CASALPUSTERLENGO: Italy reported Monday its fifth death from the new coronavirus, as the number of people contracting the disease continued to mount and officials called for calm.
Four of the dead were in the northern Lombardy region, where villages have been put under lockdown and security measures enforced in a bid to stem the spread of the disease.
Italian media reported a sixth victim, but officials could not immediately confirm this.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has said that residents could face weeks in lockdown in an effort to sit out the virus.
“We need to stay alert, but do not panic! We must keep our heads,” said Attilio Fontana, Lombardy’s president.
The civil protection agency said 219 people had now tested positive in Italy, which has the most confirmed cases in Europe.
Eleven towns — 10 in Lombardy and one in neighboring Veneto — are under lockdown, with some 50,000 residents prohibited from leaving.
Regional authorities have ordered gathering spots, such as schools, bars, restaurants, cinemas and discos to close.
The measures imposed in the country’s north affect some 30 million inhabitants, the Repubblica daily said.
The spread of the virus has disrupted high-profile events including Milan Fashion Week and the Venice Carnival, while Serie A football matches have been postponed. Operas have also had to be canceled at Milan’s famed La Scala.
Masses in churches across the affected regions have been canceled and funerals limited to immediate relatives only.
Forty passengers on an Alitalia flight from Rome to Mauritius were held on landing Monday and refused permission to disembark, unless they consented to being placed in quarantine.
Alitalia said it was arranging for their immediate repatriation instead, despite none of the passengers showing any symptoms.
The stock market in Milan was down over 5.0 percent on Monday in a broad-based sell-off over virus fears.
Most of the cases in Italy are in Lombardy, a prosperous region in the country’s north where Milan is located, and which borders Switzerland.
They can be traced back to a 38-year-old man in the town of Codogno whom authorities have called “patient one.” He has not traveled to China and doctors failed to treat him with the necessary precautions.
But the man initially believed to have given him the virus after returning from Shanghai later tested negative.
“We still do not know who brought the coronavirus to Codogno,” Galli said.
Investigators are reconstructing minute by minute the man’s movements over the past few weeks — where he slept, ate, walked — in a bid to trace everyone he could have come into contact with.
“We had the most unfortunate situation possible; the outbreak of an epidemic in a hospital,” infectious disease expert Massimo Galli told the Corriere della Sera daily.
“In these cases, a hospital can turn into a frightening amplifier of contagion,” he said.
The virus may have spread to the Veneto region via a 60-year old farmer from Albettone. He had recently traveled to Codogno and is known to frequent bars in Vo’ Euganeo — where the region’s only victim so far lived.
A stretch of the Veneto region borders Austria.
Milan mayor Beppe Sala urged people to stay calm and refrain from “dashing to the supermarkets to grab food.
“We should spend time looking after the most vulnerable, such as old people, who are particularly at risk,” he said.
According to Italy’s national statistics institute, there are over seven million people in the country over the age of 75.
Italy has proposed a meeting of the health ministers of its border countries to determine “common lines of action” in the face of the coronavirus epidemic, the civil protection agency said.
France has said there is no need to close borders in response to the spread of virus in Italy.
Hungarian authorities issued a warning to citizens traveling to northern Italy, asking them to postpone their trip if possible, while incoming passengers will be screened at Budapest and Debrecen airports for fever symptoms.
Croatia meanwhile suspended all school strips to Italy for a month, and Switzerland said it was in a “state of heightened vigilance” due to the spread in Italy.
The jump in new coronavirus cases in Iran, Italy and South Korea in recent days is “deeply concerning,” the head of the World Health Organization said on Monday.
Simon Clarke, a specialist in cellular microbiology at England’s Reading University, said: “It seems that the virus can pass from person to person without symptoms, making it extremely difficult track, regardless of what health authorities do.”
Italy authorities urge calm as coronavirus deaths mount
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Italy authorities urge calm as coronavirus deaths mount
Putin gifts North Korea a lion, bears and ducks
The two countries have deepened political, military and cultural ties amid Russia’s offensive on Ukraine, with Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un repeatedly professing their personal camaraderie.
“An African lion, two brown bears, two domestic yaks, five white cockatoos, 25 pheasants of various species and 40 mandarin ducks were transferred from the Moscow Zoo to the Pyongyang Zoo,” Russia’s natural resources ministry said in a post on Telegram.
It posted a video of the animals in cargo boxes being unloaded off a government plane, and another of the lion in its new enclosure at the Pyongyang Zoo.
Putin previously gifted Kim 24 purebred horses, known to be Kim’s favorite, while Kim sent Putin a pair of local dogs.
The two countries, both under heavy Western sanctions, signed a mutual defense pact earlier this year that obligates them to provide immediate military assistance if the other is invaded.
Western capitals, as well as Ukraine and South Korea, say North Korea has recently deployed more than 10,000 of its troops to Russia, to be sent into combat against Kyiv’s forces.
Trump names former wrestling executive as Education Secretary
- Linda McMahon, former CEO of WWE, will lead Department of Education that Trump has pledged to abolish
- McMahon is a co-chair of Trump’s transition team ahead of his return to the White House in January
WASHINGTON: Donald Trump nominated Linda McMahon, former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, on Tuesday to lead the Department of Education, which he has pledged to abolish.
Describing McMahon as a “fierce advocate for Parents’ Rights,” Trump said in a statement: “We will send Education BACK TO THE STATES, and Linda will spearhead that effort.”
McMahon is a co-chair of Trump’s transition team ahead of his return to the White House in January. It is tasked with filling some 4,000 positions in the government.
Regarding McMahon’s experience in education, Trump cited her two-year stint on the Connecticut Board of Education and 16 years on the board of trustees at Sacred Heart University, a private Catholic school.
McMahon left WWE in 2009 to run in vain for US Senate, and has been a major donor to Trump.
Since 2021, she has chaired the Center For The American Worker at the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute.
During the election campaign Trump promised to do away with the federal education department when he returns to the White House.
“I say it all the time. I’m dying to get back to do this. We will ultimately eliminate the federal Department of Education,” he said in September during a rally in Wisconsin.
At the Republican convention in Milwaukee, McMahon said she was “privileged to call Donald Trump a colleague and a boss,” as well as “a friend.”
Her ties with Trump go back to her years in the professional wrestling industry — she said she first met him as chief executive at WWE.
At the culmination of a staged feud, Trump once body-slammed her husband, legendary wrestling promoter Vince McMahon, and shaved his head in the middle of a wrestling ring on live television.
In 2017, she was confirmed as the head of the Small Business Administration, which is responsible for supporting America’s millions of small businesses, which employ around half the country’s private-sector workforce.
In nominating her, Trump pointed to her experience in business, helping to grow the WWE.
After leaving the administration, she served as chair of the pro-Trump America First Action SuperPAC, or political action committee.
Elections in two Indian states test of Prime Minister Modi’s popularity
- Millions are voting in elections in Maharashtra, western industrial hub and mineral-rich eastern province of Jharkhand
- Election surveys on the eve of polling put the opposition alliance comprising Congress party and two others ahead of the BJP
NEW DELHI: Millions of people are voting in state elections in Maharashtra, India’s western industrial hub, and the mineral-rich eastern province of Jharkhand on Wednesday, in a test of the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party and its regional partners.
Politically significant Maharashtra is India’s wealthiest state and home to the financial and entertainment capital, Mumbai. It is currently ruled by a coalition of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party and a Hindu nationalist ally. An opposition alliance, including the Congress party, is in power in eastern Jharkhand state.
Modi has held big rallies in the two states. The challenge comes barely four months after his party suffered a setback and returned to power in national elections for a third term without a parliamentary majority. He formed the government with the help of regional partners.
Modi, in a post on social platform X ahead of the state elections, wrote: “On this occasion, I appeal to all the youth and women voters to vote in large numbers.”
Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a political analyst who wrote a Modi biography, said a reversal in these state elections would negatively impact Modi’s leadership style.
“It will have repercussions for the BJP in coming elections in Delhi and Bihar states next year,” he said.
Votes in the two states will be counted on Saturday.
After suffering a setback in national elections, the BJP regained momentum in October as it won Haryana state elections, where pollsters had predicted an easy victory for the opposition Congress party.
Rahul Gandhi’s Congress party won a consolation victory in alliance with the regional National Conference party in local elections in India’s insurgency-wracked Jammu and Kashmir after a 10-year gap.
The BJP is trying to wrest power from the Congress party and its allies in Jharkhand, a state rich in iron ore, coal and other minerals.
The BJP’s use of slogans like “If you divide, then you will die” and “If we are united, then we are safe” to attract Hindu votes has prompted opposition parties to accuse the BJP of trying to polarize the voters along Hindu-Muslim religious lines.
Hindus constitute nearly 80 percent and Muslims 11.5 percent of Maharashtra state’s estimated 131 million people.
Mukhopadhyay saw a tendency from top BJP leaders to communalize the elections, saying, “It shows the growing desperation of the party, and it looks like their reading is they are not doing very well in Maharashtra and Jharkhand states.”
Election surveys on the eve of polling put the opposition alliance comprising the Congress party and two truncated regional groups, the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress party, ahead of the BJP and its allies currently governing the state. The Congress party defeated the BJP and its allies in the June national elections by winning 30 out of 48 seats in the state. The BJP and its regional partners won 17 seats.
The Congress party and its allies hope to capitalize on the simmering disaffection with high youth unemployment, inflation and low crop prices during the BJP’s rule.
The BJP hopes to attract women voters with a scheme that provides 1,500 rupees ($18) a month to over 20 million women aged 21-65 whose annual family income is less than 250,000 ($3,010). If the Congress party is voted to power in the state, it has promised women double that amount and free transportation in government buses.
UN moves to unlock stuck climate financing for Afghanistan
- UN agencies drawing up proposals for climate projects
- Initial projects expected to be worth around $19 million
KABUL/BAKU: United Nations agencies are trying to unlock key climate financing for Afghanistan, one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to climate change which has not received approval for any fresh such funds since the 2021 Taliban takeover, two UN officials told Reuters.
Plagued by drought and deadly floods, Afghanistan has been unable to access UN climate funds due to political and procedural issues since the former insurgents came to power.
But with the population growing more desperate as climate woes stack up, UN agencies are hoping to unseal project financing for the fragile country to boost its resilience.
If successful, this would be the first time new international climate finance would flow into the arid, mountainous nation in three years.
“There are no climate skeptics in Afghanistan,” said Dick Trenchard, UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) country director for Afghanistan. “You see the impact of climate change and its environmental effects everywhere you go.”
Two UN agencies are currently drawing together proposals they hope to submit next year to shore up nearly $19 million in financing from the UN’s Global Environment Facility (GEF), part of the financial mechanism of the 2015 UN Paris Agreement on climate change.
These include the FAO, which hopes to get support for a project costing $10 million that would improve rangeland, forest and watershed management across up to four provinces in Afghanistan, while avoiding giving money directly to Taliban authorities.
That’s according to diplomatic sources, who say that the world’s 20 major economies have reached a consensus — but a fragile one.
The UN Development Program, meanwhile, hopes to secure $8.9 million to improve the resilience of rural communities where livelihoods are threatened by increasingly erratic weather patterns, the agency told Reuters. If that goes ahead, it plans to seek another $20 million project.
“We’re in conversations with the GEF, the Green Climate Fund, the Adaptation Fund — all these major climate financing bodies — to reopen the pipeline and get resources into the country, again, bypassing the de facto authorities,” said Stephen Rodriques, UNDP resident representative for Afghanistan.
National governments often work alongside accredited agencies to implement projects that have received UN climate funds. But because the Taliban government is not recognized by UN member states, UN agencies would both make the request and serve as the on-the-ground partner to carry out the project.
A Taliban administration spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.
FLOODS, DROUGHT
“If one of the countries most impacted by climate change in the world cannot have access to (international climate funds), it means something isn’t working,” Rodriques said, adding that any funds should come alongside continued dialogue on human and women’s rights.
Flash floods have killed hundreds in Afghanistan this year, and the heavily agriculture-dependent country suffered through one of the worst droughts in decades that ended last year. Many subsistence farmers, who make up much of the population, face deepening food insecurity in one of the world’s poorest countries.
The FAO and UNDP will need to receive initial approvals by the GEF secretariat before they can submit their full proposals for a final decision from the GEF Council, which comprises representatives from 32 member states.
If the agencies get that first green light, Trenchard said, they would aim to submit their proposals in early 2025.
We “are awaiting guidance as to whether it would be possible to proceed,” Trenchard said.
No foreign capital has formally recognized the Taliban government, and many of its members are subject to sanctions. The United States has frozen billions in central bank funds since the former insurgents took over and barred girls and women over the age of 12 from schools and universities.
Many human rights activists have condemned the Taliban’s policies and some have questioned whether interaction with the Taliban and funnelling funds into the country could undermine foreign governments’ calls for a reversal on women’s rights restrictions.
The Taliban says it respects women’s rights in accordance with its interpretation of Islamic law.
Countries mired in conflict and its aftermath say they have struggled to access private investment, as they are seen as too risky. That means UN funds are even more critical to their populations, many of whom have been displaced by war and weather.
Taliban members are attending the ongoing annual UN climate negotiations COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan as observers for the first time, Reuters has reported.
The Taliban’s presence could build trust between Afghanistan and international donors, said Abdulhadi Achakzai, founder of the Afghanistan climate nonprofit Environmental Protection Trainings and Development Organization, on the sidelines of COP29.
“It will be a safer world for the future to include Afghanistan officially in the agenda,” he said. “We see this is an opportunity. There are funds for Afghanistan, we just need to secure it.”
Singer Liam Payne’s funeral to be held Wednesday: UK media
- Payne was found dead on October 16 after falling from the balcony of his third-floor room at the Casa Sur Hotel in the Argentinian capital
London: The funeral of former One Direction singer Liam Payne who died last month after falling from his Buenos Aires hotel room will be held later Wednesday, UK media reported.
Payne was found dead on October 16 after falling from the balcony of his third-floor room at the Casa Sur Hotel in the Argentinian capital.
His death, aged 31, prompted a global outpouring of grief from family, former bandmates, fans and others, with thousands gathering in cities around the world to offer their condolences.
Payne’s family, friends and other One Direction members were expected to attend the private funeral in southern England on Wednesday afternoon, multiple media outlets reported.
He shot to stardom alongside Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik and Niall Horan after the band were formed on hit UK talent show “The X Factor” in 2010.
Payne had spoken publicly about struggles with substance abuse and coping with fame from an early age.
He died from “multiple traumas” and “internal and external haemorrhaging” after the fall from the hotel, a post-mortem examination found.
Hotel staff had called emergency services twice to report a guest “overwhelmed by drugs and alcohol” who was “destroying” a hotel room.
