US President-elect Joe Biden will be vaccinated against COVID-19 this week, as the country’s second approved jab is moved from warehouses to healthcare facilities. Mr Biden will receive the vaccine on Monday, days after Vice President Mike Pence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has not
Wrestler, Hollywood actor – and now Santa Claus. Is there nothing Dwayne Johnson cannot do? The Rock has helped out a widowed father-of-two who was struggling to buy Christmas presents for his children, donning a festive red suit and a “Dwanta” hat to spread some festive cheer during a surprise virtual meeting. It came about
The US House of Representatives has approved a $892bn (£655bn) coronavirus relief package, passing the first hurdle for it to become law. The bill, which includes a $600 (£440) payment to the majority of Americans along with extra payments to the millions who have lost their jobs, will now go to the Senate for approval,
Apple has made advances in its secret self-driving car project and is set to launch production by 2024, according to reports. The iPhone maker has for years been rumoured to be working on a self-driving car programme known as Project Titan, although the company has never publicly acknowledged it. Now, according to a report by
Virgin Atlantic has joined British Airways and Delta Airlines in making travellers take COVID tests before they fly from the UK to New York. The state’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, said on Monday that BA and Delta Airlines had taken the decision following the spread of a more contagious variant of the virus in the UK.
2020 is the deadliest year in US history – and is attributed mostly to the coronavirus pandemic. The US is on course to surpass 3.2 million overall deaths in 2020, according to preliminary data, which would mark the first time figures have topped three million. A rise in deaths between 20,000 and 50,000 is not
A plane preparing for takeoff was halted in New York after a Florida couple with their pet dog fled via an emergency slide, authorities say. The incident took place on board an Atlanta-bound Delta flight as it was taxiing towards the runway at LaGuardia Airport on Monday. Witnesses reported seeing an agitated-looking male passenger force
It was quite the marketing gimmick. To commemorate one of its customers winning the €88.5m (£80.9m) EuroMillions jackpot with a ticket bought at one of its service stations, on the M1 Northbound at Lusk in County Dublin, Applegreen cut fuel prices at the station to 88.5 cents (80p) per litre. In January 2017, with a
A deal has been reached between Royal Mail and the workers’ union following a two-year dispute over job security, pay, and hours. The settlement includes a two-year pay deal backdated to April, worth 3.7%, and a one-hour reduction in the working week, according to the Communication Workers Union. The CWU said there will be no
Public sector net borrowing is estimated to have been £31.6bn in November – the third-highest for any month since records began in 1993. It means borrowing in the first eight months of the financial year (April to November) is estimated at £240.9bn. This is £188.6bn more than the same point last year, and the highest
The pound ended down again as the UK faced isolation over a mutant coronavirus strain, although hopes of progress in Brexit trade talks helped take some pressure off the currency. At the close of markets, sterling had fallen 0.76% against the dollar to $1.336 and 0.26% against the euro to €1.097. However, this was still
The government has made ”good progress” in talks with France over reopening the country’s UK border, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has announced. More than 2,800 lorries have been left trapped in Kent after France shut its border to UK travellers on Sunday night, following fears over the spread of a new coronavirus variant. France’s transport minister, Jean-Baptiste
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo — spooked like much of the nation at a more infectious Covid-19 strain identified in the UK – asked the federal government to require that airlines test all passengers on U.S.-bound flights. He clinched an unusual private arrangement with three of them, Delta, British Air and Virgin Atlantic, which agreed
EXCLUSIVE: Disney’s flagship streaming service, Disney+, and its established sibling Hulu lead the list of streamers in total TV advertising impressions in 2020, according to ad tracking firm iSpot. The rankings (see them in full below) define an impression as a verified playing of an ad on a TV screen for at least three seconds.
Discovery has upped its stake in OWN to 95% with the network’s founder and namesake Oprah Winfrey receiving $35 million worth of Discovery stock in exchange, according to an SEC filing Tuesday. Discovery and Winfrey launched OWN in 2008 and the David Zaslav-led media company has periodically raised its stake in the joint venture. It
President-elect Joe Biden gave a sobering year-end message, particularly about the challenges remaining in the Covid-19 crisis and in the impact of the massive cyberattack on U.S. government agencies. Biden said that there was hope with a new vaccine, which he received on Monday, but that the virus is still raging out of control, with
Airtel Xstream, the Web streaming service that was earlier exclusive to Airtel users, is now available for all. With the new update, you can watch your favourite content on Airtel Xstream even if you’re not on the Airtel network. The service is available at Rs. 49 a month or Rs. 499 a year. Airtel claims
Let’s Encrypt, an open certificate authority that gives digital certificates to websites to enable HTTPS, has extended Android compatibility for its certificates for older phones allowing for continued safe Web browsing. The development was shared on the official website of Let’s Encrypt. The certificate authority said it was able to come up with a solution
Three dozen journalists working for Al Jazeera had their iPhones stealthily compromised via a zero-click exploit to install spyware as part of a Middle East cyberespionage campaign. In a new report published yesterday by University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, researchers said personal phones of 36 journalists, producers, anchors, and executives at Al Jazeera, and a
Australia’s antitrust regulator on Tuesday rejected an undertaking by Alphabet-owned Google that sought to address competition concerns over its planned $2.1 billion (roughly Rs. 15,400 crores) acquisition of fitness tracker maker Fitbit. The development comes as Google remains at loggerheads with the Australian government over a number of issues, including proposed laws that will make