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South Africa to begin jabbing 12- to 17-year-olds with Pfizer Covid vaccine in bid to ramp up inoculation rate before exams

South Africa’s health minister has announced that the country will start giving Covid vaccines to 12- to 17-year-olds from next week, using the Pfizer jab, as part of a plan to boost inoculation before exams start. Friday’s statement comes a month after South Africa’s Health Products Regulatory Authority approved the use of the Pfizer vaccine […]

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Swiss cops deploy water cannon & rubber bullets to break up 500-strong protest opposing Covid-19 health pass (VIDEOS)

Swiss police used a water cannon, rubber bullets and tear gas to break up an anti-Covid protest on Thursday after a crowd of demonstrators broke through barriers outside the federal capital’s parliament building. The unauthorized protest saw around 500 critics of the government’s Covid-19 restrictions gather for a weekly demonstration, as activists continue to reject […]

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‘Veil of silence’ let up to 330,000 children be abused by clergy and lay members within France’s Catholic Church since 1950s

A 2,500-page report conducted by an independent inquiry into allegations of abuse and subsequent cover-ups within France’s Catholic Church has declared that a “veil of silence” allowed clergy to assault victims for decades. Jean-Marc Sauve, the president of the commission that examined the allegations, found the French Catholic Church had shown “a profound and even […]

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Facebook blames ‘faulty configuration change’ for massive outage amid calls to ‘break up’ tech giant

Facebook has issued a mea culpa after disrupting the business and social interactions of millions of users as a Facebook-owned social media trio lagged for over six hours, while blaming an engineering error for the web apocalypse. Facebook has confirmed that a routing problem throttled its services, bringing operations at its site, as well as […]

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Michelangelo’s David canceled? Replica of iconic nude statue has its genitals COVERED UP at Dubai Expo – reports

A giant 3D-printed copy of Michelangelo’s famous statue of David displayed at the Expo 2020 in Dubai has been caught up in a censorship controversy, after organizers obscured its genitalia to adhere to strict public nudity laws. The 17-foot resin replica, manufactured from laser scans of the sculpture and coated with marble dust, was apparently […]

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‘Most absolute of evils’: Investigation estimates up to 3,200 pedophile priests in French Catholic Church since 1950

Up to 3,200 Catholic priests have sexually abused children in France in recent history, the head of an independent inquiry has said, days before publishing a report on the scope of crimes against minors inside the church. The independent commission led by former vice president of the Council of State Jean-Marc Sauve was set up […]

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New Zealand beefs up counter-terrorism law after ‘ISIS-inspired’ knife assailant injured 7 despite weeks of police surveillance   

New Zealand has voted to strengthen a counter-terrorism bill, now criminalizing the planning of attacks after a knifeman inspired by Islamic State recently left several injured, despite being trailed by police for weeks. Parliament passed the bill on its third reading on Thursday, voting to amend two previous pieces of legislation that took effect in […]

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YouTube bans ALL anti-vax videos, ramping up Covid-era censorship campaign

YouTube will ban all “harmful vaccine content” from its platform, including claims that vaccines are ineffective at reducing disease transmission. The ban comes after a year of escalating censorship by the Google-owned company. “We’ve steadily seen false claims about the coronavirus vaccines spill over into misinformation about vaccines in general, and we’re now at a […]

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Matriarchy hopes dashed: Women will NOT take up majority of seats in Icelandic parliament after vote recount

While initial election results put Iceland on course to become the first European country with a woman-majority parliament, with the news making international headlines, the new tally shows that female MPs fell short of the mark. Multiple media reported on Sunday that Iceland’s parliamentary elections propelled more women into the country’s legislature than men in […]

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Germans vote in historic election, with Angela Merkel up for replacement after 16 years in power

Germans are voting to elect a new parliament that will then replace the venerable Chancellor Angela Merkel. The race has been extremely tight, and the coalition-building to follow will likely be messy. Polling stations opened across Germany on Sunday morning, with just over 60 million people eligible to vote. The Bundestag officially has 598 seats, […]

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Xi Jinping calls on world to OPEN UP to science & tech partnerships with China

Chinese President Xi Jinping has called on countries worldwide to pursue openness in global scientific and technological cooperation, promising that China, too, would commit to the common goal of “human peace and development.” Xi delivered the remarks as he addressed the opening ceremony of the Zhongguancun Forum, joining the event by video link on Friday. […]

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‘It’s France’s and will remain so’: Paris denies UK media report claiming it could give up its UN Security Council seat

France has rejected a report by the Daily Telegraph that it was proposing to hand its seat at the UN Security Council over to Brussels in exchange for European governments supporting President Emanuel Macron’s plan of an EU army. An article published by the British paper earlier on Wednesday claimed that such an offer from […]

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New Zealand refuses to give up its zero-case Covid-19 strategy as infection numbers rise in Auckland

With new cases being reported in locked-down Auckland daily, New Zealand’s Covid-19 response minister has said the government will not abandon its zero-infections strategy, even as it is becoming increasingly unrealistic. “We are not giving up on getting back down to zero. That is absolutely what we are striving for,” Chris Hipkins told a press […]

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Girls will return to secondary schools in Afghanistan, but only after ‘safe environment’ is set up, Taliban tells media

The Taliban has said that girls can return to secondary schools only after Afghanistan’s militant-led government creates a secure environment for them. So far, only boys have been allowed to resume their studies. “We are not against education of girls, but we are still working on mechanisms of how their school attendance can be possible,” Taliban […]

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Chinese planes enter Taiwan’s air-defense zone just one day after Taipei announced extra $9bn to beef up its military

Taipei has reported that 10 Chinese aircraft crossed into its air-defense zone, just one day after Taiwan pledged an extra $9 billion to beef up its military against Beijing. On Friday, Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense issued a statement confirming that 10 planes belonging to China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), including six J-16 and two J-11 […]