MADRID: A host of European countries imposed new local restrictions on Friday to reduce spiralling new cases of coronavirus as they seek to avoid the example of Israel which enforced a second nationwide shutdown.
City authorities in Madrid announced a partial lockdown on nearly a million people, the British government unveiled new measures limiting social contact in several regions, while Ireland banned indoor dining at restaurants and pubs in Dublin.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there was “no question” that his country was “now seeing a second wave coming in” as he toured the site of a new vaccine center.
“We are seeing it in France, in Spain, across Europe — it has been absolutely, I’m afraid, inevitable we were going to see it in this country,” he added.
In France, where new daily cases hit a fresh record of 13,000 on Friday, the government is struggling to create enough testing capacity as new hotspots emerge daily.
The city of Nice on the Riviera banned groups of more than 10 people meeting on its beach, in parks or public gardens.
Worldwide the respiratory disease has killed nearly 947,000 people since the outbreak emerged in China last December, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP, while more than 30.2 million cases have been registered.
“We’re adding about 1.8 to two million cases per week to the global case count, and an average somewhere between 40,000 to 50,000 deaths,” WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan told a virtual news conference.
“Thankfully that is not rising exponentially. This is a hugely high figure to be settling at. That is not where we want to be.”
In Madrid, one of the worst affected areas in Europe during the first wave of Covid-19 in March and April, medics warned that hospitals were getting close to capacity again.
“Intensive care units are overwhelmed with Covid patients,” Santiago Usoz, an accident and emergency medic at the October 12 hospital, told AFP.
A partial lockdown was announced for residents of several areas in densely populated, low-income neighborhoods in the south of the capital which will come into force on Monday.
People will only be allowed to leave their zone to go to work, seek medical care or take their children to school, while bars and restaurants will have to reduce their capacity by 50 percent, the regional government of Madrid said.
Rules preventing people from socialising with anyone from outside their household were imposed in northeast England on Friday, putting more than two million people under new restrictions.
These will be extended to other parts of northwest, northern and central England from Tuesday.
“We’re prepared to do what it takes both to protect lives and to protect livelihoods,” Health Secretary Matt Hancock told BBC television on Friday.
Music legend Van Morrison made his frustration known on Friday, saying he had recorded three “protest songs” called “Born To Be Free,” “As I Walked Out” and “No More Lockdown.”
Israel has become the first major country to impose another national shutdown which began on Friday, hours before Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year, and wil last for three weeks.
The measures, under which people will be limited to within 500 meters of their home, will also hit other key religious holidays including Yom Kippur.
“The economy is in freefall, people are losing their jobs, they’re depressed,” said 60-year-old Yael, one of hundreds who protested in Tel Aviv late on Thursday.
“And all this for what? For nothing!“
Meanwhile, most of a group of more than a thousand Orthodox Jewish pilgrims who had camped along the border between Ukraine and Belarus left on Friday after being refused entry due to coronavirus rules.
Tens of thousands of Hasidic Jews head to the central Ukrainian city of Uman every Jewish New Year to visit the tomb of Rabbi Nahman, the founder of the Breslov Hasidic movement.
In the United States, US President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden continued to trade barbs over the handling of the pandemic.
Trump has expressed confidence that a viable Covid-19 vaccine would be ready by October, directly contradicting a top administration health expert
Elsewhere, new details emerged about a wedding in rural Maine in August which became a so-called “superspreader” event that left seven people dead and 177 infected.
The nuptials at a church and hotel near the picturesque town of Millinocket were attended by 65 people, breaking the official limit of 50 allowed at a gathering.
Europe battles to contain virus second wave as global cases top 30 million
https://arab.news/y4b8x
Europe battles to contain virus second wave as global cases top 30 million
- The British PM said there was “no question” that his country was “now seeing a second wave coming in”
- Worldwide the respiratory disease has killed nearly 947,000 people since the outbreak emerged in China
Kabul hails Saudi Arabia’s decision to resume activities at Afghanistan embassy
- In November 2021, Saudi Arabia said it was resuming consular services in Afghanistan
- The Kingdom also provides humanitarian aid in the country through its KSrelief charity
Kabul: The Afghan foreign ministry on Monday welcomed Saudi Arabia’s decision to resume its diplomatic operations in Kabul, more than three years after Riyadh withdrew its staff during the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
“We are optimistic about the possibility of strengthening relations and cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan through the resumption of these activities,” said Afghan foreign ministry spokesman Zia Ahmad in a statement.
“We will also be able to respond to the problems of Afghans residing in Saudi Arabia.”
Riyadh had posted its decision to resume diplomatic operations in Kabul on social media platform X.
“Based on the desire of the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to provide all services to the brotherly Afghan people, it has been decided to resume the activities of the mission of the Kingdom in Kabul starting on December 22,” it said.
The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the level of Saudi representation in Kabul.
Riyadh on August 15, 2021 said it had withdrawn its diplomats from the Afghan capital because of the “unstable situation” created by the Taliban’s return to power following the United States’ withdrawal from the country.
In November 2021, Saudi Arabia said it was resuming consular services in Afghanistan. It also provides humanitarian aid in the country through its KSRelief organization.
The Taliban government remains unrecognized by any country.
Saudi Arabia was one of only three countries, the others being Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates, that recognized the first Taliban government which came to power in 1996 and was overthrown by the US invasion of 2001.
Kremlin rejects media reports about Asma, Assad’s wife, seeking divorce and wanting to leave Russia
- Turkish and Arabic media reported on Sunday that Asma Assad had filed for divorce in Russia
MOSCOW: The Kremlin on Monday rejected Turkish media reports which suggested that Asma Assad, the British-born wife of former Syrian president Bashar Assad, wanted a divorce and to leave Russia.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov also rejected Turkish media reports which suggested that Assad had been confined to Moscow and had his property assets frozen.
Asked on a conference call if the reports corresponded to reality, Peskov said: “No they do not correspond to reality.”
Turkish and Arabic media reported on Sunday that Asma Assad had filed for divorce in Russia, where the Assad family were granted asylum this month after militants took control of Damascus following a lightning advance.
Bangladesh launches $5bn graft probe into Sheikh Hasina’s family
- Sheikh Hasina fled to India after being toppled by a revolution in August
- Key allegations are connected to the funding of the $12.65 billion Rooppur nuclear plant
DHAKA: Bangladesh has launched a probe into the alleged $5 billion embezzlement connected to a Russian-backed nuclear power plant by ousted leader Sheikh Hasina and her family, the anti-corruption commission said Monday.
Along with Hasina, the now-former prime minister who fled to India after being toppled by a revolution in August, those subject to the inquiry include her son, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, and niece, Tulip Siddiq, a British lawmaker and government minister.
The allegations were raised by a writ seeking an investigation filed in the high court by Hasina’s political opponent, Bobby Hajjaj, chairman of the Nationalist Democratic Movement party.
“We seek justice through our court,” Hajjaj said on Monday.
Key allegations are connected to the funding of the $12.65 billion Rooppur nuclear plant, the South Asian country’s first, which is bankrolled by Moscow with a 90 percent loan.
A statement Monday from the commission said it had launched an inquiry into allegations that Hasina and family members had “embezzled $5 billion” from the Rooppur plant via “various offshore bank accounts in Malaysia.”
It said its investigations were examining “questionable procurement practices related to the overpriced construction” of the plant.
“The claims of kickbacks, mismanagement, money laundering, and potential abuse of power raise significant concerns about the integrity of the project and the use of public funds,” the commission said.
Graft allegations also include theft from a government building scheme for the homeless.
Hasina, 77, fled by helicopter on August 5 into exile in India, infuriating many Bangladeshis determined that she face trial for alleged “mass murder.”
It was not possible to contact Hasina for comment.
Siddiq has “denied any involvement in the claims” accusing her of involvement in embezzlement, according to a statement from the British prime minister’s office.
Joy, who is understood to be based in the United States, was also unavailable for comment.
US president Joe Biden commutes sentences for 37 of 40 federal death row inmates
- Biden had faced growing calls to commute the sentences of those on death row
- There had been no federal inmates put to death in the United States since 2003
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden on Monday commuted the death sentences of 37 of 40 federal inmates, taking action ahead of the return of Donald Trump who oversaw a sweeping number of lethal injections during his first term.
With less than a month left in office, Biden had faced growing calls from death penalty opponents to commute the sentences of those on death row to life in prison without parole, which the 37 will now serve.
The move leaves only a handful of high-profile killers who acted out of hate or terrorism facing the federal death penalty – for which there has been a moratorium under Biden.
“These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my Administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder,” Biden said in a statement.
“I am commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole,” he said.
The three inmates who will remain on federal death row include Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who helped carry out the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, and Dylann Roof, an avowed white supremacist who in 2015 shot and killed nine Black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina.
Robert Bowers, who killed 11 Jewish worshippers during a 2018 mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, will also remain on death row.
Those commuted included nine people convicted of murdering fellow prisoners, four for murders committed during bank robberies and one who killed a prison guard.
“Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss,” Biden said.
“But guided by my conscience and my experience...I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level,” he added.
Biden campaigned for the White House as an opponent of the death penalty, and the Justice Department issued a moratorium on its use at the federal level after he became president.
During his reelection campaign, Trump spoke frequently of expanding the use of capital punishment to include migrants who kill American citizens and drug and human traffickers.
There had been no federal inmates put to death in the United States since 2003 until Trump resumed federal executions in July 2020.
He oversaw 13 by lethal injection during his final six months in power, more than any US leader in 120 years.
The last federal execution – which was carried out by lethal injection at a prison in Terre Haute, Indiana – took place on January 16, 2021, four days before Trump left office.
The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states, while six others – Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee – have moratoriums in place.
In 2024, there have been 25 executions in the United States, all at the state level.
Indian police kill three Sikh separatist militants
- The campaign for Khalistan stirred a diplomatic firestorm last year after Indian intelligence operatives were linked to the killing of a Sikh leader in Canada
- The three men belonged to the Khalistan Zindabad Force militant group, police have recovered two assault rifles, two pistols and ammunition , official says
Lucknow: Indian police said on Monday they had killed three Sikh militants fighting for a separate homeland known as “Khalistan,” the struggle for which sparked deadly violence in the 1980s and 1990s.
The campaign for Khalistan was at the heart of a diplomatic firestorm last year after Indian intelligence operatives were linked to the killing of a vocal Sikh leader in Canada and an attempted assassination in the United States — claims New Delhi rejected.
In the latest incident, the Khalistani rebels were killed after a gunbattle in Pilibhit district in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
The men were wanted for their alleged involvement in a grenade attack on a police outpost in Punjab state this month.
Pilibhit police superintendent Avinash Pandey said officers had surrounded the men after a tip-off, with the suspects launching “heavy fire.”
“In the retaliatory action, all three were critically injured and later died in hospital,” he said.
Police recovered two assault rifles, two pistols and a large cache of ammunition.
The three men belonged to Khalistan Zindabad Force, a militant group, Punjab police chief Gaurav Yadav said in a statement.
The Khalistan campaign dates back to India’s 1947 independence and has been blamed for the assassination of a prime minister and the bombing of a passenger jet.
It has been a bitter issue between India and several Western nations with large Sikh populations.
New Delhi demands stricter action against the Khalistan movement, which is banned in India, with key leaders accused of “terrorism.”
