HOUSTON (Xinhua) – It has been more than three days since over 70 prisoners began a hunger strike protesting harsh solitary confinement practices across the south central U.S. state Texas, the Texas Tribune reported. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) has confirmed at least 72 of them are still starving themselves, according to the report. “Our protest will remain peaceful and spans all races and religions to improve the conditions for all within the confines of the TDCJ,” the report cited a press release from the prisoners as saying, adding that it was “compiled by independent activist Brittany Robertson from messages she received from six striking men at three prisons.” The prisoners plan to continue their strike over the holiday weekend unless prison officials meet with a committee of members of different gangs who want to negotiate, said the report. “Thousands of prisoners are kept in solitary confinement in Texas. In November, more than 500 prisoners had been in isolation for more than a decade,” said the report.

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LONDON (Independent) – A record number of NHS have quit as better pay and work-life balance drive health workers out, new data revealed. Nurses have said they are “truly broken” as 42,400 staff voluntarily quit their NHS jobs in quarter two of last year – higher than any quarter over the last decade. This week a special investigation by The Independent revealed how the NHS crisis is escalating across all areas of the health service. Dr Simon Walsh, from the doctors’ union the British Medical Association (BMA), said the health service was “in unprecedented territory, where harm is actually occurring week after week”. Analysis showed 7,200 staff members gave “work-life balance” as the reason for resigning. This is the highest ever recorded for this reason, according to the analysis, and it is now the second most common reason for staff to leave the NHS. A row over pay with the government has prompted unprecedented strike action from NHS nurses, paramedics and other staff, with further planned later this month. The NHS also faces a potential three-day strike from junior doctors later this year. According to the latest figures, first reported by the Health Service Journal, 2,161 staff members left their jobs due to a “better reward package” – this was also the highest recorded to date.

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ERKELENZ (AP) – Thousands of people demonstrated in persistent rain on Saturday to protest the clearance and demolition of a village in western Germany that is due to make way for the expansion of a coal mine. Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg joined the demonstrators as they protested the clearance of Luetzerath, walking through the nearby village of Keyenberg and past muddy fields. Protesters chanted “Every village stays” and “You are not alone.” On the sidelines of the protest, police said people broke through their barriers and some got into the Garzweiler coal mine. As the demonstration took place, the clearance of Luetzerath was well advanced. The operation to evict climate activists holed up in the village kicked off on Wednesday morning. In the first three days of the operation, police said that about 470 people had left the site, 320 of them voluntarily.

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BEIJING (AFP) – China’s health authorities reported on Saturday almost 60,000 Covid-related deaths in just over a month, the first major death toll released by the government since it loosened its virus restrictions in early December. A National Health Commission (NHC) official said on Saturday China had recorded 59,938 Covid-related deaths between December 8, 2022, and January 12. The figure refers only to deaths recorded at medical facilities, with the total number likely to be higher. The data includes 5,503 deaths caused by respiratory failure directly due to the virus, and 54,435 deaths caused by underlying conditions combined with Covid, Jiao Yahui, head of the NHC’s Bureau of Medical Administration, told a news conference. Health officials insisted Wednesday it was “not necessary” to dwell on the exact number. Beijing revised its methodology for categorizing Covid fatalities last month, saying it would count only those who die specifically of respiratory failure caused by the virus. Health officials said Saturday the average age of those who had died was 80.3 years, with more than 90 percent of fatalities above 65 years old. Most suffered from underlying conditions, they said.

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OTTAWA (CTV) – Local media in Canada say that during a radar survey of a former residential school site, more than 2,000 abnormalities and a child’s remains were discovered. Star Blanket Cree Nation, a First Nations band in Saskatchewan, Canada, said it has located the anomalies after completing phase one of a ground-penetrating radar search at the site of the former Qu’Appelle Indian Residential School, operated from 1884 to 1998 in the village of Lebret, Saskatchewan, about 80 km northeast of Regina. The anomalies found have not been confirmed to be human remains and could be stones, soil or pieces of wood, however, a jawbone fragment was discovered which was believed to be 125 years old from a child who was five or six years old at the time, the report said. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement that he was “profoundly saddened and disturbed” to learn of the findings. “Residential schools are part of the historic and ongoing racism, discrimination, and injustice that Indigenous Peoples face. We all have a responsibility to learn from our past to build a better future,” Trudeau said. The school initially opened in 1884 and according to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report, the school had a high death rate. After its first nine years of operation, the school claimed to have discharged 174 students, 71 of whom had died. The institution closed in 1998 after operating for 114 years.

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RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Brazil’s Supreme Court has agreed to investigate whether former president Jair Bolsonaro incited the far-right mob that ransacked the country’s Congress, top court and presidential offices, a swift escalation in the probe that shows the ex-leader could face legal consequences for an extremist movement he helped build. Justice Alexandre de Moraes granted a request from the prosecutor general’s office to include Bolsonaro in the wider investigation, citing a video the former president posted on Facebook two days after the riot. It claimed Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva wasn’t voted into office, but rather was chosen by the Supreme Court and Brazil’s electoral authority. Although Bolsonaro posted the video after the riot and deleted it in the morning, prosecutors argued its content was sufficient to justify investigating his conduct beforehand. Otherwise, Bolsonaro has refrained from commenting on the election since his Oct. 30 defeat. He repeatedly stoked doubt about the reliability of the electronic voting system in the run-up to the vote, filed a request afterward to annul millions of ballots cast using the machines and never conceded.