Significant tsunami damage feared in Tonga, communications still cut

WELLINGTON (Reuters) -Tsunami-hit Tonga remained largely uncontactable on Sunday with telephone and internet links severed, leaving relatives in faraway New Zealand praying for their families on the Pacific islands as casualty reports had yet to come through. An underwater volcano off Tonga erupted on Saturday, triggering warnings of 1.2-metre tsunami waves and evacuation orders on the shores of Tonga as well as several South Pacific islands, where footage on social media showed waves crashing into coastal homes. There are no official reports of injuries or deaths in Tonga as yet although communications are limited and contact has not been established with outlying coastal areas beyond the capital Nuku'alofa and closer to the volcano, Jacinda Ardern the Prime Minister of New Zealand told a news conference on Sunday.

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  Two people drowned by abnormally high waves in Peru after Tonga volcano

  Reuters
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  Tonga volcano eruption triggers evacuation warnings

  Reuters Videos

Conservative pundit Ann Coulter says Trump 'is done'

Conservative pundit Ann Coulter is predicting the end of Donald Trump's hegemony in the GOP, saying the former president "is done." "Trump is done," Coulter, a onetime Trump booster turned critic, wrote in an email to The New York Times. Coulter's comments came in an article published in the Times on Sunday about the mounting tensions between Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) amid speculation of a potential showdown for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

Two Simple Lifestyle Changes Helped This Trainer Pack on Muscle and Lose Weight

You would be forgiven for assuming that former Men's Health UK cover model and fitness polymath Joe Wicks would be in shoot-ready shape 24/7, 365. On the flipside, placing more of an emphasis on progressive overload, Wicks has also utilized one of the most recognized methods in strength training and weightlifting, capitalizing on an increase in training frequency, volume and intensity over time.

Typhoons, wildfires, missiles: Teen flies solo round world

As teenage pilot Zara Rutherford flew ever onward in a record-challenging global odyssey, she met little as strange or scary as when she tried to squeeze in between North Korean airspace and a massive cloud threatening to cut off passage for her ultralight plane. “Well, they test missiles once in a while without warning,” Rutherford said. “Straight away they said: 'Whatever you do, do not go into North Korean airspace!'” Fortunately the clouds cooperated enough and she didn't have to continue the crash course in applied geopolitics.

Disney World Ends a Big Perk: That May Be Good for Disney Stock

Walt Disney learned a powerful lesson over the past few years when it comes to its U.S. theme parks. The company can keep making the proposition worse for customers by raising prices and taking away perks and people will still come; Families want vacations at Disney World and when you're already shelling out thousands of dollars for tickets and hotel accommodations, what's a little more money. That's why you hardly heard a complaint when the company turned its FastPass+ -- something that visitors to its Florida Parks got for free -- into Genie, a paid system offering roughly the same thing.

Body of the British woman who went missing in the Tonga tsunami has been found, brother says

Angela Glover went missing after a tsunami hit Tonga on Saturday. Her brother told British media on Monday that her husband had found her body. An underwater volcano erupted near Tonga on Saturday, triggering a tsunami.

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  Tonga volcano eruption triggers evacuation warnings

  Reuters Videos
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  Significant tsunami damage feared in Tonga, communications still cut

  Reuters

Pakistan says trial of Chinese traditional medicine for COVID-19 successful

Pakistani health authorities on Monday announced the completion of a successful clinical trial of Chinese traditional herbal medicine for treating COVID-19, as the South Asian nation enters a fifth wave of the pandemic driven by the Omicron variant. The Chinese medicine, Jinhua Qinggan Granules (JHQG) manufactured by Juxiechang (Beijing) pharmaceutical Co Ltd, is already being used in treatment of COVID-19 patients in China. "Since it was tried on patients with different variants of COVID-19, we expect it to be effective on Omicron as on other variants," Professor Iqbal Chaudhry, director of the International Center for Chemical and Biological Science (ICCBS) where trials were conducted, told reporters.

Free Covid Tests Roll Out This Week. Here’s How to Get One.

Here is how the Biden administration plans to roll out the program. Johns Hopkins University reported more than 527,000 new cases. The seven-day daily average is over 807,000, according to The Wall Street Journal's analysis of Johns Hopkins data.

Trump’s Arizona Speech Proves His Shock Comic Act Has Jumped the Shark

There was a time when Donald Trump made news with his rallies—when he said things that utterly shocked us. Who could forget the firestorm he started, for example, when he went after Colin Kaepernick and other NFL players who knelt during the national anthem in 2017, or earlier that year when he called Barack Obama “the founder of ISIS”? Trump's performance in Arizona on Saturday night—his first rally in months and his much-hyped chance to respond to the one-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot—was neither shocking nor terribly newsworthy.

Germany says Russia will pay price if it moves on Ukraine

KYIV (Reuters) -Germany's foreign minister said on Monday she hoped tensions with Russia over Ukraine could be solved by diplomacy, but she warned that Moscow would suffer if it does attack its neighbour. Minister Annalena Baerbock was speaking in Kyiv on a tour that next takes her to Moscow after talks between Russia and Western states on the Kremlin's deployment of tens of thousands of troops along Ukraine's border ended with no breakthrough last week. The United States https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/us-concerned-russia-prepping-ukraine-invasion-if-diplomacy-fails-official-2022-01-14 said last week it feared Russia was preparing a pretext to invade Ukraine, which Moscow denies.

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  Russia denies looking for pretext to invade Ukraine

  Yahoo News Video
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  Britain says it is supplying anti-tank weapons to Ukraine

  Reuters

College dorm roof collapses under the weight of snow in Western NC, photos show

The roof of a college dormitory in Western North Carolina partially collapsed on Sunday, Jan. 16, as heavy snowfall battered the region — which school officials said was likely to blame. Several dozen students were in the building at the time, according to reports, but no one was hurt. Jones is one of five residence halls on the campus, which sits in Transylvania County about 35 miles outside of Asheville.

Analysis-Saudi-Polish deal dents Russian oil dominance in Baltic

Saudi Arabia's planned purchase of Polish refining assets is set to put OPEC's top producer in charge of two thirds of Poland's oil supply, eroding previously dominant supplier Russia's leverage as it grapples with regional tension. Poland has a long history of seeking to reduce its dependence on Russian energy imports through deals with alternative suppliers and its determination has grown as relations have worsened. The mood between Poland and Russia had already darkened over oil supplies early in 2021 when Poland had to cut its oil purchases from Russia because of a price row between Russia's Rosneft and Poland's PKN Orlen.

The world's 10 richest men have made so much money during the pandemic that a one-time 99% tax on their gains could pay for all COVID-19 vaccine production and more: Oxfam

The 10 richest men have more than doubled their wealth in the COVID-19 pandemic, Oxfam calculated. Oxfam issued a new report on inequality in which it advocated more taxation for the rich. "Billionaires have had a terrific pandemic," Oxfam's executive director, Gabriela Bucher, said.

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  Musk and Bezos among world's 10 richest men who doubled their wealth in pandemic

  Yahoo Finance UK
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  The world’s richest 10 men doubled their fortunes to $1.5 trillion during the pandemic, says Oxfam

  MarketWatch

Surveillance footage shows a woman left distraught after police officer shot her dog 6 times while responding to a 'barking complaint'

A video shows a Florida police officer fatally shooting a dog while responding to a barking complaint. Miami-Dade police said the investigation is active and open, and the dog owners have retained an attorney. A Florida police officer fired a gun six times at a family's dog and killed him while responding to a barking complaint, said NBC 6 South Florida.

Out of this world: 555.55-carat black diamond lands in Dubai

Auction house Sotheby's Dubai has unveiled a diamond that's literally from out of this world. Sotheby's calls the 555.55-carat black diamond — believed to have come from outer space — “The Enigma. The rare gem was shown off on Monday to journalists as part of a tour in Dubai and Los Angeles before it is due to be auctioned off in February in London.

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  Sotheby’s to Accept BTC, ETH or USDC in Auction of Rare Black Diamond Called ‘The Enigma’

  CoinDesk
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  Rare $ 7 million ‘outer space’ black diamond to be auctioned in Dubai

  MarketWatch

Woman Absolutely Destroys Camaro While Fleeing Police

What did the Camaro do to deserve such abuse? According to a Facebook post made by Texarkana Texas Police Department, a woman who ran from cops absolutely destroyed the Chevy Camaro she was driving. Everything went down on the night of January 11 when an officer spotted an orange Camaro with black stripes backed into a parking stall in front of the Magnuson Hotel.

Trump claims he couldn't have lost the 2020 presidential election because his Arizona rally boasted thousands of attendees and had 'cars that stretch out for 25 miles'

Former President Donald Trump on Saturday continued efforts to raise doubt over his election loss. During an Arizona rally, Trump pointed to the crowd size and heavy traffic to justify his opinion. It remains unclear whether Trump plans to run again for president in 2024.

Americans reinvented MLK after his assassination. Let’s remember what he really stood for

Each year, we publish this 2018 editorial from the Charlotte Observer. Its message is as relevant as ever: Martin Luther King Jr. was not a well-liked man. He was one of the most polarizing figures in the United States during his final few years of life.

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  On MLK Day, King implores Senate to act on voting rights

  Associated Press
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  Is today MLK Day? How Martin Luther King Day began

  The Independent

Up to three-quarters of the $800 billion PPP flowed to business owners instead of workers, study finds

The benefits of the landmark small-business relief program designed at the height of the pandemic mostly went to business owners rather than workers, a study from leading economists finds. The study from authors including famed Massachusetts Institute of Technology economics professor David Autor, as well as several Federal Reserve economists, examined the $800 billion Paycheck Protection Program. It was circulated by the National Bureau of Economic Research, and tapped into data from payrolls processor ADP.

Rare blanket octopus spotted in 'once in a lifetime' encounter off Australian coast

A marine biologist had a "once in a lifetime" encounter with the rare and stunning blanket octopus off the coast of Australia this month. Jacinta Shackleton, a videographer and photographer, has been capturing wildlife in Great Barrier Reef for the past three years as a content creator for Queensland's Tourism and Events. On Jan. 6, Shackleton posted on Instagram that she had spotted the elusive octopus while snorkeling near Lady Elliot Island.

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  'Rarely Encountered' Blanket Octopus Makes an Appearance on Great Barrier Reef

  Storyful
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  Rare blanket octopus spotted on Great Barrier Reef

  ABC News Videos

A Florida Republican who was defeated by 59 percentage points in a congressional special election won't concede

The Republican Jason Mariner hasn't conceded in Florida's 20th District special election House race. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, a progressive Democrat, beat Mariner in a 79%-20% landslide. Mariner filed a lawsuit before the election was called, telling CBS Miami "stuff" was "discovered."

China won't 'bully' neighbours over S. China Sea, foreign minister says

China will not use its strength to "bully" its smaller neighbours including the Philippines, its foreign minister said on Monday, as he highlighted the importance of settling disputes in the South China Sea peacefully. "Stressing only one side's claims and imposing one's own will on the other is not a proper way for neighbours to treat each other and it goes against the oriental philosophy of how people should get along with each other," Wang Yi, the Chinese government's top diplomat, told a virtual forum organised by China's embassy in Manila and a local advocacy group. His remarks come less than two months after the Philippines condemned China's blocking of a military resupply ship in the South China Sea, which prompted a warning from treaty ally the United States that an attack on Philippine vessels would invoke its mutual defence commitments.