World

France’s R number has fallen below 1 but the number of people in hospital has hit a new high – with the prime minister saying someone is admitted every 30 seconds. Prime Minister Jean Castex said it would be “irresponsible” to ease the country’s strict second lockdown despite the fall in the R number. The

The government has summoned China’s ambassador to register “deep concern” after Beijing ordered the expulsion of four opposition MPs from Hong Kong’s parliament. Kwok Ka-ki, Alvin Yeung, Dennis Kwok and Kenneth Leung were banished from the territory’s assembly for allegedly endangering national security. Hong Kong authorities expelled the four politicians under a Chinese law banning

A 24-year-old from Devon has become the youngest person to ever receive the Merchant Navy Medal, after a daring pitch-black rescue in the Caribbean. Max Bingle, who was the third officer on the Sea Princess cruise ship at the time, will get the prestigious award alongside 19 other sailors, who have all been recognised for

Pro-democracy politicians in Hong Kong say they are resigning en masse after four of them were disqualified under a law imposed by China banning independence campaigners from holding office. Authorities in Hong Kong said in a statement the four legislators – Kwok Ka-ki, Alvin Yeung, Dennis Kwok and Kenneth Leung – were expelled from the

Countries around the world are working out ways to vaccinate their populations against COVID-19. But India, with its massive population of 1.3 billion, faces a bigger challenge than most. The country has set aside $7bn (£5.3bn) and the Union government has created a task force to plan for the distribution of the vaccine throughout the

Veteran Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat has died aged 65 after contracting coronavirus, it has been confirmed. Dr Erekat was Palestine’s chief negotiator and international spokesman for more than three decades. He died in an Israeli hospital on Tuesday, weeks after testing positive for COVID-19, his party Fatah confirmed. Live updates on coronavirus from UK

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian says he has ordered an end to fighting with Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Mr Pashinian said on Facebook that he signed an agreement with the presidents of Azerbaijan and Russia to halt the fighting that has raged since late September. Several thousand people are feared to have died since

The coronavirus vaccine being developed by Pfizer and BioNTech has been found to be 90% effective in preventing people from getting the virus, it has been confirmed. Phase 3 of Pfizer’s trial involved 43,538 participants from six countries. They received two doses of either the immunisation or a placebo, with 90% protected from the virus

There have been more than 50 million positive coronavirus cases worldwide since the beginning of the pandemic. According to a tracker run by Johns Hopkins University, there were more than 50.3 million cases as of early Monday morning. Almost 10 million of these were in the US, even though the country has only around 4%

President Donald Trump has reiterated his claims of fraud and has called into question the election as a whole. Saying that his team is “just beginning the tabulation stage”, he alleged they have seen “a number of affidavits that there has been voter fraud”. Mr Trump has repeatedly made the claims over recent days but

Joe Biden has vowed to unify Americans and heal deep divides across the country in his first speech since being named US president-elect. He pledged to “work with all my heart to win the confidence of all of you”, admitting to those who did not vote for him that “I understand the disappointment”. “But now

Has the coronavirus shape-shifted just as we’re about to roll out the first vaccine? It’s such a nightmarish scenario that Danish authorities are taking no chances. They’ve been dealing with a mutated strain of the virus that has been spreading through mink fur farms for a while. But the stakes were raised when it was

Teenagers who have a poor diet could be up to 20cm shorter than other young people of the same age, a global study has found. According to research led by Imperial College London, inadequate nutrition may have contributed to 19-year-olds in south and southeast Asia, Latin America and East Africa being the shortest, while those

Greta Thunberg has made fun of Donald Trump’s election reaction urging the president to “chill” in a message on Twitter. Mimicking a tweet the president aimed at her last year, the climate activist also said he should work on his “anger management”. Her tweet was a response to Mr Trump’s call on the social media

Donald Trump supporters – some armed with rifles and handguns – have descended on election counting centres where mail-in ballots continue to be tallied up. In the state of Arizona, a mostly unmasked crowd chanted “stop the steal” following unsubstantiated claims that votes for the Republican president were deliberately not being counted. US election 2020

The theory that prehistoric hunting was only for men looks like being a modern male sexist construct after a discovery at an ancient burial site in Peru.. The remains of a teenage girl who lived around 9,000 years ago were found, alongside a “well-stocked big-game hunting toolkit”. Previously it was thought that women were foragers