US to reopen land borders to fully vaccinated travellers next month
The US will reopen its land borders for non-essential travel in early November, ending restrictions that have been in place since March 2020.
Vehicle, rail and ferry travel between the US and its neighbours Canada and Mexico has been largely restricted to essential activity, such as trade, for the last 19 months.
Foreign visitors will need to be fully vaccinated to enter the country – a rule which will also be implemented for essential travellers – like truck drivers – by mid-January.
Chuck Schumer welcomed the decision. Pic: AP
They will necessarily need to show proof of vaccination unless they are referred by US Customs and Border Patrol for secondary inspections, officials said.
Proof of a negative COVID-19 test will not be required either.
US officials said the move would be formally announced later today.
Canada and Mexico have been pushing the White House to ease travel rules that have hit border communities especially hard.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer welcomed the decision, saying: “Since the beginning of the pandemic, members of our shared cross-border community have felt the pain and economic hardship of the land border closures. That pain is about to end.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
COVID rules for arrivals to UK made easier
White House staff said the “Title 42” order, which has essentially cut off access to asylum for migrants since it was issued by former president Donald Trump, would remain in place.
A similar easing of restrictions is set to begin for air travel at around the same time.
The US previously announced it would lift air travel restrictions early next month for fully vaccinated visitors from 33 countries including China, India, Brazil and most of Europe.
Foreign visitors will need to show proof of vaccination and a recent negative COVID-19 test before boarding a flight.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday the country would accept travellers who have had vaccines approved by the US or World Health Organisation.
These are the Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, Janssen (Johnson & Johnson), Oxford/AstraZeneca, Covishield, Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines.
The new version of the ChatGPT AI chatbot has been unveiled and offers near-instant results across text, vision and audio, according to its maker.
OpenAI said it was much better at understanding visuals and sounds than previous versions.
It offers the prospect of real-time ‘conversations’ with the chatbot, including the ability to interrupt its answers.
The firm says it “accepts as input any combination of text, audio, and image and generates any combination of text, audio, and image outputs”.
GPT-4o is to be rolled out over the next few weeks amid a battle by tech firms to develop ever-more advanced artificial intelligence tools.
Monday’s announcement showed tasks such as real-time language translation; using its vision capability to solve a maths question on a piece of paper, and to guide a blind person around London.
GPT-4o can respond to audio in as little as 232 milliseconds, with an average of 320 milliseconds, which the company says is similar to human response time.
To try to ease concerns over bias, fairness and misinformation, the Microsoft-backed company says the new version has undergone extensive testing by 70 external experts.
It comes after Google earlier this year had a major PR blunder over images generated by its Gemini AI system.
GPT-4o model will be free, but premium ‘Plus’ users get a greater capacity limit for messages.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Previous versions of the chatbot have caused unease in schools and universities due to some students using it to cheat by producing convincing essays.
When it launched two years ago, ChatGPT was said to be the fastest-ever app to reach 100 million active monthly users.
The announcement also stole a march on Google, which is expected to tomorrow show off its own new AI features at its annual developers’ conference.
A 16-year-old suspect armed with a rifle has been stopped from entering a church full of children by worshippers during a livestreamed service, say authorities in Louisiana.
The boy tried to get into the St Mary Magdalen Church, in Abbeville, through the back door at around 10.30am on Saturday (4.30pm UK time), according to police.
A livestream of the incident that was seen by Sky News’ partner outlet NBC News showed a man approaching Reverend Nicholas DuPre after 48 minutes to whisper something.
Rev DuPre then stopped the service and asked churchgoers to pray with him, while some people were heard panicking and screaming.
Around 60 children were inside and waiting to take their first Holy Communion when worshippers confronted the armed suspect.
The Louisiana Catholic church said they then took him outside before calling the police.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
On the livestream, police officers could seen walking through the church, as boys ran across the altar and the clergy took shelter, NBC News reported.
Someone was heard to say over a loudspeaker: “Guys, just get ahold of your children, go slowly. We did apprehend a child, he is in custody.”
In a statement, Abbeville Police Department said that upon arrival, officers arrested the suspect and then searched the church.
The force added the teenager was charged with terrorising the church and two counts of possession of a firearm by a juvenile.
Witnesses told TV station KADN that he was dressed all in black and armed with the rifle, NBC News reported.
Police chief Mike Hardy thanked the churchgoers who intervened for their “quick response and remaining calm throughout this matter”.
Read more on Sky News:
Star witness at Trump trial gives evidence
Hollywood actor punched in New York City
RFK Jr says worm ate part of his brain
The church also said it now plans to have uniformed law enforcement officers outside of its masses “out of an abundance of caution”.
The swimmer who was the first victim in the 1975 blockbuster Jaws has died.
Susan Backlinie died in her home in California at the age of 77, according to her agent. Her death was first reported by The Daily Jaws website.
The opening scene of Steven Spielberg‘s classic features Ms Backlinie running along the beach and before diving into the water and skinny dipping.
The poster for the film Jaws. Pic: HA/THA/Shutterstock
Her character Chrissie Watkins is then suddenly pulled under the water and she screams as she is violently attacked by an unseen great white shark.
Ms Backlinie had been a champion swimmer when cast in the film. She told The Palm Beach Post in 2015 that Spielberg told her: “When your scene is done, I want everyone under the seats with the popcorn and bubblegum.
“I think we did that,” she said.
In the documentary, Jaws: The Inside Story, Spielberg called Ms Backlinie’s sequence “one of the most dangerous” stunts he’s ever directed.
“She was actually being tugged left and right by 10 men on one rope and 10 men on the other back to the shore, and that’s what caused her to move like that.”
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
Ms Backlinie worked with Mr Spielberg again in the 1979 parody war film 1941, in which she spoofed her Jaws character.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Environment12 months agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports1 month agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports7 months agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment1 year agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Environment1 year agoTesla advances Powerwall pilot project with German electric company