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‘Merry Christmas, ya filthy animals!’ – Home Alone actor gets Hollywood Walk of Fame star
Macaulay Culkin, who played the eight-year-old Kevin McCallister in Home Alone, has unveiled his Walk of Fame star on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles.At the ceremony he was reunited with actress Catherine O’Hara, who played his mum in the 1990 hit film. She thanked him for “including me, your fake mum who left you home alone not once, but twice”.Culkin was also joined by his fiancee, actress Brenda Song, and their two young sons – and said the honour was important to him as a father.
Five senators ask Biden to impose China travel ban after respiratory illness cases
Five Republican senators led by Marco Rubio on Friday asked President Joe Biden’s administration to ban travel between the United States and China after a spike in Chinese respiratory illness cases.
“We should immediately restrict travel between the United States and (China) until we know more about the dangers posed by this new illness,” said the letter signed by Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, along with Senators J.D. Vance, Rick Scott, Tommy Tuberville and Mike Braun.
The rise in cases became a global issue last week when the World Health Organization asked China for more information, citing a report on clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children by the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases.
A Biden administration official said the United States was closely monitoring the uptick in respiratory illnesses in China, but added, “We are seeing seasonal trends. Nothing is appearing out of the ordinary. … At this time, there is no indication that there is a link between the people who are seeking care in U.S. emergency departments and the outbreak of respiratory illness in China.”
The spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, Liu Pengyu, said in response to the Rubio letter, “The relevant claims are purely ill-intentioned fabrications. China firmly opposes them.”
Maria Van Kerkhove, acting director of the WHO’s department of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, said earlier this week the increase appeared to be driven by a rise in the number of children contracting pathogens that they had avoided during two years of COVID-19 restrictions.
In recent months, the United States and China have been steadily increasing flights between the countries, though they remain far below 2019 levels. The number approved rose on Nov. 9 to 35 per week for each country, up from 12 per week in August.
In January 2020, then-President Donald Trump barred most non-U.S. citizens who had recently been in China from entering the United States over COVID concerns, but did not restrict flights between the two countries.
The United States lifted the unprecedented travel restrictions for fully vaccinated international visitors starting in November 2021, including from China. The U.S. rescinded a separate requirement that air travelers test negative before arriving in June 2022.
The United States in January had started requiring air passengers to get negative COVID tests after Beijing’s decision to lift its stringent zero-COVID policies, but lifted the requirements in March.
© Thomson Reuters 2023.
Congo cobalt: TikTokers quit vaping over mining concerns
Published1 hour agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, Micah NdangoBy Wedaeli ChibelushiBBC NewsDozens of young adults on TikTok are vowing to throw out their e-cigarettes and quit vaping – but not for health reasons.”In my effort to help [the Democratic Republic of] Congo, I’m quitting vaping,” Micah Ndango, who has been vaping for five years, says in a video that has been viewed more than 15,000 times.”My sister just took my last vape so I’ll be documenting my vape-quitting process on here,” the 21-year-old pledges.DR Congo, a central African country, is the world’s main source of cobalt, a key component of the lithium-ion batteries used in mobile phones, electric vehicles and many models of e-cigarette. It is also home to more than 100 million people and currently faces what the UN says is one of the “largest humanitarian crises in the world”. Dozens of armed groups have long plagued DR Congo’s mineral-rich east and this year heightened conflict has pushed the number of people forced to flee their homes to a record 6.9 million people, UN data shows. Civilians are also being targeted – just last week 14 villagers were killed by suspected Islamist militants.As reports of the recent unrest spread, social media users have been questioning the role international companies and consumers have in DR Congo’s woes. “The first time I heard about the impacts of cobalt mining in Congo was from a TikTok [video],” Ms Ndango, who lives in the United States, tells the BBC.”After watching that TikTok I did my own research on the subject.” Image source, AFPIn September, a report from Amnesty International found multinational companies mining for copper and cobalt in DR Congo had forcefully evicted entire communities. Amnesty also found human rights abuses – for instance numerous villagers who refused to leave their homes said they were beaten by Congolese soldiers. And last year, the US Department of Labor added lithium-ion batteries to its “list of goods produced by child labour or forced labour”, based on its evidence of children mining cobalt in DR Congo.”Thousands of children miss school and work in terrible conditions to produce cobalt for lithium-ion batteries,” the department reported.It said entire families might work in Congolese cobalt mines: “When parents are killed by landslides or collapsing mine shafts, children are orphaned with no option but to continue working.”Given the scale of the practice, Ms Ndango recognises it might be difficult for online activism to drive lasting change on the ground. However, her videos will raise awareness at the very least, she says.”You never who is on the other side of that phone and the change they may be able to make.”I believe that I have the ability to spread awareness and social media is an incredibly powerful communication tool, so why not use it?” Videos of TikTokers like Ms Ndango pledging to quit vaping have indeed gained widespread attention. One of the most watched – by creator @itskristinamf – has been viewed more than 1.7 million times.On Ms Ndango’s own videos, dozens of TikTok users have responded with comments like: “You aren’t alone. Just started the same thing” and “GIRL I QUIT TODAY TOO WE IN THIS TOGETHER”.Image source, Getty ImagesHowever, Christoph Vogel, author of Conflict Minerals, Inc.: War, Profit and White Saviourism in Eastern Congo, believes such digital activism is a “double-edged sword”.It can draw mass attention to important issues, but can often only do so through “massive simplification”, he tells the BBC.”There are widespread human rights violations, including child labour, in the context of cobalt mining – adding to significant health hazard,” says Mr Vogel, a UN Security Council expert on DR Congo who spent years working in the country.”But this is common to mining in general and it would be misleading to assign that to cobalt, per se.” Online activism also risks stripping agency from the communities it means to help while “Western advocates and the swarm intelligence of online users dominate the narrative”.Ms Ndango acknowledges this point.”There’s so many layers to the issues in DR Congo but when spreading awareness online, people are going to oversimplify things to fit the 60 seconds they have.”She laments that the people impacted the most from cobalt mining in DR Congo might not have the means to tell their own stories en-masse, but urges others to “use your power for good”.”One post can reach an entire nation,” she adds.You may also be interested in:The precious metal sparking a new gold rushThe tycoon, the president and the diamond dealsA quick guide to DR CongoAround the BBCFocus Today podcasts
Judge rejects Trump’s immunity claim in 2020 election case
Published2 hours agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, United States Courts ServiceBy Bernd Debusmann JrBBC News, WashingtonA federal judge has dismissed ex-President Donald Trump’s bid to throw out charges of election interference on the basis of “presidential immunity”. Mr Trump’s lawyers had argued his attempts to reject the 2020 results fell within his duties as president.But Judge Tanya Chutkan found no legal basis for concluding presidents cannot face criminal charges once they are no longer in office. Mr Trump is accused of unlawfully trying to overturn his election defeat.”Whatever immunities a sitting president may enjoy, the United States has only one chief executive at a time,” Judge Chutkan wrote late on Friday. “That position does not confer a lifelong ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ pass.” She added that Mr Trump’s presidency “did not bestow on him the divine right of kings to evade the criminal accountability that governs his fellow citizens”.The ruling is the first by a US court confirming that presidents can be prosecuted like any other citizen. Mr Trump is the first current or former US president to face criminal charges.Court says Trump can be sued for Capitol riotWho is the hard-line judge on Trump’s election case?Why Trump’s rivals in Iowa still think they can win After the ruling, a Trump campaign spokesperson told CBS, the BBC’s US partner, that “the corrupt leftists will fail and President Trump will keep fighting for America and Americans, including by challenging these wrongful decisions in higher courts”. Mr Trump is facing four criminal counts – including conspiracy to defraud the US – related to his alleged efforts to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. He has pleaded not guilty. The Washington DC trial, brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith, is scheduled to begin in March in the midst of his campaign for next year’s White House election. It is not clear whether Mr Trump’s legal team will appeal against the latest ruling, one of several legal setbacks the former president has recently faced in the case. Image source, Getty ImagesEarlier this week, Judge Chutkan also blocked an attempt by Mr Trump to obtain records related to the congressional investigation into the US Capitol riot in 2021. In an opinion, filed on 27 November, the Obama appointee referred to the effort as a “fishing expedition”. Judge Chutkan had already issued a gag order and denied a request to remove language from the indictment which Mr Trump’s lawyers believe could prejudice a jury against him during the trial. The federal case in Washington DC is one of several legal battles in which the former president is currently embroiled. He is also facing criminal indictments relating to his handling of classified documents and allegedly false accounting involving hush money. In his home state of New York, Mr Trump, his family and Trump Organization executives are facing a civil fraud trial. The judge in the case has already ruled the Trump Organization committed fraud. The trial will determine the penalties, with prosecutors seeking a $250m (£202m) fine and business restrictions on the Trump family and the Trump Organization. More on the US electionExplained: A simple guide to the US 2024 electionRepublicans: Who are the challengers to Trump?Analysis: Four surprises that could upend the electionPolicies: What a Trump second term would look likeVoters: ‘It’s like 2020 all over again – with higher stakes’More on this storyCourt says Trump can be sued for Capitol riotPublished2 hours agoTrump back under gag order in New York fraud trialPublished1 day agoJudge denies Trump’s request for Jan 6 recordsPublished3 days ago
‘Merry Christmas, ya filthy animals!’ – Home Alone actor gets Hollywood Walk of Fame star
Macaulay Culkin, who played the eight-year-old Kevin McCallister in Home Alone, has unveiled his Walk of Fame star on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles.At the ceremony he was reunited with actress Catherine O’Hara, who played his mum in the 1990 hit film. She thanked him for “including me, your fake mum who left you home alone not once, but twice”.Culkin was also joined by his fiancee, actress Brenda Song, and their two young sons – and said the honour was important to him as a father.
Five senators ask Biden to impose China travel ban after respiratory illness cases
Five Republican senators led by Marco Rubio on Friday asked President Joe Biden’s administration to ban travel between the United States and China after a spike in Chinese respiratory illness cases.
“We should immediately restrict travel between the United States and (China) until we know more about the dangers posed by this new illness,” said the letter signed by Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, along with Senators J.D. Vance, Rick Scott, Tommy Tuberville and Mike Braun.
The rise in cases became a global issue last week when the World Health Organization asked China for more information, citing a report on clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children by the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases.
A Biden administration official said the United States was closely monitoring the uptick in respiratory illnesses in China, but added, “We are seeing seasonal trends. Nothing is appearing out of the ordinary. … At this time, there is no indication that there is a link between the people who are seeking care in U.S. emergency departments and the outbreak of respiratory illness in China.”
The spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, Liu Pengyu, said in response to the Rubio letter, “The relevant claims are purely ill-intentioned fabrications. China firmly opposes them.”
Maria Van Kerkhove, acting director of the WHO’s department of epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention, said earlier this week the increase appeared to be driven by a rise in the number of children contracting pathogens that they had avoided during two years of COVID-19 restrictions.
In recent months, the United States and China have been steadily increasing flights between the countries, though they remain far below 2019 levels. The number approved rose on Nov. 9 to 35 per week for each country, up from 12 per week in August.
In January 2020, then-President Donald Trump barred most non-U.S. citizens who had recently been in China from entering the United States over COVID concerns, but did not restrict flights between the two countries.
The United States lifted the unprecedented travel restrictions for fully vaccinated international visitors starting in November 2021, including from China. The U.S. rescinded a separate requirement that air travelers test negative before arriving in June 2022.
The United States in January had started requiring air passengers to get negative COVID tests after Beijing’s decision to lift its stringent zero-COVID policies, but lifted the requirements in March.
© Thomson Reuters 2023.
Congo cobalt: TikTokers quit vaping over mining concerns
Published1 hour agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, Micah NdangoBy Wedaeli ChibelushiBBC NewsDozens of young adults on TikTok are vowing to throw out their e-cigarettes and quit vaping – but not for health reasons.”In my effort to help [the Democratic Republic of] Congo, I’m quitting vaping,” Micah Ndango, who has been vaping for five years, says in a video that has been viewed more than 15,000 times.”My sister just took my last vape so I’ll be documenting my vape-quitting process on here,” the 21-year-old pledges.DR Congo, a central African country, is the world’s main source of cobalt, a key component of the lithium-ion batteries used in mobile phones, electric vehicles and many models of e-cigarette. It is also home to more than 100 million people and currently faces what the UN says is one of the “largest humanitarian crises in the world”. Dozens of armed groups have long plagued DR Congo’s mineral-rich east and this year heightened conflict has pushed the number of people forced to flee their homes to a record 6.9 million people, UN data shows. Civilians are also being targeted – just last week 14 villagers were killed by suspected Islamist militants.As reports of the recent unrest spread, social media users have been questioning the role international companies and consumers have in DR Congo’s woes. “The first time I heard about the impacts of cobalt mining in Congo was from a TikTok [video],” Ms Ndango, who lives in the United States, tells the BBC.”After watching that TikTok I did my own research on the subject.” Image source, AFPIn September, a report from Amnesty International found multinational companies mining for copper and cobalt in DR Congo had forcefully evicted entire communities. Amnesty also found human rights abuses – for instance numerous villagers who refused to leave their homes said they were beaten by Congolese soldiers. And last year, the US Department of Labor added lithium-ion batteries to its “list of goods produced by child labour or forced labour”, based on its evidence of children mining cobalt in DR Congo.”Thousands of children miss school and work in terrible conditions to produce cobalt for lithium-ion batteries,” the department reported.It said entire families might work in Congolese cobalt mines: “When parents are killed by landslides or collapsing mine shafts, children are orphaned with no option but to continue working.”Given the scale of the practice, Ms Ndango recognises it might be difficult for online activism to drive lasting change on the ground. However, her videos will raise awareness at the very least, she says.”You never who is on the other side of that phone and the change they may be able to make.”I believe that I have the ability to spread awareness and social media is an incredibly powerful communication tool, so why not use it?” Videos of TikTokers like Ms Ndango pledging to quit vaping have indeed gained widespread attention. One of the most watched – by creator @itskristinamf – has been viewed more than 1.7 million times.On Ms Ndango’s own videos, dozens of TikTok users have responded with comments like: “You aren’t alone. Just started the same thing” and “GIRL I QUIT TODAY TOO WE IN THIS TOGETHER”.Image source, Getty ImagesHowever, Christoph Vogel, author of Conflict Minerals, Inc.: War, Profit and White Saviourism in Eastern Congo, believes such digital activism is a “double-edged sword”.It can draw mass attention to important issues, but can often only do so through “massive simplification”, he tells the BBC.”There are widespread human rights violations, including child labour, in the context of cobalt mining – adding to significant health hazard,” says Mr Vogel, a UN Security Council expert on DR Congo who spent years working in the country.”But this is common to mining in general and it would be misleading to assign that to cobalt, per se.” Online activism also risks stripping agency from the communities it means to help while “Western advocates and the swarm intelligence of online users dominate the narrative”.Ms Ndango acknowledges this point.”There’s so many layers to the issues in DR Congo but when spreading awareness online, people are going to oversimplify things to fit the 60 seconds they have.”She laments that the people impacted the most from cobalt mining in DR Congo might not have the means to tell their own stories en-masse, but urges others to “use your power for good”.”One post can reach an entire nation,” she adds.You may also be interested in:The precious metal sparking a new gold rushThe tycoon, the president and the diamond dealsA quick guide to DR CongoAround the BBCFocus Today podcasts
Judge rejects Trump’s immunity claim in 2020 election case
Published2 hours agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, United States Courts ServiceBy Bernd Debusmann JrBBC News, WashingtonA federal judge has dismissed ex-President Donald Trump’s bid to throw out charges of election interference on the basis of “presidential immunity”. Mr Trump’s lawyers had argued his attempts to reject the 2020 results fell within his duties as president.But Judge Tanya Chutkan found no legal basis for concluding presidents cannot face criminal charges once they are no longer in office. Mr Trump is accused of unlawfully trying to overturn his election defeat.”Whatever immunities a sitting president may enjoy, the United States has only one chief executive at a time,” Judge Chutkan wrote late on Friday. “That position does not confer a lifelong ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ pass.” She added that Mr Trump’s presidency “did not bestow on him the divine right of kings to evade the criminal accountability that governs his fellow citizens”.The ruling is the first by a US court confirming that presidents can be prosecuted like any other citizen. Mr Trump is the first current or former US president to face criminal charges.Court says Trump can be sued for Capitol riotWho is the hard-line judge on Trump’s election case?Why Trump’s rivals in Iowa still think they can win After the ruling, a Trump campaign spokesperson told CBS, the BBC’s US partner, that “the corrupt leftists will fail and President Trump will keep fighting for America and Americans, including by challenging these wrongful decisions in higher courts”. Mr Trump is facing four criminal counts – including conspiracy to defraud the US – related to his alleged efforts to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. He has pleaded not guilty. The Washington DC trial, brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith, is scheduled to begin in March in the midst of his campaign for next year’s White House election. It is not clear whether Mr Trump’s legal team will appeal against the latest ruling, one of several legal setbacks the former president has recently faced in the case. Image source, Getty ImagesEarlier this week, Judge Chutkan also blocked an attempt by Mr Trump to obtain records related to the congressional investigation into the US Capitol riot in 2021. In an opinion, filed on 27 November, the Obama appointee referred to the effort as a “fishing expedition”. Judge Chutkan had already issued a gag order and denied a request to remove language from the indictment which Mr Trump’s lawyers believe could prejudice a jury against him during the trial. The federal case in Washington DC is one of several legal battles in which the former president is currently embroiled. He is also facing criminal indictments relating to his handling of classified documents and allegedly false accounting involving hush money. In his home state of New York, Mr Trump, his family and Trump Organization executives are facing a civil fraud trial. The judge in the case has already ruled the Trump Organization committed fraud. The trial will determine the penalties, with prosecutors seeking a $250m (£202m) fine and business restrictions on the Trump family and the Trump Organization. More on the US electionExplained: A simple guide to the US 2024 electionRepublicans: Who are the challengers to Trump?Analysis: Four surprises that could upend the electionPolicies: What a Trump second term would look likeVoters: ‘It’s like 2020 all over again – with higher stakes’More on this storyCourt says Trump can be sued for Capitol riotPublished2 hours agoTrump back under gag order in New York fraud trialPublished1 day agoJudge denies Trump’s request for Jan 6 recordsPublished3 days ago
Israel’s most wanted: The three Hamas leaders it aims to kill
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has a poster hanging on a wall of his office in Tel Aviv in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas. It shows mugshots of hundreds of the Palestinian militant group’s commanders arranged in a pyramid.At the bottom are Hamas’ junior field commanders. At the top is its high command, including Mohammed Deif, the shadowy mastermind of last month’s assault.The poster has been re-printed many times after Israel invaded Gaza in retaliation for Oct. 7: the faces of dead commanders marked with a cross.
