Lifestyle

Chinese city seeing half a million Covid cases a day: official

Half a million people in a single Chinese city are being infected with Covid-19 every day, a senior health official has said, in a rare and quickly censored acknowledgement that the country's wave of infections is not being reflected in official statistics.. A senior health official in Hainan said Friday the island province would reach peak infections "very soon", while in the eastern megacity of Shanghai more than 40,000 patients were treated for "fevers", the state-run People's Daily newspaper reported Saturday.

Sat, Dec 24, 2022 3 mins read

Lifestyle

Chinese city seeing half a million Covid cases a day: official

Half a million people in a single Chinese city are being infected with Covid-19 every day, a senior health official has said, in a rare and quickly censored acknowledgement that the country's wave of infections is not being reflected in official statistics.. A news outlet operated by the ruling Communist Party in Qingdao on Friday reported the municipal health chief as saying that the eastern city was seeing "between 490,000 and 530,000" new Covid cases a day.

Fri, Dec 23, 2022 2 mins read

Lifestyle

Let it burn, let it burn! Christmas tree's fiery origins

Dressed in pagan folk costumes, Latvians gather on a square in the centre of Riga for a ceremony that some historians see as the ancient precursor to the Christmas tree tradition.. The Baltic pagan tree-burning tradition was initially picked up by German traders, who developed the Christmas tree into its modern form and helped to spread it through the Hanseatic League ports along the Baltic.

Fri, Dec 23, 2022 1 mins read

Lifestyle

UK PM Sunak says 'reasonable' to review Scottish gender change law

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Friday it is "completely reasonable" for the UK government to review a newly-passed gender recognition law in Scotland, setting it on a potential collision course with Edinburgh.. "So I think it's completely reasonable for the UK government to have a look at it, understand what the consequences are for women and children's safety in the rest of the UK, and then decide on what the appropriate course of action is."

Fri, Dec 23, 2022 2 mins read

Lifestyle

Ukraine museum in 'shock' after Russian looting spree

Shattered display cases and empty shelves highlight the extent of Russian looting at a history museum in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson where Olga Goncharova has worked for four decades.. - 'Everything was broken' - Specialising in local history, the Kherson Regional Museum housed about 180,000 objects in its collection prior to Russia's invasion in February, and Goncharova had personally worked on preserving many of them. 

Fri, Dec 23, 2022 2 mins read

Lifestyle

Hospitals overflow in China's Covid wave

"Deceased, deceased," a staffer in full protective gear shouted as she handed a nurse a death certificate, their hospital in central China overflowing with Covid patients.. The relatives of several of the deceased said the deaths were due to Covid.

Fri, Dec 23, 2022 2 mins read

Lifestyle

FIFA probe celebrity chef Salt Bae's 'undue access' at World Cup final

FIFA are investigating how celebrity chef Salt Bae gained "undue access" to the pitch after the World Cup final where he enthusiastically posed for photos with surprised Argentina players including a bemused and irritated Lionel Messi.. "Following a review, FIFA has been establishing how individuals gained undue access to the pitch after the closing ceremony at Lusail stadium on December 18," a spokesman told the BBC. "The appropriate internal action will be taken."

Thu, Dec 22, 2022 1 mins read

Lifestyle

England star Mead wants more action on ACL injuries in women's football

Beth Mead hopes the anterior cruciate ligament damage she and her partner Vivianne Miedema have both suffered can prompt a fresh look at why this particular knee injury appears to be so prevalent in women's football. . "ACL injuries represent 1.3 percent of the total number of injuries in the top two tiers of women's football in England, with hamstring injuries the most common at 11 percent," said a spokesperson for the FA. Mead said both she and Miedema would be happy to use some of their time to participate in research regarding ACL injuries in women's football.

Thu, Dec 22, 2022 2 mins read

Lifestyle

Afghan women banned from university 'for not following dress code'

Afghan universities were declared off limits to women because female students were not following instructions including a proper dress code, the Taliban's minister for higher education said Thursday.. But Neda Mohammad Nadeem, the minister for higher education in the Taliban government, insisted Thursday that women students had ignored Islamic instructions -- including on what to wear or being accompanied by a male relative when travelling.

Thu, Dec 22, 2022 3 mins read

Lifestyle

Scotland passes law easing gender change rules

Lawmakers in Scotland passed a contentious law Thursday making it easier and faster for people to change their gender, despite a rare rebellion within the ruling Scottish National Party (SNP) and "concerns" from the UK government. . The UK government said on Thursday it shared "the concerns that many people have regarding certain aspects of this bill" and vowed to "look closely" at it.

Thu, Dec 22, 2022 2 mins read