WASHINGTON — The Commerce Department has taken on new importance in recent years, with wide-ranging authority over issues as broad as technology exports and climate change. On Tuesday, President Biden’s nominee to run the sprawling agency, Gina M. Raimondo, will appear before the Senate Commerce Committee for a confirmation hearing. Ms. Raimondo, the current governor of Rhode Island, is a […]
Read moreLike many people I know, I have lately been bewitched by the television show “Ted Lasso,” which made its endearing debut on Apple TV+ this summer. I started devouring it at nearly the same moment I began the most recent season of Jonathan Goldstein’s near-perfect podcast, “Heavyweight,” and while I was gobbling the remains of Season 2 of “Sex Education,” […]
Read moreJOHANNESBURG (AFP) – The cold hits you first. Then comes the smell. Inside a refrigerated shipping container are 17 plastic-wrapped corpses, each bearing a yellow label reading “highly contagious.” The 12-metre steel box has been installed at Johannesburg morgue to help it cope with a rising tide of Covid-19 deaths. The container can store up to 40 corpses, keeping them […]
Read moreJOHANNESBURG (REUTERS) – South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday (Jan 26) urged wealthy countries to stop hoarding excess Covid-19 vaccines that they had ordered but did not immediately need, saying the world needed to act together to fight the pandemic. “We need those who have hoarded the vaccines to release the vaccines so that other countries can have them,” […]
Read moreDonald Trump’s administration overpromised on coronavirus vaccines. In November, his secretary of health and human services said there would be 40 million doses available by the end of the 2020; he was off by about a month. Trump himself promised 100 million doses in that same period. Everything he and his team said was a sales pitch, designed to foster […]
Read moreDonald Trump ‘may engage in warfare with Iran’ warns expert Ambassador Majid Takht Ravanchi said Iran is waiting for the new US President to lift sanctions and rejoin the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which Mr Trump pulled out of. The UN ambassador also shared there has been no communication between the Biden administration and Iran. Ambassador Ravanchi […]
Read moreTwo people charged over allegations of improper political donations involving the New Zealand First Foundation will now see their case play out in the High Court. Today, Judge Peter Winter made a protocol determination to move the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) prosecution from the North Shore District Court to the High Court at Auckland. The case was transferred because of […]
Read moreThe Food Network has been forced to cancel an entire season of a cooking show after the winner was charged with the murder of a child. Season 20 of Worst Cooks in America has been scrapped amid reports the contestant and her husband are accused of battering their adopted three-year-old daughter to death. Ariel Robinson, 29, appeared on the show, […]
Read moreSEOUL (REUTERS) – South Korea’s economy grew at a faster-than-expected pace in the fourth quarter as it ended the coronavirus-stricken year solidly poised for a recovery in 2021 thanks to surging exports. Gross domestic product (GDP) grew a seasonally adjusted 1.1 per cent in the December quarter from the third quarter, the Bank of Korea said on Tuesday (Jan 26), […]
Read moreBy Natasha Singer and Aaron Krolik The Norwegian Data Protection Authority said on Monday that it would fine Grindr, the world’s most popular gay dating app, 100 million Norwegian Kroner, or about $11.7 million dollars, for illegally disclosing private details about its users to advertising companies. The Norwegian agency said the app had transmitted users’ precise locations, user-tracking codes and […]
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