Barefoot and alone, an Invercargill 5-year-old ran more than a kilometre on a gravel road to find help when his family’s car crashed in Curio Bay.Last Saturday, George Atley made the decision to leave his sister Emelia, 3, and mother…
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'Wingers': The only Wellingtonians not whingeing about the wind
While most Wellingtonians enjoyed a spate of warm weather earlier in the month, one Wilton man was itching for the winds to pick up again. Watersportsman Sam Price got his wish yesterday morning, when he made the most of the conditions…
Herald morning quiz: January 21
Test your brains with the Herald’s morning quiz. Be sure to check back on nzherald.co.nz at 3pm for the afternoon quiz. To challenge yourself with more quizzes, CLICK HERE.
How the Twitter transition of power will unfold for @POTUS
At the moment Joe Biden is sworn in as the next president of the United States, another transition of power will take place on social media.
On Wednesday, Biden and his team will gain access to a long list of official government accounts across the major social media platforms, including the @POTUS account on Twitter. With the tap of a button, the Biden administration will inherit a digital megaphone with the potential to make news and shape the public image of the US government.
The transfer of these official accounts, which include not just those representing Biden and the White House but nearly every arm of government, has emerged as an important aspect of the broader transition of power, especially after Twitter became the favoured online platform of President Donald Trump.
READ MORE: 'We will not be SILENCED!' Trump defiant after permanent Twitter ban
"It certainly has a big symbolic value," said David Lazer, a political science and computer sciences professor at Northeastern University. "The centrality of Twitter to Trump's brand and identity has made the moment a lot more significant."
The president used his personal Twitter account, @realdonaldtrump, to make major policy announcements, fire staffers, attack critics and spread misinformation. His account was permanently suspended earlier this month following the deadly insurrection at the Capitol.
In addition to the @POTUS account, which was created during the Obama administration, Twitter will transfer @WhiteHouse, @VP, @FLOTUS, and @PressSec to the new administration. Twitter also created a new account, @SecondGentleman, for Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris' husband Doug Emhoff.
It marks only the second such transition between US presidential administrations for Twitter, which launched in 2006. But unlike the transition four years ago, the Biden administration will not inherit the tens of millions of followers on each account. Instead, people on Twitter who previously followed official White House Twitter accounts or who currently follow "relevant" Biden or Harris Twitter accounts, will receive in-app alerts and other notifications about the archival process and the option to follow the new accounts, the company said in a blog post.
The decision prompted criticism from the Biden camp, which said it "unnecessarily politicises what otherwise should be a routine transfer of communication from one administration to the next." As of Tuesday night, the @POTUS account had about 33 million followers, while the @FLOTUS and @VP accounts had 16 million and 10 million, respectively.
Twitter's approach stands in contrast to other social networks such as Snapchat and YouTube, which said the Biden administration would keep the current followers on the respective White House accounts.
Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram will transfer accounts on both platforms, such as the POTUS and FLOTUS Facebook pages and the White House Instagram account, to Biden's team. These platforms will also duplicate the followers on Joe Biden's Facebook page and Instagram account to the official POTUS page and account.
While the Biden team may not inherit all of the Twitter followers, it won't be starting totally from scratch.
Biden's @Transition46 account on Twitter will become @WhiteHouse, the @PresElectBiden account will become @POTUS, @SenKamalaHarris will become @VP, @FLOTUSBiden will become @FLOTUS, and @PressSecPsaki will become @PressSec.
Aldi becomes latest company to pay employees to take Covid-19 vaccine
Instacart, Dollar General and Trader Joe’s also announced similar plans.
Blast partly destroys building in Madrid
A loud explosion partially destroyed a small building flanked by a school and a nursing home in the centre of Spain's capital of Madrid on Wednesday. It was not clear what caused the blast.
Images and footage shared on social media showed a tower of smoke coming out from the six-story building and rubble scattered in Toledo Street, near the city centre.
Emergency crews could be seen aiding several people on the ground in video aired by Spanish public broadcaster. There were no immediate reports of deaths.
The school nearby was empty, according to TVE, because classes had not resumed yet following a record snowfall in the Spanish capital on January 9.
In a tweet, the Madrid regional emergency service said that rescue teams, firefighters and police were working in a central area of the Spanish capital following the explosion.
Leire Reparaz, an area resident, told The Associated Press that she heard a loud explosion some minutes before 3pm local when she was heading to her home near the Puerta de Toledo, a local landmark.
"We didn't know where the sound came from. We all thought it was from the school. We went up the stairs to the top of our building and we could see the structure of the building and lots of grey smoke," the 24-year-old Madrid resident said.
More to come…
2021 Archives by Month
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Read the January 15, 2021 Issue
1369 january 15 (wecompress.com)
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COVID: Jamaica Opposition Blasts Govt. Plan to Vaccinate Only 16% in 2021
Jamaica’s Opposition Leader Mark Golding has labelled the Government’s plan to immunise 16 per cent of the population this year as “unsatisfactory”, arguing that the country’s flagging economic fortunes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic should provide sufficient impetus for it to make every effort to achieve herd immunity this year.
Golding’s comments came following the tabling of a National COVID-19 Vaccine Deployment and Vaccination Interim Plan by Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton at Gordon House in downtown Kingston, yesterday.
Dr Tufton, in unveiling the plan which was approved by Cabinet on Monday, said Jamaica is committed to vaccinating 16 per cent of the population in phase 1 of a four-phase distribution strategy, and will receive 935,676 doses of the approved COVID-19 vaccine through the COVAX Facility come April. That, he said, will cost the country some $3 billion.
“At the end of phase one Jamaica will acquire additional doses of the vaccines, based on locally relevant risk factors, vulnerabilities and the COVID-19 threat. The projection for the second phase is a further 16 per cent of the population,” the health minister said. A list of priority groups, he said, will be identified for the second phase. He said it is projected that in the second phase that vaccination will be offered to the general population.
Dr Tufton said 50 per cent of doses will be earmarked for priority groups and the other 50 per cent for the general population. He told the House that the procurement of the second phase of vaccines is expected to start in the last quarter of 2021, with second-phase vaccine distribution expected to begin in the second quarter of 2022.
The minister said at the end of the distribution of phase two vaccines, 32 per cent of the population will be vaccinated.
“Based on whether there is a continued threat, demand, cost and availability of vaccine, Jamaica will endeavour to enter into a third phase of vaccine procurement. A further 16 to 32 per cent of vaccines will be procured. Twenty-five per cent of this quantity will be reserved for priority groups and special populations that have not been previously vaccinated. The balance will then be made available to the general population,” he stated.
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Indian village cheers for Kamala Harris before swearing in as US Vice President
People in a tiny Indian village surrounded by rice paddies flocked to a Hindu temple, burst crackers and uttered prayers on Wednesday hours before its descendant, Kamala Harris, takes her oath of office to become the US vice president.
Groups of women in bright saris and men wearing white dhotis thronged the temple with sweets and flowers, offering special prayers for Harris' success.
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"We are feeling very proud that an Indian is being elected as the vice president of America," Anukampa Madhavasimhan, a local teacher, said.
The ceremony in Thulasendrapuram, where Harris' maternal grandfather was born about 350 kilometres from the southern coastal city of Chennai, saw the idol of Hindu deity Ayyanar, a form of Lord Shiva, washed with milk and decked with flowers by the priest.
Shortly after, the village reverberated with a boom of firecrackers as people held up posters of Harris and clapped their hands.
Harris is set to make history as the first woman, first Black woman and first person of South Asian descent to hold the vice presidency.
What makes her achievement special in this village is her Indian heritage.
Harris' grandfather was born in Thulasendrapuram more than 100 years ago.
Many decades later, he moved to Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu state.
Harris' late mother was also born in India, before moving to the US to study at the University of California.
She married a Jamaican man, and they named their daughter Kamala, a Sanskrit word for "lotus flower."
In several speeches, Harris has often spoken about her roots and how she was guided by the values of her Indian-born grandfather and mother.
So when Joe Biden and Harris triumphed in the US election last November, Thulasendrapuram became the centre of attention in India.
Indian politicians flocked to the village and young children carrying placards with photos of Harris ran along the dusty roads.
Then and now, villagers set off firecrackers and distributed sweets and flowers as a religious offering.
Posters and banners of Harris from November still adorn walls in the village and many hope she ascends to the presidency in 2024.
Biden has skirted questions about whether he will seek re-election or retire.
"For the next four years, if she supports India, she will be the president," G Manikandan said, who has followed Harris politically and whose shop proudly displays a wall calendar with pictures of Biden and Harris.
On Tuesday, an organisation that promotes vegetarianism sent food packets for the village children as gifts to celebrate Harris' success.
In the capital New Delhi, there has been both excitement — and some concern — over Harris' ascend to the vice presidency.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had invested in President Donald Trump, who visited India in February last year.
Mr Modi's many Hindu nationalist supporters also were upset with Harris when she expressed concern about Kashmir, the disputed Muslim-majority region whose statehood India's government revoked last year.