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Tenth seed Williams, bidding for a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam title, came through 7-6 (7-5) 6-2 against the 101st-ranked Russian. However, the American had trailed 5-3 in an error-strewn first set, and she had to save two set points before dialling back in to win.

Source: bbc.com

Keyboard virtuoso Chick Corea, who pushed the melodic boundaries of jazz during his five-decade career, has died of a rare form of cancer, his family announced Wednesday. Corea, who was 23-time Grammy Award winner, had only recently been diagnosed with the disease before he died Tuesday.

Source: nbcnews.com

A drug normally used to treat arthritis can be a life-saver for some of the sickest hospital patients with Covid, new research shows. For every 25 patients treated with tocilizumab, along with a cheap steroid already routinely given, an additional life would be saved, the experts say.

Source: bbc.com

Indian technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad warned U.S. social media firms on Thursday to abide by the country’s laws, a day after a face-off between Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration and Twitter over content regulation. Speaking in Parliament on Thursday, IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad mentioned Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and WhatsApp by name and said they were welcome to operate in India, but only if they play by India’s rules.

Source: reuters.com

Despite chronic struggles with sexual violence in Utah, lawmakers in the state have rejected legislation that would have changed the state’s health education curriculum to teach consent and prevent unwanted sexual behavior.

Source: theguardian.com

Crowds will be barred from the Australian Open as Melbourne heads into a hard five-day lockdown in response to the Holiday Inn Covid-19 cluster, but play will continue as scheduled.

Source: theguardian.com

In a letter to Congress on Thursday, Mr Biden wrote that the order was "unwarranted" and said that no further tax dollars will be spent on the wall. Mr Trump declared a state of emergency over the southern border in 2019, which allowed him to bypass Congress and use military funds for its construction. When Mr Trump left office, about $25bn (£18bn) had been spent on the project.

Source: bbc.com

India and China on Thursday began to pull back troops and battle tanks from a bitterly contested lake area high in the western Himalayas on Thursday in a breakthrough after a months-long standoff on the disputed border.
The standoff began in April last year when India said Chinese troops had intruded deep into its side of the Line of Actual Control or the de facto border in the Ladakh area in the western Himalayas. China said its troops were operating in its own area and accused Indian border guards of provocative actions. In June, 20 Indian soldiers were killed when the two sides clashed with iron rods and stones in the Galwan Valley, the first combat losses on the border in 45 years. China also suffered an unspecified number of casualties.

Source: reuters.com

Nicknamed the “acrobat thieves”, a gang of four have been arrested in Milan after allegedly monitoring the movements of the city’s celebrities and influencers on Instagram before scaling their apartment buildings and robbing their homes.

Source: theguardian.com  

Archaeologists have managed to get near-perfect notes out of a musical instrument that's more than 17,000 years old. It's a conch shell that was found in a hunter-gatherer cave in southern France.

Source: bbc.com

Impeachment managers from the Democratic Party released security footage for the first time since the US Capitol riots on 6 January. The videos show US Vice-President Mike Pence came within a few hundred feet of the rioters when he was escorted to safety. Senators Mitt Romney and Chuck Schumer had to turn around to avoid the mob.
 

Scottish support for independence has fallen four percentage points, probably due to divisions among Scottish nationalists, but 47% of Scots still support breaking up the United Kingdom by going it alone, a poll indicated on Thursday. A Savanta ComRes poll for The Scotsman showed 47% would vote for independence and 42% would vote against, up 4 percentage points, with 10% still undecided. Scottish nationalists are pushing for an independence referendum to be held after this May’s Scottish parliament election, but British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said such votes should happen only once in a generation.

Source: reuters.com

Britain's big freeze is set to continue as snow sparked more travel chaos and temperatures plunged to -23C making it the coldest night in 26 years. The Met Office had warned power cuts and disruption to travel will continue through to the weekend.

Source: thesun

Dozens of former Republican officials, who view the party as unwilling to stand up to former President Donald Trump and his attempts to undermine U.S. democracy, are in talks to form a center-right breakaway party. The early stage discussions include former elected Republicans, former officials in the Republican administrations of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and Trump, ex-Republican ambassadors and Republican strategists, the people involved say.

Source: reuters.com

Austrian hairdressers came out of lockdown this week grappling with coronavirus testing and capacity restrictions - the city’s pampered dogs, however, have long had no trouble getting a trim.
Dog salons were allowed to stay open throughout the last two of Austria’s three lockdowns, and there is no requirement for owners to show a negative coronavirus test result as they would at the hairdresser.

Source: reuters.com

due to coronavirus travel restrictions. Elisabeth Klopp died aged 81. 

Source: eurosport.com

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to have a chat with his Turkish counterpart, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, in the coming days, the State Department spokesman said on Wednesday. Asked if the United States is considering Turkey’s recent suggestion that it may not need to make the Russian S-400 missile defense systems operational all the time, State Department spokesman Ned Price said Washington’s policy remained unchanged.

Source: reuters.com

Playing in just her second grand slam, Maya Sherif made history for Egypt on Tuesday as the country's first woman to win a main draw match at a major tournament.

Source: cnn.com