Foreign

Alec Baldwin has said he did not pull the trigger of the gun he was holding that killed a cinematographer on the movie set of “Rust.”  In his first major interview since the tragedy in October, the US actor also said he has “no idea” how a live round had gotten onto the set of the low-budget Western in New Mexico. “The trigger wasn’t pulled — I didn’t pull the trigger,” he said in an excerpt of an interview with ABC News released on Wednesday. “No, no, no. I would never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger at them. Never.” In the interview, set to air in full on ABC on Thursday evening, Baldwin did not elaborate on how the weapon had gone off. Baldwin, also a producer on “Rust,” was rehearsing a scene in which his character brandishes a Colt .45 when cin...

One of Netflix’s most-watched series, Spanish thriller “Money Heist”, will come to an end on Friday when the US streaming giant releases its final five episodes. The following are five facts about the show about a gang of thieves who launch elaborate heists:  Sleeper hitThe debut season of the series scored so-so ratings when it was first broadcast on free-to-air Spanish TV station Antena 3. The first episode aired on May 2, 2017 was seen by four million viewers, but the audience kept dropping and the final episode of the season captured just 1.4 million viewers. It was only after Netflix bought it, re-edited it, dubbed it and began streaming it in December 2017 that the show took off in Spain and the rest of the world.  Resistance symbolThe story centres on a...

British police on Wednesday arrested a man on suspicion of trespass after he allegedly breached security at parliament and prompted a temporary lockdown at the sensitive London landmark. It came amid heightened security in the UK after lawmaker David Amess was stabbed to death while meeting constituents in October and a botched homemade bomb attack last month. The Metropolitan Police Service was quick to note Wednesday’s arrest in the heart of Westminster was not being treated as “a terrorist incident”. The force said the man was held at the main gates into parliament at around 3:00 pm (1500 GMT), without providing further details. “A man was detained and arrested at Carriage Gates inside the Palace of Westminster on suspicion of trespassing on a protected site,” the Met s...

The United States on Wednesday announced its first confirmed case of the Covid-19 Omicron variant had been detected in California, in a fully vaccinated traveler who had recently returned from South Africa and was recovering from mild symptoms. Top health official Anthony Fauci said authorities “knew it was just a matter of time” before the strain was found in the country, reminding Americans that vaccination, boosters and masking in indoor public settings remained the best way to stay protected. According to a statement by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the person returned from South Africa on November 22, and their close contacts have all tested negative. Speaking to reporters, Fauci added that the patient tested positive on November 29 and that they ...

President Joe Biden will mark World AIDS Day on Wednesday with a speech laying out his vision for ending the epidemic in the United States by 2030. The White House said Biden will deliver a speech outlining the plan for “redoubling efforts to confront the HIV/AIDS epidemic.” The target is for a 75 percent reduction in new infections by 2025 and 90 percent by 2030. In the 40 years since US researchers encountered the first cases of what later became known as AIDS, there have been 700,000 US dead and more than 36 million fatalities worldwide. Today, there are 1.2 million people in the US living with the disease, but “we celebrate the remarkable gains we have made,” the White House said in a briefing paper on the 2030 plan. Between 2015 and 2019, new HIV infections fell ei...

A 15-year-old student opened fire at his Michigan high school on Tuesday, killing three teenagers and wounding eight other people before surrendering to police, authorities said, in what was the deadliest US school shooting so far this year. Eight others, including one teacher, were wounded in the attack, which took place shortly after noon while classes were in session at Oxford High School, the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office said. The sheriff’s office said the dead were a 16-year-old male, a 14-year-old female, and a 17-year-old female. Of the wounded, six were in stable condition and two were undergoing surgery. The suspect was taken into custody and a semi-automatic handgun was seized, but there was no immediate explanation for what might have prompted the attack in O...

France said Wednesday it will start allowing flights from southern Africa to land on its territory from Saturday, but with “drastic” restrictions allowing only French and EU residents to disembark, along with diplomats and flight crews. These travellers must have a Covid test upon arrival, with a negative result still requiring a seven-day quarantine, while a positive test will require a 10-day quarantine, said government spokesman Gabriel Attal after a weekly cabinet meeting

CNN said Tuesday it had indefinitely suspended primetime anchor Chris Cuomo after the release of legal transcripts that revealed how he helped his brother Andrew, then the governor of New York, combat allegations of sexual misconduct. At the start of the pandemic, the brothers soared to new heights of popularity: Andrew Cuomo earned praise for his frank daily briefings as the coronavirus ravaged New York, and their live exchanges on CNN were peppered with banter. But after months of battling claims that he had harassed about a dozen women including former staffers, Andrew Cuomo resigned from office in August. In October, the 63-year-old former governor was charged with a misdemeanor sex crime for forcible touching. And now, his 51-year-old brother is under scruti...

Parag Agrawal, who took over Monday as the new head of Twitter, shot from relative obscurity as the platform’s technology expert to becoming the latest India-born talent to lead a US tech giant. Unlike his predecessor, co-founder Jack Dorsey, Agrawal enjoyed until Monday a much more low-profile role at the company, with only about 24,000 followers on the platform, compared to Dorsey’s almost six million. But with a tweeted statement that began, “Thank you, Jack, I’m honored and humbled,” Agrawal took the reins of a company aiming to steer away from free speech battles and toward growth. Agrawal is also the latest India-born star tapped to head a major US-based tech company, following the likes of Google-parent Alphabet’s CEO Sundar Pichai and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. “...

OPEC and the oil cartel’s allies hold a key output meeting on Thursday facing new challenges as the Omicron coronavirus variant has roiled markets and other US-led nations decided to tap their strategic reserves. The OPEC+ alliance has resisted US-led pressure to step up production to bring down surging energy prices, and the emergence of the new variant has complicated the equation. The meeting “is shaping up to be one of the most significant since the pandemic demand recovery began, and the key signal will be how much more oil will be added to supply to start the new year,” said Peter McNally, an analyst at the Third Bridge think tank. The detection of the new variant on Thursday caused crude prices to plunge more than 10 percent, a first since the massive drops of April 20...