Biden says Democratic victories in Georgia Senate runoffs would lead to $2,000 stimulus checks

COLOMBO (News 1st); Thousands of Sri Lankan health workers continued their strike action for the fifth consecutive day on Friday (11), despite a court issuing an order against a nurses trade union that is also taking part in the strike.Health workers in Sri Lanka have been staging demonstrations and strikes since November 2021 to draw attention to the issue of salary anomalies.Their major demands include the rectification of salary anomalies, higher allowances, and an increase in overtime rates.Supplementary and paramedical services, nursing services, and professionals from 16 health services including medical laboratory technologists, pharmacists, radiologists, public health inspectors, and family health officers are participating in the indefinite strike.Thousands of poor patients who visited government hospitals were turned away, as a result.A Sri Lankan court on Thursday (10) issued two enjoining orders preventing the strike action by the Government Nursing Officer’s Association from continuing.The Attorney General filed an action against the Government Nursing Officer’s Association and its president Saman Rathnapriya, seeking an enjoining order from the court to immediately suspend the trade union action of the said union.The Attorney General appraised the court of the present deplorable conditions in hospitals due to patient care being severely affected.District Court Judge of Colombo Aruna Aluthge issued two enjoining orders preventing the union from continuing the said trade union strike endangering the lives of the patients.As a result of the strike, over this week the activities at the Colombo General Hospital, Kandy General Hospital, 24 Teaching Hospitals, 26 General Hospitals, 46 Base Hospitals, 410 District

Prince Charles getting Covid again should be "ringing royal alarm bells," according to an expert who warns of some "regal whiplash". The 73-year-old is set to snatch an almost 200-year record by becoming the oldest person to be crowned monarch.

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Withdrawal of restrictions

Boris Johnson ending Covid isolation rules is a "distraction" from the PM's lockdown party scandal, according to a Scots health expert.

SYDNEY :

Charli XCX has said that the criticism she’s received on social media lately has taken a toll on her mental health.The singer-songwriter, who releases her fifth album ‘Crash’ on March 18, issued a statement on Twitter yesterday (February 10) to explain that she’s temporarily stepping back from the platform due to the “negativity” surrounding her current campaign.“I’ve always had a pretty open dialogue with you guys and so I just wanna mention a few things that have been on my mind recently,” Charli began.“I have been feeling like I can’t do anything right at the moment.

COLOMBO (News 1st); The new University of Vavuniya was declared open by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Friday (11).The University of Vavuniya is the 17th State University in Sri Lanka and was established with effect from the 1st of August 2021 via an Extraordinary Gazette on the 8th of June 2021 that elevated the Vavuniya Campus of the University of Jaffna, to a separate state university in Sri Lanka.The new state university was established for the purpose of providing, promoting, and developing higher education in the branches of learning of Business Studies, Applied Science, and Technology Studies.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of he World Health Organization (WHO), Buti Manamela, Deputy Dr Blade Nzimande, Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology of South Africa, Dr Joe Phaahla, Minister of Health of South Africa and Meryame Kitir, Minister of Development Cooperation and Urban Policy of Belgium today visit a number of public and private sector partners that are collaborating to develop and build WHO’s global mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub in South Africa.

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Protester numbers outside New Zealand's parliament have increased as police scaled back efforts to clear anti-vaccine demonstrators involved in violent clashes a day earlier.

COLOMBO (News 1st); Sri Lanka’s Health Ministry has warned against the use of fake vaccination cards to avoid being vaccinated against COVID-19.Dr. Anwar Hamdani, attached to the Health Ministry said information on all those who have been vaccinated are with the Health Ministry, and it is a futile attempt to evade being vaccinated.“Getting vaccinated is a social responsibility and therefore everyone must get vaccinated against COVID-19,” he said.At the same time, the Deputy Director-General of Public Health Services Dr.

Despite key party figures expressing support and posing for pictures with protesters, the Conservative Party is joining pleas to end disruptive blockades against COVID restrictions.

Disruptive blockades protesting COVID-19 mandates are escalating in Ontario, prompting more calls for the province to take action. So why has Ontario Premier Doug Ford been mostly absent over the unrest? Eric Sorensen explains the possible strategy behind keeping a low-profile, as concerns grow over potentially politicizing pandemic strategy.

Ottawa police on Thursday provided an update on their ongoing enforcement measures against trucker protests demonstrating against COVID-19 vaccine mandates throughout parts of the city.

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau held a meeting with leaders of opposition parties Thursday evening, where he said he briefed them on the latest developments of the trucker convoy protests and blockades.

Unhappy Olympic athletes are calling out organizers of the Beijing Games with a litany of complaints about everything from COVID-19 protocols to inadequate catering.

WILMINGTON, Del. - President-elect Joe Biden publicly received a second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, part of an ongoing effort to instill confidence in its effectiveness as the pandemic worsens.Biden received his first shot on Dec. 21 at a hospital not far from his Delaware home.

WILMINGTON, Del. – Vice President-elect Kamala Harris has landed on the cover of the February issue of Vogue magazine, but her team says there's a problem: the shot of the country's soon-to-be No. 2 leader isn't what both sides had agreed upon, her team says.Instead of the powder blue power suit Harris wore for her cover shoot, the first African American woman elected vice president is instead seen in more casual attire and wearing Converse Chuck Taylor sneakers, which she sometimes wore on the campaign trail.Harris' team was unaware that the cover photo had been switched until images leaked late Saturday, according to a person involved in the negotiations over how Harris would be featured on the cover.

WASHINGTON – The violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol is intensifying scrutiny over security at an inauguration ceremony for President-elect Joe Biden already reshaped by a pandemic and the prospect that his predecessor may not attend.Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will take the oath of office from the Capitol's West Front, one of the very locations where a violent mob overpowered police and stormed the building.

WASHINGTON – The Rev. and Sen.-elect Raphael Warnock shares more than a party with President-elect Joe Biden: Both Democrats made faith a central part of their political identity on the campaign trail — and their victories are emboldening religious liberals.Warnock, who leads the Atlanta church where the Rev.

ATLANTA - Sen. Kelly Loeffler conceded the U.S.

WASHINGTON - First lady Michelle Obama issued a statement following the pro-Trump riot that occurred on Wednesday involving a mob the president’s supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol and violently clashed with law enforcement.In the statement, Obama spoke of the mixed feelings of the day after she awoke Wednesday to the news of Raphael Warnock’s election victory in Georgia as the state’s first Black senator.

WASHINGTON – A sober, shaken Senate returned to its hallowed chamber Wednesday night to slap away a frivolous election challenge, but its secondary purpose seemed to be to rise from the wreckage of a shocking day in which they were forced to flee the Capitol by a mob of supporters of President Donald Trump.The riot in the Capitol prompted more than half of those who had signed on to the protest to instead vote “no.” Catering to Trump's supporters seemed less important than defending democracy.Tennessee's GOP senators abandoned the effort, as did Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., who lost her runoff election Tuesday, helping to deliver control of the Senate to Democrats. Wisconsin's GOP Sen.

Washington, D.C. is on high alert Wednesday morning after police arrested half a dozen people during pro-Trump protests that saw thousands march through the streets.

ATLANTA - President-elect Joe Biden on Wednesday congratulated Democrat Raphael Warnock, who was the projected winner of one of Georgia’s two Senate runoffs. The projected win puts the Senate majority within the party's reach.Warnock, who defeated Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler according to a projection by the Associated Press, will become the first Black senator in his state’s history.

SAVANNAH, Ga. – Raphael Warnock's roots showed little promise of a future that led to the U.S. Senate.He grew up in Savannah in the Kayton Homes public housing project, the second youngest of 12 children.

Georgia’s two Senate runoffs Wednesday, becoming the first Black senator in his state’s history and putting the U.S. Senate majority within the party’s reach.A pastor who spent the past 15 years leading the Atlanta church where Martin Luther King Jr.

ATLANTA – Democrat Raphael Warnock won one of Georgia’s two Senate runoffs Wednesday, becoming the first Black senator in his state’s history and putting the Senate majority within the party's reach.A pastor who spent the past 15 years leading the Atlanta church where Martin Luther King Jr. preached, Warnock defeated Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler.

ATLANTA – The Rev. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, defeated Sen.

ATLANTA - Democrat Rev. Raphael Warnock has defeated Republican Sen.

ATLANTA (AP) - Democrat Raphael Warnock won one of Georgia’s two Senate runoffs Wednesday, becoming the first Black senator in his state’s history and putting the Senate majority within the Democrats’ reach.A pastor who spent the past 15 years leading the Atlanta church where Martin Luther King Jr. preached, Warnock defeated Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler.

Georgia that will determine which party controls the legislative chamber for the next two years remained too early to call late Tuesday, with the four candidates locked in tight contests and many ballots left to be tabulated.Georgia has become a political focal point since the Nov. 3 general election, when none of the candidates in the state’s two Senate contests earned more than 50 per cent of the vote.

The two Georgia runoffs that will determine control of the Senate have kept President Donald Trump and President-elect Joe Biden in campaign mode and run up a half-billion-dollar tab in the process.The money matches the stakes: Either Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff will sweep, giving Democrats both chambers of Congress and the executive branch, or Republicans will pick up at least one victory from Sen.

ATLANTA – The Latest on the Senate runoffs in Georgia (all times local):7 a.m.Georgia voters have begun casting their ballots to determine which party will control the U.S. Senate.Polls for the runoffs opened statewide at 7 a.m.

Senator David Perdue (Photo by Jessica McGowan/Getty Images) ; Jon Ossoff (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images); Senator Kelly Loefller (Photo by SANDY HUFFAKER/AFP via Getty Images) ; Rev.

Georgia voters mark their ballots during the first day of early voting in the US Senate runoffs at the Gwinnett County Fairgrounds. (TAMI CHAPPELL/AFP via Getty Images)ATLANTA - This week will find us back in a familiar place — waiting for Georgia to count votes.With control of the U.S.

ATLANTA – This week will find us back in a familiar place — waiting for Georgia to count votes.With control of the U.S. Senate at stake, all eyes are on a runoff election that has Republicans David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler facing Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.

WASHINGTON – President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration will include a "virtual parade across America” consistent with crowd limits during the coronavirus era, organizers announced Sunday. Following the swearing-in ceremony on Inauguration Day on Jan.

ATLANTA – Two days before dueling runoffs in Georgia that will determine U.S. Senate control, GOP incumbent Kelly Loeffler said she had not decided whether to join Republican colleagues in challenging the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s victory over President Donald Trump.

ATLANTA – For decades, the red-bricked Gothic Revival church where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Ted Cruz on Saturday said he will spearhead a drive by nearly a dozen Republican senators to challenge President-elect Joe Biden’s victory when Electoral College results are tallied in Congress on Jan. 6 – a largely symbolic move that has little chance of preventing Biden from taking office.Cruz‘s effort is in defiance of Senate Republican leaders, who have argued that the Senate’s role in certifying the election is largely ceremonial and had been looking to avoid an extended debate on the floor about the outcome.

President-elect Joe Biden is going all-in to help Democrats win two Senate runoffs in Georgia that will determine party control in the critical early years of his administration, a widespread effort that not long ago would have been unthinkable in a Republican-dominated state in the Deep South.The push ahead of Tuesday's election comes with early voting making some Republicans nervous as President Donald Trump, who narrowly lost the state to Biden, continues to assert falsely that the Georgia election process is rigged.Biden and his team have steered at least $18 million to help Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock try to unseat Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.

SAVANNAH, Ga. – Two months after the November elections, Georgia voters have unfinished business. The outcome will determine partisan control of the U.S.

ATLANTA – The merchandise featured in Sen. Kelly Loeffler’s online campaign store includes T-shirts and bumper stickers bearing Donald Trump’s name and the message: “Still my president.” The Georgia Republican is running television ads ahead of Tuesday’s Senate runoff elections that lambastes her opponent, the Rev.

SAVANNAH, Ga. – Two months after the November elections, Georgia voters have unfinished business. The outcome will determine partisan control of the U.S.