The deaths, which happened while people were protesting the sudden impeachment of his predecessor, Martin Vizcarra, sparked outrage in the country with calls for his resignation.
Manuel Merino, President of Peru, has resigned following the death of two protesters.
The deaths, which happened while people were protesting the sudden impeachment of his predecessor, Martin Vizcarra, sparked outrage in the country with calls for his resignation.
Merino took power on Tuesday after legislators shocked the nation by voting to remove the popular former President, Vizcarra and then swore in Merino, who was the head of congress.
On Sunday, in a video message to the country, Merino said, “I present my irrevocable resignation. I call for peace and unity of all Peruvians.”
He added that he would now focus on ensuring a smooth transition to a new leader to avoid a power vacuum. A new interim President is expected to be announced later today.
Soumitra Chatterjee: India acting legend dies, aged 85
Legendary Indian actor Soumitra Chatterjee, famed for his work with Oscar-winning director Satyajit Ray, has died from Covid complications.
The 85-year-old actor was admitted to hospital in Kolkata city on 6 October after he tested positive for the virus.
He will be mourned by fans and critics who avidly followed his six-decade-long career in Bengali language films.
Chatterjee, who starred in more than 300 movies, was also an accomplished playwright, theatre actor and poet.
He tested negative a few weeks after he was admitted to hospital but his condition soon deteriorated and he was put on a ventilator in the last week of October. He died on Sunday morning.
Chatterjee was perhaps best-known for his work with Ray, one of the world’s most influential directors and maker of the much-feted Apu Trilogy. The series followed the life of a man who grew up in a Bengali village. The films garnered critical acclaim, winning many awards worldwide, and put Indian cinema on the global map.
The third movie of the trilogy, Apur Sansar, which released in 1959, was also Chatterjee’s debut film. He would go on to star as the lead actor in 14 of Ray’s films.
Pauline Kael, one of America’s most influential and respected film critics, called Chatterjee Ray’s “one-man stock company” who moved “so differently in the different roles he plays that he is almost unrecognisable”.
image captionRay (left) cast Chatterjee (right) in 14 films
Chatterjee was awarded the Dada Saheb Phalke Award, the highest honour in Indian cinema, in 2012 and in 2018, he was given France’s highest award, the Legion of Honour.
He began acting when he was in school, where he starred in several plays. He was in college when a friend introduced him to Ray – it was a chance meeting, but it eventually led to Chatterjee’s film debut.
“I didn’t know what to do when Mr Ray first asked me. I didn’t know what was the real difference between stage and screen acting. I was afraid I’d overact,” he told Marie Seton, film critic and biographer, in an interview.
Chatterjee’s roles in more than a dozen films made by the auteur spanned a wide range.
He played a Sherlock Holmes-like detective in Sonar Kella, an effete bridegroom in Devi, a hot-tempered north Indian taxi driver in Abhijan, a city slicker in Aranyer Din Ratri, and a mild-mannered village priest in Ashani Sanket. He also played what Seton called a “thinly veiled portrait” of Nobel Prize-winning poet Rabindranath Tagore in Charulata, one of Ray’s most admired films.
“His chief asset was the natural sensitivity of his appearance,” Seton wrote of the actor.
Ray mentored his favourite actor, lending him books on cinema and often taking him to watch Sunday morning shows of Hollywood films in Kolkata. “The entire exercise he did with a purpose, it was not as if he was taking me out on Sundays for entertainment,” Chatterjee once said.
image captionChatterjee acted with Hugh Grant in a 1989 film set in Calcutta
Ray, who died in 1992, had said that Chatterjee was an intelligent actor and “given bad material, he turns out a bad performance”.
“Not a day passed when I do not think of Ray or discuss him or miss him. He is a constant presence in my life, if not for anything else but for the inspiration I derive when I think about him,” Chatterjee told an interviewer.
Chatterjee also played the romantic lead in popular Bengali films, but his appeal, say critics, was more limited than the reigning star, Uttam Kumar.
Over the years, Chatterjee worked with leading directors like Tapan Sinha, Mrinal Sen, Asit Sen, Ajoy Kar, Rituparno Ghosh and Aparna Sen. In 1988, he worked with John Hurt and Hugh Grant in The Bengali Night, a film set in Kolkata.
Adoor Gopalakrishnan, one of India’s greatest filmmakers, said that on screen, Chatterjee “became the quintessential Bengali – intellectually inclined, of middle-class orientation, sensitive and likeable
Outside films, Chatterjee was tirelessly creative: he edited a literary magazine, published more than 30 books of essays and poetry; acted, directed and wrote an equal number of plays; and painted.
One of his most successful plays, Ghatak Bidey, a comedy, ran for 500 nights. Chatterjee acted in a commercially successful Bengali adaption of King Lear, which many believe was one of his finest performances on stage.
For all his popularity, Chatterjee stayed away from Bollywood, preferring to act in Bengali language films.
“Soumitra is the finest actor in the land today, but totally unheard of outside Bengal. It’s a loss for India, Bollywood and I guess, a bit for Soumitra,” Pritish Nandy, poet, journalist and filmmaker, said of the actor in 2012.
Amitava Nag, author of a biography of the actor, says Chatterjee was “the thinking man’s hero. He was an intellectual and a poet”.
Nag once asked Chatterjee whether he felt burdened by the obligation to entertain.
Donald Trump has insisted he is not conceding the US election, despite seemingly acknowledging for the first time that Democrat Joe Biden won.
“He won because the Election was Rigged,” the Republican president wrote on Twitter, repeating unsubstantiated claims of election fraud.
About an hour later he said he was not conceding the 3 November vote.
He has launched a slew of lawsuits in key states, but has not provided any evidence to back his claims of fraud.
All the lawsuits have so far been unsuccessful.
On Friday, election officials said the vote was the “most secure in American history” and there was “no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes or was in any way compromised”.
Meanwhile, Mr Biden remains president-elect.
The Democrat has 306 votes in the electoral college – the system the US uses to choose its president – which far exceeds the 270 threshold to win. Any recounts or legal challenges are not expected to overturn the overall result.
Mr Biden’s lead in the popular vote has also surpassed five million.
Nevertheless, Mr Trump had refused to acknowledge Mr Biden’s victory until – apparently – now.
In a news conference on Friday, Mr Trump said “who knows” which administration would be in power in the future.
US President Donald Trump in tweets on Sunday morning said President-elect Joe Biden “won because election was rigged.”
Trump who had refused to concede defeat despite losing to Democratic party’s candidate Joe Biden, and had been promoting election conspiracy theories, also claimed that the “Mail-in elections are a sick joke!”
“He won because the Election was Rigged. NO VOTE WATCHERS OR OBSERVERS allowed, vote tabulated by a Radical Left privately owned company, Dominion, with a bad reputation & bum equipment that couldn’t even qualify for Texas (which I won by a lot!), the Fake & Silent Media, & more!”, Trump tweeted in response to a clip from Fox News’s Jesse Watters.
“All of the mechanical ‘glitches’ that took place on Election Night were really THEM getting caught trying to steal votes. They succeeded plenty, however, without getting caught,” Trump further claimed in another tweet.
The tweets, like previous ones, have been flagged by Twitter as containing disputed claims about election fraud.
The Commander of 81 Military Intelligence Brigade, Victoria Island, Lagos, Brig. Gen. Ahmed Taiwo, says contrary to claims in the public, the Army is not after popular disc jockey, Obianuju Catherine Udeh, fondly referred to as DJ Switch.
General Taiwo said this on Saturday in his testimony before the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry probing the alleged shooting of #EndSARS protesters at the Lekki tollgate on October 20, 2020.
The general said, “Some people take delight in misrepresenting Nigeria and particularly the Nigerian Army to the international community and our fellow Nigerians. This, I believe is done for pecuniary gains. Quite recently, a Nigerian, Catherine Udeh, also known as DJ Switch, claimed the Nigerian Army was looking for her. There is nothing further than the truth.
My Lord, we have bigger fish to fry and that is how to stabilise Lagos. We can’t be bothered chasing one or two people. Where she got that from, I do not know.”
DJ Switch claimed to have helped to remove bullets from peaceful protesters who were shot at Lekki tollgate, according to her Instagram Live feed.
There have also been reports that the disc jockey sought asylum outside the country after she claimed that her life was being threatened following the Lekki incident.
Tony Schwartz, the ghostwriter of US President, Donald Trump’s book, ‘The Art of the Deal,’ has said he believes the Republican candidate will never concede to Joe Biden.
He said that Trump will eventually be escorted out of the White House if he refuses to leave.
“He can’t concede because to concede for him is to accept that he is a failure and that is an intolerable thing for him,” Schwartz told BBC World News.
He went on to describe the President as “either a success or a failure.”
“He either dominates or he submits… he has to keep this delusional idea alive that he was cheated,” he added.
According to Schwartz, ghost-writing The Art of the Deal in 1987 was “the worst mistake” he ever made.
He said at the time he never thought there was any possibility of Trump becoming US president.
The race to White House was a tight battle between the incumbent Trump and Joe Biden.
Biden, however, emerged as winner after polling over 270 electoral college votes; although the winner has not been officially announced.
Although Biden has since assumed his role as the President-elect, preparing to take over White House, the incumbent, President Trump has refused to concede defeat.
Trump has filed a flurry of court cases challenging the Biden’s victory, alleging massive corruption and fraud.
The incumbent has recently expressed hope of being declared winner of the election, saying results that would be announced next week would put him ahead of Biden.
The UK is getting into the Christmas spirit earlier than ever, judging by the music we’re buying and streaming.
Mariah Carey’s festive hit All I Want For Christmas Is You returned to Spotify’s Top 40 last Sunday – a full two weeks earlier than three years ago.
The song also reappeared on the iTunes chart on 2 November, and is currently among the UK’s Top 50 downloads.
Carey is expected to re-enter the UK’s official chart on Friday. The song is already at 63 in the midweek countdown.
A re-entry would give All I Want For Christmas Is You its 100th week in the top 100, and mark the song’s 14th consecutive year on the chart.
The return of Carey’s hit is a bellweather for the start of Christmas season.
Behind her in the Spotify chart are six more Christmas songs, including The Pogues’ Fairytale of New York and Michael Bublé’s It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas. Between them, the songs have more than 500,00 daily plays.
However, the UK lags behind countries like Estonia and Iceland, where listeners start shuffling their Christmas playlists in October, according to Spotify data.
They are all beaten by The Philippines, where Christmas music accounts for 2% of all songs streamed by early September.
Listeners in Lichtenstein, meanwhile, are the most ardent consumers of seasonal songs. In the last few days before 25 December, almost 70% of all listening is exclusively Christmas music – triple the global average.
The UK puts up some stiff competition, though. Not only are we listening to festive hits earlier every year, but Magic Radio launched its 100% Christmas station in August due to consumer demand.
Not to be outdone, Amazon Music has just released a stocking-full of exclusive Christmas songs on its streaming service, with Justin Bieber covering Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree and Mary J Blige taking on Wham’s Last Christmas, amongst others.
The race for the Christmas number one is also shaping up, led by Children In Need’s charity cover of Oasis’ Stop Crying Your Heart Out.
The all-star song features vocals from Cher, Kylie, Robbie Williams, KSI, Ava Max, Jess Glynne and Bryan Adams, amongst others, with the video set to premiere during the Children In Need telethon on Friday.
BBC Sound of 2020 winner Celeste is also vying for a festive hit, after soundtracking the John Lewis Christmas advert with her new single, A Little Love.
Inspired by the kindness shown by the British public during lockdown, it is the first original song (ie non-cover version) to feature on one of the retailer’s adverts. Proceeds will go to the charities Home-Start and FareSha.
For the last two years, YouTube personality LadBaby has topped the festive charts with pastry-themed cover versions like I Love Sausage Rolls and We Built This City (On Sausage Rolls).
The star, who donates his earnings to the Tressell Trust food charity, hasn’t announced his plans for 2020. If he scores a third consecutive Christmas number one, he will equal a record set by The Beatles, who were the stars atop the festive countdown in 1963, 64 and 65.
Speaking to Radio 1 last year, LadBaby said he would only attempt a third record if the right idea came along,
“I don’t want it to become a joke,” he said. “It needs to still be funny and it needs to still be right. I don’t want people to start boycotting it next year if we go for it.”
But Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You is the gift that keeps on giving.
First released in 1994, it’s an upbeat, catchy tribute to the Christmas hits of Motown and Phil Spector. A top three hit on both sides of the Atlantic, it quickly became a standard, with the New Yorker calling it “one of the few worthy modern additions to the holiday canon”.
After selling more than 16 million copies, it finally topped the US charts last year, on its 25th anniversary, making Carey the first artist to score a number one single in four different decades.
“We did it!” exclaimed the star on Twitter, adding emojis of a crying face, a heart, a lamb, a Christmas tree, and a butterfly (her signature), for good measure.
Carey co-wrote the song with longtime collaborator Walter Afanasieff, who originally worried it was too basic. But that’s exactly the quality that has made it such an enduring hit.
“The oversimplified melody made it easily palatable for the whole world to go, ‘Oh, I can’t get that out of my head!” he said in an interview with ASCAP.
Writing in her memoir, Carey said the song’s opening chimes are meant to evoke the “little wooden toy pianos, like the one Schroeder had on Peanuts”.
Although she was unhappy at the time, dealing with the pressures of fame and a tempestuous relationship with her future husband Tommy Mottola, she wanted to “write a song that would me me happy and make me feel like a loved, carefree young girl at Christmas”.
“I wanted to sing it in a way that would capture joy for everyone and crystallise it forever,” she added. “Yes, I was going for vintage Christmas happiness”
The Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe has died at the age of 74.
The serial killer was serving a whole life term for murdering 13 women across Yorkshire and north-west England.
His first victim’s son, who was five when his mother was killed in 1975, said Sutcliffe’s death would bring “some kind of closure”.
The former lorry driver, from Bradford, died in hospital where he is said to have refused treatment for Covid-19. He also had other health problems.
Sutcliffe, who was also found guilty of the attempted murder of seven women, was convicted in 1981. He spent three decades at Broadmoor Hospital before being moved to HMP Frankland in County Durham in 2016.https://emp.bbc.com/emp/SMPj/2.36.3/iframe.htmlmedia captionRichard McCann, the son of Peter Sutcliffe’s first victim, Wilma McCann, reacts to his death
Ex-police officer Bob Bridgestock, who worked on the case, said he “won’t be shedding any tears” over the killer’s death.
The murders, which spanned five years from 1975 to 1980, began with 28-year-old mother-of-four Wilma McCann, who was hit with a hammer and stabbed 15 times, in October 1975.
Sutcliffe was interviewed nine times during the course of a huge investigation but continued to avoid arrest and was able to carry on with his killings.
Sutcliffe’s victims
image captionTwelve of the 13 women Sutcliffe was convicted of murdering: Emily Jackson, Irene Richardson, Patricia Atkinson, Jayne McDonald, Jean Jordan, Yvonne Pearson, Helen Rytka, Vera Millward, Josephine Whittaker, Barbara Leach, Marguerite Walls, Jacqueline Hill (Wilma McCann pictured below)
Wilma McCann, 28, Leeds, October 1975
Emily Jackson, 42, Leeds, January 1976
Irene Richardson, 28, Leeds, February 1977
Patricia Atkinson, 32, Bradford, April 1977
Jayne McDonald, 16, Leeds, June 1977
Jean Jordan, 21, Manchester, October 1977
Yvonne Pearson, 22, Bradford, January 1978
Helen Rytka, 18, Huddersfield, January 1978
Vera Millward, 41, Manchester, May 1978
Josephine Whittaker, 19, Halifax, May 1979
Barbara Leach, 20, Bradford, September 1979
Marguerite Walls, 47, Leeds, August 1980
Jacqueline Hill, 20, Leeds, November 1980
Ms McCann’s son Richard said: “The attention he’s had over the years, the continuous news stories that we’ve suffered over the years, there is some form of conclusion to that.
“I am sure a lot of the families, surviving children of the victims may well be glad he has gone and they have a right to feel like that.”
He explained that in about 2010 he had decided to let go of his anger and “forgive” Sutcliffe.
“I am sorry to hear he has passed away. It’s not something I could have said in the past when I was consumed with anger,” he said.
image captionWilma McCann was the first woman Sutcliffe murdered, in 1975
Sutcliffe was dubbed the Yorkshire Ripper because he mutilated his victims’ bodies using a hammer, screwdriver and knife.
He is said to have believed he was on a “mission from God” to kill prostitutes, although not all of his victims were sex workers.
One of his surviving victims said that 44 years on she still suffers from the effects of his attack in Leeds.
Marcella Claxton told Sky News: “I have to live with my injuries, 54 stitches in my head, back and front, plus I lost a baby, I was four months pregnant.
“I still get headaches, dizzy spells and black outs.”
image captionA huge police operation was launched to find Sutcliffe
An inquiry held after his conviction said a backlog of case paperwork meant officers were unable to connect vital pieces of information.
The first two victims, Ms McCann and Emily Jackson, were killed in Chapeltown, which was known at the time for containing Leeds’ main red light district.
Following the second murder, West Yorkshire Police announced they were looking for a “prostitute killer”, leading to accusations key eyewitness evidence was being ignored as it did not fit detectives’ narrative.
Wearside Jack
The investigation was also misdirected by one of criminal history’s cruellest hoaxes, when John Humble tricked police into believing the serial killer was a man dubbed Wearside Jack because of his gruff Sunderland accent.
Police had believed he was the killer despite the victims of Sutcliffe who survived said their attacker sounded like he was a local man.
Humble, who died in 2019, never fully explained why he taunted the press and detectives with letters and an infamous tape recording, in which he anonymously claimed to be the serial killer.
image captionGeorge Oldfield, centre, with detectives who initially believed the hoax tape was genuine
West Yorkshire Police detectives, headed by the then assistant chief constable George Oldfield, believed the letters and tape were genuine and diverted resources to the north east of England.
When Humble was eventually prosecuted, Leeds Crown Court heard claims the delays caused by the hoax left Peter Sutcliffe free to murder three more women.https://emp.bbc.com/emp/SMPj/2.36.3/iframe.htmlmedia captionWhen arrested in 2005 Humble read aloud a section of the hoax tape he sent to police in 1979
Sutcliffe had violently attacked at least three women before he killed Ms McCann.
In 1969, he hit a woman over the head with a stone in a sock. Sutcliffe admitted the offence, but his victim decided not to press charges.
image captionSutcliffe attended Dewsbury Magistrates Court in February 1981 charged with the murder of 13 women and attempted murder of seven others
Six years later, just months before Ms McCann’s death, he attacked two other women with a knife and a hammer but both survived.
Mo Lea, who was attacked aged 20 as she walked home from a pub in Leeds in October 1980, said she had written Sutcliffe a letter while he was in prison.
“I was compelled to write to Peter Sutcliffe to let him know how the fact that he was hanging on to the knowledge that he tried to kill me, was affecting me,” she said.
“And I thought at least if I post it I’ll know that in some way there’ll be a level of understanding. I didn’t expect a response and I didn’t get one but it felt good to put it in the postbox.”
Mr Oldfield’s 200-strong ripper squad eventually carried out more than 130,000 interviews, visited more than 23,000 homes and checked 150,000 cars.
image captionSutcliffe died at the University Hospital of North Durham after being transferred there from maximum security HMP Frankland
But a stroke of luck led to Sutcliffe’s arrest when his brown Rover car, which had false number plates, was stopped by police in a red light area of Sheffield in January 1981.
Mr Bridgestock, who was one of the first on the scene when Josephine Whitaker was murdered in 1979, said senior detectives “wore blinkers” while leading the inquiry.
“It’s the victims that served the life sentence and then the victims’ families that really serve the true life sentences,” he said.
“For them today, they will have some kind of closure.”
image captionAngry crowds gathered outside Dewsbury Magistrates’ Court when Sutcliffe appeared there following his arrest
Mr McCann appealed to West Yorkshire Police to make a formal apology for the language used to describe his mother and other victims in the 1970s.
“They described some of the women as ‘innocent’, inferring that some were not innocent – including my mum,” he said.
“She was a family woman who, through no fault of her own, was going through adversity and made some bad decisions, some risky decisions.”
“She paid for those decisions with her life.”
A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said: “We have received correspondence from Mr McCann and commit to continue to engage with him directly.”
Breaking! Coronavirus Kills Ex-Ghanian President Rawlings
Reports reaching the NPO Reports indicate that former President of Ghana, Jerry Rawlings has died.
He reportedly died of complications arising from covid 19 infections.
The former president, who was 73 was said to have died at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra on Thursday. The development comes less than a month after he buried his mother. A former Nigerian Presidential candidate and media mogul, Dele Momodu, who has close links to the Ghanaian Presidency, confirmed the development on Twitter.
Momodu tweeted: “The saddest news of this year. My God. Former President Jerry John Rawlings of Ghana has passed on. I’m completely devastated. Good night, an African hero.”
Rawlings, who is one of the most respected African leaders, was a military leader in Ghana and later became a politician who ruled the country from 1981 to 2001.
The former President initially came to power in Ghana as a flight lieutenant of the Ghana Air Force following a coup d’état in 1979.
Prior to that, he led an unsuccessful coup attempt against the ruling military government on 15 May 1979, just five weeks before scheduled democratic elections were due to take place.
He was until his death, the African Union envoy to Somalia.
Rawlings as leader of Ghana launched a massive anti-corruption campaign that purged the nation of corrupt political elements.
Coronavirus: US hospital admissions reach record high as cases surge
image captionHospital staff treat a Covid patient in Houston, Texas
The number of Americans in hospital with Covid-19 reached record levels on Tuesday, as more than a million new cases were confirmed in November.
There are over 10 million confirmed US cases and 239,732 deaths so far – and the death toll is rising to an average of over 900 a day amid the new spikes.
As of Tuesday, 61,964 people are receiving hospital care for the virus, the Covid Tracking Project reports.
Experts warn hospitals across the country could soon be overwhelmed.
The US has been seeing more than 100,000 new cases per day over the last 10 days in what experts say may be a worse outbreak than those seen in the spring and summer.
States across the US have broken new case records this week. On 10 November, Texas became the first state to hit one million total cases. That takes its case count above that of Italy – one of the worst-hit countries during the first wave in March and April.
The same day, Texas – America’s second most-populous state – saw over 10,800 new cases.
Other states, including Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, California and Florida, have also seen numbers rise. CBS News reports 15 states saw the numbers of patients in hospital due to the virus double in the last month.
Some hospitals, such as in Idaho and Missouri, have had to turn patients away because they ran out of room.
State leaders have been re-imposing pandemic restrictions as a result. Residents of Wisconsin and Nevada have been urged to stay at home for two weeks. In Minnesota, bars and restaurants must shut by 22:00.
On Tuesday, epidemiologist Michael Osterholm, who has been tapped to join President-elect Joe Biden’s virus advisory group, warned of a “perfect storm”.
image captionA queue for testing in California
Speaking to the CBS This Morning programme, Mr Osterholm said there was “no question that our hospitals are about to be overrun”. He noted “the darkest days of this pandemic between now and next spring”, before the vaccine arrives.
Mr Osterholm, who heads the infectious disease research centre at the University of Minnesota, said during the summer spike after the Labour Day national holiday, new cases rose to 32,000 a day.
“Now we’re running in the 120- to 130,000 cases a day,” he said. “Do not be at all surprised when we hit 200,000 cases a day.”
The same day, US infectious disease chief Dr Anthony Fauci offered some hopeful news. He said the new Covid vaccine by Pfizer was expected to go through an emergency authorisation process in the next week or so. Human trials suggest it is 90% effective.https://emp.bbc.com/emp/SMPj/2.36.3/iframe.htmlmedia captionHow close are we to Covid immunisation?
Dr Fauci told MSNBC: “I’m going to look at the data, but I trust Pfizer, I trust the [Food and Drug Administration]. These are colleagues of mine for decades, the career scientists.”
Amid the ongoing outbreak, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has updated its research around masks, saying that wearing one not only protects others but also the person wearing the mask.
Previous guidance had rested on the idea that the main benefit of mask-wearing came from potentially stopping an infected person transmitting Covid to others.
The CDC referenced several studies, including one case where two Covid-positive hair stylists interacted with 139 clients – but of the 67 clients researchers tested, none developed an infection. The stylists and all clients had worn masks in the salon.
Another study looking into the outbreak aboard the UUS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier found mask-wearing seemed to have reduced the risk of virus transmission by 70%, the CDC said.
Student Covid tests for Christmas holiday from 30 November
Covid tests for students in England, so they can go home safely for Christmas, could begin on 30 November, according to a letter from the universities minister to vice chancellors.
A week of mass testing for students is proposed – running between 30 November and 6 December.
The letter, seen by the BBC, promises a fast turnaround for tests and “results within an hour”.
The aim is to stop students spreading the virus as they return home.
The first week of December, after the lockdown ends, could then become the “travel window” for many students to leave university for the Christmas holidays, with face-to-face teaching expected to finish earlier than usual this term.
But those who test positive will have to take another test and, if found to be infectious, have to stay in isolation.
Larissa Kennedy, president of the National Union of Students, said: “The government have finally listened to our calls to ensure that students can travel home safely for Christmas.
“We particularly welcome this mass-testing approach as it equips students with the knowledge to make informed decisions about travel ahead of the winter break,” she said.
‘Huge hurdles’
But the University and College Union, which represents university lecturers, said it was not yet clear whether all universities would take part in the testing programme or how many students would be included.
“There are huge hurdles to overcome to manage this process,” said union leader Jo Grady.
Around 1.2 million students are expected to move at Christmas from their university term-time address to a home in another part of the country, where there might be different levels of infection.
This has raised concerns among the Sage scientific advisers of a “significant risk” that this migration could spread the coronavirus.
To prevent this danger, plans are being made for mass testing using so-called “lateral flow tests”.
These nose and throat swabs are self-administered, with no need for tests to be sent to laboratories for results.
image captionThe tests will be able to provide results within an hour
The letter from Universities Minister Michelle Donelan, and its accompanying documents, says: “The tests we are deploying have a high specificity which means the risk of false positive test results is low.
“Although the test does not detect all positive cases, it works extremely well in finding cases with higher viral loads – which is those who are most infectious.
“As the test is easy to administer and does not require a laboratory, testing can take place on a very regular basis,” the letter to university leaders said.
Free testing kits
Accompanying documents show a planning timetable in which sites are prepared for testing from 15 November, ready to operate the following week, with “pre end-of-term testing” between 30 November and 6 December.
The test kits will be given free to universities, which will have to provide a place for the tests to be carried out, in a way that can process thousands of students within a short time frame.
Ministers have already indicated that universities will stop in-person teaching two weeks before the end of term – so when students have been given the all-clear they could be expected to leave their term-time address and go home, in a “test and release” process.
This could mean that by about 9 December, many students will have left for Christmas.
There are also believed to have been discussions about how the departure of students can be made safe – such as co-ordinating staggered times for leaving between universities in the same city.
There could also be calls to avoid public transport – with suggestions of chartering coaches or using private transport, such as parents collecting students, and creating “travel corridors” to control traffic away from universities.
University leaders have previously raised concerns about why this guidance has been left so close to the end of term – and there will be questions about the capacity of universities to be ready in time for the mass testing.
There have also been questions about whether students will return as usual in January or whether there will be a staggered start and more testing, or whether more courses will switch online with some students initially studying from home.
Universities UK welcomed the plans for more testing capacity, but warned that universities would “now need clear assurance of the effectiveness of the tests as well as further details from the government on specific responsibilities under the proposed scheme including the governance, indemnity, resourcing and costs recovery”.
News about the world’s first successful trial of a coronavirus vaccine was greeted with jubilation on Monday.
But while there are a number of reasons to remain cautious, there’s at least one one big practical hurdle to overcome.
Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, Health Secretary Matt Hancock spoke of the “mammoth logistical operation” of transporting the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine from its point of manufacture to the arm of the patient.
That’s because it cannot be removed from a temperature of -70C (-94F) more than four times.
And that temperature is about four times as cold as the average home freezer.
Most other vaccines do not require anywhere near such low storage temperatures, so there is not a widespread infrastructure already in place.
In its own disclosure notice, Pfizer acknowledges there are “challenges related to our vaccine candidate’s ultra-low temperature formulation and attendant storage, distribution and administration requirements”.
At the Downing Street press conference on Monday, England’s deputy chief medical officer Prof Jonathan Van-Tam warned that even in normal times, “things can and do and have always gone wrong” when it comes to both vaccine manufacture and distribution.
How will it travel?
In the short-term, Pfizer has a plan.
The vaccine will be distributed from its own centres in the US, Germany and Belgium. It will need to travel both on land and by air, face potential storage in distribution centres in between stages and the final hurdle will be local delivery to clinics, surgeries, pharmacies, hospitals – anywhere the vaccine will be administered.
As revealed by the Wall Street Journal, Pfizer has developed a special transport box the size of a suitcase, packed with dry ice and installed with GPS trackers, which can keep up to 5,000 doses of the vaccine at the right temperature for 10 days, as long as it remains unopened. The boxes are also reusable.
Wiltshire-based firm Polar Thermals makes similar boxes for other vaccines and counts Pfizer among its clients, but not so far for this particular purpose.
image captionPolar Thermal’s “thermal shipper” can be reused thousands of times
The box is not likely to be cheap. Head of sales Paul Harrison says a standard chilled transport box, which will retain a temperature of up to -8C (not -80C) for five days and is big enough to hold 1,200 vaccines, costs about £5,000 per unit – although they can be re-used thousands of times.
His firm uses aerogel as insulation, rather than dry ice – which could come in handy if a global shortage of carbon dioxide from earlier this year continues to affect the availability of related products, of which dry ice is one.
The vaccine can survive for a further five days once thawed, Pfizer has said, but this does not buy a great deal of extra time.
In the longer-term, Public Health England says that in the UK “national preparations” are under way regarding both central storage and distribution of the vaccine across the country, but declines to give details.
As it stands, extreme cold storage is certainly not commonplace, and your local GP is unlikely to have it.
“We do not have fridges in general practice that go down to that sort of temperature,” GP professor Sam Everington told the BBC’s Newsnight programme on Monday. “So we will need them.”
And that issue is not exclusive to the UK. Dr Gregory Poland of the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, told Reuters: “We’re a major medical centre and we don’t have storage capacity like this.”
Some institutions, such as universities and research labs, do have the right storage capacity. Is there a possibility they could be donated or lent out as temporary vaccination homes? In the UK, universities shared resources at the height of the first wave of the pandemic, including PPE-making equipment and ventilators.
“We may see existing fridges donated,” said Dr Michael Head, epidemiologist at the University of Southampton
As revealed by Oyo state governor via his social media page, Governor Seyi Makinde stated the following;
“This afternoon, we inaugurated the Oyo State Judicial Panel of Inquiry into Police Brutality, Violation of Rights of Citizens and Unlawful Killings. The panel is made up of eleven (11) members led by Justice Bolajoko Adeniji (retired), as Chairman of the Panel.”
“Members of the panel are drawn from the legal community, the National Human Rights Commission, the Department of Public Prosecution (DPP), the National Youth Council of Nigeria, youth representatives of End SARS protesters and the community.”
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Ibadan Chapter, on Tuesday asked her members to boycott 2020 Convocation and the foundation laying ceremonies of the Premier University.
The decision may not be unconnected with the ongoing strike embarked upon by the Union.
The Union in a release signed by the Chairman, Professor Ayo Akinwole stated that the position of the Union is that holding convocation ceremonies is a violation of the principle of the ongoing strike.
Akinwole maintained that the Union is constrained to “advise members not to be in attendance or participate in the preparation for and the actualization of the said convocation and 72nd foundation Day Ceremonies.
It was gathered that the Union has also communicated her position via a letter written to the outgoing Vice Chancellor Professor Idowu Olayinka.
“The notice for the university of Ibadan 2020 Graduation and 72 foundation Day ceremonies come to our attention on Saturday , 7thNovember, 2020. In the spirit of the current ASUU strike, holding graduation ceremonies at this time would be a violation of the principle of the ongoing strike to rescue public university education in Nigeria. To the best of our knowledge, there was no request for a waiver for such to take place in the University of Ibadan.”
DJ Switch shares experience of Lekki toll gate massacre.
She shared her experience with a sub- committee on international human right , of the standing committee on foreign affairs and international development of the Canadian parliament.
Video of DJ Switch recounting her experience on 20th of October, 2020.
The vaccine, according to the firms, has a 90-per-cent success rate having been tested on 43,500 people in six countries with no safety concerns.
In a statement on Monday, Biden described the announcement as excellent news and congratulated the manufacturers for giving the world “cause for hope”.
However, Biden warned against complacency, noting that the end of the battle against the pandemic was still months away.
He said even if a vaccine was approved by the end of November as forecasted by industry players, widespread vaccination would take many more months.
The president-elect emphasised the need for people to remain precautious, especially with the use of masks, which he said remained a “more potent weapon against the virus than the vaccine”.
“Today’s news does not change this urgent reality.Americans will have to rely on masking, distancing, contact tracing, hand washing and other measures to keep themselves well safe into New Year,” he said.
Earlier, Biden and the Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, named their transition COVID-19 advisory board as promised by the president -elect in his victory speech on Saturday.
The 12-member board of leading scientists and experts is charged with producing a policy from the duo’s corona virus plan. Dealing with the corona virus pandemic is one of the most important battles our administration will face, and I will be informed by science and by experts.
“The advisory board will help shape my approach to managing the surge in reported infections; ensuring vaccines are safe, effective, and distributed efficiently, equitably, and free; and protecting at-risk populations,” Biden said.
Rinu Oduala, a brand strategist, is one of the prominent activists of the #EndSARS campaign. She made the following known;
In a country in which the people have been voiceless for a long time, people holding the government accountable is being seen as too much? How can we then ensure and encourage people to build a new Nigeria?… How do you expect me, as a part of the future of this country, to still believe in a country that thinks it has the right, through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to freeze my account for no just cause?
I am part of a generation of Nigerians who have lived most of their adult lives under ‘democratic’ rule and yet, I wake up feeling there is no difference between the Nigeria I grew up in, and the Nigeria my parents grew up in. The sacrifices of the democrats who bravely stood for the June 12 mandate to bring our democracy to life seem to be in vain. Ironically, many of them are serving in the present government in Nigeria and the ruling party.
Everywhere I turn, I am told that I should be ‘grateful’ for a democracy in which lives were lost, I should be thankful that I have a voice and I can speak up for myself and my peers. But how can I be grateful when young men and women disappear every day; some killed recklessly without cause, while others get scarred for life — physically, emotionally, or both?
When we began to protest, it was because young Nigerians had decided to speak up.
We spoke up – not because we wanted to overthrow the government but because we wanted the police to stop killing us. We did not carry arms, or incite any insurrection. Our only weapon was peaceful protest, as enshrined in Section 40 of our 1999 Constitution. At every point we maintained calm and educated our followers – reiterating throughout the protests that we were not there to fight the government but to ask for change and to follow through to make sure that change was effected.
We believed that somehow we would be spared from the systemic violence and breakdown of social order that was the direct result of the government’s actions. Unfortunately we were mistaken.
…I took up the role of a youth representative at the detriment of my education, personal life and family. I did this to make peace. I did this to ensure our young people understood that the only way to create a better and safer Nigeria is to do things lawfully. Why am I still being targeted for lending the government my good will?
I volunteered to receive donations for our cause by Nigerians at home and abroad, who felt helpless to personally protest but believed they could make a difference through financial sacrifices. Such was the passion of average Nigerians to contribute how best they could to the #EndSARS cause, that they found my personal account number and sent in what they could sacrifice towards the cause. Some people even sent as little as ₦500; all they could spare towards the cause. To have their sacrifices rubbished by government and their motivations questioned is disheartening because the raised funds, including over N200,000 gathered from my business, were meant to be disbursed to attend to the medical bills of injured protesters.
We called for, among other things, a probe into the killings and torture of people and the government agreed to this by setting up judicial panels. In order to assure young people of the independence and fairness of the panels, I took up the role of a youth representative at the detriment of my education, personal life and family. I did this to make peace. I did this to ensure our young people understood that the only way to create a better and safer Nigeria is to do things lawfully. Why am I still being targeted for lending the government my good will?
I am not part of Nigeria’s political or business elite. I have no relatives in government or family members with enough wealth to sway powerful individuals. I am just an ordinary young Nigerian. I study, sell hoodies and other clothing for about ₦5,000 a piece to pay my school fees. I also do the odd bit of freelancing, taking on some brand influencing work to ensure my family doesn’t suffer. Somehow, however, my existence threatens my government; the fact that I have a voice is enough for them to try to silence me.
In the Nigeria I am fighting for, it wouldn’t matter that I am the child of nobody, coming from the average Nigerian home. The Nigeria I am fighting for is one that prioritises every voice, and protects every inalienable right; including mine.
Nigeria is all I have, and I have a right to demand that it works for all of us, not just those with influence, wealth, or government positions.
I decided to use the only currency I have, my voice, to speak up against extrajudicial killings, torture, extortion and unjust harassment that are still happening in a democratic nation in the 21st century! The government also agreed that reform is inevitable and promised us they were going to listen to us, so why punish the same people who are speaking up?
I am not afraid. I am only disappointed that this country will treat me this way.
Nigeria is all I have, and I have a right to demand that it works for all of us, not just those with influence, wealth, or government positions.
In a country in which the people have been voiceless for a long time, people holding the government accountable is being seen as too much? How can we then ensure and encourage people to build a new Nigeria? A Nigeria that will be filled with accountable government officials, where all forms of oppressions and injustice are things of the past. How do you expect me, as a part of the future of this country, to still believe in a country that thinks it has the right, through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to freeze my account for no just cause?
This is not fair. But we will make it fair. Otherwise, there is no future for my generation and the generations to come.
image captionDefence Secretary Mark Esper is the latest in a series of officials sacked by Donald Trump
President Donald Trump has sacked Defence Secretary Mark Esper, announcing on Twitter that the top US official has been “terminated”.
Christopher Miller, the current head of the National Counterterrorism Center, will take on the role immediately.
It follows a public falling-out between Mr Trump and Mr Esper in recent weeks.
Mr Trump has so far not conceded the US election to President-elect Joe Biden, and has vowed to challenge the projected result in court.
Mr Esper clashed with the president over the White House’s use of the military to quell public unrest during protests over racial injustice earlier this year.
In the weeks before Mr Biden takes office on 20 January, Mr Trump is still empowered to make decisions.
As protests rocked the US following the death of black man George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in May, Mr Trump threatened to use troops to suppress unrest.
In June, Mr Esper, a former army officer, said the use of active-duty forces was unnecessary, in remarks that were known to have displeased the White House.
Following the clash, it was widely-speculated that the president would fire the defence secretary, although on Monday Mr Trump gave no reason for his dismissal.
Mr Esper has also disagreed with Mr Trump over the president’s dismissive attitude towards Nato.
President Trump has fired a significant number of his officials and advisers during his tenure, often using Twitter to announce the dismissal.
Mr Esper’s predecessor was Jim Mattis, who resigned in 2018 over differences with the president including about the war in Syria.
In June, as racial injustice protests were ongoing, Mr Mattis criticised Donald Trump as the “first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people – does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us.”
US President-elect Joe Biden has named the members of his coronavirus task force, highlighting his pledge to make tackling Covid-19 his top priority.
In his first appointments since his victory was announced on Saturday, he named three co-chairs and 10 members. Among the co-chairs named is Vivek Murthy, who was appointed US surgeon-general by President Barack Obama in 2014 and removed by President Trump in 2017.
He also set out the blueprints for his Transition Covid-19 Advisory Board. The focus of his policy will be on mask wearing, social distancing, contact tracing and hand washing.
In a statement, Biden said the board would help to get the virus under control, deliver relief for working families, address racial disparities and work to reopen schools and businesses.
He also said it would “elevate the voices of scientists and public health experts”.
It comes as company Pfizer announced that its vaccine data suggests the shots may be 90% effective at preventing COVID-19.
Biden on Monday hailed the announcement as a “breakthrough” and congratulated those involved in giving the country “such cause for hope.” But at the same time, he noted that the end of the battle against COVID-19 is still months away.
He said even if a vaccine is approved by the end of this month and some Americans are vaccinated later this year, it’ll be many more months before there’s widespread vaccination across the country.
Biden cited a warning by the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that for the foreseeable future, a mask remains a more potent weapon against the virus than a vaccine.
“Today’s news doesn’t change this urgent reality,” Biden said, adding that Americans will have to rely on masking, distancing, social tracing, hand washing and other measures to keep themselves safe well into next year.
He said the US is still losing over 1,000 people a day from COVID-19 and will continue to get worse unless progress is made on mask-wearing and other actions.
Coronavirus cases in the US since the pandemic began are nearing 10 million, and there have been more than 237,000 deaths recorded so far.
President Trump’s campaign intends to hold rallies amid efforts to challenge the election results that saw Joe Biden named president-elect last week.
Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said the events would be “grassroots rallies” similar to boat parades through which supporters voiced backing for Trump during the campaign. He said that Trump would not host the events. Axios first reported on plans to hold campaign-style rallies.
“These would be grassroots rallies, as we’ve already seen pop up in a variety of states since election day, organic shows of support like the tractor and boat parades have been all year,” Murtaugh said in a statement to The Hill. “There is no plan for the President to hold rallies.”
Trump has refused to concede to Biden after the former vice president was projected by news organizations as the winner of the presidential race on Saturday.
“The simple fact is this election is far from over. Joe Biden has not been certified as the winner of any states, let alone any of the highly contested states headed for mandatory recounts, or states where our campaign has valid and legitimate legal challenges that could determine the ultimate victor,” Trump said in a prepared statement released by his campaign shortly after Biden was named the victor.
The Trump campaign is challenging the election results in a handful of key states, by participating in recounts and forecasting lawsuits over electoral fraud allegations that have not been substantiated.
The Trump campaign has already said it would seek a recount in Wisconsin, where Biden won by roughly 20,000 votes. On Sunday evening, the campaign announced Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.) as the leader of its recount team in Georgia, where officials expect to soon begin a recount of the extremely close race.
Trump claimed without evidence that the election was being stolen from him last week and has raised allegations of widespread fraud. Some Republicans have criticized the president’s rhetoric and while they have said he maintains the right to challenge the results in court, several have doubted his claims of widespread fraud.
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