Grace and Jonathan Fraser (Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant), whose lives come apart when he is arrested for the murder of his lover Elena, into an international hit.
Scientists suggest parts of expanse that once connected Britain to mainland Europe survived waves and had settlements
Breaking away from Europe has never been straightforward.
Eight thousand years ago, a series of enormous tsunamis swept through the North Sea and struck the coast of what is now Britain, with devastating effects.
Coronavirus infections in England have fallen by nearly a third since the country entered its second lockdown, swab tests on 105,000 volunteers have shown.
There was a 30% drop in cases across the country over almost a fortnight this month, with 96 people infected per 10,000 between 13-24 November, down from 132 per 10,000 between 26 October and 2 November.
The president-elect announces senior communications team, led by campaign communications director Kate Bedingfield
President-elect Joe Biden will have an all-female senior communications team at his White House, led by campaign communications director Kate Bedingfield.
Bedingfield will serve as Biden’s White House communications director, and Jen Psaki, a longtime Democratic spokeswoman, will be his press secretary.
Ten parties charged under health and safety laws and three charged as directors or individuals over Whakaari explosion which killed 22
New Zealand’s workplace safety watchdog has charged 13 parties as part of its investigation into last December’s White Island/Whakaari volcano eruption, according to reports. Twenty two people died in the disaster.
Ten parties face charges under the Health and Safety at Work Act which carries a maximum fine of $1.5m (US$1.06m).
Towns west of Brisbane to swelter over next three days as western NSW continues to suffer and Sydney’s temperatures forecast to rise again on Tuesday
Queenslanders are in for a record-breaking hot day on Monday as Sydneysiders get a short-lived reprieve from the heat.
Dean Narramore, a senior forecaster with the Bureau of Meteorology, says much of southern Queensland will be experiencing an “extreme” heatwave over next three days.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told ABC’s “This Week” that the level of infection in the US. would not “all of a sudden turn around.”
AP: “So clearly in the next few weeks, we’re going to have the same sort of thing. And perhaps even two or three weeks down the line ... we may see a surge upon a surge,” he said.
Fauci also appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” where he made similar remarks, adding that it’s “not too late” for people traveling home after Thanksgiving to help curb the virus by wearing masks, staying distant from others and avoiding large groups of people.
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest for the next few hours.
Brazil records nearly 52,000 daily new cases; more than 150 arrested in UK anti-lockdown protests; Australian state of Victoria records no new cases and no deaths
Since the start of the pandemic, 62,094,129 coronavirus cases have been confirmed worldwide, while 1,449,709 people have died, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus tracker.
The US has recorded the highest number of deaths (266,009), followed by Brazil (171,974) and India (136,200).
The Australian government is extending one of the measures it put in place to try and arrest the economic damage from the Covid-19 pandemic - although at a reduced rate.
The Coalition government extended its Homebuilder scheme until March – when its main stimulus measures, the wage subsidy jobkeeper and the additional Covid supplement to the unemployment benefit, jobseeker, are also due to expire.
The renewed Homebuilder scheme aims to provide a boost to the construction industry, with eligible home builders entitled to a $15,000 grant towards the cost of the build. That’s reduced from $25,000 from when the scheme was first launched earlier this year, but the cap for eligible homes has increased. The three-month extension is expected to see an additional 15,000 homes built on top of the 27,000 homes predicted to be supported by the scheme.
House construction is down in Australia; while 170,000 new homes were built in the last financial year, the Treasury predicts, even with the government scheme, only 140,000 homes will be constructed in the current financial year.
Despite good vaccine news and price rises, the cartel could still meet a few bumps in the road – some of them of its own making
When oil ministers from the world’s largest fossil-fuel nations meet via webcam this week to make decisions about the global oil market in 2021, they could be forgiven for indulging in a little early festive cheer.
Oil prices have more than doubled since tumbling below $20 a barrel and hitting 21-year lows during “black April” – when Covid restrictions brought major economies to their knees, and caused what is thought to have been the worst month in the history of the oil industry.
After months that passed in a haze of isolation, Melburnians are reconnecting with the places and people they love
In the depths of Melbourne’s lockdown, time began to pass differently. The days and weeks dragged as the year slipped by, as all the usual markers – celebrations, family dinners, holidays – were stripped away. Suddenly, it was spring and there was welcome news: the lockdown had worked. The borders between city and country, and between Victoria and New South Wales, were lifted soon after.
When Melbourne’s ring of steel came down on 9 November, Emma Jacques packed her 10-month-old son in the car and headed for the coast. After five months of being confined to the city, and two months where she was unable to go more than 5km from her home in Warrandyte on Melbourne’s north-eastern fringe, she was desperate to introduce her son, named Ben Ocean, to the water. “I literally craved the water,” she says.
A Kent couple love their new car – but their experience suggests there are problems with the charging network
A couple from Kent have described how it took them more than nine hours to drive 130 miles home from Bournemouth as they struggled to find a working charger capable of producing enough power to their electric car.
Linda Barnes and her husband had to visit six charging stations as one after another they were either out of order, already had a queue or were the slow, older versions that would never be able to provide a fast enough charge in the time.
43 slaughtered and a further six seriously injured, say anti-jihadist militia
Boko Haram fighters killed at least 43 farm workers and wounded six in rice fields near the north-east Nigerian city of Maiduguri on Saturday, anti-jihadist militia told AFP.
The assailants tied up the agricultural workers and slit their throats in the village of Koshobe, the militia said.
Temperatures expected to reach into the mid-40s in some parts of Australia
Much of Australia is in the grip of an extreme heatwave with temperatures expected to reach into the mid-40s and total fire bans in force in parts of South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria.
In South Australia, 47C was forecast for Maree, a small town in the north of the state, and 46C in Renmark and Port Augusta. The state capital of Adelaide was expected to hit 38C on Saturday.
People at very high risk of contracting coronavirus due to health problems, who were made to shield during the pandemic, have been given the same priority as the over-70s to receive a Covid-19 vaccine.
People aged 18 or older deemed “clinically extremely vulnerable” are in the same priority group as those aged 70 and over, according to the provisional vaccine priority list published by Public Health England.
The singer’s online show had a charming Top of the Pops vibe despite its – often star-studded – shortcomings
Of all the high-profile live streams that have sprung up in lieu of actual gigs in recent months, Dua Lipa’s is, by some considerable distance, the most star-studded. Its list of special guests encompasses everyone from Elton John to FKA twigs to Kylie Minogue: proof, should you need it, of the dominant position the 25-year-old singer currently occupies in pop.
By common consent, 2020 has been her year, thanks to her second album, Future Nostalgia, which has earned her six Grammy nominations and spawned a succession of global hit singles: the kind of success that even Madonna wants to get involved in, making an appearance on a remix of the single Levitation.
The once-in-a-decade population survey has enabled same-sex couples to register their status
China’s LGBTQ+ community has seized a once-in-a-decade chance to be counted with the launch of the nationwide government census.
More than seven million workers have been going door to door across China this month, on a mission to capture the demographic changes among its 1.4 billion people. Guangzhou-based LGBTQ+ Rights Advocacy China is calling on same sex couples to declare the status of their relationship. The campaign, under the tag line, “they are not my roommate, they are my partner,” aims to get Chinese policymakers to pay attention to their community.
US reports more than 180,000 cases as holiday begins; 99% of England’s population face tough new curbs; Asta Zeneca likely to begin new trial of vaccine. Follow the developments live
As Matt Hancock put the final touches to England’s new lockdown regime on Wednesday night, the mood of leaders in Manchester and Liverpool could not have been more different.
Sadiq al-Mahdi, Sudan’s last democratically elected leader and the great-grandson of the messianic figure who fought the British in the 19th century, has died from the coronavirus, Reuters reports.
Mahdi, who was a central figure in Sudan’s political and spiritual life for more than half a century, was being treated in the United Arab Emirates.
President’s comments are the closest he has come to admitting defeat in election and set stage for college vote on 14 December
Donald Trump has said that he will leave the White House when the electoral college votes for Democratic president-elect Joe Biden in the closest the outgoing president has come to conceding defeat.
Biden won the presidential election with 306 electoral college votes – many more than the 270 required – to Trump’s 232. Biden also leads Trump by more than 6 million in the popular vote tally.
Anthropological study of metaphor takes 2020 Diagram prize, pulling ahead of Introducing the Medieval Ass in public vote
A Dog Pissing at the Edge of a Path has beaten Introducing the Medieval Ass to win the Diagram prize for oddest book title of the year.
Both books are academic studies, with the winning title by University of Alberta anthropologist Gregory Forth. It sees Forth look at how the Nage, an indigenous people primarily living on the islands of Flores and Timor, understand metaphor, and use their knowledge of animals to shape specific expressions. The title itself is an idiom for someone who begins a task but is then distracted by other matters.
