New Zealand has announced a phased reopening of its borders, as the country starts to ease some of the world’s toughest Covid restrictions. Vaccinated citizens in Australia can go home from 27 February without needing to undergo state mandatory hotel quarantine. Jabbed citizens elsewhere will be allowed in from 13 March, said PM Jacinda Ardern. People will still have to self-isolate for 10 days but can do so at home. The announcement comes after growing criticism of Wellington’s controversial closed-border policy to keep out the coronavirus. New Zealand’s borders have been shut for nearly two years due to the pandemic. In that period, the country of five million people has recorded 53 deaths and about 17,000 Covid cases – very low numbers compared to the rest of the world. But while the closed border policy has been popular domestically, New Zealanders overseas said it had made it near impossible to go home. The huge demand for hotel quarantine spots shut many Kiwis out.(BBC)…[+]

Whoopi Goldberg has been suspended from a US talk show after saying the Holocaust involved “two groups of white people”. ABC News said Goldberg would be off-air for two weeks after her “wrong and hurtful comments”. The actress and TV personality said on ABC’s The View that the Nazi genocide of the Jews was “not about race”. She apologised but then caused further offence while attempting to explain her remarks on a late-night show. In a note to staff on Tuesday night, ABC News president Kim Godwin wrote: “Effective immediately, I am suspending Whoopi Goldberg for two weeks for her wrong and hurtful comments. “While Whoopi has apologised, I’ve asked her to take time to reflect and learn about the impact of her comments.(BBC)…[+]

At least 26 people have died after they were electrocuted by a falling power cable at a market in the Democratic Republic of Congo, police say. The high-voltage cable snapped and fell onto houses and people shopping near the capital Kinshasa on Wednesday. Unverified footage posted to social media appeared to show the aftermath of the incident, with several motionless bodies in puddles of water. It is not yet clear what caused the power cable to break.  Police said the collapse happened at the Matadi-Kibala district on the outskirts of Kinshasa and that a number of people died on the spot. “The cable snapped and the live end of it fell into a ditch that was filled with water after morning rain,” Charles Mbutamuntu, spokesman for the Kinshasa provincial government, told AFP news agency. Local media report that the majority of the victims are female market traders.(BBC)…[+]

Tonga will go into lockdown after several cases of Covid were recorded in the capital city Nuku’alofa.

Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni said on Tuesday two port workers had tested positive. Officials later confirmed three more cases in family members. The South Pacific nation had previously managed to stay virus-free. The outbreak comes as Tongans try to recover from a deadly volcanic eruption and tsunami which left three dead and damaged homes and infrastructure. Tonga had avoided Covid outbreaks by closing its borders to the outside world in early 2020. But since the eruption it has since been heavily dependent on foreign aid for supplies of fresh drinking water, shelter kits and rescue equipment.(BBC)…[+]

A huge landslide triggered by the heaviest rainfall in Ecuador for almost 20 years has killed at least 11 people in the capital, Quito, officials say. Mud and rocks were carried down the slopes of the Pichincha volcano, which overlooks the city, engulfing a recreation ground and eight houses, and sweeping away cars. At least 32 people were injured. Weather experts said the amount of rain that hit the mountain was almost 40 times as much as forecast. “I saw how the current took a man and a child. It was horrible,” local resident Belén Bermeo was quoted as saying by Ecuador’s El Universo newspaper. Local emergency services published a dramatic video showing the devastation caused by the flooding.(BBC)…[+]

Denmark has lifted all of its domestic Covid-19 restrictions, including the wearing of face masks, making it the first European Union country to do so. Nightclubs have reopened, late-night alcohol sales have resumed, and the contact-tracing app is no longer needed to enter venues. While cases are still relatively high, the authorities say the virus no longer qualifies as a “critical threat”. That is due to the country’s high vaccination rate, experts say. “We have an extremely high coverage of adults vaccinated with three doses,” epidemiologist Lone Simonsen of the University of Roskilde told the AFP news agency. “With Omicron not being a severe disease for the vaccinated, we believe it is reasonable to lift restrictions,” she said.(BBC)…[+]

US President Joe Biden has affirmed that he will appoint a black woman to the top US court for the first time in history. The eventual nominee will take up a seat to be vacated by liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, who will retire in June. Appearing with Mr Breyer on Thursday, Mr Biden promised a replacement with the “experience and integrity” needed for the role. He said he’ll announce his pick by the end of February. Three judges are considered top contenders. Ketanji Brown Jackson, 51, is widely believed to be the top contender to replace Justice Breyer. Born in Washington DC and raised in Miami, Ms Jackson currently serves on the influential US Court of Appeals for the DC circuit. Three current justices previously served on the court. “Presidents are not kings,” she wrote in a 2019 ruling compelling a former aide to President Trump to testify in the Russia meddling probe. “They do not have subjects, bound by loyalty or blood, whose destiny they are entitled to control.” The jurist has two degrees from Harvard University, which she attended as an undergraduate and as a law student, once serving as editor of the Harvard Law Review.(BBC)…[+]

Canadian authorities believe the deaths of four Indian nationals found steps away from the Canada-US border are connected to a human smuggling scheme. Jagdish Patel, 39, Vaishailben Patel, 37, and their children Vihangi, 11, and Dharkmik, 3, died from exposure due to the frigid cold near Manitoba, Canada. Temperatures dropped to -35C (-31F) on the night the Patel family attempted to cross into the US on foot. The family was found in a field north of the border on 19 January. Their identities were announced by Canada’s High Commission of India and later confirmed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). Speaking at a news conference on Thursday, RCMP superintendent Rob Hill said the Patel family first arrived in Canada on 12 January, on a flight to Toronto. From there, they made their way west to Manitoba, before travelling to Emerson – a border town – on or around 18 January. Their bodies were found the next night.(BBC)…[+]

Some of the nurses and doctors at the biggest hospital in Ethiopia’s war-torn Tigray region are having to beg for food to feed themselves, one of the medics has told the BBC. They have not been paid for eight months, forcing them to find other ways of supporting their families, he said. The doctor’s account comes as the UN reports that “severe hunger” was hitting ever more people in Tigray. It says that 2.2 million people “are suffering an extreme lack of food”. Half of all pregnant and breastfeeding women are suffering from malnutrition, the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) survey found. Overall, in Tigray and the other two regions affected by the months of fighting, Amhara and Afar, nine million people need some form of food assistance, the WFP adds. Ethiopian federal government forces have been battling rebels from the northern Tigray region since November 2020 in a conflict that has killed thousands of people. For a lot of that time much of Tigray has been cut off, making it hard to deliver vital aid and medical supplies. Banks have also been shut meaning that people cannot access savings or funds to pay others. Doctors and nurses have not been spared from the suffering.(BBC)…[+]

Police in Iran have arrested 17 people over a series of viral street prank videos posted on Instagram.

The pranksters recorded themselves faking murders and throwing cake at escalator riders, all in front of shocked members of the public. Police said the influencers “sowed panic” to boost their follower counts. Iranian authorities maintain tight control over the internet and the arrests come as part of a wider police crackdown on social media use. One secretly filmed video showed a prankster chastising his wife for texting a heart emoji to someone before he pretended to decapitate her, all while a horrified taxi passenger watched on. The victim of another recorded stunt was riding on an escalator when he was smeared in the face with a cream pie, before chasing the pranksters and angrily flinging his backpack and shoes after them.(BBC)…[+]