Day: December 5, 2020

Ontario is reporting a record 1,859 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, breaking the previous record of 1,855 set last month.

The province says 20 more people have died from coronavirus, raising the provincial total to 3,757.

Toronto remains the hotspot in the province with 504 new cases, followed by Peel Region with 463 and York Region with 198 – the seventh straight day that region has recorded more than 150 new cases.

Provincial health officials say they completed almost 60,000 tests in the previous 24-hour period – a record high as well.

Ontario reports record-high 1,859 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday

PARIS (Reuters) – Thousands protested in Paris on Saturday to denounce police violence and President Emmanuel Macron’s security policy plans which the demonstrators say would crimp civil liberties.

In one incident, police fired tear gas and charged after fireworks were launched at their lines. Hooded youths smashed one store window. There were violent clashes between protesters and police in a similar protest last week.

https://www.reuters.com/article/france-security-protest/protesters-return-to-french-streets-to-denounce-police-violence-tear-gas-fired-idUSKBN28F0JB?il=0

NASA has struck deals with four private enterprises involving collection of Moon soil, including a contract involving a cost of just one dollar, to further its understanding of the Moon’s resources, the US space agency has said.

All the four contracts involve collecting a small amount of lunar soil, which is essentially dust known as regolith, and proving images of the operation to NASA. The ownership of the collected samples is also to be transferred to the US space agency.

https://www.rt.com/usa/508744-nasa-moon-dust-private-companies/

A large-scale vaccination campaign began in Moscow on Saturday, with thousands signing up for shots online. Frontline workers were given priority.

People have to sign up online before receiving the first dose of the Sputnik V vaccine at one of the city’s 70 clinics. The vaccine consists of two separate injections, the second dose must be administered 21 days after the first one. The whole procedure, which includes the time needed to cool down the drug after it’s removed from the freezer, takes less than an hour, officials said.

https://www.rt.com/russia/508790-moscow-starts-mass-vaccination/

Earlier this week, the UK became the first Western country to approve the BioNtech/Pfizer coronavirus vaccine.

Sputnik comes live from Birmingham, UK, where coronavirus sceptics have gathered for the first major demonstration since the country has approved the COVID-19 vaccine.

The protesters have taken to the streets to voice their disapproval of coronavirus measures recently introduced by the UK Government. 

https://sputniknews.com/uk/202012051081368144-demonstrators-rally-in-birmingham-against-covid-restrictions-in-wake-of-vaccine-approval-in-uk/

On orders from President Donald Trump, most of the 700 or so US troops currently in Somalia will either withdraw entirely or be moved to nearby countries by early 2021, the US defense department has confirmed in a statement.

“The President of the United States has ordered the Department of Defense and the United States Africa Command to reposition the majority of personnel and assets out of Somalia by early 2021,” the Pentagon said on Friday, after the Wall Street Journal broke the news.

NEWS: President Trump ordered the Pentagon to pull nearly all U.S. troops out of Somalia, two U.S. officials said. https://t.co/vbFNbLxhGG

— Ben Pershing (@benpershing) December 4, 2020

The US government will not offer ByteDance a further extension to complete the divestment of the US assets of its popular video sharing service TikTok, which was ordered by President Donald Trump in August, Reuters sources said.

The Chinese company is in talks with Walmart and Oracle on a deal, which would transfer ownership of its US operation to a new entity to comply with the Trump executive order. The US administration labeled TikTok a national security threat, claiming that it exposes personal data of American users to the Chinese government.

https://www.rt.com/usa/508756-tiktok-divestment-no-extension/

The quake occurred at a depth of more than 90 km at 15:44 local time, seismologists say. 

A 5.5-magnitude earthquake hit off the coast of Turkey’s province of Antalya, the Kandili Observatory said. 

Earlier, it said the quake was measured at 5.4 on the Richter scale.

https://sputniknews.com/world/202012051081369390-55-magnitude-quake-hits-turkeys-mediterranean-coast-kandilli-observatory-says/