From Europe to the US, Covid cases in children are surging. Schools aren't prepared
Updated 1413 GMT (2213 HKT) January 11, 2022
As Covid-19 cases skyrocketed across Britain in late December, Stuart Guest spent his vacation poring over scientific reports about air cleaning and filtration systems.
‘We fought the good fight’: journalists in Hong Kong reel from assault on media
Newsroom closures and exodus from territory are result of ‘draconian’ national security law introduced in 2020
As the last news programme came to a close and anchors bade farewell to their online audience on 3 January, Chris Yeung, the founder and chief writer of Citizen News, gathered together his staff and tried to strike an optimistic tone.
“Remember our very best memories,” he said, dressed in a blue shirt with sleeves rolled up and a crimson jumper draped on his shoulders. “No one knows what will happen next. Don’t worry. Just remember the happy things.”
It was the day 90 largely pro-establishment legislators were sworn in. The previous evening, the independent Chinese-language news outlet of five years said it was closing. It justified the decision citing a deteriorating media environment and concerns for the safety of its staff.
Lithuania: Taiwan to set up $1B credit fund amid China spat
Taiwan will set up a $1 billion credit program aimed at funding projects by Lithuanian and Taiwanese companies amid economic pressure from China over an office that the island opened in the European Union country
Taiwan will set up a $1 billion credit program aimed at funding projects by Lithuanian and Taiwanese companies amid economic pressure from China over an office that the island opened in the European Union country, Lithuanian officials said Tuesday.
It follows Taiwan's announcement last week about creating a $200 million investment fund to help Lithuania amid a diplomatic row with Beijing. American and Lithuanian officials say China has blocked imports from the Baltic nation, a close U.S. ally.
Lithuania broke with diplomatic custom by agreeing that a Taiwanese representative office in its capital of Vilnius — a de facto embassy — would bear the name Taiwan instead of Chinese Taipei, which other countries use to avoid offending Beijing. China considers Taiwan part of its territory with no right to diplomatic recognition.
The 'forever prisoners' of Guantanamo
The notorious prison camp in Cuba is 20 years old. Over the years, several plans to close it have been rejected. For the detainees, little has changed in the last two decades. Oliver Sallet reports from Guantanamo Bay.
Mohamedou Ould Slahi spent 14 years behind bars. He was tortured for 70 days and interrogated for 18 hours a day for three years. He lived in Germany prior to his arrest and was suspected of being a high-ranking al-Qaeda operative involved in the September 11 attacks, although this was never proven.
He was never charged or convicted during his 14 years in Guantanamo. The Mauritanian, who is now 50, was eventually released — but was never compensated for his stolen life.
Defense attorney Nancy Hollander's most high-profile case continues to haunt her to this day. Slahi's story recently made it to the big screen as a motion picture. His crime was taking part in a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan and answering a phone call on Osama bin Laden's satellite phone. This of course does not cast him in the best light, his lawyer recalls, but it also was not enough to indict him.
Covid variant or ‘scariant’? Experts warn a future ‘Deltacron’ is possible
Health experts have cast doubt on reports of a possible Covid-19 mutation combining elements of both the Delta and Omicron variants. While the evidence on “Deltacron” remains scarce, French virologists warn that the emergence of such hybrid strains is a distinct possibility.
Talk of a possible new hybrid variant with a name from a Hollywood disaster B-movie spread like wildfire on social media at the weekend, leaving behind the now customary trail of conspiracy theories and black humour. While some prominent scientists rushed to warn against the risk of peddling disinformation, others have argued that rampant variants make the threat of such mutant strains all too real.
The controversy kicked off on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, currently roiled by Europe’s highest Covid-19 rate of infection, where a local team of scientists claimed last week to have discovered the new variant. Led by Leondios Kostrikis, a professor of biological sciences at the University of Cyprus, the scientists said the new strain presented Omicron-like genetic signatures within the Delta genomes – hence the name “Deltacron”.
A new era for the American worker
American workers have power. That won’t last forever.
By
More than any other time in recent memory, the present moment offers many Americans a chance to make work better.
American employees in 2022 have more leverage over their employers than they have had since the 1970s, the result of a confluence of factors. The pandemic that began in 2020 has prompted a widespread reevaluation about what place work should have in the lives of many Americans, who are known for putting in more hours than people in most other industrialized nations. There’s also been a groundswell of labor organizing that began building momentum in the last decade, due to larger trends like an aging population and growing income inequality. This movement has accelerated in the past two years as the pandemic has brought labor issues to the fore.
“I feel like there’s a change in the culture of Americans” to become more pro-labor, said Catherine Creighton, director of the Co-Lab at Cornell University’s Industrial and Labor Relations school.
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