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The UK is to offer its genomics expertise to help other countries identify new COVID variants, Health Secretary Matt Hancock will announce. The launch of the New Variant Assessment Platform will see other countries offered UK laboratory capacity and advice to analyse new strains of coronavirus. It will be led by Public Health England working

Conditions in the city of Manaus, deep in the Amazon rainforest where the Brazilian variant of COVID-19 is believed to have originated, are now so bad that people are suffocating in hospital beds without oxygen. It’s being described as like a “medieval plague” and the fear is that it’s going to continue to spread. With

Hostile states and criminals are displaying a “huge amount of innovation” when using information as a weapon to cause harm, a senior British security official has said. Paul Chichester, director of operations at the National Cyber Security Centre, a part of GCHQ, was referring to the act of hacking private files and leaking them online

Eleven gold miners have been rescued a fortnight after they were trapped by an underground explosion in China, according to state media reports. It is not known how many others are still alive in the mine. State media footage showed the first miner to be rescued, a black blindfold across his eyes, being lifted out

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. An old maxim which may be giving some in Russia’s corridors of power pause for thought.  That is what a botched poisoning attempt and a rush to incarcerate have done to the man President Putin refuses to call by name, Alexei Navalny. The man who has courageously returned

Hundreds of people have reportedly been detained as a series of demonstrations in support of jailed Putin critic Alexei Navalny begins across Russia. The gatherings, which police have declared illegal, are the first by Mr Navalny’s supporters since he was arrested last weekend on his return to Moscow, after spending five months in Germany recovering

Momentum is building in Russia for widespread protests this weekend in support of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Videos have been posted on TikTok, Russia’s most popular iPhone app, encouraging people to defy authorities and turn out. Young Russians in particular have flooded the social media site using the hashtags #freenavalny and #23Jan. Protesters have

Japanese officials have denied claims the Tokyo Olympic Games are being cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic. The 2020 Games have already been delayed once, with the opening ceremony currently scheduled for 23 July this year. But according to The Times, local officials have conceded the event cannot happen because of COVID-19. Image: The current

Joe Biden has warned that the fight to bring coronavirus under control in the US is a “wartime undertaking” – devoting much of his first full day in office to tackling the pandemic. The new president signed 10 executive orders on Thursday that are designed to ramp up testing, tackle vaccine shortages, and increase mask

At least 32 people have died and dozens more are wounded after a double suicide attack in Iraq’s capital. According to police in Baghdad, the explosions hit a commercial area in the centre of the city. Many of the wounded – of which there are at least 73 – are reported to be in a

At least two people have died following an “extremely loud” explosion in Madrid’s city centre – with rescue teams, firefighters and police sent to the scene. Spanish media reports said the blast took place in a building near a nursing home and a school – and videos and images shared on social media showed rubble

Joe Biden is preparing to be sworn in as the next US president, replacing Donald Trump after a tumultuous four years. The inauguration ceremony is usually attended by millions of people – but instead, Mr Biden will address a small, socially distanced crowd in light of the coronavirus pandemic and the recent, deadly riots on

The US State Department has declared that China is committing genocide and crimes against humanity in a campaign targeting Uighurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.  In a statement, outgoing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said: “I believe this genocide is ongoing, and that we are witnessing the systematic attempt to destroy Uighurs by the

Snow has fallen in the Sahara desert after temperatures dropped to -3C (27F). Karim Bouchetata recorded the rare event in Ain Sefra, Algeria, with thawing ice creating beautiful patterns on the sand. The Sahara desert, which covers most of Northern Africa, has gone through shifts in temperature over the past few hundred thousand years –

There is a road north of the capital, Kampala, that few Ugandans wish to follow. It is a rough, potholed track which leads to the home of the opposition leader, Bobi Wine. The 38-year old has not left his home since last Thursday, when he cast his vote in the general election. He came second

Putin critic Alexei Navalny has urged Russians to “take to the streets” after a judge ordered he be detained for at least 30 days.   In a video clip released after the ruling, he said: “Don’t be afraid, take to the streets. Don’t go out for me, go out for yourself and your future.” The