Coronavirus: More cases of new Covid variant found in Europe
Cases of the more contagious variant of Covid-19 identified in the UK have been confirmed in several other European countries as a vaccine is due to be rolled out across the continent.
The infections, linked to people who had come from the UK, were reported in Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
Hungary has become the first in the EU to vaccinate people against the virus.
Covid and climate of fear puts Italian birth rate at lowest since unification
With an estimated 400,000 new Italians this year to replace the 700,000 who have died, the fortunes of Europe’s fourth largest economy are looking ever more dire
Italy’s birth rate is expected to diminish further as the economic strife and uncertainty brought on by the pandemic exacerbate its demographic crisis.
Italy registered 420,000 births in 2019 – the lowest rate since the country’s unification in 1861 – while deaths totalled 647,000. The birth rate could fall to around 408,000 this year, while coronavirus fatalities will drive total deaths beyond 700,000, according to recent estimates from Istat, the national statistics agency.
Gian Carlo Blangiardo, the president of Istat, has said it is “legitimate to hypothesise that the climate of fear and uncertainty and the growing difficulties of a material nature generated by recent events will have a negative impact on the fertility decisions of Italian couples”.
Germany distributes COVID-19 vaccine to states ahead of rollout
Doses of the BioNTech-Pfizer coronavirus vaccine have been delivered to Germany's 16 states. Along with other EU countries, Germany is set to kick off its vaccination program on Sunday.
The first doses of the BioNTech-Pfizer coronavirus vaccine arrived in Germany's 16 states on Saturday, the DPA news agency reported, a day before European Union countries begin a large-scale immunization program.
Initially, tens of thousands of doses were set to be delivered from BioNTech, a Mainz-based pharmaceutical firm, to 27 locations nationwide.
Turkish opposition TV station shuts after 26 days
A private Turkish TV station that aired pro-Kurdish opposition views has shut down less than a month after launch, underscoring press freedom concerns in a country often chastised by rights groups.
Olay TV, owned by businessman and former minister Cavit Caglar, began broadcasting on November 30 but was pulled off the air on Friday.
Its staff announced its closure live on air.
Caglar said he pulled out of the venture becaus
Three UN peacekeepers killed in CAR ahead of Sunday’s elections
Killings come as violence escalates a day before CAR voters head to polls to choose a president and a new parliament.
Unidentified “armed combatants” have killed three peacekeepers from Burundi in the Central African Republic (CAR), the United Nations said on Friday, hours after a rebel coalition fighting the government called off a unilateral truce and reiterated calls for the suspension of a general election scheduled to take place on Sunday.
The attacks on UN peacekeepers and CAR troops took place in Dekoa, central Kemo prefecture, and in Bakouma, southern Mbomou prefecture, the UN said in a brief statement.
The US wasn't equipped for 2020's cycling boom. Its failures stem from a century of leaving bikes behind.
Tim Levin
Walk the streets of many major US cities today and you'll find cones, bollards, and barricades creating space for pedestrians and cyclists that, before the pandemic, belonged to cars. It's an urbanist's dream, but it's come at an immense cost.
When COVID-19 hit last spring, cities from Oakland to Philadelphia scrambled to meet the needs of a public abruptly uprooted from its daily routine and forced to physically distance. Taking advantage of a steep drop-off in car traffic, transportation departments began closing streets to give people more space to roam while designating temporary bike lanes to accommodate a pandemic-era surge in cycling.
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