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Elon Musk has become the world's richest person, as his net worth crossed $185bn (NZ$254bn). Elon Musk has become the world's richest person. Photo: AFP The Tesla and SpaceX entrepreneur was pushed into the top slot after Tesla's share price increased on Thursday. He takes the top spot from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who had held it since 2017. Musk's electric car company Tesla has surged in value this year, and hit a market value of $700bn (NZ$964bn) for the first time on Wednesday. That makes the car company worth more than Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai, GM and Ford combined. Musk reacted to the news in signature style, replying to a Twitter user sharing the news with the remark "how strange". An older tweet pinned to the top of his feed offered further insight into his thoughts on personal wealth. "About half my money is intended to help problems on Earth, and half to help establish a self-sustaining city on Mars to ensure continuation of life (of all species) in case Earth gets hit by a meteor like the dinosaurs or WW3 happens and we destroy ourselves," it reads. About half my money is intended to help problems on Earth & half to help establish a self-sustaining city on Mars to ensure continuation of life (of all species) in case Earth gets hit by a meteor like the dinosaurs or WW3 happens & we destroy ourselves — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 12, 2018 The tycoon's fortunes have been buoyed by politics in the US, where the Democrats will have control of the US Senate in the forthcoming session. Daniel Ives, an analyst with Wedbush Securities wrote: "A Blue Senate is very bullish and a potential 'game changer' for Tesla and the overall electric vehicle sector, with a more green-driven agenda now certainly in the cards for the next few years." Expected electric vehicle tax credits would benefit Tesla, "which continues to have an iron grip on the market today", he added. Bezos has also seen his fortunes rise over the past year. The coronavirus pandemic has meant Amazon benefited from stronger demand for both its online store and cloud computing services. However, he gave a 4 percent stake in the business to his ex-wife MacKenzie Scott after they split, which helped Musk overtake him. In addition, the threat of regulation has meant Amazon's stock has not risen as high as it might otherwise have done. - BBC

By Ella Stewart Reporter American expats are feeling grateful to be living in Aotearoa after watching the chaos and violence unfold at the Capitol building in Washington. One of the protesters prepares to storm the Capitol in Washington. Photo: 2021 Getty Images Madeline Nash, her husband, and her two children looked at moving to New Zealand after the 2016 presidential election. Her eldest child was just about to start school and during the hour-long school tours they went on, 20 minutes were spent explaining the school's shooter protocol. They finally made the big move to Auckland from Austin, Texas, in 2018. Read more: Although she is not surprised she said what is happening in Washington DC is far worse than they ever imagined. "To actually see that people have taken it so far that they are willing basically, I would say to hop over the line to sedition and treason, they're really just trying to tear down the country." Nash said partisan politics have become extremely polarising in the US but living in New Zealand is like being in an alternate reality. "I'm glad that we have this ability to be here and our children are a bit sheltered from what's going on, but as an adult it is very hard to be straddling both worlds right now." Supporters of President Donald Trump occupy the US Capitol building. Photo: AFP US 'in shambles' Jade De La Paz is an American citizen who moved to Dunedin to complete her PhD at Otago University. She has been feeling stressed and can't take her eyes off the news. "We just had this huge victory and now the whole country is falling apart, but there's nothing I can do from here except for vote. "You're sitting here thinking my country is in shambles," De La Paz said. Katie Smith moved from Southern California to Auckland in 2017 with her New Zealand partner and is flabbergasted. "I want to know what alternate reality these people live in." While Smith is a Democrat, much of her family are Republicans, but even they don't agree with what is happening. "It's not about and it hasn't been about politics for a very long time, it's about being a decent human being." Smith said that everything that has been happening in the US has been affecting her mental health. "I can't see things getting better for the states any time soon." She said she's grateful to be living in Auckland here at the moment and wishes she could move her friends and family living in the US to New Zealand. In the 2018 census more than 16,000 people living in New Zealand identified as American.

US President-elect Joe Biden says yesterday was "one of the darkest days" in the nation's history after Donald Trump supporters attacked the US Capitol. Speaking in Wilmington, Biden said he wished he could have said he didn't see it coming. "We did see it coming. "What we witnessed yesterday was not dissent, disorder, protest - it was chaos, don't dare call them protesters - they were a riotous mob." "Assault on the rule of law, assault on the most sacred of American undertakings." There are growing calls for Trump's removal and a staff exodus. While Trump has just 13 days left in his term, there were numerous demands for his ouster including by the Senate's top Democrat and a Republican congressman. Congress early on Thursday (yesterday evening NZ time) formally certified Democratic President-elect Joe Biden's election victory despite objections from some Republican lawmakers. - Reuters Follow our blog for the latest updates:

Donald Trump has been suspended from his Facebook account for at least two weeks - and possibly indefinitely. Facebook's chief Mark Zuckerberg wrote that the risks of allowing Donald Trump to post "are simply too great". Photo: AFP It means the president will be unable to post on Facebook and Instagram until after the transition of power to Joe Biden on 20 January. The social network had originally imposed a 24-hour ban after his supporters attacked the US Capitol. Facebook's chief Mark Zuckerberg wrote that the risks of allowing Trump to post "are simply too great". In a video posted to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, Trump told the rioters attacking the seat of government "I love you" before telling them to go home. He also repeated false claims about election fraud. The largest social networks each took action against the president's accounts in the wake of the violence. Zuckerberg said Facebook had removed the president's posts "because we judged that their effect - and likely their intent - would be to provoke further violence". He said it was clear Trump intended to undermine the transfer of power to President-elect Joe Biden. "Therefore, we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete," he wrote. Read more: Twitter ban Trump's favoured platform, Twitter, had also suspended the president for 12 hours. It said it required the removal of three tweets for "severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy". The company said the president's account would remain locked for good if the tweets were not removed. It went on to say that "Future violations of the Twitter Rules... will result in permanent suspension of the @realDonaldTrump account". The 12-hour timer on Trump's account has expired, but he has not yet tweeted again. But his account now states that three of his tweets are "no longer available because [they] violated" its rules. The platform only uses this specific notice in cases when account holders have deleted the post themselves. This indicates that Trump or one of his associates has taken the action demanded to get the account restored. When asked whether it had extended its original 12-hour block, a spokeswoman for Twitter said: "We're continuing to evaluate the situation in real-time, including examining activity on the ground and statements made off Twitter. We will keep the public informed, including if further escalation in our enforcement approach is necessary." 'I totally disagree' Dan Scavino, White House director of social media, has used his own account to publish a statement on the President's behalf. "Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th," it quoted Trump as saying. "I have always said we would continue our fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it's only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again!" Snapchat also stopped Trump from creating new posts, but did not say if or when it would end the ban. YouTube also removed the video. His supporters stormed the seat of US government and clashed with police, leading to the death of one woman. The violence brought to a halt congressional debate over Democrat Joe Biden's election win. In the House and Senate chambers, Republicans were challenging the certification of November's election results. Before the violence, President Trump had told supporters on the National Mall in Washington that the election had been stolen. Hours later, as the violence mounted inside and outside the US Capitol, he appeared on video and repeated the false claim. He told protesters "I love you" and described the people who stormed the Capitol complex as "patriots". YouTube said it had removed the video because it "violated policies on spreading election fraud". Twitter initially did not take down the video, instead removing the ability to retweet, like and comment on it and another tweet. However, it later removed them, and suspended the outgoing president. YouTube already had a policy to remove fake news about mass election fraud, which it applied to the president. The march was partly organised online, including on Facebook groups and pages. Facebook said it was looking for and removing content that had incited or supported the storming of Capitol Hill. Canadian e-commerce software provider Shopify has also taken action against the president. It took stores run by the Trump campaign and Trump Organization offline, saying its rules prohibited retailers from supporting those who promoted violence. "As a result, we have terminated stores affiliated with President Trump," it told the Wall Street Journal. - BBC

Democratic lawmakers circulated articles of impeachment to remove President Donald Trump from office after his supporters attacked the US Capitol in a violent breach, a US representative said. "I am circulating Articles of Impeachment that @RepTedLieu, @RepRaskin and I have prepared to remove the President from office following yesterday's attack on the U.S. Capitol," Representative David Cicilline said on Twitter. Trump is growing calls for his removal and a staff exodus. While Trump has just 13 days left in his term, there were numerous demands for his ouster including by the Senate's top Democrat and a Republican congressman. Congress early on Thursday (local time) formally certified Democratic President-elect Joe Biden's election victory despite objections from some Republican lawmakers. Members of Trump's Cabinet and allies of the Republican president have discussed invoking a provision of the US Constitution to remove him from office, a source familiar with the situation said. Meanwhile, a growing number of White House aides said they would quit, including envoy Mick Mulvaney, Trump's former chief of staff, and top Russia adviser Ryan Tully. More departures were expected soon. Facebook, a key social media platform for Trump, also said it would ban Trump posts until Biden's January 20 inauguration. - Reuters Follow our blog for the latest updates:

Hours after hundreds of Donald Trump's supporters stormed the US Capitol in a harrowing assault on American democracy, a shaken Congress formally certified Democrat Joe Biden's election victory. Through a White House spokesperson on Twitter, Trump said: "Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th." Late on Wednesday (local time) houses of Congress resumed their work on certifying Biden's Electoral College win, with debate stretching into the early hours of Thursday. After debate, the House and Senate rejected two objections to the tally and certified the final Electoral College vote with Biden receiving 306 votes and Trump 232 votes. The outcome had never been in doubt, but had been interrupted by rioters spurred on by Trump who forced their way past metal security barricades, broke windows and scaled walls to fight their way into the Capitol. Police said four people died during the chaos - one from gunshot wounds and three from medical emergencies - and 52 people were arrested. Some besieged the House of Representatives chamber while lawmakers were inside, banging on its doors and forcing suspension of the certification debate. Security officers piled furniture against the chamber's door and drew their pistols before helping lawmakers and others escape. - Reuters As it happened:

Security officers in dark suits drew their pistols and trained them on the shouting mob trying to smash their way through the door of the normally sedate House of Representatives chamber. A pro-Trump mob confronts US Capitol police outside the Senate chamber of the Capitol building. Photo: Getty Images via AFP The extraordinary scene unfolded amid the unprecedented assault on the US Congress supporters of President Donald Trump on Wednesday local time. Protesters were angered by Trump's loss to his Democratic opponent Joe Biden in the November presidential election. One woman was shot and killed in a chaotic crush of people near a stairway. A video posted on social media showed what sounded like a gunshot and an officer in dark clothing armed with a rifle standing near where she fell. Other officers rushed to assist her. The circumstances of her shooting, including who fired the shots, were not clear. Three other people also died because of medical emergencies, and 14 police officers were injured - two of whom had to be hospitalised. More than 52 people have been arrested - 47 of them for curfew violations. Several others were arrested on charges related to carrying unlicensed or prohibited firearms. Also, two pipe bombs were recovered from the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic national committees, as well as a cooler from a vehicle on US Capitol grounds that contained Molotov cocktails. What began as a raucous protest against Trump's defeat boiled over into a siege of the Capitol, a symbol of US democracy, that paralysed Congress as it went through the final steps of ratifying the victory of President-elect Joe Biden. Photo: AFP Rioters brawled with police officers, pushed their way past metal security barricades, broke windows and forced their way inside the building, forcing lawmakers in both the House and the Senate to suspend their work and instead go into hiding in offices and other secured rooms. A grey-bearded protester used what looked like a plexiglass riot shield to break a glass window of the Capitol, clearing the way for rioters to climb through. Members with military experience, including Democratic Representative Jason Crow, a former US Army Ranger, and Republican Representative Markwayne Mullin, a former mixed martial arts fighter, jumped in to help. Representative Reuben Gallego, a former Marine, told fellow House members how to put on their gas masks. Inside the Senate Chamber. Photo: Getty Images via AFP Much of the melee was captured in photos and videos posted on social media, news footage and witnessed by Reuters journalists. The rioters who stormed the Capitol roamed freely through the corridors, carrying flags of at least one a large Confederate battle ensign and snapping photographs. One man posed for a photo in the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in Congress, one booted foot propped on the corner of her desk. Another grinned at a news photographer as he carted a lectern down a hallway. As demonstrators pressed closer to lawmakers, they scuffled with officers. One group discharged a fire extinguisher, leaving a haze. Tear gas blew into the rotunda beneath the iconic building's soaring dome. Trump supporter Richard Barnett sits inside the office of US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Photo: AFP Some rioters besieged the House of Representatives chamber while lawmakers were inside, banging on its doors, cutting off escape routes. "It ... felt like it was happening in slow motion," Democratic Representative Eric Swalwell said. Photo: Getty Images via AFP Security officers piled furniture against the chamber's door and drew their pistols. Lawmakers and reporters heard loud popping noises from outside and dived for cover on the floor. "I was opening my gas mask and we heard 'pop, pop, pop' and we all went down," Democratic Representative Vicente Gonzalez told Reuters. After 15 minutes, Capitol Police officers secured enough of a pathway through the Capitol to escort House members from the chamber to another location, urging them to hurry as they wound down stairs and through tunnels to avoid the chaos. US Capitol police officers point their guns at a door that was vandalised in the House Chamber during a joint session of Congress. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images/AFP 'Banana republic' Many House members were in their offices when the assault happened because Pelosi had limited the number of people in the chamber to 11 from each party because of concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. Some evacuated at the urging of Capitol police while others barricaded themselves inside their offices Representative Mike Gallagher, a Republican from Wisconsin, said in a video on social media that he was "sheltering in place" in his office. "This is banana republic crap that we're watching happen right now," he said. A Trump supporter jumps from the public gallery to the floor of the Senate Chamber. Photo: Getty Images via AFP Across the Capitol, other demonstrators pushed into the Senate gallery, where minutes earlier security officials had evacuated lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence, who presided over the vote-counting. A few climbed down from the gallery to the chamber floor, then climbed to the dais for photographs. One man, bare-chested and wearing a fur hat with horns, his face painted red, white and blue, posed for photos there holding an American flag. A pro-Trump protester carries the lectern of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi through the rotunda of the Capitol building. Photo: Getty Images via AFP Dozens of lawmakers hunkered in a secure room for hours while officers worked to clear the building. Lawmakers from both parties, riven hours earlier by the election outcome, prayed together for American democracy. When Congress returned on Wednesday night to resume counting the votes, clusters of armed agents, some wearing tactical gear and carrying automatic weapons, were stationed around the Capitol. US Capitol Police detain the mob outside the House of Representatives chamber. Photo: Getty Images via AFP - Reuters

By Joseph Tanfani, John Shiffman, Brad Heath and Mark Hosenball The chaos inside the US Capitol on Wednesday local time came after the police force that protects the legislative complex was overrun by a mob of Trump supporters in what law enforcement officials called a catastrophic failure to prepare. Police intervene as US President Donald Trump's supporters breach security and enter the Capitol building in Washington DC. Photo: AFP The siege of the Capitol, home to both the US Senate and the House of Representatives, represents one of the gravest security lapses in recent US history, current and former law enforcement officials said, turning one of the most recognisable symbols of American power into a locus of political violence. While events such as a presidential inauguration involve detailed security plans by numerous security agencies, far less planning went into protecting the joint session of Congress that convened on Wednesday to ratify the results of the 2020 presidential election, the officials said. That lapse came despite glaring warning signs of potential violence by hardline supporters of President Donald Trump, who are inflamed by Trump's baseless claims of a stolen election and hope to block the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden. And security initially was handled almost entirely alone by the US Capitol Police, a 2000-member force under the control of Congress and dedicated to protecting the 126-acre Capitol Grounds. For reasons that remained unclear as of early Thursday, other arms of the US federal government's vast security apparatus did not arrive in force for hours as rioters besieged the seat of Congress. The Capitol is a short walk from where Trump in a speech railed against the election just before the riot began, calling the vote an "egregious assault on our democracy" and urging his supporters to "walk down to the Capitol" in a "Save America March". The counting of the electoral votes of the presidential election by Congress, normally a formality, was preceded by weeks of threats in social media that planned pro-Trump protests could descend into violence. Despite those rumblings of danger, the Capitol Police force did not request advance help to secure the building from other federal agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security, according to one senior official. And National Guard reinforcements, summoned by the city's mayor, were not mobilised until more than an hour after protesters had first breached the barricades. In stark contrast, those agencies were aggressively deployed by the Trump administration during last summer's police brutality protests in Washington and elsewhere in the United States. The Capitol Police did not respond to requests for comment. Supporters of US President Donald Trump storm the US Capitol during a rally to contest the certification of the 2020 US presidential election results. Photo: AFP The force's officers are trained to keep protesters off the Capitol's marble outdoor steps, to protect the complex like a citadel. But there are so many windows and doors in the 19th-century complex that it is difficult to defend them all, said Terrance Gainer, who served as Capitol Police chief and later as the US Senate's Sergeant at Arms, its chief law enforcement officer. "Once they lost the steps, they lost the doors and windows," Gainer said. As hordes of rioters streamed into the heart of American government, they could be seen on camera roaming freely through the historic halls - swinging from a balcony, rifling through the offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and even sitting in the chair reserved for the Senate's presiding officer. One rioter was captured by a Reuters photographer casually shouldering a large Confederate battle flag as he strode inside the Capitol - a searingly evocative inversion of the failed 1861-1865 insurrection against the American republic by Southern states in an effort to perpetuate slavery. "I truly had to suspend my disbelief because I didn't think you could breach the Capitol," former Capitol Police chief Gainer said. "I have great confidence in the men and women who protect Congress, but there will need to be a full accounting. We're going to have to have a deep dive into what went wrong." Lawmakers inside the building blamed a lack of preparation for the historic security breach. "I think police did a good job under the circumstances, but there clearly wasn't enough planning," said Representative Vicente Gonzalez, a Texas Democrat. The long-planned protest, Gonzalez said, called for an "overwhelming display of force" by police. 'It looked like the Keystone Cops' Some Democratic members of Congress, worried about the prospects of violence, tried for more than a week to press agencies for information about what they knew about threats or countermeasures, according to one congressional source. But there was no sign anyone was gathering serious intelligence about possible disturbances or planning to counter them, this source said. Typically, law enforcement agencies in the American capital spend weeks or months planning for large protests, one former Justice Department official said. Officials from dozens of agencies, including local police, Capitol Police, the Secret Service and the federal Parks Police, ordinarily gather at the Washington field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the premier national law-enforcement agency, to coordinate their response. But it's not clear how much of that planning happened for Wednesday's event. A senior federal law enforcement official familiar with the planning to protect other federal sites on Wednesday, including the grounds where Trump spoke, said that he was shocked that the Capitol Police were not better prepared. "It looked like the Keystone Cops out there," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "It should have never happened. We all knew in advance that these people were coming, and the first order of policing is presence." "The Capitol Police force is essentially a guard force, so it's hard to understand why they weren't better prepared." The challenges of securing the Capitol have been discussed in hearings and in reports for years. In 2013, Gainer said he proposed a fence, to be called the Capitol Gateway, to stop such a mass assault. It was never built. "The idea was roundly defeated," he said, because members of Congress wanted to protect the public's access, and did not want the complex to look like a fortress. Trump launched march to the Capitol Trump on Twitter promised a "wild" event aimed at reversing his loss in last November's election - and appeared to encourage his supporters to act. "Our country has had enough, and we will not take it anymore," Trump said at Wednesday's rally. "You have to show strength, and you have to be strong." The White House did not respond to requests for comment on Trump's role in inspiring the violent protests or on the collapse of security at the Capitol. As Trump returned to the White House, the crowd headed to the Capitol building. Photo: AFP After a perimeter was quickly breached, Capitol Police officers seemed to be alone in battling the extremists on the building's steps, according to witness accounts and video from the scene. They were unable to secure all the doors and windows in the sprawling complex. Protesters surged inside the building, which contains the chambers of both houses of Congress. Video footage showed Capitol Police overwhelmed by vastly superior numbers of intruders as the mob grew into the thousands. Two US officials said that Washington city officials had hoped to avoid a militarised response in the days before the protest. The fear: They were concerned about a repeat of the scenes of the harsh federal response to anti-racism protests that took place across the street from the White House in June. They said it was unclear why it took as long as it did for the city police force to arrive at the Capitol. Whatever the case, they added, the delay was too long. A US defense official said Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser requested National Guard troops at around 2pm. That was about 45 minutes after the rioters had breached the first barricade. Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller activated the full DC National Guard at about 2.30pm, the official said. By then, the Capitol was under lockdown. In the rotunda, the iconic circular room under the Capitol dome, tear gas masks were being distributed. Police evacuated Vice President Mike Pence - who was there to preside over the formal counting of the Electoral College votes for the election he and Trump lost - and members of the House of Representatives and Senate. The police used pepper spray and tear gas on the protesters. They tried to barricade doors with furniture but quickly lost the battle. One woman was shot and killed by Capitol police inside the building, and pipe bombs were recovered at the offices of the Democratic and Republican national committees, Washington Police Chief Robert Contee said. He didn't explain what prompted officers to shoot the woman. Calls to 'rise up' for Trump While the mob invasion of the Capitol was unprecedented, there were ample warning signs in the days leading up to the protests. Many Trump supporters who travelled to the capital shared plans and organised on social media websites such as Parler, a Twitter-like service that has attracted right-wing extremist groups. Some posters discussed ways to illegally sneak guns into Washington. In a post on the social media app Parler, the leader of the far-right extremist group the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio, promised the group's attendance at Wednesday's rally. Tarrio was arrested on Monday in Washington for destruction of property during a protest last month and possession of a firearm magazine. He pleaded not guilty but was ordered to leave the city on Tuesday. Joe Biggs, a Proud Boys organiser, said more than 65 members of his group attended the protests but that he did not know whether any of them entered the Capitol building. He said he advised other Proud Boys to stay inside and avoid confrontations with police. On Twitter, starting on 1 January, there were 1480 posts from accounts related to the QAnon conspiracy theory movement that referenced Trump's rally on 6 January and contained references to violence, said a former intelligence official who monitors extremists on social media. These included calls for "Patriots to Rise Up." In one popular post on the TikTok video app, a man said that bringing guns to Washington is the "entire reason we're going". Neil Trugman, a former Capitol Police intelligence officer, called Wednesday's invasion of the complex unfathomable. He said the force generally prepares for much smaller groups under rules designed to allow for maximum expression of free speech rights. "We're all witnessing something we never imagined," said Trugman, who recently retired as chief of police for Amtrak, the US passenger rail company. "I'm not sure any chief of police could have handled this any differently." He blamed Trump for inciting the riot: "This is no longer just a protest. They crossed the line. This is terrorism." - Reuters

The rollout of a coronavirus vaccine in Australia will be brought forward to next month, with the Prime Minister saying the first groups are expected to receive a jab in mid-to-late-February. The first vaccine to be rolled out in Australia will be from Pfizer-BioNTech. Photo: AFP Scott Morrison said the first groups to receive the vaccine would be workers dealing with international arrivals and quarantine, frontline health workers, aged care and disability workers and those living in aged care or with a disability. "We anticipate, optimistically, that we would hope to start the vaccination with 80,000 people a week," he said. But Morrison stressed it was a "target" and that the goal was to have 4 million people vaccinated by the end of March. "This will of course remain conditional on a number of important factors, most importantly that final [Therapeutic Goods Administration] approval and the delivery of the vaccine from our suppliers," he said. The announcement comes a day after the government confirmed it was bringing the rollout forward by two weeks from the original planned date to mid-March. Pfizer vaccine first to be offered The first vaccine to be rolled out will be from Pfizer-BioNTech, which Morrison said the government hoped would be approved by the end of January. The government has purchased 10m doses of the vaccine - enough to inoculate 5m people - which has to be imported and stored at -70 degrees Celsius. "[For] the AstraZeneca [vaccine] we expect that process to be completed in February, but can't give you a closer timetable at the moment than that," he said. Morrison said the government did not want to announce changes to the rollout unless it was confident it would then go to schedule. "We don't want to make promises we can't keep," he said. "Our practice has been to set out cautious targets." Department of Health Secretary and former chief health officer Brendan Murphy said the vaccination rollout would be "ramped up" after that. There will be five phases of priority groups that will determine the order of who is vaccinated, starting with those most vulnerable or in positions where they may be exposed to the virus. Professor Murphy said the last group health authorities would consider vaccinating was children. - ABC

Two top aides to first lady Melania Trump resigned on Wednesday in the wake of violence on Capitol Hill, and more top White House officials were considering resigning, including national security adviser Robert O'Brien and his deputy, Matthew Pottinger, sources familiar with the matter said. Stephanie Grisham. Photo: AFP Stephanie Grisham resigned as chief of staff to the first lady after supporters of President Donald Trump violently occupied the US Capitol in an effort to block Congress from certifying the presidential election results. "It has been an honour to serve the country in the White House. I am very proud to have been a part of Mrs Trump's mission to help children everywhere, and proud of the many accomplishments of this administration," Grisham said in a statement. Grisham, who spent a year as White House press secretary before becoming chief of staff to the first lady, did not say whether her resignation was in reaction to the violence in the nation's capital, but a source familiar with her decision said the violence was the last straw for her. It has been an honor to serve the country in the @WhiteHouse . I am very proud to have been a part of @FLOTUS @MELANIATRUMP mission to help children everywhere, & proud of the many accomplishments of this Administration. Signing off now - you can find me at @OMGrisham ❤️ — Stephanie Grisham (@StephGrisham45) January 7, 2021 White House social secretary Rickie Niceta also resigned, as did a deputy White House press secretary Sarah Matthews, two sources told Reuters. O'Brien was also considering resigning, as was Pottinger, the deputy national security adviser who has been a key voice on China policy within the administration, two sources said. "I just spoke with Vice President Pence," O'Brien said in a statement earlier Wednesday, adding, "I am proud to serve with him." There was also chatter inside the White House that deputy chief of staff New Zealander Chris Liddell might resign, a source said. The White House declined to comment. Multiple injuries were reported and one woman was killed in the melee at the Capitol, as Trump supporters responded to the president's call to protest his loss in November's presidential election to Democrat Joe Biden. Trump has repeatedly and baselessly claimed the election was marred by fraudulent voting. Biden will be inaugurated on 20 January. - Reuters