UNITED STATES
FDA approves saliva test
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Saturday granted emergency use authorization to the Yale School of Public Health’s saliva test to detect COVID-19, after a trial on NBA players and staff. SalivaDirect, the fifth saliva test approved by the agency for the disease, requires no swab or collection device and uses spit from people suspected of having the coronavirus, it said. FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn called the test “groundbreaking” in its efficiency and in being unaffected by crucial component shortages. SalivaDirect is seen as a cheap, simpler and less invasive testing method that requires no extraction of nucleic acid and can use several readily available reagents.
CANADA
Government accounts hacked
Tens of thousands of user accounts for online government services were recently hacked during cyberattacks, authorities said on Saturday. The attacks targeted the GCKey service, used by about 30 federal departments and Canada Revenue Agency accounts, the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat said in a news release. The passwords and user names of 9,041 GCKey account holders “were acquired fraudulently and used to try and access government services,” the authorities said. All affected accounts have been canceled. About 5,500 Canada Revenue Agency accounts were targeted in this and another attack, the authorities said.
AUSTRALIA
Man punches shark
A man has been hailed a “hero” after repeatedly punching a shark until it released his wife’s leg. The couple were surfing at a beach near Port Macquarie, about 310km north of Sydney, on Saturday morning when she was bitten twice and injured on her right leg, police said in a statement. “Her companion was forced to punch the fish until it let go,” police said. Paramedics treated the 35-year-old at the beach before she was airlifted to a hospital for surgery. One witness who was surfing nearby when the attack occurred called the man a “hero” for taking on what appeared to be a great white shark up to 3m long. “He started laying into the shark because it wouldn’t let go,” Jed Toohey told the Daily Telegraph.
MEXICO
Drug lord’s son killed
Prosecutors in the country’s north on Friday said that gunmen have killed a son of legendary drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes. The father, better known by his nickname, “The Lord of the Skies,” for his habit of transporting shipments of drugs on jet airliners, died in a botched plastic surgery in 1997. Prosecutors in Sinaloa State said that his son, Julio Cesar Carrillo, was found shot to death at a house in the city of Novolato. The killing apparently happened on Thursday, they said.
UNITED STATES
Trump’s brother dies
President Donald Trump’s younger brother, Robert, died on Saturday after being hospitalized for an undisclosed illness, the president said in a statement mourning his loss. “It is with heavy heart I share that my wonderful brother, Robert, peacefully passed away tonight,” Trump said in a White House statement. “He was not just my brother, he was my best friend. He will be greatly missed, but we will meet again. His memory will live on in my heart forever. Robert, I love you. Rest in peace.”
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
RELEASE: The move follows Washington’s removal of Havana from its list of terrorism sponsors. Most of the inmates were arrested for taking part in anti-government protests Cuba has freed 127 prisoners, including opposition leader Jose Daniel Ferrer, in a landmark deal with departing US President Joe Biden that has led to emotional reunions across the communist island. Ferrer, 54, is the most high-profile of the prisoners that Cuba began freeing on Wednesday after Biden agreed to remove the country from Washington’s list of terrorism sponsors — part of an eleventh-hour bid to cement his legacy before handing power on Monday to US president-elect Donald Trump. “Thank God we have him home,” Nelva Ortega said of her husband, Ferrer, who has been in and out of prison for the
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