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China says journalists should eschew activities unrelated to their role
BEIJING (Reuters) – Journalists should not engage in activities unrelated to their role, China’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday, after broadcaster BBC said one of its reporters had been assaulted and detained while covering weekend...
Smog engulfs Indian capital as winter pollution worsens
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Thick smog engulfed India’s capital New Delhi on Tuesday as air pollution worsened with the setting in of winter, shooting up concentrations of fine particles in the air three times above the acceptable limits. The world’s most polluted capital city struggles to breathe easy every winter as cold temperatures and calm...
China to ramp up COVID vaccinations for elderly
BEIJING (Reuters) – China issued a notice on Tuesday to ramp up COVID vaccinations for the elderly, the National Health Commission said. China will step up efforts to increase the rate of vaccination for people aged above 80 and will shorten the time gap between basic vaccination and booster shots to three months for the...
Oil jumps on hopes for easing in China’s COVID controls
TOKYO/SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Oil jumped on Tuesday, buoyed by hopes that China would relax its COVID-19 controls after rare protests against the country’s zero-COVID strategy over the weekend in big Chinese cities. Brent crude futures advanced $1.4, or 1.7%, and traded at $84.57 a barrel at 0645 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose...
Roche withdraws Tecentriq from U.S. bladder cancer indication
ZURICH (Reuters) – Roche has voluntarily withdrawn the U.S. indication of Tecentriq for treating a form of bladder cancer following consultation with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Swiss drugmaker said on its website on Tuesday. The move follows the failure of a clinical trial that aimed to convert accelerated approval of the drug...
Cryptoverse: Messi takes on Ronaldo in fan coin world cup
(Reuters) – The market for fan tokens, a volatile cocktail of crypto and sport, is heating up in the desert of Qatar. Interest in this niche breed of cryptocurrencies, typically linked to sports teams like Barcelona or Brazil, has been charged up by the soccer World Cup which began on Nov. 20. Average daily trading...
South Korea orders striking truckers in cement industry back to jobs
SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea ordered striking truckers in the cement industry to return to work on Tuesday, an unprecedented step that invokes tough strike-busting laws as construction sites run out of building materials nationwide. The second strike in less than six months over minimum pay is causing daily losses of an estimated 300 billion won...
Chinese authorities seek out COVID protesters
BEIJING (Reuters) -Chinese authorities have begun inquiries into some of the people who gathered at weekend protests against COVID-19 curbs, three people who were at the Beijing demonstrations told Reuters, as police remained out in numbers on the city’s streets. In one case, a caller identifying as a police officer in the Chinese capital asked...
The Caregiver’s Lament: How to handle the costs of care
NEW YORK (Reuters) – You might know P.J. Byrne from the movies, most likely as one of the fast-living brokers alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in “The Wolf of Wall Street.” But these days Byrne’s most important role is closer to home: that of son and caregiver. His 79-year-old father has suffered from dementia for about 10...
China to hold weekly COVID control press briefing on Tuesday
BEIJING (Reuters) -China will hold a press conference on COVID prevention and control measures at 3 p.m. (0700 GMT) on Tuesday amid record COVID infections and protests in Shanghai and Beijing. The Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council will invite experts of the National Health Commission and the Center for Disease Control...
Former Ecuador VP released from prison for second time
QUITO (Reuters) – Ecuador’s former Vice President Jorge Glas was on Monday released from prison for the second time after a local judge approved alternative corrective measures in lieu of a custodial sentence for corruption charges. Judge Emerson Curipallo from the province of Santo Domingo said Glas’ rights had been violated by delays in resolving...
China records drop in new daily COVID cases for Nov. 28
SHANGHAI (Reuters) -China reported a decline in new COVID-19 infections for Nov. 28, posting of 38,645 cases, of which 3,624 were symptomatic and 35,021 asymptomatic, the National Health Commission said on Tuesday. On Monday, China posted a record daily high of 40,347 cases – 3,822 symptomatic and 36,525 asymptomatic infections, which China counts separately. Excluding...
29th November
Lawsuit against Google over app store competition gets class-action designation
(Reuters) – A U.S. judge in California on Monday allowed litigation against Alphabet Inc’s Google to proceed as a consumer class action of 21 million individuals who accuse the company of violating U.S. anti-competition laws in how it runs its Google Play app store. U.S. District Judge James Donato said in a 27-page order that...
WHO to use ‘mpox’ for monkeypox to tackle stigma
GENEVA (Reuters) -The World Health Organization said on Monday it would start using a new preferred term, “mpox”, as a synonym for monkeypox and urged others to follow suit after receiving complaints that the current name for the disease was racist and stigmatising. “Both names will be used simultaneously for one year while ‘monkeypox’ is...
Leon Black accused in lawsuit of raping woman in Jeffrey Epstein’s mansion
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Leon Black, the billionaire co-founder of private equity firm Apollo Global Management Inc, was sued on Monday by a woman who said he raped her two decades ago in the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan mansion. Cheri Pierson said she had been a cash-strapped single mother who had already given...
Hawaii’s Mauna Loa volcano erupts for first time in nearly 40 years
(Reuters) -Hawaii’s Mauna Loa, the world’s largest active volcano, began erupting on Sunday for the first time since 1984, ending its longest quiet period in recorded history. The night sky above Hawaii’s largest island glowed a hellish red as bright, hot lava sprang forth at the volcano’s summit at around 11:30 p.m. local time on...
Elon Musk: Apple threatened to yank Twitter from App Store
(Reuters) -Elon Musk accused Apple Inc of threatening to block Twitter Inc from its app store without saying why in a series of tweets on Monday that also said the iPhone maker had stopped advertising on the social media platform. The billionaire CEO of Twitter and Tesla said Apple was pressuring Twitter over content moderation...
Retailers on track for record Cyber Monday -Adobe Analytics
(Reuters) -Spending on Cyber Monday, the biggest U.S. online shopping day, may hit a record $11.6 billion according to one preliminary estimate, as discounts on everything from pajamas to AirPods tempt shoppers to click “buy” despite the strain on household budgets from high inflation. The estimate from Adobe Analytics predicts an increase of up to...
China’s lockdown protests spread to campuses and cities abroad
HONG KONG (Reuters) -Protests against China’s strict zero-COVID policy and restrictions on freedoms have spread to at least a dozen cities around the world in a show of solidarity with rare displays of defiance in China over the weekend. Expatriate dissidents and students staged small-scale vigils and protests in cities around the world including London,...
UK ditches ban on ‘legal but harmful’ online content in favour of free speech
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain will not force tech giants to remove content that is “legal but harmful” from their platforms after campaigners and lawmakers raised concerns that the move could curtail free speech, the government said on Monday. Online safety laws would instead focus on the protection of children and on ensuring companies removed content...
Irish privacy regulator fines Facebook 265 million euros
DUBLIN (Reuters) -Ireland’s data privacy regulator imposed a 265 million euro ($277 million) fine on social media giant Facebook on Monday, bringing the total it has fined parent group Meta to almost 1 billion euros. The penalty resulted from an investigation, started last year, into the discovery of a collated set of personal data that...
Twitter answering privacy concerns ‘so far’ – lead EU regulator
DUBLIN (Reuters) -The lead privacy regulator for Twitter in the European Union said it was concerned about the potential impact of layoffs at the social media company on its ability to meet privacy obligations, but said it was so far getting answers to its questions. Twitter has fired top executives and enforced steep job cuts...
Prague Christmas market returns after COVID but with fewer lights
PRAGUE (Reuters) – Thousands of people poured into Prague’s medieval Old Town Square at the weekend for the lighting of a 25-metre (80-foot) Christmas tree and the reopening of the annual market after a two-year COVID-19 shutdown, but the energy crisis meant fewer lights than usual. The market, which is popular with Czechs and foreign...
Disney CEO Iger makes profitable streaming a priority
(Reuters) -Walt Disney Co Chief Executive Bob Iger said on Monday one of his top priorities is to make the company’s streaming business profitable. Iger is responsible for Disney’s all-in embrace of streaming, and the launch of its marquee service, Disney+, but he acknowledged the measurement of success has changed. Wall Street investors now focus...
28th November
Small plane crash causes mass power outages near Washington
(Reuters) -A small plane crashed into high-voltage power lines about 30 miles north of Washington, D.C., on Sunday, causing mass outages, with rescue services working into the night to rescue two people on board the aircraft still entangled in the cables. The aircraft crashed about 5.30 p.m. (2230 GMT) in misty and wet conditions in...
Belgium-Morocco World Cup match triggers riots in Brussels, dozen people detained
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Belgian police detained a dozen people and made one arrest on Sunday after Morocco’s victory over Belgium in the World Cup match in Qatar triggered riots in Brussels with a car and some electric scooters set on fire. The riots took place in several places across the Belgian capital where dozens of...
UK Prime Minister Sunak vows to maintain military aid to Ukraine
LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak plans to promise on Monday to maintain or increase military aid to Ukraine next year, and to confront international competitors “not with grand rhetoric but with robust pragmatism”. British government support for Ukraine has remained unchanged, despite turmoil in recent months as Boris Johnson was succeeded as...
Tens of thousands march in Mexico City to support president
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Tens of thousands marched with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Sunday in a massive demonstration through the center of the country’s capital to show their support for the head of state before a 2024 general election. “Mexico is no longer run by oligarchy, now there is a democratic system whose...
Militants attack hotel used by officials in Somalia’s capital
MOGADISHU (Reuters) -Islamist militants attacked a hotel used by government officials in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu on Sunday evening, police and witnesses said. Al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab, which controls large swathes of the country, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying in a statement that it was targeting the nearby presidential palace. “We were shaken by a...
UK to fine tech companies that fail to remove self-harm material
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s government intends to make it illegal to encourage others to harm themselves online and will fine social media companies that fail to remove such material, as part of a revamp of legislation governing online behaviour. Promoting suicide is already illegal, but Britain’s digital, culture, media and sport ministry said in a...
