Ecuador to vote amid economic crisis and widespread discontent
Economy and handling of COVID-19 pandemic figure largely on minds of voters ahead of February 7 presidential polls.
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The IndependentAnger as Florida lawmaker Greg Steube says transgender people ‘offend’ God
GOP’s Greg Steube attacked for comments by Democrats during Equality Act debate
- The Independent
Donald Trump Jr says dropping Springsteen’s DWI charge example of ‘liberal privilege’
The Boss’s blood alcohol level was one quarter of limit for driving
- The State
16-year-old drowns rescuing little brother after they fall through ice, OH officials say
A department of natural resources officer also died after suffering a “medical emergency” at the scene, officials say.
- The Independent
Fury as New York town hosts ‘barbaric’ squirrel hunt
Event condemned as ‘barbaric, cruel, senseless and environmentally terrorising money grab’
- The Independent
Trumps accused of treating White House staff like ‘concierge’
Employees also claim that Barack Obama and his family craved privacy while in executive mansion
- The Independent
President Pence, anyone? In Mike Pence’s hometown, residents ponder his legacy and his future
Mike Pence is returning to his home state of Indiana to decide his future, but residents in his home town of Columbus are torn on his legacy, reports Richard Hall.
- The Independent
Republican Ralph Norman’s effort to hold 30-second silence for Rush Limbaugh turned down
‘The chair cannot entertain the gentleman’s request’
- The Independent
GOP senator rejects $15 minimum wage saying he once earned $6 an hour, or $23 with inflation
Republicans point to wages they earned as young people decades ago despite rising inflation that has outpaced Americans’ earnings
- The Independent
Victim’s glasses found in car of South Dakota Attorney General who claimed he hit a deer
Jason Ravnsborg charged with three misdemeanour counts after accident leading to death of 55-year-old pedestrian
- Reuters
Philippines offers nurses in exchange for vaccines from Britain, Germany
The Philippines will let thousands of its healthcare workers, mostly nurses, take up jobs in Britain and Germany if the two countries agree to donate much-needed coronavirus vaccines, a senior official said on Tuesday. The Philippines, which has among Asia's highest number of coronavirus cases, has relaxed a ban on deploying its healthcare workers overseas, but still limits the number of medical professionals leaving the country to 5,000 a year. Alice Visperas, director of the labour ministry's international affairs bureau, said the Philippines was open to lifting the cap in exchange for vaccines from Britain and Germany, which it would use to inoculate outbound workers and hundreds of thousands of Filipino repatriates.
- Reuters
EU's von der Leyen tells skittish Europeans: 'I'd take AstraZeneca vaccine'
The European Union's most senior administrator said she would happily receive AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine as officials rushed to find ways of ensuring doses refused by skittish Germans did not go to waste. President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen's remarks came amid growing concerns that unfavourable comments by top European officials including French President Emmanuel Macron had slowed take-up of one of only three vaccines currently approved EU-wide. Earlier this month, Macron said Britain had taken a risk in authorising AstraZeneca so rapidly.
- Reuters
Czech Republic faces 'hellish days', needs tighter COVID measures, PM says
The Czech Republic must tighten measures to combat the pandemic and prevent a "catastrophe" in hospitals in the coming weeks as the country faces one of the world's highest COVID-19 infection and death rates, Prime Minister Andrej Babis said on Wednesday. The number of hospital patients with COVD-19 who are in serious condition has risen to a record 1,389, leaving few spare beds in the country of 10.7 million. Some hospitals have had to transfer out patients while the health minister has warned hospitals risk being overwhelmed in the coming weeks.
- LA Times
Ta-Nehisi Coates is writing the script for the next Superman movie
Will we see a Black Man of Steel onscreen any time soon? News that Ta-Nehisi Coates is penning a new Superman movie has prompted speculation.
- Business Insider
China's ships are getting bigger and more aggressive, and Japan is scrambling to keep up
China's massive Coast Guard and a new law expanding what it can do have worried its neighbors, maybe none of them more so than Japan.
- INSIDER
The surprising real-life age differences between 14 famous movie pairs
Some on-screen love interest age gaps are surprising, and other times, actors are almost the same age as their on-screen children.
- The State
Small bowl snapped up for $35 at a garage sale may be worth $500,000, Sotheby’s says
A $35 bowl at a garage sale turned out to be an “exceptionally rare” discovery.
- BBC
Tiger Woods car crash: Golfing champion will not face criminal charges
Police say the crash was "purely an accident" after the golfing champion flipped his car on Tuesday.
- Reuters
Philippine police to look into government admission of drug war failures
Philippine police said on Thursday they were looking into a government review of thousands of killings in the country's "war on drugs", after the justice minister made an unprecedented admission to the United Nations of widespread police failures. Human Rights Watch described Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra's video statement on Wednesday as an "astounding disclosure". Guevarra's comments to the Human Rights Council mark the first time the government has publicly questioned its own narrative that the thousands of people killed in President Rodrigo Duterte's drugs war were all armed and had resisted arrest.
- Reuters
Israel aims to resolve Iran disputes with Biden at adviser level
Israel hopes to prevent personal tension between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Joe Biden over their differences on the Iranian nuclear question by delegating talks on the topic to their senior staff, an Israeli official said. Netanyahu's foreign-policy fortunes have waned since Biden succeeded Republican president Donald Trump, who withdrew the United States from world powers' 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, deeming it too advantageous for Tehran - a view Israel shared. Biden, a Democrat, wants to rejoin the deal.
- Reuters
Dubai's Latifa urged UK police to reopen sister's kidnap case, BBC reports
Sheikha Latifa, one of the daughters of the ruler of Dubai, has written to British police asking them to reopen their investigation into the kidnap of her older sister from a street in Cambridge in 2000, the BBC reported on Thursday. In a handwritten letter seen by the British broadcaster and dated 2018, Latifa asked Cambridgeshire Police to refocus on the case of her sister Shamsa, now 39, who was captured aged 18 and has not been seen in public since. The Dubai government's media office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.