By RNZ . A shark expert is urging caution for beachgoers after a suspected shark attack at Waihī beach earlier this week. Nineteen-year-old Kaelah Marlow died on Thursday after reports she had been injured in the water….

Kiwis hoping for one last fine weekend before heading back to work might be dismayed by cloud and showers this morning – but all is not lost.Metservice is predicting the slightly grey weather around much of the country will disperse…

Britain has authorised a coronavirus vaccine developed by Moderna, the third to be licensed for use in the country as it ramps up a vaccination program critical to lifting the UK out of the pandemic.

The Department of Health said Friday that the vaccine meets the regulator's "strict standards of safety, efficacy and quality."

Britain has now ordered a total of 17 million doses that will have been delivered by the spring.

READ MORE: Why new UK strain of COVID-19 has health authorities so worried

"Vaccines are the key to releasing us all from the grip of this pandemic, and today's news is yet another important step towards ending lockdown and returning to normal life,'' Business Secretary Alok Sharma said.

So far, Britain has inoculated 1.5 million people with the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccines.

It plans to vaccinate some 15 million people by mid-February.

The authorisation comes as the need for help grows ever greater with Britain recording 1325 new coronavirus deaths on Friday — it's highest figure since the peak of the pandemic when 1224 deaths were recorded back in April.

The figure brings Britain's official death toll from the coronavirus to 79,833, the highest in Europe and fifth highest number in the world, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

London declares 'major incident' as hospitals overrun

London Mayor Sadiq Khan declared a "major incident″, as the rapid spread of the virus threatens to overwhelm the capital's hospitals, with cases now exceeding 1000 per 100,000.

Other emergency services are also under strain, with hundreds of firefighters now driving ambulances, for example.

"Our heroic doctors, nurses and NHS staff are doing an amazing job, but with cases rising so rapidly, our hospitals are at risk of being overwhelmed,'' Mr Khan said.

"The stark reality is that we will run out of beds for patients in the next couple of weeks unless the spread of the virus slows down drastically.''

Mr Khan said the city was at a crisis point.

A major incident is defined as being "beyond the scope of business-as-usual operations″ and as one which is likely a risk to life and welfare.

It requires special arrangements between more than one emergency agency, the mayor's office said.

"If we do not take immediate action now, our NHS could be overwhelmed and more people will die,'' he said.

NHS England Chief Executive Simon Stevens said on Thursday that the pressures facing hospitals in London and the southeast of England are so acute that the Nightingale hospital at the ExCel London will be opened next week.

The hospital was one of several built in the spring to help during the pandemic, but wasn't used.

They were named after Florence Nightingale, widely considered to be the founder of modern nursing.

"The entirety of the health service in London is mobilising to do everything it possibly can, but the infections, the rate of growth in admissions, that is what collectively the country has got to get under control," Stevens said.

The UK is recording virus-related deaths on a par with some of the worst days early in the pandemic.

On Thursday, government figures showed that another 1,162 people were reported to have died within 28 days of testing positive for the virus.

The UK's total virus-related death toll is now 78,508.

According to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University, the UK has the most COVID-related deaths in Europe and the fifth highest number in the world.

New restrictions enforced

The British government says that beginning next week all people arriving from other countries will have to provide proof of a negative coronavirus test taken within the 72 hours before departure.

There are exemptions for some, including truckers, airline crew and children under 11.

Many public health experts have long urged the UK to adopt the measure as a way of reducing imported infections, though the virus is more widespread in Britain than in many other countries.

The government said Friday that the new measure will help protect against new variants of the virus, such as one recently identified in South Africa.

A beachgoer has described the traumatic scenes at Bowentown Beach as surf lifeguards tried valiantly to save a woman who died from wounds suffered in a shark attack.Police last night named the victim as Kaelah Marlow, 19, from Hamilton.Marlow…

Hundreds of New Year festival-goers have reported alarming symptoms – including paranoia, seizures, severe nausea and inability to sleep for days – after taking chemicals sold to them as MDMA, or ecstasy. The wave of bad reactions…

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President Donald Trump confirmed he won't attend President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration on January 20.

The move undercuts his message just a day earlier that he would work to ensure a "smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power" to his successor.

"To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th," he said in a tweet Friday morning US time (2.44am Saturday AEDT).

RELATED: Donald Trump admits defeat but stops short of conceding election

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1347569870578266115?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

He will be the first incumbent president since Andrew Johnson in 1869 to skip his successors inauguration.

Traditionally, the incoming and outgoing presidents ride to the US Capitol together for the ceremony, as a symbol of the nation's peaceful transition.

Trump offered no clues as to how he would spent his final hours in office.

READ MORE: US faces 13 potentially perilous final days of Donald Trump's presidency despite transition pledge

Trump's comments come two days after a violent mob of his supporters occupied the Capitol for several hours as lawmakers were tallying the electoral votes that certified Biden's victory.

Biden will become president at noon on January 20 regardless of Trump's plans.

The move had been widely expected, as Trump for months falsely claimed victory in the election and promulgated baseless claims of voter fraud. His own administration said the election had been fairly run.

Vice President Mike Pence is still expected to attend the inauguration.

Biden's transition team had no immediate comment on Trump's announcement. But Jen Psaki, the president-elect's incoming White House press secretary, said last month that whether Trump attended the inauguration was not top of mind for Biden.

– Reported with Associated Press

Western Australia reinstated its hard border controls with Queensland at 12.01am (2am AEST) today.

Queensland is now categorised as a medium-risk state, after the recent case of the mutant COVID-19 strain found in Brisbane, meaning travel into WA from the Sunshine State will no longer be permitted.

There are some exemptions to the ban, which are the same as it currently stands for NSW and Victoria.

Live updates: Brisbane to go into three-day lockdown

Premier Mark McGowan announced the decision yesterday, following a National Cabinet meeting.

"The case of the hotel quarantine cleaner in Brisbane is extremely concerning," Mr McGowan said.

"This is a dangerous situation, not only for Brisbane, but for the whole of Australia," he said.

Anyone who arrived into WA from Queensland — previously listed as a very low-risk state — since January 2, will be required to get tested and complete 14 days of self-isolation.

Since January 2, 7500 passengers have arrived in WA.

It is advised these arrivals be tested by Tuesday.

Nine flights from Queensland are expected to arrive in Perth today.

All passengers on these flights will be granted entry into the state and will need to be tested, as well as immediately go into self-isolation for 14 days and be tested again on day 11.

"Return to Queensland, unless you have personal circumstances that require you to stay in WA," Mr McGowan said to any Queenslanders currently in the state.

"We need to take this course of action to protect Western Australians,

"We're not just dealing with COVID-19 of 2020, this is a whole new beast."

If you have recently arrived in WA from Queensland you are free to depart the state today.

The Western Australia community has been COVID-free for 272 days.

"All the way along, throughout the pandemic, out best defence has been our border controls,

"2021 looks a lot like 2020 right now."

Mr McGowan advised all WA residents against travelling outside of the state amid the evolving situation.

Following recent advice from the AHPPC, which includes limiting international arrivals nationally, Western Australia will be capping its international arrivals at 512 a week, down from 1025.

Changes to hotel quarantine workers include daily saliva tests for all workers on top of the weekly testing regime already in place.

House Democrats are furious at President Donald Trump and are quickly building momentum to move on impeachment of Trump in the next several days — as soon as the middle of next week.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her leadership team ran through their options Thursday night (local time) and the overwhelming sentiment was impeachment was the way forward, according to multiple sources.

While there were some dissenters concerned that the move could be perceived as an overreach and turn off Trump supporters in their districts, the view among most top Democrats, including Pelosi, is that Trump should be held accountable for his actions.

READ MORE: What is the 25th amendment? The backdoor method for removing a president

This process is not going to be anything like 2019. This would be fast: No investigations and no weeks-long hearings. The most likely scenario is that a member brings a privileged resolution to the House floor and offers it during session.

This requires Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, to bring members back, which folks expect to be announced sometime after the 12pm ET caucus call.

RELATED: Second Trump cabinet member quits in protest of president's rhetoric

Once they do, it kicks off the process for a vote in a matter of days. A simple majority is enough to impeach the President.

If they do this, it would make Trump the first President to be impeached twice.

That would not mean he would be removed from office, which would require the Senate to vote to do so.

House Judiciary Committee aides are consulting with the authors of one of the Democratic impeachment resolutions — Reps. David Cicilline, Jamie Raskin and Ted Lieu — in order to prepare for moving quickly to a potential impeachment vote on the House floor next week, according to three sources.

The aides are helping to edit and fine-tune the impeachment resolution, the sources said, which includes an article of impeachment for abuse of power, charging that Trump incited the insurrection at the Capitol.

The impeachment resolution introduced Thursday also includes Trump's call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, but some moderate members are urging that impeachment should be kept as straightforward as possible in order to keep focus on Wednesday's events.

What to watch

This is moving fast. Members weren't in this place two days ago.

The events of Wednesday, the images that have played across television screens, the accounts of what happened throughout the Capitol complex and the President's approach to all of it before and after have all culminated in members feeling like something has to happen now. Pelosi said it Thursday at her presser, members have been texting her nonstop "impeach, impeach."

Rep. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, the assistant House Speaker, told CNN's John Berman on New Day on Friday that they could bring articles of impeachment to the floor as "early as mid-next week." She later tweeted that Democrats were "actively working" to find the quickest timeline for a vote.

https://twitter.com/RepKClark/status/1347537240403144704

This isn't just Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and liberals asking for impeachment. There were notable comments Thursday from Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a moderate from Michigan who didn't vote for Pelosi for speaker less than a week ago, who pushed for invoking the 25th Amendment.

Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia also released a statement pushing for the 25th Amendment, but then saying, "if the Vice President fails to act, it will become necessary for every member of Congress bound by our Constitutional oaths to take further action. If we refuse to respond to a US President inciting an uprising against our democracy, we risk losing it forever."

More than 60 Democrats, led by Reps. Dean Phillips of Minnesota, Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida and Tom Malinowski of New Jersey, sent a letter to Democratic leaders Friday asking they reconvene and work to impeach Trump following Wednesday's Capitol breach.

"We write to ask respectfully that the House reconvene immediately to reckon with the assault on our democracy that we experienced on January 6th," the Democrats wrote. "We could take up the question of whether President Trump should be censured or impeached for encouraging a violent attack on the United States Congress, as well as Representative Raskin's proposal that Congress appoint a body, as provided by the 25th Amendment, to determine whether the President is fit to discharge the powers and duties of his office.

House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, a California Democrat who led the House's impeachment inquiry against Trump in 2019 over his efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate President-elect Joe Biden in the early stages of the 2020 campaign, said in a statement Friday he supported removing Trump through the 25th Amendment or impeachment.

"Every day that he remains in office, he is a danger to the Republic, and he should leave office immediately, through resignation, the 25th Amendment or impeachment," Schiff said.

What would happen in the Senate

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has not spoken on this. But given that the House would likely pass this with just days left in Trump's Presidency, it's likely McConnell would just run out the clock.

The GOP is frustrated, exasperated by Trump at this point. CNN reported that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy had a yelling match Wednesday with Trump as rioters were overrunning the Capitol Building. But, McConnell likes to avoid intra-party fights and forcing members to take a vote on impeachment when there are only days left of Trump's presidency wouldn't be a good way to keep his members united.

Sen. Ben Sasse, the Nebraska Republican who was an early critic of Trump's election fraud rhetoric, told CBS Morning News he'd consider any articles of impeachment from the House.

"The House, if they come together and have a process, I will definitely consider whatever articles they might move because, as I've told you, I believe the President has disregarded his oath of office," Sasse said Friday.