A Dutch police chief has called for an end to “paedophile hunting” after a 73-year-old retired teacher was beaten up by teenagers and died of his injuries. Oscar Dros said there was a risk more people could die and he appealed for justice to be left to the authorities. The man from the eastern city of Arnhem was lured into having sexual contact with a minor while in a gay chatroom. Authorities said he was aware the boy was underage. But there was no evidence of past sexual contact with minors. The Arnhem attack is the latest in a series of 250 incidents involving so-called “paedophile hunters” in the Netherlands, reports say.

US election officials have said the 2020 White House vote was the “most secure in American history”, rejecting President Donald Trump’s fraud claims. “There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised,” a committee announced. They spoke out after Mr Trump claimed without proof that 2.7 million votes for him had been “deleted”. He has yet to concede to the president-elect, Democrat Joe Biden. The result of the 3 November election was projected by all the major US TV networks last weekend. Mr Biden is now projected to have won Arizona, extending his lead by 11 electoral college votes to a total of 290, with Mr Trump on 217. It is the first time the state has voted Democrat since 1996.(BBC)…[+]

Washington is unlikely to have seen its last Asian giant hornets, the state’s agricultural department has said, after scientists found 200 queens in one nest. The nest – the first in the US – of the so-called murder hornets was captured with a vacuum from a tree in October. Researchers believe more queens – which are responsible for establishing colonies – could remain at large. But they are confident the population can be brought under control. Asian giant hornets are an invasive species in the Pacific North-West. They target honeybees, which pollinate crops. The insect, which is native to Japan and South Korea, can slaughter a bee colony in a matter of hours. They can also spit venom and inflict numerous powerful stings on humans.

North Atlantic hurricanes are retaining far more of their strength when they hit land because of global warming, say scientists. Previously, experts believed these storms died down quickly once they made landfall. But over the past 50 years, the time it takes for hurricanes to dissipate on the coast has almost doubled.

Researchers says that climate change gives the storms more energy, which continues to power them over land. The scientists involved say that this will likely make hurricanes more damaging further inland in years to come.

The UK has become the first country in Europe to pass 50,000 coronavirus deaths, according to the latest government figures. A total of 50,365 people have died within 28 days of a positive Covid test, up 595 in the past 24 hours. The UK is the fifth country to pass 50,000 deaths, coming after the US, Brazil, India and Mexico.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the figures showed, despite hopes for a vaccine, “we are not out of the woods”. He said: “Every death is a tragedy,” but added: “I do think we have got now to a different phase in the way that we treat it.” A further 22,950 cases of coronavirus were recorded on Wednesday, government figures show. There have been some 1.2 million confirmed cases in the UK since the epidemic began, and more than 185,000 people have been admitted to hospital with the virus.(BBC)…[+]

The ticket booths at Krylatskoye ice palace are shuttered, but the rink is full: not of speed skaters and hockey players, but rows of coronavirus patients. It’s one of five facilities in Moscow transformed into giant temporary hospitals that are now swinging into action as the number of new Covid cases reaches daily record highs. The Kremlin describes the rate of infection as “worrying” – close to 21,000 new cases were announced across Russia on Tuesday – and it admits that healthcare facilities in some regions are “overloaded”.

A Vatican report has found that two recent popes and Church officials ignored allegations about a US cardinal later found guilty of sex abuse. Theodore McCarrick, a former archbishop of Washington DC, was expelled from the priesthood after the Vatican concluded its investigation last year.  It has now issued a report into how he was able to rise through the ranks, despite allegations going back decades. It argues that credible evidence only surfaced in 2017. The current Pope, Francis, then ordered the investigation and last year Mr McCarrick, now 90, was found to have sexually abused a teenage boy in the 1970s. His abuses may have taken place too long ago for criminal charges to be filed because of the US statute of limitations.(BBC)…[+]

A Canadian man who killed 10 people by ploughing a van into pedestrians in Toronto has pleaded “not criminally responsible” at the start of his trial. Alek Minassian faces 10 charges of murder and 16 of attempted murder. The 28-year-old has been linked to the misogynistic “incel” movement, a mostly online group of young men who blame their lack of sexual activity on women.

He has admitted the 2018 attack, but his lawyers argue he is not mentally fit to be held criminally responsible.

His mother has said he has Asperger’s syndrome – a type of autism that can make it difficult to understand non-verbal social cues. Mr Minassian’s trial is being held by videoconference before a judge only, not a jury, and is expected to last about four weeks. It was supposed to start earlier this year but was postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic. The trial is being live-streamed and the accused will appear from prison.(BBC)…[+]

Tropical Storm Eta has hit Florida, bringing with it heavy rain and strong winds that forecasters fear may lead to storm surges and flash flooding. Schools, beaches and public transport in much of the southern part of the state were shut before Eta made landfall late on Sunday in Lower Matecumbe Key in the Florida Keys.

Eta has already wreaked devastation in parts of Central America. It passed through Cuba before making landfall in Florida. The National Hurricane Center warned in the early hours of Monday that Eta would bring “strong winds, heavy rains and dangerous storm surge” over parts of South Florida and Florida Keys. It said the storm had brought maximum sustained winds of 65mph (100km/h), was moving at around 14 mph (22km/h) and is forecast to become a hurricane as it moves over the south-eastern Gulf of Mexico.

More than a century after it was dispatched by a German soldier, a message sent via carrier pigeon has been found by chance. In September, a couple out for a stroll in the eastern French Alsace region, came across a tiny aluminium capsule in a field. Inside was the message, written in barely legible German on a kind of tracing paper. The message appears to carry the date 1910, or 1916. Dominique Jardy, curator of the Linge Museum, near where the discovery was made, thinks 1910 is more likely, Le Parisien reports (in French). Describing the find as “super-rare”, he told the paper the capsule was likely to have come to the surface of the soil over time as have many military remains from the First World War.(NU)…[+]