Quebec government faces backlash over New Year’s Eve curfew.

By BY VJOSA ISAI AND DAN BILEFSKY from NYT World https://ift.tt/3FMWsK4

Book It In: Tony Birch on writing true characters in fiction

Paul Daley talks to Tony Birch about finding affection on the so-called margins of the inner city, the injustice of climate change and blak humour. Birch also describes why he doesn’t view his fiction as having a political message

You can hear other episodes of Book It In here

Dark as Last Night by Tony Birch was one of Guardian Australia critics and staff’s best Australian books for 2021

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Golden Girl actress Betty White dies aged 99

One of America's original screen stars, Betty White enjoyed a career spanning eight decades.

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A New Year and a New Leader, but Germany’s Focus Remains on Covid

By BY CHRISTOPHER F. SCHUETZE from NYT World https://ift.tt/3qHM1kZ

Colorado wildfires: tens of thousands evacuated as blazes destroy hundreds of homes

At least one first responder and six other people were injured in the fires after fires erupted Thursday outside Denver

Tens of thousands of residents were forced to flee in northern Colorado after fast-moving wildfires destroyed an estimated 600 homes.

Over 30,000 residents across three communities outside Denver had to evacuate their homes after wind-fueled grass fires rapidly burned through multiple buildings including a hotel and Target shopping complex, along with 580 homes.

Associated Press contributed to this report

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Covid booster 88% effective against hospital treatment with Omicron

UK health officials said the latest data reinforces the importance of getting a third dose.

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Desmond Tutu: Mourners queue to pay respects as body lies in state

The Nobel Peace Prize winner's body will lie in state in a simple coffin for two days.

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8 New Books We Recommend This Week

By Unknown Author from NYT Books https://ift.tt/3eDKTJq

China bans footballers in national teams from getting tattoos

Authorities also tell inked players to remove or cover up their designs to set ‘a good example for society’

Chinese authorities have banned footballers from getting tattoos and instructed national team players who have been inked to remove them or cover them up to set a “good example for society”.

A growing number of high-profile Chinese players have tattoos, including the international defender Zhang Linpeng, who has previously been told to cover up while appearing for the national team and his club Guangzhou FC.

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Tesla to recall 475,000 cars in the US

The number of cars being recalled is nearly equivalent to the firm's global deliveries last year.

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Sports Stories That Hit Home in 2021

By BY JONATHAN ELLIS from NYT Sports https://ift.tt/3mKDQTE

Inquests to be held into deaths of new mothers who died from herpes

Coroner will investigate if Kim Sampson, 29, and Samantha Mulcahy, 32, contracted virus from surgeon during C-sections

A coroner will investigate the deaths of two women from herpes following childbirth, amid fears they contracted the virus from their surgeon.

Kim Sampson, 29, and Samantha Mulcahy, 32, died weeks apart after their babies were delivered by caesarean section at different hospitals in Kent.

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Books and films censored under Franco still circulating in Spain

Dictator who died in 1975 stamped out mention of Spanish civil war, sexuality and anti-Catholic views

A Spanish association has called for an investigation into the enduring legacy of censorship during the Franco regime after it emerged that censored versions of books and films are still circulating more than four decades after the dictator died.

Emilio Silva, the president of Spain’s Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory, sounded the alarm earlier this week after he stumbled upon a different version of the 1946 film It’s a Wonderful Life on television.

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How to Clean Suede Boots and Shoes

By BY EVE O’NEILL AND CALEB CHIN from NYT Smarter Living https://ift.tt/3qwW1x5

Man charged with murder of elderly couple in Livingston

Reports said Tobyn Salvatore, 19, was grandson of Denis and Mary Fell, found dead in their home on Boxing Day

A teenager has appeared in court charged with murdering an elderly couple found dead in their home on Boxing Day.

Denis and Mary Fell, both aged 73, were found dead at their house in Raeburn Rigg, Livingston, West Lothian, at about 11.40pm on Sunday.

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Russia orders health and drug checks for foreigners

Business groups criticise a new law requiring mandatory fingerprinting, drug tests and STD checks.

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How We Treat Farmed Animals

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Malawians mourn ex-First Lady Anne Chidzira Muluzi

Tributes are paid to Anne Chidzira Muluzi, the first woman to hold the title there, who died aged 69.

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Israel tries to contain avian flu outbreak after 5,000 wild cranes die

Some 5,000 wild cranes have died and hundreds of thousands of chickens and turkeys are being culled.

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Sharon Gless Admires Eddie Redmayne and L.A.’s Union Station

By BY KATHRYN SHATTUCK from NYT Arts https://ift.tt/3pxBGsb

Whenever the world gets too loud I come to Koriniti Marae, where the birds welcome me home | Leigh-Marama McLachlan

The sacred Māori meeting place is a place our ancestors once walked. Even when there is no one here, I am not alone

• Guardian writers and readers describe their favourite place in New Zealand’s wilderness and why it’s special to them

I know we are almost there when we spot the lone yellow house on the left hand side of the rural and isolated Whanganui River Road, near the central North Island. The quiet thoroughfare winds its way alongside native bush and through valleys that have been carved out by the longest navigable river in Aotearoa. Even as a kid, I knew the little yellow house meant we were just a few bends away from reaching my favourite place in the world, Koriniti Marae.

Marae are sacred communal meeting grounds for the indigenous Māori peoples of Aotearoa – they provide for everything from sleeping and eating to learning. They are the basis of traditional Māori community life, and typically feature one or more wharenui, or meeting houses, usually painted white and deep red and sometimes carved with Māori art. While many marae are no longer the bustling communities they were pre-colonisation, they continue to serve as pillars of Māori cultural identity today.

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Jordan MPs fighting in parliament session live-streamed on local television

The argument began as the chamber debated constitutional reforms, including gender equality.

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J.D. Crowe, Banjo Virtuoso and Bluegrass Innovator, Dies at 84

By BY BILL FRISKICS-WARREN from NYT Arts https://ift.tt/3pvQ6cu

‘It’s about quality of life’: septuagenarian gym owners keep their peers moving

Their shed may not be state-of-the art but a community-oriented approach to fitness is working out for Barbara and Peter Hill. Lifestyle editor Alyx Gorman introduces a heartwarming story that could get you moving

You can read the original story here: ‘It’s about quality of life’: septuagenarian gym owners keep their peers moving

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For Pop Music, 2021 Was the Year of the Deep Dive

By BY JON PARELES from NYT Arts https://ift.tt/3137lsh

LAPD to release video in police killing of 14-old-girl in clothing store

The victim, Valentina Orellana-Peralta, was shopping with her mother for a dress for her 15th birthday celebration when she was shot

The Los Angeles police department is due on Monday to release video in the case of an officer who shot and killed a 14-year-old girl inside a department store while firing at another person.

Last week, LAPD chief Michel Moore, announced that the department would release body camera footage, 911 calls, radio transmissions, CCTV and other case-related evidence.

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Sweeping private-sector vaccine mandate goes into effect in N.Y.C.

By BY DANA RUBINSTEIN from NYT New York https://ift.tt/3qtYqsv

Elizabeth Holmes fraud trial: jury begins second week of deliberations

Former Theranos chief faces 11 criminal charges, alleging she duped investors and patients over blood-testing technology

The jury weighing fraud charges against Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos, began their second week of deliberations on Monday morning.

Holmes faces 11 criminal charges, alleging that she duped investors and patients by hailing her company’s blood-testing technology as a medical breakthrough when in fact it was prone to wild errors.

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I’ve Spent 25 Years as a Joan Didion Thief

By BY JAY CASPIAN KANG from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/3z0W0Fu

Iran nuclear deal: eighth round of talks begins in Vienna

Tehran is keen to verify US sanctions have genuinely been lifted

An eighth round of talks on reviving the Iran nuclear deal has begun in Vienna, with Iran saying participants have been largely working from an acceptable common draft text and that its team was willing to stay as long as it took to reach an agreement.

The Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, said he wanted the focus of the coming round of talks to be on how Tehran could verify US sanctions had genuinely been lifted. The landmark 2015 deal, from which Donald Trump withdrew the US, had lifted sanctions on Iran in return for controls on its civilian nuclear programme.

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No comfort at the bottom of the feed: how to prevent information overload in the time of Covid

Experts explain techniques to navigate pandemic news so you can avoid being swamped while keeping up to date

• Get our free news app; get our morning email briefing

There was a routine. Kate Sewell would watch the New South Wales premier’s daily Covid press conference at 11am. During the work day, she kept a browser tab running with a pandemic news live blog. She’d pick up her phone and scroll through posts about masks and lockdowns on social media. And then, on her drive home from her healthcare job in Sydney, maybe listen to a podcast or news radio.

She never felt exactly good when she turned off the TV or put down her phone, but maybe there was comfort in the noise. “It was the numbers game,” she says. “Are things going up? Are things going down? Chasing that hope that if the numbers are going down, OK, things are getting better.” The announcement in September that Gladys Berejiklian’s daily press conferences were coming to an end was “a hallelujah moment”, Sewell says.

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Labour claims UK ministers risking emergence of new Covid variants

Government accused of thwarting poorer countries’ bid to manufacture their own vaccines

• Coronavirus – latest updates
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Labour has claimed ministers are risking the emergence of other Covid variants like Omicron by thwarting a bid by poorer countries to manufacture their own vaccines.

The British government has “actively blocked countries in Africa and across the developing world from making their own vaccines” by opposing a waiver on intellectual property rights for Covid vaccines, the party says.

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Bushfire emergency warnings issued for Perth hills and WA’s south-west

Fires threaten homes in Warrigal Estate and Augusta-Margaret River shire amid scorching weather

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Threatening bushfires persist in Western Australia with emergency warnings issued for blazes east of Perth and in the state’s south-west.

In the Perth hills, firefighters were battling to save homes in Warrigal Estate in the early hours of Monday after any residents still there were told it was too late to leave.

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Is Disney the Met’s Fairy Godmother?

By BY MAX LAKIN from NYT Arts https://ift.tt/3FuC8gl

Christmas storms hit California with much-needed snow and rain

State says snowpack now between 114% and 137% of normal across Sierra range while southern areas get much-needed rain

A major Christmas storm caused whiteout conditions and closed key highways in the mountains of northern California and Nevada, with forecasters warning that travel in the Sierra Nevada could be difficult for several days.

Rainstorms also continued to hit parts of southern California. The conditions were difficult but welcome developments in a parched state where the Sierra snowpack had been at dangerously low levels after weeks of dry weather.

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Declaration of Mark Kroll, Ph.D.

By Unknown Author from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/34048La

I spent my house deposit on a boat to reach the Mokohinau Islands – the magic on our doorstep | Clarke Gayford

It wasn’t a financially astute move but it led to my TV series and helped me discover the truly important things in life

• Guardian writers and readers describe their favourite place in New Zealand’s wilderness and why it’s special to them

My entire experience of Auckland changed when I got a boat. It was the perfect antidote to a professional DJ lifestyle, where getting up at 5am to be on the water become immeasurably preferable to coming home at 5am from work. On trips out I began sticking my head underwater with such vigour that I somehow turned it into a whole new profession.

It didn’t happen straight away, of course. My 40-year-old, 14-foot beige fibreglass boat with a semi-reliable two-stroke engine, named Brown Thunder, only had so much range, and my real goal lay much farther offshore, tantalisingly out of reach. A place where tales of clear blue tropical water and huge fish swirled around a group of uninhabited islands, teasing me from the pages of marine magazines or the crusty lips of old salty sea-mates.

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Hundreds more flights are canceled as Omicron scrambles air travel.

By BY MARC TRACY from NYT Business https://ift.tt/3enA4Ll

Defense seeks dismissal of indictment for Gretchen Whitmer kidnap plot

Five men are charged with conspiring to kidnap Democratic Michigan governor over coronavirus restrictions

Defense attorneys want dismissed the indictment against five men accused of plotting to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan, because of what they call “egregious overreaching” by federal agents and informants.

The government alleges that the men were upset over coronavirus restrictions last year when they conspired to kidnap Whitmer, a Democrat then spoken about as a possible vice-president, even scouting her second home in northern Michigan.

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The great Australian summer quiz, day one

Six days, 10 questions a day. How much can you remember about the news, culture and sport events of 2021 in Australia and overseas?

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As Prices Rise, Biden Turns to Antitrust Enforcers

By BY JIM TANKERSLEY AND ALAN RAPPEPORT from NYT Business https://ift.tt/3enB7Ld

As Russian Threat Looms, Ukraine’s Government Is No Laughing Matter

By BY ANDREW E. KRAMER from NYT World https://ift.tt/3yWWOvh

‘It was life or death’: the plane-hijacking refugees Australia embraced

Luke Henriques-Gomes’s grandfather was one of 44 refugees to arrive in 1975 on the only RAAF plane ever hijacked. The official response still staggers him. Head of news, Mike Ticher, introduces this little known story

You can read the original article here: ‘It was life or death’: the plane-hijacking refugees Australia embraced

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Is It Safe to Have a New Year’s Eve Party?

By BY RONDA KAYSEN from NYT Real Estate https://ift.tt/32nLw7n

California officials close beaches after man dies in shark attack

Thirty-one-year-old man, who appeared to be a bodyboarder, pronounced dead in San Luis Obispo county

California authorities have closed some beaches in San Luis Obispo County after a 31-year-old man was pronounced dead following an encounter with a shark on Friday.

The fatality marked the first death in a shark attack in 18 years in the area, which lies roughly midway between Los Angeles and Jan Jose.

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Grace Mirabella, 70s and 80s US Vogue editor, dies aged 92

Mirabella was editor of the magazine from 1971 to 1988 and was a non-nonsense champion of practical fashion

Grace Mirabella, the editor of American Vogue throughout the 1970s and much of the 1980s, has died aged 92.

Mirabella was a non-nonsense champion of practical fashion. She succeed the more whimsical and bohemian Diana Vreeland as editor in 1971 and remained in the role until 1988.

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French zoo closes after pack of nine wolves escapes

Four wolves were shot dead by park workers and five anaesthetised by officials at scene

Authorities in the south of France have temporarily shut down a zoo after a pack of nine wolves escaped from an enclosure during visiting hours, officials have said.

No humans were injured in the incident last weekend at the Trois Vallées zoo in Montredon-Labessonnié in the south-west Tarn region but four of the wolves were shot dead by park workers and five were anaesthetised by local officials on the scene, Fabien Chollet, a local official, told AFP on Friday.

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Remembering Joan Didion: ‘Her ability to operate outside of herself was unparalleled’

The American author was not only brilliant but also generous and kind to younger writers, writes Emma Brockes

There is that famous photo of Joan Didion, taken in Malibu in 1976, in which she leans on a deck overlooking the beach, cigarette in hand, scotch glass at her elbow, and regards her family – John Dunne, her husband, and their then 10-year-old daughter, Quintana – through lowered, side-long eyes. Like other iconic photos of Didion from the period, she is at one remove from the group, off to the side and in this case, looking not at the camera but at her family as they look at the camera. It’s the pose Didion perfected, in life as in art, and when news of her death at the age of 87 broke on Thursday, it was a shock to see another frame from that sequence surface online. In it, Didion, eyes fixed forward, smiles broadly at the camera in the conventional style – a rare glimpse behind the persona.

The paradox of Didion was not unusual among writers, whose confidence is often born of a million anxieties. But her ability to operate outside herself – to measure the gap between inside and out and slyly mock any effort to conceal it – was unparalleled. She was, famously and by her own account, diffident, brittle, runtish, prone to migraines, afraid of the telephone, and as she wrote in the preface to her 1968 collection Slouching Towards Bethlehem, “bad at interviewing people”, apparent deficits that, in Didion’s hands, were of course precisely what permitted her entry to places her rivals – particularly the blow-hard men of 1960s journalism – couldn’t reach.

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Choppers on Mars and RNA jabs: the best scientific advances of 2021

Some of Australia’s most prominent researchers nominate the most surprising, important and inspiring scientific developments of the past 12 months

With all of the worrying news emerging from the fields of health and science this year, some of the incredible advances that occurred may have been overlooked. But there have been many weird and wonderful feats in the world of research.

Life-saving tests, treatments and vaccines were developed and rolled-out – including those led by Australian doctors – and a world-first malaria vaccine for children was endorsed by the World Health Organization. A new species of dinosaur was discovered in south-west Queensland, adding to our understanding about how they evolved. We learned from Nasa that the much-feared asteroid, Apophis, won’t hit Earth for at least 100 years, so that’s a relief.

The development and the success of RNA-based vaccines has had enormous global impact during the past year. There’s enormous short-term success but it also opens up a lot of potential long-term opportunities in delivering RNA as a vaccine for emerging diseases and also as a means of developing new therapeutics to treat a whole range of disorders.

To get a new type of vaccine out there requires very big clinical trials because a crucial thing with a vaccine, of course, is safety.

Antarctica is a bellwether for climate change impacts, with recent evidence of ecosystem collapse and that a major ice shelf in west Antarctica may fail within the decade.

So for me, this year’s most exciting advance is not a discovery but solid investment in future Antarctic science, heralded by the arrival of Australia’s new icebreaker, RSV Nuyina, the most advanced polar research vessel in the world, and the initiation of not one, but three new university-based Antarctic research initiatives.”

From my point of view, the origins of Sars-CoV-2 has been the big story.

Knowing from where viruses and pandemics start is crucial to understanding the interactions between humans and animals, and how this is influenced by human behaviour, industrialisation, and climate change.

In both my personal and professional roles, it’s incredibly difficult to look past the incredibly rapid development of effective Covid-19 vaccines in terms of amazing scientific advances over the last couple of years.

But, in my other life I’m a wannabe astronaut, and I am completely astonished by Nasa’s Ingenuity helicopter, which has made 18 successful flights on a whole other planet in 2021!

I think the most important finding that came out in 2021 is a study relating to ocean conditions around the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS), which locks up in total about seven metres of global sea level. Lose the WAIS and hundreds of millions of people worldwide would be displaced. The WAIS is known to be the most vulnerable component of the Antarctic ice sheet system and uncertainty about future melt rates is one of the biggest unanswered questions in polar climate science.

The published ocean measurements were taken adjacent to Thwaites Glacier, which is the most rapidly changing outlet of the WAIS. Using an autonomous underwater vehicle, the study documents the first ever temperature, salinity and oxygen measurements at the Thwaites ice shelf front. The measurements revealed warm water impinging from all sides on what are known as ‘pinning points’ of the glacier – these are critical to ice-shelf stability.

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Man held after 100 iPads stolen from children’s hospital in Liverpool

Merseyside police took 54-year-old into custody after £70,000 theft from Alder Hey

A man has been arrested on suspicion of burglary after 100 iPads worth £70,000 were stolen from a children’s hospital.

Police were called after a report that the devices were taken from an outdoor container at Alder Hey children’s hospital in West Derby, Liverpool, on 19 November.

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South Africa ends quarantines and contact tracing, and authorizes booster shots.

By BY LYNSEY CHUTEL from NYT World https://ift.tt/3mwf0H1

‘We’ll still have fun’: Australians isolating over Christmas reveal what they have planned for the day

Thousands of people affected by Covid have had to physically separate from loved ones. Here’s how some hope to stay connected

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Rebecca Miller is cooking up a Christmas Day feast – even though she can’t taste a thing.

Both Miller and her partner Steven have Covid. They’ve cancelled their plans to go to Tasmania – where they were due to be celebrating her 50th birthday for 3 January, and his delayed 50th from last year. Instead they will spend Christmas at home in Adelaide instead, video-calling family and friends.

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'Let's go, Brandon': Caller pranks Biden at White House event

A father from Oregon uttered a term that is code for an obscenity directed at the president.

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South Africa ends quarantines and contact tracing, and authorizes booster shots.

By BY LYNSEY CHUTEL from NYT World https://ift.tt/3qnq8ah

Tagging migrants likely to be another failed plan to stop Channel crossings

Over 27,000 people crossed from France this year and campaigners say a safe, legal way to claim asylum is needed to get the number down

The home secretary, Priti Patel, has repeatedly promised to curb the number of people arriving on UK shores in small boats by making this route “unviable” but more than 27,000 refugees have crossed the Channel this way, up from 8,500 in 2020.

The Home Office is now planning to introduce a tagging scheme for asylum seekers after a reportedly “exasperated” Boris Johnson ordered a review. It is the latest proposal in a string of ideas aimed at clamping down on small boat arrivals, none of which have been successful at curbing numbers so far.

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Police stray bullet kills teen in LA store's dressing room

The teenager was in a changing room with her mother trying on dresses for her 15th birthday party.

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Stella McCartney got pay rise while fashion firm took furlough cash

The designer’s salary rose to £2.7m last year while her company claimed almost £850k in government support

Stella McCartney took a near £2.7m salary from her fashion company last year, up more than £220,000 on the year before, while the business claimed almost £850,000 in support from the government’s furlough scheme.

The designer’s pay went up despite a 26% fall in sales to £28.4m in the year to 31 December 2020, as sales in the UK more than halved, while the company recorded a pre-tax loss of £31.4m, according to accounts for Stella McCartney Limited filed at Companies House. The group made a £33.4m pretax loss the year before.

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Anti-vaxxers serving ‘legal papers’ to Alan Shearer go to wrong address

Protest at property near Newcastle follows video of former England football captain urging people to get Covid booster

Anti-vaccination protesters who attempted to serve spurious legal papers to the former England football captain Alan Shearer delivered the documents to the wrong house, it has emerged.

The former Newcastle United and Blackburn Rovers striker had encouraged people to get a Covid booster jab in a video promoted by the Premier League last week.

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Kim Potter found guilty over killing of Daunte Wright

Ex-officer maintained during trial that she made a mistake when she grabbed her gun instead of her Taser

The jury in the manslaughter trial of former Minnesota police officer Kim Potter, who shot dead 20-year-old Daunte Wright during a traffic stop in April 2021, has found her guilty.

The former police officer, who is white, had maintained that she made a tragic mistake when she grabbed her gun, instead of her Taser, and shot Wright, who was Black, when he was pulled over while driving in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center.

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Australia Covid news live update: mask mandates in place across most of Australia as Omicron cases soar

Restrictions return in most states and territories; SA allows sale of rapid antigen tests; testing centres at breaking point. Follow all the day’s news live

• Vaccine rollout and rates tracker; Cases and data tracker
• Victoria vaccination rate map; NSW vaccination rates map
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We will be watching hospitalisations in NSW today, which have jumped in the past week:

The ABC is reporting Shoalhaven Heads lawyer Paul Ell has pulled out of the marginal Gilmore pre-selection race, and endorsed Andrew Constance as the “best candidate”.

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One annual tradition refuses to die: last-minute Christmas shopping.

By BY BRENT MURRAY AND JUTHARAT PINYODOONYACHET from NYT Business https://ift.tt/3pqkHs1

Merck’s Covid Pill Is Authorized for High-Risk Adults

By BY REBECCA ROBBINS AND CARL ZIMMER from NYT Health https://ift.tt/32nQ3Xt

‘Don’t Look Up’ Review: Tick, Tick, Kablooey

By BY MANOHLA DARGIS from NYT Movies https://ift.tt/3qk6AUc

U.S. Considers Warning Ukraine of a Russian Invasion in Real-Time

By BY HELENE COOPER AND JULIAN E. BARNES from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3swRgq2

In an Evolutionary Race to Dominate the Seas, Ichthyosaurs Were the Winners

By BY SABRINA IMBLER from NYT Science https://ift.tt/3H6J1F3

Meet the Syncettes: Darwin’s old-school, in-demand synchronised swimming squad

Aged 30 to 66, these nine masters swimmers hit their stride when they found an 85-year-old coach

The Syncettes began in 2019 as a group of five swimming friends who met in the “latte lane” of their local swimming club in the Darwin suburb of Fannie Bay.

Inspired by the British comedy film Swimming with Men, this fun-loving bunch of masters swimmers are now a retro-focused, synchronised swimming team of nine who are launching into a series of Christmas performances.

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Daunte Wright death: US 'Taser mixup' ex-officer guilty of manslaughter

The April shooting led to days of demonstrations against police killings of black men.

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Here are the charges that Kimberly Potter faces.

By BY PATRICK J. LYONS from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3plFmNN

Trump asks supreme court to block release of 6 January records

An appeals court ruled against the former US president two weeks ago but prohibited documents from being turned over

Donald Trump turned to the supreme court Thursday in a last-ditch effort to keep documents away from the House committee investigating the 6 January insurrection at the Capitol.

A federal appeals court ruled against the former US president two weeks ago, but prohibited documents held by the National Archives from being turned over before the supreme court had a chance to weigh in. Trump appointed three of the nine justices.

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The flu makes an unwelcome comeback as Omicron surges.

By BY KEITH COLLINS from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3pkru6o

Mudcat Grant Sang Out Against Racism on the Baseball Field

By BY ROWAN RICARDO PHILLIPS from NYT Magazine https://ift.tt/3J8J0T0

The Devastating Observations of Janet Malcolm

By BY SASHA WEISS from NYT Magazine https://ift.tt/3HarOe9

Brigitte Gerney Was Crushed by a 35-Ton Crane, and Lived

By BY IRINA ALEKSANDER from NYT Magazine https://ift.tt/3qmywqs

Did Larry King’s Obsession With Death Fuel His ‘Indomitable’ Will to Live?

By BY JAZMINE HUGHES from NYT Magazine https://ift.tt/3J9WlKJ

Australia Covid news live: Victoria considers tougher rules as Omicron cases continue to rise; NSW resists mask mandate

Queensland tightens mask rules as Victoria considers indoor mandate; NSW reintroduces QR code check-ins. Follow all the day’s news live

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Australia’s peak doctors body has criticised an “unethical” proposal to charge unvaccinated people for their medical care that is being considered by the New South Wales government.

The state’s health minister, Brad Hazzard, confirmed the government was looking at forcing people who had not received the jab to pay for their medical bills if they required hospital treatment for Covid.

We want to keep our restaurants and our cafes and everything operating over Christmas and New Year.

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The variant is motivating Americans to get boosters but not bringing more initial vaccinations, a poll finds.

By BY AZI PAYBARAH from NYT World https://ift.tt/3smSYKC

US army veteran wore wire for FBI to expose KKK members

Joseph Moore helped foil at least two murder plots, according to court records, in nearly 10 years working undercover

In nearly 10 years working undercover very recently for the FBI inside Florida’s Ku Klux Klan, Joseph Moore helped foil at least two murder plots, according to court records from a criminal trial for two of the klansmen.

He lived a secret double life. At times the US army veteran donned a white robe and hood as a hit man for the Ku Klux Klan in north Florida. He attended clandestine meetings and participated in cross burnings. He even helped plan the murder of a Black man.

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NSA Declassifies Internet Surveillance Files from 2011 Case

By BY CHARLIE SAVAGE from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3pl3ccA

2021 Wrapped: the internet

Laura Murphy-Oates and Saved for Later host Michael Sun look at the best and worst moments on the internet in 2021 – from senator Jacqui Lambie dancing on a table, to shitposting comedians and the Instagram accounts bringing joy and community during lockdown

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Eric Adams, New York’s incoming mayor, postpones his inauguration ceremony amid the city’s Omicron surge.

By BY EMMA G. FITZSIMMONS AND JEFFERY C. MAYS from NYT World https://ift.tt/3FhLuw8

Omicron Is Turning Europe’s Busy Season Silent

By BY PATRICIA COHEN AND MELISSA EDDY from NYT Business https://ift.tt/3eaBl8y

European businesses call for help as Omicron’s reach expands.

By BY PATRICIA COHEN AND MELISSA EDDY from NYT Business https://ift.tt/3Jbm85q

Gabriel Boric: From Shaggy-Haired Activist to Chilean President

By BY JULIE TURKEWITZ, PASCALE BONNEFOY AND JOHN BARTLETT from NYT World https://ift.tt/3ElCcxE

The Year in Photos: The War in Ethiopia

By BY FINBARR O’REILLY from NYT World https://ift.tt/3ebpK9a

Vaccine bookings for children in Australia scarce as parents told to ‘check again in next few weeks’

AMA says it is unaware of supply constraints but ‘we have been given no information about how much is arriving’

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Securing a Covid vaccine appointment for five to 11-year-olds is proving difficult for some parents and carers who are being told to “check again in the next few weeks” when attempting to make a booking.

Earlier in December, the federal government said slots could be found through its vaccine clinic finder website from 15 December, with the first appointments available from 10 January.

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Madagascar: Minister 'swims for 12 hours' after helicopter crashes at sea

The Madagascar police minister was part of a team looking for survivors after a boat accident.

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Here’s what we know about Biden’s coming speech on the U.S. Omicron response.

By BY SHERYL GAY STOLBERG from NYT World https://ift.tt/3EgliAI

Life on the ward: ‘Covid was the ideal job for me’

Chris Robinson’s job is all about change and ‘a pandemic makes you have to change more than you could ever imagine’, he says

• Read more from our series Inside Covid

Three health workers responsible for keeping Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital running throughout the pandemic share the stories hidden from public view.

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Downing Street explains why 19 people were in No 10 garden

Boris Johnson says it was a meeting of ‘people at work, talking about work’ during lockdown last year

There have been a series of explanations as to why Boris Johnson, his wife and 17 other people were photographed with wine and cheese in the Downing Street garden during the Covid lockdown in May last year.

Johnson’s spokesman on Friday, after sources told the Guardian and Independent about the event:

In the summer months Downing Street staff regularly use the garden for some meetings. On 15 May 2020 the prime minister held a series of meetings throughout the afternoon, including briefly with the then health and care secretary and his team in the garden following a press conference. The prime minister went to his residence shortly after 7pm. A small number of staff required to be in work remained in the Downing Street garden for part of the afternoon and evening.

As we said last week, work meetings often take place in the Downing Street garden in the summer months. On this occasion there were staff meetings after a No 10 press conference. Downing Street is the prime minister’s home as well as his workplace. The prime minister’s wife lives in No 10 and therefore also legitimately uses the garden.

I think there’s a lot of exhausted people, and they, as people do in work, were having a drink after the formal business had been done.

This shows colleagues who were required to be in work, meeting following a press conference to discuss work … It was not against the regulations for those individuals to have a drink outside working hours, but still discussing work.

This is where I live, it is where I work. Those were meetings of people at work, talking about work.

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Hostages held in Haiti escaped by slipping past armed guards in the night

Twelve kidnapped in October, including an infant and small child, walked hours by moonlight to safety

Kidnapped missionaries in Haiti found freedom last week by making a daring overnight escape, eluding their kidnappers and walking for miles over difficult, moonlit terrain with an infant and other children in tow, according to the agency they work for.

Ransom money was raised to pay for the release of the missionaries who were abducted on 16 October, but a dozen of them managed to flee, navigating by the stars to reach safety, Christian Aid Ministries said on Monday

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Covid restrictions unlikely before Christmas but PM watching data ‘hour by hour’

Boris Johnson caught between scientific advisers and his sceptical cabinet over action on Omicron

• Coronavirus – latest updates
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New Covid restrictions are unlikely to be imposed before Christmas amid deep cabinet divisions but Boris Johnson warned further measures remain on the table, with data on the threat of Omicron monitored “hour by hour”.

The prime minister was accused of failing to follow scientists’ advice on the need for immediate restrictions while leaving millions of people and businesses in limbo after a two-hour cabinet meeting ended with no decision on Monday.

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Mother and son guilty of killing boy, 17, in machete attack in London

Nichola Leighton and Tyreese Ulysses convicted over death of Levi Ernest-Morrison in Sydenham after she said he was ‘bothering’ her

A mother and her teenage son have been found guilty of killing a 17-year-old boy in a machete attack in south London.

Nichola Leighton, 36, and her son Tyreese Ulysses, 19, had been on trial along with three teenagers over the death of Levi Ernest-Morrison.

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Leading activist in Egypt’s 2011 uprising and two others jailed

Alaa Abd El-Fattah gets five years for ‘spreading false news’ and lawyer and blogger get four-year terms

A leading figure in Egypt’s 2011 uprising, his lawyer and a blogger have been served lengthy prison sentences in a Cairo court, in a move that observers have branded a further blow to human rights.

An emergency court on Monday sentenced activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah to five years in prison on charges of “spreading false news”. Human rights lawyer Mohamed El-Baqer, formerly Abd El-Fattah’s counsel, and blogger Mohamed “Oxygen” Ibrahim were both sentenced to four years in detention on the same charges.

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Australia Covid live update: vaccination changes and tougher restrictions up for discussion at national cabinet meeting; hospitalisations on the rise

States and territories to discuss vaccination time frames and mask mandates; health experts concerned about increases in Omicron hospital admission rates in NSW and Victoria. Follow all the day’s news live

• Health experts nervous about Omicron’s effect on hospitalisation rates
• Morrison to hold unscheduled national cabinet meeting as Omicron cases rise
• Vaccine rollout and rates tracker; Cases and data tracker
• Victoria vaccination rate map; NSW vaccination rates map
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Testing locations in Melbourne appear to have filled up before they have even opened, as thousands rush to get a PRC test ahead of their Christmas travel.

Doherty Institute director Sharon Lewin says Atagi is looking closely at data from overseas to try and decide if Covid-19 booster doses should be brought forward to four or even three months.

To make that decision, the authorities, or the advisory group, Atagi, are weighing up a number of factors.

How quickly your antibodies drop ... how much safety data we have at giving the booster earlier and ability to deliver it. We’re weighing all of these things up. We are learning from overseas the booster dose gives you that additional protection against Omicron that we want.

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U.S. and Britain Help Ukraine Prepare for Potential Russian Cyberassault

By BY DAVID E. SANGER AND JULIAN E. BARNES from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3H11V0g

Ohio man charged with stealing 58ft pedestrian bridge

Police in Akron say 63-year-old paid trucking company to help him take Lego-like structure to neighbouring county

A 58ft pedestrian bridge stolen from an Ohio city last month has been found and a man is facing charges, police said.

Akron police said investigators acting on tips and other information on Friday afternoon found the missing span partially disassembled on property in Sharon Township in neighboring Medina county. A man has been arrested and charged with felony theft, police said.

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Elon Musk says he'll be paying $11bn in tax this year

The Tesla founder and world's richest person has been involved in a public spat over his tax bill.

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Young pupils allegedly forced to re-enact Holocaust in Washington school

An investigation is underway regarding the alleged incident involving young pupils in Washington DC.

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Two Pianists, Two Recitals, Two Deeply Personal Statements

By BY ANTHONY TOMMASINI from NYT Arts https://ift.tt/3peGzGy

Australia urged to fund free rapid Covid tests as stores sell out

Free or subsidised antigen tests would send a ‘market signal’ to global suppliers, businesses say

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The federal government should fund free or subsidised rapid antigen tests, business and union groups say, as pre-Christmas Covid testing queues grow and stores sell out of the at-home tests.

Free or at least cheaper tests would not only save businesses from shouldering the cost, it would send a “market signal” to suppliers that Australia was a willing customer and stop shortages.

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Covid: Christmas travel will fuel spread of Omicron, US expert warns

The US infectious disease expert says the Covid-19 variant will spread - even among the vaccinated.

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Il Divo singer Carlos Marin dies aged 53

The Spanish singer is remembered by other members of the group for his unique voice and spirit.

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Senator Joe Manchin threatens to sink signature Biden bill

Democrat Joe Manchin throws the Build Back Better Act into jeopardy, saying he will not vote for it.

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Governors in Maryland, Colorado and New Jersey reject lockdowns and other restrictions.

By BY MELINA DELKIC AND GIULIA HEYWARD from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3yIOpv2

Met police officer due in court on charge of sexual communication with a child

PC Will Scott-Barrett was charged after an investigation by the force’s online child sexual abuse command

A Metropolitan police officer is due to appear in court on Monday charged with sexual communication with a child.

PC Will Scott-Barrett, who is based in the Met’s intelligence command, was charged in November after an investigation by the force’s online child sexual abuse and exploitation command.

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Liz Truss replaces Lord Frost in post-Brexit talks

The foreign secretary will become the UK's lead negotiator with the EU over the Northern Ireland Protocol.

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Governors in Maryland, Colorado and New Jersey reject lockdowns and other restrictions.

By BY MELINA DELKIC AND GIULIA HEYWARD from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3q8V662

Fauci warns Omicron is ‘extraordinary’ and offers holiday guidance.

By BY JAN HOFFMAN from NYT Science https://ift.tt/3spjPWx

How Dasha Nekrasova Is Calling the Shots

By BY ERIK PIEPENBURG from NYT Movies https://ift.tt/3q4CqnQ

Lucía Hiriart, Powerful Wife of Chile’s Dictator, Dies at 98

By BY JOHN BARTLETT from NYT World https://ift.tt/3J31ILN

Running around Waimapihi Reserve in the dark my headtorch revealed hidden treasures | Ashleigh Young

At first I was full of dread but as I pressed on I noticed things I had never seen in daylight

• Guardian writers and readers describe their favourite place in New Zealand’s wilderness and why it’s special to them

I’m scared of getting lost in the bush. This is unusual for an essayist. Most of us like to go for a walk in disorienting landscapes and get completely lost so that we can write about it.

Rebecca Solnit wrote that getting lost is “a voluptuous surrender” but this sounds to me like walking in increasingly frantic circles, getting cold and hungry as night closes in, until you have no option but to dig yourself a little hole and cover yourself in leaves.

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Mets Hire Buck Showalter as Manager

By BY TYLER KEPNER from NYT Sports https://ift.tt/3e6d3fS

Can Politics Save Christianity?

By BY ROSS DOUTHAT from NYT Opinion https://ift.tt/3FbjEl8

With Omicron spreading ‘at lightning speed’ in Europe, the Netherlands locks down.

By BY THOMAS ERDBRINK from NYT World https://ift.tt/3miEQhz

Huge Fire Damages Sprawling QVC Distribution Center

By BY MARIA CRAMER from NYT U.S. https://ift.tt/3mhAwzc

The Deals of the Year, 2021 Edition

By BY ANDREW ROSS SORKIN, JASON KARAIAN, SARAH KESSLER, STEPHEN GANDEL, MICHAEL J. DE LA MERCED, LAUREN HIRSCH AND EPHRAT LIVNI from NYT Business https://ift.tt/32fEAbY