While You Were Sleeping: 5 stories you might have missed, Dec 31, 2024
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A man taking a rest on a motorcycle next to the Yangtze River in Wuhan - the city where Covid-19 was first detected - ahead of the fifth anniversary of China confirming its first death from the coronavirus.
PHOTO: AFP
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5 years on, WHO urges China to share Covid origins data
The World Health Organisation on Dec 30 implored China to share data and access to help understand how Covid-19 began, five years on from the start of the pandemic that upended the planet.
Covid-19 killed millions of people, shredded economies and crippled health systems.
“We continue to call on China to share data and access so we can understand the origins of Covid-19. This is a moral and scientific imperative,” the WHO said in a statement. “Without transparency, sharing, and cooperation among countries, the world cannot adequately prevent and prepare for future epidemics and pandemics.”
The WHO recounted how on Dec 31, 2019, its country office in China picked up a media statement from the health authorities in Wuhan concerning cases of “viral pneumonia” in the city.
India launches its first space docking mission
AFP
India launched its first space docking mission on Dec 30, on an Indian-made rocket, in an attempt to become the fourth country to achieve the advanced technological feat.
The mission, called Space Docking Experiment (SpaDeX), lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh state at 1630 GMT (12.30am on Dec 31 in Singapore) aboard the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) “workhorse” PSLV rocket.
After around 15 minutes, the mission director called the launch successful after the spacecraft reached an altitude of around 470km.
Trump endorses Johnson continuing as House speaker
REUTERS
US President-elect Donald Trump on Dec 30 threw his support behind House Speaker Mike Johnson, who will stand for re-election to the top job this week with a slim Republican majority in the House of Representatives.
“Speaker Mike Johnson is a good, hard working, religious man. He will do the right thing, and we will continue to WIN. Mike has my Complete & Total Endorsement. MAGA!!!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
The House is scheduled to elect a speaker on Jan 3 following the swearing-in of the new Congress.
Court in Serbia jails parents of Belgrade school shooter
AFP
A Belgrade court on Dec 30 sentenced the parents of a 13-year-old boy to prison after he shot dead nine students and a security guard at an elementary school in Serbia’s capital in 2023.
The killings on May 3, 2023, deeply shocked the Balkan nation, where mass shootings have been rare despite high levels of gun ownership.
The trial was conducted solely against the teenager’s parents, Vladimir and Miljana Kecmanovic, as their son cannot be criminally prosecuted due to his age.
Gaza newborn freezes to death, twin fights for life
REUTERS
Mr Yahya Al-Batran woke up in the early hours of Dec 29 to find his wife Noura trying to wake their newborn twin sons Jumaa and Ali as they lay together in the makeshift tent the family occupied in an encampment in the central Gaza Strip.
Intense winter cold and heavy rain across the coastal enclave in previous days had made their lives a misery but what he heard was more serious.
“She said she had been trying to wake Jumaa up, but he was not waking up, and I asked about Ali, and she said he was not waking up either,” he told Reuters on Dec 29. “I held up Jumaa, he was white and freezing like snow, like ice, frozen.”
