BEIJING: Mainland China on Monday reported a slight upturn in new virus cases and an increase by 105 in deaths caused by the illness for a total of 1,770 since the outbreak began.
The 2,048 new cases followed three days of declines but was up by just 39 cases from the previous day’s figure. Another 10,844 people have recovered from COVID-19, a disease caused by the new coronavirus, and have been discharged from hospitals, according to Monday’s figures.
The update followed the publication late Saturday in China’s official media of a recent speech by President Xi Jinping in which he indicated for the first time that he had led the response to the outbreak from early in the crisis. While the reports were an apparent attempt to demonstrate the Communist Party leadership acted decisively from the start, it also opened Xi up to criticism over why the public was not alerted sooner.
In his speech, Xi said he gave instructions on fighting the virus on Jan. 7 and ordered the shutdown of the most-affected cities that began on Jan. 23.
The disclosure of his speech indicates top leaders knew about the outbreak’s potential severity at least two weeks before such dangers were made known to the public. It was not until late January that officials said the virus can spread between humans and public alarm began to rise.
New cases in other countries are raising growing concerns about containment of the virus.
Taiwan on Sunday reported its first death from COVID-19, the fifth fatality outside of mainland China. Taiwan’s Central News Agency, citing health minister Chen Shih-chung, said the man who died was in his 60s and had not traveled overseas recently and had no known contact with virus patients.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe convened an experts meeting to discuss containment measures in his country, where more than a dozen cases have emerged in the past few days without any obvious link to China.
“The situation surrounding this virus is changing by the minute,” Abe said.
Japanese Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said the country is “entering into a phase that is different from before,” requiring new steps to stop the spread of the virus.
Japan now has 413 confirmed cases, including 355 from a quarantined cruise ship, and one death from the virus.
Hundreds of Americans from the cruise ship took charter flights home, as Japan announced another 70 infections had been confirmed on the Diamond Princess. Canada, Hong Kong and Italy were planning similar flights.
The 300 or so Americans flying on US-government chartered aircraft back to the US will face another 14-day quarantine at Travis Air Force Base in California and Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. The US Embassy said the departure was offered because people on the ship were at a high risk of exposure to the virus. People with symptoms were banned from the flights.
About 255 Canadians and 330 Hong Kong residents are on board the ship or undergoing treatment in Japanese hospitals. There are also 35 Italians, of which 25 are crew members, including the captain.
In China’s Hubei province, where the outbreak began in December, all vehicle traffic will be banned in another containment measure. It expands a vehicle ban in the provincial capital, Wuhan, where public transportation, trains and planes have been halted for weeks.
Exceptions were being made for vehicles involved in epidemic prevention and transporting daily necessities.
Hubei has built new hospitals with thousands of patient beds and China has sent thousands of military medical personnel to staff the new facilities and help the overburdened health care system.
Last Thursday, Hubei changed how it recognized COVID-19 cases, accepting a doctor’s diagnosis rather than waiting for confirmed laboratory test results, in order to treat patients faster. The tally spiked by more than 15,000 cases under the new method.
Mainland China sees slight upturn in new virus cases, death toll rises by 105 to 1,770
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Mainland China sees slight upturn in new virus cases, death toll rises by 105 to 1,770
- Taiwan on Sunday reported its first death from the virus, the fifth fatality outside of mainland China
Trump says would concede defeat ‘if it’s a fair election’
- Donald Trump: ‘If I lose an election, if it’s a fair election, I would be the first one to acknowledge it’
- Trump: ‘Of course there’ll be no violence. My supporters are not violent people’
“If I lose an election, if it’s a fair election, I would be the first one to acknowledge it... So far I think it’s been fair,” Trump, repeating a caveat that he has used many times on the campaign trail, told reporters after voting in Florida.
Wearing a red “Make America Great Again” cap, he reiterated his previous criticism of electronic voting machines, suggesting they were less secure than paper ballots and would delay the outcome being known.
“They spend all this money on machines... If they would use paper ballots, voter ID, proof of citizenship, and one-day voting, it would all be over by 10 o’clock in the evening. It’s crazy,” he told reporters in West Palm Beach.
He added: “Do you know that paper is more sophisticated now than computers? If it’s watermarked paper you cannot... It’s unbelievable what happens with it. There’s nothing you can do to cheat.”
Asked about fears of unrest after the election and whether he would call on supporters to avoid violence, he criticized the question.
“I don’t have to tell them that, that there’ll be no violence. Of course there’ll be no violence. My supporters are not violent people,” Trump said.
‘Lost faith’: Michigan Muslims shun Harris over Mideast turmoil
- Dearborn, a Detroit suburb famous as the birthplace of Henry Ford and the home of Ford Motor Company's headquarters, has a population of around 110,000, with 55 percent of residents claiming Middle Eastern or North African heritage
DEARBORN, United States: Haunted by the daily violence ravaging the Middle East, Soujoud Hamade, a registered Democrat, felt compelled to back Green Party candidate Jill Stein in the US presidential election.
"It is very emotional," the 32-year-old real estate lawyer told AFP after casting her ballot Tuesday at a school in Dearborn, the nation's largest Arab-majority city, where voters could prove decisive in the key battleground of Michigan.
"Every time I watch the news or get on social media, I see my people being decimated, I see my home country being destroyed," added the Lebanese-American, disillusioned by the Biden-Harris administration's unwavering support for Israel.
Hamade says she's clear-eyed about the two-way nature of the race between Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican former President Donald Trump.
Still, she insists her vote is far more than just a protest.
She's banking on helping Stein crack five percent of the national popular vote, a threshold that would unlock future federal funding for the Green Party and "move the needle forward" toward breaking the two-party hold on US politics.
Dearborn, a Detroit suburb famous as the birthplace of Henry Ford and the home of Ford Motor Company's headquarters, has a population of around 110,000, with 55 percent of residents claiming Middle Eastern or North African heritage.
The city overwhelmingly backed President Joe Biden in 2020, helping him narrowly flip Michigan blue.
But recent polling shows a shift away from the Democratic Party among Muslim and Arab-Americans.
That trend was evident in conversations with voters around the city on Election Day.
Stein, a Jewish physician and the Green Party's perennial left-wing candidate is predicted to do well among Muslims, as well as progressives and youth voters nationwide -- potentially acting as a spoiler for Harris.
"She's the only one who's anti-genocide," said Muhammad Hijazi, a 28-year-old engineer who described himself as a "single-issue voter" who had previously voted Democrat but had now "lost faith."
The Democrats, he argued, don't have a plan to bring peace to the Middle East, and he doesn't trust Trump to do any better.
Yet signs suggest Trump, too, may fare better than in past cycles. Unlike Harris, he visited Dearborn, addressing a modest-sized audience last week.
His outreach to Michigan's Muslim community secured endorsements from the Muslim mayors of Hamtramck and Dearborn Heights, while his newfound connection to the community -- through Lebanese-American son-in-law Michael Boulos, husband of Tiffany Trump -- has further endeared him.
Harris' decision to campaign with former Republican Liz Cheney, a staunch supporter of the Iraq War, was the final straw for Dearborn Heights Mayor Bill Bazzi, he told Trump supporters at the former president's final Michigan rally.
Charles Fawaz, a 29-year-old first-grade teacher of Lebanese descent who voted for Trump, told AFP he was impressed that the former president "showed up."
"When Trump was president, everything was fine with our foreign policy because other leaders respected our country," Fawaz said.
Even if Trump doesn't deliver on Middle Eastern peace, he hopes Republicans will manage the economy better.
Former Democrats here say they know some liberals will blame them if Harris loses, but they reject the accusation.
"To put the onus on Arab Americans to vote for someone who's directly contributing to the genocide of other people is outrageous," Hamade said.
Spain unveils $11 billion aid plan after catastrophic floods
- Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced a series of measures including aid to small and midsize businesses, self-employed workers and households
- Tax relief and a three-month postponement to repaying mortgages and loans were also among the announcements
VALENCIA: Spain on Tuesday announced an aid package worth 10.6 billion euros ($11.5 billion) to rebuild regions devastated by its worst floods in a generation that have killed 219 people.
The exceptional Mediterranean storm that lashed eastern Spain a week ago triggered surging torrents of muddy water that have left a trail of destruction and an unknown number of missing.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced a series of measures including aid to small and midsize businesses, self-employed workers and households that have suffered deaths, incapacity and damage to homes and belongings.
Tax relief and a three-month postponement to repaying mortgages and loans were also among the announcements, which Sanchez likened to the state’s intervention during the Covid-19 pandemic to protect the economy and livelihoods.
The government would take on all emergency spending by local councils linked to clearing mud, debris and ruined property and restoring drinking water, Sanchez told a news conference.
Spain has also requested aid from the EU solidarity fund, he added.
Security forces and emergency services personnel are working around the clock to repair damaged infrastructure, distribute aid and search for bodies in Spain’s largest peacetime deployment of its armed forces.
Sanchez said almost 15,000 troops, police officers and civil guards were in the eastern Valencia region that has suffered most of the deaths and destruction, up from 7,300 on Saturday.
Firefighters combed through piles of damaged vehicles and pumped water from inundated garages and car parks where more victims may be discovered, AFP journalists saw.
Maribel Albalat, mayor of the ground-zero town of Paiporta, told public broadcaster TVE they were doing “better, but not well” with many streets still inaccessible and residents struggling to get a phone signal.
Rescuers in the southeastern town of Letur have found one of the missing bodies they were looking for, announced the central government’s representative in the Castilla-La Mancha region, Pedro Antonio Ruiz.
Two Chinese citizens, two Romanians and an Ecuadorian are among the dead, authorities in those countries have said. The floods also claimed three British victims, UK media have reported.
Many survivors are furious with the authorities for failing to warn the population on time last Tuesday and provide urgent rescue and relief work.
That anger reached a breaking point in Paiporta on Sunday when crowds heckled and hurled mud at King Felipe VI, Queen Letizia and Sanchez.
The outrage was also palpable in Valencia — Spain’s third-largest city that was unharmed despite being a stone’s throw from the hardest-hit zones — when AFP visited on Tuesday.
Local humorist Jose Antonio Lopez-Guitian, 61, had just returned from the town of Massanassa with his boots covered in mud and said residents were left to fend for themselves.
The situation was “a national disgrace” and “a dereliction of duty by all the institutions,” he said.
The floods affected more than 4,100 hectares (10,100 acres), the civil protection service said on X, using a map provided by the European Union’s Copernicus satellite.
Storms coming off the Mediterranean are common during this season. But scientists have warned that human-induced climate change is increasing the ferocity, length and frequency of extreme weather events.
“Climate change kills... we have to adapt to this reality,” Sanchez said at his news conference, lashing out at the “irresponsible discourse of deniers.”
Two UK mpox cases first local transmission in Europe: WHO
- The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) confirmed late Monday that the two new cases were household contacts of Britain’s first case identified last week
- The WHO warned that European states should be prepared for “rapid action” to contain the latest mpox variant
LONDON: Two new cases of the mpox variant clade 1b detected in the UK are the first locally transmitted cases in Europe and the first outside Africa, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) confirmed late Monday that the two new cases were household contacts of Britain’s first case identified last week, bringing the country’s total confirmed cases to three.
The WHO warned that European states should be prepared for “rapid action” to contain the latest mpox variant, which spreads through close physical contact including sexual relations and sharing closed spaces.
The two cases are also the first to be locally transmitted outside Africa since August 2024, when the WHO declared the outbreak of the new variant an international public health emergency — its highest level of alarm.
Those affected are under specialist care and the risk to the UK population “remains low,” UKHSA said.
The original case was detected after the person traveled to several African countries on holiday and returned to the UK on October 21.
The patient developed flu-like symptoms more than 24 hours later and, on October 24, started to develop a rash that worsened in the following days.
Mpox, a viral disease related to smallpox, has two types, clade 1 and clade 2. Symptoms include fever, a skin rash or pus-filled blisters, swollen lymph nodes and body aches.
The WHO first declared an international public health emergency in 2022 over the spread of clade 2. That outbreak mostly affected gay and bisexual men in Europe and the United States.
Vaccination and awareness drives in many countries helped stem the number of worldwide cases and the WHO lifted the emergency in May 2023 after reporting 140 deaths out of around 87,400 cases.
In 2024, a two-pronged epidemic of clade 1 and clade 1b, a new strain that affects children, has spread widely in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The new strain has also been recorded in neighboring Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, with imported cases in Sweden, India, Thailand, Germany and the UK.
Trump snaps at reporter when asked about abortion: ‘Stop talking about it’
- The former president was asked twice after casting his ballot in Palm Beach
- Pressed a second time, Trump snapped at a reporter, saying “you should stop talking about it”
FLORIDA: Donald Trump is refusing to say how he voted on Florida’s abortion measure — and getting testy about it.
The former president was asked twice after casting his ballot in Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday about a question that the state’s voters are considering. If approved, it would prevent state lawmakers from passing any law that penalizes, prohibits, delays or restricts abortion until fetal viability — which doctors say is sometime after 21 weeks.
If it’s rejected, the state’s restrictive six-week abortion law would stand.
The first time he was asked, Trump avoided answering. He said instead of the issue that he did “a great job bringing it back to the states.” That was a reference to the former president having appointed three conservative justices to the US Supreme Court who helped overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision in 2022.
Pressed a second time, Trump snapped at a reporter, saying “you should stop talking about it.”
Trump had previously indicated that he would back the measure — but then changed his mind and said he would vote against it.
In August, Trump said he thought Florida’s ban was a mistake, saying on Fox News Channel, “I think six weeks, you need more time.” But then he said, “at the same time, the Democrats are radical” while repeating false claims he has frequently made about late-term abortions.
In addition to Florida, voters in eight other states are deciding whether their state constitutions should guarantee a right to abortion, weighing ballot measures that are expected to spur turnout for a range of crucial races.
Passing certain amendments in Arizona, Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota likely would lead to undoing bans or restrictions that currently block varying levels of abortion access to more than 7 million women of childbearing age who live in those states.
