US military planners pushed for nuclear strikes on mainland China in 1958 to protect Taiwan from an invasion by Communist forces, classified documents posted online by Daniel Ellsberg of “Pentagon Papers” fame show.US planners also assumed that the Soviet Union would aid China and retaliate with nuclear weapons — a price they deemed worth paying to protect Taiwan, according to the document, first reported by the New York Times.Former military analyst Ellsberg posted online the classified portion of a top-secret document on the crisis that had been only partially declassified in 1975.Ellsberg, now 90, is famous for his 1971 leak…
Author: Mike Harrison
Germany will impose fresh restrictions on travelers from the U.K. starting on Sunday due to the rapid spread in Britain of the coronavirus strain first identified in India.Travelers from the U.K. will have to spend two weeks in quarantine upon arrival in Germany even if they test negative for the virus, according to the foreign ministry. In addition, transport companies will only be allowed to bring German citizens back into the country.Germany now classifies Britain as a “virus variant area,” the country’s highest risk category, following a recommendation from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), according to the foreign ministry.German Chancellor…
Prime Minister Boris Johnson was slow to ban travel to India, even as cases of a dangerous Covid-19 variant in the world’s second most populous country surged. Scientists and advisers now fear the U.K. has exposed its vulnerability, and the question is if the government machine can move fast enough when the next strain arrives.Officials privately suspect Johnson’s team was reluctant to close the border to travelers from India for political reasons with post-Brexit ties around the world high on the economic agenda. There were also concerns the country didn’t have the infrastructure in place to cope with the sheer number of people wanting…
US President Joe Biden has said a two-state solution was the “only answer” to the Israel-Palestine conflict emphatically reiterating decades-old US policy that had enjoyed an indifferent to no backing from his predecessor, Donald Trump.On Friday, Biden also made it clear that “there will be no peace” in the region if Israel’s right to exist as an independent Jewish nation was not acknowledged and accepted.President Biden was speaking at a joint news briefing with visiting South Korean President Moon Jae-in, a day after Israel and Hamas declared an unconditional ceasefire ending an 11-day conflict, which the United States had helped…
When voters in Florida and Georgia want to vote by mail in next year’s races for governor, they will have to make sure they take one more step to ensure they receive a ballot: providing their identification.Just two states had ID requirements in 2020 for voters requesting a mailed ballot. This year, Republicans across the country have zeroed in on mail voting and enacted new limits on a process that exploded in popularity during the coronavirus pandemic.In addition to Florida and Georgia, legislation to require additional identification for mail voting was introduced in Arizona, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Ohio,…
In the US, COVID-19 vaccines are free, but it turns out that money is still a big barrier to vaccination. See, even though the vaccines don’t cost a thing, it still takes time to go and get a shot and potentially recover from any side effects. For working adults, that may mean taking time off work — and that isn’t something that everyone can afford to do. Black and Hispanic people are particularly concerned about the tradeoff between missing work and getting the vaccine, according to new results from research published by the Kaiser Family Foundation this week. People in…
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has warned that a growing Salmonella outbreak may be linked to backyard poultry, urging Americans to stop kissing or snuggling chickens. In an investigation notice published on Thursday, the CDC said that 163 cases of confirmed illness have been reported across 43 states. Out of the reported cases, the median age of sick people was 24 and 58 per cent of those were female.The US health agency noted that the true number is likely to be much higher since many people recover without medical care and are not tested for Salmonella.…
Two doses from either the Oxford/AstraZeneca or the Pfizer vaccine are over 80 per cent effective in preventing infection from the B1.617.2 variant of Covid-19, first discovered in India, a new UK government study has reportedly found.The Oxford/AstraZeneca two-dose vaccine is also being produced by the Serum Institute of India as Covishield and being administered among the adult population in India to protect against the deadly virus.The UK findings are said to be based on data from Public Health England (PHE) and have also revealed that the two doses provide 87 per cent protection from the B.117 variant, first discovered…
Police spokesperson John Elder said the gunfire stemmed from two men in a crowd who got into an argument, pulled out guns and started shooting. AP | , Minneapolis PUBLISHED ON MAY 22, 2021 05:40 PM IST A shooting in downtown Minneapolis killed two people and wounded eight others, police said early Saturday.The 10 people shot included five men and five women, the police department said in a series of tweets.Two of the men died and another man was at a hospital in critical condition, police said. The other seven wounded people had injuries not considered to be life-threatening.No arrests…
Campaign group Animal Rebellion said activists would remain at the sites for at least 24 hours to disrupt the company’s supply chain. Reuters | , London PUBLISHED ON MAY 22, 2021 05:25 PM IST Campaign group Animal Rebellion said activists were blockading distribution centres of McDonald’s in Britain on Saturday to demand the restaurant chain turn to plant-based foods.Around 50 protesters were using trucks and bamboo structures to stop lorries from leaving McDonald’s four distribution centres in the United Kingdom, the group said in a statement.A spokeswoman for McDonald’s UK apologised to its customers for the disruption.”We are assessing the…