
By BY DAVID E. SANGER from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/31DryRW
Authorities reportedly investigating if Republican congressman, 38, violated sex trafficking laws and had inappropriate relationship
The prominent Republican congressman Matt Gaetz’s reported relationship with a 17-year-old girl remained under scrutiny on Wednesday, despite his insistence in an appearance on Fox News that the allegation was “verifiably false”.
Related: Hunter Biden calls Trump 'vile' in new book and denies Ukraine allegations
Continue reading...Former Alaska governor confirms diagnosis in interview and says her case shows ‘anyone can catch this’
Sarah Palin says she tested positive for Covid-19 and is urging people to take steps to guard against the coronavirus, such as wearing masks in public.
“Through it all, I view wearing that cumbersome mask indoors in a crowd as not only allowing the newfound luxury of being incognito, but trust it’s better than doing nothing to slow the spread,” Palin, the 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee, told People magazine.
Continue reading...Company is sending more people to supervise manufacturing at the Baltimore plant after a human error caused the problem
Johnson & Johnson said on Wednesday it had found a problem with a batch of drug substance for its Covid-19 vaccine, which did not meet quality standards at Emergent Biosolutions’ production site in Baltimore, Maryland.
The issue was identified and addressed with Emergent and shared with the US Food and Drug Administration, J&J said, adding it was sending more people to supervise manufacturing at the plant.
Continue reading...Scientist recognised for her leadership in fight against Covid-19 says she accepts honour on behalf of all who helped tackle pandemic
Scientist Siouxsie Wiles has been named New Zealander of the Year for her leadership through the country’s Covid-19 response.
Wiles was presented with the award at a gala dinner in Auckland on Wednesday night attended by 800 people: New Zealand’s pandemic success made manifest.
Continue reading...Jacinda Ardern says the changes to wages and benefits will help support the most vulnerable
New Zealand is raising its minimum wage to $20 an hour and increasing the top tax rate for the country’s highest earners to 39%.
The changes will be rolled out on Thursday, alongside small increases to unemployment and sickness benefits. The government estimates the minimum wage increase – a rise of $1.14 per hour – will affect up to 175,500 workers, and increase wages across the economy by $216m.
Continue reading...Two new cases reported on Wednesday include nurse who appears to be third separate case of healthcare worker contracting virus from Princess Alexandra hospital
Greater Brisbane residents will have to wait until Thursday to learn whether a city-wide lockdown can be lifted for the Easter weekend, after “encouraging” results from a record number of coronavirus tests.
On Tuesday, two new cases were detected within the Brisbane community. One was a vaccinated nurse from the Princess Alexandra hospital’s infectious diseases ward, which was last night evacuated as a precaution. The entire hospital was placed in lockdown.
Continue reading...Palau is opening up to visitors from Taiwan under strict Covid-safe measures, but locals still have doubts
On Thursday, 110 people from Taiwan will be able to enjoy the thing so many around the world have been dreaming of since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic: an international holiday to a tropical island paradise.
The tiny Pacific country of Palau, in the north-west corner of the Pacific with a population of around 20,000 people, will this week begin welcoming tourists from Taiwan as part of a travel bubble.
Continue reading...Kremlin says leaders discussed possibility of shipments and joint production amid shortage of doses inside Europe
Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron discussed Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine and its use in Europe on a conference call on Tuesday, the Kremlin said.
Moscow’s statement said that among other subjects the Russian, German and French leaders discussed prospects for the registration of the vaccine in the EU and the possibility of shipments and joint production in EU nations. It did not say who raised the topic.
Continue reading...Immunisation panel says there is ‘substantial uncertainty about the benefit’ of the vaccine given risk of rare type of blood clot
Canada on Monday suspended the use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine for people under 55 following concerns it might be linked to rare blood clots.
The pause was recommended by the National Advisory Committee on Immunization for safety reasons. The Canadian provinces, which administer health in the country, announced the suspension on Monday.
Continue reading...Nineteen-year-old, who has sickle cell disease, left his home on 22 March, saying he was going to visit a friend
A London mother is seeking help to find her son who has been missing for over a week.
Student Richard Okorogheye, 19, who has sickle cell disease, said he was “struggling to cope” with university pressures and had been shielding during lockdown, according to his mother, Evidence Joel.
The Metropolitan police said officers were becoming increasingly concerned about the teenager who was believed to have left his family home in the Ladbroke Grove area of west London on 22 March. He was reported missing on 24 March.
Joel told the MyLondon website: “Richard has never done anything like this. Something has gone wrong.” He would only leave the house to go to hospital for regular blood transfusions for his condition.
Joel recalled him saying he was going to visit a friend, although none of them had seen him, telling her to drive safe and that he would “see me later”, she told the website.
She returned home from a nursing shift at around 9pm and assumed he was in his room. She cooked him a meal but found he was not there when she knocked on his door and he did not answer his telephone.
The alarm was raised after a locksmith helped her gain entry to the room which was empty but Richard’s wallet, bus pass and bank card were left behind.
The teenager was last seen leaving his home and heading in the direction of Ladbroke Grove, west London, on 22 March at approximately 8.30pm, police said. Officers added that he was known to frequent London’s Westminster and Hammersmith and Fulham areas.
Chief inspector Clare McCarthy, of the Met’s Central West Command Unit, said: “Our officers have been working tirelessly to locate Richard, using all investigative opportunities and data inquiries, speaking with witnesses and trawling CCTV.
“We are following every lead possible and are appealing for the public to help us in our work.
“If you may have seen Richard, please contact police. If Richard is safe and well, we ask him to contact us as a matter of urgency so that we can put his family’s minds at ease.”
Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101 quoting 21MIS008134, or they can call 999 in an emergency.
They could also go online at https://www.missingpeople.org.uk to pass any information on to the charity Missing People.
Measures are among dozens of anti-trans legislation across the US and conservatives have filed more proposals this year than ever before
Arkansas lawmakers have approved a ban on gender-affirming healthcare for transgender children, sending the governor a bill that has been widely criticized by medical and child welfare groups.
Related: How trans children became 'a political football' for the Republican party
Continue reading...Australian Labor party gathers online to endorse slimmed-down election platform and debate industrial relations, trade and foreign affairs. Follow all the latest updates, live
Everyone agrees to the rules
Wayne Swan is now giving his (remote) address. “Labor is not just a party, it’s a movement,” he says.
Mich-Elle Myers of the MUA is reading the riot act about how the conference is going to work.
Delegates are getting the very strong word they check the session times. As in - WE ARE NOT GOING OVER PEOPLE
Continue reading...Survey of experts in relevant fields concludes that new variants could arise in countries with low vaccine coverage
The planet could have a year or less before first-generation Covid-19 vaccines are ineffective and modified formulations are needed, according to a survey of epidemiologists, virologists and infectious disease specialists.
Scientists have long stressed that a global vaccination effort is needed to satisfactorily neutralise the threat of Covid-19. This is due to the threat of variations of the virus – some more transmissible, deadly and less susceptible to vaccines – that are emerging and percolating.
Continue reading...Joint letter signed by Boris Johnson, Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel and others warns ‘nobody is safe until everyone is safe’
The world needs a global treaty for pandemics to protect states in the wake of Covid-19, akin to the settlement forged after the second world war, Boris Johnson and other world leaders have urged.
In a joint article published in newspapers across the world, leaders including the UK prime minister, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, warn that a future global pandemic is an inevitability and that Covid has served as “a stark and painful reminder that nobody is safe until everyone is safe”.
Continue reading...Redfern bar shakes like the hull of a ship as devoted community comes back together after year apart
Over the past year, various members of the Redfern Shanty Club found different ways to cope. Robert Boddington, with his thespian’s voice and easy stage patter, gathered a few friends and tried to sing in public places, “just turning up in the dead of night and quietly singing away”. Robin Howard says he got “the shakes”. Emma Norton, a train driver with a soaring Celtic voice, says: “I sang to myself a lot, I guess.”
On Monday night, as restrictions in Sydney were almost completely lifted – with relaxed caps on capacity in bars, and no limits on singing – this devoted and joyous community finally returned to their favourite weekly ritual.
Continue reading...Shift surprises ABC during its attempt to stop commonwealth from automatically closing court proceedings
Lawyers for the federal attorney general have flipped their position on secrecy in the Witness K case by abandoning a push to automatically close the court whenever sensitive material is raised.
The government’s previous stance had wasted “considerable time and expense” for Australian Broadcasting Corporation lawyers who were preparing to intervene to keep the case as open as possible, the ACT magistrates court heard on Monday.
Continue reading...Prime minister James Marape to set up investigation into AU$200,000 contract for Caring Ltd to provide catering services
A company, one of whose directors is a senior official within Papua New Guinea’s department of health was paid more than 539,000 kina (A$200,000) to provide catering including for a Covid isolation unit in the capital from May to November last year.
The revelations have prompted the country’s prime minister, James Marape, to call for a full investigation into the catering contract and the tender process by which it was obtained.
Continue reading...Thick dust carrying extremely high levels of hazardous particles blows in from drought-hit Mongolia
The second sandstorm to hit China in less than a fortnight has reversed the colours of the sky, turning the sun blue and the heavens yellow.
Beijing woke on Sunday morning shrouded in thick dust carrying extremely high levels of hazardous particles.
Continue reading...Two women who travelled to Bryon Bay in NSW while infectious are among the four new local cases of the UK variant of coronavirus
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Greater Brisbane will go into to a three-day snap lockdown from 5pm Monday, after authorities detected four new locally acquired coronavirus cases.
The state’s chief health officer, Jeannette Young, described the growing cluster of seven cases as “significant community transmission” of the UK variant of the virus and warned people to stay at home in the coming days.
Continue reading...As soon as you’re sure you imagined them, on they go again
“Thou aeronautical boll weevil / Illuminate yon woods primeval,” the Mills Brothers sang in 1952, imploring glow-worms to “Light the path below, above / And lead us on to love”. John Keats, comparing the fairness of goddess Psyche with the bright white moon and the evening star (spoiler: she is fairer than both), refers to the star as an “amorous glow-worm of the sky”. Seamus Heaney poked a glow-worm with a blunt stick and “a tiny brightening den lit the eye” – turning the stick into a wand.
Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo. I’m in Mozambique, it is dark, and there is a wedding tomorrow. I have just had my first – and I don’t know it yet, but only – drink in a coconut. I chose Fanta Grape. Outside at the restaurant, I see my first glow-worms. It is possible that they are fireflies, but they’re still: on the branches of what I hope are hibiscus trees, but then again, I would happily plant a hibiscus in every memory I have.
Continue reading...Lee Wong, an Asian-American and former soldier, lifts his shirt to reveal scars he sustained while serving with the US military. Wong, 69, an elected official in West Chester, Ohio was speaking in a town hall meeting about the racism he has faced in his adopted homeland. Addressing the meeting, Wong stood up and lifted his singlet, showing large scars on his chest. ‘Here is my proof. This is sustained in my service in the US military. Is this patriot enough?’ he asked.
Continue reading...First the Rose family’s former mansion hit the real estate lists – now it’s the 10-room motel they called home
The motel home of the Rose family in the Emmy-sweeping Canadian TV series Schitt’s Creek is up for sale for C$2m.
The Hockley Motel in the Canadian town of Mono, Ontario, was a key filming location throughout the six seasons of the hit CBC sitcom.
Continue reading...More than 360 vessels have been stranded since giant container ship MV Ever Given became wedged diagonally across the Suez
A vast range of goods from Ikea furnishings to tens of thousands of livestock is stuck in a maritime traffic jam caused by the Suez canal blockage.
More than 360 vessels have been stranded in the Mediterranean to the north of the canal and in the Red Sea to the south since the giant container ship MV Ever Given became wedged diagonally across the vital waterway on 23 March.
Continue reading...Mission to check out treatment of Uighur minority is backed by Beijing, says secretary-general António Guterres
The UN has begun negotiations with Beijing for a visit “without restrictions” to Xinjiang to see how the Uighur minority is being treated, secretary-general António Guterres said in an interview broadcast.
At least one million Uighurs and people from other mostly Muslim groups have been held in camps in the north-western region, according to US and Australian rights groups, which accuse Chinese authorities of forcibly sterilising women and imposing forced labor.
Continue reading...US secretary of state says Washington ‘horrified’ after bloodiest day since February coup
The killing by Myanmar’s military of more than 100 pro-democracy protesters in the single deadliest day since February’s coup has drawn outrage from across the world, and calls for a stronger global response.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, strongly condemned the junta, saying Washington was “horrified” by the deaths on Saturday, and that the violence shows “that the junta will sacrifice the lives of the people to serve the few”.
Continue reading...Figures collated by the Guardian reveal that one in 445 people have died from the virus during pandemic
More than 150,000 people have died from coronavirus in the UK, according to Guardian analysis.
The latest figures revealed at least one in three recorded Covid-19 deaths have taken place in the past three months, with 54,445 fatalities officially counted on death certificates in the UK since the beginning of 2021. It means one in 445 people have died from the virus since the beginning of the pandemic.
Continue reading...The team whose quarantine serenade went viral are playing the long game to the NRL promised land
Before the Kaiviti Silktails rugby league team finished their Covid-19 quarantine they had become worldwide heroes. Individually singing from 35 Juliet balconies in the Sydney Sofitel Hotel, they serenaded the world with three gospel hymns, going viral with more than million hits and delivering a Fiji-style thank you to the staff and guards who had nursed them to the promised land.
Their joyous gratitude was a refreshing contrast with the complaints and social media moping of other quarantined athletes, and announced the arrival of something unique.
Continue reading...Washington says Beijing’s tit-for-tat sanctions will only focus attention on its ‘genocide’ against Uighurs
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has warned that China’s tit-for-tat sanctions against two Americans in the growing dispute over Beijing’s treatment of Uighurs were “baseless” and would only shine a harsh spotlight on the “genocide” in Xinjiang.
“Beijing’s attempts to intimidate and silence those speaking out for human rights and fundamental freedoms only contribute to the growing international scrutiny of the ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang,” Blinken said in a statement on Saturday.
Continue reading...Liberal MPs Katie Allen and Sarah Henderson say parliament’s work culture needs an overhaul
Liberal MPs are calling for drug and alcohol testing of MPs as part of a shake-up of political culture following a series of sexual misconduct allegations plaguing the Morrison government.
Katie Allen, who worked as a doctor before entering politics, said she had been shocked at the “underlying lack of professionalism” she had witnessed in Parliament House since her election in 2019.
Continue reading...Alexander Stubb – who played golf with Trump this weekend – suggested deadline and US sanctions package Donald Trump is losing patience wit...