Coronavirus: US hits record Covid cases and hospitalisations
Record-high Covid infections and hospitalisations have been reported in the US, with fears they will not slow in the run-up to Christmas.
The number of people in hospital passed 100,000 for the first time, a figure that has doubled since early November.
New cases rose by a record 195,695 on Wednesday, and the daily death toll of 2,733 was close to a new high.
CIA officer killed in Somali raid on suspected al-Shabaab bomb-maker
Unnamed American died alongside four Somali officers when extremists detonated a car bomb
A CIA officer died during a raid in Somalia last month targeting a key extremist thought to be responsible for an attack that killed an American soldier in Kenya last year, local intelligence officials have told the Guardian.
The officer was deployed alongside Somali and US special forces during the operation at Gendershe, a coastal village about 30 miles south-west of Mogadishu, and died when fighters from the al-Shabaab extremist movement detonated a car bomb minutes after the raid began on 6 November, the official said.
A Somali intelligence officer who works with the US-trained Somali “Danab” special forces unit in Lower Shabelle said: “Our officers were supported by the US officers. We flew at 2am that night. The soldiers disembarked from the chopper and went on foot in the bush before a huge explosion went off and killed the American friend and four of our [Somali] officers.”
France could close almost 80 mosques after deporting dozens of migrants in ‘crackdown on separatism’
The country’s interior minister Gerald Darmanin promised on Wednesday to introduce “a massive and unprecedented” raft of measures to combat terrorism, including the potential closure of almost 80 mosques.
In a tweet posted on Thursday, Mr Darmanin said: “76 mosques are now suspected of separatism. In the coming days, checks will be carried out on these places of worship. If ever these doubts are confirmed, I will ask for their closure.”
UN: COVID-19 to worsen poverty in 47 poorest nations
The pandemic could push as many as 32 million people in the world's least developed countries into extreme poverty, a new UN report has said. Without international action, global development goals will be missed.
The world's least developed countries (LDCs) will experience their worst economic performance in 30 years in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said in a report released Thursday.
In its Least Developed Countries Report 2020, the intergovernmental body, which seeks to help developing economies navigate a globalized economy, predicted that falling income levels, widespread unemployment, and growing fiscal deficits caused by the pandemic could push as many as 32 million people into extreme poverty in the 47 countries designated as "least developed."
The billionaire husband and wife 'dream team' who created the COVID-19 vaccine
By Bevan Shields
Until a few months ago scientists Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci lived a relatively obscure life in the German city of Mainz. Despite being worth billions, the so-called "husband and wife dream team" were known locally for their modesty: they share an unpretentious apartment with their teenage daughter and would only ever arrive at work on pushbikes.
Born in Turkey, Sahin emigrated to Germany in the late 1960s aged just four. His parents worked at a Ford factory in Cologne and watched their son grow up to study medicine at the University of Cologne and take up a residency at Saarland University in the small town of Homburg. It was at university that Sahin met Türeci, an equally brilliant medical student who was also the child of a Turkish immigrant.
New U.S. Citizenship Test Is Longer and More Difficult
Simon Romero and Miriam Jordan
The Trump administration is rolling out sweeping changes to the test immigrants must take to become U.S. citizens, injecting hints of conservative philosophy and making the test harder for many learners of the English language.
The new citizenship test that went into effect Tuesday is longer than before, with applicants now required to answer 12 out of 20 questions correctly instead of six out of 10. It is also more complex, eliminating simple geography and adding dozens of possible questions, some nuanced and involving complex phrasing, that could trip up applicants who do not consider them carefully.
Of the 18 questions removed from the previous test, 11 were questions that had simple, sometimes one-word answers.
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